mark 13: The Returning King

Sermon first preached at Twynholm October 9th, 2008.
Audio available here

Mark 13 sermon.
The world is in turmoil…
… As well as the world economic crisis, there
In the province of Orissa in Eastern India the wave of violence against Christians that began in August continues unabated.
In the past 2 months 300 villages have been cleansed of all Christians. More than 50 people have been murdered. 18,000 injured, and an estimated 50 000 made homeless.
Those who return to the village will often be taken, covered in petrol, and told to renounce Christ and embrace Hinduism, or the petrol will be lit.
This wave persecution has began Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was murdered. Those in his organisation blamed Christians for the attack, though only last week it has become clear that Christians were not involved at all, as Sabyasachi Panda, one of Orissa's most wanted Maoist leaders took responsibility for the killing.
The persecution that allegedly began because of the murder continues, even though someone else has take responsibility for it.
What would cause such utter hatred?
One Hindu leader explained. “all we are doing is reversing the conversions that Christians have been doing, exploiting poverty”
How should we see such persecution?
Persecution: it is a reason for despair?
What hope is there in the face of such persecution…?
What does it tell us about the world we live in that people are so persecuted for bearing the name of Jesus Christ?

In the passage we are about to read from Mark’s gospel, Jesus will say, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake!”
We should certainly be unsurprised if those who follow Christ are treated better that Jesus himself was.
But the passage we are going to read will also raise other questions about how to understand mass persecution and other catastrophic events. For in this passage Jesus will talk not only about persecution, but also about “the end” and about “signs”. Are we to understand the persecutions in Orissa as a sign that the end of this world is near?

How are we to understand Jesus’ teaching on Signs? The context of the conversation begins about Jesus teaching of cataclysmic events that will unfold in Jerusalem. If we are to be faithful to Jesus in understanding signs, are we to keep an eager eye upon the Middles East pages of our favorite newspaper or website?
Should we skeptical about any teaching that suggests that there will be an end to this world? Is such eschatological discontinuity dangerous teaching that causes people to forget their responsibilities for this world? Is it those countries that have a higher percentage belief in the nearness of the end of this world who take less responsibility to care for the environment, the physically poor and the unhealthy?
And finally, what difference should it make? What difference does our knowledge of the approaching end make to the way in which we live today?
To hear Jesus teaching on these and other questions, let’s turn now to Mark 13.
Page 1024.
This is the longest section of Jesus teaching in the whole of Mark’s gospel.Because it’s one section of teaching, we’re going to read the whole chapter at once.
Chapter 13 comes as the climax of 3 chapters in which Jesus has talked about how the temple in Jerusalem had missed it’s purpose of welcoming the coming Messiah, and would therefore be judged.
Here Jesus speaks most clearly about what shape that judgment would take. It would be completely destroyed.
Mark 13: let’s hear what God is saying to us this morning.
1(A) And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" 2And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?(B) There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."

3And as he sat on(C) the Mount of Olives opposite the temple,(D) Peter and James and John and(E) Andrew asked him(F) privately, 4"Tell us,(G) when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" 5And Jesus began to say to them, (H) "See that no one leads you astray. 6(I) Many will come in my name, saying,(J) 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray. 7And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars,(K) do not be alarmed. This(L) must take place, but the end is not yet. 8For(M) nation will rise against nation, and(N) kingdom against kingdom. There will be(O) earthquakes in various places; there will be(P) famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
9(Q) "But(R) be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten(S) in synagogues, and you will stand before(T) governors and(U) kings for my sake,(V) to bear witness before them. 10And the gospel must first be proclaimed(W) to all nations. 11And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over,(X) do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say(Y) whatever is given you in that hour,(Z) for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12(AA) And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13(AB) And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.(AC) But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
14"But when you see(AD) the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be ((AE) let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15(AF) Let the one who is on(AG) the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17And(AH) alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19For in those days there will be(AI) such(AJ) tribulation as has not been(AK) from the beginning of the creation that(AL) God created until now, and never will be. 20And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for(AM) the sake of the elect, whom(AN) he chose, he shortened the days. 21And(AO) then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22(AP) For false christs and false prophets will arise and(AQ) perform signs and wonders,(AR) to lead astray, if possible,(AS) the elect. 23But(AT) be on guard;(AU) I have told you all things beforehand.

24"But in those days, after(AV) that tribulation,(AW) the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and(AX) the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26And then they will see(AY) the Son of Man coming in clouds(AZ) with great power and glory. 27And then(BA) he will send out the angels and(BB) gather(BC) his elect from(BD) the four winds, from(BE) the ends of the earth(BF) to the ends of heaven.

28"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near,(BG) at the very gates. 30(BH) Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31(BI) Heaven and earth will pass away, but(BJ) my words will not pass away.

32"But concerning that day or that hour,(BK) no one knows, not even the angels in heaven,(BL) nor the Son,(BM) but only the Father. 33(BN) Be on guard,(BO) keep awake.[a] For you do not know when the time will come. 34(BP) It is like a man(BQ) going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants[b] in charge,(BR) each with his work, and commands(BS) the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35(BT) Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come,(BU) in the evening, or(BV) at midnight, or(BW) when the rooster crows,[c] or in the morning— 36lest(BX) he come suddenly and(BY) find you asleep. 37And what I say to you I say to all:(BZ) Stay awake."

Chapter 13 is certainly the most debated chapter in Mark’s gospel; Christians would disagree even with one another about much of the interpretation of the passage. Perhaps you will disagree with some of the details of what I’m going to say.
But let’s also make sure that we can see the wood for the trees. There are some things that come through extremely clearly, and without controversy.
We are going to look at some of the details as we go through, but I hope that the main points are clear and uncontroversial. It is in fact an immensely practical passage. In 33 verses of teaching there are 19 imperative verbs.
“Don’t be alarmed, be on your guard. Don’t be anxious. Say whatever is given you. Understand, flee, don’t go down, don’t enter, don’t turn back, pray. Do not believe it. Be on your guard. Learn. know. Be on guard, keep awake. Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake.

