Monday Night, April 17th, 2023 Mark 10:16
First B Jackson
2023-04-18

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Set. We're on. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another Monday night. How how was your Monday today?

It's alright? Okay. I like your enthusiasm. Big thank you to Nick and to Scott for for dinner tonight. And, there is there's gonna there's a lot of leftover, meat back there.

Lots? Oh, okay. We'll we'll find more. But grateful. Thank you very much.

Oh, yes. Yeah. We're gonna jam just a bit. Thanks for bearing with us during a little sound check there. So we are in the gospel of Mark right now on Monday nights, and we're up to chapter 10.

It is conversation style, so keep that in mind for and share a little word of encouragement, a little back and forth. But before we get there, would you stand with us and we'll we'll worship and song together and give God give God praise.

New every morning. I'll weaken my soul to say. I'll weaken my soul to say. And I will trust where you lead. And I will trust when I can't see.

Morning by morning, great is your faithfulness Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow. Waking my soul sing. See. Morning by morning ladies, your faithfulness to me. And I will trust with all my heart and you are good, always are.

Morning by morning radiates your faithfulness. May all fear be reminded. All fear be reminded. My future is secure. My father has spoken Oh, my father has spoken and he keeps his every word.

And I will trust I will trust you. Morning by morning, oh, morning by morning. And I will trust

where you need.

And I will trust when I can't see. Morning by morning radiates your faithfulness great is your faithfulness me morning by morning morning by morning great is your faithfulness

God, thank you for your faithfulness to us. And when we sing that song, I thank God you've taken us this far. Will you not take us the rest of the way? You will. You are faithful.

And, God, would you increase our faith as we trust, as we yield to you, would you increase our faith so that it would just grow more and more and more so that we can trust when we can't see. In Jesus' name. Amen. A darkness tries to roll over my bones,

Sorrow comes to steal the joy I live. Brokenness and the pain is all I know. I won't be shaky. I won't love. My feet doesn't stand.

Cheap, try not to stand in your love. Love. My fear doesn't stand the chance when I stand in your love. My fear doesn't stand the chance when I stand in your love. Doesn't stand a chance.

Why I stand in your love.

Can I ask you just to close your eyes for a minute and hear Jesus speak this to his disciples? And you know what? We're disciples too. So can we hear this as well? Jesus says, peace I leave with you, and my peace I give to you.

I don't give as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. Thank you, Lord, that you are extending peace in our direction, your gift of wholeness. And, God, we're human. We have fears.

But, Lord, as we stand in your love, would you melt those fears away? In Jesus' name, amen.

Died. Yes, free indeed. A child of God, yes, I am in I am. A child of God. Yes, I am.

I thank you for these promises that we sing of. And, Lord, as we dive into the scripture tonight and just soak in it and hear what you have to say, God, could we hear your heart for us, your intent, your design, your best for us? God, would we hear it? Do your good work. In Jesus' name, amen.

Those were good songs for me. Just they they did good to my heart, especially before this sermon. And we're in the gospel, of Mark, and tonight we're up to chapter 10 verses one through 16. We're just going through, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and seeing what does God have for us and just taking in the entirety of it. There's always something, always, always something that the Lord wants to show us.

This is where Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce, and Jesus blesses the children. And so I wanna just go ahead and start reading it right away. I wanna share thoughts along the way. And if you would, would you please take take note of yours as well so that we can bounce it around a little bit more at the end and encourage each other with this. So it says this, then Jesus left Capernaum, and he went down to the region of Judea and into the the area East of the Jordan River.

So it sounds very, very matter of fact here. Just okay. Here's because that's what Mark is. It's very, you know, event driven. He he just go event to event to event.

But this is so significant, and I wanna I wanna share why. Because this meant do you see the arrow? Jesus is going where? Where is he headed toward? Anybody?

Yeah. Jerusalem. And what would happen there? This is sure and certain death. And he would be and and he said this he knows this is gonna happen.

He's told his disciples, hey. I'm gonna be rejected and betrayed into the hands of enemies, killed, but three days later raised from the dead. So Jesus knew exactly where he was headed. He knew exactly what would happen there, and he kept walking in that direction. Let me ask you this.

