Welcome/Visitors
……Tim Keller explains the gospel this way.(again)
The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.
Prayer
Rest or Religion
Mark 2:27-28
27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
“Large numbers of Americans today are departing from the church and sometimes the Christian faith. About 40 million adults who used to attend church no longer do. For the first time in 80 years, the number of adults who don’t attend church outnumber those who do. This is such a radical shift that the authors of a recent book on the topic refer to it as The Great Dechurching. Along similar lines, about 30 percent of Americans no longer identify with an established religion (the so-called “Nones”).
Perhaps it’s not surprising that a number of Christians have publicly stated that they are deconstructing their faith. The word “deconstruction” can mean different things in different contexts, but this is referring to an overall rejection of the Christian faith. This is often, but not always, followed by an embrace of atheism, agnosticism, or skepticism.
In the past several years, several high-profile Christians have publicly renounced their faith, including Jon Steingard (former singer of the Christian band Hawk Nelson), Joshua Harris (author of the influential book I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Marty Sampson (former Hillsong worship leader), Abraham Piper (son of pastor and author John Piper), and Bart Campolo (son of speaker and author Tony Campolo). As Christians, we naturally feel saddened by these announcements, and for some it shakes their faith. Many of these deconverts once had thriving ministries, which we may have benefited from. To see them walk away from Christianity can strike a blow to our confidence. How should we think about and respond to these incidents when they happen?”
– Chris Reese
It’s sad to see people departing from the faith. Kind of a hard distinction in wording right? Faith, Gospel, Religion, Church
For the sake of conversation let’s assume when I say Gospel that I mean news and when we say Religion we mean advice (we covered that a few weeks ago).
Jesus’ coming and rule and reign are news. Man’s wrong interpretations of how to live get wrapped up in religion.
So we’re talking about the difference in the gospel and religion. And I think many are not leaving the Gospel, they are leaving Religion, because it fails and they never knew or embraced the Gospel. (Religion Advice, not news)
Our passage is here again in Mark (as we walk through Mark’s Gospel)
Mark 2:23-28
[23] One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. [24] And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” [25] And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: [26] how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” [27] And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [28] So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 3:1-6
[1] Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. [2] And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. [3] And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. [5] And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. [6] The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
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So what’s going on?
Tim Keller says this “The law of God directed that you had to rest from your work one day in seven. That was wonderful, of course, but the religious leaders of the day had fenced in this law with a stack of specific regulations. There were thirty-nine types of activity that you could not do on the Sabbath, including reaping grain, which is what the Pharisees accused the disciples of doing.”
R.C. Sproul explains it in further detail.
“God gave the laws governing behavior on the Sabbath day to the Jewish people at Sinai. These laws were contained in the Ten Commandments and in other guidelines for holy living (Exodus; Leviticus). Over the centuries, as they did with so many God-given laws, the rabbis devoted themselves to fine-tuning the Sabbath laws and adding specific prohibitions to guard the observation of the Sabbath day. Their prohibitions included many details found nowhere in sacred Scripture, but their traditions eventually became as binding on the people’s consciences as Scripture itself.
One of those prohibitions had to do with what the rabbis called a “Sabbath-day journey,” the maximum distance Jewish people were allowed to travel on the Sabbath. The rabbis defined the Sabbath-day journey as 1,999 paces, a little over half a mile. If a person took one step beyond 1,999, he was considered a Sabbath breaker.”
So when Jesus responds in this passage, he quotes the Bible. Basically he says, “Have you read your bible?” And points to a story about David and his men were fugitives from King Saul and David goes into the tabernacle and asks the priest for the holy bread and then gave it to his men.
The Pharisees would have known this story well.
Jesus then says
Mark 2:27
[27] And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Jesus isn’t down on the Old Testament or the Law, instead he’s upset at their adding to God’s law and thereby adding burdens on the backs of the people.
Again for clarity, the rabbi’s would have been upset if you untied a knot on the Sabbath, so if you messed up your sandals you had to wait until the next day.
Sounds silly, right?
Modern Religion does that too.
Remember our semi-ongoing theme: Religion is advice, Gospel is news.
Jesus quickly helps them in the next verse.
