Such Love-Part 2

Subtitle: He Paid the Price for Us

Psalm 49:6-8,15; Isaiah 49:5-7; Luke 23:39-43.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 9, 2023.

We continue our series on the love of God.  We talked last week about God loving us so much that He took on the nature of a human.  He became one of us.  This is called the incarnation.

However, God did not use His humanity to rule over us with an iron fist.  Instead, He uses it to pay the price required to help us get back everything that we have lost due to sin.  This can be regarding some of the immediate consequences of sin, but ultimately embraces all that we have lost eternally.

Let's look at our first passage.

The true predicament of my soul  (Ps 49:6-8,15)

The psalmist brings up the issue of redeeming a person.  Verse 7 says that the wealthy of this world (who are so used to being able to buy what they want) will not be able to redeem their brother.  Anyone who may be perplexed at this statement quickly has it cleared up in the next verse.  The psalmist clarifies that they are talking about redeeming the soul.  Redeeming the soul is soul costly that it "shall cease forever," as the NKJV reads.  The phrase can also mean to not be completed. This is most likely the intended meaning.  No matter how long, i.e., forever, a wealthy person saves up, they will always fall short of the cost of redeeming the soul of their brother. 

This concept of redeeming a soul is important to note.

The psalmist then declares that God will redeem them from the power of the grave.  In order to really absorb what the psalmist is contemplating here, we need to take a few minutes to talk about the concept of redemption.

Redemption is the idea of paying the price required to release something back to the original owner, whether that is yourself, or another person.

There were several situations in ancient Israelite society that would call for redemption.  The firstborn of every Israelite family, including of their animals, belonged to the Lord.  A husband and wife were required to redeem their firstborn child by paying a set price to the tabernacle. 

This was not a blatant attempt to make money off of the families of Israel.  Rather, it harkened back to their time in Egypt.  They were slaves, and God was using Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh.  This involved 10 plagues in which God essentially forced Pharaoh to all but drive the Israelites out of his land.  The tenth plague was the death of the firstborn.  A destroying angel would go throughout Egypt and kill the firstborn of every family and every animal.  God instructed Israel to offer a lamb and put its blood upon the doorposts of their dwelling.  God Himself would protect those households that had obeyed and applied the blood of the lamb to their doorposts.  This continuing redemption was to be a reminder to Israel of God's deliverance of the firstborn in Egypt. 

Another situation that required the concept of redemption had to do with property.  If a person became poor, they may need to sell their property.  They could then use the money to set up some other way of making it.  If this fell through, they may even need to sell their labor and become an indentured servant.  Regardless, it could happen that an Israelite would be so destitute that they would never get their land back, until the Jubilee (if that was being observed every 50 years).  Even then, they may be financially unable to do anything with it.  This is where a close relative could step in, pay the value of the land, and give it back to their kin.  This would be a righteous act of grace for one of your extended family members.  The story of Ruth has this issue at the center of its plot.

This sets up a specific word that is used for redeeming that literally means "to do the work of a kinsman."  It is sometimes translated as a Kinsman Redeemer.  This always involves a situation where a poor person who is unable to do so is helped by a rich relative who is gracious.

The idea that a soul may need to be redeemed is a powerful concept that relies upon the imagery provided in such situations as I have described.  God had made sure that this concept would crop up in different ways throughout their society so that they could understand a deeper predicament of humanity, the need for spiritual redemption.

This begs the question.  What was sold, and why are we so "spiritually" poor that we are unable to get it back?  Genesis three and the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden represents part of the problem.  We chose the knowledge of good and evil (I think we have received a good dose of both) over the top of a good relationship with God.  God had warned them against eating from that tree.  This breaking of faith with God had the consequence of separating them from Him, as well as mortality.  They exchanged their eternal relationship of goodness with God for the idea that they could be something without Him.

Yet, it is more than this.  We had opened the door to the idea of rejecting God's purpose, or plan, and moved in the direction of living life in our own wisdom (or was their own?).  Humanity exchanged immortality for mortality, and the sure plan of God for the sketchy plan that we could come up with on our own, or with help from fallen spiritual beings.  This was an immoral response to the goodness of God.  Such sin not only separated us from God, but it also began to stack up as we continued to double down on sinful actions.  At a basic level, humanity as a whole is a prodigal son in bondage to the things of this world and far away from the place we were meant to have next to Father God.  We have no means of getting that good place next to God back, and continue to descend into a hell of our own making.  We need redemption!

God promises a redeemer  (Isaiah 49:5-7)

Isaiah speaks about the redemption over 24 times between chapters 40 and 66.  It is interesting that this section has 13 chapters (40-52) and then the amazing chapter 53 gives us a powerful picture of God's answer for man's redemption.  In fact, throughout that section, there are 4 glimpses of God's Redeemer who would come forth to redeem both Israel and the nations.  These glimpses are called the "Servant Songs" by theologians.  This section builds up to chapter 53, which is the shocking reveal that the Redeemer would come forward to be a sacrifice for the people.  We then have another 13 chapters to the end of the book as a sort of resolution of the tension. 

