Single Sermonarticles 3
Content
1) Easter: God's Plan is Best
2) God Understands, Even if Nobody Else Does
3) Surpassing Solomon
4) Belshazzar the Unrepentant: An Example of Hardened Arrogancy
5) Mark 1:16-18: Becoming Fishers of Men
6) Mark 3:22-30: The Unforgiveable Sin
7) Mark 4:35-41: Facing Life's Storms
8) Mark 10:32-39: The Father's Plan
9) Brokenness Healed
10) Duel in the Desert: The Temptation of Jesus
11) Jospeh of Arimathea: Risking it all for Jesus
Easter: God’s Plan is Best
I want God’s plan. I want to know there is something I can trust in, something I can have confidence in, somebody behind the scenes that has a plan for my life and for this world. Do you think Jesus is excited by the way you are living? Or is He pained by your life and the frustration and hurt you are causing yourself? “Will you listen to my plan,” He pleads? “Will you look and see that I am here, that I want to help you?” God’s plan centers on the resurrection. God’s plan is all about Him and His love for us. It is about God invading history with the promise of redemption and salvation. From the beginning of time to the very end of time, history’s outcome hinges on the cross and the resurrection. Without understanding this major point, you cannot understand God’s plan. God loved us enough to come into our world, a world filled with pain and tragedy, and die the death that we deserve. And by His resurrection He shows us that He has the power over death.
God’s plan is real to those people who want Him to be real to them. His plan says, “I will fix those who want to be fixed.” And His plan also says, “Those who want to have nothing to do with me, do not have to.” God has a plan. And He invites you to be part of it. God has given you the freedom to choose whether to be part of His plan or not. But to be part of His plan, you have to choose to willingly surrender part of your freedom so that He can transform your heart, so that He can change you. You have to surrender to His plan.
Your plan may be good for you, but I am not sure if I like your plan because I am not sure what your plan has in store for me. In God’s plan He has your best interest in view. “I want you and your life to matter and for your heart to be fulfilled.” Think about this. If you are living next door to an angry, arrogant man or an impulsive thief, sooner or later that person will compromise your happiness. This world is filled with ‘land mines’ that will destroy your good feelings. And so God says, “For you to be happy, I am going to have to transform his heart so he will not be so angry, so he will not want what you have, so he will not be a bully. I have to change him. Otherwise, your happiness, your safety, your security, your fulfillment will be compromised. I have to step in. But actually, your fulfillment and happiness is also compromised by what you do, also. To be honest, it is not just him. I have to step into your life, too. Sometimes you are careless. Sometimes you are willful. Sometimes you are selfish. And so, if I am going to make a secure, safe, fulfilling place, I have to change him and I have to change you, too. But I will not do it without your or his invitation.”
God has given us the freedom to live and act as we feel. Think about why we have so many problems in this world. Yes, there are natural problems. Hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes are problems our environment throws at us. But most of our problems, most of your problems at work, at home, in society are a matter of the selfish and willful human heart--selfishness, greed, rage, revenge, scheming--things that build up in your life that work together to destroy you. God says, “Well, let me dissolve those for you. Let me take away that bitterness, that resentment, that rage, that selfishness, that greed. Let me take those things away from you.” This world would be a pretty nice place if we let Him do it. It would be for our best and it would be for this world’s best. But He says, “I have given you free will in this area and I will respect that all the way to your grave. And until you invite me in, I am not free to get involved.” He will not intrude on our freedom, on our capacity to do good or our capacity to do evil. He will knock, He will put barriers in our way, He will lead people into our lives but He will not come in without a personal invitation.
Easter shows us that He has the power to work in our lives, that He has the power over life and death. The Easter message is really about God’s power to invade history and change sinners into saints, rebels into grateful followers. Turn to Ephesians chapter one. Let me paraphrase: “Long ago, even before He made the world. You see His plan. He started planning before He made the world. God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us. He decided then to transform our hearts and lives to make us faultless and stand before Him covered with His love.” These verses describe God’s desire to transform us and shape our hearts. God did not say, “Oh, I did not think of that. Oh, now we have this problem, I did not know he was going to do that.” God has had an unchanging plan from the beginning of time. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. That is the God of love that wants to reach to you, wants to have a relationship with you. That is why He has given us the freedom to choose Him or not. Without that freedom, love cannot exist. Love is a choice--to choose to give of yourself, to choose to submit yourself, to choose to do what is best for someone else. I am not talking about a feeling. I am talking about an action of love, compelled by our hearts.
