Father, we give you thanks and praise that we can gather together to be in your presence.
Father, your word is said that Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would fall with might and power and deep conviction upon us who are gathered here.
And upon as well those who are joining in with worship through YouTube Live.
Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with might and power and deep conviction so that we might know Jesus.
And in knowing Jesus, we might begin to know and understand ourselves truly.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So isn't the Bible filled with contradictions?
That's a very common thing, which most Canadians would say, and that a lot of us Christians struggle with.
Isn't the Bible full of contradictions?
Today, we're going to begin the Gospel of Mark.
And in fact, you want to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1, verses 1 to 13.
You could do that now.
And so we're going to read Mark.
And when we come to different parts of Mark, you'll notice some of you who know the Bible really well,
or those of you who might sort of flip around later on, you'll see that Mark says some things differently than other people.
For instance, Mark is going to tell us about the baptism of Jesus.
Well, all four of the ancient biographies about Jesus, known, we call them Gospels,
but they're the ancient biographies based on eyewitness testimony,
that the four different Gospel accounts, if you read them, there's some differences in them.
Three of the different accounts record the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
And if you read them, you'll notice some differences.
And so how do we think about that?
Is it in fact the case that the Bible is filled with contradictions,
contradictions, and therefore you can't really trust any of them as being historical or true?
Well, God forbid, imagine for a moment that my wife Louise dies fairly soon,
and maybe after COVID restrictions, so there can be a really, really big funeral and all of that type of stuff,
because it would probably be very big.
And some of you might not know, but I have nine children.
So whether it's during the funeral or afterwards, we have a time when the children and the sons and daughters-in-law
and some of the older grandchildren can talk a little bit about what Louise was like.
To some of you, most people would find that interesting.
But I'm not going to let all nine and the seven sons and daughters-in-law get up and the older grandchildren.
So they end up talking about it, they sort of group themselves a bit,
and they end up deciding they pick four people who are going to get up and say something,
and they sort of represent sort of different sort of interests.
And let's say my son Tosh or Jacob gets up,
and they decide that what they'd really like to do is they'd like to share the conversations that Louise has had with them, fundamentally.
Like the private, more in particular the private sort of things, you know,
that would take place late at night or talking about some of the deep things that have been going on in their lives.
And so the first person gets up, and that's what they focus on.
They don't talk a lot about what Louise has done.
They mention very few things, but they really talk about how these particular things
and the conversation they had with Louise, how significant it was for them.
Well, that person, in a sense, is what happens when you read the Gospel of John.
That's what John's like.
Then you get another couple, and they've been really struck with how Louise has a very, very kind heart.
She's the type of person who notices the child who's unhappier by itself,
that would notice the person standing by themselves during coffee hour,
the person who really has a concern for animals, is concerned for their neighbors,
and is just very outgoing, not intimidated by somebody who's maybe like a street person
or has severe handicaps, but is really just drawn to them and is very friendly to them.
And so that person gets up and shares about Louise primarily in terms of those types of categories.
And that, in a sense, would be as if you read the Gospel of Luke.
And then some of the others just really thought that Louise had a lot of really neat sayings,
you know, like, you know, one of her sayings is if a child cries, you know, pick it up.
But she has a lot of different sayings.
And so they give a talk.
They talk about the different things that Louise maybe did,
but they primarily talk about some of these just little sayings that Louise had
or that she would be known for.
And that, in a sense, is like reading the Gospel of Matthew.
And then maybe it would be my two sons who are engineers,
and they like to have things shorter and briefer
and maybe focus on what actually happened or what didn't happen.
And they get up and they talk about Louise,
and they give you really short little brief word pictures
about the things that Louise did and how she handled things.
And in a sense, that's what happens when you're reading the Gospel of Mark.
Now, all four of the conversations flow out of the nine children
and seven sons and daughters-in-law and the older and younger grandchildren.
And none of them contradict each other.
They just want to talk about Louise in different ways.
And there'd be some overlapping.
And if you had gone back afterwards and said,
one moment, I thought you said there was two people there,
and I thought you said there was one person.
And they said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I didn't want to clutter my account up with that
because I wanted to try to communicate this about Louise.
And if you understand that,
then you understand how the four Gospels are written.
And you'll see that, in fact,
they're just telling that they have their own different type of way
they're trying to communicate who Jesus is,
just as in the funeral,
there'd be four different ways of trying to communicate who Louise is.
And none of them contradict each other.
If you ask them, the facts would all be the same,
but they just want to emphasize different things.
