New Year’s Resolutions: 4. 2 Chronicles 15:7 – Be hopeful !
Recently Pastor Curtis, one of our teaching pastors at The Summit, used an illustration in his sermon from the Apollo moonshot days. Seems that when they launched the Apollo spacecraft, if they were even two percent off course at the beginning, when they arrived at the moon about 240,000 miles later, they would miss their orbit and sail right on past the moon.
(By the way, this is rocket science.)
Pastor Curtis used this principle to point out that even little changes now, applied over a long time, can result in significant changes in our lives. His point was to encourage us to start making changes in our lives toward godliness. Even if we can only make a small change here and there, we could expect to reap big results later of growth in godliness if we continued.
We should trust God that doing the things He has commanded us to do will eventually bring benefits. In other words, we should never lose hope in God’s promises.
Biblical hope is a little different from worldly hope. When in the world we say we ‘hope’ for something, that means we want it to happen, we wish it would happen, but we have no idea whether it will or not, nor do we have the ability to make it happen.
At it’s best, hopeful people are optimistic, and that’s a good thing. Optimistic people are a lot more fun to be around than pessimistic people like me.
But more often worldly hope is just good wishes–it feels good when someone wishes you well, it can be encouraging, but there’s no power to make it happen beyond your own efforts and determination.
In the Bible, hope is essentially trust in God focused on the future. God has made a lot of promises about salvation and heaven that we don’t see realized yet. Therefore, if we have chosen to place our faith in God, then we sincerely believe, we have hope, that those promises will be fulfilled…in God’s timing.
The message of 2 Chronicles 15:7 seems to fall into four categories. Let’s look at some other verses about these four points.
1. STAY STRONG !
Our strength comes from how strong Godis, not how weak we are.
2. DON’T GET DISCOURAGED !
We can be courageous knowing God is with us.
3. KEEP AT IT !
We will reap a harvest of righteousness if we sow seeds of goodness.
4. TRUST IN GOD’S REWARD ! As articles of faith, we must–
A. Believe God will reward us as He has promised.
B. Believe that exercising discipline for godliness carries a double reward.
C. Believe that even the smallest act of service in Jesus’ name will be rewarded.
D. Believe that God will renew our strength when we feel too tired to go on.
So, as you resolve to make changes in your Christian walk for the New Year…
This story from my family history is intended as a companion to blog G3 26 verses for 2026 – Seek Advice.
I. DIVORCE AND REMARRAIGE:
My dad’s youngest sister, one of my favorite aunts, had been divorced by her husband. They were both small people and they had one child together, who was always small for his age and, in my opinion, a little naive about the things going on around him.
My aunt remarried a man who had been divorced by his wife. They were bigger people and had two children who were on the larger size for their ages.
Unfortunately, the older and bigger boy picked on my smaller cousin.
II. KIDNAPPED!
Eventually my cousin’s dad remarried a woman with two daughters. When she saw how much her new husband wanted his son to live with them, she devised a plan to keep him with them at his next visit.
They called my aunt and notified her my cousin would be living with them for now on. They said his small stature and reports of being bullied by his stepbrother were criminal, and if she objected, they would take her to court and sue for custody on the grounds that she was an unfit mother. My aunt asked to speak with him to verify if it was his decision to stay, but they refused. Furthermore, they said she could not ever come and visit him either.
This devastated my aunt as he was the only child of her body and she loved him very much. The next year when I was visiting, she told me about the situation and asked for my advice. She knew that my mother had divorced my father, her older brother, so she thought, having grown up in a similar situation as a child, I might have some insight that would be helpful.
It seems her new husband was all about charging up there and taking him by force (the bully apple didn’t fall far from the tree in his son). My aunt was a gentle person, that was one of the things I liked the most about her as most of the rest of my father’s family were very brash. I’m sure you’ve heard that opposites attract, and you couldn’t get any more opposite than my quiet aunt and my forceful new uncle.
But there is a reason that opposites attract. You see, sometimes my quiet and unassuming aunt needed a forceful advocate on her behalf. And sometimes my new uncle needed someone to rein in his overforcefulness. They were able to do these things for each other because of their love, appreciation and respect for each other, and they ended up making a very good couple.
My aunt further explained she had sent birthday and Christmas gifts, but didn’t even know if he had received them. She had tried to talk to him by phone many times, but had been refused and threatened each time. Her question for me was, “What should I do?”
III. THE ADVICE:
Whew! I guess you know you have achieved adulthood when a member of your parents’ generation asks for your advice. Turns out I had a lot to draw on for my advice.
I had not only lived in a broken family with its dynamics, but divorce had become increasingly prevalent during the mid to late 60’s, my teenage years; therefore I had the stories and experiences of many peers to add to my own.
But I had more than ‘worldly’ experience to draw on, I had become a Christian while living with my grandparents between my own family’s divorce and remarriage, so I had the wisdom of God and the Bible as part of my life. The advice I gave my aunt would not have been popular, it was not easy to follow, but it was the right thing to do.
I explained that her son’s new stepmother sounded like a manipulator. (*See NOTE at end for more information.) A manipulator will say anything, true or not, to accomplish their chosen goal. A manipulator will spin everything that is said or done in such a way as to support their viewpoint.
I told her (and my listening uncle), that the last thing they wanted to do was to storm up there and try to take back her son by force. The manipulator would have the law out there quickly, hysterically accusing them of all sorts of heinous acts, either hoping something will stick or goading them into some ill-advised act or words that they could spin. It would be ugly.
Instead, they should play it low key. She should continue to send birthday and Christmas presents and cards. She should continue to write him and tell him how much she loved him and missed him. Even if he never saw a single one of her cards or letters, whenever the manipulating stepmother would tell him that his mother didn’t love him, had even deserted him, even my naive young cousin might pick up on how hollow the words were, because even the manipulator knew differently.
I assured my aunt that one day, her son would turn 18, he would leave his new family and he would remember the mother who bore him and loved him.
IV. REUNION:
My aunt and uncle’s chance to track down my cousin the summer after his high school graduation came when a very powerful hurricane made landfall and created a swath of destruction through the area where the father’s family lived. My aunt packed their suitcases, my uncle threw his chainsaw in the back of the car, and they headed in that direction to help with the cleanup.
A terse meeting occurred at the father’s house, but my cousin had moved into an apartment with a friend at a nearby junior college in preparation for starting classes that Fall. My aunt and uncle obtained his address and phone number and went back on the road.
They made a call when they arrived in the area to let him know they were coming and to obtain some directions (this was before cell phones), and the visit was arranged.
The reunion was subdued at first. My somewhat naive cousin was confused between what the manipulator had been telling him the past few years and the totally unexpected presence of the mother who had supposedly abandoned him.
“You never called!” He said. Then my aunt replied, with the calm confidence of the truth, “I called, but they would not let me speak to you.”
“You never wrote!” He complained. “I wrote you every month and sent you Christmas and birthday cards and presents,” she replied.
“How can I know you’re telling the truth?” My aunt countered with the truth, “Every birthday and Christmas, your father would tell me your size and what you needed the most. I always sent you an appropriate gift and a card with a letter. Give me any of your birthdays or Christmases in the last few years and I’ll describe what I sent. Then you tell me if you received it or not.”
It didn’t take long for even my naive young cousin to realize the scope of the deception that had been perpetrated on him the last few years. Yes, he had received those presents, wrapped and labeled as being from his dad and stepmother. No, he had never received any of his mom’s cards or letters.
“What do you want?” finally asked my cousin, reeling from realization of the years of deception, and not knowing who or what to trust.
My aunt stated simply, with tears running down her cheeks, “I wanted to see you, as I have not seen you for so many years. I wanted to talk to you, as we’ve not been able to talk. I want to let you know that I love you, I care about you, and I want to be part of your life.”