And then down in verse 13 it says, “When you heard the good news about salvation, you chose to believe and trust in Christ.” You have the freedom of choice and you will bear the consequences of those choices. He put man and woman in the Garden of Eden to have a relationship with them. We were created for relationship with God, but they made a choice to choose against what God had to say. “I will be my own man, my own woman. I will do what I want.” A need for forgiveness was created. Violation of God’s laws and directives is serious. There are consequences. There has to be! Knowing this, the Son said, “I will pay the consequences for your rebellion,” before the first act of creation was set in motion.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are going to be in heaven and God is going to transform you. He will remake you because that is what you want Him to do. That transformation is going to be instantaneous. But its time is not yet. God will transform His sons and daughters. Seeking to enter by merit will not force God’s hand. Unless we are adopted into His family, He will not redeem us.
Turn over to 1 Peter 1:3. Peter echoes the joy we have because of the resurrection of Christ. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus.” He has given us new birth. He has given us a fresh start. He has given us power to work through the problems that have plagued our lives. If you are a born-again Christian what are you doing with your new birth? Are you dragging all your old clothes, your old ways, around with you? Put a lid on that stuff and let it go! Jesus died for those things, do not keep giving them life! That is the power of His resurrection working in us now.
God has a plan and He has the power to carry that plan through if you are willing to say, “I want to be a part of that plan, a plan that says I have a choice and I want to choose You and I want to choose Your standards. I want Your ways imprinted on my heart.” God will forgive any of you, any of us, anyone who calls upon His grace and forgiveness. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are His workmanship.” This is talking about rebirth and transformation. Paul says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.” He wants to bless your life and your family and make it fulfilling. Not just provide a safe and secure place that you can do whatever you want, but to give you the equipment, the power to make a difference in the lives of others.
Look at Ephesians 1:18. Paul’s prays: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the rich and glorious inheritance that he has for you and also know his incredible power to affect life. He demonstrated that power when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heaven, conveying all authority to him over everything now and forever.” Do you understand what that means? It means that Jesus has inherited us. God the Father granted Him all authority, all respect, all power with us. It is like the Father saying, “Hey, if my Son will do this for these guys, He deserves them. He has shown that He will do whatever is in their best interest. He loves and cares for them so much I turn all authority, all power over to him that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.” That is the Easter message. That is the resurrection message.
Are you living in light of God’s plan? Or do you have your own plans and kind of watch for God to fit in with them? God has given you the freedom to choose your plan. But who is a better planner when you really think about it? Who really knows what is best for you and for all those you say you love? Every time you choose your plan over God’s plan, you are hurting yourself and those you affect with your selfishness.
God has blessed you with another day to choose differently, to follow His plan. God wants to have a relationship with you. You do not deserve it, but He has paid a heavy price for your heart. He will be glorified by our lives as our lives are changed. It is not that we will be all white and shining but that we will be better people, more like Jesus Christ. If you are indeed a child of God, then your life should show it. Your priorities, your preferences, your choices and deeds should show it. If your life gives no evidence that you are God’s child then perhaps you are not. Second Corinthians 13:5 tells us to “examine [ourselves] to see if [our] faith is really genuine.” Is there new life in you? If not, then you need to repent and turn to God through Jesus Christ. That is what Easter is all about!
God Understands Even If Nobody Else Does
Do you ever feel like you are alone in the dark trying to navigate life through a dismal storm? That the winds are blowing, the waves are reeling and you are trying to figure out which way to go and what is right and what is wrong and you just feel lost? You may be in a crowd, you may be with friends, you may be with family and you just feel they do not quite get it. They do not understand what you are going through. You feel like screaming, “You just don’t understand!” And if they say, “Well, tell me. Explain it to me. What don’t I understand?” You feel like words just cannot describe how you feel.
