CCC Gainesville | Blog
THE THREE MOST COMMON ACTS of piety amongst many Jews were prayer, fasting, and alms-giving (i.e., giving money to the poor). So when Jesus’ disciples seemed a little indifferent to the second, it was bound to provoke interest. The Pharisees fasted; the disciples of John the Baptist fasted. But fasting was not characteristic of Jesus’ disciples. Why not? (Mark 2:18-22.)
Jesus’ response is stunning: “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast” (2:19-20). Here is Jesus, profoundly self-aware, deeply conscious that he himself is the messianic bridegroom, and that in his immediate presence the proper response is joy. The kingdom was dawning; the king was already present; the day of promised blessings was breaking out. This was not a time for mourning, signaled by fasting.
Yet when Jesus went on to speak of the bridegroom being taken away from his disciples, and that this event would provoke mourning, it is very doubtful if anyone, at the time, grasped the significance of the utterance. After all, when the Messiah came, there would be righteousness and the triumph of God. Who could speak of the Messiah being taken away? The entire analogy of the bridegroom was becoming opaque.
But after Jesus’ death and resurrection, after his exaltation to glory, and after the promise of his return at the end of the age, the pieces would fit together. The disciples would experience terrible sorrow during the three days of the tomb, before Jesus’ glorious resurrection forever shattered their despair. And in an attenuated sense, Jesus’ disciples would experience cycles of suffering that would call forth days of fasting as they faced the assaults of the Evil One while waiting for their Master’s blessed return. But not now. Right now, sorrow and fasting were frankly incongruous. The promised Messiah, the heavenly Bridegroom, was among them.
The truth, Jesus says, is that with the dawning of the kingdom, the traditional structures of life and forms of piety would change. It would be inappropriate to graft the new onto the old, as if the old were the supporting structure—in precisely the same way that it is inappropriate to repair a large rent in an old garment by using new, unshrunk cloth, or use old and brittle wineskins to contain new wine still fermenting, whose gases will doubtless explode the old skin. The old does not support the new; it points to it, prepares for it, and then gives way to it. Thus Jesus prepares his disciples for the massive changes that were dawning.
excerpt from “For the Love of God” by D.A. Carson
I would like to introduce two of our High School Sunday School teachers, James and Rachel Schrader. They will be joining us this fall at 9 am to teach our High Schoolers from the Sermon on the Mount.
James Schrader grew up in Crestview, FL and came to Gainesville to attend the University of Florida in 2006. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration in 2009. James is now Principal of Forest Grove Christian Academy in Forest Grove (small city between Alachua and Newberry).
Rachel Schrader grew up in Ocala, FL and began attending the University of Florida in 2005. She graduated with her Bachelors degree in Health Science in 2009 and received her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2012. She is now a physical therapist at Parklands Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Gainesville.
James and Rachel were married in 2009 and have been attending Christ Community since 2011.
We are excited to have them here and they are so excited to be in the lives of our students each week!
As we continue reading through Mark, today we come to the account of the time that 4 friends went to extraordinary measures to get their friend in the presence of Jesus. I needed this reminder. To be reminded that the people who brought me to Jesus went out of their way. To remember that I have to be ready, as Christ’s apprentice, to go out of my way to get people to Him.
So that you may think more on it, here is Spurgeon’s Morning Devotion from 7Sept.
“And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.”
Mark 2:4
Faith is full of inventions. The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him. If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods we must use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke 5:19, that a tiling had to be removed, which would make dust and cause a measure of danger to those below, but where the case is very urgent we must not mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties. Jesus was there to heal, and therefore fall what might, faith ventured all so that her poor paralysed charge might have his sins forgiven. O that we had more daring faith among us! Cannot we, dear reader, seek it this morning for ourselves and for our fellow-workers, and will we not try today to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord.
The world is constantly inventing; genius serves all the purposes of human desire: cannot faith invent too, and reach by some new means the outcasts who lie perishing around us? It was the presence of Jesus which excited victorious courage in the four bearers of the palsied man: is not the Lord among us now? Have we seen his face for ourselves this morning? Have we felt his healing power in our own souls? If so, then through door, through window, or through roof, let us, breaking through all impediments, labour to bring poor souls to Jesus. All means are good and decorous when faith and loveare truly set on winning souls. If hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger for souls is not to be hindered in its efforts. O Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching thy poor sin-sick ones, and bold to carry them out at all hazards.
As promised, here’s the card we received in the mail announcing Jackson Richard Kingsley! (used by persmission).
This month Christ Community is seeking to raise awareness and understanding of the offices that the New Testament prescribes for churches: elder and deacon. To that end, I’ll be posting sections in order from a wonderful survey of shepherding, the task of elders, on this blog in the coming days.
You can also read the entire article in one shot.
To nominate men for the office of elder and deacon, fill out a form on Sunday morning, or email name(s) and designate office(s) to info AT christcommunity church DOT com.
fifth excerpt from Lessons in Shepherding
Jeremiah’s Lamentation—23:9-15
In the verses that follow, we hear Jeremiah’s reaction to his nation’s leaders. Jeremiah writes,
As for the prophets: my heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine, because of the LORD and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. “For both prophet and priest are polluted; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD. “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; for I will bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD. “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets, “Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land'” (Jer 23:9-15).