Now, I mention this as well
because if some of you have written,
I've read, you know, or heard sermons
or read Bible studies about different things
like the Gospel of Mark.
And some people write Bible studies or do sermons.
What they really do is they take the incident,
they look in a sense at all four of the things of the baptism
or all three of the temptations.
In a sense, they give you an overall view of all of them.
Generally speaking, when I go through the Gospel of Mark,
I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to read Mark's account.
I want us to hear and get the sense of how Mark wants to introduce Jesus to us.
So generally, I won't do any of that.
But that's just for those of you wondering about contradictions,
that basically handles all of the apparent contradictions,
which aren't real, that take place in the four Gospels.
So what we're looking at here,
we don't know exactly when it was written,
but according to church history,
it was probably written in the early 50s,
zero 50s, not 1950s.
And it's based on eyewitness testimony.
And Mark is very self-appreciating,
but there's a little thing at the end
that shows that he was a direct eyewitness of some of these things,
and he was a very close confidant of the apostles and the disciples.
And so this is how he tells the story of Jesus,
and he introduces it like this.
Verse 1,
Now, one of the things about Mark is he's brief.
He's the shortest of all of the biographies by far.
He's brief, and he gets to the point.
Those of you who like one-page summaries of things will like Mark.
Those of you who like Victorian novels with lots of description
will find him frustrating time and time and time again.
But if you like brief and to the point,
you're going to love the Gospel of Mark.
And here you have, first of all,
this one sentence is very packed.
First of all, notice that he makes a direct claim
that Jesus is God, the Son of God.
A direct claim that he is God, the Son of God.
But the other thing here, it's a bit more subtle,
and those of you who know the Bible very well
might have picked it up,
and it's actually very obvious in the original language.
When Mark says the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
that word beginning,
so originally it would have been written in Greek.
When the ancient Jewish people,
a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus,
because Greek was the language,
sort of the common language of most of that part of the ancient world,
they took what we call the Old Testament
and our Jewish friends call the Tanakh,
they took it and translated it into Greek
because there were a lot of Jewish people
who could no longer read or speak Hebrew.
And they still wanted them to have the Tanakh,
the Torah, God's Word.
And so they translated it into Greek.
This is done before there were Christians.
And so if you were to go and read the Greek translation of Genesis,
the book of Genesis begins,
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And Mark's Gospel begins the beginning
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And the word beginning is the same in both cases.
So what Mark is signifying here in a very, very simple way
is that God is going to do a new creation.
He made the original creation.
The original creation has been marred by sin
and death has come, evil has come.
And in this now marred and disfigured original creation,
God is going to do a new creation.
And this is the beginning of this tale
of how God brings about the beginning of the new creation
in the lives of human beings.
And it's this good news that God has created a new beginning,
a new creation.
And it's going to be about how Jesus does this,
who's the Messiah.
And by the way, he's also the Son of God.
Now, one of the things which we now need to know
is he's now going to quote the Bible.
A couple of years ago,
I came across this really neat description.
It's called, it's actually a very Canadian thing.
I just was thinking about it
when I was working on the Gospel this week
that maybe I should use it more often
because it's something which on one level would resonate,
I think, with Canadians.
It's the idea of subversive fulfillment.
Subversive fulfillment.
What the Gospel does is on one level,
it's very subversive.
You're going to see this in the beginning.
It subverts pretensions of power.
It subverts our pride.
It subverts,
it's subversive of just the way
the dominant stories of Canada
and the dominant intellectuals of Canada
want to see the world.
It subverts that.
But at the same time,
it actually fulfills our deepest longings and yearnings.
That in a sense,
what the ideologies,
the religions,
the spiritualities,
the pride and pretension,
the stories of our world,
what we really hope for,
well, the Gospel is going to subvert it.
But it's actually going to fulfill
what was really true
and the heart of the longing behind it.
So Mark gets right to this
in how he begins to now tell the story of Jesus.
Look at what he does at verses 2 and 3.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
Behold, I send my messenger before your face
who will prepare your way.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Now actually,
it's sort of a longer thing
and I won't go into it.
Actually, you know,
what it is,
it's a little bit like that.
Some of you,
I used to have a bulletin.
We used to have a bulletin
and in the bulletin,
I'd always have a little blurb.
And I discovered that if I took a legal pad
and I wrote with my handwriting
and I wrote double-spaced,
that three pages of double-spaced writing
on a legal pad
perfectly fit in our bulletin for my blog.
And so that was a very, very,
it helped,
I was always conscious with every line
that the paper's running out.
And that's one of the ways
you have to understand with Mark,
you know, paper's expensive,
equivalent of paper's very, very expensive.
