Following from afar.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 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." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Mark 5:18-20

This account of the healing of the man in the tombs is really the first description of a new kind of disciple… one with whom we can readily identify. I have often entertained the fantasy of being a First Century follower. After all, what Christian would not trade sandals with one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples? It would be a dream come true to literally walk with Jesus.

The dramatic story of this suffering demoniac draws us in. He went from being a man whose demons begged Jesus to leave them alone to being a man whom Jesus set in his right mind. In this healed condition he now begged to become one of Jesus’ inner band, to travel with this Rabbi and learn from Him. He obviously believed in Jesus. But Jesus had other plans for this man. He wanted him to follow… from a distance.

This disciple was commissioned to do something very specific: “Go home and tell your friends.” And he was given a powerful message to proclaim: “….tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” He was also living testimony to a powerful fact about God: “…and how He has had mercy on you.” This disciple was given a relationship with Jesus much like the one we have today. He was to proclaim his testimony to the saving work of Christ to all those around him, even as Jesus was not physically present.

The results were blessed by God. Jesus knew what He was doing when He commissioned this man. All over the ten city region of the Decapolis (a Galilean region primarily Gentile in its ethnic composition) this man preached the gospel and impressed people by what Jesus had done for him. If this man could do this, we can do the same… I can do the same.

Technorati Tags: Mark,Discipleship,Evangelism

Searchable Truth

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

Mark 4:33-34

By teaching in parables. Jesus made truth searchable and knowable by anyone interested in honest investigation of His claims. That was the purpose of the parables (see Mark 4:10-12). And Jesus was a master at teaching in this way. He taught with many parables on many occasions. I believe it is entirely possible that much of what He told in parables is not recorded in the gospels. But we have all the important ones that explain the mission of salvation and the person of Jesus.

The interesting factor in this was the attitude of the crowd. This text says that Jesus taught in parables “as they were able to hear it”. This indicates that some may have been in attendance in the crowd, but may have not gotten to the point of the parables. The parables, however, provided two important things that made Jesus’ teaching “stick” in the minds of His hearers. First, as stories, they became memorable. Since we are not an aural society, we don’t appreciate this fact as much. But those who heard the stories in a society of story-tellers, remembered them. It is why we have them now. The second benefit of teaching the parables was that it created a follow-up opportunity. Anyone who wanted to ask for further clarification could do so. Those who investigated were the ones who “heard it”. They could take it further. That was Jesus’ intention all along.

Christian truth is knowable. It is not based on hunches or feelings or pragmatic mysticism. It is real knowledge and truth. Just like I can investigate and understand the periodic table of the elements in chemistry, I can investigate and explore the teachings and person of Jesus. And I can rest assured that the body of knowledge about Him is spiritual truth that is as real as any other body of knowledge. His own words, in His own parables, to His own disciples show me the way to such conviction.

Technorati Tags: Mark,Knowledge,Truth,Parables,Discipleship

Family Ties

And he answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."

Mark 3:33-35

The family of Jesus did not fully identify with His message and purposes. We know that they already held the view that He had gone a little nuts (Mark 3:21). Now, as they track down Jesus to speak with Him, He knows what they want, and uses the opportunity to talk about those who really are closest to Him… those who will follow Him.

I have to think that any disciple of any age gains comfort and courage from this statement from Jesus. Many of us have followed at the cost of family ties. It is routine for me as a pastor to offer guidance and counsel to those whose family members think their new commitment to Jesus is some sort of weird involvement in a religious cult meant to steal them away from all that is good. Following Jesus is a bit radical in that regard, and for those still caught up in Satan’s snare, seems really strange. Jesus said love for Him trumps all other earthly commitments to the point where our love for Him looks like non-love for our family by comparison.

I have seen what this does in foreign environments not as sympathetic to faith as my own. Muslim families in West Africa will disown a newly baptized family member. For that new believer, the church does become family in a very real way. For a new believer in secularized Europe, scorn and intellectual snobbishness my meet any public profession of their knowledge of Christ. Jesus’ words still hold true.

I believe that more and more, Christianity is marginalized by secularized America as well. Faith is seen as an irrational, unknowable, personal belief. Christianity is lumped in the same category as crystal healings, alien abductions, and conspiracy theorists. We are disparaged for lacking evidential knowledge. Nothing could be further from the truth, and living faith must stand up and reason with the family that scorns us. We do so lovingly, carefully, respectfully, and prayerfully that they too may come to repentance.

Technorati Tags: Mark,Discipleship,Family

A Remarkable Faith

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Mark 2:5

I often wonder when I read this account whether Jesus would even begin to take notice of my kind of faith. The friends of the paralytic were a group of guys who would not let barriers keep their friend from Jesus. They literally broke through the roof of a house to get their friend to Jesus.

Modern skepticism and scientific rationalism flavor my view of faith, unknowingly. I tend to still want a faith that I can mix with a few chemicals and shake down in a test tube. But that is not what the Bible shows us. It isn’t that spiritual truth is unknowable, it obviously is. These guys were CONVINCED that Jesus would heal their paralyzed friend and they took things in their own hands quite literally to act on what they knew about Jesus. It is the lengths to which such belief (aka knowledge) would take them that is remarkable.

