More than 20 years ago, I stepped into this building for the first time. It was my first time here at Desert Springs, and I don't quite remember what I was wearing. But I do remember my wardrobe at the time -- again, 20 plus years ago. My wardrobe was primarily comprised of black T-shirts, blue jeans, and sneakers. And I've grown a lot since then. Well, as I've reflected over these last couple of decades, I've come to realize my wardrobe hasn't substantially changed all that much. But I have.
I was thinking about the different ways that this church family has invested in me. You have shown me kindness, graciousness and hospitality. -- how many of you have been used of God to impact my life, to shape me, to shape how I think, to shape how I engage in the world. I met Jesus in this church. I was baptized in this building, right over there. I got married right here! I've baptized two of my kids here. This church means a great deal to me. But more than just the memories, what the lasting impact it's had on me is that God has used you to transform my life. I'm a different person than I was 20 odd years ago, and I wonder about you. How have you grown?
I know that we're all at a different stage in our process and journey with Jesus. For some of us, we're still trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. Still others of us, we've been following Jesus for a few years, still others many years. And I just wondered for you, not only how have you grown ,but also right now, how are you growing? How are you growing? How are you growing in your mind and having your mind renewed? How are you growing in your heart or in your soul? How are you?
An even bigger question for those of you that are part of Desert Springs, how are we growing together? How is God using this group of misfits with very little in common -- in fact, we have almost nothing in common apart from Jesus. How is Jesus using us to grow and to shape one another?
I'd like to invite you to consider that question today as we conclude our study called Manifold Wisdom. This idea, manifold wisdom, comes from Ephesians, chapters three and four. Let me just put it up here. It comes from Ephesians chapter three and four, and it's this idea of the manifold wisdom of God being made known through the church.
So check this out. This is an image of a prism, of a ray of light hitting a prism. When you take a prism that's multifaceted or manifold, and you hit that prism with a beam of light, what comes out on the other side? All the different colors, right? And in the same way, through a diverse local church, the gospel light hits us, but then it puts it gets put on display in a diverse a multifaceted, diverse form. So when the gospel light hits the church, so to speak, we're putting it on display in diverse ways. We see this take form in many different ways. But as we're growing more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus, we also live like Jesus. We serve like Jesus. Jesus wants to grow us in the context of being the manifold wisdom of God.
So we're going to continue on in this study, actually going to conclude the study today, Ephesians chapter three and four. We're going to look specifically at how this growth happens and what it produces within.
You should have the text available in your handout today, and for those of y'all joining us online, I will be again in Ephesians three and four. If you have a print Bible, I encourage you to use it. If you don't have a Bible available, that's totally fine. Just go to Bible.com. Again, Ephesians three and four, and we're using the Christian Standard Bible today.
Now, I did want to say that one of the things that we'll do and have been doing during this series and will continue to do is this: After we gather for worship, at about 10:40 to 10:45, we'll break and we'll have some coffee and snacks available out on the patio. And then at 11:00 o'clock, we've got a bunch of different groups going on all around campus. In fact, I know that many of y'all are going to be starting the Rooted study today, and just know that we've been praying for that program and for you -- that as you engage in that study, it would truly deepen your relationship with Jesus and your understanding of who you are and who we are as a church. So I'm excited to see how God uses that.
Still others will be gathered in different Bible studies around campus, whether that's with our students or some of the adult studies. And then in here at 11:00 o'clock, I'll be hosting a sermon question and response. During this whole sermon, you can text in questions, and I will respond to them at the 11:00 o'clock session. You can go grab some coffee and snacks if you want to, then meet me back in here. I'll do my best to respond to the questions, concerns, complaints, or insults that you send in. You can find the number for that in your handout, I think it's like right in the middle page. Also, your questions really do help me understand how this is all working and how it's hitting you and how you're receiving it. So I would love to have that from you today.
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you ethnon – if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.” (Ephesians 3:1-3)
OK. Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter three and four. This is the apostle Paul writing this church in a place called Ephesus, and he says this, that grace was given to him to preach to the ethnon. I've intentionally transliterated the original Greek, not just to be nerdy -- which I know that we all love to be -- but also to show you that there's a word that often gets translated as Gentiles. But does anyone use the word in normal life? No, it's kind of a weird word. It's actually one of the Latin translations for this word, ethnicity. One of the things that I wanted to show by transliterating this is that there is a very English word that's very similar to this, and it's ethnicity. The word comes from this Greek word, which has a variety of different forms in the text. But it gets to this idea of identifiable people-groups, right? And so when the Bible says all of the nations or all of the Gentiles, it's specifically talking about all of the ethnos or ethnicities of the world.
The gospel was given to Paul. This good news of God's grace was given to Paul to preach to all the peoples of the world. What's the language here? The unfathomable riches of Christ. So he's saying that he wants to proclaim he's been given this gift -- the good news of Jesus --to proclaim the unfathomable riches of Christ so that the manifold wisdom of God might -- this is mind blowing -- might be made known through the church. The local church, a diverse bunch of misfits gathered around Jesus -- one of the things that we do together is we put on display what? The manifold wisdom of God.
Have you guys ever wondered why Jesus didn't wait until the Internet? Wouldn't it been like, “Follow me now? “ Wouldn't it have been way easy, even if it was dial-up? Even if it was like AOL, right? Wouldn't it been easier to get the message of the good news of the gospel out if Jesus would have just waited till the Internet? Or maybe made Al Gore show up sooner. Because I think he invented the Internet is from what I remember, right? Why didn't Jesus just wait? Why didn't he just wait until there was mass media when it was easier to get the good news message out now?
Watch this now.
“To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the ethesin the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:8-10)
Because the simple, disembodied proclamation of the good news of Jesus does not actually communicate the good news of Jesus. It requires a community of Jesus followers living the Kingdom way to put on display the good news of the gospel. Jesus wants to spread his message through his body, which is the church. Through a community of misfit Jesus followers who are unified … so check this out. The message of the gospel is on vivid display when a bunch of different misfits are bound together in unity and practice things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Now let me ask you a question. In the normal world, where we get a bunch of different people together -- let's just say politically different, or economically different, the rich and the poor, Democrats and Republicans -- and you put them all together and you just say, “Unite. Practice with one another love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Go.” And what invariably will happen? Will they be able to do it? Are you seeing any of that happening in our particular cultural moment? What we're seeing happening is what's been happening since the beginning of time, that when sin enters into our hearts, it causes disintegration of relationships, and we begin to throw each other under the bus. This is the first impact of sin that you see in Genesis 3, where there not only is there a disconnection between God and human, but between man and woman. Then it spirals out of control between communities and communities, this disintegration of relationships. It has a direct impact of you. So when a bunch of misfits are bound together and unified, you know what? You know what a world that's apart from their creator looks in and says? “Those people don't look like they belong together. But they're united. What is going on in there?”
What is causing this bunch of misfits to bind together? It’s the diverse, manifold wisdom of God made known through the diverse local church. You guys ever heard of the Lord's Prayer? Some of us are old fashioned. We say it, “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed or holy, is your name.” Do you guys know the next? “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”
The prayer is that we as a people who are bound together by Jesus might right now live the Kingdom. Now we're going to live as if the Kingdom of God is present with us, because, spoiler alert, it is. We're going to live as if Jesus rose from the grave, conquering over Satan, sin, and death. Because again, spoiler alert, he did. And so we're going to live right now on Earth as it is in heaven.
Let me ask you this: Is there socio, economic, political and ethnic division in heaven? No, right. And so we're going to live like that right now. Now, here's the deal. I've met some of y'all. And y'all have met me. And it's very clear that Jesus has not done working on us yet. We're going to not do it perfectly, but we're going to posture ourselves towards deferring to one another, showing compassion to one another. Longsuffering, bearing one another's burdens. Fulfilling the law of Jesus, right. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. And as we do that, we'll get a glimpse of heaven.
Now this, this putting on display a manifold wisdom of God has direct application to how we spend our time and how we invest our resources. So follow me here. There's this historian named Rodney Stark, and he noticed that one of the things that was so striking about the Jesus followers of the earliest church was not their power. Not their government might or influence, nor their political power or their military power. What was striking about the church is that it was growing not through fighting, but through serving. The Roman Empire grew by what? The Egyptian empire? The Babylonian empire? The Persian Empire? All grew through warfare, right? But the church, the Kingdom of Jesus, doesn't grow like (gesture of aggression). It grows like this (gesture of arms outstretched in front, palms up). It grows as people are served.
Another thing Rodney Stark said was that as the Roman Empire -- mightiest empire of the time -- as it was subject to plagues where not even Caesar could fix the problem, people were fleeing the cities like crazy. If you had any means, you would get out of town. “Because you know the plague's around, and we're out of here. Because I don't want to get the plague.” By and large, the marginalized and the poor were stuck. The plague would come in, and inevitably, people would start dying. Many times the plagues would so physically debilitate a person, they would simply die of starvation because they could not feed themselves. And one of the things that Rodney Stark teases out that he's noticed over his historical survey and study is that there were pockets where people did live and were nursed back to health. It was the Christians who stayed. It was the Christians who said,” I have means, but instead of leaving, I'm going to stay and I'm going to serve.” One Bishop at the time was writing a letter and actually said that many of the people under his care decided to stay. He said that the Christians would take on the disease from the dying they were serving, taking on their death in order to give life.
How did the church grow? Like this? (aggressive gesture) Or like this? (arms stretching out in front, palms up.) See, the church does not grow when it becomes the church militant. The church only grows when it serves. I'd like to show you in the text. Watch this.
“… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know that love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
That's why I love the study that we encourage everyone to go through called Rooted, because we want to be a people who are rooted in the love of God. But I want you to notice this,: That we would not only know the love of Christ, but also know the love that surpasses all knowledge. That means that we can never totally exhaust the love of Jesus. By the way, this is why we sing. One of the reasons why we sing every Sunday is because all of our thinking about God, all of our dwelling on the love of Jesus at some point in time, it just terminates into this mysterious cloud that we just can't quite get our hands on. And so our heart’s response is to start thinking cognitively about it and simply to start singing. That's why worship is such an important rhythm in our lives. Because when we are experiencing the love and the grace of God, thinking about it is only part of it. Sometimes we have this experience, and we just need to sing.
I want to invite you. On September 30th, we're going to be hosting a night of worship, an extended time for us as a church family to gather together and sing, to just reflect on God's love for us, and to respond in song. You can find out more information in your bulletin on that night of worship coming up again on this the 30th of September.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and forever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20)
How many of you have ever seen a need in this community that made your heart ache? And how many of us -- you don't have to raise your hand -- but how many of us feel incapable of needing that need? Unqualified to be someone, even maybe even to say something about it, much less do something about it. When we hear of things like Phoenix Rescue Mission or the many needs in our community, our hearts ache. But then we wonder, “How will I have the strength to even know what to do, to even participate?” I want to encourage you to zoom in on this text in verse 20. Whose power works in us? Our own Christ. Please come with me now. When Jesus calls us to follow him and he calls us to serve, he also promises to never leave us or forsake us. He also promises that he's never done with us. He also promises that our service will be done not by our own mind, not by own power, but by the spirit of the living God.
In my experience here, here's why that is a frustrating. Because when I'm operating on the power of the spirit of the living God, rarely do I feel confident on the front end. You guys know what? I'm talking about I see the thing, and I feel like God calling me to step into it. So I'm right there in that moment and I'm feeling like, “God, it seems like you're calling me into this space, into this active service, and I'm going to take a step forward.” But I what am I feeling when that happens? Do you think I'm feeling overconfident and powerful? Now, usually, I think for you and for me, when we step into those spaces, we're feeling fear and anxiety and uncertainty. And it's not until we look back and we say, “Oh my goodness, I think God empowered me for that act of service or for that ministry.” What do you think goes on in the heart of someone who stays during a plague -- “I've totally got this?”
Now we say, “Lord, I'm going to step into this space of service. I'm going to step into that because my tendency is this. But I'm going to step into a space of service, and Lord, I need you. Every day I need you -- hour by hour, moment by moment, in order to live a life of service and generosity. Lord, I need you.” And here's what Paul says. Do you know whose power is working within us? The resurrected Christ.
So, friends, I want to encourage you. Wherever God is calling you to step in to minister and to serve, the power of Christ is operating within you, and Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. I want to pause for a moment and ask you to consider this question. Actually, we're not going to do anything weird, but I want to ask you to close your eyes. Just close your eyes and calm your heart for a moment. Maybe even take a big deep breath in. Let it out. What does it mean to you that the resurrected Christ is present here with you now in this moment? What does it mean to you that the resurrected Christ is present with you right now in this moment.? That he is with you? That he is for you? That he knows you more deeply than you know your own self? That he delights in you? That he empowers you? That he loves you? That he promises to never leave you or forsake you? What does it mean now? The resurrected Christ is present with you even in this moment. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all we could ask or think. According to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”
Alright, come back to me now. I’ve been thinking about the last 20 years. And today as we think about the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I know for many of us, we would remember where we were that day. My wife and I had an opportunity to visit the 9/11 Museum and Memorial in New York earlier this year. And one of the things as I was going through one of the things, if you go through the museum …There are all these pictures and personal effects of many of the folks who died that day. And there's also sections of those who had run towards the buildings -- firefighters, police officers, other neighbors who wanted to help. And one of the things that struck me -- just follow me here -- one of the things that struck me was just how ordinary these people were. Now hear me on this. I'm not, I'm not showing disrespect. I know we use the language like hero, and even I was kind of walking in using language like, you know, heroes. Heroic. But as I saw like their typewriter, their CD player, their stationary set, pictures of their families, it was so striking to me was how ordinary these people were. Just normal men and women like you and me, who, in that moment, did something extraordinary.
Do you know what type of people God empowers through his spirit to live lives of service that put on the manifold wisdom of God on display? Do you know what type of people he uses? Ordinary people. Just like you and me. And I hate to break it to you, right? Part of the reason of that is because all the glory goes to him. Right. Sometimes when I see God working through people, I know it's got to be God. Because there's no way that they would have been able to do what they did. It's just through ordinary people. God promises that when we step out in service, he will empower us moment by moment. This is how he gets the glory forever and ever. And then it goes on in verse 11. I love this.
“And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of all saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:11-13)
There's this really bizarre stuff I wrestle with all the time. There's this bizarre thing in Christian traditions all around the world where we've kind of hierarchical-ized. We've created power positions within the church, and I totally get sometimes the need for that or how that kind of works. But, you know, there's this idea that being a pastor is like being the CEO of the church, and it's just not, it's just not how it works in the scripture. And we're trying to not have it work that way here either. What we usually call leadership in the church is simply people who are equipping people to do this. (gesture, arms out at waist, palms up) My job Is to simply equip people to best my ability for works of ministry. And by the way, in your Bible, the word ministry is just the word service. So a minister is just a servant, right? So it's not like this crazy cool title. By the way, in certain countries they will call people the Minister or Prime Minister, and the idea is public service. So we have that here, too.
Here Paul is meditating on the fact that Jesus has given his grace, that he's given his good gifts of love, grace, and mercy. But here he also says that Jesus gave -- and I think he's riffing on this concept of gifts -- that some were gifted as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors. And some as teachers. So you've got this fivefold ministry. Are some of these words weird? Yeah, they are weird, and some people have really abused these words. So let me just kind of let me try my best to “de-weird” it.
An apostle is one once who's sent, right? By the way, all these words were totally normal words in the Greco-Roman Empire. These weren't spiritual words. OK, so an apostle is one who's sent. OK, so Jesus sends people out, and that would be an apostolic ministry.
Some are prophets. A prophet is just someone who speaks God’s truth to people, just a person who speaks God truth to people. Most of the time the prophets were calling out the defiant wealthy and powerful for their injustice and their evil.
An evangelist is someone who just evangels, which just means telling good news, or evangola. An evangelist would be someone who would go into a town and say, “Hey, everybody, of Caesar's won the war!”
And then some as pastors. By the way, this is the only time in Scripture that in my reading that pastor is set up like it's a position. In fact, I don't think these are actually positions. I think these are giftings and postures. This is not a hierarchical CEO at the top-level infrastructure for your organization. These are gifts and giftings that God gives to the church. Probably a better translation for pastor is actually -- and in fact, this Greek word is translated this way, every other time -- it's the word shepherd. Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd. And a good shepherd just says, “Come on. Hey, there's goodness over here. There's danger over there. There's goodness over here. Come on.”
And so the scripture says that Jesus gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. For what purpose? Come on, say it to me quickly. I got my John Madden game going on here. (Referring to his marking the text with red.) OK, equipping the saints for what? For works of service. Towards what end? OK. How does the church grow? Remember I asked you that question, how are you growing? Right. And then I pivoted to say, how are we growing? How does the church grow?
Now, in consumeristic, capitalistic, individualistic America, here's what we oftentimes think when we say the word church growth -- more attendance. More butts in seats. So, butts and budgets. People come to me frequently saying,” Caleb, what's your church growth strategy?” And I fell into that trap to begin with. Butts and budgets. We need them. If we could just grow that, everything will be healthy. But you know what I realized? It's easy to attract a crowd. You just say things people want you to say.
You see, what the apostle Paul is talking about here is not numerical growth, although that can be the case. He's talking about the type of growth that means that people are equipped. For what? Equipped to serve. So here's my question for you. We are all ministers. We are all servants to one another in this community, and we have all been uniquely gifted by Jesus to serve. How is Jesus calling you to serve in this season?
All of this stems from not guilt, shame, expectation, or obligation, but the fact that the living Christ is ever present with us, that he loves us more than we could ever imagine, and then calls us to put on his manifold wisdom, to put his manifold wisdom on display by living together as a group of people, a bunch of misfits unified in Jesus by living not like this, (clenched fists) but like this (arms extended out, palms up). What does this look like for you now in this season?
Now, for many of us, we might be feeling like, “I don't have any gifts to give. I'm retired, I'm too young, I'm not educated enough. I'm too busy.” OK, so I want to just zoom in here. I don't know what this looks like for you. There are thousands of opportunities. Let me just help us tease this out just for a brief moment. For some of us, it may be serving in a ministry, like in and through a local church like Desert Springs. So maybe working with kids or working with students or working in the tech booth. Working with the Worship and Arts team, working with the Host team. Whatever it might be, for some of us, that may be the case, and we'd love to help organize that.
For many others, it's serving through organizations like Phoenix Rescue Mission or organizations like Habitat for Humanity or organizations like Hustle Phoenix or whatever. For some of us, that may be what God is calling us to now. Still, for others of us, it may just be a daily posture in prayer. “Lord, show me how you want me to live today.” Perhaps in a way that we couldn't even imagine to program or schedule. I was talking with someone who's very dear to me. I was talking to his wife, and she was saying, “You know, I really, I just feel so guilty that that I'm not able to do ministry. I've got, you know, three of my kids have this chronic disease that requires my constant attention. And both my mom and my in-laws, they're both dying, and so I'm helping to serve them through Hospice care at the house. I just wish I could find a way to minister.”
And I remember that that broke my heart. Because she was ministering. Right in her gifting. Right in her calling, day by day, living like this. But my heart was broken, because she couldn't see it. So I don't know what it looks like, but I know that a lot of times it feels scary. And we feel incompetent, we feel under-resourced, we feel like we don't know how to do it. And so again, I want to invite you to reflect on the presence of Christ with you now. ###

Church, I am so glad to be with you today as we are continuing on in a sermon series called Manifold Wisdom.  We're looking through this series, specifically at a core text for our church family.  For the last seven years I've been honored to serve as your lead pastor, this has been a touchstone, a foundational text for me and for our leadership here, as we think about what our role is as leaders, what our function is in the church, within the church, and what our mission is as a church family.  We're looking at Ephesians 3 and 4 today through a variety of different lenses.  We're looking through these different lenses at our core values, things that are essential to our church family.  And so I want to invite you to join me today as we study together portions of Ephesians 3 and 4.

You're going to have that text available in your handouts if you're joining us in person.  For those of you all joining us online, if you have a print Bible I encourage you to use that.  Or you can just go to bible.com.  Again, we're in Ephesians chapters three and four, and we'll be using the Christian Standard translation of the Bible today.

The question that we're going to look at today -- or the value we're going to look at today -- is generosity.  And the question that I want to encourage you to consider throughout this time together is this question: What does generosity look like in your life?  What does generosity look like in your life now?

I know what you're thinking.  “This preacher.  He just wants my money.”  And you're absolutely right.  I want your money so bad.  On my worst days, I think that if I could, if I could just get you people to give me most if not all of your money, and I had it -- if had that in my possession, I would be happier, I would be safer.  I would be somebody.  OK, so you are correct.  On my worst days, I do actually want you to give me all your money now.  I am the product of a capitalistic, individualistic, consumeristic culture.  I'm being told over and over and over again, “You gotta get more to be happy.”  Now, I have a sneaking suspicion as your pastor that you might be hearing these messages, too.  My little Spidey sense tells me that you might also feel like I do sometimes.  If I could just get more money, then I'd finally be able to …. fill in the blank.  OK, so I need this message today, and I think maybe you all do, too.

So let's look at it together as a group of people trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in real life or trying to figure out who Jesus is.  And what we're going to find in today's text as we look through Ephesians 3 and 4, through this lens of generosity, we will discover that generosity and greed, its counterpart or its antithesis, are matters of the heart.  Deep within our heart, something is going on that begets either greed or generosity.  Greed and generosity are actually just symptoms of something that's going on much deeper.  And so when I invite you into this conversation around generosity, I invite you to consider your heart.  Generosity is a matter of the heart.

By the way, I want to invite you all.  We've restructured our formatting on Sundays to help facilitate our church family getting around tables, or at least in smaller group gatherings.  I know that the best discipleship comes through dialogue, not monologue.  And guess what this is?  A monologue.  This is just me up here talking -- which I find valuable.  Otherwise, I wouldn't do it.  I love singing together.  I love taking communion together.  I love praying together.  But that's only half of it, right?  So when we gather in smaller settings, we are in a position to be able to connect with one another more deeply, and to connect our faith within real life.  We can, like, hash it out.  So I'd invite you all to join one of the groups.

We've got a bunch of them going on, actually kicking off next week.  Some of our Rooted groups are going to be kicking off, as well as a few more.  You can check out your bulletin for more information on those groups that are meeting now or coming up.  But what I'm hosting at 11:00 o'clock in this room each week is a question and response session.  So you can text in questions or arguments or insults, whatever you want, and you can text it in and I will respond to the best of my ability at that time together.  We've been doing this for the last three or four weeks.  I love it.  And I would invite you all.  So we'll just meet right in here.  When we conclude this time together, you just go on out, grab a coffee, grab a snack, and then come back here at 11 or join one of the other amazing smaller groups and gatherings and studies that are meeting around campus at 11.

But if you want to do the sermon Q&R, you can text the questions to the number on the screen. It's also available in your handout, right in the middle.  I'd love to respond to your questions, especially on this topic, because there's so much confusion around what religious tradition says and what our consumeristic culture preaches at us all the time, and so I'd love to have that opportunity with you.  And so you can just text in those questions and then I'll respond to them at the Q&R.

One of the things that we're going to discover is that generosity is a matter of the heart.  So in Ephesians chapter 3, the apostle Paul is writing to a church in Ephesus.  It's a cosmopolitan city.  From what we can tell, it's the third largest city in the Roman Empire at the time.  So there's a ton of money.  There's a lot of industry, and Paul is writing to this group showcasing them how the manifold wisdom of God is made known through the church.  We're going to look through the lens of generosity.

“For this reason, I, Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you ethnon – if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.  (Ephesians 3:1-3)

So just to start, notice this for this reason, Paul says, “I, Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you ethnon …” I've intentionally done this transliteration, which is basically we're just going to keep the Greek word in there because usually that word gets translated as Gentiles.  Who uses the word Gentile in their normal everyday life?  OK.  The reason I've left it there is because this actually sounds like a word that we actually use.  The word is ethnicity.   These are all forms of the word that we would translate as ethnicity. Or it's put in another way, an identifiable people-group.  It's just people-groups, right?  So the word that often gets translated as either Gentile or nations is just people.  And usually it's people who are different from us.  That's how the word will get used. So it's a prisoner of Christ for the sake of all you all.  Right, all you, all people groups.

“If indeed you have heard …” Notice of the language here.  What does he say right here?  The stewardship of what?  God's grace.  OK, so stewardship, that's kind of an interesting word and let me just give it to you really quickly. The idea of stewardship is this idea that God created everything.  So the food we eat, the money we make, the clothes we wear -- at the end of the day, it ultimately belongs to God.  Instead of ownership where I say, “This is mine,”  I say “No, this is God's gift to me, and I will steward it well.” So the idea of stewardship is recognizing that the things I have -- whether, that's my time, my energy, my resources, power, whatever it might be, it's a gift to me from God that ultimately is God’s.  Therefore, I'm to steward it.

Let's put it another way.  How am I using my resources?  Am I using my resources according to the values of the owner or according to the values of the steward?  Because when the values of the steward disconnect from the values of the owner, we've got a big problem, don't we?  God gives us these good gifts and then says, “Ultimately these belong to me, but I'm going to give them to you and I want you to use them according to my values.”  And so Paul here is saying that he is going to be the steward of this message of God's grace to all the nations.

But I wanted to tease this out, because stewardship is also how we approach any good thing from God.  Including, -- you're never going to guess – your money, honey, right?  Including our money.  At the end of the day, a steward has the mind that ultimately the money is not “mine.”  The good gift is ultimately God’s.  Right.

“By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not make known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, to be specific, ethne are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.”  (Ephesians 3:3-7)

In brief, he goes on in verse 5 and 6, to be specific, that all the other people groups, all the nations are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. What he's saying is this is all the people groups are part of God's family, and we're all inheritors of God's good gift.

“To me, the very least of the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the ethnesin the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be shown through the church to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 3:8-10) 

“ … this grace was given …”  Notice this word.  What's that word right there?  The gift of God's grace. Do you know? And just what's a gift?  You guys ever got one?  Who's gotten a gift before?  OK, everyone look around and the person who has not?  Let's make sure.  Get them a gift.  OK, so when you receive a gift, right, the gift is given.  The gift giver wants it for you, for your delight, for your flourishing, right?  It's a good gift, but it's different than a transaction.  It's not a purchase, right?  It's not a good that I purchased.  It's a gift that someone gave to me.  And here's this.  Here, I just want to tie this all together.  Watch this.

Now you know that word, grace.   You all ever heard that word before?  Like we say, like before a meal?   Notice, this the word grace can also be translated as gift.  It's a gift.  Have you ever heard of like, charisma or charismatic?  Right. This idea of caring. This idea of gift giving. Right. That grace, that God's grace is, in its very essence, a what?  It's a gift.  Just notice how frequently the apostle Paul will leverage this language of gift.  He's putting it in front of you that God's love – God’s very self, enfleshed in Jesus -- is a gift.   So, God's relationship with us through the personal work of Jesus Christ -- is it something we can purchase?  Come with me now.  Is it something that if we do enough good then God will give it to us?  If we thought, “If I just try hard enough, if I'm just generous enough, if I just do enough good things, then God would love me.”  Is that a gift?  No, that's earning.  Right. That's a transaction.  But here we see the apostle Paul telling us --like screaming at us- -- God's love for you is freely given.

Let's pause on this thought that God's love for you is freely given to you as a what?  Gift.   So just pause with that thought, OK?  If you would please just close your eyes.  Yeah, we're not going to do anything weird.  I just want to draw our attention to this moment.  What does it look like for you to live, day by day, moment by moment, with God showering you with his love?   With his peace, with his goodness, with his mercy.  As a gift.  Might living day by day, moment by moment, knowing that God showers us with these good gifts -- might that have any implication on how we therefore live?  I hope so.  I hope so.

“The gift of God's grace was given …” What does it mean for you to receive freely the unfathomable, the incalculable riches of Christ.?  Day by day, moment by moment, to be connected to this deep reality that God loves you, that God delights in you.  That God has, out of joy, given himself for you.  That he has -- through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus -- conquered over Satan, sin and death.  And he delights to call you to be in relationship with him, the unfathomable riches of Christ.

He goes on in verse 10.  We do all this -- living this out -- so that the manifold or diverse kinds wisdom of God might be made known through the church.  So that all the people -- all the ethnons, all the different people groups experiencing the unfathomable riches of Christ -- would be brought together in the church.  Then a bunch of misfits who are bound together not by our common affinities, but by the unfathomable riches of Christ, would be bound together through the church.

God puts on display his diverse or manifold or multifaceted wisdom.  Now check this out.  This actually works.  I'm here to tell you.  All this actually works.  I'm going to tell you one story.  One year ago tomorrow, this church family made the front page of the New York Times.  I bought some copies.  We met, and it was for a good thing.  Hey, we were in the paper.  That's pretty cool.  We were in the front-page New York Times.  Do you know what caused us to be in the front page?  We took an offering.

When the US military was pulling out of Afghanistan, we were hearing that there were going to be some Afghani refugees come in, possibly to Phoenix.  Because in Phoenix, we place a lot of refugees.  And Governor Ducey said we wanted to welcome refugees here, and we knew that there would be a financial need, but we didn't know what that looked like yet.  So we just, we just, in faith, took an offering for over the four weeks.  I think we mentioned a moment ago that you all raised $25,000 that we were able to invest in caring for refugees as they came.  Now, for me and I think for some of us were thinking, “Well, that's just what you do.”  For Jesus followers, that's kind of what we do, but to an onlooking world, it was mind-blowing.  In fact, I remember talking to the journalist Miriam, who was very kind and she's just a brilliant writer.  And she was like, “OK, hold on, what's your vested interest in this?”

I said that we were literally just going to give it to a local organization.

“No, no, no, but no.  What do you have to gain?”

And l said, “Could I talk to you about Jesus?”

I'm like, “You're talking about the heart of the gospel.”

So we made the front page New York Times.  And if I sound a little braggadocious, I am.  I'm so proud of you all.

OK, so Miriam, the journalist, it's blowing her mind.  And then here's the shame part.  She's like, “Wait, are you guys are evangelical?”  And she straight up said, “I thought you all were against stuff like this.”

Ooh, right. And I'm like, “Can I talk to you about Jesus?”  Because listen, I get it, right?  When the church does it wrong, the manifold of wisdom of God is not on display.  But when the church does it right?  We were in the paper.

Then the church got a voicemail.  “Hey, this is so and so I want to talk to someone about what I just read in the paper.”

I said, “Let me take the call.  I'll figure out what it’s about.”

So I call the person back and they're like, “Listen, I'm not a church person.  I think I've been to one church in my whole life when my aunt dragged me as a kid.  I'm a religious tourist, and I'm just so surprised by what you guys are doing.  I want to send you all a check.”

And I was like, “No, listen, let me just give you the name of the organization.  You send them a check.”

“No, I want to send you a check.”

I was like, “OK.  Great, cool, thanks.”

We had a great chat.  He had one condition.  “When I'm in Phoenix next…” So this person spends half their time in Phoenix, half their time in another state.  “When I'm in Phoenix, next, I want to shake your hand.”

And I was thinking, “A $1000 handshake.  Sure thing.”

As I was driving away that day, I got the text.  “Hey, great talk.  Let's make it 25, 100.”   Cool. Great.

Some time goes by until I meet this person.  For 15 minutes we talked about caring for refugees.  They're still trying to get their minds around, like, why would you give all this money to care for people you've never met before?  Why would an evangelical church give freely to Afghan refugees?

And so we're talking through all of that.  And then near the end of the conversation over tacos -- praise the Lord, over tacos -- we were talking about caring for refugees and then this person, this individual said, “Hey, can we shift the conversation?  Can I ask you about Jesus?”         ‘

This person said, “You know, I've been watching since we talked a few weeks ago.  I've been watching these videos of the sermons and of these talks that you give.  And you brought up something about, like, the Kingdom of God and how that's different than all the stuff that we see in politics today.  And how what Jesus teaches is what you called an upside-down Kingdom.  We're always trying to grab for crowns.  Jesus takes the crown of thorns.  And where we're always grabbing for the sword, Jesus takes on the cross.  Could you talk to me more about that?”

And I'm like, dude, I have to go to a meeting.  We spend an hour, right?  We're talking, now literally friends.  It's straight up gospel.  It's “Let me tell you all about Jesus.  This is why I follow Jesus. “ He's asking so many good questions like, well, how do you trust the Bible?  And I'm like, well, you know, and how do you think about this crazy thing?   And what do you think about this thing and that?.  And then we get down, and I'm thinking, I'm praying through this whole time “Lord, what's going to happen next?”

And you know, this person said, “So what does a person do if I want to follow Jesus?”  We started the conversation with an ambiguously defined person, and then we got to “I think I might want to do that,  And I said, “Do you want to come to church on Sunday?  I'll be doing a talk about Jesus.”  And they did.  And three months later – I’d been on sabbatical -- I got an update that this man had been part of one of our Rooted groups and prayed for the first time in the Rooted group.  This person is now part of our church.

So again, when we're living the grace of God in all aspects of life -- with how we talk, with how we act, with how we think, with how we behave, with how we invest our resources -- the manifold wisdom of God is on display to the whole world.  So living generously is one expression of putting the manifold wisdom of God on display.

Paul goes on.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.  I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us – to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”  (Ephesians 3:14-21)

*** TV time out.  One of the things that often will get in the way of a life of generosity is a mindset that there won’t be enough, I've got to take mine.  I'm not talking about foolishness.  There’s a wisdom in planning and saving.   But the scarcity mindset of a consumeristic, individualistic culture creeps in so easily where we say things like this.  “I'll be generous when I have enough.”  Let me tell you, there never is enough.  There isn’t ever going to be enough, because the matter the issue does not reside in your pocketbook or your bank account.  ***

The matter of generosity is matter of the heart and a heart that overflows with the love of God. We recognize that the fullness, the unfathomable depth of Christ’s love for us fills up our hearts.  Generosity, therefore, is an expression of that -- not a means to earn God's favor.  Rather, it is an expression, an outward expression of something that's going on in here. (gestures to heart)

By the way, generosity is not about how many zeros are at the end of the check.  Jesus consistently showed us that it was often those who had very little means who had the most generous hearts.  And you know who he gave caution to the most?  Pastors and people who own vehicles.  Pardon me.  Let me put that another way. The rich, the wealthy, people of means, people who didn't have to worry about where their next meal was going to come from.

You see, when we define wealth by where I sit in the pecking order of the people I'm looking at, we're always not wealthy, right?  But if we look at how Jesus defines wealth, we find that for the majority of us, every day we have need and he provides for it.  That every day our needs are met shows that he can provide far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.  And so when we find ourselves in this space of saying, “I will be generous when there's enough,” I just want to confront that and say there is never going to be enough.

And so, waiting for enough is not the right posture, at least not the most healthy posture.  Rather, turning to Jesus, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond than we can ask of him or think.  There's this great song.  “All I have needed, thy hand has provided.  Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, and to me.”

Just pause for a moment.  Ask yourself this question:  Has the Lord been faithful to provide for you?  His abundant love is in our hearts, and we're seeing that he can do all things.  To him be the glory forever and ever, and then we get to down to it.

“And he himself gave some to be  apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.”  (Ephesians 4:11-14)

This is the job of church leadership -- equipping the saints.  Guess who that is, folks?  Not the ones in New Orleans. The saints is us as followers of Jesus.  The equipping of the saints for the work of what?  Let's get right down to it.  Do you see the word? The role of us collectively, putting the manifold wisdom of God on display through the unified group of misfits centered around Jesus -- when we no longer posture our hands like this. (Gesture of grasping) but rather like this (gesture of open arms) -- we put on this way the manifold wisdom of God through what is sometimes referred to as ministry, which is just another word for service.

Jesus said that if you want to be a leader in the Kingdom of God, you must be a servant to all.  If you want to be the first, then you will take the posture of the last.  The King of Kings knelt and washed his disciples’ feet, taking on the posture of a servant.  So we're to be equipped for the work, which is at the heart of generosity, for the building up of the body of Christ.

Let's keep going.

“Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.  But speaking truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head – Christ.  From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.”  (Ephesians 4: 14-16)

So notice this.  As a result of this being equipped to do the work of service, we will no longer be what?  Children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

You don't have to answer me out loud, but what goes on in here when things are not good out there?  What goes on in here when things are not good out there? What goes on in here when the stock market's not good?  What goes on in here when my 401K is on the low end?  What goes on in here when the “check engine” light comes on and I don't know how I'm going to pay the repairs -- what goes on in here?  When leaders out there tell you that the world is falling apart?  What goes on in here when people create anxiety and rage by their words in the community?  What goes on in here when things are not good out there?

If we are not anchored in Jesus and his unfathomable love for us, we will be carried away by every wave, every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, and by craftiness and deceitful scheming.  We will be knocked back and forth by these figures or talking heads or certain media.   We will be knocked around by people who tell us that there's never going to be enough.  We'll be knocked around by people who tell us that we have each other to fear.  We'll be knocked around constantly by people scheming for our almighty dollar.  Do you know that I have lived in the time where this country went to war and our leader told me that the best thing I could do is buy stuff?  That if we could just get out there now.  I'm not an economist.  So it's in the water, and so it's so easy to be knocked around by every wave and wind of deceitful scheming.  But if we're truly rooted and anchored in love, specifically Christ's love for us, we will no longer be … Follow me now.

I’ve heard people describe themselves as “a mature Christian.”  That means, “I'm exactly like Jesus.”  Which makes me concerned when people say, “I'm a mature Christian,” and I look at their Facebook.  Now we can get close to fullness of Christ.  We can get closer and closer, but we never arrive.  But we can become solid, rooted and grounded.  So we don't live with the futility of our mind becoming callous and unkind – hard-hearted towards the needs of our neighbor.

A heart full of the love of Christ is a heart full of love for his creation.  One of the greatest cautions for me is to just begin to notice when I feel my heart hardening towards an image-bearer of God.  That is not coming from a heart that's overflowing with the fullness of Christ.  We give ourselves over to sensuality, apart from Jesus, for a price.  You know, if I want it, I get it.  I've got this itch.  Let me buy that thing so I can scratch it for the practice of every kind of impurity.

We lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.  It's so easy to be deceived.  And we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind and put on the new self.  So. am I looking more like Jesus, being created in the righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Watch this.  Paul gets to application.

“Let the thief no longer steal.  Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.  No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need so that it gives grace to those who hear.”  (Ephesians 4:  28-29)

He who steals should do what?  Does this mean deceiving the IRS on my tax filings?  Did he say that out loud?  But, rather, they must labor, performing with their own hands what is good.  And as industrial people we say that's right, everyone should work.  Ah, to what end?  So they will have something to share.  With whom?  You see this in the earliest expressions of Jesus followers.  They would gather in homes, not big buildings like this.  They would gather in homes, and they would each bring a gift of food item or a teaching or a prayer or a blessing.  And at that table all different types of people would sit -- wealthy, poor, slave, free Greek Jew, barbarian.  All insiders and outsiders were all at this unified table, and as part of this great feast they made sure that no one went hungry.  They made sure that everyone had according to their need.  You know what else they would do when there was a large need that arose in the community?  Somebody would voluntarily say, “Hey, I worked really hard for this table.  I think I'm going to sell this table so I can give to our brother and sister who are in need.”

Now, how we do that as a church family?  Oh, my goodness, this needs wisdom and long-suffering and grace and compassion.  But let's just go back to it.  A generous heart is rooted in the unfathomable love of Jesus.  At that early church, they were sharing -- not saying, “Hey, there might be a famine tomorrow, so I'm going to keep and hoard.”  They were sharing, recognizing “All I have needed his hand is provided.”  Jesus has been so good to me, and he will continue to be good to me, and so I'm going to live like that.

And there's a hint of it today.  That feast, over time and in different cultures, began to be expressed as what we now call Communion, or Lord's table.  When we take of the bread, and we take of the fruit of the vine, we are connecting to an ancient feast in which Jesus is at the center.  And when we take of that bread, and we take of that fruit of the vine, we're experiencing part of this feast, this meal at the table Jesus has set.  And at the table that Jesus sets, all are welcome. ### (Communion follows.)

OK, so how many of you guys have ever had chili? How many of you have watched it being prepared? OK, so let me invite you into a journey. It's the theological journey. Trust me.
So there you are. You're in the home, and there’s something on the stovetop. You know that pot that you don't use too often because it's so big -- that big steel pot, right? You haven't bought a new one of these in 47 years. It's sitting on the stove.
Over the course of the day, you know, there are these ingredients that have been added to the chili. There's like a tomato base, there's some meat, you know, maybe some beef, some turkey if you're trying to stay fancy. And there are beans. If you're one of those types of people, there's onions, there's jalapenos, there's all these different ingredients. And then inevitably, in any good chili, what else is there? There are all sorts of spices, and as you're smelling the chili being prepared right as it's, it's doing that little bubble. You guys with me so far?
Am I telling a lie? No, this is the truth. Inevitably you walk in you, you smell the chili. And hopefully if you're a generous person or you were at a generous home, there's a little wooden spoon to the side of the pot. That's probably something they got from their great grandparents. OK, so there's that wooden spoon, and it's maybe in one of those dishes or maybe it's just sitting on the countertop. And what will people inevitably do, right? I'm not talking about hygiene. What people will inevitably do is they'll walk up, they'll take the spoon, they'll do a little bit of this, maybe they'll do a little bit of this, and then what do they do? They'll take a little, and then, over the pot they'll act like they're hygienic, with the hand in the shared community spoon. Most people will use their teeth. And they'll bite, right? They'll bite on the wood spoon, and they will bring into all of their senses the flavor, the smell, the temperature, all that that chili is, is they're experiencing it.
But now let's say that this chili is being prepared for dinner. So let me ask you a deep theological question. When you stand over the stove and you taste it and smell it, are you eating dinner? You sure? You see dinner is more than that, but it's not less than that. In fact, the dinner that's coming here in a couple hours, all of that will be there, but in its fullness.
What you're having -- watch me now -- what you're having is a taste of dinner, but the dinner that is to come. You are experiencing, in this little way, some of the flavor, some of the beauty of what is to come. You're experiencing it now, but it's not in its fullness, is it? It's called a foretaste. You're having a foretaste of dinner. It is dinner, but it's not dinner in its fullness. It's a piece of dinner that you get to experience right now.
Some of us are asking, “Why are we talking about chili?” Some of us are also asking, “When will this be over? I'm hungry.’ Great questions. I'm going to try to answer the first one. We are in a series called “Manifold Wisdom,” and it's riffing on this theme that we find in Ephesians, chapters three and four. And it's this theme that runs throughout your whole Bible. It really starts to explode in the New Testament. And that is this theme -- this is running theme throughout scripture. Follow me now. The end story of your Bible is not that everyone dies and goes to heaven. And then the earth is just destroyed. And that's it. The end story is revival. Go look it up today. Revelation 20:19 through 21. The end game, so to speak, is heaven reuniting with earth, just like it was back in Eden. So in the beginning of your Bible, it's God dwelling with humans on the earth. Heaven and earth are combined the end of your Bible, as the same thing.
It's just this middle part that's all messed up, right? Because it's God not dwelling with us in the fullness right now. But one day, God will dwell with humanity once again on the earth, and we will be we will be reunited as humanity with our God. That's the end story.
So here's the deal. When we talk about heaven, another way to say it is the eternal state. What's it going to be like for eternity? Well, it's going to be heaven and earth reunited, a lot similar to what it was like in Eden, only with just a lot more people and maybe some buildings. I’d love to talk to you more about that, by the way, so I want to invite you all to if you're part of Desert Springs or maybe you're just hanging out visiting today. Either way, I'd love to invite you to stay after this service at the 11:00 o'clock hour. We've got a bunch of different groups that are meeting all around campus, and it's an opportunity for us to connect with one another, kind of around tables or smaller group settings or just smaller settings. It's also a way to kind of flesh out how we connect our faith to real life. And so we've got different groups. In fact, if you've signed up for Rooted or if you want to sign up for Rooted, those are some Rooted groups are kicking off here, there's actually a kick off today at 11:00 o'clock. I'm going to be hosting a sermon question and response, so I'll kind of be here and there, Just be a handful of us. So here's the deal. If you want to come to the sermon and response, I'd love to have you join me. You can text in questions throughout the sermon. In your handout, there’s a phone number. So if you have questions about anything we bring up today, you text that in and I will respond to it at the question and response time after the sermon. That'll be in here at 11. So we'll dismiss, and then you'll have some time to go out, grab a coffee and a donut, and then meet back in here at 11 or hang out in one of the other amazing groups that we've got on campus. You can find out more in your handout. Those are great opportunities to flesh out some of the stuff that we're talking about today.
But that whole story of the Bible -- that we started in union with God and we end in union with God -- the reason that we're talking about chili is that the church is designed to be the wood spoon. We don't always do it right, but the church is called to be -- the church is designed to be -- a foretaste of heaven, not heaven in its fullness. It isn’t the meal fully, but if we will approach one another in good faith, seeking to practice the fruit of the spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control -- centered in Jesus, we might find ourselves on occasion having a little taste of home?
Especially in Ephesians, one of the ways that this foretaste idea -- this foretaste of heaven -- is seen is in the diversity of the local church.
The prayer that we pray -- oh, have you guys ever heard this?
“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. “
Another way to pray that prayer is to say, “Lord, let me be a foretaste on earth as it is in heaven.” Y'all got me? OK, so, here's the question. How is heaven? And by the way, by heaven I mean heaven and earth reunited. Well, here's what the Bible says. The Bible says that every tribe, nation and tongue will bow before the throne of God in the eternal state. Every ethnicity. Every nation will bow before God in the eternal state. So if we're going to be a foretaste, should we all just pick and choose to be with people who are just like us? Or should we strive to be a Jesus-centered community in which everyone is welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their political views, regardless of their economic status, regardless of their immigration status?
Come with me now. What does heaven look like? Homogeneous or diverse? Diverse. OK, so the local church in as much as possible should be the same. Any local church can't look like the whole world. I totally get that, but in as much as possible, whatever the diversity in the community, I believe that the principle here is that the local church should, to the best of its ability, organically but not by force, organically reflect the community. If the if the local church doesn't look like its community, there might be something out of sync. I think this is all in Ephesians three and four. In fact, I think the apostle Paul is making this argument throughout his entire career.
So here's the beautiful part. I want you to imagine with me. Let's go back. Let's close our eyes, and we'll be time traveling tourists. Ready? We're going to go back in time. We're back in time. We're back 2000 years ago. And what we see before us is a small gathering, maybe 15 or 20 people gathered around the table at what they call the Lord's Supper. And this group of people, they just don't look the same. There's bread and there's wine, there's meat and there are vegetables and fruit at this table. But what's bizarre is who's at the table. So here we are, in this Greco-Roman Empire, where you want to make sure that you're at tables with people who can help you get ahead in life. But at this table, there are slaves. At this table, there are free. At this table there are wealthy. There are poor at this table, there are Jews at this table, there are Greeks. There are even those barbarians and Scythians that your grandma warned you about. They're there too. And in this beautiful scene we see that perhaps the young slave girl stands up and gives a word of teaching, and perhaps the elderly Jewish man stands up and gives a Psalm. Perhaps the wealthy host blesses the meal. And as they take this Lord's table in, they are modeling the manifold or multi-faceted wisdom of God. Because you look at this table and you're asking what question? How is it that these people are together?
All right. Come back to me now. When misfits are bound together -- not by their common affinities, but by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus Christ -- the onlooking world peeks in and says, “What is this? How can you guys sit together and not kill each other?” Do you think that this is a hope-giving message that the world needs to hear today -- that we can sit at tables with people are different? So here's this beautiful scene. They take communion and then you know what happens, inevitably. They start talking. And the Scythian says to the elderly Jewish man, he says, “Hey, what do you think about Caesar's new policy to cancel student debt?” And the impoverished young man says, “I think it's a great idea.” And the wealthy homeowner says, “I think it's Marxism.” And then the historian says, “That hasn't been invented yet.”
And even as I'm telling jokes, can you not feel the tension build around this table? I mean, I'm literally making a joke about a historical anachronistic concept, and we're already feeling like Caleb stopped talking. OK, now come with me. That tension we feel is why the majority of your New Testament had to be written. Because what we have now is not the fullness, but the foretaste, which means Jesus isn’t done working on us yet. And if Jesus isn’t done working on me yet, and Jesus isn’t done working on you yet, there might be a space between us where we might find tension, friction, disappointment, confusion, sadness, anger, even rage. Because you're distant from me, and I like me. I think me is pretty smart. I think he's got it all figured out. I think me is a well-rounded, reasonable person. And when you're different than me … yeah, right. Is that a righteous response to the distance between us now?
There's the caution in order to experience the beauty of the foretaste. You’ve got to recognize that sometimes we're going to get our tongues burned. We're going to have to recognize this sometimes. We're going to burn our finger on the stove. We're going to have to recognize that Jesus isn’t working. He isn’t done working on me yet, and he isn’t done working on y'all yet.
Here's the thing. I'm convinced of this. In order to experience that foretaste beauty, we can approach the distance between us not with suspicion, but with curiosity -- both tethered to Jesus, seeking to love the other. Never make excuses for not loving the other. And when we when we feel the tension, when we feel the confusion, when we slight each other, when we offend one another, here's an opportunity to run away. “I don't like you. I don't like how I feel inside. I'm out.” Here's another option. To do the hard work of confession, repentance, reconciliation, and maybe even restoration and in a restored community. We've offended one another and slighted each other, but because of Jesus, we come back to the table where we might see the manifold wisdom of God on display even more.
Do you guys like science experiments? Who doesn't like science experiments? OK, well, you're going to have one. I want to illustrate for you the manifold wisdom of God now. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a prism. Ooh, ah, OK, you guys are great. It looks unified. It's just a cube. It looks like a cube of glass. It just looks like it's one unified whole. But here's what's interesting. If you look closely, you can see that there are many facets. It's multi-faceted. It's cut on the inside. Multiple facets. If you've ever seen a diamond, all those little cuts are there to tease out the beauty of the diamond. A prism is very similar. You guys see this prism? OK, this prism, what's happening is the light isn't quite shining through it, right? I mean even with these lights, the lights not really shining through the prism, so you're not really getting all of the power and the beauty of the light as it shines through the prism. So let's get a more powerful light here. Now watch what happens when the manifold wisdom is put on display. Tell me what colors you guys see. All the colors.
It's the diversity of the prism that puts on display the glory of the light. It's the diversity that puts the manifold wisdom of the light on display. It’s the multi-faceted nature of the prism. To put it another way, the manifold wisdom of God is made known through the church. We've got to recognize that the light shining through a diverse local church is like the light shining through that prism. It's going to put on display more of the wisdom and beauty of God than if then just if we were just one cut.
You guys got me there? There's a beauty in it. But our temptation is to fall into competition. So here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to work through Ephesians 3 and 4. Recognize the beauty. But also recognize the pain. And then what we're going to do collectively as a church family is we're going to step into … oh, by the way, Jesus know there's an election on. And this one is the midterms, so we're doing gubernatorial stuff and then some other smaller ones. The tension’s already building. I'm already hearing from many in our church family – things like “We can no longer invite that person over for dinner in our family because of all the heat, all the tension.” Is this happening to anybody? Yeah, you don't have to reason, right. So someone right now just got nudged. That was the sound of someone right there getting nudged. I get it, man. It's me too. It's my life, too.
So I'm going to invite you in to a better way. I'm going to invite you into the Jesus way -- the way that gives people a foretaste of heaven. So this is the apostle Paul writing to a diverse local congregation that’s wrestling with the same things we wrestle with. And I've intentionally left this in, so in your handouts I've transliterated just a few in few words, but if you'll notice this word, excuse me.
If you'll notice this word here. It's this idea of the ethnos, or the other-people group. Too often we think of nation state, but the word nation in your Bible, the word ethnic or ethnicity, your Bible, sometimes it gets translated as Gentile. It just means the ethnic outsider. Or the ethnic other. OK, so it's all the ethnic others.
“Grace was given to preach to all the ethnic others of the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery” -- track it with me – “which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, so that the…” Notice the language. What is it? “So the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through …” What? Through the prism of the church. The manifold wisdom of God hits the prism of the diverse local church, and it puts on display the manifold wisdom of God. To whom? The rulers and authorities. Paul has this very spiritual cosmology, where he recognized that there are evil powers at work. And he says that the diverse local church, living in harmony, shouts. Shouts the wisdom of God at the powers of evil in this world.
Now here's what I want you to notice that the administration of the mystery … that that sounds weird, weird language. Here's what it is. It's the administration -- it's the actual working out of the mystery of God, according to Paul. What's the mystery of God? That the gospel is not just for the Jewish people? Who's it for? All people. And how do you know that that's being administered? You look at the local church. Got it. So how do you know that it's for all people? You look at that 20 people around the table.
OK, let's keep going.
“For this reason, I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives this name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love.” (Chapter 3, Verses 14-18)
Here's where we get that language of “rooted” for the study group that's coming up. That you would be rooted and grounded in what? He wants Christ to dwell in our hearts. He wants us to be rooted and grounded in what? Why do you think he's taking the time to say all this? Come on. Because it's so tempting, isn't it, to disentangle ourselves from being rooted in the love of Christ and start to attack the other. So, he says, listen, you guys, diverse local community, putting on the manifold wisdom of God on display, you've got to be rooted and grounded in what? OK, so let's pause. I know I'm going fast, but let's pause.
Do you know that the presence of Christ is here with us now? Christ is present, right now. He says, “When even two or three of you are gathered, I am in your midst.” I'm in your midst. So in a diverse, local community church, family, what might it mean for us when we have those feelings of tension, anxiety, frustration, even rage, even anger? What might it mean for us? Notice, wait. Christ is present with me right now. To put it another way, what would it mean to consistently attend to the presence of Christ, day by day, and moment by moment? When you and I want to have a little, you know, a little argument, a little fight. If we're bound together by Christ, and our hearts are bound up, rooted, and grounded in love, what might it look like for us, before we step into our argument, to root and ground our hearts in the love of Christ? Can I invite you into that life? Before you fire off that e-mail or that really well-crafted argument on social media … I mean, you're doing it great, right? Totally going to convince people. Before you fire that off -- right before that text message, before that phone call, before that -- sit down before that reactive response.
What if we took a moment to simply attend to the presence of Christ in our midst and root ourselves in his love? Here's one way that I have been trying to do this when I'm feeling all those feelings about the distance between you and me. I remind myself, “Caleb, Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine. Your dignity, worth and value are not tied up in getting this person to agree with you. The fact that they see things differently than you, Caleb, is not an indictment on you.” I could never be more loved than I am right now, in Jesus.
You know what that tends to do to my raging self? Not all the time. But it just tends to take a minute. Usually, I find that when I'm reacting in those ways -- when I'm feeling all of that distance between us -- it has more to do with what's going on in here than it has to do with what's going on out there. So I invite you to root and ground yourself in the love of Christ, recognizing that his power and his spirit can change us, that he is full of love for you.
And so let me pause and just ask you to open your hearts to this truth. Especially in this age of outrage, would you receive this? Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine. He has given his life for you. He loves you so much. He knows you by name. He knows your fears. He knows your sorrows. He feels your grief. And he knows when you're afraid. And he's seeing you at your worst. And he calls you his own, nonetheless. By the way, that's why we sing. And if we follow this invitation to enter into a raging world, an anxiety-ridden world rooted in love -- rooted and grounded in the love of Christ -- might we be a people who then, out of that rootedness express the fruits of the spirit? That even though there's anxiety and rage out there, what's coming out of here is love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Rooted in love. I want to invite you to root yourself in the love of Christ. He loves you so much.
Paul goes on.
“Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God forgave you in Christ.” (Chapter 4, verses 25-32)
“Putting away lying, speaking the truth, each one to his neighbor …” because -- notice this – “We are members of one another.” John Donne, the old-school British poet, said, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.” If any man dies, a part of me dies with him, because I am a part of all of humanity. If any man dies, I am the less. Therefore, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. The bell tolls for thee.” What John Donne is saying is that we are members to one another, and so we speak to one another in kindness and love.
Here's a good one. “Be angry.” How many like that command? Come on. Where's my Irish Scotch family? Thank you. Be angry to want injustice to be made just. It's righteous anger. But be angry and don't what? Don't let the sun go down on your anger. I don't think that that means, hey, you've got a time limit on this. I think it's more of a proverbial statement. Don't nurture the anger. Here's why. You nurture that anger for too long, and what happens? It becomes rage. It can manifest itself now as hatred. So be angry, yes, but don't sin.
“Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good in building someone else up.” I'd be quiet a lot more than I tend to be.
“And don't grieve God’s Holy Spirit, for you were sealed with him for the day of redemption.” Here we go, kids. “Let all bitterness, anger, wrath …” social media slander, be removed from you. Along with what? All malice. Instead, be rooted and grounded in love.
“Forgiving one another, just as …” just as what? What does that mean? It means I'm anchored and rooted in the love of Christ for me. And I'm going out of that to seek to live in this world. And out of that, I'm going to put away all that rage and malice, anger, fear and anxiety. And instead, I'm going to choose to strive to walk the Jesus way, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
OK. A couple hundred people in the room right now. What kind of a difference do you think it would make in North Phoenix if during this next election cycle there were a couple hundred people who -- in the midst of outrage and anxiety -- walked love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Might that put on display -- especially as a bunch of misfits -- the manifold wisdom of God?
Can I ask you a pointed question? That was like a rhetorical thing. It's not. Actually, I'm not asking your permission. Come with me now. Come on. How would it put on the manifold wisdom of God? How? How would the manifold wisdom of God be put on display if five Democrats from this church sat at a table with five Republicans and with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control had an honest, good-faith conversation about all the things that are going on in here, the things we care about? Where we're approaching each other out of curiosity and not suspicion. We're dignifying the image of God in the other, and we're not seeing to make ourselves feel better by destroying the other person's image in our own mind. What kind of impact do you think that would have?
So one of the reasons why we are restructuring our entire model as a church -- especially with our 11:00 o'clock slot -- is to have more and more opportunities for us to be at tables with people who are different than we are. We want that more and more and more. I totally get it. I love the sermon. I love what we do in our large gatherings. But listen. This is monologue, right? Dialogue is where not only the beauty, but also the “Ooh, that's spicy” happens. That all happens at the table.
So let me just give you a couple of things and we're going to transition to communion. I want to caution us, just pastorally. I want to give us just some coaching. I want to caution us against using war language when it comes to dealing or engaging with people who are different than us. Here's what I mean. I continue to hear language like this: “We are fighting a culture war.” I wonder if that's a Jesus thing. I don't think it is. When I fight a war, what do I want to have happen to my enemies? I want them to be utterly destroyed. Is that what I want as a Jesus follower? Do I want the person who sits down the pew from me to be destroyed because we have a difference of opinion on some sort of cultural value or expression of it? I've noticed this, especially in my pastoral tenure, the amount of violent language referring simply to people who are different than us. Is very high, and I get that this happens all over the world. It's in the church, too. And so I want to caution us, just do an audit of your speech. It's OK to say, “Hey, we have a difference of opinion.” Or, to the person who is arguing the other way, “We're going to argue together about that.” OK, great. We want to notice those things. “Hey, we're different from each other. You and I disagree. I think you're wrong.” But my thinking of you as wrong is not the same as me wanting to destroy you. So watch the war language, the violent language.
Here's a practice that I'm seeing happening. Oh, by the way, have you guys ever heard “Love your neighbors?” What's the thing love here? “Love your neighbors as yourself.” OK, you guys heard this one before. So, if you're going to love other people the way you want them to love you, do you want people, when they hear about one of your perspectives, to put you in a category of persons? Like in in our example, if I can just be quite contemporary, like a Nazi or a communist. Do you like it when people lump you into a category that you won't take on for yourself? Would you like it when people identify you with an identity that you would not happily take on yourself? Do you like that? Do you feel loved when that happens? OK, yeah, you guys are like, “Oh, Campbell, I see where this is going.” Sometimes the distance between us makes us have certain feelings, like anger, rage, fear, those types of things. And in order to make it go away, we have a tendency to label in order to devalue, in order to dismiss. Watch me now. We label in order to devalue, in order to dismiss. “I don't want to deal with you as a person, with nuance and complexity and pain. I don't like what you stand for, so I'm going to label what you stand for in a derisive or devaluing way so I can just dismiss you out of hand.”
It’s too spicy. “We won't invite Uncle Jim over anymore, because he's a Nazi. We won't invite Aunt Sally over anymore because she's just a communist. We won't invite them anymore because they're just a conservative racist. We won't invite them over anymore because they're just part of the woke mob.” We label in order to devalue. In order to do what? “I don't want to deal with you.” Are we honoring the dignity, worth and value the image of godness in the other person when we label in order to devalue, in order to dismiss? Do you feel loved when people do it to you? So let us love our neighbor as ourselves. Allow the nuances, allow that Jesus is stronger than the confusion, kids. He's stronger than the complexity. He's stronger than all the unknowns. Jesus is king over the entire cosmos. He holds the world together by the word of his power. He loves you more than you can ever imagine. You don't have to crush them. And he can give us strength to engage them in love.
One of the best ways that we can practice this. Too often, we learn about people who are not like us from people who are just like us. Too often we learn about people who are not like us from people who are just like us. And usually, I wouldn't say usually, there is a tendency for the people who are just like us to paint the people who are not like us in a bad light in order for us to give our hearts and allegiance and money and allegiance and money to them.
Do you feel loved when other people learn about you from people who are nothing like you and have no idea about your experience? So, so next time you hear somebody saying, ‘You know those people. This is what they believe” -- go and ask one of those people. And if you say, “I don't know any of those people,”maybe that’s a good opportunity to pause on your opinions on them. And I want to invite you in here at Desert Springs. I almost guarantee I know one of them. And so, we get to sit at tables with people who are not like us. It doesn't mean that we agree. It doesn't mean that we conform to their ideas. But if we're going to strive to understand and love our neighbors ourselves, we want to make sure that we learn about people who are different than us from them.
Finally, here's one practical question. In the space between you and me, the difference, the disagreement that we have -- can I articulate your perspective in a way that you wholeheartedly agree with? If I cannot, I don't think I fully understand yet and I need to keep the door open for conversation. If I can't articulate your perspective in a way that you would wholeheartedly agree with, I don't think I fully understood. And so it's an invitation to further conversation.
Now, for many of us, we're hearing these things and we're like, you know, “I like the first half of the sermon. But you know that jerk who calls himself a pastor, he's stepping all over my toes. How on earth? Caleb, don't you know the real world? Caleb, don't you know how the real world works?”
Jesus loves you more than you can ever imagine. And you know what really happened in the real world? God became flesh. He lived among us. He allowed his own creation to betray him and to crucify him in the real world. You know what else happened in the real world? Three days later, Christ rose from the grave, conquering over Satan, sin, and death, promising one day to return and restore all that which is broken to wholeness again and reunite heaven and Earth.
And in the meantime, in the real world, we live as foretastes of the coming Kingdom in its fullness. We live on Earth as it is in heaven. Now, in order to put on display for this dead and dying community the manifold wisdom of God -- that they might look in and say something going on there, I need the life source that they've got in the real world. Jesus has called us to live this way, practicing by the power of his spirit, rooted in his love, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.###

How do we find wisdom, guidance, and love to live in a politically toxic world? How do we find wisdom, guidance, and love to live with wisdom and love in the midst of a politically toxic, outraged, anxious cultural moment? That's what we're going to explore today. I'm going to invite you, as we study together from Ephesians chapter three and four, just to be thinking about that concept: How do we find wisdom, guidance and love to live wisely and lovingly in the midst of a politically toxic, outraged, anxious cultural moment?

This thought process, for me, is something that not only tethers to scripture, but also tethers a little bit to my history. I want to invite you to meet two of my great, great-times-8 grandfathers. They’re dead.

On the left-side image here you have the grave of William Campbell. William Campbell is one of my ancestors, and I actually got to visit his tombstone. One of my objectives in life is when I'm able to travel to places for school or for work, if any of my ancestors are buried there, I make it a point to drive out and visit. I was able to visit William’s graveside in New York City just a few months ago. William actually was buried in the 1760s. At the church that he's buried at -- the Dutch Reformed Church – twenty years later, there was a trial of Major John Andre, who was one of the British spies who spied on America.

On the right, I'd like you to introduce to one of my other great-times-eight grandfathers. This is Conrad Visa. Conrad was a captain in the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, Joseph Conrad Visa, came to America as a refugee from the Holy Roman Empire. He fought in the French and Indian War and actually served alongside Ben Franklin brokering peace treaties and things like that.

This is just some of my family. Now, I did want to say, you know, there's other graves I haven't been to yet, so stay tuned. Hopefully there's some other cool stuff. But one of the things that I frequently will think about and meditate on as I've thought about my family line -- many, many of whom were operating either in the colonial era or in the post-Revolutionary era – is that many of them were Christian, or at least they're buried in Christian cemeteries. I haven’t met them yet, so I don't know what their faith journey is like with Jesus. But I'm guessing that they participated in church gatherings, just based on the records. And I've often thought about this question: How did they apply their faith in the midst of a democratic republic that oftentimes can find itself in a toxic space?

I want you to know -- I don't think this will bring you peace, but at least bring you some context -- the tension that we feel now in this particular cultural moment in America, it's not the first time. It's not the first time. In fact, one of the things that that I find so fascinating is that there seems to be this cyclical pattern in this democratic republic of ours, where there are seasons where it's like on a low burn, and then there's seasons where it's on a high burn. In fact, some of the people that we generally venerate as leaders or founders of our country -- the stuff that they wrote about each is hot fire. Hot fire. And so, I wonder, OK, so how did how did William and Conrad think about their faith in this is this blossoming or this new republic, this new concept, this democratic republic? How did they apply it when you've got things like voting? And you've got things like election cycles and things like that.

And so, I think frequently about that, and I wonder how they processed their faith in the midst of questions around things like the Louisiana Purchase or things like the concept of Manifest Destiny. How did they think about the difference between a federalized government and a more states-powered government? How did they process the fighting between John Adams, who was a federalist, and then Thomas Jefferson, and the fact that they all called each other names all the time? How did how did Conrad and William live, loving their neighbor in the midst of warfare? How did they do it?

It's something that I find myself meditating on a lot. And in this particular cultural moment we have a politically toxic, outraged cultural reality. You can feel it driving up Tatum Blvd. Before the primaries there were thousands upon thousands of markers, right? And ads. You guys have seen these things, these political ads. You don’t need to answer this question, but are you encouraged? Right. It’s generally dehumanizing, fearmongering, anxiety-producing content. I mean, just driving up Tatum. I work at a church. I serve the Prince of Peace. I’m driving down the street, and I’m told that if I don’t vote for that person, the whole world’s going to implode. This person’s on the opposite side – oh, what am I going to do? And then there's my favorite, when people go up and draw little mustaches on people. I want to meet that person. “Hey, man, you’ve got a good mustache game going. I gotta tell you, right?”

And then how do you feel when you're going to have some family or close friends over, and you know that they're on the other side? And you say things, you know, you say you're cooking dinner and you're thinking, “Oh, this is our family. This is our blood. These are people we love. But here's what we can't talk about -- boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom because if we talk about these things, we're going to be raging at each other.”

Let me just ask you a question. What is training us to be outraged at the very people that we love? I find it fascinating. Is it an imbalance? Is that what makes our temporary hold on now -- our temporary allegiances to a person running for office who we've never met nor will ever meet us -- so radically influence us that we're willing to separate ourselves from our family because they don't share that same allegiance. And here's the thing. In this democratic republic, with term limits and stuff like that, the allegiances keep changing. Do our family and friends need to experience this radical division every time we take on a new allegiance? That doesn't sound wise or loving to me. How about you? OK. Thank you.

OK, so let's get let's get after it. So how does Jesus give us a God-filtered wisdom and a spirit-empowered love to live in a politically charged, outraged, anxiety- saturated cultural context?

I invite you, as we study Ephesians chapter three and four. It's in your handouts. For those joining us online, just go to bible.com, and we're using the Christian Standard Bible. I encourage you to bring your Bibles, if you have a Bible, regardless of what translation. We're going to be in Ephesians 3 and 4. In this sermon series called Manifold Wisdom, we're exploring the nature of the church and -- hold onto this -- the nature of the manifold, or diverse, or many-colored, or many-faceted -- that's what manifold means -- that many-faceted wisdom of God being made known through the church. You're going to see it in the text today. To put in another way, what's the role and function of the church? That's what we're talking about throughout this whole series, and today I'd like to lean into this concept of how the church is not an institution. The church is an organism. That church is Jesus-followers. How does the collection of Jesus followers engage in a political climate where not only is there a ton of outrage and anxiety, but also there's a lot of co-opting of the church? What I mean by that is it seems like God is cosigning everybody running for office right now. And I just want to know. Is that Biblical wisdom? Or is that something else?

Now I heard some groans. Which means you've watched the end of the movie. So don't spoil it for the rest of us, but let's take a look. You guys, come with me. We're going to be Ephesians chapter three and four. I'm going to jump around just a little bit, but I'll have the citations up on the screen. Also, I did want to make note this conversation about government and politics. To me, about government, politics, and faith in Jesus, there are a thousand questions, and I want to invite you to text in your questions. On the one of the pages where the notes are, there's a phone number. What we're going to do for the duration this series is to invite you to text in questions. They can be directly related to the sermon or the text, or they could be from, like, last week, or something else about faith and religion. And then at 11:00 o'clock, we’re going to gather in here with as many of y'all who want to. I'll go through and respond to the best of my ability to any question that you send in. At Desert Springs Bible Church, we believe in having Jesus-centered conversations around hard issues. Politics is one of them, and I would love to engage with you on that. Again, we'll meet back in here at 11:00 o'clock for a sermon question and response. You can just text those questions into that number that you'll see there.

Also, we've got a variety of different classes, some that are currently meeting or starting up here in a couple weeks, like the Rooted group that Dawn mentioned, and you can find more about those 11:00 o'clock classes and studies in your handout. You can notice where and when they start. If you haven't done Rooted yet, I want to highly encourage you. You’ve got to do Rooted. It is the chef’s kiss.

All right, so let's get into it.

“This grace was given to me – the least of all the saints – to proclaim to the Gentiles (the ethnos) the incalculable riches of Christ, and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” (Ephesians Chapter 3, verses 8-10)

This is Ephesians chapter 3, verse eight. This grace. So this is the apostle Paul. He's writing to a church in Ephesus. Oh, by the way, check this out. Ephesus was the third-argest metropolitan area in the Roman Empire. It was bested only by Alexandria and Rome. So Ephesus was this massively successful, militarily powerful, economically-thriving, religiously-saturated, major metropolitan area. Does that sound familiar? And what's interesting is, in Ephesus, just like maybe today, religion, money, and power often wove themselves together. For instance, in Ephesus, one of the one of the primary gods that they worshipped was Artemis. At the Temple of Artemis, not only would you experience worship in the temple, but you would also experience refuge at the temple. And you know what else they did at the temple of Artemis? Banking. You would bank out of the temple of Artemis. And the coinage, some of the coinage that it was in Ephesus of the day had the goddess Artemis on it. They would call Artemis the savior or the queen lady.

So, if you were a Christian kicking around Ephesus, the idea of power and religion is just everywhere. Paul is writing to a very small group of Jesus-followers living in Ephesus, and he's trying to give to them a Jesus-centered wisdom so that they might know how to live, in wisdom and love, in this politically charged environment, where religion, power and money are all interwoven. That's what Paul is writing to the Ephesian church about. Do you think that might have some relevance for us today?

This grace was given to preach … By the way, occasionally I'll transliterate a Greek word, and it's for a reason. So, to preach to the ethnicity. That word often gets translated Gentiles or the nation. The reason that I leave it in there is because it very much sounds like a word that we use in English, mainly ethnicity, and it is closer to ethnicity than it is to a geopolitical reality. When we say nation in modern English, usually we think of the nation state as a thing with borders. But ethnicity is generally not as bordered. It's more like the commonalities that we have with each other, ethnicity -- culture, language, food, art, things like that. That's kind of what makes up an ethnicity. This is all of the peoples of the world, OK? All the ethnos of the world.

