Greeting
I always love that big Nolani woo at the end. Um, so, good morning. I am Pastor Conrad, I’m one of the pastors here. It’s nice to see a relatively full house, right there.
So, this morning, we’re going to get right into it. There’s two kinds of people in this world. There’s movie people and there’s TV people. Who’s a movie person? You’re wrong. Who’s a TV person? Yes, welcome to the correct club.
Um, I like TV. I like movies, too. I have a lot of movies that I enjoy, but I like TV because I like being invested in the characters long term. But you know, if you watch TV enough, you get to see these patterns that develop. Most TV shows have these two stories. We call them the A and the B plot, and then they cross over at the end of the episode, and we see how they sort of fit together to create one unified story.
And that’s a little bit of what we’re going to be talking about this morning with the passage that I’m reading in Mark. It’s these 3 stories that at first blush don’t seem like they’re related to each other. But once you take a 2nd to think about it, you realize how they come together and how they form one cohesive thing.
So anyway, my message for this morning is called, my idea is bad, but I’m going with it. Um, and you’ll see where that goes eventually.
Opening Prayer
So let’s pray and we’ll get right in because we’ve got a lot to get through this morning.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your gospel that you’ve preserved through all these years that we can mine them and still continue to learn new things after years and years of reading them and learning about them. And I pray that that would be the case this morning, God, that you would give us a fresh insight to what you have to tell us. And that you would lead us to a new place, to a deeper place, where we know you better and where we’re fully submitted to your will. Thank you, God. Amen.
Introduction to Mark 9
So today, I’m going to be testing you guys on your sword drills because I’m not putting anything on the screen. So, Mark chapter 9. If you want, you can just be joking to your friends about how no one knows where anything is the Bible, and while you’re doing that, you can stick your finger in the index. You can pop back and forth that way.
So in Mark chapter 9, picking up in verse 30. We’re going to be 30 to 32 to start with.
They, that’s Jesus and the disciples, went out from there, which is what Mike talked about last week, that whole scenario. So after that, they went out and passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know. For he was teaching his disciples and telling them, the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after 3 days he will rise. But they did not understand this statement and were afraid to ask.
Jesus’ Teaching on His Death
So here’s Jesus, coming back to Galilee, right? His home region, his hometown in Nazareth, is in the south of Galilee. But he doesn’t visit anyone. He’s not stopping in to see Uncle Bob or friend Billy that he went to school with. Why? Because that’s not what he’s supposed to be doing. God’s called him to make his way to Jerusalem. He doesn’t have time for a visit with the fam. Kingdom work is coming 1st before the things that he wants to do.
I think that maybe is a lesson that we could all take. If God has us doing something, we don’t say, well, God, you know, I’m busy right now, but I’ll get to it in a minute. If God wants you to do something, we need to trust him, right? We need to trust him and step into that thing that he would have us do.
So anyway, Jesus is busy teaching the disciples so they can’t stop and visit with the friends, and what’s he teaching them? This is his 2nd prediction of his death. Remember last time I talked about this? I said that there were a total of three. This is the 2nd one. And each time it’s followed by a teaching on discipleship. And I’m going to teach 2 of those discipleship lessons. And then Gert will be doing the 3rd one or the following one the week after.
But the disciples here, Jesus was like, well, I have to suffer and be killed, and then I’ll rise again. And the disciples are confused. Um, I don’t know. We seem to read that a lot. I bet you if we did like a word search, like a keyword search in the gospels for the disciples were confused. We did a lot of hits.
Um, And they’re scared to ask. I think there might be a couple reasons. I can imagine them, you know, being like, what does he mean? You ask him, I don’t want to ask him. He called me Satan last time I asked him. You asked him. I don’t want to be called Satan. Let get John to do it.
So maybe there’s a little bit of that, because they know that they’re sort of thick, right? But maybe a little part of them is starting to wonder if maybe they’ve got the wrong guy. Maybe there’s a little pit developing in their stomach and they’re having a little bit of doubt.
You know, we’re talking about doubt this semester of fusion. I don’t think that doubt is a bad thing. As long as we pursue the truth, it will always lead us back to Jesus. You shouldn’t be afraid of doubt.
But anyway, maybe the disciples are having doubt because maybe they’re thinking, What do you mean you’re going to be resurrected? They don’t have any frame of reference for that. When the Jewish people talk about resurrection, it’s always communal.
