Category: sermon

Not This Way Among You

Mark 10 35-45 NET.

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” ³⁶ He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ They said to him, “Permit one of us to sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.” ³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” ³⁹ They said to him, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ⁴¹ Now when the other ten heard this, they became angry with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. ⁴³ But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus and his disciples were on the road going up to Jerusalem. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what would happen to him. He said they were going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man would be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.

Jesus explained that his suffering cup was coming soon, and he would have to drink it because he came to provide his life as a ransom payment for many. He thought of others before himself, even though he was the only one who deserved to be put first.

Meanwhile, the disciples were betrayed by their grand ambitions. James and John had filtered out everything Jesus said except the title he used for himself. The Son of Man was the title of the Messiah that Daniel used when he saw the Messiah coming down from the sky in a vision. He would be coming down to set up his kingdom on earth to rule over God’s creation. James and John wanted top billing in the coming sky kingdom, and (according to Matthew’s version of this account) they dared to get their mother to request it. She asked that her two boys get the seats of honor in the coming kingdom, one with a throne to the right of Jesus and the other to the left. James and John agreed to her request. This is what they want.

But Jesus asks them if they can take his cup. Jesus understood what that cup was all about. He knew that God was going to pour out his cup of wrath on all humanity, but before he did that, he was going to pour out his cup of suffering and wrath on his only Son, who would serve as a ransom for many.  For many to be saved, the Son must take the cup and die in their place. The cup was a symbol of death.

Jesus also asked if they could undergo the baptism that he would. The baptism was also a symbol of his coming death. The Greek word βαπτίζω was sometimes synonymous with “destroy” because it could refer to death by drowning or the sinking of a ship. The Apostle Paul would later remind the Roman believers that “as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3).

James and John quickly answered Jesus that they could take his cup and his baptism, but it was evident that they did not understand what he was talking about. They might have thought that the cup symbolized his kingship and that he was asking them if they would agree to be his cupbearers. This was a position of great honor in the kingdoms in ancient times, as we learn about in the book of Nehemiah. If they did, they didn’t stop to think further that in those kingdoms, if someone wanted to poison the king, the cupbearer would die in his place. They might also have thought of baptism as the undergoing of suffering and persecution, but they didn’t think much about that. Their minds were on their plans for glory.

The other disciples were angry – probably because the sons of Zebedee asked for this favor first – beating them to the punch. None of the twelve understood what Jesus had been saying although this was the third time he predicted his coming trial and crucifixion.

Jesus defines leading (43).

Jesus takes this opportunity to teach his disciples about the nature of sky kingdom leadership. Leadership is a sacrificial investment in the lives of others. It is all about serving others and meeting their needs. Jesus tells his disciples that whoever wants to be great among them must be their servant. The kingdom as it exists today in its initial existence before the arrival of the King at the second coming of Christ is not a hierarchy.

Let me be honest with you. The church has failed to obey this command. Regardless of what generation you look at, which denomination you choose to examine, or which nation you want to put under the microscope where the body of Christ is represented, we have universally failed to live up to Jesus’ instructions here.

Our denominations are very good at pointing the finger at others and explaining why we don’t lead the way they do. We go to great lengths to explain why our doctrines of pastoral theology are correct, and the others are wrong. But in the end, our leaders still look more like the leaders of the Gentiles. We are adept at replacing one hierarchy with another, and when we do that, we are convinced that we have it right. But, before long, our leaders reveal the same lordship we were trying to eliminate.

The Gentiles are a terrible example (42).

The Gentile leaders’ example of exploitation of subordinates is the antithesis of sky kingdom leadership. They kept drawing their umbrella diagrams and insisting that if the people wanted to be blessed, they would have to submit to the leaders’ authority and get under their protection. Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.” Those on top exploited their authority over those below them.

People would seek some status level so they also had someone they could exploit. It was okay to bow to the emperor if you had others who would bow to you. Everything was based on one’s position on the totem pole. You could tolerate being in the middle if you were not on the bottom. At the bottom of the ladder were the slaves. But even the slaves had their status levels. It was better to be the slave of a prominent family than a poor day laborer. At least you ate better.

Jesus explains how to lead (43-44).

There is a way to become a great leader, but that is through self-sacrifice and investment in the well-being and salvation of others. To be great in God’s present kingdom is not a matter of status but service. The “how” of leadership is service.

