Father, we confess before you that we are very good at seeing specks in other people's eyes
and not very good at seeing logs in our own eyes.
We confess before you that we are very good at flattering ourselves
too much to detect or hate our own sin.
And we are also very good at hanging on to the sins of others.
And Father, we confess before you as well that we can say this before you,
but it's hard for us to recognize it when we're doing it.
Lord, as we come to gather around your word,
we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction within each one of our hearts.
Bring your word home to us.
Deliver us from self-deception that we might no longer be deceived,
but know the truth about you and about ourselves and about the world,
and that we might live in truth and freedom to bring you glory.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Is it me or is my thing too close or is it just my...
Everything's fine?
Just my hearing which is going or something?
Okay, well that's fine.
There's all sorts of things breaking on me.
So if hearing is just one more thing, that's just...
That's life.
Long...
Oh, I better turn on my timer.
A long time ago, long, long, long time ago, I was actually...
I was in graduate school for sociology, and sort of the area that I was best at,
I took four graduate-level courses in statistics,
and so I got hired by a couple of professors at the university to help them.
They weren't as good with the statistical aspect of it, the statistical analysis of it,
and so they hired me to help them because they were working on a project.
And part of the project was about comparing government transfer payments
or government programs where the government either adjusts taxes or gives you money
and how that affected income inequality.
And they didn't just want to have a sense about how that was going on in Canada.
They wanted to compare Canada to other advanced capitalist societies like Canada.
So, you know, Sweden and Norway and the United States and Great Britain and France and Japan,
a variety of different countries were all in this,
and I was doing the statistical, helping them with the statistical analysis.
So we do the first run through the statistical analysis,
and lo and behold, when we start to compare the different nations,
the United States was in about the middle.
And now I'm telling you that because I found this profoundly disappointing and upsetting
because going into it, I was convinced that the United States would be the worst
because everybody knows that the United States, the American government,
hates poor people, doesn't care about them, doesn't give them medical help,
you know, and on and on and on.
And that's just where I...
So we do the first run through the statistics,
and it comes out the United States is about the middle.
And I think that can't be right.
That has to be wrong.
So, you know, I'm clever enough with that type of stuff,
and I, you know, I adjust some variables,
and I look at different things,
and I go deep diving into some of the other data, etc.
We rerun things after making some adjustments,
and lo and behold, the United States is about the middle, not the bottom.
Not even close to the bottom, about the middle.
So I have a discussion with the professors.
We also say there's something must be not quite right about this data,
and we have a bit of a discussion.
I do some more models and everything.
And at the end of it, the United States was about the middle.
By the way, this isn't... I'm not leading up to a joke.
I'm leading up to a confession.
Because of this, I was just thinking, I'm going to tell you this story.
It's about like I'm going to tell you a joke.
But no, no, I'm not... I come up with a confession.
So it's still in the middle, and I'm convinced that this just can't be right
because everybody knows that the American political system and cultural system
isn't good for the poor.
And I'm just, you know, puzzled about it.
Anyway, I'm a Christian, and the next day I'm doing my morning devotions.
I'm reading my Bible and I'm praying.
Now, if I was a charismatic, I'd tell you that God spoke to me.
But because I'm not a charismatic, I don't know what exactly I would say to you
because probably the charismatics are right.
But it was almost as if there was a visible voice, almost like not a visible voice.
That would be weird.
An audible voice that came to me that said,
George, you hate Americans.
Now, me being a very devout Christian, as soon as I have this sense
that God is almost speaking to me saying, George, you hate Americans,
being a very devout Christian, I immediately argue with God.
In other words, I tell him that's not true.
I don't hate Americans.
I'm, you know, I'm all for justice.
I'm all for equality.
And I start to think of all these reasons why that can't possibly be true.
But it was that sense that continued to be there.
And I realized I hate Americans.
It was very upsetting to realize that for who knows how many years in my life,
I'd carried around this prejudice against Americans.
I mean, good grief, they'd never done anything against me even once.
