WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.759 Good morning, everyone. Our reading is from Mark chapter 3, verse 1 to 19. 00:00:10.099 --> 00:00:19.900 And it's on, if you have the church Bible, it's 1004. I think it should appear on the screen there. 00:00:19.899 --> 00:00:32.159 Amen. Another time, Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:41.599 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 00:00:42.739 --> 00:00:47.640 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:58.880 Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:08.420 But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:16.240 said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:23.599 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:29.979 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 00:01:30.859 --> 00:01:38.099 When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, 00:01:38.099 --> 00:01:42.959 and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 00:01:44.479 --> 00:01:52.079 Because of the crowd, he told the disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him. 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:59.219 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:05.319 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, 00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:07.640 You are the Son of God. 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:12.879 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:19.979 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted. 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:49.959 Jesus went up on a mountainside and said, 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:58.280 Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:01.799 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 00:03:02.899 --> 00:03:05.319 May the Lord help us to understand his word. 00:03:06.519 --> 00:03:07.639 Thank you so much, Lucia. 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:10.439 If you want to keep that passage open in front of you, 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:12.639 we're going to be having a look at that together. 00:03:13.179 --> 00:03:16.099 I'm going to pray for us just now and ask for the Lord's help. 00:03:17.019 --> 00:03:21.500 Lord, we do pray, just like Lucia said, that you might help us now. 00:03:22.799 --> 00:03:25.240 We want to ask that you might help us to understand your word. 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:32.579 But not just with our heads, but Lord, we want to understand and obey with our hearts and our lives. 00:03:33.299 --> 00:03:36.759 So please be at work by your spirit for the sake of your glory. 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:40.759 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 00:03:41.959 --> 00:03:48.620 My intention this morning is to focus mostly on verses 1 to 6 of chapter 3. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:51.519 We're going to pick up some of the other bits next week. 00:03:51.659 --> 00:04:03.519 And the reason for that is that verses 1 to 6 of chapter 3 are really the conclusion of five conflict situations that Jesus has been in. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:08.820 So just flick back and I'll show them to you in chapter 2, verses 1 to 12. 00:04:09.460 --> 00:04:13.379 Jesus is in a conflict over his ability to forgive sin. 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:15.360 Are you really able to do that? 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:17.259 That's the conflict, isn't it? 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:24.840 In verses 13 to 17 in chapter 2, there's a conflict over the kind of people that Jesus is hanging around with. 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:28.060 He's hanging around with tax collectors and sinners. 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:35.819 In verses 18 to 22, there's conflict over fasting and why his disciples are not doing it. 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:42.079 And then in verses 23 to 28 of chapter 2, there's a conflict over picking corn on the Sabbath. 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:49.000 And now in chapter 3, verses 1 to 6, there is conflict over healing on the Sabbath. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:58.379 Now, it's worth you just noticing, and me pointing out to you if you hadn't thought about this, that those events did not happen sequentially. 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:04.180 Mark is not writing it as if you assume that this happened on day 1 and then day 2, 3, 4 and 5. 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:11.139 No, Mark is actually arranging his material in the gospel to make a point to you and to me. 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:19.180 I know we've said this before in our studies in Mark's gospel, but Mark is a preacher, not just a writer. 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:22.060 So he has a point to make. 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:24.659 He has something to say to you and to me. 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:28.219 And he knows that we are slow to listen and hard of hearing. 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:31.839 So he writes it and emphasizes it in really obvious ways. 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:36.539 Five times he tells you that Jesus ends in situations of conflict. 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.079 Why does he put that together? 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.319 What does he want you and me to notice? 00:05:43.699 --> 00:05:48.579 Well, I think he wants you to see, he wants me to notice, that Jesus is controversial. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.719 Jesus is opposed. 00:05:54.039 --> 00:05:57.620 Not everybody loves Jesus in the first century. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:04.699 So much so that despite all the great things that Jesus is doing, despite his incredible compassion and kindness, 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:10.560 despite the fact that he feeds the hungry, that he heals the sick, that he casts out demons, 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.620 still despite all of that, people hate him. 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:20.420 In fact, as we get to the end of the gospel, the truth is that everybody deserts him. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:23.540 It's interesting, isn't it? 