Father, we ask that you would gently but powerfully continue to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us.
We thank you, Father, that we can meet together, whether it's in person or online,
that we can be in your presence.
Father, we acknowledge that you, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God,
that you are the true and living God, the creator and sustainer of all things.
And we give you thanks and praise that we can be in your presence through what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
And we ask now, Lord, that you would minister to us, that you would give to us,
that we would receive grace from your hands in a worthy manner, and that we would respond in a worthy manner.
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
I just realized I forgot my Mikey thing. That's fine.
People considering the Christian faith today have a lot of extra type of issues which we have to face.
I mean, obviously, people who might first hear about some of the, actually hear what Christianity really is,
and have that shared with them, they're going to have intellectual objections as to why the Christian faith isn't true,
and why they couldn't possibly believe it.
But whether it's acknowledged or not, there's a profound emotional and personal reason
that might make becoming a Christian very difficult.
And that is that we feel that to become a Christian would mean, well, we'd have less friends rather than more,
that we will actually face rejection if we were to become a Christian.
Many people in our culture think that Christianity is toxic,
that rather than being part of a solution or just maybe one neutral option amongst many,
that in fact the Christian faith is part of the problem,
that it has to be rejected, that it's actually literally toxic.
In our country, churches could be burned.
It was just about a year ago that almost 50 churches were either burned or seriously defaced,
and many of the leading lights in our culture just thought that that was fine.
It hardly got any outrage whatsoever.
And so we're sort of familiar with that as part of the issue in our culture,
that if they were to rewrite the book today, How to Win Friends and Influence People,
the first chapter wouldn't say become a Christian.
That in fact would be the opposite of being able to influence people and win friends.
And those of us who are Christians, we feel this in our bones as well.
And so we wrestle with whether or not it's required to,
maybe we should just leave the Christian faith or we should rewrite it
in a way that doesn't get us rejected or put down.
The text that we're going to look at today speaks directly into this issue.
Whether you're a Christian or you're on the outside of the Christian faith looking in,
trying to figure it out, the text that we're looking at today speaks directly to this issue.
So it would be a great help if you were to look with me at the Bible for yourselves
as we go sort of through it.
And it's Mark chapter 6, verses 1 to 13.
And we're preaching through the gospel of Mark.
And so what, just to remind us, Mark is one of the ancient eyewitness biographies of Jesus.
Mark would have been an eyewitness of some of the things here,
but he would have drawn upon the actual eyewitnesses.
And this biography was written when the eyewitnesses were all still alive
and kicking, so to speak.
And so this is an ancient eyewitness biography.
And what's just happened before this,
two Sundays ago we looked at Jesus going to the pagan side of the Sea of Galilee,
and he met a man who was possessed by a legion of demons,
and he cast the demons out.
But one of the results of that is that the people of that region wanted Jesus to leave.
They didn't want him to stay there anymore, so he left.
And then he comes to the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee,
and what we just looked at last week, he's met by a man whose daughter was dying.
And so Jesus agrees to go with the man to heal his daughter.
But on the way, he gets sort of interrupted by a woman who's had a very profound,
and I guess in that cultural time,
embarrassing and weakening medical condition that's impoverished her.
She's had it for 12 years, and he heals her.
But while he pauses, the daughter dies of the synagogue ruler, Jairus.
But Jesus still goes anyway, and he's raised the daughter from the dead.
That's what's just happened before this.
And now the story continues, and here's how it goes.
Jesus went away from there and came to his hometown, which is Nazareth.
We know that Nazareth, archaeologists guess that, or estimate, I guess.
I guess if I did it, it would be a guess, if an archaeologist does it, it's an estimate.
And he estimate that probably at its most it had about 500 people living there.
And anyway, he goes to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying,
Where did this man get these things?
Now, just to pause here before we go any further.
Sometimes it's impossible in one language to capture all the significant nuances in another language.
And there's a very significant nuance that's going to happen right here, which isn't really captured with this man.
If you were to see me at a public gathering, and we had somebody there maybe who was a professor
at the University of Ottawa or Carleton or University of Toronto, and they had a couple of PhDs,
and they had a very prestigious position, and if I came up and talked about this guy,
you'd all know that I was putting him down.