How many of us, if we know, hey. You're gonna be killed down there. How many of us would be walking in that direction? You know what I mean? Think of this.

Walking into danger. I just wanna point it out because it's so significant how determined Jesus was to carry out his mission. That he we're forgiven because he kept going on that mission. It's just awesome. So Jesus is headed toward Judea.

And then what's it say? Once again, crowds gathered around him as usual, and he was teaching them. And I just I just love that part too because Jesus is teaching people about the kingdom. They're teaching he's teaching about his love and forgiveness to anybody who'd listen or ask, Sharing the good news. But, of course, this as as it was the case, verse two, some pharisees came and they tried to trap him with this question.

Tried to trap him with this question. Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife? So know that this question was meant to trap Jesus. Like, since chapter three, they've been plotting his death. When Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, do you remember that one?

And his the withered hand, and and he kept breaking their traditions. He wasn't breaking, the the Mosaic law. He was breaking their traditions, and they got angrier and angrier and more jealous. And so if Jesus said no to this question, think of this. Do you remember what happened to John the Baptist when he spoke out against Herod for his divorce.

You remember that? He had John the Baptist killed. And maybe, just maybe, if Jesus spoke out against Herod, they would kill Jesus too. You see where you you see this? It's it's nasty.

It's awful. It's trickery. I mean, their hearts were hard. There's no doubt about it. Just the question itself reveals the hardness of their hearts.

Because, essentially, what these guys were asking Jesus is, hey, Jesus. What does the law of Moses allow us to get away with? Where's the loophole? That's what they were asking, essentially. And look how Jesus answers.

He answers with a question. Well, what

did

Moses say in the law about divorce? Well, he permitted it, they replied. He said a man can give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away. And that's true. It's found in Deuteronomy 24.

And they saw marriage as just a just a legal issue, not a spiritual issue. But look at this in verse five. Here's how Jesus responds. He says, he wrote that commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts. And a a concession is it's something that's granted in response to demands.

So Moses allowed it because their hard hearts demanded it. This is heavy so far, isn't it not? But catch this. Here we see Jesus going, alright. I wanna show you God's original design and intent.

Okay? Here it is. But God made them male and female from the beginning of creation, and this explains why a man leaves his father and mother, and he's joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Since they're no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together. So there it is, Jesus being as straightforward as he can.

His intent for marriage to become one, it's meant to be permanent. And before I go on, I wanna say this. I know that divorce rates are high. I know that many of us here have been affected by it in one way or another another, often negatively. And this very matter of fact statement from Jesus doesn't give warm fuzzies on the topic.

It doesn't. But I also want us to consider the audience whom he's speaking to. As he's speaking so directly, in matter of fact, his audience here, they're bitter opponents who want to kill him and interpret scripture how they want to interpret it. So if there's a time to be straightforward and matter of fact, this is the time. This is the time.

Because the Pharisees needed to discover what God commanded, not what Moses permitted. Can I just say that again? The Pharisees needed to discover what God commanded, not what Moses permitted. That's the major theme in this text. This is about hardness of heart.

So rather than ask, you know, it would have been different if they would have came to Jesus and said, Jesus, how how do I follow the law to love God and love others the way that God intended, included including my spouse? Now that would have been different, but they plotted to kill Jesus and look for loopholes in the law. You see you see what I'm saying here? Now that being said, I truly believe if Jesus' audience, say, was just a couple, right, a couple seeking the Lord, and they came to him broken and desperate because their marriage was falling apart, asking, what do we do? I think that we would we would see and hear a little more tenderness in Jesus' response.

Like, spoke to the woman at the well. Do you remember that conversation? But in this context, he's much more straightforward and and matter of fact. So I just wanna point that out that context matters. Sometimes we look at a scripture, we think that's maybe a harsh tone.

Let's consider everything that's going what what's happening in it. Okay? On to verse 10. Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again. Alright?