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:26.860 Let me just ask you to think about that. 00:06:26.900 --> 00:06:28.160 I wonder whether you've ever thought about it. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:29.120 It's strange, isn't it? 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.840 I think if you were to ask most people today how they felt about Jesus, what they thought about Jesus, 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.120 maybe if you plucked up the courage to do that thing you're not supposed to do in London, 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:40.759 and you spoke to the person on the tube next to you or on the bus, 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.860 and you said, hey, odd question, but let me ask it to you anyway. 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:44.740 What do you think about Jesus? 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:47.899 They'd probably say, oh, I've never really thought about it, really. 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:51.560 I'm kind of ambivalent, they must say. 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:53.759 I don't really have an opinion. 00:06:54.459 --> 00:06:56.879 I'm not really considered it any depth. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:01.899 Well, what's fascinating in Mark's gospel is there's not much of that in the first century. 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:06.860 No one sort of thought that Jesus was kind of an interesting character, 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:09.360 but you weren't really interested in finding out any more detail, 00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:11.019 kind of ambivalent about him. 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:11.959 No one was like that, were they? 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:16.379 Actually, some people did follow Jesus, we've been seeing that, 00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:19.060 but in the end, everyone deserts him and abandons him 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:22.220 because hatred for Jesus wins the day. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:25.100 They shout out, crucify him, crucify him. 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:29.420 Now, the thing that I want us to think of this morning is, why is that? 00:07:30.339 --> 00:07:35.300 Why does Jesus provoke such a strong reaction from the people of his day? 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:40.720 I want us to ask the question, why do people, even apparently good people, 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.160 religious people, people that people respect, 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:47.420 why do those people hate Jesus so much? 00:07:47.420 --> 00:07:49.520 And you're given a big clue, aren't you, in verse 2. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:50.460 Look at verse 2. 00:07:51.319 --> 00:07:53.840 Some of them, that is some of those in the synagogue, 00:07:54.080 --> 00:07:57.420 were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:01.900 So they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:04.319 Notice what's going on here. 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.220 They are looking for a reason to get him. 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:13.380 They want to accuse Jesus. 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:14.680 That's what's going on, isn't it? 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:19.220 In other words, this is not Jesus does something wrong, 00:08:19.400 --> 00:08:21.180 so then they accuse him. 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:22.460 No, it's not that at all, is it? 00:08:22.460 --> 00:08:23.120 It's the other way around. 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:24.620 This is a rigged game. 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:28.720 Jesus enters into a corrupt jury who have already decided the verdict 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:30.100 before he's opened his mouth. 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:34.440 They are looking for an opportunity to get him, to accuse him. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:36.700 He's guilty before he's done anything. 00:08:36.700 --> 00:08:39.800 This, I think, is earth-shattering. 00:08:40.280 --> 00:08:41.420 And get this with me, if you will. 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:44.060 Mark's claim is this. 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:45.340 And it's not just here. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:47.240 It actually comes a number of times in the Gospel. 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:51.160 Mark's claim is that when people encounter Jesus, 00:08:52.500 --> 00:08:55.600 they have a predisposition towards hating him. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:02.180 In other words, the Lord Jesus, God the Son in human flesh, 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:05.080 enters into the world that he has made, 00:09:05.420 --> 00:09:11.180 and the world that he has made hates him before he even gets there. 00:09:11.179 --> 00:09:20.819 And what's going on in Mark 3 is that they're trying to justify that response to Jesus. 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:24.039 I don't know whether you've seen this, 00:09:24.099 --> 00:09:27.659 but this is the way that we work in lots of different areas as people, isn't it? 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:31.740 You know, I know we like to think that we're kind of really rational people 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:35.600 who weigh up evidence and then make carefully considered decisions. 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:39.980 But the reality is that actually we live our life out of our guts, don't we? 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:41.139 Or our hearts. 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:43.459 There's a guy called Jonathan Haidt. 00:09:43.459 --> 00:09:44.579 He's not a Christian. 00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:47.740 He wrote an influential book recently called The Righteous Mind. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:50.079 I don't know whether any of you have come across that. 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:52.759 And he has an illustration of how this works. 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:55.460 He talks about an elephant and its rider. 