If I didn't introduce him as Professor, you know, Bob or Professor Sue,
and, you know, PhD from Oxford, another PhD from Harvard,
if I didn't introduce them like that but just referred to them as this guy,
every single one of you would know that I've just put them down.
And that's what's happening here with this word, this man.
In the original language, it's a dismissive term.
And literally, given that Jesus is right there, it is like a public dismissiveness,
which not only is it a public dismissiveness,
it's a public dismissiveness, as we'll see later on in the story, that's accepted.
In other words, it would be as if we had somebody here, a professor,
and I was to say we're going to hear this guy say a few words,
and all of you folks out there are going like this.
Way to go, George.
This is a good thing to dismiss.
This is a good way to dismiss this guy.
Way to go.
Two thumbs up.
And so just, I'll read it again from verse 2.
That's the context here, right off the bat.
So, and on the Sabbath, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished, saying,
where did this guy get these things?
What is the wisdom given to him?
How are such mighty works done by his hands?
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James,
and I don't know how to pronounce that word, Joseph, and Judas, and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?
And they took offense at him.
So, just a couple of other things that the put-downs continue.
One of them is by referring to Jesus as son of Mary.
The normal Jewish way of referring to a man would be to refer to him as Jesus, son of Joseph.
In fact, there's a bit of debate among scholars,
but most of them would agree that, in fact, it's also a bit of a dig
that he was born illegitimately.
And that, in our culture right now, isn't a bad thing.
But for old people like me, there would be girls in high school who would miss a term, a year.
And everybody would know they missed a year because they got pregnant and had a baby.
They sent the family, sent the girl away completely to another place to have the baby.
And then the baby would be put up for adoption
because it was a shameful thing to have a child out of wedlock.
Some families far more than others, but it was a shameful thing.
It's not a shameful thing in our culture right now,
but in many, many cultures in the world,
it's a shameful thing to have a child out of wedlock.
And once again, if I had a person here and I was introducing them
and there was something shameful in our culture,
and I pointed it out in public to everybody,
and you all went like this,
you can get a sense of what's going on here with Jesus.
There is, in a sense, a very public dismissing of him,
put down, and rejection of him.
And just one other thing about this put down of him
is that in the Jewish culture,
it's not a shameful thing to be a carpenter.
In fact, it would have been considered an honorable thing.
It wouldn't have made him eligible to really be a rabbi.
It didn't mean he had high-level qualifications,
but it wouldn't be a put down necessarily.
But in the other world,
and Mark, the original writer of this ancient biography,
is writing it not in Hebrew or Aramaic,
but is writing it in Greek,
so it's designed for the wider culture.
And Nazareth itself is actually only four,
I can't remember now if it's four kilometers or four miles,
but just from a very, very significant Gentile city.
And in the Gentile or the pagan world,
a carpenter would be like a real put down.
You know, it would be like in our day
at the University of Ottawa,
if they were introducing somebody and they said a janitor.
And everybody in the University of Ottawa,
well, just a janitor.
Like, just a janitor.
Not somebody with even a BA or an MA or a PhD.
So there's multiple putting down of Jesus
here in this particular story.
So the interesting thing then
is he's been publicly put down,
publicly dismissed, publicly rejected.
And he's been,
this is done in a context where people know him.
And they feel they have the sufficient social power
to get away with it, and they do.
So how does Jesus react?
Like, how does he react?
Like, let's just be honest here for a second.
Like, you'll notice that over the last few weeks,
I often say that the Gospels act
as both a mirror and a window.
It's a mirror in the sense that it helps you,
if you think about it, to see yourself.
It's a window in the sense that it actually helps you
to understand a little bit about
what the true and living God is actually like,
what the universe is actually like.
It's a window into understanding the real world.
But, you know,
you guys are probably all vastly more holy than me.
But I would,
I probably would sulk.
And inwardly, I would storm and rage.
And I would pout.
And I would alternate internally between self-pity
and murderous revenge fantasies.
But as I said, that's probably just me.