(Just in case you’d like to listen to the song I pulled my title banner from.)
Despite my cousin’s veneer of naivety, deep down he knew his mother. He knew that she wouldn’t lie to him, and the truth was evident in every word she spoke and in every line of her body. With that realization finally came the expected teary reunion between mother and child.
Thereafter followed reciprocal visits during holidays and school breaks. When my cousin graduated, he got a job close to his mother. Unfortunately, my aunt died prematurely of cancer, but for many years, she had her only son back in her life and was able to participate with great pleasure and joy in his life as an adult.
V. CONCLUSIONS:
Might this reunion have still happened without the years of suffering and sacrifice? Might they still have come back together as mother and son without her hands-off and month-by-month faithfulness in what appeared to be a hopeless and lost cause?
We can never answer ‘might have’ questions like that. But I was able to give her godly advice that worked. I also constantly supported them in prayer, which allowed me to rejoice with her when she was reunited with her son.
That’s why the Bible instructs us to seek wise, godly counsel when faced with difficult decisions and situations. I am very grateful my aunt was not an impulsive person, unlike her second husband, but I tried to tailor my advice to what I knew about her and about my cousin, as well as general experiences and principles.
The question at this point is, how can we tell who will give us the best wise counsel? There are hints in my story, but I will save that discussion as an idea for another blog.
VI. THE ‘PRICE’ OF GODLY COUNSEL:
So, what is the “price” of (following) godly advice I refer to in my title?
It would have been very emotionally satisfying for my step-uncle to go storming and breathing threats to recover his stepson, but it would not have accomplished God’s purposes. James writes:
Losing one’s temper is easy, holding it in and channeling it into a long-term, constructive plan is very, very hard. Believe me, I know.
I learned a lesson in the 70’s that I have to keep reminding myself about. I learned that we have two choices when it comes to how we react/respond, but we don’t have a choice about what happens afterward. Here is a quote that expresses what I learned:
“Life demands a price. You either pay now or pay later. It is much more expensive to pay later because life charges interest.” — Matt Worthy
(Emphasis added.) So…
1. We can choose to be undisciplined and ‘invest’ in the immediate gratification of sin, but we will find that it results in penalties to us over and over again for a very long time.
2. On the other hand, we can discipline ourselves and ‘invest’ in righteousness. If we choose the path of patience and sacrifice, we may suffer, over and over again for a long time, but righteousness will eventually pay us dividends rather than charge us penalties.
It’s the same decision we face with our money, spend it all now and have nothing later; or sacrifice and save some now and have more later.
VII. NOTE – The ‘Manipulative’ Stepmother:
(AI) The “manipulating stepmother” is an archetype representing toxic behavior within blended families, often characterized by controlling actions, attempts to isolate the child from the biological mother, and causing strain on relationships with the father.
Key Aspects of a Manipulative Stepmother
1. Controlling Actions: A manipulative stepmother may use guilt, shame, and controlling behavior to get her way. This can include controlling communication between the child and the other parent, and otherwise creating a hostile, competitive environment.
2. Isolating Child from Biological Mother: A common tactic is undermining the biological mother by constantly criticizing her, badmouthing the biological mother, and trying to diminish her role in the child’s life by limiting contact and communication.
3. Strain on Relationships with Father. The manipulative mother often feels they can get away with these abusive strategies because the husband/father has chosen her. If he does not remain passive, but attempts to intervene or ameliorate her abuse, then he becomes the target of her insults, threats and other means of keeping him in line.
Psychological and Emotional Impact on Children:
1. Low Self-Esteem and Inadequacy: Constant criticism, belittling, or conditional affection can make children feel unworthy or not “good enough”.
2. Anxiety and Depression: The stress of living in a tense, unpredictable environment often leads to anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms.
3. Trust Issues: Children may develop difficulty trusting others and forming healthy relationships in the future, often fearing that affection is a contract that can be revoked.
4. Emotional Detachment: Children may withdraw from family life, shut down emotionally, or become detached as a defense mechanism.
5. Guilt and Fear: Manipulative tactics, such as emotional blackmail or, in extreme cases, threatening suicide, can leave children feeling guilty or constantly afraid of triggering the stepmother.
VIII. A Personal Response:
A manipulative person doesn’t suddenly become that way just because they married into a blended family. The above manipulative techniques are usually already well-developed aspects of their psyche. I didn’t know my cousin’s dad, but I suspect at least a part of his son’s naiveté was inherited from him.
My other impression about manipulative people and marriage, and a manipulative personality is not limited to women, is they specifically look for a spouse that they can manipulate and dominate. For a manipulative man, that dominance more often leads to physical abuse.
As far as what we can do to help friends or family that we think might be falling under the influence of a manipulative person? I’ve got no great advice beyond praying for them and trusting in the power of God to deliver them.
I do know the first step of a manipulative person is to isolate the potential victim from their friends and family. If we catch that attempt at isolation soon enough, we can try to counter by drawing closer in our relationships with them. If we don’t catch the isolation soon enough, then they can become ‘brainwashed’ and strongly resist any efforts we may try to help them, even seeing us as their enemy.
In the end, I believe there is no hope for deliverance except through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. Here’s a great song about how Jesus can break every chain that ties us down in life.
New Year’s Resolutions: 3. Proverbs 15:22 – Seek advice:
Proverbs contains lots of observations from King Solomon about the importance of getting good advice. If the purportedly wisest man in the world found that he needed counselors to help him in ruling Israel, we probably also should seek advice in ruling our much smaller ‘kingdoms.’
Key Proverbs on Counsel
(First from a translation and then a paraphrase.)
For our 3rd of the 26 verses for 2026, Proverbs 15:22 could be paraphrased like this:
“Do your plans often fail? Getting more advice during the planning stage produces a better success rate.”
“Without wise leadership, a group effort fails; but success comes from having input from many advisers before you start.”
“Foolish people think they know everything already, but be wise, instead, and listen to others’ viewpoints.”
“Pridefulness always leads to arguments, but be wise and listen to each other.”
“Buckle down and learn all you can when you’re young, then you will grow up to become a wise person yourself.”
“Getting good counsel helps you develop a good plan. Don’t pursue a conflict without first getting good advice.”
“Don’t enter into a conflict without first seeking guidance from those you consider wise. Victory is more assured by receiving advice from many different viewpoints.”
I had a conflict situation that occurred in my extended family for which I was asked advice. To read about it, see the next blog, F2, Family History – The Price of Godly Advice.
Whenever you have a big decision to make, or are facing a difficult situation in your life, remember:
New Year’s Resolutions: 2. Proverbs 20:25 – First, be thoughtful:
One of the pieces of advice my dad frequently gave me was, “Look before you leap.”
Like most boys, I was impulsive, ‘leaping’ to conclusions or ‘leaping’ into action without taking the time to first think it through.
Jesushad a couple of parables with similar messages inLuke 14. 1. Verses 28-30 – First, count the cost:
2. Luke 14:31-32 First, make sure you can:
3. Luke 14:33 The context of these parables is discipleship…
…and that is the context of these first four verses of the 26 for 2026–resolving to make advances in your growth as a Christian disciple for the New Year.
Today’s message from Joel Osteen was from Joshua 3:5. Joshua told the people,
The verb translated here as ‘purify’ is also translated as ‘sanctify’ and ‘consecrate.’ DEFINITIONS:
📖 Sanctify: a. Set apart as or declare holy, consecrate. b. Free from sin; purify.
📖 Consecrate: a. Make or declare sacred. b. Dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.
📖 Sacred: a. Sanctified by connection with God. b. Dedicated to a religious purpose.
As you can see from the definitions, these concepts are all closely intertwined.
Joel explained that the idea of the Hebrew verb is to put some separation between you and those things God doesn’t approve of, those things that are not consistent with who He is.