Only a few times I'd ever been to the United States.
It was really, it was nice.
I went to Cape Cod, you know, old Orchard Beach.
And here I am, I'm prejudiced.
And that's what was happening with my study, is I wasn't actually interested in the truth.
I wanted to do whatever I could to find them bad.
Now, I share this because what I'm describing is a human problem.
And the Bible text that we're going to look at today addresses this human problem in a very,
very interesting way.
So it would be a great help to me if you would open up your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 3,
verse 1 to 19.
And let's look at these stories, especially the first one, but all three of them,
as it speaks to this human problem of unrecognized prejudice or unrecognized hatred,
or in fact what the Bible is going to call hardness of heart.
And here's how it goes.
Now, just sort of pause here for a second.
So they've gone to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
So Jesus has gone there to worship.
He's gone there to, in theory, that's why everybody has gone there.
They've gone to be in God's presence, to hear the Torah, the Tanakh read, to hear it explained,
to sing praises to God, to confess their sins, just to be in God's presence.
That's what they've gone to do.
But actually, for some of the people who are there, they've gone to accuse Jesus.
And the word accuse here is from the legal word.
They go to find evidence to find him guilty.
They don't go to find evidence to try to figure out who he is and what he's doing.
They have only one purpose, which is to find evidence that will get him in trouble.
And obviously, it's not trouble with the law in the sense of Rome.
Rome couldn't care less what happens in the synagogue.
But in terms of, you know, while Rome obviously had a huge intrusive presence,
most of their daily life was ruled by the Jewish community.
And that's the community that they wanted to get Jesus in trouble with.
And what we see here, that here we are, they're all gathered in theory to worship,
but inwardly, some of them are actually only there to get Jesus in trouble,
is a very, very profoundly human problem.
If you think about it, how many churches in Alabama would have people singing
how great thou art with their lips, but in their minds,
they're planning the lynching after the church service.
Or that night.
They're in church, hearing the Bible, singing God's praises,
but really what's going on inside of them is planning the lynching.
We're very familiar, unfortunately, that some people, some Muslims, go to a mosque,
and in the midst of their prayers, they're planning a terrorist attack.
It's not reported as much, but people can be in a Hindu temple in India,
and they're planning some type of anti-Christian or anti-Muslim action
later on that day or that week.
Or to make it more secular, they're gathered for a rally to protect the pipelines
and to protect the environment, but they urge the bombing of pipelines.
Oh, sorry, that one got cut out, didn't it, by the press?
But, you know, it's an even deeper problem than that.
It's easy to, and that's why I added the last one about the environment issue,
because it's easy to say, yeah, yeah, that's the problem with religion,
that's the problem, oh, one moment, that's the problem with caring for the environment.
But it's also a deeper problem than that.
There's something about this which is very, very human,
a deep human problem in another aspect.
How many people have thought, how many couples have thought
they're going to have a very, very pleasant romantic moment with the other person,
and one of you is having a very romantic moment,
but you can tell that the other person is, who knows,
maybe they're even thinking about another woman or a man,
maybe they're thinking about what they should do at work,
or how much they hate their mother, or something that they want to do, or sports.
How many couples have had a conversation to discuss very, very deep issues,
and at some point in time the woman realizes that the man is actually watching the television
whenever she takes her eyes off of him, because he's watching the football game.
How many times have all of us dealt with people who are very nice to our face,
but you know that inwardly, you find out later on,
that they were very, very, very, very nice to your face,
but they were actually thinking about how to ruin you.
You see, on one level, the Bible is the most profound critique of religion all the time,
but if we just think of it as purely a critique of religion,
we're going to miss the fact, you see, that what happens is that religion doesn't solve the problem
of the hardness of our heart.
As you think about these other times where you should be here for one purpose,
a good purpose, like applauding or rewarding a good employee or a good boss,
or you should be here for a romantic moment or for a good conversation,
or to be concerned about the environment,
but actually at the same time, underneath all of that, what's going on beneath the words
is plans that go completely and utterly against the good purpose of the gathering.