What is Jeremiah doing in verses 9 and 10? He’s lamenting the state of the people and the land.
Why? Because God has brought the covenant curse of famine as a result of the prophets’ disobedience (“For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.”). The famine here may be literal, but it may also be spiritual – it’s a famine of the Word of the Lord among the prophets and priests. God says the prophets and priests are both polluted (v.11), and he promises to judge them (v.12). In verse 13, God brings back shepherding imagery with the idea of leading God’s people astray.
How are the Samarian prophets leading God’s people astray in verse 13? By prophesying according to Baal.
How are the Jerusalem prophets leading them astray in verse 14? By walking in immorality (adultery) and falsehood (heterodoxy), and by not calling the people to repentance (“so that no one has turned back from his wickedness”). Calling people to repent of wickedness is part of biblical, spiritual shepherding.
So how does God judge these prophets in verse 15? Since the prophets and priests are polluted in verse 11 by immorality and heterodoxy, God will pollute them by feeding them on the wormwood and poisonous water of his judgment. This is an example of lex talionis, the law of retribution in which the punishment fits the crime.
“My Words to My People”—23:16-22
What’s ultimately the problem with these false prophets? They do not stand with God, which is evidenced by the fact that they do not speak his Word. Instead they speak according to their own imaginings.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the LORD. “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace “‘; and as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ “But who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest; it will swirl down on the head of the wicked. “The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it. “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. “But if they had stood in my council, then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds (Jer. 23:16-22).
How might we sum up the problem expressed in these verses? The prophets are speaking out of their own imaginations rather than out of God’s Word. They speak without first being spoken to and listening (v. 18 “But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear his word? Who has given heed to his word and listened?”; v.21 “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied.”)
What would the prophets have said to God’s people if they had listened to God before speaking to them? They would have announced God’s words to God’s people (v.22). And they would have called them to turn back “from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.” In other words, they would have called the people to repentance.
What a dire warning this presents to evangelical elders today! Commenting on an earlier chapter of Jeremiah, Tenth Presbyterian pastor Philip Ryken meditates on what will be the outcome of church members whose pastors preach “Peace, peace” where there is no peace. Ryken writes,
“It is easy to imagine that many people will say the same thing on the day of judgment, when Jesus Christ will judge every man, woman, and child according to his or her deeds. ‘We hoped for peace,’ some will say. ‘My pastor told me there wouldn’t be any Hell.’ Or ‘My spiritual advisor said God would accept me as long as I did my best.’”[1]
Elders, do you want to put the members of your church in this position?
Lost Sheep—50:6-7
When God’s shepherds forsake, or overlook, or simply take for granted, God’s Word, God’s people will be led astray. As the Lord himself says through Jeremiah,
My people have become lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; they have gone along from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place. All who came upon them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, “We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned against the LORD who is the habitation of righteousness, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers” (Jer 50:6-7).
What failures does God highlight among his shepherds in these verses? First, the shepherds have led the sheep astray. They have turned aside from the path, away from the green pastures, and along the dangerous cliffs of the mountains and from the mountains to the hills. The hills in Jeremiah are associated with the worship of Baal, the storm God (see 2:20—committing adultery on every high hill; also, 3:2—harlotry on the barren heights). The shepherds are probably not just the kings, but the priests as well, and likely the prophets too. All of them are leading the people into idolatry and away from the true worship of the true God.
Second, they’ve caused the sheep to forget their resting place.
Third, they’ve failed to protect them from the wild animals that would devour them.
What effect does this have on outsiders, that is, those who are not God’s people? The outsiders begin to assume that they are not guilty of attacking the people of God, since the people of God are clearly compromised (“We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned.”)!
As we saw in our prior study, being a responsible shepherd means knowing where you are going with the sheep, knowing how to get there, doing your best to ensure that all the sheep actually get there, and making sure that your destination is a safe place where the sheep would have plenty of food and water and be protected by wild animals. Bad shepherds neglect all these responsibilities. They are more impressed with their own wisdom than with God’s. They are more ambitious for their own fame than God’s.
As shepherds of God’s flock, we are responsible to God the Father, under Jesus Christ, by the power of his Spirit, to lead the congregation into the green pastures of God’s Word and true worship of him. We are responsible to protect them from those who would teach false doctrine (or no doctrine) to them. And we are responsible to lead them to enter into the rest of God by ensuring their salvation through the right teaching and application of the Scriptures according to 1 Timothy 4:12-16.
Hope in God as the true Shepherd—50:17-20
“Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. ‘And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. ‘In those days and at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’
Who are the lions here? The kings of Assyria and Babylon. And again, Israel is scattered, which is a bad thing. God wants his sheep together.
What is God going to do for Israel in verse 19? He’s going to bring Israel back to his pasture.
Why? So he can graze and be satisfied. So the goal of God for his sheep—the reason he’s bringing them back to their own pasture—is to let them graze and be satisfied with eating from the good grass. He will pardon their iniquity, and grant them their desires for knowing and truly worshipping him. May our work contribute to, and not hinder, God’s re-gathering.
