Saturday Study

Mark 16-Exodus 4 (4-7-17)

As we begin into the Exodus Era this week I am very excited to get into the testimony of God’s work in and through Israel and his servant Moses. The events of the Exodus and God’s deliverance of this small nation of Israel is historically one of the most talked about events from generation to generation.  We see this all throughout the biblical narrative and in the New Covenant as God fulfills much of his redemptive plan in Christ whereby key things were set in motion at the Exodus are fulfilled. In just the first few chapters there is so much to cover as we focus in on Moses. So with that let’s dig in..

A God ordained adoption

In Exodus 2, Moses’ story begins with his birth.  His parents had to send him down the river in order to try to keep him alive.

If they only knew what God had in store for him.  The Daughter of Pharaoh makes him her own. (v. 10)  Moses looked to use his status in Pharaoh’s house to look out for his people ( v.11).   In his defending a Hebrew man who was being beaten, he killed an Egyptian soldier and fled to Mideon to avoid the wrath of Pharaoh. (v. 12-15). He married and had a son in his time away from Egypt.  At the end of Exodus 2, we read that Pharaoh died and the Israelites cried out to God to remove them from their bondage in Egypt.  “Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew”. (Exodus 2:23-25)

An Unlikely Leader

In Exodus 3 we read about the incredible encounter Moses has with God at the burning bush.  God making himself known through this kind of encounter is what is called a Theophany.  Moses shows great reverence and righteous fear at the presence of God. God tells Moses that he has seen his people’s affliction and heard their cries and that he will deliver them to the Promised land.  Then God says something Moses would have never expected.  He says you will be my mouth piece before Pharaoh and chosen leader. Listen, to Moses’ response.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt -Exodus 3:11

“who am I?  I am a nobody! “

Too often we get caught up in only looking at the horizontal. Meaning, we are only worried about what other people think of us, how they will respond and what we are capable of.   But realize, when we do this, we are missing something very critical.  What God thinks about us and what he can do in and through us.  This is the vertical truth we must walk in every day.  Yes, by the world’s standards, we are often very insufficient and unqualified.  But that is not how God works. He most often takes the least of these and raises them up to do mighty things so that he is the one who gets the glory.

Notice as we read on…. God doesn’t give Moses a pep talk… he doesn’t slow down and say.. “You can do it”

What God doesn’t say to us in response to our feeling defeated or ill-equipped, Is   “You just have to believe in yourself”. 

God’s response to Moses is a statement of TRUTH.. of assurance of the one who is in POWER!-   5 life shifting words…..

Exodus 3:12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

God isn’t the guy who wants to cast you in his epic story because he is desperate for anyone who will show up.. this is the author, perfector, designer, creator, director and sustainer of all things… “I WILL BE WITH YOU!”

God has given the life shifting statement to everyday, average, unlikely people time and time again… it was those same words Jesus told his previously cowardly, failed and scared disciples.  After experiencing the risen Christ and hearing the promise that he would be with them all the way… And what did they do?  They rose up and gave all they had to their faith as they gave birth to the church.

The ? for us is:    What have I done with those words? 

God says: “I will be with you” … how did you wake up and live life this last week as a result of those words?

“Thank God… having you around will make things easier and more convenient”

OR  “Ok God, I’ll remember that when I can’t seem to do it on my own”

OR   “God, I recognize it is all from you and for you… I trust you will lead me, sustain me and use me for your purposes….let’s go!”

I AM

One of the things that helps us is to rightly know and remember who God is to understand what his name is.  In our text we get one of the most important insights into who God is as he describes to Moses his name!

Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “ I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘ I am has sent me to you. ’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. ’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days ‘journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. ’

What you need to understand about the religious system in Egypt in that day is a belief in many gods.

These are “Little g” – little pretender gods-  a god of soil,   of fertility,     of the sun,    of death

So Moses is asking,  “How do I describe you to those who believe in many gods?  Which god will they think you are?”

Now listen to God’s answer….

¹⁴ God said to Moses,   “I am who I am . ”    Now you might be thinking,  ‘Well that just clears it up!”

But really pay attention to what he just said. “ I am who I am” is taken from a Hebrew word that means, “to exist”

What God is telling Moses is…. I exist, I am REAL!

IN this he is Totally slamming the entire religious system.   And putting to correct shame all the little g man made gods.

He makes no excuses, no explanation.  He is as straight forward and he can be.  I AM!

Whether you figure me out or not or whether you acknowledge me or not!  I AM

Next God says: This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

So, God’s name is I AM.

¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD,  the God of your fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has sent me to you.’   This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

The LORD (all CAPS)     L   O   R    D

The LORD = Four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) This was so sacred the Jewish people wouldn’t even pronounce them

• Our modern word for God’s name is “Yahweh”
• So, anywhere you see the LORD in all caps in the bible this is a sign that it is in reference to the One true God.

