What Are We Doing at Abundant Life? Connect Part 1

Matthew 11:28-30; John 4:23-24; 15:2-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:14-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 19, 2020.

In this modern world, there are many who see the Church as an antiquated relic of the past that holds no help for modern man.  Of course, if the Church was only an organization created by humans then that would be true.  However, if what the evidence from history tells us is true then the Creator of the Church was not just a human.  And, that makes all the difference.  Yes, humans were involved, but that doesn’t discount the overall work of God, and we should not be quick to toss it aside.

I want us to stop looking at what people have done in and through the Church, whether when we were kids or even recently as adults.  Instead, I want us to stop and just listen to what the Creator of the Church said that he intended for the Church to accomplish.  When you simply look at what Jesus told his Church to do, you find a revolutionary concept that is timeless, and one that saves us from our own penchant for self-destruction, whether as individuals or as a world.

In some ways, this sermon is about convincing people to connect to Jesus.  If you are a believer, it may come across a bit like a married person watching a wedding.  However, that can be a good thing because it reminds us why we married in the first place; it reminds us of when our love was fresh.  Let this sermon inspire you to a deeper connection and a more intimate relationship with Jesus.

Whole-Life Worship

Years ago, our leadership sat down and worked to develop a model or image that would picture exactly what Jesus said he wanted to accomplish through us and the Church world-wide.  Here is what we developed (figure 1).

figure 1

At the heart of this picture, is the concept of whole-life worship.  Everything that we do should be in worship of God.  Yet, even those things that we do should be instructed and informed by the Spirit of God working in us.  As we focus our whole life upon Jesus, he teaches us and leads us in fulfilling God’s purposes rather than the destructive purposes that our heart and mind draw us towards.

So, what does God want us to be doing as an individual Christian and as a local expression of his Church?  It all begins with connecting to Jesus and moves around this cross through three other facets and back to connect again.  They are all happening at the same time, and yet, they are connected to one another.  They are all different facets of our worship of God through our life.  The more you try to analyze them and break them apart, the more they all sort of dissolve and fall back into worship of God.

I should say that, by worship, I mean living in such a way as to demonstrate that God is worth more to us than anything else.  It is literally all that we do to show that God is worthy of our life.

We connect to Jesus as a declaration that God is worth it.

We grow to become like Jesus as a declaration that God is worth it.

We serve Jesus in the way that he tells us to do as a declaration that God is worth it.

And finally, we share Jesus with others as a declaration that God is worth it.

In short, this image pictures the full, abundant life that God wants you to have on this side of eternity.  However, abundant life doesn’t end at death; it has only just begun.  In fact, Jesus is Abundant Life and the only source of it for all humanity.

We have simplified this whole image into the mission statement: “Connecting people to the Abundant Life found in Jesus Christ.”  Everything begins with connection to Jesus and it ends with connection with Jesus.  Let’s look at some Scriptures about connecting (figure 2).

The Call

Figure 2

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus is calling us to come to him.  There is much in the Scriptures that emphasizes the rebellion of humanity against the Creator, and the judgment that has come upon the whole world because of it.  However, the other side of the coin is that God does not want to leave us under that judgment.  He wants to save us.  Like Adam and Eve, we run from God when we realize that we have broken His ways.  However, God came after them, not to destroy them, but to redeem them.

Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus is inviting you to come to him?  Before we get into the details, just let it sink into your heart and mind that God is calling out to you and inviting you to come to Him.  Why would He do that if He only wanted to judge and destroy you?  He wouldn’t, and He doesn’t.

The Bible tells us that God is patient towards us, not willing that anyone should perish, but that all would come to repentance through faith in Jesus.  He simply says, “Come to me.”  There are many who have written Jesus off as a mythical story like Santa Claus.  Others are simply afraid to get involved with any religious leader.  Don’t just pass him by.  Take a hard look in this passage, and others, and see just who this guy is who is telling you to come to him.

Jesus is describing those whom he is calling, those who are laboring under a heavy burden in their life.  Human governments at any level very rarely actually care about the difficulties of your life.  Jesus is not talking about how bad it is to have to work for a living.  Work is not what makes life heavy.  It is the pressure that we put on ourselves, and the pressure that society puts upon us to live for purposes and goals that God never intended.  It is the lack of true care for your soul that makes life heavy.  Yet, like a loving parent whose child has gone far, far astray, God still cares for you and longs for you to come to Him.  He knows how tough it has been.  He actually has compassion for your predicament.

Thus, He offers you rest.  This is the same kind of rest that God gave to Israel on the seventh day, when all the other nations were out breaking their backs seven days a week.  It was always intended to be much more than a physical rest from work.  It was a rest from the pressure that everything depends upon us.  It is learning to rest, to lean, upon the grace and help of your heavenly Father.

Today, humanity has co-opted God’s plan for rest and added another day for pleasure.  But, what has it become?  For many, the weekend is no rest, but a flurry of activity which leaves us empty.

It is interesting that, after Jesus says that he will give us rest, he offers us a yoke.  The imagery is that of a beast of burden like an ox.  A yoke would be used to harness the ox to a cart, a plough, or a carriage.  Thus, a yoke represents the work and the purpose to which we are connected.  No matter how free you try to be, you cannot grow up in this world without having a multitude of yokes around your neck.  We can get to the point of near suffocation under them.  Some are from yourself, and many others are from the world around you, but Jesus offers a different yoke, a lighter yoke.  Yes, it is a burden; that is, it is a purpose and a task.  However, it is singular and good.  You are exchanging a large number of heavy yokes for a single light yoke.  This yoke does not leave you worn-out, over-burdened, and empty.  It leaves you rested and satisfied.  It is not tyranny.