What is “the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things?” What's the mystery? This is the mystery that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church, to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Notice that the apostle Paul is saying to this little house church, this little group of house churches in Ephesus, that the manifold, multi-colored diverse wisdom of God will be put on display through what? The church. Do you see it in the text that the church will put on display the manifold wisdom of God? Do you guys see it there, at the bottom? The rulers and authorities where? You’ve got to ask me this question in the question and response time. Because, I don’t have time for this right now.

Behind any earthly king or ruler, the apostle Paul sees a spiritual king and ruler. This is how the Jewish mind worked. So you're going to have to deal with that. But he says that those powers -- what I would call the kingdoms of this world -- were usually united. The kingdoms of this world see the manifold wisdom of God on display through what? Through the church, which is made-up of what? All of the people-groups, all the ethnos. When they're all bound together with nothing in common except for Jesus, then they put on display the manifold wisdom of God. That’s the job of the church -- to be united around Jesus. A bunch of diverse people united around Jesus, putting on display the wisdom of God.

The job of the church is not to govern the state. Hey, I've been hearing some folks, and they've been saying things like the church should run the government. But that is not the church's job. If the church takes the posture of running the government, it will no longer be a trans-national entity. Come on, come with me now. If the job of the church is to bring together all the ethnos and, generally speaking, governments -- and I'm not saying this is bad, I'm just talking to you neutrally here -- and the job of government is to create borders to let some people in and keep most people out, can the church then be the government? It can only lie to itself if it tries to do that.

The job of the church is to preach to all the ethnos. Everyone gets to come in. I'm just talking neutral to you, like this is poli-sci 101. Governments are bordered entities. Is the church a bordered entity? So you can't have both things. In fact, I would just challenge you. If you want to get weird, after you go home today and read through your whole Bible, pick up a Western civilization history book. Just notice how many times that the government or government power tried to co-opt the church. And tell me how well preserved was the witness of the church? How well was Jesus represented at the end of a sword? Y'all tracking with me so far? If you try to merge the church with Rome, Rome wins and just uses the church to justify its power. So y'all got me preaching, alright. This is the job of the church, OK? Does that mean that Christians should not be involved in government? By no means. Come with me now. I think Christians absolutely should be involved in government, and they should practice love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in their office.

Is the posture of Jesus-follower to reach out and take power so that I can preserve me and mine? Or is the posture of a Jesus-follower to use whatever power the Lord would gift to me through following him by the power of his spirit? Use that power in service of others. And before you answer the question, let me just tell you this: There's a king in the Bible. His name is Jesus. And King Jesus calls us to follow him. So how did Jesus use his power? To protect his own or in the service of others? The service of others.

Now most of us will say things like, “Caleb, that's not how the world works.” You're right!!! That's why we worship the Risen King and not the kings of this world. Because allegiance to the kings in this world leads to despair and death. That's why it is -- what's the word? -- good news that King Jesus is the eternal king.

So yeah, you're right, it makes no political strategy sense to live like Jesus, and that is the point. You will not change the world living by the power structures and principles of this world. Nobody will look at that and say, “Wow, you're really different.”

Alright, let's keep going. We're going to make it through, I promise, today. We should, right?

“And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.” (Verses 11-15)

So the job of the church is to put on display the manifold wisdom of God. How do we do that? Well, there's certain leadership he gave -- not leadership, giftings here. Some of those phrases are weird to many of us. Don't let it be weird. These are just people with different giftings who are called to do this job. Check this out.

What's the job? Equip the saints for what? There's that word again. The other word to be translated there is ministry. What's ministry? And what service is ministry? By the way, when a person says “I'm a minister,” you could just as easily say, “I'm a servant.” It's just kind of weird to say that right now in American context. So we use minister, right? How long will we do it? Or excuse me, what does that end up building? The body of Christ, that is the church, until we attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God -- to become a mature person, to the measure of the stature, belonging to the fullness of Christ. What he's saying here is that we're to be built within the church, as we're a bunch of misfits putting on display the manifold wisdom of God, unified around Jesus. We're revealing the manifold wisdom of God, but we're also growing in the process. How are we growing? We're growing into the likeness of whom? We're becoming more and more like Jesus, as we in good faith give ourselves to one another, as we in good faith allow the spirit to come in and work among us, God will use our differences to shape and to reshape us. If you're looking for a church family that's just going to reaffirm your prejudices and commitments, you're in the wrong joint.

I'm 40 years old. Do you think that I've got it? You can answer honestly here; I know you will. Do you think I've got it, like totally dialed in, this whole faith and politics thing? Especially those of you who disagree with me about the political implications of my faith. Right, you're thinking, “I wish you would convert and believe the gospel.” I know, I know. I got. I got it. Thank you.

In our differences, you are going to shape me and I'm going to shape you. Hopefully, if we approach each other with curiosity instead of suspicion, … if we approach one another practicing the fruit of the spirit, that Jesus-centered bunch of misfits, … if we put on display the manifold wisdom of God, and Jesus uses our differences to shape us to be more and more like him so that we will become wise -- we will become wise. And if we are wise and anchored in who God is, what's the result if we're anchored in Jesus, a Jesus-centered wisdom? The result is that we are no longer tossed around by winds and waves of teaching. Some crafty leader is not going to come in and lead us astray or trick us into doing something that we know is contrary to what Jesus teaches. If we're anchored, if we're wise, then we are no longer like children in a boat, in a storm, but we're anchored to who Jesus is. You guys see in the metaphor here?

There are powers at work constantly throughout human history, and in the year of our Lord 2022 Phoenix, there are powers at work who are trying to knock us around to create anxiety and fear, to demand our allegiance by promising us safety, belonging and purpose so that we will give our money and our power to them. Jesus says be anchored in me. If you're becoming more and more like me, you'll be able to withstand this chaos. This chaos -- it's just pounding up against your boat. You'll be able to withstand the trickery of men, the craftiness and deceitful scheming. Do you think there's any craftiness and deceitful scheming going around? That should have been like a wholehearted “Amen.”

How are we supposed to behave? Are we supposed to retreat? No, I don't think so. If I could say so neutrally, government is simply the way that we do our common life together. Like 98% of government is not a bunch of like chaos. Like 90-98% of government is just boring stuff like keeping the roads going. Now I know some of you, when you drive down the roads, you get road range. You get a little anxiety. So we'll acknowledge that.

But by and large, the majority of government is just the boring stuff, like the sewage system, water-treatment and the electrical grid. It's how we do our common life together. So let me ask you this question. If we are to love our neighbor as ourselves – in this case, I mean our actual neighbor -- should we say, “I don't want anything to do with government and how it works.” Like, “I don't want anything to do with clean water. I don't want anything to do with making sure that you have an electrical grid that makes sure that you don't die a heat death.”

I believe in government because it's managing our common life together now. It's a means of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Maybe you guys are asking, “Well, should I run for office?” I think for some, yeah, maybe. I think for most of us it's just being aware and using the things God has gifted us with and saying, “Lord, how do you want me to be a servant? How do you want me to do the work of ministry in this community, in this common life together?”

One of the key initiatives that we're a part of is foster care and adoption. Many of you are currently fostering or have adopted. Do you know how much government is involved in that? A lot. A lot. Do we care about that? Yes, we very much care about that. Now, how are we going to engage there? I think that's for each of us to discern by the power of the spirit. But our general disposition and my take on the scripture is to look for means of service. And in a democratic republic in 2022, one of the ways that we get to do that is through the political process.

“Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.” (Chapter 4, Verses s 25-29)

So the issue isn’t arguing for or abstaining from government, but, rather, it's the heart and our approach to government. So what should our approach be in this toxic, raging, anxious environment? Check it out. Speaking the truth how? Yeah, so here's a test. If I speak what I think is the truth, and the person on the other end didn't feel loved, am I in alignment with this text? Have I lived out this text? No.

And here's a way to say it. This is the test I run on myself, like a self-scan. Do those with whom I disagree see Jesus in me? Do those with whom I disagree see Jesus in me? My hope is that my opinion or perspective on the truth when I communicate would never blind someone to the glorious love and grace of Jesus as its theme, lived out imperfectly through me. But my temptation is to try to win the argument. But I can win the argument and lose the person. So, so whenever I'm going to speak truth, whatever my perspective, if the other person doesn't feel loved, I need to go back to the drawing board and say, “OK, maybe, maybe I need to rethink my approach there.”

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects of him. Who is the head, even? Christ. For whom? The whole. I love this -- whole, the whole body. How much? When this transnational organism, the body of Christ, being fit and held together by what every joint supplies -- meaning everyone’s got a job to do according to the proper working of each individual part -- causes the growth of the body for the building up itself in love.

So how does the church grow? When all of us are ministering according to our gifting in unity and love, centered around Jesus, and you want to know how to grow a church? That's how you grow a church.

All right, let's keep going. Do you think this has anything to do with the topic today? “The truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are …” -- notice this – “members of one another.”

This idea of anger without sin is a new idea, perhaps. Anger is that thing we feel when we want the other person to experience wholeness. I know this is strange for many of us. It’s the passion I feel in my heart if I love you, and you and I are disintegrated. If our relationship is broken, anger is the thing I feel that wants us to be made right, for your benefit and mine, as well.

Rage is when I treat you like an enemy and want your destruction. Got it. So, yeah, be angry. Angry for one another that we could be made whole, that we could see the way of truth more clearly. But don't sin into rage, treating the other as an enemy to be destroyed. I want to caution you, church. Oh, my goodness, I hear this all the time in political discourse today, dehumanizing enemy-ing language. I mean, think about the rhetoric that we're hearing. “We need to fight the culture war.” What happens when you fight a war? Somebody dies. Is that really what we're trying to do here -- utterly destroy our neighbor? “We're going to fight,” right? Think about that language. “We're going to fight. We're going to crush them. We're going to own them. We're going to destroy them.” Honest to God, is that actually what we're really trying to do to our neighbor who disagrees with us on policies?

So, we're going to speak to our neighbor. How? We’re going to speak truth to them. Why? Notice this. “We are members of one another.” We are together. And so we speak the truth to our neighbor because we are members of one another.

“Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Don't give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need. Let no foul language come out of your mouth, but only …” Listen to this … “only what is good for building up someone in need that have any shaping effect on my political discourse.

“Give grace to those who hear, and don't grieve God Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”

“Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” (Verses 31-32)

Forgiving. Why? Why be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another? Because that's what God has done to us. So, let's zoom in here, OK? We're not going to do this by sheer force of will. We're not just going to will ourselves into this. Here’s my invitation to you in this toxic, anxiety-ridden, raging political climate. How do we show compassion and kindness to one another, forgiving even our enemies, just as Christ forgave us? How do we do that? We turn to the cross. We center our hearts on who Jesus is. We recognize, we remember that we have been enemies of God. But because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross through his death, burial and resurrection -- through his finished work, he gives us this great gift of his favor, his delight, his forgiveness, and a reunion with him -- not based on what we have done, but based solely on the work that he has done. That's why they call it grace.

If we center our hearts on who Jesus is and what we have received from him and what he has done for us and what he is calling us to -- it is out of that spirit of the living God that indwells with each one of us that we can enter into this rage, this rave, this outraged anxiety-ridden, toxic political culture and actually do something different – like being compassionate, forgiving each other just as Christ has forgiven us, being kind to one another when we speak the truth, which we ought to do, recognizing I want them to feel that I love them as well as hear what I have to say. And we do so when we're anchored unto the truth of who Jesus is. I want to invite you into that.

In just a moment, we're going to take communion. When we take of the bread, when we take the juice, we remember the broken body and shed blood of Jesus which was broken and shed for the forgiveness of sin. And in this moment, we have an opportunity to center ourselves in remembering who Jesus is and what he has done.

Do you know that much of this anxiety and rage --do you know what's actually going on deep within each one of us that brings that out? It's oftentimes fear. Fear that we're not going to get, fear that we're going to lose, fear that the other is going to hurt us. It's fear. And you know one of the most frequent commands given in scripture? Fear not. In this age of outrage and chaos, I anchor myself, I center myself on the finished work of Jesus Christ. I spend time with Jesus. I try to listen for his spirit operating within me.

I invite you to do that now. So would you please prepare your communion elements that are available in the back of the seat in front of you. If today you'd rather not take communion, that's totally fine. I would just ask that you would take this moment to be quiet, sit quietly, and consider the things that you've heard today. For those of you who are joining us online, would you obtain some elements that represent the body and blood of Jesus?

So here's what we're going to do. We’re going to take a moment to reflect. And then I'll lead us together as a church family in the taking of communion. And in this time of reflection, maybe it's the time for us for to be thinking about the last week. Perhaps for others, unless it's simply a time of repentance and confession. Still, for others, maybe it's a time of pleading with the Lord or seeking his wisdom. Wherever you're at today, I just want to invite you to use this time as the spirit guides you and to be attentive to the spirit of God, even now, in this moment, recognizing that Christ is present with us right now, in this moment. And so would you reflect and then I'll lead us in the taking of communion.

(Quiet time follows, then Pastor Caleb prays.)

Let us pray together. Lord Jesus, we know that communion is something that we do together as a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, unified, Jesus, in you. And we know that you welcome everyone to your table. In this taking of communion, we recognize that you have called us to live according to the New Covenant in Christ -- that we are to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, practicing his values on Earth, as it is in heaven. Even now, Lord, as we prepare our hearts, we recognize that we often fail in this regard. And so, Lord, we pray and confess that we have not always lived according to your Kingdom. We have often propagated injustice and evil. We have often fostered disunity, factoring, practicing favoritism, elevating our own concerns and preferences over others. Moreover, we have often failed to show hospitality, love and grace. We have often not lived the fruit of your spirit. We confess this before you now. And we repent. We turn from this sin, and we turn back to you, Jesus, knowing that you will never leave us or forsake us. We ask that by the power of your spirit, you would continue to shape us into your image. As we take of this communion today, Lord, we proclaim your finished work on the cross, your death and your resurrection. We cling to you, knowing that you are the one who brings salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, and, in you, one day all will be restored. It's in your name, Jesus, that we pray.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. After giving thanks, he said, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Would you take and eat?

In the same way he took out the cup, saying, “This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Would you take and drink?

Let us pray together. Lord Jesus, we give you thanks for your grace and your mercy. We pray that by the power of your spirit, you would continue to unify us as a diverse bunch of misfits, bound together not by our common affinities, but bound together by your love and grace, Jesus, made known to us through your death, burial, and resurrection. And in this toxic, outraged, anxious environment that we live in, may we be agents of peace, reconciliation, compassion and kindness. That when we speak truth, as we should, we would do so that all who would hear us would feel loved. Lord, help us to forgive, just as you have forgiven us. We ask these things, Jesus, knowing that you love us and you are powerful to fulfill your promises to us, and so we entrust ourselves to you and to your care. So in your name we pray, Amen.

Today as we celebrate Christmas in July, we're going to be continuing in our study in the Book of Exodus, and I already know what you're asking. You're asking, what does Exodus have to do with Christmas? Yeah, right. OK, that's a great question. I'm so glad you asked.

One of the ways that I want to answer this question before we get into Exodus Chapter 12 this morning is talk to you a little bit about like the whole Bible, how the Bible works, how it works on us, and how to approach it. So check this out. The Bible is -- and actually that word Bible -- is kind of tricky. We think of it as one book, but it's actually more complex than that. The Bible is a collection of 66 different pieces of literature. It's a collection of scriptures.

In my own life, I've actually tried to refer to it as the scriptures as opposed to the Bible, because I want to remember that. This is actually something that has been collected and produced over time in different ways by different people, and it's been collected into what we call the Bible.

And here's why It’s important that the scriptures were produced over many, many years by many different people -- and what's really cool about the Bible. You didn't think there was anything cool about the Bible, did you? OK. I’m going to prove to you that there's stuff cool about the Bible. Check this out. You guys are rolling your eyes thinking I'm a nerd. I am. But that doesn't mean that it's not cool.

So check this out. The biblical authors riff on each other’s material. Here's what I mean. If you were kicking around in Jesus’s day, those biblical authors who were writing some of those scripts, they were looking back at previously written scripture. And they were using the themes of the text and bringing them to life in their new space in a new and fresh way. They were sampling each other’s material, kind of like how musicians will use other musicians’ material and bring it into maybe their album or their concert. So the biblical authors, are riffing on each other’s material, and we're talking about what does Exodus have to do with Christmas. And I just want you to note that that the authors that tell us about Christmas are deeply immersed in the Exodus story.

So watch this. I think this is super cool. (Shows a graphic of old and new testaments’ references to each other, with lots of lines!) So what you have here? Somebody took the time to look up what they believe are references of biblical authors referencing other biblical authors. Can you guys see this? What you have here are the chapters of the Bible. OK, so if you just start with Genesis and go all the way to Revelation, you've got all the chapters of the Bible, and what this designer has done is show you the ways that the different authors will refer to or riff on each other’s material in the Bible. You guys catching what I'm throwing down here. In the New Testament you can see that there are references all the way back to Genesis and Exodus. In fact, the first five books of the Bible are some of the most frequently cited or referred to texts in your New Testament.

In fact, if you ever read the New Testament --- which I think you should totally do later today – the majority of what you’re reading is actually the older testament recapitulated and refreshed.

So the biblical authors writing in the New Testament are riffing on themes. They're creating very little original material. They're taking the older material of books like Exodus, and they're bringing them into the modern context. They're viewing it through the lens now of Jesus. So they're taking older texts and viewing them now through the lens of Jesus. That's kind of what your New Testament is.

And so, when you get a Christmas account, like in Matthew, Luke, and John -- he has a cosmic Christmas account -- when you're reading a Christmas account, you're reading authors who have meditated very deeply on books like Exodus. So when we read the Christmas account, we might expect that these authors are riffing on older material like the Book of Exodus.

OK, so check this out. (A graphic is shown). This is a really rough Bible timeline. Any condensing of the Bible is just kind of a fool's errand. If you just want a really rough birdseye timeline of the Bible going from Genesis to Revelation, you get Creation, then you get Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then you get the Exodus, which is what we're going to be studying today.

Then you get so that people are freed from slavery. Then they go into conquest. They take a land, then you get a Kingdom like King David and Solomon. Then, because of the people’s rebellion, you get an exile, so they're like in Babylonian captivity, captivity from other empires. This is where you would get like Daniel and Esther. And then you get, all of a sudden, the Gospels. Jesus shows up. And then you get church and the future, So like the book of Acts and things like that.

So the biblical authors that are writing at this time they're thinking about, meditating on and bringing to bear material that was written here to their current context. You guys tracking with me so far?

OK, So what does Christmas have to do with Exodus? This is an excellent question. What I would like to do is just spend a brief moment and share with you something that's very critical and core to our church, family and our values. I want to invite you, and this is something very important to me personally.

It's something very important to our church leadership, something that that Desert Springs is built upon. One of our core values is this: We are not asking you or leading you to borrow my convictions. Our goal as leadership -- our elders, our ministers -- is to equip you to discern your own convictions by the power of the spirit. We're not inviting you in to just take my word for it or borrow my convictions. Here's the problem with my convictions. The more I study the Bible, the more my convictions change. So, you might borrow like 40-year-old Pastor Caleb's convictions. What happens when Pastor Caleb turns 50? He might change his convictions, right?

Our goal or our core value is to equip you to discern your own convictions by the power of the spirit. And then part of how that's going to work is that we're going to share our perspectives and our convictions with one another as a bunch of misfits. That process might actually reshape some of our convictions. We might listen to one another and say, “You know, I've never thought of it that way before.” I would invite you to enjoy that phrase – “I've never thought of it that way before.” In fact, if you're not thinking that or saying that frequently, it may be that you're not growing.

“I've never thought about that way before.”

Right, the Bible talks about renewing our minds as a process of God's redeeming power in our life -- to renew our minds constantly, to be renewing our minds. “I've never thought of it that way before.”

Have you guys noticed that the Bible is sometimes quite strange? Some of you haven't read the Bible. OK, so I get you, I get you if you’ve never read the Bible. I'm so glad you're here.

Some of the stuff you've heard is super cool. Some of the stuff in the Bible is weird, right? I'll prove it to you. Go read Leviticus. Go and just open up your Bible at the kitchen table. All the weird stuff is an invitation to meditation. What I mean is this is: the Bible doesn't work like your car manual. You guys ever read your car manual? Why do you read your car manual? You read your car manual when you’ve got a problem, something wrong. You're driving down the road, and bing, a little light pops up, right? And then you don't know what that light means. So what do you do? You go to your car manual. And do you read the whole thing? No. What do you do? You only go to the one spot that has the little icon of the thing you're seeing. You go to problem solve, right?

I actually I resent this statement. I hear people say things like the Bible is like a manual for life. No it's not. Go read Leviticus. Does it read like your car manual? If you treat the Bible like a car manual, you're going to be praying one day, “Lord, give me guidance and direction on like what I should do with my life.” And then you go to the Bible you read, “Slay the Amalekites.” Right, it doesn't work that way because the Bible is not a manual.

The Bible is ancient, meditative, wisdom literature that points you to Jesus. The Bible is ancient. There are a lot of strange things because we're time-traveling tourists when we read the Bible. We're entering into another culture when we read the Bible, where it's ancient.

It's meditative, which means your scriptures are an invitation to do this. You read something in the text and you're not sure how it works together in your life. You're not sure how this whole process works, and it's an invitation to do what? To wonder, to meditate, to ponder the Psalms, which is a bunch of songs and poetry. David, who wrote a lot of the Psalms, would frequently say, “Lord, I delight to meditate on your word, day and night.” What that's saying is I'm hearing from you through your texts and I'm going like this – “hmmm.” (Makes a gesture of putting his hand on his chin and thinking.) It's ancient, meditative, wisdom literature.

The apostle Paul said to one of his proteges, Timothy, he said that the scriptures are designed to make you wise in faith unto salvation through faith in Jesus. It's ancient, meditative, wisdom literature that points you to Jesus.

So what does Exodus have to do with Christmas? It's a great question. Now, one of our core values again is to equip you to discern your own convictions, and here’s the final part of it if. If you're a Jesus follower and you just borrow the convictions of a leader, you're short-circuiting the wisdom process. Here's what I mean. If you say, “Caleb, what should I believe about this?” and I say, “Here's the answer” -- what have you failed to do?

Did you guys ever cheat on a test in high school? Show of hands. Ed did. OK, I did. Ed, one of our board members -- yeah, you did. OK. Anybody else cheat on a test in high school? How many of you were the kid who other people cheated from? OK yeah smarty pants. Thank you for your service. We just say thank you so much for studying and for writing in big, legible letters.

OK, so if we borrow another leaders’ convictions, what we're doing is we're looking on their test and writing the answer down on our page. We're failing to engage in the wisdom-forming process of meditating deeply on the scripture. Scripture is an invitation to meditate deeply, and through that process, be made wise.

Have you guys ever heard me say? “I think that you should read your Bible and argue about it with a bunch of people who aren't like you for the next 100 years and then one day you might be wise.” Because that's the wisdom process -- to engage in the text, to meditate deeply, to discuss it with a bunch of misfits who aren't like you -- and through that process to find maybe that you're becoming wise to salvation through faith in Jesus.

OK, this is such a big deal to us that we're actually going to make a a bit of a shift in our Sunday programming. This will be rolled out in August starting on August 14th. Here's what we're going to be doing. We so fundamentally believe that the best way to discern our own convictions -- to connect our faith to real life -- is not in listening to a monologue, as much as I love preaching. And I love preaching. I find that dialogue is actually where most of the growth happens.

Right, so listening, passive listening or even active listening is one way to gain understanding. But really active dialogue with a bunch of different people is actually the best way. That's my understanding. That's how Scripture was designed to work -- to be meditated on, and then to be discussed in dialogue. Maybe even debated in the context of a bunch of different people from a bunch of different views.

And so, here's the shift. Starting on August 14th, we're going to continue to host our worship gathering like this at 9:30. And then at about 10:40 we'll dismiss, and we'll invite you guys to hang out on the patio, grab some coffee and some refreshments. And then at 11:00 o'clock all over our campus, we're going to host pretty much every square inch of our campus. We're going to be hosting smaller gatherings where you can engage in dialogue, connecting your faith to real life, meeting with one another in community. The way this will look is our adventure kids are going to be hosting a different programming at 9:30 and 11:00. They'll have a snack time at 10:40. Our students will be joining us here at 9:30 for worship and then they will visit with one another in the student Center for a team-based study. And then in this room all over the rest of our campus we're going to invite you to participate in a study or a group to connect faith to real life and connect with one another.

We’ll have different opportunities throughout the year. We'll have things like the Rooted group, which will kick off in September. We'll have things like the financial peace university.

I'll actually be hosting a study here in this room based directly on the sermon. So, if you've ever wanted to ask questions about the sermon or study it more deeply or argue with me about the text, which I love, which is part of the joy of it. We'll actually do that in here. And so we're going to ask that everyone would make an intentional decision to join us for worship at 9:30, connect with one another on the patio or in the lobby at 10:40, then at 11:00 o'clock to participate in a study, a smaller group gathering to connect faith to real life, and to connect with one another.

We'll have the different opportunities published for you in the handout. Again, we're going to roll this out in the month of August on into September, and we want to invite you to make an intentional decision to be here at 9:30 and 11:00 to connect with one another. Let's connect your faith in real life.

So you can practice that schedule today if you want, I'm actually going to be hosting a class on what the Bible teaches about social justice over in the student center at 11:00 o'clock. I'd love to have you join me at 11:00 o'clock again over in the student Center for that class.

Now back to your question, what was the question you guys were asking me? I forget what it was. What was it? What does Exodus have to do with Christmas? OK, that's great.

OK, so check this out. Are you guys familiar with Christmas? Like the little “away in a manger” situation? In your Bible -- in your Christmas account -- you know the scene of those Magi coming from the east? They go to this dude named Herod, who is like the governor or king of the region, and they ask Herod “Where's the newborn king?” Right? And Herod, who wants to maintain power, feels threatened. What does Herod do? You guys remember? It's a really gory story. What does Herod do? He orders that all of the boys less than two years old be what? Killed. OK, so can you think of any time in the Book of Exodus where a leader who wants to maintain power, who's afraid of a small minority group might try to maintain that power by ordering the death of the children? Yeah, Pharaoh straight up does that.

In fact, the biblical authors created explicit links to link Herod to Pharaoh. What does Exodus have to do with Christmas? In fact, you have the faithfulness of a mom -- both in Moses, his mom, and in Jesus, his mom being one of the crucial elements of the salvation story. Mary is very is almost modeled after Moses’s mom in the in the Gospel of John. He says that God came down and tabernacled among us. The Tabernacle is in the Book of Exodus, and Christmas is when the very presence of God came in the flesh and lived among us.

Oh, did you know that Moses was a shepherd for 40 years? Yeah, do you know anyone who’s called the Good Shepherd? Yeah, do you see these connections? The biblical authors who are writing about Christmas, they are looking back on that ancient text and they're bringing it forth to their current date.

They're understanding the Christmas story through the Exodus story. In fact, language like redemption -- to be redeemed. There's a song we sing called “No Longer Slaves.” Have you guys ever heard that song before? Yeah, so the biblical authors are looking at Exodus, looking at the story of Jesus, and they're seeing all of the themes of the Exodus coming to fruition in Jesus.

In fact, when Jesus family learned that Herod was trying to kill their boy, do you know where they fled to? They fled to Egypt. And then when they came out of Egypt, you get this riff “out of Egypt I have called my son,” which was specifically about Israel coming out of Egypt, but then was applied to Jesus.

Now we not only see these connections to Christmas, but also to Easter and we're going to get into the text real quick and spend the remaining remainder of our time looking at.

Exodus Chapter 12 which I want to warn you, warn you, is hard. And you're going to see why here in just a minute. Check this out. You guys excited? OK, I'm excited. It doesn't feel like you're excited, I'll just say it. We need to get a little flag that says, “Yay, Bible time” for you to wave.

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ‘This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.” (12: 1-2)

This is interesting. This is such a crucial moment for the people of Israel that they will literally define their first day of their calendar by this date. This date is the beginning of your new calendar. Your whole calendar from here on out will be centered on this important moment -- the moment of the Exodus. You guys tracking with me? Exodus is the formation story of this people.

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. Only if the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and their neighbor nearest his house, or to select one based on the combined number of people.” (Verse 3-4)

Notice again you've got this sharing, this aiming towards justice within the community. You should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.

“You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.” (Verse 5-6)

OK, now TV timeout. *** Does this seem strange to you? Yeah, let's just remember for a moment that we are time-traveling tourists. Let us just remember for a moment that we ascribe this duty to warehouses, so we don't have to look at it. Y'all ever been in the grocery store? You know that deli section? You know where all that stuff comes from? A slaughterhouse, right. We have tried to hide from this reality that we're constantly putting animals to death to eat them. But here we've got an agrarian, a rural community that's used to doing this out in the open. ***

“They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat.” (Verse 8)

This strange to you? You guys ever done this before? OK, so remember we're time-traveling tourists. You take the blood of that unblemished animal. What do you do with it? You paint it. Over what? Around your door. So you're going to take some blood, and maybe you've done this at Halloween, but otherwise we don't generally do this now. I want to just notice something in the biblical mind. There's something about blood that they think differently than we do. Have you guys ever heard the phrase “life blood?” The ancient mind -- in their imagination, their understanding -- they believed that blood was where the life was. Because if you have something where the blood isn't flowing, what do you call that thing? Dead.

You guys got me so far? There were certain rituals that they would occasionally do, where they would utilize blood because the blood is life. And when you use the life blood, it repels the death. Now I'm not trying to make sense of it, I just want to invite you as a time-traveling tourist to get in the ancient mind that they understood life to be in the blood.

And so, when you get things like the blood over the doorposts or the blood sprinkled on the people, or the blood sprinkled on the Tabernacle, or the blood sprinkled in the temple -- what they understood that to be was the presence of life-repelling what? The presence of life-repelling what? Death. It is coming at them, and what do they need? They need life to push that death, that evil, back. And by taking the lifeblood and putting it over the door, what do you think is going on in their minds? What do you think they're repelling?

“They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire – its head as well as its legs and inner organs.” (Verse 8-10)

They should eat it roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. What kind of bread? Unleavened bread. What does that mean? No yeast? And so, what happens? Any bakers among us? If you've ever baked something, and if you don't put yeast in it, what happens to the bread? It's called flatbread, right? You put yeast in it and let it do its magic, and poof, it rises. But if you have no yeast, what do you have? Flatbread.

This is really interesting. Why unleavened bread? The first you're going to see is when they're preparing to leave to leave Egypt after being enslaved. God is going to do a redemptive work to redeem, to free his people. And they're about to leave. They're eating a meal. But the meal isn't just for sustenance, it's also for symbol. And part of the symbol that we find here is this unleavened bread.

What else are they eating? OK, so there’s a lamb roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

“Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted on the fire. Its head as well as its legs and its inner organs.” Now is this weird? This might be something I want to invite you to do. A divine command to eat an animal head? Legs and organs.

By the way, does anyone have this embroidered on their Bible cover? Right, I see a lot of you guys taking verses out of context and slapping them on things. I just wondered if you had Exodus 12:9 anywhere.

“You must not leave any of it until morning; any part of it left until morning must burn. Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.” (Verse 9-11)

Why are we getting all this command? Perhaps this is the original story of McDonald's fast food? I don't know if you guys knew that. Yep, fast food is actually in the Bible.

Now, this requires, I think, some deep meditation. This is whose Passover? You have the English equivalent of Yahweh. The proper name of God, given to us in the book.

So far we've got this whole ritual we saw back in Chapter 11 -- that there's this death that's going to come into the community and kill the first-born son of every house. And then we get this very interesting command to take a lamb to slaughter it in a certain way, to eat it in a certain way, and then to take the blood and put it over the lentil all around the door. Remember that blood is symbolic of life and repels what? Death, you’re right.

The destroyer is going to come and kill the first-born son in every house. You do this this thing with the blood over the door post, and so when the Angel of death or the destroyer comes into Egypt, if it sees the blood over your door, what will it do? It will pass over your house.

OK, so this whole meal ritual was first seen at the time that this enslaved group of people are just about to be what? Freed, redeemed. Right at the moment of their redemption, God institutes a ceremony. A symbolic series of events, don't you think? This is not an opportune time for ceremonial instruction. I got my sandals on. I got my loins girded up. I'm ready to go.

Oh, wait, no. Now you’ve got to go find that lamb, you’ve got to cook it up a certain way, you’ve got to, you’ve got to slow down before you hurry up. And you’ve got to eat in a certain way. Why did God institute this ritual? Remember, when did their calendar start? On this day, right, the day that we're reading about, the whole formation of all of their community, their culture, their whole life is being reformed in the midst of this redemptive moment. And God institutes a ceremony so that they don't what? So they don't forget.

And what is the Lord's Passover? It's where a substitute was slain, whose blood was put over your home, so that anyone who's under the blood of the lamb would be saved. The angel of death would pass over. You see it. This is so formative in Yahweh's mind that he commands a high holy day and a week-long feast of unleavened bread. He commands it as a natural annual rhythm so that the people do what? So they remember what? The Lord's salvation. Here's what's interesting. This unleavened bread thing you guys remember we were talking about that a minute ago -- you guys remember? OK, good yeah. If you don't remember, you need to take some ginkgo biloba.

OK, so with the unleavened bread, there are two ideas here. One is that the idea is that it could be baked quickly. Here's the other, and this is really interesting. Do you see how God is using this Passover concept to form his people? Remember, they've been enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years. Do you think they took on any of those cultural expectations and norms from Egypt onto themselves? Do you think they did that? Yes, they did. And so, God here is forming a people, forming them around the very center of their identity as God's deliverance from certain death.

And this unleavened bread. What's interesting, one of the lines of reasoning that you see is some of the ancients were meditating on this and wrestling, as they understood leaven to be a luxury of the Egyptians. That it was a luxury of the Egyptians, and we're not going to bring their yeast into our bread. We're not going to bring their yeast. We're not going to bring those influences that worship other gods into what we consume. We're going to be the type of people who focus on the provision of God's bread.

This is really fascinating stuff. In fact, I would invite you to spend 100 years meditating on when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” Do you think it had yeast in it or not? OK, watch this.

“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every first-born male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.” (Verse12)

Is this hard? Yeah, and what do we do when we come across hard stuff in the Bible? I just want to notice something here. This is exactly what Pharaoh ordered to happen to God's people. What's different is Pharaoh provided no means of salvation from certain death. Here, Yahweh does. One of the interesting things here -- I think it's debatable -- but one of the interesting lines of reasoning is it could well be that the Egyptians were also invited to take the blood of the lamb. They just failed to do it. So, God provides a means of salvation, where Pharaoh doesn't.

I am Yahweh. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. Notice here that the death of the first-born is a judgment primarily, against whom? The gods of Egypt.

“The blood on the house where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day, you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.” (Verse 13-15)

Again, yeast here is being symbolic of all the stuff that they might have been taken from the Egyptians. Is that harsh? Sorry.

“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat – you may do that. You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of Egypt. You will observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.” (Verse 16-18)

Interesting language. What was their status before being redeemed? Slaves, and now he says, I bring out your military divisions. This could be a description that they did have military divisions. It could be. I don't think it is. I think that what God is saying is I'm going to bring you out as a strong people, not a weak people, not a slavish people, but a strong people out of the land of Egypt.

“You must observe this day throughout their generations as a permanent statute.” So what does Christmas have to do with Exodus? It is the redemption story, and it's also connected to Easter, isn't it? You know the name of the lamb when translated is referred to as the Passion Lamb. Do you know that we're weird the way that we celebrate Jesus' resurrection? What do we call it? In most English-speaking western places, we call it Easter. That's very strange. The majority of Christians throughout history have just called it Passion, the same word for that lamb or that Passover. The Paschal lamb is the same thing that Christians for human history have been calling Easter because Easter is interwoven with the Passover. What is Easter? It's the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection. And Jesus’s death, his shed blood is what brings us redemption and salvation.

The biblical authors saw in Jesus the ultimate Moses. Just as we are redeemed from slavery to sin and death through the shed blood of Jesus, we find ultimate redemption.

And I know that there are many of us who are here, we're not Christians. We're still trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. Man, I'm so glad you're here and I'm going to say something to you. I already know this to be true Christians a lot of times. I pastor many of them. And they know I'm weird, too. One of the weird things that seems quite weird to many Christians and people looking in is that we're constantly singing about and talking about blood. There's an old song, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Why are we singing about blood so much? This is why. Because we see in Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, that he was the lamb that was slain.

It's interesting. You know your Christmas. You guys have nativity sets. Pull them out every Christmas time. Where's Jesus? In a manger. Who lives in mangers? Yeah, the Christmas story and the Easter story are Exodus recapitulated through the lens of Jesus. Because your Bible is ancient, meditative wisdom literature that's pointing you to Jesus.

Here's what we're going to do now. We are going to participate in this ancient practice of remembering. In just a few moments, we're going to take communion together. In fact, I would invite you to grab the elements there. They're available in the back of the seat in front of you, or on the tables in the back. For those of you joining us online, I invite you to grab some elements that reflect the body and blood of Jesus.

When Jesus sat with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed, do you know what meal he was eating with them? He was eating the Passover. But what's really interesting about the gospel narratives’ description of that Passover meal is that there's one element that is noticeable by its absence. Do you know what is absent in those descriptions of that Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples?

There was bread, there was wine, but what wasn't there? There was no lamb mentioned, and I believe and understand that the biblical authors were actually showing you that the lamb was there -- that the lamb was actually the one convening the meal when we take of communion.

We tether ourselves to this ancient practice of celebrating the Passover redemption from certain death. Freedom from slavery to sin. Have you ever wondered why we eat unleavened bread when we take of communion? It is because of this text, when we celebrate Communion, we're celebrating the Exodus. The redemption story of God's redeeming purpose is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.

This episode uses material from or references the following studies:

Ethnicity in the New Testament

Ethnicity in Acts

Racism and the Church

If you’ve no experience with Bible churches -- a note on sermons at Desert Springs Bible Church: These are more like Bible explorations than sermons in some other churches, where the preacher encourages his/her flock to think or act in certain ways. Rather, pastors at DSBC identify a portion of scripture that they’re going to explore with the congregation, give insights on the text, and ask folks to think about what they’ve heard and draw their own
conclusions. The pastor puts a portion of scripture on the screen, reads it and asks people to notice interesting things. The scripture text being displayed on the monitor is here shown in quotes and bold type with italics. The pastor reads it aloud.

Good morning, church family. Today we're continuing on in a study in the Book of Exodus. We're going to be in Exodus Chapter 5 today, and I want to invite you, if you have a Bible, to turn there. If you don't have a Bible, maybe you got a hand out on the way in. We've got the text printed out there. And for those of you joining us online, if you don't have a Bible readily available, just go open up a new browser and go to bible.com. And again, we'll be in Exodus Chapter 5 today.
Today we're going to explore Exodus 5 for a little together, and then I'm going to bring up my friend Abby Keto, who's going to share a bit about her experience, and even what she's seeing in this text and how it's lived out in her in and through the ministry. She's a part of a team in Uganda, so I'm excited for that today.
So grab your Bibles and turn to Exodus Chapter 5. If you've never read the Bible before, that's totally fine. I want to invite you to follow along, and I just want to tell you guys up front as you're reading along through Exodus, there's a ton of weird stuff. And that's OK. We're just going to let it be. One of the one of our firm convictions as a church family -- one of our core values is that we aren't here to answer all the questions. Our role as leadership is to equip you to discern your own convictions by the power of the Holy Spirit. Part of discerning your own convictions is engaging in texts like Exodus 6, wrestling through it on your own, but more importantly, talking about it with your church family.
Can I let you guys on a little insider secret? OK, I'm a preacher. I love preaching, and one of the reasons I love preaching is because it's a monologue, right? I could just give you my ideas, and then you're stuck there receiving them, and I’d love that, right? Don't get me wrong, but and I'm going to tell you this, and I'm afraid that this is going to undermine my own authority. The best way to engage in Scripture is actually not through listening to a 30-minute monologue, but it's actually wrestling around with the text with your church family for the next 100 years. It’s wrestling through it, trying to figure out “What do you see?” Or “I don't see it the same way you do. Let's figure that out together.” So that's your homework. We're going to do a little introduction to Exodus 5 today, and there's going to be a lot of weird stuff. And then I want to encourage you to maybe take some people from your church family out to lunch, or to dinner, or coffee sometime and just say, “Hey, what did you think about what we heard in Exodus 5?” And to help you in that, we've got these bookmarks with just some Bible-study questions. So, if you've never done Bible study together with other people, that's awesome. In fact, I love studying the Bible with people who have never done it before, because it means you haven't been spoiled yet with bad interpretation models, right? OK, I'm looking at some of you and you're like “Well, is he talking about me?” Yes, I am. The bookmarks are available on the tables in the back and also out in the lobby, and they've just got some questions there for you. Please feel free to take those and use those. I keep mine right here in my Bible, and lo and behold, it's in Exodus 5, which is where we're at today. That was the best segue I've done all month.
OK, so here's what we're going to do. Just for a little bit, we're going to read portions of Exodus 5, and I just want to invite you in and maybe notice some things. And then I'm going to bring up Abby, and she's going to share some of her perspectives, as well.
So this is Exodus 5. In Exodus one, we saw that the people of God -- the Hebrews, the Israelites --were enslaved in Egypt. So they're crying out to their God, whose name -- what's interesting is they don't really even know God’s name. They're just kind of crying out to some sort of like ambiguous God, it seems. And then what the text says is that God hears their cries, that the cries go up to God. And then what's interesting is that God comes down, and God says to Moses that he's going to deliver the people. God hears the cries, and he’s going to deliver the people.
Moses is like, “Cool.” And then a surprise happens. God says to Moses, “You're going to go,” and Moses is like “What?” Right, and so God calls Moses to go. And Moses is like “They're not going to believe me. I'm not equipped for this job. How am I going to go?” And so you see God working on Moses and also Aaron. He's going to work through Moses and Aaron to redeem his people.
By the time we get to five Chapter 5, Moses has been wrestling with God around his calling. God placed the calling in Moses. He wants to use Moses to meet this need. God is going to do the work of redemption through this human actor, Moses. And Moses fights with him a bunch, argues with him and eventually Moses is like “Alright, I'm going to do this.” And then we get Moses going with Aaron to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. Watch this. You guys ready? I know that you're all on the edge of your seat. So wait and see what happens next. OK, here we go.
“Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.’” (Verse 1)
Notice that they refer to the Lord God. This is, that's if your translation does it. If you had the Hebrew translation, it would just say Yahweh, which is the name of “God I am” or” I am doing in your midst” or “I am always doing or always among you.” That's that we talked about that last week. Check that out on our website if you want to. So it's the proper name. But here's the deal. Pharaoh likely does not call this people group Israel. So far, they've been referred to as the Hebrew people. Pharaoh doesn't know who this God is, right? He knows a bunch of gods, but he’s never heard of this God. So notice what Moses does. He kind of has a little blunder here. Now, watch this. This is crazy.
This is what the Lord God of Israel says. Let my people go so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.” Is that what God said to say now? What's interesting, if you go back, just rewind the tape, God actually didn't say this -- at least not verbatim. So notice Moses and Aaron. They parade into Pharaoh's office and say “This is what the God of Israel says. Yahweh says, let my people go.” Very strong, right there. There's no courtesy here. There's no actually humility here. They go in and they make demands, which is actually different than what Yahweh told him do. What Yahweh told Moses to go to Pharaoh -- you guys go look it up, it's just in the previous text -- he says go to Pharaoh and say please.
Moses maybe seems like he's drunk on his own power. In this moment he's feeling real sure of himself, and he goes in there and he makes a demand. This is different than how God actually told him to approach Pharaoh. Now notice what Pharaoh does next. Oh, first, just a quick application, for me at, least. Just because God called me to do something doesn't give me the right to use my own methods and means to pursue that calling. The ends do not justify the means. OK, let's get going.
“But Pharoah responded, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.’” (Verse 2)
Why is he not letting them go? Because they're making him a ton of money. It would be absolutely in Pharaoh's economic worst interest to let these people go. Because they're an economic machine, right? He has put them under slavery. They are highly productive people, and they're producing a great deal of wealth for Pharaoh. So of course, why would he let him go like that? If you're a Pharaoh, would you let them go? No, this is an economic engine for him. Of course, he's not going to let them go.
“They answered, ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plague or sword.’” (Verse 3)
Now notice they change their posture. Notice they change it up a little bit. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip.” OK, now we're lowering the bar – “into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, Yahweh our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.” That's interesting, so he now says, you, Pharaoh, have to let us go, or God is going to kill us. Depleting your revenue generating machine? Do you see it? Yeah, this is really interesting. OK, this is something maybe we should kind of wrestle with this for the next few decades.
“The king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Go to your labor!’ Pharaoh also said, ‘Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from their labor.’” (Verses 4-5)
What is he saying to Moses and Aaron? “You lazy bums. You get back to work.” Notice Pharaoh postures himself as their boss right there. Check this out. Pharaoh also said look, the people of the land are so numerous and you would stop them from their labor. I mean, he's incredulous. He's like “I can't believe you're asking me to do this.”
“That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foreman, ‘Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves. But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers – that is why they are crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.’” (Verses 6-9)
Pharaoh is listening to Aaron and Moses, and Pharaoh's answer is put them under harsher labor. “These people are starting to get nasty with me. They're starting to talk back to me. They're starting to question me.” So what does Pharaoh do? He increases their labor. He puts pressure onto them, right? Isn't this like standard despot playbook? This is how dictators work, right? I mean, this isn’t anything strange, is it? This is one of the most common things in the world.
“So the overseers and foremen of the people went out and said to them, ‘This is what Pharaoh says: I am not giving you the straw. Go and get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’” (Verses 10-11)
Maybe this would be the equivalent of like “Hey, you guys are building a bunch of concrete buildings. I'm no longer going to give you the ready-made concrete. You're going to have to go make the concrete yourself.” ‘
So this is a building-supply situation, but it's not a supply chain problem. Pharaoh’s intentionally making their work harder. He increases the pain by expecting the same production but decreasing the resources that he gives to these people.
“So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The overseers insisted, ‘Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when the straw was provided.’ Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, ‘Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?’” (Verses 12-14)
Do you see this is a set up? Pharaoh setting them up to fail here as kind of like a punishment for the audacity of Moses and Aaron saying, “Let us go worship for three days in the wilderness.” Do you see it? So do you see here that Pharaoh is in direct conflict with Yahweh ?
Right, Pharaoh is posturing himself. Notice what Yahweh says. He always says, “I want the people to go.” And Pharaoh says, in direct contradiction, “No, no, no. I want these people to stay.” God Yahweh says, “I want these people to be let free so that they can worship me.” And Pharaoh says, “No, no no. I’m going to hold them captive so they can serve me.” Do you see the conflict here? It's Pharaoh and Yahweh. Let’s keep going.
“So the Israelite foremen went in and cried for help to Pharaoh: ‘Why are you treating your servants this way? No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us – Make bricks! Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.’ But he said, ‘You are slackers. Slackers! That is why you are saying, let us go sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks.’” (Verses 15-18)
OK, notice this. What did they do? What's the text say? To whom are they crying out? To whom are they not crying out? You see, earlier in the text, we see that they cried out to God, and God heard them. The cries went up, and God came down. He heard their cries, and then he enacted a redemptive work. But the Israelites have no patience for that. They’ve got no patience for Yahweh. They're not going to wait for Yahweh, so where do they go to cry out? Pharaoh. Do you see? There are two places we can send our cries. There are two places we can look to for our help -- the powers of this world or the power of God. Do you see it?
They're crying out to whom? Pharaoh. Pharaoh, why are you treating your servants this way? They see this as a set up, but he, Pharaoh said you are slackers.
The Israelite foreman saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.” Do you see that keep coming up? I mean, this pain is predominant in their life. When they left Pharaoh, they confronted whom? They did not go out and cry to God. Where did they go? They went to Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them. OK, watch this.
“When they left Pharaoh, the confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them. ‘May the Lord take note of you and judge,' they said to them, 'Because you have made us reek to Pharaoh and his officials -- putting a sword in their hand to kill us!' So Moses went back to the Lord and asked, ‘Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? And why did you ever send me? Ever since I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has caused trouble for this people, and you haven’t rescued your people at all.’ " (Verses 20-23)
So here God places a calling in Moses’ life. Moses kinda drops the ball a little bit, but he's also trying to be faithful to God's calling, right? He starts to use his own means, but then he corrects and he uses the means that Yahweh told. But then the king of this world, Pharaoh, actually responds negatively to God’s redemptive work in the moment. So Moses meets resistance, and the Israelite people, whose cries had gone up and to whom God hadn’t come down, they're tired of waiting. They feel like the world is collapsing underneath them. And they wonder, “Is God hearing our cries?” There's so much confusion in their life that they actually accuse the person that God called. They accuse Moses and Aaron, the ones whom God called to do this redemptive work. They accuse them of putting swords in Pharaoh's hands to slay them. They are calling good evil.
Sometimes when we answer God’s call in our life, we get resistance even from the people we're trying to help. This ever happened to y'all? Like in good faith, you're trying to minister to or serve somebody, and they actually respond negatively. Ever happen to y'all? Yeah, so other people’s response to living out our calling is not a justification or a negation of our calling. It's just their response to our living into our calling in the moment.
OK, here we go. So Moses goes back to where? He's getting resistance from Pharaoh, and he's getting resistance from who else? The people. So who do you turn to then? Alright, well. So Moses went back to the Lord that asked,” Lord, why have you caused …” Notice? The blame is being shot in all different directions here, isn’t it?
Now this is the sin of Adam. Remember when Adam gets busted for eating the fruit in the garden, and he blames the woman. Moses is just doing what he learned from his father, Adam, right? Moses goes back to the Lord, “Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people?” Notice --whose people? Not Moses’ people. He isn’t ready to associate with these people. “Why did you ever send me?” You guys ever felt like that before? “Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
How many pray like this? “God, you're not owning up to what you said you were going to do. You're causing more problems here.” Do you see that Moses has no problem arguing with God? Right, he's in his calling. He's meeting resistance. He goes back to God and says, “Why have you put me here? What are you even doing here? You said you were going to deliver these people. But I haven’t seen deliverance yet.” Some of us know what that feels like.
And this is where the chapter breaks. I don't like this chapter break right here. The chapter breaks -- and, by the way, chapter breaks were added in by some dude like 1000 years ago. They're not divinely inspired, so don't worry about the chapter break. Check this out in Chapter 6 verse one.
“But the Lord replied to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh; because of a strong hand he will let them go, and because of a strong hand he will drive them from this land.’” (Chapter 6, Verse 1)
Whose hand is he talking about? Moses’ hand? No. Aaron’s hand? No. Whose? It's the hand of the Lord. Notice that Pharaoh uses his hand to do what? And Yahweh is using his hand to do what? If you'll pardon me, to disarm the destroyer.
And so even though the Israelites, even Moses, no one in this text sees God working. And yet, what? What is God doing? He's at work, right? There's this song we say, “Even though we can't see it, you're working, you're working.” So, God is about, and this sets the stage this. Check this out.
In verse one of chapter 6, the Lord replied to Moses. Now you will see a pivot point in the Book of Exodus. From this moment on you see God working and boy, does he work. He is going to work with a mighty hand, and you're going to see it in like full, vivid effect.
But I just wanted to pause here in this text. Let's not get just too quickly to the rest of this story, because for many of us we sit in a space where we feel like we're stepping into God's calling, we feel like we're doing what God has called us to do or following God in difficult circumstances. But it's just done. We're getting so much resistance it just doesn't feel like God’s at work. And so we're going to just pause there in the text and I'm going to invite Abby Keto to come up. I think that her perspective on this actually is going to be really helpful for us.
One of the things that we believe here at Desert Springs is that God is constantly a work, not only in our church family, but in every church family here in Phoenix and around the world. And we love partnering with other organizations and churches. We love partnering with other churches and organizations like Abby and her husband David in Uganda, because it's not a matter of charity for us as a church. It's a matter of equity and reciprocity that there are gifts that we're giving to each other within the global church, and one of the many we get to receive from the Church and Union is the perspective that Abby is going to share with us today.

A note for those new to studying the Bible
At DSBC, we work to equip people to discern their own convictions. The teaching below is an exploration of a portion of the Bible in which the pastor gives insights on the text and invites us to think about what we have heard and to draw our own conclusions.

During the live teaching, the speaker will usually place portions of the text on a screen, read it and then ask us to notice interesting things.  The scripture text below is shown in quotes and bold type with italics.

Today we are continuing in a study in the Book of Exodus.  We're going to be in Exodus Chapter 2, and here's the question that I want to ask you.  Actually, what I want is that you to think about it.  Have you ever thought about or asked this question: What is God up to?  What is God up to?  You're seeing things happen in the world.  You're seeing things happen in your own life.  And you're saying to yourself, “OK, I don't quite understand what's going on here.  Some of this stuff is painful, some of it's scary.  Some of it just seems quite strange, and I think maybe God is working, but I have no idea what God’s up to.”  Have you guys ever been there?

So here's the deal.  In your Bible this theme shows up all over the place, and I want to invite you in today to explore this question together.  What's God up to?  What's God up to in this confusing circumstance, in this strange situation, maybe even in this painful season.  What is God up to?

We're going to be in Exodus Chapter 2.   I'm going to catch you guys up.  If you missed last week, I'd encourage you to listen to last week’s sermon.  It's the best one I've done all year on Exodus chapter one.  So go ahead and listen to that.  But I want to just get you caught up. OK, so Exodus is the second book of the Bible.  And by the way, if you have a Bible and encourage you to turn there, Exodus Chapter 2.  If you're joining us online and you don't have a print Bible, no problem.  Just go to bible.com.  We're using the Christian Standard version of the Bible today. If y'all are joining us in person, I believe you got a printout with it, so you can make marks and notations.  If you don't own a Bible, we'd love to get you one, and those are available in the tables in the back.  Please take one of those as our gift to you.  I want to encourage you to follow along because the Exodus story, chapters one and two are intricately interwoven, not only with each other, but also with the first book of the Bible, which is Genesis.

Genesis starts with God creating humanity.  The whole goal was for God to dwell in peace, blessing and harmony with humans -- and for humans to multiply, to go out and fill the earth and to make the rest of the earth like the Garden of Eden, to use the raw elements that God had created.  But the big idea was that God would dwell with his people, and then people -- you're never going to guess -- people messed it up.  People gave God the finger, turned their back on God and basically said, “I want to be God, not you.’  Of course, this creates a rift in the relationship, and so now you've got humans expelled from the garden, severed from the direct presence, blessing and peace of God.

And so the question is, will we ever get back to Eden?  Will we ever get back to union with God?  Will we ever get back to standing in the direct presence of God, even though we have turned our backs on God?  We've missed the mark.  We've gone our own way, we've done evil.  Even though we've done that, is there any possible way to get back to that Eden, being in the presence of God?  Luckily for us, the Bible does not end in Genesis Chapter 3, but continues.  It's going to answer that question.  In the middle part of Genesis, you find that God is going to do a redemptive work through a person named Abraham.  God goes to Abraham and says, I'm picking you.  Leave your land.  Leave your people.  I'm going to make you, Abraham, into a great people, into a great nation.  You're going to fill the earth, and through you all the nations of the earth, all the peoples, all the world will be blessed.

So you're thinking, “Cool God is going to do a work through this guy named Abraham.”  But here's the rub.  God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great people or nation.  And what do you need to do?  And I hope you don't mind.  I'm not trying to be crass or anything, but you need to start procreating.  Yeah, right.  Hallelujah, right.  Thanks be to God for his many good gifts, right?

The thing is, though, that throughout Genesis there's this tension, where the promised line of Abraham, they keep bumping up against these hindrances that God ends up overcoming. It looks like God's not at work.  You know there are people who cannot conceive children.  There's barrenness.  There are threats.  There are promised ones being put under threat, and this whole thread through Genesis is this promised line coming under threat.  And you, as the reader, are wondering, what is God up to?  What's he doing?  Because it doesn't seem like he's working.  But then it seems like he's working.

So Abraham has Isaac. Isaac has Jacob.  And Jacob has multiple children.  In Jacob's day, they leave the land because there's a famine. Oh, right. In Genesis, we're wanting them to become a great nation, but there's a famine.  Oh, and we're wondering what’s God up to.  There's this great famine, but God doesn't seem like he's working.  But then it turns out he's working through one of Jacob's kids, Joseph.  He’s actually been sold into slavery into Egypt, but because of God working behind the scenes, he actually elevates Joseph.  Joseph figures out this plan, where during the seven years of abundance, he harvests all this food and then he keeps it for the seven years of famine. And so Jacob's family, the promised line, we're wondering what's going to happen in them.  Are they going to die?  They actually go into Egypt, where Joseph is.  Lo and behold, God’s at work, and God provides for them.  And so, they settle in Egypt.  And then this is the end of Genesis.

We're wondering about this small group of about 70 people, this little clan.  What's going to happen to them?  Are they going to become a great nation?  Then you go to Exodus chapter one, which we talked about last week.  In Exodus chapter one, you see that this small clan of people has been fruitful.  They’ve multiplied, and now they're swarming all over Egypt.  Many years later, a new king comes to power, and he knows nothing about how Joseph saved the day years before.  He's threatened by this promised nation.  He's afraid that they're going to take up arms and conquer him.  What he does is an act of xenophobic ethnocentrism, like subjection. He puts all the Hebrews into slavery.  Then that doesn't work. They continue to be fruitful and multiply more. And you're thinking, oh no, if Pharaoh gets his way, this promised line is not going to work.

Then Pharaoh, so scared of losing his power, says, “I want you to kill all the boys.” Have you guys heard this before?  It's shocking.  It's horrifying, right?  In chapter one, he tells these two midwives, “Hey, when you're delivering babies, check and see if it's a boy.  If it's a boy, kill it.”  And these two midwives actually deceive Pharaoh at peril to their own lives.  They deceive pharaoh.  They make up a lie, a story.  And then Pharaoh -- the very last act of Pharaoh in that chapter --tells everyone in Egypt, “If you see a Hebrew boy, throw it in the Nile.”

You guys got me?  And we're wondering about this promised line of Abraham.  We're on the edge of our seats, right?  What's going to happen?  Great question. Are you guys excited? Yeah, I am.  I'm really interested to see what happens.  OK, so what's the question?  We're asking what's God up.  OK, so here we go.

“Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.”

Notice that we don't have their name, their proper names, but we have their tribe.  They’re descendants of Levi.  Back in Genesis, Levi was one of two brothers.  This is a horrible story, and I'm actually not going to go into details.  Something really bad happens to their sister, and to avenge their sister’s honor they go and kill a whole village of people.  This is not in your children’s Bible.  In fact, do you guys want to know why children’s Bibles are only this big?  Because most of the Bible stuff is like horrifying, right?  Could you imagine reading that to your children at bedtime?  Oh, and, by the way, can I give you guys a pro tip?  Don't do the Noah's Ark story.  Yeah, there's a little cute giraffe, there's a little there's a little bunny rabbit. But why are all the people floating out in the water?  They're engorged corpses because of God’s great justice.  Would tell your kid that before bed?  Don’t do that.

OK, so now what do we know about Levi is that he was one who would not, who could not, suffer an injustice done.  He was a person who would rise to action.  He would not suffer an injustice.  That's one of the things we know about Levi.  So Levi got married, and you've got two people from this tribe who are known for not suffering an injustice.

“The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.”  (Verse2)

Check this, the woman became pregnant, gave birth to son.  What's supposed to happen?  According to Pharaoh, you throw him in the Nile.

OK, when she saw that he was beautiful … I actually don't like that translation, because every mom thinks her kids beautiful, and most of them are wrong. In Hebrew, it actually means good.

So we're going to get kind of Bible nerdy today.  I hope that's OK with you.  If it's not OK, I've got a list of great churches for you to check out.  So she gave birth to a son, and when she saw that he was good, she hid him for three months.  Why did she hide him?  Because what was Pharaoh going to do?

“But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch.  She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.”  (Verse 3)

But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket.  Not a great translation, and here's why.  This word in Hebrew, the only other time it's used, it's translated as ark. It's the same word for what Noah put all the animals and his family in.  You see, Noah was saved through the waters.  He was saved through the waters.  The waters were going to kill everybody, but Noah was saved through the waters in in an arc, OK.  And so, this is like a miniature ark.  She makes a miniature ark for him and coats it with asphalt and pitch, the same things that got coated on Noah's ark.  She placed the child in it in the ark and set it among the reeds … *** TV, time out

How many of you have ever seen the movies about Moses?  There's always this scene where -- usually they'll refer to it as the Red Sea -- the Red Sea parts.  It's not actually the Red Sea.  It's the sea of reeds.  So if you skip ahead in Exodus, when Moses leads the people out of Egypt, they're being chased by Pharaoh, who wants to kill them, God does a miracle where he parts the waters of the sea of reeds.  Now the people of Israel are saved through the waters.  And the waters mean death, right?  What are the waters in your Bible?  By and large, they mean death. They’re saved by going into the watery abyss of death.  Do you guys see it?  How's Noah saved?  In an arc through the watery abyss.  What's going to end up happening to the people that Moses saves?  They go through death.  They go through the waters to find redemption.  Notice that with Moses you get a miniature foreshadowing of what's about to happen.  The Bible is so cool. ***

OK, check this out.  Where did she put the baby?  In the Nile.  What did Pharaoh say to do with your baby?  Did she obey or disobey Pharaoh?  This is compassionate subversion.  And at this point in time, you now have two midwives who engaged in this conspiracy of compassion.  To subvert the king of this world, who is trying to demand an injustice, now you have his mom, the daughter of Levi, who could not suffer an injustice notice.  This theme will continue.  So, are they obedient or disobedient?  OK, so check this out.

“Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.”  (Verse 4)

OK, so now we've got a sister who stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.  So where is he?  He's in an ark by the Nile, among the reeds.  Is this bad parenting?  Is this good?  Is she hopeful? Is she in despair? We don't actually know Pharaoh's daughter.  Who ordered that the babies get thrown in the water? Lo and behold …

“Pharoah’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank.  She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, opened it, and saw him, the child – and there he was a little boy crying.  She felt sorry for him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrew boys.””  (Verses 5-6)

A little boy.  Notice what he's doing.  OK, pay attention to that.  You are going to have to remember when we get near the end.  You're going to have to remember crying.

OK, he was crying, and she felt sorry for him.  Again. Compassion.  And what did she say?  “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”  She looks upon the baby and identifies Moses as what?  A Hebrew boy.  Notice that she gives him an identity of Hebrew boy.  I love this. She just says he's one of the Hebrew boys.

“Then his sister said to Pharoah’s daughter, ‘Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?’”  (Verse 7)

I wonder if I could find anyone to fit that description.  Right?  I think I want to make a little bit of a case.  I think that we're meant to understand Pharaoh's daughter as being in on the conspiracy of compassion.  She must have known what dad ordered.  She definitely knows what she's supposed to do with this baby.  And now notice what happens. I think that Pharaoh's daughter is wise to what this sister is proposing.

“’Go,’ Pharoah’s daughter told her.  So the girl went and called the boy’s mother.  Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages’.  So the woman took the boy and nursed him.” (Verses 8 -10)

OK, so check this out.   What Pharaoh wanted to do was kill every boy because these Hebrew people, God’s promised, were, frankly, a threat to his power.  And notice that through the humble, compassionate subversion of two midwives, one mother who is in the clan of Levi, one Princess and one sister -- so five women are making Moses’ life possible in this moment through their conspiracy of compassion.

Moses is saved and, moreover, don't you see the irony of what's going on here?  Who's paying the mom's wages?  Where does Pharoah’s daughter get her money from?  Do you see the irony here?  Pharaoh thinks he's in charge, but notice what God's doing.  He's using the faithful, humble subversion -- this conspiracy of compassion.  These five women are used to bring about God’s ultimate redemptive plan.

It's what God’s up to, right?  You'd see a baby in a little ark in the reeds and you're like, “Is this God’s plan?  How is this God’s plan?  What is God up to?”  But do you see how, notice this.  Has God entered the scene yet?  Have we have we heard from God yet?  Nope, he has not been an active player in the narrative thus far.  OK, keep that in mind.  Oh, there's this song, that goes “Even when I don't see it, you're working.”  Yeah, have you guys seen what's God’s up to?  Hold on.  Whose son does he become?  Pharaoh’s daughter.  OK, so now Moses has a new identity.

Let's keep going.

“When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son.  She named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” (Verse 11)

I love this.  She named him Moses because, she said, “I drew him up out of the waters.”

OK, so his name is Moshe, because “I brought him up out”.  So it's a play on words.  Moses, in Hebrew, is a play on words.  It sounds like drew him up out of the water, but it's actually in the wrong tense.  It actually implies he will bring up out of the water.  And what does Moses do?  What do we know that Moses eventually does? He leads the people through like the Sea of Reeds, Pharaoh's armies chasing. And what does he do? He leads them through.  He draws them up out of the waters.  Do you see it?  Here's the other crazy thing.  In Egyptian, it could also be son of  …

Who is he the son of?  Well, now we've got him being identified as the son of two of these women, right?  OK, this is going to come back here in a little bit.  OK, here we go.  Oh, by the way, here's my objective.   I want to leave you with more questions than answers.  Because what we're reading is ancient, meditative, wisdom literature, not a car manual.

My objective today is for you to receive this and then to walk away and think about it for the next 27 years.  And then just to go like “Oooh!”  And I'll do you one better.  I think that the best way, if you really want to mine this wisdom out of here, is to get with a bunch of people who are different than you and talk it through.  In fact, we gave you guys some what?  Are these called bookmarks?  We gave you guys some bookmarks with some great questions.  Here's your assignment.  Take some people from your church out to lunch today.  Ask some of these questions about Exodus 2, and then maybe you'll become wise in 100 years.

Alright, so let's keep going.

“Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor.  He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.  Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.” (Verse 12)

Years later now, Moses has grown up.  What happened in between?  We don't know.

OK, so let's just notice a few things. One, notice that we've got an Egyptian and a Hebrew here.  What is Moses?  Well, he's both.  In fact, I think Moses is wrestling with an identity problem.  Right, so he sees an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.  Now remember his mom and dad came from which tribe?  Levi, right.  And we know Levites could not suffer in an injustice.  And it was through his mom and sister also having that same temperament, that same value.  “We're not going to suffer this injustice.  We're going to do what's right, if not by Pharaoh as by God.”

Notice what he does.  He sees an injustice.  And there's no indication that he knew necessarily that he was a Hebrew yet.  Did Moses know that he was Hebrew?  The narrator tells us that he is, but did Moses know?  It could well be that Moses merely sees an injustice.  In fact, later in the text, we'll see that he doesn't seem to have an ethnic consideration when he stands for justice.

Watch this – ‘Looking all around another …”  Another way to say it is that he looks to his right and to his left.  And remember when Moses goes through the waters.  Where are the waters?

So here you have this redemptive moment where Moses is going to stand in and step up for justice.  And Moses looks around.  But notice where Moses doesn't look.  He looks to his left and he looks to his right.  Where does he not look?  Now watch this.  Moses has a desire to make things right.  But does he?  Moses takes matters into his own hands and exacts justice according to his version of it.  He does not say to God, “God, help me understand what's what to do here.”  He doesn't pray.  He just acts, he acts violently, and he strikes down an Egyptian and buries him.  So now he's doing deception.  Either manslaughter or murder, depending on how you want to look at it.  And he's leading with this core principle, this core value of seeking to do right, seeking to make things right, seeking for justice, right?  Standing up for the oppressed, but he does it by his own power and by his own means.  And what does he do?  He just propagates more evil.  Do you see it?  Might that be a word for us today -- that the ends don't justify the means?

All right, let’s keep going.

“The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you attacking your neighbor?’   ‘Who made you a commander and judge over us?’ the man replied.  ‘Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’”

The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews.  Now what did we have in the first scene?  Who were the two people fighting?  And Egyptian and Hebrew.  Now what does he find?  Two Hebrews fighting.  And he asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”

“Who made you a commander and judge over us?  Now here's the here's the trick.  Guess what Moses is going to become.  But has God made him that yet?  You see, he's he may be trying to step into a position, to step into a calling, that God has not called him to yet.  Do you see it?

OK, “Who made you commander and judge over us?  Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”  He buried the dude, the corpse, because he wanted to hide, right?  He wanted to hide it, and guess what happened?  He was found out.  Is Moses in trouble?

OK, so scene one -- he sees a Hebrew and Egyptian fighting.  He steps in, he slays the Egyptian who, in his mind, is the wrongdoer.  And so, he propagates evil, even though in his mind he thought he was doing the right thing, doing the justice thing.  And now he sees how that action has produced not only sour fruit, but also that he's going to be in trouble with Pharaoh.  Watch this.

“Then Moses became afraid and thought, ‘What I did is certainly known.’ When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. 

Now, has Pharaoh been trying to do this for a while?  I think we get the implication that his daughter has been protecting Moses.  But now that Moses has done manslaughter or murder, that protection is going to work no more.  Do you guys maybe see that in the text?  Ah, Moses is growing up.

But what is God up to?  Here's this warrior for justice, stepping up and, in his mind, doing the right thing.  And it keeps not working.  In fact, it keeps failing on him.  And now Pharaoh found out and is trying to kill Moses.  What happens to Moses?

“But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.? (Verse 15)

Moses flees from Pharaoh and goes to live in the land of Midian and sits down by the well.  Another way to put that is he settled in the land.  We're not to read the narrative like these two Hebrews were talking to him – like he turned, ran all the way to Midian, and then sat down, right?  So he made his way to Midian, and then he settled there. OK.

“Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters.  They came to draw water and filled throughs to water their father’s flock.  Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock.”  (Verses 16-17)

Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters.  Seven oftentimes is used as a literary device to refer to the number of perfection.  OK, so Moses at this point in time, we don't think that he's been looking for a lady.  But now there are seven daughters, and notice what happens.

Where's Moses?  He's sitting down by a well.  They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away. But Moses came to their rescue.  Third act, right?  Remember the first one was the Egyptian and the Hebrew, and then it was the two Hebrews and now he's like, “OK.  Third times a charm.”  Notice Moses is a man of action.  He's a person who steps in when he sees an injustice.

He steps in and comes to their rescue and watered their flock.  Also, now, what we get here is some humility.  Notice that he takes the extra step of doing what?  Watering their flock OK. Now this could be an act of compassion.  It could also be a real suave move.  Like “Hey girls, can I get you something cold to drink?”   I don't know.

“When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, ‘Why have you come back so quickly today?’  They answered, ‘An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds.’” (Verse 18)

An Egyptian?  Wait.  Is he Hebrew or Egyptian? Do you remember that Pharaoh's daughter called him a what?  Hebrew.  And now the daughters of Reuel call him what?  OK, do you think that he's got an identity conflict going on here?  Which one is he?  It seems to me like we’re meant to understand that God is shaping Moses by the things God is allowing him to experience.  You guys ever been there before?

“’He even drew water for us and watered the flock.’  ‘So where is he?’ he asked his daughters.  ‘Why did you leave the man behind?  Invite him to eat dinner.’”  (Verses 19-20)

This guy’s thinking, ‘This is great.  He'd make a great son-in-law, invite him to eat dinner.”

“Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.  She gave birth to a son whom he named Gersom, for he said, ‘I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.’” (Verses 21-22)

Moses agreed to stay with the man, of course, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses and marriage.  So now he is married, and she gave birth to a son, whom he named Gershom.  Oh, this is so cool.  I think the text is leading us to believe that Moses here is experiencing all of this pain, suffering and confusion to shape Moses into the type of person that God wants to use to bring his promised people out of captivity.  God is using these circumstances.  God is using these painful moments to shape and mold Moses.  Moses, I think, in all of this, is still not confident about who he is.  The son’s name is Gershom, and that means stranger.

Names are super important in the Bible, but this Gershom -- he even names his first-born son “stranger”.  I think that Moses is viewing himself as a stranger in a strange land.  I don't know where I fit.  I don't know who I belong to.  I don't know where I am.  I don't know who's people I am.  And he names his son Gershom. Notice why.  For he said, I have been a stranger, a resident alien in a foreign land.  Does he mean Midian?  Or Egypt?  Does he mean Reuel’s house or Pharaoh’s house?  Notice the shaping.

“After a long time, the king of Egypt died.  The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor; and they cried out; and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God.” (Verse 23)

 The King of Egypt died. And what do we hope will happen?  Liberation.  We're hoping that we'll get a new king and we'll have what?

