Big Idea - How does Jesus see us? In this passage, we see Jesus evaluating the actions and motives of two different groups of people - the Scribes and those giving their offerings in the Temple. What the crowd and even the disciples see is very different from how Jesus sees what is happening. It is a powerful reminder that Jesus will judge the living and the dead one day! How will He see us? How will He evaluate our lives? Most importantly, how should we live knowing that we will one day give an account of our life before Him?

First, we see that Jesus is not impressed with outward appearances because He sees through our actions to the true motives of the heart. As it turns out, most of us are just putting on a show. We live for the praise and honor of men. Seeking glory is not necessarily bad since God created us for glory. The problem is that when we seek people's approval, we become actors who put on a great show, but it is not who we really are. When we perform for others, our motives are selfish, and our actions are fake. Jesus will judge us not on how we appear on the outside but based on who we are on the inside. He sees what we work so hard to keep hidden from others. He sees the real me! When our inward character does not match our outward actions, we only fool ourselves. The Scribes would be judged severely for their hypocrisy, and so will all who are only pretending to be good.

Secondly, we see that Jesus is impressed by things easily overlooked by everyone else because He understands the quality of our actions very differently than how we understand them. We are impressed by the impact, the size of the splash, and the quantity. We measure generosity by the size of the gift and what it can accomplish. But Jesus is not impressed with such things. For one, He knows that the real impact of anything we do is not dependent on how big our gift is but by how it is filled with His power. He doesn't need our help to make an impact! So, Jesus is not impressed by the size of the gift. Rather, He is impressed by the size of the sacrifice. You could say He is not looking at how much we give but at how much we keep for ourselves. That is the real measure of love. Not how much we give but how much we sacrifice. This principle is powerfully illustrated in the "Gift of the Magi." Does this mean we have to sacrifice all we have to worship God and show our love for Him? Not necessarily. But maybe that is not the point of the story. Instead, it is about what God has done to show His love for us. God has blessed us generously out of His infinite wealth by creating a world of such abundance! But that does not show the full extent of His love, only of His endless wealth. Instead, He showed the extent of His love for us by how much He was willing to sacrifice for us by sending His only Son to die for us. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, giving up all He had, in fact, His very life for us. That is real love! How will we respond to that kind of gift and extravagant display of love? It should cause us to think hard about who we seek to please and where we seek honor and glory. If we put on a good show, we may gain the approval and praise of people, but they will never really love us. Ultimately, their praise is empty and fades like the early morning fog. But, the love and praise of God is eternal and unfading. We will all stand before Jesus, the judge of the living and the dead. How will we stand before Him? We will pass the fires of judgment only if we are clothed in His righteousness. But, we will receive the crown of glory only if we have lived to please Him because His great love has so moved us for us! The only people who can worship God by making great sacrifices for God are those who have been unraveled by the understanding of the great sacrifice God has already made for them!

(1) King David’s Lord

(2) Not I but Christ

(3) Fake Religion

Big Idea - In this story, blind Bartimaeus cries in great desperation for Jesus to show him mercy. His cry is both urgent and persistent. It pays off, for Jesus does show him mercy by restoring his sight. Can we expect to encounter the same mercy when we ask God for help? Hebrews 4:16 makes an incredible promise that echoes the experience of Bartimaeus, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Does this describe our prayer life? Is our prayer life an urgent or even desperate cry to God for mercy? Or is it more of a mundane exercise, a duty we know we are supposed to perform? The key to understanding this passage, and to transforming our prayer life is to understand the concept of mercy. What is mercy, and how can we find mercy to help in our time of need?