So, God is calling you to come and connect to Him through Jesus.  Jesus is our point of contact with the Creator.  However, we need to take a closer look at the connection itself.

The Connection

In John 4:23-24, Jesus tells us that God is looking for people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  In short, He is looking for people who will connect to Him in a relationship of faithful worship.  This connection is spiritual, but also real (truth).  It is a spiritual connection that cannot be shut-off, taxed, or infringed upon by this world.  These are not just nice archetypal stories meant to inspire us into performing certain roles.  This is a real offer from our heavenly Father saying that we can connect to Him by connecting to Jesus.

Jesus came into this world to do many things, but one of the greatest of them was to create a real point of connection between us and God.  Later in John 15:1-4, Jesus gives us the image of a vine that has branches connected to it.  He tells us that he is the vine and that we are the branches.  God intends us to be branches that have a living connection to Jesus, a connection through which we can draw life.

This spiritual and real connection to Jesus is able to make our lives fruitful.  We are not talking about being able to build an international business that makes you billions of dollars.  Of course, God could bless you with that, but it alone is not the fruit that He is looking for.  He is looking for a life that is itself life-giving, no matter what station or level of ability you find yourself.

Jesus tells us that he will pour into us when we connect to him.  That life will work inside of us until it produces external evidence of its internal existence, that is fruit.  Everyone in the world bears some kind of fruit, but most of it is deadly.  Only the fruit that Christ produces in us can truly give life.  He mentions that when we are fruitful, there will be times of pruning (John 15:2-3).  Pruning is part of becoming more fruitful.  Sometimes, perfectly good things in my life need to be cut off in order to focus more energy on doing what has eternal value, as opposed to temporary and transient value.

The fruit of my life comes from what is at the center of my heart.  So, what is at the center of our hearts?  Is my heart connected to Jesus, or is it connected to the desires of my flesh and the hopes of this world?

The third thing about this connection is that it needs to continue or persevere (vs. 4).  You can’t connect for a while in order to get a little bit of religion; you know, just enough to do a person good.  This is about much more than an ethical framework for life.  Jesus tells us to “Abide,” or “Remain” in him.  The word has the idea of taking up residence in him, making him your home for life, i.e. like a marriage.

If we don’t have a real and living connection that is healthy and fruitful then the perseverance of our connection can be threatened more easily.  There is a spiritual enemy called the devil who is looking for people to devour.  He devours us spiritually to the point that we see no hope in God, and especially in Jesus.  We have to guard our hearts from the temptations and philosophies of this world that would draw us away from continuing to trust in Jesus.

Now, the imagery of a vine and branches is very informative, but it does come across as kind of cold, when you think about human relationships.  This is because the analogy points to something much bigger than itself.  We are not connecting to a religion, but to a relationship with the Lord of Life!  The more noble image is that of a family relationship.

A New Creation

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  When we connect to Jesus, we become a new creation, a new person.  There is a difference in us that is new, and yet needs to grow, like a newborn baby.  This creates a tension between the “old me” and the “new me.”  This verse says that the “old things have passed away.”  Another way to say this is that we have moved past our old way of living.  It doesn’t mean it no longer tries to tempt us back.  Rather, I have reached a place where I am moving past the old selfish life and choosing to live for God and His purposes.  I am now spiritually alive and responding to the Holy Spirit within this fallen world.  Of course, we are not mind-swiped.  The old me is there struggling to regain control.  However, its way of living produced very little, if anything, that was truly living and full of life.  Even that which seemed to have life at first, very quickly loses its flavor and becomes a mouth full of gravel in the end.  The new creation has come to see that Jesus is the source of life itself, not just a source of a life.

Let's finish this with looking at Romans 8:14-17.  Here the Apostle Paul uses the same family terms that Jesus and others used of our relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit is working all the time to draw people to Jesus, and we must never forget this.  Those who put their faith in Jesus are responding to His drawing.  When that happens, they are adopted into the family of God.  They are “sons of God” (vs 14) and “children of God” (vs 16).

Have you ever thought about the fact that life on this world is just the nursery of eternity?  As we trust Jesus and maintain a living connection to him, we will grow up to become adult sons of God in eternity.

Jesus is much more than a static vine that can do nothing about our connection to Him.  He is a being with a heart that loves you so much that he has come down after you into the muck and filth of this world.  He wants to have a relationship with you.  Sure, at first it may seem strange to have a relationship with a spiritual being.  It may seem strange to pray “into the air” and fear that someone might see you and think that you have lost your mind.  However, it is what you were created for, relationship with your Father in heaven.  When we go through this life without having a living relationship with our creator, we are empty, and the things of this world are vain and unsatisfactory.  The entropy of this world seems to squeeze the life out of even that which is good.

Yet, God loved you.  He was not content to be separated from you.  He paid the price so that you could join His family.

This brings us to the last part of the Romans 8 portion we are viewing.  We will inherit all things with Jesus, if we keep connected to Him.  God’s plan is that He will resurrect all those who belonged to Him at the end of this age in immortal bodies without a bent towards sin.  He will then fix this world and hand it over to Jesus.