Isaiah 49 is the second "Servant Song," which pictures the Redeemer of Israel.

Another aspect of chapters 40-52 is that Israel was supposed to be the servant of God to help take back the nations for God.  However, God's servant Israel was a deaf and blind servant.  Just picture for a moment how helpful a deaf and blind servant would be to their master.  Israel had become deaf and blind because of their sins.  How would they ever get back the position that God had made for them next to Him in redeeming the nations?  It would only happen through God's a special and unique redeemer sent from God.  Israel could not do it for themselves; they were spiritually too poor, but God would help them.

This is something to understand.  With sin, no amount of money, or even good works, could pay for what we have done.  The penalty is to die as a slave and go into eternity out of relationship with God.

In Isaiah 49:6, it is said that it would be too small of thing for this coming Redeemer only to redeem Israel and cause their scattered exiles to be gathered back to God in the land.  This Redeemer would also become a light to the Gentiles, i.e., the nations, and He would be God's salvation to the ends of the earth.

This may help you to understand why it was so important for Mary and Joseph to name this special child that she carried, Yeshua.  It means "Yahweh's Salvation." 

The early Scriptures are a story of humanity's relationship with God continuing to fracture into a worse and worse predicament.  The Fall in the Garden causes humanity to be kicked out of the earthly paradise and close relationship with God.  Of course, there was interference from a spiritual interloper, the devil.  This happens again in Genesis 6, which causes mankind to become extremely evil.  After the flood, we see the Tower of Babel rebellion.  Their sin causes the judgment of God.  They are cast off to serve those false pretender gods that they were seeking, and God goes to Abram to make a new nation for Himself.  Yet, this nation of Israel essentially fails to be the servant that God wanted because...you guessed it!, because of sin.

God knew this would happen all along, but we needed to both live it out and see it for ourselves.  We are too easily manipulated by evil spiritual forces, and  too stuck in our sins to be free, and that includes the so-called "righteous" among us.  Thus, God's promise through Isaiah that He would raise up a special Redeemer who would do what humanity could not.

Redeemed by the life of our kinsman  (Luke 23:39-43)

Jesus was not just coming to give us the good example, though He truly is a perfect picture of what we should be.  He became human, and then lived a perfect life, a sinless life, so that he could perform the work of a near kinsman, that is, pay the price to help us get our inheritance back.

Jesus could pay the price of death that was owed by Israel, but also by all the nations of the earth.  None of us were worthy, and none of us are worthy today.  We still need the redemption of Jesus.

That is what Jesus was doing that day in which we nailed him to a cross between two thieves.  This is just how "righteous" we are.  When God gave us the perfect person, we killed him.  If God were to do it again, we would just kill that one too.  Thus, all the prophets who had a glimpse of God's coming Redeemer also saw that he would be despised and abhorred by many. 

We are all in the same predicament, no matter how good we are compared to others.  We have lost our inheritance to dwell eternally with God, and we are bereft of any spiritual value to get it back.  Yet, in this state, God knew that some would believe.  For those who will stop demanding that God accept their life as "righteous enough," and simply admit that they cannot do it themselves, Jesus comes to pay the price.

Jesus became your kin so that he could pay the price for your sin, and restore you to the eternal inheritance that God always intended for you.  This is particularly on display in the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus.

These thieves are real men, and this is what really happened.  However, they are more than just incidental, accidental, parts of the story.  They are symbolic of all of humanity.

All of humanity is destined to die as sinners.  Yes, we can point to another person and rightly say that we are better than them to some degree.  However, we are still spiritual beggars who are unable to pay the full price for our sins and live with God.  Our relative righteousness is like a person bragging that they have one million dollars in the bank and laughing a person who lives paycheck to paycheck.  Comparatively, they have it better.  But, if the analogy is to properly fit mankind, the person who has a million dollars in the bank, and the poor person, both owe a debt to God that is astronomical.  A debt that they cannot ever pay back.  They will be in the same boat on the day that they die and their debts come due.

These two thieves are both dying for their sins.  Yet, in that state, they have two very different hearts.  One thief is full of self-righteousness and challenges Jesus to save himself and them.  You can notice that he is only thinking of the natural problem.  Jesus is no good to him, unless he can help him get out of this predicament in a natural way.  There is no sense within this thief that he is guilty, but Jesus is innocent, none at all.

The other thief is a different story.  He recognizes that he deserves what he is getting.  These are the just desserts of a thief, even if it is the dirty, rotten, no-good Romans doing it.  Yet, he simultaneously recognizes that Jesus does not deserve the death that he is receiving.  Something comes alive in him in this moment.  He comes to believe that somehow this Jesus must really be the Messiah.  He doesn't know how, but in some way the God of Israel will do something powerful, and this man Jesus will be the king of a Messianic Kingdom.  Like Abraham offering up his child in faith, so the man gives a prayerful request to Jesus.  "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

We want God to come down and get us out of our mess, but instead, God came down and let himself be crucified among us.  What good does that do for us?  Yes, we all believe that the biggest problem in life is all those other evil things, people, nations, etc. out there.  God come stop the Russians, the Chinese, Washington D.C., etc.  God stop that race; God get those greedy bankers; God make the rich give us their money.  In our self-righteousness, we call for God to "solve" our problems.  However, those things are not our true problem.  Our true problem is the sin within us.  A willfulness to reject God and try to make our way without Him, and then rail against Him when there are bad consequences.  