None of you would feel the same way
to be publicly rejected, dismissed, and humiliated.
And I also might, of course,
feel severe self-doubt as well
after actually being put down in such a way.
Because we are social creatures,
and to be treated in such a way
often creates within us these,
if you're at all like me,
you can go back and forward
between self-pity, anger, and doubt,
all going back and forward
in the face of this type of thing.
So what does Jesus do?
What does Jesus do?
Well, let's look.
Verse 4.
We see the first bit of his response.
In some ways,
what we see from verses 4
right through to 13
is how Jesus responds
to this particular situation
and how his disciples react
to Jesus' response.
And so in verse 4,
you see the first part of it.
You see he makes a comment.
And Jesus said to them,
to them,
not only to his disciples,
but to the people of Nazareth,
a prophet is not without honor
except in his hometown
and among his relatives
and in his own household.
So the first bit he does
is he actually names it.
He names it in public.
He uses a common type of a parable
or saying that was both common
in the pagan world
and common in the Jewish world.
And he says that this is just,
this is what you've actually,
this is what's happening.
I'm not being honored.
And it's actually very,
very interesting
that this helps to show
that the people
who are saying these things
about Jesus,
obviously not all of it,
but in some ways,
his family,
his own family is involved
in this put down of Jesus.
It would be as if his brother
or his half-brother James
says,
like,
this guy's just a carpenter.
Like,
come on,
I'm his brother.
Like,
we're his brothers and sisters.
Like,
who does,
like,
who does he think he is
to do all this stuff?
And so he,
he names it.
Now,
the next thing that he does
is actually very,
very interesting,
although often what we,
when we read the next bit,
we miss what he's done
because we get confused
by what happens.
And so we ask ourselves,
in a sense,
a different type of question
than really noticing
what happens
with the flow of it.
So just look what happens
in verse five
in the first bit of six.
And he could do
no mighty work there.
That means he couldn't
do a miracle.
He could do no mighty work there
except that he laid his hands
on a few sick people
and healed them.
And he marveled
because of their unbelief.
He marveled.
He was gobsmacked,
to use an Irish expression,
at their unbelief.
Now,
what often happens with us
is we start to go off
in a bit of a different direction
as to why Jesus couldn't heal.
But the fundamental thing
to notice first,
I'll talk a little bit
about why he couldn't heal
in quotation marks,
couldn't.
But the really interesting thing
is that even though
he's been publicly rejected,
publicly dismissed,
publicly put down,
publicly shamed,
he's still willing to heal.
You'll notice that.
That's actually the really
important thing to notice.
He's still willing to heal.
Like, in a sense,
what this is just saying to us
is that if Jesus is put down,
dismissed,
rejected,
and shamed,
so will you,
if you have him
as your Savior and Lord.
But love
and speak the truth anyway.
I mean,
in some ways,
that's actually the big message
of this text.
Jesus was rejected.
Jesus was dismissed.
Jesus was shamed.
But his response
was to continue
to bear witness
to the truth
and to seek
to be a,
and to heal
and deliver.
And the lesson is,
we're going to have
the same thing happen to us.
And our response
shouldn't be proud,
anger,
attacking,
but our response
should be
to continue
to witness
to the truth
and to continue
to seek
to be an agent
or to be healing
and act
towards deliverance.
So Jesus
is willing
to heal.
The problem here,
and here's where
people get confused,
it's not
that Jesus,
let's say,
let's say Matt
here is Jesus
and he comes up to me
because he wants
to heal me
because I'm sick.
And so he comes up
on the stage
and says,
okay,
I'm going to heal you.
And, you know,
he, I don't know,
closes his eyes.
If this was Hollywood,
he'd close his eyes,
maybe put his hands up,
you know,
do a little bit of this
or a quivering.
And then he all of a sudden
stops and says,
okay, George,
you got to work with me
here a bit.
Okay,
you got to work with me.
Don't just sort of
stand there
like you're,
you're the,
a horizontal,
a vertical version
of a couch potato
just saying whatever.
You got to work with me.
Okay,
try to,
try to get a little bit pumped.
