Reading Mark Together

By On September 26, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In 360 Apprentices

Mark 5:21-43 is Wednesday’s reading.  Here are a couple of thoughts on this passage:

1.) Tim Keller says that Jairus and the unnamed woman in this passage teach us;
“If you go to Jesus, he may ask of you far more than you originally planned to give, but he can give to you infinitely more than you dared ask or think.”

2.) Charles Campbell points out that Mark weaves the root word, sozo, throughout this text in an “intriguing” way.  In verse 23 Jairus begs Jesus to come and lay his hands on his dying daughter so that she may be sothe (NIV – “healed”) and live.  According to verse 28 the bleeding woman sneaks up on Jesus to try to touch his robe so that she may be sothesomai (NIV – “healed”) and live.  And verse 34 reports that Jesus tells the healed woman that her faith has sesoken (NIV – “healed”) her.  Yet this is the same word the New Testament often uses with salvivific overtones.  So is something more than physical healing at work here?  Is Jairus pleading for even more than his daughter’s physical rescue?  Does the woman somehow experience some kind of salvation here?

 

Reading Mark Together

By On September 24, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In 360 Apprentices

Monday Mark 4:21-40

Tuesday Mark 5:1-20

Wednesday Mark 5:21-43

Thursday Mark 6:1-29

Friday, Mark 6:30-56

Saturday, review chapters four through six

 

Jesus Brings Massive Changes

By On September 19, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In 360 Apprentices, From the Pastor

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

 

Reading Mark’s Gospel

By On September 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In 360 Apprentices, From the Pastor

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.

 

For 15 Years – a Christian Anthem

By On September 16, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In 360 Apprentices, Worship

This morning, we are opening our 15th-anniversary service with “Shout to the Lord”. If you’ve been at our church for very long, this might surprise you because we haven’t sung it together since 2007. It’s a song that I consider to be a Christian anthem – one that embodied the spirit of a generation of believers (at least it did mine). I spent twelve years in Christian school growing up, and “Shout to the Lord” made it into our weekly chapel meeting at least once a month. I can still remember singing it with my friends in high school. Years later, I’ve lost my personal taste for singing it. But that doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, since its release in 1993, “Shout to the Lord” has held a place in the top 20 songs used in worship services as reported to the CCLI. Even today, it will be sung by millions of Christians across the world.

This week I found an interesting interview with songwriter Darlene Zschech where she describes the process of writing this song. She was, as she put it, “between a rock and a hard place, and just went to the Lord.” Finding hope in the words of the Psalms, she sang them to her God. She didn’t sit down to write a “hit”, nor did she even give it much credit after writing it down. She wasn’t even a professional writer – just volunteering at the church. Bringing her honest grappling with the gospel to bear in song and sharing with her church. Years later, we see the power in her words – in that simple, singable melody. They are honest and heartfelt in a way that is hard to replicate.

And so, today we join the chorus of Christians around the world as we remember fifteen magnificent years together as Christ Community Church. We also embark on an adventure through Mark and Acts that will challenge us in our apprenticeship of Jesus. I hope you find comfort and hope in today’s service.