This is the Name of God!  YAHWEH!

It is not a name to be taken lightly!     àIt is full of power and wonder!

It is a name describing his eternal power and unchangeable character.

*In a world where values, morals, and laws change constantly, we can find stability and security in our unchanging God.

This name is used 6800 times in the Old Testament!

Now think of the difference between knowing him as GOD verse knowing him as Yahweh–  “HE IS”!

When God’s reveals his name is not only letting us get to know him, He is proclaiming who he is

So when he says, I AM he is saying,   “I am huge,   I am it,   I am Vast,   I am who I am!”

No matter what you think or have been told.  I AM

He is surely worthy of our trust and praise!

Setting the table for what is coming next

Exodus 3:19-22 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.

This sets the table for all that God was about to do deliver his people from the most powerful and dominate ruler in the world at the time.  Stoked for what lies ahead of us in our reading of the Exodus.

To close, what I love about the testimony of Moses is that it is far more a testimony about God.  I want my life to be that way.  I want the people who walked with me and heard my preaching and followed me to have way more to say about all that God did in and through me in that time then what I did.    May we keep our eyes on the vertical and not just the horizontal.  May we never forget that we are utterly dependant on the great I AM who is with us always.   May we never lose our gratitude or trust in God, even when what stands before us seems insurmountable.

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Mark 11-15 (3-31-17)

In Mark 12:1-11, we read the parable of the tenants. This is a powerful story Jesus tells.

Read this passage again, and then I want to share with you a story Pastor John Piper wrote years ago to bring a powerful illustration of the gospel application of this story. On this sobering Saturday following our remembrance of the Death of Jesus our Savior, I pray it has the same impact on you that it has had on me and brings about so much gratitude and praise for our good God. 

By John Piper:

Once there was a king who reigned over the whole earth. He was a good king and very powerful. He loved his subjects and governed the whole earth with perfect justice. No one could find fault with him. No one ever rebelled because the king was a good king. When there was rebellion, it was only because the people wanted to be kings themselves.

And it came to pass that the king decided to plant a beautiful vineyard, to grow fruit for his court and for all the earth. He supervised the work himself. He planted the vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower.

And then he chose one of the poorest groups of people in his realm to be the tenants of his vineyard, and he promised them all the help they needed if they would but ask him and trust him to give it.

It was an almost unbelievable privilege to be chosen by the great king to tend his vineyard.

And in the early days the tenants loved their work. They could scarcely call it work.

The king gave them all they needed, he let them eat the fruit, he guarded their borders, and sent his messengers to them often. It was as if he were doing the work.

But that became a problem. Because soon the attitudes of the tenants began to change.

They didn’t like the idea of giving the king all the credit for their produce. In fact, they didn’t like the idea of being tenants at all. They began to want to be owners. Owners get the produce; owners get the rent; owners get all the glory, especially when they do so much of the work. So deep inside the tenants wanted to be the owner. They wanted to be their own boss and not rely on the patronizing help of the king.

And so a terrible thing happened. One day the king sent his servants to receive a load of fruit from his vineyard. But they found no one at the winepress or in the barns or in the vineyard. These servants were three of the most faithful messengers of the king.

They were duly commissioned and stood in the king’s place. They became very tense at the strange silence in the vineyard. There were no birds. There had always been birds. There were no children. There had always been children. There was no music. There had always been music.

But then, suddenly from everywhere, the angry tenants emerged, and the servants of the king were surrounded. Those who didn’t have sharp pruning hooks in their hands held large jagged stones. The servants of the king were armed with nothing but the king’s words to them before they left …  He had said,

Though arrogance and rage assail,

Conspiracy will not prevail.

In death recall unerringly

That you will always reign with me.

With his words they were better armed than the wicked tenants. But not against the pruning hooks. The tenants rushed upon them and grabbed the two younger messengers and made them watch while they beheaded the faithful old man with a pruning hook.

They could hear him repeating the king’s promise until he died. He really believed it.

In death recall unerringly

That you will always reign with me.

Then they turned on the younger servants and beat one and stoned the other and sent them back to the king half dead with a message:

We’ve had enough of sovereign care,

We see no need with you to share.

You have your kingdoms, fields and towers,

Go now, rule yours, and we’ll rule ours.

When the king heard this, and how his friend and servant had been slain, he went away and took counsel with himself in the royal chamber. All the court expected him to emerge readied for battle, for they knew he was a mighty warrior and deeply loved his messengers.

But when he appeared, he did not gather an army; he called around him six of his most loyal ambassadors and asked, “Who is willing to go for me and deliver my message to the tenants of the vineyard?” The ambassadors were startled and said, “What message, my lord?”

The king opened the scroll and read,

Of me it has been said of old, It magnifies my strength to hold

In check my wrath, restrain my woes, And offer mercy to my foes.

Turn now and bend the knee to me, And I’ll forgive your treachery.