00:09:56.819 --> 00:09:59.720 Now, of course, you can imagine, even if you've not done it, 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:01.620 if you've ever ridden an elephant, 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:04.679 you will know that when you ride an elephant, 00:10:04.819 --> 00:10:08.399 the dynamic is that the elephant is in charge and you're just sitting there. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:09.439 Yeah, that's the point. 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:13.179 You know, that small stick that you might have in your hand 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:16.419 or that little piece of rope isn't really going to do anything 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:19.220 if the elephant decides that it wants to go in one particular direction 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:21.039 and you would quite like to go in the other. 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:24.719 But, of course, although that is obviously true, 00:10:25.199 --> 00:10:27.579 the rider of an elephant really doesn't want to accept that. 00:10:27.860 --> 00:10:27.939 Yeah? 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:31.799 The rider of the elephant wants to imagine that they're in charge. 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:33.500 So they say, oh, no. 00:10:34.039 --> 00:10:38.019 You know, I can pull the nose of the elephant by five degrees 00:10:38.019 --> 00:10:39.799 and they will go in the direction that I want them to. 00:10:39.899 --> 00:10:42.879 And the rider of the elephant will explain to you afterwards 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:46.120 how the elephant followed every single instruction that they gave it. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:47.079 But, of course, it's not true. 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:48.099 It's rubbish, isn't it? 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:55.600 Jonathan Haidt's point in his book is that the elephant is really like our guts and our intuition. 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:59.560 And the rider is like our minds and our reason. 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:04.820 And while we love to think that our mind and our reason is in charge, 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:08.159 actually what really is going on in our life in so many different areas 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.120 is that we are living out of our kind of gut response, 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:13.600 our instinctive reaction, 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.759 and then our reason comes in afterwards and tries to justify it. 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:22.019 Now, like I said, he's not a Christian, but he's stumbled into Bible truth 00:11:22.019 --> 00:11:25.659 because the Bible consistently tells us that when it comes to Jesus, 00:11:26.680 --> 00:11:28.200 when it comes to knowing God, 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:33.480 it's our gut moral response that governs the day. 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:41.340 That you and I are morally hardwired people looking for explanations for what we choose to do or not do. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:44.019 Looking for reasons to justify it. 00:11:44.019 --> 00:11:45.100 And that's Mark's point here. 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:49.320 That people confronted with incredible evidence as to the existence of God. 00:11:49.700 --> 00:11:53.340 Jesus is literally welcoming anybody and healing them, 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:55.820 casting out demons, doing good. 00:11:55.820 --> 00:12:00.460 They are confronted with irrefutable evidence of the person of Jesus Christ. 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:01.680 And what do they do? 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:03.680 They hate him. 00:12:05.540 --> 00:12:06.460 They hate him. 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:09.840 And they look back for a reason for it. 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:12.300 If you want to put it back into the illustration, 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.960 we are, if you like, elephant-wired to hate Christ. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.820 And our rider minds are just looking for explanations. 00:12:23.180 --> 00:12:24.680 There's more to say from the passage. 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:25.539 We're going to come on and say it. 00:12:25.579 --> 00:12:27.639 But I want just to pause here, really, if I can. 00:12:27.839 --> 00:12:31.299 Because I want to know that you've reckoned with this. 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.639 Just listen to this and hear this. 00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:37.620 Perhaps you're here this morning. 00:12:37.959 --> 00:12:39.199 You're not sure whether you're a Christian. 00:12:39.819 --> 00:12:40.659 And you think, just listen. 00:12:40.699 --> 00:12:42.479 This is just a bit too harsh, Steve. 00:12:42.539 --> 00:12:44.699 I don't hate Jesus. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:49.099 I feel like you're putting words into my mouth which aren't really true of me. 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:50.000 You know what? 00:12:50.219 --> 00:12:52.519 Okay, I probably don't follow him very closely. 00:12:52.620 --> 00:12:53.339 I'll give you that. 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:58.540 I know that I don't really kind of pay too much careful attention to him. 00:12:58.560 --> 00:12:59.340 I know the stories. 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:00.280 I think he's important. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:02.220 But I don't hate him. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.620 Listen, if this is how you're thinking this morning, 00:13:06.680 --> 00:13:09.540 can I say that two things are possibly true this morning? 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:15.680 One might be that you've never really thought about it before, right? 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:21.479 If this kind of ambivalence is how you feel about Jesus, perhaps you've never really met him. 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:24.820 Because those who met him didn't feel like that. 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:30.039 Those who encountered him actually, no, they had a gut response towards Jesus. 