The Power of Unbelief

We find many instances in the Gospels where people were amazed by Jesus.  They were amazed by his power and his miracles.  They were amazed by his teaching.  They were amazed by his love and grace.  They were amazed by his authority.

But we only see two instances of Jesus being amazed by people.  Once was with the faith of the centurion.  The other is in today's reading in Mark 6.  Sadly, Jesus wasn't amazed by their faith or belief, but rather by their lack of faith and belief in his power, authority, love and miracles.

Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, teaching in the synagogue.  The people, as was often the case, were amazed at his teaching.  Mark also mentions that they were amazed by his miracles and they were especially amazed because they knew he was from Nazareth.  

In v.3, Mark says, "and they took offense at him."

Amazement with something doesn't always mean that we believe in it or trust it.  We can be amazed by a magic show, but know in our hearts that it's only sleight of hand.  We can be amazed by a spectacular sunset or majestic mountains, but believe in our hearts that there's no God behind it - that it's just a product of evolutionary processes.  

Verse 5 is the money verse here though: "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them."

In this verse, we see that there is power in unbelief.  Maybe as much power as there is in belief.  The unbelief of the people in Nazareth prevented Jesus from doing many of the miracles that he longed to do in that town.  This shows us something vitally important in the life of faith - seeing Jesus move on our behalf requires belief in His ability to do so.

This begs the question: what are you missing out on in your life because of your lack of belief or faith?  The question isn't "Does Jesus want to?" The question is "Do you want Him to?"   Do you want God to bless you?

This isn't an attempt to reduce Jesus to a genie in a Bible.  We don't rub the Bible and get everything we want.  And this isn't an attempt to explain why we don't always see Jesus move in the ways that we'd like Him to, even when our desires seem to align with Scripture.

This is simply to say that blessing comes through obedience.  And obedience comes through believing that God’s Word is trustworthy for our lives.   It's happened to me over and over again in my life and ministry.  I go through periods of doubt and frustration wondering why God isn't doing what I want Him to or expect Him to do, and then one day I say, "Well, what do I believe God wants to here?  Have I prayed for this?  Have I expected it?  Do I believe that God can do it?  Am I being obedient to what God is calling me to do right now?"  And not always, but often, I will see God move in a way that I didn't expect him to move.  

The result?  Amazement.

A lot of times it has to do with stubbornness and clinging to sin.  When we openly defy God's commands and choose to live our lives the way we want instead of the way He wants, we're displaying unbelief and it wields great power in our lives.  When you're miserable, the first thing to ask yourself is this: "Am I being obedient to Jesus?  Am living as if I believe that what He says is true?"  If you’re not, you're unleashing the power of unbelief in your life.  We’re essentially like the people of Nazareth: we’re taking offense at what God calls us to do.  How can we ever expect God to do what we want Him to do next when we can’t be faithful in doing what He’s calling us to do right now?

I've come to realize something in my faith journey: I demonstrate faith through obedience.  It's a Scriptural principle.  When we are obedient, we are in lock step with God's design and plan for our lives.  If I'm not obedient to something that God commands me to do, I'm not faithful.  There's not really a middle ground - partial obedience is disobedience.  

 Lack of obedience means that we lack faith to take God at his Word.  Obedience unleashes God's blessing in our lives and when God’s blessing is unleashed in our lives, amazement follows. 

 

 

The Most Urgent Thing We Can Do

Most of us have crazy demands put on our time.  Full time jobs.  Kids.  Our activities.  Our kids' activities.  Family obligations.  Full time jobs that interrupt our activities, our kids' activities and family obligations.  Most of you know how it goes.

Imagine what it might have been like to be Jesus.  Our understanding is so small of what it might have been like, but here you are, God in human flesh, with all the power, wisdom and love in the world, and a world full of broken, lost and hurting people.  Where do you start?

I'm sure that Jesus was often pressed by feelings of the tyranny of the urgent.  

As we head into Mark's Gospel today in our daily reading plan, we see in Mark 1 that in fact Jesus was faced with urgency in his life.  V.v. 35-37 tell us, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: 'Everyone is looking for you!'"

Everyone is looking for you!