The doors are still open.  God is still calling to people to come to Him through Jesus.  So, what must I do to connect to Jesus?  It is simple.  First, we are embracing Jesus through repentance from our old life and faith in his new life for us.  This relationship with God is described as a whole-life worship.  This makes us the children of God with a destiny that is more amazing than fiction.

Don’t delay.  Make today the day that you surrender to the calling of the Holy Spirit.  Join the Lord Jesus today by Admitting that you are a sinner who is under God’s judgment, and then Believing in your heart and mind that God raised Jesus from the dead as a covering for your sins.  Lastly, Confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord with your words and your deeds.  In so doing, you become a new creation, and a child of God!

Connect part 1 audio

Marriage & Divorce

Mark 10:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 09, 2020.

In our country, divorce and remarriage have become increasingly easier and acceptable.  Of course, I am not implying that divorce is emotionally and psychologically easy upon those who do it.  For every situation where this is a good thing (like in the case of physical abuse), there are countless others that are simply because the couple no longer love each other. 

In first century, AD Israel, there were some similar dynamics that had led to some rabbis having a very strict teaching regarding divorce and other rabbis having a very loose teaching on it.

I would encourage you today to receive this message as an attempt to clarify rather than to condemn people.  It is important for us to understand the issues clearly so that we are not adding to the overall confusion that exists in our country.  Confusion such that people who are married and not divorced yet are already committing adultery with another person.  Confusion such that people treat a casual sexual affair as if it is just a regular maintenance of a marriage that has lost any sense of true love. 

God wants us to have clarity about His purpose for marriage so that we will work towards it.  Yet, there are times when marriages fail because of the hardness of our hearts.  Regardless of your experience in this area, let’s talk about God’s desire for our marriages and how we can turn our hearts in the right direction.

Is it lawful to divorce your spouse?

A parallel account of this passage can be found in Matthew 19:1-10.  It shows us that there are some subtle details left out of Mark’s version.  In Matthew, we see that the question above is even more specific.  “Is it lawful to divorce your spouse for just any reason?”

There is some necessary background to this question.  At the time in Israel, there were two theological schools of thought on the issue of divorce.  Rabbi Shammai had a strict interpretation and taught that it was only permissible in the case of sexual immorality, i.e. infidelity.  Rabbi Hillel had a looser interpretation and taught that it was permissible for almost any reason.  In fact, it was common in this second group to say that if a man had a “bad wife,” it was his duty to divorce her.  We will come back to these conflicting interpretations of the Law of Moses, but for now let’s just recognize that the debate existed and affected many lives.

On top of this general debate, we also have a very public situation between the wife of Herod Philip and his brother Herod Antipas, which John the Baptist had openly condemned as unlawful.  Lust was at the heart of this divorce and remarriage.

We have a similar situation today where some Bible teachers teach that divorce is always wrong in every case (i.e. Christians are to be more righteous than the Pharisees) and others who are very lax to the point that divorce is no big deal before God (i.e. it is forgiven under the blood of Christ so you can do it if you want).  As we work through this passage, we will try to pull out some timeless truths so that we can better know how to please God in our day and age.

Now that we understand the question, let’s look at the response of Jesus.  Jesus may appear to be avoiding the question, but such is not the case.  Rather, he is making them work through the issue.  Just what does Moses command?  The key word in this question is “command.”  When it comes to divorce, what are the commands of the Law of Moses?  The Pharisees respond by changing the verb from “command” to “permit.”  This underlines something important.  When a divorce occurs, some tend to see it as an unfortunate, but necessary solution to their problem.  However, we should never kid ourselves how God sees it.  Divorce is always the failure of accomplishing the will and purpose of God for marriage.  It is not the solving of a problem, but rather the walking away from a problem that God desires you to work through.  Yes, it is more nuanced than that, but this is a bedrock truth from Scripture.  God hates divorce, period!  The Law of Moses never commanded anyone to divorce another even in cases of sexual immorality.  It only permitted it.

Second of all, Jesus points out why it was permitted.  It was permitted “because your hearts were hard.”  Now, there are different reasons why something may be permitted.  The permitted thing can be a good thing that simply needs to be regulated, for example, you may give a child permission to have another cookie.  However, the permitted thing can be a bad thing that becomes a lesser of two evils, which is clearly the case here.  Divorce is not a good thing.  It is something to be avoided at drastic cost to both parties in the marriage.

In cases today where both parties amiably agree and get along afterward (i.e. the “best-case scenario”), they have still hardened their hearts towards working out their differences with one another.  The hard heart may be on the part of one spouse, or both, but it is the salient point.

God has a purpose in marriage that we are going to talk about in a second.  Yet, people’s hearts can become hard towards one another and towards God’s purpose for their marriage.  It is not God’s intention to have people trapped in a marriage that is failing to accomplish his purposes.  However, many people feel trapped in a marriage because their hearts are in the wrong place.  They are living for themselves and their own fleshly desires instead of living for God.  They are looking to the hills for something better instead of weeding the garden of their own marriage.  Thus, divorce occurs when one spouse or both become hard-hearted towards the other and towards God.

Believers in Jesus should not be as concerned about lawfulness as we should be concerned about the plan and purpose of God.  In verses 6-9, Jesus takes the Pharisees back to the beginning of the book of Genesis and he reminds them of God’s purpose in the Garden.