OK, here we go. It keeps going.  Even though there's a new Pharaoh, it keeps going, and they cried out because of their difficult labor.   What did the cry do?  It ascended to God.  Now notice this.  What was Moses doing in the ark in the reeds when Pharaoh's daughter found him?  He was crying out, and what happened?  God provided a means of redemption from the death waters.  That cry went up to Pharaoh's daughter, and Pharaoh's daughter metaphorically came down. The cry goes up, the redeemer comes down.  The cry goes up.  And God comes down.

“And God heard their groaning; and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob and God saw the Israelites; and God knew.”   (Verses 24-25)

God heard their groaning.  He's now acting.  Do you see it?  We've gotten this far into the Book of Exodus, and God has not yet acted in the narrative.  And yet here he acts.  He heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  And God saw the Israelites, and God what?  God knew if you were an Israelite in that scene, would you be happy about this news that our cries have gone up?  And what's about to happen?  God's going to come down.  Throughout this entire narrative, we have not seen God acting, have we?  Well, he hasn't been a named actor, right?  But have we seen God acting?  You see, sometimes it's really confusing when we see the world working as it is, experiencing the things that we're experiencing, the circumstances that we find ourselves in.  We maybe even would say, “God, why don't you answer me?  God, where are you God?  What are you up to?  And it's really good to know that God knows that when our cries go up, the redeemer comes down.

Moses tried to execute justice in his own way according to his own power, and it ended up just begetting more evil.  But Moses as a redeemer points us to the ultimate Redeemer.  For all of humanity have turned their back on God, going our own way, which ultimately just leads to chaos, corruption and death.  We cry out to God.  God, save us from this mess. God, redeem your people.  God, would you save me?  And when the cry goes up, what happens?  The Redeemer comes down.

"Mind Blown" - Sermon by Caleb Campbell

When was the last time that you've had your mind blown -- when you've learned something or discovered something that totally changed how you thought about the world, … how you thought about yourself, … how you thought about other people?  When was last time you had your mind blown?

Today we're concluding a series that we started at the beginning of the year in the Gospel of Mark.  We've been looking at what it means to follow Jesus -- to live as one of his disciples, or as a follower of Jesus.  Today, we're actually going to go back to where we started in the Gospel of Mark Chapter one.  We're going to look at the inaugural sermon that Jesus gave, and in this sermon, we're going to see, I believe, something that totally blows our minds.  In fact, having our mind blown by Jesus is one of the key things that happens in following Jesus and living as his disciples.

I remember as a kid, my parents took me to church.  We did summer camps, too, at our church.  They called it Vacation Bible School.  Many of you guys are familiar with Vacation Bible School, and I just want to say some words out loud, and let you let you in.  Do you guys want to do a little insider baseball today?  I'll let you guys in on just a little something.  Why do we call our summer program Splash Camp?  Well, for starters, it's Splash Camp because there's a lot of water involved.  But secondly, the reason we don't call it Vacation Bible School is … I'll just show you why.  If I say the word vacation, is that happy?  Like how do you feel when I say vacation?  Yeah, and then now Bible school.  Right, it's like a contradiction of terms. It's like happy, not happy, right?  So, we call it Splash Camp.  We certainly love teaching the Bible.

I grew up going to vacation Bible School.  And at Vacation Bible School, one of the things that was repeated over and over and over again -- At least what I heard – was the big idea of following Jesus, about saying a prayer to Jesus so I could go to heaven when I die instead of going to hell.  I definitely didn't want to go to hell as a kid.  Still don't as a grown up, but at that point in time that was like the big push, right?  The leaders and the teachers would say you’ve got to, you’ve got to say the prayer so you can go to heaven when you die, so you can be with Jesus.  Certainly, being with Jesus when we die is part of the good news that Scripture teaches.  There's much more mind-blowing truth to following Jesus than just that, but that's what I picked up.  I love our Splash Camp program because our splash campers this last week – more than 300 kids were here -- and they heard about the goodness of God.  They heard about God’s creative power -- and that we get to be creative, too, because we're made in God's image. They learned about Jesus being God in the flesh -- that if we want to see God, we can look to Jesus and truly know God, that following Jesus is not primarily about when we die.  It's a reality.  It’s the life that we live now.

Today, I'm going to look at Jesus’s inaugural sermon.  This is a mind-blowing sermon -- and it's just a few sentences.  And then we're going to look at the proper response to the message that Jesus gives.

In this section -- in this little mini sermon that Jesus gives – there are five phrases that I want to tease out for us today as we conclude this series and follow Jesus.  So, check this out.  This is the gospel of Mark chapter one, verse 14 and on.  If you're joining us online, I'd encourage you to grab a Bible and follow along with us.  If you don't have a Bible, just go to bible.com.  We're using the Christian Standard version of the Bible today.  For those of you joining us in person, you should have it printed out in a handout.  That's given so that you can make notes, and I want to encourage you to do that.  Or if you have a Bible, I encourage you to turn to Mark chapter one.  Also, if you don't have a Bible and would like one, there are some available on the tables in the back.  Please take that as our gift to you this morning.  

So, here we go.  Are you guys ready?  OK, so just hold on.  I want you to help me out here.  I want you to like this.  This is the spiritual discipline of having your mind blown, and this is what it looks like.  OK, very good.  I want to make the argument from the text that this is an appropriate spiritual discipline -- that you should you and I should consistently be having our minds blown.  Ready, here we go.

“Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.” (Verse 14)

Have you guys ever heard the word gospel before?  OK, so gospel is just another way to say good news.  Good news wasn’t really a religious word; it was there was consistently in the time of Jesus.  There were people who would walk into town, and if they had good news about the king -- maybe there was a military conquest, and their king was victorious, or maybe a new prince or princess was born -- they would come into town and they would herald the good news.  And then they would proclaim whatever good news they had.

So, Jesus shows up on the scene in Galilee.  Jesus shows up and says what?  “Good news.”  And everyone thinks, “Cool we know it’s good news when we see him.”  But this good news is different because this is the good news -- not the good news of Caesar, which would have been common.  “Hey, Caesar won the battle,” and everyone would celebrate.

This is not the good news of a military conquest.  This is the good news of whom?  What is the gospel that Jesus comes proclaiming?  What is the good news that Jesus has for us?  Check this out.  The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of … What's this language “the kingdom of God has come near?  Repent and believe the good news?”

“… and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel.’”  (Verse 15)

This is the sermon.  Now s let's zoom in just around a few words.  First of all, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near.”

So, Jesus shows up and says, “Good news,” thank you.  “Good news.”  Let's all say it together.  Good news.  Jesus shows up and says good news.  Good news of God?  What is the good news of God?

“That the time is fulfilled …” If you were to go back home today and read through your whole Bible, which I would strongly encourage you to do, especially in a group of a bunch of people who are different than you so you can learn from one another and challenge one another.  And after 100 years of doing that, you’ll become wise.  That's what we're all doing here.  A bunch of misfits at Desert Springs Bible church invite you into that.

So, one of the things you'll discover reading through your older testament -- or what we call the older testament, Jesus just called it scripture -- is that throughout the scriptures, from Genesis all the way forward, there is a hope that there would one day be a king. A king who would save us from this mess, who would save us from our sin.  Who would save us from the snares of evil and death.  That God would save us.  Would become king.  And there are all these nuances and beauty.  And it's this unfolding mystery in your older testament.  But usually, or often I should say, those who were looking forward to that hope -- that hope-filled day -- they would say it's the end of time.

I think time is a linear thing, but just that season, that time, the time is now what?  OK, so Jesus has another way to say “now is the time” that we've all been looking forward to -- that there would one day be the rule and reign of God present here in our midst.  Right.  And the time is fulfilled -- what we've all been waiting for -- and the Kingdom of God has come.  This is fascinating   -- “has come.”

What’s come here?  Do we talk about kingdoms like that?  Don't we say things like the Kingdom was established, or the Kingdom was conquered, or the Kingdom was formed?  But here Jesus says that the Kingdom of God has what?  Come near.  One of the things that you frequently find in the Gospel of Mark is Jesus is a little playful with the Kingdom.  He doesn't come right out and say it.  He says things like this:  the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.  The Kingdom of God is like a shepherd who finds a lost sheep.  

But one of the things that Jesus says is that the Kingdom of God is imminent, meaning it's right here, I think, and I think Mark fleshes this out.  I think Mark thinks that Jesus views his own self as the embodiment or manifestation of the Kingdom.  That the Kingdom of God is in him somehow, and then, and I think this is proven, because then he invites us into follow him.  He has that synonymous with being members of the Kingdom.  To put it another way, if I could just say it like this:  Following Jesus and living the Jesus way, putting our faith and our allegiance to Jesus is entering into that new Kingdom.  Because following Jesus and the Kingdom of God -- Jesus seems to mesh those two things together, which is why I think he says the Kingdom of God has come what?  Near.  It's near to you.  Jesus is here.  Here it is, right?

You might be wondering, “Why is this important?”  It's a great question.  Let me tell you why.  It's important because without the King of God, the only powers that we can give ourselves over to are the kingdoms of this world.  And the kingdoms of this world lead to death.  Don't we see that, don't we?  I mean, some of us, we've tasted it.  If the only thing that we've got is the kingdoms of this world, is that not hell?  So, the Kingdom of God being nearer -- is that good news?  If you have ever been sickened by the corruption, and the evil, and the decay, and the death of the kingdoms of this world -- if you've ever been oppressed by it, if you've ever borne weight of evil -- this is great news.  Because the Kingdom of God is now here, the time is fulfilled.

I know that for many of us, we kind of grew up or have heard what the gospel is.  You say a prayer, and you go to heaven when you die.  This may be something that you want to explore further.  You're in luck.  This summer we're hosting a bunch of topical studies.  They're one-offs.  You can come for one, you can come for all of them.  We're calling it summer sessions, and we're going to do a whole session just on the biblical theme and concept of the Kingdom of God.   In your handouts, it's summer sessions.  There's a website you can go to.  Check out that link and see all of the topics.  And I want to tell you when you go and look at those topics, some of them are going to be scary.  Maybe you even read the topic and you're like, that makes me uncomfortable.  Some of the topics may be scary and uncomfortable, but the class won’t be.  Class is going to be fun.  We're going to have a lot of laughs.  We're going to read the Bible together.  We're going to encourage one another and have a Jesus-centered conversation about these things.  I'm really looking forward to the summer session on the Kingdom of God.  I invite you to participate and join me in that that study that we're going to do together.  The Kingdom has come where?  Near.  And so, what does Jesus tell us to do?  First of all, he tells us what?  What has happened?  He says this is what happened:  The time is fulfilled.

The Kingdom of God has come near, and I think the application is in him.  What does he tell us then to do then?  Watch this:  Repent and believe the what?  Good news.  Hold up. This word, repent.  When I say vacation, do you feel happy?  When I say Bible school?  When I say repent?  It's kind of a word that’s a little bitter on the tongue.  Like if I come to you and say, “Hey, repent,” how does that make you feel?

I'm going to let you in.  I'm a preacher and sometimes I study sermons.  I read and watch and listen to a lot of sermons.  I know that there's sermons that go like this.  The pastor is all sweaty.  He's got his finger out, and he's pointing it at you.  Categorically, those are sometimes referred to as fire and brimstone sermons.

Notice, Jesus does not have that tone.  Jesus is proclaiming what is good news.  And just as we sang to each other a moment ago, he is for you.  So this repentance thing, I just want to put a little seasoning on it.  Because that language, repent has been flavored wrong in modern English.  It's just not capturing what Jesus actually had in mind with that word repentance.  And now we're going to get geeky.  OK, so we're going to get all Bible nerdy.  

Jesus did not speak English.  We think he spoke Aramaic, and then the Gospel writers wrote in Greek.  So there's a lot of translation happening, and but the original Greek word that Mark used is metanoia. So super geeky.  Have you ever heard the word meta?   It means over or above.  Like meta-narrative is the overarching story.  And then metanoia, the “noia” part is knowing.

It's our thinking another way to say metanoia.  Another way to translate it could be to have a paradigm shift or to think above what you're currently thinking.  Metanoia is thinking above, right?  Hear me on this.  It does not primarily have the idea of penitence, although that's seasoned in there. It's not the primary flavor, penitence.  It got translated into Latin a few hundred years after Mark wrote it, and you got that language of penitence, and that's where we get repentance, repentance, right?  And it's got that seasoning of sackcloth, sackcloth, and ash, and kind of regret or remorse.   And certainly, that seasoning is there.

But the primary flavor is to have your mind blown, to have a complete breakthrough, to see world differently.  Just see yourself differently, see God Jehovah completely and utterly -- not just change your mind, but change your whole self.  Sometimes the biblical authors would say body and soul.  To have the whole the way I think, the way I feel, the way I act, the things I have -- all of that.  To have my mind blown.  And is that not what happens when I'm stuck following the power structures of the kingdoms of this world, giving myself over to it?  And then I see Jesus, and Jesus shows up and proclaims the good news of the Kingdom of God.  And then I see the whole world in a new way.  In fact, the Kingdom of Jesus is upside down.  The crown that Jesus wears in the Gospel of Mark is made of thorns.  He is high and lifted up, not in a throne room, but on a cross.  He says if you want to be first, be last.  You people in the kingdoms of this world, you keep trying to take the head.  You keep trying to lead from the front, but I tell you if you want to be a leader of all, be a servant to all.

I told you we're going to get nerdy, huh?  In Hebrew the language isn't like metanoia – which means “think above.”  It's actually turn back.  Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.  It's got this idea of turning back to God -- that humanity was once with God in the garden, and then we turned our backs on God and went our own way.  That language of repentance is turning back.  So, it's got this seasoning of how you turn back to God.

Because do you remember Jesus is so cool? So, Jesus tells this parable, and it's about God's love for us. And he says if any of you had 100 sheep and one of them went astray, if you were a Good Shepherd, wouldn't you leave the 99 for the one?

And Jesus says God is like that.  Because you were in this flock, then you left.  And he's doing all of this to get you back.  We were once with God.  Then we turned our backs on God.  And what Jesus says is the time is fulfilled.  The Kingdom of God has come here.  Therefore turn, and then what's this next word?  Believe OK, so here's my hope.  I hope that you repent of how you think about repentance.

I want to be clear.  Certainly, there is a seasoning of remorse for my past corrupt or wrong thinking.  Certainly, there's remorse, but it's so much bigger than that this.  And also, by the way, repentance is not confession.  Confession is when I say to God, “God, I have sinned” in this way, or that way.  That's confession, when I confess, right?  

If you want to get crazy, your scripture actually says we are to confess our sins to each other.  What kind of community might be we be like if we had such a mind-blowing view of God and his overwhelming grace that we actually had the confidence in him to confess our sins to each other?  

So, here's my encouragement to you.  Invite some people out to lunch from your church family and have a conversation about how you think or have thought or might be changing your mind about repentance.  That's your homework for today.  And if you buy the lunch, you win.  Because in the Kingdom of God, everything is upside down.  To be a leader of all is to be a servant all.

OK, so Jesus wants us to have our minds blown.  And then what's this next word?  Believe.  OK, so this word believes, what does that mean?  I see this word all over the place, right?  I took my kids to Disney.  Everywhere at Disney is this language of belief. Not believe. So, what does believe mean?  What do you think?  What's belief like?  I believe in you.

To hold something to be true -- yeah, you guys are sitting in chairs.  You have faith in the chair, right?  You saw that chair and you said, “I trust you.”  Right, you got down.  I saw you guys early.  You got down.  You said, “Don't let me down.”  There was that one chair that I trusted and had faith in.  I believed in that chair, and then I sat in it.  It did not hold.  And instead of dieting, I got a bigger chair.  Sorry, I'm confessing my sins.

OK, let's get going. Repent and believe -- this language I believe means You guys are right.”  Right, faith, to have faith in -- to have trust in.  When you get on an airplane, you believe in aerodynamics.  You believe in the capacity of the pilot.  You believe in the engineers and the mechanics that put that plane to go.  You trust in them.

But there's another nuance.  There's another nuance to this language of belief.  It's another seasoning.  All that's there – faith, and trust, and to hold to be true.  All of that's there.  But there's another thing that we often miss.  You guys ready for it?  It's the concept of loyalty or allegiance.  I'll use the word allegiance.  To believe in the Kingdom that Jesus at the time … OK, watch this.  To believe that the time is fulfilled, it's also got a seasoning of allegiance.  Because there are the kingdoms of this world, and then there's the Kingdom of what?  God.  And so, to believe in is to change my allegiances from the kingdoms of this world to what?  The Kingdom of God.  The later biblical authors will be meditating on this.  They'll riff on it, and they'll say things like we are ambassadors, citizens of another Kingdom.

No.  OK, hi.  I'm really trying not to be a jerk.  OK, now just hold on.  I’m a pastor.  I'm supposed to be nice.  I'm going to be nice, OK?  There is a phrase that I hear, and I think it might be a little bit misaligned, and that's this phrase.  “We're not home yet.”  Or there's a song “All I know is I'm not Home Yet.”  Or we'll say things like “I can't wait to get home in heaven.”  You guys heard this?  I'm not trying to slam anybody.  I totally get it, it's pervasive in our culture.  But notice what Jesus says.  He does not say.  The time is fulfilled, say a prayer so you can die and then experience the Kingdom of God.  Is that what he says – that your only hope is to die and then go home?  Is that what he says?  What does he say?  The time is fulfilled, which means that right now I can experience the Kingdom of God.  Do you know that Jesus rose from the dead?  OK, I want you follow me here.  If Jesus says that the Kingdom of God has come near and Jesus is still living and his spirit dwells within it -- I just want to notice something.  The presence of Jesus is right here with us now.  Which means that we don't wait till we die.  We can experience the Kingdom – a foretaste of the Kingdom – now.  Because Christ is risen indeed.  I can experience the Risen Christ now, and we can experience the Risen Christ now, which means we can experience aspects of the Kingdom of God -- not in its fullness -- but we can experience the Kingdom now.  My belief in Jesus means that not only do I repent and believe the good news, but also, I believe by placing my trust in Jesus -- which means right now -- following the Jesus way and experiencing the Kingdom any time. 

Listen to me, listen.  There's this phrase.  It's from the Bible, so I like it.  But I'm supposed to like it, but again, it gets being misused.  The phrase says where two or three or three or more are gathered, there I am in your midst. If two of you come with me, and the three of us have had our minds blown by Jesus, we've turned from the kingdoms of this world.  We have turned and given not only our trust our faith, our hope, but also our allegiance to Jesus, and we're living and walking the Jesus way with three of us -- then are we not experiencing a taste of heaven?  Where kindness and love and forbearance and mercy and grace and peace, and peacemaking and justice rule and reign in our midst.  Where the kingdoms of this world have no power in our midst.  Next, where death has no say in our midst, we experienced the Kingdom now.  Now hear me on this.  Jesus will one day return and finish what he started. And I have hope in that, too.  But I am not waiting until then to experience the Risen Christ.  Let's experience him now together, and so let's walk the Jesus way together.  We're going to suck at it, because we're people.  And we're going to keep turning to our own way.  We're going to keep being tempted by the kingdoms of this world.  We're going to have a wrestling match in our hearts about where our allegiance lies.  That's why Jesus put us together as a community of misfits to say, “Hey, remember, there's a Jesus way.”  And so, we call each other to repentance, not out of guilt, shame.  Remember the mind-blowing truth of Jesus?  It's a better way.  Come on, come on back, let's follow him together.  What we do as a community is to call each other to repentance, and, in turn, to repent and believe the good news.

OK, for some of us, this is all fresh.  This is kind of the first time we're hearing this, maybe, or maybe we're putting some pieces together.  This August, we're starting a church-wide study in a curriculum called “Rooted.” It's a ten-week study.  We do it in small groups, and it's a teaching series on the foundations of what we see in Scripture, but also putting what we see in Scripture into practice.  And I want to invite you if you've not yet experienced a Rooted study.  I would invite you to make space for that coming up this August.  Also, we are praying for folks to host Rooted in their homes.  So, if you're interested in hosting, just let us know.  You can use the Next Steps cards in the back of the seat in front of you.  For those of you joining us online, if you'd like to host or you're interested in the group, just go to our website, and on the front page is a contact form.  I believe that as we study together, study scripture together, and engage in these spiritual practices together, we will have a sweet taste of the Kingdom of God in our midst.  Yeah, OK, you guys have been praying for this, by the way.  You guys know the Lord's prayer.

“Our father …” I learned it the old-fashioned way, if you'll pardon me … “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed or holy is your name.”

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done …” Where?  Right here.  We're going to live the Kingdom right here.  So, while there may be poverty and death and injustice and evil in the kingdoms of this world, right here we live the Kingdom of God.  Darn right.  Let's see.  OK, let's keep going.  Oh man, isn't this cool?  Right, I love the Bible.  It's so cool, OK?

OK, so now so that was it. That was Jesus’s sermon.  Some of you were saying that you wish Caleb would do shorter sermons, like Jesus.  And you know what?  I'm not like Jesus yet.  So tough for you.  Maybe by the time I'm 90, I'll be able to do a two-sentence sermon.  

“As he was going along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’” (Verses 16-17)

Notice Mark is doing something here.  Mark is telling us what they are doing what?  So we're having in our minds them going out and gathering fish, right? This is this is so beautiful. First of all, notice that the first two people that Jesus called to follow him were nobodies.  He didn't go to kings.  He didn't go to generals.  He didn't go to the wealthy.  He just went to two nobodies. The only reason we know Simon and Andrew is because Jesus called them.

See, in the Kingdom of God -- this is so fascinating -- in the Kingdom of God, the powerful, the wealthy, and the mighty rarely get it.  They just don't understand it.  And often they're suspicious of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  But what you'll find -- especially in the Gospel of Mark, but actually in your whole New Testament – is that that it's the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant, the widow, the orphan, the outsider, the ones who've been relegated to the margins that oftentimes see it.  Because the Kingdom has got us upside down, and those on the margins are crying out for justice and mercy and love and truth and grace to reign.  Oftentimes the wealthy and the powerful, they feel like they don't need any of that.  This is why the upside-down Kingdom was met with the crucifixion.

Jesus calls these two nobodies who are casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.  Notice what Jesus says to them.  Come on.  Let's all stay together.  Follow me.  Jesus comes and proclaims, he says: Have your mind blown.  Repent.  Believe the gospel.  Turn back to me.  Place your faith, your trust, your hope, your allegiance.  Then hold me up to be true.  If he were a chair, he would say, “Sit in me.  Rest in me.  Put all of yourself into my care.”  And then he goes to some nobodies, and what does he say?  Come on.  He says it to you, to you, to you, to everybody.  Come on.  Follow me.  The Kingdom of God is near.  Here there is a beauty and justice and truth and mercy and a grace that you could never experience in the kingdoms of this world.  So follow me.  Jesus loves you so much. And his Kingdom is beautiful, wonderful.  It fills all the longings of our hearts. And it comes in its fullness in Jesus, who gives his life for you.  Jesus goes to a bunch of nobodies and he says, come on.

So. let's do it.  Let's follow Jesus.  Let's walk the Jesus way.  And let's serve one another and love one another as representatives of Jesus, as this church family strives to follow the Jesus way.  I know there's a lot of confusion out there about what it means to be a Christian.  I know there's a lot of crap out there and people using Jesus’s name to service their own kingdoms of this world.  But I'm here to tell you that this imperfect bunch of misfits, this is what we're committed to -- living the Kingdom now, following the Jesus way and inviting everybody, no matter who you are or where you've been -- to come with us as we follow him.

Church family, I love you.  More importantly, Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine.  Let me pray for us.

Lord, this good news is so good. We want to be a people who, with fidelity and truth, represent your will, to be your ambassadors.  

To live the Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven.  

To be Kingdom people now.  

To experience your beauty, your truth, your grace, your forgiveness, your love, now present in our midst.  

And so, by the power of your spirit, Lord, we pray that you would convict us of sin.  

That we would be of people who find the spiritual discipline of repentance, having our minds blown, turning back to you.  

That we would find it to be sweet.  

That we would experience your grace in fresh ways in those spaces of repentance.  

That we would be a people who model that grace to one another, loving each other, just as you have loved us.  

By the power of your spirit, would you strengthen us to do that?  

Jesus, we love you.  It's in your name we pray Amen.

Who gets to be the greatest? Who gets to be the greatest? Who gets to be the most powerful? Who gets to
be the winner? Who gets to be the one who's the boss? This is the question that many in our culture right
now are asking and wrestling through -- who gets to be the greatest. Whether it's the Democrats or the
Republicans, … whether it's the rich or the poor, … whether it's the gun rights advocates or the gun rights
abolitionists, … who gets to be the greatest? Who gets to be in charge? Who gets to take power and rule?
Who gets to be the greatest? In all of the divisions that we see in our community today, at the center of most
-- if not all -- of them is this fundamental question: Who gets to be the greatest? Who gets to win? Who gets
to be in charge?
And that question is powered, I believe -- or at least to my understanding from scripture – the question is
about this desire for power. This thinking … if we could just get more power, then we would feel safer. … if we
could just take more power, then we would see our way -- which is obviously the right way – reign. We could
just take more power. That idea -- who gets to be the greatest – is operating at the heart of the majority of
these divisions. And I don't know if you've noticed, but these divisions, they're killing us. They're ripping us
apart.
You mention any issue -- like if you go to social media and you just give your opinion … generally speaking,
what you will discover -- if you haven't discovered it yet -- what you will soon discover is that there are not
nice things that people say. In fact, I'm concerned that we're allowing these conversations to be relegated to
places like social media, and it just it feels like the world is a scary, horrible, evil place. And there are so many
scary, horrible evil people out there, and we get exposed to all their junk on social media. And then we can
kind of feel like the world is just spinning, absolutely out of control, and then that oftentimes creates fear
within us. So, we feel like we need more power. We need to be greater in order to make ourselves feel
better.
Maybe social media is not your jam, which I totally get. But maybe for some of us, we're trying to make sense
of the world by looking at news media, and we soon discover that there's a lot of hate and rage that's being
sold and generated within us as we're watching these us-versus-them conversations about who gets to be the
greatest. Who gets to win? Who gets to be the boss? Who gets to be in charge? In fact, even if you turned
off all the hater-tainment, and you logged off all the social media, just driving around in our neighborhoods
and looking at the bumper stickers and the yard signs generates within us this reality -- this fight for who gets
to be the greatest.
And if this is all -- if this is the best that the kingdoms of this world can offer to us, this wanton level of thirst
for power, who gets to be the greatest, who gets to be in charge, which ultimately leads to fear-mongering,
fear within our hearts, destruction and corruption, the breaking apart of human relationships -- the question
that I that I keep coming back to is: Is there a better way?

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I want to invite you to the better way. I want to invite you to follow the Jesus way. The Jesus way has a view
or an answer to that question -- who gets to be the greatest -- that will radically change our lives, will change
our community if we follow it, will change the world, if we give it a fair hearing. Who gets to be the greatest?
Now, as a culture and a community, we're not the first ones to wrestle with this question. In fact, some of the
earliest followers of Jesus were wrestling with the question: Who is the greatest? They, many of Jesus’s early
followers -- which the Bible will refer to as disciples -- they are jockeying oftentimes for power. Today I want to
explore with you a text in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9 where this very question is posed to Jesus
immediately after he says he's going to be crucified, die and rise from the grave.
Who gets to be the greatest? I want us to watch how Jesus engages with this question, because I believe -- in
fact, I'm convinced -- that if we can follow the Jesus way, not only will it lead to blessing for our community,
but it will also be an opportunity for us to receive 10,000 gifts. Of peace and joy. Of calm. Of wonder and
awe and beauty. Though the road is difficult -- I'm not going to lie to you, the road is difficult, the Jesus way is
hard -- but it leads to beauty and flourishing in a way that's often surprising.
So, I invite you to, at least for the moment, to consider following the Jesus way. This is the gospel of Mark
Chapter 9 verses 33 and on. I'll have it up on the screen.
If you have your Bibles, I encourage you guys to follow along. If you're in the room, you should have a
handout with the text available for you there. The reason that we print that out is so you can follow along.
You can make notes. Underline things if you disagree with me. That's a great spot to write down why you
disagree with me. I would love to talk about it with you later. I'm not joking. I would love to talk with you.
I believe that the best study of scripture is when we can study it together with people who are different than
us to get different perspectives, different opinions, different ideas. But because I'm preaching today and
we've got a roomful of folks, dialogue is sometimes difficult, much to my dismay. So write your debate topics
down, and we'll talk about it after.
For those of you that are joining us online, I encourage you to follow along in your Bible. Again, Mark Chapter
9. If you don't have a Bible, just go to bible.com. We're using the Christian Standard version today.
Let me just give you a little context. Right before this, Jesus proclaims that they're going to Jerusalem, that he
is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies, that he will be crucified, that he will die, and that he will
rise from the grave.
“They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the
way?’” (Verse 33)
Notice the next thing that happens. They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them
what they were arguing about on the way. So, from the time that Jesus proclaimed his death, burial and
resurrection, they're walking to a house in Capernaum, and they're doing what? They're arguing. Jesus likely
is leading the charge. He's walking. And by the way, the word disciple means someone who walks the Jesus
way. Let me ask you question, where is the proper place for a disciple of Jesus -- in front of Jesus or following
behind Jesus? So, it's highly likely that Jesus leading the way, and they're all following.
How many of you guys have ever taken children on a trip? OK, you guys know what I'm talking about, right? Is
it common for them, as image bearers of the kingdoms of this world, is it not common for them to be

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jockeying for power? Yeah, can I get an Amen from the parents in this house? By the way, thank God for
video games.
OK so for my junior high kids and high schoolers that are here, you know this. Don't slough off the conviction
that's coming from the spirit right now. You know this.
“What were you arguing about on the way?” Jesus heard them arguing. Jesus knew what was going on. I
think this is an invitation for a smack down. Watch this.
“But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the
greatest.” (Verse 34)
But they were silent. This ever happen with your kids? What were you guys talking about? Because they
know, right? They know, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was going to
be what. I just want you to catch the bitter irony here. Watch this.
Jesus has just told them he will be the God in the flesh, Jesus the Christ, the chosen one, the Messiah. Instead
of killing Caesar and conquering Rome and taking over the cosmos and planting his flag, Jesus says the way
that my Kingdom is going to be established is through crucifixion. By the way, they do not believe him, they
don't get it. They don't get it. Because on the way, what were they arguing about? Who is going to be the
greatest? They still have in their minds that Jesus is operating according to the power structures of the
kingdoms of this world , where you’ve got to be the greatest, where you’ve got to reach out your hand, and
where you’ve got to take power. And Jesus has just told them the way up is down, the way to the throne is
with a crown of thorns. They don't understand, so they're arguing about who gets to be the greatest. Who
gets to be the greatest?
“Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must last and servant of
all.’” (Verse 35)
Notice what Jesus says in verse 35. Sitting down, he called the 12 and said to them -- here's the smack down –
“If anyone wants to be first, they must be last, and a servant”. And if you want to be a leader -- what kind of a
leader heads things up in the Kingdom of God? One who's a servant to all. Jesus himself models this. There's
this one beautiful image where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Washing the feet is the position of a servant.
Jesus says the power dynamics in the Kingdom of God are upside down, compared to the power dynamics of
the kingdoms of this world. The disciples are arguing about who gets to be the greatest, which is a question
that we ask when we're operating according to the kingdoms of this world. But Jesus says in my Kingdom, the
question is: Who can I serve? Who can I elevate?
“He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes
one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him
who sent me.’” (Verses 36-37)
He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes
1 little child, such as this and my name welcomes me. Whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the
one who sent me here.” He's associating himself with God the father.

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Notice here that Jesus again is elevating the lowly. By the way, children, especially in this culture, were
marginalized. They were the outcasts; they didn't produce anything for the community and therefore they
were outcasts. But Jesus here receives the child, receives the marginalized into his space, and says anyone
who receives a child receives me. Notice how closely associated Jesus is with the marginalized. Whoever
welcomes a little child such as this in my name welcomes whom? Me.
Whoever brings in, whoever elevates the outsider, whoever welcomes into the Kingdom the marginalized is
welcoming me. Jesus will frequently throughout the Gospels associate himself just as God, the Father
associates himself with the poor, the widow, the immigrant, and the orphan. He says how you treat the
marginalized is how you are treating me.
If you think that sounds crazy, go home today and read your whole Bible. In fact, you don't even have to read
your whole Bible. Just pull up a Bible app and type in “the poor” and read the more than 2000 verses that talk
about God's listening to and associating with the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant, the orphan.
Mary Healy, who's an excellent theologian, says this: “No one in their right mind would aspire to be a servant.”
She says in Jesus’s day, no one in their right mind would have heard this teaching of Jesus and thought that it
was a good idea.
The early church’s embrace of this new ethic was part of what made Christianity so novel and attractive to
many in the ancient world. Because in Jesus’s day it was just the most normal thing in the world that the rich
keep getting richer, that the powerful keep getting more powerful, and that the servants and the slaves just
keep getting treated like trash. In fact, a common phrase in Jesus’s day would simply be “know your place.”
So this idea of elevating others and actually humbling yourself and elevating others -- no one in their right
mind would have done this, and this is what piqued so many people’s interest in Jesus.
You guys know this, don't you -- that is how the Kingdom works? How many of you have ever eaten school
cafeteria food? How many are we doing this, right? Or do you guys all just bring your own lunch? How many
of you feel really at home when it comes time for seating arrangements in the school cafeteria? Right. School
cafeterias are one of the most vivid places that we see the kingdoms of this world at play. Because what
happens in majority of school cafeterias is that the social stratification of who's in and who's out is seen very
clearly by who's at which table. You guys with me so far?
If you’ll just pardon me, as a fellow young person, maybe the situation was different when you were in school.
It's like it's like the home crew, the jocks, the smart kids, the cool kids, right? I'm sure that the stratification
has changed names. But it's the same idea, isn't it? It's the ones who are in and the ones who are out. And
here's what Jesus says. If Jesus were to cruise into that cafeteria where the social stratification was clearly
evident, and there was a group of people who were his followers all around the table, and they saw an outcast
sitting by themselves in the school cafeteria, what do you think Jesus would say to his group of disciples? Not
just “Go sit with him.” Rather, “Give up your seat and invite him in.” Be a servant to all.
No one in their right mind would do that in Jesus’s day. And frankly, in this day, where we're so tethered and
addicted to power and glory, no one in our right minds would do it unless there's a better way, a Jesus way.
As a church family, this is something that we try to put into practice. Let me just put some teeth to this. What
we're doing on Sunday mornings worship together is formative. I don't know if you know this or not. What
we're doing together forms us, especially over time. It's kind of like going to the gym. You go to the gym, and

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once you come home, you look in the mirror. Nothing has changed, everything hurts, and nothing changed,
right? But if you stay consistent with it with that healthy practice, you will discover that over time, that
practice that physical practice is actually changing you, bringing you to health.
It's similar to our corporate worship gatherings. We participate in a corporate worship gathering. We go
home and we say everything hurts, and nothing changed. Right? But one of the things I want to encourage
you is that the scripture actually calls us to not neglect gathering together, because when we gather together
for worship, for prayer, for the hearing of God's word, it's actually forming us. And here's how it's not forming
us, by and large. What's generally not forming us is, “Wow. That was really high production value. Wow, they
really nailed that solo. Wow, Caleb really alliterated that phrase. Really cool.”
That's not the formation we’re hoping for. In fact, what we're doing programmatically during our service
simply sets the table for the 10,000 gifts that you receive and give in corporate worship. Here's what I mean.
When we gather with a bunch of people who are different than us -- which is our church, we're a bunch of
misfits -- when we gather, there are 1000 opportunities to defer to the other.
Whether it's bringing someone coffee and a donut and sharing a laugh before service starts, … whether it's
noticing that someone might not be in a space where they feel encouraged and just visiting with them, …
maybe it's seeing or sensing from the spirit that the person sitting down from you might need prayer, and you
take that bold step and say, “Hey, can I just pray for you this morning?” Or maybe it's seeing a need that's not
in line with your own preferences or convictions but deferring or elevating the other.
And here's the deal. When we're all doing that -- and I know that churches and our church, we've failed at this
thousands of times, we're trying our best -- when we're all operating in good faith, deferring to the other,
seeking to love and elevate the other, seeking to give up our seat so no kids sit alone at the table, you know
that we discover when we're all doing that, the tables all get congealed into one big, massive table.
We realize that we made space for each other, and we learned something about God in the process. You see,
when we engage in corporate worship together and consistently, we find that there's 1000 gifts given to us. A
couple of the ones. Danny mentioned it a moment ago. One of the reasons why we do bilingual scripture
reading and why we do bilingual songs -- we're really hoping to figure out how to do bilingual sermons. It's
not mechanical. It's because it's forming us.
If you guys can just pardon me for a second, I'm going to speak on behalf of a majority culture. I want to be
clear. I don't ever actually have to put myself in a position where I don't understand what's going on
linguistically. But when I hear Theresa singing, it's an invitation for me to lean in to elevate the Spanish
language and those of you who come from Spanish culture. It's a way for me to feel the joy with you, to
celebrate what God is doing in and through that. And it's an invitation to participate in the multilingual,
multinational Kingdom of God now on Earth, as it is in heaven.
We do it because it's a means of deference. You can defer to me, and I can defer to you. I wear Dallas
Cowboys stuff here, and you suffer that. We defer to one another. Like Danny even did a country song. We
defer to each other, and we elevate each other. We honor each other. This is the Kingdom of God. Those of
us who have primary positions, positions of authority, positions of power, we elevate the other on earth, as it
is in heaven.

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This is the Jesus way, and I want to want to lean into this. You know, when we sing, we're singing to each
other. And I got to tell you, there's times where I need to hear my church family tell me the truth about who
God is. Because there are days where I'm here with you, and I don't know if I believe in anymore. And then I
hear your voices telling me about the faithfulness of God, and your faith reminds me of my faith. That's the
gift that you give to me, and it's a gift I give to you, right? The gift is not in “Wow. We're singing so
beautifully.” The gift is “Wow. This church family is centered on the truth of who Jesus is and wants to give
each other these gifts,” deferring to one another, living the first-should-be-last in all tenets.
So, I want to invite you to prioritize selfless worship -- not to be a consumer and say what's in it for me. Here's
the deal. Have you guys ever heard it said it is more blessed to give than receive? The famous line, right? It is
more blessed to give than receive. If we posture ourselves around our worship experiences, and our
community groups, and our Bible studies, and our time together with our church family -- if we posture it
around what gifts do I have to give as opposed to what gifts am I going to receive, we will actually discover
that we receive countless more gifts. Because it is more blessed to give than to receive. I want to encourage
you to prioritize selfless worship when you gather together in settings like this. Just asking the question, not
what am I going to get out of this, but, rather, what can I give? Can I pray with someone? Can I invite
someone out to lunch? Can I share a story of encouragement with someone? Can I meet someone new for
the first time? Can I offer to pray with someone? What gifts do I have to give, not to receive?
Let's keep going. Oh, this gets better. OK, watch this.
“John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him
because he wasn’t following us.’” (Verse 38)
Remember what we're talking about? We're talking about who gets to be the greatest, right? We're talking
about power, the power dynamic, the honor, the power of honor and authority. “Teacher, we saw someone
driving out demons…” By the way, is that a good thing? A bad thing? Driving out demons is good. Does
anyone think it's not a good idea? Just wondering. We're all family here.
OK, so someone is driving out demons. In whose name? Remember, Jesus just got done saying “Anyone who
you receive in my name …” Notice there's this stranger to us who's driving out demons – what, in your name?
And we tried to do what? We tried to stop him because he was not following … now, time out. Because he
was not following … what do we think he's going to say? We think he should say “Because he's not following
you, Jesus.”
“Why did you try to stop him?”
“Well, because he wasn't following you, Jesus, that's what.”
We expect him to say that, but what does he say?
We tried to stop him, Jesus. He was casting out demons in whose name? Your name. Remember, Jesus just
got done saying “Anyone who receives a child in my name…”
“He was casting out demons in your name. But he's a stranger to us, and you know what Jesus? We tried to
stop him because he didn't follow …” Well, that's strange. He doesn't say “follow you, Jesus,’ which is what a
disciple does. He says ,“He doesn't follow us.”

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What might that mean for us today, in a community that is racked with divisions within -- thousands of
denominations splitting over differences. Sometimes warranted, so I'm not trying to slam it. We're a non-
denominational church, so we're like the ultimate, you know, splitting off. What people always say, when I go
to pastors’ parties -- which are boring. -- when I go to pastors’ gatherings, they're always asking “Well, what
denomination are you?”
I'm thinking, “like the Lord’s. I say, “We are non-denominational.” And they look at me and they're thinking
“You're Baptists who have beer.” Well, OK, fine, yes, you're right. OK, we're non-denominational. We just
don't have a name for it yet, right?
But here's the deal. What is John saying? Remember, we're talking about who gets the power, and Jesus is
talking about taking on the form of a servant. Then John sees someone doing miracles in Jesus’s name, but
he's not one of us, so he tried to stop him.
“’Don’t stop him,’ said Jesus, ‘because there is no one who perform a miracle in my name who can soon
afterward speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. And whoever gives you a cup of water to
drink in my name, because you belong to Christ – truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.’” (Verses 39-
41)
Jesus here dismantles this idea that there's only one expression of what it looks like to follow Jesus. He
dismantles that. So, I think this is a cautionary tale for any of us who are Jesus followers who think, “We've
got it dialed in. And anyone who doesn't do it our way, we need to tell them to stop.” I think Jesus says, “Hey,
anyone who's following me -- who's following in my name -- don't stop them. Don't stop them.”
As a church family, we're so committed to this. We have relationships with hundreds of churches in the valley
and around the country, around the world. We love working with local churches, and it our posture is more
towards supporting and encouraging and working with them than it is about trying to figure out who gets in
and who gets out. If we're sharing Jesus together, that's what we need. That's all we got. We do things our
way, right? We got our own convictions and practices and church family. I'm good friends with Pastor Jeff at
La Casa de Cristo. He wears robes to preach in. Their congregation is highly liturgical, and I love that. And I
love our congregation. I love the Tyrone’s congregation just down the street. Their tradition is Pentecostal,
way more fun. I love Harvest and Drew at Harvest, and I love Jason at Heritage. In fact, at least for me, being
connected to these other churches around the Valley is one of the the beautiful joys of being a part of the
Kingdom of God here in North Phoenix. I want to encourage you that you are part of something exponentially
bigger than what's going on in this space. God is at work through all different types of congregations.
I think, just like we're a bunch of misfits bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us
through Jesus, so, too, our local churches are all misfits bound together. We've all got our different ways and
our different traditions, but we're on Team Jesus, and so we're not going to tell each other to stop. We're just
going to support and encourage, and I want to be clear, this is really hard, so you can pray for us. Unless it's
toxic and abusive -- which does exist -- and boy, is that a wisdom call. So, pray for your leaders.
I was dumb. Yeah, I was talking to my good friend, Jason Fisher. He's at Heritage Church, which is just down
the street, and we were kind of doing like a joint interview we made into a little podcast. Actually, it's on our
on our church website, as well as theirs. We were just like interviewing each other about what it was like to
pastor through 2020, and one of the things that he reminded me of is that a bunch of churches up here in

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North Phoenix were praying through and trying to figure out how to return to in-person services. If you guys
remember, in 2020 there was this season where we weren't meeting in person. One of the things that we
were praying through was: Is there a way for us to re-gather all on the same day, so that there's not this
posturing of “We gathered first.” We just didn't want any competition between the churches. Jason reminded
me of it, and that's a beautiful example of how I believe that Jesus wants local churches to work together --
not a spirit of competition, but collaboration. And so, I want to invite you to being committed to honoring and
supporting and loving not only your local church, but the Big C Church here in Phoenix and around the world.
There are so many gifts that we get to give each other. Maybe one day I'll convince Jeff to come and preach in
one of his robes. You can see if you like it.
“’But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away – it would be better for him if a
heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.’” (Verse 42)
This next portion of Scripture is hard, and I'm not at all going to resolve the tension. But whoever causes one
of these little ones who believe in me to fall away, I think he's just talking about believers. And the seas is
often used as an image of death in scripture. Kind of like the abysmal waters.
“’And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed that to have two
hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for
you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to fall away,
gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown
into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at
peace with one another.” (Verses 43-50)
This is a really hard teaching, and I just want to give you a little note. We are committed to helping you and
equipping you to discern your own convictions by the power of the spirit, and I don't think, and I did not think,
and still don't think, that I could do this text justice in the context of a sermon. So, here's what I'm going to
do. I’m going to invite you to a series of classes coming up this summer. They're one-off classes, which means
it's one topic for one gathering. We are hitting a variety of different topics, including the Kingdom of God and
heaven and hell.
I want to encourage you -- if you want to know more about this text and other texts related to heaven, hell,
the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of this world and this earth -- I want to invite you to participate. We'll have
many other opportunities as we get into the fall. But I just want to say, as your pastor, I think that
conversations around texts like these are best done in dialogue -- more like the rabbinic style that Jesus
models -- than they are in me just giving you my perspective from the text. But if you don't think I can preach
a good fire and brimstone sermon, you're off your rocker. I want to invite you to join us for what we’re calling
summer sessions. You can find more information in your handout. There's a link there. Just go to our
website, D-S-B-C dot church, and you can find those on the events tab. Again, they’re called summer sessions.
I want to land this plane, but first some quick comments on salt language. Salt was a preservative that also
increased the flavor. I think the salt that Jesus is referring to here is the is the integrity and fervor of our faith.
I’ll show you why. Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? That's really
interesting language. Jesus is keying off of a metaphor here. Have salt among yourselves and be what? At

9
peace with one another. I just want to lean in here on this saltiness and would love to talk with you a lot more
about this beautiful metaphor.
It's this idea of being seasoned with a fervent, true faith that has integrity -- to live in a vibrant way the Jesus
faith or the Jesus walk. I think that's “salt of the earth.” Being salt of the earth I think is where Jesus is riffing
on here. But notice he says to have salt, among whom? Remember that the conversation started with the
question, “Who gets to be the greatest?” And Jesus said, if you want to be the greatest of all, you'll be what?
A servant. The way up is down. The way to the throne is through a crown of thorns. This is the Jesus way.
And so, having salt among yourselves is living the Jesus way vibrantly, with integrity -- with whom? With each
other, as a community that lives the Jesus way, that gets salty with one another. What seasons all of our
conversations and all of our interactions is the truth of who Jesus is and the teachings of how Jesus calls us to
live.
If we salt ourselves, we will truly find what peace. Now this word Shalom, it does not just mean the cessation
of hostilities. Another way to think about true peace or true Shalom is things are as they are designed to be --
true human flourishing. So, if we live the Jesus way with one another -- especially in a group of people who
don't naturally fit together -- and we season our interactions with the Jesus way, we will find true and abiding
Shalom.
Now, this is not easy. The road is narrow. Some of us, we may be aware that today is Pentecost Sunday.
Pentecost Sunday, at least in in most Christian traditions, is a is an opportunity to reflect upon that day of
Pentecost, where the Spirit of God descended on his church. And this Jesus way, living salt with each other --
walking the Jesus way with each other in a culture that's so violently and loudly demands to know who gets to
be the greatest -- to live the Kingdom of God now on earth as it is in heaven, we're going to face trials. We're
going to face difficulties. We're going to face resistance. We'll even face failures with one another. But we're
not in it alone, for the spirit of the living God is present with us.

I don't know how they count these things, but I've heard that the Bible is the most sold book in the West. I didn't go around and count. I've just heard that many times right in a couple of spaces, but what I do know is that here in North Phoenix, it is very popular. A lot of people own Bibles. But even for those of us that are still trying to figure out what we think about Jesus, odds are you've seen a Bible. You've been around the Bible. Maybe you even own a Bible. Some of us, we've bought Bibles for ourselves or we've gone to like bible.com and downloaded the Bible. Some of us have like inherited a family Bible. Do you guys anybody have a family Bible that's been passed down for generations? I've got one. It's this big and it has a wood cover with all these etchings on it. It's that thick, and when I'm upset with my children, I tell them I'm going to give them the Word. Actually, I don’t, because it's a family heirloom and that would ruin it. So, we don't do that. For others of us, people have bought us Bibles because they felt like we needed it, and those people need to mind their own business. If you guys know what I'm talking about, right?

By the way, if you don't own the Bible and would like one, please, feel free to take one of the Bibles off the table in the back, as our gift to you. The Bible is popular. It's one of the most popular books, but it's also one of the most like underused. And here's what I mean. Usually in our community or in our culture, when the Bible gets used, it's usually a verse here and there. Maybe it's embroidered on something nice. Or a politician or someone giving a speech will reference something. Still others may have even have a tattoo or something. But usually, it's like one or two verses, and we kind of take it and then we do what we want with it. For many of us, we find that it's difficult to really have a steady diet of engaging with the Bible, and one of the reasons why, I think, is because oftentimes we're not even sure how it's supposed to work, what it's supposed to do. In fact, for those of you that are familiar with the Bible, have you ever found it to be confusing? Yeah, like very confusing. Yeah, very confusing. OK? There's a lot of stuff that's confusing about the Bible.

Also, have you ever been disappointed in the Bible? Here's what I mean. Maybe you've had a problem that you're trying to solve, or you've had a deep feeling, or you're really confused about something. You think, “I know what I'll do. I'll go read the Bible today.” Then you read the Bible and can’t find the answer. Has that ever happened to you?

I remember being a young man, and I was thinking “Should I get married to my (now) wife? So, I was you know, praying, “Lord, should I ask Lori to marry me?” You know the Bible, tell me if I should marry Lori. “When you are encamped against your enemies, be careful to avoid anything offensive.” Not helpful, right? So sometimes we're just not even sure how the Bible is supposed to work.

Some of us think it's like a car manual, where we look when there's the little light on the dashboard and we're like, oh, there's a problem. So, I going to read the car manual, but then you read the Bible like a car manual. It doesn't work that way. Then you think, well, the Bible is kind of like history. It’s a history book. Then you read the Bible and you realize that a ton of it kind of sounds like history, but there's a lot of weird stuff going on. And also, there seems to be this overarching theme. When we approach the Bible, we want to have a sense of what it's supposed to do.

Here's what an early Jesus follower said. His name was Paul, and he wrote a letter to a guy named Timothy. This is what he says about the scriptures. He says the scriptures Bible are designed to make one wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus. There are multiple parts to that, but I just want to notice that the Bible is designed to make us what? Wise. The Bible is wisdom literature, and the Bible is going to shape us in ways that maybe we don't even expect. So, if we're approaching the Bible, we want to make sure that we're not projecting onto the Bible our own expectations of what it ought to do. Rather, we're going to receive what it wants to do to us or what God, through the scriptures, wants to do to us. And one of the things that God wants to do to us through the scripture is to make us wise. The Bible is ancient wisdom literature, and one of the things that we're going to say may sound confusing to many of us. We may be like, “OK, what I don't even understand this”

So let me just give you a frame to think about not only the Bible but also the whole world, yourself and God, OK? If you've ever had glasses … I wear contacts. But when I take my contacts out, I wear glasses and the glasses have frames on them, right? And within the frame, there are lenses, right? OK, very good. You guys are winning at the trivia game. So, the lens frame -- whatever metaphor you want to use -- I see the world through that lens. The glasses go on, and I can see things more clearly, if the prescription is correct. And so, when I put on the lens, I see the world in a certain way. Hopefully it's adding clarity and fidelity. So, the lens that we're going to look at today in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 9 is what I think is the critical lens that the Bible points to. All the Bible points to help us to frame the world, to frame our understanding of God, to frame our understanding of ourselves.

And then what we're going to do is, I'd like to argue that from this text in Mark Chapter 9, then I want to try to apply it, or at least share with you how I've been applying it this week, especially over the last couple weeks. So, so let's get into the text.

This is the gospel of Mark Chapter 9. Before this particular section of Scripture, the end of chapter eight of the Gospel of Mark, there was this pinnacle, powerful moment in Jesus’s life where he says to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Messiah, you're the Christ. You're the chosen one. You're the Redeemer. You're the savior, the one who's going to save your people. You're the chosen one, you're the Messiah.” Then Jesus says, look, we're going to Jerusalem, and from this point in time on in the Gospel of Mark, they're headed towards Jerusalem.

So, he says, look, we're going to Jerusalem and I'm going to be turned over into the hands of evil people, and they're going to crucify me. They're going to bury me, and then three days later I will rise from the dead. OK, so Jesus says we're going to Jerusalem, and what's going to happen to Jesus? He's going to die. Now, here's the deal. Peter does not like that. Remember, Peter was the one who said you're the Messiah, you're the chosen one. And Peter takes Jesus aside to say, “Jesus, no. May it never be.” Then Jesus says these really like hard, hard words to Peter. He says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” Right, get behind me, Satan. You're thinking about the things of this world, not the things I've got. So that's literally just happened.

If you want to know more about that, just go on our website dot church and listen to or read last week's sermon. So, at this point you get Jesus taking just a few of his disciples, and we're going to pick up the text. If you're following along, you should have it in your handouts. If you're joining us online, you just go to bible.com and again, we're in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9.

OK, so here's what we want to do. Remember that we're looking at a lens or a frame through which to see all the scripture, to see God, to see ourselves, to see the world. And I believe that in this text Jesus is going to frame this up for us as well, as well as tell us what the Bible is all about. Think we can do that in the next few minutes? Your confidence is inspiring.

After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and LED them up to a high mountain by themselves to be alone. *** (Verse 2)

*** TV timeout. Have you guys ever been to a concert and then the band starts playing another band’s song? Just ever have you guys gone to concerts? Yeah, OK, maybe you don't go to concerts. Again, you know when you're at the club, and the DJ is laying down some fresh beats. The DJ is going to take music from different musicians. He is going to take the backbeat from one musician, lyrics from another, the singing from another, and he's going to mix it all up. And he's going to mix in a bunch of different samples of other artists’ material. That's now being presented in a fresh way. You guys know about this idea. Whether it's like a cover band or a cover song -- where a new band covers old material, or it's a DJ, mixing different musicians, different artists’ pieces together -- they are taking old work and presenting it in a fresh new way for our delight and enjoyment. That's what musicians are doing.

Authors will also do this. Biblical authors are doing this all the time, especially in the newer testament. They're mixing, they're sampling, they're riffing. They're taking these little bits and pieces and they're putting them into their whatever they're writing, not only for our enjoyment, but also to help us. So, sometimes there's going to be details in the text and you're thinking, “Why is that detail there?” And it's actually a little linked to a deeper story or to an older story, and we're supposed to read the current thing that we're reading in light of all the connections that it makes to the previous story. OK, watch this.

After six days, six days after Jesus proclaimed said he was the Messiah? After Peter did what? You know – he tried to lead him -- and Jesus says get behind me, Satan. You're thinking about the things of this world, not the things of God. It was six days after that, and Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up to a high mountain. Now here's the deal. When you’re playing Bible trivia, and the question is “What is the location?” What’s the location that is most often mentioned as places where people meet God? Is it the valley? Is it the pub? Or is it a high mountain? Throughout scripture, people meet God on high mountains.

Now here's the other thing, too. Has there ever been a time where somebody has ascended a high mountain? And six days has been a corollary feature of it. Yes, I knew you guys already know the answer. So let me just remind us that when Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, there was a period of six days where he goes up to meet God.

Now here's the other thing too. This is all taking place in the Book of Exodus. I think that the author Mark is bringing in and riffing on the Exodus account, and I'd like to prove it even more.

Check this. They go up the mountain by themselves to be alone. By the way, who are they going to be with? It was just the four of them. They were going to be alone. But they aren’t going stay alone. Watch this.

“He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling – extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them.” (Verse 3)

*** TV time. I love how brief Mark is with his descriptions. He's like, yeah, Jesus was transfigured. And we're like, “What? Transfigured? What does that mean? Well, there's the hint in the text. ***

Something has changed about his figure. His clothes became dazzling, extremely white as no launderer on Earth could whiten them. What is Mark saying? He's saying that something has happened to Jesus’s person, to his body, to his being. Something has changed, so much so that it's become glorious. How glorious? It's like beaming white.

So, Jesus is like beaming. Has there ever been a time in Scripture where someone meets God and they're beaming? Yes, actually. Moses in the Book of Exodus, after he meets God, the Bible says that his face is beaming. So here you've got this other riff. Remember that Moses went up the mountain to meet with God. Here Jesus himself is transfigured in front his three disciples. I think that he's taking on the figure of Moses.

“Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.”(Verse 4)

So, it happens in front of them. This is going to be crazy. And remember they were going to go up, and they were going to go up and be alone. Guess what? Elijah appeared to them along with Moses. Elijah and Moses -- these two people are dead. So, if you go camping to be alone with three of your friends, and two dead dudes show up, how do you feel? Delighted? Wondering did we bring enough hot dogs? How do you feel you feel? Terrified? Absolutely terrified.

So, Elijah – a real quick little bio on Elijah. Elijah is a prophet. The job of a prophet was to speak God's truth to people. And often times -- more often than not -- call them to repentance. A lot of people think prophecy is all about fortune telling. It's not. It's not primarily about telling the future, in fact. The telling of the future was always corollary to a call to repentance. Here's what I mean.

Prophets would come into town, and they would say things like this. “Hey, you people, if you don't turn from your wicked ways, if you don't repent and follow God, if you don't turn from your wicked ways, you're going to be destroyed. If you if you don't stop being greedy. If you don't stop abusing the poor. If you don't stop worshipping other gods. If you don't repent and turn, you will be destroyed.”

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think people liked hearing that? Prophets, by the way, were rarely invited to join people for dinner. In fact, a lot of times they got run out of town. And a lot of times they got killed.

Elijah here is kind of the boss status. He's like the pinnacle prophet, right? In your Bible, there's a section of what we call the older testament or the Hebrew scriptures. There are all these different prophets in the first part of the Bible, with stories of the different prophets and the words that they spoke to people. The interesting thing about Elijah is we don't have a death narrative. In fact, the only thing we know is that he was carried up away into the heavens, as the way that his end is described. So you don't have a death narrative.

At least for us, a little more popular figure is Moses of the Ten Commandments fame. Moses was the giver of the instruction, or the Torah, or the law. The Torah is usually what we call the first five books of the Bible. So, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses is the one who led the people of God out of Egypt, out of captivity in Egypt. And so here you have the law and the prophets now. Jesus would never have used the word Bible, which is a modern western word. Jesus used the word scriptures, and only rarely did Jesus use the word scriptures. The popular way to refer to the Bible at that time would have been the scriptures or the law and prophets. So the first five books of the Bible represent the law, and rest of is the prophets.

Let me ask you a question. What's your Bible about? When you read the law -- Genesis Exodus, Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy, when you read a book like Jeremiah or Isaiah, what are they pointing to? I think that in Mark we're supposed to see the law and the prophets here talking with Jesus. Just notice the scene.

“Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let us set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’ – because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.“ (Verse 5)

What are they doing? They appeared and were talking with Jesus. The law and the prophets are talking with Jesus. Just notice what happens next. Peter said to Jesus -- remember how's Peter feeling? He's terrified. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.” Really? With two dead guys? OK. Then he says, “Let us set up three shelters -- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Because we all know you guys don't want to bunk together. Right. Makes perfect sense, right? And why did he say this? Because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified. Yeah, they're terrified. He doesn't always think now.

Here's an interesting thing. This language of shelter could also be translated as Tabernacle. It's kind of like a portable shelter. In the Book of Exodus, that portable shelter -- the Tabernacle -- was where the presence of God would dwell.

“A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my beloved Son: listen to him!’ Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.” (Verses 7-8)

If people in in the day of Moses wanted to know if God was with them, they would look over to the Tabernacle and see if a pillar of cloud was there. It's strange, and we're just going to let it be strange. I'm not going to resolve the tension. It's a pillar cloud. It's reflective of God's direct glory.

OK, just notice this. We just want to remember right? Because DJ funky fresh is about to mix up some beats for us here. Notice what Mark says here. They were terrified. Notice what happens now. A cloud appeared, overshadowing them. And a voice came from the cloud. Is that weird that voices are coming from clouds?

“This is my beloved son. Listen to him.” OK. Here you have a high mountain, six days, you've got the law and the prophets present, and then you've got a cloud. Where else have we seen a cloud? Remember? In Exodus we saw that the direct presence of God was signified as a pillar of cloud. And now here you've got a cloud appearing and doing what? I love this. What's the word? Overshadowing them or overtaking them. The cloud overtakes them on the mountain top. And as the cloud overtakes them on the mountain top, they hear what?

Now this is interesting. So, if you've been following along in the Gospel of Mark, you're familiar with this. This is not the first time we've heard this statement about a voice from heaven. Earlier in Mark, where Jesus is baptized, the text says that the spirit of God descended on Jesus at his baptism like a dove and a voice from heaven was heard saying “This is my beloved son.” Now, here you get the same thing. With what we know about Mark -- Mark is very brief, right? He doesn't do any sort of flourish. He's very brief most of the time. Why is Mark repeating himself? Why do we get this second proclamation of the Sonship of Jesus?

I'm going to give you my opinion. I think it's a good one. Remember the context? Immediately before they ascended the mountain top, what did Jesus say would happen to him? He said I'm going to Jerusalem and when I go to Jerusalem, what's going to happen? Do you guys remember? He's going to die. He's going to be killed. He's going to be turned over into the hands of evil people, and he's going to be crucified and then buried.

Now, if you are a follower of Jesus and you think that he's the one who's going to save your people and reestablish the kingdom, when you hear him say, “I'm going to Jerusalem and I'm going to be crucified,” does that make you happy? Or scared? Does that make you feel an overabundance of confidence or fear? In fact, you might even say to yourself, “You know, I've been following this guy around for a few years now, and he says a lot of hard things. Like love your enemies. Like turn the other cheek. Like the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. But this thing that he's saying – that he's going to go and be killed -- I don't know if I want to follow him anymore.”

And it's at this moment of the hardest statement of Jesus about how he establishes his Kingdom that you get the second iteration of the voice from heaven. God the father, saying, this is my beloved son and do what? Have you ever needed to be reminded that listening to Jesus leads to our flourishing? See the frame here, right? We're getting this frame. There's this statement of violence. There's this fear that's coming; there's this impending doom. And yet the frame that's being framed up here for us -- the way that we can see things is through this Jesus lens -- the law and the prophets point to whom? Notice what happens to all of the prophets. Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them. Except for whom?

Yeah, there's an old hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in light of his glory and grace.” They only see whom? Jesus.

OK, so I might like to argue that all of your Bible -- which is beautiful and complex and wonderful and nuanced -- and I'm expecting that I'm going to study it until I'm dead and still discover new things every day. And I want to invite you into that journey. And I hate to say, “Let me just give it to you in one sentence,” because the Bible is just wild. But let me give it to you in one sentence.

There's a ministry called the Bible Project, and they say it like this: The Bible is a unified story that leads you to Jesus. So anytime that you're reading it, the frame that we can put down on our Bibles is, “OK. How does this somehow point me to Jesus and make me wise in the process?” This is important, because sometimes we read the Bible and we don't easily see a connection to Jesus. I believe that it’s an invitation from the spirit of God inviting you into a long discussion, maybe even debate -- a long exploration in the direction of wisdom.

The Bible doesn't work like a car manual. It's designed to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus. So sometimes we're confused. That is an invitation to keep reading, to talk about it with other people, to wrestle through it, to pray through it, and just to sit and say, you know, “I can't resolve all the tension right now, and that's OK, because maybe God's using the Bible to make me wise.” It all points to Jesus.

“As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” (Verse 9)

Let's keep going. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Notice this: What does Jesus think is going to happen to him? He's going to die. And then what happens? The resurrection. Remember this: Jesus notices his death, but he expects a resurrection. You guys with me? He knows he's going to die. But what does he expect? He expects resurrection.

“They kept this word to themselves, questioning what ‘rising from the dead’ meant. (Verse 10)

They kept this word to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. So, imagine them walking down the mountain, wondering out loud. They're doing a Bible study. They are embracing the tension of the words of Jesus, and they're talking to other people about it. This is a Bible study, right?

“What did rise from the dead mean now?”

“What do you think rising from the dead means?”

“Yeah, that which is dead being made alive again.”

“I want to hear what their other options were.”

“I don't know. Do you think this is about bread?”

“I don't know. Maybe, it’s a metaphor.”

“I don't know. What do you think rising from the dead means?”

They're asking what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, and this is interesting. I've been wrestling through this for a few months. I think that in this thing we're about to read, I think they're trying to get to do a “gotcha” for Jesus. Like Jesus, you're not going to actually die and do all that death stuff. Because, watch.

“Then they asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’

‘Elijah does come first and restores all things,’ he replied.

‘Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?’

‘But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as it is written about him.’”(Verses 11-13)

Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

Remember, who are the two people that they just set up on the mountain top? Moses and Elijah. So, we just saw this dude. Why did why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Elijah does come first and restores all things, Jesus replies, so they're engaging in an argument, I think, with Jesus, trying to say, “No, no, no. We're not going to do this death and burial thing. We're just going to do the win thing. Because Elijah hasn't come first, so we're not going to go to Jerusalem and die. We're still waiting on Elijah.”

Here's what Jesus replies, “Elijah does come first.” I think that Jesus has in his mind John the Baptist. Does anybody know what they did to John the Baptist? King Herod took John the Baptist, because John the Baptist was a prophet, and you know what prophets do. They speak God's truth to people, and usually prophets say things like repent, turn from your evil ways and turn back to God. And if you don't, you'll be destroyed. That's usually what a prophet said, and who likes hearing that? Do you think kings usually like hearing that? Do you think kings who have the capacity to execute people suffer a prophet for very long? So what Herod does is, he takes this prophet of God and has him beheaded at a house party in order to please his wife.

So, when he says Elijah does come first, I think that Jesus has in his mind John the Baptist. Jesus now has referenced his own death, and I believe that he's referencing John the Baptist’s death.

Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be treated with what contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to Elijah whatever they pleased, just as it is written about him. What did Herod do to John the Baptist? He did whatever he wanted to.

how does this Jesus frame help us see the text? Well, I think the text is all about Jesus, and it's So designed to make us wise and the salvation through faith in Jesus. But how does that frame help us to see the world? I'm just going to invite you in and share with you a little bit where I've been processing this over the last few weeks. I've served as lead pastor here at Desert Springs for seven years. In those seven years, more than 20 times on a Sunday morning I have approached this pulpit table praying through whether or not I'm going to address a public atrocity. A school shooting. A church shooting. A synagogue shooting. A club shooting.

Shooting, shooting. More than 20 times I was talking it through with some other pastor friends of mine. Man, this is a lot more frequent than we thought it would be. Last week -- as I read the names of the victims in Buffalo, and this week -- as I read through the names of the victims in Texas -- I was really wrestling through “How do I put the Jesus frame on this? How do I frame this situation?

So, I look at the kids’ faces. What wells up within me is, “God, why is this happening?” What also wells up within me is, “God, why would you let this happen? You say that you love us. You say that you answer our prayers.” Many of you have asked, and I've wrestled with this question, as well as how do we make sense of this? How do we frame this? How do we frame the death of innocents? How do we frame the fact that violence seems to win? How do we frame that?

There are just two ways that I think that the Jesus frame helps us. Did you notice in this text that Jesus looked his death right in the eye and he didn't try to paint a rosy picture of it? Jesus references John the Baptist’s murder, and he specifically calls it out as a reality in this world. Did you guys notice that in the Jesus frame -- for those of us viewing the world through a Jesus frame -- we look at evil and we look at right in the eye. We don't shrug our shoulders. We don't say, “Well, it's not a big deal.” We don't say, “It'll all work out in the end.” We don't try to rosy it up at all, or pretty it up at all. We just look at right in the eye and we address it. And here's what Jesus, to my frustration, here's what Jesus does not do. Jesus never says, “Let me explain to you why.”

My question is why? And as I've read through the scriptures, as I've prayed as, I've wrestled with this in community here at Desert Springs, I've never gotten an answer to why?

But here's what I do have in that Jesus frame. I have the capacity to lament, an invitation to be angry, an invitation to cry out for justice. I see this in scripture. And depending on where you're at, if this strikes you a certain way, please come talk to me at it. But I think an invitation even to curse and to wrestle and to argue with God, I think there's precedent all over the Bible for arguing with God.

And I think that there's an invitation to that, because we're trying to square what we know to be true about Jesus with what we know to be true about death. Because it seems like that the kingdoms of this world, death just continues to be paraded around as the most powerful thing in the world. Many of us treat death as if it's the most powerful thing in the world. People will use the threat of death to manipulate and to abuse and to get their way. And so, when these things happen, we oftentimes cry out why the Jesus frame does not answer.

Here's why, in a way that satisfies. Here’s the other part of the frame. Jesus looked death right in the eye. He looked at John the Baptist’s beheading right in the eye. He didn't try to belittle it. He didn't try to put it under the rug. Jesus even showed us how to argue and question in the Garden of Gethsemane. He, I believe, is arguing with God the Father, wrestling through how are we going to make this work? Is your way the best way? But then he ends up with “Not my will, but your will be done.” And then one of the last words of Jesus on the cross is a question: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

So, I believe that Jesus gives us that frame, but the other thing that Jesus does too here, and you see it in this text. He recognizes that death is not the end. Jesus tethers, anchors his future to the resurrection, and he invites us to do the same. So here's the Jesus frame as I see it, even in this text.

The wisdom that that the spirit of God is building within us through the scriptures is a way to see things in a Jesus-centered way -- which is to lament, to mourn, to be sorrowful, to hold in solidarity those who are weeping, those who are longing for justice, those who are asking why. To do that ourselves, and then also to do so in hope of the one future restoration of all things. Death is not the end. Jesus said it here as he marches towards Jerusalem. He says, “I will be put to death. I will be betrayed, but I will rise.”

And Jesus did rise. Your scriptures say that on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the grave. He was the first to do what we will all do. Jesus rises from the grave on that Easter Sunday and then tells us that though death will take us -- we, too will one day rise.

So, at least for me, this is how I've applied that frame as I'm reading the newspaper, as I read through the list of the children that passed, this word came to my mind. These souls are not lost to God. Now I'm angry. I'm simultaneously angry and raging and sad and sorrowful and frustrated. More than 20 times in my career as lead pastor -- how many more, Lord? I'm scared. Will it be my kids next? But I keep coming back to that lens, that frame I'm going to keep looking through, fixing my eyes on Jesus and seeing this through the Jesus frame. Jesus laments. Jesus does not long for this. And yet Jesus, in his mighty resurrection, conquers death.

And so, I can move forward in hope of the resurrection. And so in Jesus’s resurrection, there’s a promise that we, too, one day will rise -- and that all who want Jesus get Jesus. And then all that which is broken will be restored again. And so, seeing the world in that way empowers us here. Note this. By putting death in its rightful place and noticing and recognizing and trusting in the resurrection power of Jesus being the one that is victorious, I am able to live a life right now. Living on earth as it is in heaven, I can right now live according to the power of God, not the power of death. I can, right now, live in grace and wisdom, love, mercy, tenderness, long suffering, forgiveness. I can do that now because Jesus has disarmed death. Death has no victory over me, and death has no victory over you.

In a moment, we're going to take communion. And if you would, please would you grab the elements that are available in the back of the seat in front of you? The bread and the juice. And for those joining us online, if you would please obtain some elements representing the bottom and blood of Jesus.

Communion is a way that, with our bodies, we proclaim the Lord's death and his resurrection. As we take of the bread, we remember his broken body and of the juice, his shed blood. It's a way that we physically, with our bodies, recognize and remember our union with God and our union with one another. It's a way in which we remember that death is not the end.

And so, I'm going to pray. And I'm going to invite you to join me in this prayer of confession, repentance, lamentation and hope. And then we'll take a moment to reflect. And then after we take a moment to reflect. Bertha will join me, and we'll lead as we take communion together.

So, join me as we pray. Lord, in this taking of communion, we recognize that we are called to live according to the New Covenant in you. And as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we strive to practice your values on earth, as it is in heaven. As we prepare our hearts, we recognize that we often fail in this regard. And so Lord, we pray and confess that we have not always lived according to your Kingdom. We have often propagated injustice and evil. We have often fostered disunity, practicing favoritism, elevating our own concerns and preferences over those of others. Moreover, we have often failed to show hospitality, love and grace. We have often not lived the fruit of your spirit, and we confess this before you now.