Joel used a football illustration, appropriate for this NFL playoff season, explaining that in order for the quarterback to successfully throw a receiver the football, the receiver had to create some separation between himself and the opposing player defending him. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be safe to throw him the football, so the quarterback then checks other possible receivers.
In the case of the Israelites in the Book of Joshua, the first miracle coming up was the parting of the Jordan River, similar to, but on a smaller scale, than God parting the Red Sea for Moses. In order to participate in this miracle, Joel pointed out, the people needed to purify / consecrate / sanctify themselves.
Next miracle up was the walls of Jericho tumbling down, but if the Israelites didn’t purify themselves, then Joel said they would be left behind and miss out on the miracles to come.
Joel then applied the concept to us in our time. He said that he believes God has miracles planned for us, but first we must purify ourselves from those things that hold us back in our Christian walk and separate us from God. We need to put some separation between ourselves and our sins.
Paul listed some of those sins that we need to throw off in Ephesians chapter 4:
“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life… Therefore, putting away falsehood… Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice…”
These qualities are like the uniform for the other team. God is not going to toss us the ‘football of blessing’ if we’re wearing the uniform of the Enemy!
And Paul doesn’t just write about those negative qualities we should cast off, he also lists those positive qualities we should put on in their place:
“…and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. …let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. …and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”.
THIS is the uniform for GOD’S team.
• Instead of being sinful, we’re to be holy and righteous. • Instead of lying, tell the truth. • Instead of being bitter and angry, we’re to be kind. • Instead of ‘clamor and slander, ‘ that is making a fuss and bad-mouthing each other, we’re supposed to be forgiving. And, • Instead of treating each other with malice, we’re to be tenderhearted toward one another.
📖 Definition: ‘Malice‘ means the desire to cause harm or injury to another, stemming from a hostile impulse, deep-seated meanness, or revenge, often without justification. It’s a key concept in law for proving crimes like murder (malice aforethought) or defamation (malicious intent). The Bible calls all that ‘sin.’
Our church is beginning it’s annual 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting today. For the next 21 days, we’re supposed to give up something–a meal, watching a TV show, time on social media, etc.–and spend that time in prayer asking God this question, “God, what do you want?” and then LISTEN for His answer.
We’re supposed to be seeking God in prayer for the purpose of finding out what HE wants us to do for Him individually, and corporately as a church.
One implication of asking God what HE wants of us is that we are committing to do whatever He tells us.
Our second verse for 2026 suggests we should first be thoughtful before we commit to obey. Are we really willing to do what God asks of us? Are we ready to act in F.A.I.T.H? Are we ready and willing to carry it through? Consider these questions first, before you commit yourself to a new resolution.
Happy New Year everybody! My life has been changing at the speed of light the past few weeks, but we mortals still react to change at the same plodding pace. I’ve plenty of opportunities to trust God and to show His grace, but I can always use some inspiration.
I was looking for some inspiration on the Internet the other morning and I came across “26 Verses for 2026.” Just what I was looking for! (Funny how that happens…) So, I’m going to share one each week, along with my thoughts. Maybe you’ll find inspiration from them too.
January: Verses About Resolutions
1. Ecclesiastes 5:5 – Be Commited:
I heard on the news this week that most people are making the same New Year’s Resolutions they made last year–to exercise more, to eat better, to save money, to lose weight–but since resolving to do those things last year didn’t work, what’s the likelihood it will work this year?
You might also have seen practical suggestions for being more successful with your resolutions:
1. Break your goals down into smaller steps and focus on accomplishing one step at a time. 2. Set specific, realistic, and small goals, like something for each day, week, month…3. Focus on developing positive habits rather than just stopping bad habits.4. Find someone you know who is doing the same thing and do it together. 5. Celebrate your progress, but not by breaking your resolution!
One of my resolutions, when I got off my oral chemo last month, was to lose the weight it had caused me to gain. So far I’ve lost 7 pounds. Woo-hoo! Much farther to go, though, but I’m committed to following my plan…
Making changes to your physical and mental habits is hard! But do you know what is even harder? Making SPIRITUAL changes.
You see, God made us in His glorious image, not on the outside, but on the inside. Our character is supposed to be a reflection of who God is. For example:
God is the Creator–we are creativeGod is all-powerful–we are powerful in our own ways.God is all-knowing–we are capable of learning and knowing things.God is just–at our best, we know what is fair and just.God is love–at our best, we too are capable of great love.
Notice my qualifier “at our best.” You see, there’s this thing called “sin.” Humankind at the beginning turned from God in disobedience and this forever scarred our psyche. Instead of living to the glory of God, our nature was turned upside down and inside out, and now we live to glorify ourselves.
That doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize we are supposed to love each other to the point of sacrificing our own needs and desires for other’s good. Turn that around and you get people who love themselves most of all, and who are willing to sacrifice anything and everything of the people around them, to fulfill their own needs and desires. That results in some very ugly things in this world.
Mankind often exercises it’s power for destroying rather than creating.
When we choose to come to God by faith in Jesus Christ, God begins a process of reversing the harm of sin in our lives, both from our sin within and from others’ sin from without. That means fundamentally changing who we are on the inside.
Just as I am…I come
You might wonder, “Doesn’t God accept me as I am?” Yes, He does. He doesn’t require that we try to make these changes before He accepts us, because WE CANNOT!
God meets us wherever we are in life when we come to Him–He accepts us as we are, but then He redeems us from sin and darkness, and He brings us into His glory and light. He loves us so much, He won’t leave us where we are–in a pit of sin, darkness and despair.
But real, deep down change of who we are doesn’t happen immediately. We have to walk out what this means for the rest of our lives. You see, every day is a New Day in the Christian life. Therefore, every day requires a New Day’s Resolution.
So, let’s start each day in our relationship with God by making a committment to Him. Follow through on that PROMISE YOU MADE TO GOD when He first redeemed you.
We studied the end of Mark last week, but it seemed inappropriate to talk about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in December at a time when we’re celebrating His incarnation and birth. So, for my last blog before a break for the holidays, I’m pulling out a story I wrote many years ago and updating it for you.
But first, a little background.
“And Mary brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7)
Much has been made of this last phrase in many Christmas dramatizations–Joseph leading the donkey with a very pregnant Mary on its back from inn to inn, and being turned away time after time because there was no more room.
Many years ago. I saw a program on the History Channel that painted quite a different picture of what this might have meant in the first century.
You see, there were no inns in Israel in those days, so the program asserted. Instead, people traveling within Israel stayed with friends or family. So, instead of meaning ‘inn,’ they said it really meant ‘common room,’ that is, a large room where a family could, for example, throw a party, have a feast, or out-of-town visitors could unroll a blanket and spend the night.
And it wasn’t just family and friends from out of town who might spend the night. One of the provisions of Jewish religious Law was to show hospitality to strangers and ‘sojourners,’ that is, people who were just ‘passing through.’ So traveling Jews could just walk up to a house in Israel, knock on the door, and ask for hospitality for the night.
My mom described something similar during her childhood in the 40’s. When her grandmother was near death, all of the families were brought together for the wake. What she described was almost wall-to-wall pallets in the living room where everyone slept each night.
Looking at the Greek for clarification, the word Luke used for ‘inn,’ was katalymati (Strong’s G2646) from kataluo; properly, a dissolution; that is, “breaking up” of a journey, or by implication a lodging-place such as a guestroom (used twice), or inn (used only once in this passage in Luke).
So, ‘inn’ is not an incorrect translation, but this Greek word has a wider meaning.
The other two uses of the word are in Luke and Mark, describing the upper room where Jesus celebrated the Passover just before His arrest and crucifixion.
