Coeburn Presbyterian Church Sermons - Pastor James Ensley

Mark 5:1–20 Demons Disfigure, Christ Restores

Introduction: Jesus has just led the disciples into a storm in order to show He is the Lord of nature, the creator himself. While fear of circumstances shrank the disciples’ faith, they ended the encounter with a fear of the LORD Jesus that one day will transfer into faith that He both cares, and is able to save to the uttermost.

Read Mark 5:1-20: [1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. [2] And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. [3] He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, [4] for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. [5] Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. [6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. [7] And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” [8] For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” [9] And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” [10] And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. [11] Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, [12] and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” [13] So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

[14] The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. [16] And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. [18] As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. [19] And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” [20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

Outline:

#1The Miserable Condition (Satan hates the honor and dignity we have by being created in the image of God).

#2 A Hopeful Man, The Son of the Most-High God, and a Fearful Legion (vv. 6-13).

#3 The Delivered Man, His Community’s Response, and Jesus’ Instruction (vv. 14-20)

Question: Did Jesus just happen upon this man? No, Jesus led them into the storm, revealed his glory, the disciples’ fear, and how much more after this instance will they be able to see that the Lord of the Storm, is also the Lord with power over a legion of demons….And also show that he is COMPASSIONATE. COMPASSIONATE ON THIS MAN, look at the demon possessed man’s miserable condition in vv. 1-5.

#1 A miserable condition (bondage to Satan) vv. 1-5

God has a purpose for our circumstances, the disciples I think in this encounter quickly realize that Jesus brought them through this storm so that they could confront this Demon possessed man with the fresh reminder that Jesus is powerful, They step off the boat into Gentile Territory, an unclean graveyard, filthy pigs, and demons: They immediately feel they are on the “wrong side of the sea of galilee, the other side of Jordan, it is not holy land anymore.

But we already saw a demon come into the synagogue; things are not well with Israel, but things are not any better on the other side of the sea.

By stepping outside the bounds of Israel the initial readers will notice that Jesus does not draw power from a little regional deity; He is the Lord of all creation. We just saw this: the Lord of Heaven and Earth; the wind and the waves obey Him.

Mark gives us the most vivid account of the demoniac man; anything that feels extra vivid and detailed, just assume that is Mark.

And what Mark shows us is: The Holy Freedom brought by Jesus, to mankind in bondage and ruin to the fall and under Satan’s rule.

Jesus has the power to free us from bondage to Satan and our sin. This is seen in this account and theologically taught in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:1–5 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This man’s life is everyone in bondage to sin…only with the added particular focus and torment of what Satan would have be the eternal existence of All of Us.

· The man lives in unclean tombs, the very reality of sin and death

· He has lost communion with his family, his neighbors, and society. We were made to have relationships with God and our fellow image bearers and Satan has not only made those relationships difficult by sin but stolen all community from this man by this demonic possession.

· Note that; this man is helpless to save himself from the demonic possession and even his family and neighbors working together were unable to restrain the power of Satan.

o Both He and others are powerless to overcome and subdue the strength of Satan. Do you remember what Jesus has already called satan in Mark 3? The “strong man.”

o The Pharisees have said Jesus casts out demons by Satan’s power…this is not an individual demon but, as we’ll see an example of some 2,000 demons in one man.

o This is another showdown; Jesus defeated Satan in 1v1 combat in his wilderness temptations; Satan is like the defeated general shrinking back into his army and saying, fine, I’ll just throw numbers at Jesus.

§ We must affirm that Satan has had destructive influence on the world until the time of Jesus.

§ There further seems to be a desperate thrashing about of Satan during the life of Jesus to defeat him. To prevent Jesus coming and freeing Satan of his subjects.

· To summarize: Living among tombs evokes extreme uncleanness and exile:

o This Gentile in God’s providence is allowed to be a parable of lost and exiled Israel being no better; the prophet Isaiah says this of disobedient and exiled Israel in Isaiah 65:3–4; God’s people are a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; [right idol worshippers, disobeying God’s rules for priests, the temple, and the alters being uncut stones.]

o But listen to verse: [4 – A people who] who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; (ESV)

o The disciples in this gentile man are seeing even Israel’s spiritual state. Jesus tells the Pharisees that “satan is their father”

o We often don’t look it on the outside; but we are this miserable man apart from Jesus. We are miserable apart from Jesus, freeing us from the domination of sin and our flesh, and yes, Satan’s real influence.

· The mad man is miserable; Sin and Satan’ power over him are seen in His inability to not self-harm; his un-tame-ability illustrates the destructive bondage of Satan being as Jesus call in Mark 3 “the strong man”

o Jesus says, no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

o Jesus individually and globally will bind the strong man, Satan, at the Cross & by his Kingly rule from Heaven.

· To get this out of the way: A brief aside on us today and spiritual warfare, demons.

o Christians who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit will not be demon-possessed like this man

§ Without divine protection and the work of the Holy Spirit, indeed unbelievers are not safe from Satanic influence and possession. It is however, very difficult for us to with certainty distinguish the effects of the fall, sin, and mental-sickness from demonic influence.

§ But we know Satan’s goals and his fingerprints: by anything that dehumanizes us, leaving us—isolated and self-destructive whether by our doing in our flesh or Satan’s influence.

o We can say that Satan is more restrained but not inactive in this present age;

o There is still demonic activity, the world, and our flesh. The War has been won by Jesus, but there are still battles to be fought as Satan thrashes about in his defeat on his chain.

o Christian’s should be sober-minded about what is sinful and satanic, without panic and thinking of satan as having more power than Christ or near equal in power to Christ.

o Jesus says Fear not, for I have overcome the world! And again, “I saw Satan fall like lightning” and

o Colossians 1 [Jesus] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [15] [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (ESV)

· How does Jesus respond to this man given the power and authority we have just described about Him?

· Jesus responds with MERCY & COMPASSION towards this man and the dehumanizing results of sin and the demon’s possession.

o The World, the flesh, and the devil all tend towards diminishing communion with God and our fellow man,

o Do you have a sin pattern that isolates you from others, that makes your feel less alive and dignified as a man or woman made in the image of God? The you need verse 6.

#2 A Hopeful Man, The Son of the Most High God, and a Fearful Legion (vv. 6-13)

[6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. [7] And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” [8] For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

It is very difficult to distinguish what are the actions of the man and what are the actions of the demons called Legion. The words are from the demons, but the actions seem like the desperation of the Man.

From afar there is a recognition of who Jesus is, not just the famous teacher who is gaining popularity…No, there is from the demons an immediate recognition of the Eternal Second person of the Trinity, the Son of the Most high God who they owe worship and allegiance to who they are in rebellion against….

Jesus gets off the boat, the demons panic—But I believe this Man with his remaining consciousness RUNS to Christ. He—though he never is allowed to speak—Is like the leper who throws himself at Jesus’ feet knowing He can make me WELL! I cannot free myself, but Jesus can make me well! I cannot.

The sin, the isolation, the self-harm, and the language is that it is continual, it is habitual. He has been restrained by others over and over again, and nothing is strong enough to bind him. There is a complete inability to STOP, an inability to be clean, to be away from death, and the torment of demons—Jesus can deliver me from Hell and my living damnation!

He runs to Jesus, The demons run to Jesus…Mark leaves it all muddled….

The man / the demons fall at the feet of Jesus, It is Worship! But the demons are afraid, no trust, no love, no fitness to be at the feet of Jesus. he still cannot save himself, the demons are in control, the sin and its desires, the flesh is weak. Dead in trespasses and sins…And so Legion speaks. Legion drives the conversation to be about the demons not the Man.

Legion, has the audacity and the gall to use the vocal cords of the man he is torturing to ask for Jesus not to torment them..

“Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

YOU SPIRIT are Unclean, this is a MAN….Legion argues….until…

Jesus asks the demon for his name and this is when we suddenly switch to the plural, I think the demons are actually going for intimidation as a defense. My name is Legion, for WE are many…there’s more of us than you!

Commentators point out that Legion is a Latin term; it is a military battalion, if you will, and meant to show a huge number of demons in military readiness.

But no matter the posturing…Legion is begging….the numbers do not matter.

The begging to go into the pigs suggests, as some point out, that demons prefer tormenting creatures “at least give us the pigs”, they perhaps prefer certain areas “don’t send us out of the country”, they know that there is a judgment day coming but suspect that time shouldn’t be yet.

But I doubt they knew the timing, the true extent of their defeat at the Cross, Jesus’ decisive victory.

Demons believe and Shudder (James 2:19), but they have no true faith or trust or understanding of salvation by grace in Jesus.

They would rather remain in unclean pigs than submit to Christ and leave humanity and the rest of God’s creation alone. This is why one day they will be utterly cast out and delivered to eternal judgment. But for this day, Jesus permits them to go to the pigs…Perhaps to demonstrate the number of demons clearly, to show their destructiveness, and to prove that this man was not just crazy; it was a true spiritual oppression.

Jesus is also clever; this will reveal whether the community values this man being restored to his right mind, or if they are more worried about the economic loss of the herd of PIGS.

This man has been ostracized from family and friends for years and under torment.

And indeed, the value of one human soul infinitely outweighs the value of that herd of pigs.

We can say that Jesus truly loved this man; He is rich in mercy…

Peace be still to the storm…And to the demons, as you quake before your creator, I will not shout for you to leave; you will, and you have my permission to get out of my presence before you are judged by your king.

#3 The Delivered Man, His Community’s Response, and Jesus’ Instruction (vv. 14-20)

[14] The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. [16] And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

Sin leaves us out of our mind and self-destructive. Even if we are not demon-possessed and oppressed.

In our salvation, the Spirit of Christ restores and renews our mind after Jesus’ image; we have the mind of Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, Faith, Hope, and Love restored to us, as we experience Joy, Peace, Patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

· All are a restored mind.

· Douglas O’Donnell Notes: You can tell when you have anti-Christian philosophies and ideologies at work when societies crumble and torment the image of God…we saw it in Hitler’s Germany, communist countries of the 20th century, the damage of the sexual revolution of the late 20th and continuing in the current day it destroys our right mind and harms our bodies. It destroys self-control and leads to harm to individuals, family, and society… so-called freedom has proven to be bondage, harm, and slavery to our flesh…Leaving us unclean, undignified, and together a shameful culture….You can always ask does this ideology or belief disfigure and harm beauty, body, and mind as God created it? That is what the demons did to this man. Does it take sin and misery and magnify it into a constant torment? Does it put us, if embraced constantly at contradiction with God and his created order? If it does then it is both sin and spiritual warfare against human dignity.

· Instead, we must pray to God that the Holy Spirit would cause us to be born again, freed from sin’s dominion, its penalty, the shame of sin, and that we would be restored body and soul, mind and life.

o That is Dignified, with Sanctity, and as a society, darkness is restrained not celebrated.

· The community of this man did not rejoice in his salvation; they sent Jesus away.

· O’Donnell notes they feared Christ just as the disciples did when he calmed the storm, [quote] “they fear what might happen to their daily routine, relationships, jobs, pocketbooks. They fear that following Jesus might just ruin their lives…[then quoting Calvin]… “What could have been worse than this? They too were scattered, and here is a shepherd to collect them—or rather, it is God who stretches out his arms, through his Son, to embrace and carry to heave those who were overwhelmed by the darkness of death. They choose rather to be deprived of the salvation that is offered to them than to endure any longer the presence of Christ.” (Calvin, Harmony of the Gospels, 1480) (O’Donnell, Expository Reflection on the Gospel of Mark, 145).

Verse 18, The man wanted to accompany Jesus, but Jesus does not call all to full-time vocational ministry; instead, He sent him Home. “Go home in order to tell your friends how much the LORD has done for you.”

o How has the Lord restored you from sin and shame? How has the Lord shown mercy to you…Maybe these are the friends and families who had given up hope that this man would ever be restored to them…Jesus gives him back to them more himself than he ever was, even before the demon possession.

§ Verse 19, Out here in Gentile territory, Jesus doesn’t command silence; no Pharisees and scribes and crowds here…Just a man whose dignity, value, and freedom has been restored by Christ Jesus.

§ He goes into the Decapolis—the ten cities of the region with the good news that Christ delivers sinners…not just any sinners but sinners in bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those unable to save themselves.

§ This man who has been loved much has a great message for his family and friends.

§ Everyone saved by Jesus is called to be a living testimony to Christ, and we are to speak of him to others.

§ And Jesus is a MARVELOUS, WONDERFUL, STUNNING. SPECTACULAR Savior.

§ Take inventory of this great salvation

o Jesus, by delivering us from sin, restores the dignity and honor we have as men and women made in the image of God.

If you know in your heart this morning that you are not free from your own sinful heart and darkness. Cry out to Christ to save you from your sins, to grant you a heart, mind, and soul that is forgiven, restored, and freed to worship Christ

…he is the friend of sinners, he is able to rescue you from the kingdom of darkness and bring you into his kingdom of marvelous light.

1. And can it be that I should gain an int’rest in the Savior’s blood?… He left his Father’s throne above…’Tis myst’ry all! Th’Immortal dies…

2. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Prayer

Benediction

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Introduction: The problem of anxious hearts, that is, the overwhelmed moments of life.

What are things that bring us Fatigue, Anxiety, and cause us to search about for “who’s in charge here” “who’se going to step in here”

[ROOTS] Running the camp vs. just being there. …it’s a low stakes version of the principle, but in the psalms it was often harder for David, enemies, sins, loss, decisions that impact your family and community…

Our passage today helps us ask: When you are anxious or overwhelmed, who can you always look over your shoulder to see that he is there, that he brings peace, calm, and real meaning to your life? That is what Mark’s gospel wants us to answer today “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? The answer is good news for us.

Read: Mark 4:35–41

[35] On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” [36] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. [37] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. [38] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” [39] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [40] He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” [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?” (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

Context: New Section 4:35-5:43 Having completed parables on the nature of the Word and kingdom, Jesus will, over the next three scenes as Sinclair Ferguson says, “reign over the forces of nature and chaos (today); over the powers of darkness; over sickness, disease, sorrow and even death itself. Jesus is Lord!” – Ferguson, 60.

Four questions

#1 Who brings us into the storm?

#2 Who cares for us in the storm?

#3 Who do you trust to deal with the storm?

#4 How will you respond to handing control to the one who can deal with it?

Let’s observe this text closely.

#1 Who brings us into the storm? vv.35-37

[35] On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” [36] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. [37] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

First, Who initiates events that place the disciples and other boats into this great windstorm? – Jesus Does.

A. Jesus initiates

B. Not in the storm due to disobedience or sin. In fact this started out as another day in the life of fisherman. Another commute. Another school day.

Second, The greatness of the storm and Jonah parallel.

And then WHAM! We’re taking on water, we’re going down, It’s no longer just another commute, its not an ordinary schoolday, its not just another family night something has come in to shatter our feeling of being in control.

We are not omnipotent, omni-competent, all wise, and we are not just fearful but but our fear leads us to forget the loving relationship we have to a heavenly Father. Fearful circumstances shrink our world down to functional atheism.

But the text would not have us believe that this is luck, blind-fate, a disenchanted world where it’s a purposeless and meaningless storm…No it has too many parallels to the first chapter of Jonah, from its sudden onset and its sudden resolution, to the fact that both Jesus and Jonah were asleep on the boat. And further the disciples reaction mirroring that of the pagan sailors in Jonah who ended that chapter offering oaths and worship to the true and the living God….But this storm…

This storm is not like the one Jonah experienced because he was fleeing God,but there are similarities in the fact that God is the one who can send the storm and calm the storm, God hurls the storm in Jonah and God ends it instantly as soon as Jonah is thrown overboard.

· But any hearer of this like us if you know Jonah should be saying hmmmm, did the pagan sailors in Jonah respond better after the calm by worshipping God? The disciples respond with still a hesitant, straddling of the fence, “who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him…

· To restate, we can say, Jesus initiated, it wasn’t sin that lead them there, the Storm is within God’ providence as with Jonah, there response is less than satisfactory perhaps even falling short of the sailors in Jonah chapter 1,

o So firstly remember you can do everything right, and a sudden struggle, temptation, trial, and difficult situation is not necessarily because you did something wrong and God is mad at you.

o Jesus lead them into the storm and it wasn’t because he was mad at them.

o Following Jesus does not exempt you from trials, from suffering, from difficult circumstances.

§ See our study of Pilgrim’s Progress, or J.C. Ryle “if we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth in our journey to heavne.” (Ryle, 66).

o Sometimes Jesus is the one who says hop in the boat.

· look in verse 38 it provokes in the disciple the question,

#2 Who cares for us in the storm? Does Jesus care? Does God care?

[38] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion [only Mark gives this very eyewitness detail, evening, other boats (which invites witnesses), and the pillow) indicating Peter’s close observations given to John-Mark]. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

- Teacher not Lord. Sure, he had been teaching the whole day. But interesting teacher, not LORD.

Sinclair Ferguson calls this a cruel question (Ferguson, 61). And as humans this is our constant accusation of God, of Christ, and against the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Do you care God?

[Ill. Children to parents, they are denied something, a necessary pain is inflicted, “you don’t love me” “you never help out.” “you hate me”

So we say, God you are out to kill me! God is dead or if he’s alive he does not care.

The gospels aim is to persuade us that God is not only alive, but he so very much cares that he sent his only begotten son to rescue us.