He has a very small bundle of papers.
He's going to be very conscious
of all of the things.
But actually what happens
is he just mentions
that the first part of this quote
is from Isaiah,
the other two parts
are from Exodus and Malachi.
It just doesn't include that.
It's sort of irrelevant.
It's a bit of a geeky thing
to be able to put all of that stuff done.
The first part's Isaiah,
the other two parts,
and sort of the bracketing bit
is Exodus and Malachi.
But the significance is this.
This new creation
that God is going to do
through the person of Jesus
is something that he,
through the prophets,
have predicted
from the first writer of the Bible,
which is Moses,
to the last writer of the Bible,
which is Malachi,
and typified by the greatest of the prophets,
which is the book of Isaiah.
And the Jewish people
who would have been very familiar
with the scripture
and picked up the fact
that this is a jumble of quotes
to create one consistent message
of Isaiah, Exodus, and Malachi,
they would have got,
whoa, he's saying
that the entire Old Testament
from beginning to end,
what our Jewish friends
call the Tanakh,
this entire bit
is being fulfilled.
And in here,
and this is where
the subversive fulfillment comes up,
one of the problems
that the Jewish people had
at the time
with understanding that,
at first,
that Jesus was actually
this Messiah,
is, well, this text,
you mean,
it says here,
prepare the way of the Lord,
in verse 3,
make his path straight.
Well, that's,
that's,
that's God.
That's the,
that's God.
And so,
the Jewish people
were aware of things like this,
and they would have just said,
well, listen,
the text,
what the texts are talking about,
this is,
this would have been
their frame of reference.
The texts are saying
that someday
God is going to fix
our problems
and bring in,
in a sense,
a new world,
a new order.
God himself
is going to fix things
someday.
And they would have
just understood that,
that,
I don't know,
that he would do miracles,
like the way he did,
made the waters part
of the Red Sea,
or some of the other miracles
that he did
in the Old Testament,
that he,
he,
he would do it that way,
and he would do it
for the Jewish people.
But what they didn't understand
is that Jesus
is subversively,
sub,
not sub,
yeah,
subvert,
he's being subversive
of their expectations,
but he still fulfills it.
He's being subversive,
first of all,
because it's not that God
is going to remain
completely and utterly distant
while he does that,
he's actually going to come
and walk amongst us.
And the second thing is
that he's going to make
things right,
not just for the Jewish people,
but for all human beings
who put their faith
and trust in him,
for every people group.
You see,
they have their,
their,
their mindset,
their way of thinking
through things,
and on one level,
Jesus is going to subvert it.
And we don't like
having our way
of thinking subverted.
But on the other hand,
if you get over it,
if you get over yourself,
what's really going on
is a profound fulfillment,
a fulfillment in a way
which is far more deep
and amazing
and beautiful
and wonderful
than you would have
even dreamed was possible.
And so how does he fulfill it?
Well, look,
verse 4,
and you can see this
right off the bat
because it's going to say
this thing that the Lord
is going to do these things,
but the Lord
has sandals.
What?
How can the Lord
wear Birkenstocks?
Yeah, I know.
Ha ha.
Socks as well
as with my sandals.
What can you say?
I am a walking
fashion disaster.
That's all I can say.
One of the reasons
I wear a clergy shirt
every week is so,
you know,
sometimes I wear a collar,
sometimes I don't,
is I say to my Baptist friends
and Pentecostal friends,
I say,
gosh, you know,
I don't have enough clothes
to wear new things.
If I had to be like you,
everybody in the congregation
would say,
didn't he wear that shirt
two weeks ago?
And that shirt,
doesn't he know
that you're supposed
to match this with that
and this with that
and you'd get lost in it?
So I just,
I basically wear
the same thing every week.
It just gets around it.
It's like uniform.
That's,
I don't have,
because I'm not a clothes horse.
Anyway,
I really got way off the track.
Look,
look what happens in verse four.
John appeared
and those of you
who are a bit puzzled,
a bit new to the Christian faith
or just trying to figure it out,
there's two important Johns
in the New Testament.
There's John the Apostle
or the disciple
and there's John the Baptist
and this is John the Baptist,
not John the disciple.
So John appeared
baptizing in the wilderness
and proclaiming a baptism
of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins
and all the country of Judea
and all Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized
by him in the river Jordan,
confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed
with camel's hair
and wore a leather belt
around his waist
and ate locusts
and wild honey.
Now just sort of pause there
for a second.
What's going on
with his dress?
