:: By ANdrew Moore
1. Life. Be in it?
Remember those adds on TV- “Life Be In It”???
There was Norm in front of the TV…a pathetic figure… overweight, beer in one hand, feet up,..
And the rest of the family were out throwing frisbees and playing with the dog.
It’s a positive, upbeat.
Outgoing view of LIFE.
And it’s healthy.
It’s what I think life should be like….
(pause)
But contrast that with RELIGION.
Not all religion. But a lot of religion.
It is deadening….
There are rules….
Their buildings are often cold, and have stone walls with little windows …everything about it says “Do not smile”.
And you walk into some churches and the first thing you read is the Ten Commandments
-> “Thou shalt not…”
Sounds more like Life. Don’t Be in it!.
(pause)
What would Jesus have to say about this???
(pause)
We’ve been learning about Jesus here in church.
Working our way through Mark’s gospel.
Jesus has been calling people to follow him, to enter the Kingdom of God.
But what’s he calling them to??
What will it mean/ what will it feel like, … to be a “subject” of his kingdom???
(even the idea of “kingdom” sounds a bit oppressive doesn’t it??- kingdoms have a ruler, and slaves…)
Does Jesus call us to a religion, or to “LIFE”?
(pause)
There’s a section that runs from chapter 1:14- 4:34, which I said last week, I called…
2. Callings to enter the Kingdom (Mark 1:14- 4:34)
Jesus is doing just that- he is calling people. For at this point in his ministry, that’s his priority.
-The first being Simon and Andrew… then James and John., back in chapter 1.
- In the reading today there is Levi the tax collector.
And then, towards the end-
-There are those that go up the mountain in chapter 3:13 who are called apostles.
Scattered throughout these callings are miracles and parables.
Where Jesus teaches us the content of the kingdom of God- what it is that people are being called to!
(pause)
3. subsections (Authority / Life / Conflict)
I said last week that there are 3 subsections within this larger section…
They do overlap…but can still be distinguished from one another…
Last week we did the first one- the authority of Jesus (1:14- 2:12).
Next week – Conflict. So make sure you come for that one!
This week it is- Life.
Chapter 2:13- 3:19.
(pause)
Let’s pray that we might understand Jesus and his kingdom-> – Thank you for our world – Thank you for each other. –
(pause)
2000 years ago Jesus lived.
He started his ministry in Galilee.
And it was a world where death was all around.
The average life span was maybe 40 or 50 years.
People died from common diseases. Childbirth was very dangerous.
It was a world where death was real to every age.
It was a….
(pause)
4. (First century Palestine)
i. A very real world
(pause)
It was also a…
ii. Law obsessed
world.
They were Jewish.
And they had the law.
And they had the teachers of the law- the “Pharisees”.
And if you didn’t make their standard or righteousness… you were an outcaste.
You were a “sinner”.
Last week, we read of the man with leprosy.
He was classed as “unclean”. He was not able to go to the temple, he was to live alone… he couldn’t touch anyone else, otherwise they to would be unclean.
Tax collectors were particularly bad. They were almost without exception, corrupt, ripping off their own people.
They worked for the Romans, who controlled Palestine.
And so they too were classified as “sinners”.
(pause)
So you had these laws which divided up society.
The big division, was in fact between Jew and non- Jew ( or Gentile). They couldn’t eat together.
The food laws in the Old Testament made it impossible for them to eat together.
They really were on the outer.
(pause)
But the Jews had gone beyond the Old Testament.
In verse 18, a little lower down there, we read of people fasting.
This was something that people did and you were expected to fast.
-> Read v 18.
The religious people (or Pharisees) fasted twice a week.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say the Israelites had to fast on a regular basis… IN FACT WHAT the religious leaders had done, was added a whole layer of laws on top of the Old Testament…
And this was particularly deadening.
(pause)
One particular area of legalism, was the Sabbath
The Pharisees had made up so many laws for what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath.
They focused on the minutest of details.
And so…
You weren’t allowed to carry your mat on the Sabbath… Mark- ch 1:32, I don’t know if you ever wondered why the people came to Jesus at sundown??- it was the Sabbath that day – 1:21.
And also… v 23… (read to 24)
(pause)
You’ve got to understand this.
Again it’s not that different to our world… there was a religious motivation in what they did which had some good to it.
They knew that how we lived mattered to God.
God was our judge… and we’d be judged on the basis of the law.
But there is a bit of Pharisee in all of us.
We want to know what the boundaries are, because we REALLY don’t want to obey the law.
See, they were LAW OBSESSED,… but this was because they wanted to minimize the law.
They were religious lawyers. And lawyers are there to find loopholes in the law.
(pause)
The other problem is that the law, doesn’t bring life.
The more you go down the law track… the more condemned you are.