First, we need to understand what mercy is and, more importantly, why we need it so desperately. Mercy has to do with having pity for a person in difficult circumstances to the extent that we are moved to help them. The person is in a situation or circumstances beyond their power to resolve. Without the help of someone more powerful, they are hopelessly stuck. But, the one showing mercy is under no obligation to help them. It is an act of kindness that is underserved and without obligation. Romans 9:16 makes it clear that when God shows us mercy, it is not contingent on “human will or exertion.” So, the cry for mercy is the cry of one who cannot fix himself and urgently needs the help of someone else. The blind man, unlike the rich man, did not ask, "What must I do to recover my sight!" Our problem is that we seldom feel that we desperately need help! The reason is that we think our greatest problems are related to our circumstances. We are pretty confident we can change our circumstances if we just work at it hard enough. But Jesus shows the rich man that his real problem is his own heart. He does not need to change his circumstances. He needs to change himself! He walks away sad and depressed because that is impossible. The first step in having a powerful prayer life is when we recognize that our greatest need is not to change our situation but to change ourselves, which we are powerless to do on our own. Our only hope, like blind Bartimaeus, is if someone shows us mercy.

But who will show us mercy and give us the help we need? The second vital truth we must understand to find mercy is to know where to look for it. Jesus is the only one who can give us the mercy we need. The throne of grace, where Jesus sits, is the only place to find mercy to help in our time of need. That is because Jesus is the Messiah, sent from God, with the very heart and nature of God. Blind Bartimaeus saw better than most who Jesus really was! He also understood better than most what that meant based on all that the Old Testament promised the Messiah would do. It is the very heart and nature of God to be merciful. Jesus came to bring that mercy in a powerful way. He is more than able to give us the help we need, even to the extent of changing us into very different people! He has the unlimited power of God. But Jesus also has the unlimited mercy of God, and He stops and helps those who genuinely cry out for help! The crowd reminds us, that this is not normal. The way the world works, and all other religions, is that help comes by merit. Some people deserve it, but most do not. Why would Jesus want to help you? But, Jesus is radically different, helping those who are the least deserving because His help is based on mercy, the loving character of God, not on our effort.

Since mercy is a gift of grace, does that mean God will automatically help us when we need it? It doesn't work that way. Jesus is waiting and longing to help us, but He is not a machine. He is a living and personal God who is all about relationships. He wants us to know Him and to trust Him. So, we must go to the throne of grace and meet Him there with our requests. We need to ask. And we must have faith that He cares and will give us the help we need. Our cry for help is an acknowledgment of our great need, that we cannot fix it on our own, and it is an act of faith that we trust Him to give us what we so urgently need. Bartimaeus demonstrates great faith by leaving behind his old life and his own works and trusting in Jesus alone.

We need God's mercy not only for salvation, like the rich man, but also for ongoing transformation, like the disciples. We need to see that our greatest need is not to change our circumstances but for the inward change of our hearts, life, and character. The more we see this as our great need and the more we see that Jesus has the power to change us, the more we will cry out with great urgency for His mercy to change us. Prayer doesn't always work the way we think it will. The rich man did not get the guarantee of eternal life he was asking for. James and John did not get what they were asking for. But Jesus did not ignore their requests. In fact, He gave them something much greater than what they were asking for. He gave them the opportunity to live a very different kind of life, one free from the bondage from which they were presently living. True faith is trusting God with the answer rather than demanding that He do what we want. We are encouraged repeatedly in Scripture to give thanks in every situation. This is the mark of genuine faith because it is the realization that God, in His great wisdom, knows what is best, and in His wisdom, He will give us abundant mercy and help according to His wisdom and plan, not ours!

Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Big Idea - In the beginning of the Gospel Mark declares that Jesus came "proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14–15). From chapter 1 to the end of chapter 8, the focus is on proving that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. The kingdom is at hand because the King has come! This is truly good news! But Jesus unravels everything when He announces that He is going to suffer, be rejected by men, and be killed, but will rise from the dead after three days. Jesus is a very different kind of Messiah from what the Disciples expected. If the King came to die, what does that say about His kingdom? It certainly is not the kind of Kingdom the Disciples are expecting. Jesus is calling all who will come to enter the Kingdom. It is at hand; it is here, and all who are willing may enter. But what are we getting ourselves into? Jesus turns everything upside down and inside out by the announcement of His suffering and death. What does that mean for those who follow Jesus and make Him their Kind and Lord? What is in store for us?