So what will Jesus do?
What is the insight that Jesus begins to give to this human problem,
not just a religious problem?
Well, let's continue reading.
Verse 3.
And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand,
Come here.
And Jesus said to them,
Now he's talking to the room,
but he's not just talking to some of the people who don't know what's going on.
They're actually just there to hear the Torah read and to sing God's praises.
But he, Jesus talks to those that there's this other thing going on in their hearts and their minds.
Verse 4.
He says,
Is it lawful?
And really when it says here lawful,
we should really replace,
I mean, lawful is the right word,
but he's not talking about Roman law.
He's talking about biblical.
He's talking,
Is it biblical?
Is it biblical on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill?
But they were silent.
And Jesus looked around at them with anger,
grieved.
Notice this again.
I'll read again verse 5.
He looked around at them with anger,
grieved at their hardness of heart.
And he said to the man,
Stretch out your hand.
And the man stretched it out,
and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him,
how to destroy Jesus.
What is hardness of heart?
Well, hardness of heart is being closed off.
Closed off from good things,
because you're closed off from good things to pursue your own ego,
to pursue your own pride,
to pursue your own prejudice,
to pursue your own racism,
to pursue your greed,
to pursue your lust,
your envy.
You're closed off.
You're closed off from the kids that are right with you,
having a family time,
because even though you're with your children,
for family time,
in your mind,
you're raging about your dad,
or you're raging about your boss,
or you're
consumed with how you can get that promotion,
or to make more money.
Hardness of heart is being closed off from good things,
like intimacy and justice and love and truth,
to be fixated on those wrong things
that are grasping the heart.
And in our culture,
echo chambers are hardness of heart
magnified by social media and the press.
Because when in doubt,
you can always go to your favorite Twitter feed,
or your Instagram feed,
or your TikTok feed,
or your YouTube channel,
and you can fuel the hardness of your heart
with many,
many other people.
And part of the thing about the hardness of the heart
is that not only does it close you off
to the things like truth,
and justice,
and love,
and compassion,
and intimacy,
but it makes you self-righteous.
I mean,
those Pharisees in this particular story,
they leave feeling virtuous.
Let me tell you about myself.
I felt very virtuous about my anti-Americanism.
I wouldn't have said I was anti-American.
I would have said I was prophetic.
I would say that,
unlike all these other benighted Christians,
I was reading the book of Amos.
I was reading the book of Micah.
I was reading Isaiah.
I was listening to Jesus,
and all these other people,
completely and utterly opposed
to this society,
not opposed to this society to the south of me.
They're the ones who are living in illusion.
They're the ones who have their eyes closed.
I'm the one consumed with justice.
I'm the one concerned for the poor,
not recognizing that what I had
was a great self-deception
and self-blindness.
My hardness of heart
made me more self-righteous,
more claiming a higher purpose.
And part of the hardness of the heart
is shown here so powerfully
just in this simple little story.
I mean, you think about it for a second.
If Shane had the ability,
God gave him the healing ability
that you could come to him,
and he would pray for you,
and you have an arm which is bent,
somehow or another deformed,
and because it's deformed
and connected with the deformity,
I mean, I have skinny little wrists.
I should have got a picture up there
of the rock,
his wrist or something like that,
but, you know,
some skinny little wrist
that's just basically like two twigs,
and there's no flesh to it whatsoever.
And could you just imagine
that you're in a room,
like you come here to worship the God
who's the creator and sustainer
of all of all things,
and Jesus is there,
and he performs a miracle,
and you all know going in,
because it's a small community.
Everybody knew Joseph or whatever his name.
They don't tell you his name.
I'm just picking a good Jewish name,
Joseph.
They all knew Joseph.
They all knew that his arm was bent and twisted,
that his hand would hardly work at all,
and that there was absolutely no flesh there,
and when he takes his arm out,
good grief,
the bones are straight,
and there's muscle.
It would be as if all of a sudden
Shane prayed,
and my wrist looks like the rock's wrist,
not like the wrist I'm stuck with.