So first of all,
what's going on here
is that,
well actually,
we'll back up a sec.
One of the things
which would be obvious
in our culture,
it wouldn't raise any eyebrows,
it would just,
people would just nod with it,
is that it's a common place
in our culture
and in our culture
we think it's just
reason has taught us this,
that philosophers
have reasoned
and come to an enlightened position
and in that enlightened position
something like the following
is just obvious.
And the obvious thing
is that often
the powerful and the rich
are blind.
They're blinded
by their privilege,
they're blinded
by their position in society,
they're blinded
from being protected
from what ordinary people
have to go through
and because they're blind
and blinded
by their power
and position,
the people who can
really understand
what's going on
are often the people
who are outside
of the power.
They are the people
who,
and in fact,
we'd also just take it
for granted
that in our culture
if you find out
that a politician
is saying something
or a media person
is saying something
but you also find out
that they're dependent
upon financial donations
of somebody
that you can't really
trust their word,
that the people
you can trust the most
are the people
who aren't financially
beholden
to powerful people
and that it's often
the people
who are in the weaker
positions,
the outsider positions
that can more fully
see and understand
what's going on.
And in Canada,
we would just take
this as a common place
and in fact,
for most Canadians,
if you were to ask
the editorial board
of Globe and Mail
or the National Post
or if you were to go
to university faculty,
they would just say,
well,
that's just something
that enlightened,
reasonable people
have understood.
But here's the thing,
it's not an enlightened,
and reasonable idea.
Well, I mean,
it is enlightened
and reasonable,
but it's not something
that just came
by natural human reason.
It's a Christian idea.
It's a Christian idea
to completely
and utterly separate.
Our culture has forgotten
that they got it
from the Bible.
You see,
that's what's being
signified right here.
That John is out
in the wilderness
and people are coming
and the language
of the fact
that how he's dressed,
that's signifying
that he's in a sense
modeling himself
in his dress
over Elijah,
one of the greatest
of the prophets,
and the fact
that he's eating locusts
and wild honey,
what that shows
is that he's foraging
off the land.
He's not a beggar
and he's not rich.
And here we have
this picture
of the person
who's preparing
the way for God
is somebody not
in a palace,
not in a position
at the top
of the academy,
not at the top
of the media,
not at the top
of the arts,
not at the top
of business,
not at the part
of the civil service
or the bureaucracy,
but someone
in the wilderness.
And someone
in the wilderness
who's not dependent
upon begging
and isn't rich
but is just living
off the land
and is foraging,
he is able
to speak truth
into the culture
and truth
to power.
It's a Christian idea.
That's where it comes from.
In fact,
if you just think
about it for a second,
if somebody had gone
to the emperor Nero
who would have been
or one of the Roman emperors,
I can't remember
who the emperor
would have been
at this,
would have been,
I think,
Caesar Augustus
or was the guy
after Caesar Augustus.
Doesn't matter.
If somebody had gone up
to him,
they'd go back
in a time capsule
and say,
oh, by the way,
Caesar Augustus
or by the way,
Nero,
did you know
that your position
of privilege
has blinded you
so that you can't
actually understand
what's really going on
and what the meaning
of life is
and that the people
who really have
the understanding
about the way
life is going
are the people
who don't have
any particular power.
Now,
if you said that
to a Roman emperor,
you'd have to hope
that he'd just laugh,
that he'd be shocked
for a moment
and then say,
oh,
you know,
because he's used
to having mad men
and mad women around
and he's used
to having fools
and gestures
and he'd just laugh.
But if he actually
thought you were serious,
he would just kill you.
He'd probably do both,
laugh about how stupid
you are
and then kill you.
You see,
the idea that
you have to be separate
from power
to speak truth to power
isn't a reasonable idea
that comes from
just pure reason.
It comes from the Bible.
It's a biblical idea.
And that's what's going on here.
So we have John
described as a prophet
foraging off the land
in the wilderness.
And what is it
that he says?
And here's now
where we go back
to this subversive fulfillment
of these prophecies
about what God
is going to do
to rescue
and deliver his people.
Verse 7,
And he preached,
saying,
After me,
after me comes
he who is mightier
than I,
the strap of whose sandals
I am not worthy
to stoop down
and untie.
I'm going to say that again.
After me comes
he who is mightier
than I.
And this word mightier
doesn't just imply
that he's stronger,
like he's won
the world's strongest
man competition.
It's a bigger word
of might
and it's connected
to words like glory
and majesty
and worth
and rank.
After me comes
he who is mightier
than I,
the strap of whose sandals
I am not worthy
to stoop down
and untie.