I’m going to quickly jump to Daniel, the book of Daniel, chapter 12 and verse 2. Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake some to everlasting life and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence.
See, the Jewish people believed in a communal resurrection. It was something that would happen to everybody. And here’s this Jesus guy coming along talking about being resurrected by himself.
Now, with the benefit of history and hindsight, we can look back and say, okay, well, clearly Jesus is rising first, right? The firstborn among many brothers. And then the rest of us come later. As Jesus does so often, he is setting a template for us. He is not saying, go do that, here’s a map. He is like a general on the front line leading the charge.
And I’m thankful that we had a god like that. So, one for Jesus, one for us, separate but equal. Jesus is the template.
Disciples’ Ambition
This leads me into my 1st trip of 2 to Tangent Town this morning. Jesus says, the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. to be killed. And they’re not justly putting him to death for crimes that he committed, right? Like we see in the legal system today. Some countries have a death penalty that you can get for breaking the law.
Instead, Jesus was murdered by people who hated him. This was a spiteful death that was motivated by hate. Which brings us to our next scripture. We’re going all the way back to Genesis now. See how quick the quick among you are. Genesis 50, 20. Some of you might know where I’m going with this already. This is Joseph talking to his brothers.
As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose. So he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see to this day.
You remember the story of Joseph? His brothers were gonna kill him. Then they sold him into slavery, and he ends up rising through the ranks and becoming the 2nd in command of the entire land. And because of his position, he’s able to take care of his family later.
They intended an evil act in the same way that these men intended an evil act against Jesus, but in the same way, God brought something good out of it. Which might shed new light on Romans 828.
I’m sure you’ve all heard this one a 10000 times. Roman 8,28. And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, and who are called according to his purpose.
All things work together. And how often have you been in a bad situation, someone says, all things will work together for the good. And you’re like, I’ve been in the whole 30 years, bro. When’s the good coming?
Our perspective is all wrong, gang. I talked about this before, Brittany and Cole said they loved it. The meat suit. We love the meat suit. We’re very concerned with this temple of hamburger. But God is not.
Things did not work together for the good of Jesus in his earthly human body. He was tortured and killed. His life came to a terrible end on this earth. God’s perspective. is bigger. than this temporal ball that we live on.
Right? God’s perspective is our souls. All things work together for the good. That is the good, the good is God’s plan for us.
And this is where I want to say that men, mankind, human people. We cannot do anything to frustrate the will of a sovereign God. Who is in charge? God is in charge. What if I try to do, no. But if I, no. Well, how, no. God is in charge, okay?
So I just want to make sure that we understand that when we talk about things working together for the good, this is a prime example, Jesus says, I’m going to be delivered into the hands of these people who hate me and will kill me, and that is done because I love you, and this will save you. Nothing that we do can thwart the will of God.
So anyway, we need to move on because I’m going to be here all morning. Speaking of frustrating a sovereign God, Jesus might be getting a little bit annoyed at the disciples at this point because they are really riding the struggle bus on this whole death and resurrection thing.
Maybe they need to take another read of Isaiah 53 in the suffering servant. But anyway, we’re moving on.
Disciples Arguing About Greatness
The 2nd part of our scripture for this morning. Right on time. Mark 9, 33 to 37.
And if you’re curious, I’m reading out of the new English translation. They came to Capernaum. After Jesus was inside the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way, I love this story. But they were silent, for on the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
After he sat down, he called the 12 and said to them, if anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all. He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking the child in his arms. He said to them, whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
See, the disciples are fully entrenched in their culture, and their culture is a status culture. There are different striations levels, Jerry, levels. that people are on in this Jewish culture. And you want to be at the top. You don’t want to be at the bottom top is good, bottom is bad.
And so Jesus asked them, what were you guys talking about? Is Jesus trying to get information here? No. Parents, have you ever asked your child a question that you already know the answer to? Why are you doing that? Not for your benefit, for theirs, because you need them to reflect on something. You need to teach them something. It’s the same with Jesus. Right? He already knows the answer.
The disciples are thinking in terms of their culture. They want status, right? They want power. They want glory, they want honor, they want praise, but who? To whom belongs all glory, honor, and praise? God. God.