If Shane could do that,
he could pay a thousand dollars.
People would pay thousands of dollars to watch it,
and they're right there in the room,
and that happens.
In good grief,
you'd think that they'd go,
whoa, maybe I'm wrong about Jesus.
Like, whoa.
What's happening?
Like, who is he?
How could that happen?
Like, that's mind-blowing
to see something like that.
And yet,
all they get as a result of that remarkable miracle
is a deeper desire to destroy Jesus.
You have a perfect picture of the hardness of the human heart.
In fact, actually, it's even worse,
because you see,
normally the Herodians and the Pharisees were,
in a sense, enemies.
Herod wasn't Jewish.
The Pharisees were all about having the Jewish people
follow the Jewish laws and the Jewish rules
so that God would bless them.
And Herod wasn't even Jewish.
And Herodians were basically Herod's cheering section.
They were his spin doctors,
his public proponents,
the ones that said that,
yea, Herod, yea, Herod, yea, Herod,
Herod forever, Herod forever.
And normally the Pharisees and the Herodians,
and the Herodians didn't care a hoot about keeping the law,
but what unites them is their dislike of Jesus.
And that's what often happens with hardness of heart,
is before we know it,
we're eating bread,
and we're fellowshipping with other people
who share our hardness of heart.
Not a concern for truth,
not a concern for justice,
not a concern for the poor,
not a concern for the oppressed,
but they share our hardness of heart.
And all of a sudden,
they look like we should be spending time together,
and they never even stop to think about it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, moment.
I just saw a guy in the midst of worshipping God
do this remarkable miracle,
and here I am filled with anger,
hanging out with people I don't even agree with.
What's wrong with me?
And they can't see it.
They can't see it.
Now, there's other things.
I know I have to move on,
but there's other things about this story
which is just really incredible,
if you think about it for a second.
So one of the things,
as we go on through Mark's Gospel,
and as you read the other Gospels,
one of the things that's very obvious
about these ancient biographies of Jesus
is the disciples did not think
that Jesus would die upon the cross.
Like, that's very, very obvious.
It's one of the reasons why the historical record
is actually in the direction,
favors the belief that Jesus really, really would rise from the dead,
because nobody who knew him actually thought he'd die,
and when he did die,
they were completely and utterly defeated,
so they definitely didn't think that Jesus could ever die,
and that if he did die, he'd rise from the dead.
They didn't think that at all.
It wasn't part of how they understood the world.
But if you think about it for a second,
if Jesus could build muscle and straighten bones,
he's like Deadpool without all the foul language and jokes.
He's like Wolverine,
those of you who know the Marvel Universe.
He's like those guys.
And if you think about it for a second,
if he's able to take a bone that's all bent and make it straight,
and if he's able to take an arm with no muscle
and all of a sudden give it muscle and make the things work,
then he can break legs.
Like how could the soldier have ever hammered the nails
into the hands and feet of Jesus
if Jesus by the mere thought could break the soldier's hand
and the next soldier's hand
until they all gave up?
You see, this is one of the things,
as you're gripped with these stories about what Jesus does,
it's one of the reasons why you can understand
that that very old Christian saying
that it was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross
but his love for you that held him to the cross,
that that must be true.
That's the only explanation
as to why he could actually die on a cross.
He could just have had those nails,
but he could have just did it as a big joke.
Yeah, yeah, hang me up,
and the next thing you know,
the nails all just go out,
his heels are going to his hand.
He could have done that.
It was his love that held him to the cross,
and it was his love that held him to the cross
for the heart of heart.
Some people get bothered by the fact that Jesus is angry.
In fact, I've talked to people who say
that stories like this show the superiority of Buddha
because Buddha, of course,
would have taught us methods and techniques
to not be angry.
Now, I'll share in a moment
why anger is very problematic for us as human beings,
but if you think about it for a second,
people can be very, very, very anger-driven,
and that's one of the reasons why anger is very...
Anger is a very, very, very difficult...
