Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 7th March 2010
Mark 7v1-23
How to become a good person?
One of the great questions that humankind struggles with is the whole question of what is good and what makes us good.
Many remedies have been suggested over the years.
One of the most commonly tried remedies today is education.
All we need is education and people will get better and be good.
Or money will help people to be good, so we invest millions in developing deprived areas.
Another related question is how do we become good enough for God? How do we become acceptable to him?
This is where religious engineering comes in to make people good, acceptable to God.
The idea is that if we follow certain rules and regulations that will make us acceptable to God! That will make us good!!
All religions apart from Christianity have this as their central thesis – that we make ourselves acceptable to God by what we do!! We earn it!!
This is what the Pharisees were experts in:
1) the Pharisees idea of what makes one good, or holy, or acceptable to God.
The Pharisees were good moral types of people.
They wanted to be holy, they wanted to please God, but they managed to get it all wrong.
Because they approached the problem from the outside in!
They thought that acceptance consisted of following the right laws and traditions.
Especially in this case, the traditions concerning ceremonial washing.
This was not just a matter of hygiene it was more than that, it was religious observance.
So Mark comments v3-4
The belief was that washing with water in the right way, the right amount of times made one holy, clean, good!
So they are most upset when the disciples are not following their deep set beliefs (v2).
This prompts their question to Jesus v5. He is their leader, He is responsible for their behaviour!
The disciples were eating bread with unwashed/common hands! What were they thinking!
App
What do you think makes you acceptable to God?
Does coming to church week after week make us acceptable to God? Does it make us good?
The Pharisees thought that by following the traditions correctly they would be made good!
2) what Jesus thought of that idea
Jesus though was not in the least impressed with this Pharisaic idea!
His response to the Pharisees shows where they got it all wrong.
A) first of all he noted that they were hypocrites v6.
That is they pretended to be something they were not.
They pretended to be holy and to do all these great religious duties but they were unholy and did not follow the law at all!!
All they did was for the outward appearance!!
They paid lip service but not heart service.
B) that hypocrisy led to their worship being empty v7. Vain.
Because they had elevated mans teaching in place of Gods!
They have put secondary issues in first place e.g. v12-13
App
If we seek goodness/Gods acceptance, by simply trying to manage our outward condition we will end up in the same place as the Pharisees.
We will be hypocrites : putting on a show.
Pretending that we are good, because on the outside we do all the right things!!
Our worship will be empty: man looks at the outside but God looks at the heart!!
All our effort will have been a waste of time!!
3) so what is the solution?
To get to the solution of the problem we first need the correct diagnosis and that is what Jesus gives us.
A) first of all to the crowd v14-15:
He says to the crowd that nothing in the world, what we eat etc is what makes us unclean!
Therefore trying to be good / holy / pure by avoiding pollution from the outside is simply fighting the wrong battle!!
The problem rather is in the heart!! It is what is inside that makes us unclean!!
App
The core issue is the heart.
Sin comes from within. We are polluted already!
B) then to the disciples v17-23
To begin with they are scolded because they should know by now what Jesus is getting at.
Jesus takes it as a matter of common sense that the disciples should see that eating food does not make someone unclean!
Food is simply fuel that goes into the stomach and then out the body v17!
Food does not enter the heart! That is where the real problem lies.
Uncleanness comes from the heart, then Jesus gives the list of all the evil that comes forth from the person! V20-22
It is the heart that makes a person unclean, unholy, impure v23!!
So the problem is within! The problem of our uncleanness is because we are evil inside!
The problem is we are sinners, we have fallen!
How then are we to fix that problem?
We can’t fix the problem – the heart is beyond repair.
What we need is a heart transplant!!
We need a new heart!
But that is the very solution that Jesus offers!
Do you want to be good? Do you want to be acceptable to God?
Then you need a new heart!
But God will give that to you (Ez11v19, 18v31, 36v26).
In other words you need a completely new life – but that is what the Christian is!
Someone who has been born from above, someone who is born again, someone who is a new creation!!