Let me read you a section from Romans 7-
Rom 9:7- 11.
Paul says elsewhere in Romans, that when the law came, sin increased.
And the law brings wrath.
(pause)
And so the world that Jesus came to was a dying world.
And a world which was obsessed by the law.
But Jesus came.
And he confronted the error.
And he confronted death.
He challenges the legalism…
(pause)
5. (Jesus)
I just want to pick on a few points from these passages..
Firstly,
Jesus is the
i. The bridegroom
To those that criticize Jesus , Jesus says… read v 19.
Being around Jesus is like being next to the bridegroom at a wedding. I don’t know if you’d ever thought of him like that???
A wedding itself is a celebration of life (if there’s a time for eating,… it’s a wedding isn’t it?). It would be a pretty dud wedding without food.Jesus is the bridegroom.
(pause)And notice what he says in v 21…(read v 21-22)
This life that he brings, is new, and will replace the old.
This is the point of v 21-22.
Jesus is not to be tacked onto the old system.
(which unfortunately people have done with Jesus…. they want a bit of the old religion.
For them Christianity is Jesus PLUS…the law.
But that is not the character of the kingdom of God)
(pause)
Jesus is the bridegroom who comes and makes things new.
(pause)
Directly related to this, is that he is the –
ii. Lord of the Sabbath
It’s no accident that Jesus heals on the Sabbath.
He doesn’t do it because he wants to rub people up the wrong way.
He does it because he wants to make a point.
The Sabbath was about life!.
It is anchored in the doctrine of CREATION… the Sabbath was the climax of creation…and the Sabbath day was a time for enjoying that creation.
You spent 6 days working.. and then you rested… and enjoyed the fruits of that work.
And this day was very much GOD’S day.
It was a HOLY day to the LORD… in fact, from where we get the word HOLIDAY.
-> I don’t know if you’d thought of God that way either (??!?)
It was a period for celebration, it was a time for liberation, for joy… as the people of God together. For the whole nation.
The Sabbath was the high point of God’s creation.
Jesus says they’ve got it all wrong if they think the Sabbath is about nit-picking legalism.
Even from the Old Testament, that’s wrong…
Read v 25-28.
(pause)
For Jesus to be the Lord of the Sabbath, means he is the one who able to speak about it.
He is the authority on the subject of the Sabbath.
iii. (Life Giver)
So have a look at chapter 3, verse 1.
(read to v 6)
Jesus is set brilliantly against the Pharisees.
See the difference?
- they watch Jesus in order to accuse him.
- they are so obsessed by the law, that they’ve forgotten the purpose of the law altogether.
- they have hard hearts.
- and they will murder Jesus.
But Jesus?
- And he is the life- giver
(pause)
The callings through these chapters, are actually callings are to LIFE.
To LIVE.
(pause)
To Repent means that too.
Repent is often seen as a negative word…but it’s not really.
It’s to put things back in their right place.
To turn life the right way up.
And start LIVING.
And to not be called.
To not repent..
To not be in the Kingdom of God is TO NOT HAVE LIFE.
There was a student mission at Sydney Uni, back in 1987. I was in first year…
And the slogan was..
Know Christ. Know Life.
Reverse side- No Christ. No Life.
It’s true.
(pause)
But of course Jesus’
iv. Life will be taken
The challenge by Jesus to the Pharisees, is what determines them to kill Jesus.
V 20 (read)
There is the mention of Judas Iscariot in verse 19- “who betrayed him”
Jesus will be snatched from them,
Mark chapter 10
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
His life will be taken away, so that we can have LIFE.
(pause)
(6. Living Life to the Full.)
You want to life life to the full?.. then can I introduce you to Jesus????
Christianity isn’t for kill-joys.
Or Wowsers.
It’s for those who want to live.
The Bible has rules and laws, but rules can be good.
If they’re from God they’re good.
Like a rule I saw last Tuesday… No trespassing/ commonwealth land.
It’s there to stop you getting shot (although I noticed that no-one really takes any notice of it!).
(pause)
We all want life.
A normal sane person wants to live.
The good living guide… in the Sydney Morning Herald. Wine and food.
It’s a very good world.
And it’s to be enjoyed.
But our world has rejected the Life giver.
They think this is it!.
We’re fooling ourselves if we think THIS is all there is to life.
Jesus comes to give us life.
And life to the full. – quality as well as quantity…
And one day we will die.
Tammie from aabc was writing from Ireland.
About little Edythe- “I want to slow the clock down”.. but you can’t can you?
You’ve got to be connected to the head if you want to live forever.
This world IS dying.
(pause) – So how are you going to stay alive?
Where is God’s food? God’s water?
It’s the Bible isn’t it?
How’s it going from last week?
Are you reading God’s Word.
Keep it up.
Let’s pray.