Lord, we repent. We turn from these sins. We turn back to you, Jesus, knowing that you will never leave us nor forsake us. We ask that your spirit would continue to shape us more and more into your image. As we share in this communion today, Lord, we proclaim your finished work. Your finished work on the cross, your death, your burial, and your mighty resurrection. We cling to you, knowing that you are the only one who brings salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, life and life in abundance. And, in you, ultimately all things will one day be restored. Lord, would you comfort us in our mourning? Would you hear our cries for justice? Would you protect us from a longing for vengeance? Would you continue to make us agents of reconciliation? In peace we pray this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

How do you view Jesus? What is your vision of him? Where is your vision of Jesus leading you, as you imagine Jesus, as you think of him, as you follow him? How is your vision? Where is your vision of Jesus leading you?

Perhaps even another, more important question: Who gets to shape your vision of Jesus? Who gets to influence what Jesus looks like in your life? What voices? What sources? What methods are you using to discern your vision of Jesus?

Today we're going to continue on in a sermon series called Disciple, where we're looking at the Gospel of Mark, learning more about what it means to follow Jesus. To be a disciple is simply to follow the Jesus way. But the question that we have before us today is what if I'm misunderstanding Jesus? What if my vision of Jesus is blurry? What if it's confused? What if I'm not totally sure? What if perhaps I have a misunderstanding of who Jesus is? For each one of us, these are critical questions.

If we have a misunderstanding of who Jesus is, if we have a distorted view, so to speak, we may actually follow that distorted view into paths that are unhelpful -- paths that lead to harm and not to flourishing, maybe even paths that would not be of God's Kingdom. And so, who allows you to do that is a good question for us to be asking today. We're going to be in the gospel of Mark Chapter 8, verse 22 and on.

In this text you have a lot of language about vision. By the way, for those of you who are joining us in person, you should have received the handout. I think some o

f you may have gotten last week’s text, but that's OK because we're going to have the text on the screen.

No need to worry for those of y'all that are joining us online. If you don't have a Bible available, just go to bible.com and again, Mark Chapter 8 verse 22 and on. By the way, if you're joining us in person and would like a Bible, we'd love to get one to you. There are some available on the tables in the back. If you don't own a Bible, please take that as our gift to you. But I'll also have it up on the screen, so you can all follow along there.

Before we put it up on the screen, I'm actually going to read the text, and here's what I might ask you to do. As you hear these words read, would you imagine? Would you allow the spirit of God to impact your imagination as you see this in your mind's eye? And then we'll dialogue about it. And just pay special attention to how much language here in this text has to do with sight or vision or perspective. So, this is the gospel of Mark, Chapter 8, verse 22 and on.

“They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people -- they look like trees walking.’

Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes. The man looked intently, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying ‘Don't even go into the village.’

Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesara Phillipi. On the road he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; others say Elijah; still others one of the prophets.’

‘But you,’ he asked them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’

Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he strictly warned them to tell no one about him.

Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, to be killed and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You were not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.’

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose their life? What can anyone give in exchange for their life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father and the holy angels.

Then he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come in power.’”

This is the word of the Lord.

So, we're looking at this text and we'll just notice a few things as we go through the material and just pay special attention to how much language is used around vision, around sight, around seeing.

Let's take a look … by the way, was there some weird stuff in there? Did you guys hear he spit on a dude's eyeball? If you don't think that's weird, I don't want to sit next to you in church. I will just tell you that much -- I'm going to make sure to sit on the other side.

OK, so check this out. Watch this. I think this is beautiful. I mean the construction of this particular text is so beautiful and powerful. I love it.

“They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.” (Verse 22)

What does everyone want to have happen to this blind man? They want him to do what? See, right? They expect that Jesus is going to do a work and that the man is going to see. So watch this about vision. Watch how many times perspective, vision, and sight show up.

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ (Verse 23)

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Now, that's kind of strange. It seems a bit strange that Jesus doesn't just do the miracle there. Rather, he walks the guy out of the village, OK? That's not common in Jesus’s MO, and now we're going to continue to Jesus spitting on his eyes.

OK, so this this is rare. Jesus does not commonly spit on people’s eyes. In fact, let me just ask you a question: So far if you've been following along in the Gospel of Mark -- or maybe if you could just imagine for a moment -- do you think that Jesus needs to spit on people in order to heal them? OK, so there's something else going on here, and I'm actually just not going to resolve the tension for you. Rather, I'm going to encourage you to study your Bible in a group of people and ask this question: “What's this about?” And then you can see what sort of crazy ideas everybody comes up with, right? That's Bible study for you. So much fun.

“He looked up and said, ‘I see people – they look like trees walking.’” (Verse 240

I see people but they look like trees walking. Is that weird? Yes, it is. Are there any “Lord of the Rings” fans in the house? OK, this is not. This is not the Ents. OK, this is something else. Here's what I think is going on here.

Based on the text, it seems like Jesus spits on the dude’s eyes, touches his eyes and then asks him this question. “Do you see anything?”

Do you guys know when you first wake up, and you’ve got all this stuff in your eyes? OK, I'm not an optometrist. I don't know what that is, but I know I’ve got to get it out of my eyes so I can see clearly. It's happened to you guys before. You can you kind of see, but everything is fuzzy, right? You kind of have to intently hold on a minute, OK? And then you see clearly, right?

OK, so that seems to be what happened. It seems like Jesus kind of heals the dude -- like half heals the dude – weird. And the guys says,” Well, I kind of see, but I see people moving around, but they kind of look blurry, right?” I kind of have a distorted view of reality. I kind of see, but I don't fully see. You guys catching this?

Now let me ask you a question: Do you think Jesus is just out of gas? He’s thinking, “Listen. Another healing. Let's go outside the village.” And you know, Jesus, it didn't work. Can we do another round? He's like “Alright, you know, OK, let's.” Is that what's going on here? What's going on here? There's something else going on here.

Notice that this is strange in all of Jesus’s miracles. First of all, you've got the spit, but then it's a two-part miracle and it's unnecessarily in two parts, right? The guy says I see trees. I see people, but they're kind of like trees. I kind of see, but I don't really see.

“Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently, and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying ‘Don’t even go to the village.’” (Verse 25-26)

Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man' eyes. The man looked what? Intently. And his sight was restored. He looks intently, and then his sight was restored. And he sees what? Everything clearly.

OK, I'm going to just give my opinion. I think I'm right. I think that this is a set up for the next section. I think that the author Mark is intentionally articulating and showing you this miracle right here, in this moment because of what's going to happen next. Because what's going to happen next is that you're going to have a clarification of our vision of who Jesus is. He's going to turn to his disciples here in a minute. He's going to disrupt their misunderstanding of who he is in a way that's really powerful. He's going to invite them to see him more clearly. Watch this. It will make my argument right now here.

“Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Phillip. On the road he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ They answered him, ‘John the Baptist; others, Elijah, sill others, one of the prophets.’” (Verse 27-28)

Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages Ceasara Philippi. The disciples are on the case, so they're following Jesus. And from what we could tell in the broader context, they're headed towards Jerusalem, which is where he's going to be crucified and buried and rise from the dead. OK, so they're on the road to Jerusalem.

Jesus says, “Who do people say that I am?” Another way to say it is what do you think people see me as? What is people’s vision of me?

They answered him, John the Baptist, others Elijah – who was like an old-school prophet -- still others that they didn’t know what prophet -- just one of them.

“’But you,’ he asked them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he strictly warned them to tell no one about him” (Verse 29-30)

Now he's turning the question. He starts with who do people say that I am? And then -- who's he talking to? He's talking to his disciples. He says, who do you say that I am? What's your vision of me? How do you see me?

Now notice this. Peter answered him, you are the Messiah. Peter thinks he sees Jesus clearly, so much so that he's willing to contradict what other people say about Jesus. And he says, Jesus, I know who you are, you're the Messiah. And he's probably like A+ on the theology quiz.

Now this word Messiah. It's got a lot of religious baggage, but here's basically what it means. It just means chosen one or anointed one. Another word for it when it gets translated is Christ. This idea is that there is a chosen one who's going to save our people -- there's a lot of modern religious overtones to this. But in Jesus’s day, this would have been somewhat religious, but a lot of political and military. And here's why. The people living in Jerusalem were living not as a free people, but they were living under Roman occupation. The Romans had come in, conquered their land, and were occupying their territory. And what does any occupied people want? They want their freedom. They want to gain their freedom back. They want salvation from their evil overlords. Is that right? Is that normal, a normal desire? It’s a totally normal desire.

Now in Jesus’s day, there was this language in their scriptures -- what we sometimes refer to as the Old Testament -- that there would one day be a chosen one who would reestablish the Kingdom of Israel. There would be a chosen one, a Messiah and anointed one who would come and bring salvation. So, what do you think everyone in Jesus’s day thought the Messiah was going to do? Save them from whom? From Rome. Everyone’s messianic expectation is that the Messiah “chosen one” would come and he would kill Caesar. Is that a normal expectation? Is that just completely legitimate for anyone who lives under occupied force? Yeah, this is what we would want, right?

OK, so Peter says you're the chosen one. You're the Christ, the Messiah. Now watch. And he strictly wanted them to tell no one about him. This is that Messianic secret that keeps coming up in the Gospel of Mark. If you want to know more about that, just listen to some of the previous sermons on DSBC dot church. In fact, you should just listen to all the sermons from the last 45 years. They were pretty good.

“Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this.” (Verses 31-32)

Notice this. “… for the Son of Man to …” Uh oh!

What do Peter and the disciples want Jesus to do? Conquer Rome. And now Jesus is saying I'm the Messiah. And the Messiah, the Son of Man is going to suffer many things. Be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, which are like the religious elite, who should be celebrating the Messiah.

What? Rejected? And then he' going to be … Oh, my! And then rise after three days. He predicts his resurrection. He spoke openly about this. He spoke confidently or powerfully about this.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns, but human concerns.’ “

No, no, no! Peter took him aside and began to do what? Rebuke. OK, so the chutzpah of this guy, right? So, Peter gives the answer, “You're the Messiah. That's who I say you are.” And in his mind, he had a certain view of what Jesus was supposed to be. And then Jesus completely contradicted what Peter's assumptions about the Messiah were. Notice Peter is in a state of disruption. His whole belief system is now being disrupted, so much so that Peter, one of Jesus disciples, comes out from the crowd of disciples, takes Jesus aside and then says, “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” Right? He says, “Jesus, that cannot happen.”

Why does Peter rebuke Jesus? Jesus is not living up to his expectations of what Jesus is supposed to be. Let me ask you this. Have you ever seen God do a work and then be angry at God for doing the work? You ever seen the teaching of God, then be angry at God for the teaching? So, are we above this?

And Jesus is saying I'm going to suffer many things, be killed, and rise three days later, OK? And then Peter comes out from the crowd, and then notice. Notice the language Peter uses as he takes Jesus aside. What does Peter think he’s doing to Jesus? He is trying to lead Jesus. Right, he comes out from the group of disciples, grabs him, and takes him aside. Are you guys seeing this? Peter takes Jesus aside, and who's in the lead? Peter presumes himself now to take the lead and define Jesus how Peter thinks Jesus should be defined. Do you think this is going to end well for Peter?

OK. Again, remember that we're talking about our vision of who Jesus is and who we will let define our vision of who Jesus is -- and if the vision of Jesus that we have is leading us into being Jesus-like or anti-Jesus.

Watch this. But turning around, Peter takes Jesus and says something like “Can I see you in the kitchen? Come over here, please. Jesus, you're not going to die. You're not going to do that. You have to be Messiah. You have to be an alive Messiah.” Right?

Notice what Jesus does. He turns around and looks at whom? He's now inviting everybody in. He's inviting everybody into what he's about to say next. He rebukes Peter and says what?

Right, get behind me. Now, is that a strong rebuke? This is an exceptionally strong rebuke. He calls him Satan, right? Is a strong rebuke? I mean we would never do that to each other. Jesus rebukes Peter and says get behind me, Satan. Notice this. You are not thinking about what? God’s concerns. What are you thinking about?

OK, here's your homework. Go home today and read Chapter 8,9 and 10 in the Gospel of Mark. Notice that three times Jesus predicts his death, burial, and resurrection, and three times immediately adjacent to those texts where he predicts his death, burial, resurrection, his disciples argue with him about power. And they're arguing from the perspective of the kingdoms of this world, not the Kingdom of God.

They want more power. Just notice it, go back, read Chapter 8,9 and 10. They can't see Jesus clearly. They see him, but they see a distorted view of Jesus. This distorted view of Jesus is causing them to say to Jesus, “No, you can't die.” The other disciples will come to Jesus and say, “Make sure we get to be empowered, Jesus. We want to sit at your right hand and your left. And when your Kingdom finally comes” -- and in their imagination it was when Jesus kills Caesar and establishes his earthly domain – “I want more power, Jesus.”

When you get home and read chapters 8, 9 and 10, it's there, it’s right there. You get Peter being rebuked because he's elevating human concerns above what? God’s concerns. He's elevating the kingdoms of this world over the Kingdom of God.

“Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. (Verse 34)

Calling the crowd … OK, so this is different. Up until this point in time, Jesus usually takes his disciples away from the crowd for the deeper teaching. Notice what he's going to do now. He's going to do a deep teaching, but he turns to the crowd.

So remember … oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Man, isn't Jesus so cool? Watch this. Uh, I’ve got to tell you guys this. What did he say to Peter? That seems pretty harsh, right?

OK, but notice this “get behind me.” Here's the deal. This is grace. He could have told Peter you're out. You're not allowed to be my disciple anymore. Or he could have said, you know, off with his head. But notice what he says. What does he say to him? Get behind me. Remember where the disciples were and remember that Peter came out from his place as a disciple and tried to lead Jesus. Jesus turns him back and says get back behind me. Because where do disciples exist -- in front of or behind the one they're following? He says get back to being my disciple, not my leader. It's an act of grace. He reestablished Peter as a disciple. Do you guys see?

It in just this brief moment, Peter tries to elevate himself over Jesus and Jesus is like “Nah, bro. You get back behind me,” right? This is not “get away from me.” This is just “get back in your rightful place behind me and follow me, follow me. And then notice. Jesus says get behind me in order to do what? Follow me. Notice, he says, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Does that sound like kill Caesar to you? That's interesting.

Some of us wear crosses, right? And we have jewelry or earrings. Or some of us have tattoos. At least for me, when I preach, I wear this cross. And one of the things it does for me is that when I feel it on my skin, it's a physical reminder of my posture. My posture is to be cruciform -- formed like the cross, which is sacrificial, gracious, loving, not trying to take power for myself, but rather use my power in service of others. Perhaps some of you do the same thing in your space. In your role, it just serves as a reminder. But what does it mean?

What must a disciple of Jesus do? What posture should they take? A posture of the cross. Now notice what Jesus does here. He says take up your -- not sword, which is what they want, right? In fact, one of the things that you'll see in in the other gospels is that when the soldiers come for Jesus, you know that Peter flinches to grab a sword. You know what Jesus says to him? Put that away.

The cross was used by the Romans to humiliate and disempower political dissidents. And he says that's the form I want you to take. This let me just ask you this question: Does that have any bearing on how we think about power? Does that have any bearing on our posture as it relates to one another?

Does this have any bearing with what it means to follow Jesus? If a vision of Jesus is as a warrior who's going to slay, and he's just handing out swords -- that distorted view of Jesus will likely lead me to do things that are elevating human concerns above the concerns of God. So, could you ever imagine a time in human history where people will use Jesus’s name to justify the growth of their own kingdom? For 1700 years, that's been going on. I would just refer to any Western civilization history book. Just look at how much God-talk there is to justify concerns of humanity, not the concerns of God.

But Jesus says if you want to follow me, take up your cross. Let me ask you this: What does it look like for you to take up your cross? What does it look like for us as a church family to be cruciform?

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with holy angels. Then he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power.” (Verse 35-39)

Jesus says that if you keep trying to reach out and take for yourself, it’s going to destroy you. But if you give away, that's where you find the true power. What does it benefit? I love this. “What does it benefit for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose their life? What can anyone give in exchange for their life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in, the glory of his father with the Holy Angels. And then he says to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God coming in its power.”

And what does Jesus have in mind there? I think that Jesus doesn't mind the Kingdom of God coming in its power through his crucifixion, his death and his resurrection. How does King Jesus win? By killing, or by letting them kill him? How does Jesus win? By reaching out and grasping for a crown of gold, or allowing them to put a crown of thorns on his head? Does Jesus win by the sword or by the cross? OK, so when he says take up your cross and follow me, I believe that he means for us to look at his death, burial and resurrection and say I'm going to live that way too.

So, what does that look like for us as a church? It is very, very easy to tether the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world in order to advance our version of the kingdoms of this world. To put it another way, it's really easy to use God-talk for my own political gain.

One of the questions I have is: Am I allowing Jesus to shape my politics, or am I allowing my politics to use my Jesus? Here's a test that I that I use for myself. When was the last time Jesus changed one of my political commitments? When was the last time I allowed Jesus to change one of my political commitments?

If the Spirit of the Living God isn't dwelling within us, constantly reforming us and renewing our minds -- not according to the patterns of this world, but by the power of the Spirit – then should I expect that I've got all my political commitments lined up with the Kingdom of God at the age of 41 now? How old am I? 40? Trying to sneak an extra year in there on you.

Right, do you think that I still need to grow? Yeah, you guys weren't unanimous in that. Thank you. Do you think I still need to grow? Yeah, of course I do. And do you think you do, too? OK, so when was the last time that Jesus reformed or reshaped one of my political commitments? Because it's so easy to be like Peter and think “Jesus, you need to be this way because this is what I perceive you to be” rather than allowing Jesus to say, “Hold up, hold up. I'm actually not the way you think I am. You need to see me more clearly. You see me dimly, you see me blurry. But you need to see me more clearly. And if you want to see me clearly, look at the cross. So as a church family, we are engaged in politics and government. But we are living, not as people tethered to any partisan or political party -- because those are versions of the kingdom of this world – but we live as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. Because the Kingdom of God absolutely transcends all parties.

Let me tell you a story about Scottish people. Yeah, so I was talking to somebody there today. He was relaying this story. A friend of his -- he's Presbyterian, and we're still friends -- he was talking about this Presbyterian minister who was a very conservative American Presbyterian minister. Very, very conservative. He went over to the Highlands of Scotland to another very conservative Presbyterian Church to minister to very conservative Presbyterians.

And they got on it after he was there for a few weeks. He got on the topic of politics, as one does when you're a very conservative Presbyterian, and he was shocked and aghast to discover that every one of the people that he was talking to was a socialist. He said, “How could you be a socialist? You're Christians.” And they looked at him like a cow looks at a new fence.

They said, “We're up here in the highlands of Scotland. We wouldn't have water, electricity. We wouldn’t have any of these things if it weren't for democratic socialism,” which is the party that they were. They said, “According to the clear teachings of scripture, this is obviously the right way to vote.”

Could you imagine that flying in Phoenix? Now, what is that speaking to, right? We're laughing because we already get the joke that the Kingdom of God is not the kingdoms of this world. So anytime the kingdom of this world claims to be the Kingdom of God, we ought to say, hold up. That was Peter's mistake.

Is there a cross here? Because if I'm going to see Jesus more clearly, I need to be seeing cruciform life – a cross. And boy, do we need this cruciform life now. In this community, do we not have competing visions of Jesus? As a church family, we are committed to the best of our ability to put Jesus on display, which is cruciform, shaped like a cross. Committed to, every day, picking up our cross and following Jesus.

And so, here's my encouragement to you. I want to encourage you in two things. On your way in you should have received a handout with a prayer card on it. Would you guys please grab that? If you don't have one, there should be some available in the back of the seats.

Years ago, we heard about a story of a church that was building a new building. Before they finished the building – before they finalized their drywall -- they said, hey, before we put the last sheet of drywall up, let's have a prayer service. What we'll do is, we'll pray for the people in our community. We'll pray for the people in our lives who need to see Jesus. And we'll write their names down on these cards and we'll pray over them. And then we'll put them in the wall, and then we'll seal up the wall.

And the reason that we're going to do that is because we want to be reminded. Every time we walk past that wall, we want to be reminded to pray, and so they did it. And it was this beautiful experience. Eventually over the course of weeks and months they would do baptisms, and they would say things like hey, this Jim who’s going to get baptized – is his names in the wall? We've been praying for Jim for the last six months.

We loved that story, and we were like, oh man, our building was already done. So, one of our elders took a giant sledgehammer and put that hole in the wall so that we could participate in this same act. And so, over the years we've done this exercise where we have just asked the Lord, “Lord, who's here, who's not here that needs to be here? Lord, who is kind of adjacent to this community, but hasn't yet seen a vision of you, Jesus? God, who have you put in my life that needs to see a vision of you, Jesus?” And we fold that up and we put that in the wall.

So, I'm going to ask that you would consider two things. One: Who are the people in your life that God has called you to pray over? Who needs to see a clear vision of Jesus? Maybe they're getting a distorted image of Jesus, but they need to see a clear image of Jesus. Would you just write those names down? And at the conclusion of our time together, would you put those in the wall as a commitment to pray.

And I'm going to ask you to do something else. In that act, would you also commit to praying that the Lord would show you and provide you with an opportunity to show Jesus to them? To show Jesus to them -- it could be through words, it could be through actions, whatever it looks like in your life. What would it look like to take up your cross? To follow Jesus and to show that cruciform love to the people that God is calling you to pray over.

I'm going to pray, and then we'll take a moment for you to write those names down. Then after we conclude, would you place those in the wall as an act of commitment?

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we love you and we give you thanks for your many blessings and provisions. But Jesus, we also give you thanks that you have given us this clear vision in your word. This deep truth that to follow you is to take up a cross, just as you, Jesus, have taken it up. But it doesn't lead to despair. It leads to resurrection. And so we live in hope, knowing that we don't need to grasp power for ourselves, that we don't need to take the sword in order to establish your Kingdom, but rather, Lord, that in giving ourselves to you -- using our power and giving it away in the service to others -- Lord, that you honor that, you bless that, and ultimately you use that as your Kingdom comes, and your will is done here on earth as it is in the Kingdom of God. Would you continue to shape us more and more into a people that mirror you, Jesus? It's in your name that we pray, Amen.

Good morning, church. Yes, this is a flower. And yes, today is Mother's Day. And I hope that that's not news to you. Because it is today, and if you are feeling caught off guard that it is, in fact, Mother's Day, you perhaps do not have a flower ready. But we’ve got your back. Here at Desert Springs Bible Church, we're all about looking out for each other. And for those of you who perhaps forgot that you were supposed to pick up flowers today, I want to inform you that out on the patio after service, our Adventure Kids Ministry will be selling flowers. And all the proceeds will help send our Adventure Kids to camp. As many of you know, as inflation has gone up, the cost of camps continues to go up. We want to make sure that every kid who wants to go to camp gets to go to camp. So, buy some flowers today on the patio. Help send a kid to camp and save your own bacon. How's that sound today?

The other thing I wanted to point out with this flower is this deep truth: We are a people of tradition. We are a people of ritual or a people of ceremony. We are a people of rites and routines. This flower, for me, at least as I think about today, has been a reminder that not only do I have to get some flowers, but also that the compulsion comes from a space that's deep within us. We are a people of tradition. No matter who you are or where you're coming from, we practice traditions. Sometimes we do so consciously, and sometimes we're participating in practices, traditions, ceremonies, subconsciously. Whichever the case, we are a people of traditions.

And so, here's my question for you today: Are the traditions, routines, rites, ceremonies that you practice life-giving or life-taking? Are the routines, rites, rituals and traditions that you participate in something that leads to human flourishing or exclusion? The traditions that you hold onto and value dearly -- are they leading to the glorifying of God or the glorification of the self? As we explore our text today, I hope that you'll meditate on those questions. Are the traditions that I hold life-giving or life-taking? Are they something that invites other people in or something that keeps people out?

We are a people of traditions, and today we're going to continue in a study of the Gospel of Mark. We’ll be in Chapter 7 today, and we're going to look at a time where Jesus engages in a confrontation with some religious leaders about tradition, rituals and rites, and then actually kind of peels back some layers as to how these rituals, rites and traditions are used to exclude people. And then we're going to get to one of the most difficult sayings of Jesus in the whole Bible, in my opinion. If that's not exciting to you for Mother's Day – I hope it is -- because we're not changing it now. You know this isn't an optional thing. So, Mark chapter 7.

For those of you joining us online, if you have a print Bible, I'd encourage you to grab one. Or just go to bible com. We're using the Christian Standard Bible. And for those of you joining in the room, we have it printed out in the handout, but also we would love for you to use a print Bible if you've got one -- or a digital Bible. Whatever you have available.

Again, Mark Chapter 7 verses one through to 30. I think we’ll get through it today. We'll see how it goes. OK, so I'm going to read through this. Remember that we're thinking about our traditions, our rites, our rituals -- how they are used to either give life or take life, how they're used to include or exclude. Let's take a look at Jesus here. He's going to have a confrontation with some religious leaders.

“The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is unwashed.” (Verses 1-2)

First of all, who's coming at Jesus? The Pharisees and some of the scribes. And they're coming all the way from Jerusalem. OK, so these are religious elites. These are people who know their Bible -- what we call the Old Testament. They knew their scriptures. But they also had, you know, power structures and traditions and religious ceremonies and rites -- much of which was really good. But these homies come down all the way from Jerusalem. So, you're expecting some sort of real important thing is the reason that they came all the way from Jerusalem to observe the disciples. This is like people flying in from headquarters. OK, so the leadership is flying in from headquarters all the way to catch Jesus disciples doing what? They were eating bread. That's not scandalous, is it?

They're eating bread with what? Now hold onto your seats again. What would warrant these homies to fly all the way down from headquarters? They were observing that some -- but not all -- some of the disciples were eating bread with unclean, that is, unwashed hands. You know that you're supposed to wash your hands before you eat. I really hope that you do. I hope that those who work in our hospitality ministry faithfully every week do so, as they prepare the coffee and the doughnuts. But do you think that washing hands warrants the Pharisees and scribes, the religious elite, to fly in all the way from headquarters? Do you think that this is about hygiene? What do you think? Is this about hygiene? This isn't about hygiene. This is about religious tradition. This is about a rite or ritual.

“(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of their elders; ...” (Verse 3)

So, watch this. Mark is going to clue you in on it. Mark says the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing. That's what it's about. It's not about hygiene, it's about that ceremony, keeping with the traditions of their elders, right? So, they had a tradition that before you eat you would ceremonially clean your hands. It's good to wash your hands. This is not an anti-hand-washing sermon. That'll be next week, but today what we're just focusing on is there's a ceremony, and the ceremony was good. The ceremony came out of what we call the Old Testament. It came out as scripture. It wasn't for everybody.

Actually, it was just for the priests. When they would enter a holy space, they would do ceremonial washing. Again, washing again was not about hygiene; it was about the heart. The ceremony was meant to remind the priests of who they were and how they were, and who God is and how God is. In other words, I'm an imperfect broken vessel coming into the presence of the divine. I'm not fit for that. I'm not in and of myself. I'm not able to stand before God face to face, but God provided this means of the ceremonial washing. So, I if I were the priest, I would be reminding myself again. It would be shaping me, reminding me that there are a lot of things in this world that are not godly. I'm going to wash that off of me ceremonially, or figuratively, before I enter into the presence of God. You guys with me so far? This was what the priests were to do.

Now in Jesus ‘s day, the Pharisees and scribes, they kind of took that idea, which is a beautiful idea … Have you guys read Leviticus lately? Is Leviticus your favorite book of the Bible? OK, I want you to put it in your top ten, and here's why. If you just think deeply about our normal lives, we are people of tradition and ritual. And in Leviticus you have a lot of tradition, ritual and ceremonial things happening. If you just kind of peel back the layers, you'll notice that these ceremonies and rituals were shaping the hearts of the individuals and shaping the heart of the community. And so, there's this beautiful ritual. But the problem was is that the Pharisees, at least in this scene, seem to have taken this beautiful ceremony and then projected it onto everybody. Notice the language: Nobody is allowed to eat unless everybody does what was instructed for the priest to do. So, they took this tradition, this drama, but then it got misused in a way that would keep some people out and invite others in. Then, you’ve got Mark here explaining why.

“… and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.” (Verse 4)

Then it says when they came from the marketplace. So again, Pharisees, the Jewish people, they do not eat unless they have washed again, not a hygiene ceremony. And there are many other customs they have received and keep -- like what? What else do you think they washed? Like the washing of cups. We could see how that works. If we're going to wash our hands, but we’re going to put our lips on our cup, so let's ceremonially clean the cup. That kind of makes sense, right? And pitchers, because what's in them goes into the cup. And then kettles, because their contents also go in a cup. And then of course, dining couches. Is everybody seeing what I'm doing here?

I could imagine cleaning one’s hands. I could imagine cleaning a cup. I could imagine cleaning a pitcher. I could imagine cleaning a kettle. But how do you ceremonially clean a couch? Now let's just notice that this has really gotten interesting. Evidently, some of the people in Jesus’s day were literally dragging their couches out into the ceremonial cleaning pool. So just imagine, you're in your house, you're having a cup of coffee, reading the paper. Someone in your house says, “What's that noise?” Oh, it's Jim. He's ceremonially going to be cleaning his couch today. Oh, OK. I think that this is getting to a point where the tradition maybe has gotten a little bit out of hand. Can we agree?

“The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?’” (Verse 5)

The Pharisees and scribes ask Jesus, “Why don't your disciples live according to our traditions? Why don't they live according to our traditions?” Now, you already know that this is baked into every culture. For those of you who grew up in America, do you remember when you went to your first baseball game or football game? It's not written anywhere that I could tell -- I was not informed of it, but before the game actually started, something happened. There was like a little a tune that was familiar to me, and some words that I didn't quite understand. “Oh say, can you see? By the dawn’s early …" And I'm just sitting there with my hat on, right? How come no one informed me of this?

This happens before every ball game here in America. And here's the deal. This is a tradition, this standing with hat off, hand over heart, singing of the national anthem. It's a tradition, right? And here's how I know that ritual is so powerful, because when we all stand up to do the song and someone isn't doing it, what's everybody doing? “Can you believe this person? Their hat is on!” Now where is it written that it's a sign of respect, a transcendent truth, that to stand with hat off at the national anthem is a sign of respect and honor? We don't write that stuff down. We just do it.

How about holidays? Have you have you ever experienced holidays with other people? I remember when my wife and I got married, we were celebrating Christmas together and I remember that her family just did Christmas the wrong way. They did so many wrong things. Christmas Eve obviously is Peter Piper night. OK, this group of people ate fish. This is not the way we do things around here. What's that? That's ritual. That is the tradition of the elders. Are we not a traditional people? Are we not a people of ritual? So, here's the question: Are our rituals life-giving or life-taking? Are our rituals God- glorifying or self-glorifying?

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy to you hypocrites, as it is written ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” (Verses 6-7)

Let's keep going. They're accusing Jesus of having disciples who eat bread with unclean hands. He answers them, “Isaiah prophesied …. *** TV timeout. Isaiah is a prophet that the scribes and Pharisees would have venerated. He was respected, and they had read and heard the Isaiah scroll before. They knew this text. I think this is conjecture, but I don't think that they ever appropriated the following words to themselves. They knew the Bible. They knew what Isaiah was about. ***

Jesus quotes Bible at them and expects them to know that He's going to apply it in such a way that they say, “Thou art the one?” He says: Isaiah prophesied correctly about you.

Is hypocrisy an issue for religious people? This idea of hypocrisy is to say or have an outward appearance of one way, but have the inside be the opposite way -- not be a whole person and to some extent put on a mask or present myself in a way that is different than what's going on inside. Remember this is Isaiah who He's quoting here to the Pharisees: “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me when they worship”

If I could do the baseball national anthem analogy, this is taking a beautiful tradition of standing for the national anthem at the baseball game and saying “God said to do it”. You see? Jesus is not anti-tradition. Jesus is not anti-ritual. You see it in scripture that He engages with a lot of His people’s rituals and traditions. But taking a ritual, tradition, ceremony, cultural expression, and elevating it to “thus sayeth the Lord” -- that's the problem. Are we tracking?

So, when I looked at my wife’s family on our first Christmas, I was having an internal struggle because what was going on inside of me was “They're not doing it the right way.” Rather, what I failed to see was “Well, I have traditions, ceremonies and rites, and they do, too. And if I'm entering their space, we've got to find a way to maybe make some new traditions. Maybe adjust our ceremonies, maybe adjust our rituals so that we can be brought into community together.”

Neglecting the commandments of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying, ‘You are experts at setting aside the commandments of God in order to keep your tradition. (Verses 8-9)

Let's keep going. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine human commands, Abandoning the command of God. You have not only elevated your tradition, your culture, your cultural expression, your rituals, your rites and routines -- you've not only elevated them to God commands but also in so doing you've actually shattered God's commands. And here's what we know about the greatest commandment. Jesus got asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” And He said this: “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Are your traditions, rituals and cultural expressions ceremonies life-giving, or are they life-taking? Are your ceremonies, your traditions self-glorifying or God-glorifying? Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition. He also said to them – by the way, Jesus gets sarcastic. “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your own tradition.”

I have a really rough question for you: As you hear this story read and as you read it along with me, who do you imagine yourself to be in this story? Not Jesus, right? I mean are you reading this story and imagining yourself to be the disciples? Or the Pharisees and scribes? When the Pharisees and scribes read Isaiah, they thought themselves to be the righteous, the pure of heart. But Jesus, just for a minute, wanted them to see themselves as the ones who are hypocritical. That might be a good practice for us to engage in. Maybe instead of seeing ourselves just for this moment as like the disciples, maybe we might want to put ourselves in the position of the Pharisee and scribes, with the religious rituals and ceremonies. Let’s just ask ourselves the question: Are our traditions or ceremonies bringing people in, or are they kicking people out? Are they life-giving or life-taking? Are they God-honoring or they self-honoring?

Church family, I think this is important for us to continue to consider. Because if we elevate our way of doing things to “God said so,” then we actually invalidate God’s commands. We fail to love our God and fail to love our neighbor. This is really serious language that He uses.

OK, so rituals. There's this ritual that we do every week. It's called singing. Have you heard this before? And I want to encourage you in this. There's this really beautiful thing that's happening to us when we engage in the ritual of singing. We are not just following along with the band. We're not just singing to God. We're singing to each other. We're singing to each other the truth of the song. I remember being seated right here so many years ago, and we were singing “It is well with My Soul,” which is kind of an old school classic. One of the lines is “Whatever my lot, you have taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.” So, we were singing that song and I was just a few chairs down from a woman who, within the last year of that singing, had lost her baby, who had died. So, I'm singing “Whatever my lot you have taught me to say it as well with my soul,” but in that moment I I could just hear her voice singing with mine. Our voices were merging. And I thought, “Oh man, that's there's something really powerful with her voice singing those lyrics.”

When conclude our time together this morning, we're going to have a moment just to sing together and hear voices raised up. And here's what I would encourage you to do. If you're part of Desert Springs, if you're part of this church family, I would encourage you to sing as a ritual that's shaping us. This is so cool when if you actually listen to it. You'll hear the voices start to intermingle and create a unique new sound, a unique new expression of the people of God. It takes all of our voices to do that, just like it takes all our lives, our individual lives, woven together as a bunch of misfits to put on display the manifold wisdom of God in this community. When we sing, it's kind of like an audible representation of what's happening with our lives as a church family. We're putting the glory of God on display, and we're using a tradition to do it.

But here's the deal. Remember that I'm asking the question: Are our traditions life-giving or life-taking? Here's something that we're leaning into. We're leaning into a lot in this season, but one thing in particular. There are members of our church family who, because of some sickness and damage to their eardrums, they can't be around drums. I'm a drummer. I love the drums, but they can't be around drums. So, we were really wrestling with this and praying. I think the Lord moved in in the conversation. This group of people are not able to participate in our worship, and we said, “That just doesn't seem like the command of Scripture, right? The love of God and love our neighbor.” And so, on occasion, there will be times where we gather for worship when we won't have the drums. Because for us, it's more important to elevate the commands of God over the traditions of humans. So, I brought a little drum track that I put in my ears. Just kidding. So, Jesus here is not talking about traditions, good or bad. It's when traditions are elevated to “Thus, says the Lord.”

“Jesus got up and went away from to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no to know of it; yet he could not escape notice.” (Verse 24)

And I'm actually going to skip a few verses. I would encourage you to go back and read through Mark Chapter 7. I'm just going to get ahead here to this really interesting part. And then Jesus does something which is really powerful. This is what happens next, and this is nuts. He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. That is a space that's not predominantly Jewish. Some people refer to it as Gentile. Gentile is just a weird word that often gets translated in your Bibles. It Is either the word we have for ethnos, which is the Greek word for the ethnic outsider, or the ethnic other. Tyre was peopled by ethnic outsiders. It was a space of ethnic differences where they definitely had different ceremonies, practices, rhythms, and routines.

Jesus entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. Instead, immediately after hearing about him, watch this:

“But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race.” (Verses 25-26)

For those of you who've been following along, just a couple chapters before you get a sick little girl, you have people falling at Jesus’s feet, and you have a person who's actually possessed by demons. It would be really cool if you wanted to read all the way through Mark Chapter 7 and see how in this woman, you get a package deal of afflictions that have already plagued all the people before. And she has the same posture as others, and she does what at Jesus’s feet? Falls at Jesus’s feet. Now, the woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit -- is this woman in desperate need? She does not know much about Jesus, other than He's a miracle worker who's like a rabbi or some sort of Jewish guy, right? He's from that Judean area. Jesus to her is an ethnic outsider. She knows very little of Him, but she knows something about Him that causes her to come and fall at His feet. The woman was a Gentile or an ethnic outsider, a Syrophoenician woman by birth, and she was asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Is that a legitimate request? Is that a request that comes from a place of love for her daughter?

OK, what do you think Jesus should do? Should He say yes, or no? He should say yes, right? Well, it's easy for you to say. Hold onto your hats, kids. This next part is one of the most difficult statements of Jesus, and I'm not going to resolve the tension for us. Real quick, what do we think Jesus is probably about to say? “Of course, I'll heal your little girl.” Watch what Jesus does.

“And He was saying to her, ‘Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’” (Verse 27)

Here's what I think is going on in this text. I think when He says, let the children be fed first, I think that He's saying, “I'm here on mission to my people, the Jewish people.” I think that's the children. Notice the language of the bread. Jesus will refer to himself as the bread of life. He says let the children of Israel be fed first. It isn't right to take the children’s bread, and then the miracles I'm giving them are thrown to the dogs. I have read dozens of commentators try to make this not nasty. It's nasty. Now by the way, Caleb, in Hebrew means dog, so I can relate to this text.

Does this sound like Jesus called this woman, a dog? In fact, He called all the people dogs. This is ethnocentrism, isn't it? He says my people get it first, and it's not right for me to give the miracles that I'm giving my people to you and your people now. Does that sound like Jesus to you? Is this confusing? Does this feel like Jesus is putting up a wall? Does this feel like Jesus is setting up a boundary to not invite people in? Alright, see you guys later. (Pastor pretends to be walking off the stage.)

OK, right, we can't end the sermon there, can we? Notice what happens next. Now you must remember that Jesus is smart and super loving. But Jesus also longs to shape us more and more into His image. And sometimes the tools that He uses don't make sense. Have you ever endured suffering and wondered, “God, where are you in all this?” And it seems like God is silent to you. And yet maybe, for some of us when we look back at those seasons, we say, “Oh, He was with me. I just didn't see what He was doing at the time.” This error maybe happened to you.

OK, so at first glance this feels like Jesus is saying no. But watch what the woman does next and then watch what Jesus does next. Also recognize that we're able to read this in fluid motions. So, watch what the woman does. She replied to him, “Lord …. ***TV time out

*** As far as I could tell, this is the only time that a person refers to Jesus as Lord in the Gospel of Mark. Out of the mouth of an outsider comes a deep and profound truth about who Jesus is. Mark does this all the time, in fact. In one of the last scenes in Jesus's life, you have a Roman centurion looking at the crucified Christ and saying, “Surely this man is the son of God.” This is kind of a device that Mark seems to use. ***

How does she respond? She doesn't say -- notice -- she does not say, “How dare you?” She does not get in a huff and pound the table.

“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs”. (Verse 28)

Notice what she does. She takes the metaphor, and she enters into it. She views Jesus’s statement as an invitation into a deeper conversation, and she presses back in on Jesus. Have you ever heard of like statements like “pray without ceasing?” Like, pray fervently sometimes. Here's this really interesting truth that sometimes Jesus is silent in our praying because He's inviting us to kind of press Him more deeply. Some of the ancients had this idea that they called “the dark night of the soul.” This is when it felt like God's presence was completely gone, and yet it really was Jesus taking the milk bottle away and asking us to eat real food -- to press in to Jesus. I think that is what Jesus has done here. He has taken a reality of the day -- rampant ethnocentrism – and He sets the table to invite her to make the argument that He wants to make. Jesus invites her to make the argument He is trying to make. Look at the context. He's just been saying “Let's not elevate our traditions to “Thus sayeth the Lord” and therefore exclude people. Out of her mouth comes the argument that He wants to make. And here's why I think this is right. She said, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. “

“And He said to her, ‘Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.’” (Verse 29)

Another way that Jesus says stuff like this is “Your faith has made you well.” Jesus, in a hard circumstance, invites the conversation. She makes the argument that Jesus is trying to, and then He affirms this with a blessing and a healing. And then this is the end.

“And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.” (Verse 30)

So, there are times when Jesus’s presence just doesn't feel palpable. I believe that this text and many others like it are an encouragement to press into that space.

Now we're going to engage in a ceremony, a tradition. It's called communion or “the Lord’s table.” In the back of the seat in front of you, if you're joining us in person, there are communion elements. I encourage you to grab those. If you don't have any, there are some available on the tables in the back. For those joining us online, if you would please grab some bread and wine or juice or whatever you have available to represent the body and blood of Jesus as we take of this tradition, this sacrament, today. It is a physical, tangible, tactile way for us not only to remember, but also to be shaped. Not only to remember what Jesus has done, but also to be shaped as a community – because we take communion, not as isolated individuals, but together as a church family.

And so, I'm going to pray. Then we're going to pause and take a moment to reflect. In that moment of reflection, I want to encourage you to consider the things that you've heard, to consider the goodness of Jesus as He invites us into a deeper conversation. And then I'll come back and lead us in the taking of communion.

Would you join me as we pray together? Lord Jesus, in this act we recognize that we are called to live according to the New Covenant. That we are to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, practicing Your values on earth, as they are in heaven. While prepare our hearts, we recognize that we often fail in this regard. So, Lord, we pray and confess that we have not always lived according to Your Kingdom. That we have often propagated injustice and evil. We have often fostered disunity, practicing favoritism -- elevating our own concerns and preferences over others. Moreover, Lord, we have often failed to show hospitality, love and grace. We have often not lived out the fruit of the spirit. We confess these things before You now. We repent from these things, Lord. We turn from these sins and turn back to You, Jesus, knowing that You will never leave us or forsake us. And we ask that Your spirit continue to shape us into Your image. As we take this communion today, Lord, we proclaim Your finished work on the cross -- Your death, Your burial and Your resurrection. We cling to You, knowing that You are the one who brings salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation -- and that in You, ultimately all that which is broken and marred by sin will be restored. We pray these things in Your name, Amen.

We're continuing in a sermon series called Disciple. We're looking at the Gospel of Mark. Today we’ll be in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 13. Today I we're going to look at a really difficult text. And my hope is that by looking and studying this difficult text, we will be encouraged and equipped to engage and navigate difficult times. So, this is a difficult text for difficult times.

In fact, Mark Chapter 13 is kind of notorious in its difficulty -- not only the content, but also how we're supposed to think through it and apply it. And so, we're going to work together today to think through Mark Chapter 13, and I just want to set expectations, if that's OK. If you think that we are going to exhaust all of the questions and explore all of the nuances of this chapter in the next 30 minutes, you have way too high of an estimation of my capacities.

There is going to be a ton of unresolved tension and conflict, and that's just the way we like it. Because we have the rest of our lives to wrestle through and to converse over a text like this as a church family. But I do know that there is some deep and profound truth here in the tension and the difficulty that I believe will help us apply this difficult text to difficult times.

So, this text in Mark, Chapter 13. It's kind of weird. It sounds a little bit scary, and yet its goal is to bring to us a deep and abiding peace. Mark Chapter 13 is the one of the longest contiguous teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. If you’ve been with us in this journey through Mark, you know that Mark usually likes to keep things short and tight. And yet here in Mark 13 we get a short question with a long answer, so we're going to look at the text together. I want to invite you to join me, and we're going to go through verse by verse and just notice some things and tease them out as we go along.

Check this out. This is the Gospel of Mark chapter 13. We're here at a moment where Jesus has entered Jerusalem. He's gone to the temple, and, as some of you guys may remember, He kicked out the money changers. Now He's on His way out of the temple. Just notice here. And then after this you'll get to the Last Supper and then the crucifixion, death, burial and then resurrection of Jesus. We're kind of nearing the end of the Gospel of Mark, and 13 is the last along teaching of Jesus in Mark.

He was going where? Out of the temple. Just watch this. Just use your mind's eye. OK, so Jesus has done all this activity in the temple. He's engaged with some of the leaders of the temple. He’s had a dialogue with them, wrestled with them, debated them. He's flipped over money changers. He's done all this, and now His time at the temple is concluding, so He's leaving. He's going out from the temple.

“As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, look what massive stones, what impressive buildings.’” (Verse 1)

In the temple area you had in Jerusalem, this big temple and all the surrounding buildings were really impressive. There were huge stones that were stacked on top of each other. It was ornate. It was beautiful. In fact, if you were a Jew living at that time, the temple would have been the pinnacle of your national pride and national security. If the temple was still standing, our people are still standing. The temple was really important, not only to my national pride if I'm Jewish, but also to my national security. So, if it's standing, we're standing. The temple was not only magnificent to look at, but also had a very special place in the lives of the Jewish people.

Oh, and by the way, I wanted to say on the 12th of May, my friend, Rabbi Jeremy Schneider, is going to be joining us for our next “At a Table” gathering. We're going to talk about how evangelicals and Jews today kind of think differently about faith and the Bible. We'll do some Q&A, and that'll be coming up Thursday the 12th of May. There's more information in your handout. Jeremy is a ton of fun, and we're going to have a blast. So, if you've ever had a question for a rabbi and you wanted to ask it anonymously, this is a great opportunity to do that. I'm excited about that.

For the Jewish people at the time, the temple had a pride of place. It was a was an icon, so to speak. Now you've got this unnamed disciple saying, “Look at these, Jesus. Look at this massive building. Look at this wonderful temple. Don't you think it's awesome?” And what do you think that the disciples expected in the way of response? Yeah, you're right guys. Jesus is Jewish. He's a Jewish teacher. The expectation is that Jesus would look at the temple and would love it, right? Notice what Jesus does.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another. All will be torn down.” (Verse 2)

His response was just completely unexpected, you know. I mean, we're just shaken awake by the by the terse nature that Jesus uses. But I think that Jesus is prompting us to think a little bit more deeply about our favorite religious institutions, or the places that we look to for safety, security and pride. I think Jesus is shaking us awake because here's this disciple of Jesus, saying, “Jesus, look. It's the pinnacle of our faith.” And Jesus says it is coming down -- not our faith, but what you think is the pinnacle of our faith. And I'll just say this right quickly: Just because an institution falls, that does not mean the faith is under threat. I hear a lot of people talking about the greatest threat to the church. There is no threat to the church. Jesus is the Risen King. So, I don't need to be worried. My faith is not tethered to an institution that may or may not represent Jesus. My faith is in the Risen Savior.

We can be OK if sometimes institutions fall. That happens. In fact, I'm going to push into that as we go along in this text. By the way, I love Desert Springs. And this is not a threat. I love this church. I was baptized here. I met Jesus here. I got married right here. I like this institution. But it is not the center of my faith. Alright, so Jesus says, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another, all will be thrown down. Things just serious. Now we get a little fast-forward. We're zooming forward.

“As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John were questioning Him privately.” (Verse 3)

Now where’s He sitting? He's sitting in the Mount of Olives. Notice this painted in your mind's eye. He's sitting now in the Mount of Olives, which is opposite the Temple Mount. Notice that Mark intentionally paints the posture of Jesus now being having left the temple and now being opposite the temple. You guys tracking here? There might be something more than just geography that we're supposed to see in here. It could be that Mark wants us to see that Jesus is now separating Himself from the temple.

If you want to get real Bible nerdy, this is kind of crazy. There are actually two temples in this picture. There's the actual physical temple. But maybe some of you remember that Jesus refers to His own self as the true temple. Remember, He says, “Tear this temple down and I'll raise it again.” And so here you've got now two temples, one that's a source of national pride and national security, and the other that's a source of security, but in a different way. So it could be that there's a juxtaposition here. I think it's intentional.

Across from the temple, are Peter, James, John, and Andrew -- four of His named disciples. They want to talk to Him privately.

“You go talk to him.”

“I don't want to talk to him. You talk to him.”

“Jesus, could you tell us when these things will happen?” Now, is this a legitimate question? Of course, it is. This is the most normal question in the world. “Jesus, I'm a little bit upset by what you said. Maybe this is in the new Kingdom. Maybe this is at the resurrection. Maybe it’s one of those silly parables that He is always telling.”

“’Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?’” (Verse 4)

Jesus, when are these things going to happen? Because I want to know when it's going to happen. I need to be clued in to know what the sign will be when all these things are about to be accomplished. We need to know so we can be prepared. These are natural question that they could ask.

“And Jesus began to say to him, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He’ and will mislead many.” (Verse 5)

Jesus asked them -- l love it --what was the question? When's the building going to collapse? And how do I know that it started? Notice Jesus does not answer the question in a satisfying way. Jesus told them, “Watch out …” ***

*** TV time out. If you're tagging along, you got a Bible in front of you, or you see text in front of you watching online, just note how many times language like watch out, be alert, keep your eyes open, be aware shows up in this text. It is all over this text, Chapter 13 with the words be aware, be awake, right? Have a mind that's awake to the reality of the situation. Keep your eyes out there on the horizon. This is not by the way, be fearful. But it is “be aware, be aware.” Jesus told them, “Watch out. Be aware that no one deceives you.” What is Jesus's assumption? That His disciples could be what? Deceived. Note that “Many will come in my name saying, “I am he,” and they will deceive many.” ***

OK, what was the question that they asked? “Jesus, you're saying that our building, our institution of national safety and pride, is going to collapse? We have two important questions. When and how will we know?” And Jesus says, “Watch out that you're not deceived.” Jesus, we didn't ask you that question. Jesus, we did not ask for a discussion about deception. We want to know the “when” and the “how.” We want to know now. Why is Jesus saying these things? Let's just think for a minute why is Jesus saying, “Watch out that you will not be deceived.”

You already know the answer, actually. When you and I, or when we as a community are in a heightened state of fear, we're afraid, right? There's something out there that's a great threat to us, to our well-being, to our livelihood, to things that we hold dear. Are we more or less likely to be deceived? We are more likely to be deceived when we're in a state of fear, when we think everything is collapsing in, on, or around us. And if a person comes in and says -- “I can protect you. I will show you the way. I'm a promised one. I'm a Messiah. I'm a savior. I come in the name of the Lord” --are people more or less likely to say, “OK” when they're afraid? We are more likely to be deceived when we are overcome with fear. Could you ever imagine a time in human history that would need a message like this? Maybe a time in human history where everything is on fire, and everyone is out to get us. And in the us versus them mindset, the “thems” are going to come destroy us and our things. And so, in order to protect us from the them, donate today.

Am I over here by myself? Like is this not where we're at? Jesus says to His disciples, “Watch out, be aware so that no one would deceive you. You're scared of the temple falling down, you're afraid of things collapsing. Be aware and don't be deceived. Many will come in my name saying I am he. So, there's going to be people who come in the name of the Lord. There are even going to be people who say, “I am your Messiah. I am your chosen one. I am your Christ.” And they will deceive how many? So many. But for you, a Jesus follower, watch out, don't be deceived when you hear this.

Jesus, this temple thing is making us scared. Bring us some comfort. Remember the question that they wanted answered was the when and where of the signs. Because the collapse of the temple meant the end. I want you to see that this is a catastrophic thing to say for Jesus to say: It's all going to collapse. There won't be one stone left upon the other. This is catastrophic reality. OK, this is not like some random house burning down, which is catastrophic for the homeowner in the family. This is the complete implosion of our culture, our community, of our nation.

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.” (Verse 7)

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don't be what? Don't be alarmed. Don't be alarmed, these things must take place, but it is not yet the end, OK? So when we hear of a war or a rumor of a war -- has there ever been a point in time where that's not actually the case, either wars happening or rumors of wars happening? OK, so when you hear about wars or rumors of wars and you feel it overwhelming you and you feel afraid, and you feel like the whole world is falling apart, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.

Is it the end, Jesus, when we hear about the war? Not the end. It's not the end. You guys are asking when and what's the sign. I want you to know when you see wars or rumors of wars, don't be alarmed. Be aware. Don't be afraid. These things happen, right?

OK, but Jesus, what about powerful things happening in the global sphere? Jesus, what about nations? Yeah, nation will rise up against nation. Kingdom against kingdom -- this is normal. By the way. has there ever been a time where this isn't going on? So, here's the deal with Mark. I just want to jump to the chase with Mark 13 here.

A lot of people refer to Mark 13 as an apocalypse. I think it's wrong, and I think it's right. Here's what I mean. They'll view Mark 13 as a story of the end of the world, and I think it kind of is, especially in the disciples’ minds. It would have been the end of their world as they knew it, and they didn't feel fine.

So, it's the end of their world, but it's not properly a sign of the end of all things properly, although some of the language is there, at least in my reading. Here's the other thing, too. When we say apocalypse, the word apocalypse does not mean end of the world. This is why I think Mark Chapter 13 actually is an apocalypse. Here's what apocalypse means. Apocalypse means unveiling the thing that's hidden. If you go to one of those fancy restaurants in the 1800s and they bring out everything on a platter, and then there's a silver dome on top, when they remove the silver dome, that's an apocalypse. It's revealing what once was hidden. Mark has revealed Jesus here in Mark 13, revealing what once was hidden.

“For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning birth pangs. (Verse 8)

We're seeing wars and rumors of war. We're seeing famines. We're seeing nation rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom. These are not necessarily signs of the end, but rather normal things and it's always happening. And Jesus says, when you see these things -- you want to know about the end when you see these things -- that's not a sign of the end. These are normal things. So be aware. Remember that they asked for a sign. Aren't these like the most ambiguous things you could ever say that are scary? There's an earthquake. What's the GPS coordinate of the earthquake, so we know the sign? Various places. Yeah. And famines. Yeah, what kind of famine? Jesus is kind of toying with them.

But Jesus, we want to know right now exactly when and where and how. It's like in order, and He just says don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. These are the beginning of birth pangs. But you, disciple of Jesus, be on your guard. Be alert. Be aware. Again, this is not fearful, it's just being aware, understanding what's going on.

But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.” (Verse 9)

They will hand you over to local courts and you will be flogged in the synagogues. Are you encouraged yet? So, we've gone from global or worldwide catastrophes to personal catastrophes. We might not feel like the end of society as we know it, but here it's going to feel like the end of me. Do you see it? Jesus here is switching from global stuff, now getting very local.

You will stand before governors and kings because of me. I love this because of me as a what? As a witness, which means that even if you found yourself standing in front of a governor or king because of Jesus, the role that we play is a witness to God's Kingdom. My role is not a warrior. My role is not dominator. My role is to stand before a governor or king as a witness to the value systems of the Kingdom of God. If you want proof, read through the book of Acts and watch how some of the earliest followers of Jesus got hauled into courts. Got hauled and stood in front of kings, and you'll notice that what they did was they lovingly proclaimed the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. That's what they did, and that's what we're called to do.

“The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. (Verse 10)

And I love this, too. Let the gospel be preached, to whom? All nations, and that doesn't mean like nation states. The word there in Greek is ethnos. It’s where we get the word ethnicity. It's all people groups of the world. And Jesus here seems to be making a connection between standing before governors and kings and the commission that he's given to all His followers to go and make disciples, to go and be ambassadors of the Kingdom. He seems to connect those two. So, whereas if I stand before a governor or a king on account of Jesus and I feel like everything is falling apart, Jesus seems to be saying it's part of the plan. Has it ever happened to you? Your world feels like it's falling apart. Everything feels out of control, and yet you sense the spirit of God saying this is part of the plan.

“When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” (Verse 11)

So, when they arrest you -- not if, but but -- and hand you over, don't worry beforehand what you will say. I think it's fair to say that a healthy portion of the people who wrote your Bible had a record. A lot of lot of convicts wrote your Bible. Might that shape how we think about people who have done time? Or even how we, as a people, think about incarceration today? Yes.

Now for those of you who hate public speaking, here's a word of encouragement. When they arrest you and hand you over and make you do public speaking, don't worry beforehand what you will say. But say whatever is given to you when? At that time. Notice. The comfort comes at the point or the pinnacle of the pain. Nobody goes into that space confident in their own capacities. But, rather, in the moment, being in touch with what the Spirit is saying and doing. As He says, it's not you speaking. It's the Holy Spirit speaking.

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.” (Verse 12)

Now this is kingdom against kingdom and nation against nation. This is when we get dragged into court. Jesus, what ought we to do? How bad is it going to get? He says brother will betray brother to death, and father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. I think not only is Jesus seeing what's going to happen to people who follow His way, but also this is another way to describe the absolute degradation of society. If the family is the smallest unit in in civics, so to speak, the smallest unit in society is falling apart. My life is under threat, and even the families are falling apart. Do you see that here? Yeah, this is pretty rough. It's a difficult text for difficult times.

“You will be hated by all because of My name; but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.” (Verse 13)

You will be hated by everyone because of what? My name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. I just wanted to give a note. It's walking the Jesus way, living according to His path and living according to His way and being ridiculed. This does not mean that if you're a jerk and people don't like you for it, you're being hated in Jesus's name. If you're a jerk and you get your just desserts, it's probably because you're a jerk. And throwing Jesus's name in there doesn't make you not a jerk. This is about being persecuted for walking the Jesus way. Hold on to your hats, because it's about to get really strange.

“But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.” (Verse 14)

Does anyone have this on a coffee mug? Do you have it like embroidered in your Bible cover? No? Yes? Nothing? A couple of things. Number one, abomination of desolation -- excellent name for a heavy metal band. Thank you, thank you. So, if you're looking at it, you can say to your parents it's Biblical. What on earth are we talking about here? One of the things we've got to remember is we are time-traveling tourists. We are looking at an ancient text in a completely different context and culture, with a working database of words and phrases and theological concepts and ideas. The abomination of desolation phrase is riffing on something that you see back in the book of Daniel. We're not going to go too deep into it. I just wanted to say that this is likely where it's we're to understand this as maybe an icon or even a person. And here's what it could be. It could be like a Roman general setting up a statue to Zeus within the Jerusalem Temple.

It could be an abomination of sacrilege or desolation, where the Romans put up an icon or a statue to such a degree that they dominate your religious institutions, then it's going to collapse. Just be aware of that. Just notice when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be, then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Now remember that they asked for a sign. You remember that. And now He gives them a sign. But this is not a like sign that you can see in the future. This is not like he's not pulling out a chart; he's not. This is not something you can put on your calendar if you're the original hearer. Jesus just says, if you see it, run to the hills. If you're in Judea, do you see it? Watch it. Watch.

“The one who is on the housetop must not go down or go in to get anything out of his house, and the one who is in the field must not run back to get his coat.” (Verse 15-16)

A man on the housetop must not come down or go in to get anything out of his house, and a man in the field must also not go back to get his coat. Right, this is fast. If you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be, go.

“But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that it may not happen in the winter.” (Verse 17-18)

I think the idea is because they would have an extra burden while they're trying to run away. Pray that it won't happen in winter because that would impede our capacity to survive out in the wilderness. Jesus here now is saying that there is coming a time when you will see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be. And when you see that, run to the hills. This is weird. This is a difficult text for difficult times.

“For those days will be a time of tribulation such has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.” (Verse 19)

Here's the tension. When you see wars and rumors or when you see famines, earthquakes and everything, don't be afraid. Don't freak out, this is normal stuff. Be alert, be aware. Don't be deceived. Don't allow your fear to open up your heart to deception. But there's going to be a time when you're going to see it, and you're going to know it's time to go. But seeing it and knowing it, you won't be able to put it on a calendar. You won't be able to foresee it, you're just going to have to react and respond. And on that day, run to the hills.

OK so for those will be the days of will be days of tribulation, the kind that hasn't been from the beginning of creation until now and never will be again. *** TV timeout.

*** Here's the question that theologians have been wrestling with since pen was first put to paper: Is this an already-happened thing or is this a going-to-happen thing for me, in my moment in space, time, history? Is this something that already happened, or is this something that's going to happen? I think that the text is intentionally designed to be ambiguous so that we might be aware, which is the consistent call of Jesus in this text that we might be able to look and see what's going on in the world. We're going to hold this these two realities in tension – namely, when I see things that seem like they're out of control, I recognize then not to be afraid. I'm going to stay. I'm going to be aware. I'm going to continue walking the Jesus way. Jesus is going to win. But there's going to come a day where it's going to seem like things are catastrophic, and there's going to be some sort of sign. And then I'm just going to know and I'm going to run now. Did that already happen or is this a call for me? Let's think about that question for the next 50 years. ***

Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.”

If the Lord had not cut those days ... it's like kind of like past tense. So, this is why we think, “Well, maybe this already happened.” If He hadn’t cut those days short, no one else would be saved. But He cut those days short for the sake of the elect, whom He chose.

“And then if anyone says to you ‘Behold, here is the Christ’ or ‘Behold he is here; do not believe him, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and show signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” (Verse 21-22)

OK, now we're going to get to it. People coming in Jesus's name or even claiming to be a God-sent leader who do not exhibit the qualities of Jesus nor walk the Jesus way -- we should not allow them to deceive us. To put it another way, just because a person uses God-talk, if their character is not lined up with the character of Jesus and they're not walking the Jesus way -- if they don't smell like Jesus -- I wouldn't give them a hearing. If you're going to talk God-talk but not walk God-walk, why would I follow you? And I’ve got to be careful because there's a lot of God talk that could lead to me being deceived. So, I want to notice the character as well as the content of their speech or their message.

If anyone tells you, see here is the Messiah, do not believe it. But false messiahs or false saviors and false prophets -- people who say that they speak for God -- will arise, and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect This is crazy to me. Notice that “if possible.” Do you think Jesus knows or doesn't know if it's possible? Notice that “if possible” sounds like He doesn't know. But here here's the thing. I think Jesus is doing something. I think this is what he's doing. Remember who he's talking to – four named disciples who had asked Him all the way back at the beginning, right? They asked Him, “Jesus, when is this going to happen? What are the signs? “ And Jesus keeps saying to His disciples be alert, be aware. Don't be afraid these things. It's not the end, but if the end comes, don't worry about it. You just go.

“But take heed: behold, I have told you everything in advance.” (Verse 23)

OK, and then Jesus says here's what's more important to Him - - that you make sure that you're watching out so that you are not deceived. And He says this to four people who abandoned Him in the next chapter. So, I think we're meant to read this, having read all of the Gospel of Mark, I think the reader is meant to see this as Jesus saying they will perform signs and wonders to lead astray if possible. And then He looks at the floor and goes.

We as the reader know that they do get led away. But yet they are elect, meaning they're chosen by Jesus. OK, so and here's the other thing, too. For those of us freaking out about this, just notice how Jesus treats them as He invites them all back into communion with Him. So, this idea being led astray does not mean forgotten or left out by God. You see it in the lives of the four that get named here. They all abandoned Him, and yet He reconciles the relationship with all of them. And He does it with us, too, thanks be to God.

“But in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” (Verse 24)

OK, so and you must watch -- there's that word again. Be watchful. Be mindful. I have told you everything in advance. I love this. “No, you didn't. Homie, you told us all this ambiguous stuff and I don't even know what a desolation abomination thing is. Jesus, you have not told us everything in advance.” And yet He says we must watch. In those days after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light. I think that now he's getting into what some might call apocalyptic language. I think this is looking forward to the new heavens and new earth. The stars will be falling from the sky. Is that a catastrophe? Yeah, it's a big deal, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Yeah, there's a lot to say about that. Let’s keep going.

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” (Verse 26)

Then they will see the son of man coming in clouds -- which, by the way, being surrounded by clouds and coming in the clouds is “God talk.” God is oftentimes in your Old Testament is represented as coming in the clouds with what? Great power and glory.

So, I just I want to land the plane here. Jesus says to His disciples that the things that we put our safety and security in, they are going to crumble. The temple is going to crumble. Things we care about will crumble. And when that happens, be alert. Don't be afraid. Just watch, be aware. When you hear about wars or rumors or war, famines, earthquakes, when you hear about nation rising against nation, don't be afraid. Fear not. And then there's going to come a point in time when the end does come, and when that happens, flee, right? Just watch out for yourself. When that happens, you will see me. And I will be coming in power. And let me just ask you: From what you know about Jesus, is this good news or bad news? This is such good news, friends. If conversations around the end cause you fear, I don't think you've fully understood what Jesus is getting at. This is a hope.

And I know that there's all these movies and books and stuff written about the end times and everyone freaking out. And there's so many bunkers to be built and ammunition to buy so you can protect yourself from whatever The Thing is. I mean, it's fear, and if there's one message that Jesus has about His return, it is comfort, not fear. He knows that the fear will lead us to being deceived. And so, He says, “I'm coming back. And how am I coming? I'm coming with great power.”

This is the same Jesus who says I never leave you or forsake you.

This is the same Jesus who says My Spirit dwells within you as you stand before governors and kings.

This is the same Jesus who looks His disciples in the eye and says, come on, follow me.

Don't be afraid, be alert, be aware, follow me.

Friends, in a moment we're going to take communion together. Communion is an act of remembrance. Remembering Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. We take of the bread and of the cup as an act of unity, not only with one another, but also with our God. I'm going to ask that you would please grab the elements available in the back of the table or the seat in front of you. For those online, if you would please obtain some elements that represent the body and blood of Jesus. I'm going to pray. And in this prayer will be words of confession and repentance. And if your heart resonates with this, would you just “Amen?”

And then after I'm done praying, we're going to take a moment to reflect. I encourage you to use that time just to be attentive to the Spirit of God and what God might be speaking to you. Or maybe even to continue to pray. And then after we reflect, my friend, Jocelyn, who is one of our student ministry leaders and graduate from our leadership development program, will be leading us in the taking of communion.

Would you join me as we pray? Lord, in this moment we recognize that the taking of communion is something that we do together as a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, unified in You. And that You welcome everyone to Your table. In this act, we recognize that we are called to live as citizens of Your Kingdom, practicing Your values on Earth as it is in heaven. And yet, even now, in this moment, Lord, as we pray in preparation, we recognize we often fall short. And so, we confess that we have not always lived according to Your Kingdom. We have often propagated injustice, pain and evil. We have often fostered disunity by practicing favoritism and elevating our own concerns and preferences over others. We have often failed to show hospitality, love, grace and generosity. We have often not lived the fruit of Your Spirit. We confess this before You now, and we repent. We turn from these sins, and we turn back to You, Jesus, knowing that You will never leave us nor forsake us. And we ask that Your Spirit continue to shape us into Your image. As we take of this communion today, Lord, we proclaim Your finished work on the cross --- Your death and Your resurrection. And we cling to You, knowing that You are the one who brings salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation. And in You all things will one day be restored. So, Lord, would You prepare our hearts even now before we take communion.

Good morning, church. My hope today is to be an encouragement to you, but what I'm about to say may not sound encouraging. My desire for us today would be that this would be a moment of life- giving, not life-taking -- although what I'm about to say in a moment to introduce our topic may not seem to fit that objective. My hope for today Is that you would feel the peace of the Lord in a very deep and profound way. And yet when I mention the topic of conversation, I wonder if you'll believe me.

Today as we continue on in our study called Disciple, looking at what it means to follow Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 12, we are going to talk about taxes. Now, in fact that's a little bit not true. I mean, it's true we are going to talk about taxes. We're in a text where Jesus explicitly talks about taxes, but the text itself is not actually about taxes. Are you relieved?

So, when we're thinking about this piece, this nourishment that's going to come across our soul, we're glad to note that it's not actually about taxes, but it's about politics. So much better. And really, though, it's not ultimately about politics. It's really about power and the power dynamic of the Kingdom of God. And it really is about our allegiances. It's about where we give our heart and where we give our lives.

I'd like to show you in this text that there really is life here. And just as we think about money, taxes, power, politics, government -- we're in the season -- are we not where we need life-giving, not life-taking? We need a Jesus way to think about politics and power. And so, my hope today is that we would see what it means to follow Jesus.

For those of us that are still learning what it means to follow the Jesus way, my hope is that our study today would truly be life-giving in the context of a conversation that – really, in our community right now seems to be anything but life-giving -- namely around money, power and politics.

So, I'm going to read the text in Mark chapter 12 verses 13 through 17. I made a mistake this week. I think you've got actually got verses one through 17 printed in your handout. We're on verses 13 through 17 -- not that the previous part on the parable the vineyard is bad. I love that one, but we just need to spend a little time in this text today. If you have a Bible available, grab that. If you’re online, just go to bible.com. We're using the Christian Standard version of the Bible today. I encourage you to hear these words, and then we'll look at the text. I'll have it up here on the screen here in just a minute when we look together, but I want to encourage you right now to just hear the word. Allow your imagination to work. Allow the spirit of God to speak to you, even as you hear the word of God spoken.

This is the gospel of Mark Chapter 12, verses 13 and on.

“Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to trap Him in His words. When they came, they said to Him, ‘Teacher, we know you are truthful and do not care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality, but you teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, or shouldn't we?’

But knowing their hypocrisy, He said to them, ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius and I want to look at it.’

So, they brought Him a coin. Jesus said, ‘Whose image and inscription is it?’ He asked them. ‘Caesars,’ they replied.

Jesus told them, ‘Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.” This is the word of the Lord.

In this text you have three pieces that I want us to zoom in on again, as we're thinking about money, politics, power, and government. First, there's a trap. Second, there's an image that we need to pay attention to, or likeness, or inscription. And then finally, there's a call to allegiance. Are you guys thrilled about the topic.? Today, I'm very excited. OK, so here we go.

I'll say this is a resource, so just lean in and notice this. Then if you go to the previous text, I think it's the Sanhedrin, so really the religious power brokers. They sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to do what? Trap Him. They're going to try to trap Jesus, specifically, in His words. Jesus is a threat. The Pharisees and Herodians are a couple of groups of power brokers in the in the religious political sphere. They're in Jerusalem. They're not like how we have Democrat and Republican. It's not like that, but they are definitely not on the same side of the aisle. You guys with me so far?

The Herodians or Pharisees -- you don't have to know much about them right now for the context of this text -- although I would strongly encourage you to read through your Bible, read through the Gospel Mark and discuss some of the nuances to the differences between the two groups. But between these two groups, Pharisees and Herodians, these are kind of religious political groups that think about the Roman Empire and how to engage with the Roman Empire differently. So they're on two different sides of the aisle.

But notice that they've become unified. Because they're trying to do what? OK so I want I just want you know, especially if you read through the Gospel of Mark, you read through all the Gospels. In fact, when you go home later today and read through your whole New Testament, you'll notice that when you read through the gospels, you'll notice that Jesus is constantly unifying people. He's constantly bringing together people who don't generally belong together. He's constantly binding together misfits who don't generally fit together. But it's in two ways, actually, like here at Desert Springs.

I love this imagery that we're a bunch of misfits because we don't naturally fit together. And yet, because of Jesus, He's bound us together. He's reshaping us so that we do become one and unified in one. We actually fit together. But to start with, we're misfits and Jesus binds us together in love and grace and mercy and compassion etc.