Anger is a very, very difficult emotion
and reaction to the world.
But think about it for a second.
If you've ever seen some of the film clips
of what Martin Luther King went through
in the 1960s,
if you've seen him lead some of his peaceful marches,
only to have him and his followers
be struck down with water hoses
and attacked by white police officers
with big sticks
and see him and his followers bludgeoned
because they just wanted the end of racism and segregation,
you would not think that the person in Alabama
who was unmoved by that was morally superior.
You would say,
how could any person not look at this
and say this is deeply wrong?
How could they not look at this and see anger?
How could they...
Like, to show no anger at that
is not a sign of moral superiority.
It's a sign of something broken in you.
And the problem with anger is
I might be feeling depressed about getting older.
I might be feeling depressed about something about my finances.
I might be feeling depressed
because I'm not getting the promotion I want
or the job isn't going the way I want
or I don't have this or I don't have that.
But then I get angry.
And when I get angry,
those things that are making me depressed,
they go away, they fly away,
and I have this anger
which I can ride.
And anger makes me tower over the others.
It makes me feel like a god.
It overwhelms my feelings of inadequacy,
my depression, my shame
with this anger.
And I can be convinced that I am right.
And that is why anger is such a hard thing for human beings.
To not experience anger
at things which are truly wrong
and unjust and unloving
is a problem.
But it is too hard for us
with our anger
to just be angry in a way
that reflects our justice,
a sense of justice and love and compassion
and what is good and right in the world
without it quickly turning into something
which is in fact very, very bad for us
and very wrong.
But what we see in Jesus
is we do not see an anger-driven man.
In fact, we see the exact opposite.
You see, because anger,
before it goes off the rails,
before we start choosing anger
and nurturing anger
and becoming more and more
and more and more and more angry
and more and more self-righteous
and more and more in our high horse.
But when we begin that little opening moment
of the proper anger,
of a great injustice,
a great cruelty which is done
and we realize that it's unjust,
it's unloving,
it's not good,
it's not compassionate
and we recognize that
and part of the recognition is anger.
Just saying it that way,
you see that it's connected to justice,
it's connected to love.
And so what we see here in this story,
because it's setting up the end of the story,
by setting up the end of the story,
we see that Jesus says,
how can you be here singing
how great thou art with your lips,
but in your hearts you're trying to kill me?
That just saddens me
and it makes me angry at the injustice.
But because it emerges out of love
and a concern for justice,
it does not lead him
to obliterating his enemies,
but to dying on the cross
for the heart of heart.
You see here the complete
and utter opposite
of anger driven.
But as he is connected to that
which is good and just
and right and compassionate,
it realizes
that you and I
cannot fix the hardness
of our hearts by ourselves,
so we need a savior.
We do not need the Buddha
to teach us how to not be angry.
We need to recognize
that we have a problem
and we need a savior.
The next story is going to show us
just to start to wind this down.
The next story is going to show us,
in fact,
the next two stories
are going to show us
the hope that we have,
but also the fear,
the temptation that we have,
the fear that we have
and the hope
that actually Jesus provides us.
Let's look at verse 7
and we begin to see here in this
a bad temptation
and a deep fear
and it's the final story
that points us
in the direction of hope.
Look at verse 7.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples
to the sea
and a great crowd
followed him
from Galilee and Judea
and Jerusalem and Edomia
and from beyond the Jordan
and from around Tyre and Sidon.
Just sort of pause there.
What this is showing
is that Jesus' fame
is expanding very, very far
and it's going both
to areas which are basically
almost like 98% Jewish
to areas that are sort of like
50-50 Jewish Christian
and Jewish pagan
and even to areas
where there would have been
very few Jewish people
that was overwhelmingly pagan
and his fame is expanding
in this large area.
Continuing on in verse 8,
when the great crowd heard
all that he was doing,
they came to him
and he told his disciples
to have a boat ready for him
because of the crowd
lest they crush him
for he had healed many
so that all who had diseases
pressed around him
to touch him.