So what are the disciples after? Maybe without even realizing it? Almost certainly without realizing it, they’re after God’s spot. They have their eyes on his seat. I want the glory, honor and praise.
Um, and before we go off again and talk about those domed disciples. That’s us. That’s us. Let’s reflect and say, how am I doing that? Right? We need to seed God’s domain to God and take up what he’s given us.
So the disciples fall back on their old beliefs and they’re ashamed. They don’t even want to say it out loud like, what were you talking about? Nothing, nothing. We were in weather, talking about the weather.
And we all do this, right? We can all fall back into our old, comfortable beliefs. And as long as we know that, we can do something about it. If you’re like, that’s not a problem I have, you might have it worse than any of us.
Um, so I’m gonna drop this little nugget. I’m gonna drop it on you, and then I’m gonna put it in my pocket and talk about it later. But shame can be a good thing. Shame can be a good thing. We’ll come back to that.
Now, Jesus brings a child. So they’re at the house and he just, I don’t know, kidnaps a child. That’s not what happened. So they’re in Capernaum. The house that they’re at is probably Peter’s house and it’s probably Peter’s relatives or family or meeting at the house. It was sort of a gathering place, right?
Well, they were stopped in Capernaum on their journey. So one of the children happened to be there. Jesus brings them up in the middle. And the thing about children in that culture is that they had no status. None. Like, we talk about how women had no status. Children had no status.
Women could clean the house. They could provide children. They had lots of things that they could do. They were productive members of society. Children were a drain. They cost time, they cost money. They offer nothing. That’s how they felt about children.
Um, and so that’s where I want to sort of bring Philippians in to mine. Maybe notes would be better rather than flipping around. don’t know. depends how fast you are. Philippians, chapter 2 and verse three.
Paul writes, instead of being motivated. by selfish ambition or vanity. Each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.
So Jesus cares not for your status. He does not care how important you are. That’s why he brings up this child as an example, right? Whatever you do to these, is what you do to me, and you welcome me. Right? So if you’re doing something good for children, no one cares. But God does.
He sees what goes unnoticed by us. Okay? He sees what goes unnoticed by us. And the thing I want to point out here is, what does Jesus not bring? He doesn’t bring up a dog. Right? Certainly, dogs were lower than children on the scale. That’s not what he brings up.
He doesn’t bring up a plant. So we sometimes get our priorities all messed up. Remember, a couple years ago, there was a two-year-old who fell into a gorilla cage, and had a fear of the child’s life. They shot the gorilla, and there was this big thing. Oh, I can’t believe they killed the gorilla, you know? Are you serious? Between a gorilla and a child? You weren’t sure which one should be saved? Bruh.
In the same way, we can say, it doesn’t matter how many people die. We need to save the planet. Between people, guerrillas and the planet. Which of those 3 is made in the image of God? That is the one that has value, friends.
Now, does that mean we don’t care about animals? No, of course not. Right? When the animals were named, God said, Adam, take care of these things. When the earth was made, God said, Adam, take care of this thing. We should be taking care of these resources, they’re here for us.
But they’re not more important than we are. Okay? My little mini sermon within a sermon there. But people are made in the image of God. People are who Jesus cares about, and that’s why the lowest tier is still humanity.
Um, And the other thing is that the disciples seeking greatness. Greatness implies a scale, doesn’t it? It’s not on or off. There’s something that’s less great and something that’s more great and something that’s greatest. So if there’s a scale and a standard, then someone has to set that scale, right?
So this is where we come back to the idea of good shame. I’m going to say this twice so you don’t miss it. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master.
So this is where shame can be good. I’m going to say this twice so you don’t miss it. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master.
So this is where shame can be good. I’m going to say this twice so you don’t miss it. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master.
And the other thing is that shame can be good. I’m going to say this twice so you don’t miss it. Whoever you want to be great in the eyes of is your master.
Disciples Rebuking an Exorcist
Onto scripture 3 for this morning. Picking up again in Mark chapter 9 and verse 38 through 41.
John speaking to Jesus. John said to him, teacher, we saw someone cast out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will soon afterward be able to say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us. For I tell you the truth, whoever gives you a cup of water because you bear Christ’s name will never lose his reward.
I spent so long on this passage this week. Um, I spent so long on it because there’s lots of things in here and I tried to whittle them down to something that was helpful and useful for everybody.