And then he says this,
I have baptized you
with water
but he will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.
In other words,
who is this person?
Who is this God
that I'm introducing God?
I'm saying prepare
the way of the Lord.
But one moment
the Lord wears sandals.
And how do you know
that it's the Lord,
that it's actually God?
Because only God
can actually tell
the Holy Spirit,
ask the Holy Spirit
to do something
and that the Holy Spirit
can actually come upon you
and come upon you
and immerse you
in God's saving work.
Immerse you
completely and utterly.
Only God can do that.
And John the Baptist says
this person is coming
and he's going to wear sandals
and I am not worthy
to stoop down
and take a position
lower than the lowest slave
and actually deal
with his sandals.
Now let's just be frank.
This is a very, very
unattractive idea
to Canadians.
To the average Canadian,
this,
to the average Canadian,
the idea that there is one
that you are not worthy
to stoop down
and untie their sandals,
that doesn't resonate
with anybody at all,
with most Canadians.
What does resonate
with Canadians?
When they meet someone greater
or someone who's exalted?
I'm just as good as them.
In fact,
I'm probably better.
Sorry to point in that direction
just to make it all evil.
I'm just,
I'm just as good as them.
In fact,
probably even better.
Isn't that what resonates
with Canadians?
Like if you were together
having coffee
at your favorite coffee place
and you're talking
about somebody at work
who's just gotten a promotion
and who seems to now
be strutting around
as if they're
a big important person
and if you said,
you know,
I'm just as good as them,
I'm probably better.
All of the other people
would go like this
and they'd all be thinking
the same thing.
I'm just as good
as that person.
In fact,
I'm probably better.
That's what resonates
with Canadians.
You see,
in our heart of hearts
for most Canadians,
so everybody you meet,
they have real
intellectual objections
to why Christianity
can't be true,
but in our heart of hearts
as Canadians,
we don't want the gospel
to be true.
We don't want it
to be true
because what does not
resonate with me
is that he is so,
of such great worth,
of such great worth
that apart from grace,
I am not worthy
to even touch his sandals.
That doesn't resonate
with me.
What resonates with me
is I'm just as good
as you
and probably better.
So in our heart of hearts,
we don't want the gospel
to be true.
We don't want
the gospel to be true.
Now,
our Muslim friends,
and that would include
our Muslim friends
who are Canadians,
they would be
the exception to this.
Our Muslim friends
would say,
stupid Canadians,
I mean,
not obviously,
maybe in public,
what they'd think.
Of course,
the messenger of Allah
is of such great worth.
Of course,
it's a foolishness
of Canadians
to not acknowledge
the greatness of Allah
and the greatness
of the messenger of Allah.
What John says here,
that is reasonable.
But then,
the Bible throws
a monkey wrench
of subversive fulfillment
to the average Canadian
and a monkey wrench
in the way
our Muslim friends
would understand the text
with what happens
in the very next few verses.
Look at what it says
in verses 9 and following.
In those days,
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was,
just by the way,
that would be like saying,
I'm George from Brudenell.
And none of you
have heard of Brudenell.
Well,
some of you have
because I've used that
as an example
in other sermons.
But like,
Brudenell is like nowhere.
It's not like saying,
hi,
I'm George from Manhattan.
You know?
I'm George from Brudenell.
Actually,
I'm not from Brudenell.
I'm from Montreal.
But you get the point.
Anyway,
in those days,
verse 9,
in those days,
Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee
and was,
what?
He was baptized
by John in the Jordan.
What?
I thought John just said
that he wasn't worthy
to untie
the sandals of Jesus.
What?
Jesus is getting baptized
by John?
That's all wrong.
That's what our Muslim friends
would say.
That's all wrong.
He shouldn't lower himself
and humble himself
before John.
John should be baptized
by Jesus.
Whoa,
whoa,
whoa.
The only people
who are getting baptized
are ordinary people
confessing their sins.
What is Jesus doing
getting baptized
by John in the Jordan?
And then it continues
to mess up our minds.
Look at verse 10.
And when he,
that is Jesus,
came up out of the water,
immediately he saw
the heavens being torn open
and the spirit descending
on him like a dove
and a voice came from heaven.
You are my beloved son.
With you,
I am well pleased.
By the way,
remember I said
one of the things
which Mark excels at,
he's like a very,
very excellent
artist
who can
just use with a few lines
draw these wonderful
word pictures.
