brentsummerhill

Family
Mark 3:32-35

His family can’t get in. Mom and brothers are standing outside, evidently worried about his wellbeing. (3:20-21) They send word through the crowd, calling for him to come out and presumably go home with them.

Jesus’ response is shocking to our ears. He’s not being harsh. He loves his family and on the cross, he will see to it that his mother has someone to look after her. But while he is her son and their half-brother, he is eternally the Son of God. And he has come for a family not determined by DNA, but by faith. His true family is comprised of those who do the will of God.

And what is the will of God? “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

Whatever else you may do right, if you do not believe in the Son you are not doing the Father’s will. God’s family is a family of faith in the Son. Will you believe and join the family today?

An Eternal Sin
Mark 3:22-30

Unable to trap Jesus or even to rattle him, the scribes resort to slander. “He is possessed by Beelzebul!” and “By the prince of demons he casts out the demons!” Jesus, they assert, is empowered by the devil and is doing his bidding.

The scribes were willfully blind to the obvious. Rather than seeing the Son of God illuminated by the Spirit of God, they reject and oppose the work of the Spirit, assigning the power of Jesus to an unclean spirit. The unforgiveable, eternal sin.

Who do you say Jesus is? By what power did he open blind eyes and deaf ears? How did he cause the lame to walk and the dead to rise? By what spirit did he come forth from the tomb?

Is he to be believed as the Son of God or rejected as a son of the devil?

Your eternity hinges on your answer. And answer you will.

And Judas Iscariot
Mark 3:13-21

Judas’ kiss in the garden would not surprise Jesus. Everything Jesus said and did was with Gospel intentionality.

The death of Jesus was not Judas’ idea. Nor was it conceived by the Pharisees or Sadducees. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed…It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:5, 10)

The Gospel is the gracious conspiracy of the Trinity for our sake. The Father sent. The Spirit conceived. The Son came. What love!

Lest They Crush Him
Mark 3:7-12

The Creator is pressed upon by the created. Rebellious, sinful, fallen men and women push the Holy Son of Man to the sea’s edge, demanding healing and liberation.

And he allows it. He knows every one of their stories, their motives, their sins, their inadequacies, their frailties, their humanness. And yet he allows it.

And he won’t stop there at the water’s edge. He will, of his own volition, take their stripes on his back, their cross on his shoulder. He will feel their nails in his hands. He will endure the Father’s wrath for their sin. He will die their death.

Your stripes. Your cross. Your nails. Your sins. Your death. No matter who you are or what you have done.

Is there a man here, whom to associate with were a scandal from which the pure and pious would shrink? The holy, harmless, undefiled one will not disdain even him – for this man receiveth sinners – he is a friend of publicans and sinners. He is never happier than when he is relieving and retrieving the forlorn, the abject, and the outcast. He despises not any that confess their sins and seek his mercy. No pride nestles in his dear heart, no sarcastic word rolls off his gracious tongue, no bitter expression falls from his blessed lips. He still receives the guilty. Pray to him now. Now let the silent prayer go up, “My Saviour, have pity upon me; be moved with compassion towards me, for if misery be any qualification for mercy, I am a fit object for thy compassion. Oh! save me for thy mercy’s sake!” Amen.

From a sermon (No. 3438) published on Thursday, December 24th, 1914. Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Value People
Mark 3:1-6

God’s Sabbath law forbade work on the seventh day. It said nothing about not helping people, about not doing good. But 1^st century Sabbath traditions did. You could act to stop imminent death (stop the bleeding), but you had to wait to treat or cure the ill or dying.

Jesus has healed before on the Sabbath. So, they watch, as without hesitation he calls forth a man with a stiff, deformed, withered hand. And he asks, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” He asks this of people who would rescue a sheep on the Sabbath, but refuse healing to the infirmed. (Matthew 12:11-12)

Self-righteous religious folk value things and use people. Jesus values people and uses things. Let’s follow Jesus.

