Men In Training

Mark 10

2009-03-03T14:19:00.001-08:00

Mark 10

Marriage, Divorce and Law – 1-12

It is permissible under Jewish law to divorce. This passage makes this clear. However, divorce is very much second to the original point of marriage – which is God’s plan – let’s just have a quick look at law;-

There are many instances in the Bible where God has to create laws or consequences because we are unable to make decisions to keep to His way without his patient and loving direction. In some cases, God’s hand is forced – someone in the Bible sins against God and man, and because of that, God is forced to discipline them (David’s seduction of Bathsheba, arranged killing of Uriah and the subsequent death of the baby that is conceived for instance) – it states in Prov 3:11-12 that God disciplines those that He loves – and that’s because God is forced to, because let’s face it – we’re often idiots. As good men of God, we should expect that, be ready for it and deal with it properly. (Heb 12:5-8)

His first law was to Adam and Eve – that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Many people feel a bit grumpy about this – why did God leave it in the middle of the garden? Why not leave it in a totally inaccessible place? Why not leave cherubim surrounding it to protect it?

The answer to this is one of the big ones of our faith – Free Will. God has given us the choice to follow him or to not do so. But for us to have that choice, then we must have the option to not follow God – or else it’s simply God controlling us.

So God’s laws are provided to us not so that we spend our time working out how to get around them, or how to use them for our own selfish benefit, but so that we can look at them and work out something about God, and how we can learn to live the way He wants us to. Laws are like signposts pointing to God and to the right way to live – people who spend their time arguing over the exact wording of the laws miss the very purpose of them. God allowed divorce because He knows that we are not perfect, that we are sinners and that we make mistakes – and for that reason it was necessary that God demonstrated his grace toward us by providing a way out – if it was truly necessary. Today, that idea has been perverted so that marriage and people are devalued so that they become disposable in the minds of those who believe it to be right to do so.

13-16

Children are often far more simple than adults – their views are often more black and white, their thought patterns less cluttered – this simplicity is quite beautiful – it’s partly why good people love children so much – their perspectives are uncluttered, they see the future as a bright and shiny thing and they hope. This is wonderful, and Jesus wants all of us to think like this. Often we become too distracted, too complicated, and jaded. We are not to be.

17-29

Jesus speaks to a rich young man. Once again, Mark is making a point as to this man’s status – a little like the Syro-Pheonician woman who was a Greek.

The man comes to Jesus and tells him that he is a very good religious man. Jesus responds in a way that shocks the man and others. He basically says ‘yes, you’re good – but am I first in your life?’. When the man hears this question he responds negatively, because he cannot think of Jesus as being number one in his life. Challenged with the thought of having to surrender all physical belongings, the man decides that poverty is too great a burden for him and that Jesus will have to remain second to money.

In some ways, this is a stronghold – something in our lives that gets between us and God. Jesus looks at this man and sees something in his life that is just too big a hurdle – as this man has grown up, he has lost the childlike faith that says ‘actually, whatever happens is fine, because I have God’. There is a reason that this episode is tacked in next to the children one – and that’s because this man has lost his original connection with God and by compromising in himself he has decided that religion is all he needs to get to God. If we have strongholds in our life like this, then we need to sort them!

32-34

Jesus is again gearing up toward calvary – He is informing the disciples on a regular basis that He is the Messiah and that He will be crucified soon. When it happens, there is no reason for them to be surprised – Jesus has provided all the information that they require – the issue will later become not one of a lack of knowledge, but one of a lack of faith.

35 – 45

Pride is natural for people. This is because we are sinners and we have inherited some bad habits from those who have gone before us. We all desire to be important and loved by people – and that’s one of the biggest clashes of Jesus’ ministry on Earth – he could have spent his time being adored, yet didn’t. He could have spent his time being popular by saying things people wanted to hear – instead He spent his time telling them what they wanted to hear. He could have blasted Caiaphas, Pilate and everyone else who mocked him and sentenced him to death, yet instead he let them do what they would. This humility is shocking that the disciples simply didn’t understand it – they wanted Jesus to smite his enemies and conquer the world – and even with all this talk of dying, they probably explained this away as a metaphor. When it actually happened, they freaked because their idea of what was going to happen very much didn’t.

James and Johns’ clawing after position is something that Jesus sees as a problem and addresses by explaining that actually what God sees and man sees are very different things – what you or I would honour and reward is the opposite of what God would – we need to change our perspectives and try to think like God would.

46-52

Receiving sight at this point is perhaps not as out-of-place as it appears, because throughout this chapter, we have looked at various aspects of people needing to change their view of life, God, value and reward. This man knows who Jesus is, knows where He is and that He can heal him – this faith, this stepping out and shouting across a crowded area that he wanted to see and that Jesus was the one who could do it – this childlikeness, this willingness to look like a fool surrounded by strangers, this humility and lack of aloofness, this is the faith that Jesus loves and it is this faith that gives this man his sight.

Mark 9

2009-03-03T14:18:00.001-08:00

Mark 9

Half Way.

Mark 8 is the half-way chapter of this book, and in a way it felt like the pivot of a see-saw, the ‘tipping point’ as a sociologist might describe it. So let’s have a quick look back at what has happened so far;-

We have been on a journey with these disciples and their Rabbi. To kick off, we see Jesus baptised and granted authority by God. We then saw the beginnings of that ministry – the call of the disciples, the healings, the crowds that followed Jesus, the anointing of the apostles, the wisdom of Jesus, the parables taught by Him, then we saw something strange – He started stating that some people won’t understand Him – but didn’t seem to make any special effort to force them to understand – He just accepted that they wouldn’t.

Then we have Jesus controlling weather, casting out demons and raising people from death to life. Jesus then goes back to His hometown to find that the people there won’t listen to Him. Following this, the disciples are sent out into the mission field where they experience healings and the casting out of demons without the need for Jesus to be with them in the flesh.

John the Baptist is then beheaded. Following this, the disciples gather around Jesus and excitedly tell him how great they’ve all been. Jesus then subtly changes tack and starts showing them that it’s not all about healings and casting out demons, but that we are to rely on Jesus for our very survival. He does this by feeding 5000 people. The disciples then freak out and ask each other ‘who is this guy?’. Jesus then walks on water and again, the disciples freak.

The Pharisees then get involved (again) and try to tie Him up in theoretical religious knots. Jesus isn’t having any of that and tells them to effectively stop blaspheming. They don’t like this. Jesus then declares all food okay to eat and then wanders off to a particularly Pagan city, where He sets a girl free of a demon without even meeting her and goes back to Galilee, where he sets about healing and feeding people.

Now we come to the tipping point – everyone’s arguing about who Jesus is, and so He decides to ask the disciples straight ‘who do you think I am?’. And our favourite disciple, the impetuous Simon Peter finally does something right – He sees Jesus for who He is – the Messiah, the Son of God, the deliver, the substitution for our sins, the lamb of God and the Lion of Judah. Peter then blows it again by telling Jesus to stop predicting His death and have a good confession.

And now...

Mark 9

The Transfiguration

We discussed in Mark 8 that finally the disciples were starting to ‘get it’. They had finally shown that they had the ears to hear and the eyes to see – Peter led the charge – as he usually did – the first called, the first listed, Peter was basically Jesus’ guy. John was described as ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’ but in the writings of the gospels, Peter is usually the first mentioned in any list. He also led the first church at Pentacost.

Peter, James and John were Jesus’ closest group of disciples. They are the ones who went to Jairus’ house and saw the girl raised to life in Mark 5, and once again we see the three going with Jesus aside from the other 9.

Mountains were often symbolically used as places to meet God – both Moses and Elijah meet with God on mountains (Exodus and 1 Kings) and so there is precedent to go up a mountain to get away from everyone else, and really get close to God.

To the disciples, Moses would have represented the law, and Elijah would have represented the prophets of old – these were two seriously big pillars in the Jewish faith. To see Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus would have had a huge affect on the disciples – it would have shown them that Jesus is serious about what He says – He’s not just another teacher, he gets to consort with the top of the top, and then God goes and confirms what He said at Jesus baptism – Jesus is the Son of God!