And for many people
it's hard for them
to understand the Trinity
but you begin
to enter into
the understanding
of the Trinity
by just looking
at this very simple
word picture
of Jesus
who's been identified
as the Lord
in the earlier texts
and as the Son of God
and that as he comes
out of heaven,
as he comes out
of the water
that the heavens,
the presence of God
are parted
and that the voice
of God the Father
speaks
while the Holy Spirit
descends on him.
You have this
wonderful little
word picture
in just a few words
of the doctrine
of the Trinity.
But then after this
thing,
it continues
to mess up
our minds.
Verse 12,
the Spirit
immediately
what?
Took him
to the editorial office
to the Globe and Mail,
took him to Oxford
or Stanford
or Harvard,
took him to
Washington
to become
the new president
or the UK
to become
the new prime minister
of England
or to Ottawa
to become
the new prime minister
of Canada
or the United Nations
to become the head
of the United Nations.
The Spirit
immediately drove him
out into the wilderness
and he was in the wilderness
40 days.
What?
Being tempted
by Satan.
How could God,
the Son of God,
allow himself
to spend 40 days
being beaten around
by Satan?
And he was with
the wild animals
and don't think
of cute deer.
I was just in Vancouver.
I didn't realize this
but you know
that they had to close
Stanley Park
for a while
because the coyotes
were running wild
and they were a danger
to the public.
It was only when
the coyotes started
actually biting people
and especially a child
that they finally realized
they had to cull it.
So don't think deer.
Think coyotes.
Think mountain lions.
Think things
that would like
to eat you
as a snack.
Not things
that you could feed
with grass.
And he was
in the wilderness
40 days
being tempted
by Satan
and he was with
the wild animals
and the angels
were ministering
to him.
Here's what's going on
in this text.
You see
on one hand
we Canadians
what we don't like
is the idea
we're conflicted.
We're conflicted
because on one hand
it resonates
deep within us
as Canadians
that I'm just
as good as you
and maybe
probably better.
but at the same time
what are the
commercials
all appeal to?
The commercials
appeal to the fact
that you should have
this luxurious holiday.
You should have
this luxurious car.
Why?
Because you deserve it.
You deserve it.
And that speaks
deep to our hearts
as well.
And what speaks
deep to our hearts
is that if we could
just have
if we could
just win the lottery
if we could
just buy
the apple shares
go back in time
and buy the apple shares
when they were
first available
and hence
make lots and lots
and lots and lots
of money
that if we could
do that
gosh we would
eat in better places
and gosh
we would have
a servant
to take out
the garbage
and gosh
we wouldn't
sully our hands
with this
and gosh
we wouldn't
do that
and that appeals
to us as well.
See all these
things appeal
to us
at different times
in the same
human being
without realizing
on one level
we would like
to be that person
who everybody
else is pointing to
and actually
in our hearts
of hearts
we would say
to ourselves
everybody else
is pointing at me
and saying
I'm just as good
as them
and maybe
I'm just as good
as you
and maybe even better
and they're all
saying that
but they're wrong.
Wouldn't we
doesn't that also
resonate?
They're wrong.
I am better.
I am smarter.
I have worked harder
and I haven't
just worked harder
I've worked smarter
because I am smarter
and that resonates
with you as well.
How is it
that both resonate
with you?
Eh?
Like what type
of a person
are you
and am I
that on one level
I'd say
no you're not
better than me
I am better than you
and then the very next
moment I'd look
at somebody else
and say
I'm better than
you're not better
than me
I'm better than you
and why is it
that it resonates
with us
that if we just
had the money
we wouldn't do this
we wouldn't do that
we wouldn't stoop
to this
why is it
that that resonates
with us
as well
and yet
isn't it true
that at the same time
mixed with all these
things
and it's those
those first types
of things
that we all say
and all express
because in our
heart of hearts
we don't want
Christianity to be true
in my heart of hearts
before I became
a Christian
I did not want
God
I did not want
the gospel
to be true
why?