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:35.480 Or maybe this other thing is possible too, right? 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:40.560 It might be that you've met him and you hate him. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:46.119 But you're just doing that really nice 21st century thing of passive aggression rather than outright aggression. 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.399 I mean, we're way too sophisticated, aren't we? 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:51.419 We just throw stones at people. 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:52.580 Who does that? 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:53.460 Yeah? 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:59.039 No, I'm just going to pretend I'm interested in Jesus and actually get on with my own life. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:01.740 That's how I'm going to keep Jesus at arm's length. 00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:04.840 And that's the same moral gut reaction, isn't it? 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:06.019 Passive aggression. 00:14:06.019 --> 00:14:11.740 Mark says our response to Jesus is instinctive more than it is rational. 00:14:12.539 --> 00:14:20.480 And as we begin to understand that Jesus is God in flesh, as we begin to see that Jesus is King and Lord, 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:23.699 that Jesus, far from just being an interesting person of history, 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.579 Jesus has the right to look you in the eye this morning and say, 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:28.639 you must follow me. 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:31.740 You must do what I say. 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:34.980 You need me and you must listen to me. 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:38.820 Nobody gets to say that to me. 00:14:39.779 --> 00:14:41.399 I get to do what I want to do. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.300 And our gut reaction says, oh, put him at arm's length. 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:52.639 Of course, it also means, doesn't it, if you're a Christian this morning, 00:14:53.820 --> 00:14:57.360 by implication, Mark wants you to know that you're not a Christian this morning 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:00.139 because you're better than anybody else and you worked it out and they didn't, right? 00:15:02.060 --> 00:15:04.159 No, you're a Christian this morning. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:10.659 Because God, in an act of grace, swapped your elephant for a different one that loves him, 00:15:11.199 --> 00:15:13.839 wants to follow him and wants to trust him. 00:15:15.199 --> 00:15:17.279 Now, in a sense, that's really the big idea. 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:22.360 That's the big message of these opening verses of chapter three. 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:27.919 But I want us to dig in a bit more detail because I want us to see that there is a sort of a deeper reason 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.680 or an additional reason or additional explanation to this hatred for Jesus. 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:37.919 Because I want us to see that we are hardwired to hate Jesus because Jesus exposes something about us 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:39.659 which we really don't want to accept. 00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:46.519 Look back at the story with me and you can see that the conflict is centered on what is permitted or not permitted on the Sabbath, 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:48.860 which is why we went there with the children earlier. 00:15:49.100 --> 00:15:51.539 In verse two, they're looking to see what Jesus will do 00:15:51.539 --> 00:15:57.720 because they have a suspicion that Jesus cares rather little for their particular Sabbath rules. 00:15:59.299 --> 00:16:00.720 This is their chance to get him. 00:16:01.199 --> 00:16:06.059 And in verse three, Jesus makes a man with a shriveled hand stand in the middle of the synagogue. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:10.899 In the synagogue, the seats would have been around the edge and he pulls him up to the middle. 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:12.819 You can sort of picture the scene, can't you? 00:16:12.820 --> 00:16:17.620 And then in verse four, if you look down at it, Jesus invites the synagogue into a debate. 00:16:17.760 --> 00:16:19.760 He says, which is lawful? 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:24.340 Historians tell you that that is a kind of rote phrase in synagogue debates. 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:30.460 It would have been an introduction to come and join in a conversation about what is right or what is wrong. 00:16:31.100 --> 00:16:35.680 They love that kind of debate normally, but here when Jesus asks it, they're not interested. 00:16:37.140 --> 00:16:39.880 Now, of course, this has been building in the previous sections. 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:48.279 What's useful to bear in mind is that while remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy was the fourth of the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:53.960 that the Jews of the day had added a whole series of other laws or rules around it, 00:16:54.220 --> 00:16:58.399 which they assumed prevented people from breaking that particular command. 00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:03.419 It's like they built the fences around it and said, well, if we keep these rules, 00:17:03.539 --> 00:17:06.539 then we definitely won't break that rule in the middle of it. 00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:11.619 So even though the law didn't say anything about healing a man with a shriveled hand on a Sabbath, 00:17:11.879 --> 00:17:17.960 still the leaders of the day had a rule that you were only able to treat life-threatening conditions. 00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:20.359 Of course, this is not one of those. 00:17:21.819 --> 00:17:25.000 So Jesus challenges them and he says, which, verse four, 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:31.019 which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:34.000 Now, notice what Jesus has done here. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:35.900 He's very clever, isn't he? 