You've probably felt like that before.  If you have kids that are dependent on you for care, you know that sneaking into the bathroom for 5 minutes of solitude; laying down for a quick nap; or sitting down to pray or read God's Word is often interrupted by the tyranny of the urgent.  Somebody needs a drink.  Somebody wants to watch a different show.  Somebody wants your full attention.  NOW!  Somebody, or sometimes everybody, is looking for you.  

You see, nothing caught Jesus by surprise.  He knew that there were times when "everybody" would be looking for Him.  He knew that there were times when life would be busy and chaotic and lived at breakneck speed.  He knew that there would be early mornings and late nights of teaching, healing and traveling.  

This is life.  It happens to all of us.  

But Jesus also knew that the rhythm of urgency in his life had to take a back seat to the most urgent thing He had to do.  And that was to get alone in a solitary place and pray.  When we know that life is going to demand urgency and energy, we must learn from Jesus, and realize that the most urgent thing that we can do is to get alone with God - in His Word and in prayer.  

My friend Steve Smith, who is also the most important mentor I've ever had in ministry, wrote a book a few years ago called The Jesus Life.  In it, he talks much about the rhythm of Jesus' life.  Part of that rhythm were times of high demand ministry.  But a part of that rhythm was also spending time alone in solitude, preparing for the times of urgency when He was needed.  It's a great read for anybody who feels stressed out and burned out by the Christian life. 

For most of us, the urgency of life - jobs, kids and activities - isn't going away anytime soon.  But we must look at Jesus and the rhythm that He established in His own life.  For the most part, we don't know specifically what Jesus prayed about, although John's Gospel does give us some insight into the prayer life of Jesus.  In it, we see that Jesus prayed often and intently for the glory of the Father to be revealed in his own life and ministry and in the lives of those who followed Him.

I think that one of the most urgent things we can do is to pray for the same things in our lives.  Before our day begins, or after it has finished and we begin to think about the next day's demands and activities, take some time to pray for the glory of God to be revealed in your life.  As you meet the demands of life, think of those demands and activities not just as things to do, but as opportunities for you to be a vessel of God's glory in the world.  

Jesus did this.  We need to as well.  If we fail to do it, we're essentially believing the lie that we're stronger than Jesus and that we're more capable on our own than we are without God at work in the daily-ness of life.  Make being alone with God - in His Word and in prayer - be the most urgent thing you do every day.  

When God Takes You Apart

Seeing the glory of God can be a terrifying experience.  A quick check of Scripture affirms this.  When the people of Scripture encountered the glory of God - from Adam and Eve after their sin through the elders in Revelation casing their crowns at the feet of Jesus in heaven - God took them apart.  

In today's reading from Matthew 28 we see this happening again at the resurrection of Jesus.  When the angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled away the stone, v.4 says, "The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men."  We're also told that "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary" were there too.  The first words that the angel spoke to them in v. 5 were, "Do not be afraid . . ."

Seeing the glory of God should cause us to tremble because the glory of God will always take us apart.  When we feel the weight of God's holiness and power and when we see and experience his transcendence, we are made actutely aware of our sin, our brokenness and how incredibly finite we are.  

When God takes us apart, we have two choices.  We can lay like the guards in a zombie like, catatonic state and never allow it to move us or change us.  Or we can be like the two Marys, who, when they heard the news of the resurrection and hurried away and met Jesus, fell at the feet of Jesus and worshipped Him. 

Being in the presence of God is no casual matter.  Here's the really terrifying truth of it though: it will ALWAYS take us apart.  Not because God's mean or arbitrary.  No, no, no.  God is love and He loves us enough to take us apart so that He can put us back together in a healing, restorative way.  

When God takes us apart, it's for our benefit.  When Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God, God took him apart to purify him and prepare him.  When the prophet Isaiah felt the presence of God in the temple, he cried out, "Woe to me!  I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips . . . "  God took Isaiah apart to purify him and prepare him.     When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water and realized his unworthiness to be in the presence of Jesus, God took him apart to purify him and prepare him.

When we go to worship God, and to be in his presence, I wonder if sometimes we're too casual about it.  I'm not talking about the clothes we wear or the style of our worship.  I'm talking about our attitude and our expectations.  As a pastor, one of the things that has always absolutely aggravated me is when somebody comes up to me after worship and says, "That was nice," or "I enjoyed that," or "This was a good time."  I realize it's a compliment and folks are being nice, and maybe overly nice because they didn't want to say, "Man, that was a dud of a sermon."  