Later in Luke 10, in the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke does use a word that can be more properly called an ‘inn,’ pandocheion , (Strong’s G3829.) It literally means ‘all-receiving,’ and refers to a public lodging-place such as a caravanserai (for caravans to stop at that includes accommodations for the large number of animals), or an inn as we would think of it, where any traveler can stop and spend the night, for a fee. These were usually outside of Israel for the non-Jewish travelers.
So, with Luke using the same Greek word in the Christmas story and for the upper room, and a different Greek word for a public inn, the assertion by the History Channel program for interpreting it as ‘common room’ seems very strong. With that in mind, and my mother’s childhood experience, I decided to write a story as to how the birth of Jesus might have happened.
No Room…
The young man stood at the entrance to the almost full common room with two bedrolls slung over his shoulders. Conversations in the crowded room died down as the residents became aware of him, but apparently finding nothing of interest in a young man still dusty from traveling, conversation soon returned to the former quiet buzz.
Even with the census of Caeser Augustus coming to an end, there still wasn’t much space at any of the homes in Bethlehem, the place where those descended from the House of David had to register. Why couldn’t people just register where they lived? The things governments did sometimes just didn’t make sense to the young man.
Spotting a vacant space on the floor at the far corner, the young man began negotiating the zig-zag space between the patchwork pattern of blankets where couples, small family groups and the occasional oldster sat or lay. As he moved away from the door, a young, very pregnant girl could be seen behind him, clutching his cloak and following as vest she could.
With two bedrolls, also containing their meager belongings rolled up inside, and his pregnant wife clutching him, the young man brushed the people at the edges with one of the bedrolls, necessitating a litany of apologies as he made his way across. ‘I’m sorry ‘ ‘Please forgive me.’ ‘I need to go by, please.’
Reaching the vacant corner, he laid the two bedrolls down while his wife backed up to the wall and used it’s support to slide down to the floor with a huge sigh. It had been such a long trip from Galilee! Even riding the donkey her husband had borrowed, and the stops along the way to spend the night at one or the other’s relatives, being so close to term had just made the jostling ride so much tougher.
They had decided to wait until the end of the census to travel to Bethlehem, hoping the baby would come first. But when it became obvious they would run out of time to register for the census if they waited any longer, they had no choice but to come now.
The young man asked his wife if he could get anything for her and she asked for some water. Navigating the zigzag path more adroitly this time without any burdens, he went to find their host.
The old, but still hale, and smiling woman sitting next to the younger woman introduced herself. “My name is Jezebel,” she snickered. “Can you believe my parents named me after that wicked woman? But everyone just calls me ‘Aunt Jezzie.’ This here is my husband Lemuel, but we just call him ‘Lem.’” “lea ‘o ‘ee’ ‘ou,” mumbled the old, leather-faced man on the other side. It was apparent he had no teeth as his mouth looked like a baby’s gums.
Aunt Lezzie continued, “You look like you’re in a family way. I should know ’cause I bore 10 children for Lem here.” Lem nodded his head, “Uh-huh.” “People said we were trying to start our own 10 tribes of Israel!” Aunt Lezzie and Lem laughed at their joke. “Now, don’t you worry none. I’ve helped deliver many a baby, even some of my own grandchildren. Why, I remember the time…”
Aunt Lizzie reminded Mary of some of her own great aunts back home who could just go on and on with stories from their younger days, and who didn’t really mind if you were paying strict attention or not.
The almost familiar voice quickly had her eyes closing and her head nodding as she fell asleep.
Unnhh!!!
The most severe pain she had ever felt woke her. It was like a giant hand was squeezing her body. There was nothing else in the world for her at that moment but the pain. She remembered her mother telling her to take deep breaths when the birth pangs started, but Mary hurt so badly from the unfamiliar pain she could barely draw a breath. She just tried to ride it out with faith in the assurance from her mother they wouldn’t last forever, even if it felt like it at the moment.
Finally the pain began let up and she could breath again, trying to breath deeply, but just able to gasp at first. She opened her eyes and realized Aunt Jezzie was patting her arm and murmuring words of assurance.
Movement at the door caught her eye and she looked up to see everyone was staring her way. Looking a little higher, she saw it was her husband at the door. In His hands he held an old clay pitcher and an equally old mug in a white-knuckled grip. She realize his face was white with a look of mingled shock and fear. When he saw she was able to look up at him, he rushed across the room with no attention to where he stepped, followed by complaints from the other residents. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” And things like that. Often the complaining men were shushed by their wives who had a better idea of what was happening.
Joseph dropped down next to Mary and absently set the pitcher and mug on the floor. He gently took her hands and looked into her eyes. “I’m fine,” she quietly reassured him.
“Young man, your wife is about to have your baby,” Aunt Jezzie stated.
Joseph looked a question at his young wife. In answer, Mary took his hands and placed them on her bulging belly. Joseph could feel the child moving inside and the rippling of mini-contractions. He looked up at his wife in wonder as she nodded a quiet assent.
Suddenly his sense of wonder began to be replaced with panic. ‘What should he do?’ He had no idea…
Just then Aunt Jezzie spoke up again. Who was she anyway, he wondered? He glanced down at Mary with a questioning look. She took his hand again and gave it a squeeze of reassurance, along with a nod signaling it was fine.
“Young man, this here is no place for a woman to have a baby. My Lem might not have no teeth…” That was when Joseph noticed the old bald man on the other side of the matronly woman, his leathery face split by a toothless smile. “…but he can make hisself understood.”
“‘a ‘igh’,” the old man mumbled.
“Lem, go find our host and see if he has somewhere private-like we can go.” The old man nodded and started toward the door, quickly navigating the zigzag path between blankets with the skill of experience.
Joseph started to get up and go with him when he was suddenly jerked back down to his knees by Mary’s tight grip. Before he could say anything, Mary quietly asked, “May I have some water please?”
Joseph looked at her blankly until she nodded toward the forgotten pitcher and mug sitting on the floor. Joseph looked at them for a moment before he remembered that had been the original purpose of his errand. With slightly shaking hands, he picked them up and poured the fresh, cool well water for his wife.
Jezzie sitting off to the side turned away with a smile of amusement. Young woman though she might be, apparently she had already learned how to manage her man.
Staring into her husband’s eyes as she sipped her fill, Mary then handed the mug back and murmured, “You should drink some too.” Realizing suddenly how dry his mouth was, Joseph took the mug and threw back the rest of the water.
While they rested together for a moment, Lem made his way quickly back across the room and mumbled his report to his wife. As Jezzie turned to relay his message, the old man began rolling up their belongings into their bedrolls.
“Lem says our host don’t have nowhere that’s private except his stables at the end of the street. Lem says our host sent the stableboy to clean out a stall and lay down some fresh hay. Lem also asked him for a small kettle to boil some water for washing the mother and the baby.”
As she was finishing her report, old Lem had finished packing their things and slung them over one shoulder. “You haven’t even unrolled your blankets yet?” Jezzie observed. “Let Lem have them here and he’ll carry them on ahead while we walk with your wife.”
Joseph looked down at the two bedrolls, feeling like he was being left behind in the fast-moving events. He nodded and handed them over to the old man. Lem quickly took them with a mumble and a nod, and headed for the door, managing not to brush against a single resident, all of whom were watching events with great interest and the occasional quiet comment.
“Let’s get your wife up, now.” With both of them grabbing an arm, they helped Mary to her feet. That is when Mary realized the contractions had moved the baby down lower in her womb, making standing and walking more difficult.
The common room had become quiet as they readied to leave it. When Mary looked up, she realized the others in there had also stood up, leaving a clear aisle straight to the door. Children were precious in Israel, and this was their way of honoring Mary and the child she was about to give birth to. As she walked out between her husband and Aunt Jezzie, Mary murmured words of thanks to those on both sides of the aisle, her distant relatives from the House of David.
The sun was beginning to set as they reached the end of the street and saw the stables. Mary noticed her donkey was still tied up outside.