The day they were caught and sentenced to execution was the greatest days of their lives because it would put them in a place to see God's great Redeemer.  In our pain and suffering, God is not only there, but He has been there long before we ever made it there.  When God created the heavens and the earth, He did so in tears.  He was the One going forth sowing in tears, knowing that He would doubtless come again rejoicing with a harvest.  Our sense of suffering is only the tip of the iceberg of the timeless assault of evil, pain and suffering upon the heart of God.

God used the wicked Romans that day to help one of those thieves come face to face with His sin, while also coming face to face with the righteousness of Jesus.  He believed that day, and Jesus told him that he would be with him in Paradise that very day!

This bothers some people.  This man had lived the life of a thief.  We can make it noble by saying he only stole from Romans, but we don't know that.  Sin always pulls us lower than we ever intended to go.  This man would die within hours.  He has nothing to offer God.  Why would God save Him knowing that He is not going to get any good works out of this man?

This begs the question.  What does God really want?  The answer is that He simply wants you, your heart, mind, and love.  On that day, that man quit rebelling against God, turned, and embraced the truth about whom Jesus was. 

God is looking for whosoever will let go of demanding that their righteousness be accepted as enough.  He wants whosoever will let go of their way of thinking, their plans, and whosoever will yield to His wisdom, purpose, and plan.

Yes, that man had nothing to offer God that day, but himself.  All of mankind is symbolized in these two guys.  We are all sinners who are going to die.  Some will die doubling down on their own righteousness and despising Christ, and yet, some will yield to Christ and ask for mercy, forgiveness.

God wants you to have the place that He intended for you all along, a place at His side in a loving, eternal relationship, where there is no sin, no evil, no pain, no suffering, and no consequences of our sin wrapped around us like chains.

Jesus came to redeem you from the bondage of your sins.  God doesn't want you to wait until you are dying nailed to a cross.  But, if you delay and one day find yourself nailed to a cross, know this.  It is the grace of God use our sins to nail us to a cross.  Can I even now let the Spirit of God and the Word of God nail me to a cross that I deserve, and in that moment, not only recognize my need for a redeemer, but recognize Jesus as the One who loved me so much that He paid the price for me?

O friend, yield to Jesus today.  Quit trusting your way, and the way of the world.  Submit and follow the only one who ever laid down his life, and then three days later rose up out of the grave, with over 500 witnesses to this fact.  Give yourself to Jesus today!

Such Love 2 audio

Greatness is in Serving

Mark 10:35-45.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 22, 2020.

It is easy in our country to give lip service to the issue of being a leader who serves the people.  Our Christian foundations have affected the ways that we talk about such things, and even the words used by some politicians to manipulate people into voting for them.

In the last sentence of the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln challenged the nation with these words.  “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  Our human tendency, in its immaturity, is to look for leaders who will tell us what to do and to save us from threatening conditions.  However, our country was built upon the premise of a government that is made up of the people who are governing themselves for the sake of the whole nation.  The ability of the group to govern lives or dies upon the ability of individuals to govern themselves.

The founding fathers were working off of a biblical foundation and world view.  God’s word challenges believers to walk in freedom, but not a freedom to do whatever you want.  In our passage today, Jesus teaches us how leadership should work in the Church, and it is the opposite of how this world tends to do it, regardless of what words they use.

The request of James and John

Our passage begins with a request that comes from the two disciples, James & John.  They are brothers who had been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee just like Peter and Andrew.  It is worth noting that Matthew 20:20-28 tells us that this request was actually made through their mother.  Since this is not in our passage today, I will only make a passing comment.  No doubt, James and John knew that this request was in bad taste and bad form.  They attempted to moderate its ambitious nature by having their mom ask.  However, Jesus addresses them and not their mother.  That coupled with its absence in Mark’s account tells us that everyone knew James and John were ultimately behind the request.

Their request is this.  “Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in your glory.”  It has two parts.  First, they want to have the highest place next to him.  And, second, the time frame that they are talking about is “in his glory.”  This is directly referring to the time when he would be ruling over Israel as the promised Messianic King in what is generally called the Kingdom of God.  We would call this the Millennial Kingdom, which they thought would begin shortly.

Now, to give them some credit, Jesus had already told his disciples in Matthew 19:28 that “in the regeneration [the resurrection], when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  So, he had already promised them a high position in his coming kingdom.  They are not content with that apparently, and desire to ask for the two top spots.