[39] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [40] He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” [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?” (ESV)

Let’s take these in this order

A. First, let’s ask Does Jesus Care? Our answer is Yes, but the answer is interestingly captured in the incarnation of Jesus. His being true man and true God is displayed in the details of this passage.

So First, Does Jesus Care?

A. Yes, The proof of his love for the disciples and us is contained in him sleeping on that pillow ((The incarnation as the greatest act of love.)). Even in the incarnation he wield divine power and prerogative

a. We need to put two statements side by side and if we do we get good Christology.

i. His Humanity shows he cares: He was asleep on the cushion…He left heaven, came and suffered all the miseries of this life, including subjecting himself to that feeling of exhaustion.

ii. His Deity means he can do something about the storm: He rebuked [strongly rebuked] the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, Be still!] And it was instantly a smooth sea of glass.

B. This reinforces to us that Jesus is demonstrating his divine authority, his God-Man identity. Jesus is fully God and fully Man in two distinct natures and one person. He can equally according to his human nature be asleep on a pillow, exhausted from a days work of preaching….which school teachers you know how draining lecturing and speaking is…Jesus got tired to, truly man, and yet truly God the Lord of the winds and the waves (Psalms reference???) he is able to wake up and exercise his authority over nature by his Word.)

Which answers our third question:…

#3 Who do you trust to deal with the storm? Trust Christ your creator, fear him and trust him.

- Job 28:25,

o Job 28:20–28 [20] “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? [21] It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. [22] Abaddon and Death say,‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

o [23] “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. [24] For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. [25] When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, [26] when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

o [27] then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. [28] And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” (ESV)

§ God, all-wise, is the creator of the wind and the storm, therefore oh man, who in himself is not wise, who is not the creator, Fear God that is wisdom…

§ We could go off but the bible as it talks about Jesus, frequent connect Wisdom, personified, as the eternal Word, Christ as our Creator with power over creation to wisdom. Christ is our Wisdom….So in the midst of the storm is Jesus who is God who measured the winds weight and apportioned the waters by measure….It would be wise to stand in awe of Christ our wise creator in the midst of what is naturally a very fearful moment and circumstance.

- Ps. 107:25-30; [listen to the many parallels here and remember the bible has many human authors but a single divine author. The bible throughout history is God breatehed and the Psalms anticipate Christ Jesus. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and today. He is the LORD of this Psalm.

o Psalm 107:1–2 [1] Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! [2] Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble (ESV)

o Psalm 107:23–32 [23] Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; [24] they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. [25] For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. [26] They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; [27] they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.

o [28] Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. [29] He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.[30] Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. [31] Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. [32] Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. (ESV)

o Amos 4:12

- Ps. 104:7, “the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.” 106:9, John 14:29

o God the creator rebuked the waters at creation to separate the dry land from the sea, Jesus rebukes the storm in our passage and they obey their creator.

o Divine command, divine fiat belongs to Christ Jesus.

Transition: Peace? Stillness? What does this mean for both Nature and the disciples? For Us?

Look in verse 41 one more time…

#4 How will you respond to handing control to the one who can deal with it?

[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?” (ESV)

Who then is this? The disciples were asking it then…for us the readers of the gospel it is supposed to reinforce an understanding our relationship with our creator and our God is through Christ Jesus. The human heart, your soul is in union and communion with God your creator through Jesus. You know your creator through Jesus, you know your purpose, your meaning, your ability to lay your head down and night and not be wracked with existiential crisis’, with Nihilism, empty purposelessness, the cold dark void of space, storms, chaos of seas but other chaos’

The chaos of Economy (broad), work, profit…..The Chaos of Nations, politics, human turmoil…The chaos of evil

Instead, in this storm the disciples see the Lord of creation who orders the chaos of the sea. the God who Orders.

The God who calms with Peace

How? Powerful hands, trustworthy hands, calming hands that remove the anxieties of life….

C. Fear of circumstances of this world kills Faith in Christ, that is Fear of Christ above all else would’ve given them Faith in Christ and PEACE against circumstances.

D. Ferguson says, “they had allowed the voice of the storm to silence the voice of the Lord.”

E. You may have allowed the voice of internet doomscrolling, of the social and political darknesses in the world to silence the voice of the savior in your heart.

F. Perhaps you have so come to love a sin or a situation you are in that is wrong that you would be afraid if Jesus told you peace be still. And he removed that entire situation out of your life. Him interfering with the wind and the wave with whatever your circumstance is would be the terrifying thing. It would not be peace to you but frightening silence.

G. He cares for you, he knows what is right for you, go to him in prayer ask him to silence it, to give you peace from sin, fear, and paralysis. Go to him. Be afraid of sin not afraid of the savior of sinners.

H. Fear God not Man. Fear God not sin. Fear God not satan. That is be in Awe of Christ, be transfixed by your creator, behold him, he is glorious.

a. Jesus went to the cross in much the same attitude as in this storm. He spoke barely a word as his trial. A few words on the cross. Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

b. They are a fearful people, a threatened people, forgive them. They don’t get the peace he brought at the cross

c. The sky turned dark, it was finished, who is this? Surely this is the Son of God?

d. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

i. Be Still!

ii. It is Finished!

iii. And creation obeys him.

e. At his resurrection the disciples still treated Jesus with the same trepidation…Thomas unless I see the wounds and place my hand in his side….His fear, his doubt killed his faith….

i. But Jesus subdued the darkness, the storm, the chaos, he does it by a word….Ferguson says of the disciples “for a brief moment they saw the majesty, power and glory of Jesus unveiled…”

ii. The Thomas does, then 72, then Pentecost, how many individuals trapped in darkness have had the Spirit descend like fire into their heart and there is the fear as you see your sin lit up, and then the fear of Jesus Glorious, Sinless, but then you remember…Does he care? Yes, Yes he cares, Jesus is the Friend of Sinners, the bridegroom, he makes you clean, he restores, he is your elder brother, he is glorious, terrifying, but Good and brings forgiveness and PEACE! Go to Jesus ask him to remove your sin, to be every present with you. Pray to him

iii. Let us leave these verses with the comfortable recollection that Jesus is not changed. His heart is still the same that it was when he crossed the sea of Galilee and stilled the storm. High in heaven at the right hand of God, Jesus is still sympathizing, still almighty, still pitiful and patient toward his people. (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark.).

How will you respond to handing control to the one who can deal with it?

iv. When the storms come, say Jesus, I am terrified of this moment this storm this day this relationship problem. Help me, I know you care, you are with me, I in you and you in me.

1. No sin, no passion, no temper, no moment is to great for the Lord not to calm the storm in our hearts, even if he asks you to go through the storm in your life.

v. Look at the Storm, take your fear to Jesus. He is Good. He cares. He has gone through the same suffering and trials in his life on earth, he will be with you. He does care. He does save, entrust your soul to Christ, entrust your earthly trials to Christ. Do not fear.

Prayer

Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Introduction: In Mark so far, we have had teaching on Jesus’ IDENTITY, Jesus’ Mission in Conflict with the Pharisees, and now in Chapter 4 we get 4 parables about Revelation and our receptivity to it AND the end result of a coming Kingdom, more being given OR it all being lost, hiddenness sprouting forth by God’s providence at the right time, a harvest. Small beginnings producing a large shelter for the birds, a small kingdom beginning in Jesus, the 12, the death and resurrection, moving to Pentecost, to a giant shade under which we live built by Christ’s work, as we all live under his Kingdom and reign.

And to put it in context, we get the parables, the disciples are being instructed in them, and Jesus will continue to display his identity to the Disciples as the Lord of Creation, the defeater of the kingdom of Darkness, our souls’ satisfaction.

But in 4, the mystery is unveiled in front of them: will they see and believe? Will they hear and heed? Or will they throw the basket over it and close their eyes to the light of Christ? Now is the time to pay attention and believe.

Read: Mark 4:21–34

A Lamp Under a Basket

[21] And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? [22] For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. [23] If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” [24] And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. [25] For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The Parable of the Seed Growing

[26] And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. [27] He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. [28] The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. [29] But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

[30] And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? [31] It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, [32] yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

[33] With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. [34] He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. (ESV)

#1 Will you Hear or Hide? Be Added to or Removed? (vv. 21-25).

#2 Will you Grow, Grow, Grow?

#3 The Blessings and Usefulness of Kingdom Growth

As you think back to the parable of the seed, sower, and soils, and forward to the lamp under the basket, the mystery of the farmer and seed growing, and the mustard seed Douglas O’donnell reminds us of our key words:

“The words “seed” and “earth”/”ground” and “grows” point to the basic story of the parables, and the verb ‘hear’ indicates the main application. We are to ‘hear,’ that is, ‘respond to’ what Jesus teaches on the nature of the kingdom. How so? Two ways. First, we are to make visible the mystery of God’s rule. Second, we are to work for growth and expect growth —a slow, certain, and phenomenal harvest.” - Douglas O’Donnell, 115

Right parables provoke, and we are being provoked to answer. Will you hear and respond to the kingdom of Rule of God through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross? Second, having heard and responded, will you grow? Will you be a part of the harvest of life and righteousness that is, with patience, expected to occur as Jesus ushers in the grace of the new covenant by his finished work on the cross?

Let’s take these one at a time: Look in vv. 21-24

#1 Will you Hear or Hide be Added to or Removed?

A Lamp Under a Basket [21] And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? [22] For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. [23] If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” [24] And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. [25] For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

A. How many of you have had a light shined in your face? How did it make you feel? How did you react?

a. Oh Jesus is the light of the world, great. Oh, this dark night is ending, the mystery the secret of the kingdom of God is finally coming to light hurray!

b. Or shut that light off! I’m sleeping, I’m not dressed, I’m not ready.

B. The crowd laughs. Who would put a lamp under a basket?

a. More ridiculous than a flashlight that’s wasting cheap electricity. Were rechargeable. No, that’s wasting oil, limited fuel!

b. No one would hide the light. Especially not under a basket or bed.

i. Don’t trick yourself by accidentally hearing flashlight and not lantern. What happens if you put a flashlight under a basket or bed? Now answer that with an open flame candle…(parables provoke sometimes with humor)

ii. Hide it under a bushel becomes….burn the house down no, I’m gonna let it shine.

c. But would we? Do you? Will you hear Jesus. Or bury your head back in the pillow? Will you open your heart? As we said last week, do you have ears to hear?

C. Do we really want the lights turned on to see our sin and need, and to keep the light on as we turn it all over to Jesus for forgiveness?

a. If you can survive the initial discomfort, it will be glorious and life giving.

b. Jesus is the one who cleanses; the Spirit is the one who gives new life.

c. ILL: Pilgrims’ progress cleaning the room. Sprinkle the clean water then sweep it up.

d. So there is certainly the personal heart work here, how we react to light. To this we respond by Asking the spirit to do the work in your life, to give you eyes to see and a heart to receive. Why? What’s the provocation, the warning of Jesus?

D. But there is the second and probably main component: For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light

a. O’Donnell remarks, “He is looking to a future time when his followers will proclaim his full message to the whole world. As he says to the twelve in Matthew 10:27, ‘What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.’” - O’Donnell, 116

b. Will you believe, will you proclaim? Or are you going to do the humorous thing and put a candle under your bed?

i. Faith is given. New life in Christ is not just for ourselves, our benefit, our ticket to heaven, but to benefit those God has placed in your life.

ii. Religious knowledge is not an inert dragon’s hoard to be slept on like Smaug. The wealth of scriptural revelation is to be spent in daily life and conversation as a valuable transferable thing to others. That is, your lantern is the light that goes about a darkened world and others benefit from it.

iii. It makes me think of the image of the Ferryman and the Ferryman’s lantern going back and forth across the river.

c. “This little light of mine….song

E. The lesson, First, inwardly our hearts ought to embrace the light. Don’t hide away; Take HEED, listen up my soul), Second, Outwardly, our proclamation (the mystery is unveiled so shine it to the world), and lastly for this parable: there is the warning of this parable

V24-25 Pay attention to what you hear! Why?

A. Because with the measure you use it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you”

a. Have much? Get more. Have little? All taken away.

b. You will be weighed. Will you be lacking….We don’t weigh things in marketplaces anymore:

i. [products lying about weight, But we get this, there was a recent article I saw where grocery store products all came back 20-30% lighter compared to advertised weight.]

ii. Jesus is saying, will you be fraudulent?

1. If you were generous with your measure e.g. the bakers dozen the just-in-case bonus roll to not cheat your customer, you will be rewarded. But if you short change your spiritual life, you don’t just get a slightly less robust spiritual life. No, it’s gone.

a. You treat the kingdom lightly, by not paying attention, not HEARING, you will not be less, but gone.

b. “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. [25] For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

B. What is Jesus saying to do? Good works to get into heaven, God forbid Paul says.

a. No it is HEAR, BELIEVE. AND so being saved and brought by grace into the kingdom bear fruit. Have it added into you. But if you IGNORE. DO NOT BELIEVE. All will be taken away. Israel the Pharisees will experience this. Their role as rulers will be taken away

b. The gospel is good news. Do not hide or suppress it. Do not assume it in your family or friendships. Cherish what is a gift.

c. Light vs. dark - you have the light. No electricity; how would the household the community feel that the light has been hidden?

d. [Penn and Teller Fool Me], think it’s Penn - he respected the believers who told him about Jesus.

i. “I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you… and this is more important than that” – Penn Jillette

Ok, this doesn’t make everyone an apologist or evangelist in the big A or big E sense. But it does make us a community whose when gifts are taken together we do this for people.

A. I need to hear this. While also knowing Christ has revealed the mystery, revelation has come and is in the word. We trust the word not our cleverness, we sow the word we said and entrust the Holy Spirit to do the heart work.

Transition: The second two parables go together being more about growth. The first two of Chapter 4 were more about hear. Believe. Sow. Though still mentioning growth.

Look in vv. 26-29

#2 Will you Grow, Grow, Grow?

The Parable of the Seed Growing [26] And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. [27] He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. [28] The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. [29] But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

A. Growth comes by scattering seeds. Not knock down gospel presentations. Growth comes from just letting the light shine. Growth comes by sowing the seeds and going to sleep, faithful human rhythms that entirely depend on sovereign, divine grace. That is letting the mystery of God’s Providence do its work.

B. How many times are people’s lives touched by dozens of people before the harvest comes in? How many nights before you wake up and all of a sudden, there is a harvest. You can’t control the rain and the temperature and the amount of sunlight in a growing season.

C. How joyful it is to put in the sickle and gain the fruit? To bring in a basket of vegetables or a basket of apples from a tree.

D. The word does the work. Sleep.

E. God changes hearts. Be faithful and go and sleep.

a. I’ve had conversations, I’ve done XYZ, and I fear I didn’t do enough are they lost because of me?

b. [Revelation] the full number will come in. Only ask was I faithful? leave the harvest of the soul to the Lord. To the Holy Spirit (John 3,4,6 quotes)….

c. John 3:3–8 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. … That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

d. John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

e. John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

F. O’Donnell says “the seed has an inherent power that is unstoppable”

a. Some of us need encouragement to sow

b. Some of us need encouragement to go lie down and sleep.

c. To go home and pray for our lost loved ones. We have sown. May the Lord, in his sovereign timing, bring the increase. May the lord send more laborers into the field who will reap a harvest.

d. Our bulletin: Is. 40:8 The grass withers…..

G. [[Illustration of the patience and on how people are converted]]

a. Kosumi.

[Transition] This brings us to the Mustard seed, look in verses 30-34

Before we even get into one apologetic aside….

Apologetic dilemma: Critics (often citing modern botany) note that mustard seeds (Brassica nigra / black mustard, roughly 1–2 mm) are not the smallest seeds on earth—tiny orchid seeds (some ~0.05 mm) or other microscopic seeds are far smaller. They claim this proves a scientific error by Jesus or the Gospel writers, undermining biblical inerrancy or Jesus’ omniscience.

Jesus was speaking to Galilean farmers and crowds familiar with local agriculture. The phrase “the smallest of all the seeds on earth” (or “least of all the seeds”) is understood in context as referring to seeds commonly sown in fields or gardens by Palestinian farmers of that time and place—not every seed in the world, including exotic tropical epiphytes or microscopic seeds unknown or irrelevant to them.

Black mustard was the smallest seedtypically cultivated and sown in 1st-century Jewish fields/gardens in thatregion. Orchid seeds (the common counter-example) are irrelevant: they are notsown by farmers, you don’t scatter orchid seeds, do not grow into large shrubsor trees with branches for birds to nest in, and would not serve the parable’simagery at all. Plus, Jesus uses a word for the land, the soil, which naturallydoes not have to mean every square inch of this globe. It is the smallest seedfarmers in Jesus’ day sowed upon the earth to produce a spice yield. In a story. I draw attention to this as aclassic “um actshually” moment that “um actshually” is exactly what Jesus put upwith the pharisees and scribes with constantly and is not a threat to biblicalinerrancy.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed which we can see is both parable and prophesy, it is a parable of the future of the church between Christ’s first coming and judgement day. [30] And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? [31] It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, [32] yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

[33] With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. [34] He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. (ESV)

Truly the emblem of the grain of mustard seed was verified and fulfilled to the very letter. To the eyes of man the beginning of the visible church was contemptible, insignificant, powerless, and small.” – Ryle, 62.

[the humility of Christ] Lead to the growth of the church.

A. This tree that grows up large with shade and branches for nests is the interconnected kingdom of God, the Church, flourishing down through the centuries.