Now, in the original language,
there's a sense to all of this
that it can't really be
communicated into English
and in that original sense
which is there
is that this is actually
a bit of a threat to Jesus.
The crushing him is a threat.
The pressing in on him
is a type of grasping.
You see, what they want
is in a sense
that part of the heart
which is still hard,
it's not there's so much
a hardness of a heart,
but there's still
at the connect of the heart
this pride
and this desire,
this, you know what it is?
It's a gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme,
gimme, gimme, gimme.
It's not praise you, Jesus,
take me.
It's not falling flat
on the face
in acknowledgement
of one who is greater than us.
The temptation is to see
the Jesus and the power of Jesus
and go like this.
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
Gimme.
Not even go in here
and take out my wallet
and give for the kingdom.
But gimme, gimme, gimme
so I can put it in my pocket
and my power can grow.
I can tell stories.
People will buy me wine
for decades
when I tell them
the stories I saw about Jesus.
And here's the fear.
Look at verse 11.
And whenever the unclean spirits
saw him,
they fell down before him
and cried out,
you are the son of God.
And he strictly ordered them
not to make him known.
Verse 11 again.
This verse is very,
very, very literal.
Sometimes the very literal
can confuse us.
I use the ESV when I'm preaching
because it's closest
to the most literal translation
that one of the most literal translations
you can get.
But what it's describing
is that human beings
have been possessed
by a demon.
For those of you
who are in the Marvel,
I think it's the Marvel Universe,
think of Venom
that's taken over Tom Hardy.
only once again
without the jokes.
And these men and women
who are demonized,
who a demon
or demons
have come into them
and controlled him,
control them now,
the spirits see Jesus
and they throw their host down
and have the host
cry out,
you are the son of God.
And Jesus strictly ordered them
not to make him known
because he doesn't need demons.
Even if demons say true things
about Jesus,
they'll do it in a way
that after just this one brief word,
it will be a lie,
it will hurt,
it will lead you away.
You don't get the testimony of demons.
But here's the fear.
Remember,
I don't recognize the hardness of my heart
and part of what happens for me
is that there's this natural part
of human beings
that have a fear
about letting Jesus,
letting the true God in.
Like,
part of us don't want
to lose our self-deception
because if we lose
our self-deception
and we actually see the world
as it really is,
as we see the triune God
as he really is,
and if we get close to him,
he'll hurt us,
he'll possess us.
But you see,
this fear
that we will be possessed by Jesus,
that we will be possessed
by the Holy Spirit,
that all of a sudden
the triune God
will so come into us,
how can he not come into us
in such a way
that he will completely
and utterly overwhelm us
and take us over?
What we're actually afraid of
is demons,
not Jesus.
I mean,
because you look at that,
that's the thing
which is so important
about the Bible
is that it's demons
that come in
and take us over.
It's demons
that do things to us
to tell us lies
and encourage us
in self-deception.
I'm sorry I yelled too loud
and I woke up the baby.
I just,
I don't plan to do this.
You know,
I just get up here
and who knows what.
Anyway,
there you go.
But you see,
really,
if you look at the Gospels,
what happens
is you come close to Jesus,
he heals the withered hand.
What happens
when he meets
the demon possessed
is the demons are cast out
and people are free.
What happens
is you get closer to Jesus
is you get closer to love,
you get closer to justice,
you get closer to truth,
you get farther away
from us versus them,
your racism
and your prejudice
is attacked,
your lust
begins to try
to be quieted,
you're making an idol
out of alcohol
or money
or something like that
begins to be challenged
and broken down
and what happens
when you come close
to Jesus
is that Jesus died
for you and I
to be free.
It's idols
and demons
that bind us
and control us.
and bend us
out of shape.
It's Jesus
who takes
our disfigured,
misfigured,
muscle-less arm
and makes it straight
and gives it muscle.
That's what Jesus does.
And here's the hope.
See,
so George,
are you saying
that, you know,
you Christians
have less hardness
of heart
than others?
No,
I am not saying that.