Suddenly… ‘UNNHH!!!’
This contraction hit her twice as strongly as the first one, bringing Mary immediately to her knees. Again the world around her disappeared and time stood still as there was nothing else in her world except the unremitting pain…
Finally it let up enough that Mary could gasp in great lungfulls of air and awareness of her surroundings returned.
That is when she realized Aunt Jezzie was crouched down beside her, with one arm around her shoulder, murmuring words of encouragement. When Jezzie realized Mary’s awareness had returned, she cast her eyes up to Mary’s other side where Joseph stood, white-faced with fear and worry.
Mary reached up and squeezed his hand and briefly smiled to reassure him. Just then something caught his eye at the stables and he looked up. Mary also looked up and saw the stableboy wheeling out an empty wheelbarrow, apparently having completed his preparations. Following the boy’s departure with her eyes, that was when she also saw Lem laying a fire underneath a medium black kettle suspended from a tripod off to the side.
Lem had accompanied his wife on many of her midwife outings. He knew his job was to occupy the father when the women needed their privacy for the birth, and to boil the wash water for afterwards. Joseph looked toward the old man with a renewed focus. Here was something practical he knew how to do.
Mary knew what was running through her husband’s mind. Even though they had lived together less than a year, she knew how he preferred to be doing things with his hands. Mary wanted her husband with her at this time. Mary needed her husband with her. So, even though she didn’t feel completely recovered yet, she grabbed his hand, braced herself and began to rise.
That got her husband’s attention back on her as he put his hand under her arm to help her up. Aunt Jezzie did the same on the other side and together they lifted Mary back to her feet.
Standing up, Mary realized the baby was now low in her womb and she wasn’t sure she could have walked on her own. With her husband holding her up on one side and Aunt Jezzie on the other, Mary fixed her eyes on the lamplit entrance to the stables and started toward it.
Step by determined step, Mary made her way toward the stables between her two helpers. It was time for this miracle baby to be born…and Mary was ready to do her part.
Even as ‘little Christs,’ we’re not going to be called upon to lay down our lives for the salvation of the world. Actually, we’re being asked to do something much more difficult…
There are several authors who printed variations of a saying used by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his play, “Hamilton,” which premiered in January 2015.
“Dying is easy, beloved. It is living that is difficult.” Leonide Martin, Dreaming the Maya Fifth Sun, published 2006.
“Dying is Easy, its Living that’s hard,” Alden Bell, The Reapers are the Angels, published 2010.
That is the difficult thing God is asking us to do as Christians, to live for Him. Paul puts it this way,
So then, looking at the three divisions of my study summary, here are some ideas about how we can live as Jesus died.
I. Foreknowledge. Have you ever felt like you already knew what was going to happen in a familiar situation? Maybe you knew there would be a person who would argue with you. Maybe you knew someone would get their feelings hurt. Our tendency as ‘nice’ people is to try and avoid controversy or hurting people’s feelings.
If we overcompensate and sacrifice our Christian imperatives, then we end up doing what Charlie Kirk warned about:
Jesus did not run away from what He believed in–His Heavenly Father and God’s plan of salvation–and neither should we.
Jesus did not stay silent about what was right and wrong about the Jewish leaders when it came to God’s commands, and neither should we.
Not arguing and not hurting others’ feelings are good goals, but maybe not the priority they often are over other more important goals. In the Navigators, we tried to always remember that “The good is the enemy of the best,” from Oswald Chambers:
This means accepting something that is merely good can prevent us from achieving something better. Like Jesus, we should prioritize the things that matter most to God. Those things are–being in right relationship with our Heavenly Father; and telling others about Him, His Son, and God’s plan of redemption for humankind.
However, we SHOULD be gracious in how we present Jesus and the gospel. Following are a couple of New Testament guidelines for doing that:
II. INTENTIONALITY / DETERMINATION:
A. There were words in the King James Bible I read in the 60’s that were not a part of common vocabulary. One of those was ‘diligent.’ I had a difficult time figuring out it’s meaning without any real-world usages. Here are a couple of examples from the Bible:
📖 DILIGENT is defined as by Websters as meaning:
Comparing to synonyms, DILIGENT suggests earnest application to some specific objective or pursuit.
B. Use of the word ‘intentional’ in Christian circles is a relatively new one. Websters defines it as meaning: 📖
A comparison of synonyms fleshes out the definition: Intentional stresses intent, an awareness of an end intended to be achieved. (I know our English teachers taught us not to use a word to define itself, but…)
I see the concepts of diligence and intentional as being very close in meaning, which I think is best summed up by a famous sports quote–
III. Those things related to our passage this week that I think we need to be intentional / diligent about are:
A. Sacrificial giving: John takes the concept of laying down one’s life introduced in his gospel a step further in his first letter,
At first glance, we might think John is advocating we be willing to die for each other. Maybe…, but he goes on to explain more specifically what he means,
:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech only, but with actions and in truth.”
So, John makes it clear that our sacrifices for each other are to be more material–to sacrificially give of our possessions to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in the faith (firstly), but also of all those around us.
B. Sacrificial living. As seen in Romans 12:1, we’re supposed to be living sacrifices. Paul elaborates on this concept in 2 Corinthians 5:15,
Peter himself put it this way in his first letter, 1 Peter 4:1-2,
:2 “As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for merely human desires, but rather for the will of God.”
Ultimately there should be a crucifixion going on in our lives. Paul fills out this concept in Galatians,
And most dramatically, Paul’s personal testimony in Galatians 2:20,
Whew! Very high standards indeed.
C. Sacrificial going. In our last section of Mark coming up next week, Jesus commissions His disciples by saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
⛪️ Our church is very much a sending church. Every week, our services end with the phrase, “Summit, you are sent.” (A church ‘sends,’ a person ‘goes.’)
❤ We’re in the middle of our giving commitment month and some of the stats and testimonies for how the church spent our donations this past fiscal year, and the results obtained, are quite impressive. Here is a summary of how our sacrificial giving should be used for the things that are on God’s heart:
1. The Great Commission:
🌎 Fulfilling the Great Commission includes preaching the gospel, baptizing those who believe, making disciples by teaching them, and taking these activities into all the world; and don’t forget, our city, our state and our country are all part of ‘the world.’
2. The Compassion Ministries:
🤟 Looking over the above two lists of ministries, you might think, ‘I can’t do that.’ But there are many things that anyone can do. Rather than focusing on the specialty ministries, such as proclaiming the gospel, teaching the Scriptures, baptizing someone, look at the compassion ministries. Anyone can give necessities–food and clothing–to the poor and needy. Get started somewhere, if you’re not already, and see where God takes you.
3. Widows and orphans (in our time, single mothers and their children, as well as orphaned children):
We have a ministry where single parents can bring their children for an evening of supervised fun while the parent takes a night off. There are a lot of other giving ministries focused on single mother families too.
😇 Anyone can donate a Christmas present in an Angel Tree ministry for children who otherwise might not receive anything for Christmas. (We’ve got one of those too!)
👫 For our small group Christmas project this year, we bought Christmas presents for a boy and a girl in a Christian orphanage from their wish lists.
👀 We are surrounded by people with needs. Be intentional / diligent in finding ways you can give to meet those needs in the Name of Jesus.
✨️ CONCLUSION:
🎁 At work, our Christmas project this year is buying Christmas presents for three needy military families through a Service Assistance organization. One family lost their father to an IED in Afghanistan. Another family has their father, but he was totally disabled by an IED. In the third family, the mother is the service member whose husband divorced her and left her with six children. The other two families have 4 and 5 children.
Gifts for service family #3
🎄We have almost 1,000 employees scattered across the US, with about 100 in the office. Already the stack of presents for each family is impressive, along with many generous donations of cash from our distant employees to buy more. However, in my opinion there is going to be something very important missing; there will be nothing about God or Jesus Christ, except in the word ‘Christ’mas.