1. Do not be alarmed (1-23)
2. Be assured (24-31) (learn, know)
3. Stay awake (32-37)

1. Do not be alarmed (Run up to destruction of Jerusalem) (1-23)
a. Don’t be alarmed by Jesus’ teaching. (1-4)
The last couple of days had been extremely unsettling for the disciples. You’ll remember in the Chapter before Jesus and his disciples had arrived in Jerusalem some of the disciples had had very high hope for what would happen when Jesus entered the city. James and john had asked if they might be the ones who get to sit at his left and right hand at his coronation.
The elation had continued as Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna. But they had been stunned by the way in which Jesus had clashed with the temple authorities rather than been welcomed by them.
One of the disciples seems almost to be hinting to Jesus that surely the temple must have its part to play in any future kingdom. His words in verse 1 sound very like the kind of thing encouraged in Psalms that focused on the future glory of Zion, such as Psalm 48.
1(B) Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in(C) the city of our God!
His(D) holy mountain, 2(E) beautiful in elevation,
is(F) the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
(G) the city of the great King.
9We have thought on your(P) steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple. 11Let Mount(S) Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments!
12Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
13consider well her(T) ramparts,
go through her citadels,
(U) that you may tell the next generation
14that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will(V) guide us forever.
Jesus, they’re saying, Get with the party, we should be glorifying in the city of Jerusalem and her temple. It is the joy of the whole earth, and surely will be again, won’t it, when you are king?
Jesus’ response is as forceful as it is shocking:
“Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down!”
This was VERY alarming. For the disciples. Four of them call a private meeting with Jesus to try to understand.
It seems that there is no space in their understanding for a world without a physical temple. For them, the end of the temple must mean the end of the world.
And so, for the rest of the chapter, Jesus addresses not only their question about when the temple itself would be destroyed. He also says why this is not the end of the world – in fact it would be a sign that the world has entered a great new age; but then he moves onto talking about the end of the world itself.
So, there are three things in view, that correspond to our 3 points
1)The times running up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. (They should not be alarmed)
2) The significance of the destruction of the temple: this should assure them rather than bewilder them.
3) And end of this world. This should cause us to be prepared…
So, Jesus’ teaching shouldn’t alarm us.
b. Don’t be alarmed by false teaching.
In this section about the run u to the destruction of the temple there are a couple of times that Jesus warns of false teachers who would come… 5-7, 22-23.
Cataclysmic times are a breeding ground for false teachers.
When people see their own world crumbling around them, it is easy to think that it is the end of the world. And others might exploit that thought.
In 1987 Edgar Whisenart wrote the book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988.
It sold 4.5 million copies.
It had rather different effects that Jesus words, “do not be alarmed”.
The final shout: Rapture report 1989. Predicted that the Rapture would occur in 1989.
Apparently that one didn’t sell quite so well!
Jesus teaching here is supposed to have the opposite effect of the panic created by many who have tried to explain him!
Jesus is teaching us to exercise discernment. People will make wild claims. Some will even claim to be Jesus, or to know exactly when he is coming.
But Jesus wanted to make the disciples be very clear that the cataclysmic events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem would not be the end, whatever people were teaching.
c. Don’t be alarmed by wars (though they be terrible they are not the end)
The rumours of war began inAD66 as the tension between the Jewish religious leaders and the occupying Roman forces reached melting point. The son of the high priest himself led a successful attack on a roman garrison in Jerusalem. After a few early victories, and a pause due to the death of the emperor, the final assault on Jerusalem was ruthless. It was besieged for some months. Those inside were soon without any source of food. The Jewish historian Josephus writes a chilling account of the utter barbarism that the city was reduced to.
He summarises, “Neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ver breed a generation more fruitless in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world.”
I don’t know if he knew Jesus words in verse 19.
Those who tried to escape were crucified. As those besieged in the city looked over the wall, they would have been faced by tens of thousands who had been crucified.
Eventually the general in charge of the attack pressed home.
the city was sacked and On july 29th/30th AD70 the temple was destroyed.
One report said there were 600000 men, women and children killed on that day. Antoher, that 1.1 million were killed in the siege.
But, the extraordinary thing was that the Christians were not there. They had all fled some years earlier. Why? Well, it seems that they had understood verse 14.
Perhaps some of you are intrigued to know what “the abomination that causes desolation was”. Well, we don’t know. There were several events that it might have been. There was a zealot with blood on his hands who served as a highly unqualified high priest. The Roman standard, roman coins a pagan statues were all in the temple at different times.
We don’t know whether the abomination of desolation is one, all or none of these things.
And we don’t have to! The sign of the abomination that causes desolation isn’t for us. It is for Christians living in Jerusalem before its destruction. And they got it! They fled.
One question you might have is, why did it take so long? If the religious authorities murdered Jesus. The sacrifices of the temple were fulfilled in Jesus, why did it take 40 years before its destruction.
Well, there were other things that had to happen about which also Jesus doesn’t want them to be alarmed.
Don’t be alarmed by persecution (though it be severe, and hurtful for it is a gospel opportunity and it will be cut short)
The time running up to AD70 was an intense time of persecution for Christians. They were persecuted by Jews for recognizing Jesus as the Messiah; they were persecuted by Romans. But Jesus says that this is to be used for the spread of the gospel. (9-11)
It was important that the whole world, who had heard Psalm 48:
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in(C) the city of our God!
His(D) holy mountain, 2(E) beautiful in elevation,
is(F) the joy of all the earth,
The temple was instituted by God to prepare not just Israel, but the whole world for the coming of the Messiah. Old testament religion had been a come and see religion. If you wanted to find out about the Lord, you came to the temple in Jerusalem, and you saw! But with the coming of Christ, he was the temple, and his people were the temple.
It was important that the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ would reach people’s ears before the news of the destruction of the temple. The honour of the Lord was at stake. The temple had not been destroyed because God’s plans had failed, and he was no longer to be sought. The temple was destroyed because God’s plans had been fulfilled and he was no longer to be sought in Jerusalem, but in Christ.
- I wonder if we take the same attitude to persecution that Jesus calls the first disciples to.
- Look closely at verse 11 “when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say!”
If I’m honest, I’m not sure that that would be the main thing I was anxious about. I might be more anxious about what they are going to do to me, than about what I am going to say! But if we have realised that the gospel must be preached to all nations.
If the preaching of the gospel was the reason for the delay of the judgement upon Jerusalem, it is also the reasons for the delay of the judgement upon this world. The Lord wants people to trust in Christ, even those who are persecuting us.
Being persecuted is a great opportunity for the gospel. For it is revealed in persecution whether we really have a hope outside this world.
That’s the case in Orissa at the moment. Those who will refuse to renounce Christ, knowing that he match will be lit are showing that they know for sure that the flames will only bring them to be with him.
But it is the same in the smaller and more subtle persecutions that we face.
Do we have friends who have never scoffed at us about anything until we began to follow Jesus. Why not, because we didn’t have any reason to do anything they’d want to scoff at. We were happy to live lives that pleased other people. But now, by being scoffed at we are making it very clear that we have one whose opinion we care about.
Jesus calls us to pray for those who persecute you. What compassion we should have for those who hate us for Jesus’ name’s sake. What a terrible jeopardy they are in if they so hate the name of Christ that they would even hate his followers. Pray that as people scoff at you, or worse, that you would care more about whether you say the right thing than about what exactly happens to you.
But don’t be anxious; trust that the Spirit will give you the words to say. Pray that you would indeed say them, for Holy Spirit himself intends to speak through you.
As for ourselves, what should we care about most when facing persecution. We should care whther we endure. (v13)
Jesus here is aluding to the last verse of the book of Daniel, that will be our passage for meditation tonight. Pray that we as a congregation would be far more concerned about our endurance in trusting Christ than our comfort, our popularity, our prosperity.
In praying for the persecuted church we should pray for endurance even more than we pray for relief. For if they have no relief from persecution but endurance, they have Christ forever. God forbid that they have relief but no endurance, for then their relief would be short-lived.
For though the destruction of Jerusalem was the worst suffering faced by any city in the history of the world, there will be a far worse eternal suffering to come for those who are found to have rejected Christ.
There was a sign that pointed to the coming destruction of Jerusalem.
But the destruction of Jerusalem itself was a sign. A sign of the certainty of a cataclysmic heavenly event that was to give Christians great assurance.
2. Be assured (24-31)
24"But in those days, after(AV) that tribulation,(AW) the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and(AX) the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26And then they will see(AY) the Son of Man coming in clouds(AZ) with great power and glory. 27And then(BA) he will send out the angels and(BB) gather(BC) his elect from(BD) the four winds, from(BE) the ends of the earth(BF) to the ends of heaven.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near,(BG) at the very gates. 30(BH) Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31(BI) Heaven and earth will pass away, but(BJ) my words will not pass away.
Many people think that jesus is utterly mistaken here. They assume that the ‘coming’ that Jesus is talking about is the coming of Jesus back from heaven to judge the world. It is understandable why.

Very similar imagery is used in Revelation 1:7 about Jesus’ coming on the clouds. And yet Jesus says here that “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
But the coming that Jesus is talking about isn’t necessarily him coming back to earth. Jesus is alluding to Daniel 7.
But listen carefully to Daniel 7:13-14.
13"I saw in the night visions,

and(AA) behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the(AB) Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14(AC) And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all(AD) peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
(AE) his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
The Son of Man comes on the clouds to His Father, the Ancient of Days.
This is exactly what Jesus had been talking about in the previous chapter of Mark 12, when he quoted psalm 110, “the lord said ot my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”
So, what’s going on. Well, the horrifc earthly act of the death of hundreds of thousands in Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, described here in terms of “the sun being darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” They are a sign of the coming of the Son of man.
Why?
Christ has entered the real temple in heaven… so the model has been torn down, never to be
As Marcos, preaching on Psalm 110:1 last Sunday so helpfully showed us, Christ has presented his completed sacrifice to God in heaven. Christ Had cried on the cross, “It is finished”. Now the Father proclaims in heaven, “It is accepted.”
The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem is the final earthly sign that Christ’s death really was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. That God really has forgiven the sins of all who trust in Christ.
GOSPEL.
Heb9:24For Christ has entered, not into holy places(AV) made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God(AW) on our behalf. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as(AX) the high priest enters(AY) the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is,(AZ) he has appeared(BA) once for all(BB) at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem is the final sign that this meal that we shall share today is not an empty ritual.
The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem is also the final sign that our evangelism is not in vain. V27
27And then(BA) he will send out the angels and(BB) gather(BC) his elect from(BD) the four winds, from(BE) the ends of the earth(BF) to the ends of heaven.

Because the Son of man’s sacrifice has been accepted by the Father, he has sent out his spirit, and preachers of the gospel, and angelic hosts to ensure that not one of those that the Lord intends to save will be lost.
They will be gathered to him from every nation under heaven by the preaching of the gospel.
What are we to learn from this?
We are in the last days. Just as spring leaves tell us summer is coming, so the destruction of the temple tells us that the destruction of this world is coming. If the temple, the model of God’s presence and sacrifice on earth has been destroyed to give way to its fulfilment in the reality of god’s presence and sacrifice in Christ. So too this earth itself will soon be destroyed to give way to its fulfillment in the new heavens and the new earth.
V29 So also, when you see these things (finally answering their question right back in v.3) you know that he is near.
So, then. How will we know that he is really near; what will be the sign that he is even closer than he was in 70AD.
We won’t know. There are no more signs. That was the last one.
Note that there are no more signs between v30 and v31. There are the things that happened within a generation; and then there will be the passing away of heaven and earth.
This world is passing away. But Jesus’ words will remain forever. Are we in the world for the sake of his words going out; or are we listening to his words, and yet desperately trying to hold onto this world?