What we are going to see in this passage is that the problem is not that we might desire great positions or even to do greatly in those positions.  The real problem is that our desires are riddled with impure motives and misunderstandings of just what true greatness is.  They want the highest positions to be given to them outright before they have done anything to deserve it.  Instead of seeking to promote ourselves further in this life, we should focus on serving well in the position that we are in right now.  If God promotes us beyond that position then that is His prerogative, and if He doesn’t then we should not take it as a slight.  It really doesn’t matter what our placement in the age to come is going to be.  What really matters is our service for the Lord today.  How is my service?

Jesus prefaces his response to James and John with the statement that they don’t realize what they are asking.  When we ask for promotion, we generally only see the “good” things connected to being the boss.  Yes, we see power, authority, freedom to do what you want, people looking up to you, and a great reputation.  It is like looking at a virtuoso who plays their instrument so well and wanting to do what they do.  It only takes a week of practicing (and sometimes less) to realize that 99.9999% of us really do not want to be a virtuoso.  We tend to want the good stuff of being a virtuoso without the grueling and unrelenting practice, a.k.a. price, that goes with it.

So, Jesus gives them two metaphors to help us understand the hard part of getting those two top spots.  The first metaphor is that of a cup that one has to drink.  It is clear that he is talking about his upcoming sufferings.  In the garden on the night he was betrayed, Jesus asks the Father to take this cup away from him.  He ends by saying, “Nevertheless, your will be done.”  The picture is of a cup that is filled with suffering and you are being asked to drink it.  Most people would take a sip and cast the cup aside.  We are typically unwilling to drain it to its dregs.  However, Jesus did drink the cup to its dregs, and he asked his disciples to pick up their cross and follow him.

The second metaphor is that of something into which they need to be baptized (immersed).  This is a full body immersion into a particular pain and difficulty that goes along with doing the hard work that God has called him and us to do.  Both metaphors work together to show us the internal and external suffering that goes along with doing God’s will.

Our future kingdom rewards in the Millennium are directly related to the hardships and sufferings that we have gone through in this life in order to accomplish God’s will.  The suffering itself is not what we seek.  It is not suffering in general that gives us reward.  It is the particular suffering that comes from doing the will and purpose of God.  As we do God’s will, certain hardships and sufferings will arise up and threaten to turn us back.  Christ will reward those who press through the sufferings in order to serve his purposes.

In response to the challenge that Jesus gives to them, James and John both declare that they are able to drink this cup and be baptized with this baptism.  It is not clear just what they think this means, but even if they understood that it involved suffering, they would be inclined to think that this suffering would be very quick and the glory would come soon.  Jesus then agrees that they are right.  They will drink this cup of suffering and be baptized in this pool of suffering in following him.  Acts 12:2 tells us that Herod Agrippa had James executed and then seized Peter to do the same.  Peter escapes by the help of an angel from God.  Why didn’t James have an angelic escape?  It has nothing to do with which of them was a better disciple or had more faith.  It had to do with the purposes of God in their life.  The apostle James became the first of the 12 to be put to death for Christ.  On the other hand, the apostle John is the last of the 12 to die.  The Bible does not record his death, but we have several stories from the 2^nd century that say that there were attempts to kill John that did not work.  They poisoned him, but he still lived.  They threw him in boiling oil and survived.  Then he was exiled on the island of Patmos where he wrote the Revelation, the last book of the Bible.  His suffering was a long slow burn that was different then his brother.

Jesus ends this point about suffering by telling them that it is not up to him who gets these positions.  The positions are for those “for whom they have been prepared.”  The emphasis is not on the fact that Jesus has no say, but rather on his ability to give the positions in the way James and John are asking, as a favor.  Jesus cannot just give them out to family members or favorite disciples.  The emphasis is on how they are to be handed out.  Isaiah 11:3-4 tells us that the Messiah would not judge by what he sees or hears, but rather in righteousness.  In other words, he won’t judge like we do.  His judgments will be perfect and just right.  Thus, Jesus would not agree to favoring James and John.  Instead, they would receive what they deserved in the Kingdom.

Make no mistake.  God will reward us for our faithfulness in the face of difficulty and suffering, but let’s trust Him to make the measurement of our service and determine what it deserves.  Self-ambition can side-track the true work that must be done in our hearts in order to save people who are lost.

Jesus teaches on greatness

This sets up a situation for Jesus to remind his disciples about leadership in God’s Kingdom, whether now or in the age to come, in verses 41-45.  God does not see leadership like we do.  Our flesh gets mixed up in how we approach it.

However, let’s deal first with how the other disciples respond to this request of James and John.  They are angered, and greatly displeased.  We should stop and ask why they are angry.  If the Messiah, Jesus, only judges based upon righteousness and doesn’t play favorites then what do they have to fear?  I believe that they are angry because they desired the same thing and were afraid that the audacity of James and John just might secure the positions for them.  Their own sinful flesh is annoyed at the thought that those two might get ahead of them.  They knew that it wasn’t right to ask for such things, but in their hearts, they still desired it.

