Mark 3 Jesus' call

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means "sons of thunder"), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
(Mark 3:13-19 NIV)

I find the calling for the 12 interesting. The first part of their calling is to simply be with Jesus. That is a good reminder for me as a missionary to the college campus, I believe the first part of my calling is also to simply be with Jesus. In the Word, in prayer in repenting and believing the gospel the good news of Jesus that the kingdom of god is near. That is my first calling.

Only in being close to Jesus were the apostles sent out to preach and to cast out demons.

I find it interesting how the gospels give away the end whenever they mention Judas Iscariot. They don't wait but make it clear from the beginning Judas was a traitor and will go on later in the gospel to betray Jesus. I think maybe it is because Jesus knew that he would be betrayed and he knew who would betray him from the very beginning. Jesus was not surprised. Jesus called Judas in knowing what would come. It is amazing to me how Jesus could love and be close to Judas calling him a friend for three years knowing what was to come. It reminds me of the parable of the wedding banquet when the man who did not put on the wedding clothes is addressed by the host God as friend even as he is ordering him to be cast out.

This does set an interesting example and gives of ministry. It is good to remember even if something goes seemingly wrong in ministry or people leave our group or even leaders betray their leadership that God is sovereign and good and is not surprised. God help me to remember you are in control and help me not to worry but to simply be faithful and dependent on you. And in the hard times and unexpected challenges I ask for the heart to pray in weakness and dependence and not demanding bitter or anger. God help me to call others and myself into leadership and faithfulness!
Amen

Mark 3 Gentiles and Jews follow Jesus

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. (Mark 3:7-12 NIV)

Now crowds from both Jewish and Gentile (Tyre and Sidon are Gentile lands close to the sea of Galilee) people's begin to come together to follow Jesus. They had heard about all Jesus had been doing - the healings and casting out demons. But I wonder did they come just for the miracles or did they come for Jesus himself to follow him?

The gospel of Mark is so interesting as again and again it speaks of the crowds and how Jesus spoke to them but Mark doesn't seem to think the content of the sermons is as important as what he did. I love the action and pace of Mark that is urgently moving us through Jesus ministry.

I find it interesting that the demons all knew Jesus was the Son of God and yet nobody had even suspected who Jesus really was at this point. Weren't these people at least the Jews looking for their Messiah? Yet Jesus also is keeping the secret of who he is and even silencing any talk of who he is. This is another theme in Marks recording of the gospel - secrecy around Jesus identity. Yet Jesus also talks about setting a light on a stand but not until its proper time. I believe Jesus did not want people to believe he was the Son of God and Messiah based on words but based on his actions and the signs that demonstrate with proof who he is.

For Jesus of Nazareth is the one and only Christ the Son of the living God!
Amen

Mark 3 the hardness of our hearts

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
(Mark 3:1-6 ESV)

This is one of only 2 instances I can think of where Jesus is angry at people who aren't only religious leaders. The other is at the temple where people are making Gods temple into a market.

It is interesting that what makes him mad isn't sin in the traditional sense. It seems like he is mad that they won't really think and seek to understand God's will in the law in this case around the sabbath and showing mercy. It reminds me of this verse in the Old Testament:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
(Hosea 6:6 NIV)

In Matthew 12 these stories of healing and the sabbath are directly connected.

I don't really know why God put this on my heart or if it connects but in talking to my mom the issue of suffering and why God allows it came up. I guess maybe it is the fact that this man suffered greatly for a long time probably. Why did God the father allow this suffering? Yet Jesus heals him,-why then?

I wanted to think and pray into the issue of suffering so that I can speak love, hope and wisdom into people's lives who have suffering and my own. The only thing worth sharing I thought this morning is that God is not far off and making us suffer. Jesus is everything intimate and together with us in the pain and suffering of this life.

This makes me wonder in my life, church and INTERVARSITY what rules or laws or traditions we follow that get in the way of radical powerful love that Jesus places at much higher importance. One example is at church during the sermon I noticed a person crying but didn't know how to really communicate and pray over them while the structures planned 1 hr and 15 min schedule proceeded. God I pray you would guide me and my ministry to be planned but leave room for the Spirit with your discernment and not my understanding Lord. God I pray students ready to confess and repent of sin or ready to give their lives to you Christ would never wait, but would become center stage of our large groups and bible studies. That is the most important work you could be doing God and far more powerful than our plans.