Remember my story
at the beginning.
I've been Christian
for quite a few years
and the hardness
of my heart
towards Americans
I hadn't even recognized.
I'm not saying
anything like that.
George,
are you saying
that if you sort of
read the Bible
and come to sermons
and, you know,
listen to your
brilliant preaching
and because you're
such a brilliant preacher
that, you know,
people will go away
and their hearts
will be a little bit
less hard
and, you know,
and, no,
no,
that's not,
here's the Christian hope.
You see,
if the first story
talks about
this double mystery,
the mystery
of the fact
that,
you know,
that the Pharisees
and Herodians
are planning
to destroy Jesus,
they can't really
destroy him
if he has the power
that it is.
It's pointing to this
mystery of his
upcoming death
and the fact
that his death,
it's only going
to be his love
that holds them
to the cross.
Well,
look what happens
here,
verse 13,
and he went up
on the mountain
and called to him
those whom he desired
and they came to him.
In the original language,
this is very formal,
solemn language.
It's a solemn language.
And he went up
on the mountain
and called to him
those whom he desired
and they came to him.
And it's talking
about the fact
that in other places
in the New Testament
you'd find out
that Jesus had
lots more disciples
than the twelve.
Mary Magdalene
was a disciple.
Joseph,
Jose was a disciple.
Matthias was a disciple.
He had many,
many disciples,
but out of these
many disciples
he goes to the mountain
and verse 14,
he appointed twelve
whom he also named
apostles
so that they might
be with him
and he might send
them out to preach
and have authority
to cast out demons.
He appointed the twelve,
Simon,
to whom he gave
the name Peter,
James,
the son of Zebedee,
and John,
the brother of James,
to whom he gave
the name Boanerges,
that is,
the sons of thunder,
Andrew and Philip
and Bartholomew
and Matthew
and Thomas
and James,
the son of Alphaeus
and Thaddeus
and Simon the Zealot
and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed him.
Another implication
of the coming death
that he's going
to have on the cross.
But here's the hope.
And in the original language
in verse 14
when it says
he appointed twelve
and then again
in verse 16
he appointed the twelve.
In verse 14
when it says
he appointed,
that's a good word
in English
but the problem
is the original language,
you can't translate
the original language
in a way
that makes grammatical sense
in English
without adding
a lot of extra words.
And the actual literal word
is
and he
make,
he made,
he made
twelve.
Same in verse 16
he made
the twelve.
And if you go back
and you read
Genesis chapter 1
when the Jewish text
was translated
into Greek
the same word
made
is there
when it said
and God made
the heavens
and the earth.
When God made
the night and the day
God made
the sun and the stars
God made
human beings.
That word made
is the same word here
that's translated
as appointed
because
he made twelve
doesn't really make sense
in English
so they use the word
appointed
but this word is made.
And if you look at
verse 14 again
and he made
apostles
he made them
so that they might
be with him
and he might
send them out
to preach
and have authority
to cast out demons.
He makes them first.