Now, in early church history, a funny thing happened. People began to take on titles that reflected how they were serving others. The apostles were called that because they took the gospel to other places and people. The word ἀπόστολοι means people who are sent. The elders were called that because they represented a more extensive group; they were responsible for serving. These were the πρεσβύτεροι. Those responsible for overseeing a congregation or group of congregations were called overseers or ἐπισκόποι. Those assisting them were the ministers (the διάκονοι). Those serving by prophesying were the προφῆται. Those who served by preaching the gospel were evangelists or εὐαγγελισται. Those who served by watching over an individual congregation (a local flock of sheep) were called shepherds or pastors (ποιμένες). Those who served by teaching were, of course, called teachers (διδάσκαλοι).

The status of these people in a hierarchy was never supposed to be the issue. Their titles reflected how they served in the kingdom. But it didn’t take long before each title was assigned a place on the totem pole. The church fell into the heresy of hierarchy, and we have never really addressed that apostasy.

Jesus explains who appoints leaders (40).

In the end, the sovereign God determines who the leaders are. That is why Jesus told James and John that to sit at his right or left is not his to give. It is for those for whom the Father has prepared it. God appoints leaders. Some of the people he allows to lead in this are horrible at leading and bring disgrace to the church. But God has reasons for placing each of his servants where they are to serve.

Jesus is the example of proper leading (45).

Jesus is the ultimate example of leadership in the sky kingdom. He gave his life for the lost. He did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. God does not call all of us to die on a cross literally, but he does call all of us to live by his example. His example was self-sacrifice. He told the rich young man to sacrifice his wealth. He told the four fishermen to sacrifice their boats and nets. He told Matthew to sacrifice his booth. Paul was a leader of many, but Jesus told him he would become a servant of all.

There was an inner circle among the disciples. It consisted of three men: Peter, James, and John.  These three were expected to rise to the top. But interestingly, the Bible records these three men being rebuked explicitly by Jesus for failing to acknowledge and submit to God’s plan. These three men eventually repented, and they took the cup and experienced the baptism of suffering. Two of them were beheaded. One was exiled. They learned to be slaves of all. May we all learn that lesson because the kingdom needs leaders who serve.

LORD, our eyes are fixed on the prize of your coming sky kingdom. Help us not to get sidetracked by grand ambitions. Please help us to invest sacrificially in others, as you did. Amen.

God bless y’all. Have a great day.

For further study:

Byrne Brendan. A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel. Liturgical Press 2008. pp. 166-169.

Cole R. A. Mark: An Introduction and Commentary. 2nd ed. Inter-Varsity Press; Intervarsity Press 2008. pp. 245-248.

Collins Adela Yarbro and Harold W Attridge. Mark: A Commentary. Fortress Press 2007. pp. 493-504.

Donahue John R and Daniel J Harrington. The Gospel of Mark. Liturgical Press 2002. pp. 309-316.

Dowd Sharyn Echols. Reading Mark: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Second Gospel. Smyth & Helwys 2000. pp. 110-115.

France R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press 2002. pp. 409-421.

Garrett Greg and Matthew Paul Turner. The Voice of Mark: Let Them Listen; the Gospel of Mark Retold. Thomas Nelson 2008. pp. 66-68.

THE SPIRIT IS YOUR LIFE

Romans 8:5-11 NET.

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. ¹¹ Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

I mentioned last month that Paul explains the gospel in the early chapters of the Book of Romans. He outlines the doctrine of justification by faith in the grace of God, made possible by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He explains that there is no other way to be saved other than by faith in the grace of God. Paul himself is the perfect example of the statement made by Peter in Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” Once Jesus came to Paul, Paul was only about Jesus and his gospel.

In today’s text, Paul addresses the difference it makes in a person’s life if that person believes the gospel and gets saved. If I were to show you a picture of a group of people, you would probably not be able to guess from the picture which people are saved and unsaved. Some people believe there is no difference. They think the world is made up of all the same people. Christians may call themselves saved, but according to this view, they are lost like all the rest. Christians call themselves redeemed, but in reality, they are just as enslaved as all the rest. Christians can talk about having God’s power, but they are just as powerless as all the rest.

In today’s text, Paul addresses that opinion. He wants to show that Christians are different than non-Christians. He wants to explain what the difference is and how the difference transforms us into people who are not like everybody else.

Paul describes two possible outlooks (5-8).