👑 We in the church body should not only exceed the generosity of those who are still separated from God, but we should also be taking a witness of who Jesus is, and what He did for us, to others via these compassion ministries. Meeting the material needs is important, but the spiritual and eternal needs need to be met too.
🤓 SUMMARY:
✝️ So, live for Jesus, give and minister to the needy, and take the message of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ everywhere you go. If you’ll do these things, you’ll be living up to the name you bear as ‘Christ’ians. 🙂
This blog is based on my participation in the above Bible study.
In this week’s study, we looked at some of the major events at the end of Jesus’ time on earth: The Last Supper, praying in Gethsemane, betrayal by Judas, and arrest, trials by the Sanhedrin and Roman governor Pilate, denial by Peter, and the crucifixion. Any one of these events would be worthy of a full day’s study. Pastor Chan zoomed in on the love Jesus must have had in order to endure this suffering.
In trying to pull out my one word to describe the study this week, what stood out to me was the determination of Jesus to endure the indignities, the physical and emotional suffering, and even a torturous death, in order to carry out His heavenly Father’s plan of salvation for humankind.
Following are some of the elements I saw in these chapters that affected and portrayed His determination to undergo them.
I. Foreknowledge: Even knowing what was to come, Jesus had to be very determined to follow through.
A. Three times prior to the events in these chapters, Jesus told His Twelve chosen disciples what was going to happen when they got to Jerusalem.
1. Mark 8:31 Jesus Predicts His Death
2. Mark 9:31 Jesus Predicts His Death Again Jesus… was teaching his disciples…
3. Mark 10:32-35 Jesus Predicts Death 3rd Time They were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way…
“We are going up to Jerusalem,” He said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.”
Hansel and Gretel painting
Like leaving bread crumbs along the path so you can find your way back, Jesus was dropping these ‘crumbs’ of prophecy throughout Mark to point the way forward. A lot of attention has been focused on Jesus predicting His death, but note He also predicted His resurrection!
In this week’s chapters, we also saw Jesus reveal more foreknowledge about what was to come. Note that this foreknowledge was both from prophesies of Scripture that He had come to fulfill, and revelation from the Holy Spirit within Him.
The first was at the Last Supper.
A. The Betrayal
Mark 14:18 While they were reclining at the table eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me—one who is eating with Me.”
19 The disciples were saddened, and one by one they asked Him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20 “It is one of the Twelve.” Jesus replied, “It is one who dips bread into the bowl with Me. The Son of Man will be led away just as it is written about Him.”
The Prophecy
B. The Desertion Jesus also quoted a prophecy from Zechariah 13:7 about what would happen to His disciples when He was arrested:
C. The Denial. Peter, called ‘Bold Peter’ in an old song about the Denial, said, “Even though everyone else deserts You, I will NEVER leave You.” You can almost hear Jesus’ sigh as He delivered a word of prophecy in response. “Peter, Peter, I tell you that on this very night, before the rooster crows to announce the dawn, you will deny even knowing Me three times.”
But Peter was insistent, “Even if I have to DIE with You, I will NEVER deny You.”
D. The Arrest. The praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, what we would call a park, brought Jesus’ humanity fully forward. No more the calm in the face of a storm, no more the self assured, all-wise Annointed One we’ve been seeing. Now, He is all human fears and doubts, wanting out at the last minute. Prophecy and His Divine foreknowledge has informed Him of exactly what to expect. His human nature, anchored by the instinct for self preservation, wants to avoid the suffering and painful execution at any cost.
Understandable, but the key to the heart of Jesus at the end was His total submission to God’s will.
And the last bit of foreknowledge displayed was He knew when the mob sent to arrest Him was approaching. In preparation, He woke His sleeping disciples and warned them, but there was no running away, no attempt to flee or to avoid His fate.
II. Intentionality
There were several ways that I saw Jesus being intentional In His actions in response to these prophecies of coming dangers and sufferings, as indications of His determination.
A. Jesus ‘ran’ toward danger. We’ve all heard about how first responders ‘run toward danger.’ They do it for the purpose of providing aid and rescue.
I was thinking more along the lines of Charlie Kirk. I was chatting recently with a man in my small group who told me he had been listening to some Charlie Kirk podcasts. I asked him what he had gotten from those. He stated, ‘To not avoid controversy, but to run toward it.’
I had only heard Charlie Kirk speak once on a radio program. My impression of him was of a singularly gifted man who was able to respond to those who disagreed with his conservative beliefs in a clear and convincing way. Because of his gift, he was able to ‘run toward controversy’ with the confidence that he could hold his own with those who disagreed with him.
That is what I think Jesus did. From His human side, He had doubts and fears, as we see in His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, but despite those understandable ‘human’ weaknesses, He was 100% submitted to God the Father, and 100% committed to do His will, even to His death, which was actually the plan. That commitment to God and His plan of salvation gave Him the confidence to ‘run toward’ the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering He knew was waiting for Him.
B. Jesus didn’t just let the events happen to Him at random. He was intentionally where He needed to be, when He needed to be, in order that each step of God’s plan would go forward. Jesus even shepherded things along as needed to minimize collateral damage. When Peter whipped out a sword and started swinging it around, cutting off a servant’s ear, Jesus performed a miracle of healing and defused the potentially violent fight between the disciples and the mob by refocusing their attention on why they were there–to arrest Him.
🤓 Personally, I can’t help but think that keeping the situation from erupting into a melee of violence was another exercise of Divine, miraculous power by Jesus.
C. Jesus chose to make the sacrifice.
In the middle of Jesus’ teachings about the Good Shepherd in John 10, Jesus makes the following statement,
10:17 “The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down* my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down* of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down* and authority to take it up again.”
This was not the only time John records Jesus mentioning laying down* one’s life. During the Last Supper in John 15:
13b “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down* one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father, I have made known to you.”,
*Strongs G5087, tithémi: To place, to set, to lay, to appoint, to establish. 100 occurrences.
D. Jesus Prioritized His Relationships…
1. …with His disciples, who had also become His friends (see John 15 quote above). How did He do that?
a. By spending quality time with them. “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.”
b. By warning them about what was to come.
c. By providing final words of assurance, comfort and instruction, mostly recorded in the Gospel according to John.
2. Jesus prioritized His relationship with His Heavenly Father. How?
a. By worshipping God, along with His disciples. The ‘hymn’ they sang at the end of the dinner (Seder in Hebrew) would probably have been the last song in the Hallel (means ‘praise’ in Hebrew). The Hallel consists ofPsalms113–118, traditionally sung to celebrate God’s deliverance, especially during Passover.
• Psalms 113–114 were typically sung before the meal.
• Psalms 115–118 were sung after the meal.
• Psalm 118 is the last hymn and is particularly relevant to Jesus’s experience.
In Psalm 118, Jesus was singing about Himself, including His own eventual victory and resurrection, while facing betrayal arrest and death. His followers, like the apostle Peter, later quoted from this same psalm in proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
b. Jesus prioritized His relationship with His Heavenly Father…by spending time with Him in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, as was His habit.
III. Determination
Jesus respond to His foreknowledge of what would happen to Him and His chosen Twelve in Jerusalem with determination, as well as intentionality. Following are ways I see Jesus exhibited determination in each of the events He foreknew, both from prophecy, and from the revelation of God’s Holy Spirit within Him.
1. In response to the predictions about what would happen in Jerusalem, Jesus was commited to the inevitable.
Jesus “Set His face to go to Jerusalem,” signifying Jesus’ unwavering determination to go to Jerusalem, despite knowing it would lead to His death.