God had made them “male and female.”  Marriage was designed by God for one man and one woman as was seen in the original couple, Adam and Eve.  Secondly, it is to be a union of a new family before God (Genesis 2:24).  This union involves the leaving of their parents and a joining to each other.  The word “joining” has the idea of being glued together.  The phrase “one flesh” becomes more than a physical description of sex, but rather something far greater with emotional, relational, and social implications.  They become a unity that is difficult to separate without tearing parts of the other away.  They are to be a new unity within society, a oneness.

Once a marriage begins, there is no question what God’s will is.  He wants us to work in order to be a unified couple.  Marriage is the holy ground upon which we are challenged in what it means to love another person.  It becomes that wrestling place in which we either mature and become something greater, or we remain immature and become something lesser.

Jesus then ends with what sounds like a categorical prohibition of divorce.  “What God has joined let not man separate.”  The Greeks had two words for “not.”  One of them is a categorical negation.  However, the one used here is the negation of the idea.  Thus, the meaning is something like this.  God has joined you together and wants you to be unified.  Therefore, you should not be working towards something that goes against it.  At this point, you can hear the protestations.  “But, he will never change!” Or, “She doesn’t love me like she used to do!”  Yes, those are no doubt the realities on the ground, but God is asking you to learn to love them, to learn who they are, and to learn how to become one with them.  So, are the things that I am doing in my marriage contributing to emotional separation, or are they helping to draw us closer?  Of course, this is not about a “perfect marriage” in which neither spouse ever does anything that stirs up emotional separation.  This is about learning to love, which involves repentance and forgiveness among each other.  If you have never repented of mistakes you made, and you have never forgiven your spouse for their faults, then you aren’t being real with each other.  As long as the endorphins of sexual desire are still pumping, we ignore all manner of sins, but sooner or later, we will come down to earth and realize that it takes work, repentance, and forgiveness, in order to have a “perfect marriage.”  Yes, the perfect marriage is one that trusts God’s purposes by living out repentance and forgiveness every day.

Jesus gives further clarification on divorce

In verses 10-12, we are told that the next discussion takes place later between Jesus and his disciples.  They are asking for further clarification on this matter.  Here, Jesus basically tells his disciples that those who divorce and remarry are committing adultery.    Matthew 19:9 adds the phrase, “except for sexual immorality.”  I do not believe that Jesus is trying to say that Moses made a mistake and that he is now correcting it.  He is not saying that previously God let Israel sin, but now it is time to throw off this antiquated law.  Rather, Jesus is teaching them the true interpretation of what the Law intended all along.  Deuteronomy 24:1 lays out how divorce should be done, and it has the phrase “because he has found some uncleanness in her.”  The rabbis’ debate centered upon what constituted uncleanness.  Jesus is stating that it meant sexual immorality, not burning dinner, or getting wrinkles.  He is giving them a warning that ties back into the original question.  If you divorce your spouse, for just any reason (i.e. other than sexual immorality), then you are committing adultery when you remarry. 

The key here is this question.  Does God recognize legitimate grounds for divorce?  It is clear that an unfaithful partner is legitimate grounds in God’s eyes.  If you divorce an unfaithful spouse and remarry then it would not be adultery.  Yet, neither does he command you to divorce.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:15 talks about the situation when an unbelieving spouse wants a divorce.  In a sense, they are wanting to abandon the marriage.  Paul states, “but if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases.  But God has called us to peace.”  The phrase “not under bondage” seems to imply to a moral obligation not to divorce.  He is easing the conscience of those who do not want to divorce, but their spouse is abandoning the marriage.  It seems clear from the passage that Paul would counsel them to remain single.  However, if they are no longer “under bondage” does that also mean they are free to marry?  Some teachers believe so.  They would say that the spouse who abandons the marriage would be committing adultery to remarry, but the spouse who was abandoned is free to remarry.

The Bible does not give any directive on the issue of physical abuse.  However, even more so, we could bring up the issue of God not wanting to chain people in bondage, but rather for them to have peace.  God does not demand a woman to remain in a marriage where she is being physically abused.  God recognizes that there are times when the hardness of a spouse may put you in a situation where there is nothing left to do but to admit that the marriage has failed, or even died.  This does not remove the greater purpose.  As much as is possible with me, I should be working with God to heal the marriage and grow, not working to tear it apart.  If a marriage fails then let it be over the top of my sacrificial attempts to make it work because God intends marriage to be for life.

What do I do if I have failed in this area?  What if my current marriage fits the description of Jesus and is technically adultery?  Like Adam and Eve, we cannot go back into Paradise and Innocence.  We must repent before God, draw a line in the sand, and determine to work with God to help the marriage that we have today to become what He wants it to be.  We have to carry the burden of past decisions, and the effects that they have had on us, and move forward towards the healing that only God can bring.  Only He can take that which is not holy and make it holy.  May God help us to soften our hearts towards him and our spouse, and learn to love like He loves, sacrificially and to the end.

Marriage & Divorce Audio

The Power of Jesus II

Mark 1:29-39.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 03, 2019.

Last week we looked at two aspects of the power of Jesus: his powerful teaching, and his power over evil spirits.  Today we will see the healing power of Jesus highlighted.

Of course, the more you think about healing, you will quickly realize that there are many different kinds of healing and a physical healing is not always the most important.  Imagine a traumatized person who is emotionally and mentally broken, yet has had all their physical wounds healed.  There may be nothing physically wrong with them, but they can still be a shell of a person, unable to deal with the world around them.