I need you to get a bit pumped
and a little bit of energy
and then I,
then,
and then I,
and goes back
and,
oh no,
George,
you got to work with,
no,
that's not what's happening at all.
What's happening
is they don't come.
I mean,
you read the gospel,
Jesus doesn't need
people to believe him
to heal them,
but they don't come.
It would be as if I have
a couple of sick people
or in my household,
but I don't want to bring
them out to Jesus
and I don't want to ask
Jesus to come to me.
Why?
Because I,
you know,
who is this guy?
Yeah,
yeah,
he does miracles.
Yeah,
yeah,
he has lots of wisdom,
but good grief,
he's just a carpenter.
Like,
we know him,
like,
he's nothing special,
his mom is nothing special,
his dad was nothing special,
oh,
if we even know
who his dad was,
and,
you know,
and his family's nothing special.
Like,
why do we want to have him
come to our house?
Like,
you know,
just,
you know,
forget about it.
Like,
they don't actually even want
to have him come.
So,
it's not as if their faith
is in any type of way,
or their lack of faith
is a barrier to Jesus' healing,
because all of the healing
comes from him,
none of it comes from them.
But they're uninterested.
They have no belief,
and they just want to reject him.
Well,
how does Jesus continue
to react to it?
Once again,
does he pout,
sulk,
rage,
revenge,
or attack?
We already see
that he was willing
to continue to heal,
but they didn't want him to heal.
And this next bit
of how he responds to it
is actually a very,
very profound meditation
upon the difference
between Christianity and Islam,
and the difference
between Christianity
and Buddhism
and Hinduism as well.
The difference between
Buddhism and Hinduism
and Christianity
is a little bit hard.
In fact,
a lot of people,
when they read this text,
don't actually read the text
or understand it
in a Christian way.
They actually
bring in Buddhist
and Hindu categories
and think that the text
is justifying their categories,
but actually,
it's a rejection.
rejection of the errors
in Buddhism
and Hinduism,
but a deep fulfillment
of the deep desires
of Buddhism
and Hinduism.
And it is a clear rejection
of Islam,
but it is,
in fact,
a fulfillment
of the deeper desire
of those who follow
Islam.
So what do I mean?
Well, let's look.
Look at 6B.
And he went out about,
he went about
among the villages
teaching,
and he called the twelve
and began to send them out
two by two
and gave them authority
over the unclean spirits.
He charged them
to take nothing
for their journey
except a staff,
no bread,
no bag,
no money in their belts,
but to wear sandals
and not put on
two tunics.
A tunic is a,
there's just a long,
it would be like a t-shirt,
but it would be like
that you wear
right next to your skin,
but it would go down
past the knees.
Now,
here's the first thing.
So,
Jesus has been rejected.
His disciples have been,
seen him rejected
and shamed
and put down,
but his response
is he's still willing
to heal.
And his response
is that he's going to go out
and continue to teach
and he's going to continue
to deliver people
from demons.
He's going to continue
to offer to heal.
And not only does he do this,
he now authorizes
and calls the twelve
to do the exact same thing.
So,
how is this,
if you think about it
for a second,
Muhammad was a warrior.
warrior.
And,
and in the Quran
and in the Hadiths,
I mean,
there's a,
the consistent message
of,
of Muhammad
from Allah
is that if you're
in a minority
and you don't have
any power,
then,
then you can sort of
just,
you know,
be like this.
But once you begin
to get some power,
then you,
you need to be a warrior.
You need to,
to arm yourself.
You need to,
you need to attack.
You need to take control
of the situation.
Muhammad was a warrior.
and we see here
the exact opposite
message.
In fact,
what we see here
is rather than
when the time is right,
grab your sword,
is don't even have a staff.
Don't have any money.
Be completely
and utterly powerless
as you go out
to bear witness
to the truth.
And the,
the message about the,
and the contrast
with Buddhism
and Hinduism
is,
you see,
on one hand,
often when people
read this thing,
they think,
okay,
now we're getting
to something
very familiar
because this is
a familiar category
to us.
This is the category
of religion.