Remember, this is the confirmation to these three disciples of what they’ve began to suspect themselves – Jesus is the Messiah and regardless of what he says or does and irrespective of what you would expect your Messiah to do, this is the guy.

We are now metaphorically in a new chapter for Jesus’ ministry. Now that the disciples know who He is, He is able to start talking to them about the resurrection, and here is His second clue about it (having already started in Mark 8)– ‘until the Son of Man had risen from the dead’ – Mark never wastes words, and here he says that the disciples are discussing what this ‘raising from the dead’ is all about. Hence, it’s important.

v14-29

We now move back to Jesus’ more public ministry – and here He is with a man with a deaf and mute son requiring healing. The disciples for some reason have failed to drive the evil spirit out, and the response that Jesus gives is interesting and again refers back to His leaving the disciples. He infers that he won’t be around forever.

This is linked to belief. Jesus states ‘ Oh unbelieving generation’ and then talks to the father about belief – the father responds that he does believe – but yet, help him with his unbelief.

Genesis Study

2009-02-25T06:32:00.001-08:00

We're now studying Genesis for lent - check out http://mitandlitstudygroup.blogspot.com/ and put comments and questions on that for anything to do with this study.

British Nurse Suspended for Praying....

2009-02-23T00:42:00.000-08:00

It's funny - by and large, the general public is not hostile toward Christianity, and yet often the establishment is - read this;-

Caroline Petrie, a committed Christian, has been accused by her employers of failing to demonstrate a "personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity".

She faces disciplinary action and could lose her job over the incident.

Mrs Petrie, a married mother of two, says she has been left shocked and upset by the action taken against her.

She insists she has never forced her own religious beliefs on anyone but politely inquired if the elderly patient wanted her to pray for her – either in the woman's presence or after the nurse had left the patient's home.

"I simply couldn't believe that I have been suspended over this. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. All I am trying to do is help my patients, many of whom want me to pray for them," she said.

Mrs Petrie, 45, is a community nurse employed by North Somerset Primary Care Trust to carry out home visits to sick and elderly patients.

The incident which led to her suspension took place at the home of a woman patient in Winscombe, North Somerset.

"It was around lunchtime and I had spent about 20 to 25 minutes with her. I had applied dressings to her legs and shortly before I left I said to her: 'Would you like me to pray for you?'.

"She said 'No, thank you.' And I said: 'OK.' I only offered to pray for her because I was concerned about her welfare and wanted her to get better."

However, after the incident on December 15, she was contacted by the trust and asked to explain her actions.

The woman patient, who is believed to be in her late 70s, is understood to have complained to the trust.

Mrs Petrie will not disclose the woman's name or reveal the precise nature of her ailment because it would breach patient confidentiality.

Mrs Petrie, who lives in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, said she was initially confronted the next day by a nursing sister who said the patient had been taken aback by her question about prayer.

"I said: 'I am sorry. Did I offend or upset her?' The sister said: 'No, no. She was just a bit taken back. You must be aware of your professional code of conduct. I would be careful.'

"But the next day my coordinator left a message on my home phone and I realised this had been taken further."

Mrs Petrie said that she often offers to pray for her patients and that many take her up on it.

She either prays with them or after she has left their home. The nurse has been a committed Christian since she was ten – after her mother died of breast cancer.

Initially, she was Church of England but she switched to the Baptist faith nine years ago. "My faith is very important to me," she said.

Mrs Petrie had previously been reprimanded for an incident in Clevedon last October when she offered to give a small, home-made prayer card to an elderly, male patient, who had happily accepted it.

On this occasion, the patient's carer, who was with him, raised concerns over the incident.

Alison Withers, Mrs Petrie's boss at the time, wrote to her at the end of November saying: "As a nurse you are required to uphold the reputation of your profession.

"Your NMC [Nursing Midwifery Council] code states that 'you must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity' and 'you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health'."

In the letter, Mrs Petrie, who qualified as a nurse in 1985, was asked to attend an equality and diversity course and warned: "If there is any further similar incident it may be treated as potential misconduct and the formal disciplinary procedure could be instigated."

Mrs Petrie said: "I stopped handing out prayer cards after that but I found it more and more difficult [not to offer them]. My concern is for the person as a whole, not just their health.

"I was told not to force my faith on anyone but I could respond if patients themselves brought up the subject [of religion]."

It is the second incident – the offer to pray for a patient – that led to the disciplinary action. She was suspended from her part-time job, without pay, on December 17.

She faced an internal disciplinary meeting last Wednesday and expects to learn the outcome this week.

At last week's hour-long meeting, Mrs Petrie says she was told the patient had said she was not offended by the prayer offer but the woman argued that someone else might have been.

The nurse had her representative from the Royal College of Nursing present Mrs Petrie's husband, Stewart, 48, works as a BT engineer and they have two sons, aged 14 and ten.

The couple attend Milton Baptist Church every Sunday and Mrs Petrie said: "Stuart and I have decided to put God first in our lives."

Mrs Petrie, who has worked for the trust since February last year, has already taken legal advice from the Christian Legal Centre, which seeks to promote religious freedom and, particularly, to protect Christians and Christianity.

The centre, in turn, has instructed Paul Diamond, the leading religious rights barrister. Andrea Williams, the founder and director of the centre, said: "We are backing this case all the way."

A spokesman for North Somerset Primary Care Trust said: "Caroline Petrie has been suspended pending an investigation into the matter.

"She is a bank nurse and she has been told we will not be using her in this capacity until the outcome of our investigation is known.

"We always take any concerns raised by our patients most seriously and conscientiously investigate any matter of this nature brought to our attention.

"We are always keen to be respectful of our patients' views and sensitivity as well as those of our staff."

Source: The Telegraph

Open Doors Alert

2009-02-23T00:39:00.001-08:00

As we're gearing up for the Open Doors event in March, I thought it may be useful to start watching out for their alerts;-

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/htmlemail/epa.htm

Technology and God

2009-02-22T16:19:00.001-08:00

Some people fear technology, they're concerned that somehow 'new' things aren't holy. This is perhaps less of an issue than it has been in the past, but there are still people - often fundamentals, who veiw modern technology not as something to be embraced, but as something to be avoided.

The problems with this are twofold;- one, there's no way you really live without technology or advancement. If you're british, chances are that you read the bible in English even if it is the KJV (and naturally, you may ascert that the KJV is the ONLY bible). The thing is, it was never written in English, and so translating it is effectively 'modernising' it. If you wear polyester, then that's 'modern', if you have electricity, that's very modern, if you sing along to an organ at church, that's also modern - perhaps not as modern as my electric guitar, but when contrasted with Jesus' day, it's pretty darned new.

So be darned careful going on about how everything new is evil. Because the vast, vast majority of the stuff in your life is new - people aren't - they haven't really changed since creation, but your car, home, language, culture, tv programs, work - even books are new! So remember that.

Secondly, we're called to be in the culture but not of the culture - and if you reject everything about the culture in which God (Yes, GOD!) has placed you, then how the heck can you be effective in that culture? We need to get into our culture and slowly affect it by showing people how they can use what they have, do, think, believe, feel, etc. to glorify God - we are called to be ambassadors of Heaven, buried in the mire of Earth and dragging great handfuls of Heaven down with us to make the lives of those around us lighter.

Thirdly, a lot of this new stuff is good! The internet allows me to listen to Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, Terry and Joel Virgo, Peter Anderson, Doug Fields, and many many more using iTunes free podcast downloads - if you don't have it, Google it - and Google is brilliant, it helps me to put together so much more teaching material faster than if I had to wade through every book I'd ever read. Wikipedia really helps with finding stuff out quickly, as do countless other sites of that nature, Bible Gateway has every different translation of the Bible going, and this cunning thing I use called Google Reader allows me to read BBC news for national/international news, the Mercury (GYs local paper), Mark Driscoll's Blog, Terry Virgos blog and another blog I read all from one place!