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.059 He switched out their categories. 00:17:39.099 --> 00:17:41.960 He doesn't ask them, which is probably what they were expecting. 00:17:42.099 --> 00:17:47.200 He doesn't say, is it lawful to treat a non-life-threatening disease on a Sabbath? 00:17:47.500 --> 00:17:48.680 That's not what he asks. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:55.019 He says, is it right to do evil or to do good, to save life or to kill? 00:17:55.019 --> 00:18:01.700 Because Jesus' implication is that the evil thing would be not to heal the man when he could. 00:18:02.379 --> 00:18:05.180 That would be a good undone, right? 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:06.379 A good thing undone. 00:18:06.639 --> 00:18:08.299 So he pictures the question saying, 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:14.019 should I do the evil thing on the Sabbath of allowing this man to leave with a shriveled hand? 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:16.099 Of course, the people remain silent. 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:16.839 There's no answer. 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:18.700 And Jesus heals the man. 00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:23.600 Now, you might read this and perhaps you've read this account before and think, 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:27.980 well, this is a sort of interesting debate between religious leaders of the day. 00:18:28.100 --> 00:18:31.920 They're kind of clashing with Jesus over one of these interpretations of the law. 00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:35.340 This might be interesting to you if you're a theologian or you're a nerd. 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:39.460 And most of the rest of us, we can just leave it there and move on. 00:18:39.580 --> 00:18:40.720 We've heard what has got to be said. 00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:43.380 But that doesn't explain verse 6, does it? 00:18:44.100 --> 00:18:45.120 Look at verse 6. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:54.039 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. 00:18:56.159 --> 00:18:59.799 I don't know whether you've had any of those sort of nerdy conversations with your friends 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.939 where you're disagreeing over a particular point of interest, over something that you know about. 00:19:06.399 --> 00:19:09.319 You don't often go away wanting to kill the other person, do you? 00:19:10.719 --> 00:19:13.339 No, there's a depth here, isn't there? 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:16.619 So what's going on? 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.679 I think there's something else going on here. 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:22.979 Just notice Jesus' premise, or at least the implication of his question. 00:19:23.899 --> 00:19:26.159 Notice that Jesus basically says, 00:19:27.379 --> 00:19:33.419 keeping your rules is evil and kills people, right? 00:19:34.459 --> 00:19:42.659 In other words, fulfilling your assumptions would involve me becoming evil and taking life. 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:45.360 Well, that's pretty serious, isn't it? 00:19:46.120 --> 00:19:48.900 In other words, Jesus says, your assumption, right? 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:54.000 Your belief that you can keep the law and be saved by it, 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.140 if only you keep these laws which are fencing in the laws in the middle. 00:19:57.540 --> 00:20:00.060 Your assumption that if you do that, you will live. 00:20:00.560 --> 00:20:04.560 That is evil and it kills people. 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:05.900 That's what he's saying. 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:08.440 This is crucial, right? 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:12.320 If you miss this, none of this is going to make any sense. 00:20:12.380 --> 00:20:15.720 Do whatever you have to do to try and stay with me and grapple with this for a moment. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:18.240 Listen, the assumption of the Jewish leaders here, 00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:21.500 this is all of our assumption by nature really as well. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:23.820 But we might not have the same rules, but it's our same assumption. 00:20:24.580 --> 00:20:29.000 Their assumption is, listen, if you keep the rules, you will be saved by the rules. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:29.279 Yeah? 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:34.019 Do what God asks of you to do and God will save you. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:34.759 Yeah? 00:20:34.819 --> 00:20:38.579 It's the do good, get good, be bad, get bad, right? 00:20:39.259 --> 00:20:41.640 If you don't keep the rules, God will send you to hell. 00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:45.220 If you keep the rules and are good, God will save you because he'll be kind to you. 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:45.640 He's nice. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:46.299 He's like that. 00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:51.799 Now, some of us, we have that kind of philosophy and we think we're rather good at it. 00:20:51.900 --> 00:20:53.400 See, we're the smug people, right? 00:20:53.420 --> 00:20:54.480 We're the people who think we're winning. 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:54.779 Yeah? 00:20:55.180 --> 00:20:57.500 Oh, yes, I know it's about keeping the rules and I'm rather good at that. 00:20:57.500 --> 00:20:59.259 Look at me, right? 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:03.480 Others of us feel like failures because we're actually more honest than the smug people and 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:04.799 we know that we don't keep the rules. 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:07.079 And so we come to church, we feel crushed. 00:21:08.019 --> 00:21:09.420 How could God save me? 00:21:09.819 --> 00:21:10.980 I can't keep the rules. 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:12.200 I can't keep the rules. 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:14.559 Now, that's what's going on here. 00:21:15.660 --> 00:21:21.359 The Jews thought and applied the Ten Commandments like this is a sort of 10-step program to being 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:22.660 saved by God. 00:21:23.339 --> 00:21:26.519 You know, obey these rules and God will have to save you. 