He categorizes the whole world into two groups according to the outlook that each group has. The first group consists of all the people in the world whose outlook is shaped by the things of the flesh. In Galatians, Paul says, “The works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things” (5:19-21).

When Paul says these sins are obvious, it doesn’t mean we will always notice them. We regularly hear of people who are caught in adultery or convicted of child molestation or rape, or found to be addicted to pornography, and often, it is people that we would never suspect. We live in a world where it is possible to hide the thoughts of our minds. But if the things of the flesh shape the outlook of a person’s mind, it will eventually show in that person’s actions. If a person lives by lust, that person’s relationship with others will be damaged and will result in his treating others as objects. If demons shape a person’s outlook, her actions will reveal her devotion to those demons. If pride and jealousy rule a person’s heart, that fleshly outlook will manifest in disrupted relationships and interpersonal conflicts.

Those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh. We all have flesh, and our flesh is not evil. God created us as flesh, and we are intended to glorify God with our flesh. But if the flesh rules our minds, it produces an outlook that turns every possible good thing we do into an evil thing. The enemy is not the flesh itself; it is the outlook shaped by the things of the flesh. Paul says the outlook of the flesh is death. Such people are dead even while their body is still alive. They are dead men walking. They are walking the green mile. The result of such a life is death.

People trapped in a fleshly outlook have a severely damaged relationship with God. God is their creator and heavenly Father, but they do not acknowledge this. Instead, they are hostile to God. They are his enemy. They detest religion because it reminds them of God’s existence. They don’t want to hear God’s word from the Bible because they refuse to submit to God’s law. They are annoyed by people who want to please God because they cannot.

There are billions of people in this world who are living according to the flesh. But Paul declares that there is another option. He says that it is possible to live according to the Holy Spirit. He says it is possible to have one’s outlook shaped by the Holy Spirit. The people who live like this are not walking the green mile. Their outlook is life and peace. They can obey the commands of God because their focus and concentration are on God and not themselves.

Paul asserts that every authentic Christian is in the Spirit (9-10).

Remember, he said that there are only two possible outlooks. There is no fence for people to sit on and remain undeclared. Either you are in Christ, or you are not. You are either saved, or you are unsaved. There is no third thing. There is no third outlook.

Paul sometimes gets distressed when other Christians don’t seem to live up to this ideal. But what he is talking about in today’s text is the contrast between an authentic Christian and a person whose life is shaped by the flesh. He is giving a pep talk to the Roman Christians. He’s saying that the world around them lives according to the flesh, but they don’t have to.

He says they are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. They have flesh, but their flesh is not the focus and concentration of their lives. The Holy Spirit is. He can empower them because they have relinquished their self-reliance. They were given the same choice as the rich young man of Mark 10, but unlike him, they chose to sell their possessions and come and follow Christ.

Paul tells them they are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. God’s Spirit lives in them; if that were not true, they would not belong to Christ. That is the message I want to share with you today. If you are saved, then God’s Spirit lives in you. You do not have to guess at your salvation; you can know it.

The evidence of salvation that Paul expresses here is not a theological doctrine. The evidence is the Holy Spirit’s control, resulting in an outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. That – in turn – produces the fruit of the Spirit. The hostility with God ends and is replaced by friendship with God. The reluctance to submit to the law of God is replaced by an obsession to learn and obey God’s word. The inability to please God is replaced by faith, which gives us the ability to please God.

Having established that there are only two outlooks, and each outlook will determine how a person lives during this life, Paul’s final instruction in today’s text is that there will be a bonus for those who choose to live by the Spirit.

Living by the Spirit also guarantees a resurrection to eternal life (11).

Note the word “moreover” in the text of verse 11. That is a significant word in that context. It indicates (as I said) that there is an additional bonus to living life as a Christian. The Spirit you entrusted to make your mortal life count for God is the same power God used to raise Jesus from the dead.

Note also how Paul changes the number of a particular word. In verse 10, he says your body is dead because of sin. He’s speaking of your mortality. If you don’t believe you are mortal, I refer you to those who have come before you and are sleeping in the cemetery. This life is temporary. In a sense, we are all walking the green mile. But the good news is that the Holy Spirit within us guarantees that there will be a resurrection and that it will result in a permanent life. In verse 11, Paul says that God will make our mortal bodies alive. He changes the number to plural because the resurrection will not happen individually. We will all get our immortality simultaneously due to the same event.