Mark 2:28
[28] So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Then we have a similar situation in our very next passage. Chapter 3. Jesus is angry at their hardness of heart.
The Pharisees are watching and upset that Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. So upset it says they go out to plot and kill him (with the Herodians) right after this.
So, Jesus is saying this isn’t about your rules. It’s about my authority as God and what Jesus says is the truth.
Y’all understand that’s what turns people off and what people run away from? We cannot possibly keep up with all the rules, nor keep them. We need God’s grace, Jesus’ mercy and holiness.
NOTE: this does not mean that we are not to pursue Holy lives. That would be unbiblical. This is not cheap grace, nor spitting on what Christ has done for us. If you think you can do that…look up the passage where Jesus tells them who say Lord, Lord and He says “I never knew you” right? God won’t be mocked, nor tricked. Sin is real and it will lead to death and hell.
Let me give another illustration about the difference.
From Keller – “In about 1977, I preached a sermon on “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and I explained it this way: I think God is saying, I want you to meet the needs of other people with all of the joy, all of the eagerness, all of the urgency, all the ingenuity, creativity, and industry with which you met your own needs. That’s the standard. That’s how I want you to live your life.” After the service a teenage girl came up and told me that she had just been in the homecoming pageant with her best friend, and she came in last in the pageant, while her friend had won.
She said, “Are you trying to tell me that the Bible says I should be as happy for her as I would have been for myself if I had won. I should be just as excited with her as if it had happened to me I said, “You know, that’s a pretty good application.
I wish I had put that in the sermon”
She looked at me and said, “Christianity is ridiculous. Who lives like that?”
We sat down to discuss it further and I reminded her, “Jesus does say, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself?”
She responded, “First of all, then, I want to know exactly who my neighbor is. It can’t be everybody in the world. I could never do that. What number of square blocks around my house does the Bible’s rule cover? She went on: “And I want to know exactly what you have to do. What are the things I have to do for my neighbor?”
Do you hear the anxiety in her questions? She was not a self- righteous, nor morally arrogant person. But because she was not awash in the love and acceptance of God through Jesus Christ, for her the purpose of the law was to assure her that God and other people had to see her, and so treat her, as a good person.
She didn’t have the emotional security to handle a law that uses broad strokes to paint a life of love and obedience. She wanted to narrow it down, detail it out, button it up, so that she could feel good about herself when he had completed. We are all susceptible to this anxiety – though some have learned to hide it better than she could then.
In religion the purpose of obeying the law is to assure you that you’re all right with God. As a result, when you come to the law what you’re most concerned about is detail. You want to know exactly what you’ve got to do, because you have to push all the right buttons. You won’t gravitate toward seeking out the intent the law; rather, you’ll tend to write into the law all sorts of details of observance so you can assure yourself that you’re obeying it.
But in the life of Christians the law of God—though still binding on them-functions in a completely different way. It shows you the life of love you want to live before the God who has done so much for you. God’s law takes you out of yourself; it shows you how to serve God and others instead of being absorbed with yourself. You study and obey the law of God in order to discover the kind of life you should live in order to please and resemble the one who created and redeemed you, delivering you from the consequences of sin. And you don’t violate it or whittle it down to manageable portions by adding man-made details to it.”
Do you see?
People leave religion because it’s rules and advice.
The Gospel (Jesus’ News) is truth to live by and it changes us.
Eric Liddell & Harold Abrahams
Chariots of fire movie
1924 Olympics
Liddell is a Christian and refuses to run on the Sabbath.
His race winds up being scheduled on the Sabbath. He was favored to win.
Abrahams is not a Christian and running to compete and prove himself.
He says “I’ve got 10 seconds to justify my existence”
Liddell on the other hand knows the Lord and tells his sister “God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.”
Keller says “Abrahams is weary even when rested & Liddell is rested even when exerting himself”
Religion is self justification (no rest, only advice)
The Gospel is news, the truth that Jesus has done the work, we can rest in Him.
How do I do it?
- See that Jesus is indeed Lord… of the Sabbath
- Sabbath means deep rest, deep peace
- He is God and we follow him, not man, nor man made rules
- Drop the legalism and guilt it’s heavy a yoke
- The Gospel is light……it is rest.
Matthew 11:28-30
[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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