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:27.480 You'll twist his arm. 00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:31.799 He'll be persuaded that you have enough moral cash to get into glory. 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:35.480 Be moral and God will owe you and pay out when you die. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:45.160 And Jesus says, listen, that whole way of thinking, that instinct that you have about what life 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:47.500 is about, that is wrong. 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:49.500 More than wrong. 00:21:50.120 --> 00:21:53.120 It's evil and it kills people. 00:21:53.860 --> 00:21:54.940 That's his diagnosis. 00:21:54.940 --> 00:22:04.500 You see, really, Jesus is more like a doctor and he says, listen, the Ten Commandments are 00:22:04.500 --> 00:22:09.320 meant there to expose the disease, not to give you the cure. 00:22:10.820 --> 00:22:11.820 Imagine it like this. 00:22:12.059 --> 00:22:18.320 Imagine that a doctor comes in to see a patient who is dying of heart disease. 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:22.000 Their heart is terribly diseased. 00:22:22.159 --> 00:22:24.279 They are going to die. 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:29.619 They're beyond any hope and in need of a heart transplant, which they're resisting. 00:22:29.619 --> 00:22:37.539 Now, the doctor decides that what he's going to do is he's going to come and show him a picture 00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:41.039 of his heart and a picture of a healthy heart. 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:47.799 Now, why would the doctor show the patient a picture of a healthy heart? 00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:49.699 Can you imagine, right? 00:22:50.239 --> 00:22:54.099 Maybe you're the person with heart disease and you're lying there and the doctor comes in 00:22:54.099 --> 00:22:55.619 and shows you a picture of a healthy heart. 00:22:57.019 --> 00:23:01.199 Imagine he does that and says, well, this is what I want you to do. 00:23:01.619 --> 00:23:03.659 I want you to get your heart to look like that, please. 00:23:03.959 --> 00:23:05.779 Because if your heart looks like that, you're going to live. 00:23:06.539 --> 00:23:10.399 Could you just kind of get out of the bed and start doing something to make your heart look 00:23:10.399 --> 00:23:10.859 like that? 00:23:11.439 --> 00:23:14.759 Of course, the doctor is not showing you the picture of a healthy heart to make you do that, 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:15.099 is he? 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:18.079 That would be an incredible cruelty. 00:23:18.980 --> 00:23:23.659 No, the doctor is showing you a picture of a healthy heart to demonstrate to you how much 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:27.140 peril you're in and that you need a heart transplant from the doctor. 00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:33.140 And Jesus says that's what the law is there to do, is to expose you and me and the Jews 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:36.380 here as lawbreakers who need salvation. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:43.080 Listen, let me show to you, says Jesus, just how corrupt and broken and in need of salvation 00:23:43.080 --> 00:23:43.680 you are. 00:23:45.740 --> 00:23:51.300 And to assume, to assume that you can look at the picture of a healthy heart and go, yeah, 00:23:51.360 --> 00:23:52.000 I can do that. 00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:53.580 That is evil. 00:23:54.120 --> 00:23:55.000 And it will kill you. 00:23:57.460 --> 00:23:59.240 So have we considered that for ourselves? 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:07.100 The commandments given by the Old Testament in the Ten Commandments, which are written 00:24:07.100 --> 00:24:07.880 on our hearts, aren't they? 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:09.259 It's like our conscience. 00:24:09.259 --> 00:24:17.379 That they are there to show you that for all the efforts that we make, we are actually lawbreakers, 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:18.019 not lawkeepers. 00:24:20.339 --> 00:24:24.220 And this Sabbath rest one is a really exposing one, isn't it? 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:32.400 You know, that desire that I have, that you have to work all the time, as if our own efforts were the driving force of the universe. 00:24:33.220 --> 00:24:38.400 Your boss might love it, but it will kill you in the end. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:45.200 You know, that desire that we have for selfish sexual pleasure outside of the marriage of one man to one woman. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:49.440 It's not a desire to guide you or give you an identity. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:51.480 It's an evil that will kill you. 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:59.039 That desire to earn God's favor that we might spend it on our pleasure, assuming somehow that religious observance puts God in our debt. 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.920 That's not spirituality, that's idolatry, says the Ten Commandments. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:04.700 It's being corrupt. 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:07.259 You see, here's the point. 00:25:07.339 --> 00:25:14.240 This is why people, especially religious people, especially good people who think they're good people, why people like that hate Jesus? 00:25:14.579 --> 00:25:18.599 It's because Jesus says, rule keeping will send you to hell. 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:23.619 Jesus says, our problem is deeper. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:24.859 It's more serious. 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:28.220 It's more dangerous than anything that you could cure by your good works. 00:25:29.619 --> 00:25:32.879 And we find that just a really hard diagnosis to accept. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:39.559 And the truth is, it's not just that we find it a hard diagnosis to accept. 00:25:40.379 --> 00:25:46.019 If Mark is right, we'd rather try and kill the doctor than accept his diagnosis. 00:25:47.659 --> 00:25:50.399 Can I just ask you this morning whether you've taken this seriously? 