Just as Jesus needs to correct false ideas about the mission of the Messiah, He also needs to make things clear about life in the Kingdom. Those who want to follow Him need to understand what they are getting themselves into! Jesus calls the crowd and His disciples, setting clear expectations for those already following Him and those who are undecided. Jesus lays out three expectations for those who follow Him. These are not requirements that we need to do first to prove that we are worthy or deserving. Instead, it is what is required because of the nature of the journey. They will follow Jesus on the road He is traveling. But, the way is full of dangers, perils, and difficulties. The only way they will be able to persevere and follow to the end is by doing these three things from the very start. The first is to deny one's self. That means saying "no" to self to say "yes" to God. It does not mean we must give up everything and live as a hermit. But, it does mean we give up the right to everything "I" desire and even the things “I” need. Secondly, there is no limit to how far we take this. The things we want and need can be found on the emotional level and on the physical level. What the self wants and "needs" emotionally, more than anything else, is to be somebody, that is, to be recognized, honored, loved, and respected. Taking up our cross is the extreme opposite of that. It is taking on the humiliation and shame of Jesus' death, of His cross. Jesus's life ends in the deepest shame, and that shame now becomes the mantle of all who follow Him. There is no glory in the cross. The world despised Jesus, and it despises all who follow Him. Those who want to follow Jesus must take up a life of shame and a willingness to be despised by others. The cross also points to death. What we "need" physically is to stay alive! We are wired to prioritize this, which is a good thing to a point. However, this is right only until living does not conflict with following Jesus. If the choice becomes our survival or following Jesus, we must be prepared to die for our faith in Christ. There is no limit to denying ourselves. We are to deny ourselves even as far as death! Finally, we are to go with Christ on the road he travels. We do not suffer for the sake of suffering, but we follow Jesus and prepare to meet hardships and suffering along the way because that is the road we are on with Jesus. We are to live as He lived. By denying ourselves, we can live much more generously and sacrificially to others, which is exactly what Jesus did! To follow Jesus is to live like Jesus.

What Jesus is asking is extreme. He is asking us to be willing to give up our right to get what we want and even what we need, even as far as giving up life itself! Why would anyone do that? Jesus gives four arguments why it is worth it. In short, the journey on this road is worth it because the final destination is more than worth it. Where does this road end? First, it ends in salvation. You can save yourself now, only to find you have lost your life for all eternity, or you can deny yourself now and "lose" your life for Christ and the Gospel so that you will be saved forever! There is no such thing as trusting God to save you but holding on to the self. You cannot have this world and heaven. You must let go of this world to gain life with God for eternity. Second, your eternal soul is of vastly greater value than the whole world. Even if you could gain the wealth of the entire world, it would not be worth it in the end. Your soul and your eternal happiness and life are a treasure incomparably greater than anything you could possibly gain in this life. Ask Steve Jobs. Thirdly, once you have lost your soul, there is no way to buy it back. Now is the time to decide. The truth is our soul has been lost in sin and rebellion. We have already rejected God and held on to self. When Jesus arrives at the cross, Peter does not deny himself and follow Jesus. He denies Jesus and saves himself. The others all run away from the cross. Like Peter, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way. What can we give in exchange for our soul? All the wealth of the world cannot buy back our souls, and even if it could, it would be of no help to us because when we die, we leave it all behind. But Isaiah 53:6 does not end there. It continues on - "and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6). What can we give in exchange for our soul, to buy it back? Nothing. But Jesus exchanged His life for ours! The blood of Jesus can buy back our lost souls! Finally, it is worth it to go on this journey with Jesus and endure all its hardship and shame because he will reject those who refuse to share in the shame of Jesus now on the day of judgment. But those who bear His shame now will receive honor on the day of judgment. The real issue is not getting what we want or not getting what we want. We want glory and honor. We want wealth and security. We want to be happy and have an abundant life of joy. The problem is not in wanting these things. The problem is that we are unwilling to let go of cheap and flimsy substitutes of these things here and now for the real things in eternity. We are like a person who was unwilling to leave their broken down and filthy home in the slums and take the long journey to a new home, a mansion far away because the way is hard and the journey is difficult.