Non-Christians will not be raised to eternal life. They will be raised, judged, condemned, and suffer the lake of fire, the second death. There will be no resurrection from that death. It is just as permanent as our new life will be. It will be permanent death.

But the gospel’s good news is that no believer has to fear that second death. No believers have to doubt that they will inherit eternal life. We can be confident of our standing with God today because we live according to His Spirit. The things of the Spirit shape our outlook. God gave us his Spirit by his grace, and as long as we are willing to let him rule our lives today, we never need to fear tomorrow.

The title of today’s message comes directly from verse 10. It is a double guarantee. If you are a Christian living today, you have power for your life that the unbeliever does not have. You also have an inheritance that unbelievers will not share: another life – an eternal life.

For further study:

Mackenzie W. Douglas. Galatians and Romans. Fleming H. Revell 1912.  pp. 240-243.

McClain Alva J and Herman A Hoyt. Romans: The Gospel of God’s Grace: The Lectures of Alva J. Mcclain. BMH Books ed. BMH Books 1979. pp. 161-167.

Meyer, Heinrich August Wilhelm, Timothy Dwight, and William P. Dickson. Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistle to the Romans. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884. pp. 50-60.

Miller John. Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to Romans: With an Excursus on the Famous Passage in James (Chap. Ii.: 14-26). Evangelical Reform Publication 1887. pp. 234-244.

Moffatt James. The Epistle to the Romans. Hodder and Stoughton 1905. pp. 51-53.

Morris Leon. The Epistle to the Romans. W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press 1988. pp. 304-310.

Mosher Steve. God’s Power Jesus’ Faith and World Mission: A Study in Romans. Herald Press 1996. pp. 158-161.

WORK IN THE VINEYARD

Matthew 20: 1-16 NET.

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. ⁴ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. ⁶ And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ ⁸ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay starting with the last hired until the first.’ ⁹ When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ¹⁰ And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ ¹³ And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. ¹⁵ Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

We have been following the Gospel chronologically and stopping to analyze the commands of Jesus. Last week we looked at Jesus’ instruction to the rich young man in Mark 10. If I had chosen Matthew’s Gospel, that passage would have been Matthew 19:16-30. So, the following passage in Matthew is today’s text. It contains a parable that is not in any other place – the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Because it is a parable, we will not find a direct command in the passage itself. There is an implied command. Before we get to that, I want to look at today’s passage itself and see what we can learn from it.

Jesus is describing the work of the Kingdom.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like what happens to the characters in Jesus’ story of the workers in the vineyard. Matthew’s Gospel is about Jesus as the king of the coming kingdom. Matthew presents Jesus as the son of David and Abraham (1:1). Matthew presents evidence proving that Jesus is the rightful king of the coming kingdom by showing that he descended from David. That evidence is in chapters 1-4 of the Gospel. Matthew also shows that Jesus is the sacrifice God intended to provide atonement. Jesus is the sacrifice provided by God in place of Isaac in Genesis 22. That evidence is in chapters 26-28 – the final three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. So, the focus of the seven chapters at the beginning and end of the Gospel is on who Jesus is as the coming king.

The other 21 chapters in Matthew’s Gospel are about the coming kingdom itself. Chapters 5-7 are called The Sermon on the Mount. It contains Jesus’ instructions for believers on representing his coming kingdom in this present age. Chapters 8-11 tell us how to spread the kingdom by evangelizing others. Chapters 12-13 encourage us to stay committed to his coming kingdom. Chapters 14-19 teach us how to live by the standards of the coming kingdom.

The focus changes around this point in Matthew’s Gospel once again. The following six chapters are all about when the kingdom will come and set up his kingdom on earth. This section will teach us more about the Second Coming than any other place. That is why Matthew chose to include this parable here. The parable as a story is about a day working in a vineyard. But the story is about working for the King today as we look forward to Him coming from the sky and setting up his kingdom on Earth.

The parable focuses on the workers’ pay at the end of the day. Although the landowner hires different workers at different times during the day, he pays them all the same wage regardless of how long they labored in the vineyard when he went to settle with them. Since the parable is about the kingdom, the work that is done in the parable symbolizes all the work done by kingdom citizens today.

It seems unfair.

Workers were hired to work the vineyard in shifts. Some started early in the morning. Others showed up to be hired at 9 am. Then noon, then 3 pm. Then, finally, a group started at 5 pm.  That meant that they only worked for one hour. When the last group got in line for their day’s pay, they were paid the standard wage. Every worker in the vineyard that day got the standard salary.