In fact,
you know,
what we know
about religious people
is that they like
to dress funny
if they dress at all
and,
and that real religious people,
they often don't like
to eat very much
and they often
don't want to have
any possessions
and,
and they want to,
you know,
do these odd types
of rituals
and they,
they want to,
you know,
they're just very,
very odd
and that's sort
of how you know
that they're very
religious
and,
in fact,
one of the problems
I have
when I talk
to friends
who are,
you know,
enamored with,
or would be Buddhists
or would be Muslim
or come from
a Jewish background
is that when I try
to talk to them
and I try to,
to communicate
that I'm actually
like a very serious
Christian
or a devout Christian,
I mean,
that doesn't mean
I'm always a good Christian
but I try to be devout,
is that I know
that in their mind
they don't really
have a category for it
because if they're Jewish,
well then,
I should be having
like something
that's very distinctive
in my dress
or,
you know,
I should be more
emaciated
or I,
you know,
I should have a,
like,
and often when people
say that they want
to be spiritual
but not religious
is they want to say
we don't want to have
anything to do
with all that
like really,
really weird behavior
but we want to,
we still understand
that there should still
be something like
religious and spiritual
longings and yearnings
and so on one hand
you see
this text looks like
it's putting Jesus
and the Christians
in a familiar type of thing
and people can say
okay,
I understand that
although the next thing
that will go on
in their mind
is Jesus,
George,
if you say you're
a serious Christian
how come you're not like that?
Like,
how come you're sitting here
having a coffee
in the coffee shop
and how come you don't look
like you've starved yourself
to death
or,
you know,
you're not dressed like that
and there's probably
a little bit of a,
they're trying to get
their mind around it
but what's going on
in this text here
isn't that Jesus
is telling them
that they have to learn
detachment from the world
and non-attachment
for the world.
In fact,
it's the complete opposite
of that
because he's sending them
in to the world
and he's sending them
into the world
to heal people
and he's sending them
into the world
not only to heal people
but to deliver
and he's sending them
into the world
to heal people,
to deliver people
and to teach the truth
so he's not at all
telling them
to practice detachment
or non-attachment
or to be some type
of an ascetic
and to be a beggar.
The heart of what
he's telling them
is I'm going to give you
this mission,
I'm calling you
to bear witness
to the truth,
to tell people about me,
to tell people
about the fact
that I have come,
I am the Messiah,
I am the one
who will reconcile
not only the Jewish people
but eventually they'll hear
that I've come
to reconcile all
who put their faith
and trust in me
to reconcile
them to the true
and living triune God
and that I want you
to heal people
and I want you
to deliver people
and I want you
to do that
not because it's
going to be popular,
not because everybody
wants to be your friend,
not because it's accepted
but because that's just
who,
that's just the way
to be properly human
and I am trying
to form you
to be properly human
and to be properly human
you are a person
of the truth
not a person
of the lie
and you are a person
who values healing
and you are a person
who wants to deliver people
and you do that
whether or not
people accept you
or not.
That's just what you do
if you follow me.
And so the message
of, you know,
not the money
and not that
and even this next
little bit
which we're going
to go you,
what they're actually
saying is
just trust me.
Like, trust me.
Like, George,
if you trust me
that I can fit you
for heaven,
if you trust me
that when you die
death is not the end,
neither is hell,
but if you trust me
you will awake
in a new heaven
and new earth.
You will be reconciled
to God
and spend eternity
with the triune.
If you can trust me
on that,
if you trust me
on that,
can you trust me
to care for
some of your needs?
It's a whole other thing
that even if it means
that you end up
being martyred,
it's still
because you're
bearing witness
to the truth,
but for now,
can you just trust me
that I can provide
financially for you?
You see,
in a sense,
for the average
Christian today,
that's part of
the whole thing
about financial
generosity
and tithing.
Nobody,
I can't ever tell you
that if you give
10% of your money
to the furtherance
of the gospel
and the glorification
of God
that you'll get
more money back
and anybody who says
that to you
is lying,
they're speaking
out of their butt,
not out of the Bible.
But the fact of the matter
is,
is that by doing
something like that,
you're trusting
that God can continue
to meet your needs,
that you won't
go hungry,
you won't be
homeless,
but God will
care for you.