So we start off with disciples, rebuking someone. Okay, there is a guy out there saying, in the name of Jesus, be free from this demonic possession, the disciples think to themselves, well, we have to put us off to this. People being freed in the name of Jesus? No we can’t be having that. What? Why, though?
They tried to stop him because he was a non-grouper. He was not part of the inner circle that the disciples were so concerned with. But this unknown man is operating in the power of Jesus. If the demon is coming out, if the person that he’s praying for is being freed. Then that’s the power of Jesus.
Because either Jesus is in it or he’s not. And if he’s not in it, that person is not being freed. So here’s the thing. We’re going to go back to Philippians. Philippians one is coming up in just a second. Truth is truth no matter who says it. And truth is power, no matter who says it.
So Philippians one, starting in verse 12. This is a fairly lengthy passage, going up to 19 from Paul. Now, he writes as well, he’s in prison. That’s the context for this.
Now, I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ.
And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.
It’s true, don’t miss this part. It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry, but others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the good news.
Now here’s the crux of this. Those others who do not have pure motives, as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me, but that doesn’t matter.
Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice, for I know that as you pray for me, and the spirit of Christ helps me, they will lead me to my deliverance.
It doesn’t matter. Can I tell you a story? I don’t have the reference. I would love to have it, but I can’t remember his podcast. I heard a couple of years ago. William Lane Craig is a philosopher, doctrine teacher, who owns a ministry called Reasonable Faith. It’s apologetics ministry trying to explain Christianity to people in a way that makes sense.
And he was written a letter some years ago by a man who had escaped from behind the Iron Curtain. He was in, uh, in imprisoned in the USSR. Okay? Now, I don’t know if you know about the communist Soviet USSR. They hated God, hated God.
So anyway, they also did not have working toilets in this prison. So they had buckets. That includes the staff, the guards. They had buckets. And so they didn’t have an endless supply of buckets, the buckets had to be cleaned.
So this fella, who reached out to Bill Craig at reasonable faith, says, I was the bucket cleaner. It was my turn to do bucket cleaning duty. So he’s cleaning out the refuse from these buckets. And in there, he sees a printed page in, in, in the, the fecal matter.
Um, And they’re starved for like anything. They have nothing, nothing to entertain themselves with. So he was like, oh, I’m going to take this. So he cleaned this piece of paper off and kept it, folded, put it in his pocket, kept it with him.
Well, it was a page out of a New Testament book. I can’t remember which one. I think it was one of the gospels, but it was a page from a New Testament book. The guard, so hated God that he had a Bible, and was tearing out the pages to use for toilet paper.
This guy finds these pages, cleans them off, keeps them, and is reading them just to not go insane, just for entertainment. Anyway, he gets saved because of what he reads on these pages. And he has a hefty chunk of the New Testament. He still has it today as far as I know. Um, that he cleaned off.
This guy, this guard who hated God so much that he literally used the Bible for toilet paper. Led to the salvation of this man who led to the salvation of who knows how many other people. The word of God does not return void. Amen.
What an amazing story. And then Jesus also postulates that this could be a scenario where this guy accidentally saves himself if he’s some kind of fraud. Jesus said, do not stop him because no one who does a miracle in my name will soon after be able to say anything bad about me.
If you’re seeing people healed and set free in the name of Jesus, are you then going to go, oh, that’s probably not true. How could you? Like Brandon Marsh of Bethel Church says, it’s too good not to be true.
So whenever the truth goes out, the truth gets results. Praise God.
Inclusivity and Exclusivity
And so the next thing that I spent a long time on was this line, which really confused me. Mark 940 says, for whoever is not against us is for us. What? Some of you might remember, in Matthew 12, and also Luke 23, or Luke 11, 23. Matthew 1230, Jesus says, anyone who isn’t with me opposes me. What?
Anyone who’s not against us is for us. Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me. Explain. At first, this seems really contradictory, and I love when those sorts of things come up, because anytime you’re like, this doesn’t make any sense. If you take the time to processes, it does, right?
It’s an easy dunk for atheists who just hate God, but for those of us who love him, there’s truth to be learned here.
So what is the context of these verses? Mark nine, the context is there’s a man healing people in the name of Jesus and the disciples are trying to rebuke him. In Matthew 12 and Luke 11. The context is Pharisees saying that Jesus is operating under the power of Satan. And they’re rebuking him and saying, that is satanic power, that is not from God.