We are called to positively affect our cultures - to do this, we need to get into that culture and start mining away at it. We need to know what's happening - use the internet for good, to learn and learn and learn and learn and grow, suck the life out of it, get every bit of goodness you can, and apply that to your life to help you grow - not to prove you're better than everyone else, just to take you to the next step.

I highly recommend getting downloads from the local and national press - it's a darned good way to find out what you should be praying for! Really, really think about this.

Mark 4

2009-02-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

The following is really just the notes I used to teach on Mark 4. I haven't tidied them up as I should ( I will one day!) And they're a long way out of order now... sorry :-s

Shallow soil – These are the people who receive Christ quickly, but only on a very superficial level, then if something more convincing, more interesting, more fun appears, they bound off after that, like a terrier after a rat. Or trouble comes, and they deny Christ. Were they even saved in the first place? It’s hard to say in general – possibly not. You have to look at each person individually.

This is where ‘baby Christian’ comes in – if you’ve just become a Christian, excited about God, etc, but haven’t put in the time to learn about God and really get on your walk with Christ well, and then a pretty girl bats her eyelashes at you, you may get distracted. I’ve known people who have received Christ, then wandered off but still stay in contact with me, because they feel God prodding them – they think that by staying in touch with me, that they’re somehow still being a good Christian, and they can ignore the prompting from the Holy Spirit. I generally use these times to encourage them to come back to church, grow in God and also challenge them about what it is that’s primary in their lives. This gets mixed responses.

Thorns – these are the people who receive Christ, but don’t really have the faith built into them that allows them to overcome the obstacles that the flesh, world or Satan will put in their way. Perhaps they have past sin they haven’t dealt with yet – pride is a terrible sin for people in this category, because pride is a monster all its own – people who suffer from this as unbelievers can become believers and then be proud of the fact that they’re believers and better than other people. In that case, the simply don’t understand salvation by grace. There are so many issues that are thorns in peoples lives that they may well need help to get over. This is why pride is so damaging for people in this category – they need help to get over past hurts, sins, damage etc. but think that they best way to be a Christian is to ignore the sin in their lives and pretend that they’re perfect – this is where Christian hypocrisy drives unbelievers nuts!

Thorns in our lives can also be unhealthy/unhelpful friends/relationships, spiritual warfare issues, cultural strongholds, bad mindsets – this is why Romans 12:2a says do not be conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind – it’s a call to go thorn-cutting!

People with thorns in their lives can be the sort of people who regularly go forward on a Sunday morning for prayer, but never move forward in their lives. They say ‘God forgive me’ then sin, then say ‘God forgive me’ always repeating the same sin, because they don’t actually believe that they are overcomers, they don’t believe that in Christ, they are actually free to not sin.

The plants in amongst the thorns do not bear fruit – in Matt 7:15-20, Jesus speaks about how by a tree’s fruit, you may judge the tree, and in another scripture, He talks about trees that bear no fruit will eventually be torn up and thrown into the fire. Bearing no fruit is useless, it’s being stuck in neutral, it’s like being a eunuch – it’s the ryvita of spirituality, the celery of life – we’re not called to be fruitless, tastless, and useless, we’re called to be overcomers and soldiers in Gods army. Soldiers that don’t win battles end up dead!

What is sin? Often, sin is good stuff that has been twisted by Satan to make it bad. Food is good, unless you go overboard, in which case you’re in love with it and caught in gluttony, women are good unless you go outside God’s rules governing relationships, where pain, hurt and damage are caused, possessions are (usually) good, unless you make an idol of them, and make money your God. Even the internet is a good thing, used properly – but there are vast sections of it that just aren’t healthy for us to be looking at.

Thorns in our lives are simply things that have got out of control and end up damaging us. We are called to go out thorn-killing. Go weeding, find people in your lives that you can talk to about the difficult things, that you trust to answer honestly, and not to go around telling everyone. Never stop weeding. As C S Lewis points out in The Screwtape Letters, the second you think you’ve got it sorted and now you’re a good person, free from sin and generally pretty darned good, then you need to go weed that thought-pattern. After all, only one person in history was (is) free from sin.

The good soil is what we should aim to have in our lives. A heart that is pure, careful and considerate, judging what we hear and perceive by the Word and Spirit, able to learn, given to good government, holding an understanding and a love for the church and for God, desiring all the good things that Jesus wants for us, and not evil. We should always be open to doing a little more weeding, we can always grow a little more.

The good news about the 4 main groups is that what you are today is not what you are always. Otherwise, what we call sanctification would be a complete waste of time – you are on a journey, and if God is in your life, if the Holy Spirit is in you, counselling you, directing you and growing you, then maybe the path will be broken up, the soil deepened and the thorns removed, giving you the deep soil that God wants for all of us.

Some take the parable of the sower as a purely evangelistic message – that we will meet 4 types of people in our lives, and what we’re actually doing is looking for type 4 to talk to. Types 1-3 are a bit of a waste of time really. If this were true, why would Jesus bother engaging the Pharisees in the first place, or go to dinner with tax collectors and sinners – they weren’t all diamonds in the rough, He would have had every type of person in every crowd.

Parables.

Jesus spoke in parables, because they were a way of engaging the people whom he was speaking to on their own terms. The parable of the sower is apt, because the society in which Jesus was preaching was largely agrarian, and they would have been able to relate to the concept of sowing seed. The difficulty that we often face in these days is that we look at what we now consider an ‘obvious’ message, because it’s only been taught to us as a ‘Parable of Jesus’ with the halo around the term, which we always take to mean ‘something meaningful and deep will now be said’. The people Jesus was addressing largely didn’t know who He was, and so they may well have thought that in the particular case of the parable of the sower, that He was simply giving good gardening tips!

Once again, we have Jesus meeting people where they are, understanding their culture, their identity and what they understand, and talking to them on that level. He doesn’t get out of the boat, and go and pray in tongues for people, he talks on their terms, lovingly and with grace (which I’ll talk on more in a little while). Some will have gone home, looked at their smallholding and thought ‘you know what, I really should look at a way of making my soil deeper – after all, 100x crop would be darned useful!’ Others may have felt patronised – ‘yes, Jesus, we actually do know how to plant things, duh.’ This is an especially valid point when we look at verses 9 and 23.

Earlier, I spoke about the evangelistic side of ministry - if we’re actually going to be Christian and do what Christ did, then we should consider that if Jesus bothered with groups 1-3 then perhaps we should. Perhaps we should speak truth in a meaningful way that our peers understand whenever we have the opportunity.

I feel that some people become engaging Christians only when God tells them to. In reality, we are called to have a response to why we have hope at all times, and are instructed to give it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). We are called to be salt and light at all times, not when it’s convenient, and not just on a Sunday.

Or perhaps they feel that once they’ve tested for soil number 4 and found that this person actually appears to be type 1, then it’s okay to not bother any more. This is where another balance comes in. We are called to be salt and light and to have an answer for our hope and faith, but we’re not to go around banging people on the head with it all the time. We’re called to be real, but really loving too. We’re God’s ambassadors – and ambassadors are given the authority of the government they represent to make decisions for that country and act as though they are that country’s government. If we’re to be that, then we have to know what our government wants and needs – and in the Christian context, that means we’ve got to know Dad.

So this means we’ve got to know our father in heaven, act like Jesus did by being gracious towards those that don’t get it – he repeated some parables in different ways several times just to try and drive the point home, but did so lovingly, encouraging people to ask questions, not simply giving them answers.

If you find that all you’re getting is path, path, path, path, then don’t presume you know God’s plan and that this person will forever be type 1. Maybe something happens in their life or God talks to them, and something that you say, maybe for the 11^th time now, breaks through the path and finds soil underneath. We are called to be Christian all the time, to everyone.

Similarly, the same is true for those of types 2 and 3 – perhaps even more so! I’ve said before that Christians can be really unforgiving toward other Christians – after all, if you’ve got a fish on your car, you should know better, right? The problem though is that if you harbour resentment and bitterness toward other believers, Satan can get in and destroy churches. James 3 speaks of how the tongue is dangerous. I talk a lot, and I really know what he means!