well because in a sense
I was terrified
with texts like this
that to become a Christian
I would have to become weird
like John the Baptist
and wear weird clothes
and act weird
and I didn't want
to be weird
excuse me
but at the same time
at the same time
when we look at this
here's
here's the other thing
that we all sense
at the same time
and this is why
at our hearts of hearts
we really
even though you don't
we think we don't want
the gospel to be true
if you really look
at your heart
you do want the gospel
to be true
one of the things
that it gets mentioned
by occasionally
by the same reporters
who cheer on
the closures
and other things
as at different times
throughout the whole
COVID thing
over the last
two years
or whatever
it feels like forever
occasionally there have
been people
who've commented
on the fact
that the government
will make an announcement
on Tuesday
or Wednesday
and then businesses
have to close
like three days later
like
okay
like they don't
it's as if
they don't identify with
and they don't identify
with or care
for small business owners
or the people
who have to
work at the Tim Hortons
or who
you know
who work in the gas stations
the people
pushing the carts
at Walmart
and filling the shelves
at the Metro
and the Loblaws
and it's as if
what we say
part of us
is that these people
they just sit there
on their keyboards
in their really nice house
in a nice part of Ottawa
and they make these decisions
and they just make
these decisions
and then they say
I think I'm going to have
myself a nice glass of wine
and some expensive cheese
and meanwhile
a whole pile of
people that are
lower working class
or just working class
people are out of jobs
and small business owners
are out of jobs
and what do we
on one hand
really deeply
also identify with
is that we think
that if powerful people
actually identified
with ordinary people
and weak people
and broken people
that they would
they would rule
in a wiser way
that that is the
direction of wisdom
is to not just
is to identify
with the weak
and the powerless
and because we
excuse me
we understand
that it's connected
to love
you know when I was
telling those stories
about my
you know how they
talk about my wife
I mean one of the things
about my wife
is she loves children
I was staying with somebody
you know you think
with nine kids
I'd be better
I have four of my
grandchildren around the table
I'm not quite sure
what to say to them
you know one of them
is I think nine
and then one seven
like ten eight
six and four
and I'm not
you know we have
a few little things
I don't know what to say
and we're all
you know
and then my wife
sits down
she sits down
and says to the kids
if you had a parrot
what would you teach it
to say
what a brilliant thing
to ask four kids
she understands
and identifies
with what it's like
to be a kid
and all of a sudden
all four of them
are chatting away
that if they had a parrot
what they teach it
to say
that's a free gift
if you have to spend
some time with kids
just ask them
if you had a parrot
what would you teach it
to say
and we all understand
that that being able
to identify
with the small
the weak
the lowly
that that's a mark
of love
that that's a mark
of wisdom
when we see that
we say gosh
I wish I could have
thought of something
like that
and when we
we see government
or other people
just turn off
for a second
I just need to call
okay
I think I'm fine
and you see
that's exactly
what's going on
here in the text
see how the
the Bible
what happens
is we look at the
we look at the Bible
we look at the gospel
we think that we know
and we think
we can stand in judgment
and we don't want it
to be true
but we don't understand
what the Bible does
is it starts to begin
to reveal our hearts
and the contradictory
nature of our hearts
and it subverts
the things within us
that aren't good
but actually starts
to fulfill the things
because for most of us
what matters the most
is things like love
what matters the most
is things like truth
what matters the most
is to be a person
who lives out of love
and lives out of truth
none of us want to be
a person who lives
according to the lie
none of us want to be
a person who lives
out of hatred
out of envy
envy is a sin
that gives us
no pleasure
that just feels us
we feel sorrow
at another person's success
it doesn't
and we would rather
not live out of that
but be free
and what we see here
is this
what does Jesus do
Jesus identifies
with ordinary people
that's why he's baptized
and what's in fact
is even more profound
is that Jesus identifies
with ordinary people
at the very very very
depth of who they are
and that's the significance
of the fact
that for 40 days
for 40 days
he's alone
with Jesus
Jesus puts himself
in a sense
allows Satan
to hammer him
for 40 days
to be tempted
and here's why it is
that Jesus
this story is telling us
that Jesus
identifies with human beings
at the very very very
very deepest level
there's a person
who's just got a promotion
he thinks he's better
than everybody else
and I happen to have
just come across
a piece of news
that if I told it
it would really
puncture him
would make him
look foolish
and everybody
would laugh
and especially
if I exaggerate
aspects of it
and if I
exaggerate
aspects of it
I can really
put that person
in their place
and everybody
will laugh
and chuckle
