Weekly Sermons from Spruce Creek Presbyterian Church - Port Orange, FL

In the passage we are exploring this morning Mark is revealing Jesus beginning to form his new community. He is beginning by forming a new leadership community, the apostles. Later, at the close of the chapter he will continue with the theme of the new family by asking the question, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” (Mark 3:33). Even though the apostles have a foundational role that we do not repeat as theirs was a unique role in the history of redemption, there are three aspects of community that we learn here for our own discipleship. The first is that Jesus’ community has a communal identity. It is significant that Jesus goes up on the mountain to begin to form his new community. He is deliberately alluding to the twelve tribes of Israel from the Old Testament. So Jesus is here beginning to form a people for himself, a people with a communal identity. Second, he gives them a new relationship. We will review under this point the significance of his naming them. And third, this community has a missional vocation, or participates in the mission of Jesus. We also, do not have our own mission, but participate in the mission of Jesus. Having a missional vocation is living sent. And Jesus lived sent. Galatians 4:4-7 tells us that “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” And he was sent for us. God sent Jesus to redeem us and to bring us to ourselves. And, as we will explore in the text we find ourselves when we lose ourselves for him and for the gospel.

We are returning this morning to our study on the gospel of Mark, where Mark is giving us the real Jesus. We are discovering who Jesus is, what he came to do, what he is all about. We have already seen some remarkable claims from Jesus but in our narrative this morning we see that Jesus is claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a very important identity marker for Judaism and Jesus is saying something here that is certain to ruffle some feathers. Which is exactly what he does as the narrative ends with two groups, the Herodians and the Pharisees, conspiring together on how to destroy Jesus. Mark is in this text showing us the lordship of Christ and how it is impossible to stay neutral toward his lordship. I contend that much like the leadership in Jesus’ day many of us really do not understand the lordship of Jesus and thus fail to fully live under its liberating and life-giving power. What does Mark teach us in this passage about the lordship of Jesus. We will look at two things. First the direction of his lordship, which we see in both incidents to be about blessing or doing good to others. And second, the purpose of Jesus’ lordship which when he says that he is the Lord of the Sabbath is revealing that he has come to restore shalom to his people and to creation. Jesus is our Sabbath. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). How did Jesus accomplish this? Through the cross. The writer to the Hebrews puts it, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). We live under Jesus’ lordship to the degree that we come under and embrace the rest that he won for us.

We have been saying that two words to think about Advent are remembrance and anticipation. In the Psalm we are looking at this morning, Psalm 96, we have what the second of these words, anticipation, looked like in the worship of an Old Testament believer. For the Psalms are the worship book of the Old Testament. As we have been exploring the unfolding mystery of Christ through the pages of the Old Testament we have seen the beginning of the mystery, the content of the mystery and, this morning, the hope of the mystery. And the hope of the mystery is in a King, the true King, who is Jesus Christ. Through this Psalm we see three things. (1) The Hope of the King’s Glory. The Psalm begins with a call, a summons for the whole earth to sing to the Lord a new song. (2) The Hope of the King’s Rule. The second stanza of the psalm is a summons to ascribe glory to the rule of the king. (3) And finally, we have The Hope of the King’s Judgment. Verses 10-13 give the incredible hope of the king making everything right.

Through the advent season leading up to Christmas we are exploring the theme of the unfolding mystery of Christ. Beginning with the book of Genesis and today exploring the history of the exodus we are tracing the mystery of Christ through the Scriptures. Christianity is the story of salvation and understanding the mystery involves knowing the story of salvation. This morning we are answering the question what do we learn from this early history in the book of Exodus about salvation? We learn three things. First, we learn that understanding the mystery is about the drama of deliverance. We began last week to look at Genesis 3:15 and the first promise of salvation given by God. The remainder of the Bible is an unfolding of this promise of deliverance. The second point is that the mystery is about covenant community. The book of Exodus describes God’s relationship with His covenant people, Israel. The last point is that the mystery is about the wonderment of worship. The exodus leads to worship. Salvation is about God forming a people for Himself for His own glory.

This morning we are beginning a series of sermons to run through the Advent and Christmas season looking at the unfolding mystery of Christ. Advent involves both remembrance and anticipation as we look back upon the first arrival of Christ in human history and await his second coming to complete and consummate his kingdom with the new heavens and new earth. This time of remembrance and anticipation is a time of waiting, reflection, contemplation and hope. We look back and we look forward. This morning we are going to look back at the beginning of this mystery at the Fall of humanity and ask the question what is wrong with us and with the world? This sets the context, the scene for God to take initiative, to take action and to give us hope. We will explore this from two perspectives this morning. First we will look at the consequences of our rebellion. We will explore the comprehensiveness of sin from spiritual, psychological, relational and physical angles. Then we will look at our second point, the commitment of God.

What do you expect when you turn to Jesus? Do you always get what you expect? Or even want? This morning we are looking at an account out of the gospel of Mark where four friends bring their other friend who happens to be a paralytic to Jesus for healing. And what they get is certainly not what they could ever have been expecting. What do we learn about Jesus and about life in His kingdom from this passage? First, we learn about the surprise of spiritual dynamics. The friends bring their friend to Jesus for healing and instead He forgives the man his sins. Yes, He does heal eventually heal him, showing that He cares about this man completely, physically as well as spiritually. But what a surprise for this man. Obviously Jesus knows something the man doesn’t. And that is our primary need for forgiveness and the power of forgiveness. Second, we learn of the vulnerability of spiritual dynamics. There is a vulnerability with both giving and receiving love. Think of the vulnerability of the four friends and what they had to do to bring their friend to Jesus. When was the last time we cut a hole in somebody’s roof in order to bring one of our friends to Jesus? And what about the paralytic man? He had to lay out on the mat and be completely vulnerable in order to allow his friends into his life and receive their love for him. The final piece of vulnerability is Jesus. One of the things we see in this passage is the beginning of conflict between Jesus and the spiritual leaders of the day. This will only intensify as the gospel progresses. When Jesus asks the scribes which is easier for him to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk, this is not as easy a question as it might appear. For while at first glance it might look like it is easier to simply say your sins are forgiven Jesus knows what it will take in order to effect forgiveness and be our Savior. It will take His death. He will die in order to be our Savior.