The first group – the one starting early in the morning- began complaining about the day’s pay. It was the pay that they had agreed to. But it didn’t seem fair that the pay was the same as that given to the last group – the one that only worked an hour.

The landowner insisted that he was not mistreating anyone. He paid everyone the same price. He was right to treat all his workers the same way and reward them with the standard wage. But it just seems unfair.

Part of the reason we can’t get our heads around this story is that we are accustomed to working for hourly wages. Business owners hire people by the hour and pay them according to a scale they can afford. For unskilled labor, it just makes sense. But it makes less sense if the employer ignores that arrangement and pays everyone the same wage regardless of their work hours.

But our modern problems with how this story unfolds are not that much different from the problems its original hearers and readers had with it. Remember that the story did not tell us how to pay our employees. The point of the story was not about proportional remuneration. It’s about the kingdom of heaven. It’s about what will happen when the kingdom in heaven comes down to earth.

Many things will happen when Jesus returns to Earth to set up his kingdom here. But one of the most important things is that he will gather all his kingdom citizens.  In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says that he is coming soon and has his reward to pay each one according to what he has done (Revelation 22:12).

But even reading those words, we might get the impression that the coming kingdom will be inhabited by some who are rewarded more than others. We know that society today is like that. Some make more money than others. Some can afford bigger houses, newer cars, and better clothes. Life is about status. There is an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class.

In other words, life today is unfair. Our Constitution tells us that all are created equal, but the moment some people are born, their inequalities scream out. Most seem trapped in a life that grants them undeserved blessings or challenges. Some people are exceptional and go from rags to riches. But most do not break the mold.

It is fair because of God’s grace.

The message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard is that when King Jesus returns to set up his kingdom, there will be a hard reset. Everyone who has ever come into the kingdom will receive the standard wage. Each will receive the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

No one deserves this gift. It is a gift. That is why it will not matter how many hours you work in the vineyard. We will not be saved because we worked a single hour in the vineyard. Our salvation is based on the fact the landowner sought us out. Whether he found us first thing in the morning or just an hour before quitting time is irrelevant. We are saved because of the shepherd seeking out lost sheep.

Our God is seeking the lost even today. Some of us have been working hard for him for decades, but our time in service will not make us any more saved than those who answer his call on their deathbeds. Our conversion is not a work we perform for him. It is an act of grace by him.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross. That is why the Apostle Paul tells us that our status is all the same – there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female — for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Since our status is the same, our reward will be the same.

The kingdom that comes from heaven will not have upper and lower classes. He is preparing a place for us that will not reflect our greatness or lowliness. Jesus told us that we will receive the kingdom like a child. All our status, accomplishments, and things we take pride in are considered nothing because they make no difference to God. Our greatness does not impress God.

The problem that the rich young man had in last week’s message also relates to this story. The Lord told him that there was one thing he lacked. He told him to sell all he had and give it away to poor people. But this seemed so unfair for Jesus to ask him to do that. He had worked hard for his wealth. He had made wise decisions. It seemed unfair for Jesus to penalize him for making sound financial decisions. So, he was sad and left sorrowful because he had much wealth.

But Jesus is the king of his coming kingdom. He has every right to treat all of his citizens the same. He is not obligated to let anyone who does not agree to his terms into his kingdom. It is his kingdom. The king says “Come” to whoever wants to come. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the thirsty one come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge” (Revelation 22:17).

The Apostle Paul discovered this amazing fact of God’s fair grace. He told the Philippians that if “someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things — indeed, I regard them as dung! — that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness — a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,

and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:4-11).

Paul was a rich man who made the right choice. He decided to follow Jesus, but he first had to divest himself of all his “greatness.” Nobody gets into the kingdom by deserving it. We all bow to the one who bought us by his blood. We all surrender our ideas of fairness and receive his kingdom as little children. We all surrender our self-reliance and self-sufficiency and become objects of mercy.

For further study:

Buchanan George Wesley. The Gospel of Matthew. Wipf & Stock 2006. pp. 775-779.

Clarke Howard W. The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Indiana University Press 2003. pp.164-167.

Davis Daniel J. Parables of Matthew. FaithQuest Brethren Press 1998. pp. 49-57.

Fortna Robert Tomson. The Gospel of Matthew: The Scholars Version Annotated with Introduction and Greek Text. Polebridge Press 2005. pp. 168-169.