You see this is what's saying
what the Bible
is saying
this is the wonderful
thing about the gospel
is that Jesus
he's angered
at our hardness
of heart
it grieves him
but he doesn't let
the anger
he never becomes
anger driven
the anger is connected
to that which
anger should be connected
we can't keep
connected to that
because we
build it up
we flame it up
and anger
quickly leads us
to no longer
being just
to no longer
being compassionate
to no longer
being loving
to no longer
caring
but he
it doesn't drive
that with Jesus
it's connected
to his love
it's connected
to his justice
it's connected
to mercy
it's connected
to compassion
and so he's going
to die upon the cross
and when he dies
upon the cross
he is doing
something for us
as human beings
that we cannot
do for ourselves
and when we receive
Christ
he makes us
a Christian
he makes us
right with God
you see
it's not
okay my heart's
a little bit less
hard
as a result
of this sermon
and next week
it's a little bit
less hard
and then it's a little
bit less hard
and finally my heart
becomes so soft
that I get awarded
being a Christian
it's the opposite
the work of grace
is that God
makes you
and me
with our hard
hearts
his
out of grace
by what he did
for us on the cross
and then we become
we become
because we're made
by him
first
we don't become
we don't just sort of
keep becoming
until we achieve
he makes us
and then we become
look at verse 14
he appointed the 12
whom he also named
apostles
and he gives two purposes
that they might be with him
and he might send them
out to preach
and have authority
to cast out demons
he makes us
unworthy as we are
to be his
and he makes us
unworthy as we are
to be his
so that we will
spend time with Jesus
and as we spend time
with Jesus
that the Lord
begins to reveal
to us prejudice
and racism
and a hard
heart towards the poor
and greed
and an idolatry
of money
or an idolatry
of ourselves
or pride
or selfishness
and because he makes us his
and we spend time with him
he begins to
confront these things
in us
and to change these things
within us
within the context
that everything
that we needed to do
to be made right
with God
was done by Jesus
he knows everything
about our heart
so we can look at ourselves
without becoming
thinking
oh my
if God knew that
about me
he wouldn't
no no
he did know that
about you
when he died
for you
and that as we get
closer to Jesus
and you look at
there's another place
later on
where I'll talk about
this other purpose
what is the purpose
as we spend time
with him
because he's made us him
that we will bear witness
to Jesus
and that we will be
against evil
in whatever form
whether it's
spiritual evil
which has to be exercised
whether it's
institutional evil
it leads to great injustice
or any type of
institutional wrongdoing
against the poor
or others
we are against it
we're against the evil
and the idolatry
of greed
and gluttony
and other things
which bend human beings
out of shape
and break them
that we are against it
and that we are for healing
to bring the healing
to the city
to bring healing
to people
to bring healing
to our country
he makes us
and he makes us
and we are to spend time
with him
to be with him
if you're watching this
if you haven't given
your life to Christ
if you're here
and you haven't given
your life to Christ
this is the time
to give your life
to Christ
call out to him
and say
Lord I need you
to be my savior
and for those of us
who are here
who have done that
you don't have to give
your life to Christ again
he already took it
it's a time
for us to remember
it is good
to be here
and to recommit
to this
to recommit
to be Lord
in your presence
that we might go
from here
and we might deal
with whether it's
demonic evil
or institutional evil
or social evil
or cultural evil
or intellectual evil
that we will be
against it
that we will be
for the health
of our community
and our society
and our nation
and the world
we will be for this
we will be against evil
it is good
to be here
to reconnect
to remember
Lord is it me
show me the hardness
of my heart
grant me help
that I might repent
of that hardness
of my heart
that that might not
control me
that I not be controlled
and have my eyes
and my heart
and my ears
blinded to the
not just to good
to that which is good
and just and true
and right
but the beauty
of the world
and the beauty
in human beings
that those
things of my heart
that are hard
that make me bent
and shriveled
and less than human
Lord
show me those things
in your mercy
that I might repent
of them
that I might know
your freedom
I invite you to stand
please stand
let's bow our heads
in prayer
Father we thank you
for Jesus
we ask Lord
that your word
would so work
and move within us
and Father
not that we be
blind to evil
or definitely
not that Father
that we see evil
clearly
that we see evil
clearly
and Father
it grants us
both a proper anger
that doesn't become
controlling
but a desire
Father
to see justice
and goodness done
that you'd show us
and reveal to us
the hardness of our heart
the blindness
that we have
Father
show that to us
and as you show it to us
remember
help us to remember
Jesus
and the gospel
that we might come to you
for amendment of life
for healing
for restoration
for renewal
Father
Father you know
in this room
the different ethical
and other issues
that people here face
whether it's in government
or in our neighborhoods
or our business
and Father
we ask for each one of us
that you help us
to bear witness to Jesus
and also Father
be a source
and an agent
of healing
of reconciliation
of compassion
of right ordering
in those places
that you have put us
and help us
to be people of prayer
we ask all these things
in the name of Jesus
your son
and our savior
and all God's people said
amen