B. One privilege of being a seminarian is reading a lot of pastors and theologians and seeing the connected chain.

a. But we all see this, the web of branches that all of us represent that provide shade, nests, and a mighty refuge.

C. Empires come and go.- The gates of hell will not prevail against the church

a. Revelation Babylon is fallen. The church is not.

D. Mark 1 the kingdom is here. It’s tiny. Its Jesus.

a. Wednesday nights…We said how is BC vs. AD going for Satan

b. Which is the better half for him? Not gonna lie he had us in the first half.

c. Isa. 2:2 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it”

E. The nature of the kingdom is one of

a. Salvation by Grace for enemies and rebels

b. This in the parable is one of small beginnings, humble beginnings

c. The shade the rest of the kingdom is scene in its

i. Upside-down kingdom ethics

ii. The fruit of the spirit.

iii. Multigenerational community that is covenantal and enfolds those who come under the shadow of the almighty’s wing.

d. As those who have been shown grace and mercy it is a generous kingdom. Generosity that has built hospitals and orphanages and Dramatically impacted pagan cultures.

i. Jesus is in parable giving a prophesy of the future of the kingdom.

ii. The parable veils the full extent of what that will be

iii. Until then Jesus says, will you believe? When you let your light shine? Will you trust that God is at work…

O’Donnell summarizes this way: Jesus wants unbelievers to believe. And he wants believers to believe afresh. Christ wants his church to be encouraged. There has been a great harvest already: billions of believers to date.

Even more to come. Soon and very soon “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9) and “a great multitude that no one [can] number” will worship before the throne (Rev. 7:9).

So what then? Believe afresh. Work hard. Share the light; sow the seed. Make visible the mystery of God’s rule. Work for growth. Be patient. Expectant. Confident. God is at work. Take comfort. All the growth is in God’s good hands. - O’Donnell

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Introduction: How do you respond when you are informed of big events?

- A hospital diagnosis OR the prospect of a big inheritance OR a Change in your relationship such as a new member of the extended family.

- But how do we respond to the deeper news: our sin, spiritual state, our savior, what he has down, and how will we live our lives once that word has been physically received but will it bear lifelong, persevering, fruit?

Read: Mark 4:1–20 The Word and Our Hearts [1] Again [Jesus] began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. [2] And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: [3] “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. [4] And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. [5] Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. [6] And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. [7] Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. [8] And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” [9] And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

[10] And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. [11] And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, [12] so that

“‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

[13] And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? [14] The sower sows the word. [15] And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. [16] And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. [17] And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. [18] And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, [19] but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. [20] But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (ESV)

1. The Setting vv. 1-3

2. The Purpose of Parables vv. 10-13

3. The disciples are rebuked and The Meaning of the Parable are explained to them (v. 14-20).

a. The Seed is sown on four kinds of soil: The Path, Rocky, Thorny, and Good soils.

Chapter intro: Chapter 4 is the biggest unit of pure teaching of Jesus. Especially parables. This is about the Kingdom coming, and people hearing the word and how our hearts respond, and we grow in response to the Word proclaiming Christ to us.

0. The Setting look in vv. 1-3 again [1] Again, he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea [remember Mark already said the boat was there to handle the press of the very large crowd. We can see that he now has THE 12 Disciples. He has the full 12 and he is going to be explaining his teaching to them in private, it’s a little funny it’s says when he is ALONE with the core disciples. The crowds are so much that being with the 12 and other core disciples is ALONE is Private….]

[2] And he was teaching them many things in parables.

What is a parable and how should we read it? First, they are stories, usually simple nature or situational stories, farmers, merchants, sheep owners, seeds, coins. Simple.

Second, not every single detail has an allegorical one to one. The 3 coins in the good Samaritan aren’t representing the Trinity. The main details have meaning, some things are just part of the story to make it work. Today it is the seed and the soils, the birds and sun just make the story work, they don’t have hyper-specific secret meanings outside the obvious in the story…

Look in verses 9-13, the Purpose of Parables: “He who have ears to hear let him hear”

a. Note verse 9 already teaches something: Hearing ultimately is individual – do you have ears for the word of God. To know Christ, to know the gospel, to trust Christ and his salvation. Or do you not have ears for it?

b. This fits what we’ll see of the parable, the Sowing is indiscriminate. The Farmer flings the seed far and wide with great abundance. Jesus is teaching to great crowds, but already he says PAY attention, search more deeply, examine how you are hearing this proclamation that the Kingdom of God is here: Do you have ears to hear? will you truly hear this parable? And this fits with the disciples question and Jesus’ explanation of why parables.

c. Or are you just going with the large crowd, hoping for a healing, or a miracle, with no interest for Jesus or his message. [what this is today?]

2. Verses 10-13

[10] And when he was alone [ha], those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. [11] And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret [the mystery] of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,

Something has been ‘granted’ or given to the disciples; to others that something ‘has not been granted! The ‘something’ is Revelation. The disciples are privileged ‘to know,’ the rest are not...at least not YET.

What is the difference between the two? Why is one group made up of disciples who know and other of non-disciples who do not know?

“The doctrine of election lies behind these words,’ says New Testament scholar Leon Morris (339). They are disciples because Jesus chose them to be His disciples and God has given them understanding. ‘You did not choose me but I chose you, Jesus said (John 15:16).

They were gifted revelation, the mystery of the gospel unveiled.

This gift, being granted the mystery of the kingdom is the same word group as in Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [right its been given, it’s a gift] [verse 9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)

Terry Johnson of Indepentdent Pres, Sav., GA says, “What we know about God and the things of God, we know only at God’s good pleasure. We are entirely dependent on God’s gracious self-revelation.”

Remember the disciples were all called by Christ. Levi especially highlighted the free choice of Jesus to call sinners not any prior qualification in ourselves to have earned or deserved our calling, Christ’s choice.

The disciples ask, why parables? And Jesus continues his answer with Isaiah 6, where similar to Jesus Isaiah preaches to a hard-hearted Israel that will not hear his warnings.

Isaiah, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ [10] Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (ESV)

1. Isaiah shows that Israel in exile will have hardened hearts to the prophetic ministry of Isaiah, and Mark’s gospel shows this is additionally fulfilled in the hardened hearts towards Jesus’ ministry.

2. But this purpose of parables was for a very fixed time, leading up to the events of Jesus’ life. Parables temporarily hid the meaning of Jesus while allowing him to teach about the Kingdom of God, his death, and the way the gospel and the word would bring new life to people once he had died on the cross, been resurrected, ascended to heaven, and poured out his spirit.

3. We then, on this side of the cross, with the gospel of Mark in our hands, get to read these parables with the private answers Jesus gave the disciples. These private answers become public answers with the public preaching ministry of the Apostles, who were witnesses.

4. The Parables were sufficiently clear to those with hearts receptive, but sufficiently veiled to further Jesus’ path to the cross as the Pharisees continued to oppose him as the true messiah.

5. Remember they have already purposed to kill him for healing on the sabbath for casting out demons, accusing him of having done so by the power of Satan.

6. Think of three categories of people hearing these parables (Dr. William Lane draws this out): The disciples, the 12 apostles are being entrusted with the mysteries of the Kingdom of God…the as-of-yet-unbelieving great multitudes receive the truth behind the veil, and the pharisees hear it with hostility.

a. All three categories need the work of the Holy Spirit to renew their hearts and their minds. But Jesus clearly distinguishes the disciples, actual followers of him, from the crowds gathered for the sake of miracles and the show, and further the hostile pharisees.

b. Only the Disciples (the 12 plus other actual disciples get the further explanation, alone with Jesus.)

c. But remember, even for the disciples the fullness of the truth remains behind the veil.

But on the other side of the cross. As the veil is removed, as Jesus’ miracles, identity, and dealing with sin on the cross is held out plainly to you, how will you respond?

1. Will it be any better than the disciples? The crowds? The pharisees or will you like Jesus says quoting Isaiah: indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

a. Ok say, The Disciples are rebuked: v. 13 Jesus simply is saying, this is a simple one, it gets trickier here on out. I won’t go off on the disciples for 10 minutes…Plenty of Chances to watch Peter struggling as we go through Mark…Let’s look at Jesus’ explanation and start applying it to ourselves.

And parable doe what? Provoke, reveal, and demand a verdict: So you are meant to be provoked in your heart to say, “Is that my heart? “Do I think of the word as this living seed, planted in my heart?”

The Word of God and Different Kinds of Heart (v. 14-20

First, the word of God is Sown without discrimination falling on various soils.

1. France (paraphrase) the parables focus is that the seed is always good, the seed is living, the soil is the problem. The word of God is living and active, but what about your heart?

2. Jesus is exactly on point with the image of the farmer with his sack of grain flinging the seed, every preacher in every century, every individual Christian to their sons and daughters and neighbors and co-workers, every bible that has been translated into a new language and come off a printing press is the seed of God being scattered with abundant zeal.

3. Praise God for the written word of God and the spoken, the proclaimed Gospel. The word of God has gone from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the Earth.

4. This is the key emphasis, to mix the metaphor: hide it under a bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine. Keep the seed in the sack? No! fling it across the whole 100 acre property God has placed you in. God has determined your times and seasons, where you will live, your family, your classmates, fling the word far and wide.

5. Then leave it in God’s hands, pray for the fruit, you don’t know the kind of heart someone necessarily has.

Let’s examine these soils, and we will say these soils are kinds of hearts, minds, souls in response to God’s word…Responses to Christ and to the Gospel, to the promises and precepts of God.

[Terry Johnson’s thoughts are throughout this explanation of the soils]

#1 First soil: The Path (v. 14-15): Satan immediately takes the word away

[14] The sower sows the word. [15] And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

The path, the road’s soil is hard-packed. The seed does not take root. You hear the gospel. You are made in the image of God. He is your creator. You owe allegiance, love, and loyalty to God. To call good what he calls good. To repent of your sin and entrust your forgiveness to Christ.

You have the very life of Christ on the cross offered to you. But your heart is hard. You never let it cut your heart. Shake your apathy. Penetrate your emotions. Cause you to grieve and hate your sin. Instead, your hard heart is stubborn and resists.

A hard heart may claim that “the Bible is not true.”This heart never yields to the truth of the word, the evidence for the Word for Jesus, whether internal beauty, weightiness, depth, or external confirmations. It then yields easy, unexamined approval to the philosophical bankruptcy of atheism or materialism or the simple pleasure of hedonism. These substitutes act as A hard shield is placed over the heart and mind to the truth of the gospel.

Jesus read it on their faces. They didn’t believe his words and they weren’t going to search the scriptures like the Bereans to see if he fulfilled the messianic prophesies foretold.

Satan delights in and is active in this. He is the father of lies. Is deceitful and will use any tool to make sure the heart never hears quote 2 cor. 4:4.

2 Corinthians 4:4–6 …to those who are perishing... the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [5] For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. [6] For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God…..in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

You may say I don’t have a hard heart ok. But do you have an apathetic heart? A spiritually lazy heart? The Bible? Never read it. Books defending the truth and need for Christianity? Ignored. And petty take-downs of Christianity are easily swallowed because it frees you from having to consider your sin before a Holy God.

The emotional weight of being a sinner…..loved by Jesus….the friend of sinners. If you’ve been thinking this, until now, run to Christ. Run to the word of God, take it up as a plough and have it till and turn over the soil of your heart to know Christ Jesus and so be saved.

[transition] Second, maybe you are receptive to the word. Yes, I know Jesus, I’m a sinner, Jesus saves me…But your heart is rocky. It is shallow. There is no deep-rootedness. No strength. The shallow roots are easily parched of water and poor nutrition.

#2 Rocky (v.16-17): Initial Joy but falling away under persecution

[16] And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. [17] And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

There may be emotional enthusiasm, but no strength of heart. No depth of the renewed mind. No courage for when hardships and struggles come.

What must we do if we heed the warning of a rocky heart? Take that initial joy and add maturity and growth to it. Take up and read wisdom, listen and read sound and hardy books. Grow into spiritual maturity, Gaining the strength to persevere and to walk as a Christian. Strength supplied and sustained by grace, by the grace of the word and spirit in the heart, but strength exercised nonetheless in your perseverance.

And by now hopefully, you know I believe this means commitment to the Lord’s day, to rhythms of Bible, prayer, and Christian conversation with other believers. Many sources of wisdom in your life. To day by day, till the soil, remove the rocks of poor and shallow thinking, breakdown false ideas and worldview, tear down morally weakening habits and vices. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and brothers and sisters in community.

Initial enthusiasm does not prove a regenerate new heart. Initial enthusiasm is not a guarantee for persevering faith in the believer. How many of this enthusiastic crowd will fall away from Jesus as his teachings get difficult?

Take up your cross and follow me

Lose your life to gain it

The world has hated me it will hate you

Become last

I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Take the word of God seriously as milk. Long for the word as an infant longs for milk it is your life.

And so be strengthened for when persecution and suffering comes so you will not be shaken.

The second and the third kind of soil are very similar all my exhortations of what to flee from and what to pursue are quite similar. The thorns. Or a false crop they choke out the true crop. The cares of the world that crowd out your growth in grace.

You can suffer ridicule. Being the bad guy. Being on the wrong side of history. Losing your money, reputation, so look in verses 18-10.

#3 Thorns (v.18-19): Hearing the Word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Weeds choke out the word.

Weeding is not fun. Especially daily or a weekly rhythm of weeding. Spiritual weeding is never going to feel amazing. weekly weeding of your heart. It’s not going to be spectacular.

But when the weekly habits, the daily habits of just plucking a weed as you go by are practiced, that is the difference between a thorn and weed-infested garden and a well-tended one.

Do not allow neglect of the ordinary means of grace to say ah you have a thorn infested heart not a tended garden.

Your heart is a garden.

Now Jesus zooms in on worries and riches. Probably because both these things occupy our minds and our lives. They both can be all-consuming.

Riches and Worries will always accept more of your thoughts and meditations.

Remember Mark has already reminded us: Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord of your rest. And riches, second to consuming time in pursuit, also determine our tastes. Your love for materialism. For Babylon.

The classic example of this is moving to a place for a job without consideration to the Spiritual climate you are moving to, is it a spiritually impoverished region? A churchless city? Never sacrifice a healthy church, community, and family for the promises of wealth.

Ruth 1 (Elimelech) Famine, go to a place of physical prosperity but spiritual poverty. Ruth Follows Naomi back to the land of God’s people where she enters the line of Jesus.

John 2:15–17 [15] Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. [17] And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (ESV)

[transition] Finally the good soil. It is not hard, it is receptive, has depth, and understanding, and it will be fruitful.

#4 Good Soil (v.20): those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

Note the grace here. It is the grace of the word coming to us. The grace of the revelation of the gospel to us.

And ALSO yes from our human responsibility side yes HEAR, understand, believe, and persevere in the TRUTH Of the word in your life. Because it’s the voice of your savior applied by the Holy Spirit.

The fruit we know is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, taking the word and giving life to our lives. (FOS). I won’t re-read Ephesians 2:8-10 or 1-10 but its there. Good works prepared by God but truly worked by us.

The fruit is because of hearts made alive. Minds shaped by the word. And a community of hearts filled by the Holy Spirit.

Fruit is growth in grace. And if you have planted a garden you know initially it’s not impressive. And you might say why church each week. Why read this boring theology book. Why go to that group? Why sacrifice time and struggle to be holy?

Story time: Anna and I left for our trip and we had planted the garden in May, and absolutely tiny growth right? Well, two weeks later, when we came back, explosive growth, small crop yields just beginning to burst forth.

The lesson is this: be patient with what the lord does in a person or church over 3 days 3 months, but be amazed at what he does in 3, 10, 30 years in people’s lives.

And it will be an abundant crop. The gospel in the 1st century went from Jerusalem to Jude’s to samari to the ends of the earth and had conquered the Roman Empire within 300 years. Not totally but pervasively.

If there is no fruit in your life, the fault lies not with the seed, the word, the message, the gospel, or Jesus.

It is a call to examine your heart to commit to being receptive to the word and to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to till the soil of your heart.

Pray with me.

Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Introduction: David asks God questions in the Psalms regularly. Psalm 6, David is not comfortable in psalm 6. And he asks in his distress 1 question But you Lord—How Long?

This question is actually similar to Psalm 4 “How Long shall my honor be turned to shame? As my enemies exchange the righteousness and truth of God for slander and lies.

There, David appeals resoundingly to the JOY and Peace that he has in his relationship to the Lord. He is triumphant. He is assured because God is with him. God has drawn near. And yet now, the cry is How Long. Not just relational opposition. But how long will David be going through the deep and dark valley, the dark night of the soul.

Read: Psalm 6

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to vThe Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,

nor discipline me in your wrath.

2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;

heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.

3 My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, O LORD—how long?

4 Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;

save me // for the sake of your steadfast love.

5 For // in death there is no remembrance of you;

in Sheol who will give you praise?

6 I am weary with my moaning;

every night I flood my bed with tears;

I drench my couch with my weeping.

7 My eye wastes away because of grief;

it grows weak because of all my foes. //

8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,

for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.

9 The LORD has heard my plea;

the LORD accepts my prayer.

10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;

they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Prayer

#1 The Dark Night of the Soul (vv. 1-3, 6-7)#2 Deliverance that we Might Worship (vv. 4-5)#3 (briefly) The Lord Hears and re-affirms David’s Call to service (vv. 8-10).