He looked up again and said, “Who is willing to go for me and deliver my word to the tenants of the vineyard?” And all six stepped forward. For there was no greater honor in the realm than to bear the message of the king. The king took each one by the hand, looked into his eyes, and said, as if he were the only person in the world,

Though arrogance and rage assail,

Conspiracy will not prevail.

In death recall unerringly

That you will always reign with me.

And with his words as their only weapon they journeyed to the king’s vineyard. When they saw guards, they paused outside the gate and renewed their vows of loyalty to the king. They entered a solemn covenant not to avenge one another, even if their hearts should break. As soon as they entered the gate, they were captured, bound, and taken before the leaders. The king’s message was read. And the tenants were enflamed with rage.

Three of the ambassadors they killed, two they stoned almost to death, and one they flogged until he passed out. They loaded the three dying ambassadors with the three mutilated bodies on a cart and sent them back to the king with this message:

If we should ever want a king,

If we should ever want to bring

Our homage to a royal seat,

Know this: we’ll stand upon our feet,

And ask no mercy, bend no knee,

We’ll build our own if need should be.

When the good king read this message and saw the bodies of his beloved ambassadors, he paused only an instant, then he turned and walked to the chamber of his son, spoke briefly, and the two of them went on a long journey into the hills, alone.

Meanwhile, the palace of the king was full of commotion and noise and planning. The mighty men were preparing for war. The blood of the martyr-messengers was screaming for justice to be done. The desecration of the king’s name was an intolerable offence to those who loved him and served him day and night. The chariots were assembled. The armor was shined, the swords and spears sharpened, and thousands upon thousands gathered at the palace of the king and waited. And at the head of the camp stood the great white stallion—the largest, strongest, most beautiful horse in the realm.

Only one person could ride the stallion and lead the king’s forces against the treacherous tenants—the son, the king’s only son. Soon the king and his son would come out of their silence arrayed for battle. Soon the strategy of the hills would be revealed. It would be an incomparable battle plan—the son upon his mighty stallion, and ten thousand warriors in his train.

Early one morning they were spotted coming down out of the hills. And a great silence fell across the armies. What they saw was utterly beyond comprehension. The king was dressed in mourning garments, leading a donkey with a hemp rope, and on the donkey sat the son dressed like a common beggar. They entered and passed through the camp, and as they passed, the warriors bowed to the ground.

What had happened in the hills? What strange plan had these two made? It had not been done in haste. And no one has been consulted. (There are no counselors in the court of this king.)  It was a strategy from the depths of the king’s love and wisdom. And the son had joyfully agreed.

They passed through the armies without a word. At the far edge of the palace grounds nearest the territory of the vineyard they stopped. The king embraced the son and whispered just for him:

Though arrogance and rage assail,

Conspiracy will not prevail.

In death recall unerringly

That you will always reign with me.

After the son rode off alone on the donkey, the king turned back to his loyal subjects.

They suspected what he was doing, but could scarcely believe it. The wicked tenants wouldn’t just kill him. They would humiliate him and torture him. It was hard enough to understand that the all-wise king would send his six beloved ambassadors to certain death. But now his son, his only son, to be toyed with and destroyed by worthless scoundrels.

The king knew the armies expected some word of explanation. So he took his stand before them in his mourning garments and simply said:

When we have given all we can

Then we will fight, but only then.

So the armies of the King kept themselves in readiness. And the king sat down on his throne.

The word spread everywhere and ran ahead of the king’s son. By the time he arrived at the gate of the vineyard, there was quite a stir. The king’s son had never left the palace. He had never visited any realm. Most of the people found it incredible—the king’s son does not dress like a beggar and ride on a donkey. He wears white and purple robes and rides a white stallion, as the old books say. But the loyal old subjects of the king, who knew him well, recognized the son. They knew when they had seen the son, they had seen the king. And they were fearful of what was about to happen.

And the children! All the children loved him. Even as he entered the gate of the vineyard, no one could stop the children. They ran and leaped and cheered and threw branches in his path. It didn’t make any difference to the children that he looked poor. Children haven’t learned yet that a person must be rich to be happy. They saw the eyes of love. They had no trouble with childlike submission to the king. So for them the visit of the son was wonderful.

“Long live the king!    Long live the king’s son!” they cried.

The wicked grown-up tenants watched from a distance. They could hardly believe that the king was so foolish. They said to each other, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves.” And as they plotted the death of the king’s son, the children chanted over and over (as children do):

Great is the son!   Great is the son! Who comes in the name of the king.

He is the one!    He is the one! All homage to him we bring.

Finally the chanting faded. The children returned home. The king’s son looked out over the vineyards. The soil was rich and moist. The vines were thick and strong. The branches were heavy with the finest grapes—the king’s grapes. And he wept over the treason of the wicked tenants and the desecration of his father’s name.