It is interesting that even today in 2019, while experiencing all that modern, medical technology has to offer us, we have not vanquished sickness.  Should the Lord tarry, it is looking increasingly like we will not have all sickness conquered even in a hundred years (I mean definitely and not just for a period in which viruses mutate etc.).    We still do not have the kind of power over sickness that Jesus displayed throughout His time on earth.

The Scriptures make it clear that the main purpose of Jesus was not to physically heal all maladies on the earth.  When He later sends out His apostles, His instructions clearly highlight the focus and it is not on physical healing.  Rather, Jesus ministered physical healing because it is tied together to emotional, mental, and most especially spiritual healing.  People gave Jesus a true hearing about spiritual healing because of what they saw in the natural.  Yet, no amount of physical healing can heal the sin-sick soul. 

Today, as we meditate on this passage, let us come to Jesus and recognize that in His mercy He can heal us, but in His wisdom, He knows what truly ails us.

 Jesus heals those who are sick

Jesus is still in the city of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee.  It is still the same Sabbath day on which He cast the unclean spirit out of a man in the synagogue.  After the service, Jesus goes to Simon and Andrew’s house.  It so happens that Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever.  Now, Luke further describes this as a great fever, meaning that it was a serious sickness that could end in death.  They immediately make Jesus aware of her condition.  So, what does Jesus do?

We are told that Jesus took her by the hand and lifted her up.  The fever instantly leaves her, even without a word from Jesus.  Notice that there is no sense of a ritual, magic, or a crude, barbaric understanding of sickness.  Jesus simply lifts her up and she is healed.  Neither is there a modern sense of scientific knowledge or medical technology.  Both methods are left with their mouths open, as Jesus simply helps her up.  Is this coincidence?  Please.  Anyone who has had a very serious fever break knows that you don’t instantly feel good enough to get out of bed and serve everyone in the room.  We see here the kind of power that Jesus has over sickness.  He simply heals her with the thought. 

Now we could turn this into a mind science, but the Scriptures do not open that door to us.  We are never instructed to work on our mind power.  Even the instructions to believe and have faith are all focused on believing Jesus and having faith in Jesus.  It is not faith in our ability to wield faith like a medical instrument.  Rather, it is faith in the One who has power over all sickness.

It often bothers us that God allows sickness on the earth.  However, remember that God has a goal that is greater than humans not having any suffering.  What would it profit us to live lives free from sickness and yet be spiritually like the devil, to go into eternity lost?  God created us to be like Him, to dwell with Him, and to work with Him.  Thus, sin is a huge barrier to all that happening.  We want God to heal everything, but let us live anyway we want.  Even when ailments are the result of sinful choices, we still want God to protect us from the consequences and yet not expect anything from us.  This attitude is sinful.

So, we want healing and have turned to all manner of things throughout the years.  There is something wrong with attempting spiritual or religious cures outside of Christ.  We are warned in Scripture that only the Holy Spirit and the ways of Christ can be trusted.  The many spiritual cures that exist are only the teachings of evil spirit that want to get permission to attach themselves to our lives.

However, there is nothing wrong with medicine and doctors helping us heal.  The same God who can heal at will has also put things on the earth with which we can make medicine.  Either way, He is the source of the healing.  When our bodies naturally heal themselves, where did they get this ability?  It was not the luck of Natural Selection.  Rather, it was the design of a benevolent Creator.  Yet, we must realize that medicine and medical technology is always limited and cannot take the place of God.  This is why I think that we will have to deal with sickness until the resurrection occurs.

What amazing power that can will sickness away, even without a word.  Christians do not need the proper prayer, or the proper verses to quote, or the proper mix of Christian “spell casting.”  Rather, we simply need to be connected to Jesus and believe upon Him.

At evening time, we are told that a crowd gathers outside of the door where Jesus is staying.  Word has spread about the exorcism done during the synagogue service and perhaps also about Simon’s mother-in-law’s healing.  They show up at evening because all the Sabbath restrictions would now be over.  Although Jesus had cast out the evil spirit on the Sabbath, there was no issue made of it.  Most likely because they were all in shock and amazed.  This was a new thing.  Later, the religious would have time to realize that they should be offended and that Jesus was technically breaking their Sabbath laws.

Regardless, at this point in time it is technically Sunday in our reckoning, and we are told that many who were sick and others who were demon-possessed were healed by Jesus.  This was an incredible day in the city of Capernaum.

If we hit pause on the scene, perhaps we should take some time to mentally digest what the Bible is presenting to us.  Israel had been waiting for God’s Anointed One to come and fix everything in Israel and the world.  The covenant that God made with Israel had many physical blessings.  If they were loyal to God then He would bless their crops, their wives would be fertile, and the diseases of the Egyptians and the Canaanites would not come upon them.  God’s people of Israel had the Creator’s word that He would keep them healthy and they would not need fear any evil spirits of the nations around them.  However, when the Anointed One comes, Israel is filled with people who are sick and even demon possessed.  The great people of God have not been loyal and faithful.  They are a plundered people who have been taken captive by their spiritual enemies even more than by their natural enemies.