Usually commentaries and sermons on passages get repetitive after about 2 ½. And They don’t say much that you yourself aren’t seeing at first glance. But this psalm, this psalm was different. No two commentaries were the same in their broad-approach really only agreeing on minutiae.

This is one of those psalms where you could hear a different sermon with each pastor. Each attempting to plumb the depths of this problem of David. This Dark night of the soul. Each one would yield something helpful and unique. And usually that would terrify me, if this were A Pauline Epistle or a Parable. Because its about Ideas applied to the heart. But this Psalm, reading it is almost as important as preaching it, it is not about ideas applied to the heart so much as our hearts applied to a Person. Our hearts crying out to the Lord, which sometimes is simply groanings to deep for words. Ans so when it comes to the comfort we seek in the complexity of the Human heart. There are blessings in a multitude of counselors. SO my first point of application becore we get into it is if the words of this psalm resonated with your heart then speak about it to God in prayer but also speak of it with someone who holds your confidence in your life, someone of wisdom. But lets now hear David talk to the Lord.

I. Vs. 1-3 The Problem: The dark night of the soul

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,

nor discipline me in your wrath.

2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;

heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.

3 My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, O LORD—how long?

a. Right away you can feel David’s cry for deliverance. He is feeling the heavy hand of the Lord upon him (right “rebuke” “discipline” “anger” “wrath”. He is weighed down in body and soul. He feels the Lord’s anger and wrath. For this reason this psalm is classified historically as a Penitential Psalm.

i. But many point out and I agree with them that David in his prayers, as you read the psalms, is quick to confess that He has sinned.

ii. That against you and you only Lord have I sinned. He asks for cleansing from his sins.

iii. Yet here, David is expressing a common Christian experience. The weight of a dark and brooding lack of assurance of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

iv. A deep despair over sin and guilt. For we are all sinners. We all, rightly, are under God’s wrath and curse. So, for the Christian, of course, there remains indwelling sin of some kind in our lives. Sins that can rightly be confessed and brought to the Cross of Christ to have our burden removed. (Pilgrim leaping for Joy, removed burden!)

v. [Pause] But David has no comfort, no burden removed. No reassurance of God’s mercy and grace.

vi. His words are vague enough, general enough that we can’t place a finger on an event, a specific heinous sin, but instead we are left with a Man more like Martin Luther—who tires out his brothers and father in his monastery with his overwhelming burden of sin and overwhelming burden of being a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Yet he feels this as a Christian, not a hardened and unrepentant Sinner.

vii. What do you do in the face of uncertainty? When you FEEL a lack of assurance

viii. Knowing, Lack of assurance wears on Body and Soul.

ix. Body and Soul are a unified whole for humanity, suffering in body or soul is very much real and affects your whole person. We are not Buddhist, suffering is not an illusion. “Lord—How long?” you have forgotten me can look like a lot of questions:

b. Will I be sick forever? Will I be anxious forever? Will I get that Job, ever be reconciled? Will they be angry with me forever? – And I have no power to heal myself, I cannot simply just turn off my anxiety like a shut off valve, just declare my next job, and call that person and say the friendship is restored? How can I restore the years of anger and bitterness in my marriage?

i. Our anxious thoughts cry out, “God does not care.” “He does not heal or transform or repair… At least not for me.”

ii. David feels God is Angry with him. David feels he is reaping Wrath.

iii. That was the Case with Assyria we heard in Nahum.

iv. Certainly that is the Case with David, in Psalm 51. There is a clear case of sin and loss there for David. A prophet told him and pulled back the curtain on God’s punitive will. And it allowed David to confess his sin specifically and to wash his face and be restored. //

v. This Psalm I am convinced has nothing to do with Specific. Heinous. Unrepentant sin in David’s Life.

vi. Instead, this is a King. Who has Enemies, And could be a young David or an old David

vii. If he is young, then he has a period of sickness, the years of running from Saul and the warfare have caught up to him with, PTSD,

viii. or perhaps this is the David we meet in his old Age languishing, unable to be warm under the covers of his bed.

ix. And he feels alone // isolated // his friends are old and his enemies are nearby // he feels alone.

II. Initial suffering and hardship can drive us to a quick Blitz-krieg of prayer with the Lord. To cry out to him.

i. But then when it prolongs, we tend to flee from God. The prolonging bringing about distance – The absence of prayer here would be a victory for Satan. But David cries out.

ii. Martin Luther says, “TO all suffering people time seems long, and…to joyous it seems short. But it seems especially and immeasurably long to those who have this internal hurt of the soul, the feeling of being forsaken and rejected by God.”

iii. Praise God for this Psalm: Because if there is a prayer, there is a drawing near in conversation, and a remembrance that God is gracious and has dealt mercifully with us.

iv. If indeed you are a Christian, you have already experienced mercy, grace and truth in Christ Jesus. So, you can look backwards in prayer, rehearsing your salvation in Christ,

v. OR you can look forward to the time in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

1. Where every sin is banished, every tear from our eyes are wiped and we have New resurrected bodies in a world…where the curse of sin is fully exterminated. And how long? Becomes answered with eternal blessedness in the presence of the Lord.

2. …with the people of the Lord, and never that experience of isolated prolonged suffering ever again. [Pause]

b. But here and now we are not yet glorified.

i. Be warned:The world will attempt to solve our present suffering not with the perspective of Future Hope of Glory and not with the promises of our present Salvation, not with the relationship we have the Lord and his people, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit crying out in our hearts in prayer.

ii. The world would cast aside: The comfort of belonging to a local body of Christ to the strength of exchanging the right hand of fellowship, fellowship that with hospitality ought to follow us into our homes and lives and moment by moment put people next to us in our struggles. Because that is what the spirit produces in his people.

iii. No the world knows nothing of these things,

iv. Instead, the world falsely promises a cure with either one of two anti-Christian dualisms. Materialism or Spiritualism.

v. On the one hand there is deistic, or pantheistic, or therapeutic-spiritualism: Think: Oprah or the next super-psychologist’s book. Here the Christian is told if you just meditate and pray better, if you just had a better thought life, practiced mindfulness, and really addressed your personal truth and spirituality, then You will never suffer the way you do now. Stick to the spiritual plan because suffering is spiritual, and physical misery is an illusion of the mind.

1. There are secular versions, Gnosticism, Healing Ministries, and then there are well meaning much more orthodox friends. be a better Christian, and you will no longer, have to pray this Psalm, Christians don’t pray Psalm 6, don’t get depressed, and Do steps 1-15 and will be back to your best you. Insert whichever theology-book-pastor-or Church movement, cult-of-personality, achieves that in your mind.

vi. And as we often do, if you’ve been burned by a hyper-spiritual solution to suffering, then you may embrace a purely physical psychiatric solution.

vii. If you Just: Eat Keto, did Crossfit, did more cardio, less cardio and more weights, Bought this Pillow, Did a Gene-based diet. Took the right Medicines then you will be cured! Perhaps if David changed his diet. For this approach there is a scoffing and disdain if you ever dare imply that my unaddressed sin, my soul might be sick, that my heart might love idols that are physically impacting me. Or that the ways people have sinned against me has left heart-wounds

viii. David reveals that complexity of fallen humanity here.

ix. Brothers and sisters tread very carefully here.

1. When we suffer it may be the sorrow of a broken world and finite bodies. Suffering can be very Physical.

2. When we suffer it may be our hearts and souls finite and suffering. It may be for our sin it may be from a soldier suffering the affects combat, or disease in our body or mind

c. David says his languishing is Bodily, his “Bones are trembling,” and spiritual: his “soul is troubled.”

i. David wonders rightly, is it my Sin? Or is it just a sinful a fallen world?

ii. There is a book that unpacks more of this titled simply: Christians Get Depressed Too by David Murray. In it he affirms that

iii. We are all sinners, we live in a fallen world, and we suffer both physically and spiritually even as believers. And that these two aspects of us interact.

1. Chronic back-pain can aggravate the sin in our hearts or by God’s grace may be a testimony of Long-suffering and gentleness under pressure. Addressing back-pain, brain chemistry, whatever “physical brace of mind or body” may be what allows you to then have the strength to engage God in his word and prayer and gather with his people.

2. Yet also, A Heart that is angry with the Lord and raging against his will and world can bring about great harm to the body and the mind.

3. Forever Banish a separation a dualism of the spiritual and physical from your sensibilities. The inner and outer man are in constant interaction

4. and our OUR counseling of brothers and sisters should ask questions that allow for love and care of both body and soul.

5. Ask questions, ask open-ended spiraling, meandering questions, state back “I’m hearing you “say,” don’t latch onto the first quick solution. Allow for many contributions and aspects to what feels like a single prayoblem.

6. Brothers and sisters Your physical presence matters. Presence. Love. Long-suffering. Persistence and constancy of both bodily-presence and prayer are called for when body and soul are being cared for. – The Christian Agape-Meal, Or potluck meals matter, they exist for a reason. (I know Pot-providence)

iv. jump down to Verses 6-7 with the eye to body and soul both at play: 6 I am weary with my moaning; // Every night I flood my bed with tears; // I drench my couch with my weeping. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.

1. David lays it all out there. His heart and body are sick and on top of it all his enemies are compounding his grief. Or perhaps they are like Jobs friends-who-might as well be enemies.

d. In the midst of verses 1-3, and 5-6 this psalm does what many tend to do the Middle of The Psalm offers the request, the lesson. So David rehearses the problem his dark night of the soul, and his isolation, his weeping, and torment, and in the middle he offers us some surprising and a helpful reasons and even GOALS for the suffering saint in Christ.

i. David essentially says, God how long? Will you heal me heart and body? One answer is “The secret things belong to the Lord.” And for some of you that is enough. That has been my disposition since childhood.

ii. But David, is feistier than me, Challenges God

iii. And He Gives one surprising rationale for at least a Why God should heal him.

iv. This I believe, is a model reason for prayer for healing and deliverance for the believer and should find its way into our own prayers for sick brothers and sisters. DAVID Desires Purpose. To stay on duty and on mission as a believer. He desires Ongoing Earthly Service. The unbeliever, the atheist does not have these two things. The atheist has the cold darkness of the vacuum of space. David, however, is a good Covenant theologian, David grounds Hope and Purposeful Ongoing Earthly Service in God’s Steadfast Love.

III. v. 4-5. Appeal for Deliverance is actually a refocusing of our sergice to the Lord.

4 Re-turn, O LORD, deliver my life;

save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;

in Sheol who will give you praise?

a. Come back O God! And I have some reasons. Come back O God.

b. Why? , On the Basis of your Covenant Love. And the basis of your promised salvation. Return to your son or daughter ultimately on the basis of him or her being in Christ, , being in Christ who drank the cup of wrath, bringing salvation far as the Curse is found.

c. Salvation and deliverance ultimately involves deliverance from the guilt of sin. Deliverance from the ultimate problem of our sinful, dead hearts. Deliverance from dead hearts to a living, reborn, regenerated heart.

d. And thus an assurance gained by the Spirit placed in our hearts crying Abba, Father. There is salvation from the guilt of sin. And then there is a remembrance of the unceasing Love of our Heavenly Father. Ultimately, this is given by the Spirit of Christ crying Abba, Father in our Hearts.

e. Praise God he will never cast me away, no sin can separate me, this if it is a chastisement from God for my sin is the Chastisement of my Heavenly Father and all things work together for my God. He sees Christ risen and reigning in heaven and Christ’s righteousness not my sin. –

f. This is why Christ can say, to Martha in John 11, “Though you die, yet you will live.” Our salvation means we hope in the resurrection.

i. But has David denied that resurrection in saying there is no remembrance of you in Sheol?

ii. That’s what many commentators say, David has a small view of the aftrerlife. And perhaps no doctrine of the Resurrection.

iii. But David wrote Psalm 16, For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

iv. or let your holy one see corruption. 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

v. David knows that there is Praise of God forever in his presence. But what he will miss out on if he dies is the ongoing ministry of the praise of God, here and now with God’s people, the remembrance of him in Worship here and now.

IV. Look again at VERSE 5) For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?

a. Remembrance is a covenantal term, God remembers Israel his covenant people in Exodus, Remembrance of God is what we do in worship, in ordinances you need to just hear the words of Institution of the Lord’s supper: This do in Remembrance of Me.

b. David’s Dilemma is Paul’s Dilemma expressed in Phillipians 1: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again..

c. All Christians should live with the fact that for the believer there is no RETIREMENT. We live for the love and edification of the body of Christ. We live for the worship of God in remembrance.

i. When you are hard-pressed, Ask, the Lord give me grace and mercy so that I might serve you, my church, my neighbor, family and friends here and now.

ii. BUT physical and spiritual darkness tells us that we are Useless. Depression chokes out our feeling of USEFULNESS. – But come to the table, feed on the word, sing praises no matter how mournful, melancholy, and tinged with ambivalence and we are all strengthened. If you cannot gather for worship. Pray.

iii. And when you cannot gather? PRAY. Pray for Christ’s church, her ministers, her children, her officers, and the world that needs Christ. Pray for marriages, for work, and comfort in suffering. There is much kingdom work done by the saints.

V. Verses 8-10: The Lord Hears and David is re-affirms to Service

Look in verses 8-10: The Lord hears all our prayers, Sometimes God’s answer to prayer for healing, is that he calls his dear saints home. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. He does not do this lightly. But as Paul says to be with Christ is far better.

a. But on this occasion God intervenes. He is not done with David on this side of Heaven.

i. But what of you? If you are in Christ, your enemies cannot continue to heap rebuke and ridicule for your weaknesses and sins. You are forgiven, you are accepted and valued in Christ.

ii. Prolonged illness tends to make us struggle to believe this. But the psalmist is confident. The Lord hears. The Lord accepts our prayers.

VI. We have the blessing of experiencing this prayer. It can be our prayer.

a. Psalm 6 gives us a resource in our weeping, our sickness, and our tender care towards brothers and sisters. Christ has cared for us as a most excellent physician, savior of sinners, And he equips us with the same prayer.

Prayer

Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Recap: Last week we saw the humanity of Christ under the pressure of growing crowds and demands on him. Jesus called the 12 apostles who were with Christ as a blessing to Jesus and to us today. Christ the cornerstone, they, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are the foundations of the church. Giving us the complete bible by which we can know and love Jesus.

Today we are going to see Jesus’ confrontation with his family, his call to submit our will, our loves to God above all others, and a severe warning to the pharisees hard hearted reaction to him, these three paragraphs are what is often called a “Markan Sandwich” meaning Jesus’ dealing with his family (a case of unbelief, of struggling to believe in Jesus) frames either side of the hard-hearted, blasphemous rejection of not just Christ but the entire work of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of the messiah.

Read Mark 3:20–35

[20] Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. [21] And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

[22] And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” [23] And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? [24] If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. [25] And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. [26] And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. [27] But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

[28] “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, [29] but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—[30] for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

[31] And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. [32] And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” [33] And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” [34] And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! [35] For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

#1 Faithful Pains: vv. 20-21 & 31-35

#2 Painful Blasphemies: vv. 22-30

#1 Faithful Pains: The Renewed, the Righteous mind lives Life Zealously Devoted to God above all other callings

20] Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. [21] And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” (ESV)

J.C. Ryle says, Zeal is often opposed, in the book of Acts Festus calls Paul (mad)

Was Jesus out of his mind?

Certainly not, He has fulfilled the role of prophet in his history-shifting preaching about the need for repentance and faith. He has shown he is fulfilling the priesthood and sacrificial system, by forgiving sins, he is the priest-physician of sinners, he is the Lord of a Creation ordinance—claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath, and He now has massive crowds, all with the singular opposition of the religious leaders, the scribes and pharisees.

We don’t know what precisely shook the confidence of Jesus’ family that he is on the right path; Even if they might be holding out that he is a human messiah who has gone off track, they do not believe in him as the Son of God who forgives sins.

So they seek to seize him and bring him back by force. But Jesus will not be derailed from the mission he has received from his heavenly Father, the mission he has promised to accomplish, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform. Preach. Heal. Cast down Satan. Die. Defeat Death and Sin and rise as the Lamb slain ascended to the fathers right hand.

Jesus’ mind was zealous for his ministry. We do not have the same identity as Jesus, or the same mission, but we ought to have the same zeal for our individual callings and, as Jesus says later, do the will of God.

Do you have the mind of Christ?

This is important, Christ calls us to prioritize the renewed mind that follows the Will of God. Zeal and being in your right mind may get confusing to people who don’t prioritize a life devoted to God.

ILL: Derek Thomas (religious excitement and the kindly wicked priest)

For the believer, when you have zeal, and zeal is joined with being grounded in the scriptures, and in community with mature believers, then you will grow in discernment, wisdom, and resiliant convictions.

1 Corinthians 2:14–16 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (ESV)

Our passage raises the question, What if we are tempted to love father or mother, sons or daughters more than Christ?

The Gospel transformation study bible answers this well: “Jesus never calls his followers to sever ties with their natural families (as do some cults and sectarian movements). He does, however, exhort each follower to place the call of Christ above all ties to the natural family. The hyperbolic language of Matthew 10:35 and Luke 14:26 should not be interpreted as a call to family antipathy”

Pause here, Jesus speaks even more hyperbolically to compare loyalty to God vs. family: Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

“but as a clear reminder of the priority of Christ’s claim upon his disciples—his purposes must outweigh all other loyalties. This requires a sober assessment of loyalties toward one’s natural family. While honoring parents is very important, Jesus does question absolute subservience to the natural family (see Mark 7:10–13 with 10:29–31). [ E.g. Muslim converts and more collective societies…]

Focus on the will of God (3:35), as ascertained by means of prayer, humility, and in consultation with other believers, is central to defining one’s relationship with his or her natural family. Having been delivered by Christ in a work of sheer grace, our fundamental loyalty is to him.”