But Jesus is also binding together misfits who hate His guts. Jesus is also frequently getting people so stirred up and feeling so threatened by His power, by His teaching, by who He is, that they create very strange alliances. People who don't naturally work together are working together, and in this case the Pharisees and Herodians, who do not generally want to work together, they're working together. Because Jesus is a direct assault or threat to their power. They try to trap Him in His words. That's what they want to do. There's a trap set.

When they came, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and you do not care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality, but you teach the way of God truthfully.” What do we call this? Brownnosing, that's right. But it's not just that they're trying to butter Him up. Because they're trying to trap him. Are these people being authentic? No, they're just trying to say nice things to Jesus in order to again try to endear them to Him and try to trap Him.

OK, here's another thing. This is so fascinating in the Gospel of Mark especially, but I think throughout Scripture this little literary device will happen. But in Mark, you see it really pronounced, where Mark the author will put into the mouths of people who are antagonistic against Jesus -- into those mouths he’ll put truth about Jesus.

Right, so while these homies do not believe what they're saying, these things are actually true. Notice, is Jesus a teacher? Is He truthful? Does He care what anyone thinks in the sense of showing partiality? Does He show partiality? Does He teach the way of God? Truthfully, yeah. Do you see the irony here? They're doing it to butter Him up in there. But as the reader, you're thinking these guys are spot on. And this is really important for us to note that a person can say all the right things about Jesus but not ever behave like Jesus. And the content of their words, if it's not backed by the content of their character, Hello. Should this at least cause us to wonder, is this person actually representing Jesus?

Let's keep going. OK so watch this. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? According to Roman law, do you think it's lawful to pay taxes? To Caesar, yeah, OK, so for those of us that are here in America is it lawful to pay our taxes? Hello, yeah. I hope you guys like April 15th -- I guess it was the 18th this year. It's an important day.

Does our government really like it when we pay taxes? Yeah, loves it, right? No government would not ever make it illegal to give money. So, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? This isn't necessarily about Roman law, but it's about these Jewish people who are subjects of the Roman Empire, so they're in Judea, which has now been taken over and conquered by the Romans.

Jesus was Jewish. The Jewish people have overlords occupying their territory, and so they're asking this question. Jesus, you as a Jewish rabbi, you as a Jewish teacher, is it right for us, or lawful to us? Maybe even in the law of Moses? Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

And then there's the next question. It's not about the letter of the law. What is it? Jesus, should we pay taxes or not? And here's why they're asking that question. If you are a U.S. citizen, I just want you to imagine something. OK, I want you to imagine that Canada invades America and is our overlord. OK, and there are maple leaves everywhere. If anyone here is Canadian, I'm not trying to pick on you. I just like the maple leaf.

OK, so, for hundreds of years, the Canadians have been our overlords. But secretly, when they're not looking, we kind of gather up in a little American cohort. We come together, and we sing American songs, and we do American stuff, and we tell stories about America and American history. And then, somewhere along the way, someone's going to think it'll be great when we can get America back. Wouldn't that be normal? This is how it works in almost every situation where there's a dominant empire that comes in and takes over. There's always this remnant hope. And so, let's imagine, again, the Canadian overlords, and they're taxing us. How do we feel about the taxes? Not happy. And here's why.

Let's zoom back into Jesus’s day. Especially for Caesar, they're talking about the imperial tax where the money goes to buy the spear that the Romans are pointing at us. Am I happy about this if I'm back in Jesus’s day? No one likes this tax, right? Because the money is going to support and shore up an evil empire. You guys got it? So, this is not about taxes. Do you see? This is about allegiance. This is about how do we deal with Rome. Should we pay, or shouldn't we?

There are two factions, and they're trying to make Jesus pick a side. One faction says, let's do insurrection. Let's rebel against our overlords. The other side is collaborators. They're saying let's collaborate, and in fact there was a lot of money to be made. So, like Levi, the tax collector, there's a lot of money to be made. In this rule of evil empire and all the systems that they have in place, there's money to be made. So, there's a collaborative view. Let's just collaborate with the Roman Empire. Or there's the rebellion view.

Jesus is being asked this question, and they're pushing this question on Him to try to make Him do what? Pick a side. They're saying Jesus, you come proclaiming the Kingdom of God. So is it an insurrection kingdom or is it a collaborative kingdom? Do you see what they're trying to do to Jesus? OK, watch this. Is this fun? This is going to be great, OK? Watch this.

“But knowing their hypocrisy He said to him, ‘Why are you testing me?’” Jesus sees right through. They were trying to butter Him up, and He's saying, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius and look.” He does not have one on him. Notice they produced one for him.

This is interesting. It could be that Mark intends us to see that these people were actually participating in the system they were critiquing. As one author says, you cannot flip over tables when you are sitting comfortably at them. And here they are asking Jesus which side He is going to pick, and they produce the coin. That's interesting.

Let's keep going. “Bring me a denarius to look at." OK, so they're testing Jesus.

They want to know about the Kingdom of God, which side is it going to be on? And then He's going to say something. OK, watch what He says. They brought a coin whose image and inscription were Caesar’s.

Now we have to press pause here, and we have to do a little time-traveling tourism. OK, so let's all get into our time machines and go all the way back to the beginning to the beginning of the cosmos -- the created order. In the Book of Genesis, in Chapter one of the book of Genesis, there's this beautiful line where God has been creating, forming, bringing order out of chaos, forming plants, animals and things like this. But then He specifically forms humans, and it says that that human is made in the image and likeness of God, male and female. He created them in the image and likeness of God. So, humans in Genesis one are called out specifically as the image-bearers of God. Whose image do humans bear? God's image. OK, You guys got me. So far, in fact, as you read through your Bible, you'll notice that the people of God in the Book of Exodus are called to be people who take on the name or the image of God -- like the engraving of a god. Take on the name of God, take on the image and name of God, the image and inscription of God onto them as a people. People would look at them and say, oh, you're Yahweh's people.

In fact, there's this really interesting thing if you want to do like a deep dive, nerdy Bible stuff. In the ancient world view, there were temples to gods anywhere you'd go. You’d go to Babylon. You'd go to Egypt. You’d go to Rome. You’d go to Greece. Wherever you'd go, you'd walk into any city, and you would notice that there are temples to a variety of different gods. There's the temple to RA. There's the temple to Aphrodite. There's a temple of Zeus, and if you walked into that temple, you would inevitably see one or more statues of that god. So, you could say hey, where do I find Zeus? He's in the temple, so you go into the temple and there's a statue of Zeus. In the temple are the images of the God that the temple is built to, right?

This is very common, very common. But you know that for the Jewish people, their temple was actually different. In Jerusalem, they had a temple. When you walked into it, you know what? There was no statue. In fact, for some of you, maybe you remember the Ten Commandments stipulation: Don't have any graven images. And here's why. OK, you ready for this?

You want to see the image and likeness of the God that we serve? Just take a look around you. And this is actually fascinating, because our God and the Biblical authors tease this out. Our God is a living God, and so we look at living image bearers to know about our living God. This God over here is made of rocks. Here you want to know what the image of God looks like. Look at, look at us, right? And just look at people, including my enemies. Yes, OK, including people who I'm told I should hate. Right, including horrible people, the country music fans. I mean, they're on the list. Yeah, them, too. Did you just say something bad, you OK? I'm going to see you after church, OK?

So OK, let's zoom back to Jesus’s day. He's holding the coin, right? And what does He say? They brought Him a coin. Whose image and inscription is on the coin? Caesar’s. Can you guys see the coin? Right, you see the profile of Caesar. In fact, it called hm the high priest. The coins that we know that would have been around in Jesus's day would have paid this imperial tax. They treated Caesar like kind of a half-god, a demigod.

Is Jesus talking about taxes anymore? He is subverting the way that they framed the question, because they're trying to trap Him by framing it as “this way or that way.” Do you want to go the Pharisee way or the Herodian way? Do you want to go left, or do you want to go right? Jesus, are you going to pick my team or the other team? And Jesus is going to obliterate the framework for this question because the Kingdom of God transcends these games.

“Whose image is on it?”

“Well, Caesar’s”, they replied.

And I'm going to do it the old-fashioned way, if you don't mind: Jesus then said unto them, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.” And I could imagine Him just tossing the coin. “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” And so, if that coin belongs to Caesar because the image and likeness and inscription of Caesar was on the coin, therefore it belongs to Caesar.

Whose name and image are imprinted upon me? Therefore, to whom do I belong? And so, render unto Caesar these coins. But render unto God what? Every aspect of my being. This is the Kingdom of God. And too often we try to co-opt Jesus for our own kingdom ends.

They were utterly amazed. Why? Because He completely subverted their framework. He said, listen, you're asking me, I think Jesus, in so many words -- and I think this is proven throughout the Gospel of Mark -- He's saying, listen, you're coming at me to pick a side in the kingdoms of this world. I come from a different Kingdom --- a Kingdom where ultimately every knee will bow, and every king of the kingdoms of this world will bow to me. So don't ask me these questions, I'm here to tell you that you are mine. This is by the way, is total dominion. If it's true that I have God’s image on me; therefore, I don't belong totally to myself. I actually belong to God.

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's. Does that have anything to do with how I think about government, politics, power, and money? Oh man, it shapes everything. I want to zoom in here. If you're looking for easy answers, you’re not going to find them here.

I'm just going to limit this to how we live as citizens of the Kingdom of God in the here and now. Having dual citizenship as citizens requires so much wisdom. And love and graciousness. It requires, frankly, in my opinion, a community of misfits where we're coming at these things from different angles. We both love Jesus; we're both citizens of the Kingdom of God. Can we help each other understand?

How are we going to behave when we’re in this next election cycle? How are we going to talk about government? Are we going to do it right? It's going to take us, church family, I'm here to tell you it's going to take us 150 years. And then we'll have it dialed in.

Unfortunately, none of us would be here, and so the next generation is going to have to pick up where we left off, and the world is going to change and it's going to continue to be confusing. And this is what I mean. Oh, my goodness, I really do believe the Spirit does its work. As we submit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus, as we give ourselves to Him, His Spirit works.

And so, we're presented with this question. If I am an image-bearer of God – therefore, render unto God the things that are God's -- it's a question of allegiance, whereas my allegiance with a party or platform that is simply as a member of the kingdoms of this world. Or is my ultimate allegiance to the Kingship of Jesus? And so, we're living in this dual reality, where, ultimately, I'm a citizen of the Kingdom of God and ambassador of His Kingdom. And yet I'm also trying to live as a good neighbor, as a good citizen here in America.

So, at Desert Springs we say it like this -- that we are actively engaged in government and politics, and here's why. Because it's people. Government is people. Government is how we manage our common life together. And because I love you and I care about you, I should be involved in how that works. However, we remain untethered to any political party, living instead as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

That's what we're doing as a church family. And that means that we're going to constantly be misunderstood. I've been saying this for years. I'm working in such a way that it’s a win for me when the majority of the Republicans at Desert Springs think I'm a Democrat. Let's think I'm a Republican, and the majority of the libertarians want to invite me over and have lunch in their bunker.

My hope is to be as a good of a representative of the Kingdom of God as I can. That blows all those other categories out of the water. It just breaks the paradigm. And what would it be like if we, as a church community, just did that in our community -- which is, frankly, dying in this conversation around politics right now. There's no life giving, there's just life taken. And what if we were at people who, because of who we are as image-bearers of God, leaned into this space, serving as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God? And we figured out our differences together, ultimately submitting to Jesus.

By the way, if you want to know more about that and you're newer to Desert Springs, we're doing a little meet and greet with some of our ministers. If you're new to Desert Springs in the last couple years, we would love the opportunity to meet with you. We're going to be here this Thursday at Desert Springs in this room. That's this Thursday. It's a time to just share our mission, vision and values with you and for you to meet some of our ministry leaders. We'd love the opportunity to do that, and you can find more information in your handout, or if you're joining us online on the events page on our website. Again, it's that vision night meet and greet. We'd love to have you.

We're going to talk about all this stuff that makes us weird as a church, including that whole thing about being politically untethered but still engaged. I'm going to tell you that this is really important for our discipleship and for the witness of the church. This is really important; I'm asking you lean in here. There are hundreds of people who have connected to Desert Springs over the last couple years. Many of you actually shared this. You said that you no longer felt welcome in spaces like Desert Springs because of conversations and positions taken around politics, power and government.

I was meeting with a guy last year. He wasn’t a church person. He said he was a spiritual tourist and didn't really have a faith background. He just had a ton of questions about Jesus and about history. Actually, this person had watched some of the sermons online, including one that we did last year where we talked about the Kingdom of God in politics. I met this guy, who wasn’t a churchgoer, and he said, “You know, the church has a real big branding problem.”

I was like, “What are you talking about?” Branding problem, you know? I thought he meant like Desert Springs. I like our logo. He said, “That's not what I mean. My friends and I talk about a lot of this stuff all the time. We have no idea that you guys are talking about.” He was referring to the gospel. The Kingdom of God. And Jesus and the Crown of thorns, and the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection.

He said, “My friends and I just think you guys are just in there talking about a particular angle of politics and trying to get everybody to fall in line. If we knew, this is what you were talking about …" (again, he's referring to the Kingdom), we'd be there every week. Because this is really attractive. But we think that churches are just up there doing political punditry.”

And he's getting this perception, by the way, from his only news outlet. The only things he's seeing are being fed to him through different media. He's not seeing it incarnate in a people like us. He's since become part of our church family. He said, “I don't think that anymore, but I see it in you guys.”

So, he and I just met a couple days ago, and he said, “It's really refreshing to see.” But I remember on that first time I met him, he said, “Hey, can I come to your church?” Hold on now. “So can I come to your church?” I was like yeah, bro. And he said, “Well, am I going to get lynched?” I said, “What do you mean?” And he said he was inserting his political party, which he felt like he would not be welcome here. Because in his mind, the kingdoms of this world had become merged with the representatives of the Kingdom of God.

It's so important that we remain active in politics and government without being tethered to any political party, primarily serving the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. Which means it's going to be really confusing. A lot of times, it's not going to be simple. The talking heads on your TV or computer, those simple answers they're giving are likely not the Jesus answer. And we're going to collectively figure out the Jesus way as a bunch of misfits.

And I'll tell you, the win. Here's the win – it's not that we all vote a certain way. It's that we can talk about our differences in how we vote while looking like Jesus. All right let's get after it. Let's do this. You guys ready for this? We are making a choice to either live as subjects of the King and Creator of the cosmos, or as slaves to the kingdoms of this world. It's one or the other.

So, if we're going to live as subjects of the King, Creator of the cosmos, King Jesus, then I've got two questions for you. Number one: Does Jesus get to shape your political convictions? Are you inviting Jesus to edit your political preferences? In fact, I want to encourage you to do a little exercise. I don't like this. I also don't like exercise.

I want to encourage you to write out your top five political commitments. And then spend the next month inviting Jesus to explore those with you to see if they need to be edited or shifted at all. Just write down your top five political commitments. You don't have to show anybody. You don't have to give it to anybody. You don't have to turn it into me. Let's write out those top five political commitments and then invite Jesus to explore those with you. Do those need to shift or change in any way? Does Jesus get to edit your political preferences? Most of the time, we're just asking Jesus to cosign our political convictions, rather than inviting Him to transform us from the inside out and then politicking appropriately.

The second thing I want you to do is harder. Our character. There's more ink spilt in the New Testament about how we're to behave with one another than there is on what we're to believe. There's less proper doctrine, and there's a lot more stuff like this: Be patient and kind. Be long suffering with one another. Bear one another's burdens. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast. It keeps no record of wrongs.

So, here's the question. Here's a good test. The people who disagree with you about your firmly held political convictions -- when you have those conversations, would they say that you remind them of Jesus? You guys are at different spaces with your political convictions. When you have those conversations -- which I think you should -- when you have those conversations, would they say, “You know what? Even though we're disagreeing, your behavior really reminded me of Jesus right now. Because you're showing the fruit of the spirit -- love, joy, peace. Long suffering. Self-control. You're reminding me of the love of Jesus. Patient, kind. Keeping no record of wrong, not envying or boasting. You, even though we disagree with this issue and how to approach this issue, man, you really you remind me of Jesus.”

I recently joined a conversation with high-school seniors, and it was tons of fun. What was actually interesting was that out of the dozen or so students, not more than two came from the same school, just different like PV and Horizon. Some were home-schooled, some from charter school, so it was just a really eclectic mix.

I was really interested in the conversation around politics. One of the things I asked was, hey, what do you guys think the generations that are older than you like? How are they engaging in the conversation around politics? You know what they said? There's a lot of fear. And a lot of fury. And a lot of anger. And one person -- this was my favorite -- she says there's a lot of madness.

You see how we're going to do this conversation? How we're going to live the Jesus way in these hard spaces? Boy, that's going to shape others. It's also going to shape us

(Scripture is Mark 16:1-8. Bible verses on screen are shown in italics.)

Today, we're going to continue on in a series in the Gospel of Mark. We're going to be looking at Mark Chapter 16 today. For those who've been following along, we've been going through the Gospel of Mark. I think we started at the beginning of the year, so we've been looking at what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus, what it means to follow Jesus. And because it's Easter, we thought we'd skip to the end of the Gospel of Mark.

How's that? You guys don't sound very excited. It's a sermon. OK, the least you could do is fake it. So, you guys are excited about this, OK? OK, so we're looking at the Gospel of Mark, and I’ve got to tell you that what we've been noticing about Jesus is that He is frequently disrupting the complacency of His followers. He's frequently challenging their preconceived notions, their ideas of what it means to have faith. He's constantly undermining the power dynamics at play, and he's also simultaneously fostering healing in their spaces of brokenness.

In my life, I find that Jesus is oftentimes simultaneously confronting portions of my life that are complacent -- my prejudices, my just kind of backwards thinking -- and at the same time fostering healing and spaces in my brokenness. And He wants to do that in all of our lives, and we see that throughout the gospel. And so, today we're going to cut to the end.

Then next week we're actually going to pick up where we left off. We’ll go back to the middle of the Gospel of Mark, and we're going to look at some of the teachings of Jesus as it relates to sex, money and power. So next week's sermon, if you're looking for a rated-R sermon next week, you may get one. Today it'll probably be PG.

This is the end of Mark's gospel, and I ‘ve got to tell you, I read it yesterday, and I've got to tell you there are just some problems with it. OK, some problems with Mark Chapter 16, and maybe you guys can help me today make some sense of it. Can you guys help me?

Also, I'll put it up on the screen. I know not all of us have brought our Bibles, which is totally fine. If you’ve got a Bible, I encourage you to turn to Mark 16. I'm hoping you can help me figure out a couple of these problems. And we maybe we can help each other figure it out.

“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome brought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.”

This is this is the ending of Mark's Gospel. Up until this point in time, here's kind of what's happened. As we start in the gospel of Mark, Jesus calls people to follow Him, and they do. He does miracles and teaching, and he's constantly equipping His disciples to do stuff. And then, about halfway through the Gospel of Mark, He says to His disciples that they were going to go to Jerusalem, and then He was going to get turned over into the hands of His enemies, people who hated Him, and then they were going to kill Him. And then three days later He was going to rise from the dead. He said it multiple times to His followers, and do you know what? His followers thought when they heard Him say that, He was talking crazy. One of the crazy things about the followers of Jesus and their representation in Mark is that when Jesus predicts His death, burial and resurrection, nobody believes Him.

Then we get to this scene in Mark Chapter 15. He's crucified and turned over in the hands of His enemies. He's been betrayed and then he's crucified. I have just a real quick question for you. What usually happens to dead people? They just stay dead

Right, what happens to dead people? They're dead, right? Isn't that what normally happens to dead people? They stay dead. OK, watch this, so ready, here we go.

Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’”

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Him. Oh, by the way, TV timeout ***

*** I gotta tell you something

Since I read Mark yesterday, I noticed something I had been in the habit of saying over the years, saying things like Jesus was totally abandoned by His followers at the cross. As I've read through the text and actually paid attention, this time I noticed that He wasn't totally abandoned. Rather, he was abandoned by most of His disciples, but in Mark's account you get three women who are faithful disciples, and they followed Him all the way to the cross and to the tomb. ***

So, you have these faithful women coming to the tomb. Why did they buy spices? If you're going to go to a tomb and care for a body that's been crucified, why would you bring spices? To mask the odor of decay. What are they expecting to see at the tomb? OK, this is normal, right? OK, so very early in the morning. How early? They went to the tomb at sunrise. What are they expecting? Dead, right? They're expecting dead.

They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” Of course, that's totally normal, right? Because there’s usually a tomb cut out, and they would put a stone in front of it to make sure that grave robbers and stuff didn't go through it. OK, so check this out so they're going to the tomb and what are they expecting? Dead.

“Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.”

Looking up, they noticed that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. When they entered the tomb, what were they expecting? Dead. They got their spices and were so sad and were expecting dead. They show up and the rock has been rolled out of the way and they're like “OK, well that's cool.” They go in, expecting a corpse. He says, “Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.” What happens to crucified people? Dead. So what are they looking for -- a corpse?

“And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.”

And here's this is a huge problem. “He has risen.”

Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. Dead people stay dead, dead, dead. If you are dead, you’re dead. There's nothing else, right? For many modern people, we have this idea that ‘people back then’ believed in spiritual, supernatural things like that. I got to tell you in all this studying done yesterday morning and all this study I've done; I understand that the ancients did not believe in resurrection. They believed in the afterlife. They had this idea of Hades or the underworld, like in Egypt. The Greeks thought your soul left after your body, and so that that was cool. You kind of go in the sweet by and by. Resurrection is the idea of the whole body rising. In the Greek it means, “Got up.”

So, the angel says, “You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.”

“Yes, we are, and He was crucified.”

“He has risen.”

And the thing is that no one is expecting a resurrection, because resurrection doesn't happen. Dead things stay dead, even in the ancient mind. Everybody knows this, right?

And here's the deal. Resurrection doesn't happen -- until it does. I'm going to let you guys in on a secret. Can I tell you guys a secret?

If somebody says, “I'm going to die. I'll be betrayed in the hands of evil people. Then they're going to kill me. Then I'm going to be buried. Then three days later I'm going to rise from the grave.” And if he pulls it off, do you want to listen to that guy or gal? Yes.

One of the reasons why I follow Jesus is He said, "They're going to kill me and then I'm going to rise.” And then He did it. That's cool. That's terrifying, but also wonderful. And if you can pull it off, I'll listen to what you say. Jesus so far, to my knowledge, is the only one who's done it.

Here's the deal. No one is expecting this, and nobody initially really believed it. It was so unfathomable, I think, for some of us we think, “Well, those primitive people back then, they were all just foolish.” But they know what dead looked like. They were much more acquainted with death than we are because it was in front of their face all the time. They knew what dead things did. They just stayed dead. They stayed dead.

“See, He is risen. He is not here. See the place.” And then he makes a case. He makes an argument. “Look, here is this spot where they laid Him. He's not here.”

OK, so Jesus is risen. Here's why this matters. I just want you guys to zoom in on this risen piece. “Jesus rose from the grave. Jesus conquered death.” Why does this matter? Why does this matter?

Death is scary. Yeah, horrifying. There's nothing more fun than our lived experience, and there's nothing more final than death. Because what happens to dead things?

OK, and there are some of us recently within our church family and our broader community who have become well acquainted with this reality. For some of you, this Easter is not a happy time, because you are grieving the finality of a relationship or a loved one or someone that you care deeply about, and it just seems like there's no hope, because we know in our lived experience that death is final. It's powerful. It takes all of us.

OK, so here's the deal. Death gets leveraged in our own hearts and by other people to cause us to fear. Why are we so greedy and selfish? Because we're afraid that we're not going to get ours. We're afraid that we're not going to be taken care of. We're afraid that we're not going to have abundant life, and so we think the consequences are not my problem, and other people can deal with this. I need to make sure I get mine. Why do we do that? Because we're afraid we're not going to have enough. We're afraid that there's only going to be so much to go around, so we've got to take. I've got to do that because, otherwise, death will encroach upon me.

Why do all the kingdoms of this world use death to threaten you -- use death to threaten people into behaving and cooperating according to what they desire? Because we're afraid to die. We are like the people who are dealing death. They leverage it for oftentimes their own evil gain,

Why does it seem like the death bringers keep winning? Because death is powerful, right? And if it just seems that our lived experience, if death is going to get us -- which it will -- if that's the case, then I'm going to live selfishly. I'm going to take. I'm going to take advantage. I'm going to always reach out my hand, and I'm going to take.

But you see, Jesus shows up on the scene. This does crazy stuff. He says things like this: If you want to be a leader, be a servant to all. He put the last first. Don't try to clamor for a seat at the head of the table. Rather, elevate others ahead of yourself. Use every gift that you have in the service and in grace and love for others. And we say, “Jesus, that sounds wonderful. Jesus, that sounds awesome. But don't you know that death is knocking at my door? Don't you know that? I need to take.”

And here's what Jesus does in the resurrection. Here's why this matters. You guys ready for this? You guys ever seen those martial arts movies like Jackie Chan, where someone won't use a gun? You know, it's like their thing, and when someone brandishes a firearm, they take the gun to pieces.

And then it's like -- you guys familiar with this trope in the movies? (pantomime of a judo move). OK, so that's being disarmed, right? The fighter is disarming, right? Notice what Jesus does in the resurrection. He disarms death. He disarms death, which means in Jesus, that thing -- that big scary thing that often gets leveraged to cause us to do things that sometimes we don't want to do, things we talk ourselves into it in the in the corrupt spaces of our own heart -- Jesus disarms death and then says, “Follow me.” Which means that there is life and life abundant. Death is not the end.

And here's the other thing, too. Jesus doesn't show up on the scene saying, yeah, death is not the end, and one day you'll say a prayer and you get to go to heaven up in the clouds. You go to heaven when you die, and you get to be kind of this spiritual being.

No, the hope of your Bible, the hope that Jesus proclaims is the hope of a resurrection. All that which is broken is made whole again. The hope of Jesus is a resurrection and restoration of the material cosmos -- get ready to make your ears bleed here, this is like Nosebleed theology. The hope of Jesus is the hope that he is the down payment on the ultimate resurrection that will take all of us. Which means that for those of us this Easter who are in mourning and recognizing the power of death, we look death in the eye. And we say, “Yeah, you're scary. But you don't get the last word; Jesus does. And one day we will rise.”

That's why, by the way, we sing things like “wonderful, powerful, mighty promise keeper, miracle worker. Because we see that resurrection does not happen -- until it does. And when it does, we're to pay attention. And so, my encouragement to you is this: Give the resurrection of Jesus its appropriate place. For those of you that have been baptized, you know that baptism is the way, at least how we practice it. We go under the water, signifying going into the grave with Jesus, signifying going into death. But then here at Desert Springs, it's our 100% policy to come out of the water. We're batting 1000 on that so far. We come out of the water, connecting ourselves to the resurrection of Jesus that one day, just as Jesus rose, so one day I will rise. Which means that right now, for those of you that have been baptized, here's my question to you this morning: Why did you take that baptism, and what did it mean to you? How is it shaping you now? What does that mean for you -- that one day we will rise?

For those of you that are still trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, I'm so glad that you're here. I want to encourage you to just be curious about Jesus. I know that a bunch of His followers are acting like fools. That's not new. That's been going on for 2000 years.

It's actually in the Bible a bunch, and I know that a bunch of people are using Jesus's name for a political agenda or a military agenda, or to try to get some sort of money out of somebody's pocket. That's been going on for 2000 years, too. But put them aside and give Jesus a hearing. That's my encouragement to you today, as we witness the baptisms here in just a moment.

I said how many problems were there in this text? Was it one or two? There are a lot of problems in the text, but we said just two today. I have to keep it short because we got all these baptisms.

Is the Bible a big deal? Kind of a big deal. OK, here's the deal, and you think it's just as far as literature goes. You think it's kind of put together. Yeah, they've been working on it for a while. So, my expectation reading Mark is that he's going to really end with a bang right here.

We've got this resurrection and this angelic being, and I'm ready to see like the next, like the next 20 minutes of the movie, right? OK, notice how Mark ends it. Watch everyone lean in. Your ticket entitles you to your whole seat, but you're only going to need the edge of it. Watch this.

“But go, tell His Disciples and Peter ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.”

OK, real quick little TV timeout ***

Notice this. Tell His disciples and whom? The reason that he teased out Peter is because just earlier, when we were reading in the Gospel of Mark, Peter is one of the dudes who said, “Jesus, no matter what comes, I'm always going to stand by your side.” And then adversity came. And Peter said to himself, ”I’m out.” He's out. Now, here's the deal. Peter had betrayed Jesus. But notice what this messenger says: “Go tell His disciples. Make sure you tell Peter.” See, Peter had turned His back on the Lord. And here you have specific mention of Peter. It is such a kind and gracious moment. Because even though Peter was unfaithful, Jesus is faithful. ***

And there are some of us here, even, maybe we're thinking about our baptism. There are some of us here, and we feel like we have turned our backs on God. But I want you to see Peter. I might even encourage you to take Peter's name out and put yours in. No matter where you've been or where you're going, Jesus loves you so much -- more than you can ever imagine. There's nothing that you've ever done that surprises Jesus. He's like -- you know, God. And yet He still longs to be with you. He loves you so much.

So, tell the disciples and Peter He is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Him there just as He told you. Remember, we're getting ready for this big crescendo, right? Ready?

“They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

They went out and ran from the tomb. Why did they run from the tomb? Because they were faithful, and they were going to go proclaim the good news of the I've got to Gospel? Because they were trembling and astonished? What overwhelmed them? They said nothing to anyone. since they were afraid. OK, this is how Mark ends. Did you forget the rest of the story?

Now here's the problem with Mark. It's often referred to as the abrupt ending of Mark, and boy, is it abrupt. The last scene is these three women who have so far been faithful now actually being unfaithful to the call to proclaim the Gospel, right? And they're running away in fear -- which, by the way, totally normal. The resurrection overwhelms them now. Why would Mark end the story this way?

In fact, some of the earliest Christians were so struck by this abrupt ending that they actually tried to soften it a little bit by writing in like a cleaner ending. In fact, in your Bible, you might have a longer ending with some brackets, saying something like this isn't in the earliest manuscripts. But I think what Mark is doing is really fascinating. I think Mark is doing two things simultaneously.

One is He is rattling our cage, and he's saying you really got to pay attention to this story. Start over. It's an invitation to further investigation. He's saying go back to the beginning, read it again, And then --and this is this something I love this about Mark gospel, I think that Mark intentionally does not conclude his gospel. Because while he may have run out of paper, the Gospel never ends. The Gospel continues. The Risen Christ is still at work, right now. The Risen Jesus is still present and active and living and with us. And I think that Mark kind of abruptly cuts off his gospel so that we can see our own lives as a continuation of the story that he started in Mark chapter one.

So, in just a moment, as we witness these baptisms, for those of you who've been baptized, my encouragement to you would be to reflect on what that baptism means to you. For those who would like to be baptized, we'd love the opportunity to baptize you today. If you'd like, you can simply visit some of our ministers here at the back door. For those of you that are still trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, maybe you're not ready for baptism. Yeah, that's totally fine, but I would encourage you as you listen to these testimonies. As you listen to the singing today, would you just reflect on the things that you've heard? Because I know without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus invites everyone to follow Him and to continue this good news story in your life For in Jesus, we have life and life abundant.

So today we're going to break our habit a little bit. What we've been doing throughout this series is doing an extended reading of Scripture and then kind of noticing some things. We're going to flip that around today. I'm going to go through the text Mark Chapter 14 verses 43 till the end. We'll go through the text. I'm going to notice a bunch of stuff. Then we're going to do an extended reading of Scripture. And actually, what I'm asking you to do is a hearing of Scripture. And then we'll take communion together, and then we'll conclude.

The reason that we're going to do it this way is that my hope and prayer today for you, regardless of where you're at -- whether you've been following Jesus your whole life or you're just curious about who Jesus is, trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. Maybe you've given up on Jesus, but you're here to figure out if Jesus is s going to give us another shot … ***

** TV timeout. I just I love that. Do you know who Jesus says yes to? Anyone who wants Jesus, Jesus says yes to. And so, if you're here today, Amen. He says yes to you. ***

So, regardless of where you're at, my prayer for you is that you would have an experience with Jesus this morning -- that, as the text is read, the Spirit would move in your heart and your imagination -- that you would participate in this text today, especially as we gear up for Palm Sunday next week and then Easter the following week.

In order to do that, I'm going to ask you way in advance if you would get your community elements out. For those of you who are joining us online, grab something to represent the elements. If you're going to take communion near the end, you just please prepare that? And you'll know why we're doing this right now. Would you just do the cellophane symphony for me today? By the way, for those of you who are frustrated with the cellophane symphony, I'm with you. We are working on ways to do it better, but here we are. So, if you would just prepare those elements so that when we get to communion, we don't hear what we're presently hearing right now? ***

*** Can we do a TV timeout quickly and tell you guys a funny story that's completely irrelevant? Last year we were still kind of figuring out COVID stuff. This was Easter. This was Good Friday of last year. We gave sealed-up bags with juice and bread, and Kathy really did a great job putting that all together for us. But what we did with for the juice was to give it in cans. And then during Good Friday service, which was quite reflective and very peaceful, in the quiet of reflecting on the death and burial of Jesus, it was time to take communion. I said OK, would you please get your communion elements ready? And all you heard was like a beer commercial. And I remembered thinking, “We should have thought about this ahead of time.” So, this year we're going to use Capri suns. ***.

OK, so let's go Mark Chapter 14. One of the best tools for Bible study that we can deploy is noticing. I want to encourage you, regardless of your familiarity with the Bible, you have a tool that you can use anytime. I would encourage you to do so today, when you go home and read your whole Bible later today. Which you should do every day. As you read the Bible, the best tool to start with is just noticing. Allow the text to be weird. Allow it to be strange. Allow it to be confusing and just notice. And that's a tool that you can use for the rest of your life. And so today what we're going to do is we're going to go through the text, and I hope to notice some things and hope that you notice some things, as well. Then we'll read, we'll hear the text together.

Jesus, at this point in time in the text, has gone the Garden of Gethsemane, where he's prayed that the Lord would take the cup of wrath from Him. His disciples had failed to stay awake with Him, and now we're at the tail end of the garden of Gethsemane scene with Jesus, where now Judas is going to come and take Him. This is where the text picks up. Verse 43:

“While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12 …" *** Timeout.

*** Judas’s last name is not “one of the 12.” Why does the author say one of the 12? What was the 12? Some of you may remember right? “The 12“ was a shorthand way to refer to Jesus’s inner circle. These were not all the disciples, I know. We sometimes say the 12 disciples, and they were disciples. There were many, many more disciples, but the twelve were like the inner circle. They were supposed to be the “homies.” Mark mentions that Judas was one of the 12 multiple times, not because we're prone to forget. What he's doing is digging in the knife of the betrayal we're supposed to feel when we see one of the 12. We're supposed to feel a deep betrayal. ***

“Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a crowd of with swords and clubs, who were the chief priests and scribes and the elders.” Just a few chapters before, in Chapter 11, there was a massive crowd welcoming Jesus in with palm branches. And now a crowd comes to Jesus with what? Swords and clubs. And they were from the chief priest, the scribes and the elders.

OK, so this kiss language, this idea of kissing is not romantic. It's a signal or symbol of a deep friendship or a deep trust, a deep relationship. Is this ironic that He is betraying Jesus with an act of connection, an act of respect, an act of admiration? Is this ironic? This is deeply ironic, because really good friends greet each other with a kiss and remember, Judas was one of the inner circle.

Do you know what it's like to be deeply wounded or betrayed by someone close to you? I want you to know that when you pray, you pray to a God who also experientially knows. God understands what you feel like in your guts. So, when he came, immediately he went up to Jesus. You've got the scene. Judas is coming to Jesus, and he said -- notice the language -- “Rabbi.” This is the knife being dug in. This is a deep betrayal.

They took hold of Him and arrested Him. One of those who stood by drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear.” Now I want you to notice the behavior. Someone who is with Jesus – I think it's one of the disciples, I think it's Peter -- took his sword and struck and cut off his ear. OK, so notice.

When Jesus comes on the scene in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, He says, behold, hey, everyone pay attention. The good news of the Kingdom of God is here. The good news, the gospel is that the Kingdom of God is near. Therefore, repent, turn from your sin and turn towards me. Repent, and believe in the gospel.

Then He goes to His disciples and says, “Follow me.” Jesus doesn't say be a fan of mine. Jesus doesn't necessarily say let me be your professor and you can be my student. He says, “Follow me.” Be my disciples, and I'll be your rabbi. Discipleship is not only following the teachings of someone, but also the idea of being a disciple is also to be in relationship with the rabbi that you're following. That's why we keep using what sometimes could be considered an old-fashioned word, namely, disciple. There's something about the relationship with the rabbi.

Jesus says to do what? Follow me now. Jesus came on the scene proclaiming the good news of what? The Kingdom of God. And when these disciples heard the word “kingdom,” do you know what they thought finally? Our nation, our people. Our people will finally reestablish our kingdom. They would call it the Kingdom of David, who used to be a king of Israel. They are expecting Jesus to kill the Romans and reestablish the kingdom, because He came proclaiming the Kingdom of God is here. And then he said, “Follow me.”

Throughout the Gospel of Mark, you will notice the disciples having a wrestling match with their assumptions about Jesus and how Jesus revealed Himself to be. Jesus consistently fails to live up to their messianic expectations. What do they want Jesus to do? Take out the sword and kill the bad guys?

But Jesus keeps saying stuff -- look in chapters 8, 9 and 10. Three times Jesus says, “Look, we're going to Jerusalem where I'm going to be betrayed and turned over into the hands of sinners. And then I'll be crucified. And then I'm going to die. And then on the third day I'm going to rise again.”

And on all three of those occasions, the disciples are thinking, “No way, bro.” In fact, on all three of those occasions when they wrestle with this idea, it's clear they don't get it, because they ask Jesus if they get to be in power with Him. With the framework of the kingdoms of this world, they assume Jesus is coming to just give them another kingdom of this world.

Judas, I think -- this is my conjecture, OK? I think Mark means us to recognize Judas is having a conversion experience when the woman came in and broke open the jar of perfume and anointed Jesus. It's Judas who's scoffing and talking, “Couldn't we have done things differently?” I think in that moment we're to see Judas turn and say, “This is not the type of Kingdom I want.” What was compelling Judas, one of the 12, to betray Jesus? I think it was because Jesus was not living up to his expectations. He was expecting a Rome Slayer.

I'm going to argue, I hope to prove it from the text, that's what all the disciples think is happening to all of them. And here's why. I would say that what's the move? What's the flex? What's the reflex of this disciple? Who is standing by? What's his flex?

They come to take Jesus, who has been saying multiple times that He was going to be turned over into the hands of sinners. He says it multiple times and what's their flex? Their flex is all right, it's time. Right, finally a showdown.

OK. So, Peter drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear. Jesus said to them … oh man, this is so good -- Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a … ***

*** Timeout. OK, this is so cool. Oh my gosh, the Bible is so awesome. OK, check this out. This word for criminal that's translated in the CSV -- some of your translations may say robber, but that's not quite getting at it. Another way to translate it is a rebel. Or an insurrectionist. An insurrection is someone who wants to overthrow the powers that be. You guys with me so far? Someone who wants to overthrow the powers that be. There were previous messiahs who came in and said “I'm the promised one. I'm the anointed one. I'm the messiah,” and do you know what they tried to do? Kill the Romans. It's totally normal for them to assume that Jesus is an insurrectionist. ***

Hang with me. Right, your ticket entitles you to your whole seat. But you're only going to need the edge of it, because what we're about to do is to show something that will blow your mind as it relates to Good Friday and Easter. Remember this word criminal. I'm going to use the word insurrectionist. Just to make it stick. Just to make it sharp.

OK, so Jesus says, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were an insurrectionist?” What's the assumption of the words “if I were” in that statement? That he’s not an insurrectionist. Then, on Good Friday, do you know that Jesus was crucified between two people? We know, actually, what they were being crucified for. Do you know what they're being crucified for? It's the same word. They were insurrectionists. Some translations will say thieves, but it's the same word in Greek there. Do you think that people got crucified because they stole bread? The reason that you would get crucified by the Roman government is if you were a threat to whom? That's why they crucified. The Romans wouldn't waste all that energy crucifying you just for taking something. Right, crucifixion was a political move to say don't mess with us. Jesus was crucified between two insurrectionists, and Jesus here is saying are you coming to me now?

Here's the other one. Oh my gosh. This is going to get super nerdy. And some people are going to fall asleep, and when this is over, I want you to nudge them and wake them up and say we're back.

In this text and elsewhere, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. Yeah, this is the Rabbi trial. Jesus is referred to as the son of God frequently, and He calls God Father, or Abba? He actually refers to God as Abba. So, he's the son of Abba, right? Yeah, Jesus is the son of Abba

So, there's this scene with Pilate, who's a Roman official and doesn't want to have Jesus killed. Passover had a tradition where they release a criminal. And then they bring up this criminal. Barabbas is how we usually translate it. But that's interesting. Because bar ABBA means son of the Abba.

He's actually going to be crucified with insurrectionist language. But you know what the people actually do? Pilate comes home and says, “Hey, who do you guys want? Jesus or Barabas?” And Barabas was going to be executed because he was a -- you're never going to guess -- an insurrectionist. And you know what the people chanted. “Give us Barabas.”

What should we do with Jesus bar-Abba? Crucify Him now. Why were these people Barabas and willing to crucify Jesus bar-Abba Because he failed to meet their messianic expectations.

OK, I told you this was cool. OK watch this. This is the irony. Have you come at me as if I were an insurrectionist? And the answer is, “That is what we're doing.” The irony is that's who all of His followers want Him to be. He is being killed, being for being what He refuses to be.

Jesus is so cool. “Every day I was among you teaching in the temple and you didn't arrest me, but the Scripture s must be fulfilled at this point.” Mary Healy, who's a theologian, says that from this moment on in Mark Chapter 14, Jesus ceases to be the active agent. He now simply allows things to happen to Him. This is a moment where Jesus is no longer the one calling the shots. Jesus takes now a passive role in the rest of the narrative. In fact, Healy says this -- she put it so well -- that Jesus, the one who often laid His hands on the sick for healing, now in this moment and the rest of the narrative, the hands of men will be placed upon Him, not for healing, but for violence.

Let's keep going. OK, remember what I'm trying to argue here. I think that that the followers of Jesus had a misunderstanding of who Jesus was and what He was teaching them. They were constantly frustrated and perplexed by Jesus, because He was not living up to their messianic expectations of what a messiah should be.

The disciples have previously shown great courage, willing to lay down their lives for Jesus, or at least their perception of who Jesus is. But now Jesus is confounding their expectations, and notice what they all do. They all deserted Him. I used to read this text just thinking, oh they were afraid to die. But these people have shown tremendous courage throughout the narrative. I don't think it's so much that they're afraid to die. I think they're afraid to die for a lost cause, a cause they no longer believe in.

Aside from Peter, you no longer hear about any of the 12 in the rest of the narrative. Jesus is completely alone, with the exception of three named women disciples. Other than them, according to the narrative in Mark, He is completely abandoned.

Now watch this. It may be our tendency to think, “I would never betray my king. I would never abandon Jesus in His great hour of need.” I love this now. A certain young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth …“ Remember, I said we're just going to notice some things. And if it's weird, we're just going to let it be weird. Remember I said that?

“A young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth was following Him. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away”. Come on, it's in the Bible. You can say it. Someone should say “nude.” As some would say, naked. Is this quite strange? It's quite strange now.

Let's see how Mark resolves it. Oh, he doesn't. He just keeps going as if this is like the most normal thing. Some traditions hold that this is Mark inserting himself into the story -- that Mark is the only one who could know that he ran away naked, because he was the last. And it could be that Mark -- I'm 50-50 on that, but I kind of think that's a neat idea. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't know. There's nothing in the text to lead us to believe that it's more. I think the author of Mark is doing something that he's done before. I think this is a living parable. Like the cursing of the fig tree. I think this is a living parable. Notice who's this person? A certain what young man who's wearing nothing but a linen cloth. ***

** TV time out. At the time that Mark would have been heard in congregations like this, to the best of my understanding, at the ritual of baptism, they would have worn a linen robe. And nothing else. So it could be that Mark intends his hearers to see themselves in this kind of ambiguous figure. You don't have to buy into that as just my opinion, but I'm compelled to think so. Because Mark does this frequently throughout the Gospel of Mark, where he's intentionally ambiguous, inviting you to lean in and maybe to project yourself into the text. Even I myself would run away. Notice, what did Jesus call His disciples to do? Jesus keeps saying follow me, so there's someone who's following him. But they caught hold of him. And he left and ran away. Naked with nothing. ***

Let's keep going. “They led Jesus away to the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes assembled.” This is the last time we're going to get a narrative with any of the 12, and it's Peter. It doesn't work out well. In fact, the knife of betrayal and abandonment just goes in even further. Mark here is going to do a sandwich. Some people call him the Mark the Sandwich, because he starts a story, injects a different story, and then concludes the first story. Right? He's going to do that again with Peter, then Jesus, then Peter. So, watch this. I think we're supposed to juxtapose Peter and Jesus, where Peter is faithless, and Jesus is faithful.

“Peter followed him at a distance …" So, what did Jesus say that He wanted us to do? Follow. And so, what's Peter doing? Following Him how? Now remember that being a disciple means proximity -- to be a follower of Jesus means a relationship with him, to be to be near to him. Peter up until this point in time has followed Jesus to the point where I think there's occasion where Jesus gets exasperated with his always being around, you know. And now Peter is where? To my reading, this is the first time you get that language of Peter following at a distance. It could be that Peter is having a crisis of faith or a conversion experience. I don't know.

Peter followed him at a distance right into the High Priest’s court. He was sitting with the servant at a distance, warming himself by a fire. And where's Jesus? Jesus is bound and being tried by a kangaroo court. Jesus, in His greatest hour of need, is in complete isolation. And where's Peter? He's distant from Jesus, finding comfort by other means.

“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin …" which is basically like -- if you'll pardon the anachronism, this is like City Hall. They had legal authority to have people arrested, to have people tried this? It's 71 of the ruling elders, chief priests and scribes and whatnot.

Anyway, so the Sanhedrin, which is religious and political entity, “ … they were looking for testimony against Jesus to put Him to death. What did they want to do to Jesus? Kill him. They're trying to do like a kangaroo court, right? They're trying to find testimony against Jesus. “For many were giving false testimony against Him, and the testimonies did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against Him stating we heard Him say ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another not made with hands.’”

OK, now watch this. Do you remember what most people messianics hoped for? Kill the Romans so we can reestablish our power. In their minds, the center of power in Jerusalem was the temple, not the palace. So, Jesus, having a conversation about tearing down the temple is not just a religious threat, it's also a governmental, political and ethnic threat. Because the temple is like the National Cathedral and the White House merged into one. So, this tearing down of the temple is dangerous.

“Yet their testimony did not agree even on this. Then the high priest stood up before them all and questioned Jesus. ‘Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But Jesus kept silent and did not answer them.”

Jesus, up until this point of time in the Gospel of Mark has been either silent or coy about who He is. It's frustrating. People will ask Him a straightforward question, and he'd be like "Shhhhh!" people would be like, hey, you're the messiah and He's kind of saying, “Don't tell anybody.” Because Jesus does not want His messiahship, His anointed-ness, His Savior-ness … He does not want it to be misunderstood as simply conforming to what the majority of people wanted Him to be. Right now, Jesus is going to stop being silent and stop being coy and He's going to directly answer the question. Because now He's bound. He's marching to the cross, and I think -- if you'll pardon me --I think in Jesus's mind, He's thinking there's no way that they can be confused now. ***

*** OK. Come here, let's huddle up. Lean in, yeah. I have to tell you something before we go on. I need you guys to know something, OK? Back in the Book of Exodus – everybody's favorite book, go home and read it later. In the Book of Exodus, there's this dude named Moses. You guys ever heard of Moses? So, Moses was going to lead God's people out of Egypt. They were in captivity from Pharaoh. Pharaoh had a bunch of people killed, and Moses is kind of scared. And he talks to God after God says, “Lead my people out of Egypt.” And you know what Moses is nervous about? He is going to go back to these people and say God told me. “And we don't even know your name.”

So, Moses says to God that he doesn't know God's name. He just says who? “Who should I tell them sent me?” You know what God says to him? He says, “Tell them I am who I am sent you.” He is who he is, or Yahweh. Tell them I am sent you. So, the name of God, according to Moses's understanding, is “I am.” ***

OK, now back to the text. “’So don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But Jesus kept silent.” This is the last time he's going to keep silent in this interrogation. The high priest questioned Him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? ‘And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of Heaven.’”

Here, Jesus intentionally – boom! -- lays it down, and I will prove it to you. I'll prove it to you that that's exactly what He meant to happen.

“You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power.” This is Psalms language. This is Daniel language that speaks of God and coming with the clouds of heaven, which is where who lives? God. Right then the high priest tore his robes, and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard this.”

Here now Jesus finally comes out with it. Notice at which part in the story Jesus reveals his divinity. What kind of a messiah is He? Notice He didn't do it at the feeding of the 5000. He didn't do it at the raising of Lazarus. He didn't do it when He was teaching in the synagogue.

“They condemned Him as deserving death. Then some began to spit on Him, blindfold Him and beat Him with their fists, and to saying ‘Prophesy!’ Even the temple servants took Him, slapped Him.”

Now we’re going back to Peter, the second part of Mark's sandwich. “While Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the high priests’ maid servants came and saw Peter warming himself.” Yeah, he's comfy and cozy when he's warming himself on the fire. “She looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’”

Some of you have felt this, and I certainly don't mean to trample. If I go to Starbucks, and say, “I’d like a coffee please,” and they say, “You're nothing to me.” Well, how do I feel? Weird. OK, I'll just go to the other coffee place.” That's strange. But if someone who is in my inner circle says to me, “You're nothing to me. I don't even know you how.” How might that make me feel?

So, notice what Peter is saying here. “I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know Jesus.” Here's the irony. I don't think Peter did understand. I think Peter is having a conversion experience. I think Peter's faith in a political messiah is crumbling in this moment.

“’I don't understand what you're talking about.’ Then he went out to the entryway, and a rooster crowed. Then the maidservant saw him again. She began to tell those standing nearby, ‘This man is one of them.’” But again, remember where's Jesus? Mark seems to want us to think these things are happening simultaneously.

“’This man is one of them.’ Those standing there said to Peter again, ‘You certainly are one of them, since you're also a Galilean.’ Then he started to curse and swear. ‘I do not know this man you are talking about.’ Immediately a rooster crowed a second time, and Peter remembered when Jesus had spoken the words of him, ‘Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.” And this is the last time we see Peter in the Gospel of Mark. This is the last time we see any of the 12 in the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus is completely isolated in this narrative. Betrayed and alone, with the exception of three unnamed women who had followed Him faithfully.

There are many of us who resonate with Peter. Jesus has confounded us. He's confused us. He hasn't lived up to our expectations. He's been ambiguous in our lives. We can't quite get it . I just want to land here, and then we're going to reflect and read the text and take communion.

Peter is reinstated. Jesus actually comes to Peter in the Gospel of John and reinstates him to relationship. And here's the reminder I want to give. Do you know who Jesus says yes to? Anyone who wants Jesus. Jesus consistently says, “Follow me.” So even if I'm following Jesus and I turned from Him, do you know what His message to me is? “Hey, follow me.”

Notice there are no perfect disciples in this text. There is no one showing perfect faith. These followers of Jesus are riddled with doubt, confusion, misunderstanding -- so much so that they would act in ways that are contrary to Jesus. And yet you know what Jesus continually says to them. Come on, keep following me. It's OK. Right, this is repentance. I go towards my own way, and repentance is turning and turning back to God. And that's what Jesus keeps saying. “I'm here with the Kingdom of God. This is good news. Now follow me. Turn from going that way. Turn back to me.”

Do you know how many times Jesus will do that for us? As much as we turn away, He says come on back. It's OK, I'm here. And so, I ask that you would hear the text, if you would please. I love reading the Bible, but don't read along. Just let the text come over you and allow the Spirit to work in your imagination.

We're going to read the text and then I'll lead us in communion. This is Mark 14:43 and on.

“While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12, suddenly arrived. With him was a mob with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. His betrayer had given them a signal. ‘The one I kiss, he said, ‘He's the one. Arrest Him and take Him away under guard.’

So when they came immediately, he went up to Jesus and kissed Him. And they took hold of Him and arrested Him. One of those who stood by drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.

Jesus said to them, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal, to capture me? Every day I was among you teaching in the temple, and you did not arrest me. And yet, the Scriptures must be fulfilled.’

Then they all deserted Him and ran away. Now, a certain young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth was following Him. They caught hold of Him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked. They led Jesus away to the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes assembled.

Peter followed Him at a distance right into the high priests’ courtyard. And he was sitting with the servants, warming himself by the fire. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they could not find any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, and the testimonies did not agree.

Some stood up and gave false testimony against Him, stating we heard Him say ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another not made by hands.’ And yet their testimony did not agree even on this.

Then the high priest stood up before them all and questioned Jesus. ‘Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But He kept silent and did not answer.

Again, the high priest questioned Him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?’

‘I am,’ said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, coming with the clouds of heaven.’

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard this blasphemy. What is your decision?’

They all condemned Him as deserving death. Then some began to spit on Him, to blindfold Him, and to beat Him, saying, ‘Prophesize!’ The temple servants also took Him and slapped Him.

While Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the High priest’s maidservants came. She saw Peter warming himself. She looked at him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’

And yet he denied it. ‘I don't know or understand what you're talking about,’ he said. Then he went out to the entryway, and a rooster crowed. When the maidservant saw him again, she began to tell those standing nearby ‘This man is one of them.’ But again, he denied it.

After a little while, those standing there said to Peter again, ‘You certainly are one of them, since you are also a Galilean.’ Then he started to curse and swear. ‘I do not know this man you are talking about.’

Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered when Jesus had spoken the word to him, ‘Before the Rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ He broke down and he wept.”

Before we take communion, would you just take a moment to reflect on what you've heard today. (Pause)

And the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and broke it. He gave it to His disciples – His imperfect, fear-filled, confused disciples. And even knowing what would come, He said to them, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Would you take and eat?

And then in speaking to His imperfect disciples -- full of confusion, fear, and misunderstanding -- knowing that they would abandon Him, and yet He would redeem them, after giving them the cup, He said, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Would you take and drink?

Join me as we pray. Oh, Jesus, we love You and we know that You love us. And as we follow as Your disciples, we recognize our imperfections. We recognize our sin. We recognize that it's consistent in our lives that we need to hear the words, repent and believe in the good news. To turn from our own way, and to continually turn back to You. And now we see that in ourselves, Lord, we also see in You a divine goodness, a majestic grace, a powerful love. Lord, would You continue to shape us by the power of Your spirit more and more into Your image as a church family? That we might reflect Your goodness and grace to one another. And then this Easter season, as we reflect upon Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Lord that You would draw us nearer to You, to a deeper union with You and with one another. We ask these things, knowing that You love us and You're powerful to bring them about, and so we entrust ourselves to You, Amen.

As we dismiss, I'm going to invite our prayer team to join me here at the front. If you'd like prayer today, the members of our prayer team will be available here up front. If you're not able to make it down to the front, that's no problem, just wave us down and we'll come and pray with you.

Would you all please stand and receive this benediction from the Word of the Lord in Numbers Chapter 6. “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look with favor onto you and bring you peace.” Let us go and live in light of this truth.

Love you guys. We'll see you next time.

Good morning, church. My name is Caleb. I serve as one of the pastors here at Desert Springs. Today we're going to continue in a series called Disciple. We’ll be looking at the Gospel of Mark Chapter 14. So, if you're joining us here in the room today, if you have a Bible, turn to Mark Chapter 14.

Also, you should have it in the handout that you got on the way in today. For those of y'all joining us online, if you have a Bible, I'd encourage you to grab that. If you don't, no problem, just go to bible.com. We're using the Christian Standard version. Also, for those of you that maybe don't own a Bible and would like one, we've got some available on the tables in the back. Please feel free to take one of those as our gift to you.

So today we're going to break our habit a little bit. What we've been doing throughout this series is doing an extended reading of Scripture and then kind of noticing some things. We're going to flip that around today. I'm going to go through the text Mark Chapter 14 verses 43 till the end. We'll go through the text. I'm going to notice a bunch of stuff. Then we're going to do an extended reading of Scripture. And actually, what I'm asking you to do is a hearing of Scripture. And then we'll take communion together, and then we'll conclude.

The reason that we're going to do it this way is that my hope and prayer today for you, regardless of where you're at -- whether you've been following Jesus your whole life or you're just curious about who Jesus is, trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. Maybe you've given up on Jesus, but you're here to figure out if Jesus is s going to give us another shot … ***

** TV timeout. I just I love that. Do you know who Jesus says yes to? Anyone who wants Jesus, Jesus says yes to. And so, if you're here today, Amen. He says yes to you. ***

So, regardless of where you're at, my prayer for you is that you would have an experience with Jesus this morning -- that, as the text is read, the Spirit would move in your heart and your imagination -- that you would participate in this text today, especially as we gear up for Palm Sunday next week and then Easter the following week.

In order to do that, I'm going to ask you way in advance if you would get your community elements out. For those of you who are joining us online, grab something to represent the elements. If you're going to take communion near the end, you just please prepare that? And you'll know why we're doing this right now. Would you just do the cellophane symphony for me today? By the way, for those of you who are frustrated with the cellophane symphony, I'm with you. We are working on ways to do it better, but here we are. So, if you would just prepare those elements so that when we get to communion, we don't hear what we're presently hearing right now? ***

*** Can we do a TV timeout quickly and tell you guys a funny story that's completely irrelevant? Last year we were still kind of figuring out COVID stuff. This was Easter. This was Good Friday of last year. We gave sealed-up bags with juice and bread, and Kathy really did a great job putting that all together for us. But what we did with for the juice was to give it in cans. And then during Good Friday service, which was quite reflective and very peaceful, in the quiet of reflecting on the death and burial of Jesus, it was time to take communion. I said OK, would you please get your communion elements ready? And all you heard was like a beer commercial. And I remembered thinking, “We should have thought about this ahead of time.” So, this year we're going to use Capri suns. ***.

OK, so let's go Mark Chapter 14. One of the best tools for Bible study that we can deploy is noticing. I want to encourage you, regardless of your familiarity with the Bible, you have a tool that you can use anytime. I would encourage you to do so today, when you go home and read your whole Bible later today. Which you should do every day. As you read the Bible, the best tool to start with is just noticing. Allow the text to be weird. Allow it to be strange. Allow it to be confusing and just notice. And that's a tool that you can use for the rest of your life. And so today what we're going to do is we're going to go through the text, and I hope to notice some things and hope that you notice some things, as well. Then we'll read, we'll hear the text together.

Jesus, at this point in time in the text, has gone the Garden of Gethsemane, where he's prayed that the Lord would take the cup of wrath from Him. His disciples had failed to stay awake with Him, and now we're at the tail end of the garden of Gethsemane scene with Jesus, where now Judas is going to come and take Him. This is where the text picks up. Verse 43:

“While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12 …" *** Timeout.

*** Judas’s last name is not “one of the 12.” Why does the author say one of the 12? What was the 12? Some of you may remember right? “The 12“ was a shorthand way to refer to Jesus’s inner circle. These were not all the disciples, I know. We sometimes say the 12 disciples, and they were disciples. There were many, many more disciples, but the twelve were like the inner circle. They were supposed to be the “homies.” Mark mentions that Judas was one of the 12 multiple times, not because we're prone to forget. What he's doing is digging in the knife of the betrayal we're supposed to feel when we see one of the 12. We're supposed to feel a deep betrayal. ***

“Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a crowd of with swords and clubs, who were the chief priests and scribes and the elders.” Just a few chapters before, in Chapter 11, there was a massive crowd welcoming Jesus in with palm branches. And now a crowd comes to Jesus with what? Swords and clubs. And they were from the chief priest, the scribes and the elders.

OK, so this kiss language, this idea of kissing is not romantic. It's a signal or symbol of a deep friendship or a deep trust, a deep relationship. Is this ironic that He is betraying Jesus with an act of connection, an act of respect, an act of admiration? Is this ironic? This is deeply ironic, because really good friends greet each other with a kiss and remember, Judas was one of the inner circle.

Do you know what it's like to be deeply wounded or betrayed by someone close to you? I want you to know that when you pray, you pray to a God who also experientially knows. God understands what you feel like in your guts. So, when he came, immediately he went up to Jesus. You've got the scene. Judas is coming to Jesus, and he said -- notice the language -- “Rabbi.” This is the knife being dug in. This is a deep betrayal.

They took hold of Him and arrested Him. One of those who stood by drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear.” Now I want you to notice the behavior. Someone who is with Jesus – I think it's one of the disciples, I think it's Peter -- took his sword and struck and cut off his ear. OK, so notice.

When Jesus comes on the scene in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, He says, behold, hey, everyone pay attention. The good news of the Kingdom of God is here. The good news, the gospel is that the Kingdom of God is near. Therefore, repent, turn from your sin and turn towards me. Repent, and believe in the gospel.

Then He goes to His disciples and says, “Follow me.” Jesus doesn't say be a fan of mine. Jesus doesn't necessarily say let me be your professor and you can be my student. He says, “Follow me.” Be my disciples, and I'll be your rabbi. Discipleship is not only following the teachings of someone, but also the idea of being a disciple is also to be in relationship with the rabbi that you're following. That's why we keep using what sometimes could be considered an old-fashioned word, namely, disciple. There's something about the relationship with the rabbi.

Jesus says to do what? Follow me now. Jesus came on the scene proclaiming the good news of what? The Kingdom of God. And when these disciples heard the word “kingdom,” do you know what they thought finally? Our nation, our people. Our people will finally reestablish our kingdom. They would call it the Kingdom of David, who used to be a king of Israel. They are expecting Jesus to kill the Romans and reestablish the kingdom, because He came proclaiming the Kingdom of God is here. And then he said, “Follow me.”

Throughout the Gospel of Mark, you will notice the disciples having a wrestling match with their assumptions about Jesus and how Jesus revealed Himself to be. Jesus consistently fails to live up to their messianic expectations. What do they want Jesus to do? Take out the sword and kill the bad guys?

But Jesus keeps saying stuff -- look in chapters 8, 9 and 10. Three times Jesus says, “Look, we're going to Jerusalem where I'm going to be betrayed and turned over into the hands of sinners. And then I'll be crucified. And then I'm going to die. And then on the third day I'm going to rise again.”

And on all three of those occasions, the disciples are thinking, “No way, bro.” In fact, on all three of those occasions when they wrestle with this idea, it's clear they don't get it, because they ask Jesus if they get to be in power with Him. With the framework of the kingdoms of this world, they assume Jesus is coming to just give them another kingdom of this world.

Judas, I think -- this is my conjecture, OK? I think Mark means us to recognize Judas is having a conversion experience when the woman came in and broke open the jar of perfume and anointed Jesus. It's Judas who's scoffing and talking, “Couldn't we have done things differently?” I think in that moment we're to see Judas turn and say, “This is not the type of Kingdom I want.” What was compelling Judas, one of the 12, to betray Jesus? I think it was because Jesus was not living up to his expectations. He was expecting a Rome Slayer.

I'm going to argue, I hope to prove it from the text, that's what all the disciples think is happening to all of them. And here's why. What is his reflex?

They come to take Jesus, who has been saying multiple times that He was going to be turned over into the hands of sinners. He says it multiple times and what's their reflex? They are saying “all right, it's time!” Right, finally a showdown.

OK. So, Peter drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear. Jesus said to them … oh man, this is so good -- Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a … ***

*** Timeout. OK, this is so cool. Oh my gosh, the Bible is so awesome. OK, check this out. This word for criminal that's translated in the CSV -- some of your translations may say robber, but that's not quite getting at it. Another way to translate it is a rebel. Or an insurrectionist. An insurrection is someone who wants to overthrow the powers that be. You guys with me so far? Someone who wants to overthrow the powers that be. There were previous messiahs who came in and said “I'm the promised one. I'm the anointed one. I'm the messiah,” and do you know what they tried to do? Kill the Romans. It's totally normal for them to assume that Jesus is an insurrectionist. ***

Hang with me. Right, your ticket entitles you to your whole seat. But you're only going to need the edge of it, because what we're about to do is to show something that will blow your mind as it relates to Good Friday and Easter. Remember this word criminal. I'm going to use the word insurrectionist. Just to make it stick. Just to make it sharp.

OK, so Jesus says, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were an insurrectionist?” What's the assumption of the words “if I were” in that statement? That he’s not an insurrectionist. Then, on Good Friday, do you know that Jesus was crucified between two people? We know, actually, what they were being crucified for. Do you know what they're being crucified for? It's the same word. They were insurrectionists. Some translations will say thieves, but it's the same word in Greek there. Do you think that people got crucified because they stole bread? The reason that you would get crucified by the Roman government is if you were a threat to whom? That's why they crucified. The Romans wouldn't waste all that energy crucifying you just for taking something. Right, crucifixion was a political move to say don't mess with us. Jesus was crucified between two insurrectionists, and Jesus here is saying are you coming to me now?

Here's the other one. Oh my gosh. This is going to get super nerdy. And some people are going to fall asleep, and when this is over, I want you to nudge them and wake them up and say we're back.

In this text and elsewhere, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. Yeah, this is the Rabbi trial. Jesus is referred to as the son of God frequently, and He calls God Father, or Abba? He actually refers to God as Abba. So, he's the son of ABBA, right?

So, there's this scene with Pilate, who's a Roman official and doesn't want to have Jesus killed. Passover had a tradition where they release a criminal. And then they bring up this criminal. Barabbas is how we usually translate it. But that's interesting.

He's actually going to be crucified with insurrectionist language. But you know what the people actually do? Pilate comes home and says, “Hey, who do you guys want? Jesus or Barabas?” And Barabas was going to be executed because he was a -- you're never going to guess -- an insurrectionist. And you know what the people chanted. “Give us Barabas.”

What should we do with Jesus bar ABBA? Crucify Him now. Because he failed to meet their messianic expectations.

OK, I told you this was cool. OK watch this. This is the irony. Have you come at me as if I were an insurrectionist? And the answer is, “That is what we're doing.” The irony is that's who all of His followers want Him to be. He is being killed, being for being what He refuses to be.

Jesus is so cool. “Every day I was among you teaching in the temple and you didn't arrest me, but the Scripture s must be fulfilled at this point.” Mary Healy, who's a theologian, says that from this moment on in Mark Chapter 14, Jesus ceases to be the active agent. He now simply allows things to happen to Him. This is a moment where Jesus is no longer the one calling the shots. Jesus takes now a passive role in the rest of the narrative. In fact, Healy says this -- she put it so well -- that Jesus, the one who often laid His hands on the sick for healing, now in this moment and the rest of the narrative, the hands of men will be placed upon Him, not for healing, but for violence.

Let's keep going. OK, remember what I'm trying to argue here. I think that that the followers of Jesus had a misunderstanding of who Jesus was and what He was teaching them. They were constantly frustrated and perplexed by Jesus, because He was not living up to their messianic expectations of what a messiah should be.

The disciples have previously shown great courage, willing to lay down their lives for Jesus, or at least their perception of who Jesus is. But now Jesus is confounding their expectations, and notice what they all do. They all deserted Him. I used to read this text just thinking, oh they were afraid to die. But these people have shown tremendous courage throughout the narrative. I don't think it's so much that they're afraid to die. I think they're afraid to die for a lost cause, a cause they no longer believe in.

Aside from Peter, you no longer hear about any of the 12 in the rest of the narrative. Jesus is completely alone, with the exception of three women disciples. Other than them, according to the narrative in Mark, He is completely abandoned.

Now watch this. It may be our tendency to think, “I would never betray my king. I would never abandon Jesus in His great hour of need.” I love this now. A certain young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth …“ Remember, I said we're just going to notice some things. And if it's weird, we're just going to let it be weird. Remember I said that?

“A young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth was following Him. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away”. Come on, it's in the Bible. You can say it. Someone should say “nude.” As some would say, naked. Is this quite strange? It's quite strange now.

Let's see how Mark resolves it. Oh, he doesn't. He just keeps going as if this is like the most normal thing. Some traditions hold that this is Mark inserting himself into the story -- that Mark is the only one who could know that he ran away naked, because he was the last. And it could be that Mark -- I'm 50-50 on that, but I kind of think that's a neat idea. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't know. There's nothing in the text to lead us to believe that it's more. I think the author of Mark is doing something that he's done before. I think this is a living parable. Like the cursing of the fig tree. I think this is a living parable. Notice who's this person? A certain what young man who's wearing nothing but a linen cloth. ***

** TV time out. At the time that Mark would have been heard in congregations like this, to the best of my understanding, at the ritual of baptism, they would have worn a linen robe. And nothing else. So it could be that Mark intends his hearers to see themselves in this kind of ambiguous figure. You don't have to buy into that as just my opinion, but I'm compelled to think so. Because Mark does this frequently throughout the Gospel of Mark, where he's intentionally ambiguous, inviting you to lean in and maybe to project yourself into the text. Even I myself would run away. Notice, what did Jesus call His disciples to do? Jesus keeps saying follow me, so there's someone who's following him. But they caught hold of him. And he left and ran away. Naked with nothing. ***

Let's keep going. “They led Jesus away to the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes assembled.” This is the last time we're going to get a narrative with any of the 12, and it's Peter. It doesn't work out well. In fact, the knife of betrayal and abandonment just goes in even further. Mark here is going to do a sandwich. Some people call him the Mark the Sandwich, because he starts a story, injects a different story, and then concludes the first story. Right? He's going to do that again with Peter, then Jesus, then Peter. So, watch this. I think we're supposed to juxtapose Peter and Jesus, where Peter is faithless, and Jesus is faithful.

“Peter followed him at a distance …" So, what did Jesus say that He wanted us to do? Follow. And so, what's Peter doing? Following Him how? Now remember that being a disciple means proximity -- to be a follower of Jesus means a relationship with him, to be to be near to him. Peter up until this point in time has followed Jesus to the point where I think there's occasion where Jesus gets exasperated with his always being around, you know. And now Peter is where? To my reading, this is the first time you get that language of Peter following at a distance. It could be that Peter is having a crisis of faith or a conversion experience. I don't know.

Peter followed him at a distance right into the High Priest’s court. He was sitting with the servant at a distance, warming himself by a fire. And where's Jesus? Jesus is bound and being tried by a kangaroo court. Jesus, in His greatest hour of need, is in complete isolation. And where's Peter? He's distant from Jesus, finding comfort by other means.

“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin …" which is basically like -- if you'll pardon the anachronism, this is like City Hall. They had legal authority to have people arrested, to have people tried this? It's 71 of the ruling elders, chief priests and scribes and whatnot.

Anyway, so the Sanhedrin, which is religious and political entity, “ … they were looking for testimony against Jesus to put Him to death. What did they want to do to Jesus? Kill him. They're trying to do like a kangaroo court, right? They're trying to find testimony against Jesus. “For many were giving false testimony against Him, and the testimonies did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against Him stating we heard Him say ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another not made with hands.’”

OK, now watch this. Do you remember what most people messianics hoped for? Kill the Romans so we can reestablish our power. In their minds, the center of power in Jerusalem was the temple, not the palace. So, Jesus, having a conversation about tearing down the temple is not just a religious threat, it's also a governmental, political and ethnic threat. Because the temple is like the National Cathedral and the White House merged into one. So, this tearing down of the temple is dangerous.

“Yet their testimony did not agree even on this. Then the high priest stood up before them all and questioned Jesus. ‘Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But Jesus kept silent and did not answer them.”