When he lifted up his head, he was surrounded by armed men. He steadied himself with the king’s promise. Then, reaching into his simple cloak, he pulled out a scroll and said,

“I have a word from the king.” “And we a word for him,” the leader replied.

“Come, let us trade our messages.” The king’s son opened the scroll and read these words,

It is not seemly for a king    To beg his subjects that they bring

Him love. But I do not delight  In mustering my awesome might

To end your lives for evermore.  I send my only son, therefore,

With news that I will yet forgive    And let those who repent still live.

“Is that all?” they sneered. “No; my father said I should add this:

Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.

For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you sing with the children,

‘Great is the son! Great is the son!   Who comes in the name of the king.'”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” they snarled.

“It means that for you mercy has almost come to an end.

Soon your houses will be empty and you will be no more.

And the vineyard will be given to a new and faithful people.

And I will return to this place on the great white stallion.

And by the magnificent mercy of my father a new generation

will welcome me with palms and grapes and love and happy submission to the king.”

The wicked tenants stopped their ears when they heard the word, “submission,” and the leader cried out, “Now, here is our message for your king.” And they rushed upon the king’s son, beat him mercilessly, dragged him out of the city to the highest hill for all to see, and nailed his hands and feet like a poster to a tree, and mocked.

If the wicked tenants had been able to read his lips, they would have known what carried him through the ordeal:

Though arrogance and rage assail,

Conspiracy will not prevail.

In death recall unerringly

That you will always reign with me.

As he died, he lifted up his eyes toward the region of the palace of his father, and he saw the armies of the king, ten thousand, with arms lifted in salute to the valor of the king’s son.

And standing alone before the myriads, the king himself, holding the golden reigns of the great white stallion,

waiting,    waiting,    waiting.

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Mark 6-10 (3-24-18)

Today, let’s dig deeper into Mark Chapter 7 and see the beauty and need for the stain-removing gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before we dig in, let me clarify our problem.

Our problem is we are defiled. Defiled: to be unclean, dirty, stained, foul, polluted.

The Bible says that because of our sin (our breaking of His holy law, our rebellion against God, our pursuit of self-salvation and self-glory), we are defiled. We are wicked, stained, unclean, and impure.

If you think that somehow you have figured out a way to avoid this sin thing and that you might be good enough, the Bible says otherwise:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

And If you think that you might be able figure out a way back to good standing with God, the Bible says the following:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot (Romans 8:7).

The very real truth is we do not measure up to our holy God because of our vile sin. And we CANNOT clean ourselves up in order to restore ourselves to a right standing with God.

So, we are dirty but unable to clean ourselves up. This leaves us with a big problem!

The reality is something that is defiled needs to be cleansed.

The opening part of Chapter 7 deals with the failed way man seeks to be cleansed.

Read Mark 7:1-23. 

Two things to highlight here:

1. Hypocritical worship of God

Jesus addresses His questioners by first quoting Isaiah 29:13, and then He applies Isaiah’s description of the hypocrites in his day to the religious elite whom Jesus called hypocrites.

They were “hypocrites” because they made an outward profession of worshiping God but gave Him no genuine worship from their hearts, thoughts, or choices.

We, too, can be guilty of hypocritically worshiping God out of hearts that do not truly enjoy or love Him but instead are acting or praising out of obligation.

God doesn’t want worship that is out of obligation or religious mandate.

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children around this world will attend a Sunday church service, giving their time and money and singing songs to God, not because they are joy-filled about God, but because they think they have to make God happy or to meet some kind of moral standard.

Jesus is pointing out here that these people are more focused on their outside actions then their hearts. They’re busy keeping up with the rules of the kingdom instead of falling in love with the King. Jesus tells us rule keeping will not produce authentic worship with God; it will produce hypocritical devotion.

Jesus is saying, “The only way your worship will be honest and real is if it is out of a heart that is made new, cleansed from its impurity, and revived.” It is a heart issue–not an actions issue.

For these Pharisees, their worship of God was in vain because like the Jews of Isaiah’s day, they were teaching the rules of men as authoritative teachings over God’s living word, and they were focused on their self-made transformation instead of the transformation the gospel of Jesus brings about in one’s life.

This brings us to the second failure we see here:

2. Man-made traditions being followed more than the authority of God’s word

In this interaction, Jesus charged the religious elite with abandoning the commands of God, His Law, and adhering instead to the traditions of men.

Traditions of Men = man-made laws or rituals that become more prioritized and authoritative than God’s word.

The example we read about here is ritual cleansing.

Ritual cleansing was the required washing of one’s hands with a handful of water before eating food.

This was especially important after a trip to the marketplace where a Jew would likely come in contact with an “unclean” Gentile or such things as money or utensils.

The loyal Jews believed disregarding these kind of regulations was a sin; to follow them was the essence of goodness and service to God.

Now, for those of you who are thinking, “That’s great, but we don’t have rules or rituals like that today,” oh, how mistaken you are!