– Gospel Transformation Study Bible

See this in vv. 33-35 again, And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” [34] And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! [35] For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (ESV)

Absolute Allegiance is to Christ First, this allegiance to Christ comes from his being our creator and law giver, but also because by his grace he has loved us when we were enemies, in our unloveliness.

But disordered love, Love for Family above God, disordered romance, disordered desires, coveting fame, coveting fortune, money or career above Christ that ignores the words and voice of Christ, his objective will as revealed in scripture, is idolatry and diminishes the capacity to ultimately love family.

Loving Christ will increase your capacity to love family with a bold love (not love faking or love breaking). Love for Christ allows for the truest definition of love, doing the will of God, love God and love neighbor. True love is this.

“Love seeks the other persons highest good, ultimately” 2x

Love Seeks the other: it calls us to pursue being interested in others lives.

Seek the Highest Good vs. cultural good

Seek goodness, mercy, beauty, and TRUTH. Not cultural fads or compromise.

Seeking the highest good has an objective moral component, wisdom component, you can find this objectivity in the 10 commandments, the fruit of the spirit, the book of proverbs, and the instructions for believers in the second half of paul’s epistles.

Seek it Ultimately not near term.

We know a dentist visit is near term unpleasant but is for the long term health of the child.

We know withholding money now and putting it in a savings account is good for a child.

A near term pain of calling sin “sin” or expressing a correction now can steer the ship of someone’s life back into save water.

Have you, like Jesus, crossed “the pain threshold?” where integrity could cause relational and cultural friction with the world and your fallen desires.

In the context of this June, as pride month, you must be willing to side with “the will of God” “with the renewed mind of Christ” and cross the pain threshold with the world and our fallen natures.

We saw last week that Jesus determines his Apostles, by implication the N.T. by implication the OT

2 Timothy 3:16 says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (ESV)

Therefore, Jesus determines our priorities and what knowledge directs our zeal. He is not out of his mind, he has a righteous mind, is calling us to renewed minds, that will flow to renewed wills, affections, and lives. And his Holy Spirit by the WORD is effectively shaping this renewal.

Satan is our enemy, and he knows, and Jesus knows that family (or the promise of a family-like belonging, inclusion) can call us to compromise on truth and goodness.

(by family like I mean the peer pressure & internet or media pressure with the promiste of acceptance e.g. Reddit acceptance, sub-culture acceptance, family like belonging and inclusion on the SURFACE…But Satan always hides the Hook!

Deuteronomy warns if a family members goes and worships idols, not to join them in it.

In our post-modern age we know that the ONE of the biggest pressures of compromise is often in the area of Christian sexual ethics, and the pressure is often when a family member has pursued a morally distorted relationship of some kind.

And then holds the relationship hostage to the affirmation of the sinful lifestyle…or else be cut off. (or peers or internet sub-culture).

This is an unfair blackmailing of unconditional love being by slight of hand replaced/confused with unconditional approval.

Faithful relatives love each other by telling the truth, praying for, and in love, including wayward family in wise and appropriate ways. This takes wisdom.

Remember seek the other persons highest good…ultimately.

Our passage today stresses family. But this principle holds true for friendships.

Are you still seeking their good? Are you finding ways to show love?

Affirming sin, sins against nature that will harm both soul and body is not seeking the other’s good. And short-term compromises may ruin the long term witness of love.

I would encourage you to read Rosaria Butterfield’s story, her testimony is found in numerous places on Youtube. Beckett Cook’s “a change of affections” is another wonderful account of God’s Grace. Chloe Cole, is a faithful story of regaining a grounding in her calling as a woman.

Christopher Yuan’s mother and him toured the country explaining her faithful love to him from, a truly broken lifestyle in Atlanta Georgia, to prison and drugs, all the way to his conversion and faithful witness. (their testimony is on youtube

His story in particular is one of Family faithfully loving him, praying for him, but yet never always thinking that faithfulness to Christ and the Will of God was the solution not the hindrance to healing their relationship.

The Call to follow Jesus is Real. When you follow Jesus you are following your creator and your savior. You are beginning life as a forgiven sinner, and a beloved son or daughter, and all the benefits and assurance of adoption, of being filled by the Holy Spirit. And you can know and do the will of God, objectively found in the scriptures.

Jesus knows the feeling of struggle to be faithful as a finite human

1. Take your struggles to Jesus in prayer

2. Ask for friends & Mothers & sisters to walk alongside you

3. Be resolved to cross-the pain threshold to be called crazy by the world, I hope not by your family, but it did happen to Jesus.

a. The Good news is his family did eventually believe and follow him, and his brother James even wrote a book of the bible.

4. Enjoy the blessing of church family being brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.

a. And remember your very much still true calling to in the 5th commandment: Honor your father and mother, to love and care for kin.

Jesus has crossed the Pain threshold, following the will of his Heavenly Father

Now he has to answer a Character Assassination and Accusation that he is not just out of his mind but Wicked, Unclean, Demonic, Working for the kingdom of Darkness and Satan THAT is how he does healing is by Satan, that is how he casts out demons by Satan.

#2 Blaspheming the Holy Spirit vv. 22-28

Or Painful Blasphemies

[22] And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

First, the Pharisees identified the work of the Spirit to heal, to cast out demons, and to grant power to Jesus’ preaching as demonic.

They are challenging Jesus yes, but it is also a challenge to the claim that Jesus is Fulfilling scripture, specifically ones like Isaiah 61, Jesus has preached Isaiah 61 in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, [19] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus continued: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [22] And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.

Jesus’ claim was grounded in the Old Testament anticipation of his work as the Messiah. The Pharisees say” this is of Satan.” They are opposing Jesus and the Prophets, saying he has an unclean spirit.

Rather than recognizing that these good deeds of Jesus are from God they claim they are of the devil. Because to accept these exact kinds of signs would be to accept Jesus as God’s anointed Messiah. Per. Is. 61.

Jesus soundly dismantles this Objection He is casting out and opposing demons. He is healing the sick and oppressed and these things are clearly opposite of Satan’s goals.

He is forgiving sins and calling people to repent of sins, to turn away from uncleanness to holiness. – If he was TEAM Satan, then Jesus is waging a civil war against Satan.

[Video games friendly fire…oops the first time but the 3rd time, the little option to kick the team mate pops up….Jesus is saying, If I was on satan’s side then he is down a few teammates and he is losing this game in no time.

Look in verse 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Douglas O’Donnell says that, Jesus’ point is he has shown by his power that he has entered satan’s house, “bound the strong man” and plundered him of his captives. He has freed people from his dominion. ( Par. O’Donnall, 100).

So first, Pharisees, your position is absurd, Second, hear this warning!

You are calling the Work of the Holy Spirit demonic. This is dangerously high-handed blasphemy

Look in 28-30 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, [29] but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—[30] for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

“all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.”

Let’s pause there a minute. Jesus is the savior of sinners; he took our humanity so that for men and women, young and old, with sins lighter and heavier, limited or heinous, shameful, harmful, and hateful, “all sins will be forgiven.” If you have hated and harmed your neighbor, God, and even yourself. Jesus says your sins can be forgiven.

If you have never turned to Christ for forgiveness and healing, go to Christ, experience his love, he died for the broken and messy, the ruined and wretched. And he will restore, cleanse, and separate those sins from us as far as the east is from the west.

This is why we have a confession of sin and assurance of pardon each week. We need to remember daily, weekly that we are sinners, and that we ARE Forgiven! You if you have rested, trusted, and cried out to Jesus in prayer are forgiven. It is true. [pause]

But in this context Jesus is talking to scribes and pharisees who walked all the way from Jerusalem to look at the messiah in the flesh, the God-Man working to heal, to cast out demons and say, what you are doing, Jesus, is demonic and evil.

And Jesus in the context of his family struggling to believe in his ministry and knowing that many are wrestling with whether he is the messiah, says, You can insult me all day long. But do not insult the work of the Holy Spirit? You do not call the work of the Spirit unclean.

[ILL] This like siblings saying, You can call me names, you can pick on me, but don’t say anything about my brother, my sister, my mother… Or Military branches we can pick on each other, but don’t you dare as non-military attack any branch of the military in front of us….

Jesus recognizes there is a difference between a slowness to accept that he is the true messiah vs. a hard-hearted looking at the work of the Holy Spirit to heal and restore people, to undue darkness with light and holiness, and to call that satanic.

And so Jesus says, in a verbal warning to the Pharisees, be careful, if you are hard-heartedly opposed to the very work of the Holy Spirit there is not forgiveness for you. DO not attribute to Satan the work of the Spirit.

Now with this,

Douglas O’Donnall asks two helpful questions of this passage:

1. Can we still commit this sin? And (2) if so, have we committed this sin?

Let’s answer that first one, can we still commit this sin and answer that precisely.

There is certainly a uniqueness to being face to face with Jesus as the Pharisees were and their hard-hearted rejection and accusation, this seems to bear out for most of them in the crucifixion of Jesus and lack of repentance ever noted in the book of Acts!

Whereas numerous people were slow to recognize Jesus as the messiah but later respond in faith. That seems to be the very point of our passage. Jesus’ family says, this is crazy, they struggled to believe, or Mary struggled at least to know this is How this ministry ought to be going.

Therefore, Keep wrestling with following Jesus if you’re slow to believe. But do not delay saying I will do that tomorrow, no one is guaranteed tomorrow, take your sins to Jesus today and entrust your life, your love, and your loyalty.

Be encouraged even Jesus’ siblings struggled. But be pressed to believe even Jesus’ siblings believed! In Acts 1:14 gathered at Pentecost with the apostles “Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” And Jesus’ brothers James even pens a letter of the bible, he speaks at the Jerusalem council.

So, struggling to believe in Jesus is not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, it is wrong and dangerous.

Yet even after the life of Jesus the Apostle John In 1 John 5 still talks about “the sin that leads to death.” That some sins simply need repentance and prayer, but that some lead to death and should not even be prayed for.

J.C. Ryle Says it well, “the doctrine here laid down is to be found in other places of Scripture beside this. I allude of course to the well-known passages, Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26 and 1 John 5:17. In all these places there seems a reference to a sin which is not forgiven. What then is the unpardonable sin? It must be frankly confessed that its precise nature is nowhere defined in Holy Scripture. The most probable view is, that it is a combination of clear intellectual knowledge of the gospel, with deliberate rejection of it, and willful choice of sin. It is a union of light in the head, and hatred in the heart. … The limits which knowledge combined with unbelief must pass, in order to become the unpardonable sin, are graciously withheld from us. It is mercifully ordered of God, that man can never decide positively of any brother, that he has committed a sin which cannot be forgiven. [pause here, it is interesting to note the pharisees were literally watching the healings and casting out of the demons in the unique period of history…and their hearts were so hard that they assigned this work, a withered hand restored, the sick healed to SATAN. And so while there seems to still be a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, listen to this second half by Ryle answering… Have I committed the unforgivable sin?]

But although it is difficult to define what the unpardonable sin is, it is far less difficult to point out what it is not. … those who are troubled with fears that they have sinned the unpardonable sin are the very people who have not sinned it. The very fact that they are afraid and anxious about it is the strongest possible evidence in their favour. A troubled conscience-an anxiety about salvation, and a dread of being cast away— concern about the next world, and a desire to escape from the wrath of God—will probably never be found in the heart of that person who has sinned the sin for which there is no forgiveness. It is far more probable that the general marks of such a person will be utter hardness of conscience—a seared heart—an absence of any feeling, a thorough insensibility to spiritual concern.

The subject may safely be left here. There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven. But those who are troubled about it, are most unlikely to have committed it.” (Ryle, 46).

And in all this do not miss this comfort of Christ, save this one mysterious exception, all sins will be forgiven mankind who hide themselves in Christ, whom to Jesus for refuge have fled…And we can be certain those in this sin will not seek to entrust themselves to Christ.

The ESV study bible notes “even heinous sins are forgivable. Christ pardoned Peter for denying Him (John 18:15–27; 21:15–19) David repented and was forgiven for murder and adultery (2 Sam. 11:1–12:15a) Paul was made an apostle even though He once persecuted Jesus (Acts 9:1–19)

Matthew Henry comments, “Those who fear they have committed this sin, give a good sign that they have not.”

What can you know for certain today.

Christ has broken the power of satan. If the idea of the power of sin being broken in your life is beautiful, is hopeful to you, then know ALL YOUR SINS MAY BE FORGIVEN if you cast them on Christ. He is a good savior.

The second thing you may know is if you are ungrieved, in bondage to, and unwilling to break with sin it will be the death of your soul. You must cry out in order to be forgiven, or else your heart will harden in sin, and an unrepentant heart is an unforgiven heart.

Which way, the way of life or the way of death? The will of God or your own will? Choose this day the LORD and LIFE go to him in prayer.

Prayer

Benediction.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Sermon on Mark 3:7–19

We are back in the Gospel of Mark after spending our fifth Sunday in the Confession in Revelation chapter 9, thinking about the Church of Christ. This week we will be in Mark chapter 3 in verses 7 through 19.

As you’re turning there, remember there’s been these increasingly severe conflicts between Christ and the scribes and Pharisees. The Gospel of Mark has been building this action-packed, cumulative case for who Jesus is and what He is accomplishing, what He is bringing with the kingdom of God as Lord and Savior, as Messiah.

Jesus has been focusing on preaching repentance and faith. That as a gracious and merciful Savior, He forgives sins. He reconciles and restores sinners to table fellowship. And that is as the bridegroom. We’re starting to get titles for Christ. He is the bridegroom.

Finally we saw the scribes and the Pharisees said we’re going to go to our political enemies Herodians and we’re going to plot together how to kill Jesus. But in the face of all this, his fame is spreading as he preaches, heals, and casts out demons. And that is where we join Jesus again in Mark 3.

Scripture Reading

I’m going to read verses 7 through 21 because those final two verses bridge the two passages. So we’ll read those over the next two weeks.

Mark 3, beginning in verse 7. This is God’s holy, inerrant and inspired word for us this morning.

“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from beyond Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him. For he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’ And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired. And they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.”

Prayer

Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, take your word and make it living and active to pierce to the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, that we might be changed by it, that we might know and love Christ. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Two Main Points: Pressure and Plan

Two points for us this morning: if you want the words, pressure and plan. First, ministry pressure in verses 7 through 12 and second, a plan—authority delegation planning—as we have the 12 apostles gathered in verses 13 through 19.

Ministry Pressure (Mark 3:7–12)

So why is Jesus withdrawing? The previous verse was this conflict with the scribes and Pharisees where we’re told they’re ready to kill him. He will go back to Jerusalem eventually, but for a time he is going to be returning to preach in Galilee and Judea among the common people. He’s not in the urban power center, but neither is he just in the wilderness away from everybody. He is in a very average cluster of medium-sized towns with the common everyday Galileans and Judeans who have access to him by the sea. But yet they’re also coming to him from Jerusalem and from cities up to 60 miles away. So from all directions, north, south, east, and west, he is now officially nationally and internationally famous.

He has great crowds following him wherever he goes. They are pressing him. Verse 20 says he can’t even eat. He’s trying to preach. Yet, when he finishes speaking, he has demons yelling at him that he is the Son of God. They are, of course, right, but they’re falling down out of fear. They’re not worshiping him. They’re revealing too much too soon of his identity, and he tells them to be quiet.

Then comes the waves and waves of people suffering the effects of the fall. So in his compassion, he heals them. So he’s teaching with authority, power over the spiritual realm. Satan is clearly opposed and cast out, and that’s going to come in the following verses. They’re cast out by a holy, clean, powerful Savior who has compassion on sinners. They came, they followed because they were weary, miserable, and in need of a Savior.

You can picture the scene. If they surge forward simply because they are wounded and hurting and in desperate need and the desire to be healed, they press him back into the ocean. And this is hectic and exhausting.

How many celebrities have we seen just snap after the paparazzi have worked them up? There is a very real human nature to just the press of people, to the unendingness of the needs, to have it simply be exhausting and overwhelming.

And we need to admit that for Jesus, to be human, to take on a human nature, is to be vulnerable to exhaustion. There are simple realities to when you are stretched to exhaustion. What do you do when you are at the end of yourself? When you are exhausted, when you are overwhelmed with life.

We see it’s true of Jesus and it’s been true of many ministering the gospel throughout the years. There’s been seasons and people who have experienced this as well and they all need help. This is commonly felt by the followers of Jesus.

In the Great Awakening, you have John Wesley and George Whitefield just touring vast parts of the country. Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther—many people that we know from church history have this common reality of their life where they have escalating popularity, escalating opposition, escalating need for relief and withdrawal. But they also have a need for a team, for key institutions, for support.

All leaders need help, support people to alleviate the press of life by multiplying leaders. And this is true for everybody. This is not just for famous pastors through history. Everybody in life has this basic human need.

So with this passage, we see the true humanity of Christ, the compassion of Jesus, and that Christ has always blessed His church with the officers she needs.

The Plan: Appointing the Twelve Apostles (Mark 3:13–19)

We’ve seen four of these disciples several times, we’ve listed six names, but now the number jumps to finally the twelve disciples, the twelve apostles. And in this passage, Jesus’ apostles are fully delegated, and there’s an authoritative witness given to them, called, set apart, and sent.