So how do we square the circle? Is Jesus inclusive or exclusive? Well, the context fixes that. The atheist, the non-Christian, the people who hate Christ are against Jesus. But our fellow believers are for him.
So even though this guy was not part of the 12 disciples, he was still for Jesus, in the same way, we might we should not get caught up and say, well, we’re Pentecostals, so we don’t associate with those dirty Baptists. Those Mennonites are no good. Lutherans, get out of here.
We’re all serving the same God. We should not seek to stir up unity among the brothers and the sisters of Christ. And you’ll see preachers do this sometimes. like, that guy, that denomination is off the rails. You know, I like John MacArthur’s teaching, but he’s prone to do that from time to time, and it stirs up division in the body.
Why? Who is being edified by that? So when is our brothers and sisters in the faith, we shouldn’t pick fights on things that don’t matter. If someone stepped out of line saying, Jesus isn’t God, well, okay, now we need to talk about that.
But little things like whether or not you use a wood pulpit or a glass pulpit, no one cares. It’s fine. Let it ride.
So then, um, those who are without, outside of the faith, we should seek to bring them in. Those who are in and stepping outside the faith, we should seek to bring them in and only when they refuse correction or whatever, should we then warn others to come away from them.
So is that clearer? Is Jesus inclusive or exclusive? The answer is yes. Right? He’s inclusive of all who claim him as savior, and exclusive of all who reject him as savior. It’s really that simple. Preach it.
Cup of Water and Reward
So let’s bring this plane in for a landing here. Jesus hits us with this at the end. And I literally spent a couple hours last night talking with my nerdy theology friend Ryan about this. Mark 941, for I tell you the truth. Whoever gives you a cup of water because you bear Christ’s name will never lose his reward.
And so we always look at this as like, oh, you should do Christian service. And I was looking at it and going, wait a minute, what’s this reward? And how are we secured in it?
Um, so what do we make of this? Is Jesus rewarding the water bearers? Are the water boys truly the blessed of the Lord?
My theory is this. Water is not actually water per se. It’s service, serving our brothers and sisters. And the reward is salvation. Because the idea here is that the people who are serving the Christians are Christians. They’ve already accepted Christ.
And if we’re living that out with works, as we read in James 2. That’s the evidence of the faith that’s inside of us. And so in that way, we can never lose our faith. I talk about this all the time, right? Like you might lose your keys. You can reject it. You can take your keys and throw them, and then they will be lost.
But that was an intentional act, right? We cannot lose it. The point here is that we are to care for each other. And as long as we are living out those works and caring for one another, even people who are not part of our tribe, We take care of our Mennonite brothers and sisters, maybe even our Catholic brothers and sisters, that might be a little more interesting conversation.
Then we know that we’re living out the call that God has on us to do good things, right? And if you want to hear about that Gert talked about James too, it’s on our YouTube channel, it was really good. I think 2 years ago, it was a little while back.
Anyway, so the disciples are all about the tribalism. They’re all about the inner circle. And here’s the thing that came to me as I was reading these stories and putting together the disciples exclusive tribalness. They did not want God to be glorified, unless they were standing beside him with a Shecher cat grin.
That’s what they wanted. They wanted to be there beside him. The disciples wanted the world to know how important they were. rather than letting the world know how important Jesus is.
Do you see the really stark difference there? So this is our take home. I wrapping it up here. got 2 sentences left. What is your orientation today? What is your orientation? Where are you aiming yourself?
Are you the pre-Pentecostal disciples, the 1st of 2 options? The pre-Pentecost disciples who were informed by the outside and addressed their own desires upward. Or, Are you a post-Pentecost disciple? Informed from above and addressing his desires outward.
Is it going this way? Or this way. That’s the key here. Who is master? Amen.
Closing Prayer
I’m going to pray and then we’re going to let Trisha close us off for this morning.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your correction. Thank you for your rebuke. God, I pray that as we like the disciples sometimes struggle to understand these concepts or struggle more to implement the concepts that we understand, that you would give us your power, that you would give us your grace, that you would give us your favor and help us to execute faithfully the office that you’ve given us, God.
Help us to reach out to people, to receive from above what you would have and give that outward to a world that desperately needs your truth. Amen.