2. Knowing that Judas would betray Him, Jesus accepted the unchangeable.
John 13:27: After Judas had taken the morsel, … Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
3. Prophesying that Peter would deny even knowing Him, Jesus prayed for the redeemable.
In an expanded telling of this scene in Luke, Jesus told Peter,
4. Knowing when He was about to be arrested, Jesus submitted to the inescapable.
In John’s expanded version of the arrest in his gospel,
18:4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am He,” Jesus said.
5. Knowing the trials, torture and crucifixion He faced after He was arrested, Jesus set Himself to endured the insufferable.
And He kept trusting God:
So, how are we to emulate Jesus in these events? After all, that is our responsibility as ‘little Christs.’ I’ll look at some suggestions from the Bible about how we can do that in Part B.
This blog is based on my participation in the above Bible study.
In this week’s lesson, Pastor Chan pointed out that there were a lot of different kinds of power on display. Here is a summary of each kind of power as I saw it and some of the implications.
I. The Power of Popularity: There are several places in Mark chapters 11 and 12 where we see that Jesus was popular with the masses.
A. (As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey…) 11:8 …many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!” (Hebrew, “Pray you, save us!)
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our forefather David!”
B. Reaction of the Jewish Religious Leaders
11:18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill Jesus, for they feared Him, because the whole crowd was amazed at His teaching.
11:27 … while Jesus was walking in the temple courts the next day, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to Him and asked, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you authority to do this?”
29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
31 The Jewish leaders discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
12:12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest Him because they knew He had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left Him and went away.
12:37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can the Messiah be his son?” The large crowd listened to Jesus teach with delight.
🤓 COMMENTARY
1. The advantages of popularity.
A. If you’re popular, people will be very welcoming, they’ll want to give you meals and gifts for free. Essentially, people want to be seen being with popular people to enhance their own reputation. However once you are no longer popular, all that will disappear.
B. Popularity affords you protection from those at the opposite end of feeling for you– those who want to hurt, destroy or even kill you, and remove you as the source of their anger and discomfort. As long as you’re seen to be popular, you’re safe from your enemies. But as we see in the gospels, the Jewish leaders who hated Jesus figured out how to catch Jesus away from His screen of admirers and arrest Him.
2. The Dangers of Popularity
A. Disappointing Expectations: Pastor Chan pointed that the people welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem were expecting the Messiah promised in their Scriptures, who would establish an eternal kingdom and rule from Jerusalem, with the Israelites being His favored people.
Unfortunately, that was not the Messiah that Jesus had come as. First He had to suffer and die so our sins could be forgiven by God, THEN He would come again and establish His kingdom on Earth.
So, the first source of Jesus’ popularity was the expectation that He would give them something they wanted, something they had dreamed of and prayed for after chaffing under Roman rule for so long.
The downside of being popular for the wrong expectation is that when it becomes clear the expectation is not going to materialize, the people will turn on the one who disappoints them and go just as far in the negative direction. We’ll see this later when the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!.”
B. The other reasons we see that Jesus was popular was His teachings amazed and delighted the crowds. Note that these are emotional responses.
So, what happens when what you say doesn’t ‘amaze’ and ‘delight’ the crowds anymore? They drop you like yesterday’s leftovers and go looking for someone new to ‘delight’ and ‘amaze’ them.
CONCLUSION. The point is, whether individually or en masse, people are fickle and quickly change their attitudes and interests. That is the danger of depending on the power of popularity.
II. THE POWER OF PRAYER
Pastor Chan pointed out there is an incident in the middle of Jesus’ week in Jerusalem that has been difficult to understand to many theologians.
A. Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
11:12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard him say it.
11:20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
Pastor Chan explains that the fig tree is a metaphor for Jesus coming to Israel. The leafy fig tree represented the nation of Israel. It was vibrant and alive, but when looked at closely, there was no godly fruit.
God had expected Israel to be a light to the world. That people would hear and come to Jerusalem, the city of God, and go to the temple, the House of God, and find out who God is. There was even an outer court, called the Court of the Gentiles, for non-Jews to visit. However, in Jesus’ day, it had been turned into a place of business where visiting out-of-country Jews had to exchange their foreign currency for local currency, at a highly unfavorable rate, and buy Temple approved sacrifices at outrageous prices. This was a source of much revenue for the Jewish leaders.
Jesus first public act in Jerusalem this final week was to drive out the money changers and condemn their actions. This immediately put Jesus on the wrong side of the Jewish leaders who then sought to arrest Him and have Him put to death, but Jesus’ popularity with the crowds prevented that.
Immediately after Peter’s observation that the cursed fig tree had died, Jesus launched into a series of teachings on prayer, cementing the connection between the lesson of the fig tree with what Israel had become.
C. Jesus made these points about prayer:
1. Believe and don’t doubt, it will be granted.
2. Believe you have received it, and it will be yours.
3. Make sure you’re not holding a grudge against someone so God can forgive you when you pray and then listen to your request.
This one might seem out of place, but the implication is God will answer our prayers when we are in right relationship with Him and that means being in right relationship with each other.
II. Power versus Authority
Did Jesus have the POWER to curse The fig tree to death, or did He have the AUTHORITY?
People often use the two terms interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. Therefore, I think it is essential that we understand that difference.
The way I had it explained to me was using the example of a police officer directing traffic.
When the police officer holds up his hand indicating you are to stop, he doesn’t have the actual ability to MAKE you stop. You could choose to keep going and there is nothing he can physically do to stop your vehicle. But you can bet that he will take note of your license plate (if you don’t run over him) and you will become involved with the criminal justice system shortly afterward.
So, the point is the police officer didn’t have the personal POWER to enforce his command, like imagined super heroes, but the officer represents a larger organization that has the power to arrest you, to judge you, to fine you and even to incarcerate you. The police officer represents a GREATER POWER, the power of the government, and he has been given the AUTHORITY to give those commands and expect them to be obeyed.
Remember when Jesus commissioned the Twelve and sent them out? Jesus gave them the AUTHORITY to heal the sick and cast out demons. When they spoke the command to be healed, they had no power to heal, but they represented a GREATER POWER, the POWER OF GOD. GOD’S POWER healed people. GOD’S POWER cast out the demons. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, GOD’S POWER worked overnight to kill it. When we pray correctly, it is GOD’S POWER that acts to answer.
Therefore, there isn’t POWER in prayer, there is AUTHORITY in us, disciples of Jesus Christ, when we pray believing. The POWER comes from GOD.
III. CHALLENGES
The Chief Priests Question Jesus’ Authority, by James Tissot
The Jewish leaders understood what ‘authority’ meant. The next day, while Jesus was teaching the crowd in the temple and amazing them with what He had to say, they sent a delegation to ask Him, “By whose authority do you do these things?
We would say, less formerly, “What gives you the RIGHT?”
They were asking, “What gives You the RIGHT to come into our temple, overturn the tables with the money and sacrifices, and run the money changers out with a whip of rope cords? What gives You the RIGHT to come in here and tell us what we can and cannot do?”
“What gives you the RIGHT to speak a parable of condemnation against us, the leaders and teachers of the Jews? What gives you the RIGHT to say who’s right and who’s wrong?”
“What gives you the RIGHT to come here and teach the people something different than what we teach them, the traditions of the Fathers? What gives you the RIGHT to say what is right and wrong?”
Notice that Jesus never answered their question. Instead, He traps them with a question about where they thought John the Baptist’s authority came from. They couldn’t answer what they really thought, that John was not really a prophet sent from God, but just another wannabe who caught the attention of the masses for a short while and rode that wave of popularity for as long as he could. That is, until his big mouth got him in trouble with Herod. If the Jewish leaders had said that, they would have had a riot on their hands as the people attacked them. So, they didn’t answer Jesus’ question.