Let’s take some time to contrast this with the New Covenant that Christ makes with whosoever will believe in Him.  The Mosaic Covenant was heavy on physical blessings and had some spiritual blessings.  However, the New Covenant was heavy on spiritual blessings and had some physical blessings.  We have no nation on this earth, are not guaranteed crops and fertility, and are not even guaranteed defense against physical enemies.  Yet, we have something greater.  We are guaranteed spiritual fruitfulness, and spiritual offspring.  We even have the Spirit of God Himself dwelling within us.  Yet, if Jesus were to walk among the churches of today, what would He find?  Would he not find a multitude who are still spiritually bound and not walking in the fullness that God has for us?  On one hand we fall far short of the intentions of God and His Savior, Jesus.  On the other hand, we see Jesus, loving us, and touching us in order to set us free from what binds us.  We need to come to Christ and seek to be free from those things that hold us back from walking in faith and trust in Him.  We need to find the leading of the Holy Spirit in our life and trust Him.

Back in Capernaum, there are now 100’s of people who have witnessed the power of Jesus.  Think of the countless numbers of people through the years who can give testimony to the power of Jesus in their life.  Instead of walling ourselves off from God in unbelief, we must learn to hear the testimonies about Him and learn to walk in faith.  Jesus can be trusted, even when I don’t get exactly what I want.  However, He still works powerfully in our lives today, and we need to be good witnesses of it to others.

Jesus seeks out a place of prayer

It had been a busy day.  Yet, the next morning, Jesus gets up before dawn and seeks out a “solitary” place to pray.  The pressure and busyness would no doubt begin anew that Sunday morning.  It is typical for us as humans to allow the times of pressure and busyness to squeeze out spending time with God the Father in prayer and seeking His understanding and purpose for our day.  Here Jesus in the busiest of times, takes time to meet with His Father.

It is good to pray in public.  However, if we do not have times of secret prayer then our public prayers are hollow and empty of any real meaning and power.  Jesus was powerful in these other areas because He also had a strong and powerful relationship with God the Father through prayer.   He is unique in His Sonship, but He is not unique in having a relationship with God that is both private and public.  We must follow His example.  It is secret prayer that makes public prayer meaningful and powerful. 

Jesus has many more people to heal and set free from evil spirits.  However, He also needs to keep focused on God the Father and His plan.  When people are desperate and see you as their answer, they will take hold of your life and set the agenda for you, if you let them.  We must always guard against letting others set the agenda for our life.  Take time to seek God about His agenda for your life each day.  That can only happen in times of secret prayer and on days other than church day.

So, we see Jesus who is not “going it alone.”  He is doing what He does with the Father.  You too were never intended to be alone in what you are doing.  Jesus is up before dawn because those hours are more spiritual.  He is up that early because everyone else is asleep.  Carving out time is not just about one time a day for a certain amount of time.  It is about finding a way to get alone and talk with God.  This should not be the first thing we sacrifice when we are busy, but the last thing.

Meanwhile, the disciples wake up and realize that Jesus is not in the house.  While they begin looking, people are showing up at the door hoping to find Jesus.  This gives us a picture of Christ that we must not miss.  Jesus is not always where you think He will be and is not always in an easy place for us to find Him.  Jesus offers Himself to the world, to whosoever will, but He also has His own agenda.  If we are always thinking that Jesus is in the noisy, loud, public places (perhaps even a church service), we can miss this intimate side of Jesus.  Sometimes we need to get to the solitary place and there we will find Him.  Yes, we need Church and Fellowship with other believers, and Jesus is truly there.  However, He is also in the solitary place with the Father that we can only go to by faith and through prayer in our own secret place.  You do not have to travel all over the world to find Jesus.  He is right here, right now, wherever you are.

Everyone is looking for Jesus because they all want a piece of Jesus.  Yet, Jesus has received instructions from the Father.  He explains God’s purpose.  He must go to other towns and do the same thing.  His purpose is about reduplicating what just happened in Capernaum in the other towns of the Galilee.  Blessed Capernaum would keep slurping up the blessing as long as they could.  If they were allowed to set the agenda and purpose then a huge compound would be built in Capernaum where Jesus would stay and all the world would come in order to be healed and set free, but that is not the plan.  The emphasis is not on such plans.  Rather, Jesus is going out to the people wherever they are.  In fact, you actually have both things happening.  Wherever Jesus went He was seeking people to touch and people were coming from far and wide to find Him.  So, we have this beautiful sense that while we are seeking for God, He is seeking for us.  By the grace of God, we shall meet up!  He cares about you and He wants you to find Him.

Even then, Israel’s greatest need, our greatest need, is not physical healing.  What a tragedy it would be to be healed physically by God, but not to be healed spiritually.  The miracles that Jesus did were not the main thing.  They served the purpose to get people’s attention, but the teaching of Jesus pointed people to a spiritual healing from sin and a healing of our relationship with God the Father.

If you truly believe in Jesus as your savior today then you truly are a Child of God.  And, if you truly are a Child of God then God has a purpose for everything that you are going through today and went through yesterday.  He has a present and a future for you.  That knowledge should become the foundation of our relationship with the Father through prayer.

We live in a desperate world, but in its desperation, it is grabbing on to all the wrong things, things that cannot save.  Humanity cannot heal itself.  We must humble ourselves and come to Christ so that He will heal us as only He can.  We cannot tell Him how to heal us, but must humble ourselves and allow the good physician to apply the balm according to His knowledge, not ours.

Power of Jesus II Audio

The Flesh Profits Nothing

Mark 11:7-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 25, 2018.