If our brothers and sisters in Christ lack character or deep soil, then we should encourage them how they should go, as prescribed in the bible – recognising that they have problems, help them by graciously loving them and if you feel you should speak into their lives, then explain why you believe that their behaviour is unacceptable and from where you draw this belief. Back to 1 Peter 3:15, do it with respect, and in 1 Timothy 5, look at the best ways of addressing people in love.

The church is made up of people. They aren’t perfect and are all growing. If you’re a step ahead of your brother, then encourage him with what you learnt, without being patronising. If you have a problem with your brother, lovingly sort it out! If we can’t love one another, how can we love the world?

I don’t always get this right, but I’m really trying to. We let stuff get in the way, and we can really hurt people if we’re not careful. This is where prayer, petition and asking God to make Romans 12:2a come alive in us really changes our hearts, and we grow.

Mark 8

2009-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

Mark 8: 27-30

Who is Jesus?

In this passage, Jesus’ identity is hotly debated. Up to this point, we have found Jesus to be very popular with crowds – from chapter 1 up until this point, He constantly finds himself followed and people beg things of Him – even when He goes to Tyre and Sidon in chapter 7, people still flock to Him – even if they’re not even Jews! People don’t know who He is, but they want to.

That hasn’t changed.

In Jesus day, everyone had an opinion. Maybe he’s one of the prophets of old, maybe He’s the greatest prophet – Elijah reincarnated, maybe he’s a bit of a nutter like John was – who is Jesus? People don’t know, but they spend time debating it and coming up with their own theories.

People still do that today – some say he’s just a great philosopher, some say that he’s just a nice guy who did some cool stuff, some say he was a charlatan, some think he’s the figurehead of a movement that deified him after death – nothing’s really changed in 2000 years – people are still asking this massive question. Who is JESUS?

No one on Earth has been debated, argued over, deliberately ignored, loved or hated as much as Jesus. No book has been stolen, burnt, destroyed, banned, loved, treasured, or translated anywhere near as much as the Bible. Whether people like it or not, Jesus directly affects their lives in simply astounding ways. Jesus’ followers have shaped and reshaped this world and this culture so much that we couldn’t possibly imagine what it would be like without Jesus.

So who is Jesus?

If we continue to build on what we’ve already learnt, Jesus used a particular phrase several times in Mark 4 ‘if they have ears to hear, let them hear’. He’s saying if you’ve been granted the knowledge of who I am, then you will know me for who I am.

It's important to remember that it is by the grace of God that we are granted the wisdom to see Jesus for who He is.

Today, many people get confused as to who Jesus is. We said this earlier. But one of the most common misconceptions of Jesus is caused by an ancient and deadly disease. Allow me to explain;-

I have had many conversations with people who respond to the claims of Christ with one of, some of or all of the following 'Why would God, if He's good as you say, allow people to go to hell?', 'I can't accept that God would punish people for not believing in Him', 'If God is love, then he would consider being gay okay, as long as you love the other person', 'God would want me to be happy, surely? If living with my girlfriend is making me happy, then that's what God would want'...

There are many, many examples like this, and I've waded through a lot of difficult conversations because of one ancient, difficult and deadly illness that the human race has suffered from for many, many millenia, and that disease is Pride. In 1 Timothy 3, where it discusses the qualifications for eldership and deaconship, it refers to pride as 'the condemnation of the devil'. And that's what it is - it's the same condemnation that Satan fell into - he became proud and wanted to be like God (as it says in Isaiah) and wanted to become greater than God.

Today, many people have a similar attitude, and so when you ascert something that they don't like, the assume that God's on their side - even if God's Word contradicts this. Many people today have put themselves above God in their own estimation, and this means that they determine what God is like because rather than them being God's, they are making god into theirs. And I intended that last lower-case g.

But hope is far from lost! Ecclesiastes 1:9-14 clearly states that there is nothing new under the sun. And here in Mark 8:11-13, we have the Pharisees demanding a sign from Jesus. If we scan up a little, we find that Jesus just fed 4000 people using less food than it would take to fill an average Morrison's hand-basket.

I sit here reading this verse and I'm screaming at the pharisees 'HE JUST FED 4000 PEOPLE! WHAT MORE OF A SIGN DO YOU WANT?' The issue here isn't that Jesus doesn't provide signs and wonders - He does it all the time, the issue is that Jesus won't perform the signs and wonders that the Pharisees want.

Jesus isn't being the god that the pharisees want. He's being God. And this confuses them.

So who is Jesus? Is he a character in a book on your shelf that you don't read? Is he a tinpot god that you chuck pennies at when you remember, is He a genie who grants your wishes, or is He the Almighty King of All, our Lord, Saviour, Redeemer, Author of our Faith and High Priest. Is He the Lamb that was slaughtered for our Sin, Is He the Lion of Judah and the King of Glory? Is His name to be High and lifted above all other names? In short, is this Jesus GOD in your life?

And yes, this is a big question. Because it will determine what you do with your life. It will also determine what you do with your death.

Youthchurch - 15th February

2009-02-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

Our first Youthchurch event was held last night and it went pretty well. We had around 20 odd people attend, God was definately there and I hope we all came away with something to think about, ponder and pray over.

Who Am I?

Think about that. Who.Am.I?

Many people go through their lies unsure of who they are, why they are here, or what they are doing with their lives. Many very old people never find this out before they die.

Today, I want to tell you that you are here for a reason. You are not an accident. You are special and unique and you are important to God.

- You are not an accident.

Sometimes, babies are born without being planned by their parents. I have a friend whose parents had had three sons, and they wanted to try one more time to have a girl. They didn’t. They had twin boys instead.

Their house was such a boys’ house – always someone fighting, there was a pool table in the hallway, something was always being broken. It was great. These boys are now in university or studying A-Levels – they are studying business, accounting, law – they are going to go into the workplace and live what we would consider good lives. They may have been unplanned, but they weren’t accidents.

You are not an accident either. Your parents may have not planned to have you, but God knew you were going to come along. In Isaiah 44:2 (someone find this) it states that God made you. If He made you, then you’re not here by accident. And that means you can have an awesome life, if you find out what it is that God has for you.

It doesn’t matter where you are born or who your mum or dad are. You are here for a reason.

- You are important.

In Genesis 1:27, it says that we are all created in God’s image – both male and female – boys and girls are made somehow to look like God. This ‘somehow’ means that you are not just a physical person that you can touch and see, but you are also a spiritual person – you have a soul and you have a spirit.

Sometimes we forget this, we forget that we’re not just ‘animals’ and sometimes if we believe we’re only physical people, we can pretend that what we do doesn’t really matter.

But it does.

One day, we will all die, and we will spend the rest of eternity somewhere else. That will either be with God or without God. We get to chose how we’re going to spend it, by deciding if we want to accept Jesus and spend the rest of our lives living for Him and then eternity with Him or living lives for ourselves and then eternity completely alone and utterly miserable. So remembering that we aren’t just physical, but we are also spiritual is very important.

If God made you, then does that mean there’s a reason that you’re here?

God’s answered that question too! Jeremiah 29:11 says that God knows the plans he has for us, and that those plans are for our good, not to make us miserable and sad.

But I don’t know what God’s plan is for me!

Often people don’t know what plans God has for them, and so instead of listening to Him, they listen to people. People can give excellent advice, and they can be really helpful, and they can definitely be on your side, loving you and encouraging you. But sometimes, people don’t give the best advice, sometimes they aren’t helping you. This morning at church we spoke about choosing good friends. You should choose people to listen to who you can see by their actions are living for God. If they offer advice, it might be really worth listening to.

But better than people, we should listen to God, and learn about ourselves.

Speaking to God is awesome. I speak to God every morning before I get going, and I talk to Him all the way through my day. I don’t press my hands together and bow my head. I often close my eyes (except when I’m driving), and just speak with Him, about everything, about nothing – but as I get to know God who made me, I also get to know what God made IN me.