Jesus, as we saw last week with talking about the church in Revelation, furnishes His church with officers, oracles, and ordinances—all that we need for teaching, worship, fellowship, the sacraments. Christ has left His church well supplied.

Let’s think about just this jump of the number to 12, that he needed these 12 men for a minute before we move fully to our second point. Jesus calls these 12 partly to solve the pressure of the crowds. Jesus knows what it’s like to be physically and literally overwhelmed, to have expectations and social pressures. Later, his family, as we read, are going to tell him he’s out of his mind, he can’t even eat because of the pressure.

With this, we can see you can take your fears and exhaustion to the Lord. There is an exhaustion to planning and thinking and being alert all the time. We can say, literally, in not being able to eat, Jesus’ glucose levels in his brain would have dropped, and it would have been fatiguing to him.

And over that time, we see this blessing. He gathers the twelve disciples to be with him always. We give Peter and a lot of them a bad rap sometimes. But think about, you have fiery Peter and the sons of thunder who alleviate, who press the crowds back. Even Judas, who would eventually betray him, might have started to say, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep track of the money, the supplies, the planning, the logistics.” They didn’t give him that job for no reason. It was the beloved apostle John who said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go talk to that man, that lady that you didn’t get to talk to an hour ago. I’ll track them down for you.”

So you must remember the divine, omniscient, omnipresent Son of God left heaven and took on our flesh. He suffered all the miseries of this life, even the ones that come from struggling to do a very good thing with a human nature that is truly human. So you can take that to God in prayer.

Let’s look at these 12 men now as apostles, as emissaries, ambassadors, sent ones in the name of Christ in order to speak on behalf of Christ. Verses 13 through 19. So he goes up the mountain, he appoints the 12 that they might be with him, that he might send them out to preach, that he might give them authority to cast out demons.

First, let’s think about the twelve. He goes up on a mountain with twelve disciples. And that might ring a bell. Where else do we have a mountain in 12 of something? Mount Sinai with the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus is assembling the new covenant renewed people of God back from exile as the kingdom of heaven comes.

We’ve been working through Revelation on Wednesday nights and we saw the 24 elders, the 12 and the 12, the old and the new covenant people of God completely present with the Lord in heaven, God’s people from all times and ages.

So Jesus withdraws, has this officer retreat. He calls the 12 men who are going to represent the new covenant people of God. They’re very different kinds of people. You have a zealot, a tax collector, fishermen, brothers who were boisterous men of some kind. You don’t get the name Sons of Thunder without that describing something about them. And there is even a traitor, a Benedict Arnold who’s better yet a Judas, and you have a Doubting Thomas.

The apostles are so central to our thinking we name things after them. What are they called to? Jesus does not do his three-year ministry alone. He requires companionship, brotherhood. The human nature of Christ is once again plain here. He needs human fellowship. There is no lone wolf, no lone ranger Christianity.

They were called to be with Christ. And today we can say you are with Christ in a sense. You read the apostles’ witness to his life. Recall the words of 1 Peter, “Though you do not now see him, you know him and you love him.” They received that from the apostolic witness.

In the Ensley home we’re nearing the end of Catherine Vos’ storybook Bible and we’ve been covering the crucifixion of Christ, the trial of Christ. And throughout this time, as we come to every injustice and unfair thing done to Christ, every time the Pharisees deny who Jesus is, Elijah says, “That’s not right. They can’t do that. That’s unfair. Don’t they know who he is? Don’t they know how good he is?” And where does knowing and a desire to defend Christ come from? Having encountered him through the Gospels.

The disciples were with Jesus. They know Jesus. And we too know and love Jesus by the word of their testimony. And all the scripture, but especially the fourfold witness of the gospel. Has the Holy Spirit so indwelt your heart and mind that through the witness of the gospel and the word, you truly know and love Christ as your Savior, your Redeemer, and your friend, even as he was a friend of these 12 men?

So by being with Jesus, they get to know Jesus. Their word allows us to know him, but Jesus also impacts them. He transforms his disciples. He grows them. He’s changing them over three years.

Acts chapter 4 has a particularly poignant reference to this. Acts chapter 4 verse 8 says, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed? Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

So they’re witnesses to the gospel and identity of Jesus. But how do people respond? “They recognized that they had been with Jesus.” It’s obvious how these mere fishermen were now richly understanding the Bible, the writings of Scripture. And we see this in the Gospels and Peter’s sermons, his letters and John’s letters are astounding as they pull together the unity of the Word. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, had changed them. It wasn’t simply knowledge. They were now from the heart worshipers of God. They were merciful men. They were men of deep community and fellowship.

While you have not been with Jesus physically, you too can in your lives, by the Word and by the Spirit, by the fellowship of the saints or the body of Christ here on earth, have the same transformed hearts, training in the Scriptures and wisdom and an assurance of salvation. You can have the same desire for men and women to be saved, to know the Lord.

They’re also sent forth. He appointed them by a battlefield commission to be apostles. And he commissions them with particular gifts and miracles that are signs to give authority to their preaching ministry.

The apostles are unique. There’s uniquely Jesus’ messianic gifts as prophets, priests, and kings. It’s divine authority that he gives to the apostles which is also a divine authority as they write scriptures. As he gives them the sign gifts. But then with the completion of the scriptures, the uniqueness of the apostles, there’s also the ordinary ministry that depends on the word of the special offices of the pastors, elders, and deacons in the church, and the general office of the saints.

This can be helpful because I think sometimes believers carry around a lot of false baggage, basically thinking they need to be doing everything they ever saw Jesus or the apostles doing. Or even that everyone has the exact same vocation as church officers on the same level and intensities. So this is simply saying there are unique vocational callings. And it’s proper to ask, what does my calling look like for me—not as an apostle, not necessarily as a church officer, but as a faithful member of the church? And it’s quite freeing without shirking shared responsibility.

The apostles were sent out to preach from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. Early history suggests Thomas made it all the way out to India. They were given unique healing and miraculous gifts to be apostles. You can see that in Hebrews 2 or 2 Corinthians 12. Paul says they had unique authority as emissaries of Christ, eventually to write or supervise the writing of the New Testament. They had here specific authority over the spiritual realm to oppose Satan’s evil, to cast out demons as he is cast down at the first coming of Christ.

For us today we can say resist the devil and he will flee from you. He has been defanged because we are covered in the blood of Christ. Satan no longer has anything legally he can accuse you of. Our sins are covered by Christ. 1 John 3 says Christ has destroyed the works of Satan and his lies and power over us at the cross and we see that is also furthered as the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost on the church.

The apostles are given the authority to write Scripture. Jesus in John’s Gospel says, The Scriptures are trustworthy. Peter, in fact, says Paul’s writings can be difficult, as are the other Scriptures. The Bible recognizes the writings of the apostles are Scripture.

And lastly, the apostles were temporary. Ephesians 2:20 says the church is built on the foundations of Christ and the apostles, Christ being the cornerstone. We can see the nature of it being temporary because scripture says that there’s a unique qualification to being an apostle. You see this in Acts chapter 1. Matthias is chosen to replace Judas because he had accompanied Jesus beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us. So to be an apostle is to be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Praise God for the ministry of the apostles, for they were the foundation of the church. Revelation chapter 21 verse 14 says, “And the wall of the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church, had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

Conclusion

So this morning, praise God for the apostles. Praise God for their example of a growing, sometimes faltering faith. Mark shows us here a pressured Savior who took action to plan for the future that brings us the apostles, who down through church history to today we are thankful for.

So when you feel the pressures of life, know Jesus, love Jesus, and ask Him for help. He knows your weaknesses.

Closing Prayer

Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the words of Mark, that we might know Christ and love Christ. We thank you for the work of the apostles and your finished, fully sufficient scriptures. Amen.

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HANDOUTS APPENDIX AT BOTTOM OF NOTES:

This morning is a 5th Sunday and according to our practice we will cover a chapter of the Westminster confession of faith, we usually preach passage-by-passage through books of the bible. This guards you from my hobby horses, this promotes the whole counsel of God, but it is good since the bible is so expansive to have occasional sermons that seek to go in depth on a single topic referencing many passages of scripture. So buckle up…

Read: Revelation 7:9–10 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

What is the Church? Is it the building? Merely an institution? Is it just the people? Is it optional? Does it have authority? How does it have unity? Do we just make up what churches should do? Where can we know the word will be preached, we will find fellowship, and God will grow us closer to Jesus and his people. Where he will free us from some of the sorrows and dysfunctions of this fallen world.

Introduction: The Bible is the story of the wonderful works of God, it reveals God and his glory in his creation and providence, and it reveals mankind as we were meant to be in relationship and communion with him, even in that little church, Adam & Eve, the little gathering worshipping and communing with God.

The bible from Genesis to Revelation, shows the work of God to undo the separation that sin causes between God and man. And so the story of the bible is mainly about a redeemer, a savior, the grace of the Lord Jesus gathering a covenant people for himself, that is by the solemn promises God makes to us in the covenant of grace: that the Messiah the covenant Mediator would redeem by his sacrifice a people, who would once again HEAR the word of the LORD, be GATHERED by the word of the Lord and Rev. 22:19 share in the tree of life in the holy city, the garden to a city, gathered by the Savior the Lord of his people.

As a simple definition, Derek Thomas writes, “The church consists of those whom the Lord has called out of the world into union and fellowship with Christ and into communion with each other.”

I invite you to follow along in the WCF Chp 25 handout…And you can note that

Knowing what the Church IS was a pressing question in the 1500s & 1600s during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and so Church declarations of faith tended to teach on this topic extensively: the Belgic Confession, the Westminster Confession include sections like Chp 25, answering this great need. Arguing we love the church and are in continuity with the church down through the ages, even if it was sick and needed reform.

Today, the outline is simply walking through some of the Rev. 7 passage and then paragraph by paragraph through the confession. For an outline: What God Sees, What We See, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.

The passage we read, Revelation 7, highlights several truths about the Church, from God’s ultimate perspective, which is what the first Paragraph of WCF 25 also highlights.

1. The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

1. Little c catholic simply means Universal: God’s people from all times and places, either looking forward to Christ in the OT or back at the work of Christ from the NT.

The gift of the Church is that all people can be gathered into the Christian Church, without partiality to language or ethnicity.

By “invisible” the confession simply means that we cannot see the hearts of man, we cannot number who were the elect, within the visible and external church that we see.

One church from different perspectives. Which holding both these perspectives will give you divine Hope: we know that Christ is gathering his people through the church which (humbly, and with patience) we know is a mixed body of true believers, and of sometimes false professions, or sometimes just Christians who are still struggling with sin in a way that has ended up hurting us.

But though we cannot see it Jesus will gather his sheep, he will use the visible church, and the number unknown through the centuries will be gathered and not one sheep will be lost, and it will be a glorious body of people from the whole world and all centuries from Adam and Eve all the way to the mysterious future day when Christ returns.

Until then, the promise is that Christ himself will do this as a husband who loves his church. Turn to Ephesians 5, we’ll drop into other chapters in Ephesians soon.

Ephesians 5:25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

This is how Jesus views the church universal, what he is shaping his people into, what we will fully and finally be in the new heavens and new earth. We will be resplendent, pure, and entirely holy, glorified both as individuals and as the Church,

3. Our Passage in Revelation 7:9 says it is The Lamb, Jesus, He is the one who gathers. Him as the Lamb reminds us the cost to gather the church, his work on the Cross removes the sin that separates us from communion with God, he makes us a holy people, forgiven, and we are clothed in his righteous robes, we are filled by the Holy Spirit and gathered under the Kingship of Christ

He is the head we are the body Colossians 2:19 - and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

He is the King, we are his Kingdom, He is the head and Our life is in Christ. We are nourished by his Word and Spirit,

“While we cannot yet see this full assembly, the invisible church takes visible shape every Lord’s Day.”

Look in the WCF paragraph 2. The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.

Jesus, the lamb of God, Jesus is the head of this Church, he is the Husband of the Church. The Church, as a gathered people, is the Bride of Christ. He wins, loves, and defends his bride. And it takes a visible form, it is an institution, a body politic (in the best sense of the word)

Paragraph 2, switches from this universal, all times, all ages invisible perspective to the perspective of the visible church, so the visible gathering of people in a time and a place, all “those who profess the true religion; and of their children.”

· A credible profession of faith is referring to, professing with my mouth that I am a sinner and Christ is my only savior, and that I join myself to this church, and promise to study its purity and peace, to worship with these families and with these officers, pastor, elders, and deacons, and that we are a covenant family together with our children

o 1 Corinthians 1:2–3 Says, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

o What makes the Church in Corinth a church? The are made holy in Christ, as those who “call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

o Paul says “to the church of God that IS IN CORINTH. Simultaneously we believer their is one church universal, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and we speak of local congregations…hey you Corinth, you are a particular local church you worship, you call upon the name of Jesus in worship together as a single covenant family.

o Churches are individual yet, connectional. What Joins us is the Word, Worship, and Work of our location to make disciples HERE.

§ And he is writing the Corinthians remember. A True church, far, far from perfect. They are a perfect mess.

· The confession says the membership of the church is parents together with our children, this is a precious biblical truth, remember God says, I will be a God to you and to your children after you, God declares our covenant children, holy, clean, and members of the Church by right of the covenant of grace and our children for whom we pray will grow into maturity and make a profession of faith, and in maturity join us at the Lord’s table.[1]

Let’s focus on a few more images here in paragraph 2: The Church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God

Psalm 2:7–8 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

Christ is king, and he gathers us from the nations and makes us one new house, a new family, not bound necessarily by blood, but yes that is often true, but by being sons and daughters of God.

Actually turn here and see In Ephesians 2:13-22

Ephesians 2:13–22 [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

It’s a new family gathered by Jesus. Families need a rallying anchor, a head: Ephesians Ephesians 3:14–19 shows that the rallying cry of the church family is LOVE. Love for the gathered body of Christ. And love flowing from Jesus into and between every individual: … [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (ESV)

There is no concept for a believer in the whole of the bible that is not united to the people of God. TO love Jesus is to love the people of Jesus. Every word of the above passage is PLURAL. The Letter of Ephesians is nonsensical if you think you are going to be a lone wolf Christian. The lone Christian is like the coal that fell out of the fire, it may look bright and hot initially but it will fade and grow cold, lose its love of jesus and love for the bride, the family, the house of Jesus rapidly as it grows cold and alone.

“Loving Jesus always means loving His people—there is no lone-ranger Christianity in Scripture.”

This is the intention of the final phrase: “Out of which is no ordinary possibility of Salvation.”[2]

Once again that word ORDINARY. Ordinarily, none will find their salvation by walking their path outside of the church. It is an aberration, and it is lonely. I beg of you, find your life always joined to the church. ….This is not referring to Christians in Muslim countries, or isolated areas who have few fellow believers if any. These believers are saddened by the isolation it is involuntary.

Therefore, Make decisions of your Job, where you will love, whom you will marry, based on being joined to a church that loves Jesus, and imperfectly oh so imperfectly loves each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Look in Paragraph 3, The Church family has a head Jesus and he gives us a defined structure. 1 Timothy 3 explains about the qualifications for Elders and Deacons. We already saw this hinted at in Ephesians 2:20 that there is a foundation of apostles and prophets and Christ, but what is built on this a home that has officers.

Paragraph 3. Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles [for oracles think the whole bible written and then preached], and ordinances of God [ordinances being immediately: baptism and the Lord’s supper but also the ordered worship of God, the Lord’s day, fellowship, communion],

[These ordinary means of grace the officers and ordinances, the worship are for]: the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and doth, by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto.

When Jesus ascended into heaven he poured out his Spirit. In the foundational era as the new testament canon was being formed he gave the apostles and prophets. For perpetual ministry, he gave various gifts to his people: gifts of love, mercy, administration, teaching, and so forth…With this he gives his ordinary officers of Elders & Deacons, you can see this in 1 & 2 Timothy especially 1 Tim. 3 and Acts 6, 15, and 20, in 1 Peter.

This section both reminds us that Pastors are simply Teaching Elders, we are not priests like in Roman Catholicism. These are simply men gifted and put forward and called by the people. The New Testament has no knowledge of Bishops and Arch Bishops and Popes placed over whole regions of the Church. It speaks of gathered counsels, of regional deliberative bodies of men gathered; it is a representative government, more similar to a constitutional republic than to pure democracy or merely human Monarchy.

Christ is the Only King and Head of the Church, and his officers are representative governing under the constitution of the Word of God. And these officers will teach, baptize, administer the supper, encourage mercy and generosity, and care for the family of God.

Look in Paragraphs 4

4. This catholic church hath been sometimes more, sometimes less visible. And particular churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.

Paragraph 4 helps us in two ways. It reminds us to be patient with the imperfections of the church. It warns us against a narrow sectarian spirit. We do not profess to be the one true church. We warmly cooperate with brothers and sisters from different denominations, we are united together by one Lord, one Faith, and one baptism.

Jesus in fact tells people in his parables to be patient about this fact. He speaks of the wheat and the tares and the gardner is warned don’t accidently RIP UP the wheat the good crop by over aggressively weeding. Live it to the LORD to discern the weeds, simply till the field, care for the crop work on being a more healthy church that remains a hospital for sinners and will not be perfect until the end of the age.