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:58.240 That unless you've really understood that Jesus has something really difficult to say about the state of my soul and the state of yours, 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:04.059 unless we've actually acknowledged that we've never really heard Jesus, we've never really heard what he's got to say. 00:26:04.779 --> 00:26:10.120 If your impression of Jesus is that he's just a kind of buddy who's going to come alongside you and help you in your goals for life, 00:26:10.460 --> 00:26:11.880 you've really not listened to him. 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:15.980 Jesus is a bulldozer to your self-righteousness. 00:26:15.980 --> 00:26:23.420 And if you won't believe what he says about you, you won't respond to him in the way that you're supposed to. 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:28.740 You know, I don't know how about you, but I kind of read stories like this in Mark's Gospel, 00:26:28.840 --> 00:26:30.440 and I find them a little difficult to relate to. 00:26:30.580 --> 00:26:35.460 I mean, I find it hard to imagine being bothered about what people do or don't do on a certain day. 00:26:35.460 --> 00:26:41.759 But the truth is that you could read this sort of in a more contemporary way, couldn't you? 00:26:41.819 --> 00:26:46.240 That knowing that Jesus isn't impressed with the sorts of things that we're impressed with today as well. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:53.500 You know, the truth is that Jesus is not impressed with the self-confident religious beliefs of our day either. 00:26:54.980 --> 00:26:59.400 I know you know this, but Jesus doesn't follow you on Instagram. 00:26:59.660 --> 00:27:02.460 He's not impressed by how many followers you have. 00:27:02.460 --> 00:27:09.400 Jesus is not inclined to give you access to glory because of your end-of-year bonus at work. 00:27:11.100 --> 00:27:15.640 You know, he's not moved by the number of people who know your name or who speak well of you. 00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:21.360 He's not going to offer to save you because you went to Sunday school as a child, your parents took you. 00:27:22.019 --> 00:27:25.680 He's not going to save you because you say, oh, this was my home church, I went to West Kilburn. 00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:32.140 He's not going to save you because you weren't as bad as other people. 00:27:32.140 --> 00:27:35.520 You resisted gang crime or you stayed sober. 00:27:37.600 --> 00:27:41.140 Surely I don't need to tell you that he's not intimidated by the size of our muscles. 00:27:41.280 --> 00:27:43.900 He's not double tapping your gym pictures like other people might be. 00:27:45.120 --> 00:27:46.980 He doesn't envy your morning routine. 00:27:48.740 --> 00:27:52.300 Instead, Jesus says he looks us in the eye as a compassionate doctor. 00:27:52.420 --> 00:27:55.360 He looks you in the eye and he says, listen, I've got some bad news for you. 00:27:55.359 --> 00:28:00.159 You're a sinner. 00:28:01.439 --> 00:28:02.479 You need a savior. 00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:05.679 And it's me, says Jesus. 00:28:07.500 --> 00:28:11.379 And either you choose to hate him for his bluntness like the religious Jews of Mark 3, 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:15.159 or you bow your knee to him and say, please save me. 00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:22.500 Now we're nearly finished, but there's just something else I want you to notice in the passage before we do. 00:28:23.019 --> 00:28:26.500 And it's that it's not just the religious leaders who have strong emotions, is it? 00:28:26.700 --> 00:28:30.220 If you look at verse 5, you notice Jesus has strong emotions as well. 00:28:30.220 --> 00:28:39.519 He looked around them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, stretch out your hand. 00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:42.819 He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. 00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:48.960 So you notice this, as much as people hate Jesus, Jesus hates lostness, doesn't he? 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:50.880 I think that's what's going on here. 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:56.440 The anger is as he looks around at this system of self-confident rule keeping, 00:28:57.019 --> 00:28:59.680 that the diagnosis has been mistaken for a cure. 00:29:00.620 --> 00:29:04.640 And Jesus is incensed at the idea that God could be bought off by good behavior. 00:29:04.819 --> 00:29:08.059 It makes Jesus righteously angry, right? 00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:11.279 Legalism, self-reliance, self-righteousness, 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:15.019 things that think they can twist the arm of God and tell God what to do, 00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:16.920 that really ticks Jesus off. 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:21.839 But at the same time as that righteous anger, he is also, we're told, deeply distressed. 00:29:22.259 --> 00:29:24.539 Literally, he's grieved with sorrow. 00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:26.660 Jesus is heartbroken here. 00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:27.500 At what? 00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:31.740 It's the stubborn unwillingness to listen to what he's got to say. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.000 You see, Jesus' intention of verse 4 is not to stir up the hatred of the crowd, 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:40.559 but it's to reach out and save them. 00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:42.819 His diagnosis is not cruel. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:46.420 It comes from a heart of love, the one who's able to save. 00:29:49.380 --> 00:29:51.079 We've got to reckon with this about Jesus. 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:54.839 He says some really difficult things, but he doesn't say it in a way that's unmoved. 00:29:55.539 --> 00:29:57.419 Jesus longs to save. 00:29:57.779 --> 00:30:01.839 He is reaching out to you this morning in love. 00:30:01.919 --> 00:30:06.579 He doesn't look at our foolish self-confidence and go, well, you know, they'll learn. 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:08.039 It's not like that at all. 00:30:09.179 --> 00:30:13.220 No, he's angry at the school of thought that has led us down that line. 00:30:13.220 --> 00:30:21.720 And he looks at us with heartbroken compassion and weeps over the stubbornness of our hearts to accept his diagnosis and come to him for the cure. 