Big Idea - Is it possible that you can go to Jesus and ask for help, and He would turn you away without considering your request and granting what you ask? If we ask that question based on our own experience, we will probably say "yes." We may have turned to God many times in prayer, asking for His help, and feel that He never answered our prayers. But, if we base our answer on the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we would have to answer very differently. For in the Gospels, we find Jesus healing and helping all those who come to Him, seeking His help. That is what makes this story so shocking. In Mark 7, a woman comes to Jesus asking for Him to cast a demon out of her daughter, and it does not appear that He is going to help her. Jesus' reply to the woman seems so out of character and so unlike what we would expect Him to do. Why is Jesus so reluctant to help her? Is it because she is a Gentile? In the end, Jesus does help her, but why did He change His mind? We can find great encouragement in this story about what we can expect Jesus to do for us when we come to Him with our needs and how we can respond when it seems that we are not getting what we ask for!

The first question we need to answer is why Jesus is slow to help her in the first place. Many people believe the problem is that the woman is a Gentile, and Jesus' ministry was only to the Jews. It is true that Jesus' ministry was almost exclusively to the Jews, but the fact that Mark connects this story with the previous account shows that the divide between Jews and Gentiles is being abolished by His coming. The main divide that separated Jews from Gentiles was the regulations regarding being clean and unclean. Jesus just declared that these things did not actually make you unclean. Rather, it was our sinful hearts that defiled us. Jesus effectively broke down that divide because all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, have the same sinful heart and nature. It is true that God's covenant plan was with Israel, but His covenant was never intended to exclude Gentiles. His promise to Abraham was that all the nations would be blessed through Him. Jesus came to fulfill that promise. Through His life, death, and resurrection, all the nations can now enter into a covenant relationship with God based on His shed blood. If Jesus is not helping her because she is a Gentile, then why is He slow to help? The reason is found in His purpose for coming to the region of Tyre. Jesus left Galilee to place away from the Jews to escape being noticed. He did not want anyone to know where He was or who He was. Ever since they heard the news of John the Baptist's death, Jesus and the disciples have been trying to get away to rest. But the crowds have made it impossible. Jesus needs time to rest, and He also wants to spend focused time teaching and encouraging the twelve. These true and committed followers are His first priority. It is strategic and critical that He equip and prepare them to take His mission forward, for Jesus knows His time with them is short. This is important not only for Israel but also for the world. So, when the woman comes, she is a major interruption to the time Jesus has planned with the twelve. Jesus is not wrong to make the "children" a priority and to delay giving help to the dogs. This is not as insulting as we might think. It is intended not to put her down but to illustrate the point that in a family, it would be wrong to feed your pet dog first, and if there is anything left over, then feed the kids! The kids come first. They are, rightfully, the first priority. This woman is not a disciple, but Jesus still puts her in the house, not outside. He is not saying He should never help her, only that His priority right now is His spiritual children who need His attention and care. In short, Jesus is essentially saying, "Right now is not a good time." Not because I don't want to help you but because I need to focus on more important things at the moment.

How do we respond when it seems Jesus is not interested in helping us? When we pray, does the help not come as quickly as we wanted? Maybe we just give up. We decide that prayer doesn't work, and God isn't actually all that interested in helping us. We do not see that great disconnect between what we expect Jesus to do in the Gospels and what we expect God to do in our own lives! It is unthinkable that Jesus would not help someone who comes to Him with their request. But, we all too easily give up on God answering our prayers. But this woman is not so easily put off. She does not give up. What can we learn from her when we ask and do not receive? She has a quick comeback to Jesus' reply, using the word picture Jesus painted. I may not be one of your kids, and I agree that I am not the first priority, but even the pet dog gets to eat the crumbs that drop from the table while the kids are eating. Her answer reveals two important truths that she believed about herself and about Jesus. The first is that she accepted that she had no right to Jesus' help. Unlike the Scribes who had convinced themselves they had earned acceptance by God, she comes with incredible humility, seeking Jesus' help based on mercy or grace, not as a right. She is not at the status of a child, but she seeks Jesus' help based on the belief that He is kind and caring. That He will extend grace to her because of her need. Second, her answer reveals her confidence in the great power of Jesus to do what she asked. She doesn't need much help, only a crumb. She protests that the help she is asking for is not hard for Jesus. It does not demand much of His time or effort. Jesus can help her without leaving the disciples. His help comes out of the overflow of His table! She is confident that Jesus will help her, first because of His great power to do what she needs and second because He is good and kind. He is not the kind of person who will turn away one who has come seeking His help. That is not who He is! Some scholars believe that Jesus does not help her right away as a means of drawing out her faith. It is not clear if that is Jesus' intention, but it certainly does have that result. We see in this Gentile woman a remarkable faith that persists until she gets what she is asking for.