The strength and health of the church ebbs and flows, doctrine waxes and wanes in health.

This is true of the church as a whole and every individual church. We can always ask, “so where are we healthy?”, “what are we doing well? What did we use to do well but no longer do, where would God revitalize and lead us as we are reformed according to the word and receive wisdom from the church down through the Ages.

The 7 letters of Jesus to the Churches in Revelation are a commending, challenging, and calling for the reform of the health of these churches in this way.

You’ll notice the confession highlights 2 Marks for us to consider.

The Word & The Sacraments. (Church Discipline is implied because we are admitted to the Lord’s supper by being in good standing with the body of the church.).

1. First the Word: the Gospel taught, the word preached, the word embraced…Not perfectly but truly central. Not rejected. Protestants traditionally have a central pulpit. We encourage open bibles. The Service is the word, read, preached, prayed, and sung, and the gospel is the center. The gospel is defended and not denied.

a. We must beware when the word is shunted to a smaller place, the sermon shrinks, the content more secular, psychological, and about anything but the word.

b. And worship is replaced with Priests, and temple on the one hand, or entertainment and the show on the other hand.

2. Second, Ordinances administered: Baptism, the Lord’s Supper,

a. The salvation army is not a church because they do not baptize or administer the Lord’s supper. They are a kindly Christian charity, and parachurch ministry, not to be confused with the church.

3. God repeatedly in his word calls for Worship to be performed according to the Word of God “we do in worship only what God commands as elements. And then we have freedom to search the scriptures guidance on the forms, and some things we consider circumstances, simply wisdom, what time, when to sit and stand, how many songs to sing? But all done in reverence, joy, and going to the word…And

what the confession recognizes is that through the centuries the church has often been pulled to the ceremonial replication of priests and temples away from the simplicity of the New Testament with Pastors instead of Priests…with images and idols, the calendar filled with feasts and prayers to the saints. These are grace matters

a. Rev. 21:22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

b. Let us worship in spirit and in truth not in types and shadows of the old covenant ceremonial law.

4. This brings us to third implied by the scripture citations given in this section, church discipline: Simply note those little scripture texts 1 Corinthians 5:6, 7, Revelation 2-3, show how important holiness and being willing to address sin is to the churches worship. What good is a sermon series through 1 Corinthians or Ephesians if we allowed everything Paul addresses as grieving to God to go on un addressed.

5. Matthew 18 guides church discipline, it ought to be done in love, in a. Spirit of Gentleness according to Paul in other places, it is in matthew 18 for the reclaiming of lost sheep, and for the protection of the purity and peace of the Church in Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians. And in the letters to the Church in revelation it is for the honor of Christ who is present with his churches and essential to their perseverance under worldy persecution.

Paragraph 5 gives this sober warning. And you most remember the context of a time with the sword of the Roman Catholic Church was still strong, the nations would use force. But we still must be spiritually aware even if the physical fear has diminished through the centuries

6. Some errors in worship we might consider an error but not fatal, the confession recognizes no church or worship service is perfect this side of heaven. But that sometimes the error becomes so grave that it becomes contrary to the gospel, against the word, harmful worship. And this was the state of the Church under Roman Catholicism, or some of the radical anabaptist sects (not to be confused with our English Baptist brothers).

The reformation never desired to be schismatic. It always wanted to place itself squarely in the stream of history in continuity with all that was good and biblical.

You’ll find they always want to say we are in continuity with the great heritage of the faith from Genesis, to the Apostles, to the Young Church in the early centuries and we are grieved NOT because the true church has been lost for a thousand years or such a thought like the Reformation and Protestants were the first believers since the year 350 A.D. But that over time many problems and sicknesses in church doctrine, worship, and structures had festered to the point that the Roman Catholic Church had looked at the gospel and said if anyone believe in the doctrines of grace justification by faith alone, grace alone, found in christ alone, believed according to scripture alone, and all for the glory of God alone then let him be anathema, accursed.

So with great sadness the institutional Roman Catholic Church cursed the gospel, the authority of the bible over tradition, and refused to let go of idolatrous worship.

Paragraph 5: some churches have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will.

This does not mean we have no hope for friends or individuals within the catholic church for their salvation. There has been progress in bible reading and in parts of the world I would say individuals who are believers yet the institution is still a false Church, and in time it is healthy and good for them to leave a false church, and join a healthy true church.

There are many healthy denominations of which we recognize many brothers and sisters of various names: Evangelical, Confessionally Protestant, and not sectarian about.

But we ought to have a person from a cult or a false church first make a profession of faith and join a true church before we would marry such a person.

Look in Paragraph 6, I won’t spend a bunch of time here but This denies that the Pope or any other man is the head of the Church, or can speak singularly for the Church. This is a central protest of Protestantism is against the papacy.

We are people of the Book! Creeds and Confessions are summaries of what the gathered church, the elders of the church, believe is a faithful explanation of what King Jesus has declared to his church to believe, to live, and to proclaim.

And Jesus has gathered his church through the centuries, he supports, he defends, he feeds us. Though imperfect now, a hospital for sinners, in the New Heavens and new earth He clothes us in splendor.

Read: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (ESV)

Prayer

Benediction

[1] “The reason for the inclusion of children in the church finds its roots in the Old Testament, and it is a truth which God himself expressed passionately in the face of denial: children of professing Christians are God’s before they are ours. In a dark chapter of Israel’s history people took their sons and daughters and offered them as burned offerings to pagan gods. This was an outrage by any account, but the Lord describes it as an intense personal offence: the children which they considered theirs were “born for me’; they were ‘my children’ (Ezek. 16:20, 21).

God takes ownership of covenant children. At the beginning of biblical revelation God promised to direct the future of Adam and Eve’s ‘seed’ or descendants (Gen. 3:15). It is for that reason that he placed his cov-enantal ownership sign on all those who were under the instruction and authority of godly householders, especially their children (Gen. 17:7). It is for that reason, as the church was initiated into a new age at Pentecost, that Peter not only stressed that the promise of the gospel was for all those who are far off (meaning, the Gentiles), but also for your chil-dren’ (meaning, our children!, Acts 2:39).” – Chad Van Dixhoorn, 340.

[2] People who claim to be believers and refuse to join the church in the face of clear biblical instruction and providential opportunity to do so, should deeply worry us. They are like people who say they are in love but refuse to get married. Usually they want the privileges of the relationship without the accompanying responsibilities. Their refusal to publicly commit to Christ’s church casts doubt on the genuineness of their devotion to him, as does a refusal to publicly commit to marriage. The pattern of the New Testament is clear: when people were joined to Christ they were joined to his church. People devoted themselves to the best teaching, to fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, helping those in need, and praising God (Acts 2:42-47). And this was not done in the context of random or disassociated groups of believers. Luke tells us that the Lord added to the church those who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47). May he continue to do so today. – Chad Van Dixhoorn, 341

WCF Chapter 25 Of the Church

1. The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. (Eph. 1:10, 22–23, Eph. 5:23,27,32, Col. 1:18)

2. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; (1 Cor. 1:2, 1 Cor. 12:12–13, Ps. 2:8, Rev. 7:9, Rom. 15:9–12) and of their children: (1 Cor. 7:14, Acts 2:39, Ezek. 16:20–21, Rom. 11:16, Gen. 3:15, Gen. 17:7) and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Matt. 13:47, Isa. 9:7) the house and family of God, (Eph. 2:19, Eph. 3:15) out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. (Acts 2:47)

3. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and doth, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto. (1 Cor. 12:28, Eph. 4:11–13, Matt. 28:19–20, Isa. 59:21)

4. This catholic Church hath been sometimes more, sometimes less visible. (Rom. 11:3–4, Rev. 12:6, 14) And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them. (Rev. 2–3, 1 Cor. 5:6–7)

5. The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; (1 Cor. 13:12, Rev. 2–3, Matt. 13:24–30, 47) and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. (Rev. 18:2, Rom. 11:18–22). Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will. (Matt. 16:18, Ps. 72:17, Ps. 102:28, Matt. 28:19–20)

6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. (Col. 1:18, Eph. 1:22) Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof. (Matt. 23:8–10, 2 Thess. 2:3–4, 8–9, Rev. 13:6)

Long Quotes

Ephesians has rich Ecclesiology (teaching about the church), especially Ephesians 4:4–16 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—[5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7] But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift….

“The reason for the inclusion of children in the church finds its roots in the Old Testament, and it is a truth which God himself expressed passionately in the face of denial: children of professing Christians are God’s before they are ours. In a dark chapter of Israel’s history people took their sons and daughters and offered them as burned offerings to pagan gods. This was an outrage by any account, but the Lord describes it as an intense personal offence: the children which they considered theirs were “born for me’; they were ‘my children’ (Ezek. 16:20, 21). God takes ownership of covenant children. At the beginning of biblical revelation God promised to direct the future of Adam and Eve’s ‘seed’ or descendants (Gen. 3:15). It is for that reason that he placed his cov-enantal ownership sign on all those who were under the instruction and authority of godly householders, especially their children (Gen. 17:7). It is for that reason, as the church was initiated into a new age at Pentecost, that Peter not only stressed that the promise of the gospel was for all those who are far off (meaning, the Gentiles), but also for your children’ (meaning, our children!, Acts 2:39).” – Chad Van Dixhoorn, 340.

A repentant thief on a cross, a Muslim convert to Christianity who has not yet discovered other believers, or a man stranded on the desert island with only a Bible, each has plausible reasons for not being a part of the church. But people who claim to be believers and refuse to join the church in the face of clear biblical instruction and providential opportunity to do so, should deeply worry us. They are like people who say they are in love but refuse to get married. Usually they want the privileges of the relationship without the accompanying responsibilities. Their refusal to publicly commit to Christ’s church casts doubt on the genuineness of their devotion to him, as does a refusal to publicly commit to marriage. The pattern of the New Testament is clear: when people were joined to Christ they were joined to his church. People devoted themselves to the best teaching, to fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, helping those in need, and praising God (Acts 2:42-47). And this was not done in the context of random or disassociated groups of believers. Luke tells us that the Lord added to the church those who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47). May he continue to do so today.” – Chad Van Dixhoorn, 341

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Introduction: French 10 day work week…abolished after 12 years. Russian 5 day week (but rotating assignments, meant to destroy the family.)

Chick-fil-A rarely opens on Sundays but did so four times during disasters: 2018 Hurricane Florence, 2015 Dallas tornadoes, 2017 Atlanta airport outage, and 2016 Orlando Pulse shooting to feed victims and first responders.

As human beings, we need rest, we need to worship our creator lest our hearts are pulled to other things.

We need the cumulative case of what Jesus is bringing with the Kingdom of God as Lord and Savior.

Needing The truth of the word preached, delivered by a gracious and merciful savior:

· Jesus forgives sins

· Jesus reconciles & restores sinners to table fellowship

· Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath and as Lord of the Sabbath, he will defend it as a good gift for Man, for our worship to the Lord, for rest, and for acts of Mercy against the pharisees unyielding ceremonial forms and suspicious pretense to entrap enemies with.

Read Mark 2:23-3:6

[23] One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. [24] And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” [25] 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: [26] 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?” [27] And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [28] So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (ESV)

[3:1] Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. [2] And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. [3] And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

“Do you have the time to listen to me whine about everything and nothing all at once.” (The Pharisees in this chapter).

1. First, A reminder the Law as a gift

2. Second, Two Heart Revealing Confrontations

3. What does Jesus highlight about the sabbath, his identity, and the Pharisees?

4. What is the gift of the Sabbath for us by the Lord of the Sabbath. And how does it apply to us today?

#1 The Law as a gift

The Law is a meadow with a fruitful tree in the midst, the fence not merely constraining what is bad and outside but framing what is good, true, and beautiful inside, how God designed us to live. and

All outside the fence is not according to human design. To use an overused phrase, not according to human flourishing. That the Law shows what is truly for our good, to know and behold God in his character, his glory, and splendor, and to know how to live as humans were created and designed to live.

And we were created to worship God, to need rest, to rely on God. To pause and to cease striving. This is a good gift.

TO see that the law is for our good and not a cattle stall helps us so that we are not tied in knots

In the lead-up to his death and resurrection, Jesus had numerous clashes with the Pharisees as they took the Law and applied to it additional hedges that are more about protecting the Law itself than the intention and reason for the Law. They neglected the weightier matters of the law: love, deeds of mercy, and worship, even for the sake of man-made traditions.

We have two such confrontations before us today.

#2 What two confrontations happen in our passage today? And what does it reveal about the Heart of the Pharisees?

1. First, the disciples were famished and, as they walked, were Plucking Grain – this account highlights again a failure to know who Christ is and a questionable prioritizing of the minutest application of the law over the well-being of famished men who were working to serve their God and King.

a. What have the Pharisees distorted?

b. Douglas O’Donnel points out that while Ex. 20 speaks of many prohibited activities on the sabbath in Israel, which likely the unlawfulness here is simply “casuistry,” “hedge laws,” and not clearly forbidden by the actual law of God.

i. Calvin has harsh words for the Pharisees. These two passages show: “what a malicious disposition the Pharisees had, and partly how superstitiously they were attached to outward and slight matters…” So much so that “one could scarcely move a finger without making the conscience to tremble.” (Calvin, Harmony of the Gospels, Vol. II, p.46).

c. So, by “lawful,” the Pharisees mean what they considered lawful according to the hedge…that famished men ought rather to die or be so enfeebled as not to make it through synagogue worship that morning….than to satisfy their hunger on the Sabbath.

i. The Pharisees so applied that law that plucking a grain was considered equivalent to the work of harvesting.

ii. No explanation and details are given as to exactly how hungry the disciples are, or why, or any other such things because to do so would defeat the very purpose of resisting the very mindset Jesus is critiquing here.

2. Second: A Man with a Withered Hand, (3:1-3:6)

[3:1] Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. [2] And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. [3] And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, on how to destroy him. (ESV)

a. the disciples have a handful of pistachios before the service. And are once again in the synagogue, Jesus is confronted with the hard, unloving hearts of the Pharisees. It’s all an entrapment scheme to them.

i. Jesus presses them on the law of love being the moral and ethical priority, and that everyone knows that the sabbath was meant for worship and rest, not an excuse to neglect mercy and good towards others.

ii. Jesus is not setting the sabbath aside or saying it is opposed to love, but is showing they are failing to apply it in the way it was meant to be, the way it was designed to be. That it by no means demanded your animal die in a ditch, much less a human being whose worship of God is hindered by the sufferings of the fall…How can we delight in rest and worship if the effects of the fall are crippling and afflicting this man right before their eyes?

iii. For us, Deut. 4:2 reminds us to neither add to nor take away from the word of God.

iv. O’Donnall reminds us. “As God’s people we must commit ourselves to believing nothing more or less than what the Scriptures say.”

b. Jesus will press them on the merciful and loving nature of the law fulfilled in Himself.

i. Jesus has a merciful heart that the pharisees did not appreciate, prioritize, or even have the capacity for.

ii. But Chick-fil-A, which we praise, yay closed on Sundays, didn’t think it a matter of pride to stay closed when a chance for mercy and to meet a necessity happened.

c. Both these accounts grieve Jesus’ heart. Do you ever grieve Jesus by using a ritual as a shield from the law of Love?

d. The result of the Pharisees’ hard hearts result in a desire to kill him, by joining with their enemies against Jesus as a common enemy.

e. They have a fundamental failure to see that Jesus is the very presence of God on earth as the second person of the Trinity.

f. His identity as the forgiver of sins, physician of sinners, and bridegroom for redeemed sinners, is furthered as the Lord of the Sabbath, with his disciples following their King

#3 What does Jesus highlight about the sabbath, his identity, and the Pharisees?

[25] 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: [26] 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?” [27] And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [28] So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (ESV)

a. The point of the sabbath is for man to join with the Lord’s example at the end of creation in rest, in the worship of the creator. The sabbath is for the benefit of Man. Not an end in and of itself.

a. For example, Pharisees, you may have heard of this man, David, King David. You may have heard of that one time on the sabbath day he went into the temple and ate the showbread which ordinarily was reserved for the priests.

i. Jesus’ first claim is that the sabbath was made to bless man not an end in and of itself.

ii. This event highlights a case where ordinarily the showbread was for the priests, but this was a circumstance of necessity. Of needed mercy,

1. O’donnall remarks, “The showbread is not so sacred that it cannot be used to feed the starving” (83).

iii. The second claim is that Jesus is operating with the same kingly authority as King David. The disciples are like David’s men.

1. Great David’s Greater Son, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. And his spiritual troops needed sustenance to carry out kingdom work. They were not out ordering pizzas and cheeseburgers for their own ease but were plucking grains in order to continue to minister the kingdom of God with Christ.

2. This case of Jesus’ authority is actually the more important one. Just how famished the disciples were is not the real matter, just as the disciples’ fasting was not the real matter, just as Jesus eating with sinners was not the real matter.

3. The real matter is who is Jesus? And in his very presence: clean & unclean, forgiveness of sins, sabbath rest & worship is not done through a ceremonial go-between. A law whose purpose is fulfilled and fully experienced by the Disciples walking with Jesus.