And so what this
is actually teaching
is, in a sense,
the deepest longing
of Hinduism
and Buddhism,
that there's a God
who loves you,
who cares for you,
like he cares for you.
And not that you
have to learn
non-attachment,
but you have to learn
not to make idols
of things
and think that
all of the things
have to be
under your control.
It's not an issue
of attachment,
but control.
And so will you
trust me
to have me
send you out
into the world,
even if you're rejected,
even if you're shamed,
even if people
embarrass you,
even if people
unfriend you,
stop following you
on Instagram.
And when they
stop following you,
they also say
a whole pile
of nasty things
to all of their followers.
And when those
things happen to you
because you love me,
continue to trust me.
Pray for your persecutors.
Pray for their healing.
Pray for their deliverance.
Bear witness
to the truth.
Bear witness
to the truth.
I am calling you
to join me
as people of the truth,
not people of the lie,
and people of life,
not people of death.
That is who
I am calling you to be
because I am
the God of truth.
I am true.
I am the God of life.
I am life.
I am the God of light.
I am light.
I am the God of love.
I am love.
I am the God of goodness.
I am good.
I am the God of mercy.
I am mercy.
I am the God of justice.
I am just.
Bear witness to it.
And that is partly
what is going on here
in verses 10 and following.
Verse 10,
and he said to them,
whenever you enter a house,
stay there until you depart from there.
What that means is,
don't sort of,
I am going to stay at this person's house
and I am going to milk them for money
and then I am going to stay
at another person's house,
I am going to milk them for money
and I am going to stay at another person's house,
I am going to milk them for money.
That's what the talk is.
Just be content that your needs are met.
And verse 11,
and if any place will not receive you
and they will not listen to you
when you leave,
shake off the dust that is on your feet
as a testimony against them.
This is a type of prophetic act
where they go into a Jewish,
in the culture of the day,
many Jewish people,
if they left the pagan town,
they would shake the dust off of their feet.
And Jesus is saying here,
you go into a Jewish town
and they reject you,
shake the dust off your feet.
But the point of that is not,
the point of it is actually to be noticed
and people say,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
what are you doing?
Right?
Because you see,
any time in the Bible
that sin is mentioned,
it's never mentioned to push you away,
it's mentioned to connect with you.
It's mentioned so that you want,
you go, what?
What's happening?
Like, what?
Like,
Jesus confronts to connect.
He confronts in the hope
that you will repent.
That's why he confronts.
Never to shame,
never to belittle,
never to put you down,
never to humiliate you.
He confronts to connect.
Verse 12,
so they went out and proclaimed
that people should repent
and they cast out many demons
and anointed with oil,
many who were sick.
And he healed them.
So,
this little picture
of how Jesus reacts
is only going to go deeper
as you continue to read
the rest of the gospel.
And the fact that this is actually
what the gospel is all about
is made more and more and more clear.
It's not as if,
you know,
sometimes you watch a movie.
I was just watching,
you know,
something and
it was actually sort of
a very,
very good thing,
a British production
and about a man
whose son is kidnapped
and he comes back
from abroad
and these things
that he does
to help him.
But part of the problem
with it
is there's all these
little plot ends
that never get,
it's sort of brought up
to create some tension,
but it never gets tied
into other types of things.
There's all these things
that happen
that don't get tied up.
And so the movie's all right,
but it's not as good a movie
or as good a story
as it could be
if things were tied up.
Important sort of avenues
of tension
or sort of somehow
rather than just being ignored
or it's almost as if
occasionally the writer,
it looked as if he,
I'll throw this little bit in
because it will create
lots of tension
in the viewer
and then I'll just hope
that the viewer is so stupid
they don't notice
that we never deal with it
for the rest of the movie.
But that's not what happens
in the gospel.
In the gospel,
what we see is that
this insight about Jesus
loving people
and speaking the truth
even after they reject him,
that rather than it
just being something
that's a bit of a plot device
to make you tense
and then forgotten,
it actually gets deeper
as the whole story goes.
As the story goes,
Jesus will begin to predict
that people are going
to reject him.