The Jewish leaders were looking for something they could use to discredit Jesus, arrest Him, and then have Him executed, which they eventually did. The rest of our passage this week shows how each Jewish religious and secular sect tried to trap Jesus the same way He had trapped the temple priests. They weren’t able to because each time, Jesus showed them just how much smarter He was than any of them. You can do that when you’re God.
IV. APPLICATION 🍎
Pastor Chan ended his lesson by referencing where Jesus warned His disciples that they could expect the same kinds of attacks and persecution.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20 Remember what I told you before: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also…
21 They will treat you this way because of My name.”
The whole thrust of Pastor Chan’s presentation of Mark’s gospel has been discipleship. Jesus came to accomplish three purposes. One of them was to leave behind a cadre of trained and experienced replacements to carry out God’s plan of saving the entire world through the preaching of the gospel. As we approach the imminent departure of Jesus in the story, Jesus doubles down on His time and instruction of His disciples in final preparation.
If we call ourselves ‘Christians,’ that means we have accepted the responsibility to be one of those ‘little Christs’ in our own generation, in our own place in the world.
Approaching the study of Mark for the purpose of learning what Jesus did and taught so that we can do the same as His disciples is very different from the intellectual approach to study that I learned in school, and it’s hard to change how I’ve been studying for so many years.
I began this study because I wanted to learn to be a worshipper of God with my whole heart. What I’ve been learning instead is how to follow Jesus with my whole life.
God is funny that way. He guides you into what you think is one thing, only to find out it is something else…, actually something better, closer to God’s plan, rather than to my own desires.
In the process, I have realized that He’s been changing me behind the scenes in ways I had never imagined possible. I hope as we approach the holiday season, that you are yielding your life to our Lord and Savior in new ways too. AMEN!
In part 1, we looked at situations where things were impossible for people to do or believe, but not impossible for God. In part 2, I’m going back through the same chapters in Mark where the answer was not “Yes.”
1. Peter rebukes Jesus, Jesus rebukes him right back – Mark 8:32-33
When you think your spiritual leader is going astray, you quietly take Him to the side and tell Him so, right?
Jesus said, “NO! You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on those of people!”
Sometimes when we don’t ‘get it,’ it doesn’t mean they’re wrong. Be humble instead and ask for an explanation.
2. Boy Possessed by an Unclean Spirit – Mark 9:14-29
A father brings his demon-possessed son to some disciples of Jesus to be delivered and they think, “We got this!” After all, they’ve been casting out demons for a long time now, right? But…no.
Later, after Jesus casts out the demon, He clues you in. “This kind of demon cannot be cast out without much fasting and prayer.”
Moral of the story: Don’t think just because you know some things and have done some things that you know everything and can do anything. It’s always a good idea to check with God first.
3. Who is the Greatest? – Mark 9:33-37
You’re one of the chosen Twelve out of hundreds of disciples who believed in and followed Jesus, the Messiah, so you’ll be one of the Great Ones too when Jesus establishes His Kingdom, right?
Jesus says, “NO! Whoever receives a child in My name is receiving Me, and not only receiving Me, but God who sent Me.”
Wait, what? Is Jesus saying a child is greater than one of the Twelve? Seems like just another one of those topsy-turvy things in Christendom like:
“If you want to keep your life, you have to lose it.”
“He who would be greatest among you must become the servant of all.”
Jesus had to die and be buried in the earth before He could ascend to God’s throne in heaven.
We have to give up everything in this world in order to receive everything God has for us in heaven.
Doesn’t make sense, does it?
You see some guy you don’t even know, and DEFINITELY not one of your group, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and you try to make him stop, and then you tattle to Jesus. That’s what you should do with impostors, right?
Jesus says, “NO! Whoever is not against us is FOR us.”
Quite the opposite of what radicals today say, “If you’re not for us, you’re against us!”
Jesus is inclusive. Radicals are exclusive. That’s how you tell them apart.
5. Divorce – Mark 10:2-14
The Teachers of the Law say it is allowed for a man to divorce his wife, so it’s okay, right?
Jesus says, “NO! Moses wrote that Law because you’re a hard-hearted people. In the beginning, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body.’ So they are no longer two, but one.”
6. It is hard for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God – Mark 10:23-37
Rich people have been greatly blessed by God, right? That should mean they’re on the fast track to make it into the Kingdom of God.
Jesus says, “NO! It is easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved”
“So,” the disciples ask, “how can anyone be saved?Jesus replied,
That’s the whole point, isn’t it? If we could have saved ourselves, Jesus would not have had to come and die for our sins.
7. The Request of James and John – Mark 10:35-40
You want something really big, really bad and you build up your courage to ask Jesus in private…
…and He says, “NO! To sit at my right or left is not for Me to grant. Those places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
What we want is not always part of God’s plan. Leave room for God’s ‘No,’ and be willing to accept it.
8. Christian Leadership – Mark 10:42-45
You can’t wait until you’re in charge so you can tell everyone what to do…
…but Jesus says, “Not so! Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant…”
9. Blind Bartimaeus – Mark 10:46-52
This blind beggar sitting behind the crowd as Jesus and His disciples pass by keeps yelling for Jesus louder and louder. “Shut him up!” everyone says…
…but Jesus says, “NO! Bring him to Me.” And the blind man received back his sight.
Sometimes it pays to be the squeaky wheel, even in God’s Kingdom.
APPLICATION – Prayer
So, when will God say “yes” in answer to our request and when will He say “no”? There are several guidelines in the Bible that can help us figure that out.
1. If we ask for something that is within the range of what God wants to do for us or give us, then the answer will be “yes.”
2. So, how do we tell what requests fall within “God’s will”? The best way is to become familiar with what God has promised, because in Jesus Christ…
Note that God has a personal motive for answering our prayers, that He would be glorified through us. God’s number one goal is that people know He exists, and that there are rewards for coming to Him. God wants to reveal those things through us to those around us by answering our prayers and then us letting people know.
Then God’s number two goal kicks in, saving as many people as possible through faith in Jesus Christ, but they’ve got to have this faith first…
3. To claim this promise, we must pray in Christ’s name. Jesus said:
It has been explained to me that asking God for something in Jesus’ means asking for the same thing that Jesus would ask.
So, it’s not just ‘WWJD’ That is, What Would Jesus Do? It’s also ‘WWJA,’ What Would Jesus Ask?
Once again there is a purpose to God answering our prayers in Jesus’ name, that we would be filled with joy. And let me testify how great it is when I pray for something and God comes through!
As for God’s plan of salvation for the world? There is nothing more attractive to needy, hurting people than someone who has their own needs, but is filled with joy because God is answering their prayers about them!
4. And when it comes right down to it, we have to ask! That is the idea of our pastor’s recent book on prayer, ‘Just Ask.’
The Joy of Confident, Bold, Patient, Relentless, Shameless, Dependent, Grateful, Powerful, Expectant Prayer
James said the same thing in his letter,
James also explains why we sometimes get a ‘No’ from God:
The opposite of asking ‘in Jesus’ Name,’ is asking ‘just for ourselves.’ Trying to get something for yourself out of your ministry to others for God will destroy your ministry. So too…
CONCLUSION
So, what will God’s answer to your prayers be, “Yes” or “No”? Whichever one it is, you can be sure of one thing, there will be waiting involved.
When we ask God for something, He’s not like a ‘genie in a bottle’ that has to give us what we ask for, when we ask for it, and how we ask for it. We need to remember that this is the LORD GOD we’re talking about. He is sovereign, which means He’s in charge of everything. He will choose the best way to answer your prayers, when to answer them, and how to answer them.
Also remember that God wants everyone to know it was Him. He often chooses unusual ways of answering and waits until the last moment. One reason for the waiting is for us to display our faith and trust in Him.
So, ask, believe, wait patiently and glorify God when He comes through. He does, He will, and I can testify to that too, AMEN!
Bill's Bible Blog 