A quick modern example is praying before we eat. It is believed by many Christians that one is to bless the food before you eat, or you are in some way guilty or sinning against God.

Now, is it good to pray when you eat?  Yes! It is good to thank God for our food.

But if this is the only thing during the day you are regularly thanking God for because it has become a ritual or tradition, you might be doing it out of religious obligation and not out of heart-felt thanks.

When we thank God throughout the day, our prayer at meals is likely an authentic prayer.

But if you only dial Him up at the religious handbook moments, (meals, hardship and bed time), it’s most likely not authentic but ritualistic devotion.

If you pray the same thing at each prayer, it is also probably a sign you do not mean what you are saying and have not really thought much about it. It most likely just means you are good at reciting religious mantra prayers because it is your duty–not because it is your JOY!

Is it good to pause and thank God for His provisions? Yes, but we should do this in all things!

We have to see what Jesus is stressing here: We are defiled because our hearts are wicked and sinful.

It is not because we are simply not living out a certain moral lifestyle.

The reality is we are sinners at birth in our very nature, so when we sin, the action to sin is not causing us to be sinners, but the action to sin is proof that we already are sinners.

A sinner is someone whose heart is defiled, and as a result they practice sin.

We do not stumble into sin and therefore become a sinner.

If the latter is true, the religious zealots are right! And all I need to do to be cleansed is to not do the wrong thing.

Out of this mindset, religious people work really hard to live a righteous life and do the right things.

But in the end, they will always be let down because we CAN’T do all the right things–our hearts are defiled!

Later, Jesus says cleaning the outside of the cup doesn’t make the cup clean.

The inside of the cup must be cleansed if you are going to use it.  It is our hearts that must be purified!

Our defiling is not due to a bad diet, but instead due to a diseased heart.

No amount of self-scrubbing on the outside will help cure the rampant diseases on the inside.

The absolute truth is we need to be healed and restored from the inside out.

So, the question then is this:

Do we have any hope to be cleansed form the inside out? To be healed and restored?

Skip to verse 31 and look with me at the good news of Jesus.

Read again Mark 7:31-37

Jesus:

• Took the man aside
• Put His fingers in his ears
• Touched his tongue and then placed it on the man’s tongue
• Drew the eyes of the man heavenward
• Sighs (we’ll come back to this in a moment)
• Calls out His command of healing
• And it is done… The man can hear and speak clearly.

What makes this healing act of Jesus unique is the way He goes about it.

Now at first, this looks like the rituals of a miracle worker. 

Doing a dance, pulling out random objects and placing them on the table, saying some crazy words.

In all of the healings we have seen form Jesus so far, He doesn’t do any arm waving or say any mumbo jumbo.

This tells us the rituals are not where the power comes from.

They are not needed to heal or restore people.

So we must ask, why does Jesus do it here? The answer: He is meeting the man where he is!

The man is deaf. How do you communicate with a deaf man?  Sign language!

Jesus is showing him compassion and using a form of sign language.

Let’s look at what Jesus does and interpret it through the lens of sign language:

Jesus takes hold of the man and takes him aside = “Let’s go over here.”

Jesus puts His fingers in the man’s ears = “I am going to heal your deafness.”

Touches His own tongue and then places it on the man’s tongue = “I am healing your speech.”

Draws the eyes of the man heavenward = “Look with me to God and realize He is the One worthy of all praise.”

The good news is you don’t have to come to Jesus and go through a certain rigmarole to get saved.

He comes to you and meets you where you are, and He is the one who does the opening of the ears and the healing of the heart and the restoring of your life.

What this means is people get saved in a wide variety of situations and ways.

If we were to go out to all the places this morning’s devotion is being read and ask, “By what circumstances did God give you saving faith?” we would hear a wide variety of answers. For some it was alone,  for others it was in a crowd; for some it was a long process, and for others it was like a strike of lighting; for some it was in the middle of great hardship, and for others it was in the normal stride of daily life.

All are saved by hearing and understanding the gospel, but the gospel is taken into one’s soul in so many ways! Some are moved while driving, some while listening to the radio or watching a movie, some while experiencing a sacrificial act of another, some when a basic need is met by an unobligated person who helped, some when a spoken word, and some by terrifying experience.

The point is Jesus will meet you where you when it is His time to give you new life and saving faith.

This is good news because God is not leveling us with a certain combination that must be discovered and then dialed in order for God to work saving grace into our lives.

We are so plagued with rituals that the church even makes getting saved a ritual that for some must be done a certain way. Walk here, say this, do that, and you’re in!

Praise God that He is a compassionate God who meets us where we are.

Did you notice when healing the man Jesus sighs before He calls out His command of healing?

This is so easy to miss. The word “sigh” signifies some kind of relationship to pain.

What pain is Jesus feeling in this moment?

Back up in verse 32, Mark uses a Greek word only used in one other part of the Bible found in Isaiah.