And yet after he predicts
that people are going
to reject him,
that they're actually
going to crucify him,
you don't see him
then raging,
sulking,
pouting,
you see him continuing
to speak the truth
and you see him
continuing to heal.
And by the end of the story,
the end of the story,
in a sense,
the whole climax of the story
is that Jesus dies
on the cross.
He's predicted
he's going to die
on the cross
and he dies on the cross.
And the message is,
with the bit that goes around it,
who is he dying
on the cross for?
Is he dying on the cross
for the 11 disciples
that haven't,
that loved him
and trusted him
and maybe his mother
at the end
and that's it
because I don't like
anybody else?
No, he dies
for the people in Nazareth.
He dies for the people
who reject him.
He dies for the Roman soldiers
who crucify him.
He dies for Pilate.
He dies for Herod.
He dies for the people
who mock him.
He dies for every single
human being.
His response
to being rejected
isn't hatred,
violent revenge.
It isn't
that as he sees
our gobsmacking
unbelief
that he rejects us.
But the story ends
with him dying
upon the cross
for the unworthy,
for his enemies,
for the people
who shame him.
He dies on the cross
for them.
He dies on the cross
for me.
That's what he does
because he is love.
And the truth
of the matter is
is that we can't
make ourselves right
with God
on our own effort.
The fact of the matter
is that we need
a savior,
that we get things wrong
and we can't fix ourselves.
And so this little window
into the love of Jesus,
even in the face
of rejection,
that little window
that we might not
even notice
that a window is
as the story progresses
becomes bigger
and bigger
and bigger.
He dies
for the unlovely
that we might
lovely be.
He dies
for the unworthy
that we might
worthy be.
He dies
for the people
of the lie.
We might become
people of the truth.
He dies
for the dead
that we might
be alive.
He dies
for the unjust.
He pays
the price
of our injustice.
Injustice
that we might
be reconciled
to God.
That's what he does.
That's who Jesus is.
So all I can say
to you,
friends,
it is always
a good time
to be a follower
of Jesus.
It is just
as good a time
to be a follower
of Jesus
if we face
persecution
than if we are
sort of well-liked
or accepted.
It is always
a good time
to be a follower
of Jesus.
It is the end
of our longings
and our yearnings
and the deep need
of our soul.
And all I can say
to any of you
who are watching
or any of you
who are here,
yes,
people might not
like you
if you are a Christian,
but Jesus is calling
and inviting you
to know him
as your Savior
and your Lord.
He was rejected
so you could be accepted.
And his acceptance
is worth it.
His acceptance
is worth it.
Please stand.
Father,
we give you
thanks and praise
that we can come together
to be recharged,
to recommit.
Father,
to hear your word,
to come before you
and say,
Father,
so much,
we thank you
for Jesus.
I confess before you,
Father,
I've had a crappy week.
I haven't been
a very good Christian
and I've maybe denied you
or I'm having this big trouble
or this big doubt
and that we can come
and know
that it's not
because of our worthiness
that you don't weigh
our merits,
that you pardon
our offenses.
It's not because
of our great accomplishments
that you always see
our deep need
and you are
God's great provision
for our deep need.
You are God's
true provision
for our great need.
and we give you
thanks and praise
so we can meet
with brothers and sisters,
so we can be
in your presence,
so we can meet
with those
who are curious
or mocking
and were skeptical
and yet have come
to hear more
and that we can be
and we can be fed
by your word
and we can pray to you
and pour out our heart,
Father,
for the world,
for healing,
and that we can gather
around the table
of the Lord
to receive grace,
Father,
as we remember
Jesus and his
death upon the cross
and his mighty resurrection
and his coming again.
Father,
we thank you
that we can gather again
to be fed
and to be nurtured
and to recharge
and once again
to say
we commit to you,
we follow you.
Lord,
work in us
that we might be
people of love,
not people of hate,
people of justice,
not people of injustice,
people of good,
not of evil,
people of the truth,
not of the lie.
Form us more and more
and more in this
as we keep our eyes
and our hearts
fixed on you,
Jesus.
We ask all these things
in the name of Jesus,
God's Son
and our Savior.
Amen.