We need to stop such nonsense.  Promotion is not all that it is cracked up to be.  The more people you are called to lead the harder the burden is upon your shoulders.  We should neither shrink back from promotion out of fear or laziness, nor should we grasp at it out of selfish ambition.  Let’s simply trust God to direct our lives into the positions that he has for us, both in this life and in the next.  He is just and does all things well.  We should not wrestle against one another like these disciples were doing.

In verse 42, Jesus then points out how the Gentile leaders act.  Yes, they exercise authority over their people, but the operative phrase is, “Lord it over them.”  It is the idea of dominating and bringing those under your authority into subjection.  It is a heavy-handed leadership.  This tends to be the case among the nations because they didn’t have the teachings of God’s Word and such leadership tends to be very productive and focused.  It often gets results in this life.

This is not the kind of leadership that God wants among His people, both in this life and the life to come.  In fact, let’s remember that God Himself is not nearly as heavy-handed in His leadership as people often like to accuse Him of being.  He gives us room to repent and choose how we will live our life.  He wants us to choose love and service to Him freely, rather than to be subjugated into such roles.  Sadly, many leaders of the Church today and throughout history have failed in this respect.  Many of the great leaders throughout history are not great in God’s eyes.  They failed miserably to demonstrate the image of God to those they were tasked with leading.  We must not look to the greats of this world to determine how we should lead the Church of Jesus.  We must look to the greatest leader, Jesus.

Jesus counters the Gentile-way with how it should be among the Church.  Those who want to be great must become a servant.  Jesus had already told them this back in Mark 9:35 when he brought a little kid in their midst.  They had been arguing that day about which of them was the greatest, that is deserved the number one spot next to Jesus.  In our passage today, they have not learned their lesson, clearly.

Those who want to be great in the Kingdom of Jesus, both now and in the Millennium, must become a servant to everyone else.  Instead of using your position to build your reputation and personal kingdom, you must always recognize that you are not a god to the people you lead, but rather you are to represent “The God of Heaven” to those you lead.  You are to be a servant, not just to God by doing His purposes, but also to individuals by meeting the needs in their life that God sends you to meet.

The phrase that has been connected to this teaching is “Servant-Leadership.”  Among Christ’s Church, this is the only leadership that is acceptable to him because it is the only leadership that truly reflects him to believers and the world.  Christ has made you free, now use your freedom to serve your fellow man in regards to God’s purposes in their life.  Whatever level of leadership you have, parents with children all the way up to denominational leaders to their churches, we must learn to reflect Christ in our leadership.  The children and the people are not yours to do with what you want.  They belong to God and you will be rewarded or not for how you led them to walk in their own freedom before God.

In case this point hasn’t hit home, Jesus uses himself as an example.  Everyone agrees that he should get the first place, but how did he get first place?  How did he lead.  The Father didn’t just give it to him because he was his favorite son.  Jesus earned first place by coming down, humbling himself, taking on the nature of a man, and becoming a ransom for you and me.  Some people have rejected this notion of Jesus being our ransom because they think it sounds barbaric and uncouth.  Why can’t God just decree that we are all saved?  Such a question goes to the heart of the issue and why we tend towards totalitarianism instead of freedom.  Humans are always looking for techniques and tools to bring the world around them under their desires, but God simply serves people with the things that they actually need, and not to manipulate them.  Instead, He is willing to suffer in order that we might be free to choose life or death.  Choose life this morning and not death.  Put your faith in the one who has paid the ransom to free you from sin and judgment.  Become a follower of Jesus today if you aren’t already, and learn from him what it means to be great in God’s eyes.

Greatness is in Serving audio

Which of Us Is the Greatest?

Mark 9:30-37.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 19, 2020.

An age old problem among groups of people is the question, “Which of us is the greatest?”  It isn’t generally a spoken question.  Rather, it is an unspoken tension that is as clear as an elephant in the room.  It often lies beneath the surface of much that is said and done.  We must understand that we are not immune to this problem because we are Christians.

Today, we will look at a passage in which Jesus gives us wisdom in regards to this.  It is a wisdom that we will be quick to agree with, but very often not actually follow.  May God help us to grasp today just who deserves the primary position within God’s Church, even our specific church, because the truth will always be that Jesus is the only one and nothing else matters.

Jesus continues to reiterate his coming rejection

In Mark 8:31, we were told that Jesus “began” to teach them about his coming sufferings.  Here, Jesus continues to emphasize this prophetic word that suffering and death lay ahead for him.    We are told that Jesus intends to move through the Galilee in a stealthy manner so that he can have some talks with his disciples about this coming rejection.  The crowds did not need to be aware of his words before hand, but it was important for the disciples to be able to remember that Jesus had tried to tell them these things.  It would actually strengthen their faith once they knew that he was resurrected.

It is interesting to note that Jesus uses the present tense when he says that he is already being betrayed into the hands of men.  This is about more than Judas.  It involves all the actors that would be in place to do it.  The heart of Judas was already wandering away from Jesus towards money and doubt.  The hearts of the Pharisees and Caiaphas were already rejecting Jesus and plotting his demise.  Even though Jesus was very popular at this point, things were in motion within the hearts of people that would lead to him being betrayed and executed.