How do you get an new heart? By accepting Jesus and all that He has done for us.
we don't need to get God to accept us, we need to accept His Saviour!!
sunday evening 7th March 2010
Mark 8v1-10
In 7v24-30 we have the well known story of the Geek woman who came to Jesus seeking help for her daughter who was demon possessed. Eventually her request is answered and her great faith commended although Mark does not record that detail.
Then from 7v31 we have another story of Jesus performing a healing with the result that everyone praises Him v37, He has done all things well!!
With these pictures in mind Mark changes the scene again in chapter 8.
1) a large hungry crowd v1-3!
A large crowd had gathered around Jesus again!
· Notice again his attractive magnetic personality!
The people just cannot help but go to him!
Even though in going to him they end up starving! They had nothing to eat!
The disciples are called, Jesus opens up to them:
“I have compassion for them”
He was moved with compassion for the crowds of people!!
They had been with Him for 3 days and they had run out of food!!
If He sends them home now, they will faint on the way!
His compassion is drawn out because of their physical needs.
· Note: Jesus is always moved to compassion by physical need.
All the miracles He performed were because he had compassion on peoples physical plight.
We should never underestimate the sheer love of God for this physical world!
Ultimately shown in Jesus sharing in the physical nature and even now has some form of physical nature – he has a resurrection body!
If these bodies are fit to clothe the Divine Son of God then they are worthy of great care!
App
What do we risk to get Jesus?
How hard do we search for him?
If we love him, how do we show that? The crowds followed him for days until starving!
There is great reward in searching after Jesus:
What we give in our search for the Lord is met fully and more in his response to us!
Notice his reception: he had compassion on them!
2) a dense group of disciples v4
They realise that Jesus is leading somewhere with his comments!
They know he wants to feed them!
But they are again stumped by the seeming impossibility of the situation.
They are in a remote place, there are no shops around and there is a vast crowd!!
· This must have been a test for the disciples:
Why could they not see that there was no problem feeding the crowd?
They had all they needed for miracles to happen:
1) the compassion of Jesus!
2) the power of Jesus!
Yet they could not move in their thinking! Even after all they had seen!
App
How are we to deal with the impossible situations that our lives throw up?
We need to remember our Saviour. The picture that we have of him here.
He is the compassionate one, he does not stand afar off from our troubles.
He knows what it is like!
· But if we are stumped like the disciples : Note to the patience of Jesus
He continues to put up with these guys! And what hope that give us.
We probably respond in the same way as the disciples.
We look at the situation and give up!
But Jesus carries on.
3) a large satisfying meal v5-10
a) Jesus asks what they did have and finds out that there are 7 loaves.
This must have been their leftover provisions for the answer comes back right away!
· See his loving care again!
He is involving the disciples. He did not need them – or the loaves for that matter!!
But all the time he is trying to encourage hope and faith and action.
b) Then he commands the crowds to sit.
· Again see Him. The Lord of action and power. Taking charge working out the situation.
c) Then takes the loaves, gives thanks, breaks the bread and shares it out through the
disciples v6!
· Yet again involving the unbelieving disciples!
Also he adds to the mix a few small fish v7.
d) V8 is the crowning Jewel.
They all take their fill and are satisfied and then there are 7 large baskets of leftovers!!
What a revelation of the Lord this is. He does things supper abundantly!
Why not give just enough? Why all this leftover? Why let everyone eat loads!?
Because this is our God! This is grace. Unmerited favour.
e) V9-10 concludes the picture:
After the feeding He sends the people home and then leaves with the disciples.
· Again see Jesus – he finishes the job!!
No loose ends, nothing left for tomorrow! He makes sure it is all done!
App
What we have to give the Lord can seem so pitiful!
Just a few loaves of bread and a few fish!! What can be done with that!
Our lives seem to amount to so little. But that does not matter!
· What matters is the Lord:
He uses us even though we are unbelieving and have so little to give!
And what we find is that God works super abundantly.
In the end He will finish the work.
At the moment we are in the process, some days seem better or worse than others.
But in the end we will go off with Him, as those disciples did “to the region of Dalmanutha”!