But I don't want people to walk away from Alive, or any worship experience in any church, saying "That was nice."  Nice or good or enjoyable isn't the goal of being in worship in the presence of God.  Being taken apart by God's glory is the goal.   Falling at the feet of Jesus in repentance and adoration and humility is the goal of worship.  As I wrote yesterday, being in the presence of God's glory should bring us to our knees in repentance, and then should bring us to our feet in adoration, worship and service because of what Jesus has done for us. 

The resurrection of Jesus was literally an earth shaking event.  The worship of the resurrected Jesus should be too.  Don't settle for nice or good or enjoyable in your worship.  Come to the resurrected Jesus with the hope and expectation that God will shake the foundations of the life you've built for yourself and then take you apart to purify you and prepare you for your ministry.  





 

Jesus isn't your homeboy

Jesus wasn't a hippie in a pink bathrobe.  He wasn't the original Mr. Rodgers.  And he's not your homeboy.  The entire Gospel - in fact the entire Word of God - doesn't leave that as an option to us.  And today's reading from Matthew 27 reminds us of that.

In v.11, as Jesus stands for a mock trial in front of Pilate, he asks Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews."  Jesus simply answered, "You have said so."  The accusations continue in v.v. 12&13, and to the amazement of everybody present in this sham of a proceeding, Jesus never answers.  

He didn't have to.  His life and his words are evidence of that.  Jesus wasn't crucified for being a nice guy that did nice things for people.  Let's dispense with this childish notion once and for all.

The evidence of the Biblical record is clear - Jesus was crucified because of his claims to be God in human flesh; because of his claims to have the authority to forgive sins; and because of his claims that he would be resurrected.  Jesus was crucified by the Jewish and Roman leaders because he was dangerous to their power and influence.  Jesus was crucified by the Jewish and Roman leaders because he was turning the world upside down and inside out and the Kingdom of God was forcefully advancing.

This isn't the work of a nice guy.  This isn't the work of your homeboy.  This is the work of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Pilate's wife, in v.19, knew that Jesus was innocent of any crime.  She told Pilate, "Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him."  And yet Pilate caved to the demands of the crowd.  He released the prisoner Barabbas, and held Jesus to be crucified.  

In the grand scheme of things - the 20,000 foot view - Jesus was crucified because He came to be crucified.  We should shudder at that thought.  God in human flesh bore the penalty for our sin.  He shed his precious, innocent blood for the forgiveness of our sins.  Isaiah 53 was fulfilled on this day.  

This is the radical love of God for you and for me.  This isn't your homeboy.  This is your Lord and Savior.  This isn't Mr. Rodgers.  This is the precious Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  This isn't just a nice guy.  This is the ultimate expression of sacrificial, unconditional love.  This should bring us to our knees in repentance, and then should bring us to our feet in adoration, worship and service for what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus gave his best for you.  He gave it all.  Homeboys don't do this.  Nice guys don't do this.  Saviors do this.  When Jesus is just your homeboy or a nice guy, he's safe and manageable.  When He's your Savior and Lord, he's dangerous to the life you want to live for yourself. 

 Love and sacrifice like this demands our life - all that we have and all that we are.  How can we look at this love and this sacrifice and want to give Him anything less than all we have?

"Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were an offering far too small

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all"

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - Isaac Watts

 

Giving Jesus Our Best

Mondays are always tough for me, and most pastors that I know.  It's very hard to explain the "holy hangover" that I suffer from, beginning sometime mid-afternoon on Sunday and lingering through part of the day Monday.  

Today it's hitting harder than usual.  I preached on giving and tithing yesterday, which is always tough.  It's tough because a lot of people don't want to hear about it to begin with.  It's tough because it can appear selfish - my salary and the material well being of my family is directly related to the generosity of the people in the church I pastor.  And it's tough because I always worry that I've offended or hurt somebody with something I've said when I preach about money.

But discipleship, and leading others towards deeper, more committed discipleship is tough work.  Our human nature is to cling to who we were and to cling to our sin and disobedience.  God's desire is for us to move more and more towards freedom everyday and to become more and more obedient.  Giving financially is just like anything else in the life of discipleship - it's costly and sacrificial.  A life of sacrifice lived for Jesus means that we feel it - sacrifice and discipleship are costly.  Not just financially, but in matters of the heart, mind and will.