God made you the way that you are. He made some people tall, some people short, some people brainy, some people not so brainy, some people good at sports, some people good at drama, some people good with computers, some people good at fixing things, some people good at maths, some people good at teaching, some people good with people.... the list goes on.

If you are good at one thing, and not good at another – say you’re not good at maths, then it’s unlikely that God wants you to be a mathematician or an accountant. But if He made you to be amazing at drama, then maybe He made you to be an actor....

It’s important that we look at what God made us to start with and it’s important to remember that God made us.

Then it’s important to ask Him what He wants us to be and how He wants to get us there.

Mark 7b

2009-02-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

Mark 7:24-37

Sometimes, just reading the bible is not enough. Often, people read a little bit and start spouting that – usually for a cause of their own. This is often misguided because generally, scripture has to be taken as a part of the whole.

There’s a clever analogy that is often used stupidly to back up the idea that there is only one God, but that all the religions point to that one God which goes like this;- 3 blind men are trying to describe an animal that they are all touching. One says ‘this creature is long and thin and flexible’. One says ‘this creature is fat and big and round and strong’. The third says ‘it is droopy and flaps around a lot’.

The clever part of this analogy is that often people do look only at the small part that they have to hand, but really, they should be looking at the over-all picture. Obviously, these blind men were describing an elephant, but we as Christians are not blind men. We have the Bible to read, God to know and creation to study. And because of this, we should be looking at any part of the bible as a part of the whole.

A theological word that is used to describe the entire story of the bible is ‘metanarrative’ which basically means overall story. We must see the little story in front of us as a part of the overall story.

Cults are often grown up out of this blinkered attitude and often atheists (such as my father) will use little crumbs of bible knowledge that they have picked up by flipping through trying to prove what they want to prove.

This is why one of the major points about reading the bible is that we have to read it in humility – we have to become enquiring – I often say that three of the most important words a Christian can learn are ‘I don’t know’ – I say this because we need to become like children, wide-eyed and excited about what we find when we crack open the Bible.

The reason I start with this is that the following passage is one of those that you’re sure God put in to wind up bible teachers.

Mark never wastes words. If he mentions something, then it must be important. Here, Mark particularly mentions the nationality of this woman. He refers to her as being Greek and born in Syro-phoenicia. To us, 2000 years later in Great Yarmouth, Greece is about 1000 miles away, and the Phoenicians are more than 1000 years gone. For this reason, we don’t really pull out much meaning from this reference.

In fact, our understanding of the word ‘Greek’ is culturally inaccurate and we should really understand that the reference in this instance to be more about her religion than her nationality – she was a pagan, rather than a Jew.

In Jesus’ day the Jews were a very exclusivist people – they would not have dealings with non-jews, because to do so would cause them to be ceremonially unclean. Jesus lived in a very racist time and place.

To the Jews, outsiders would have been known as dogs – or more like ‘bitches’. In the Middle East today, there are still very similar cultural issues of racism that cause problems if you’re not an Arab. So here we have Jesus talking to this woman and referring to her as a dog because in His time, this is what would be expected of Jesus. Sort of.

The word that Jesus uses for dog here is not the same as the word for bitch. The actual word more closely resembles our word for puppy or alternatively ‘small dog’. Jesus is saying ‘what would you like, little puppy?’ He’s not driving her away with the harsh words that she expected of a Jewish Rabbi, but in some sense being welcoming in a way that is understood in the culture in which Jesus was placed. Jesus is using language to mock the cultural standards of His day which were pretty atrocious in the first place.

Now, pulling back a little out of the situation and looking at the surrounding script, Jesus says ‘it is not right to take children’s bread and throw it to their dogs’. Jesus is saying it is not right to deprive God’s chosen children in order to satisfy those who are not his immediate concern. Slowing right down, we look and see that Jesus isn’t saying ‘no’ – more that He is saying ‘God will get to you... let me deal with the chosen people and then I’ll get to you’. He’s saying ‘first things first, one thing at a time’.

The woman then responds in what I suspect may be God-granted wisdom. Firstly, she understands that she is second to the Children that God has chosen, secondly that she sees the long-range mission that Jesus is on and that she knows that He will get to her, but also thirdly, she shows tenacity in her willingness to confront Jesus and show Him that she is for Him and His mission and that she is in desperate need of Him. Her strength of character aligned to her wisdom is attractive enough that Jesus looks at her and sees one that really gets what it means to follow Him. And so her daughter is healed.

If we take another step back and look at earlier parts of Mark 7, we see that Jesus is already talking about religious people in a derogatory manner. He sees some of the highest authorities in Jewishdom and openly denounces them as being hypocrites. So we can see that He is stepping away from Religion and from those who follow ‘rules taught by men’ and that He is beginning now to look for people whose hearts are His and who want to get to Him no matter who they are.

We looked previously at how Jesus taught His disciples – firstly by teaching them a little and then sending them out, then they return talking of great miracles when Jesus pulls the floor out from under them again which freaks them out. Jesus was not wandering around being random, He was (and is) actively on a mission.

The move to Tyre and Sidon – which are outside Jesus’ usual haunts signal a move toward the non-Jews. After all, his earlier ministry had been in the areas around Galilee which were historically very Jewish. Tyre and Sidon were beautiful cities with amazing architecture – as seaports, they were important to the Romans and so had been upgraded with Roman architecture. Previous to this, they had been conquered by the Greeks, and before them, the Persians. Because of this, they had become liberal, culturally and religiously permissive and strongly ‘Hellenised’ which refers to the complicated religion that the Greeks practiced, which had grown out of polytheism from the east as well as a great many home-grown gods.

So let’s just remember for a moment that Jesus is about 30 miles (if in Tyre) from Capernaum, but also a million miles away culturally and religiously from his usual setting, and that in this setting He meets someone who sees Him for who He is, and calls on Him. This is a message to non-religious sinners like you and I. We don’t have to have come from a holy-holy background to access Jesus and speak with Him, but we are responsible for our actions in coming to Him – we are not to be silly children who spout rubbish and try to challenge the religious Right, but we are to come to Him as we are, with wisdom that God gives us (not books) and approach Him in reverence and humility. We should be bold in our desire to see him, but when we do see Him and are accepted by Him and in that, become His children - we will honour Him, worship Him and long to be His in all that we do.

Someone once said that Jesus coming to the earth as ‘flesh’ would be like one of us cramming our existence into that of a slug. And even that comparison doesn’t come close to what Jesus coming to earth really meant.

God's Wings

2009-01-28T14:49:00.001-08:00

God's Wings
An article in National Geographic several years ago provided a penetrating picture of God's wings...
After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick.
When he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings.
The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies.
When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.
"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge" (Psalm 91:4)
Being loved this much should make a difference in your life. Remember the One who loves you and then, be different because of it.

Book Reveiw: Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell

2009-01-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Rob Bell is an interesting man. His take on the Christian faith is very subtly different from anything I can recall reading - he is highly missional whilst being quite soft - not in a effeminate way, but in a way that says 'I don't need to be loud and shouty, I don't need to be controversial and difficult - come, look at Jesus through what I'm trying to do, and hopefully I'm following Him close enough that you find Him attractive'.

And this is an interesting contrast to my current favourite author - Mark Driscoll.

A few months ago, I described my walk with God as a tunnel that had opened out - it's like when you go through a cave in a mountain somewhere in South America, only to find that the scraping and squeezing that it took to get you down this cave then opens out into a massive cavern in which you could place Canary Wharf. And part of that 'opening out' is the major realisation that walking with God isn't about shouting at people, forcing them to believe that my veiw is right - instead, it's about walking close enough behind Jesus that i get the dust from His sandals all over me, and loving people where they are. But in addition to that, it's also a massive series of balances - and I find I can only stand on those balances if I've got God holding me up.

And this book? It provides yet another vision of God's church - another facet of the jewel, and provides more opportunities for growth. If you're an open person - an open seeker trying to get your head around God's church and His ways, then you will probably never finish that journey this side of death - and I don't think that Jesus would want us to. This book is another opportunity to learn, seek and grow.