France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew. Grand Rapids (MI: Eerdmans, 2007. pp. 746-752.

Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010. p. 62.

Vann Jefferson. The Coming King: a new translation and commentary of Matthew’s Gospel. Piney Grove Publications 2023. pp. 197-199.

Let The Kids Come

Mark 10:13-16 NET.

¹³ Now people were bringing little children to him for him to touch, but the disciples scolded those who brought them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ After he took the children in his arms, he placed his hands on them and blessed them.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel authors to tell the story of Jesus, he did not have them list his commands. Each of the commands of our Lord came within a context, and the Gospel authors were careful to fill in the details of their stories so that we could understand what Jesus commanded and why.

In today’s story, Mark tells us that the disciples were doing something that made Jesus angry. When he saw what they were doing, he was indignant. The last thing any employee wants to do is to make the boss indignant. It is better not to be seen at all than to be seen doing something that makes the boss mad.

Today’s lesson tells us something about the importance of Jesus’ command. It is important enough for Jesus to underline, highlight, and put in bold print. Our attitude toward children is something that our Lord cares very much about. It is a priority for him. Let’s take a closer look at today’s passage to understand why.

Jesus loves little children (13-14,16).

People (presumably, their parents) were bringing little children to Jesus for him to touch. It was a tradition for prominent people in Israel to bless little children, just like for grandparents to bless their grandchildren. Jesus sometimes criticized the Jews for unthinkingly following their traditions, but he had no problems with this tradition. He loved little children. They were not a nuisance to him. He would smile at them, and they would smile back at him. He enjoyed spending time with them.

I’m sure by this time, the disciples knew that Jesus would want to spend time with children typically, but they had just heard him predict that he was going to be betrayed and killed in Jerusalem. Mark records that prediction in chapter 9, verse 31. Hearing something like that would naturally make a person sad. So, the disciples were not in the mood for frivolity. When they saw the children lining up to be blessed by their master, they probably thought he didn’t have time to waste on them. He was important and had an important message to share and limited time to do it.

But Jesus always has time for the people he loves. I am so grateful for that fact, and I know you are too. Jesus was not just formally touching the foreheads of these kids. He was taking them in his arms and embracing them. He loved kids, and he still does.

That fact should challenge us as a congregation. We should make time for the kids. We should figure out how we can help their parents raise kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We should minister to the children. They are not just the future of the church. They are essential to Jesus now and should be just as important to us now.

One of the reasons that kids are so important is that we adults can learn something from them.

Children can teach us how to receive the kingdom (14-15).

Jesus said that we should let the little children come to him and not try to stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Little kids can show us how to respond to the gospel. It’s not that they are sinless and innocent. We know they are not. But little children know how to depend on others. Unless they have been harmed, they naturally trust others. Children seem to have a supernatural ability to forgive even if they are harmed.

I think it is this ability that little kids have that Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to. He tells them that children instinctively know how to receive the kingdom of God.

When Jesus taught his disciples about receiving the kingdom, he used many illustrations to help them understand how it was done. He talked about different soils and their capacity to receive the seed and produce crops of different levels. He spoke of sacrificing things in this life to receive eternal life at the resurrection. He talked about the simplicity of asking for and seeking the kingdom.

Kids are not ashamed to ask for what they want. I saw a commercial the other day about a man at an ice cream truck who was trying to tell a bunch of kids about a football game. The kids were not interested at all in football. They wanted ice cream. The man kept talking about football, but the kids kept bringing the conversation back to ice cream.

What Jesus was talking to his disciples about here was receiving the kingdom. The kingdom of God is coming to earth in the future, but it can be received today. It is an inheritance promised by God for our future, but it is an inheritance we can put our faith in today. Kids take hold of a promise and get joy in it. They love sitting on the older man’s lap and reviewing their Christmas list. They love reminding us that next month is their birthday.

Jesus drew attention to the fact that children know how to receive the kingdom. We adults have lost this marvelous ability to accept a promise as a present reality. We have matured beyond the capacity for confident expectations. That is why we must return to school and learn from the kids. They know how to receive the kingdom.

We might miss the promise if we don’t learn this valuable lesson from the kids. Jesus said…

Only those with child-like faith will enter the kingdom (15).