Simply put, the call to discipleship, the call to follow Jesus, is a call to give God our very best without holding back.  Discipleship is a call to give to God and to others out of our wealth, and not out of our poverty.  When we give out of poverty - or when we give grudgingly because we're focused on what we don't have - it leads to bitterness and anxiety.  When we give out of our wealth - when we give joyfully and generously because we're focused on what we do have - it leads to freedom, love and worship.

In today's reading from Matthew 26, we see a beautiful example of what it means to give to Jesus the very best that we have.  In Matthew 26, the proverbial chips are on the table.  It's go time.  This is the beginning of the culmination of what Jesus came to do - shed his precious, sinless blood on the cross on our behalf for the forgiveness of our sins.  

In v.v. 6-13, Matthew tells the story of a woman that came to honor and worship Jesus with her very best.  We don't know for sure who the woman is.  Some speculate that it may be the woman from John 8 that Jesus redeemed and forgave when she was about to be stoned for adultery by the Pharisees.  This theory has always made perfect sense to me, although we have no way to know for sure.  If this is the same woman, she experienced extravagant grace from Jesus, and she came to Jesus to give him extravagant worship and honor.  Even if it's not the same woman, it doesn't make her worship of Jesus any less extravagant.  

She poured on Jesus a very expensive jar of perfume, an act that caused indignity among the disciples.  In Mark's Gospel, the disciples complain that the perfume was worth a year's wages.  That's some expensive stuff!

Can you imagine though giving a year's wages to show your gratitude to Jesus?  I know I struggle sometimes with the thought of giving 10% of our income in gratitude to Jesus.   I can't imagine a whole year's worth of wages at one time!  

But maybe that's because I haven't truly experienced the extravagance of Jesus' grace.  Maybe I haven't fully comprehended that Jesus has given me the very best that he has to offer, and my calling as his disciple is to give him the very best that I have in every area of my life.

I'll get off the money kick now, because giving Jesus our very best isn't just about money.  It's about our time.  It's about our effort.  It's about our love for Him and for others.  It's an attitude that should pervade every area of our lives - this attitude of extravagant giving on His behalf in honor and worship of Him.

Are you giving out of your poverty?  Again, not just your money, but your time, your worship, your effort, and your love for Jesus and others.  Do you give these things grudgingly because you focus on what you don't have and who you haven't become yet?

Or do you see the extravagance of what Jesus has given to you, and do you give out of your wealth?  Your money, your time, your worship, your effort, and your love for Jesus and others.  Do you give your best and give generously because you see all that Jesus has done for you and who you are becoming in Him?

Giving Jesus our best isn't about perfection.  It's about effort and intention.  It's about attitude.  None of us can do anything perfectly because we're not Jesus.  But we can see all that we've been given, and make a commitment to honor Jesus with the very best in every area of our lives.  He's worth it!  The cause of the Kingdom of God is worth it!  

The Longing of Jesus

I know that one of my greatest weaknesses is my propensity to allow anger to control me.  It's something that when it wells up inside of me can make me a downright miserable, intolerable person to be around.  It fuels insecurity.  It fuels hypocrisy.  It fuels broken relationships.  Those closest to me - my wife and 3 kids - bear the brunt of it when it controls me.  Fortunately, as I am growing in grace and growing to become more like Jesus, it's something that I deal with less and less, and for shorter periods of time.  Anger can certainly be debilitating and toxic for those that struggle to reign it in.

But anger can also be the fuel for righteousness, justice and repentance.  Sometimes anger is a good and holy thing.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, and if you read my blog regularly, you know that there are some things in the world that just anger me because of the injustice and indignity that they perpetuate.  

In today's reading from Matthew 23 we see Jesus in a different light than we're used to seeing him.  He's in full out, righteous-anger mode and verbally tearing up the false religion that the Pharisees perpetuate on themselves and on other people.  Among other things, he calls them hypocrites, blind guides and even snakes as he systematically strips apart their self-righteousness and arrogance. 

In v.37 we see something so striking. The anger of Jesus is fueled by a longing: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.