Book Reveiw: Vintage Jesus - Mark Driscoll

2008-12-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

Another Mark Driscoll Book, I know. As a fairly alpha-male, loud, shouty, controversial, say-it-as-it-is and slightly American type of person, I find just about everything Driscoll writes refreshing. He doesn't seem to feel the need to worry about how his audience will receive his work, and I genuinely believe that he lives under the banner of 'audience of one'. (i.e. God)

To this end, I don't think we will ever see Driscoll back down from anything he feels that God is saying, and he's quite at home being controversial, in your face and just deeply honest. And here in Vintage Jesus, we have Mark battering away at some of the more weird and wonderful statements made about Jesus, and presenting a biblical veiw of the Man who is God in a clear, concise way.

There are lots of books about ministry, lots of books about serving, or the church, or worship, or things people have found out about God in their time on earth, but it seems that little is written about our Lord and Saviour that is simply ABOUT our Lord and Saviour. (I know J John has, but I haven't gotten around to reading that yet).

It is true that the Gospels are vital to our understanding of Jesus - never let it be quoted that I don't think this! But there are holes in our cultural understanding of the setting in which our Lord placed Himself that leave us questioning - and if we're not questioning, then are we really trying to understand Him?

It's good to have books out there that bring clear understanding of our Lord in today's society, that open up the Bible and allow us to really feel the Man who is God in a real way.

And this is one of them.

If you're going to read 1 book in the next year apart from the Bible (I assume you're reading that) read this.

Book Reveiw: Sex isn't the Problem (Lust is) - Joshua Harris

2008-12-28T09:16:00.001-08:00

Aargh!

This pretty much sums up how I feel about this book. Incredibly frustrated - and not in the way that the title may suggest.

Josh Harris is so right about so much stuff - the bible backs up so much of what he opines - the only problem is that whilst he really doesn't want people to become legalists and he does state that for every person, the rules are different - he then goes and presents the rules that he has used to get through tough times. Many are good and universally applicable - such as accountability, but then there are others that are personal to Josh's walk - and the danger with a book such as this is that those who read it may then take his personal walk and try to impose it on their own - and once again, I'll say that Josh is obviously concerned about this potential problem and warns against it.

The problem is that the most liable people to read this are young Christians, who are still learning some of the basics of what it means to follow Christ. Then picking this book up, the danger is that the readers are liable to read every line and quote 'Josh says...' instead of learning what God is saying to them personally.

The best way to read this book is perhaps to read it with an older, more mature Christian, who can seperate the universal application from the specifics of Josh's own life - otherwise it is so easy to fall in to the twin bear-trap of legalism and pride.

We must always remember when reading books like this is that we are first called to follow Christ in relationship with Him, that we are justified through His work on the cross, and we are sanctified as we walk the path with Him. If these basics are understood at a heart level, then this book is arguably unnecassary, but if it still is, then the one basic concept that is vital is that you find an accountable Christian of the same gender who can work through these issues.

Worth a read? Yeah, I suppose - but just see it through the above filter and make sure you've got Christians in your life who can be honest with you - this will prevent pride seeping in and holding your heart.

Mark 1

2008-12-28T06:31:00.001-08:00

Mark 1 – MIT Lesson Notes 26^th November

The gospel of Mark does not identify its author – but it is believed that it was written by a man named John Mark, or Mark the Evangelist. It is said that he was Simon Peter’s translator. Mark was not a direct follower of Jesus, as Matthew and John were. One historian, Clement of Alexandria, reported that Mark wrote his gospel by taking notes from Peter’s sermons and recording them in a logical fashion.

Contemporary scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was written first of the four gospels, although traditionalists believe that it was second.

It is one of the synoptic gospels as with Mathew and Luke, and it is suggested that all three are written from the recompiling of the same source.

However this book was written, like all scripture we know it to be God breathed and profitable (2Tim 3:16) because the very term God breathed means that it is inspired by God who works in man – or the Holy Spirit.

Mark writes in a style that is particularly punchy – or quite bullet-pointed. It has been suggested that this is because this gospel was particularly intended for a Roman audience – a people who are almost defined by their desire to get to the point – straight roads and straight aqueducts being the shortest distances between the source and destination – and even their language is said to be completely logical (unlike our flowery and oftentimes non-sensical English).

Mark 1: 1-8

Mark 1:1 – The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Pulling no punches, Mark is starting this book with some massive statements.

The beginning although missing out ‘In’, this is how the bible commences – In the beginning... He’s starting with a big bang (pun intended) by comparing this, the coming of Jesus to the very start of creation.

The word gospel literally means ‘good news’ and would only be used in massive situations – such as the birth of the sons of emperors! And so what Mark is saying is something like;- A situation comparable to the very creation of the world has started, it is massive, world-changing good news and it is that of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Today, we’re used to saying Jesus Christ, Son of God. It’s joked about on Family Guy and the Simpsons, and it is in every third Christmas carol, but remember that in the days in which this was written, you have a lot of things going on. In Israel, claiming to be the Son of God could be taken to being blasphemy and worshipping someone who is not God is blasphemy at this time, punishable by death. And so in the very first verse, we have John Mark stating that this is either the largest or second largest thing to ever have occurred (depending how you look at it) and that he is now going to talk about God coming to earth as man – and although this is hugely important, as we’d expect - that this is good news!

In verses 2 and 3, Mark then goes on to quote Isaiah. We have to understand at this point that if John Mark was Simon Peter’s scribe, then he would be following Simon Peter around. Simon Peter was known as the Jewish evangelist/apostle, in the same way that Paul was the apostle for the Gentiles (or non-Jews). Mark would therefore be reaching out to the Jews of his day.

By quoting Isaiah, a highly-regarded prophet in the scriptures, Mark is adding historical weight and claiming this prophecy as being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. He is indicating that this is a part of God’s great plan and again, he is claiming huge things of Jesus.

V 4-8

Baptising – Some references to sanctification in the OT has its roots in ceremonial washing – Muslims are still very enamoured with it today (and I assume Jews are too, though I don’t know for sure). Those who came to Judaism from outside (called proselytes) would have to be baptised into the faith. By baptising the Jews themselves and preaching repentance, John was almost saying that the traditions of the Jews simply weren’t good enough for God – and this preparation of hearts and minds is a prelude to Him who would then take up those who in repentance sought God.

Desert/Jordan – Once again, many important historical events in Israel’s past are to do with the desert – the 40 years of wandering, the crossing of the Jordan by Joshua, Lot’s time in the desert – John’s very location pointed back to much of the history of Israel. There was also a belief in place that the saviour would return to Jerusalem from the desert places.

Note that although ‘The whole Judean countryside, and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him,’ John still states that there is one much greater than he coming. Think about this – if one man baptised the entire of Norfolk, you would consider him a pretty great man. Not a huge amount is known about John’s preaching except that it was on the topic of repentance - he must have been a powerful speaker.

John, like Mark is pointing the way forward to one greater than himself, one so much greater, that he feels himself unworthy to do something so little as to remove this man’s shoes.

Then Jesus arrives.

V 9-13

In verse 9, there is a sense of expectation or drama in the wording;- At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. The language here speaks of journey – Jesus came from Nazareth to then be baptised to then...

In verse 10, we have contrasting language – heaven being torn open, and then the spirit descending like a dove. This contrast may be used for hyperbole, but is also an indicator of who Christ is. He is the one who loves us, holds his hand out toward us, ready to receive – he is gracious and kind and loving, and yet he hates sin. His death on the cross was violent, so that our accepting of his spirit and his work lead us to an eternal life that is not.

In verse 11, we have God’s approval of Jesus. This would have been done to signal to the men of God around Jesus that here is the one for whom they have waited – even though many don’t accept this and John already knew it – but also, remembering that those spirits that are not of God are finite and not all-knowing, God’s word to His Son will have sent massive reverberations throughout the spiritual realms – and it is following this accreditation that Jesus is tempted by Satan (v12-13).