Of the things that Jesus teaches them, the fact that he would be killed would be the hardest to accept.  Sure, the Messiah could be betrayed, but surely he will rise up and throw out the evil betrayers.  For him to be executed clashed with everything they thought they knew about the Messiah. 

On top of this, to speak of rising on the third day would seem to make his statements seem even more cryptic.  It is not like people were rising from the dead every day.  Is this a parable, symbolic, or does it have some spiritual meaning?  What does Jesus actually mean?  These are the kinds of questions that no doubt clouded their understanding.

Thus, Mark emphasizes that the disciples couldn’t grasp or comprehend exactly what Jesus was trying to tell them.  Part of their problem was that they were afraid to ask him further about it.  Maybe they were afraid of it being true, or maybe they were afraid to look stupid within the group by publicly admitting that they didn’t understand.  Luke adds some colorful phrases in his parallel account of Luke 9.  He has Jesus saying, “Let these words sink down into your ears.”  The picture demonstrates their inability to hear by comparing it to the inability of words to get into their ears physically, which is clearly not the problem.  They are figuratively like a person whose ears are full of something the words can’t sink through.

Luke also says that they couldn’t understand, and “it was hidden from them.”  We could assume that God is intended as the one who has hidden it from them.  However, it is more likely a combination of their slowness to understand.  Finding something that you are fully acquainted with is generally easy, but, if someone has hidden it from you, it becomes a difficult matter.  What God was doing here was catching them by surprise and as such it might as well have been hidden from them, even though Jesus is putting it in front of them.  Only by the help of the Holy Spirit can we be enabled to see those things that our flesh keeps us blind to. 

Lest we be too hard on the disciples, we should remind ourselves of the many times that we have walked on in this life without grasping the things that God is trying to tell us in His Word.  We must remain humble as we live because we are continually recognizing areas that we have not understood like we should have.

Jesus confronts his disciples

We are told that Jesus and his disciples have traveled from the northeast region of Caesarea Philippi in a southwestern direction to Capernaum on the western side of the Sea of Galilee.  During their travel, the disciples have been discussing among themselves a particular issue.  They clearly did not think that Jesus had overheard them, or even suspected what their topic of discussion.  So, when Jesus asks them what they were talking about on the road, they are silent and do not answer.  The description in the question that Jesus asks portrays a dialogue between the disciples rather than a full-blown, heated argument.  Their silence is most likely due to the fact that they know the topic of their discussion will bring rebuke from Jesus.

It is sad when we know that something is wrong and hide it from our superiors, and yet seem to have no qualms doing it among our peers.  May God help us to take the hard road of being true to His path of righteousness, even when “everyone else is doing it.”  Mark tells us exactly what they were discussing on the road, and it had to do with which one of them was the greatest disciple of Jesus.

“Which of us is the greatest?”  In groups, this is a common tension, but it is not always discussed and debated openly.  Yet, it fuels much of the actions and remarks of people within the group.  There is irony in the fact that they are jockeying for the pole position in what they think is going to happen.  They think they will be ruling over Israel with Jesus.  However, Jesus is about to be rejected and killed, which means that they are actually jockeying for the position of being 2^nd on Israel’s top 13 most wanted list. 

Part of their inability to understand what Jesus was telling them is found in this question.  Their pride and desires are so strong that they can’t hear or receive what God is trying to tell them.  We desire so many things for ourselves and we want so much to be something more than we often are.  Such things lead us away from God’s plan and purpose, rather than towards it. Yet, even in this, God corrects us and brings us along.

Jesus knows exactly what they were talking about and proceeds to correct their pride and ignorance without actually stating the topic of their discussion.  He teaches them a principle regarding leadership.  The principle is this.  If anyone wants to be first among his disciples then they should be last of all and servant of all.

The principle is not that we should never want to lead or be the primary leader.  Someone will have to be the first leader, and having a primary leader is a good thing.  To desire a good thing is not a bad thing necessarily.  Paul does the same thing on spiritual gifts.  There is nothing wrong with desiring spiritual gifts, but the reasons and motivations behind that desire can be wrong, or even evil.  The problem isn’t wanting to be the primary leader.  The problem is that we often have no clue about what God expects in His primary leaders. 

We are given two qualifications, of which the first is this.  They should be the last of all the others in the group.  This sets the ways of the world on its head.  Instead of seeking the highest position by promoting oneself in pride and arrogance, we should demote ourselves in humility and weakness.  God resists the proud and casts them down, but he hears the humble and lifts them up.  It is a sad tribute that many, who are self-promoters and full of pride, are given primary positions within the Church that bears Christ’s name.  He was not this way.  He did not come to promote himself as the King of the world.  Instead, he took the lowest place that no one would want, the Scapegoat of the world, the Sin-Bearer of the world, and the Rejected-One of the world.  Imagine coming to church one day and they are drawing straws to see who will be the scapegoat for the church.  Would you volunteer?  Simply put, if you want to be the first then take up the last position, and let God put you in the first place.  This is essentially what both David and Jesus did.