It seems they wanna know how serious how serious is Jesus really about this whole marriage thing? Because culturally, it was very common for a man just to write a certificate of divorce to his wife. Now I want you to think of the implications of that too, to just put someone out. What if you've started a family and you'd say, well, we're we're done now. We're certificate of divorce.

Where does that leave the the the spouse? Where does that leave the wife? That's a hard thing. That's not just a legal issue. That's this God really made this to be a spiritual issue.

Verse 11, he told them whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries someone else, she commits adultery. That's a hard teaching. But if I could sum this excuse me. And if I could sum this up, Jesus is really holding firm here that God made this to be a permanent union.

It's a binding contract, and it's not just to be canceled on a whim. Now that being said, I know there are legitimate reasons for divorce mentioned in other places in scripture. We don't see that right here in this one. He's having a very direct conversation with his disciples. He's not giving them.

It's it's kind of a here's the way it is. Now in other places in scripture, we see legitimate reasons, specifically adultery. It's found in Matthew five or abandonment in first Corinthians seven. I would say if a spouse is abusive and there's physical danger and the abused person needs to get out, needs to get out, needs to find a safe place because abuse is never okay. God's ideal, though.

Okay? So I've just you know, these are all things that happen because we're broken people. God's ideal, though, God's ideal for marriage can be summed up in Ephesians. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church. He gave himself up for her.

This is such a high standard. It's such a high standard of love, isn't it? Willing to serve and even give up his life for her. Ultimately, friends, I believe that this is what Jesus is trying to say to his disciples here. He's saying, guys, when when God rules, when when the kingdom rules and and reigns in your hearts, and and I wanna say this for for us too.

When God's when God rules and reigns in our hearts, when his kingdom is in our hearts, it's it means picking up our cross and following him. That's what Jesus has been teaching so far in Mark. He's going, there's a love that's sacrificial here. We're to serve to love one another. That's in such deep you know, such contrast to what we're just seeing here from the pharisees going, well, if I just hand a certificate over here, divorce, that's that.

Jesus is going, no. Husbands, I want you to love your wives like I love the church. I gave myself up for her. It's it's such a beautiful thing that Jesus has done for us. Do we meet the standard?

Boy, we fall short. I certainly do. Can I just say that out loud? I I do not I I don't I don't make that mark the way that that I ought to. Jesus' standard is to show sacrificial love and service in a marriage, and it's bringing God's kingdom into the marriage.

So there it is. There it is. There's God's there's God's design. There's God's intent. I know that brokenness happens.

I also know that God forgives, that he redeems, that he gives us a new start. When we're him, we're a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. There we can have new beginnings.

You know? Successful, marriages after after one fails. I know this, and I just wanna share that too. I wanna share that. I wanna end with, 13 through 16, and this is Jesus giving an invitation, an invitation to receive his kingdom like a child.

So one day, some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them, which, by the way, doesn't this say so much about Jesus and his character and his nature, that he's safe, that he's approachable, that he's tender, that he's loving, that he's kind. I mean, you don't just hand your baby to anyone. Right? I mean, we've got, like, some newborns in here. And, you know, as a like, mothers, they don't just go, You know?

They're they're careful. Am I right, moms? Yeah. Like, you're careful about who you would hand your child to. They're handed g the the their children to Jesus.

He's safe. He's tender. He's blessing them. But look at this. The disciple the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

So kids weren't revered then like they are today. And the disciples are like, hey. We got business here. Kiddos, go away. But, like, 14, when Jesus saw what was happened, he was angry.

We don't see Jesus angry very often. It says he was angry with his disciples, and he said to them, disciples, let these children come to me and do not stop them. Is this not a beautiful verse? And let this, Lord Almighty, would this please be us here at first be? Let the children come to you.

For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I love that we get to pair Awana and Monday night at the same time, and these kids are learning about the kingdom. They're learning about God's love and forgiveness. Now we've fallen short, but we we serve an almighty God who has forgiven us, who renews us, who saves us. It's just a beautiful thing.

15, he reiterates. I tell you the truth. Anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. And so we've got to ask ourselves, so what is it? What is it about a child that we should emulate?