The word is “Mogilalos.”

The use of this rare word would have meant Mark had in mind the prophetic words of Isaiah as he wrote about this particular interaction between Jesus and this deaf man.

Here is the passage from Isaiah where we see this same word used: Isaiah 35:3-6 “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

Jesus sighed because He would take on our pain. He would meet us where we are at… literally.

We were dead in our sin and deplorable before God.

Jesus would take on our blindness and deafness–our disease, our hardship–so that we could live, and see, and sing songs of joy for the King of all.

God has come to save us. Jesus Christ is God who has come to save us. Jesus is the KING!

We are the deaf, who in Christ have our ears uncovered; and we are the blind, who in Christ can now see; we are the mute, who in Christ are now shouting for joy!

In Isaiah, it says God will come with divine “vengeance,” but Jesus isn’t going around smiting people with justified vengeance. He is not killing people; He is the one to be killed. He is not hurting people; He was the one hurt.  So what does this mean?

It means Jesus is not bringing divine vengeance; He is going to bear the divine vengeance on our behalf. With the recompense of God. He becomes the victim, and we get the recompense– the reward!

The question is what is your response to the gospel of Jesus? To what He has done in the place of sinners?

To really drive home your response, I want to close by looking at the testimony we skipped in verse 24-30.

Read again Mark 7:24-30.

Tyre was a Gentile region. In this time, Jesus was looking to get away from the Jewish masses that were smothering him. Even though this woman was a Phoenician Gentile pagan, she would have known enough of the Jewish customs to know that she had none of the religious, moral, or cultural credentials to approach a Jewish rabbi.

But she does it anyway, probably because she is a mom and her daughter is suffering, and she is willing to do anything to help–even if there are repercussions.

Now, when we read this, Jesus’ response seems demeaning. She asks for help to heal her daughter, “And he said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’”

All Jesus is referring to here is the order of his ministry focus. First, He would minister to the Jewish people and then the Gentiles.

In an astounding response, she understands Jesus’ priority and humbly wants what He is offering.

Not because she deserves His grace but because she gets that it is grace.  Listen again:

“But she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’”

The woman’s response is the very response we MUST have to the gospel.

We must recognize we are not worthy on any level; in fact, we are more wicked and sinful than we even understand.

But, at the same time, Jesus came to love us with grace and to heal us when we didn’t deserve it.

She doesn’t say in pride. “How dare you for calling me a dog,” like we often do when confronted with the fullness of our sin.   Neither does she overreact and cower in the corner with her tail between we legs in self-loathing like others tend to do, thinking, “I am too wretched for even God to save.”

Instead, she sees her sin and disgust and at the same time takes hold of Jesus’ saving grace.

We need this kind of faith. We need to have this response to the gospel we are hearing today.

We need this kind of humble and yet bold approach to God’s offer of grace and life.

Look at how Jesus responds:

“And he said to her, ‘For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.’ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”

This is the gospel:

The child of God was cast away from the table without a crumb so that those who were dogs could be brought in and adopted as children of God!

The child of God (Jesus) was cast away from the table without a crumb (the Cross) so that those who were dogs ( you and me) could be brought in and adopted as children of God (be saved)!

This morning, don’t believe the lies of man who convince you to stay isolated.

You are not beyond healing when Jesus is involved.

Don’t believe the priorities of man who tries to convince you to make your own way to the top.

Instead, hear the gospel, which rightly proclaims your unworthiness but then does the unthinkable and imparts love and grace so you can be healed and satisfied by the living God!

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Mark 1-5 (3-17-18)

As we dive into Mark’s Gospel, I want to give us a little context:

1. Who is Mark?

Mark was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ life but was a secretary/translator for Peter, who was one of Christ’s disciples. Mark took Peter’s eye witness testimony and pieced it together into the narrative that is the Gospel of Mark that we know today. This helps make sense of the fact that Peter is present in every part of Mark’s Gospel.

2. What are the Gospels?

The word gospel means “news,” and it specifically means good news of an event.

The gospel is the good news of the grace and power of God to redeem undeserving sinners to eternal life through Jesus’ perfect, sinless life; substitutional, sacrificial death; and victorious resurrection from the grave. These sinners are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone from the eternal wrath they deserved, and they are reconciled into an eternally secure relationship with God (The Word of Truth Catechism).

The four written Gospels are found in the New Testament, and they testify of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

3. What is unique about Mark’s Gospel?

A few things that make Mark’s Gospel unique:

• It is written in the present tense. A fast-paced, action-packed narrative helps Mark be read with urgency and importance as to who Jesus is.
• Mark’s Gospel recounts less of Jesus’ teaching and more of Jesus doing. I pray that this is a reminder to us not to just hear but to witness and respond likewise with action instead of just contemplation.
• This Gospel is a mosaic of events that tell us about Jesus’ ministry on earth. Even though the overall format of Mark’s Gospel is narrative or story, it does not possess a continuous story line, but it is a collection of discrete units. The result is a collage or mosaic of the life of Jesus. As you study with us in the next few weeks, put yourself in the position of Mark and Peter’s traveling companion, as they assemble this documentary on the life of Christ based on Peter’s testimony.
• Finally, Mark’s telling of Jesus’ ministry is given to us in two distinct acts:

Act 1 (chapters 1-8) is all about Jesus’ identity and authority as King over all things: the King of glory, the King of kings!