Mark obviously doesn’t consider that detail of Jesus’ temptation important to his target audience and doesn’t even feel it necessary to state that Jesus although tempted, did not sin. Perhaps it was expected that his listeners already knew this, or perhaps Mark was leaving it to the teachers to explain this. Once again, we have Mark’s militaristic moving-on to the next point.

v14-20.

Jesus calls people who are not really worthy. In first century Israel, the office of Rabbi was a highly-esteemed one – this is largely why it was so difficult for Jesus’ enemies to kill Him – as a public figure, He was known about by many people, and highly regarded. The followers of a Rabbi were his disciples, and a disciple would go through rigorous training from a young age in order to be worthy of being a disciple to a great teacher. This training involved memorising the first 5 books of our bible, and understanding the many varied concepts hidden within each one. Most young boys did not measure up to this standard and so would go and work for their fathers.

In vs14-20 we see Jesus meeting fishermen. These were ordinary, coarse men who worked hard for their living – fishing was (and today largely still is) a dangerous job, where bad weather or misfortune could kill you. Men in this trade had to be much tougher than they are today in our health and safety conscious world. Their jokes would have most likely been crass and their humour quite basic, they would have stunk of fish and would have had heavily calloused hands. Their muscles would have been strong, their bodies lean, and their skin tanned dark. Often seafaring men have beards – I’m not sure why, I think it’s something to do with keeping your face warm – or it may just be that the absence of women around mean that men feel little inclination to be tidy. There would be little time or energy left for reading and studying God’s word, for meditating on His truths and for philosophising with learned men about what this great God of ours was actually about.

And Jesus picked four of them in this passage. The wonderful thing about this small chunk of scripture is knowing that Jesus picks real people. He could have looked for the learned boys who could memorise scripture with ease and understand their meaning – and it would have been expected that He did so, but instead, Jesus looked for ordinary men, spoke to them in a metaphor close to their heart and they followed.

Jesus is often portrayed as being a bit fay – limp-wristed, soft, effeminate, always in flowing white robes, and yet these tough warehousemen types heard Jesus called them and immediately they left their jobs, their ‘career’, their family and their livelihood and they followed. They didn’t grumble about where the next meal would come from, or how they would support a family (this is a responsibility of all men, and not one to be overlooked) but they heard the call of Jesus, and they unhesitatingly followed.

V29-31

In this passage, we find Jesus in an awkward social situation – He was often in this position, as with His first miracle (water into wine). Middle Eastern society has many customs that are not easily understood in the west and once again we find ourself in the midst of one being broken.

The mother of Simon and Andrew would have been expected to make food and wait on her sons and their guests. As homemaker, it was her duty to provide food and comfort for these men whose duty it was to bring provision back to the home. This is not so easily understood in our post-modern, post-feminism, equality culture, but it was the norm for the women to look after the home, raise the children and tend to the men when they returned from work.

Unfortunately, Simon and Andrew’s mother is not in a fit state to fulfil her role, and has been knocked out of action. Jesus and the men could have rolled up their sleeves and gone about doing what was necessary – making the dinner, washing the plates, etc. and would probably have performed these tasks adequately. However, on learning that the woman of the house is ill, Jesus then proceeds to heal her so that she can get back into her role not simply so Jesus and the lads can put their feet up, but so that there is no social awkwardness and embarrassment on the part of His hosts. He is freeing people to do what they instinctively know to be right and correct – it is by His grace that Jesus does this – He is setting the house back to order so that life can continue normally and harmoniously.

V40-42

A man with leprosy was ceremonially unclean. He was seen as spiritually dirty and would never have been accepted back into normal society – it would be assumed that his disease would have been an affliction handed to him by God as punishment for sin. Any man who touched one afflicted with the disease would also have been labelled unclean. Jesus, in a foreshadowing of His work on the cross was able to touch an unclean person, and instead of being made unclean himself, was able to absorb all the sin and dirt of this man’s life into Himself without being made in any way less holy.

Note that Jesus reaches out in compassion, not to prove a point, not in pride, not in anger or disappointment, but in love. This is how we are to reach out to those around us who don’t yet know Him.

In Summary;-

- Mark wrote to the Romans in a very brief style

- Jesus is the Son of God

- John was a great man in his own right, but nothing in comparison to Jesus

- Jesus was approved and appointed by God, his father

- Jesus chooses real people

- Jesus heals to bring normalcy

- Jesus can absorb our uncleanliness

Envangelism from the perspective of an athiest

2008-12-27T05:07:00.000-08:00

A video from Penn. half of Penn and Teller;-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM

Book Review: The Radical Reformission - Mark Driscoll

2008-12-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

Genre: Church Direction/Leadership/General

Target Audience: All Leaders in any ministry

Mark Driscoll is one of the most influencial pastors in the US, and as with so much that influences the US, his influence is now being felt on our island. This book is Mark's philosophical, theological look at where the church is and where he believes it to be headed.

This book covers a lot of ground in a well-reasoned, well thought through manner and especially looks at what the relatively new trend of 'postmodernism' and what this means to any church that is attempting to be relevant to a society that is now very much under the thrall of this cultural phenomenon. I believe this to be one of the books that every leader of my generation will find themselves reading - it clarifies so much that we see around us and endeavours to equip us to take the message to the crowded streets.

Well worth reading.

Book Review: What's the Difference - John Piper

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Genre: Men/Women

Target: Everyone - leaning toward well-read and older readers.

At 96 well-spaced and small pages, this is more an essay than a book, and Piper refers to it as such. It looks at some of the major differences between men and women from a biblical perspective in a concise and clear way, giving a helpful definition for each and finally ending on a summary of some of the questions that the author has been asked over the years, and how he has best answered these.

Whilst this is a

technically accurate, well thought-through and researched thesis, it does use language that is somewhat heavy-going and unless one reads widely, one may find this a bit of a challenge to wade through. This being written in 1990, there have been some excellent works produced since then in a more accessable style - the works of John and Stasi Eldridge, for instance are excellent. Also, I've discovered that Wayne Grudem (Systematic Theology, Bible Doctrine and 20 Basics Every Christian Should Know) has also written a book on the subject, which I will be reading soon.

In summary, I'd say that if you're on a 'what does it mean to be a man/woman' kick and have been through the current standard books, then you may find this affirming. If you're looking to start on that journey, I'd start elsewhere.

Mark 4a - Thorns

2008-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

(talks on Mark 1-3 should follow over the christmas break, sorry it's going to be out of order!)

This should have been the talk for the whole of chapter 4. However, 4 is a difficult chapter to do in one sitting, so it will be continued in January.

Verse 1 = Lake, Boat, Acoustics – Jesus uses the surrounding countryside to help his voice carry - water would bounce his voice so that those gathered on the upwardly-sloping countryside could better hear.
V2 – Possibility that we don’t have all the parables that Jesus taught, the term ‘many’ is vague - backed up in v33.

V3 - 8:

Type 1: Path - Paths would have been compacted soil, rather than heavy-duty pavements that we have today. Although hard, unyealding and not much use for growing on, you would be able to fairly easily break it up and then use that land - if it's yours to use, of course!

People in the category of 'paths' would be those who hear the word of Christ, but it just bounces off. They are not willing to let it penetrate their hearts in any way, shape or form.

Type 2: Shallow soil – These are the people who receive Christ quickly, but only on a very superficial level, then if something more convincing, more interesting, more fun appears, they bound off after that, like a terrier after a rat. Or trouble comes, and they deny Christ. Were they even saved in the first place? It’s hard to say in general – possibly not. You have to look at each person individually.
This is where ‘baby Christian’ comes in – if you’ve just become a Christian, excited about God, etc, but haven’t put in the time to learn about God and really get on your walk with Christ well, and then a pretty girl bats her eyelashes at you, you may get distracted. I’ve known people who have received Christ, then wandered off but still stay in contact with me, because they feel God prodding them – they think that by staying in touch with me, that they’re somehow still being a good Christian, and they can ignore the prompting from the Holy Spirit. I generally use these times to encourage them to come back to church, grow in God and also challenge them about what it is that’s primary in their lives. This gets mixed responses.