This should be a great encouragement to us as we seek help from Jesus in prayer. We need to go to God in prayer with the belief that it is unthinkable that God would turn away anyone who is seeking His help. We should be as shocked by such a thought as we are at Jesus' response in this story. Jesus always helps those who seek Him. Indeed, He does! Second, when the answer is slow to come, we need to be convinced of two important truths. The first is that we have no right to His help. His help is all a matter of grace. Jesus does not help us because we are good enough or have done all the right things to merit an answer. He helps us because of who He is: a kind and merciful God who graciously responds to those who humbly seek Him. At the same time, we should be greatly encouraged that we are not merely a pet dog in His house, but through Christ, we are indeed children and are, therefore, His greatest priority! Finally, we need to believe with all our hearts that the help we need is not hard for God. It is a mere crumb, and He will work for us all that we ask in faith, with no worry that He will run out. He helps us out of the overflow of His power and goodness.

Jesus invites us through our hunger to trust Him for true satisfaction.

Unpacking the Big Idea

● Why are we so hungry?

○ Our hunger is an invitation from Jesus to seek Him

● What is true satisfaction?

○ Satisfaction with Jesus for who He is and not just the benefits He gives us. - Jonathan Edwards

● How can we experience true satisfaction?

○ Trust Jesus with our hunger

Big Idea - We all want to make a difference in the world. We want to know that our life counts for something, not only to ourselves but to others as well. It feels good to know that we have made a positive difference in the world somehow. On June 6th, the world celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the turning point of WWII. The men who fought and even died at the Battle of Normandy are still celebrated because they made a difference, an impact on the course of history that we still feel today. This illustrates that making a real difference in the world often means taking up the right cause, a cause, or a mission much bigger than ourselves. In Mark 6, Jesus calls the twelve and sends them out to be a part of His cause. He sends them out to make a difference in the world. 2,000 years later, the cause of Christ and His mission in the world has not changed. He still calls people to join Him and to make a difference in the world by following Him. Is His cause one worth living for and giving your life to?

First, we need to be clear about what Jesus' mission in the world was. What did He come to do, and what was the mission He was sending the Twelve on? Jesus came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God had come. The Kingdom was available for anyone who wanted to enter. It was not a political Kingdom or a territorial Kingdom but a spiritual Kingdom. In short, it was the reign and rule of Christ over the hearts of people who followed Him. The requirement to be part of His kingdom was to repent, which meant completely changing the direction of one's life, from being master of your own life to letting Jesus be King and ruler over your entire life. The only answer that makes sense is to be part of something much greater and much better! Jesus came to establish a Kingdom that would make the ultimate difference in the world - an eternal difference.