Jesus, up until this point of time in the Gospel of Mark has been either silent or coy about who He is. It's frustrating. People will ask Him a straightforward question, and he will deflect… people would be like, hey, you're the messiah and He's kind of saying, “Don't tell anybody.” Because Jesus does not want His messiahship, His anointed-ness, His Savior-ness … He does not want it to be misunderstood as simply conforming to what the majority of people wanted Him to be. Right now, Jesus is going to stop being silent and stop being coy and He's going to directly answer the question. Because now He's bound. He's marching to the cross, and I think -- if you'll pardon me --I think in Jesus's mind, He's thinking there's no way that they can be confused now. ***

*** OK. Come here, let's huddle up. Lean in, yeah. I have to tell you something before we go on. I need you guys to know something, OK? Back in the Book of Exodus – everybody's favorite book, go home and read it later. In the Book of Exodus, there's this dude named Moses. You guys ever heard of Moses? So, Moses was going to lead God's people out of Egypt. They were in captivity from Pharaoh. Pharaoh had a bunch of people killed, and Moses is kind of scared. And he talks to God after God says, “Lead my people out of Egypt.” And you know what Moses is nervous about? He is going to go back to these people and say God told me. “And we don't even know your name.”

So, Moses says to God that he doesn't know God's name. He just says who? “Who should I tell them sent me?” You know what God says to him? He says, “Tell them I am who I am sent you.” He is who he is, or Yahweh. Tell them I am sent you. So, the name of God, according to Moses's understanding, is “I am.” ***

OK, now back to the text. “’So don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But Jesus kept silent.” This is the last time he's going to keep silent in this interrogation. The high priest questioned Him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? ‘And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of Heaven.’”

Here, Jesus intentionally – boom! -- lays it down, and I will prove it to you. I'll prove it to you that that's exactly what He meant to happen.

“You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power.” This is Psalms language. This is Daniel language that speaks of God and coming with the clouds of heaven, which is where who lives? God. Right then the high priest tore his robes, and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard this.”

Here now Jesus finally comes out with it. Notice at which part in the story Jesus reveals his divinity. What kind of a messiah is He? Notice He didn't do it at the feeding of the 5000. He didn't do it at the raising of Lazarus. He didn't do it when He was teaching in the synagogue.

“They condemned Him as deserving death. Then some began to spit on Him, blindfold Him and beat Him with their fists, and to saying ‘Prophesy!’ Even the temple servants took Him, slapped Him.”

Now we’re going back to Peter, the second part of Mark's sandwich. “While Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the high priests’ maid servants came and saw Peter warming himself.” Yeah, he's comfy and cozy when he's warming himself on the fire. “She looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’”

Some of you have felt this, and I certainly don't mean to trample. If I go to Starbucks, and say, “I’d like a coffee please,” and they say, “You're nothing to me.” Well, how do I feel? Weird. OK, I'll just go to the other coffee place.” That's strange. But if someone who is in my inner circle says to me, “You're nothing to me. I don't even know you how.” How might that make me feel?

So, notice what Peter is saying here. “I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know Jesus.” Here's the irony. I don't think Peter did understand. I think Peter is having a conversion experience. I think Peter's faith in a political messiah is crumbling in this moment.

“’I don't understand what you're talking about.’ Then he went out to the entryway, and a rooster crowed. Then the maidservant saw him again. She began to tell those standing nearby, ‘This man is one of them.’” But again, remember where's Jesus? Mark seems to want us to think these things are happening simultaneously.

“’This man is one of them.’ Those standing there said to Peter again, ‘You certainly are one of them, since you're also a Galilean.’ Then he started to curse and swear. ‘I do not know this man you are talking about.’ Immediately a rooster crowed a second time, and Peter remembered when Jesus had spoken the words of him, ‘Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.” And this is the last time we see Peter in the Gospel of Mark. This is the last time we see any of the 12 in the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus is completely isolated in this narrative. Betrayed and alone, with the exception of three women who had followed Him faithfully.

Sermon by Caleb Campbell, Desert Springs Bible Church, March 13, 2021

Today we're continuing in a series from the Gospel of Mark called Disciple, where we're looking at and exploring what it means to follow Jesus as one of his disciples.

If you're joining us in the room, I think you guys maybe got a handout with the text.  Did you guys get that?  Help me out here.  You guys got the handout with the text?  OK, great, perfect.  The reason we're doing those printouts is so you can make notes, draw on it, and things like that.  I would encourage you all to do that.  If you have a print Bible, you could do that, and if you want to mark that up, that's awesome.  If you don't own a print Bible and would like one, we'd love to give you one.  There are some available on the tables in the back.  Just grab one of those as our gift to you.  And for those of y'all joining us online, I'd encourage you, if you have a print Bible, to grab one and follow along with this.  Again, Mark Chapter 14. If you don't have a print Bible, just go to bible.com.  We're using the Christian standard version of the Bible today.

Before we get into the text, I did want to mention that Easter's coming.  We're going to do it again this year like we have every year for a couple thousand years.  We're really looking forward to celebrating Easter together.  We wanted to let you know that at both of our Easter services, 9:30 and 11:00, we're going to be doing baptisms.  Baptism is an outward expression of a life devoted to Jesus.  When we go under the water, it connects us to and recognizes Jesus's death and burial just as He went into death, went into the tomb.  So, we, too, go into the water and then come out of the water.  It signifies and connects us to His resurrection -- the new life that we have in Jesus.  Just as Jesus went into the tomb and then was resurrected to new life, so we go under the water and then are brought up into new life.  It's a way to proclaim, “I'm all in with Jesus.”  So, if you'd like to be baptized, we will baptize you anytime. But if you'd like to be baptized on Easter, let us know.  If you like to know more about baptism, let us know.  Again, you can use those Next Steps cards, or for those of y'all joining us online, you can use that Next Steps link.  We'd love to let you know more about baptism here at DSBC.

All right, so we are in Mark Chapter 14.  What we've been doing through this series is we've been kind of going almost chapter by chapter.  We're going to change it up a bit, in that we're going to skip ahead to the last half of the Gospel of Mark.  Actually, the majority of it will be in Chapter 14 and 15, although we might dip into 11 a little.

What we're going to do is we're going to zoom in between now and Easter on the last week, so to speak, of Jesus’s ministry prior to his crucifixion and resurrection.  We're going to zoom in on that so we can kind of prepare ourselves for Holy Week, which is Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday.  Then after that -- after we celebrate Easter together -- we will go back and hit up the stuff that we skipped over to get here in the Gospel of Mark.

That's going to be a lot of fun.  And when I say fun, I mean it, OK?  I mean it.  This is tons of fun.  I love this stuff. OK, so now I'm going to read the Gospel of Mark Chapter 14 verses one through 11.  I want to encourage you -- you don't have to -- but I would encourage you not to read along, not just yet.  In fact, I would encourage you to hear the Bible.  Maybe it's helpful to close your eyes and to imagine what's going on.  We know that the majority of Scripture, if not all the Scripture, was artistically designed to be read aloud in a setting like this and then heard.  I would actually argue it was artistically designed also to be imagined -- to have it fire on all aspects of your brain.  And so, we encourage you to hear the Word and then we'll get into the text.   One little request is just to be attentive as you hear -- just to be attentive to what the spirit of God may be speaking to you as you hear, and even imagine the Word this morning.  Just notice what's going on inside of you as you hear it. This was the Gospel Mark, chapter 14 verses one and on.

“It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and to kill him.  ‘Not during the festival,’ they said, ‘so that there won't be rioting among the people.’

Now, while He was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure Nard.  She broke the jar and poured it on His head.  But some were expressing indignation to one another.  ‘Why has this perfume been wasted, for this perfume might have been sold more than 300 denari and given to the poor.’  And they began to scold her.

Jesus replied, ‘Leave her alone.  Why are you bothering her?  She has done a noble thing for me.  You always have the poor with you, and you can go and do what is good for them whenever you want.  But you do not always have me.  She has done what she could.  She has anointed my body for burial.  Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them, and when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money.  So he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.”  This is the word of the Lord.

Here in this text, we have two responses to the Kingdom of God.  In this text you have two responses that, frankly, couldn't be more different than one another.  Two responses to Jesus, and it's in a sandwich.  Doesn't that sound delicious now?  This particular sandwich is here in the text.  If you have your print Bible, you might just notice it really quick.  Notice in verse one and two what's happening.  People are trying to plot to murder Jesus.  Then notice at the bottom part of the sandwich, verse 10, Judas Iscariot going to those who are plotting.  Then they hatch a plan to murder Jesus.  And in the middle of the sandwich, there is this profoundly beautiful and yet somewhat perplexing story of an unnamed woman who gives an extravagant gift to Jesus and does something that's mystifying, even to those who are present in the room.  You have a lot of confusion in this text.  You have even some cruelties.

In this text you have two responses to Jesus, and I'd like to tease them out a little bit for you today.  I think the Bible is super cool.  I think that there are so many things that -- when we read our Bible over and over and over together when we're in community with one another -- all of this stuff just starts sparking and coming alive.  My hope is that today and through this study, that these somewhat familiar -- I think if you grew up in church settings, these are somewhat familiar stories or accounts -- my hope is that they will just catch on fire -- especially as we lead up to Holy Week, as we celebrate Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  My hope is that we might have a vivid imagination of what it is that we're celebrating and remembering.  So that's my hope.

Now notice -- here's the setting.  It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  What is the Passover or the Festival of Unleavened Bread?  It was a memorial.  It was a holiday or a high holy day, remembering this event all the way back in the Book of Exodus.  If you go home today and read through your whole Bible -- which you totally should -- this first book of your Bible is Genesis. It starts like this, “In the beginning …"  That's how you know you're in Genesis.  In Genesis, God forms the people from this dude named Abraham.  He says, “Out of you, I'm going to make a great nation and you're going to bless all the nations or ethnic peoples of the world.”

They go to Egypt to avoid starving to death.  But spoiler alert: This people that God has promised to make into a great nation to bless all the other nations, they become slaves in Egypt.  The king or pharaoh of Egypt enslaves this people group that's supposed to be a great nation, blessing all the other nations.  But guess what their current status is in Exodus?  They are slaves.  OK, so the question is how they will grow into a great nation and bless all the other nations of the Earth,  This is the dramatic tension of Exodus.  God sends a dude named Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and exit, or an exodus. Hence the name of the second book, Exodus.  Excellent, OK, you guys are tracking.  This is great.

Moses goes to Pharaoh, who is the king of Egypt, … and let me ask you a question.  Is it economically sound for Pharaoh to release his labor force?  No, in fact, in the kingdoms of this world, nobody wants to do that. This would hurt the economy, and so Moses goes and say, “Let my people go.”  And Pharoah says, “No bro.  We ain't gonna do that.  That's stupid, right?”  And so, God sends --and I know that this is crazy, I know that this is violent, and I’m not going to resolve the tension, and we're just going to deal with it -- God sends ten plagues upon Egypt in order to release the people.  And we were just going to let that stand. And the last of the plagues was the death of the first-born son.  God says, “Let my people go.  Otherwise, I'm going to kill the first- born son in every household.  It doesn't matter whose household.  It's indiscriminate, except if you take a lamb and you slay the lamb  -- I know this is violent and gory and we're just going to deal with it --  you slay the lamb, you take the blood of the lamb and you put it over the door post so that the Angel of Death or the destroyer will pass over your house.  Hence the name of the holiday.

This is the Passover feast, where a lamb dies in the place of the child.  You guys tracking so far?  So here Jesus is in Jerusalem.  The city, by the way, is likely swollen to ten times its size, because all these people come into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and the Festival of the Unleavened Bread.  The reason that it's unleavened is because they were commanded to quickly flee.  During the exodus the people are told, “You gotta go like grab your stuff.”  And there's all this hurriedness including, the bread that you can make right quick.  “Don't even leaven it, just get it and go.” When we eat communion, we generally eat unleavened bread.  It’s connected to the Passover -- God's deliverance from slavery and oppression in Egypt. OK, so just notice the setting. When are we? We're in Passover week, right?  A high holy day remembering God's deliverance. OK, so this is going to create some dramatic tension. Let's watch.

The chief priest and all the scribes say, “We're looking for a cunning way” -- interesting language -- “a cunning way to arrest Jesus and to …”  What?  All chief priests, throughout your Old Testament, are supposed to be the good guys, not the bad.  They're supposed to be the good guys, especially the chief priests, right?  And the scribes were people who were familiar with the Scripture.  Their job was to know the Scripture inside and out.  That was their job.  Are these people supposed to be good guys or bad guys?  In anyone's mind in that day, this was the good team.  In fact, we all expect, as we're reading the text, we expect the Romans to be the bad guys.  They're the occupying force.  They're the ones shoving spears through our people, right?  We want the Romans to be the bad guys.  But notice the shocking reality that it is the religious elite who are doing what?  Plotting to do what?  Arrest and kill Jesus.  In the Gospel of Mark, they've been trying to do this since the first three chapters.  There is constantly resistance coming Jesus's way, not predominantly from -- in fact, almost never from the Romans, who we all want to be the bad guys.  It's almost always coming from, shockingly, the people we expected to be the good guys.

But one of the things we notice is that the people who we expect to be the good guys think of themselves as people who are insiders who deserve the Kingdom of God.  Therefore, they have a particular response to Jesus.  What is their response to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God that Jesus makes?  That's response number one.  When I hear the good news of the Kingdom of God that God has created me, that He loves me, as Richard said, He wants to be with me and that He calls me to turn.  There's this word called repentance, which just means a change of mind and direction.  I'm going my own way, I'm selfish, I'm focused on myself.  I’m sinning.  Repentance is turning to God.  That's what we're called to do -- to repent.  And to believe what?  The good news or gospel that Jesus is the King, and that the Kingdom has come.  This is the good news.  The good news -- contrary to many American people’s misperception -- the good news is not, “Say a prayer, so God will let you go to heaven when you die.”  That's not the gospel that Jesus proclaims.  It's not the good news Jesus proclaims.

I'll prove it to you.  Read the Gospel of Mark.  He doesn't ever talk like that.  He's consistently saying here's the good news, everybody.  There's a new Kingdom.  In fact, it's the Old Kingdom.  It's the first Kingdom.  It's the Eden, Paradise Kingdom where God rules and reigns and humans and God are in union with one another. But because humans sinned and turned their backs on God, we have these two kingdoms now.

But Jesus comes in and says,” I'm reestablishing my domain so that I can be your God and you can be my people.”  The Kingdom of God is pushing back the kingdoms of darkness in the Gospel of Mark.   And there are two possible responses -- turn to the King or turn against the King.  Notice what the religious elite are doing, by and large, in Marks gospel.  They're saying what Pharaoh said, “Nah bro, that's going to cost me too much.”

OK, let's keep going.  “Arrest Jesus and kill him. Not during the … “  This is the first part of the sandwich, right?  Notice there's the first part, “not during the festival.”    Yeah, they said this so that there won't be a riot among the people.  What was the general disposition of the masses towards Jesus?   Positive or not?  Generally speaking, the masses really wanted Jesus.  They crowded around Jesus.  In the Gospel of Mark, there are thousands of people crowding around Jesus.  And the religious elite know that if they have him killed, there's going to be a riot.

While He was at Bethany -- which is a neighboring village just right down the way from Jerusalem -- at the House of Simon, the leper … *** TV timeout.  Leprosy was used, generally speaking, in your Bible to cover a variety of different diseases that become manifest on the skin. You definitely don't want to get in proximity with a leper.  Because especially in the ancient mind, not only might the disease get on you, but also if you were Jewish, especially if you were a Jewish rabbi, you didn't want to become unclean, because touching someone who had visible signs of death on them would tarnish you.  Then you'd have to do a purification, a ceremonial washing in order to make yourself clean again.  It wasn't only moral.  It was also just you can't stand in the presence of God with death on you.  ***

And yet, where is Jesus?  Where is He'?  In the house with Simon the leper.  Now we don't know, at least from my studies, we don't know who this dude is.  We know one thing about Simon.  Actually, a couple things.  He's got a table in a house, and he's got some kind of a history of leprosy.  Maybe Jesus healed him, or maybe he presently is a leper.  Nobody knows it but Mark’s readers, reading decades after this happened.  Maybe his original hearers they knew who Simon the leper was.  He’s a leper.  It's interesting to note that Mark here teases that out.  He could have just said Simon  of Bethany.  But he intentionally leaves this out.

Where is Jesus?  The chief priests and the scribes are in their palatial estates, plotting murder, whereas Jesus is with Simon the leper, right?  And He was reclining at the table.  By the way, this idea of reclining at table -- it wasn't like a lazy boy.  They would lean up against each other at dinner time, so if you're a “personal space” kind of person, you definitely would not like this.  You would definitely be touching.  You would lean up against the person next to you as you ate.

He's reclining at a table where?  At the leper's house.  And if you're a follower of Jesus, by the time you're in Chapter 14, you're again thinking, “Always, Jesus taking us into somebody's house that we don't want to be with.  Fine.” (Sarcastic tone.)  If you've been following along with this in the Gospel of Mark, you'll remember that when Simon Peter gets called to be the disciple of Jesus, the very next thing Jesus does to Simon and Andrew is to take him to a tax collector’s house and makes them recline at table with him.  Listen to me.  If you're a disciple of Jesus, I need you to hear me on this.  Jesus keeps taking his disciples and shoving them into community with people they do not want to be with.  Now, I'm not going to do any application today.  But I wonder.  I just wonder aloud if that might have any implications on who I let sit at my dinner table and whose invitations I say yes to.  I just wonder.  No application.

Let's keep going.  Now imagine the scene.  What are they doing at the table?  They're reclining at table, right? They're all up in each other's business, and they're eating. And as He was reclining at the table, a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure Nard.  This is, by the way, not ordinary.  It's not ordinary for a person to disrupt a meal.  Has this ever happened to you?  You're out at a restaurant and you're having a great time, in a deep conversation with an old friend.  And then your neighbor is also in the restaurant, and you know what's going to happen.  They're gonna walk over and it's gonna be one of those weird awkward times.  “Oh, this is so and so.”  Is this ever happened to you?  You guys know it's abnormal.  In fact, it's breaking social norms.  You're not supposed to barge in on a private meal and start doing stuff.  You guys  tracking so far?

So, in comes a woman with an alabaster jar.  You know what's weird is just the woman coming in and interrupting their meal?  What's exceptionally weird is that she's carrying a jar of very expensive perfume of pure Nard.  And then she breaks the jar.  What?  BREAKS the jar?   Can you imagine this?  You're just talking, “Hey Jesus.  Yeah, cool.  Passover is coming up soon.  What do you got planned?  Are you guys gonna hit Florida?”   Then this woman comes in, and everyone goes quiet.  I don't know how she did it.  The Bible doesn't say, but, somehow, she breaks the jar.  Time out.***

*** Is that abnormal for you to have a very expensive liquid in a container and then to break the whole container?  Is that normal?  Well, not normal.  In fact, some of us may be thinking, didn't they know about corks?  Yes, we have archaeological evidence par excellence that this is not the normal way to open a jar.  I know there are a lot of commentators who are trying to make sense of it.  It was so expensive.  You would never ever, think to use the whole thing at once.  This stuff is expensive!  How expensive?  This perfume might have been sold for more than 300 denari, which is about a year’s wage.  ***

Now, here's what we don't know.  We don't know the social status of this woman, but I think there are clues in the text that would lead us to believe that this is the most expensive thing that she has.  In fact, it may have even been an heirloom.  And there almost certainly would have been a way to cut the cake.  There almost certainly would have been a way to do that.  But what does she do?  She breaks it, which means she is totally devoting this gift to Jesus.  It has one use in her life.  It has one recipient.  She's not going to take this most treasured, possession and dole it out to people all throughout her life.  She is giving total and utter devotion to Jesus.  She is.

Notice what’s happening to this this unnamed woman.  She breaks the jar, pours it where on Jesus?  On His head, OK.  By the way, have you guys watched football?  You know when the team wins?  When they pour the Gatorade.  Where do you think they got that from?  That's right.

What are the responses, so far, to Jesus?  The chief priest’s response to Jesus is rejection, right? Utter rejection and resistance. What is the woman's response to Jesus?  Utter devotion.  The chief priests and scribes are responding to the message of the Kingdom of God, looking for self-preservation. What's the woman's response to Jesus?  Self-sacrifice.  There are two responses to Jesus.

Notice the disciples’ response.  Some were expressing indignation to one another, gossip.  Why has this perfume been wasted?  They can't see it, huh?  Why has this perfume been wasted?  They're saying this perfume might have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  Here's why I say it in that tone of voice.   So far in the Gospel of Mark, these disciples have not exhibited much generosity, if any at all.  At least to this point, by and large, they're not known as a generous people.  It seems like what they're doing is they're using a social justice issue -- like caring for the poor -- as an excuse not to see the Kingdom of God in this woman's life.  They're bickering, they're mocking her.  “This could have been sold and given to the poor.”

Jesus replied, “Leave her alone.”  Sometimes it's the people who think they're closest to Jesus who find themselves rejecting those who want to come to Jesus.  Now, I'm not going to do any application, but I wonder, church, if this might have any implications to how we might view people who are different than us giving a life of total devotion to God, even though imperfectly, even though it's not our way, even though it's breaking our social conventions.  I wonder if perhaps we might use this as a cautionary tale -- to think well of myself because I'm sitting next to Jesus.  That must mean I'm just like Jesus.  But notice that they're exhibiting similar behavior to the scribes and Pharisees.  Rejection.

“Why are you bothering her?  She has done a noble thing for me.”  Oh, this is so good.  Oh my God, wow!  O.K., “You will always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want.”  Notice what Jesus thinks. Jesus is not saying. “Not to worry about the poor.” In fact, he's riffing on Deuteronomy 15:11, which says something like, “There will always be poor in the land.”   The next part of that verse in Deuteronomy 15:11  is “Therefore, have an open hand towards the poor.” He's riffing on a portion of Deuteronomy that screams at us be a generous people. Jesus is not saying here, “Don't be generous to the poor.”  I think what he's saying here is, “Bro, you can do it whenever you want.  But you will not always have me.”  This seems to be him scolding them.  Like, “You guys are coming at me with generosity to the poor.  Yeah, whenever you're ready, boys.”  By the way, is this weird?

Jesus is going to interpret the event for us, but there's something you’ve got to know.  Have you guys ever heard the word anointed?  Now, for those of us, maybe who grew up in religious circles, anointing or anointed kind of has a religious overtone to it.  But by and large in Jesus’s day, it would have not been primarily viewed as a religious idea, but primarily as a political one.  Because for the people in ancient history, the most frequently anointed people are kings.  There are some accounts of priests being anointed, maybe even some prophets using anointing.  But by and large it's something that you would do to a king. You would annoint a new king. O.K., you guys with me?

Notice which Jesus is now going to interpret the event for us.  “She has done what she could.”  Now notice this.  Oh man, you gotta zoom in here.  “She has anointed my body in advance...”  So, you're one of Jesus disciples.  You're eating your chicken noodle soup, and you're like, “Hey, what are you guys gonna do for Passover?  Oh yeah, that's cool, bro.”  And then this woman walks in.  “What's she doing here?”  And she breaks the jar, and you say, “Dang, you know that's expensive.  You know she should have given that to the poor.  I'm not going to give anything to poor.  This soup is really good.”  And then Jesus is like, “You guys shut up.  Quit bothering her. What she has done is a noble thing.  She's anointed my body …“  And the apostles think, “Yeah, cool, you’re gonna be the king.”

Generally speaking, if you are following someone you think is going to be the king, you know that you don't want to hear about their burial.  That sounds like you gonna lose, from the disciples’ perspective.  They think Jesus is marching to Jerusalem to kick out Caesar and to operate like all the other kingdoms of this world.  Notice this: Jesus views the cross as his coronation day.  He recognizes that his anointing isn't anointing to be the king.  But He is not going to first to the throne.  He's first going to go to the cross.  The throne comes after.

OK, so you've got to see this here.  Even the disciples are operating under the framework of the kingdoms of this world, that the way to power is to grab power and to put others to the sword.  The symbol of the kingdoms of this world is the sword.   Jesus says no, the way to true power -- the way to My Kingdom -- is not with a sword, but with a cross.  And there are two responses.  If that threatens your power, what do you want to do to Jesus?  Notice it's the scribes and Pharisees, the elite who want him dead.  Notice it's the unnamed who anointed Him.  You see, the Kingdom of God is an upside-down Kingdom.  It takes all the value systems of the kingdoms of this world, and it flips them upside down.  You've heard Jesus say the first shall be last, and the last first.  If you want to be truly a ruler of all, you will be a servant to all.  The way to power is through a cross.

What is the woman’s response?  The chief priests and scribes respond with resistance and self-centered self-preservation.  The woman responses are self-denial and self-sacrifice, the giving of herself and what she has to Jesus.  These are the two responses.  “She has done what she could.  She anointed my body.”  Look at who Jesus lets anoint him for his kingship -- a woman whose name we don't even know, in a leper's house, surrounded by the people closest to him who are scoffing.  Is this the way that kings usually get enthroned?  No.

“Truly I tell you, whenever the good news or the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world … “***TV time out.

*** What does Jesus assume? He assumes he's going to be buried, and then He assumes what?  That the good news is going to be what?  “Proclaimed in the world.”  Does Jesus think he's going to win?  Yes, He does.  I think Jesus sees a resurrection here, but the only way to resurrection is through the cross.  ***

Hello, here we go.  “What she has done for me will also be told in memory of her.”  Remember the sandwich, then Judas Iscariot.  Now we have the second part of what Mark started up in verses one and two.  Here's the second part.  Judas Iscariot -- and I think this is true from my studying -- I think in Mark, from this point from this moment on, every time Judas is mentioned, he says “one of the twelve.  It's one of the inner circle.  He's not an outsider, he's not an enemy over there.  He's one of the homies.  He's one of the Bros.  One of the twelve.  And this phrase, “one of the twelve disciples,” keeps getting ascribed to Judas to signify to us that sometimes proximity to Jesus does not mean faithfulness to Jesus.  Sometimes being in the seat every week does not make one a follower of Jesus.  We can eat with Jesus for three years.  And when push comes to shove and our value systems are challenged -- and we see this woman with the alabaster jar giving extravagantly -- sometimes within our hearts, our true gods are revealed, and we turn over God for money.

Notice the sandwich.  Here Mark begins and ends this section with people plotting to kill Jesus.  The surprise in all of this is that it's Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, who went to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them.  And when they heard this, listen to this moral corruption.  When they heard this, they rejoiced.  What kind of moral corruption has to go inside of a person -- especially a person who believes themselves to be religious, believes themselves to be following after God -- and when they hear of an opportunity to murder a man, they rejoice about it?   They’re happy.  They’re delighted to murder Jesus.  They were glad and promised to give Judas what?  Is this not how the kingdoms of this world always work?  You got a problem?  Pay money, and it'll go away.  Even if you gotta kill a guy.  OK, let's just notice.  So, Judas started looking for a good opportunity.  A solid opportunity to do what?  (Pause)

In a moment we'll enter into a time of taking communion together.  There are two responses to the good news of the Kingdom of God -- self-preservation and rejection, or self-denial and acceptance.  Notice the chief priests and scribes.  Notice the unnamed woman who gives of all that she has.  And notice the skeptical disciples who are not only not quite sure yet, but also some of them are even scoffing the woman's response to the Kingdom.

I ask that you take your communion elements and please prepare them.  Just go ahead and open them, get the bread and the juice out.  For those of you who are joining us online, if you would please grab bread, juice, wine, whatever you have available to represent the body and blood of Jesus.

Consider what you've heard today and consider this question: What is your response to the good news of the Kingdom of God?  For some of us, we maybe just need to meditate on that a little bit.  For others of us it may be a time of repentance, where we tell God through prayer that we're turning from sin, turning from our own way and turning to him.  Still for others of us, it may be a time of confession to God, through prayer. And maybe still for others, it's just a time of deep appreciation for who God is and what He's done through Jesus Christ.  Regardless of where you're at, I'm going to ask that in this moment you would reflect on this question.  What is your response to the good news of the Kingdom?  And then Javier is going to join me here in a minute and we're going to lead through communion in a moment.  Would you please consider?

Just a short while after that moment where the unnamed woman anointed Jesus body beforehand, He met with his disciples, and they shared a meal.  And in this meal, He called us to acts of remembrance, to remember his broken body and shed blood.  To remember that in his Kingdom, power works through the cross, not through the sword. So, as we take of the Lord's Supper, Javier, you're going to lead us here in a moment, and we're going to read together from Mark Chapter 14:22 and on.  (Javier) I will be reading in Spanish. (Caleb) I'll read in English.

...

Please join me as we pray.  Lord, we hear this good news of Your Kingdom.  But for me, and I think for many of us, we find it to be difficult to understand how it is that we're to live it out, except by Your power.  We pray Lord, that You would, by the power of your Spirit, guide us day by day and moment by moment to live as citizens of Your Kingdom.  That our hearts’ response would not be self-preservation, but rather self-sacrifice.  It would not be rejection but acceptance.  Jesus, we know that you say yes to everyone who pursues You.  So, we turn to You, knowing that You are loving, that You are good, that You are kind.  You are a bringer of peace. You call us to live like You.  That's what we want to do.  We confess our apathy towards this great call.  We confess our turning to other gods, even turning to greed, as we saw with Judas.  Would You continue to shape us into the type of people that mirror Your Kingdom?  That we live as this woman did.  That our response to You is utter devotion.  Lord, we ask these things, knowing that You love us and You're powerful to bring them about.  And so, we entrust ourselves to You and to Your care.  In Your name we pray, Jesus.  Amen, Amen. ###

Thank you, church family, for joining us today.  We'll see you next week.

My name is Caleb and I'm going to be leading us today through our study in the Gospel of Mark.  We're going to be in Chapter 10 today, I think, and so I'd encourage you if you have a Bible to turn there.  If you don't have a Bible, if you're in the room, you guys should have received a study guide printed out on your way in.  And for those of you joining us online, grab a print Bible, or if you don't own a Bible, no problem, just go to bible.com.  For those of you who are joining us in person, note that in the handout that you got, there should be an index card.  And for those of you online, I'll give you instruction here in a minute.

OK, so last week, we spent some time during our worship gathering to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine.  Today, what I'm going to ask you all to do is to use that index card and to write either a prayer or a note of encouragement.  There's a Ukrainian Orthodox Church here in town that we've made a connection with.  They're actually starting to receive family members as refugees.  That's happening right now, and so we just wanted to give them an encouragement.  We recognize that we're one local church that's part of a citywide church, and so we love the Big C Church, so to speak, and we love encouraging and praying for one another, resourcing each other.  This is an opportunity for us collectively to support, administer to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters that live here in Phoenix.  So use that index card.  Write a prayer or a note, and what we're going to do is this week we're going to deliver that over this week with just some encouragement to them and just let them know that we're praying for them.  When you're done with the note, in the lobby there should be a basket for you to be able to drop those in.  So we'll collect those and take those over this week.  So any encouragement, even just as just a couple words, I know, would mean an awful lot.  And then for those of you joining us online, at the top of our online platform is a link that says Next Steps.  If you click that, there should be an opportunity for you to just send us a message or send us a note or just email us.  What we'll do this week is we'll transcribe that onto a piece of paper, and we'll take that to them this week when we go.  So it's just a way for us to encourage the broader church family here in Phoenix.  So thank you guys for doing that.  Again, you can put it in the lobby on your way out today.

Let’s move on to the gospel of Mark Chapter 10.  We're going to do a shorter section than what we've been doing during this series.  We've been doing kind of long sections.  The Gospel is narrative material, so we've been following this story.  But today we're going to zoom in on just a few verses.  But it's really profound, at least in my opinion.  I'd like to argue that that it actually helps us to shape how we're to view our posture towards others as it relates to living as a disciple of Jesus.

One of the things we've been doing during this series, called Disciple, is learning from the disciples and from Jesus what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  The reason we use that word disciple is 'cause the term “follower” doesn't quite get it right.  You can be a follower of someone on Instagram.  You can be a follower of a celebrity.  I like the language of “Jesus follower,” but disciple speaks to a relationship with the One that we're following.  I also like the language of student to a teacher -- that's helpful -- but a lot of times we can be a student of someone without ever really meeting that person.  But a disciple implies a relationship.  Being a disciple of Jesus, it's kind of like being a follower.  It's kind of like being a student, but the term disciple implies that there's a relational connection there.

So the question is, how do we, as disciples of Jesus, posture ourselves towards others, especially towards those who are leaning into Jesus, who are maybe curious about Jesus.  Maybe they're interested in following Jesus.  What should our posture be?  And I think this is going to help us today.

Are you guys excited?  OK, I'm really excited.  Here's what we're going to do.  We have been reading the text each week.  I'm going to ask you, before you read along, to just listen to the Word as I read it. We have been connecting ourselves to this ancient practice of hearing the Scripture.  The majority of Scripture, if not all of Scripture, was artistically designed not primarily to be read, but primarily to be heard.  There's some artistry to it that helps us in our hearing.  We are going to read it -- we're going to go through it line by line today -- but before we do that, I would just encourage you just to receive it, to hear it.  And then maybe if it's helpful, close your eyes.  My encouragement to you would be, as you hear the Word of God, just be attentive to what the Spirit of God is doing.  Maybe the Lord is going to bring something to your mind -- maybe a word or phrase will stand out.  Just be attentive to what the Lord is doing as we hear the Word read aloud.  So this is the gospel of Mark Chapter 10, verse 13 and on.

“Now people were bringing little children to Him in order that He might touch them.  But the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, He was indignant.  He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me.  Do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’  After taking them into his arms, He laid his hands on them and blessed them.”  This is the word of the Lord.

You have in this text a beautiful image of Jesus and a frustrating image of his disciples.  A beautiful image of Jesus and a frustrating image of his disciples.  And here's why it's frustrating.  Because we do, by default, what they just did.  Notice in the text -- we'll go through the text together -- notice the scene.  What is happening here? ***

TV timeout *** One of the things that we've noticed as we've studied the Gospel of Mark together -- we've been reading through the Gospel of Mark, and since the beginning, one of the things that you notice is the crowd keeps getting what?  Bigger, bigger and bigger and bigger, bigger -- to the point to where you get some of the famous miracles, like the feeding of the 5000.   Massive crowds are coming out to Jesus, right?  And so, we've noticed that crowds upon crowds have been pressing in on Jesus, right?  ***

The scene here in Mark 10, it's not different, really.  But we just get a little nuance of something we haven't quite seen before.  People were bringing what or whom?  Children, not just children, but what?  Little children.  I want to say, “So what?  How little is little?  What are we talking about here?”  I want to just give you a quick tool.  When you read your Bible -- I think you should read through the whole Bible later today, you're going to love it.  It's great.  Let me know if you do that, by the way, because I know you're a liar.  When you read the Bible, one of the things that we need to pay attention to is context.  What I'm reading is part of a bigger piece, right?  There's something else.  There's something bigger going on, so context, as I sometimes will say, context is king.  If you want to know what this little verse means or this little line means, you got to look at the context.

I'm afraid I'm going to say something very intentionally offensive.  Hobby Lobby is not doing it right.  Now I'm not trying to slam Hobby Lobby.  I'll do that on my own time.  As your pastor, I'm not trying to slam Hobby Lobby, but I just want to say what they're doing is probably not helping us read the Bible.  And here's what I mean.  What they're doing at Hobby Lobby or some of these others, there's a token, an item -- a little piece of wood, maybe -- and then there's like a verse on it.  Or maybe a bumper sticker, or maybe like a little clicker.  So you've got a clicker for your screen, but do you have a clicker with a verse on it?  We take these Bible verses, and we put them on things.  When we do that, we rip them out of their context. It may be cool, right?  It may be good.  “I've got the verse printed on this thing and it just reminds me of the whole text.”  Great, I love that, but I just want to caution us that we are not primarily to be engaging with Scripture in little snippets at a time.  Are you guys with me?  Right, we're engaged in Scripture as the whole piece.  The Gospel of Mark was artistically designed to be read as a whole in one sitting, not little five words at a time.  It's OK if you do the five.  Maybe you've got a tattoo and you're covering it up.    As long as it's reminding you of the entire context, OK? ***

So, people were bringing what?  Little children now.  We're going to ask ourselves how little, and what tool did we just learn?  Context is king.  Did you guys hear, when the text was read, what Jesus did to these kids?  He blessed them, but He did something else.  Did you catch it?  Look at your last verse.  What does He do?  He takes multiple of these little ones into His arms.  But the context is telling us that these are little enough for Jesus to pick multiples of them up into His arms.  OK, so how little?  Enough for Jesus to pick up a few of them.  The other thing, too, is notice that the children are not coming on their own.  They're being brought.

You guys got me?   I have a two-year old, and I have a five-year old.  We do this … You guys familiar with this right?  What would they call that?  Horsey ride.  So when my twelve-year old says, “Dad, can I get a horsey ride?”  Dad says no, because you're not a little child anymore.  People were bringing little children to him in order that He might do what?  That He might, He might touch them.  He might bless them.  All through the Gospel of Mark, notice that there are multiple occasions where Jesus's touch involves the bestowal of a blessing or a life.  In fact, just a couple chapters earlier, we saw Jesus touch a dead 12-year-old girl, and she came back to life, right?  In Jesus’s touch is a blessing.  So they're bringing their little kids out, right?  They're bringing their kids out in order that He might touch them, and the implication is a blessing which you'll see again in chapter verse 16, I think.

Let's imagine you are a disciple of Jesus.  All these crowds have been coming in, and Jesus keeps bringing in the wrong kind of people.  He keeps letting in tax collectors, ... and prostitutes, ... and people that you don't like, ... and people of the other political party that you don't like, ... and people who are opposite with you on your ideology.  Jesus keeps bringing these people in.  If you're a follower of Jesus, wouldn't that get old after a while?  You'd be like, “Let's get some people like me up in this house.”  The reason I'm leaning into this is … just notice what the disciples do.  What do the disciples do when people are bringing their little children to Jesus?  And what do the disciples do?  The disciples rebuked them.  These disciples are rebuking people bringing children to Jesus. Maybe we don't know that they didn't know.

Remember that every time we read the Bible, we are time-traveling tourists.  Not only are we going back to an ancient culture, but we're also going into a different part of the world.  We are time-traveling tourists, and one of the things that we need to recognize about this is that we need to see this in the context of the times.  Children were generally viewed as marginalized -- somebody else’s problem, unproductive eaters.  They don't produce anything for the general system.  They don't produce anything for society now.  The parents likely loved their children -- certainly they wanted more children – but, by and large, especially other people’s kids.  You know other people’s kids are always causing problems.  They're always influencing my kids, who would never do anything wrong.  It must be other people’s kids, right?  And maybe we do think about other people’s kids the same way anyways, right?  They're generally an annoyance.  They're there to be relegated to the margins.  They may be seen, but definitely not heard.  Right, other people’s kids.  It's not we don't know their name.  We don't want to spend time with them.  In those days, they were generally a marginalized group of people that nobody wanted to be with or hang out with.  They didn't have anything to contribute to society.  Maybe when they're older they would, but little children especially were not welcome.

So, is it normal that the disciples, at least in their cultural context, is it normal that the disciples rebuked them for trying to waste Jesus's time?  It's totally normal.  Have you guys ever watched the show “The West Wing?” I watched the show.  This show is a story of a fictional presidency.  And there's this character who kind of runs the front desk of the president, runs the president’s calendar, and she's kind of notorious for being stern.  In fact, if you wanted to get on the president’s calendar in this TV show, odds are you're just never going to.  That's just never going to happen.  Maybe you see him in the hallway or whatever.  Maybe you could put eyes on him, but they're not going to sit and talk with you.  If you wanted to get to the President, you had to go through the front desk.  This woman at the front desk, she would vet you.  Who are you?  What do you want to say?  How much time do you need?  What do you have to offer?  Do you have any power?  Do you have any influence?  Is seeing you going to impact votes?  Whatever it is, based on your power and influence, if you had a lot, you might get an audience with the president.

OK, so this is “The West Wing.”  And of course, this is fictional.  So every now and again somebody would be let in.  But let me just ask you this question:  In the kingdoms of this world, who gets into the palace? The elite. The powerful military generals. The wealthy.  Those who are on top.  Who, generally speaking, does not get into the palace?  The marginalized, the poor, those who are considered to be not contributing members.  The outsiders.  Here's another group of people that aren't going to be let into the palace -- anyone whose presence in the palace might defile or defame the king.  “We can't have you in here because if we let too many of your kind of folk in here, people might think less of me.”

Is this real?   Am I barking up the wrong tree?  Is this how the world works?  This the kingdoms of this world.  Yep.  Cool, great.  People were bringing little children to Jesus in order that He might touch them, but the disciples operated according to the kingdoms of this world.  One of the things we need to notice is this that the disciples continually heard Jesus talk about the Kingdom.  He they heard Jesus say, back into the Gospel of Mark chapter one, to repent and believe the Gospel ‘s message -- that all of us have sinned and gone our own way.  We're chasing our own path and Jesus says repent, which just means have a change of mind and direction, to turn from your sin.  Turn from yourself, repent and believe the gospel to turn towards God.  Now here was the good news that Jesus proclaimed.  He said, repent, turn because there's good news.  What's the good news?  Not say a prayer, so you go to heaven when you die.  Jesus says that the good news is that the Kingdom of God is here.

He seemed to be implying throughout the Gospel of Mark -- you should go home and read the whole thing -- today you're going to see it too, namely, that the Kingdom of God was centered like around Him.  It was like an orb that seemed to follow Him around everywhere He went.  He would say things like “You are near the Kingdom of God.”  It seemed to be that Jesus understood that He was the King who was retaking his territories.  The Kingdom of God was being ushered in.  That was Jesus's message.  But what the disciples continually heard was Kingdom of God, Kingdom of God.  And what they thought – hold on, hang on with me -- they heard Jesus talk about the Kingdom of God.   But they viewed it through the lens of the kingdoms of this world.

And I'll prove it to you.  In chapter 8, 9 and 10, there are three times that Jesus predicts his death, burial, and resurrection.  On all three occasions, one of the follow-up questions or associated questions that the disciples have for Jesus is this question:  Do we get to be in charge?  Can I sit at your right hand and my brother sit at your left hand?  Do we get the keys to the Kingdom?  Jesus, when are you going to establish the throne so we can be in charge?  They saw the Kingdom of God through the lens of the kingdoms of this world.  They saw children through the lens of the kingdoms of this world.  And if the Kingdom of God operates like the kingdoms of this world, you don't let little kids bother the King.  Is that how the kingdoms of this world work?

Notice what Jesus does next.  I want you to put yourself in this position, because if you're a follower of Jesus, and I know you've been here before, too.  There have been people in your world who you thought, “Not allowed.”  Do you want me to prove it to you?  Yeah, just for a moment, imagine a group of people that you dislike or hate -- even if we could use that word -- who are your enemies.  And if they became the majority of this congregation, would you leave?  “Not allowed.  We'll let one in, but if there are 30 of you 400 of you, I'm out.  I can't be associated with them.”  Do you think the disciples are very different than us, or are they very like us?  We do this.  First family, I love you but I'm gonna say it:  Do you think that, by and large, church families like ours in the broader culture are viewed as inclusive or exclusive?  OK, exclusive.  When Jesus saw it ,, He was …***

*** TV Time-out.  Do you know when you go to parties and everyone having a good time, the drinks are flowing, the music blasting, and you're having a great time.  And then someone says, “Hey everyone, it's time for Bible trivia.  And you turn to someone that you came with and say, “Now the party is about to start.”   OK, right?  Thank you OK, so I'm going to give you a heads up on a question #73 in Bible trivia.   How many times in the Bible, is Jesus referred to as feeling indignant?  Once.  Maybe the word “indignant” isn’t doing it for you.  How about full of a raging fury or anger? And notice, what did the disciples do?  They misunderstood the Kingdom of God for operating according to the principles of the kingdoms of this world.  That excluded the marginalized, right? ***

Now, don't you think Jesus would have been better off just saying, “You knuckleheads. You're always missing the mark.  Well, I guess they'll have to clean this up later.”  No.  What does Jesus do?  What did the disciples do?  They thought they were doing Jesus a favor by not letting in those people.  And what was Jesus's response?  He was not only mad.  He was very expressive, in a furious anger.  I just want to notice that.  I want to notice Jesus's response.  Now Jesus says to them, “Let the little children come to me.  Do not stop them.”

Now why doesn’t Jesus say, “Because I love them so much?”  Of course, He does.  He doesn't say, “Because you guys are idiots” – which, of course, is the type of behavior they were exhibiting.  What does He say?  Notice he's actually going to … OK, I want you to zoom in on Jesus here … He doesn't just say that's discourteous; He doesn't just say this is un-loving.  He says what?  Time out ***

*** What was the good news that Jesus kept proclaiming?  The Kingdom of God is here.  Turn from your sin and receive the Kingdom.  Receive the King.  Now in my mind, in the mind of a disciple, if I'm thinking, “Well, if I'm a good person, if I'm an upstanding citizen, if I'm in the right group, then I get to belong to the Kingdom of God.”  Is that how the Kingdom of God works?***

But Jesus is going to correct and confront their misunderstanding of the Kingdom.  What does Jesus do?  Jesus pushes it, using these children as an example. “Let the little children come to me.  Do not stop them." Why?  Because the Kingdom of God what?  Belongs to such as these.  Notice it’s “such as these.” It's not just little children.  It's the ones who don't belong.  Don't exclude, because it's the excluded to whom the Kingdom belongs.  Do you see it?

O.K., let's just kind of do this.  By and large, our tendency can be to put up fences around Jesus.  Or to put up fences around a Jesus community … for the sake of our comfort, … for the sake of our not wanting to be challenged, ... for the sake of our not having to live sacrificially and generously.  We put fences up and say, “You gotta behave like us before you get to belong to us.”

This is the natural tendency you see in the disciples.  You see it in the Book of Acts.  You'll see it throughout the Scripture, and Jesus obliterates the fence, doesn't he?  If you're a Jesus follower, … if you're not a Jesus follower and you're still trying to figure this out, I'm so glad you're here.  I'm so glad that you're getting to eavesdrop on this conversation.  Because I think you know this.  But for those of us that are Jesus followers, I need you to hear me on this:  Jesus does not need bodyguards.  He is not looking for lawyers.  He is looking for disciples to follow him in wisdom, love, grace and truth -- which will often put us as a Jesus follower in proximity with people who are nothing like us.  And that's just the way He likes it.  Probably not so that you can bless them, but so that they can bless you.

One of the things we say at Desert Springs frequently is that wherever you've been, wherever you're going, you're welcome here.  What gives us the capacity to say that is this text and many like it.  The other thing that we'll say is that we are just a bunch of misfits with nothing in common except for the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus Christ.  Why do we keep saying that?  Because Jesus keeps showing it to us that that's how He wants us to live as His disciples.  And let me tell you something.  When I'm in community with you, and you're different than me, I don't like that.  Do you?  Now you say, “Well, of course Caleb.  You don't like country music and you like the Cowboys -- and we all have a good laugh about that.”  Yeah, sure.

What about when your politics are different than mine?  What about your stances on things that I really care about deep in here?  What happens when they're different than mine?  “I don't want to do that.  I want a nice fence that says you've got to believe politically, you've got to believe ideology, you have to behave like me … My goodness!  You have to culturally exist like me.  You have to ethnically exist like me and just socially economically exist like me.  I just need my fence.”  Is that not the default structure of the human heart?  Because I'm better than everybody, so I just need people who are just like me.  But Jesus continues to obliterate the fence.  Notice when Jesus saw it, He said to them, “Let the little children come to me.  Do not stop them because the Kingdom of God what?  “...belongs to such these.”  And now we're gonna get to it.  The disciples were seeing the Kingdom of God through the lens of the kingdoms of this world, operating as if the value systems of the Kingdom of God are the same as the kingdoms of this world. and Jesus gets at them, doesn't he?  Like y'all keep talking about him flipping over tables, like that's a big deal.  Look, he's yelling at them -- in front of the children!  He's yelling at His disciples.  Screaming at them, “My Kingdom is not of this world.  Truly I tell you -- He pushes it, truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive …

*** Time out.  Remember that Jesus in the Gospel of Mark chapter one came proclaiming the good news of what?  Kingdom of God He said, repent, turn your mind and your heart, turn towards Me.  Repent and believe in the gospel.  Here's what the gospel is -- that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  The Kingdom of God is here.  It's the good news of the Kingdom.  How, then, should I receive the Kingdom?  “Well, Jesus, thank you for the invitation.  Of course, you have extended me an offer to be a part of your Kingdom because I am a big deal.”  What's that called?  Pride, hubris, arrogance?  Thinking of myself more highly than I ought to think. ***

Rather, “Whoever does not …" Notice whoever does not receive... Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God is like what?  I need you to zoom in on this for me.  What's the image you have in your mind?  Whoever does not receive the key like a little child will never enter it.  And then He gives us again some context, OK?  I want to be careful here.  Can we be here in a healthy family, OK?  How does a child receive their familial status?  To put it in another way, how does the child in a good family receive the love of the mother or father?  They have they have nothing to give.

I've had four kids, right?  If when they were babies, if Lori or I didn't dress them, they'd be naked.  If we didn't house them, they'd be out exposed to the elements.  If we didn't feed them, they would be dead.  How does a child receive?  The child is completely and utterly helpless.  The little child has absolutely nothing to give -- only to receive.  Are you guys hanging with me?

How, then, Jesus, do we receive the Kingdom of God?  As a little child.  And if you don't receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, you will never enter it, because what you think you're receiving is not the Kingdom of God.  If you think, -- “I get in with God because I'm a big deal and I'm all put together and I'm righteous.  And I'm awesome” -- then what you think you're receiving is not the Kingdom of God.  It's just another kingdom of this world that values people based on what they can produce, what they can do, how much they are like me.

But Jesus says, “That's not my Kingdom.  Let the little children -- let everybody -- come to me.”  So how do I, as a Jesus follower, get the power to do this?  I first have to remember as the old hymn says, Rock of Ages.  “Nothing in my hands I bring.  Simply to the cross I cling.  Naked I need thee for dress.  I need to be dressed.  Otherwise, I'm naked.  And in you I find my grace.  Nothing in my hands I bring.  But simply to the cross I cling.”

Watch Jesus.  He's going to illustrate for you what it looks like to receive the Kingdom of God.  Watch him after what?  How does a child receive the Kingdom?  They get scooped up by Jesus.  They don't march in.  They get scooped up by Jesus.  And He laid hands on them, and He blessed them.

Have you been scooped up by Jesus?  Has He scooped you up?  If the very foundation of our faith and relationship with your God is the fact that He scooped us up, how could we possibly put up a fence?  All we had to bring was what He scooped up.  So if Jesus chooses to scoop someone else up, let's welcome him into the family, instead of putting up a fence.  This this dynamic of the Kingdom of God, right?  Mary Healy, who's a brilliant theologian and scholar, says this:  To receive the Kingdom is as simple, trusting and humble, an action as receiving the embrace of Jesus.  To enter the Kingdom is nothing more than to enter into a relationship with Jesus.  To receive the Kingdom is to receive the embrace of Jesus that is the Kingdom.

One of the reasons why we really, really wanted to do this Chosen campaign with World Vision was because it truly does put this into practice.  We see the Kingdom dynamic all over this experience.  So the Chosen program, for those of you that maybe weren't able to be with us last week, is a way for us to share our resources.  For we have been given much, and much is expected, as we talked about last week.  To share our resources generously with others who are in this current position right now, lacking some of those foundational resources like clean water, food, education, infrastructure.  It's a way for us to share, right?

I refuse to use the word charity, generally, because the term elevates me.  But we're going to share with our brothers and sisters in equity, right?  Recognizing that I'm not up and they're down, but rather we're equal.  And whose are these resources but the Lord’s, anyway?   So it's a way for us to share.  But here's the beautiful thing about the Chosen program.  In the Chosen program, the power to choose is given to the child.  The power to make a decision is given to the child, which is a Kingdom value.  Just notice what Jesus said that the Kingdom belongs to such as these.  And so it's one way for us.  We're partnered with five churches in North Phoenix that have partnered together to kind of take on this project with children and families in Shashego, Ethiopia.  And just to kind of catch us up to speed, I wanted to show you a quick video and then I'll show you some pictures from the party.  So take a look at this video.

(Video text) “You allowed love and light to invade the darkness, and heaven came to earth.  Sponsorship is such a beautiful program, but it has always been in the hands of the sponsor.  The decision and the choice have always been in the sponsor choosing the child.  We said no, we're going to put the choice into the hands of a child.  This is what the Gospel looks like when you put the notion of choice into the hands of a child.  You live out the power of the Gospel of God as you put the empowerment and the choice into the hands of a child.  I can never forget those beautiful eyes going over right and left, looking for people they wanted as their friend.  Chosen is truly an amazing ministry, coming not as the one who's going to save them, but one who's going to learn from them and just serve them.  And my prayer is that your heart is stirred by God today to step into a relationship with a child, and that relationship changes everything.”

(Caleb again) So in this partnership with World Vision, we're partnered, as I said, with five churches here in North Phoenix with a community called Shashego, Ethiopia.  I believe as of earlier as of earlier this week, there were 87 from Desert Springs and then close to 300 from the five churches collectively.  I just want you to think about this.  They're gonna get fresh water, clean water for the rest of their lives.  They’re gonna get food, they're gonna get education.  There's gonna be infrastructure in Shashego because of your generosity and the generosity of the other churches here in North Phoenix.  It's a way for us to put into practice this reality that when we turn to Jesus, all of us are equal, and He scoops all of us up.

And what can we do, but to live generously and with grace and love?  For those of you who signed up in the room, I'm going to give you guys just some quick instructions, and then we're going to go and discover who chose us.  But if you signed up in the room last week in just a few minutes, we're going to dismiss, and you'll head out to the lobby.  They're hanging up on the left side.  There you'll find your name.  You'll have a picture of the child who chose you and their name, as well. And then there'll be another card with instructions on how to log in.

They all wrote cards.  In fact, I wanted to show you pictures from the party.  Sorry, I got ahead of myself with the instructions.  Pause.  Check out these pictures.  OK, let's put them up on the screen.  So this is the event in Shashego.  You could see that the children are kind of in a waiting area.  They're waiting to make their choice.  We could see the next one here.  This is what the room looks like, so those are pictures.  That's us, North Phoenix.  I think we take a look at the next when the kids come in and, one by one, they have a time and opportunity to make their choice.  And I want you just to remember that for many of these children, they don't even get to decide what to eat or where to stay.  So the power of choice is a powerful one.  Once they chose the picture, then they took pictures, which are the pictures you're going to get today.  And then they actually wrote a letter, talking about why they chose you and what their prayers and hopes are.  So in your packet today, if you're in the room, you'll pick up your pack.  Your picture will be in there as well as a card to log in on World Vision website to take a look at the digital copy of that letter.  For those of you who are joining us online, you should have received in the email address that you signed up with.  You should have received information on Next Steps on how to get your picture and your copy of the letter that was written to you.

Please, all of you, know that this is not just an investment for this month, but this is truly an investment in a partnership that will go on for years.  Your investment will dramatically impact this community in Shashego.

Now I know that for some of us we're asking, “Hey, I wasn't here last week.  I didn't get a chance last week.  Is there's still an opportunity for me to sign up and get on board with this project?”  Yes, there is still time.  So here's how this is working.  We're partnered with World Vision.  They've got it all set up over there in Shashego, but they have to move on to the next phase of our project.  So you've got till 7:00 o'clock tonight.  They will do the process for you.  They're going to give you some specific instructions, because it's going to work just slightly differently.  You can text DSBC online to this number, and you can do that right now.  Then they'll they will send you instructions, and that will allow you to get on board with this project that we're doing.

With five churches there in Shashego, you're always able to sign up with World Vision after this opportunity.  We'd encourage you guys to do that.  I know many of you have sponsored at World Vision for years.  But if you want to get on board with this project, you gotta do it before 7:00 tonight. If you want to, if you go tomorrow, whenever, there'll be other projects that I would highly encourage you to take advantage of.  So again, you could text DSBC online to that number.  That goes for those of you online, as well as those of you all in the room.  "For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Let's pray.  Lord, we love You.  And we know that we come before You with nothing to give, … that You are our King, ... You're our Lord God, … that you are a good and loving Father.  And we just we receive that as a child receives.  So, Lord, we ask by the power of Your spirit that You would continue to mold us and shape us more and more into Your image, that we as a church family would not be about being bodyguards or putting up fences, but rather, Jesus, like You, we would we say, “Let everybody come and meet Jesus and be a part of the Jesus community.”  Lord, we want that.  But we also know it's very difficult, and so we entrust ourselves to You, knowing that You are good and loving and powerful, to produce within us the fruit of Your spirit.  And so we rely on You to guide us, to direct us, to empower us moment by moment.  Jesus, we ask these things, knowing that You love us and You're powerful to bring them about.  And so we entrust ourselves to You.  In your name we pray.   Amen, Amen.

All right, hit up the lobby.  We'll see you guys next week.  ###

Good morning, church family.  My name is Caleb and I serve as one of the pastors here.  Whether you're joining us online or in person, I'm so glad to be with you today.  We're going to continue on in a study in the Gospel of Mark.  We will be in Mark chapter 6 today.  If you were joining us in person, you should have that available.  I think you guys get a handout with that on there, so the text we're going to be reading is there in the handout.  For those of you joining us online, if you have a print Bible, I encourage you to grab one.  Again, we'll be in Mark chapter six.  If you don't have a print Bible, no problem.  Just go to bible.com.  If you’re here in person and don’t have a Bible, there are some free Bibles available.

Before we get started, I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine.  Allison, would you join me up here?  Allison is going to share with us a little bit about a really cool ministry that she is part of.  Allison, welcome.  Would you tell us a little bit about who you are and how you came to Desert Springs.

“I am Alison Lefever and I found Desert Springs because two of my four kids have gone to preschool here, and now we go to church here.  We love it.”

(Back to Caleb.) And you are a part of a ministry, spomethingsoworthit.  Would you tell us what the ministry is?

“Yeah, so my husband and I started something about three years ago in honor of two of our sons, who have spina bifida.  It's a non-profit organization, and we help children with disabilities and their families and caregivers.  We do that from the point of diagnosis, which is often when a mother Is pregnant learning that her child may live with a disability.  We can relate to what that feels like through hardship, which is often hospital stays and beyond when families lose a child.”

(Caleb speaking) And so this ministry is just a few years old -- yeah, three years.  We just had a large event on our campus here just a few weeks ago.   I'm sure some of you were there.

(Allison speaking)   “It was our second annual event here at Desert Springs, and I kind of describe it as a kids craft fair open market.  All of the vendors were children.  We invite kids of all abilities, so about half have disabilities and half don't, because we really want to encourage kids coming together in a positive way.  All of the kids made their own products and sold them to the community and got to keep all their own money and really be featured in a positive way for their strengths and capabilities.  Of course, it was really family-friendly with food trucks and musicians and mini horses.  It is my favorite day of the year.”

(Caleb speaking) That's awesome, so we're going to be looking forward to that for next year.  In the meantime, what do you have?

(Allison speaking) “We have a lot of great programs.  You can go to our website somethingsoworthit.org, or we're on Instagram and Facebook.  We have monthly roundtable dinners for parents of special needs children.  It's a free dinner, and we usually have topics like diagnosis, hospital stay -- or it's a place where families can learn from one another, focus on their mental health and sort of speak a language that nobody else speaks.  We also just are kicking off our first respite retreat for special needs moms.  It's an all-inclusive paid trip for moms to actually have a chance to recharge, which is very rare for them. And then our big event coming up on March 6th, just in a few weeks, is our annual fundraiser called the Great Arizona Lemonade Stand.  Basically, we have stands all across the Valley.  Our goal is to have 50 plus lemonade stands and it's a way for any of us to get involved in charity from the comfort of our home and get our kids and family and neighbors involved.  We bring everything to you that you need for the lemonade stand, which includes the lemonade, the signage, etc.  Really all you need to have is a table and some water to mix the lemonade and a positive attitude.  All of those donations and proceeds go to our charity.  It's so much fun.  There's also all that information on the website, and then if you wanted to level up your stand, we have fun ideas about that.  I like to blast The Beach Boys from mine.”

(Caleb speaking) That's awesome.  So that's March 6

th

.  After church people will hit it up on the way home.  There are over 50 locations around, and if we want to host what's the website again?

(Allison speaking.  “Somethingsoworthit.org.  We still need people to sign up for lemonade stands.  Or if you click on our site you can find the nearest you.  It will have an interactive map with all the stands across the Valley.  Click on it and it'll give you directions.  So after church you can swing on by and have lemonade.”

Caleb speaking) That's awesome.  Well thank you so much.  Can we say thank you to Allison?  Thanks for sharing with us.  And as I am often known to do, I just want to let you know that our family is going to be hosting a lemonade stand.  I just want you to know -- Alison didn't mention this, she doesn't even know this -- but there will be a ranking of who has the best lemonade stands.  She won't do it ‘cause she's a kind, courteous person.  I will be ranking and I just want you to know the Campbell household will be number one.  We've already got it on lock, so just set your expectations appropriately for the decorations for your lemonade stand, 'cause the Campbells are going to crush it this year.

All right.  What we're going to do now is we're going to go through Mark Chapter 6.  What we've been doing during this series is we've been starting our time together with the Word and just listening to the Word.  We know that the Scriptures were, by and large, artistically designed to be engaged primarily with our ears before our eyes.  I love reading the Bible and encourage you guys you to do so.  I think you should read the Bible a lot.  But we also want to connect ourselves to this ancient tradition of hearing the Word, and so what I encourage you to do is to just listen.  If closing your eyes is helpful, you can do that.

For those who joined us online, I know it is kind of weird with the screen and everything, but we'll get through this together.  I just encourage you to allow your imagination to see as you hear the words.  Just be attentive to what God might be speaking to you, or even revealing to you as you hear this Word.  And I do want to give a little “heads up.”  This particular section of Scripture is really, really difficult.  I don't mean complicated, difficult.  I mean, it's just difficult to hear, and I think that you'll see why here in a minute.  I'm going to try to do this as pastorally as I can, but I would encourage you, even though it's going to be difficult to hear, would you just allow yourself to receive the Word and then just be attentive to what the Spirit of God is doing?   So this is Mark chapter 6.

Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished.

‘Where did this man get these things?’ they said.  ‘What is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His own hands? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Josas and Judas and Simon?  Are not his sisters here with us?’ And so they took offense at Him.   

Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet Is not without honor except in his hometown among his relatives and in his household.’

He was not able to do a miracle there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick and healed them.  And He was amazed at their unbelief.  He was going around the villages teaching.  Then He summoned the 12 and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits.  He instructed them to take nothing for the road except for a staff.  No bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.

And He said to them, ‘Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place.  If any place does not welcome you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.’ And so they went out and preached that people should repent.  They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. 

King Herod heard about it because Jesus's name had become well known.   And people were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said, ‘He is Elijah.’  Still others said He was a prophet like one of the prophets from long ago.  

When Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, the one I beheaded, has been raised!’  For Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife, because he had married her.  

John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife’.  So Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him.  But she could not because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man.  When Herod heard him, he would be very perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him. 

An oppportune time came on his birthday when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee.   And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests.  The King said to the girl, ‘Ask me whatever you want and I'll give it to you.’  He promised her with an oath. ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half my Kingdom.’

She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’  John the Baptist’s head, she replied.  At once, she hurried to the king and said, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter immediately.’ Although the king was deeply distressed because of his oath and the guests, he did not want to refuse her. 

The king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John the Baptist’s head.  So that he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl.  Then the girl gave it to her mother.  When the disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.”  

This is the word of the Lord.

So we have a very, very difficult portion of Scripture to navigate through.  What I'd like to do now is just kind of go through kind of line by line and just notice some things and see if we can discern why it is that we've got this, frankly, really disturbing teaching and also a really interesting structure. I don't know if you guys heard the structure.  But we went quite quickly from Jesus being denied in his hometown to Jesus sending out his disciples and then quite quickly we're kind of on a time machine all the way back to a scene where John is beheaded.

One of the things I didn't read that we'll pick up in a later sermon is that immediately following this, Jesus’s disciples come back.  So that John the Baptist story is sandwiched in this little space between where Jesus sends his disciples -- then this kind of bizarre scene of John the Baptist --- and then the disciples come back.  So why is this preserved for us?  Today, so let's see if we can tease out something.

First, just notice where Jesus was.  Immediately before this, if you guys were with us last week, you remember in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 5 that Jesus had healed the woman with the flow of blood.  He had healed the dude who had a legion of demons.  He had healed Jairus’s 12-year old daughter.  And immediately after that, it picks it up here that he left where the daughter was and he came to his hometown.  And his disciples did what?  They followed him.

What does a disciple? do  Do they follow, right?  So just the most basic understanding of what a disciple is that it is someone who what follows Jesus, right?  So Jesus is going back to his hometown, and they follow him.  When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.

“Where did this man get these things?  What is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His hands?”   Now I just want to notice -- where is Jesus?  He went back to his hometown.  OK, so He's back home.  I want you to get in your minds that Jesus is going back home, right?  He sees all of his homies from high school, right?  He remembers the Tasty Freeze, right?

So Jesus is going back home to his small town and He starts teaching in the synagogue.  OK, so kind of like teaching in a church, although it is different.  There are a lot of nuances to it, but kind of like the same thing and He's teaching.

What's His hometown’s response?  What is this wisdom that has been given to Him?  And how are these miracles performed by His hands?  They are astonished.  They're shocked to see Jesus, the dude they knew growing up.  They're kind of shocked, right?

*** TV time out ***

Oh my goodness, are you guys ready to gasp in in horror?  Get yourselves ready and here's why.  I just want to catch you up to speed on my culture.  Right, you refer to someone by usually two, sometimes three, names.  Two names, like Caleb Campbell.  Three names if you're my mom and you're mad at me, right?  “Caleb Eugene Campbell!”  With an emphasis on the middle to signify a severe beatdown that's coming my way.

But in the old in the ancient mind, it wasn't that way.  You would often refer to somebody by their given name, right?  Like Jesus.  And then you would say like their dad's name like Caleb, the son of Stephen.  Especially if you were in your hometown because there might be a few Caleb's kicking around and well, which Caleb is it you say?  Well, it's Caleb, the son of Stephen.  Almost always, even in in the majority of cultures you refer to the child or the person by their dad's name.  It would have been that way in Jesus’s time – Jesus, the son of Stephen …. In fact, it might have even been offensive to refer to someone by their mom's name.  Now, do you guys remember Christmas?  There's this thing in the Christmas story where when you notice the detail that Mary is not yet married to Joseph when she gets pregnant.  Now in a small town -- could you imagine that?  By the way, the Scripture says that she was she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Do you think everyone in her hometown thought, “Cool.  That's definitely what happened.”  No.

OK, if you'll pardon my French -- earmuffs time -- but this is in the King James and I'm going to use it technically ,and so just deal with it.  They're calling Jesus a bastard.  Right?  Because they're resisting Him.

“Who is this Jesus guy here?, Jesus?  We saw you playing with the cat, growing up.  You can't be bringing this teaching.  Aren't you the son of?  They don't say Joseph 'cause they remember.  It was just a few years ago for them.  “And don't you have brothers -- James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon.  And aren't his sisters here with us?”

Notice Jesus has not yet on record in his hometown done anything really offensive, right?  What was he doing?  He was teaching the Word of God at church and was healing people.  He was casting out demons.  And they are shocked and offended, right?  Just notice it, right?  They are offended.  Another way to translate the word in in Greek would be that they stumbled over him.  He was a stumbling block or a stumbling rock. They stumble.  They just could not see it.

I just want to notice that not everyone who meets Jesus wants to follow Jesus.  I just you guys are catching that so far.  Not everybody who is introduced to Jesus wants to follow Jesus.   In fact, they're offended by Him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet  …***  OK, time out.

Whenever you get a chance to read your whole Bible, one of the things that you'll notice -- if you read your whole Bible and you read it from Genesis all the way to Revelation I -- is that there is this kind of this figure, or this office or this posture of a prophet.  Now, what does a prophet do?

A prophet by and large will speak the truth of God to people.   Usually what the prophet will do is to tell the future.  They're usually saying things like “If you don't turn from your own way and turn back to God, you're all going to die” Or “You're gonna get crushed.“   “The enemies are gonna come take us over.”  It's usually that type of language.

But the primary call is the call to repentance, and a lot of us we recoil at that word.  Jesus is calling us to repentance because He wants a relationship with us.  If you go to anybody and you say “Hey, would you rather spend your eternity burning and an eternal flame or not?”  What does everybody pick?  NOT. That doesn't mean I want to follow Jesus.   Jesus doesn't posture his call to repentance in that way.  The prophets would say, "Turn back to your Father.”  Or “Turn back to get it right.  Turn back, prodigal son, because your Father, who is in heaven, wants a relationship with you.  And if you don't do that, it will lead to your destruction.”  But the primary emphasis is on the Father wants you to turn to Him.

OK, so repentance is an over-spiritualized word in our cultural context.  Here's what repentance means.  It means I'm going this way in my mind and in my actions, and repentance is turning the right way.  It's changing my mind, changing my behavior.  It's kind of an all-at-once thing.  I'm turning back to God.  “I'm going to turn to God.”  That's repentance.

Yeah, so we're going to see that what the prophets would do is they would come in and usually -- notice this when you read through your whole Bible.  Just notice who the prophets primarily are speaking to.  They are primarily speaking to the affluent and the powerful.  Rarely, if ever, do the prophets target the poor and disenfranchised.  In fact, they're usually calling out the powerful because those are the people taking advantage of the poor and the disenfranchised.  This is going to matter -- just hang with me.  I promise this is going to really matter.  Just wait.

OK, here we go.  So the prophets would proclaim to kings, right?  Kings who would be going their own way or leading the people on their own way.  Their prophets would come in, and they would say, “King or kings or affluent or powerful, turn now.”  How do you think that message was generally received?  If you were to go to powerful people and say “What you're doing is anti-God or ungodly.  Stop and believe the gospel.  Repent and believe the gospel.”  And you kept saying it, what would end up happening to you, most likely?  You would be removed.  Someone would use their power to shut you up.   OK, this is going to matter.  Just hold just hold.  Follow me, OK?

Jesus is where?  This hometown, right?  He hasn't really done any prophetic work yet, at least on record in his hometown, but they're still there.  He gave them a little bit, and they're offended.   Notice Jesus’s title for Himself.   He refers to himself, he tethers himself to the prophets.  He is not without honor except in his hometown among His relatives and in His household.  He was -- now this is crazy and I'm not going to resolve the tension for us -- He was not able to do a miracle there except that He laid His hands,  … except that he did a miracle there,  … except that He healed a few sick people and healed them.  In preparing for this, I've engaged with a lot of different commentators, and none of their answers really made me feel like it was an answer, and my tension was resolved.

So I'm going to pass on to you my own tension.  I'm not going to solve it.  I'm not going to resolve it.  I just want to notice that somehow Mark, in his mind, understands that Jesus is not able to do a miracle there -- or a lot of miracles -- there because of their resistance or the absence of faith.  Perhaps it may be that Mark understands this to be a domain in which the Kingdom of darkness has a strong hold.

It may be. I just want to notice it.  You can't get away from the fact it's right there.  And how does that all work together?  I'm not sure, because that's so striking.  Now I want to meet Mark one day and ask him.  “You said here he couldn't do a miracle.  Then you said he did miracles.  What?  Why?  Help me!!”   But when that happens, I'll probably be dead, so I don't have any help for us today.  If I get a time machine, though, I'll come back and tell you.

Notice Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.  These are his people.  These are his own.  These are his homies.  These are His crew.  And their unbelief is so great that Mark seems to think that He's not able to do a miracle there. Not everyone who knows Jesus wants to follow Jesus.  Not everyone who meets Jesus wants Jesus.

OK, let's keep going.  Are you guys encouraged yet?  Let's keep going.  Notice we change up the pace.  Then he summons the 12 and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits.  Notice what Jesus does.  What has Jesus just experienced in his hometown?  Rejection and resistance, right?  They're just not believing him.  And now what does he do?  He sends his disciples out.

If you're one of Jesus disciples and you just got done with that little episode, and Jesus says, “OK, you guys.  Go out.”   And they think, “Can we have an encouraging moment, Jesus?  Can we get a win in our column, please, before you send us out?”  Notice He sends them out two by two.  Mona Hooker, who's a great theologian and New Testament scholar, points out that in that society you needed to have at least two witnesses for the claim to be valid in any sort of like legal setting.  So He's sending them out two by two likely so that they have two witnesses.  He sends them out in pairs.