God I am sorry for our hardness of hearts and I confess my hardness of heart and how I hold to rules and plans often over your work and the mercy you would have me give. I pray you would soften and change our hearts to give mercy and know your timing!
Amen
Amen

Mark 2: Understanding the law

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."
(Mark 2:23-28 ESV)

I was having trouble understanding the point Jesus is making about David breaking the law and how that relates to what is right on the sabbath. My friend Tom was pointing out that Jesus is as usual pointing to the heart of the law and giving us a new understanding which is in line with the way we were created from the very beginning. For example the sabbath was made for man not to keep him from eating but to help man devote himself to The Lord. The same story from Matthew helped me understand a little more:

Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. (Matthew 12:5-7 ESV)

I don't really know where this idea came from but I was thinking of the way Jesus redefined our work when he came bringing the kingdom of God. Before Jesus the people of God were to work to bring in food and be fruitful in descendants by blood. But Jesus says our new work and food is to do the will of God to make disciples of all nations sharing the gospel expanding the kingdom not by blood but by the gospel. God is becoming a father to many sons and daughters through adoption by the Spirit!

The disciples and Jesus are bringing in the kingdom and so their work is spiritual 7 days of the week not just one day as the sabbath used to be. David also was bringing in the kingdom and facing persecution from the world so God provided food for him even if it was not lawful.

My understanding of this could be totally wrong and if so God I pray you guide me by your Spirit to the truth and not my understanding.
Amen

Mark 2: Fasting and a new theology

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."
(Mark 2:18-22 ESV)

I have heard a talk on fasting before and it really encouraged me to try fasting which is something I had never done. It really strikes me how Jesus says here that now that he is gone we will fast. It is not option or guidance. Jesus states it as a reality a discipline that we would do. God I pray you give me new vision and motivation to fast. I want to do it to humble myself and focus on you in the discipline of fasting.

Jesus you also just break apart the old understanding of religion and I love how you guide us to the true way to follow God through the law and faith.
I pray you continue to break any false theology or understanding I have of you God! Instead teach me by the grace and truth of Christ as revealed by your word and the Spirit.

Thank you Jesus for new understanding!
Amen

Mark 2 Matthew-Lost become heroes

He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
(Mark 2:13-17 ESV)

This is a comforting passage as a reminder that Jesus is the one who redeems the lost and turns their lives around. Jesus transforms sinners into heroes of faith. Here Levi a tax collector interacts with Jesus and begins to follow him in a journey that led to Levi or Matthew becoming the author of one of the gospels recording for us as believers centuries later the teaching and actions of Jesus that we might believe the gospel and repent.

Praise God for how he redeems. By the way of the world and my fear it seems sin and mistakes have the final say at least for most people. I feel like I haven't been the minister of God or the bachelor or Christian I ought to be.

Really the last line of this passage Jesus says his kingdom is for those who are willing to admit and deal with the reality they are sick- sinful and need help. Jesus came to heal and help us become well, that we might live a real life a spiritual and eternal life.

Maybe I am being melodramatic and it is just late at night but I feel sick. Even if my sins aren't that obvious or harmful to others as some they are just as destructive. My selfishness, my insecurities, my lust, my arrogance, my pride, my laziness are all sins that lead to destruction. To be honest I feel lost. I feel uncertain about it all - what it means to follow Jesus, my career in ministry, my relationships, my church, my gifts, my time. I feel lost and confused. I thought I was doing all the right things, but I just don't feel it some days.

But I have a God who is beyond my feelings. Our God is alive and active even when I have doubts. Our God has plans even when I make mistakes and when things seem so uncertain.

And so all I know to do is keep on trying, living a lifestyle of repentance and then truly forgiving myself instead of living in uncertainty and guilt. Lord Jesus I want to seek first your kingdom and I want to admit myself a sinner just like all who enter your kingdom. Yet I want to be holy and righteous as you purified us to be Christ.

Jesus I confess my sin and my feelings of lostness. Please guide me on the narrow path to you. I want to feel hope and purpose again. I want to feel excited to follow you and to lead others to follow you. I want to be faithful but know you are in control and trust you to be faithful in all things.
Amen

Matthew 6:33 Seek first his kingdom

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
(Matthew 6:33 NIV)

As I was meeting with a good friend today and we shared prayer requests it hit me how selfish I have been in some ways recently and even in my prayers. I have been praying and focusing a lot on desiring relationships which isn't evil unless it becomes an idol.

Really it is simple like Jesus said: all I need to do is seek first his kingdom! God I am sorry for the ways I seek other things first. I ask for forgiveness and your Spirit to redirect my heart and my life to seek first your kingdom!

Relationships are a beautiful thing and a beautiful place to live out the gospel but God I want what you have and I trust you know better than me.

Thank you Lord for speaking this to me! I praise you for the ways you are patient and gracious and yet intimately guiding us!
Amen