But how do we know His kingdom is worth it? How do we know it is a cause worth living for or even dying for? The first answer to that question is seen in the impact His Kingdom makes in the world. The effect of Jesus coming to rule is that all the forces of evil and the consequences of sin are being overthrown. Jesus came to face everything that is broken and wrong with the world and make it right. Jesus sent out the twelve to announce the Kingdom, to chase away the evil spirits, and to heal the sick. These were the exact things that Jesus was doing, and it is what happens when His kingdom comes. If that is true then why is there still sickness and evil in the world? Much like D-Day, the battle of Normandy marked a decisive turning point in the war. The enemy was being pushed back. But it was not the final battle. It was not V-Day. Jesus has brought about a decisive turning point in the war against sin and evil, but the final day of victory is yet to come. The second thing we must consider about the Kingdom of Christ is the nature of His Kingdom. Is it the kind of Kingdom we want to be a part of? What is the nature of His Kingdom? We learn something about His kingdom's nature and rule by the strange way He sent out the twelve. He sent them out with nothing, in poverty and weakness. Here is an amazing paradox. The Kingdom comes with great power over all the powers of darkness and evil, but those who announce the Kingdom and are committed to its cause come with nothing but the clothes on their backs. What does this tell us about the nature of the Kingdom? First, the Kingdom of Jesus is nothing like the Kingdoms of the World, which are meant to impress from the very first encounter. If we are honest, we must admit we are more impressed with wealth than with poverty because wealth looks like success. But the Kingdom of Christ is spiritual, and its power and success have nothing to do with what the world values. That is because wealth and the images of success are a lie. They cannot satisfy the deepest longings and needs of the human heart. Wealth cannot make you happy. A brand-new BMW is not love. Success does not bring lasting joy or peace. But these are the very atmosphere of the Kingdom. These are the heart of God and the fruit of His Spirit! Jesus also sent them out with nothing to show us that we don't join Jesus in His mission because of what we have to offer. Unlike being drafted to the WNBA, He does not send us out because of our great skill or talent. It is all a matter of His grace. We do not deserve the Kingdom, and we do not enter it on the basis of our merit or good works. The twelve were not working for Jesus in order to earn a permanent spot on the team! They were uneducated fishermen, just average people. We do not deserve His Kingdom, but He freely offers it to us as a matter of grace - a gift we have not earned. Thirdly, being sent out with nothing reminds us that the Kingdom is not about being self-sufficient but dependent. It is not about being powerful or being experts who are better than everyone else. Instead, we come in a spirit of dependence, needing help, and putting ourselves in a position of reliance on the very people we are sent to "save." I think the Church and missionaries have largely lost sight of this important priority of the Kingdom. Fourth, the Kingdom is offered as a gift that may or may not be received or welcomed. Jesus does not force His kingdom on anyone, nor should we. We announce that the Kingdom has come and invite people to repent. If they reject the message, we move on without a fight or argument. But, we give them a warning sign. To reject Jesus or His messengers is to reject His kingdom.

There is one more important thing we need to know about the nature of this Kingdom. And that is to understand the nature of the King. Jesus sent out the twelve, and He sends us out on the same mission, expecting them to make great personal sacrifices. It is not easy going in weakness, dependent on others, and not in the power of self-sufficiency. They will face rejection and even hostile crowds who hate them and persecute them. How could Jesus ask so much of them? Only because Jesus subjected Himself to the same things and even more. He was not a king who expected people to suffer for His cause while He lived in luxury and comfort. A few chapters later, He will tell His followers, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Mark 10:45. He lived in poverty and did all the things He asked of His followers, and even more. He came to give His life as a ransom. That is, He died giving His very life as the purchase price to buy us out of slavery. What does that mean? It means that our desire to be lord and master over our own life has made us slaves to sin. It has not made us free as we are told but makes us slaves to all the things we crave and think we need to be happy. But lasting love and joy are found in Christ alone. Jesus died to set us free, to pay the ransom price to buy us out of slavery. The Kingdom of Christ is a cause worth living for because it was a cause Jesus the King knew was worth dying for!

Big Idea - In Rembrandt's painting of the storm on the sea, he paints himself in the boat with the 12 disciples and Jesus. He can identify with the experience of the disciples who are all struck with terror in the face of this fierce storm that is threatening their very lives. Like Rembrandt, it's not hard to paint ourselves in the picture, for life has its stormy days. Sometimes those storms are so severe they threaten our very lives. Jesus never promised that if we follow Him, He will make life smooth sailing from beginning to end. In fact, He promised just the opposite - in this world, you will have trouble. The good news, however, is that we do not need to go through this trouble alone. Jesus is with us in the boat, and that makes all the difference in the world! Rembrandt chose to paint the picture with the storm still raging and Jesus still half asleep rather than a moment later when Jesus, with all authority and power, is rebuking the wind and calming the sea. It is not because the artist didn't believe Jesus calmed the storm, but because he understood that in real life, in the midst of the storm, when we feel like we are about to sink, that is the time we need faith and courage. Jesus will eventually calm the raging sea, but how do we respond when it feels like Jesus is asleep, and in the silence we wonder if God really cares for us? What do we do when we find ourselves caught in a storm that feels like it is about to sink us, and we wonder if Jesus cares or even knows about our trouble? The storms will come, so how can we survive the storms of life with the courage Jesus expected His disciples to demonstrate?