So we are to e ready for the moment when this world passes away. We are to stay awake.
3. Stay awake (32-37)
In the last 6 verses Jesus moves to talk about the very end. All the other things would take place within a generation. The end, nobody will know when it will happen. Not even the angels, not even the Son. We are not to be looking towards the middle east, or to earthquakes, or to famines, or to the evangelization of all nations, or to persecutions or to signs and wonders or to a great tribulation to realise that Jesus might come today.
These all happened within a generation. From that point he could have come any day?
If we are honest, why do we want signs…? If Jesus says to us 4 times in 5 verses “stay awake” he is making the point fairly clear that he could come at any time. If we are to be ready at any time then why do we want a sign to make sure we are ready? Actually, the reason we want signs is so that if we decide the signs are not all there, then we feel we have a little more time to get ready. Jesus says, Get ready!
The return of Christ may happen ANY moment: v35…
Any moment.
How much more effective for the kingdom we would be if we really believed that Jesus was coming back?
Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, had an unuasually fruitful life.
Climbing Boys Act, the Factory and Ten Hours Acts, Mines and Collieries Regulation Acts, the establishment of ragged schools, training ships, and refuges for boys and girls, his share in the abolition of slavery, the protection of lunatics, the promotion of the City Mission and the Bible Society.
When asked of how he could be so productive he replied,
"I do not think that in the last forty years I have ever lived one conscious hour that was not influenced by the thought of our Lord's return."
Do we recognise the privilege it is to have Jesus Christ as Lord; and to spend every moment of it in his service?
We are so sinful and lazy aren’t we? Perhaps if we knew how many days we have to serve, we would relax, and think that we have plenty of time to invest our lives in Jesus’ service tomorrow.
But we don’t know that we have another day. We should thank him that he hasn’t told us when he will return, so that we can make sure that we are ready today, and we can live every hour in his service as if it were our last.
Would our calendar look different if you knew this was the last week you had? Live knowing that it might be.
He is such a wonderful Lord, so worth serving.
Though we might be persecuted for serving him, none have suffered like he did, not even at the destruction of Jerusalem.
We might face the scorn of our families, but Jesus was betrayed by a kiss from one who had been as close as a brother.
If we are hated by everyone, then their hatred was poured out more venomously upon Christ.
Though times of tribulation are cut short for the sake of the elect, the tribulation that Christ faced would not be cut short. He would drink to the dregs the cup of God’s wrath. Why? For the sake of the elect.
If the temple was defiled by all kinds of abominations, none of them matched the way in which Christ was defiled;
The temple was torn down; and the temple of Jesus body was destroyed; on that day too the sun was literally darkened and the moon gave no light.
Christ suffered God’s wrath, more fully even than the city who suffered the world’s greatest ever tragedy.
Yet he is the one who fully endured it to the end.
It is finished, he cried.
It is accepted, cried his father.
But the stone the builders had rejected has become the cornerstone. This crucified, messiah, who faced the greatest tribulation of all has entered heaven with great power and glory.
What moment of life do you have left that you would not spend in His service?

mark 12: The Hated King

This sermon was first preached at Twynholm on October 12th 2008.
Audio available here

The headlines have been focusing on the financial markets more in this last week than in living memory. The FTSE 100 index is often on the front page of the Financial Times. But looking at the front pages of all the newspapers there’s been financial news on the front page of broadsheet and tabloid alike. But rarely is it on the front page of the Mail, Mirror and Sun as it has been this week.
Investments don’t look too certain…
I was having lunch with someone this week who told me that the only business that seems to be thriving at the moment is those who sell safes, as a significant number of people have been getting their money out of the bank and keeping it at home in cash!
Perhaps Thursday’s headline on the Prime minsters discussion with the Icelandic banks in the Mail “cold War” didn’t match the FT’s precision “FTSE looses a fith of its value in a week”, but the focus was the same.
The fear are what the markets anticipate in terms of what else will be lost in the coming months: how many will lose their savings,
How many will lose their pensions?
how many will lose their jobs?
how many will lose their homes?
Such instability does cause us to re-asses what it is that we have had as our goals; where we have ben investing not just our finances, but our lives.
What have been some of the goals of your life that you have been working towards? Are they at risk?
Where is your life invested?
What have you invested?
What kind of return are you looking for?
You might think it strange that the bible has rather more investment advice that you might think. Yet it is rather different advice than you might be given from a financial advisor. The investments are rather different than those you can make in your bank or stock market.
But, we shall see this morning as we look at Mark 12, that they are far more secure; if investments in this world look shaky this week, there will come a day when they will be revealed to be far less secure, and far more costly than we ever imagined.
Turn with me to Mark 12. (Page 1022)
In mark 12, Jesus is continuing the contoroversy that he had begun in the temple. In 12:1 the “them” that he is speaking to is the same group as in v27: the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. As you may remember, they comprised the Sanhedrin, and they were looking for a way to find a charge against Jesus that would stick.
But Jesus exposes both their hypocritical motivation, and their self-defeating folly in rejecting him, when he was in fact their only hope.
We are going to see in this chapter
Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)
Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
Those who miss Jesus out will miss out on Jesus (28-44)

Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)

Read 1-12
1(A) And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted(B) a vineyard(C) and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and(D) leased it to tenants and(E) went into another country. 2When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3(F) And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4(G) Again(H) he sent to them another servant, and(I) they struck him on the head and(J) treated him shamefully. 5(K) And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6He had still one other,(L) a beloved son.(M) Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7But those tenants said to one another,(N) 'This is the heir. Come,(O) let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8And they took him and killed him and(P) threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do?(Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants and(S) give the vineyard to others. 10(T) Have you not read(U) this Scripture:

(V) "'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
11this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
12And(W) they were seeking to arrest him(X) but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they(Y) left him and went away.
The story would have had a familiar ring to it for chief priests and scribes and elders – for it picks up a story from Isaiah.
Turn with me to Isaiah 5, p687
1Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had(A) a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with(B) choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and(C) he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
7(J) For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;[b]
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry![c
So, the similarities are striking: so, we assume that the vineyard is again the members of God’s people, Israel. The watchtower was generally thought to signify the temple, and the winepress the altar.
The owner of the vineyard is the Lord, and he is rightly angered by the circumstances.
But you’ll notice also some subtle differences between the two parables.
1) The story isn’t told against the vineyeard itself, against the whole nation of Israel, but against the tenants – the religious leaders who were supposed to look after Israel.
They realise this in Mark 12:12.
They knew he had spoken the parable against them
Jesus is making a devastating accusation. The religious leaders wanted to make sure that there would never again be a day when the Lord could condemn Israel for bring fruitless. Yet Jesus is accusing them that they don’t really want fruit for the glory of the Lord, but for their own purposes.
If they had been concerned about the glory of the Lord, they would have welcomed the prophets. But the last of the prophets, John the Baptist, had been murdered by Herod, and they had been fairly pleased he was gone.

- It is possible to want fruitfulness for our own ends rather than the Lord’s glory.


I was looking through an old membership role of this church, and saw numbers of members at 300, 400, nearing 500. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like that again, I thought. But was it really the name of Christ that I wanted to see restored, or merely the name of Twynholm. What is Twynholm? If the Lord chooses to restore the honour of his name in Fulham through some other vehicle we should rejoice.

We can tell if we want glory for ourselves or Christ best when it is most indanger of being take away from us. Do we hold on for dear life, or gladly hand it over.
The tenant considered the fruit their own: so much so that even when the heir himself came, they were ready to kill him, lest he should steal their glory.
He is the beloved Son. We’ve heard this before from the lips of God from heaven at the baptism and transfiguration. Now Jesus proclaims himself the beloved son of Psalm 2 openly in the temple. Would they welcome him as God’s great king? No! They would kill him.
We are rightly horrified when we hear stories of people who murder for money, as if a uman life is worth so little.
What a terrible crime to kill the Only Son of God in hope that you might steal glory for yourself.
But that is what we have done, as a human race; jew and gentile alike, when the son came, we crucified him?
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus has undone thee.
‘TWas I Lord Jesus, I it was denie thee,”
I crucified thee.”
Jesus warns them that if we persist in holding onto glory for ourselves, we will lose everything.
9What will the owner of the vineyard do?(Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants
They had hoped to hold onto the fruit for themselves. But if you will oppose Jesus, you can be sure that one day He will oppose you. And you will not be able to bear that opposition in all of eternity.
But this story is not without hope...
- There is another big difference from the original story in Isaiah 5. There the vineyard was town down and went to ruin.