What is it about kids? And I I've got a little list. I wanna hear yours too because I I know I'm missing something here. But the list that I come with is humility and trust independence. That's what I think of the character, traits of of kids.

The kids are humble. Like, they don't have any achievements to brag about. Right? They're just kids. They're kids.

That's just that's who they are. That's what they do. They're they don't have any degrees. They don't have, you know, any kind of, you know, work experience, all these things that we we value so much and and measure ourselves by all that, they're just humble. Like, here I am.

I'm a kid. You know what else? They're often more trusting too. Kids believe. You know, like, they're they're much less skeptical than you and I.

Wouldn't you would you agree? They're willing to take you at at your word. Another thing is that they're dependent. Like, a child is completely reliant on the resources of of their parents or or of of of else. You know?

So those are the ways in which I see that we are to receive the kingdom of God, that that nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross I clean. I'm I'm coming in humility. I'm coming in trust. I'm coming in dependence. Here I am, and I'm broken.

And I'm not boasting about anything because I don't have anything to boast about, and I don't have any righteousness of my own. I I'm really God, I'm relying on your righteousness. And and then we'll end with 16 here. And he took the children in his arms, and he placed his hands on their heads, and and he blessed them. He's to bless means to speak well of them, to praise them.

This is what a beautiful thing to be blessed by Jesus. So I wanna I I'll I'll end there. I'll end there, and I wanna sum up by saying I wanna sum up actually by saying, I I wanted to skip over the marriage and divorce part, honestly, because it is such a a sensitive topic. It really is. But the more I read it, and this always happens to me as I'm reading scripture.

The more I read it, I go, I can see God's goodness in this. I see his goodness. I see his good design. And I know that, yeah, we we can make a mess of it, but I but he he can restore it, that mess, and he can forgive that mess. And it's a it's just such a wonderful thing.

So I see his kingdom breaking into our lives in this chapter and revealing our own hardness of heart. You know, I'm not just looking at the pharisees. I'm looking in this this part of scripture. I'm going, okay. God, would you reveal the hardness in my own heart?

Am I looking for loopholes? Am I looking, you know, for what's permitted rather than what is God's real intent here? And then showing us a better way, a better way to love with service and sacrifice. It's it's so wonderful. And and then I also see in here his invitation to receive his kingdom like a child.

That with that humility and that trust and that dependence. And so I I wanna end with that. Those are my thoughts that that's what I see in there. And then I'd like to hear your thoughts too. What what stood out to you in these verses?

How how did they make you feel? Did they make you cringe? But do you also do you also see God's goodness in here as well? So before you share and you don't have to, by the way, but the conversation time is always fantastic just to encourage one another. But before you share, can I pray one more time?

Lord almighty, I am thankful for this word to us tonight. I'm thankful, God, for your kingdom breaking into our lives. God, may it break into our lives more and more. May we let it. And and let it reveal, God, if there's a hardness of heart in in ourselves, God, may you soften us, may we turn to you, yield to you?

And would you show us a better way to love with service and sacrifice? Because that is exactly what you are showing your disciples here, and that's what exactly you you you showed us by going to the the cross to sacrificially love. God, may we do that for one another. If the goal is to love you with our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, Lord, show us how to do that. You're showing us how to do that in this passage.

And, God, that we would gladly accept your invitation to receive your kingdom like a child. God, would you give us more of a childlike faith, that humility and trust and and total and utter dependence on you? May that grow in us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Alright. Well, would anybody have any any thoughts, on the scripture? We could could go back. Nick, look at you in the microphone. You you're ready.

You're gonna jump up.

Yes. I actually really like the inventory that's in here a lot, partly about for the kids is they're all in. Like for kids, they just, like you said, believe like this is who I am now. And I remember when I came to the Lord that I felt like it was just a switch. I went from this to this now, and I'm no longer that.

I'm fully this, and it's that it's that all in nature. And I was 10 at the time, and and it was just belief. I'm I'm walking in. And and then also that with the picture of marriage, throughout scripture, there's this long arc of of depicting Israel or, believers or us as the bride of Christ or the bride of of God. And and it's this, it's this picture.