First, we need to take Jesus with us in the boat! This is the first basic truth of what it means to be a true follower of Christ. When we put our faith in Him, He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us! Secondly, we need to seek Jesus' help at the first sign of trouble. Our problem is that we often think we can solve the problem ourselves. We are convinced we can fix it, or we can overcome it on our own. So, we take matters into our own hands. Unfortunately, this works sometimes, so it only reinforces our confidence in ourselves rather than training us to rely on God. Prayer is not our first instinct. It becomes our last resort!

But, there are times when our cries for help appear to be met with the silence of God. Jesus seems to be sleeping as the storm rages on, and it seems our prayers are unheard. What do we do then? Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of courage and lack of faith in the midst of the storm. Jesus expected them to face the storm with the kind of faith that would give them the courage to persevere and go through the storm with the same calm and peace that enabled Him to sleep in the midst of it all. Where does that kind of faith come from? How can we grow that kind of faith in our hearts? The disciples give us the answer in their crucial question that closes the story - 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” They had Jesus in the boat with them, which was all they needed, but they didn't fully grasp or understand who Jesus really was! Jesus was fully human, drained, and exhausted after a full day of teaching. They saw the human Jesus, who was a great but often perplexing teacher. They did not yet see the divine Jesus, who was also fully God! Jesus gets up and, with a word of rebuke, tames the wind and muzzles the storm. There is no human or even evil spirit who can do that. God alone controls the powerful forces of nature. Jesus demonstrates clearly who this is - He is fully God. We need Jesus on the boat with us. We need to seek Him at the first sign of trouble. But most of all, we need to know who Jesus really is! He is God Almighty, who has the power to calm the storms, and He cares more than we can imagine, no matter our circumstances! This knowledge needs to be much more than the facts we know about Him. It needs to be something we experience through a personal encounter with Jesus, the living God! Jesus can calm every storm, but He does not promise to do that. All too often, we must go through the storms and deal with all the fear and terror of it. That is why Rembrandt chose to capture this moment. He brilliantly captures two things at once. The first is the fierceness of the storm that is filling the ship and, by all appearances, does all in its power to sink it to the bottom of the sea. But, in the painting, the ship is not sinking. It is being raised up as if held on high by some great power. This is the great truth that gave Jesus such calm - the storms will rage against us, and it may feel like we are about to die (and maybe we will), but He is holding us up in the storm. He is the Mighty God, and He has us in His hands. Therefore, we can face the storm with courage because we know who He is, and we can trust Him.

Big Idea - In English, we have an old saying, "more than meets the eye." It means that often, there is more to something than what we see at first. This is never more true than when it comes to the Gospel. On the surface, Jesus and the message of the cross does not look like much. In fact, the cross looks like defeat and utter failure. In the previous passage, we saw that the Kingdom is at hand, but it does not come with great armies and raging battles of conquest; it comes by proclamation, that is, it comes simply by announcing its arrival. Consequently, it was quite easy for those who heard Jesus to overlook who He was and the greatness of the Kingdom He announced. When His life ended on the cross, it was even easier to dismiss Him and His kingdom as nothing. To this very day, people do not take the Kingdom of God seriously. We take seriously threats from nations that can launch an assault of nuclear weapons or who are a great economic powerhouse, but the Kingdom of God seems weak and insignificant by comparison. But we must consider that there truly is more to this Kingdom than meets the eye!