Today we remember the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem the week before he was crucified.  In some ways it looks like a victorious thing we should be excited about, yet in other ways, it represents a clear defeat of mankind’s ability to follow God in truth.  Yes, many people publicly embraced Jesus as the Messiah that day.  But over the course of the following days they were unable to follow the Spirit of God because they were operating according to the desires of their flesh, rather than the desires of the Spirit of God.  Of course, God knew this was the case and therefore had worked it into His plan to use the fleshly desires of mankind (and even fallen cherubim) in accomplishing His plan.  This doesn’t make these things good or acceptable.  The crucifixion of Jesus still stands as the most reprehensible action of mankind and the devil and his angels.  There is no absolving ourselves by claiming it was the will of God because those who participated in the crucifixion of Jesus did so in answer to their flesh, not the Spirit of God.

Jesus made it clear that he was doing a spiritual work that was directed by the Spirit of God.  He said in John 6:63,

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”  

I want to highlight this concept.  Following the flesh will not benefit you in any way.  It is only in hearing and following the Spirit that we can benefit.  I do not say this to exclude physical things.  We can grow up, marry, raise children and work as a person who follows the Spirit of God, rather than one who follows the desires of their flesh.

On this amazing day, Jesus finally quits beating around the bush (from the perspective of the average person in Israel) and presents himself as God’s Anointed One, the King of Israel.  However, we must take note that Jesus does not present himself in a way that would satisfy the flesh of those who were celebrating that day.

The same is true today.  We declare that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords to the people of this nation and world.  However, we must follow the Spirit of God and not the desires of our flesh (i.e. be born again) if we are to enter the Kingdom of God.

He appears to do nothing.

We are picking up the story mid-stream.  Each day more and more people are swelling the population of Jerusalem, and the surrounding area, in preparation for the coming Feast of Passover.  On top of this is the growing anticipation of this man Jesus.  Will he show up?  Is this the year Messiah appears and delivers us from the Romans?  When Jesus comes down the Mt. of Olives, opposite the temple, riding on the back of a donkey, it was an unmistakable signal to the people that Jesus was presenting Himself as their king.  The prophecies of Zechariah spoke about the Messiah and His work.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off.  He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from The River to the ends of the earth.’ “  Zechariah 9:9-10.

Yes the stories of all that Jesus did around the country had stirred up an anticipation that he would step into the role of Israel’s messianic king.  He has avoided this up to this point.  But, now he clearly accepts the role that the prophets had declared and publicly offers himself to Israel.

Yet, what we will see in the following events, both that day and in the days to follow, is that there is an anticlimactic feel.  This is the high point, but everything continues to unravel over the next days and culminates with the crowds crying, “Crucify him,” and then the death of Jesus on the cross.  Mark seems to highlight this anticlimactic feel.  Everything builds up in the story.  Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes directly to the temple.  He then looks around at everything (with everyone watching him with bated breath).  Yet, Jesus simply leaves, “as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”  Why the grand entrance into Jerusalem, fulfilling prophecy, only to look around and leave?  Why did he come so late in the day?

This should be a clue to us that Jesus is doing something more than offering himself to Israel as the Messiah.  This timing issue ought to catch our attention.  Is it not true that God often seems to come “too late” for our tastes?  Are not we tempted to just give up and walk away because He appears to do nothing?  Yet, when we think God is doing nothing, we are wrong.  We have to learn to see with the eyes of the Spirit, rather than the eyes of our flesh.  We need the eyes of faith in God rather than faith in the flesh and what we see.  God is always working by His Spirit.  If He comes late in the day, it is because that is precisely the best time to come for the things of the Spirit, but not for the desires of our flesh.

Mark emphasizes that Jesus looked around at everything.  In light of the fact that he will come back the next day and “clean house,” we must see this as a kind of inspection.  Rather than doing nothing, Jesus is inspecting the temple that belongs to Him, the temple that he had commanded Israel to build along with the instructions of what to do there.  Were they focused on the purposes and plan of God in what they did there?  The irony of the situation is that as they are being inspected by The Lord of Glory, they presume to be “inspecting him.”  Be careful that you are not so critical of Jesus and the Christians who follow him that you miss the fact that you too are being inspected by God.  If He uses the same criteria of fleshly judgment against you that you use against him, will you survive? 

Jesus leaves exactly when you would expect something big to happen.  Our flesh does not like that sort of thing.  If we don’t get the “bang for our buck” then we feel like we are cheated.  God will never allow us to turn Him into our personal “God machine.”  You know; where you put in a certain amount of effort or money and get what you ordered by 3 PM the next day (or with Amazon Air within 30 minutes).  Not only does our flesh profit nothing, it cannot recognize a spiritual profit when it is staring it in the face.  We must recognize this critical point about ourselves as humans.  We have to learn to recognize that God often operates in a way that is a rebuke to our flesh, and simultaneously a call of the Spirit to follow Him.

He rejects the empty, religious practices of the day.

Now look at verses 12-19.  I ask you to put the verses about the fig tree on hold so that we can deal with them later.  However, after spending the night in a neighboring village called Bethany, Jesus and his disciples come back to Jerusalem and go to the temple the next day.  When Jesus gets there, he tosses the money changers out, and forces those selling sheep and doves to get everything out of the temple grounds.  Why does Jesus do this?  He is confronting the empty, religious practices of his day.