So removing or allowing people to get out of that, it's also he uses that imagery, that picture of that's our relationship with God. So that's how we have to act out on this world too. So it's not something we can just sever. It's that all in mentality. And sometimes people don't like the imagery of God even being a man, but he uses that imagery to depict us as his bride and that seriousness of of us being united for life for a long time In better for better or for worse, there's going to be times where we fail, there's going to be times where we're ugly or something like that, but we can come back to him because we're married, we're bound together, we're tied.

There's that bond that can't be shaken no matter what. We come right back to him. It's that permanence. And it's also that reassurance we get from being united in Christ and being all in and being married to Him is that this is who I am now. And because this is who I am, that's how it depicts how it changes how we act.

And just it just blossoms from there if we allow it to go on.

Said.

You got a thought? Okay.

Let's see if I can say this and get it out the right way. The way I'm thinking. I think it's amazing with Mark, the way that it starts out with the Pharisees, the hardening of the heart and the evil. And once people's hearts, whether they mean to or not, but once they become hurt and hardened, it's so hard for them to be any other way. And I like the way this progresses into the very end of the answer is there, to have an open heart, to not be hurt, to be healed and to be open, and you won't be hurting, you won't be hard.

But the story I'll get, you know, I think the the screaming out thing about man being in mankind, man being in control, trying to control God's laws or his wishes for us because it's like, yeah, tell us that we can divorce. Tell us we can do this and that. Saint man wants to control everything. And it's just like once it become hardened, it's so hard to find their way back to being childlike. But yet in the very end of this with Mark, the emphasis that Jesus has on, no, the children, this is it.

You know, they they come. They're innocent. They're they're not hardened. Look at this. This is what I'm showing you.

Do not be hardened. To me, that's the whole like

Yep.

You know, I I like how you brought those two together. Right. Yeah. Yep. Anyone else?

Thank you. Well, the scripture speaks for itself. It really does. And that that's that's about it. Ray, would you have any thoughts on on the matter either?

Think going in. Going into it. Going into it, if you look at everything that Jesus says about it, everything that the Bible says about it, front old and new testaments, Hosea, the book of Hosea. If you look at everything that the Bible says about it, it's it it is about marriage. It's not always easy.

Right? And that comes out in the scripture. Old and new testaments, you can see it. But it start if you start out with this in mind that this is the way it is, it it does have a tendency to keep you humble. My my own grandmother and I I think that we can be hard.

I think we can be hard when we don't mean to sometimes. Mhmm. But I eloped and nobody knew about it. Tanya and I eloped and when she found out, this is she said, I usually say this before people get married. Divorce is not an option.

And it just hit like a hammer, and I thought, oh, okay. I know. Thank you. I think. But but she said, no.

You you have to you have to hold on to that. You have to hold on to that because it's not gonna be easy. And she was married till for a long time to somebody that was not easy to be married to. You know? And there was a tenderness that she had in mind that came across as being pretty harsh.

I see the same thing in Jesus right there. You can you can frame that as being patriarchal or whatever if you if you insist on it, but you're bringing that to the text. He's saying, ideally, this is what God has designed. It's the best. It's the best thing.

That it's one of his best gifts that he's given. Marriage is a great gift to to people and to their family and to society. It's great. If it's walked out in humility, the Ephesians passage five twenty five that you hit, if you if you go back up to 21, it says submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, which is just beautiful. And that's for the body of Christ.

That's for all of us, but it works really well in marriage if you if you look at it that way and allow that to carry through for the rest of those verses. So I had not planned on saying anything, but thank you for the opportunity.

I'm glad to hear from Always be ready to share.

Right? Yes.

Should we stand and we'll sing another song together? Evidence.

Evidence

And how about a little closing verse just to just to kinda stick with us, stay with us throughout the week. Jesus said, let the children come to me. Let maybe this be in our hearts. You know? As we think about these kids wrapping up a water right now and Jesus saying, let them come to me and don't stop them.

The kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. God, may you give us a childlike faith. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Amen.

Nope.