Unless we learn to receive the kingdom today, it will not be waiting for us at the resurrection. Unless we live in confident expectation of it now, we will not be able to enter it when Christ returns. Matthew spends an entire chapter in his Gospel telling us that there will be many people when Jesus returns who will learn that they only thought they were true Christians. Five were ready when the Bridegroom came in the parable of the ten virgins, but five were not. In the parable of the Talents, one servant failed to invest what he had been given. His laziness earned the loss of everything he thought he had. One group inherited life in the parable of the sheep and goats, but the other did not.

That is what Jesus is talking about here. If we don’t receive the kingdom today, we will not be able to enter it when it comes tomorrow. There is only one way to receive the kingdom: like a child. When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus had taken a little child and had him stand among them. That child had been his visual aid. He represented what it is like to receive the kingdom. It’s not about who is the greatest. It doesn’t matter who is the strongest, the smartest, the wealthiest, or even the wisest.

The gospel of God’s grace is available to all of us. God has handled our sin problem by nailing it to a cross with his Son. Nothing stands between us and a future life of eternal joy and blessing. But we have to say yes. We must put our pride and self-importance aside and come to Jesus for his blessing. We can’t work our way into his kingdom. We can’t accomplish our way into his kingdom. We can’t achieve our way into his kingdom.

Jesus says for us all to come to him. We work hard and carry heavy burdens and must learn to accept his grace like little kids do. Jesus says for us to go to him, and he will give us rest. We don’t earn that rest. He offers it freely. All we have to do is go to him.

Jesus’ command for all of us today is to let the kids come. He is not too busy to spend some time with us. He wants to smile at us and to watch us smile back in return. He wants to bless us with his touch. He wants to take us in his arms. “Like a shepherd, he tends his flock; he gathers up the lambs with his arm; he carries them close to his heart.” You have a Savior, and he loves you, and he wants to bless you. He does not have a list of things you must do to win his approval. All he asks is that you come to him and receive him like a child.

For further study:

Barclay William. The Gospel of Mark. Revised ed. Westminster Press 1975. pp. 241-244.

Byrne Brendan. A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel. Liturgical Press 2008. pp. 160-161.

Carrington Philip. According to Mark: A Running Commentary on the Oldest Gospel. University Press 1960. pp. 211-213.

France R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press 2002. pp. 395-398.

Gundry Robert H. Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross. Eerdmans 1993. pp. 544-551.

Hughes R. Kent. Mark (Vol. 2): Jesus Servant and Savior. Crossway 1989. pp. 55-60.

Marshall F. The Gospel According to St. Mark (Revised Version). 1st ed. George Gill 1921. pp. 53.

Moloney Francis J. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary. Hendrickson 2002. pp. 196-198.

No Longer Bound

Romans 7:1-6 NET.

¹ Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. ³ So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. ⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

The Apostle Paul considered preaching the gospel as the objective of his life – what he had been set apart for. He was eager to proclaim the gospel to everyone everywhere he went. When he sat down to write his epistle to the Romans, he wanted to explain why. That is why no matter what topic Paul gets on, it relates back to the gospel sooner or later. This is the message that Paul says he is not ashamed of. There were lots of things before his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road that Paul was ashamed of, but he was not ashamed of his decision to accept the gospel and live by it from then on.

Paul explains the gospel in the early chapters of the Book of Romans. He outlines the doctrine of justification by faith in the grace of God, made possible by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He explains that there is no other way to be saved other than by faith in the grace of God. Paul himself is the perfect example of the statement made by Peter in Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” Once Jesus came to Paul, Paul was only about Jesus and his gospel.

It would be safe to say that Paul was a committed man. That was true of Paul before he became a believer. When Paul was rounding up Christians to have them punished, persecuted, and imprisoned, he was also a committed man. He was busy harming the body of Christ with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other.

That was why Paul needed to write the Book of Romans. He knew how easy it was for a person to do the devil’s work and be fully persuaded that he was following the Bible. He knew that Rome contained a large community of believers raised on the Old Testament law just like he was. So, in today’s text, he addresses those people.

The audience: those who know the law (1).

In Rome, there were many Gentiles, but there were also lots of Jews. Many proselytes had turned to Judaism before they heard the gospel and pledged their lives to Christ. Paul is addressing those people in today’s text. He is writing to people who know the law of Moses.

Earlier in his letter (chapter v2), Paul had addressed those who boast about knowing the law yet continue to dishonor God by transgressing it. Now, he has returned to talk to these people – those who claim to know God’s law. He knows that they will be tempted to live like he did. He had lived as an enemy of God even while he claimed to be defending God.