In this passage, Jesus tells two parables about the soil - how we hear the message, and two parables about the seed - the power of the message. Jesus warns people to pay close attention to the message and be careful not to overlook it. He is truly saying that there is more than meets the eye, and only those who make the effort to really listen will come to understand the truth and glory of the Kingdom. First, He uses the illustration of a lamp that is brought into a dark room. The purpose of the lamp is to light up the room, so it would be foolish to put it under your bed or under a pot. Instead you would put it in a prominent place where its light can have the greatest reach into every corner of the room. The point is that the Gospel message is light and truth. But it can only have an impact in our lives if we give it prominence in our lives. We must lift the Word to the highest priority and importance. But, far too many people would rather hide its light because they do not really want to know the hidden and secret things. In this case, the light does not fail to reveal because it has no power but because the one receiving the light has smothered its light. The parable of the measure makes a similar point. It is a picture of a person going to get a measure of grain to bring home and bake a cake. The amount of grain you get depends on the size of the measure. If the person is lazy, they may think, I don't want to carry the bucket there. I will just get a handful. By the time they return home, all will likely be lost. But the person who takes the biggest bucket they can find will get a heaping abundance of grain. The point is that the amount of attention and priority we give when we hear the Gospel message determines how much understanding and impact it has in our lives. The one who listens with all attention, giving it the highest priority and value in their life, will come to understand the fullness of its truth and will receive even more truth and understanding. That is, they will see that there is so much more to the Kingdom than what meets the eye! But, to the one who only listens with a passing interest and does not give it prominence or priority in their life, even what they hear will quickly fade away and be lost. The point of application for us is this - is the Word of God and the message of the Gospel truly the highest priority in our lives? Are we giving its truth the place of greatest prominence and letting it shine into every dark corner of our lives to shed its light and change us by its power?

The second set of parables has to do with the message itself - the word He is proclaiming. The word is compared to the seed. In the first example, the farmer sows the seed, but then he goes about his daily life, and what he does from day to day has no bearing on the seed's growth. It grows all by itself! It has the power of life and growth, and once it is planted, it will grow until it is fully mature and ready to harvest. The point of this parable is if we do listen well and give the Word of the Gospel a place of prominence in our lives, it goes to work. It grows according to its stages of growth until it is fully mature. The message of the Kingdom has within it all the power and truth to radically change our lives and make us completely true disciples who are full citizens of the Kingdom. Here again, there is more than meets the eye. The growth and the power of the seed and even of the growing plant may not look like much when it is just a small sprout. We might think there is nothing there, but it will never amount to anything. But, we must have faith to believe that the Word is doing its work in our lives and in the lives of all those who have truly received the message. From day to day, growth may be hard to detect, but we must have confidence that the Word is at work and will bring us to maturity in Christ! The last parable is also a picture of a seed. This time it is a mustard seed, considered the smallest of all the garden variety seeds. It is not much to look at, and if we were to judge based on its size and what will come of it, we would think it won't grow to be very much of a plant at all. But it grows to be the largest of all the garden plants - a large bush 2-3 meters tall and over a meter in width. It is large enough that birds can build a nest in its branches and find shelter! Birds don't build their nest in the lettuce patch or find shelter under a stalk of corn, only in the mustard bush. There is much more to that little mustard seed than meets the eye. But, you cannot judge what it will become by its beginning. It was easy to discount Jesus as nothing. His death on the cross looks like total defeat and failure. The band of fishermen who made up the original disciples were ridiculed by the religious experts in Jerusalem as uneducated men and nobodies. The struggles of the early Church, without buildings and great cathedrals, meeting underground to escape persecution, a church made up of the poor, the widows, slaves, and the very ordinary. All these look very insignificant. But that is not the end. There is the rest of the story. Jesus died, but He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God in Sovereign majesty. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and started a movement that is still expanding and growing to this very day. The more the church was persecuted and driven under group, the more it spread and is still spreading to every tribe and nation and people. Only at the return of Christ will it be seen how great the Kingdom of God truly is! Are you discouraged? Do you feel weak and helpless? Do you feel small and that your life really doesn't count for much? Do you feel like the Church and Christians are ignored and overlooked by the world? That no one really takes the Kingdom of God or the Gospel seriously? Fear not, and do not be troubled. There is so much more to this kingdom and to your life than meets the eye! What we will become has not yet been revealed, but one day it will be and we will be like Jesus in all His splendor and glory. There is more to you, more to the Church, and more to the Kingdom of God than meets the eye