Isaiah 5: 5And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove(F) its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;[a]
(G) I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.

- Here, there would be new tenants.
- Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants and(S) give the vineyard to others. 10(T) Have you not read(U) this Scripture:

(V) "'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
11this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Jesus shifts the parable from vineyard to temple. The very one they slew, the son, would be raised again; is the stone that will be the pinnacle of a new temple: a temple in which we may be bricks. We are that temple if we trust in the risen son. The Lord has delighted in taking his rejected Son and highly exalting him in heaven.
Is our delight in that Son? The new tenants are not like the old tenants, given charge of a piece of land in the middle east, and a tiny nation that lived there. No, they are incorporated into a vast body; a multinational, multiethnic body that covers the whole globe and unites in praising the Risen Son giving all the glory back to God.

This is marvellous in his eyes: is it marvellous in yours?
Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)
- But those who welcome the Son will receive an inheritance


Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
The Sanhedrin continues to look for ways in which to carry out its murderous intent against Jesus, even after the warning of the parable.
They come up with another plan that they think if failsafe, but once again Jesus not only outsmarts them, but reveals their hypocrisy.
a. Render unto Caesar
13(Z) And they sent to him some of(AA) the Pharisees and some of(AB) the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14And they came and said to him, "Teacher,(AC) we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For(AD) you are not swayed by appearances,[c] but truly teach(AE) the way of God. Is it lawful to pay(AF) taxes to(AG) Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" 15But, knowing(AH) their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why(AI) put me to the test? Bring me(AJ) a denarius[d] and let me look at it." 16And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar’s." 17Jesus said to them, (AK) "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And they marveled at him.

The hypocrisy with which they ask the questions is contemptible. "Teacher,(AC) we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For(AD) you are not swayed by appearances,[c] but truly teach(AE) the way of God.’
True, but if they believe that, why are they trying to kill him?
But their hypocrisy runs deeper: if they were so against the Roman rule that they were unwilling to pay its taxes, why would they even carry the money. Jesus doesn’t have a denarius, but they do!
The money was an abomination. Not only did it bear the image of the Pagan Roman emperor deified in the picture, and the inscription said, “Son of the Divine Augustus”
Yet they were happy to use this idolatrous currency to suit their own purposes. There were just not so happy to pay the tax.
Jesus words are extraordinary.
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."
Jesus make the most significant comment in the history of the word as to how we are to live as God’s people under godless rulers. We are to submit to governing authorities even at times we find them harsh, unless they are commanding us to disobey the Lord.
In other words, Civil disobedience is only permissible for Christians when civil obedience would imply disobedience to the Lord.
And why?
Just a few days later Jesus would stand before a roman ruler who had his life in his hands: john 19
Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" 11Jesus answered him, (N) "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”
Whether it is paying your taxes, or submitting to the rulings of the courts, Christians are declaring that they are under a higher authority; in rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars we are rending to God what is God’s. Even in civil obedience we can be investing in our heavenly kingdom.
Yet for the hearers there were more far reaching consequences... were they handing over the fruit of the vineyard to the one to whom it belonged?
How can you tell? How can you tell if you are rendering to God what is God’s? Is being an upstanding citizen the full extent of it? No, if the coin bore Caesars image, eachone of us bears God’s image. To render to God what belongs to him is to give ourselves up entirely to his service.
That is the investment we are called to make.
Having been foiled once, they don’t give up.
b. Marriage at the resurrection
18And(AL) Sadducees came to him,(AM) who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that(AN) if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man[e] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife."
24Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because(AO) you know neither the Scriptures nor(AP) the power of God? 25For when they rise from the dead, they neither(AQ) marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26And as for the dead being raised,(AR) have you not read in(AS) the book of Moses, in(AT) the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying,(AU) 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong."
The Saducess were different the Pharisees in two major ways. Firstly they held the 5 books of Moses to have a igher weight than the other books of the old testament.
Secondly, as we read in v18, they did not believe in the resurrection. (And as the old cheesy joke puts it, that’s why they’re so sad, you see).
Jesus claims that even after being the slaughtered Son he will become the central stone assume that there would be a resurrection. And so the Sadducees think that they might have him here. Their somewhat ludicrous story was trying to make the idea of the resurrection look ludicrous. Would heaven really be a place full of women with seven husbands, or a place where 6 marriages have to be annulled?
But once again, Jesus’ answer is penetrating.
If the Sadducees revered Moses, there could be no more critical passage for them than the extraordinary encounter that Moses has with the Lord who appears to him in a burning bush.
It is the defining moment of God’s self revelation in the entire Old Testament, as he explains that He is Yahweh, the great “I AM”.
Yet when he describes himself as the great unchanging all-powerful I AM, he says ) 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' people who had been dead between 300-400 years.
And the very reason that God was appearing to Moses was to fulfil promises that he had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Was this I AM so powerless that he couldn’t fulfil those promises when they were still alive?
No this promise-keeping God was keeping promises to those whom he had kept alive, so that one day they might be raised and enjoy sharing in the inheritance.
They had not seen the power of God. They had not understood even the Scriptures that they claimed to love so much. Their God was too small, with purposes too limited.
When the great capstone has returned and been revealed to be the one in whom the whole temple of God’s people hold together, the purpose of marriage will be fulfilled.
If marriage is to be a picture of unity, self sacrifice and love, it finds its fulfillment not in eternal nuclear families, but in the unity that the community of the redeemed will have with God’s beloved Son. There will be no more marrying or giving in marriage, for we shall all be united to him.
We live in a world where marriage is all about the people getting married.
People imagine that we can define marriage for ourselves, to say about ourselves whatever we want to say. I was at a wedding yesterday, and it is so tempting, even at a Christian marriage to think that it is all about the bride and groom.
But it is only temporary. Till death us do part. But it is a picture of something that will last forever.
When you go to hear your favorite band live, it doesn’t matter if it’s the Prague symphony orchestra, Pink Floyd or the Pigeon Detectives. When the lights dim, you take off your ipod and stop listening to the copy. The real thing’s beginning.
When our lifeless corpses are raised and given new life in the resurrected world, the copy in marriage will give way to the reality in Christ. We will be like the angels, not because of some sentimental notion that we’ll grow wings, but because, like them we will see Christ face to face.
The intimacy of marriage now is to be an ipod nano anticipation of the face to face elation with Christ then.
As Paul writes in Ephesians 5:, marriage is a picture of Christ’s love for his people.
Too often I think that Christians hold onto a traditional view of marriage because we are traditional, not really because we are Christian.
So, for example our opposition to homosexual marriage too often sounds like it comes from mere squeamishness, rather from a deep sorrow about the lies that homosexuality tells about Christ and his church, as if Christ laid down his life for another Son of God, rather than for his bride the church.
No, we are to love those in homosexual relationships; bring all your homosexual friends to church; and if you haven’t got any homosexual friends, make some. But let them see the gospel of Christ who laid down his life for one who was radically different from himself as the only picture that will provide a more beautiful alternative to them than their current lifestyle choices.
Homosexual marriage is wrong because it tells lies about Jesus and his church. But what about our marriages? Too often our marriages tell the lie that Christ is harsh, or disinterested, or patronizing because we husbands treat our wives like that. Too often our marriages lie that the church is calle to to manipulate, ignore or infuriate Christ, by the way in which wives treat their husbands. No, we have a wonderful model in Christ and the church – let’s tell beautiful trust about Christ in our marriages.
Married couples: talk with one another about how well your marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. Husbands, ask your wives ways in which you have been unlike Christ in your love for them. And be Christ-like in the way in which you listen to the answer.
Wives, ask your husbands ways in which they could more reflect their honour for Christ in the way they relate to you, and don’t punish them for answering you!
If you are not married, which fills your life with more eager anticipation: the possibility that you might one day enter into a relationship that models Christ’s relationship with his church; or the delight that you are already in that relationship with Christ, and one day it will be perfected?
Ok, all of you… it’s time to be honest with yourself now. Are you disappointed that there will be no sex in heaven?
Guys, you’re either nodding, or you’re aspleep, or you’re lying.
What other joy in this world do you hope will be the same in the next? We are not to invest in this world. For all the joys are but a glimpse of the coming joy of being with Christ.
In “The weight of glory” C S lewis says,
The books or the music in
which we thought the beauty was located
will betray us if we trust to them; it was
not in them, it only came through them,
and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of
our own past—are good images of what we
really desire; but if they are mistaken for
the thing itself they turn into dumb idols,
breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
For they are not the thing itself; they are
only the scent of a flower we have not
found, the echo of a tune we have not
heard, news from a country we have never
yet visited.
How often our silly arguments are constructed to protect the scent and the echo and the news, when all they do is rob us of the flower, the tune, the country itself.
It is a foolish and dangerous thing to laugh at yourself for how cleverly you have outwitted Jesus. How clever our arguments can sound to ourselves as we rehearse them. Perhaps this might be attitude of the whole life; or it might just be the defense of one area of our lives from his Lordship.
But one conversation with the Lord Jesus and these very learned men and their well rehearsed arguments looked very foolish indeed.
Those who lay traps for Jesus will indeed fall into them.
We are not so clever. But he is the master surgeon who can lower our defenses to accuse us, so that he might humble us, and then embrace us into his.
Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
But those who are humbled before him will be raised and welcomed into eternal joy.
Those who miss Jesus out will miss out on Jesus (28-44)
Among those in the temple there was at least one who was a great deal less hostile. He didn’t seem openly hostile to Christ, nor is he presented here as trying to trap Jesus.
a. The greatest commandment
28(AV) And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" 29Jesus answered, "The most important is,(AW) 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,(AX) the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31(AY) The second is this:(AZ) 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment(BA) greater than these." 32And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that(BB) he is one, and(BC) there is no other besides him. 33And to love him with all the heart and with all(BD) the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself,(BE) is much more than all(BF) whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."(BG) And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