Act 2 (chapters 9-16) is all about Jesus’ sacrifice and death on the cross and the purpose for it. We see the sacrificial Lamb, the servant leader, and our substitutionary atonement.

With that, let’s dig into Chapter 1.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel …

Mark is said to have been the first Gospel that was written.

So it is fitting that it begins with the sentence, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

In other words, this written account is the first to be written so that the GOOD NEWS of Jesus’ life and ministry can be shared for all peoples to be able to study and know.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The central figure of the gospel is Jesus Christ. He is the good news.

He is the central figure of all of life, our world, and all that exists.

Jesus Christ is the most significant man to have ever lived in the history of the world.

In fact, human history is divided around his life. We have B.C., which is “Before Christ,” and A.D., which is “Anno Domini,” a Latin phrase meaning “the year of our Lord.” Our history literally hinges on this man.

The Scriptures tell us the name we will sing and celebrate of for all of eternity is Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tell us that the world was created at the word of Jesus.

Jesus lived a relatively simple life. He never traveled more than 200 miles from his home. He never wrote a book.

He never married. He never had children, never ran for political office, never oversaw a large company, never made a lot of money. The first 30 years of His life were spent in great simplicity while working a blue-collar job as a carpenter with His dad.

The part of Jesus’ life that this book covers is the last three years of His life. He spent them doing ministry, preaching, teaching, and performing miracles while mentoring a small group of average Joes.

Jesus Christ was then falsely arrested, publicly tortured, and murdered at the age of 33!

This is “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

We are given two titles after Jesus’ name: Christ and Son of God.

Let’s look further at these important titles to better understand who Jesus is

Christ

The Greek word is Christos. meaning an “anointed royal figure.”

Christ is also translated in the Hebrew as “the Messiah.”

The Messiah was the one foretold in Jewish history who would come reconcile God’s people to God: the Redeemer.

So Jesus Christ is an anointed royal figure–a KING!

He is not just “a” KING; He is “the” KING. He is the one mankind has been waiting for.

He is the one who would redeem God’s people from the slavery of sin and death and deliver us to eternal victory in life with God.

The second title used here is Son of God

Mark ups the stakes all the way by using this title: SON OF GOD.

In other words, Jesus is divinity; He is God.

A minute ago, I just said He was not just “a” king but “the” King.

Like I might say Michael Jordan is not just “a” basketball player but the greatest basketball player ever.

But SON OF GOD takes His kingship to another level. He is not just a king, and not just the greatest king to ever wear a crown…

He is the King of the kings,

The Lord of lords, the Creator and Ruler of the Heavens and the Earth.

He is The SON OF GOD, upon which NOTHING holds a higher rank! NOTHING.

My prayer this morning is that you come to know the Christ–Jesus. That He would be your King, your Redeemer, the one to bring you form death to life everlasting. But I also pray that He would become your EVERYTHING, and that you come to enjoy Him and know His power and majesty at such an intimate level that NOTHING compares to knowing Him.

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the first 12 words of the Gospel of Mark, we are told:

This is a story…

About a man named Jesus…

Who is the Christ… the anointed royal one… the Messiah…

Who has been foretold since the most ancient roots of Israel that He would come and reconcile God’s people once and for all to God Himself.

And if that were not enough…

That this Christ, this Messiah, this royal Redeemer is not an angel and not a just a man, but He is the Son of God in human flesh.    He is the divine Redeemer King.

To cement and validate this epic introduction, Mark refers back to Isaiah’s famous prophetic passage about the man who would announce the Messiahs’ arrival:

Mark 1:2-3 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,

the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’”

Then in verse 4, Mark goes on to say that John the Baptist is the announcer, the preparer, the messenger, the voice!

Mark 1:4-6 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

The wild hippie man would announce the arrival of the Messiah, the Redeemer, the LORD.

John definitely understood the power–the magnitude–of the one he was setting the table for. Mark 1:7 says, “And [John the Baptist] preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’”

Not even worthy to untie His filthy sandals.

That is like me walking up to you and saying, “I am so below you that I am not worthy to wipe snot from your nose with my bare hand.”

Now this is either a recognition of how low you are or how HIGH the person you speak of is.

In this case it was both. John understood how low he was in the towering shadow of the Son of GOD!

The name of God in the Old Testament is “I AM.”

This statement from John was him saying, “My name is I AM NOT; Jesus is I AM.”