Americans tend to want an easy faith. I know. I have lived my entire 45 years in the heart of American evangelical culture. I was educated in Christian schools, always in church, a graduate of a Bible College and an evangelical seminary, and have pastored in churches over 20 years. And we want it easy, which is the appeal of televangelism and “word of faith” theology. But real faith lives with painful realities. This man had been paralyzed for life. His friends could not get through the crowd to see Jesus. It lives with these realities and beyond them. It does hard work. It does the unthinkable, the unacceptable at times, and the counter-cultural. Which is why they were willing to drop their friend through a roof they purposefully destroyed.

Persistence and unwavering commitment are the hallmarks of a remarkable faith. Neither of those come easy. They develop over time in the conviction of irrefutable knowledge of the truth. And they take us closer to the Lord. This was the faith that God the attention of Jesus. I believe it still does.

Technorati Tags: Mark,Faith,Persistence

Disciples Follow.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Mark 1:16-18

A couple of thoughts strike me from this simple account of the first disciples. First of all, Jesus issued the call to discipleship. He asked them to come and follow. He pursued the men He wanted to be His followers. He issued the compelling call. This was different from any other rabbi of His day. Normally, in order to be accepted by a rabbi, a young man’s family might ask if their son might follow, and after an arduous examination, the rabbi might accept the young man into his band of followers. This was not the way Jesus worked. It was unheard of for a rabbi to pursue a disciple. The disciple was to prove himself first to the rabbi. But Jesus took the opposite approach. He made the call. He asked the disciple to come and follow Him. And His call was compelling.

The second simple truth is that disciples follow at personal cost. Peter and Andrew left their occupation of fisherman at the intriguing prospect of becoming “fishers of men”. James and John left a prosperous family fishing business with their father behind in order to follow Jesus. Levi left a tax booth. Simon Zealotes left a political party. All of them were willing to abandon what was familiar for the chance to be with Jesus. Following Jesus has its costs, a fact that Jesus made clear in His own teaching. These men were the first to experience it with their own lives. Discipleship is a life commitment to a following lifestyle.

The gospel of Mark stresses the quick response of these men to Jesus. In one day, they left a profession behind them to become disciples. That is the heart of discipleship. Disciples follow. They respond to the invitation of their Master. They see the value of learning from Him. They make the commitment, with any accompanying sacrifice, for the vast reward of knowing Jesus and becoming what He wants to make of them.

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Obedience in worship.

This Moses did; according to all that the LORD commanded him, so he did. In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.

Exodus 40:16-17

The bane of twenty-first century worship is the consumeristic self. We tend to approach a worship service with what we want to get out of it. “I want a challenging, short, and pithy message by an entertaining communicator.” “I want the kind of music I like.” “I want drama.” “I want video.” “I want to dance.” “I want free donuts and really good coffee.” “I want the service to address everybody at once, from 9 to 90 with perfect applications and family challenges.” “I want all of that in less than an hour.”

But we ought to be worshiping God. And that means that maybe, just maybe, we ought to approach worship with what He wants and not what we want. This is the lesson we learn from Moses and the children of Israel as they built the tabernacle. God made it very clear what the tent of worship was to look like. And He asked for Israel to obey. And they did. The call was to obedience, not personal preference. And that was the heart of worship. I believe it still is.

The result of the worship of God in obedience for Israel was profound: God visibly made His presence known in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35). In fact, God was so powerfully known that no one, not even Moses, was able to enter the tabernacle for a while because God’s glory was so pervasive. Think about that. Moses had communed with God on the mountain to get the Law. He had asked God to show him His glory, and God let him glimpse the backside of His glory while covering Moses with His hand. Yet when the work of Israel’s hands was complete and the tabernacle was set up, God brought so much glory to that obedience that Moses dared not enter!

God blesses obedience in our worship. If we really want to see our worship services blessed by God, it will not come by a new musician, by better lighting, by moodier music, by really well roasted coffee and donuts or by a more dynamic speaker. It will come by our obedience to what God asks us to do in His word.

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Finishing to blessing.

According to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.

Exodus 39:42-43

There is a modern proverb: “Hard work is its own reward”. That is not necessarily the case. Many people work hard throughout the world with nothing but pain to show for it. I watched a report on 60 Minutes Sunday night that showed the hardships “recyclers” pay in China. They live in filthy slums on the recycling plant. Harsh toxic chemicals from the computer CRT screens that get sent there to be recycled pollute their homes and drinking and bathing water. They are covered in sores from chemical burns received at the plant as they breakdown TV monitors and computer equipment. They work hard. Their children suffer in the slums they live in. And they receive enough pay to buy a little rice and that’s about it. The US and European companies that send the technology to China to recycle taut it as saving the planet. It is killing people. So much for green jobs.

But hard work for the glory of God is a different matter. It is blessed by God. In this passage Moses saw all the detailed final product of the work to build the tabernacle and its furnishing. And Israel obeyed God to the last detail of the construction. It was pleasing to God. It was hard work, but it was blessed. They obeyed and God was pleased through their leader.

Blessing in ministry is important. Many times churches ask people to work hard behind the scenes. It takes a lot of that kind of work to make the kingdom of God what it is in this world. The metaphor of the New Testament is that the church is God’s building built of many stones. Some are elaborate pillars readily seen. Others are foundation stones buried under the floor that hold it up. But every stone is needed, and is to be celebrated because we are “living stones”. I am so thankful for the scores of people who serve the Lord in my church! They make the ministry such a joy and blessing. May God bless His Church through all the efforts each of us makes in service to the kingdom. One day we will all stand before Him in the glory of His presence. And we want to finish well. We want the joy of His simple blessing to us: “Well done, my good and faithful servants.”

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Sacrifice,Service