Type 3: Thorns – these are the people who receive Christ, but don’t really have the faith built into them that allows them to overcome the obstacles that the flesh, world or Satan will put in their way. Perhaps they have past sin they haven’t dealt with yet – pride is a terrible sin for people in this category, because pride is a monster all its own – people who suffer from this as unbelievers can become believers and then be proud of the fact that they’re believers and better than other people. In that case, the simply don’t understand salvation by grace. There are so many issues that are thorns in peoples lives that they may well need help to get over. This is why pride is so damaging for people in this category – they need help to get over past hurts, sins, damage etc. but think that they best way to be a Christian is to ignore the sin in their lives and pretend that they’re perfect – this is where Christian hypocrisy drives unbelievers nuts!
Thorns in our lives can also be unhealthy/unhelpful friends/relationships, spiritual warfare issues, cultural strongholds, bad mindsets – this is why Romans 12:2a says do not be conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind – it’s a call to go thorn-cutting!
People with thorns in their lives can be the sort of people who regularly go forward on a Sunday morning for prayer, but never move forward in their lives. They say ‘God forgive me’ then sin, then say ‘God forgive me’ always repeating the same sin, because they don’t actually believe that they are overcomers, they don’t believe that in Christ, they are actually free to not sin.
The plants in amongst the thorns do not bear fruit – in Matt 7:15-20, Jesus speaks about how by a tree’s fruit, you may judge the tree, and in another scripture, He talks about trees that bear no fruit will eventually be torn up and thrown into the fire. Bearing no fruit is useless, it’s being stuck in neutral, it’s like being a eunuch – it’s the ryvita of spirituality, the celery of life – we’re not called to be fruitless, tastless, and useless, we’re called to be overcomers and soldiers in Gods army. Soldiers that don’t win battles end up dead!

What is sin? Often, sin is good stuff that has been twisted by Satan to make it bad. Food is good, unless you go overboard, in which case you’re in love with it and caught in gluttony, women are good unless you go outside God’s rules governing relationships, where pain, hurt and damage are caused, possessions are (usually) good, unless you make an idol of them, and make money your God. Even the internet is a good thing, used properly – but there are vast sections of it that just aren’t healthy for us to be looking at.

Thorns in our lives are simply things that have got out of control and end up damaging us. We are called to go out thorn-killing. Go weeding, find people in your lives that you can talk to about the difficult things, that you trust to answer honestly, and not to go around telling everyone. Never stop weeding. As C S Lewis points out in The Screwtape Letters, the second you think you’ve got it sorted and now you’re a good person, free from sin and generally pretty darned good, then you need to go weed that thought-pattern. After all, only one person in history was (is) free from sin.

Type 4: The good soil is what we should aim to have in our lives. A heart that is pure, careful and considerate, judging what we hear and perceive by the Word and Spirit, able to learn, given to good government, holding an understanding and a love for the church and for God, desiring all the good things that Jesus wants for us, and not evil. We should always be open to doing a little more weeding, we can always grow a little more.

The good news about the 4 main groups is that what you are today is not what you are always. Otherwise, what we call sanctification would be a complete waste of time – you are on a journey, and if God is in your life, if the Holy Spirit is in you, counselling you, directing you and growing you, then maybe the path will be broken up, the soil deepened and the thorns removed, giving you the deep soil that God wants for all of us.

Some take the parable of the sower as a purely evangelistic message – that we will meet 4 types of people in our lives, and what we’re actually doing is looking for type 4 to talk to. Types 1-3 are a bit of a waste of time really. If this were true, why would Jesus bother engaging the Pharisees in the first place, or go to dinner with tax collectors and sinners – they weren’t all diamonds in the rough, He would have had every type of person in every crowd.

Parables.

Jesus spoke in parables, because they were a way of engaging the people whom he was speaking to on their own terms. The parable of the sower is apt, because the society in which Jesus was preaching was largely agrarian, and they would have been able to relate to the concept of sowing seed. The difficulty that we often face in these days is that we look at what we now consider an ‘obvious’ message, because it’s only been taught to us as a ‘Parable of Jesus’ with the halo around the term, which we always take to mean ‘something meaningful and deep will now be said’. The people Jesus was addressing largely didn’t know who He was, and so they may well have thought that in the particular case of the parable of the sower, that He was simply giving good gardening tips!

Once again, we have Jesus meeting people where they are, understanding their culture, their identity and what they understand, and talking to them on that level. He doesn’t get out of the boat, and go and pray in tongues for people, he talks on their terms, lovingly and with grace (which I’ll talk on more in a little while). Some will have gone home, looked at their smallholding and thought ‘you know what, I really should look at a way of making my soil deeper – after all, 100x crop would be darned useful!’ Others may have felt patronised – ‘yes, Jesus, we actually do know how to plant things, duh.’ This is an especially valid point when we look at verses 9 and 23.
Earlier, I spoke about the evangelistic side of ministry - if we’re actually going to be Christian and do what Christ did, then we should consider that if Jesus bothered with groups 1-3 then perhaps we should. Perhaps we should speak truth in a meaningful way that our peers understand whenever we have the opportunity.

I feel that some people become engaging Christians only when God tells them to. In reality, we are called to have a response to why we have hope at all times, and are instructed to give it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). We are called to be salt and light at all times, not when it’s convenient, and not just on a Sunday.

Or perhaps they feel that once they’ve tested for soil number 4 and found that this person actually appears to be type 1, then it’s okay to not bother any more. This is where another balance comes in. We are called to be salt and light and to have an answer for our hope and faith, but we’re not to go around banging people on the head with it all the time. We’re called to be real, but really loving too. We’re God’s ambassadors – and ambassadors are given the authority of the government they represent to make decisions for that country and act as though they are that country’s government. If we’re to be that, then we have to know what our government wants and needs – and in the Christian context, that means we’ve got to know Dad.

So this means we’ve got to know our father in heaven, act like Jesus did by being gracious towards those that don’t get it – he repeated some parables in different ways several times just to try and drive the point home, but did so lovingly, encouraging people to ask questions, not simply giving them answers.

If you find that all you’re getting is path, path, path, path, then don’t presume you know God’s plan and that this person will forever be type 1. Maybe something happens in their life or God talks to them, and something that you say, maybe for the 11th time now, breaks through the path and finds soil underneath. We are called to be Christian all the time, to everyone.

Similarly, the same is true for those of types 2 and 3 – perhaps even more so! I’ve said before that Christians can be really unforgiving toward other Christians – after all, if you’ve got a fish on your car, you should know better, right? The problem though is that if you harbour resentment and bitterness toward other believers, Satan can get in and destroy churches. James 3 speaks of how the tongue is dangerous. I talk a lot, and I really know what he means!

If our brothers and sisters in Christ lack character or deep soil, then we should encourage them how they should go, as prescribed in the bible – recognising that they have problems, help them by graciously loving them and if you feel you should speak into their lives, then explain why you believe that their behaviour is unacceptable and from where you draw this belief. Back to 1 Peter 3:15, do it with respect, and in 1 Timothy 5, look at the best ways of addressing people in love.

The church is made up of people. They aren’t perfect and are all growing. If you’re a step ahead of your brother, then encourage him with what you learnt, without being patronising. If you have a problem with your brother, lovingly sort it out! If we can’t love one another, how can we love the world?

I don’t always get this right, but I’m really trying to. We let stuff get in the way, and we can really hurt people if we’re not careful. This is where prayer, petition and asking God to make Romans 12:2a come alive in us really changes our hearts, and we grow.

Welcome to MIT

2008-12-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the official blog of Men In Training.

MIT is a group run as part of Youthnet, the youth group of Kings Church, Great Yarmouth, UK.

The group comprises young men from around 17-21 in age, and is run by me - Nick Cowan.

I am the administrator of Kings Church, and though I'm not super-wise, amazing or even (don't tell anyone I said this) always right, I do try and I am learning. If I get something stupidly wrong, please just let me know, and we can look into it.

This blog is intended for the young men who attend MIT to enable them to access my talks after-the-fact, where they can recap and think (and pray!) about what was said. Enjoy!