We can learn so much and gain even more from the perspective John had of himself compared to Christ.

See, our sinful tendency is to make much of ourselves, which makes it hard for us to embrace the fact that Jesus is so far greater. But let me tell you, when you gain a new perspective like John had of who you are in comparison to who Christ is, you begin to know freedom. Freedom from:

• The seduction of fame
• The tyranny of comparison
• The delusion of greatness
• The never-ending scramble to get to the top of the ladder
• Ego
• Jealousy
• Backbiting
• And the massive swollen-head syndrome that some of you suffer from

You are free to let Jesus be God and to enjoy the privileged opportunity to make much of His name.

Back to Mark’s introduction of Jesus to us:

He has made it clear that Jesus is royalty like no other the world has ever known and the one who has been prophesied about and expected like no other. He is the KING.

Our first sight of Jesus in Mark’s telling is not His birth or childhood experiences like other Gospels. Instead, Mark skips right to Jesus’ baptism. This is Jesus’ commissioning for ministry. In His baptism, we get to see an even fuller picture of who the Son of God is.

Mark 1:10-11 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

In these two verses, we get to see the Trinity at work.

The Triune Godhead: a tri-unity or three in oneness.

The Scriptures teach us that there is one God who eternally and equally exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God, and the three make up our ONE GOD.

Here we see Jesus, God the Son, being baptized;

God the Father saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased;”

And God the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove.

Now look at what follows the Trinity’s work in Jesus being commissioned to ministry:

Mark 1:12-13 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

The first sight of Jesus in Mark is at His baptism, where the Trinity commissions Jesus to ministry.

But where does it go next? To the desert, where Jesus will be tempted by Satan just like Adam and Eve were in the Garden.

The first Adam failed and gave into sin, just as all of us have done since.

Mankind is self-centered and against God in our sin.

The temptation of Jesus is just like the one given to Adam, and yet Jesus stayed faithful to God

This is a view into the restoration of God’s people that Jesus would bring. He would be the redeemer of our lives by His faithful work and substitutional atonement on the cross. May we not just know about the good news of Jesus but walk in His power every day, as we look to serve our God and not our flesh.

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Genesis 46-50 (3-10-18)

In this week’s reading, we come across truly one of the greatest verses in all of Scripture:

Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

One hundred and ten years old. As we finished Genesis this week, we read that Joseph lived to be 110 years old. What a life he lived. If you think back to the happenings of his youth, the favor of his father, his dreams and that beautiful coat he was given, and then all that he went through and all that he accomplished and help provide, God was surely at work in Joseph all along the way.

Do you see this in your own life? God has been at work in you and your life much more than you have known how to give Him credit. Do you see Him in all the common graces to provide for you or protect you in hard times or crazy circumstances? What about how God has been at work even though you willingly sinned against Him and/or people sinned against you? God doesn’t do evil in our lives, but He surely uses willing men who do evil for His purposes. It is awesome to see how God worked in both the brothers of Joseph and in Joseph to bring about great good for them and the people in the land they were in.

Can you imagine the guilt the brothers carried with them for selling their brother into slavery? All those years and decades went by, and they never heard what became of their little brother. Many of us have done some terrible things and can relate to the guilt and shame they must have felt. To see God work in Joseph to forgive his brothers and to restore them is truly a remarkable thing. I have counseled many men and women over the years to help them prayerfully process dark things they did in their past. One of the things the gospel does for us is give us great hope, not only to forgive ourselves as the holy God has forgiven us, but to never stop praying for reconciliation and restoration to happen with those who have been hurt by our sin. We never know when in our lives, even decades later, God can restore and repair. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. He is able–more than able.

What about Joseph? We have been talking about his journey of faithfulness through unbelievable setbacks and injustices. If there ever was someone who, in their flesh, was justified to give up on God through a lifetime of injustices, it was Joseph. But hopefully you see the folly of that statement as you read it. God is faithful, and His promises are true. God is at work in ALL things and using all things for His purposes and glory. To give up on God is to not understand who God is. Surely our faith will be challenged as it was with Joseph, but he endured and continued to trust in God. Although many of the seasons and even years of Joseph’s oppression seemed like a lifetime, he remained faithful to trust in God, and God used him in ways he could have never imagined.  To be raised to second in command over Egypt, just under Pharaoh, and to be used by God to provide for so many people is truly the work of God and no other.

So, yes, evil men and women are working to do evil things in this life. But we never lose hope in God to restore and reconcile. We never stop believing that God can take the very worst of circumstances and use it for His holy purposes and our good.

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Do you believe this? Do you trust in God not based on your circumstances but based on who He is?

I pray that I would remain steadfast in the midst of great loss and hardship, not because of who I am but based on who God is.

I pray that you would as well and that you see that God is on the throne and working in all things.

What man means for evil, God will use for good!  

All praise be to God who reigns forevermore!

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church