It was a common conversation among teachers of the law to ask which commandment was greatest. It’s an important question, for if our designer gives us commandments, they tell us what we are designed for.if there is a greatest commandment, it tells us what the central purpose of our lives should be.
What is a human being?

One who invests his or her whole life in the love of God…


What resources do you have?
Where are they all to be invested?
In the love of God...
The scribe and Jesus agree what a human being is. One who will find their purpose only in fully loving God.
Why then is he “not far from the kingdom of heaven”?
For the law was not enough. To know what we are to do is no good. We don’t do it.
We need God to give us not just a law, but to rescue us. We should love God and invest all for his glory, but we have made some other very bad investments with our life, that pay out with untold misery.
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Though not far from the kingdom of God he had not entered it. Nobody can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again, and believes in the Son.
35(BH) And as(BI) Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that(BJ) the Christ is the son of David? 36David himself,(BK) in the Holy Spirit, declared,
(BL) "'The Lord said to my Lord,Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies(BM) under your feet.'
37David himself calls him Lord. So(BN) how is he his son?" And the great throng(BO) heard him gladly.

But there are some who cannot pretend that they can earn their way into God’s favor through keeping the law. The fact that they give with greater abandon shows that they know that their inheritance is already secure.
b. the widow’s mite
38(BP) And in his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39and have the best seats in the synagogues and(BQ) the places of honor at feasts, 40(BR) who devour widows’ houses and(BS) for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."
The Widow’s Offering
41(BT) And he sat down opposite(BU) the treasury and watched the people(BV) putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42And a poor widow came and put in two(BW) small copper coins, which make a penny.[f] 43And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you,(BX) this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her(BY) poverty has put in everything she had, all(BZ) she had to live on."

If we are nt secure in the rescue of the Son. In the share of the inheritance that we have eternally secure for us with Christ, then we will try to grab what we can for ourselves in this life.

That is how the scribes, the religious teachers lived their lives. They were respectable, but uncaring. They received much, but helped little. Those in greatest need, the widows, who had no source of income were left destitute.


She may appear the poorest, but she is far richer.
We may see her as a victim of circumstances, and of a corrupt leadership who have led the nation into the social evils that leave her with nothing.

We might pity her...

But Jesus doesn’t pity her. He sees in her a joy that means that compared to here it is those who gave safely out of their riches that are to be pitied.

She has shown that she is a creature who is more valuable than her coins, and more valuable than this earthly life.

She loves the Lord her god with all her heart and all her soul and all her mind and all her strength.

She knows that in the greatest commandment is given the creator’s clearest blueprint for the human life.

One of the things that we are hoping to do is set a budget for this church. I pray that the lord increases the amount people give to the Lord’s work here, not first and foremost because of all the great plans that we have as elders as to how we spend the money. That’ll be fun investing it in God’s kingdom. No but I pray that as it would be such an encouragement to see this congregation more and more to declare its independence from the desires and demands of this world.

Her gift shows that she is investing in what will really last. The world to come.

As Lewis concludes "The weight of glory"

- There are no ordinary people. You have
- never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,
- cultures, arts, civilization—these are
- mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of
- a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke
- with, work with, marry, snub, and
- exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting
- splendours. This does not mean that we
- are to be perpetually solemn. We must
- play. But our merriment must be of that
- kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind)
- which exists between people who have,
- from the outset, taken each other
- seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no
- presumption. And our charity must be a
- real and costly love, with deep feeling for
- the sins in spite of which we love the
- sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence
- which parodies love as flippancy parodies
- merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament
- itself, your neighbour is the holiest object
- presented to your senses. If he is your
- Christian neighbour he is holy in almost
- the same way, for in him also Christ vere
- latitat—the glorifier and the glorified,
- Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

mark 11: The honoured king

Sermon first preached at Twynholm September 21st 2008.
Audio available here

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. ... one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching -- an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to take the line of indignation.
Then there is the curious story of the fig tree, which always rather puzzled me. You remember what happened about the fig tree. "He was hungry; and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came if haply He might find anything thereon; and when He came to it He found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it: 'No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever' . . . and Peter . . . saith unto Him: 'Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.'" This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above Him in those respects.
So said Bertrand Russell on March 6, 1927 only 3 miles from here at Battersea Town Hall, in a lecture that became his well known pamphlet, “Why I am not a Christian.”
There were other elements of Jesus’ teaching that Russell was rather more comfortable with.
You will remember that He said, "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." That is not a now precept or a new principle. It was used by Lao-tse and Buddha some 500 or 600 years before Christ, but it is not a principle which as a matter of fact Christians accept. I have no doubt that the present prime minister [Stanley Baldwin], for instance, is a most sincere Christian, but I should not advise any of you to go and smite him on one cheek. I think you might find that he thought this text was intended in a figurative sense.