For Paul, a change had to happen. It did not matter how much he knew the law; the law itself would not turn him into a servant of God. He thought he was living by the law, but every aspect of his life was breaking the law and the heart of God.

The old bondage: the flesh attempting to obey the law, producing death (5).

Paul says that “when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” Just carrying around his Bible was not enough. Just knowing what God wants, as revealed in the Scriptures, was not sufficient. Sin had a grip on Paul’s life. It was producing death and using the law to bring death about. It’s like a criminal who steals a surgeon’s scalpel. That scalpel was designed to cut out disease and repair injury. But the thief uses the same scalpel to harm instead of heal.

So, what Paul is saying is that he was in bondage. Just having the Bible and knowing the law – was not enough for him to get out of that bondage. Something had to happen to set him free from that bondage. If it didn’t happen, the knowledge of the law would keep him in bondage.

That is why it is so important for Paul to address these people. They were people like him. They were Bible-toting, Scripture-memorizing, law-abiding sinners as he had been. But unless they experience the gospel, they will never experience the freedom that he now lives in.

Freedom through the cross: release from the law’s lordship (2,3-4,6).

Note that Paul talks about a married woman who is released from the law of marriage when her husband dies. When he dies, she is set free from that law. So, Paul tells these biblically knowledgeable Christians that when Christ died on the cross for them, they died to the law. Paul says that all believers have been released from the law because when Christ died for us, we died to what had controlled us when we were merely followers of the law.

Paul explains this new freedom Christians can walk in with the illustration of the married woman whose husband dies. Before her husband dies, she is bound to him by their covenant. After his death, she is released from the bondage. She is now free from the previous commitment and all its responsibilities.

Now, this is where some people have grossly misinterpreted Paul’s meaning. Paul is not saying that all Christians are released from the law as God’s instruction. He’s saying that because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can live free from the law as a tool for sinning. We are free to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We are free from the bondage that made us sin, regardless of how much we studied the law.

The freedom Paul talks about here is only half of the equation. Once the death of Christ set us free on the cross, it remained for each believer to put their faith in that atonement and to begin walking in step with that new life. Paul explained that to the Romans by using the illustration of a second marriage.

Remarriage: joined to Christ for productive service (3-6).

This woman who became a widow did not remain a widow. She is joined to another man. She becomes a newlywed again. We, believers, are released from the bondage to the flesh to serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.  Unless we allow the Holy Spirit to take over, we are in danger of going back to living in bondage to the flesh.

The warning Paul gives the Romans here is significant for you and me today. We can walk with the Bible in our hands and still be walking according to the flesh. We can claim to be doing what God wants yet all the while be doing what we want. What we want and what the devil wants is the same thing. The law no longer binds us as the devil interpreted it. We are set free from that bondage.

However, just being set free is not enough. We have to be who the gospel says we are. We now have a new husband. We are the bride of Christ. We now have a new covenant. With it comes a new commitment. Self is not on the throne anymore. Christ is the Lord. We are joined to him.

We serve the same God that we thought we were serving before. But now, his truth is revealed to us clearly by his Holy Spirit inside us. The life we live is not a legalistic interpretation of the letter but a life empowered by the Spirit to know and accomplish our Father’s will. Anyone who has ever lived that life for a second can never be convinced to go back to the old life of bondage and control by the flesh.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus fully atoned for all your sins and set you free from your old life of trying to please God with your works. We are now free to serve in the new life of the Spirit. We are no longer bound!

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For further study:

Abendroth, Mike, and S. Lewis Johnson. Discovering Romans: Spiritual Revival for the Soul. 2014. pp. 110-113.

Achtemeier, Paul J. Romans: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 2010. pp. 113-118.

Dewey Donald Kent et al. Walk through Romans: Based on the Sermon Outlines of Dr. Howard F. Sugden. Morris Publishing 2010. p. 66.

Erdman Charles R. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans: An Exposition. Westminster Press 1925. pp. 75-77.

Forrester E. J. A Righteousness of God for Unrighteous Men: Being an Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. George H. Doran 1926. pp. 140-145.

Hutchings N. W. Romance of Romans. 1st ed. Anniversary gift ed. Hearthstone Pub 1990. pp. 196-207.

MacGorman J. W. Romans 1 Corinthians. Broadman Press 1980. pp. 60-61.

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