To Seek and to Save
Luke 19:1-10

I wonder if Levi, aka Matthew, and Zacchaeus ever hung out at tax collector conventions. They pretty much stayed within their own group, known by the religious as the tax collectors and sinners. They were Jews collecting tolls for the occupying Roman government while extorting whatever else they could for themselves. Thus, they were thieves and traitors. A nasty lot, ostracized from Jewish life. And hated.

Yet Jesus takes note of Levi and Zacchaeus. He sees Levi at his toll booth and spots Zacchaeus up in the Sycamore tree, “for the Lord he wanted to see.” (After all, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.)

Why did Jesus take note of people like Levi and Zacchaeus? Why would Jesus open himself to criticism by identifying with such men, even dining at their homes with their sinner friends?

Because, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The well don’t need a doctor. Sick folk do. The righteous don’t need a Savior. Sinners do. And since we’ve all fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), we all need a Savior. We all need Jesus.

Have You Never Read?
Mark 2:23-28

You would think they had. They revered the Old Testament. They could quote from it. They claimed to keep it. They were Pharisees after all. Who would dare question whether or not they had read 1 Samuel?

It is entirely possible to build a life on what we think the Bible says, but miss the whole point of the Bible. Sometimes because we have never actually read it. Oh, we’ve heard the preacher read it. We’ve talked about it in Sunday School or small group. We may have read a book somehow supposedly related to the Bible. We may even have read the Bible through in a year, skimming it like a religious self-help book, a tool to help us build the life we want.

But have we read the Bible? So that it reads us, piercing our souls, revealing the thoughts and intentions of our hearts? So that it reveals Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath and source of eternal life and lasting joy? (John 5:39-40)

God grant us a fresh desire to read your Holy Scriptures with open minds and sensitive hearts. Let your Word reveal our hidden thoughts, desires, and agendas so that we might confess our sins. Show us Jesus, our Savior, Lord, Advocate, and Friend. Grow our faith by your Word. Fulfill our joy in the delight of your commands.

Days Will Come
Mark 2:18-22

Fasting had become a religious means of righteousness, or self-righteousness. It was prescribed twice a week. And a great show was made of it. Self-righteous religion is always a show.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast. They ate. They were following the long-awaited Messiah. This was no time for long-faced ritualism; this was a time for joy – wedding party kind of joy.

But, Jesus says, “days will come…” As prophesied by Isaiah, the Messiah will be taken away and cut off from the land of the living. He will be killed for the transgressions of his people. (Isaiah 53:8) Then the disciples will fast. Their grief will kill their appetite.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” (Jesus – John 16:20)

But then, the grief of the cross would give way to the joy of the empty tomb. And soon, when Jesus comes for his bride, we will experience that wedding party kind of joy for eternity.

He Saw Levi
Mark 2:13-17

Levi, aka Matthew, was a Jew working for the Roman government as a tax or toll collector. His association with the Roman government and the common shady practices of his ilk left him hated by the Jews, who treated his kind as an outcast.

But Jesus saw Levi. And fully aware of both his public reputation and his private shame, Jesus called him. Right there, on that road in the midst of the crowd, Jesus identified with a known and hated sinner.

Jesus is not deterred by your sin. He is not embarrassed by your shame. He is not frightened by your reputation. He took it all on himself on his cross for you. He sees you where you are as you are. And he calls you by name. Answer the call. Follow Jesus.

Sins Forgiven
Mark 2:1-12

Jesus to the paralytic: “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The scribes in their heart: “He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

They were right about who can forgive sins. And they were right about the blasphemy, unless Jesus actually was the Son of God who would live the sinless life the paralytic had not, on the cross endure God’s wrath upon sin for the paralytic, and be raised from the grave to intercede on the paralytic’s behalf. Then it wouldn’t be blasphemy; it would be glorious, astonishing grace.

Glorious, astonishing grace it is. And not just for the paralytic. But for you, too.