The second qualification is that they should be a servant of all in the group.  This is really just another way of stating the first qualification.  He is not saying that everybody who does this will get to be the primary leader.  Not all who desire to be first get to be so, but they should all be a servant to the whole group.  What a change this would have in any group.  When we try to serve everybody else and trust God for promotion (or not), then pride is given a very serious blow in the group as a whole.

This cannot be about gaming the system in order to get what you want.  Otherwise, your flesh will get tired quickly and eventually quit.  This is the crucified life of taking the lowest place and serving in the lowest place, not to get the highest place, but in order to identify with our Lord.  Ultimately, whether we become the primary leader in this life or not is immaterial.  As long as we have Jesus, our place in eternity will far out weigh what we experience here on earth.

Jesus gives them a picture or a parable to help them get it by setting a child in their midst.  He adds to the image by putting his arms around the little child.  The child is clearly a nobody in comparison to the disciples.  Yet, here he is with the arms of Jesus around him.  This is an important image.  When I deal with other people, I don’t always recognize that God loves them.  He is not there physically with His arms around them, but that is His heart towards them.  This leads to the second principle that Jesus gives, and is intended to counteract our desire to be first.

If you receive the least one in the name of Jesus then you receive him, even the Father.  The disciples were constantly scrambling to be the one who is closest to Jesus or closest to God.  Yet, God loves us all and wraps His arms around us all.  God does not love the primary leader any more than the person in the lowest place.  To receive either one, the highest person or the lowest, is to receive the one who sent them, which is Jesus.  In seeking the highest place, we can become dismissive to those we perceive to be in the lowest place.  Instead of serving them, we step on them and expect them to serve us.

Jesus inverts this worldly attitude by connecting himself to all of the “Positions” that we could seek or have.  To reject and mistreat the lowest is to reject and mistreat Jesus, which is exactly what he has been trying to tell them that the religious leaders would do to him.

They wanted the primary leader spot so badly that they would kill Jesus in order to keep it.  Yet, their rejection of Jesus was also a rejection of God the Father whom they professed to serve.  Do we actually believe that God is just as intimately connected to the least person within his Church as He is with the greatest?  If we actually believe this then we would not be scrambling nearly so hard to have first place.  In fact, if we actually understood our God, we would understand that the primary places are to be for those who will serve in the most humble and lowly of ways.  God never intended leaders to be idolized and served by everyone else.  He intended for them to use the gifts that He gave them in order to serve the people that they lead. 

May God help us to quit worrying about who is the greatest, when the only answer that matters is this.  Jesus is the greatest of us all and without him I would be nothing!

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The Mind behind the Incarnation

Philippians 2:5-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 23, 2018.

It is easy for Christmas to be taken over by the things that our flesh likes.  We can become far too excited about the latest technological gadget that we are getting, or similar things.  We can bask in the nostalgia of family, big meals, and “magical moments.”  However, Jesus did not come to make us feel good about life and ourselves, although we will have those things from time to time.  Rather, Jesus came to save us.

Yes, God wants to save us from oppressive governance that sees itself as god.  Yes, God wants even to save us from those fellow citizens who seek to take advantage of us like a wolf does a chicken.   Yes, God wants even to save us from our own lower motivations and mistakes.  Yet, ultimately Jesus came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). 

Our sins affect our heart and our mind to the point that we can never feel or think our way out of their effects.  Yet, God so loved the world filled with humans that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life.  Today we are going to focus on the mind of Christ and the mind of God the Father who sent him to earth.  We are going to talk about the kind of thinking that can save us from all those things I mentioned earlier. 

Let’s look at Philippians 2.

The mind of Christ

In verses 1-4, Paul describes several issues that go to the heart of how we tend to think.  In verse 3 he says, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or deceit.”  In verse 4 he states, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests.”  Later he emphasizes this more in verse 14, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.”  Also he says in verse 21, “They all seek their own interests.”  All of these descriptions flow from a heart and mind that is twisted towards self.  This is every single person who has ever lived besides Jesus.  If it was not for him coming to earth and demonstrating a different heart, a different mind, we would still be lost and without hope.

So, when we think about the baby in the manger, let us also think about the mind, or the thinking, that was behind what was happening that day.  Let’s remember that Jesus represented not just a clash of thinking between God and 1^st century Jewish religion and philosophy.  Rather, he represents a clash of thinking between God and every generation who has ever lived, including ours today.

Thus starting in verse 5 Paul tells us that we need to have the same mind or thinking that Jesus had when he left the throne of heaven to be born in a lowly stable.  We should question ourselves this morning.  What mind have I been using and living by?  Have I lived by the mind of Christ or the mind and rationale that comes naturally to me?