How is it that the same Christ who encourages us to turn the other cheek, in the story we are going to read not only curses a pretty innocent looking fig-tree, but also in what seems to be definite anger destroys various people’s businesses and drives them out of what had become a centre of commerce.
Is this angry Jesus a sign that he too had his faults, or is it possible that in Jesus his anger as well as his love are functions of his goodnes, and are therefore not to be dismissed as unworthy, but revered as right and praiseworthy?
We have seen Mark in his gospel present Jesus as praiseworthy
The true king outlasts false praise.
1(A) Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to(B) Bethphage and Bethany, at(C) the Mount of Olives, Jesus[a] sent(D) two of his disciples 2and said to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied,(E) on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.'" 4And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5And some of those standing there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" 6And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8And many(F) spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9And those who went before and those who followed were shouting,(G) "Hosanna!(H) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10Blessed is(I) the coming(J) kingdom of(K) our father(L) David!(M) Hosanna in the highest!"
11(N) And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late,(O) he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Jesus has been telling his disciples for some time now that their destination would be Jerusalem, and that at the heart of his mission is what would happen in Jerusalem. What happens in that one week is so central to what Jesus is about that it takes up 6 of 16 chapters in Mark’s gospel, more than a third of the book. In John’s gospel it takes up half the book.
There are those who would call themselves Christians who think that the most significant thing is the brith of Jesus, that God has become man to reveal himself to us. That is surely significant, but the death and resurrection of Jesus is why he came. As we saw last week the whole reason Jesus came he summed up in verse 45, “for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,”
So, though Bertrand Russell and others might like some of Jesus moral teaching, he was right to call his talk “why I am not a Christian.” A Christian is someone who trusts in the death of Jesus as their ransom, and entrusts their whole life to Jesus.
So significant was this last week of Jesus’ life that he has made very deliberate plans as to how it would begin on that first Palm Sunday.
Whether the word’s given to the guardian’s of the donkey were a prearranged password, or a sign of Jesus’ supernatural knowledge, the point is clear. Jesus was the king who might apprehend any of his subject’s property for ceremonial use.
The fact that the donkey hadn’t been ridden by anyone else made it fit for a king.
But the fact that it was a donkey meant that he was intending to signify that he wasn’t any old king. He was the long expected king. 400 years earlier the prophet Zechariah has prophesied, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
(B) Behold,(C) your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
(D) humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He wasn’t coming to bring war, if so he would have ridden on a white horse; he is coming to bring peace to Jerusalem through the events that would unfold.
And people seem to understand something of the significance of the entry. Cloaks are thrown onto the road, so that even the king’s donkey could have a comfortable journey. Palm trees were waved, and the words spoken were full of anticipation: “Hosanna” meaning “Save now!”
And
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord”
Both come from psalm 118, that was sung as pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem, but this wsa no ordinary pilgrim. He was to be the one in David’s line who would restore David’s kingdom.
We would half expect the crowds to follow him into Jerusalem, raise him to their shoulders and seat him on a throne.
But the day finishes with an extraordinary anti-climax. He enters the temple; he looks around, but it appears that nobody is paying him any attention once more.
The irony is incredible.
The temple was to be a symbol of how God dwelt with his people. Now God was dwelling with his people in the person of Jesus –he has come to the temple, but the temple is unresponsive. It’s whole existence was for this day.
Even the route that Jesus took, coming in from the mount of olives was to remind the people that God’s presence had left the temple via the mount of Olives 500 years earlier; now the glorious king has returned; and there is not a word of praise for him.
The crowds that had cheered moments earlier have dispersed; their praise was empty.
There would be crowds soon calling out not for his coronation, but his crucifixion.
As we sing “sometimes they strew his way and his sweet praises sing, resounding all the day Hosannas to their king. Then crucify is all their breath, and for his death they thirst and cry.”
Popular opinion can turn in a dramatically short time. I guess the last year in british politics has reminded us of that fact.
We need to be aware of allowing popular opinion decide our eternal destiny. Don’t be satisfied with what you have heard about Jesus. Examine him for yourself. Christianity Explored Course.
Christian, will your praise endure? We have sung Jesus’ praises this morning. It is easy to be conviced that our praises are true and not false because of the joy we feel in the moment of exhilaration. This can be when we are singing with God’s people; or it could be that conference, or that sermon that really moves us.
Adrenaline is one of God’s incredible creations. In moment you can do incredible things on adrenaline. You could lift a car off someone who is trapped. You can hold on. You can stay awake for a whole night.
But it doesn’t last. It is impressive, but short-lived.
But true Christian praise is to be more like the heart muscle than adrenaline.
Not so impressive; but constant. B-Boom b-boom….
Do you find yourself praising through the day, whatever circumstances you face?
Form sustaining habits, rather than depending upon momentary bursts of enthusiasm, which will wax and wane.
And those sustaining habit need to be built on praise: we were thinking about how we can sometimes even feel hypocritical beginning family devotions, or starting to meet with a friend regularly to pray when we don’t feel things have been going well spiritually. Well, if you find it hard, start with praise! Praise the Lord for who he is, then you don’t even have to start by talking about your state… use the Lord’s prayer –begins with praise. Use some other bible praises like the reading that Grace read from Luke 1 – the Magnificat.
The crowds praise had faded even before Jesus had reached the temple. But Jesus was not put off. He was not coming to Jerusalem to receive praise now; he was coming that he might be rejected and killed. “yet steadfast he to suffering goes, that he his foes from thence might save.”
Jesus wasn’t after any throne but the cross; and it would be because of the cross that he might receive from millions of people from every nation eternal praises, that would never wane, but only grow in magnitude, in joy and in depth of understanding.
The true king outlasts false praise.
The true king condemns false religion
12(P) On the following day, when they came from Bethany,(Q) he was hungry. 13(R) And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for(S) it was not the season for figs. 14And he said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.

15(T) And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of(U) the money-changers and the seats of those who sold(V) pigeons. 16And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17And he was teaching them and saying to them, "Is it not written,(W) 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But(X) you have made it a den of robbers." 18And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and(Y) were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because(Z) all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19(AA) And when evening came they[b] went out of the city.

20(AB) As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21And Peter remembered and said to him,(AC) "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." 22And Jesus answered them, "Have(AD) faith in God. 23(AE) Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,(AF) 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not(AG) doubt in his heart, but(AH) believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you,(AI) whatever you ask in prayer,(AJ) believe that you(AK) have received[c] it, and it will be yours. 25And whenever(AL) you stand praying,(AM) forgive,(AN) if you have anything against anyone, so that(AO) your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."[d]

I don’t know if Bertrand Russell really believed that fig trees had feelings, but he certainly misunderstood what Jesus is doing here.
Jesus doesn’t curse the fig tree because he selfishly wants to satisfy his hunger, and flies off the handle in an impatient rage.
No, the cursing of the fig tree was an enacted parable. Vines and fig trees were common symbols for Israel and her leaders.
This fig tree was fruitless because it was out of season –it was not even in its nature to bear fruit.
Mark arranges the material in such a way that he makes it very clear what the meaning of the parable was. The two stages of the parable fell either side of the visit to the temple.
The temple was supposed to be like a tree bearing much fruit. It was even adorned with fruit all over. It was to be like the Garden of Eden where once again people could know the presence of God and not die. If anyone had spiritual hunger, the only place in the world that should have been satisfied was the temple. There they would learn of the great God who was intent on blessing people from every nation. And providein atonement for sins.
But the temple had become as fruitful as a fig tree with only leaves present: not even a hint of blossom, let alone fruit. It would leave any pilgrim who visited as spiritually hungry as when they arrived.
The only thing that fig leaves are good for in the bible is as a pathetic covering for the nakedness of a broken covenant when Adam and Eve sewed them together and hid. It had become not a model of entering the presence of God, but of hiding from him.
Well, Jesus cursed the fig tree so that the shameful nakedness of the broken religion of the temple would be exposed.
And that’s exactly what he does when he visits the temple.
V17. "Is it not written,(W) 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But(X) you have made it a den of robbers."
There was nothing intrinsically wrong with selling animals somewhere near the temple: they were needed for the sacrifice. But the selling had come right into the temple courts, and had squeezed out the space for those who had come from the nations – the whole court of the Gentiles was overrun with commerce.
Jesus brings together two quotations from the Old Testament about the temple. Isaiah 56:7 had shown that the temple’s ultimate aim wasn’t to just be the centre of Israel but the centre of the whole world. All nations would come to the temple and be welcomed by the Lord. Yet the “den of robbers” comes from Jeremiah 7:11 (Steve will preach more on that this evening).
It is where Jeremiah castigates the false religion of the day. The people thought that they had peace with God merely because they had the temple. “Peace, peace when there Is not peace”
So it was with the temple. It was business as normal; yet it was hiding people from God rather than bringing people to God.
- so, is the anger of Jesus here a momentary lapse; something less than attractive about him; would, as Russell suggested, it be far more worthy of a sage to be bland and urbane rather than indignant? Well, it depends what is at stake, doesn’t it. Was it right for Nero to be bland and urbane whilst Rome burned!
No, Jesus’ indignation here is a function of his compassion.
The temple had become a den of robbers because it was robbing all nations of peace with God.
Gospel.
You know, it would be possible for us to do the same thing as a church.
There could be several ways in which we could do it.
- Let’s be a church that doesn’t rob people of the gospel.
o Everyone welcome. Speak to the visitor first, and then your friends.
o Lives with connections to Non-Christians.
o Let your light shine!