4. Above all these things makes this claim, The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.

a. This is an amazing claim. Jesus claims that he has authority over and that he is the true revelation of a creation ordinance. Actually, if we consider the whole Bible, Jesus embodies both creation ordinances: Marriage & the Sabbath Rest.

b. Paul says, in Ephesians 5:31–32 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (ESV)

c. Marriage, and then here Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath

i. Meaning; Jesus is Lord of our Rest. We trust him to defend and commend our rest. He is lord of our time, Lord of our worship,

ii. Genesis shows that Sabbath day rest is an ordinance built into the very fabric of the creation week.

iii. Thus Jesus is our creator.

iv. Matthew 11:28–30: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

v. Jesus can promise this as the Lord of the Sabbath.

5. Sabbath rest finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

a. Marriage is not abolished with the first coming of Christ it will be with the second coming of Christ.

b. So too for believers, Sabbath rest is not abolished by the first coming of Christ but it will be fulfilled at his return. The new heavens and new earth will be us fully entering our sabbath rest.

So Jesus rebukes the pharisees

1. for not seeing his identity,

2. for not seeing a simple act of necessity and most of all

3. for not seeing mercy, being blessed by the Lord was the goal not the ritual themselves.

SO we can ask Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, what is he ruling and stewarding for us?

We’ve already said many of these things. And I won’t cover all that we may in a few chapters when we get to it in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

#4 What is the gift of the Sabbath for us by the Lord of the Sabbath. And how does it apply to us today?

First, It is good; it is built into the fabric of Creation. Genesis 2:2–3: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Sabbath is a good gift as much as marriage is, work in the garden, and fellowship with God.

b. Remember how the 4th commandment would have struck Israel the first time hearing it.

a. For Israel who had been enslaved in Egypt they heard Moses relay Genesis to them for the first time at Mt. Sinai along with the ten commandments, they can breathe a sigh of relief. They were not property, not units of production, but men and women made in the image of God and just as much as God rests on the 7thday so shall they.

c. Exodus 20:8–11: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

a. Dr. Bill Davis in seminary reminded us that: this world and its cares are not ultimate; we can trust God for all our needs, we can delight in worshipping God, and communing with each other.

a. The 4th commandments stands on the edge of the table of the law of how to love God and love our neighbor. Indeed, you can see how it bridges to honor your father and mother. The ability to rest impacts our worship yes, but it impacts honoring those we have responsibilities for and those who have responsibilities to us owe us the space to rest and worship. We don’t need to work all the time.

Remember, We have a King who is caring for us. And he promises us.

b. Isaiah 58:13–14: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

c. Do we trust that if we cease from striving, the Lord Jesus will provide and be our delight?

i. And further, We must resist the Pharisees’ entrapment and neighbor fence-peering and be filled by Christ with rest, worship, mercy, and love.

· Do we trust that Jesus supplies Rest?

o Once again think of the French Revolution 10 days…No rest just machine and production.

o Or Soviet Russia 5 days, but oh yes, no Worship, because Shifts A, B,C, D, and E will never meet. But don’t worry the factory will keep going.

o But what of our hearts? What are we worshipping that we will work tirelessly for?

o Maybe it doesn’t exactly have to do with your schedules, but your anxious heart will not rest, does not desire to worship, cannot give mercy and care to others because it is turned and consumed inward.

o We all need a Savior to be Lord of our Hearts Rest.

· Hebrews 4 says “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

o The rest is found in Christ himself, so we worship Christ and cease our strivings

o In Christ Jesus we no longer work in order to rest. We Rest in Christ and being refreshed in Christ we work out of that rest.

Let us apply this to ourselves, 5 reflection questions to close:

1. As you look through your life are there areas you are looking over others’ shoulders with pride in your own religious works?

2. Is there anywhere you have refused mercy for the sake of “making your point against a foe?”

3. Is Jesus the Lord of your Rest+Time+Worship+Fellowship+Mercy+And Decisions on what constitutes a necessity. (all those things pulled together =s Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath.

4. Do you have a plan for what “ordinarily” Christ being the Lord of your Sabbath looks like? That word “ordinarily” is both freeing and also allows for planning.

5. Do you have a plan to make Sunday the best day? The best meals, planned fellowship time, worship, and rest. How can Sunday be a delight?

The Sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath, so for all your what-about scenarios if you can and asked me if It isn’t rest, worship, fellowship, mercy, necessity I will likely say, “ordinarily” even as most your but what-abouts I have done at various times for various merciful reasons to someone, to my wife, for the sake of my children, sometimes my own sin or lack of planning. But if all believers follow the ordinarily than I believe that day becomes extraordinary for many including our church family, our neighbors, and our whole community. It becomes a merciful day.

This principle animates us: This is Jesus’ Day, this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. It was a holy day meant to be a gift and a blessing, to recognize our human need for rest that in a fallen world you will become business, production, and seeking your own pleasure and entertainment.

But fear not Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, he is good, he is merciful, he is faithful.

Prayer

Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Introduction:

· Jesus forgives sins

· Jesus reconciles & restores sinners to table fellowship

Today, this conflict over fasting with John’s disciples and Pharisees is the first of three incidents where Jesus’ identity is more fully revealed in order to address the conflict: He is the Physician, today he is the Bridegroom, and next week he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Read: Mark 2:18–22 [18] 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?” [19] 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. [20] The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. [21] 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. [22] 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.” (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

#1 The Accusation & Answer: Fasting cannot happen while the bridegroom is with the wedding guests, what does this reveal about Jesus and Us? (vv.18-20)

A Biblical theology of Covenant meals explains what Jesus’ answer.

#2 The Old Covenant, if clung to will be torn in division by Christ’s New Covenant, New Kingdom work. (v. 21-22).

Recognizing when something new has arrived can be exciting, it can also be distressing as we desire to preserve the old. Jesus shows this clash to us today.

ILL: In the movie Moneyball, they had a new approach, players overlooked and undervalued, who weren’t flashy but together statistically added up to a winning team on a budget…The new system though ran into the coach who refused to implement the new players, he clung to the old guard, to the point the team was losing…the problem wasn’t the new system but that the old guard couldn’t handle it, they were bursting, so the general manager sells off all the old players, he takes them off the table and away so that the manager was forced to play the new team…

SO too as Jesus sits down at table with Levi and his friends not only is he dining with sinners, but there is joy, a feast, as the new covenant breaks in with repentance and reconciliation given to sinners.

The conflict will be ongoing as Jesus reveals the fading of the ceremonial law as Jesus fulfills all it was meant to taught. It’s removal, is the beginning of the removal of the pharisees influence as those who invented the rules and regulations that wrongfully hedged the law.

Look again at vs. 18-19

#1 Fasting cannot happen while the bridegroom is with the wedding guests, what does this reveal about Jesus and Us? (vv.18-19)

18] 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?”

*Note they may be trying to drive a wedge between John’s disciples and Jesus’ disciples. Even the book of acts shows that not all who followed John transferred to Jesus’ ministry so easily.

[19] 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.

* Jesus says the messiah is like a bridgegroom. There is a Joy of having the savior with them. In our passage there is Jesus calling himself the bridegroom and he likens his coming to new wine in new wineskins. Compared against ordinary days, and mixing the old with the new. First we’ll look at wedding imagery then Jesus’ example parables.

Jesus is the bridegroom: Jewish weddings were 7 days long filled with feasting, think of the wedding of Cana where Jesus is called upon to prevent the shame of running out of wine during the later days of the wedding. The Food and drink were not wedding festities only they were Symbols of God’s provision and blessing.

Table fellowship—being received at the Lord’s table—holds profound significance throughout the Old Testament. It represents a covenant relationship, divine presence, blessing, joy, and communion between God and His people. And it culminates in Revelation with the marriage supper of the Lamb.

A striking foreshadowing of this is the covenant meal shared by the seventy elders at Mount Sinai. After the people affirmed the covenant with the blood of sacrifices (Exodus 24:3-8), “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel…This heavenly vision where they “beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9-11 ESV). This shared meal in God’s very presence ratified the covenant, the giving of the Word, and anticipated the heavenly banquet—an intimate foretaste of eternal fellowship with the Lord. But it also anticipated God dwelling with his people. In Christ, the disciples were dining with God.

Table fellowship also powerfully symbolizes the covenant blessings and curses. When Israel walked in obedience, the Lord promised His presence and lavish provision: Deut. 7:13 says, “He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock” (see also Dt. 28:1-14; 11:13-15; Lev. 26:3-13). These gifts of the table—grain for sustenance, new wine that gladdens the heart (Ps. 104:15)—represented the Lord’s joyful presence with His people in times of abundance and celebration.

In stark contrast, covenant unfaithfulness invited curses of famine and deprivation. The land’s produce, including grain, wine, and oil, would fail or be devoured by enemies, signifying the withdrawal of God’s sustaining presence and the visible mark of sin (Deut. 28:15-68, especially v. 51: “[enemy nations] shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground… It also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil”; see also Lev. 26:14-39; Hosea 2:9; Amos 4:6-8).

Thus, the table became a living barometer of the covenant relationship—feasting in joy or emptiness in judgment.

In the sacrificial system, which we often overlook in its communal dimension, worship frequently culminated in a shared meal of fellowship. The peace (or fellowship) offerings allowed the worshipers themselves to eat a portion of the meat in the Lord’s presence, reinforcing covenant communion and reconciliation (Leviticus 3:1-5; 7:11-21, especially 7:15: “the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering”). These meals were accompanied by grain offerings and drink offerings of wine poured out before the Lord as a pleasing aroma (Numbers 15:1-10: See also Exodus 29:40-41). Wine, a biblical symbol of joy and God’s good provision, elevated these meals to celebrations of restored relationship. I confess I missed this a kid, I thought the sacrifices were fully burned up but almost all of them involved in having your sins forgiven, dining in the presence of God. Really what we have been seeing in mark 2. Forgiven. A Physcians, a Bridgegroom, us his invited guests…not to the tabernacle or temple but to Jesus who has “tabernacled among us.” (John 1).

These Old Testament covenant meals ultimately point forward to the Lord’s Supper, where bread and wine seal the new covenant in Christ’s body and blood (Lk. 22:14-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26), and they anticipate the great eschatological feast: Isaiah 25:6 says, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” At the Lord’s table, past, present, and future converge in covenant joy.

Isaiah 25:8–9 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken [9] It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (ESV)

At Jesus’ first coming, the bridegroom was with his wedding guests. We now live in the already and not yet. Christ is seated in heaven. But while physically away from his people he draws near his people by His Holy Spirit. We still get to gather around the Lord’s table as his people, we have fellowship with Jesus, table fellowship, psalm 23 fellowship, we come to know the father through Christ. But things are not yet consummated, he is absent from us now in a sense, while we wait asking “how long Lord Jeuss, until you return with trumpet sounds and usher in the great wedding supper of the Lamb.

Back to the immediate context and the reaction of the Pharisees: Once again Jesus has taken the Pharisees by surprise. The Messiah was more linked to the KING. TO deliverance. To warfare against unrighteousness and evil. All true things of Jesus, he delivers us from sin and sins bondage, but he is also our great high priest. His presence means a covenant meal; he ushers in the covenant blessings on his people because he is righteous. [see Ps. 110 Jesus as Melchizedek and Abraham’s feast with Melchizedek Gen. 14:18].

With these things in mind hear this again: Why do your disciples not fast?

Jesus replies, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

Christ is the bridegroom. And his disciples are the wedding guests. And we too one day will be the wedding guests.

Don’t miss it, Jesus is saying, no no, these are my friends, my guests. The incarnate son of God so delights in his disciples that he would not have the fast, the fast is pointless himself is with us. And this is true of us. …Though not face to face. But the relationship is just as joyful and close.

But What about us today in the Already/Not Yet? Well, we do not have Jesus with us, he is in heaven. We have the joy of the gospel our worship is filled with trembling Joy. Reverent Joy. But fasting itself does serve a purpose to help us focus on our prayers and in making important decisions. Fasting is valid; it can be good.

Look in verse 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

We may fast today, because Fasting is seeking the presence of God and Jesus is once more in Heaven. vv. 20

The elders can call for a fast for a particular reason, but there is no conscience binding ceremonial fast for believers today. Jesus assumes we will fast with these words in Matthew 6:16–18 “And when [when its assumed we will] when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. [17] But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, [18] that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (ESV)

Only let our fasting not be

Isaiah 58:3–4 Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. (ESV)

- The Pharisees fasted twice a week (lk. 18:12). Yet Jesus sees hypocrisy and lack of love in them.

There are many practices which are good, which we ought not bind people’s consciences to. Or we ought not pridefully accuse people against. We must call sin sin, we must obey Christ where commanded, and we must with humility recognize when something is merely tradition, even if it’s a good tradition. Not worthy of separation and division over.

We mustn’t make, fixed hours of prayer, fixed cadence tone of voice, body posture in prayer.

The pharisees did not come to Jesus saying “dear brothers would you join us in a voluntary fast, or dear brothers you asked how to grow spiritually might I encourage you to fast…they said, AHA! Look he is dining with sinners, and see here they do not fast, You do not fast, like we do, why are we better and you the worse!

Remember context matters. And in chapter we are moving from “aha, you dine with sinners,” to “aha, you do not fast,” to “aha your have not observed the hedge we have placed around the sabbath law.”

Look at our Fine hedge around the law, why do you not have as magnificent a hedge around the law as we do!

ILL: I read recently that Jeff Bezos maintains a 30 foot tall hedge around his property. Which if it was enforced woult be a $12,000 a year fine for violating city coke. If Bezos was like these pharisees he would say, “aha why do you not maintain the hedge like I do that goes above and beyond the requirements of the law.”

But what we do have that isn’t a hedge? That is what has God instituted in simple beauty to us his people We have the Lord’s Supper, we have a covenant meal set before us by Jesus until he returns with all of its rich symbolism.

Jesus now points out to the Pharisees that what they want from their fasts is fundamentally different than the kingdom of God in the new covenant.

The Old Covenant, particularly the pharisees legalism is like an old garment it will not handle the transformative nature of the New Covenant Era in Christ Jesus.

#2 Christ’s Work and Kingdom requires the new Skins to handle the transformative nature of the greater era he is ushering in. Example 2: new wine in old wineskins, the need for new wineskins (v. 21-22)

Example 1: Unshrunk cloth on old garment [21] 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.

Very simple you know new fabric shrinks. You probably underestimate this because we only buy pre-shrunk fabric now. But two kinds of fabric will only lead to a worse tear. The more vivid illustration is the second one, look in v. 22.

[22] 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.” (ESV)

The new wine is going to burst forth

1. Geographically: Jerusalem, judea, samaria the ends of the earth

2. Ethnically: No longer God’s constrained to the Hebrew nation but to the gentiles

3. Spiritually: BY New Birth (Ezekiel)

4. Because of Greater revelation: Knowledge by the word and spirit known (Jer. 31); not as contained to the priests and temple

5. It is going to go forth in simplicity

6. Knowing God directly in Christ Jesus and the finished word– vs. in part by the ceremonial law by the anticipatory shadows

We are No longer bound to the Ceremonial Law, Priesthood, and Temple

Now Christ is fulfilling and expanding that, the law will be written on our hearts, the reality is here. Both the wine and the wineskin must be new

Jesus’ illustration is this Old wineskins are already stretched, hardened, brittle, the hide, the skin is now lifeless and unable to expand further. It is dead.

The aged wine is good but its run its course….The new wine is teeming with life, it is expanding, transforming, ongoing, living and active, its need a new skin that can stretch with it from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the end of the earth.

With great Joy over sinners saved, with the blessings of the covenant secured by Jesus.

The Church has struggled through the ages to not return to the ceremonies and forms of the Old Covenant to mandatory fasting, to ceremonial laws that would recreate the church like a temple with priests.

J.C. Ryle asks, “How was it with the Galatian church? It is recorded in St Paul’s epistle. Men wished in that church to reconcile Judaism with Christianity, and to circumcise as well as baptize. They endeavoured to keep alive the law of ceremonies and ordinances, and to place it side by side with the gospel of Christ. In fact they would fain have put the ‘new wine into old bottles. And in so doing they greatly erred.

How was it with the early Christian church, after the apostles were dead? We have it recorded in the pages of church history. … Some laboured to recommend it to the heathen by borrowing forms, processions, and vestments from the temples of heathen gods. In short, they ‘sewed the new patch on the old garment.’ And in so doing they scattered broadcast the seeds of enormous evil. They paved the way for the whole Romish apostasy.

How is it with many professing Christians in the present day? We have only to look around us and see. There are thousands who are trying to reconcile the service of Christ and the service of the world, to have the name of Christian and yet live the life of the ungodly-to keep in with the servants of pleasure and sin, and yet be the followers of the crucified Jesus at the same time. In a word, they are trying to enjoy the ‘new wine, and yet to cling to the ‘old bottles.” They will find one day that they have attempted that which cannot be done.

Let us leave the passage in a spirit of serious self-inquiry. It is one that ought to raise great searchings of heart in the present day. Have we never read what the Scripture says? No man can serve two masters. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Let us place side by side with these texts the concluding words of our Lord in this passage, ‘New wine must be put into new bottles.” (Ryle, 28).

So as we approach the Lord’s table today. He is living and active in heaven. He is doing a new work in your heart by the Spirit. You are to grow in joyful and a transformed life. You are not in the house of mourning but anticipating the joys of heaven, the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Prayer

Benediction

Christ dines with us a meal. In it he is living and active in our by his Holy Spirit. We have not come to a house of mourning, but of Joy. Set free from bondage to sin, set free from the life by law keeping, instead we are alive by the invitation of Christ by his Spirit to dine at the table of the lamb slain that we might live and rejoice in that life.

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