The longing of Jesus is to gather God's people together and to reconcile them to God.  The imagery he uses here is something most of us have seen in nature (or at least on the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet).  As somebody that spends a lot of time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, I've seen examples of exactly what Jesus is talking about here.

Have you ever seen a killdeer bird protecting her nest from predators?  If you haven't, take 45 seconds and watch this clip.

 

The mother killdeer, in an effort to protect her young from predators, drags herself away from her nest and pretends to have a broken wing so that the predators will focus their attention on her and away from her eggs or from her young.  In almost every instance in nature, the instinct of a mother is to protect her young at all costs so that they might live.

Jesus again takes a common, every day occurrence and uses it to illustrate the Kingdom of God.  His anger towards the Pharisees is fueled by a longing to give them abundant, eternal life.  His anger towards the Pharisees is fueled by a longing to save the people that have been controlled, crushed and misled by the Pharisees to give them abundant, eternal life.

The longing of Jesus is to give each and every one of us life.  As I've talked about in recent posts when Jesus deals with the Pharisees, we see that dead, self-righteous religion is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to living the abundant life that Jesus promised us.  

Jesus longs for us to long for Him.  To know that He alone is our source of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life and that dead religion leads us to death.  To know that He gives grace and mercy abundantly, when dead religion tells us that we simply must work harder or do more or live more strictly and joylessly.  To know that He gives healing and strength to those that trust in Him and wait on Him, when dead religion leaves us wondering why we're so weak and sick.  

Today begins the 40 day season of Lent.  It has historically been a time of sacrifice and dying to self for Christians throughout the centuries as we look forward to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.  I'd like to encourage you to use these 40 days as an opportunity to learn to long for Jesus.  To long for mercy.  To long for grace.  To long for truth.  To long for healing.  To long for abundant life.  For you, that may mean making a decision to give something up.  For others, it may mean actually starting to do something new.  Whatever it is, don't make it about dead religion.  Don't make it about what you can do to make yourself righteous.  Make it about longing for the life that Jesus gives and longs to give to us.  

 

The upside down, inside out Kingdom of God

I’m always amazed when I consider that one of the best selling books of all time – not just Christian books, but all books – begins with these words, “It’s not about you.”  If you’ve ever read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, you know what I’m talking about.

This is so upside down, backwards and inside out from everything that we learn in our culture from a young age.  But this is the truth of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus.  Life is not about us.  Life is not about what we want.  Life is not about what we get out of it.  Life is not about karma.  Really living, being fully alive in Jesus Christ, is about losing our lives and our identities in Him to receive what He has for us in His upside-down, inside out Kingdom. 

In today’s reading from Matthew 19, Jesus talks about this in a way that’s really uncomfortable for me.  Why is it so uncomfortable?  Because I realize that I’m not even close to living a life that’s not about me and what I want.  I have such a long way to go to learn to live like this.

In v.16, we find a man coming to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.  After a little back and forth about keeping God’s commandments, Jesus lays the smack down in v.21: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”

Matthew tells us that the young man was devastated, “because he had great wealth.”

A lot of people like to take this verse and twist it around to say it’s a sin to be rich.  I mean after all, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”  He didn’t say it’s impossible! There are examples all throughout Scripture of God blessing people with great wealth and possessions.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be one of those people?  Almost makes me want to go out and buy a Powerball ticket and pray really hard!

But when we really cut to the chase of what’s going on here, we see that this isn’t a call to poverty.  It’s a call to love God above everything else that we have.  It’s a call to whole-hearted obedience.  It’s a call to value the Pearl of Great Price above everything else in our lives.  If Jesus came to you and spoke to you and told you to leave it all behind for His Kingdom – your money, your house, your possessions – and you didn’t do it, it would be disobedience. 

But what Jesus calls all of us to do is to love God and to love people above everything else in life.  This is upside down and inside out.  Jesus says this in v.v. 28-30 in response to Peter’s question about what the reward is for obedience: Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

When Jesus returns in glory to judge the world, those who have given it all for him will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.  Jesus talks about this so much, about the cost of following Him.  There really is nothing on earth compared to the riches of knowing Jesus, and the riches of eternal life in heaven for those who lose their lives to find life in Him.

So how about it?  Is it all about you or is all about Jesus?