Jesus brings true religion.
- He gets rid of the old model that had become defunct; I think that is what he’s saying with the mountain being thrown into the sea. It isn’t just that prayer can move mountains… 23, no, it is whoever says to “this mountain” ‘be taken up and thrown into the sea’. Well, which mountain is that? It is the temple mount, mount Zion itself. Jesus has done away with the model of the temple as surely as if it had been thrown into the sea. For he is the true temple. He truly brings us peace with God; so that we can now approach God as the Father who hears and answers prayers. V24
- The true religion that Jesus brings then has a vertical peace with God. But if we have true religion it also has horizontal effects: v25
We could rob people of the opportunity to have peace with God also if we do not work on our relationships with each other.
Pray that we would be a community marked by forgiveness so that our religion is not false; but it is demonstrably life-changing.
I know that there have been many tough years at Twynholm in one way or another. Tough years can bring a depth of relationship. They can also bring the temptation of rifts and unforgiveness. Pray that the Lord would not allow bitterness or grudges grip this church.
Pray that we would so delight in the peace that we have with God, that we are quick to make peace with one another. Pray that we would so recognize the enormity of what we have been forgiven by our father at the cost of his only son, that we would be quick to forgive one another; it is costly to truly forgive – especially if we have been deeply hurt –but it is not as costly as the forgiveness Jesus was intent on purchasing with his blood just 4 days after this incident.
Corrie Ten Boom. The Hiding place.
The true king condemns false religion,
Yet the false religion was seeking a way to condemn him. V18.
Yet he would be condemned to purchase true religion for all who would trust in him.
The true king defies false authority.
27(AP) And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28and they said to him,(AQ) "By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?" 29Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30Was the baptism of John(AR) from heaven or from man? Answer me." 31And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say,(AS) 'Why then did you not believe him?' 32But shall we say, 'From man'?"—(AT) they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was(AU) a prophet. 33So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Together the chief priests, theee scribes and the elders formed the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court that was allowed some jurisdiction even under Roman rule. If they were going to be able to kill him with even a veneer of righteousness, the Sanhedrin must therefore be involved.
And they are trying out the only charge that they think might be able to stick.Blasphemy. It was considered blasphemous to claim that something was from God that wasn’t at all. So important was it that God’s people could hear from God that there was the death penalty for false prophets – those who claimed to speak in God’s name, but really spoke only for themselves.
Jesus reply is not merely evading the evading the authority of the Sanhedrin; it is defying it as a false authority.
You say you have authority to judge me! To say that I am not from God! You wouldn’t know God if he walked into the room… Why didn’t you listen to the last prophet whom God sent, John the Baptist?
If you had, you would know if my authority came from Heaven or from men, for when he baptized me Heaven was opened, and God himself spoke, “this is my beloved son.”
I am the God who has given you authority. You will answer to me one day for it.
Do you recognize that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Jesus? Whatever authority we have is not innate. It is not earned, it is borrowed. It is entrusted to us by Jesus, and we will answer to him for how we have used it.
Learn from the time where you are under your parent’s authority… learn to trust authority – if your natural inclination is to circumvent it, them you will find it harder to sit happily under the authority of God.
My authority as pastor comes from this word…
Explain why we have expository preaching.
Fire me!! Not just the right, but the responsibility to fire me if I stop preaching this word.

The first thing we need to with any authority we have is recognize who Jesus is.
Note how compromised they are in their exercise of authority. They are not interested in what is right and true, but what is convenient. All they want to do is protect their authority for themselves, rather than exercise it for the good of others and the glory of God.
And in doing so, they will not even consider John’s evidence that they had got Jesus wrong. They just end up non-committal, “We do not know”. John had been the most significant religious figure for at least 400 years; and all they, the religious leaders, the guardian’s of the temple can say is “I don’t know.”
Agnosticism can seem so reasonable, can’t it. It’s not ugly aggressive atheism; it’s not dogmatic indignant religion. It is bland and urbane – far more worthy of a sage. It keeps an open mind. It seems so peaceable. But it cries peace, peace where there is no peace. For it leads to hell.
It is leaves a person forever unsure as to whether the lifeboat of Jesus’ salvation will sink or float, and therefore stays on the ship unaware that the ship itself is sinking fast.
There is a time when the mind cannot remain open for ever. It has often been said that an open mind is to be rather like an open mouth – it is open so that it can close down on something solid.
Friends when it comes to religion there is only one who is solid ground to stand upon. For we cannot stand by ourselves.
But upon his life, death and resurrection we can stand.
He has been steadfast beyond our fleeting praises.
He has provided peace with God, where without him there was not peace
He is the true king, with all authority.
And he has exercised that authority by laying down his life and taking it up again for us:
For Jesus is the True King. Meek, peace bringing, but warning that religion without him is a promise of a peace that is not coming.
We were created to bow to his authority. Yet without his body broken for us, and his blood shed for us, we would know him only as a judge; we depend upon this glorious king. And in him we find true peace with God.

mark 9: the Glorious King

Sermon first preached at Twynholm 7th sept 2008.
Audio available here

We live in an instant culture.
I guess this is felt and driven by a computer society
Instant messaging.
Instant Downloads
Instant updates, so long as we have Instant broadband.
With our digital cameras we can print out photos instantly – we don’t even need to go to a one hour developer any more.
But it affects other areas of our lives too.
Food: Fast food, Instant noodles, microwave meals and some people still like Instant coffee!
Fincances.
We can now have instant savers, where we can transfer our money from a savings account to a current account in seconds on the web.
Nationwide Building Society offers you the one minute mortgage promise. They can make up their mind in just one minute. I guess that if you were wanting to borrow, say 200,000 it would seem strange that it would be a decision that you’d be keen to be able to make in just 1 minute.
Health
We no longer need to diet – we can take a diet pill, or get liposuction.
What should be the approach of Christians try to share the good news of Jesus in an instant world?
Is Christianity a religion of instant gratification? When sharing the good news, should we focus on sharing stories of how our lives have instantly changed.
This kind of immediate, high pressure evangelism has gone on for quite some time. I remember as an early teenager going to a hear a well known evangelist who was speaking in a local theatre. The evangelist told an incredibly moving story of how he had been saved from a life of gang crime and drugs, and his whole life had been completely turned around when he put his faith in Jesus Christ. On the basis of this testimony he encouraged the audience to walk down the aisle as a sign that they had put their faith in Christ.
That short walk, we were told was all that stood in our way of our lives being radically transformed in the same way that his had been.
To his visible shock, nobody came forward. And so the music played on, and he began to make more and more extravagant promises about what would happen to those who came forward.
“Perhaps you really want to come forward, but you are concerned that your girlfriend will abandon you if you do. Well, God will give you a better looking girlfriend. Several young men got up out of their seats.” As more and more extravagant promises were made, more and more people began to come forward, and were assured that they had walked from death to life, and would most certainly be welcomed into eternal rewards.
Does Christianity promise that if we follow him our lives will immediately get better in every way we might like to measure improvement?
Is following Jesus the route to fulfilling all of our dreams?
Does Jesus offer us, as one popular author suggests today, “Your best life Now!”or as others have suggested, health, wealth and prosperity today?
Is following Jesus quicker than the internet in providing financial, medical, professional and personal affluence?
It is true that Jesus does promise the most extravagant and abundant blessings. He describes belonging to his kingdom as finding hidden treasure; even in the passage that we are looking at this morning we will read about rewards… “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward,” he will say.
Yet, as well as talking about rewards, Jesus will also talk about suffering.
And the suffering comes first. Then glory.
We will see this first in Jesus own life: there is to be suffering then glory. But this is also to be the model of discipleship: the blessings are not all now: we are to live by faith in what is yet to come before the time when we will live by sight, enjoying abundant blessings. And we are to live in humility, before the time when those who trust in Christ will receive their reward.
So, those are our three points.
1) Suffering then glory (2-13)
2) Faith then sight (14-29)
3) Humility then greatness. (30-50)
Turn with me to Mark 9:2-50
Page 1018

1) Suffering then glory
2(A) And after six days Jesus took with him(B) Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was(C) transfigured before them, 3and(D) his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one[a] on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5And Peter said to Jesus,(E) "Rabbi,[b] it is good that we are here. Let us make three(F) tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6For(G) he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7And(H) a cloud overshadowed them, and(I) a voice came out of the cloud,(J) "This is my beloved Son;[c] listen to him." 8And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.
9(K) And as they were coming down the mountain,(L) he charged them to tell no one what they had seen,(M) until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10(N) So they kept the matter to themselves,(O) questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. 11And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say(P) that first Elijah must come?" 12And he said to them, "Elijah does come first(Q) to restore all things. And(R) how is it written of the Son of Man that he should(S) suffer many things and(T) be treated with contempt? 13But I tell you that Elijah has come, and(U) they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."
Last week (ch 8) i) Peter’s confession of Christ (29)
ii) Jesus immediately talks about the fact that he will be a suffering Christ.And he began to teach them that(AL) the Son of Man must(AM) suffer many things and(AN) be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and(AO) after three days rise again. 32And he said this(AP) plainly.
iii) Peter didn’t like this idea And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, (AQ) "Get behind me, Satan! For you(AR) are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
Peter wanted a Messiah who was all glory and no suffering.
Chapter 9 is an encouragement to Peter: yes, says Jesus, there will be a time of glory. And he gives Peter James and John a glimpse of the glory that he will have after the resurrection. (v9)
As one commentator puts it “Not Jesus’ nature that is being transformed, ‘but his appearance is transformed to reveal his nature”
For a moment the veil comes down...
There is glory: and what glory it is: the glory reminds us of the exodus story. There too God had descended in a cloud to fills the temple: but they are left only with Jesus. He is God living with the people.
It is a moment of glory, and Peter misunderstands in several ways.
1) He doesn’t realise that it is all pointing to the uniqueness of Jesus.
a. 3 tents
b. “It is good for us to be here”
But it is all about Jesus. Moses and Elijah are there to testify to Jesus, and encourage the 3 disciples to know that he is the one they were preparing the way for as prophets.
God himself speaks, telling them that Jesus is indeed his Son.
And when the cloud of the presence of the Lord has gone, we are not left with a tent where God dwells... or are we. Jesus himself is the tent. John 1:14.
Jesus is God himself living with people.
You couldn’t get much more glorious than that.
2) He doesn’t realise that Jesus didn’t come to grasp that glory now, but to suffer first.
In v9, Jesus hints at the time that the glory would come: after the resurrection.
But the resurrection is the resurrection from the dead.
V11. the question: another subtle hint that the idea of death shouldn’t accompany the Messiah. Surely Elijah’s role was to restore all things. Surely he would sort things out so that there be no need of a suffering Messiah.
Jesus: yes, he restored a right call to repentance – but he too suffered. –
-elijah 1 : Ahab & Jezebel
- John the Baptist: Herod and Herodias.
That is the pattern of the one who preached Christ: suffering and then glory, because that is the pattern of Jesus himself.
So what were they to make of all this?
It is very clear: God had told them with his own voice from heaven. They were to listen to Jesus.
- Non Christian: does Jesus seems unimpressive: listen to him!
- Christian: don’t expect a Christ who is recognised by all today. His glory remains hidden and is for now only revealed in the preaching of the gospel. We have treasure in jars of clay.
- Children: realise that the Jesus you learn about is god himself: he is not like the other people in your picture books. He is unique: listen to him.
- Marriage: Looks both ways: suffering – who is first to lay down your life (speaking to a friend yesterday about who’s jumping ot get out of bed)
Glory: the intimacy of marriage is to point to the fact that there is time to come when we will see our great husband face to face and be one with him.
Work at intimacy, expect difficulty and get help!
- Church: living for glory we must share in suffering. We need to be a place where people can be miserable and yet joyful.
- Relected in our songs.
Carl Trueman:
In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship. Does our contemporary language of worship reflect the horizon of the expectation regarding the believer’s experience which the psalter proposes as normative? If not, why not? Is it because the comfortable values of Western middle-class consumerism have silently infiltrated the church and made us consider such cries irrelevant, embarrassing, and signs of abject failure?”
Only Christians can cry and ye not despair. For though we know that the suffering is very real, we know that the glory to come is absolutely certain, for God has already raised his Son from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in glory; he has already won the victory, and we will share in it one day.