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:27.240 Jesus' emotion in the passage is as strong as anybody else's, but it's just in the right direction. 00:30:27.660 --> 00:30:30.839 He's right to be angry with the hollow self-confidence of our time. 00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:33.360 We are wrong to reject his diagnosis. 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:35.500 He loves to save. 00:30:35.600 --> 00:30:36.940 He's delighted with repentance. 00:30:36.940 --> 00:30:47.500 He's eager to heal the sinner and rescue the broken, but he's grieved at ambivalent, cold-hearted people who pass him by in the streets. 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:57.000 Or cold-hearted people who spend their Sundays sitting in pews and go and live as if he doesn't exist. 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:00.820 Imagine it like this as we close. 00:31:00.819 --> 00:31:09.859 Imagine that your hometown, wherever that is, you get a message back to hear that your hometown has been taken over by a deadly disease. 00:31:10.419 --> 00:31:17.619 That the water in your hometown is infected and everyone has come down with this life-threatening condition. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:20.399 But you have the cure. 00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:23.119 It's an injection and the disease is cured. 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:30.179 And so you load your car and your box full of these vaccinations and you drive to your hometown thinking, 00:31:30.679 --> 00:31:32.079 I've come here to save them. 00:31:32.219 --> 00:31:36.039 They're in deadly danger at this disease which is coming through the water. 00:31:37.059 --> 00:31:37.979 And I've got the cure. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:40.359 They're going to love to hear me. 00:31:41.459 --> 00:31:50.839 But when you arrive home, you realize that the residents of the city think that drinking the water is the cure to the disease that is born by the water. 00:31:50.839 --> 00:31:53.919 They're kind of lost in this way of thinking. 00:31:54.079 --> 00:31:57.619 So they have parties where they come together to drink the water. 00:31:58.199 --> 00:32:03.119 They go to conventions and they pour it out in front of one another and drink it down, 00:32:03.379 --> 00:32:06.159 even though it's giving them this disease which is killing them. 00:32:07.679 --> 00:32:09.119 The graveyards are full. 00:32:10.679 --> 00:32:12.359 So you stand up and speak. 00:32:12.439 --> 00:32:14.500 Say, listen, the water's bad. 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:16.199 The water's killing you. 00:32:17.059 --> 00:32:18.139 Don't drink the water. 00:32:18.279 --> 00:32:18.839 Come to me. 00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:19.980 I've got a cure here. 00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:26.879 And they say, don't you dare come tread on our water drinking parties. 00:32:27.179 --> 00:32:27.939 We love it. 00:32:28.639 --> 00:32:30.500 We've got the finest water in the land. 00:32:31.939 --> 00:32:35.759 How then do you feel about your hometown? 00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:39.119 Well, you're utterly heartbroken, aren't you? 00:32:40.059 --> 00:32:41.699 Come with the cure and they're not interested. 00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:43.379 They don't want it. 00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:50.920 And you're shocked at the stubbornness of the hearts that just keep taking in the disease instead of wanting the cure. 00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.640 That's Jesus in Mark 3. 00:32:54.640 --> 00:33:02.340 He has come from the glories of heaven as the savior with the cure for our law-breaking sin. 00:33:02.339 --> 00:33:05.919 And he presents it to us this morning and says, come. 00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:10.579 I'm the doctor for the sick, for the sinful and the needy. 00:33:10.679 --> 00:33:12.279 Come to me and I will heal you. 00:33:13.220 --> 00:33:14.159 Oh, Jesus, I'm not. 00:33:14.379 --> 00:33:15.439 I'm not diseased. 00:33:16.100 --> 00:33:16.960 I don't need it. 00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:19.360 I'm probably all right on my own. 00:33:19.539 --> 00:33:20.279 Thank you very much. 00:33:20.320 --> 00:33:20.740 I like you. 00:33:20.779 --> 00:33:22.039 You're a nice guy, but on you go. 00:33:22.120 --> 00:33:22.539 I don't know. 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:28.299 And Jesus is heartbroken at our stubbornness. 00:33:28.299 --> 00:33:36.779 Can I ask you this morning, if you've never come to Christ, come to him this morning and trust in him, will you? 00:33:37.740 --> 00:33:39.059 He's reaching out to you. 00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:47.359 He says he can take your sin and bear its punishment on the cross and grant you a new heart, a new elephant, if you like, that loves him and lives for him. 00:33:48.379 --> 00:33:51.759 And I know many of you in this room became Christians like that a long time ago. 00:33:51.759 --> 00:34:00.039 But let me say to you, chapter 2, verse 17 is still as true of you as it is of the person who's just trusted Christ. 00:34:00.819 --> 00:34:05.039 Jesus says to them, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. 00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:08.000 I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:14.460 Jesus is my savior and he loves me and has saved me. 00:34:14.900 --> 00:34:16.219 Praise his name. 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:20.099 Let's have a moment of quiet just for us to pray in our hearts. 00:34:20.099 --> 00:34:22.759 Then I will pray and then we'll stand and sing together. 00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:50.480 Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you love us. 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:53.760 Thank you that you've come to save us. 00:34:55.079 --> 00:34:57.460 Thank you that you're the doctor for our disease. 00:34:58.579 --> 00:35:02.179 Thank you that you paid the price for our sin on the cross. 00:35:04.019 --> 00:35:09.539 Forgive us, we pray, for stubborn hearts that love themselves more than you. 00:35:10.920 --> 00:35:17.760 Forgive us that even this morning as Christians, we are tempted to trust our own efforts and not yours. 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:20.220 Have mercy on us, we pray. 00:35:20.980 --> 00:35:22.220 In Jesus' name. 00:35:22.840 --> 00:35:23.180 Amen. 00:35:23.720 --> 00:35:24.020 Amen.