OK, for those of you guys who've been following along, what you can tell?  At this point in the story, are these people ready? Are they qualified to go out and basically do what Jesus has been doing?  Notice that He gives then authority over unclean spirits.  He says go out and preach.  Go and proclaim the good news of the gospel.  Go heal people.  Go cast out demons.  And they're thinking, ”We can't even plan our own lunch.”

For those of us who have a sense that the Spirit of God is guiding us to minister in a certain way or to lead in a certain way -- but maybe we're feeling a little bit reticent, we're feeling a little bit like “I don't know if I'm ready yet” -- I'm going to tell you the truth as your pastor.  You absolutely are not ready.   But ready ain't on the list of qualifications.   What's on the list?  This already came from Jesus. So if you feel like Jesus is leading you to do the thing, go for it.

And let me just tell you how life works.  I get this question.  My teammates will ask me, “How do you know you're ready for the sermon today?”  I answer like this, “I'll be ready when it's over.”   When my wife was pregnant with our first child, Michaela, people would ask me “Are you ready to have a kid?” And I I would respond with, “I think I'll be ready when they leave the house.  Because, at least in my life -- especially following Jesus -- I never feel ready.  Do you?

In fact, I want to push a little bit here and say usually it's in those moments where I feel ready, pride and the lack of humility start to creep in.  I actually do more damage 'cause I'm going by my own strength.

I think that the Lord wants us to step out and minister and lead and serve -- not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God.  So follow Jesus into that space.  Don't wait for a certificate.  He instructed them to take nothing for the road except for a staff.  This does not mean employees.  It means a walking staff.  OK, no bread -- which really puts teeth into the prayer that he teaches them, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  No traveling bag, no money in their belts, no money.  But to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.  Not even an extra shirt.

What do these disciples have to give?  “The good news that the Kingdom of God is here.”  They have nothing to give.  They can't even give someone a ride or a handout.  Right, someone comes up and, says, I'm poor, give me some money.  I have nothing to give to you.  In fact, Peter actually says this in the Book of Acts.  I got nothing, no silver and gold.  But what I do have is the Ministry of the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Would you say yes to this?  This is the worst marketing campaign I've ever seen in my whole life, right?  Here's our 2022 Vision campaign.  Don't take anything with you, except for a staff.  (Pledge cards, everyone?)

He said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place.  If any place does not welcome you or listen to you when you leave there … and now, here's this thing, here's this little idiom … shake the dust off your feet.  It's an act.  He defines it here as a testimony against them. This is very prophetic.  This is how the prophets would work.  Notice Jesus refers to Himself as a prophet.  Then He sends out His followers to go proclaiming the good news, and then He says if people won't have you ...

Has this ever happened before in Jesus's lifetime?  Where he goes into a town and people won’t have Him and he can't even do a miracle there?  Jesus is assuming that what happened to Him will happen to His followers.  So if you're getting resistance is a Jesus follower or being faithful to Him, I just want to encourage you, that's totally normal.  It happened to Jesus.  It'll happen to His followers.

So they went out and preached that people should what?   Turn.” And is that a popular message -- especially for those whose lives were made quite easy by continuing to pursue our own way?

Frederick Douglass said this: “Men do not love those who remind them of their sins unless they have a mind to repent.”  When you call people to repentance, when you when you speak truth to power, when you when you proclaim to somebody -- “This is not right.  This is an anti-God.  This is not the way of the Kingdom of God.  Turn from that and turn towards Jesus.”  That is met only with resistance unless the Spirit is doing a work of repentance in their hearts.

So they went out and preached that people should repent.  They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil, and healed them.  Notice this that they not only proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, but they live it.  This this idea that we're to segregate the proclamation from the living of the good news of the Gospel itself is foreign to the Gospel of Mark.  There is no such command in your Scripture that says just preach the gospel.   It's always the proclamation and the life.  Because the gospel is that the Kingdom is here. So I'm gonna live it now, baby.  Don't you want to do? that too?  Let's go.  Here we go.

Ah, we're introduced to a new character.  One of the things that we know historically is that Herod was not actually a king, he was a tetrarch, which means that he was like an underling in the Roman hierarchy.  In fact, one of the things that we know through history is that Herod actually was kicked out.  He was removed from his position because he kept petitioning his authorities to call him king.  This happened before Mark wrote his gospel.  I think that Mark is making fun of Herod by saying King” Herod.  And if you think that's beyond the biblical authors, read your Bible all the way through today.  You'll find it all over the place.

King Herod heard about Jesus because His name had become well known.  Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.  We haven't heard from John the Baptist since chapter one.  And he's evidently dead.  Did you know that?  Others said he is Elijah, which was an old guess.  What Elijah was … he was like the like prophet like par excellence, the most prophetty-prophet, OK?  Elijah was like the most prophet prophet, OK.  Still others said he's like one of the prophets from long ago, by the way.  Do you know what usually happened to the prophets?  They would come in and they would proclaim, they would speak, calling people to repentance.  And a bunch of people wouldn't like that.  So guess what they would do?

You think the prophets lived a long time -- at least, from the part of when their message started?  They got beat up, run out of town, killed.  That's the job of a prophet.  When Herod heard of it, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised.  That's interesting.”

OK, now what we're going to do something interesting.  Mary Healy, who's a New Testament scholar, she notices something, and I'm in agreement.  This is the longest portion of Mark's Gospel that isn't directly about Jesus.  You're now going to get a very lengthy, excursion, at least from the perspective of Mark, on the beheading of John the Baptist.

This is the longest portion in Mark’s gospel that's not about Jesus.  Or is it?  Watch this now.  You guys have heard of Good Friday and Easter.  OK, I want you to get that in your space, right?  Kind of get that in your brain.

Remember that Jesus was betrayed into the hands of not only religious leaders, but also the Roman government.  There was this dude named Pilate who didn't really want to kill Jesus.  But because of the pressure of those in the community, he actually had Jesus executed because -- let's just have that in our minds right now as we watch this -- because this is the longest portion of the Gospel of Mark that's not about Jesus.  But it might be about Jesus.

When Herod heard of it, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised.”  For Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife. What did Herod do?  He married Herodias, who used to be married to whom?  His brother Philip.  And from what I could tell Philip was still alive.  This isn't a widow situation.  In fact, could it be possible that a person who has kingly power might just take someone for their own self.  This has hints of David and Bathsheba, maybe.   OK, he just takes Herodias for himself.

John the Baptist had been telling Herod what?   Remember he was like the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, like a prophet.  Notice, notice, notice, notice.  Remember what Jesus called his own self?  Prophet.  OK, John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.”  What was the message that John was giving to Herod?  “Repent.”

Why was John the Baptist in Herod’s face?  It may be because John recognized that when the leadership is corrupt it propagates corruption across the entire community.  So it's interesting just to notice that John the Baptist gets directly into her face, and as though Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to cancel him.  This is where cancel culture started. She wanted to kill John.  She didn't like what he said, so she's holding a grudge and she wants to do what?

For those who were here the last couple weeks, you’ll remember there was this scene where Jesus was healing, casting out demons and then The Herodians and the Pharisees started plotting together to do what to Jesus because they did not like what?  This might be about Jesus.  This might be a foreshadowing.

What's happening in John has also happened to Jesus so far, but she could not because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man.  When Herod heard him, he would be very perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him an opportune time.  Opportune for whom?  An opportune time came on his birthday when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee who were at the table.  All powerful people, right? And, by the way, they're all made wealthy based on Herod's corruption.

So like the message of “Repent, Herod, repent and believe the good news of Jesus” would likely have not gone well with almost anyone at this gathering.  It's also interesting to as you read through the gospels.  The poor and the marginalized almost always get it.  And the wealthy and powerful almost always. almost always, not always, but almost always can't even see it's.  It's actually quite rare in the Gospels for that to happen, and here you've got all the power, right?

By the way, this is … OK, I'm a pastor so that the word is not godly.  I'm going to read it out loud.  I'm not gonna make a lot of commentary.  Don't use your imagination.  Let's just notice that this is not good.  When Herodias’s own daughter came in and danced -- this is not ballet. If you made a movie of the Bible, it would be rated R.  I just want to be very clear.   She pleased Herod, and this section is not in my children’s Bible.  OK, she pleased Herod and his guests.  The King said to the girl -- so she's obviously done something to get this king to say these words -- “Ask me whatever you want, and I'll give it to you.”

Thank you, this is shocking.  He promised her with an oath.  Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to what?  Half my … what is on offer here?  This is like one of those enormous Publishers Clearing House blank checks.  Yeah, anything up to half my Kingdom. Notice the bitter irony.  So she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”

“John the Baptist head’s,” her mother said..   “Not like a boat?  We could use a boat, mom.”

Right, you want … He's already in prison, you know.  He’s already in chains, and yet you want his head cut off.  All right, cool.  What's interesting to me is the daughter is cool and she at once hurried to the king and even doubles down on the cruelty -- I want you to give me, John the Baptist’s on a platter, immediately.  Right, the cruelty just expanded.

Although the king was deeply distressed, because of his oath and the guests, he did not want to refuse her.  So the king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John’s head.  Notice that the king is afraid of a desert-dwelling, locust-eating prophet with no army nor dollar to his name.  Yeah, the word of God, it's powerful. So the executioner went and beheaded John in prison, brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl.  Then the girl gave it to her mother.  Merry Christmas. When John's disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.  John doesn't come out of a tomb.   Jesus does.  That's the big difference.  But here's where I want to zoom in just for just for a brief moment, and then we'll conclude.

Notice that this scene of John's beheading immediately or quite quickly follows the rejection that Jesus experienced among his own people in Nazareth.  And it's sandwiched in between the sending out of His disciples and the return of His disciples in verse 30, I think.  You guys can double check.

Right, so the sending out -- then there's this pause and you get the big, long John the Baptist section -- and then you're back to the disciples coming back and reporting everything to Jesus.  Why would Mark sandwich this violent story in between the sending out and the return of the disciples?  Here's my current thinking.  I'd encourage you, 'cause I think this is the portion of Scripture, I think is communicating this truth:  Oftentimes following Jesus and being obedient to Jesus will be met with resistance.  Speaking Jesus, the truth of God – there are those who don't want to hear it.  Especially those who have the levers of power will often meet you with resistance and sometimes even violence.

So when that day comes when the family rejects you like Jesus, right when the king orders your execution like John, when power pushes against what you're doing, I just want to encourage you.  Don't recognize that as a failure of following Jesus. Notice that Jesus sends His disciples out and then you get this this really gory, violent, horrible story of what may happen to us if we follow Jesus.  Because we're following Him into the dark, broken and messed up spaces of the world.

So that resistance that you may be feeling as you're trying to follow after Jesus … that may be completely normal, and here's why.  It happened to Jesus.  It happened to John.  It's going to happen later in the text to His disciples.  And if we're to be a disciple of Jesus, I don't think it's a question of if the resistance is going to come.  I think the question is how and when. 

Here's the good news.  Do you remember the authority?  Remember, we talked about the ready game.  Are we ready for this?  Are you guys ready for this?  Are you guys ready for Herod?  Are you ready for the people of Nazareth to deny you?  Are you ready for that?  No, you won't be.  But ready isn't in the qualifications.  What is? Remember that Jesus gave them authority.  And for every follower of Jesus, the Spirit of the Living God dwells within us.  And day by day, and moment by moment, as we follow after Jesus when that resistance comes, His spirit empowers us to continue.

And here's the gem.  Though the narrative ends with a tomb in Chapter 6, the book ends with a resurrection -- which means that no matter what resistance may come our way -- even if it be death --death does not have the final say, for the Kingdom of Life is here.

Let me pray for us. Lord, we love You.  We give You thanks.  Would You help us, by the power of Your Spirit, to walk this way as we face Herod and even our own townspeople, even our own families?  Lord, would You instill within us Your Grace and Your mercy, that we might be a people of grace and mercy?  Also, conviction and truth -- that we would not be working by our own might and power, but by the Spirit of the Living God.  So we submit ourselves to you, knowing that you love us and you're powerful to bring these things about, Jesus.  In your name we pray, amen.

Love you guys.  We'll see you next time. ###

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.  If you're interested in donating and helping to get these kids to drop their jerrycans and go to school, you can either talk to one of the team members individually, go out in the lobby afterwards.    We also have a link on our DSBC website under events.  Every $50 will give a lifetime of life-changing clean water for one person, so it is so impactful. World Vision is the largest non-governmental organization providing water throughout the whole world.   It makes a huge difference in people’s lives.  In a lot of these African villages, the closest water source is three miles away -- a dirty river.   Everyday people are carrying these Jerry cans or whatever they can carry.  The little kids can't carry a Jerry can, so they're carrying whatever they can find to go down to a dirty river.  And they have to drink it. There's no other option.  There's no other water source. But then the Kingdom of God shows up.  It arrives in the middle of the despair and darkness and just radically transforms these villages.  World Vision shows up.  It's a Christian humanitarian organization and says, ”We can build a well and pipelines right in the middle of the village.  We can make it so that your children no longer have to walk hours for water.  We can make it so that your people no longer have to drink dirty, disease-infested water.  We can make it so that your people can drink life-changing clean water. It's an expression of the Kingdom of God.   You know that everything we do at DSBC it comes down to our mission of transforming people to have an impact in their world for Christ.  It is just such a such a beautiful expression of God's Kingdom, and I just want to invite you guys, all of you guys to be a part of what we're doing.  The goal is to raise $40,000.  I checked this morning and we're just under $16000.   If you all want to get on board with this and sponsor these runners, you can check in with one of our runners if you're in the room.  There’s also a link for those of you who are online.   We'd love to have you guys participate.” (Back to Caleb.)  This is awesome.  This is one of many expressions of bearing fruit, right?  What we're going to do now is we're going to kind of skip over a couple of the other parables, primarily because of time.  They are amazing and I would love to frustrate you even further by reading them out loud.  But what I'd like to do is get us to verse 30.  Yeah, the parable of the mustard seed. We've been talking about the mystery of what?  The mystery of the Kingdom of God, right?  The Word of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is saying things in parables to describe the Kingdom of God.  Notice in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus never comes out and says, this is exactly what the Kingdom of God is.  He speaks in parables. With what can we compare the Kingdom of God?  I love that question.   Or what parable can we use to describe it?   “I don't know, you tell us.”  Once you get to that space, you're listening to Jesus. You're asking, “Jesus, talk to us about the Kingdom of God.  What's the mystery of the Kingdom of God?  Tell us more please about the Kingdom that you've been proclaiming good news about.  What are we talking about?  Kingdom what?” You’ve heard of these before.   What would be like an empire you've heard of before -- the British Empire?  Anybody else?  Rome?  Babylon, Persia – right, empires.  And when you think of empires, do you think of things that are weak and small, or do you think about things that are big and mighty? What are some of the animals that they use to represent empires?  If you’ve been to Washington DC, you'll see these animals.  An elephant, right?  A horse and rider.  Do you ever see like bunny rabbits?  Imagine it -- “Welcome to Rome.  This is our iconic hamster. “  No, it’s always big. What kind of trees or plants would you use to describe a mighty Kingdom?  A Redwood or a mighty oak.  Are you guys primed for what's about to happen next?  What happens next is Jesus tells a joke.  Because what has He been talking about?  The Kingdom, right?  So we're all primed for cedars, horses and eagles.   Jesus, to what should we compare the Kingdom of God?  Obviously, it's going to be something big and mighty. It's like a mustard seed.  Wait, wait. wait.  The Kingdom of like God is like a what now?  What did He say?  A mustard seed.  This must be a joke.  It's like a mustard seed that when sown upon the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground.  But when sown it comes up and grows taller than all the other garden plants and produces large branches so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade. The King of God is like what now?  You tell me.  So the next time one of your friends says, “Hey, I heard you follow Jesus.  What's that like?”   And you go to your fridge and you pull out the yellow jar.  “Do you want to come to church next week?”  Right isn't it strange, right?  Isn't this weird?  What Jesus is doing here is confronting.  He is reminding.  He's provoking.  He's disturbing.  And He is refining.  Because our expectation for the Kingdom is big and mighty and a show of force.  Is that how a mustard plant grows? This is phenomenal to me.  One of the things that the ancients around Jesus thought about mustard seeds is that it had medicinal purposes.  So it was kind of a curative plant, it.  It brought healing.  In the ancient mind, there's something else about mustard seeds or mustard plants.  They can be cultivated.   So when you sow a mustard seed, you do it with intent, right?  That's not wild, that's intentional. Jesus knows the mustard can be cultivated.  But another thing we also know is that mustard is that it propagates in the wild.  Once you get it in your garden, it's very difficult to get it out.  It’s like Bermuda grass.  There’s something going on, but you oftentimes don't see it 'cause it's under the surface, right?  That’s the way that the mustard plant grows.  It’s not only medicinal according to the ancient minds, but also anyone can get it.  Usually in Jesus’s day it was primarily the wealthy and the powerful who had gardens.   And yet anyone could walk up and take of the mustard, this curative plant.   Now I'm not trying to make any points.  Not trying to give any application, I'm just trying to notice that what Jesus might be doing here subverts the common view of how kingdoms grow.  Because kingdoms in Jesus Day and in our day grow at the edge of a bloodied sword.  And yet in Jesus Kingdom, it's something that's like a seed and you don't actually see it working. This is one of the funny things about plants.  You plant the seed and unless you've got one of those clear cases with the soil in it, you don't get to see what's going on.  That's interesting, because it means that the Kingdom of God could be at work, even if I can't see it.  For me this has been a helpful corrective because I tend to think the bigger the better.  Right, a big wow.  A big boom.   But according to Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God, God seems to be at work in like quiet, subtle ways.  It's available to all, and even oftentimes growing in ways that I can't see.  I think what Jesus might be calling us to do faithful things for God.  And sometimes being faithful means that the work is just quiet and under the surface.  It's for the healing of people.  It's for blessing, but it may not be big. The joke about this is that even when the mustard plant is fully grown, especially in and around Jerusalem in the Galilean area, it's still not very big.  It's kind of scrubby.  It's not really super attractive on outward appearances.  The medicinal value is when you receive it, not how it looks on the outside, not how majestic it is, but in the reception. “So I'm not going to make any application points,” he says, coyly.  But I would just ask you to consider the dirt of your heart -- the soil that's inside.  As you hear the word of Jesus and as you as you watch Jesus throughout this study and on your own study, will it be with a heart that's ready to receive what Jesus has for us?  A heart that receives what Jesus has for us and then produces good fruit -- even if the producing of that fruit is kind of under the radar and not really super awe-inspiring and attractive -- but for the blessing and service of others. I just encourage you to meditate on that his week.  Let these parables roll around in your mind.  Next time you see a bunch of dirt, think about Jesus.  Next time you drive through Home Depot's Garden section and you see the little seeds, just look for the mustard seed and think about the Kingdom of God.  See if that doesn't impact or change your life. Let me pray for us.  Lord, we love you.  We see in our study of the Gospel of Mark that you love us.  And we want to be receptive to the good news of your Kingdom.  We want to be a people who are receptive to the words -- that it would be not only planted within us, but also that it would produce much good fruit.  Lord, would you continue to refine us, confront us, challenge us, provoke us and disturb us.  As we consider your teachings as we consider your life, Jesus, and as we follow you, we ask these things, Lord, knowing that you love us and You're powerful to bring them about, and so we entrust ourselves to You.  Amen. Amen. Church family, I love you.  More importantly, Jesus loves you more than you can ever imagine.  Let us go and live in light of this truth.   We'll see you next time. ###

DSBC

Desert Springs Bible Church

“Misfits” -- sermon by Caleb Campbell, January 22, 2022

Hi, me again.  We're going to be in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 2 and 3 today.  The objective of this study is to discern for each of us what it means to live as a follower of Jesus as a disciple of Jesus.

The reason we use the language of disciple is because it really does have a unique nuance.  It's more than a student to a teacher, and it's different than just a leader to a follower.  Because you can be a student and a follower and have no real relationship with the one that you're learning for -- the one that you're following.

However, the idea of discipleship has within it this nuanced idea of having not only being a student of the teacher and being a follower to the leader, but also of being in relationship with the with the one you're following -- be near them, to be in relationship with them.  Jesus calls us to be his disciples, not just students, not just followers, but to be his disciples.  And so we're trying to learn what that looks like for us.

If you have a Bible today, I'd encourage you to open to chapter two of the Gospel of Mark.  For those of you who are joining us online, if you have a print Bible I encourage you to get it out.  If you don't have one, you can use a digital Bible.  Go to bible.com and you'll be able to pull up and the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament.

Today also, if you're joining us in person, I believe we've printed out the text.  Did we print out the text this week and you guys got that?  OK, awesome.  So the reason that we're printing the text out for you Is so that you can write all over it and make notes as you notice things you like.  Scribble some notes.  Underline some things.

In this study we're going to go through the entirety of the Gospel of Mark. We're not going to necessarily go in sequential order, especially when we get up to the weeks leading up to Easter.   But we will go through the whole gospel of Mark, and so if you stay with this the whole time, you will be able to brag to all of your friends at the Bible Club that you're a part of that you went and did the whole Gospel of Mark.   I seriously doubt any of you are in a Bible Club.  If you are, come and talk to me afterwards.

Something that we've been doing throughout throughout this study is that before we begin to read the text together, we're going to connect ourselves to the ancient tradition of hearing the word first.  The majority of the Scripture was artistically designed not primarily to be read, but primarily to be read aloud and heard.

The majority of Christians throughout church history did not read the Bible -- whether it was because they could not get a copy because it was so expensive or they couldn't read, especially before the printing press came around.  Most Jesus followers throughout church history heard the Bible, so we're just going to tether ourselves to that ancient tradition.

Here's my encouragement to you.  Just maybe even close your eyes if you want to or just allow your mind's eye to start seeing the scenes as we read the text together.  Allow it to kind of in live in your imagination.  This is what would have happened to the original hearers, right?  They would have heard it and used the TV in their mind, so to speak, to imagine these things happening. Here's the other thing too:  Just be attentive to what the spirit of God is doing.  Maybe something is going on inside you.  Maybe a thought comes to mind, maybe a word, maybe a song, maybe a prayer.  I'm not going to ask you what it is.  We're not going to get weird like that, but I'm just going to encourage you to just be attentive.  Maybe it's nothing -- maybe you're just going to think about lunch.  That's OK, too.  We're going to see in the text a lot of eating, and so it would be normal for you to think about lunch.  This is the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 2, verse 13 until Chapter 3 verse I think 6.

“Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to Him and He was teaching them.  Then passing by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tollbooth, and He said to him, “Follow me.”

And Levi got up and he followed Him.  While Jesus was reclining at the table in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and his disciples, for there were many who were following Him.  When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?’  When Jesus heard this, He told them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.  I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners,’

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.  People came and asked Him, ‘Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not?’  Jesus said to them. ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they?  As long as they have the groom with them they cannot fast.  But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast on that day.  No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.  Otherwise the new patch pulls away from the old cloth.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.

Now on the Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain.  The Pharisees said to Him, look, ‘Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’

He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David and those who were with Him did when he was in need and hungry -- How he entered the House of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except for the priests.  And he also gave some to his companions. Then He told them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  So then ‘The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’

Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand.  In order to accuse Him they were watching Him closely to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath.  He told the man with the shriveled hand ‘Stand before us.’  Then He said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil?  To save a life or to kill?’  But they were silent.  After looking around at them with anger, He was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’  So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  Immediately, the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against Him -- how they might kill Him.”

This is the word of the Lord.

So I just want to notice a few things with you together as we go through the text.  Hopefully it will help us understand how we can live as disciples of Jesus even in this day.  In the text you noticed, I think there was a lot of food, wasn't there? There's a lot of eating, and so there are three moments where Jesus is criticized or confronted about his eating behavior.  And each of these scenes gets progressively more intense with the Pharisees, who are kind of like the religious elite.  And they are getting more intense, more intense, more intense in their aggression against Jesus.

So let's see if we can notice some things, so let’s just pick it up right back in Chapter 2, verse 13.  The whole crowd was coming to Him and He was teaching them.  If you remember from the last couple weeks that the that that one of the things that Mark sets in the scene is that the Kingdom of Darkness has overcome the world and Jesus comes into the world as the of the representative of the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God, he says, is the good news.

He came proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, and He comes into the world which is full of oppression from the King of Darkness, and His light starts to drive out that darkness, driving out demons and sickness and death.  If you guys were with us the last couple of times, you'll see that and that type of activity, Jesus bringing the goodness of His Kingdom into a world that has been so oppressed by darkness that other people started seeing it.  He went from just a handful of people following Him to massive crowds seeing Him, crying out.

OK, let's keep going.  This is crazy:  Mark consistently and frequently says that Jesus was teaching, but Mark rarely, if ever, tells us what his lessons were about.  You don't get the content of Jesus teachings in the Gospel of Mark.  Is that weird?  If it's so important, what’s He teaching?  Isn't it weird that we don't see what it is?  I think that what Mark is trying to do here is saying if you want to know what He’s teaching, look at how He’s living.

Do you know how it is with kids?  I'm just going to ask you a hypothetical question:  If your children think that the words coming out of your mouth do not line up with the actions and lifestyle that you are living, do you think that they will tell you?  They will find a profound number of opportunities to tell you.  Because our actions oftentimes teach louder than our words.   What is Mark is saying here?  If you want to learn what Jesus is teaching, watch Him.

Guys with me so far?  OK, here we go.  This is one of my favorite texts.  OK, watch this.  Then passing by Levi ***

*** TV time out.  One of the things that we say here it at Desert Springs is that we are a bunch of misfits.  We're a bunch of misfits bound together, not by our common affinities, but simply bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus Christ.  The reason I say misfits is because in our pre-Jesus state we do not fit together.  We come from all sorts of different economic and ethnic backgrounds.  We come from different political persuasions.  We come from all different types of places and spaces.  And the thing that's uniting us, the thing that's drawing together is not our political affiliation.  It's not our common economic status.   It's not our common ethnic heritage.  The one thing that's binding us together is Jesus.   ***

So Jesus when passing by saw Levi, sitting at the tollbooth.   At the time, the region that they're in, Galilee, is under Roman occupation, so there's an occupying force, namely Rome.  You know how they became the occupying force?  They killed the old occupying force, which killed the old occupying force, which killed the old occupying force -- the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks.

So here you have a bunch of Jewish people who've been under oppressive regimes for years.  Do you think that the average Jewish person who's living under Roman occupation is happy about the fact that they are being occupied?  No, they're not happy, right?  Because the Roman soldiers can come in and do whatever they want.  In the in the tyranical setup that's here, the Roman government would select tax collectors from the Jewish people   Levi is one of them.  He's a Jewish man who's collecting taxes from his from his own people group, right?  And then giving the money to whom?  Rome.  So if you work in the Galilean region, do you like Levi?

Here's the gem:  If you were with us this last couple weeks, you saw that Jesus first says to the disciples, “Follow me.”  He says the same thing to some fishermen.  Now, if you're a fisherman and you're there and you're taking your haul down the road past the tax booth, what do you think Levi is going to say to you?  “Pay up.” By the way, these tax collectors, they were they were allowed by the Roman government to extort their own people as much in taxes as they could get out of them.  They could give Rome what Romans do, then they could pocket the rest.  These were collaborators with an occupying force.  Nobody likes Levi, except for the other tax collectors and sinners.

Oh man, this is so great!  Imagine that you're with Peter.  You're a fisherperson, and Jesus comes to you and He says, “Follow me.” and you're like “Cool, Jesus, I want to do that.”  And then in the early part of Chapter 2 in the Gospel of Mark, you see that he says, “Where are we going?”  Jesus says, “We're going into the dark.  We're going to where the demonic forces live.  We're going to where sickness is.  We're gonna do some healing and we're gonna raise people from the dead.  We're going to into the dark.”

And you're think “That's scary, but OK.  Who's going with us, Jesus?’  Guess what?  Fishermen.  Tax collectors.  Note that in the Gospel of Mark, there are only two professions mentioned of people to whom Jesus says the words “Follow me.” Notice what Jesus says to Levi the same thing He says to Simon and the other Fisher fisherman.  This is a mirror image.  Jesus is constantly bringing misfits together.  Eli sits in the tollbooth, and he said he would follow Him.  Is that something to celebrate?  This is the type of person I would never associate myself with, and now they're in my church!  No, thank you.

OK, let's keep going.  While He was reclining at table -- this is speaking about Jesus.  How many of you guys are familiar with the holiday Thanksgiving?  OK.  After the meal, if there's a lazy boy recliner in your home, some elected official in your family usually has claim or domain to that lazy boy, right?  Like the 9-year-old is not getting it, right?

And generally after this, after the meal somebody will take the position of reclining.  Is that a position that speaks to ”I'm afraid of what's going on around me” or “I'm nervous?” No, that a posture of “I am at peace.  I'm with my people and I can recline among them.” Jesus is here reclining.   So this is more than just sitting.  This is a feast, and He is reclining, which means he is totally comfy where He is and who He’s with.

OK, now one of the things that we need to know about the ancient tables, especially to have someone at your table, was a communicatory means of saying to everyone, including the people at the table, “These are my kind of people.”

If you had table fellowship with people you were communicating, “These are my kind of people,” and what we actually have record of manuals on how to do feasts.  Within the Roman Empire, table fellowship with people lower than your estate generally brought you lower.  So you are constantly trying to be at the table of those who are wealthier than you, more at the table of those who are more powerful than you, right?

Because it was it was a social ladder. And by the way, when you sat at the table, you did not want to be last.  You wanted to be closest to the head of the table, because that was a symbol of power.  You wanted to be not last, but first.  That was how you got power.  OK, notice what Jesus does while He was reclining at the table in Levi's house.  Many tax collectors not only carry the weight of moral decay – so if a Pharisee were to use the word sinner it would have been a whole package of people, almost like a profession where it would have been like murderers and adulterers -- but it also would have included the poor and people who were not in a position to maintain the traditions of their forefathers.

So this would be people like shepherds, who were actually included in the sinner category.  So this isn't just like moral decay, but it's also just people who cannot or will not keep their religious traditions.  It's a broad category, and the reason that I want to point that out is because it doesn't say many tax collectors and other types of sinners.  Do you see it? There are two categories here.   I understand this text to mean that some of the tax collectors and sinners like Levi were also following Jesus. So you've got the devout fisherman immediately connected to tax collectors and sinners.  A bunch of misfits bound together by Jesus.

OK, let's keep going.  When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Notice the repetition.  In the ancient world, to your knowledge, Was ink expensive or cheap?  It's very expensive, so if you were going to keep repeating a phrase, there must be some sort of intent behind it.  Right notice the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” keeps getting repeated?  Why does Mark do that? I think because every time we read it, we're supposed to wince.

When Jesus heard this, He told him it “Is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.  I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners.”

OK, let's see.  Number one, notice that Jesus is not concerned about approval.  Jesus is not concerned about other people's opinions of who He has invited to His table.  Jesus does not seem to be concerned about associating with those people.  In fact, I would like to argue He invites it.   Notice who's at the meal.  The fisherman, the Pharisees and scribes and the tax collectors and sinners.  Who's brought them all together?  We are a bunch of misfits bound together, not by our common obscenities, but by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus.

Jesus has been doing this since the beginning of his ministry.  The Kingdom of God brings together not differences, but different.  As Scott McKnight says that we are a fellowship of different.  We're different than each other.  Let's go hard in the point.  I am so convinced of this and committed to it that I might start preaching, might get excited.

A homogeneous church has no gifts for you.  A Church of sane has no growth for you.  Or me.  In fact, I think that a church that's same -- where everyone is just very comfortable with each other, where everyone’s saying “We see things the same way” -- not only do I think there's not spiritual growth, I think there's a huge danger of misunderstanding our prejudices and preferences as what Christians believe and do.  And then we're aghast when we discover that another Christian thinks or behaves differently than we do.  And then here's what I'm watching us do as a community.

Right now we just start saying ‘You're not a real Christian.  You ain't like me, you ain't like us.”  That approach rips apart the unity of the church, and no one's impressed.  No one looks in on a bunch of people who share the same political perspectives gathering together and saying, “Well, that's unique.”  It's not unique.  That's what everybody is doing.  No one looks in on a bunch of people who are in the same class economic class who are gathered together and bound together and says, “Well, that's unique.”  It's not unique, it's what everybody is doing.

The unique thing about the Kingdom of God is that it binds together a bunch of different misfits who have no business being together, unless there was some sort of supernatural resurrection power.   A homogeneous church has no gifts for you.  Here's the other piece:  Do you think that Jesus is smart?  Do you think that Jesus is intentionally putting Simon, Peter and Levi together at the table?  And He's going to allow the conflict to happen.

Why do you think the majority of the New Testament is full of commands like this?  Stop sinning against one another.  Stop hating on one another.  Stop devouring one another.  Rather, practice the fruits of the spirit --, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, understanding, goodness, self-control.  Because naturally we don't want to do those things when people are different than us.

There's a gift waiting for us.  Jesus will shape us on convincingness.  Jesus has bound together the local church as a bunch of misfits in order to shape us more and more into His image.  Here's where you'll see it.  You'll have an experience when in good-faith conversation with someone who has an opposite view of you, and you'll say something like this:  “I've never thought about it that way.”

That's a gift.  I've never seen that before.  That's a gift.

CS Lewis said that each one of us has a light that we're shining on God, each from our own different perspectives.  And when we communicate that to each other say, this is God working in my life.  We're communicating the goodness of God to people who can't see it the way we see it.  And so each of us when we do so in good faith and love and unity, we get a full picture of God.  The homogenous church has no gifts for us.  So, so let's do it.  Let's follow Jesus’s invitation to be at the messy table of misfits and see if He doesn’t have good gifts for us there.

Let's keep going.  Now we're switching the scene.  Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.  People came and asked Him, “Why did John's disciples and Pharisees disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Mark is contrasting the feasting and the fasting.

Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them.”  But the time would come when the groom would be taken away.  Is He talking about his death and burial?  The time when he would be taken away from them and then they were to fast on that day?  OK, so now He's going to switch metaphors.  He's saying, “Hey, in my presence we don't fast, we feast.”

We don't eat, OK.  Another TV time out ***

*** One of my greatest laments, and I want I'm just going to say this -- I'm going to fly with it -- you guys can talk to me later about it.  One of my greatest laments is that all these seats are bolted in and facing forward.  And when we take communion, we're not doing it as part of a feast facing one another.  I get that, but it just eats away at me.  So if anyone has some extra concrete that we can level this thing out and put some chairs in here, I'm up for it.  And here's why.  Because the center of our Christian tradition is coming to Jesus’s table and feasting.  Communion was always a part of a greater meal where people would come together -- a bunch of misfits around a common table.  And they would eat a full meal and celebrate what God has done in their lives.  And there was no cellophane.  Let the angels rejoice.

***

OK, so now He's going to change out the metaphor.  Notice this, no one shows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.  Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth and worst here is made and no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise, the wine will burst out their skins and the wine is lost as well as the skins.  New wine is put into fresh wineskins.

Jesus is not doggin on the old way.  He's not saying that it was pointless or useless.  He's not saying out with the old in with the new.  He's simply saying that He’s ushering in the Kingdom of God in a fresh new expression, and it requires new models, new ministry.  It's not “The old sucks and now the new is here.”  It's rather there's a new fresh expression of the Kingdom of God and so fresh wine, fresh wineskins.

For us as a church, this is something that we're wrestling through right now.  We were planted in 1977.    We're 45 years old.  Let me ask you a question:  Do you think North Phoenix has changed at all since 1977?  Do you think Phoenix has changed at all in the last five years?  It's changed in big ways.

We are continually in the top ten over the last few years in biblically illiterate cities, meaning people don't read the Bible.  And including a lot of people who are part of church families.  We also recognize that the politics of the area is changing.  We recognize that the economics of the area are changing.  We also recognize that there's a bunch of people coming that weren't raised in Phoenix.  I was born and raised in Phoenix, so I'm a native and this city has doubled in my lifetime, some by people who are born here, but a lot of that growth is people moving in.  I mean just this place is exploding with people.  Yeah, we're different in 1977.  And here's the deal:

In 1977 there was an expression of the local church in Desert Springs that was the right fit for the right time.  And then in 1983 and 1989, in 1992 and 1997, and on and on and on.  And here we are in 2022 simply asking, “Do we need fresh wine skins for this new wine, right?”

We're not going to do things simply because it's the way it always has been, so we're praying through that right now because we think that the city is dramatically.  I'm going to ask you a not so hyperbolic question:  Does this community need to see people who are on different sides of a political issue come together and engage in loving civil discourse?

Does this community need that?  Does this church community need to show that people who fly different flags can lay down their flags and unite at a common table with one common king?

Yes, our city needs that. Right now we have what I call “hater--tainment" enterprises.  Enterprises that are making billions of dollars on our corporate rage.  And sometimes we just yell and scream this at each other.    Does our community need to see The light of the Kingdom of God manifest in a corporate group of people?  OK, yes. It's fresh wine.

New wine for a new time and new ministry for a new season. There are new moves we need to make as a church.  And that's scary.  Following Jesus into the dark is scary.  Following Jesus into a dark with a bunch of misfits is even worse.  But there are so many gifts waiting for us.  There's so much beauty.

Have you ever experienced the gift and the beauty of a reconciled relationship that seemed irreconcilable?  Christ rose from the grave, and He can raise dead relationships back to life again.  And a lot of times He's going to use his local church to do that.  We get to model that.

And so, just as your pastor, this is just my plea for you, my invitation to you.  Man, let's do this together.  And let's not be so concerned about the things we do, but the type of people that we are.  Let us not be so concerned with our curriculum that we're teaching, but the lifestyle that we're teaching, just like Jesus did.  Let's be a people committed to continually practicing the fruit of the spirit in first Corinthians 13 -- love when we approach one another, not suspicion, but curiosity, expecting that God has a gift for us.

We can bemoan and complain about how those people are influencing our city.   Or we can simply say our mission field is growing and we have a greater opportunity to put on display the Kingdom of God in this moment.  What a gift we have.  And in joyous anticipation we can say, “Come on in.  Everyone is welcome at Jesus’ table.”  And then we can practice the fruit of the spirit.  We can keep pointing each other to Jesus.

I'm going to do an exercise right now.  I just would ask you would close your eyes for a minute, and I want you to imagine the people that you do not like.  So think about your affinities, think about your convictions, your politics, your economic status, your ethnic heritage.  Maybe if you name it, there's a category of persons that you not only don’t like them, but also you don't approve of them.  And I want you to consider what it would be like if Jesus brought 100 people who fit that category into our church tomorrow, just as He brought Levi into this group of fishermen.

And before you jump to fear or anger, I want you just to ask this:  Lord, what gifts might you have for me if that were the case, if they were to join our fellowship?  What ways would you shape me? That's hard for me to do 'cause I've got a big list.  I'm very opinionated.  You guys know these things.  Arrogant, rude, combative. And so I got a big list too.

But the more and more I spend time approaching people with curiosity instead of suspicion -- recognizing that in this conversation I'm not trying to change them, but I'm going to recognize how the spirit might be changing me -- it has radically transformed my life and grown my relationships exponentially more than my default.

One last thing, so I'm just going to kind of skip.  I hate to do this, we're out of time, unless you guys want a 2-hour sermon, which I can do.  Let me just get us to chapter 3.   I want to lean into this space and then we're gonna land the plane.

Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man who was there had a shriveled hand.  Notice what the Pharisees are doing to accuse Him. They were watching Him closely to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath.

What are the religious leaders that are supposed to be shepherding this sick -- including the man with the withered hand -- what are they doing instead of attending to the man’s needs?  They're using him as bait.  Is that corruption in a religious leader?  Would you like for me to use your sickness as bait?

Jesus told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.”  Then He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil?”    Is it lawful to save a life or to kill on the Sabbath?  This is the easiest question they could have answered that day.  Notice what they what they did.  They wouldn't even answer Jesus. When Jesus brings fresh wine and wineskins -- a new fresh expression of the Kingdom of God -- who gets angry?  The powerful religious elite.  And when the powerful religious elite get angry and combative, who gets angry?  If that's not something for us to meditate on for the next few years, I don't know what is.

They're resistant to His change.  They're resistant to His expression of the Kingdom, and they're angry.  And he's angry right back because they've corrupted their faith.  He was grieved at the hardness of their hearts.  So the man stretched it out, and his hand was restored immediately, no?

Do you remember what Jesus’s question was?  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save a life or to what?  He healed the man.  What did the religious elite do -- who are stuck in their traditions?  What do they do? They immediately plot to do what?  What is better -- to heal a withered hand on the Sabbath or to plot Jesus's murder on the Sabbath?  Do you do see the profound resistance against Jesus?

The Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians.  OK, if there was a Pharisee in this room a moment ago when I said imagine a group of people that you do not like and you do not approve of, the Pharisee would have imagined a Herodian.  They did not like each other.  They were on opposite sides of how to do government, politics, power and religion.  And if we had a Herodian here, when we did that little imaging a group of people, they would have imagined the Pharisees.

So notice this:   We're not even halfway through the Gospel of Mark.  We're the early part of the third chapter in and notice that the Pharisees and Herodians are plotting together to kill Jesus are misfits. too.    The Kingdom of God unites misfits around Jesus in unity, peace and love.  The kingdoms of this world unite misfits in hate, rage and fear.  Both kingdom structures that are at play to unite misfits.  Only one leads to flourishing.  The other leads to death.

Let's pray.   Lord, we love you.  In this world today, Lord, we know that it is very difficult for us.  It’s extremely difficult for me as I see you putting together a bunch of misfits.  And yet we know it's for our good, and so we submit ourselves to you.  Let us not be quick to offense.  Let us not be quick to fear.  Rather, let us be quick to listen.  Let us be overflowing with compassion.  Let us defer to one another, treating each other with curiosity and not suspicion, expecting good gifts to come when you work through a unified body of misfits.  We love you, Lord, and it's in your name we pray.  Amen

Scriptures referenced in this sermon

Matthew 28:18-20  Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”'   Matthew 22:35-40  'One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”   Deuteronomy 10:17-19  “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.  “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the foreigner by giving them food and clothing. “So show your love for the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.   Deuteronomy 24:17-22  '“You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow’s garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the foreigner, for the orphan, and for the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.'   Deuteronomy 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who distorts the justice due a foreigner, orphan, and widow. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’   Isaiah 1:13-17 'Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. '   Hosea 2:19 “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion,   Amos 5:24“But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.   Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.    Psalm 9:7-9  But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for judgment. And he judges the world with righteousness; he executes judgment on the nations with fairness. The Lord is a refuge for the persecuted, a refuge in times of trouble.   Psalm 97:1-2  'Clouds and total darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coasts and islands be glad. '   Psalm 96:13 for he is coming — for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his faithfulness.'   Psalm 146:9 The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked.   Psalm 68:5 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation.   Psalm 82:3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.   Psalm 10:18 To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.   James 1:27  Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Church, today we conclude a five-part series that we've been going through called “Groundwork” -- in which we've been looking at some of the core values of our church family and some of the ways that we express them.  To put it another way, these are things that you'll hear us say a lot around here at DSBC.  Today we're looking at one that summarizes all the other weeks, as well as adds a little piece to it.

For those of you who are joining us in person, if you did not get one of the handouts on your way in, if you just raise your hand, wave your hands up in the air like you just don't care, one of our hosts will get that to you so that you can follow along with this.  We've been printing these out each week so that you can make notes, mark it up as you like and have your eyes on the same text that we're studying.  On our website there’s a big graphic that says “Groundwork” with a link to download the study guides.  In fact, if you missed a week, I would encourage you to go back and review the sermon and the study guide.  For those of you who are joining us online, on the front page of our website --- dsbc dot church.  Does anyone have a full house?  No, OK, so these are also collectors’ items for you.

Today we're looking at a phrase that says this:  We strive to help people be with Jesus, think like Jesus, and love like Jesus.  You'll notice that it's on a crown because we believe Jesus is the King.  We're going to study in John Chapter 15.  So, if you have a Bible and would like to open, we will be in John Chapter 15.  And as you're turning there, I wanted to give you a cool story.

Two weeks ago, we shared as a church family that we recognized that there were a lot of refugees coming out of Afghanistan, many of whom would be placed here.  As Governor Doug Ducey said, the state of Arizona welcomes refugees.  Arizona has been home to the refugee resettlement program for years, and we've done ministry with refugees in the past.  But we specifically noted that a lot of the agencies that serve the Valley that we love partnering with are now in a position where many of them are underfunded to handle the massive influx.  We said at the time that for the next two weeks, anything that comes in through our benevolence fund -- which is designed to support our neighbors’ life-sustaining needs -- would go specifically towards those agencies.  Then something crazy happened that made the front page of the New York Times.  Your generosity made the front page in the New York Times, and we've been getting emails and phone calls from people all around the country.  Some of them are folks, saying, “I'm not a church person” -- I get the impression many of them have a generally unfavorable view of the church -- but they said it's so good to see a church like yours, actually living out what they believe, which is awesome.  Just to be a witness for Christ and for His generosity.

And then I got a call from a dude I've never met in Denver and he said, “Hey, I read your story in the New York Times, and can you tell me a little bit more about it?”  So I told him about it and he's like “Cool.  Can I send you some money?  And Pastor Caleb’s answer to that question is always the same: “Yeah, yeah yeah.”  But in this case, I said that all we're going to do is to give it to one of our partner organizations that we love.”  And he said, “No, I'd really like to give it to you, but can you do it in one of those things where it's like a matching donation? So like if somebody gives $10, I'll give $10.  I'll do that up to $1000.”  So Pastor Caleb's answer to that question is almost always yes.  So I said yes. I get a text message from him about 10 minutes after we hang up the phone and he says, “Let's make it $2500.”

So we are going to extend the timeframe until next Sunday, so anything that goes to our benevolence fund until next Sunday is going to go so support the life-sustaining needs of our refugee neighbors, many of whom are still on their way as they go through the government process.   Also, on our website, the DSBC dot Church up at the top, you can find a link if you want to give of your time or material resources or you'd like to donate directly to one of the organizations we’re partnered with.  It’s there on the top menu of our website.  I want to encourage you guys to take that opportunity.

We say in our statement we strive to help people be with Jesus, think like Jesus, and love like Jesus.  And I said a moment ago that this statement actually encapsulates the other four statements that we've gone through during this series, but it adds something else.  So if you just think about the last four weeks or the other four parts of this series again, all of the previous statements up until now have been a means to articulate thinking like Jesus and loving like Jesus.  Thinking like Jesus and loving like Jesus, but we've intentionally added something today that, by and large, as a church we have not had the volume turned up on a lot.  Does anyone know?  What it is?  It's not think like Jesus, it's not love like Jesus.  What was in the phrase or the statement that you noticed?  “Be with Jesus.”

Be with Jesus.  It's something that we've failed to turn the volume all the way up on, but I as we as we engage in the Scriptures today, I'm going to argue that the thinking like Jesus and the loving like Jesus -- if it's disconnected from Jesus -- actually becomes poison.  It actually becomes destructive, and I think Jesus thought that and I'd like to prove it to you from John Chapter 15.  But we also notice how many times Jesus is mentioned.  How many times is Jesus mentioned in this statement?  Thrice, right?  Isn't that a little bit too much?  No, and I'll tell you why.

This is a little thing -- one of this pastor’s pet peeves -- but here we go.  I hear people talk about God a lot and I appreciate that, but here's the deal.  When people say I love God or I'm a God-fearing person or I'm a godly person, here's my question:  I think you should actually ask which one?   Which god?

Because if you read your Bible -- which by the way, I would highly encourage you today after you go home -- you'll see this throughout the whole of your whole Bible.  You'll notice that there is a repetitive theme that kind of goes like this.  You might even be familiar with it, even if you've never read the Bible, which is totally fine.  You might have even heard of the Ten Commandments.  They're kind of like popular.  There’s one that says “I am the Lord your God.  You will have no other gods plural before me.”  Throughout your Bible you're going to find that there are all these entities or things that are competitors for the one true God.  Competitors for our hearts, for our intentions, for our desires.

As sometimes it'll they'll be straight up, referred to as gods or false gods, or sometimes be referred to as idols.  Sometimes they'll be referred to as the powers, principalities, rulers, and authorities.  There's this spiritual dimension that I think as Westerners, we fail oftentimes to recognize that there are places and spaces and things and entities and created beings that we can give our hearts to.  They often are called by strange names like Baal or Mammon or whatnot.  But in modern society we might call them sex, money power, nation, family,  et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  Now are those things, good things, or bad things?  Those are good things created by God as gifts, and yet the corrupting power of sin can take a good thing and corrupt it.  And here's one of the ways that sin corrupts the good gifts of God.  When you and I, when we as people, elevate the good, created things of God to the status of God, it poisons them.  They become corrupt.  So family is a good, but when family becomes god, it ends up poisoning us.  We end up hating our family for not living up to our expectations of them because we think that if our family is OK, I'm OK.

You could do that with your career.  You could do that with money.  You can do that with sex or sex appeal.  You take your pick.  One of the things that -- if as you read through your Bible, your whole Bible tonight – one of the things that you'll discover is that humans have a desire to elevate something to the ultimate level of importance.  So where you get your dignity, your worth, your value, your peace, your security, your future, your whatever, whatever your heart is looking for, -- whatever gives to you those things that may well be your god or gods.  And so the reason that we say “Jesus” a lot is to be real clear which God we're following.

I couldn't actually show it up on this screen because we'd have to blur the whole thing out because it's vulgar, -- but I saw the back of the vehicle and it had two bumper stickers.  And on the one bumper sticker, the font was made of AR15 assault rifles and it said expletive – the worst one -- and then a political figure who this person obviously had disdain for.  And then on the other side of the vehicle, in the same gun font, it said, “faith.”  Now hold on, hold on!

I know you guys love Hobby Lobby philistines, right?  We go to Hobby Lobby or at Target or the Magnolia Farms, and there are all these little signs, right?  “Faith, friends, family.”  Here's the question that I want to ask you to consider:   faith in what?  We all have faith.  Another way to put faith is allegiances.  We all have allegiances.  We’re all worshipping some god.  When I hear people say “I'm a God-fearing person,” my next question is which one or ones?

If I saw an advertisement for a prayer and worship event I’d ask “In which direction will you be pointing your prayer and worship?”  Because there are many forms of prayer, there are many forms of worship, and if we're not careful, we can just assume that if a person is using God speak, they mean Christianity.  They mean Jesus, but the reason we're articulating Jesus is because if we want to be crystal clear that we are following, we are following and pursuing the way of the triune God made manifest in Jesus the Christ.  God the Father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

OK, so we follow Jesus.  The reason we're articulating it with Jesus is because we want to be very clear which God we serve.  It's the one who became manifest in Christ.  So when you think of the cross, that's the one yes with me so far.

Now I want to make a little a little aside.  A lot of people -- and I totally get this, it's confusing -- they'll say His name like it is a curse.  Or maybe they'll refer to him as Jesus Christ as if Christ is his last name, like in the modern construct in the West.   We put last names where?  Last.  So Caleb is my first name.  Campbell is my last name.  I get that it's confusing that when you read your Bible later tonight, you're going to see Jesus Christ.  The Christ Jesus, the anointed One Christ, is just another way to say Messiah.  It's “anointed one” or “the one” that all of Scripture points.

Tonight in your whole Bible reading, you'll see that especially in your Old Testament, you will find a longing for -- a repeated theme that there's coming a Messiah, a chosen one who's going to restore all that which is broken to rights.  And then in your New Testament, because we switch languages in the New Testament, you'll find that it's called the Christ.  Christ is just a way to translate Messiah.

And so Jesus’s last name isn't Christ.  He is the Christ.  Now in English we put the title before, right?  People sometimes refer to me as Pastor Caleb, not Caleb Pastor.  So you could say Christ Jesus, which may just dig in a little bit more on the fact that He fulfills an office that was longed for throughout your Scriptures.  It's OK, I think, to say Jesus Christ, 'cause there's only one Messiah.  There's only one promised one.  There's only one chosen one.  There's only one Jesus.  So we are careful to articulate the one that we're following -- the God that we are following -- is the one that became manifested in Jesus.

And here's the really crazy thing about Jesus, contrary to all other gods.  There are two things.  All of the other gods -- because they're good things created by God, but we elevate them to a position of godness -- they demand our life from us.  If work and success in work, which is one of my greatest temptations, if success at work becomes my dignity worth and value, I will move heaven and Earth, and I will actually sacrifice my family and y'all just so I can feel good about the work that I did.  It could be not always, but it could be tethered to workaholism that says as long as my jobs OK, I'm OK.  My who I am comes from being Pastor Caleb.  Do you see it?

Now for some of us we think, “That's dumb,” and I get it.  But you've got a god or gods that are calling out to you all the time, don't you?  And I don't know what God or gods are calling out to you, but I know this for a fact:  All of them demand our life from us.   Jesus is the one true God who gives His life for us.

Here's the other cool thing.  If we don't just grind and work to make sacrifice for these false gods, they want nothing to do with us.  These false gods will disown you faster you can drop a hat.  Many of us have experienced that.  Many of us have found that when we've given our life to something -- maybe a lover, maybe a substance, maybe, maybe work, maybe some other identity-forming entity -- that when we don't please it, it turns its back on us.

But here's the thing about Jesus.  When we turn our backs on God, He is constantly in pursuit, calling out to us come back.  Come back.  Come back.  Come back to me.  He is the constantly-pursuing God.  All of the other gods turn their back on us when we betray them, when we don't meet their needs.  But Jesus is the one true God Who follows after us.  Come back home.  And so when we walk the Jesus way, we recognize that He's the one God who actually wants to be with us.

Everybody, just take a big deep breath in.  What would your life be like if every moment you recognized that Jesus wants to be with you?  And right now for many of us there are things being conjured up in our minds, our own failures, our past hurts, things that people have done to us.  We say how could Jesus want somebody like me?  Someone so broken like me?  I just want to cut to the chase here:  Jesus knew you and all your imperfections before time began, and He gave His life for you.  He rose from the grave, conquering over Satan, sin and death, including all the brokenness that you feel.  And he still yells and screams, come back to me.  There is no thing or action or thought that can separate us from the love of God.

What He calls us to do is to the word repentance, which is a word that a lot of a lot of people get weirded out by. Repentance is a change of mind.  I'm going to turn from this way of thinking and I'm going to turn to Jesus.  That's right.  OK, so I'm going to turn towards Jesus.  And do you know who Jesus says yes to?  Everyone who wants Jesus.   Read your Bible.  And so when we turn from walking our own way, we turn and we walk the Jesus way.  And the crucial thing about the Jesus way is not our actions.  It's not our thought processes.  It’s being with Him.

Let's go to the text.  This is in John Chapter 15.  Now I'm going to read it.  Then we'll talk about it.  Then we're going to do some cool stuff.  OK, here we go.  This is Jesus speaking.

“I am the true vine.  My father is the gardener.  Every branch that does not produce fruit He removes.  He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.  

You are already cleaned because of the Word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I in you.  Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine.  You are the branches.  The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.  They gather them and throw them into the fire, where they are burned.  If you remain in me and my Word remains in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

My father is glorified by this -- that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”

OK, so here we go.  We're going to zoom in on this.  So number one -- Jesus is riffing on a theme that you can see throughout your Bible.  Trees are all over the place in the Bible.  Now I'm going to ask that you would suspend just for a brief moment your modern Western scientific understanding of things.  And I would just ask that you would put yourself in the mind of an ancient Near Eastern agriculturalist who doesn’t have all the categories we use.

I'll just show you here just really quickly.  In the beginning of your Bible is the Book of Genesis, and it starts with the story of the garden that is in Eden.  And in the garden that is in Eden, at the center of the garden, there is a tree.  And the tree produces life-giving fruit.  Out of the fruit of the tree comes life and life abundant.  It's generally referred to as the Tree of Life.  If you want to see something really cool right, spoiler alert -- if you go to the end of your Bible, you'll see that the Tree of Life actually makes a reappearance.  Well, that's interesting.  I wonder what might be happening there.  OK, good question.

Let's keep going. Fast-forward.  You get to Moses, who has a personal experience with the living God through a tree.  Some of us might refer to it as a bush, but that's again, maybe projecting our modern idea or categories onto the ancient.  It's a tree.  It's a small tree that's on fire, but the tree is not consumed.

You fast-forward and you find that that in Psalm chapter one, the opening of the Book of Psalms, the wise person who meditates on the word of God constantly is referred to as a tree planted by the waters.  And in Psalm 80 you'll see that Israel, the people of Israel are referred to as a vineyard or a type of tree.

Do you guys know about Christmas?  Yeah, it's coming up here soon.  (My Christmas wish list is on Amazon, just as an FYI.)  At Christmas, one of my favorite songs is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Have you guys ever heard this song before?  It is a longing song.  It's a lament and a longing that the Emmanuel God with us would do what?  Come into our lives.  I love that song because Christmas is the answer to this prayer.  And there's a line -- it's usually in the second verse and is translated differently in different occasions -- but it says something like this.  “Oh, come, thou branch of Jesse’s tree, an end sign of thy people before the rulers silent fall and people hear your mercy call.”  So the author of “Oh Come, oh Come Emmanuel” is tethering this prophetic language about Jesus being a shoot that comes out of a chopped down tree, namely Jesse’s tree.

And Jesus, here, standing before his disciples or sitting before his disciples in John Chapter 15 says, “I'm the vine.”  I'm the great tree.  By the way, have you guys ever seen a vine before, like the one that grapes grow on?  What do they look like?  Trees.  Jesus here is God.   I think that all of those who are listening to Jesus who know their Bibles see exactly what Jesus is doing here.  Because out of trees come what?  Good fruit and life.

And Jesus uses a metaphor that everyone would have totally gotten, right?  Those of us in the post-Industrial Age, we might miss it.  But if you were to be walking along and you see a fruit tree and there's a branch on the ground not connected to the tree, what do you just assume about the status of the branch that is disconnected from the tree?  Would you pick it up and say “Fruit, please?”  No, you and I all -- even for those of us we go to grocery stores -- even we know that a branch disconnected from the life source is just dead.  Only those who are connected to the vine, only the branches that are connected to the vine produce what?  Fruit.  If I take a branch that is disconnected from the vine and I duct tape fruit to it and say to everyone, “Look at this awesome fruit,” what inevitably will happen to the fruit?  It will die.  It will become corrupted.

I just want to press pause here and just say that it is easy to watch somebody point at fruit, “Look at this faithful ministry.  Look at this good thing that God is doing.” On the outside it may look like good fruit for a season.  But if it is disconnected from the life source, it's poison.  I'll put it another way.  Not everyone who uses Jesus’s name is connected to Jesus.

All right, let's keep going.   Notice how Jesus speaks of His relationship with all who turned from their sin, repent and believe the gospel.  They believe the good news that Jesus is the risen King, and He says follow me.  Follow the Jesus way and you know  He does not say this: “Produce fruit and then you earn connection with the vine.”  Notice the order.  This is so crucial.   Notice the order. What comes first, the connection with God or the fruit?  American individualistic consumeristic moralism says “Be a good person, then you get to connect with God.”  Right?  There are so many of us who say God would never love me because of all this stuff I've done.  That is American consumeristic individualistic moralism that says produce fruit, then God will connect you to His life source.

But Jesus says I'm the type of God who gives My life for you.  You just connect with Me, and as you connect with Me, you will see good.  What is the fruit?  I think Jesus leaves it intentionally ambiguous.  The later New Testament authors are actually wrestling around with this.  They kind of take shots at “We think that this is fruit, or at least this fruit.”  None of the lists in my experience are exhaustive.  So I'll just put it to you this way.  This is what I've come to understand.  OK, follow me here.

The fruit, so you've got the grape, right?  Where is its life source?  The branch or the vine?  The vine.  The fruit is all the essence of the vine.  You guys with me so far?  The vine has given its life source to the fruit through the branch, and so the fruit -- I'm pushing the metaphor, but hold on -the fruit should taste like, smell like, and remind us of the life source, the vine.   Whatever the fruit is, it's Jesus in us.  Is that OK?

We ask, “Is this fruit charity?  Well yeah, if it's Jesus in you and it's fruit of faithfulness.  Yeah, if it's Jesus in you and it's the fruit of a reconciling relationship.  Yeah, if it's Jesus in you -- we would exhaust ourselves trying to come up with a complete list of the fruit that Christ produces in and through us.  So we'll just call it fruit, and if it reminds us of Jesus, if it tastes like Jesus, if it smells like Jesus, it's likely His fruit.

Here's the other thing, too.  Just because God has produced a certain type of fruit in your life in past seasons, don't feel like He's going to keep doing it.  He may have a fresh desire for you.  And too often we look around for old fruit and trying to stick it to ourselves, and it just becomes poison.

Religion -- American individualistic, consumeristic religion says “I obey; therefore, I'm accepted.  I'm a good person so God has to love me.”  Jesus says “I love you and accept you because of who I am, not because of who you are, what you've done.  Follow me in obey.”

And the obedience is not to earn His favor.  The obedience is so that we might find fruit in our lives.  Jesus’s call to obey is only ever for our good.  And He's the only guy who does that -- which is why I want to make sure we're real clear that, as a church, the God we serve is the One who hung on the cross.  The One who went in the tomb.  And then the One who beat it.

What is your connection with Jesus like? He is so so, so much of my life.  I have read this text and I've thought “OK, what's the thing I need to do in order to be with Him and get it right?”

So I just want to encourage you in prayer, worshiping together, reading your Bible together, especially with other people who are not like you, just sitting quietly.  The list goes on and on and on and on of these spiritual disciplines.  For my wife and me, we do frame some of our time together around certain disciplines, like a date. You guys have heard of this.  I hadn't actually heard of it till after high school, so I didn't hear about dates during high school at all.  Did not experience many of them.  So a date is when you say, “OK, you and I -- because we want to go deep in our relationship, because we're in relationship with another -- we're going to do something together.

The date isn’t the point.  No, the relationship is the point.  The date is just the way in which we intentionally spend time together.  But we also spend time together just, you know, doing nothing.  We spend time together going on trips.  We spend time together at the dinner table.  There are always different opportunities to spend time with each other.  But the focus is not on the thing we're doing.  It's focus on the one we're with.  So I just want to encourage you, whatever means of connecting with Jesus -- whatever you find to be the most fruitful -- do that.

Do you know who Jesus says yes to?  Anyone who wants Jesus.  Do you know that Jesus longs to be with you, to be connected with you?  And he's calling out, “Just follow me.  Come to me.”  Out of that comes fruit.

So when we just think about our statements here as a church family, we want to be very clear that all of it -- a life of generosity, living as ambassadors, living as a community of misfits -- all of that is coming out of the power source of Jesus. It's all coming out of a connection with Jesus.

And here's the deal.  If we try to do the other four things without being connected to Jesus, they will become corrupt poison.  Because all we'll simply be doing is just taking fruit and trying to put it on to us.  But if the fruit is disconnected from its life source, it becomes spoiled and harmful if we try to consume it.

What does your connection to Jesus look like?  It's something that I want to encourage you to think through and pray through -- not only individually but also communally.  What does our relationship with Jesus look like?  For He has called us to one church family in unity.   So I want to ask if you would please do me a favor.  We're not gonna do anything weird but I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes and just let the worries and the concerns of this world -- all of the thoughts that have come in -- just let them go.  Just allow maybe a quiet to come over your mind.  I'm just going to ask you to hear the words of Jesus that he spoke directly to his disciples:

“Peace I leave with you.  My peace, I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.  You have heard me tell you I am going away and I am coming to you.  If you love me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.  I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you may believe.  I will not talk with you any longer because the ruler of this world is coming.  And yet he has no power over me.  On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.  Get up and let us leave this place.  I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, he removes.  And he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.    Now you are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me and I in you.  Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.  I am the vine.  You are the branches.  The one who remains in me and I in him will produce much fruit because you can do nothing without me.   If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.  They gather them, throw them into the fire and they are burned.  If you remain in me, and my words remain in you.  Ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this, that you produce much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.  Remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in His love.  I have told you these things so that my joy would be in you, and your joy may be complete.  This is the command:  Love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this -- to lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends.  If you do what is commanded of you, I do not call you servants anymore because a servant does not know what his master is doing.  I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.  You did not choose me, but I chose you.  I appointed you to go and produce fruit, that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the father in my name, He will give to you.  This is what I command -- that you love one another.”

Let's pray together.  Jesus, we want to be a people who are shaped by, compelled by, guided by you.  And you call us to abide in you, to remain in you.  And so, Lord, by the power of Your spirit, right now, in this moment, would you give to each of us a sense of Your abiding presence.  You remain in us, and we remain in You.  Lord, for those of us Lord who are weary of trying to produce fruit by our own might and our own power, right in this moment, Lord, would you give to us a sense of your calm?  You are rest and, you call us to take up your easy and light yoke.  Help us to recognize the way that you have set before us and the means in which you call us to follow your way, Jesus, even though it not be easy.  You give us the power to take every step that you call us to.  Continue, Lord, to shape us into the type of people who look like you, Jesus.  We ask these things, knowing that you love us and You're powerful to bring them about, and we entrust ourselves to You, Amen.  ... (End of sermon, announcement follows.)

In a moment, we're going to do something that was mentioned a moment ago.  On the front lawn we've got some of the construction materials – namely, cinder blocks.  They're going to be used in the construction of the elevator for the two-story kids’ building.  The reason that we're building this elevator is that we believe that everyone from our community, regardless of their abilities, ought to be able to participate in the life-giving ministry that's going on here, as we point people to Jesus.  And we recognize that the only way to the second story of our kids’ building was to climb stairs, which limited accessibility.  And so a couple years ago we raised funds through our Build 100 vision, and we received those funds.

Actually -- this is crazy -- at the time just before COVID hit, we received a donation from another local church for $200,000 because they believed in what we were doing.  At the time we thought that's awesome because we had raised a couple-hundred thousand.  I'm forgetting the details around inside my head, but we had raised a lot, as well.  What we didn't see coming -- the price of the elevator doubled since we had initially laid out our plans in 2019.  What a blessing that God used another church to help us cover the spread!   And so we're able to build this not only because of your generosity, but also the generosity of the people of God here in Phoenix who believe in this.

So, what we're going to do today as this construction begins this week, I'm going to ask that you would go out and find a brick.  And I believe there's some Sharpie pens available, and I'm going to ask that you would just say a prayer -- not over the elevator, but for the people who will use it.  That they would meet Jesus, that they would be drawn to Jesus, and that Jesus would use this church family to minister to them. And if you want to write out a prayer or make a mark, or you can just a note or a drawing -- whatever works for you.  If you would just write that on those bricks, and for those of you who have children in Adventure Kids who want to do that together as a family, please go pick the kids up first.  Bring them out.  There'll be plenty of time available for us.  And, by the way, these will not be exposed after the construction is done.   So if you want a memory of it, you know, take a picture of it because we got to plaster the outside of the thing.

We are doing this as an act of striving to follow the Jesus way, and so as a church family let's also be a people who pray as we take those steps forward.  Let me just talk to the folks online really quickly.  I know we couldn't mail you a brick.  The postage was a little expensive, so here's what we're going to do.  On the front page of our website dot church, there's a contact form.  If you fill out that contact form, just say “Hey, I wanted somebody to put this on a brick,” if we receive that -- maybe it's a prayer or or a statement or whatever -- If you send that in, we will transcribe that onto one of those bricks for you.  Just send that to us and we'll write that out this week on your behalf.