Faith then Sight.
14(Y) And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him,(Z) were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16And he asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?" 17And someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has(AA) a spirit that makes him mute. 18And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and(AB) they were not able." 19And he answered them, "O(AC) faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." 20And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it(AD) convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21And Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But(AE) if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." 23And Jesus said to him, (AF) "'If you can'!(AG) All things are possible for one who believes." 24Immediately the father of the child cried out[d] and said, "I believe;(AH) help my unbelief!" 25And when Jesus saw that(AI) a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, (AJ) "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." 26And after crying out and(AK) convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27But Jesus(AL) took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28And when he had(AM) entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."[e]
Jesus Again Foretells Death, Resurrection
30(AN) They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed,(AO) after three days he will rise." 32(AP) But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

There are several unusual things about this story...
1) V 17 The man says that he has brought the boy to Jesus. But he hasn’t – he’s only brought him to Jesus’ disciples (19 Jesus still must say ‘bring him to me)
a. Don’t judge Jesus by his disciples.
b. Christians are not good people, but those who trust in a great saviour.
2) There is a strange thing: Jesus says that this kind can only be driven out by prayer, but there is no report of Jesus himself praying...
3) Lots of talk about faith / belief...
a. V19 – faithless generation
b. 21-24If you can... anything is possible for those who believe.
c. I do believe help me in my unbelief.
d. 28-29 Only by prayer
Not great faith, but faith in a great saviour.
This is about Jesus still...
Prayer is bringing things to Jesus; he is the Son of God, he has power to save.
Why didn’t the disciples bring the boy to Jesus? Because they were faithless.
But notice how little faith is required...
- Jesus doesn’t crush a little faith.
Faith as a rope... what matters is who is at the other end of the rope: Jesus is the only one strong enough.
And when there is faith exercised.... he looks worse before he looks better.
(AJ) "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." 26And after crying out and(AK) convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27But Jesus(AL) took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose
- Even in Jesus work in our lives there is death first then glory...
In many ways that you might want to measure it, if you follow Jesus life will get worse. But in ways that last, it has radically changed: there is new life! That will last forever.
Church: Bring people to Christ: conversation must focus on the gospel
- Come to “speaking of Jesus”
- Prayer prioritised in congregation
- Non-Christian: Do you ask this question “if you can?”
- Christian: beware over-realised eschatology. It is not your best life now. 1 Cor 15. Not all suffering will be removed if we have enough faith. For the Christian suffering is the norm. Jesus didn’t lack faith.
- Children: when you pray, what do you ask for. Listen to him.

Humility comes before greatness. 30-50
30(AN) They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed,(AO) after three days he will rise." 32(AP) But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
Who Is the Greatest?
33And(AQ) they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house(AR) he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34But they kept silent, for on the way(AS) they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, (AT) "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." 36And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and(AU) taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37(AV) "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
Anyone Not Against Us Is for Us
38(AW) John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone(AX) casting out demons in your name,[f] and(AY) we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40(AZ) For the one who is not against us is for us. 41For truly, I say to you,(BA) whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
Temptations to Sin
42(BB) "Whoever causes one of(BC) these little ones who believe in me to sin,[g](BD) it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43(BE) And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to(BF) hell,[h] to(BG) the unquenchable fire.[i] 45(BH) And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into(BI) hell. 47(BJ) And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into(BK) hell, 48'where(BL) their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' 49For everyone will be salted with fire.[j] 50(BM) Salt is good,(BN) but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?(BO) Have salt in yourselves, and(BP) be at peace with one another."

Irony: Jesus talks about his death
Dan 7, Is 53. Gospel.
Isaiah 53 comes first!
They are afraid to ask; (Even though God has told 3 of them at least to listen to him... they should be asking at every point!)
- Don’t be afraid to ask... go to bible: but get counsel too...
I fear that Peter, James and john were part of that conversation about greatness.
It seems that they were afraid to ask though, not because they were shy of Jesus, ut because they thought they might not like the answer.
- Beware of decisions that you make where you either don’t get counsel, or you ignore it.
- They wanted greatness now...
- They should know who the greatest is, and he is talking about suffering.
- Upside down...
What does greatness look like according to Jesus?
The one who serves A child.
Not a child: the servant of a child.
Servant of all.
This is the only kind of leadership that any Christian may aspire to.
- We are all servants of Christ; he served us (10:45)
- Pride wants to belittle others, rather than encourage (38-41)
- Pride protects sin

The suffering that we face as Christians comes in many guises.
- Persecution
- Distraction
- Senses
o Cut them off.
o Living by faith not by sight means preching to ourselves that our senses must not be blindly obeyed, but subordinated to the gospel principle.
- 2 judgements
o Hell
 It is real
 It is terrible
 It is eternal
o Mortification of sin
 It must be a reality
 It must be radical
 It must be lifelong
- Church: this is the only way in which we will have a community that encourages us to persevere through suffering until the day of glory.
- How do you measure your discipleship?
o Quiet times?
o Are you growing in your relationships with the Lord’s people. If you are not, then I’m not sure that however else you are measuring growth is really very credible.
o Romans 12:10 “love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.” The only kind of one-upmanship we are to have is trying to care for others better than they care for us. Trying to be more interested in others than they are in us. Trying to help others more than they help us... (not false – don’t refuse help – but be generous!)
o For that is who we serve.
The only greatness that we can have is the recognition of the greatness of the Lord Jesus. The highest honour that we could possible be given, is the right to honour the Lord Jesus. The place of greatest dignity will be when we eternally fall on our knees to bow before His throne.
Our glorious king, who being in very nature God...
o Philippians 2.

- Where is true greatness seen?
In the transfiguration, for sure.
In the cross:
The suffering:
Temptation in Gethsemane.
Persecution to the point of death.
Every sense would have been crying out to get out of the pain... but he endured.

He plucked out the eye that might lead him to look to his own interests, and submitted that eye to see the mocking and the beating and the spitting of Roman soldiers.
He cut off the feet that might walk away from the cross, and surrendered them to stagger along the road to Calvary.
He cut off the hands that might summon legions of angels to tear him down from the cross, and surrendered them to iron nails.
There is greatness. That the Son of Man should suffer, and become the servant of all.
In heaven, when we bow before the Lord Jesus and praise him for his greatness: he will be radiant: Rev 1 “one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his waist. And yet who is the one who is dressed in such splendour?
He is the lamb, looking as though he has been slain.
Forever, when we sing of the glory of the Son of Man, his glory will be infinitely magnified, because he was the Son of Man who suffered to redeem his people.
And we shall sing “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.”