The temple had turned into a convenience store for religious people.  They could come from anywhere in the world, purchase a sacrifice in the temple, and not have to bother themselves with any of that nasty work of touching them (except for a ceremonial touch).  The problem was not that they purchased the sheep.  This was acceptable.  But that this was being done in a place that was not meant to be a commercial place that focused on the comfort of the “worshipper.”  This conflation of the sacred and the common (commerce is not evil, but neither does it have place in the sacred), has forever been a bane to humanity.  Today, we can be in jeopardy of turning churches into a means of making money off of those who are in our niche market, all by satisfying the desires of the religious people who gather, which are superficially spiritual desires, but at their depths are only fleshly desires dressed up as spiritual desires).  It becomes a type of “spiritual transaction” in which those in the pew pay in order to have their conscience assuaged.  This is a dangerous undermining of the true purpose of the place of worship.

The true purpose of the temple was to be a place where people could approach God in order to deal with their sin, but also, to fellowship with Him.  It was a place to celebrate His appointed feasts and to rejoice in His kingship over them.  The flesh turns religion into a marketplace of hyperactivity that loses sight of what the Spirit of God is trying to accomplish.  The flesh is hostile to the purposes of God and will always choose one of two paths: active rejection or passive repurposing.  Jesus is reminding them that the true purpose of the temple was to be a place of prayer (i.e. interaction between people and God) for all nations.

He does not confront the Romans.

We won’t spend a lot of time on this.  But, it is worth noting that Jesus did not even lift a finger towards removing this occupying force.  He did not raise an army, or connect with the zealots of the day in order to raise up a rebellion.  There was no great battle of Messiah vs. the Romans that week.  This was an added consternation to those whose flesh badly wanted free of the Romans, but not necessarily their sins.

The lesson of The Withered Fig Tree

Verses 20-26 bring us back to the fig tree that was mentioned earlier.  It is important to recognize that these two interactions with this fig tree are like bookends to the actions of Jesus in the temple.  So what about this?

When Jesus and his disciples were traveling into Jerusalem, Jesus saw a fig tree in the distance that had leaves on it.  It was common for travelers to eat from food that was found along the road.  As long as it wasn’t in an enclosure, it was considered common fare.  The fig tree is different from some fruit trees in that it will fruit first and then grow leaves.  Thus the leaves on this tree give the appearance that there is fruit to be had.  It represents something that promises fruit from a distance.  It is clear that this interaction with the fig tree is intended to be a parable for something.  So we must dig deeper to discern the spiritual truth that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples and us.  As I said earlier, it is obvious that Mark understood the events of the fig tree to be connected to the cleansing of the temple.

The fig tree that promises fruit from afar has none upon closer inspection.  Jesus draws near, but finds no dates on the fig tree.  The inspection of the fig tree is parallel to the inspection of the temple that Jesus had done the night before.  The shouting crowds surrounding Jerusalem and the temple activity all gave the appearance of a people who were obedient to the Lord and were righteously awaiting his coming.  Like the fig tree, it would appear that Israel was faithfully serving the Lord and waiting for His deliverance, but it was superficial.  In truth, most of their hearts were following fleshly desires.  Only a remnant of the people would follow the Spirit of God over the course of the next 40 years.  And, only a remnant would escape the destruction that was coming upon this fig tree that God had planted in the land.

Now we can focus on the fact that it wasn’t prime fig season, yet.  However, this plant put forth the outward appearances that it was fruitful, when all the other fig trees were not.  This signifies all who are easily drawn into religion by their flesh.  We can fall into the trap of thinking that we are fruitful because we gather at a particular place, at a particular time, and do a particular set of rituals.  But the real thing that prepares us for God comes from listening to the Holy Spirit and following Him.  There were some who had fruit in those days, just as there are some who have fruit today.  But, God is not looking for an outward show that has lost the true inner purpose of His Spirit.  If you lack the fruit of the Spirit of God then humble yourself and cry out to Him for His presence and salvation in your life.  But under no circumstances should you pretend that you are okay with God, when you are not.  Those who do so have nothing to expect from God, but a curse and His judgment that they are unacceptable.  Jesus does not curse the fig tree because his flesh is angered that it won’t get food.  He does so to teach us a spiritual lesson that the outward show of religion that lacks the fruit of the Spirit of God is ripe for judgment from God.

It is easy to think that Jesus simply takes time to teach on prayer all of the sudden.  But, his comments about prayer are directly tied to the fig tree.  We need to understand the role of faith in our spiritual life as a follower of God.  That which is by faith will live, but that which is by the flesh will die and benefit us nothing.  The flesh tells us that the path of faith won’t work, but the Spirit faithfully calls us to pick up our cross and follow Jesus.  When we cling to our sins over the top of the call of the Holy Spirit, our flesh becomes blind and calloused to what the Spirit of God is saying.  The Pharisees could only see that Jesus was trespassing upon their authority.  Who did He think He was?  They were so offended in the flesh that they could not hear the Spirit saying, “Israel, behold your king!”  In truth it was the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were the true trespassers.  Their right to represent God before the people was only authoritative as long as they actually represented Him, and not the desires of their flesh.  We must learn to let go of what others have done to us, and follow the Spirit of God, rather than the spirit of fear and offense.  Only then can we escape becoming a fig tree that offers false hope to God and ends up withered and dead.

Flesh Profits Nothing audio