So what is it about the mind of Christ that we need?  First Jesus did not cling to being in the form of God (vs. 6).  The KJV and the NKJV translate this verse to say that Jesus didn’t think it robbery to be equal with God.  However, the flow of the argument is not towards Jesus being equal with God, but rather away from that state.  He is leaving heaven in order to take on that which is lesser than God.  Thus the point is not that he didn’t think that he had robbed God to be equal with Him, but that His equality with God was not something to cling to or snatch at.  Jesus was willing to lay that amazing, incredible place with the Father aside in order to come down and save us.  So what am I clinging to that I need to let go of in order to experience what God has for me and others in my life?  Jesus wasn’t climbing the ladder and clinging to his place.  He was descending the ladder in order to help us.

Another part about this mind of Christ is that he was willing to “empty himself” in order to become a servant, in human form.  We are not told exactly of what Christ emptied himself.  However, we know that at the very least he emptied himself of his position and the rights or privileges that go along with it.  His mind, which is the same mind as that of the Father, does not cling to power and position, but rather lays it aside in order to serve others, at least if need be.  For you and I, we only have to descend out of the high and loft position of our inflated ego in order to be of service to God, but for Jesus it was truly a humbling of epic proportions.  We should ask ourselves today.  What do I need to empty myself of in order to serve those that God has put in my life?

Lastly in verse 8, we are told that Jesus laid down his human life in order to obey God’s will.  It is easy to focus on the sacrifice of Christ and the love for us that compelled him, and yet overlook his love for God the Father.  He chooses to obey the Father’s will by laying down his life.  Our impulse is to throw God’s commands and plans back in his face and shout, “You expect too much!”  Yet, Jesus trusted the plan of the Father, even when it led him to become a servant to serve mankind, and even to be crucified on a cross.

It is not easy to trust God, but Jesus did.  He also asks us to trust him, pick up our own cross, and follow him.  Do I trust him that much?  Am I refusing to follow Jesus because it costs me something, even my life?

After Paul shows us the mind of Christ that we need in order to be what God wants us to be in each other’s life, he then turns to the effects of this selfless obedience to God the Father.

The reward of God the Father

In verses 9-11, we are shown the response of God the Father to the selfless actions of Jesus. 

First of all God highly exalts Jesus and, I will add here, at the proper time.  The actions of Jesus are all the opposite of self interest and exaltation.  Jesus actually is humbling himself and doing a humbling work that leads to death.  Nothing he does is about trying to lift himself.  We can get so consumed with trying to get ahead, whether secularly or spiritually, that we neglect to think about what we may be risking.  What will God think of my thinking and the actions that it led me to do in this life?  Were they all about self promotion and seeking to be higher?  Or were they similar to those of Christ?

We are told that Jesus is currently at the right hand of the Father awaiting the signal to come back to earth and take control of the governance of this world.  However, that is his experience after the Father chose to exalt him.  Before this exaltation, Jesus is humbling himself and rejecting the temptation to make those things happen on his own.  Even now Jesus is not exalting himself.  He only accepts the exaltation that the Father has given him. 

1 Peter 5:5-7 says, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.  Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”  Notice that God opposes the proud.  When we humble ourselves, we put ourselves in a position for God to exalt us at the proper time.  I would put before you today that this life is not the time for exaltation.  Our flesh can’t handle it.

Verse 7 highlights the big problem.  When we are humble we get worried and anxious about all that we aren’t getting.  We are counseled to trust God and his care for us.  Our flesh doesn’t like such an answer, but God does.  You can exalt yourself in this life and be humbled by God at its end, or you can humble yourself in this life and be exalted by him at its end.

Part of Christ’s exaltation is that he is given a name above all others.  The emphasis is not on some new name that is really cool.  A person’s “name” is equivalent to their reputation and standing among others.  Jesus is given a reputation and standing that is above all others, both on earth and in heaven.  This position is similar to that which he had before because it is once again at the Father’s side, but now he has an even greater honor and standing.  He is now the Redeemer and Savior of humanity.  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  If we will take on the same mind that Jesus had, and if we will live out this life as the Holy Spirit leads, we will also join him in attaining great honors and standing at his side.

We are told that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, whether in heaven, or on earth, or in the grave.  This is not just about the physical position of bowing, but about the submission it represents.  Eventually even the enemies of Christ will have to recognize his true standing.

In that moment we are told that they will also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  What Jesus lost by not seeking his own selfish interests, is given back to him in even greater portion by the Father.  What the religious leaders of his day gained through their self seeking actions, was taken away from them by the Father. 

Knowing that God is bringing all beings of creation to a place where they will confess that Jesus is Lord, what should we do?  To double down on being a rebel only ensures that we would die in our sins and stand before God, confessing that Jesus is Lord, but to no avail for our future.  However, if we will confess him as Lord in this life, and take on the mind of Christ, if we will humble ourselves and live in obedience to his commands, then our confession will lead to the reward of God the Father, who gives us a place at the side of Jesus forever.

So let us contemplate this Christmas season.  Am I following the thinking of this world, the thinking of the devil, or am I letting the mind of Christ lead me?  Let’s live according to the mind of Christ and truly find life!

The Mind behind the Incarnation audio