and I'll feel
pretty good
now it's wrong
to do that
isn't it
how long
can I stop
from telling
a group
of people
and with a group
of people
they all don't
like this person
they would really
laugh
we would really
have a good time
I hold off
for 10 seconds
and the pressure
is too much
I just got to
say it
or maybe
I'm feeling
really
strong
and I wait
a minute
I wait
a minute
and a half
I wait
five minutes
but finally
I give in
the pressure
to do it
builds and
builds until
I give it in
and if I'm a
very very shallow
person I give in
after one second
in fact I don't
even give in
I just jump
right at it
I start to
become convicted
of the Christian
faith and I
realize I
shouldn't do
something like
that so I
wait five
seconds
as I mature
as a Christian
I can wait
a minute
I can wait
two minutes
but eventually
I give in
to the temptation
to sin
who is the
only person
who understands
human behavior
and human
motivation the
most is the
one who could
have that
temptation
and endure
the temptation
and endure
the temptation
until the
temptation has
lost its
power
that is the
only person
who actually
understands the
depth of
human experience
and is identified
with the depth
of human
experience
and that is
Jesus
who set
aside his
glory and
divine splendor
and gets
taken
remaining
fully
God
takes into
himself
our human
nature
and lives
and walks
amongst us
and identifies
with you
and me
here's the
point
the son of
God
Jesus
stooped
lower than
low for
you
so that
you
stooped
and broken
by your
sin
might stand
whole
and free
as his
new creation
before other
people
and the
triune
God
the son
of God
Jesus
stooped
lower than
low for
you
so that
you
stooped
and broken
by your
sin
might stand
whole
and free
as his
new creation
before other
people
and the
triune
God
he identifies
with us
only without
sin
he identifies
with you
to the depth
of who
you are
and he
dies
for you
it's not
going to be
on the
screen
I forgot
to ask
Claire to
do it
those of
you have
Bibles
if those
of you
aren't
you can
just
listen
can you
just flip
over to
Mark
chapter 15
I apologize
that it's not
on the screen
but Mark
15
and if you
look at
Mark 15
it's the
text
it's at
the end
of Mark
towards the
end of
Mark 15
where Jesus
is killed
dies on
the cross
and if you
just look at
verse 37
it goes like
this
and Jesus
uttered a
loud cry
and breathed
his last
and the
curtain
of the
temple
was torn
in two
from top
to bottom
the same
word
the only
other time
in the
word
the gospels
that the
word
torn
appears
is at
the
baptism
of
Jesus
and when
the
curtain
of the
temple
is torn
after
the
death
of
Jesus
and the
beginning
of the
gospel
begins
with
this is
the
gospel
of
Jesus
the
son of
God
he's
identified
as the
Lord
and what
happens
right after
that
and when
the centurion
who stood
facing him
saw that
in this
way he
breathed
his last
said truly
this man
was the
son of
God
Mark
ties
the
beginning
of who
Jesus
is
and his
identification
with
sinners
with his
death
upon the
cross
and what
it
accomplishes
the way
to God
is open
he has
identified
with you
and not
despised
you but
loved
you
he stoops
because
he sees
your
sin
he sees
that your
sin has
stooped
you and
broken
you and
he stoops
even lower
for you
that when you
put your
faith and
trust in
him
that process
of not
being like
this
but begin
to be able
to stand
and to be
whole
that that
process can
begin today
for those
in Jesus
and will
continue
on
until
it's
perfectly
finished
in the
new
heaven
and the
new
earth
where we
will sing
together
free at
last
free at
last
praise God
almighty
I am
free at
last
in worship
and adoration
of the
father the
son and
the holy
spirit
please stand
for each
of us
here who
are in
Christ
it's just
a time
to say
Jesus
thank you
so much
that you
stooped
thank you
that your
word as I
believe and
trust your
word as I
am gripped
again by
what you
did for
me and
how much
you love
me and
how you
see the
contradictory
things going
on in my
heart but
that you
subvert those
things but
you fulfill
the even
deeper longing
for love
and truth
and freedom
and wholeness
which I
have and so
we can thank
God again
for Jesus
and if you
are here or
if you are
watching and
you do not
know Jesus
there is no
better time
than now to
say Jesus
I want to
be free at
last I
want to be
free at
last
and so I
bow before
you and
ask to be
ask you to
be my
savior and
my lord and
thank you
Jesus for
what you
did for me
identifying for
me and
dying on the
cross for
me be my
savior and
be my
lord let's
bow our
heads in
prayer father
pour out the
holy spirit
upon us and
upon all who
are watching
pour out the
holy spirit
upon us
father we
give you
thanks and
praise that
Jesus is your
beloved son
that you
sent him
on this
mission to
redeem us
who are
broken
stooped by
sin that we
might be free
in him
and free
in you
and free
before other
people father
we ask that
you continue
to have your
holy spirit
move in our
lives your
word to move
in our lives
the chain by
chain within
us wound by
wound within
us sin by
sin within
us is slowly
dealt with
and that under
his loving
care and
your loving
supervision and
the power of
the holy
spirit we
know more and
more the
freedom and
the wholeness and
the love and
the truth which
you desire for
us as your
children and we
ask this in the
name of
Jesus your
son and our
savior and
all God's
people said
amen