But please also be in prayer that God would use this to bless the children and the students will be utilizing this in the many years to come.  So church family, love, y'all.  More importantly Jesus loves you so much.  We'll see you guys next time. ###

Desert Springs Bible Church, August 29, 2021

I am so thankful to our Worship and Arts team for the work that they put in each week.  Right now, our Worship and Arts Pastor Danny is on sabbatical, and many of the team members have stepped up over the last few weeks to lead us.  They practice during the week.  They do a bunch of planning and prayer, just to be able to lead us in worship.  Can we say thank you, too? So, we're in the middle of a series called Groundwork, in which we're looking at some of the core values of our church family and exploring the texts that those are derived from.  On your way in, and you should have received a handout that looks like this.  If you do not have a handout, just raise up your hands, throw them up in the air, and wave them around like you just don't care. Then one of our hosts will get that handout to you.  One of the reasons why we are printing it out each week for y'all is so you can mark it up and make notes.  You can see that I actually did all my sermon prep on this one, and so I'm going to preach from that, as well as a couple other notes. Our hope is that for those of you who are part of the DSBC family is that you would have a deeper understanding of how it is that we're wired and where that comes from -- where our core values come from.  Today, we're going to be in Ephesians Chapter 4 verses one through six.  For those of you who are watching online, we have our digital version of our study guide available.  If you go to DSBC dot church, on the front page of the website you'll see a Groundwork link.  There's a button you can press there to find all five of our study guides. Today we're on the third one, and we are looking at the one with the heart on it.  It reads as follows: “As a church family, we seek to live generously, using our time, skills and resources to bless and serve our community and to live as the hands and feet of Jesus.”  Now for many of us, when we hear the word generosity, we in kind of instinctively think that we're talking about what?  Money.  And I think that's a symptom of the fact that we are drenched in an individualistic, consumer-based, capitalistic culture.  When we hear generosity, we immediately just go to money.  In fact, for many of us are clenching up right now, because we're afraid that all the pastor wants is our … And that's true.  That's very true.  I want your money.  I want it so bad I can taste it.  I’m not at all adverse to accepting your money. Now, here's one of the beautiful things about Desert Springs and the way that Jesus has wired this church.  We have a leadership team.  We have a board of directors and a Council of servant leaders who oversee me and make sure that I don't use this stage or my position to manipulate people or guilt people into giving me their money.  Because there's a highly likelihood that I would probably fall into that, because I really do think I would spend your money better than you do. What we're going to do today is we're actually we're not going to talk about generosity as it's expressed through the giving of financial resources, primarily.  What we're going to look at is something more that's actually more global, as we think about generosity and also something that ends up coming up more in Scripture -- at least in my reading. Let's see if we can put on our global Christian hats as we read through this text and even think through what this might look like in our day-to-day lives.  Before I read the text, I want to ask you a question that was posed to me at a a global leadership summit, which is a leadership-development summit that some of our team participated in with just a few weeks ago.  Albert Tate, who's a pastor and author, asked this question, and it shook me to the core:  What if 2020 was the lesson, and now is the test? What if 2020 and all of its trappings -- all of the chaos, all of the difficulty, all of the gnarly stuff that we've frankly continued to go through to this day -- what if all of that is the lesson, not the test?  See, for many of us, we look at these massive shifts in culture, … we look at these massive events that have happened and we say, “This is difficulty.  This is a trial.  This is a tribulation.  This is a test.”  But what if God used the last season not as the test, but what if it was the lesson, and the test is yet to come?  What if how we choose to live now is actually the test? This is something I've been thinking about since that time -- and I think it ties to our text today because the text that we're going to read through today in Ephesians Chapter 4 talks about our lives and how we're choosing to live our day-to-day lives as it relates to living generously.  And I believe that in this text, we will find that living generously mirrors God.  That generosity is an expression of grace, and that generosity grows us. We're going to go through this quickly because, for those who can see in the room here, we have our campuses set up a little bit differently today.  Because after my remarks, we're actually going to break out.  There are tables all around in our worship center and in our lobby that represent some of the different ministries here at DSBC.  Some of our ministry team members will be staffing those tables after this, and they are ready to provide you with information on the different ministry opportunities that are here.  There's also information on ministry opportunities that exist outside of our church family with some of our partner ministries that will be in the lobby.  I'll give you some more instruction on that as we move forward.  For those of you who are joining us online, you can simply click on the “Serve” button at the top of the online platform, and there's information on many of the different teams that are available to serve on here -- some of which are in person, and some of which are available to you to do from your home online, as well. So, Ephesians 4 verses one through 16.  I'm going to go through the verses, and we're just going to notice some different things about the text.  Then we will take it home to see how this might be used of God to shape us, even today.  In this moment, Ephesians 4 one through 16: “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received … *** Time out.  What's the verb he's urging? What's the word?  Walk.  So, right off the bat, we see that to follow Jesus, to follow the Jesus way, requires action.  It requires walking.  It's not just something that we ponder.  It's not just something that we pray over.   It's also something that we put into practice with our walk.  We're going to walk the way worthy of the calling that you have received.  *** Let’s move on to Verse 2: “With all humility, gentleness with patience, bearing with one another, making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace … *** *** Time out.  If you've been with us for the last couple of weeks, this may start sounding really familiar to you -- this call to unity, to be long-suffering with one another, to be gracious with one another.  In fact, a couple weeks ago we had a table up here with a bunch of hats on it, and we talked about how we're a bunch of misfits from all different backgrounds and walks of life and perspectives who are bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus.  Last week, we talked about how the job of the leadership here is not to indoctrinate you and to convince you to just say whatever we think you should say.  Our role is to equip you, by the power of the Spirit, to discern how the Spirit of God is convicting you, based on your understanding as we read collectively as a church family.  Then when we think about putting that into practice, which is what we're doing today, we recognize that as we practice our faith, as we walk our faith, as we walk our faith with a bunch of people who are different than us, we may bump into each other over time.  Any of this happen to y'all?  Which is why you see these consistent calls for unity – the unity of the spirit, verse three, and the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.*** Verses four through six: “There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all who is through all and in all.”  Did you catch the one language just over and over and over again?  There's this really interesting thing that Jesus prayed for His church.  He prayed that we would be as one, just as the Triune God is one. Now check this out in verse 7: “Now Grace was given … *** *** Time out.  What was given?  Grace.  Now for many of us, that word has become kind of oddly religious.  It's got all these religious overtones, but for the original author, whose name was Paul, the original language is caring.  Grace is just a gift.   It's the gift of God. The gift was given to us, so when we think about grace, we recognize that it's a gift from God.  *** “Now the gift was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  So let me ask you this question.  Is God a gracious gift giver?  OK, good, you're following this.  So, when so generosity mirrors God’s character -- when we're generous to each other, when we give gifts to each other -- it is mirroring the character and the actions of God.  You all with me so far?  To give gifts -- and I don't just mean like presents, I mean to give generously of our time, our energy, our resources -- is to mirror the character of God. Verse 7-8:  “For now Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  Therefore, it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to His people.’” It says, “when He ascended on high.”  Now this sounds weird.  When He ascended on high, He took the captive and gave gifts to His people.  Now two things.  Doesn't that sound weird?  Yeah, that sounds weird.  OK, here's what's going on.  Do you know when you're at the club -- I've seen you guys at the club, right? -- You guys know when you're at the club, and DJ Funky Fresh has some sweet beats -- “bootcha, bootcha.”  (Rhythmic sounds) You guys with me?  OK, so maybe I'm not connecting. OK, so when you're at the club -- actually you guys should all go to the club for little Biblical study -- so you're at the club, DJ Funky Fresh is up there, and then every now and again they'll just have kind of like some, you, know “bootcha, bootcha bootcha.” (Musical beats).  And then they will play a clip from a song that's popular to what the DJ thinks everyone in the room is gonna remember or recognize, right?   And those of us who like good music are gonna think, “I know what that is.”  Did they play the whole Aerosmith song?  No, the DJ just sampled the Aerosmith song in order to queue up into your mind the entirety of Aerosmith catalog.  And you're doing all this in a brief amount of time with just a few words. Now notice what the author does -- the author, DJ Funky Fresh Paul, is going to sample or bring in lyrics from Psalm 68 and his intention, I believe, is to bring in the full weight of that psalm, which is speaking to the generosity and the power of God.  You guys with me so far? OK, so a lot of times when you read your Bible -- which you should do a lot, and definitely with a bunch of people who are not like you so you can argue about it and actually find maturity.  When you do that, you will notice that the New Testament authors are always doing this.  They're doing it more than DJ Funky Fresh down at the club.  All the time, they're pulling in previous Scripture -- which is why I think you should read the entire Bible all the time, 1000 times and argue about it until you're dead so that you can be wise, OK? Where are we?  Verse nine, OK.  Now, this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that “He also descended to the lower parts of the Earth?”  Is that weird?  Yeah, I think it's weird. Verse 10, “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above the heavens, so that He might fill all things.”  I think what the author is doing here, I think the author is just riffing on and giving you kind of an illustrated version of the death, the incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus -- that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, took on flesh and descended and even descended into the grave, and then did what on Easter?  Ascended. Do you see what the author is doing here?  He's kind of giving you a visual illustration of what Jesus did.  We're going to talk about the good gifts of God and how God has given even himself, that he's descended and then ascended because he's powerful, which ties to Psalm 68. Verse 11:  “And He himself gave …” Here's that giving language again.  “He himself gave some as apostles, and some asprophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.”   So, these are different roles, at least in the author's view. These are different roles within a local church or a local church community within a local city or region.  And He says God gives these people -- He gives them as gifts to each other.  So, I would just want to press pause here. If you're part of DSBC, you're a gift of God to the other people here. I know this will sound weird, but we’ll get over it.   We are not passive participants.  This is not a consumeristic enterprise, right?  I'm not a performer and in you the audience.  We're gifts given to each other.  Have you ever recognized the fact that God has given the other people a part of your church family as a gift to you?  Let me let me lean in on it, especially the ones who frustrate you.  That's a gift. Let's keep going.  It got really quiet.  Why did God give as a gift these different leaders?  Look at verse 12: “ ... to equipthe saints for the work of service, to building up of the body of Christ.”  Equip for what?  The work of ministry, the work of service, right?  Notice again the physical language.  We're going to walk according to our calling.  The work of the ministry. We’re going to work and serve.  God gave these leaders to equip the saints, verse 12, for the work of ministry -- to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ. Fullness …. *** OK, press pause.  Number one, living generously mirrors the character of God.  Two, generosity is an expression of God's grace.  We are group.  We are gifts to each other.  Third, living generously grows us.  *** Now, I get the question a lot in my field -- this may sound like a surprise to you, but sometimes maybe once or twice I wrestle with pride and arrogance.  Thank you, Jeff, for being shocked.  I appreciate your feigning surprise, and unfortunately, I think a lot of people in my position do, too.  That's not a slam on them.  It just kind of goes with the territory.  One of my greatest temptations in my vocation is to view butts-on-seats as the marker to my health and validity.  To put it another way, if the crowd is big, I feel big.  If the crowd is small, how do I feel?  Small.  Does that sound like Jesus to you?  It doesn't sound like Jesus to me, either, which is why I'm continually in a place of repentance for that. When I hear language about growing the church, my default temptation is to think that's right.  “How do we get more butts-on-seats, so I can build my brand?”  Do you think that's what the apostle Paul has in mind when He writes to the Ephesian church and talks about church growth?  No, I think that's American consumerism that has infected the local church, and we're doing as much as we can-- I'm trying to do as much as I can -- to submit to other leaders to make sure that we don't become that.  When the apostle is talking about the growth of the church, notice the metric.  It's not butts-on-seats, it's not budgets, right?  The health of the church is not in the amount of people who are in the room.  Notice what the marker of a healthy church is.  I'm going to read it again.  See if you can discern it. Verse 12 … “to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.”  What is the mark of a healthy church?  There are two of them.  Did you see?  Unity and looking like Jesus. I'm going to do it one more time.  In the American consumeristic, individualistic culture, we can often assume that bigger is always better.  That is not the marker of a healthy church, according to my understanding of what Paul is writing here.  The leadership is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.  So you've got a church that's serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith until -- let's go -- until Democrats and Republicans can be a part of a church family without it being a big deal.  When we can sit across from the table from one another and not view each other with suspicion.  Then we discover that those political leanings are actually so down the line in terms of importance to the things that we find ourselves doing and caring about that.  It's not just a joke. Are we there yet?  I read your Facebook pages.  That sounded like I'm Santa Claus, right?  Like I see you when you're sleeping, and I know when you're awake. Church family, if there was ever a time that our community needs to see the reconciling, peacemaking, unifying work of the Gospel across everything that divides us, it's right now.  I hear a lot of people talk about spreading the good news, but if we're not living the good news, our words will fall on deaf ears, as hypocrisy always undermines the spreading of the Gospel.  So, unity … look at verse 13. We all “reach unity of the faith and in the knowledge of God the Son to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness ofChrist.”  The second marker of a healthy church growing into maturity is a stature measured by what?  What does the end of verse 13 say?  What is the mark of maturity?  I hear people say, “I'm a mature Christian,” and I just I want to say OK, what's your marker for maturity?  If I read Ephesians 4, I don't know that I ever want to use the phrase “I am a mature Christian.”  Because if I'm understanding Ephesians 4 correctly, the measure of maturity that I'm aiming for is to be like Jesus.  And Lord knows, I ain't there yet.  When do we stop growing?  When do we stop repenting?  When do we stop asking? “The Lord searched me and knows me ...See if there be any offensive way in me and lead me to the path of life.”  When do we stop doing that?  So, our aim to grow together through service and unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  Our goal is to grow up and to be more like Jesus.  Here is the effect of this.  See if this sounds like 2022.  You remember 2020 may not have been the test; it may be the lesson.  And the test is now verse 14 … “Then we will be no longer be little children, tossed by the waves.” Over the last year, have you ever had an experience that made you feel like a little kid in a boat in a storm?  And as we mature, as we serve, as we seek and strive and fight for unity, and put the gifts that God has given us into practice, we become more like Jesus.  We become less like a kid on a boat in a storm, tossed around and knocked around by everything that's upsetting and frustrating and confusing and offensive. “ … By every wind of by human cunningness, with cleverness and the techniques of deceit,” Verse 15, “speaking the truthin love.”  Maybe it doesn't quite translate into English, but another way to do this is called “truthing” -- to be about the truth.  “Living it, let us grow into every way into Him Who is the head into Christ from Him the whole body fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love …" The proper what? How do we collectively grow up as an interwoven community?  How do we grow up into the image and likeness of Jesus? What's the last line say?  As each of us do what in love? “In love by the proper working of each individual part.”  If you're a part the Desert Springs church family, according to this text, I would argue that you are a gift of God to this church family, just as the other people here are a gift to you.  And through the proper working of your gifts, skills, talents and resources -- and the generous living out of those gift skills, talents and resources to the ministry -- which is another word to say service to others – not only will they receive a gift that God has for them through you, but also, as you serve, there's a new gift waiting for you.  The more we give, the more we receive.  This is the metric of the Kingdom of God. “He who finds his life loses it, “Jesus said.  “But they who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  It's the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God -- the more that we give our time, our energy, our talents and our resources in the service of others -- the more gifts that we receive.  This is at work constantly in and through our church family. I'm going to land the plane here with just a few encouragements, and then I'll give you final instructions.  There was a person who met Jesus at this church who didn't know much about the Bible.  He said, “I don't know much about the Bible.  I kind of, you know, learned at a kid’s level.  Can I volunteer to teach kids the Bible?  We said, “Yeah, that sounds great.”  So, he would learn the Bible on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then on Sunday teach what He had learned to a first and second graders.  He said, “This is great for me because I get to learn it in a way that comes alive for me.”  His faith rapidly increased exponentially more than the gift that He was giving from these first and second graders. There's another person who I was talking to years ago, and He said, “You know, my faith is dry.  To put it another way, He said, "You know, following Jesus is boring.”  My question was, “Well, are you using your gifts to serve other people?”  His reply was, “Not really.”  And my encouragement this time was, “Put your faith into practice.  Walk the walk, get out and serve.  Use your gifts to serve and just see if you don't see sparks starting to fly.”  And sure enough, they found that it was when that they were putting what they had received in here, when they started putting it into practice as the hands and feet of Jesus, their faith started coming alive.  It's not only a gift to others; it's also a gift to us. There's a person I know who wasn't sure about what they thought about Jesus but liked our church family, and this is actually a corollary to my own story, and it was through serving and being in proximity to other Jesus followers who were serving that He actually found a faith in Jesus.  You see, there's always a gift for us when we serve. Still others of us -- I know our student ministries, many of whom are in the house today.  Did you do you guys have a good night?  You know that they're tired?  And I'm gonna tell you why you're tired.  You guys were here till midnight cleaning up last night, right?  Yeah, so our student ministries hosted an enormous back-to-school event, and we had hundreds of kids on the campus.  I was standing there with one of the leaders, the adult leaders, the coaches who are just regaling me with story after story of how they have seen God at work in the lives of these students.  And it's made their faith come alive. When we give, there's always a gift for us to receive, and here's one of the sweetest ones.  There's a woman who's connected to our congregation who is in her 80s, and she's not able to get out as much and isn't able to spend time with kids or students or the production team or the hospitality team.  But she does love to pray for people, and so she's committed to praying over people and then writing prayer cards of encouragement.  From her own kitchen table, she is sending those to people who have asked for prayer.  And it's been such a crucial ministry. And there are so many other ways that we get to see God at work.  There' was a lady named Gail here in the first service.  In 2016 or 2015, we did a sermon series that addressed physical assault, sexual assault and abuse.  One of the things we were praying about at the time was that we didn't have a ministry connected to our church family that helped people find healing.  We said, “We don't just want to do a sermon.  We want to have communities to come around and to serve.”  And so, we just started praying, “Lord help this to happen.  We don’t know what to do.”   Gail felt a call in her heart.  She filled out a connection card and just said, “Hey, I think God is telling me that we should start a Mending the Soul group here at Desert Springs, and that's how Mending the Soul at Desert Springs got started.  And since that time there have been many within our church, family and community who have gone through that program and found healing in Jesus. The reason I say that is because oftentimes, almost all the time, the best ideas come from the pew, not the pulpit.  And all my staff members said Amen.  Thank you, yes.  So, here's what we're going to do.  We're going to break here in just a moment.  For those of you who are already serving, I'm going to ask that you would spend time walking to each of the stations and just praying a prayer of blessing over those stations.  And if you have a word of encouragement to give to the ministry-team members who are there, I'd encourage you to encourage them.  Remember, God gives us as gifts to each other, and whenever we give, there's always a gift waiting for us.  And for those of you who maybe even been praying through, maybe even in this last season -- “Lord, what have You prepared me for?  You've wired me.  You've called me.  Where are you calling me to, Sir?" -- maybe there's a ministry that's the Lord's going to direct you to.  Or maybe you just need to visit all the different stations.  I'd encourage you to do that.  Our ministry team members will be available at the tables.  The Worship and Arts Ministry, by the way, will be up here on the stage after I vacate their premises.  There's a bunch in the lobby as well, and so make sure to visit those.  If the Lord is calling you, fill out that connection card and give it to them.  Or you can ask questions.  You can come visit and shadow. We also know that there's a ton of great ministries in the Valley in our area to serve with.  We have some partner ministries available.  There's a table in the lobby where you can grab that information to serve alongside ministries that are outside of our organization.  There's also a table called The Ministry That Doesn't Exist Yet.  And it may well be that God has laid on your heart a gift to this church family, a ministry that doesn't exist yet.  And so if you would just prayerfully write that out with just left index cards there, make sure you put your contact information and drop that in there.  We are we're going to commit to praying over that and reaching out and having a conversation.  Because, again, a lot of the best ideas come from the pews and not the pulpit. And then for some of us who are still trying to figure this all out, in the lobby there's a “What Happens When” table or booth.  It's got some information on what happens when you serve, and what happens when you give.  I'd encourage you just to take one of those booklets.  Otherwise, the different ministries are labeled by the signs that you'll see available.  For those of you who are joining us online, if you just click that Serve button at the top of the online platform, or just visit our website at DSBC dot church at the bottom of our website, there is a communications form.  We'd love to help you take whatever next step you are moved to.  We also have some opportunities to serve from your own home digitally, as well as doing things like writing out prayer notes. So, I'm going to pray for us, church family.  I need you to hear me on this.  We do not recruit volunteers.  In fact, that word is a curse word in our office.  Because a volunteer -- I get that the word is common language, and that's fine -- but a volunteer sets up this power dynamic, where there's staff and volunteers.  That's not what we're doing here.  According to this text, it tells me that the leaders who have been gifted to the local church, their job is to equip, empower, and deploy all of the Jesus followers in that congregation to be the ministers to one another, to this community, to those around the world.  That's our role.  So, we don't have volunteers.  We have ministry team members. I know that that sounds kind of funny but let me tell you something.  That power dynamic wrapped up in volunteerism is not connected to what we find in Scripture.  The ownership for this church family and the Mission of God in and through Desert Springs does not reside in the staff.  It’s in us.  It's the body together, woven together, lifting each other up in love, and together growing into Christlikeness. So, I want to encourage you -- for your own maturity and because of the gifts that you will bring other people within this church, family and within this community -- would you prayerfully consider how it is that God is calling you to step in? So let me pray for us.  Lord Jesus, we love You, and we give You thanks for the many ways You provide for us and bless us.  And as we think on and consider how it is that you might be calling us to love and serve one another in this community, would you show us clearly, even today, what direction on that path that we might walk Your way faithfully?  We love you, Lord.  It's in Your name we pray.  Amen, Amen. ###  

We are in the middle of a series called” Groundwork,” in which we're looking at some of the foundational truths of what makes a Desert Springs kind of unique. These are some of our core values and today we're going to talk about everybody's favorite topic – namely, your relationship to the Bible.
Yeah, huh? I think you guys are gonna be jazzed about that. On your way in you should have received a handout with today's text. If you did not get a handout, please raise your hand and some of our amazing hosts will get that handout to you. We would love for you to have that so you can follow along and also make notes.
If you're joining us online, you can visit our website, d-s-b-c dot church, and right on the front page you'll see a big link for “Groundwork” and a link to download our study guides I thought what we could do -- because everyone again is just so excited to talk about their relationship with the Bible -- I thought what we would do today is kick the sermon off with a little game show I like to call “That's not in the Bible.”
You guys thought this wasn't gonna be a fun day? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages -- welcome to everybody's favorite game show “That's not in the Bible.” Now I have to my right team number one, and I have to my left team number two. The way that the game is played is that these contestants will square off against against one each other. I will read a phrase. We have surveyed 72 theologians commentators -- we didn't do that actually,, but it makes the game go better. We surveyed them on whether or not this phrase in the Bible.
All right, hands on the table please. “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
“That is not in the Bible.”
Correct, that is not in the Bible. Next contestant, hands on the table, please.
“Only the good die young,”
“Ah, that is not in the Bible.”
That is correct. Next contestant, please hands on the table. After surveying 72 theologians, commentators and preachers, we have found that this phrase is either in the Bible or not in the Bible. The phrase is “Money is the root of all evil.”
“That is definitely in the Bible.”
I'm sorry that is, in fact, not in the Bible.
All right hands on the table, please, for the next phrase. “15 minutes could save you 15% on car insurance.”
“That's not in the Bible
That is correct.”
Bible next contestants, please, hands on the table. “The ends justify the means.”
“I don't think that's in the Bible.”
Correct, that is not in the Bible. Next contestant, please. “God will never give you more than you can handle.”
“In the Bible.”
Sorry, that is not in the Bible. Next contestant, hands on the table, please.
Government is a necessary evil
“I don't think that's in the Bible.
That is correct. Next contestant, please, hands on the table. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
“Ah, not in the Bible.”
That is correct. It is not in the Bible. We're coming down to the last few questions here. Ladies and gentlemen, hands on the table, please. “Capitalism is the best economic theory.”
“If Billy Graham has taught me anything, that is definitely in the Bible.”
Sorry, that's not in fact in the Bible, I'll show you something that's in the Bible. Last couple of questions here. Hands on the table. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
“I'm gonna say that's not in the Bible.”
That is correct. That's not in the Bible. Last two questions, here we go. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights -- that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
“I don't think that's in the Bible though.”
Correct, that is not in the Bible. Last question, hands on the table, please. “If you are good enough, you get to go to heaven when you die.”
“Yes, that is in the Bible.”
Sorry, that's definitely not in the Bible. Ladies and gentlemen, team two takes the cake. Thanks for playing our game, “That's not in the Bible.” Our production team has really outdone themselves today. That is amazing. Thank you all so much for doing that.
So, I want to encourage you to think critically about your relationship with the Bible. There are so many different ways to think about the Bible. Oftentimes there's just the temptation not to really think about the Bible. So what we're going to do today is look at how we as a church family understand what the Scriptures are telling us and how we should be engaging with the text as a church family and also a little bit of work around the role of leadership in that regard.
If you received your handout on the way in, you'll notice and on the front it says we work to equip people to discover their own convictions by the power of the Spirit. And if you open that up and you'll have second Timothy 3 verses 10 through 17. If you have your Bibles I encourage you to follow along. Also, as I said, we have it printed out for you so you can underline, make notes and things like that.
I think this is one of the most crucial texts in the Bible about how it is that we're to approach the Bible. So my question to you is: How would you describe your relationship with the Bible? Or to put it in another way, how would you describe the Bible's relationship to you?
My hope for today is that you will have a joyous, curious, sometimes fun, profound and shaping relationship with the Bible. That's kind of what we're about at Desert Springs, so we're going to look at second Timothy 3 verses 10 through 17. I'm going to read through the whole thing and then we'll go through and make some notes -- just comment and make some notes on some things for our time together today. So this is Second Timothy 3, verses 10 through 17.
“Now you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love and endurance, along with the persecutions and suffering such as happened at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and yet the Lord rescued me from them all! In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. From infancy you have known the Sacred Scriptures which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, for training, and righteousness so that the person of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.” This is the word of the Lord.
So let's just notice some things, shall we? Number one, notice how the author starts off the text. He says” Now you have followed my teaching, conduct purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance … Let's just press pause for a minute … What are we reading? We're reading a letter, probably. Notice there's a writer, and then a recipient. And you're going to notice that what we're reading in Second Timothy, one -- of the reasons why it's called Second Timothy is because we understand it to be written from old pastors coming near the end of his life named Paul to a younger pastor named Timothy and Paul is kind of writing to his protege, Timothy, giving us some encouragement -- and giving him encouragement because Timothy is facing discouragement. He's facing conflict. He's facing a turmoil. He is facing pressure from others.
So Paul is writing Timothy, “You have followed my teaching What's the next word? Conduct, purpose or mission. faith, patience, love and endurance, along with the persecutions and suffering that came in these different places. Notice what he says first of all. He's talking about the relationship that he has with Timothy, and I want to just ask you this question: Is conduct, love, patience and faith something you look for in those that you let teach you?
We live in the digital age. We let so many different voices speak into our lives. And many times one of the things that we do is we, we only filter through the question “Is this good content?” Is the content of the teaching good? Is it riveting? Is a good presentation? Is it solid? Is it good content?
But I want you to notice that throughout Scripture, you'll notice that content is rarely, if ever separated from conduct as it relates to the integrity of the teacher. Notice in the text … “You have followed my what? My conduct, my teaching and my what? I want you to notice that throughout Scripture, you'll notice that content is rarely, if ever separated from conduct as it relates to the integrity of the teacher. Notice in the text … “You have followed my what? My conduct, my teaching and my what?
Now I'm going to say something that I think is going to sound self-serving, but I think I got to do it anyways. I know that I'm not everybody’s pastor, but for now I'm yall’s pastor. We'll see how the next week goes, right? I love serving most of the time. I love serving as your pastor. And I love you, I really do. I have many of your names like in a book, I pray for y'all as much as I can, specifically if not in general. Again, this sounds self-serving, but it's to a greater point: There's this part in Scripture that talks about bearing people in their body. I, especially over the last year and a half, I have felt more physically carrying you with me as your pastor. I love you guys. What I'm about to say is important: The person on the screen that you've never met is not your pastor. I am my most polished self when I'm up here. Now some of us wish that we would see a little bit of that polish once in a while. I get it. I'm trying, alright. I'm taking classes.
But if what I say here isn’t lived out when you see me with my wife and kids, ... when you see me with the staff, … when you see me with at the volunteer coordination... When you see me in those ways, if what I say here doesn't line up with here, then there's little integrity to the teaching, right? In fact, one of the things that happens -- and I'm still trying to process this through -- but in my career as a pastor, I've been on staff here for like 15 years, I have watched numerous people who I learned from, that their life and conduct did not line up with their teaching, and it became public. And of course, the news outlets pick it up and here's why. I think news outlets pick it up is because they think that Christians should practice what they preach. And I'm not trying to slam anybody. I mean my heart breaks. You guys gotta hear me on this. Let me be real clear. I am not above any of it. It could be me tomorrow, right?
But I think one of the reasons why it makes headlines so much is number one, everybody is hungry for gossip. I get that too, but there is a connection between one’s teaching and one’s lifestyle. Because the teaching is meant to shape your life. So my question for you is: Who are you letting teach you? And does their conduct line up? Their patience -- does it line up? Does it? Does it? Does it smell like Jesus? Do their lives look like Jesus to the best of their ability? I'm going to ask you all to do something, and I've been trying to do this over the last year, especially. I'm going to encourage you to do a voices audit.
So have you guys ever tried to diet? Growing up, I would just take anything that tasted good and put it in my mouth. And there was a certain point in my life where my body started reacting negatively to what I was feeding it. Does this happen to you? You'll eat something and your body will tell you, “No, stop that. And you're like, “Listen, it's just a small Papa John's pizza. Come on, body, you could knock it off.” Because we know we recognize as we mature, we recognize that what we put in us shapes us.
So what are you putting in here? What are the voices that you are allowing to teach you, to feed you? What voices are you eating? What voices are you consuming? Are these voices -- especially ones that speak of Jesus -- are they marked by godly conduct? Godly purpose? A Jesus-centered faith? Godly patience talk radio? Godly love and godly endurance?
You see, we will be unhealthy if we only look at the content of those who teach us, and not the conduct. By the way, haven't you noticed? Most of the time we learn by watching others put their teaching into practice. Again, I'm not saying don't learn from other people. But especially for those in the pastoral function -- those who are teaching the ways of Jesus – conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance it's all, it's all interwoven. The character of the teacher is important, which is why Paul says to Timothy, remember those from whom you learn the faith, which means that he was taught the faith by people that he trusts, by people whose integrity he believes in.
Let's keep going. “What persecutions I've endured, and yet the Lord rescued me from them …" *** OK, TV time out. This is so good. You know, in some churches when people hear something that they agree with or that they affirm, you know what? There's a four-letter word they say out loud. Amen. OK so you guys have been a charismatic church so you'll say OK. But we don't have something that we say when we don't like what the text says. I'd like to just give you a tool. I don't know if this ever happened to you. You're reading the Bible and it's like God loves everybody and you're like hey man and it's like you need to change your behavior. Yeah, OK, watch this. “What persecutions I endured yet the Lord rescued me from them... “ In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted. This is great, right? So I think what Paul saying here is don't view pressure, pushback or persecution as if you are doing something wrong. For if you try to live the Jesus way -- let me talk about your political affiliation, everybody's, favorite topic -- and you're hanging out with others that are of like mind of your political affiliation. But there's times, aren't there, where living the Jesus way means going contrary to the way that the partisan path has taken you. And then you get viewed with suspicion. You're an outsider now. I think what Paul saying is don't view that as something as if you're doing something wrong. Following the Jesus way, it's normal to get that push back. ***
By the way, I think Pastor Paul is saying this to his protege Timothy because every leader has a similar experience. Haven't you been in this position before? Where you're leading something and you're getting so much pushback. And you start to ask yourself, am I doing the right thing? Is this even the right way? And yet Paul is saying, hey, listen, that's always going to happen.
This is Paul to Timothy: “Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.” Notice the language. Of evil people and impostors … He's saying there will be others, Timothy, who come in and pretend to proclaim the Jesus way, and yet they're evil people or they’re impostors, which is why he tethers the teaching to the conduct. Yes, there these impostors. Are these evil people who are coming in trying to proclaim? I'm going to use the language of a bastardized gospel. He says, “If you look at their conduct, it doesn't line up with the teachings of Jesus. And so this pushback you're getting, Timothy, it's normal. And this is what's normal: Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. So he's trying to encourage. Is this sounding encouraging to you? If you're Timothy and Paul is saying that this is always going to be happening and it's just going to get worse, wouldn’t you think, “I should have Gone into a different line of work. Right? Well, what he's trying to do is normalize contention, frustration, arguments. I mean, just it's a normal part of pursuing Jesus.
OK, let's do this. For starters, I really want to encourage you not to borrow other people's convictions. One of the reasons why we've said our statement the way that we do -- that we're here to help equip people to discern by the power of the Spirit -- to discern their own convictions, because borrowed convictions are lazy and dangerous. Here's what I mean. One of my tendencies is that when I'm confronted with a decision or an understanding of Scripture, one of my tendencies is to go to Google and type in. What does insert favorite author think about this? And then just think, “Oh, I like them, so I’ll think that way, too.
And I've done it. Maybe some of you guys have done it. I don't think it's wrong to discern and discover what other people believe. What I think is lazy and dangerous is just to borrow their convictions and make it my own simply because they're my favorite preachers. Borrowed convictions … there's no foundation to them. There's also no joy in them. And here's what ends up happening that I've been watching, especially over the last couple few years. We end up borrowing our favorite theologian, or a favorite pastor or favorite celebrities’ convictions, and then we just fight with people who don't share the same conviction. Because they're not on our team. It's more about are you on the right team than do you share this belief? And how can we help each other explore Jesus together? We've made the conversation around our convictions into warfare, where there's a good guy and a bad guy and I need to destroy you and your argument in order to move forward. I just want to encourage you it's not warfare, it's journeying towards Jesus together.
All right, let's keep going. Let's do this. Have you guys ever heard the phrase? Maybe you've said it yourself. “The Bible says. I believe it that settles it.” I just want to encourage you: If you've ever said that before I've said it before, don't don't do that anymore. And here's why. I get what I think the statement is coming from. “I don't let cultural preferences or mass media discern what's true. The Bible is true, and so I believe it, and I'm not going to give in to any anything.”
But, but functionally, here's how this can actually play out. There's a gap in the statement. “The Bible says. I believe it; that settles it. “ There's a big gap between “the Bible says it” and the middle part “I believe” because it is filtered through your lens and your interpretation of what the text says. And when you say the Bible says it, you're assuming my understanding of what the Bible says is the thing that I believe, and that settles it. And I'm not opening to renewing my mind around how I may be misunderstanding the Bible.
In the Book of Romans, it says in verse 12 “do not be conformed any longer to this world’s systems but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Have you ever believed something -- maybe about the Bible or about faith or about Jesus – when it turned out later you found out that you were wrong about? That's a gift. It's the renewing of your mind. Let us be of people who celebrate the renewing of our minds.
When I was 18, I knew all I needed to know about the Bible, and that settled it. I'm a man of firm convictions now. The convictions are a firmness not in my firmness, but in the firm foundation of who Jesus is. My faith is not based on my “what I believe. “ It's on the solid nature of who Jesus is, right? The solid nature of my faith is found in Jesus, because I am weak. And I am wrong so many times. I need to be constantly having my mind renewed by the power of the Spirit as I try to walk the Jesus way. So how dare I look down on someone else who hasn't yet arrived to where I have arrived? Let us be a people who -- when we recognize that we have different convictions between us -- let us be a people who leave room for the Spirit to do His job. Because it's the Spirit’s job to bring the conviction.
Let me tell you a story about Nicholas Mangi, who's one of our elders and will lead us in communion today. We ordained him a while back. Ordination is a way that the church family can recognize God’s call to ministry, and in some traditions it's kind of required to serve as a pastor. So we did an ordination council. An ordination council is like a theological colonoscopy. It's unpleasant for the person on whom it is being performed. There are a lot of questions. Nicholas, you remember there were some seminary professors. I was there. I didn't ask any hard questions 'cause I'm nice.
One of the bishops from Kenya asked Nicholas a question. So you get asked doctrinal questions, theological questions, Biblical interpretation questions, ethical questions, and pastoral questions. And one of the questions was, “Nicholas, how would you counsel a polygamist man with multiple wives who's recently started following Jesus and now is asking, ‘What do you think about my multiple marriages?’”
I've never thought about that, 'cause I've never been confronted with that, but Nicholas has. He was so good. He kind of sat back a little bit. He asked like a dozen really great insightful questions. And he said, “Well, I don't think that the Bible gives a clear direction. So I would just commit to spending a long time reading the Bible together with this man and praying with him and praying that the Spirit of God would convict him of what he needs to do. Because I don't know.”
And I remember thinking “That’s it. So many so many of us are asking questions. What about this situation? What about that situation? What about this situation? We say, “What does the Bible have to say about this situation?” And here's what's so frustrating. It's not a copy-and-paste solution. The Bible doesn't work that way.
Let's keep going. The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. Which Bible? This is the Thomas Jefferson Bible -- I don't know if you can see it on the screen. Thomas Jefferson took the parts of the Bible that he liked, cut them out, pasted them in and made his own Bible. Now we laugh -- and I think it's OK to laugh -- but we're doing the same thing. How much time have y'all spent on Leviticus lately?
I'm not trying to slam anybody. I'm just trying to say listen, it is our nature to just go to what we like. I'm going to zoom in here for a second. OK, there's a ton of stuff in the Bible that's so confusing and frustrating. And that is a feature, not a bug. When you read your Bible -- especially in the context of community, a diverse community like Desert Springs -- and it makes you feel uncomfortable, it's working. It's doing something to you. I'd like to prove it to you.
Let's keep going. OK, copying and pasting, like Thomas Jefferson. This is a slave Bible from the early 1800s. This picture is from a copy of it in the Bible Museum in D.C. This was an approved version of the Bible where all of the stuff around oppression, oppressors, and oppressed -- and about liberation, like the Exodus – was removed. And then it was certified to give to slaves in the British and American British Empire in the American colonies. Which Bible? In the 1930s there was an edited version of the Bible that removed the Jewishness of Jesus. It was certified and read and approved for use under the Nazi regime in Germany.
Which Bible? Which texts? See, my encouragement to you is that it is within all of our capacity to pick and choose things out of the Bible and use them, not as foundations to build our lives upon, but as rocks to throw at others. And we say things like, “The Bible says you're dumb.” That’s not a foundation on which I build my life; it's a stone that I throw at others. So which Bible? What's the Bible designed to do?
OK, “All Scripture is inspired by God...” Oh, this is so cool. You guys want to do Bible nerd stuff real quick? OK, I'm going to go fast. I'm going to go fast 'cause not everyone said yes to the Bible. Nerd question: If you want to write these down, look at Genesis. You just write these down. I'm going to go through Genesis 2 verse 7 and the Gospel of John, Chapter 20, verses 21 through 22.
In Genesis, I'll give you the summary in Genesis. It's this moment in the in the Creation account where God has taken mud, the mud clay of the earth, formed a human and then breathed life into the human. You get this idea of How did the mud become human? What happened, what was God's action?
OK, then there's this really weird enigmatic moment after the Resurrection. Jesus is with his disciples and he's talking about how the spirit of God, -- which, by the way, is oftentimes imagined or portrayed as the wind or Breath of God. In fact, there are multiple times where the spirit is described as moving as if in the wind. And there's this weird moment where Jesus is with his disciples, and he's telling them that the Spirit is coming on them. And then it says he breathed on them. Isn't that weird? It's like “Can't we do hugs or handshakes?” No.
Well, what was Jesus doing? What was the action that God did to breathe life into humanity? And what was the way that Jesus acted? He was sending of His spirit to be the embodiment of the Spirit in his followers. Now, I think that Paul, who's writing to Timothy, picks up on this and we translate it as inspired. If anyone has a Bible, you might have a little footnote that says literally breathed out by God. I'm not trying to fault the translators. They're doing a great job here. But inspiration doesn't quite get the connection to the rest of Scripture. All Scripture is what? Why did God breathe into the human to give them what life, and why did Jesus breathe and say receive in the spirit to give his disciples a Jesus-centered life? Why does God breathe out the Scriptures? To give you what?
… “Profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and righteousness so that the human of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Content is never disconnected from character. What is the use? What is the profitability of the text? What is its goodness? Did you notice win at Bible trivia? No, all scripture is what? Breathed out by God and is profitable for what? Teaching, yeah. And then what? Correcting, training and what now?
That sounds weird, but maybe if we put it another way, a corollary to the word righteousness is just or justice. Right- ness.
Have you ever been in a scenario where you do not know what the right answer is? And then we go to the Bible. We read the Bible. The American tendency is to treat the Bonduel Bible as a manual for life. Have you guys ever looked at your car manual? What compelled you to look at the car manual? Were you just bored? Something broke, a light came on the dash and you said oh I have a problem and I need to know how to fix it. And so you go only to the section in your car manual that's relevant to the light, isn't that right? Unless you're weird, no one reads the whole car manual, only the section that we need. And so we treat the Bible like this. “ I'm faced with an ethical dilemma at my work. My boss says that he wants to steal. And I know if I say something, I'm going to get fired. But I also know if I say something I'll get everyone else fired and then they'll be hungry. The whole business is going to shut down. What do I do? Tell me what to do, Bible”.
“Slay the Amalekites.” It doesn't work like that, does it? And most of us were so frustrated because we wished the Bible would work that way. But there's so much, there's more of a gift. There's more life for us when we engage with the Scriptures the way they are meant to be engaged with.
Second, it's a book of magic words. If I just say the magic incantation, if I just read the thing at my wedding, then everything will be awesome. I’ll put it on my little coffee mug. I’ll say it to myself every day. God works out good for something something for me. I'm gonna get promoted today.
Some of us view the Bible as a code of laws. We copy, we import the Western Post-Enlightenment idea of English law. We read the Scripture through that lens as if it is a code of laws. By the way, if you've ever read the United States Code of Laws, it's a stack of books. Enormous. I I haven't read it, but in my previous job we engaged with it. What the Code of Laws does is that it tries to get a specific answer to specific circumstances. And anytime there's a new circumstance, they amend the law to add that new circumstance. How high should the disposal be for the bio-hazardous material in the doctor's office is explicitly spelled out in our legal system.
Does your Bible work that way? No, it doesn't. For a copy-and-paste guide to godly living, there's a command given to Israel, and there's a command given to Timothy. I'm in a similar circumstance. I'm going to copy it and paste it. I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to pray through it. I'm not going to approach it with humility. Copy, paste.
“I read God's command to slay the Amalekites, and what am I supposed to do? Google, where do the Amalekites live?” Now, if you're an Amalekite here today, I want to tell you that is not how we approach the Bible. Rest easy.
Notice what the text says that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and righteousness, so that the person of God may be complete equipped for every good work. We don't need a copy-and-paste Scripture. We need a Scripture that works on us and makes us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
And there are myriad opportunities for us to put the Jesus way into practice in difficult circumstances. The reason that we engage with the Bible is to be made wise. I want you to read from the text. So how does the Bible work? Look at verse 15 if you would, please. You know verse 15. You know that from infancy you have known the Sacred Scriptures. What are they good for? What are they able to do? Which are able to give you what? Wisdom. What we don't need is a bunch of copy and paste. What we need is godly wisdom. I'd like to prove it to you.
This is a real scenario for many of us in our church family: When do you take the loved-one off life support? What's the right answer? “According to the Bible …" How do you end the toxic relationship? What's the right answer according to Bible? Do you take this job or not? How do you help your kids? How do you apply discipline to your kids, right? Depending on the kid. We need a biblical wisdom to be made wise in a way that leads to the salvation that Jesus brings through faith in Christ Jesus. So the Bible is not those other options.
I love the Bible Project. They say that that the Bible is a unified story that leads you to Jesus. And as we engage with the Scriptures as a community, as a bunch of misfits, we're going to learn that our minds will be renewed and reformed. So hopefully for the rest of our lives, as we take those steps, walking the Jesus way -- where not only our understanding, but also our character is in alignment with who Jesus is and what He's called us to.
So, as a church family I got a question. A friend of mine asked me this question earlier this year. As a church family, we are committed to stepping into all the hardest conversations. I need you to hear me on this. People have asked me, “Caleb, why do we talk so much about controversial issues? If there's ever a place where we need to know what the Jesus way is, isn't it all that controversial stuff? Like the hot issues, the controversial issues -- the issues that when we bring them up, people wince. That, in my opinion, is the space where we need the wisdom of Christ most. One of my friends asked me this question of a few months ago. We were doing a zoom call talking about the church and we just said, hey, we're committed to having these hard conversations, right? Sexual assault and abuse racism, nationalism, the election, face masks.
We're just going to try to figure out the Jesus way. And the question was raised: Is that going to really make a lot of people upset? Yes. What happens if everybody leaves and stops donating? Will we back away then? And for me, that's a gut check. And I'll tell you what I told him that our leadership, our eldership, and our board are all in unanimous agreement. We're not called to the mission of budgets. We're called to disciple whoever it is going to follow walking the Jesus way and empowering people to discern their own convictions by the power of the Spirit.
And we're going to give each other space and grace to let the Spirit do work in those hard-to-reach places, in those hard- to-understand places. Welcome to church. I want to invite you into this journey. There is so much of a gift available to us as a church family as we step into these spaces, giving each other the space needed and the grace needed for the Spirit to do the work -- recognizing that our conduct is tethered to the content that we deliver and that we receive, finding that Jesus way in the midst of the chaos.
So I'd encourage you read your Bible with people who are not like you all the time until you're dead. And then maybe we'll be wise. Jesus has this great journey for us as we step into these spaces. He loves you more than you can ever imagine. I love you all, church, family, I do. And my hope and prayer is that you and I will walk this together.
And by the way, there's something I'm gonna say and then I'm gonna pray. I am not the final authority, like the person on stage with the Bible who told me what to think. That is not at all what we're doing here.
And one of the reasons why we don't do this from a screen -- I mean, I know for those of us online, we're having to be a screen right now -- but we're not built around just broadcasting Caleb's awesome teaching. One of the reasons that we're in proximity to each other, I believe -- and I've seen this happen to me for the last 15 years -- is because sometimes God is going to use you to correct my bad thinking. And right now everyone in this room is thinking, “Good. Let's get the emails started because there's 18 things that Caleb is still wrong on.”
Church family I do love you so much. I love serving as your pastor, and my hope is that you would discern, by the power of the Spirit, what it is that Jesus is convicting you of -- and that together will help each other see Jesus in a more beautiful way and live the light of Jesus in a beautiful way, as well.
Let me pray for us. Lord, we love you. Oh my goodness, I know that, at least for me, Lord, reading the Bible has been a huge journey in transformation. I've found it to be boring and frustrating and crazy and weird. And yet You have been faithful to lead many of us in our church family to spaces of being shaped by Your Word. For those of us who are newer in this journey with you, Jesus, I pray that You would give them curiosity and the endurance to engage in this text as a church family for the long haul, as we remain committed to one another, in union with one another and in union with You. Use our different understandings and our different perspectives and even our differing convictions to minister to and shape one another. For our joy and for Your glory, Amen. ###

Over the last year especially, we have had a bunch of folks, hundreds of folks, who started checking out DSBC.  When they started attending DSBC -- and I know that for some of you -- you've told me that you're here and you had given up on church.  You had given up on God.  You had given up on following Jesus because of one reason or the other.  But something that this church family did piqued your curiosity.  I heard one guy say he’d been away from church for 20 years.  Something that you're all doing piqued his curiosity. “I wanted to come and see the dumpster fire,” he said.  Welcome to church.  We're all about dumpster fires here.

Still others have never been a part of a church family and are checking out Jesus for the first time.  And because of this church family's perspective, values, and decisions, it was a good fit.  And there are many of you who are still trying to figure out who Jesus is.  Just as Dawn mentioned, we're so glad that you're here.  You are free to eavesdrop, so to speak. We love having you as part of our church family, as well.

Still others of you have been a part of our church family for a long time, and others even are meeting Jesus again.  In fact, I met with somebody earlier this year who said that they had been away from following Jesus.  They had met Jesus earlier on in life, and because of some really painful circumstances they had kind of given up.  It was through this church family that they started kind of eavesdropping in again.  This person said to me, “You know, I'd been apart from the church, I'd been apart from Jesus for decades.  But I finally had to come-to-Jesus meeting with Jesus.  And wouldn't you know, he had me back!”

Church family, that's the type of church that you are, the type of church that that puts that on display – that proclaims with our attitudes and our actions that anyone who wants Jesus gets Jesus.  And anyone is welcome at His table.

There are some unique things about Desert Springs.  In this series we're going to try to show our Biblical foundation.  God has wired us in a unique way in a very unique season.  Wouldn't you guys say that this season is unique?  Anybody finding things to be strange?  God has uniquely wired this church family for a unique mission in a unique time in this mission field to be light -- to be ambassadors through our attitudes, our actions, and through our words -- to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.  To proclaim the good news that Jesus is the risen King, and so we’re wired a certain way.

We love other local churches.  We know that we are part of one big church, but we also know that each local church is wired uniquely to serve a unique purpose in a unique place in a unique season.   Another way to say it is that we're weird.  We're super weird, and here are some of the values that make us weird.

Now the first one is on the front of the handout that you should have received on your way in.  For those of you who are joining us online, you should be able to find that link on our online platform for the study guide.  If not, you can visit d-s-b-c dot church and right there on the front page, under “Groundwork,” you'll see a link where you can download these study guides.  We're going to have one for y'all each week.  If anyone needs one, if you could raise your hand.  I think we've got a host or two who can run one out.  So if you guys need one of these, raise your hand.

So here's what we're going to do.  I'm going to encourage you in three ways.   Number one is to make an intentional decision to study these with us each week for the next five weeks, to read the text and to mark it up.  You've got pens in the back of the seat in front of you.  For those of you that are watching online, hopefully you have a digital device in front of you and can make notes.  I want to also encourage you to read these texts throughout the week.

My second encouragement to you is this reflect on the questions that are in there and ask even better ones.  Much of following Jesus is not getting answers to questions but asking better questions.  And so I'm going to encourage you use the questions there for reflection and ask better ones.

And then finally, consider your next step.  Each week we're going to talk about a foundational principle of our church family.  Just ask that the Lord would reveal to you what your next step is.  We're not here to prescribe next steps.  But we are here to equip and empower you to take whatever next step God has in store for you.

When I was a kid growing up, oftentimes at mealtimes our parents would make us sit at the table to have dinner.  Now I'm a I'm a dad of four kids.  We tried this once this week.  I love my kids.  I really do.  They're eleven, nine, five, and two.  And the reason that we tried to do that this week -- in fact, we tried it a couple times.  You know, we're making the meal, setting the table, and everyone is sitting at the table.  The reason that we do this -- and the reason that my parents did it to me and many of our parents did that to us -- is because we recognize that it's at the table that our relationship with one another grows deeper.  Oftentimes our celebrations are around tables.  Oftentimes some of the most difficult decisions that we have are around tables.  You see, the table for any family is formative.  You get to know about one another, but you also get to know about yourself and how you're responding to the other.

But when I was a kid -- and my kids do this too … Have you guys ever found that that your children exhibit or mirror back to you your own besetting sins?  Like who taught you that?  Where did you learn that?   So this is what I did, and this is what my children do.  Any time it's boring, frustrating, confusing, or just downright not what they want to do -- you know what the kids do?  You know what I did when I was a kid?  Left the table.   “Well, I gotta go do this, so I'm going to go over there.  I want to go to the TV.  I want to go play video games.  I don't like this meal.  She hit me.  He said a dirty word.”  Whatever it is, there are myriad reasons to leave the table, aren't there?

And as a dad and my wife as a mom, do you know what we find ourselves saying every time we do the dinner table?  “Get back to the table.  We know you don't want that right now.  We know that it's uncomfortable right now.  We know that you don't like the food.  We know that you don't like the person sitting next to you.  Get back to the table.”

Why do we say that?  Because we know that it's at the table that we're formed and that our family is formed.  We know more about not only the other person, but we also know more about ourselves.  We know that there's formation happening at the table, and far more is going on than just consuming food.  We find that there is an emotional and spiritual nourishment that can happen around the table.  That's why we constantly put up with all the frustration and we say, “Hey, get back to the table.”

And it's been interesting to me because I find this same thing in Scripture, in fact.  For the earliest followers of Jesus did not gather like this.  Auditoriums were not their primary mode of gathering.  The primary mode of gathering for the earliest followers of Jesus was a meal.  It was at a table.  When we take communion together, we're doing something that's been happening for almost 2000 years, where Jesus followers would gather and share a meal.  You see, the centerpiece of their church relationships was not the man with the Bible on the stage.  The center of their relationships -- the center of their faith expression, the center of what it meant to be part of a church family for them -- was a table.

Now let's double down on it.  One of the other things that we find in Scripture is that the people who were invited to the table was everybody, which inevitably meant that these tables were diverse.  In fact, it might even be by design that Jesus set up his church to be centered around a table -- which is centered around remembering who He is.

And the people around the table are, by design, a diverse bunch.  We talk about diversity a lot in our community and in our culture.  We talk about hearing different opinions and perspectives.  We talk about being open-minded.  We talk about sharing, love and unity with one another.  And diversity is a principle or a value that, as a culture, we love to celebrate, right?

But do we love to practice it?  Oh, it's one thing to be at a party with people who are different than us.  It's one thing to be in a worship setting like this with people who are different than us.  But I just want you to take a look at the different people at the table.  Oh, here we have two individuals who may not share similar beliefs as it relates to governance.  Could it at all be possible that these two people would disagree?  Could you ever imagine a moment in culture or society in which these people, simply because of the hats that they wear, might just default to hating each other?  Could you imagine that?

Could you imagine a scenario in which the rich and the poor hate each other by default?  Could you imagine that ever happening?  Could you ever imagine a scenario in which those who have certain views on use of power and force might just default to hating others who have certain views on use of power and force?  Could you ever imagine that happening?  Could you ever imagine people who love God -- Orthodox, faithful Christians who love the Lord and their neighbor—hating, rightfully so, evil, sinful people?

You see in all of the diversity -- in all of the space between us, in all of the differences -- there is not only an opportunity for a beauty, but there's also an opportunity for what?  For sinning against each other.

And what it might be like if you were at a table like this all the time with the same people.  And you are encouraged to be your true self in this space.  Could you imagine how it might become difficult to maintain fellowship at the table?  This is a feature, not a bug.  Jesus has intentionally designed His table like this.  And I'd like to argue this from Scripture because I believe that Jesus has intentionally designed misfits to gather around his table in order to elevate his glory --- to put on display the good news that He's the risen King.  And to mature us through the other, there is a gift when we can commit to sitting at tables like this.

I'm going to read Colossians 3 one through 17.  You can follow along.  It's printed in your handout or if you have a Bible, please follow along with me.  And I want you to have your ears attentive to what's being said here and imagine that this as being written to a church family that gathers consistently around tables like this.  Y'all with me so far?  So we're gonna imagine that it's being written to a church looking like this.  Here we go.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature --sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them.  But now put away all of the following -- wrath, malice, slander and any filthy language from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self.  You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your creator.  In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.  But Christ is all and in all.  Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.  If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.  And above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you and in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs --singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do in word, or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him.”  This is the word of the Lord.

Why is the author, whose name is Paul, writing this to a diverse church in a place called Colossae?  What do you think is happening amongst the people there?  They're arguing.  They're dividing.  They're divided, and they're fighting with one another.  They're probably slandering one another.  Do you think they might be lying to each other?  So you've got to ask yourself the question when you read the text:  Why is this being written?  What was the occasion for the author, who's a pastor -- why is Pastor Paul writing this letter?

Well, it's extremely likely … Don't you think that the reason that he's writing the letter is because they're doing the stuff that he mentioned?  Why are they doing that to each other?  Because they're misfits.  Because they're misfits, they don't fit together.  Have you guys ever tried to put a puzzle together?  If the pieces don't line up -- but you're angry and bitter that you have to be putting a puzzle together.  And you're thinking, “Let's get this over with.”  And they kind of fit together and you think like you could make them fit together.  Inevitably what happens when you try to put the two things that don't fit together together?  There's friction, pressure, tension, and occasionally brokenness.  We're misfits, we don't just fit together.  All of the rough edges have to be shaved off in order to make it fit.

You see, we're bound together, but we don't fit together.  So what is it that binds us together on the front cover?  This is something that we say a lot.  We are a bunch of misfits bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus.  We are a bunch of people who don't fit together but who are bound together by what power?  The love and Grace of God made known to us through Jesus, and there's some sort of design that He has in mind.

But notice in the text verse 11, the author is sick.  He's addressing a diverse group of people who obviously are backbiting and gossiping and lying, right?  They're falling into their old selves.  And he says this … Remember in verse 11 “in Christ there is not” -- notice the language – “Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.  But Christ is all and in all.”  What's the author saying?    Is he saying that all of those things about us simply disappear?  By no means.  The author himself still continues to refer to himself as a circumcised Jew.  He would never refer to himself as a Greek.  He recognized that Jesus was a circumcised Jewish male.

What the author is arguing here, he's saying all of these things that divide you, they are not your status.  They are not your status.  You see here in this text.  So I want you just to imagine, could these things be reasons that people have conflict and division?  Let's take a look back in the text.  Look at verse 11 in Christ.  “There is not Greek and Jew.”  Do you think that there is such a thing as ethnocentrism?  Or in America, we might be more familiar with the term racism, where one group of people, based on their ethnicity or race, value themselves, or view themselves as better than others.  Could you imagine that ever happening?

At the time of this writing, one of the biggest divisions was between Greek and Jew.  Imagine a Greek and a Jew sitting at the table.  Might they have a disagreement or two?  Circumcision and uncircumcision?  Now I was going to make a joke here, but I cut it out.  Yeah, this is about religious devotion in the Jewish tradition.  It was about how they practiced their religion.  Could you imagine there ever being a group of people who think they're better than other people because of how they practice their religion?

Now let's get to it.  There's also no barbarian or Scythian.  These are maybe difficult for us to understand, but these are uncivilized, violent outsiders who are scary.  A Scythian could be considered maybe a boogeyman.  Gotta, gotta worry about the Scythians coming to get you.  Could you ever imagine one people group demonizing another people group in such a way that they simply become the epitome of evil?  “Them, those are the people that are gonna get you!”  And here Paul is saying, “Hey, you know what?  There's a Scythian and a barbarian among you.“  He drives it further -- and there is no slave or free.  He's not saying that these things are meaningless.  He's not saying that these things are not real.   He's simply saying that those definitions, those things about you are not what give you your status in front of God.  Therefore, do not use those differences to cause division, because you are in Christ.  The reason these things create division among you is because you're keeping your mind on earthly things.  I have my mind on earthly things, and the earthly culture says as long as I'm this, I'm somebody.  And so I hate or despise or fearmonger against those who are different than me.

But if my mind is of Jesus, if my if my life is wrapped up in Christ, then the differents at the table that I sit at, they can't take anything from me as it relates to my worth, my dignity and my values.  So I don't have to be afraid of people who are different than me.  I don't have to approach every different-than-me person with suspicion. Now, it may be that they have done something that causes me to be suspicious.  But I don't have to approach everything that's different than me with suspicion because my life is wrapped up in Christ.  This is what Paul is saying.

Look at verse five through seven through nine.  “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed.  Because of these, God’s, wrath is coming upon the disobedient.”  And “You once walked in these things when you were living in them, but now put away all of the following -- anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old self.

Again, why is the author sharing this?  Because that's what they're doing to each other. I shared this one or two weeks ago: I make everyone who's part of Desert Springs a 100% guarantee. I one-hundred percent guarantee this, you ready?  This is my 100% guarantee:  My 100% guarantee is that you will be sinned against by people in this congregation, and I'll probably be the worst.  Because we're a bunch of differents, and we don't sit together naturally -- which means we're gonna offend each other.  We're gonna confuse each other.  We're gonna frustrate one another.  We're gonna say things out of turn.  We're gonna unintentionally be offensive —and sometimes we're gonna intentionally be offensive.  Sometimes we're gonna do something that the other person perceives as unloving or unkind.  And I'm not -- listen to me -- I'm not talking about toxic and abusive behavior.  I'm simply talking about the normal day in and day out being offended because the other person is different than me.  I guarantee it.

How can I make you that guarantee?  Look around the room.  You're all weird.  Some of you philistines like country music.  What's the matter with you?  Some of you have different political views and ideologies than I.  Why are you so wrong?

Some of you, when we both look at the same text in Scripture, come at it from a totally different angle and see it in a way that I can't even see.  And so, we make this 100% guarantee -- and I just want to say this to you -- just expect that as you are your true self with other Jesus followers who their true selves—expect it, but don't look for it.  Don't go around looking to be offended.  Just expect that we're not perfect and we're going to sin against each other most of the time.  We don't even do it intentionally.

But here is the gift -- verse 12 and 13.  “Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved … “  *** TV Time out***

I want you to look me in the eye -- I know this is weird.  Do you know that you are dearly loved by the King and Creator of the universe?  What would it be like to live recognizing every moment of every day that I am dearly loved by Jesus?  He loves you more than you can ever imagine.  And in light of that -- notice what the author says – “Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.  If anyone has a grievance against one another -- just as the Lord has also forgiven you, so also you, too, are to forgive.”

Now here's the gift. When we commit to one another to stay at the table -- to come back to the table even when we get offended, even when we disagree, even when we get angry -- when we stay committed, we come back to the table and we pursue the conversation because we recognize Jesus dearly loves me, and so I can be with this different person.  I can be with this person.  There's a distance between us, and I can put on compassion and humility and kindness.  And I can forgive, just as Jesus forgave me.  Here's the gift.   As we practice the gospel … did you notice what Paul said in the text?  “Forgive one another just as …" ,?  Just as Jesus forgave you.  That's good news, and we're practicing it when we forgive one another.  We're practicing the good news of the gospel.  Not only does our forgiving of one another showcase the gospel, but it also shapes us more into the image of Jesus.  There's a gift waiting for you in that committed relationship with others -- to go back to the table and show compassion, humility, grace to forgive.  If anyone has grievance, in that space, we practice the gospel.

We behave like Jesus, and in so doing, there's this wonderful thing that begins to happen in behaving like Jesus in that space of different.  We begin to become more like him.  I'm convinced that one of the marks of a mature Jesus follower is that they don't get offended.  That they're not easily wronged.  And that they can tolerate a great distance between them and those with whom they're in relationship with.  And I'd like to just prove it to you by asking you to do some homework.  Go look at the life of Jesus and look at who he sat at tables with.  I guarantee that you and I would be very uncomfortable with some of those people if they were at our table.

I've seen this in practice.  A year and a half ago, absolute chaos, right?  For anyone who was leading in that time, it was just such an uncertain time.  And then we had, you know, we had a global pandemic and we had political strife, too.  And I remember hearing a different perspective.  There was a moment where I was caught up in it.  I was with two of our elders -- Arthur, who is from India and Nicholas, who is from Kenya.  I was kind of bemoaning the political climate.  You know what they shared with me?  How Jesus had worked in their previous homes in India and in Kenya.  And they shared how God had brought the faithful to the church, in situations that are worse than the one that I was going through at that time.  It was such an encouragement to me.  It was a gift that was only available to me, because of both Nicholas and Arthur who serve as elders here, because of their commitment to sit at table with me as a different.  They had a gift for me in that difference.

One of the things that we notice, because we're a bunch of misfits, is that issues that we talk about hit us differently, don't they?  As a church family over the last year and a half -- actually over the last many years --- we go hard on certain issues like ageism, racism, sexism, nationalism.  We go after hard on issues like gender and sexuality, abuse and assault, greed and money and power, and sex.  There's really not an issue that we won't look to the Scriptures and strive to find a Jesus way through them, because we believe that Jesus is for all of life.

But that means that we have hard conversations.  And because we're a bunch of misfits, those conversations hit us differently, don't they?  There's a gift waiting for us as we go after those issues.  As we try to look at the Jesus way and apply it in this context, we get to shape each other by sharing the different views and the different opinions.

For those of you that are Christians, I'm going to do a little something I have heard many Christians say.  How, especially over the last year and a half, how is it possible that any Christian could believe?  How is it possible that any Christian could think that?  Do you want to know what my encouragement to you is?  Go find a Christian that thinks that and sit at table with him for a long time.  That's the answer, right?  The answer is not tweet at them.  And here's the other thing, too.  The answer is also not just listening to people who are just like you.  Too often we learn about people who are different than us from people just like us.

Let's go visit a table.  Which news channel does this person watch?  Don't say it out loud.  Which news channel does this person watch?  Don't say it out loud.  This person in this cultural context is learning everything about this person from people who wear the same hat.  And this person is learning everything that they know about this person from people who wear the same hat. But the same goes here.  Too often we learn about people who are different than us from people who are just like us.

The gift at the Jesus table is that we don't have to remain stuck in this endless loop and cycle of sameness.  We get to learn about each other.  And in so doing -- here's the other gift --we get to behave like Jesus in those moments of tension, frustration, disappointment, anger and sadness.  And we get to show one another compassion and grace and humility.

Oh boy, I'm going to say something.  Some people are not going to like it.  Welcome to the table.   I don't think you should read your Bible alone.  Now, I don't mean never.  I think it's good to read your Bible alone sometimes.  It's not written that way.  It's written for you to engage in the context of community.

I'm going to give you two questions that I I want to encourage you to ask.  I stole these from from Kara Powell and Kairis doll.  These are modified questions that I picked up from them.  When you read the Bible, or when you talk theology, or when you talk about Jesus -- I encourage you to ask these questions.

Number one:  What do you believe that you think I don't believe?  By the way, if you've got teenagers, these are great conversation starters.  What do you believe that you think I don't believe?  Or you could flip it, right?  What do you think I believe that you don't believe?

Here's a second question:  What's something that you thought you knew that it turned out later you were wrong about?  What's something that you thought you knew that it turned out later you were wrong about?

I'm going to do a real quick exercise.  Let's take rich and poor.  And let's have them reading the prodigal son.  And story of the prodigal son, just real quickly ... A son goes to his father -- he's the  youngest son.  He goes to his father he says, “I want my inheritance now.”  He takes the father's inheritance and goes away to a foreign land.  He spends all of his money foolishly.  And there's a famine in the land, and no one is there to help.  And so the younger son ends up eating pods out of the pigpen, and he thinks, “I'll go back to my dad and be a hired servant.”  And so he goes back to his father.  And the beautiful point of the parable is that the father runs out and receives him back.

Reading that from my perspective as well as from a citizen of one of the most affluent states and the most affluent nation in the world, I'm going to read that differently than those who are not of that context.  In fact, there is a research study done where a theologian read the parable of the prodigal son to a bunch of American college students.  And then he asked them to retell it.  Then he went to one of the old Russian satellite nations, where most people are living in poverty and have in living memory what it was like living under the USSR.  Same story, same exercise.

The American college students -- almost none of them related back that there was a famine in the land.  All of them relayed back that the son had squandered his money on foolish living.  Over in the old Russian satellite nation, very few talked about the squandering of money, but what they said was there was a famine, and no one was there to help.

See, I don't think we do ourselves a lot of good when we only read the Bible alone.  But when we read the Bible together with a fellowship of differents, it truly comes alive.  So I would encourage you if you're not currently in a context in which you can have a discussion and even disagreement about the Biblical text, now is your opportunity.  As Dawn mentioned a moment ago, we have these “Rooted” groups that are starting up.  Even in the context of Rooted, there are different perspectives.  In fact, the Rooted curriculum was written by a church out of Africa.

And I just I have to share this story.  When COVID hit my group, we were on week six.  This was March of last year, and my group was on week six.  I'd like to read you the title of that week ‘s study.   Are you ready? “Ministering in Chaos” by Camille and Esterna Toto, sharing their story of how they ministered in Goma, the DRC, and how God had been faithful under an evil warlord and a very oppressive regime.  That was a gift.

By listening to and being in relationship with those who are different, we can broaden our perspective about who God is.  You see, we are a bunch of misfits bound together by the love and grace of God, made known to us through Jesus.  Did you notice in the text, too?  Look at verse 16.  And I want to encourage you in this looking at 16.  Let the word of Christ what?  Tell me.  Dwell richly what?  Not as isolated individuals.  “Dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

I want you to notice something, and I want to encourage you in this.  Every week we sing.  Some of us do.  Don't act like I don't know.  If you're a follower of Jesus, I want to encourage you to sing, and here's why.  Not only we were singing to God, but we are also singing to each other about the goodness of God.  When we sing, we're reminding each other.  Did you see it in the text?  What did it say?  Let the word of Christ, what?  Dwell among you richly.  What is the format that that takes place in?  Psalms, songs, hymns, spiritual songs.

It must have been in 2016, right there, sitting about five seats apart from each other was a person with a MAGA shirt and a person with a DACA shirt.  And they were singing the same song in the same direction.  And my hope and prayer is that that distance between them would produce many gifts that elevate the gospel and that grow them more and more into the likeness of Jesus.  But that only happens if we come back to the table.

The reasons that we leave the table are easy to recognize.  You look at any family meal, and you'll find it's uncomfortable.  “They made me mad.  They looked at me funny.  They spit on me.”  But there's a gift:  If we come back to the table -- and through consistent rhythms of engaging in the Scriptures together with one another and letting the Word of Christ dwell richly among us -- as we sing together and have fellowship together -- I believe that by the power of the Spirit we will find ourselves made more and more into Christ's image than if we go it alone.

I'm going to ask the band to come out and for those of you in the room to pull out the communion elements that are available in the back of the seat in front of you.  For those of you who are joining me online, if you would please grab elements of bread and wine or juice or crackers or whatever you have to represent the body and blood of Jesus.  I'm going to ask that you would just take a moment and that you would examine your hearts that you would reflect on these things.  Then I'll come back and lead us in the taking of communion.  Would you reflect on this truth -- that we are bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus?

As we take communion together, I want to encourage you to do so in full appreciation of this bunch of misfits that you're with.  When we take of the bread and of the juice, we do so, recognizing our union with God, but also our unity with one another.  As a bunch of misfits bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus, we engage in the taking of communion, remembering him, remembering that he has brought us together to make us more like him.

On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and He broke it.  Giving it to His disciples, He said, “This is My body, broken for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.“  Would you take and eat?

In the same way, He took up the cup and said, “This is My blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin.  Do this in remembrance of me.”   Would you take and drink?

Lord Jesus, we know that You love us, that You have forgiven us, and that You call us to love and to forgive one another.  We pray by the power of your Spirit, that You would embolden us, equip us, and empower us to do just that.  As you have bound us together so that we would not hate our differences, but rather celebrate an opportunity to grow.  That we would approach one another, not with suspicion, but curiosity.  And that we would, we would be a people who put on love and not only proclaim the good news, but also practice it.  Jesus, we ask these things, knowing that You love us and You're powerful to bring them about.  And so we entrust ourselves to You.  Amen.  ###

STARTING OUT

This Bible has notes in the margins that help explain a lot of the culture, context and strange words or theological terms. Study Bibles are usually more expensive since they have all the notes. For a copy of the Bible without notes, I recommend this one.

This accessible book is a great place to begin! For those just starting out in Bible reading, I highly recommend this one.

I highly recommend reading the Gospel of Mark along with a commentary. This application commentary provides help in understanding the culture, context, structure and terminology found in the Gospel of Mark.

INTERMEDIATE

This book explores how Jesus engaged with, spoke about and taught from the Scriptures. It is a fascinating approach to this topic.

This book explores how the Old Testament points to and deepens our understanding of Jesus.

For a deeper study of the Gospel of Mark, try the Bible Speaks Today series. I highly recommend their commentaries for any Bible Study.

ADVANCED-ISH

The Drama of Scripture explores how the story of God is woven together in the scriptures. The author’s provide a more robust version of the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration flow of scripture.

A deep dive into the Old Testament and how it weaves together to point to Jesus. Clowney’s concept of Christ in all of Scripture has deeply informed my understanding of the scriptures.

I often encourage people, after reading the Gospel of Mark, to read Genesis. Waltke’s commentary provides helpful input in navigating this foundational book. Oh, and be sure to compare Genesis 1 with John 1… tons of fascinating parallels.

Quotes and References
Flannery O’Connor
“[skepticism] will keep you free — not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your own intellect or the intellects of those around you”
Luc Ferry – A brief History of Thought
The combination of mortality with our awareness of mortality contains all the questions of philosophy.
David Dark – The Sacredness of Questioning Everything
I believe deliverance begins with questions. It begins with people who love questions, people who live with questions and by questions, people who feel a deep joy when good questions are asked

Resources

Clapham Saints (John Netwon, Hannah More, William Wilberforce)
The Imago Dei (a paper by John Piper)
Protestant Ministers and the KKK (From the book ‘United by Faith‘)

Songs
Multiplied  |  God Is Able  |  Your Love Defends Me  |  Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

For a list of recommended resources, visit www.dsbc.church/life

[19] “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[22] “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, [23] but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
[24] “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
[25] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
[34] “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (ESV)
Engaging the Scripture
1. How does a person “store up treasure on earth”? What is the problem with this philosophy of life? What does it mean to “store up treasure in heaven”? What is the advantage of this?
2. 1 Corinthians 13:3 states “If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” What does this verse add to our understanding of “storing up treasure in heaven”?
3. What is the meaning of the phrase “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”?
4. Why would Jesus include teaching on a person’s eye and light in the context of teaching on the appropriate view and use of material things?
5. How does a person “serve” money? How does a person “serve” God? How are these in conflict with each other?
6. What is “being anxious” about your life? Does this mean that a person should not plan for the future? Why or why not?
7. What are the summary principles found in these verses add to our understanding?
Matthew 6:33
Matthew 6:34
Living as a Kingdom Citizen
1. What are some of the issues of life that cause people to be anxious? What are the areas that cause you the most concern?  (What do you find occupying your thoughts … especially at night and as you day-dream?)
2. Why do these things cause you to be anxious?
3. How do these principles affect your financial planning for the future?
4. How do these principles affect your spending?
5. How do these principles affect your giving?
6. What steps can you make any necessary corrections?

[1] Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
[2] And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
[3] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[4] “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
[5] “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
[6] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
[7] “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
[8] “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
[9] “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
[10] “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[11] “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. [12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
[13] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)
Engaging the Scripture
1. Who are the recipients of Jesus’ teaching? (vs.1)
2. What does it mean to be “blessed”? (vs.2-11) – See Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed by whom?
3. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? How is this person “blessed”?
4. How are those “who mourn” comforted?
5. Who are the “meek”? How shall they “inherit the earth”?
6. What does it mean to “hunger and thirst for righteousness”? How will they be “satisfied”?
7. Who are the “merciful”? How shall they receive mercy?
8. Who are the “pure in heart”? How shall they “see” God?
9. Who are the “peace makers”? (Is there a difference between being a “peace-maker” and a “peace-keeper”?) How will they be blessed?
10. What does it mean to be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake”? (vs.10-11) How could this possibly end in blessing? Why should those who are being persecuted “rejoice”?
11. What does it mean to be “salt” and “light”? (vs.13-16) How can salt lose its effectiveness and light be dimmed? To what do these metaphors refer in seeking to live for Christ?
Living as a Kingdom Citizen
Which of the beatitudes stands out to you the most? Why?
1. What are some ways in which God has blessed you?
When are you most likely to remember this?
What causes you to be forgetful of this?
2. What ways can you function as “salt” and “light” to those who are around you?
Is there any person or group that specifically comes to mind that is most important?

The Big Picture
As a normal rhythm in our lives, exercising generosity through consistent financial giving impacts us in these ways:

It confronts our idol(s)
It blesses others in tangible ways (see also James 2:16)
It safeguards against greed (see also Psalm 10:3)
It is a diagnostic tool for our heart
It is a physical expression of our reliance on God (See also Psalm 24:1)

Reflection
1. What are some of the ways that you guard against greed?
2. How do you engage with anxiety related to money?
3. How do the Lord’s words in Luke 12:22-34 impact you?
Book Recommendations

The Big Picture
As a normal rhythm in our lives, singing with a local church family provides us with an opportunity to

Recallibrate our hearts towards God
Remind ourselves of who God is
Reinforce the truths of God
Rejoice – Express our enjoyment of and delight in our God.

Jesus Sang with His disciples
It is highly likely that the ‘hymn’ referred to in Matthew 26:30 was The Hallel, a Jewish prayer/song found in Psalms 113-118. The Hallel is often recited during Jewish feasts and holidays (like Passover).  Click here to learn more.

Reflection
1. What priority do you place on congregational singing in your life?
2. Are there things that hinder you from fully participating in congregational singing? If so, how will you go about working and praying through those issues?
3.Why do you think God calls us to sing together?
Quotes
“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself, I am not large enough to call any person completely into activity. I want other lights of my own to show all the facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, far from having him all to myself now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.”
“In this, friendship exhibits a glorious nearness by resemblance to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed, which no man can number, increase the fruition which each has of God for every soul in heaven seeing Him in her own way communicates the unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying out Holy, Holy, Holy, to one another.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
– David Foster Wallace, 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech

“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.”
– Jonathan Edwards

Book Recommendations

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