Maybe you are part of a bunch of guys that play basketball. You are good friends, but you feel like they do not have a clue what is going on in your life. Maybe you are part of a women’s Bible study and you are sharing and studying God’s word and talking about things, but you feel like they really do not know the trials and the temptations you are facing in your world. Maybe you are a kid going to school and you feel like mom and dad have no clue the pressures, the distresses, the temptations that you face in the school world. And parents, you know your kids do not understand. They have no idea about your world of bills, of mortgages, of schedules, of chores, of a life so full that by the end of the day you still have more things to do. Or you may be sitting next to your wife or husband of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years and feel that sometimes, even though you love them, they cannot help you in some significant ways. They really do not know quite everything that is in your heart.
Look at John 12. In verse one we read the story of Mary’s anointing of Jesus. This story comes right before the triumphal entry. And John chooses to put this event right in front of that one because it makes a transition in Jesus’ ministry. John 12:1: “Six days before the Passover Jesus arrived at Bethany where Lazarus lived whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served while Lazarus was among those who were planning at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, which is an expensive perfume, and she poured it on Jesus’ feet and then wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot who was later to betray him objected, 'why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a years’ wages.' He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and as the keeper of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 'Leave her alone,' replied Jesus. 'It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.'” Her love, her gratitude showed in her freewill gift, giving something that was worth $20,000 by today’s standards. How long did it take her to save the money she used to buy this burial perfume? A long time! This is a big thing, a big sacrifice. But she was criticized for it. She was misunderstood.
Back in Luke 10 Martha confronts Jesus about Mary’s behavior by saying, “Jesus, tell my sister to help me. Can’t she see I have things to do?” Martha could not understand how Mary could just sit there listening to Jesus talk when there was stuff to do. There were rolls to cook, meat to cut, things to do. Martha is serving while Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. It is interesting to note that Martha is serving and it is not even Martha’s house. Martha is Martha and she is going to be busy wherever she is. Matthew and Mark tell us this is in Simon the leper’s house. Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and Simon wanted to do something special for Jesus. And so, effectively, Simon says, “Martha, I will have the feast if you and Mary will cook and do the preparation.” And so, Martha is still doing what Martha does and that is fine, that is good. But what Mary does is very misunderstood. First of all, the disciples said, “What a waste this is. How could you do this? This money could have been used for good purposes.” And it could have. And Jesus cares about those things. He cares about the poor. But He says, “This has been designed by God. This was intended by God for something special.” Matthew and Mark tell us what Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you truly, wherever this gospel is preached through the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” This stands out because she was obedient to God in what she did.
Look back at John 11. “Now a man named Lazarus was sick and he was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary whose brother Lazarus is now sick is the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.” That is how John remembers Mary. That is how the people know Mary. This is her moniker. This is the event that defines her life. This is the story that has been passed down through generations. Jesus tells her critics, “Leave her alone.” Mary finally had somebody that understood her. Her family did not. Her friends did not. But Jesus did!
In this passage there is a second person who probably felt like screaming, “You just do not understand.” Can you spot this person? Is it Martha? Martha is very misunderstood. She is a good lady. Is it Judas? Because Judas is called by many a misguided, misunderstood martyr. No, it is not Judas. It is Jesus. Jesus is misunderstood. He has been walking with these disciples. He has been telling them time and time again, “I go to Jerusalem and I will be killed. I go to lay down my life.” And every time He tells His disciples, “I go to Jerusalem and I will be killed,” what do His disciples say? “No way, we are going to fight for you. That is never going to happen. We are going to make the difference. We are going to stand there before you. We will give our lives to prevent your death. We will give our lives to save your life.” Jesus told them, “Guys, you just do not get it, do you? I am going to give my life for your lives. I am the Passover Lamb. I am going to die for you and for your eternal salvation. Do not try to stop that. Do not try and stop God’s plan.” They did not understand the Scriptures. They did not understand His heart. And in a few days He would be hanging on a cross. He declared, “It is finished” and the disciples responded, “Ok? Now what?” They did not understand until Easter morning. And then finally it started to make sense.
I admire the patience of Jesus telling them over and over again. The Father inspires Mary in this passage to do the strangest thing. They are having a party, they are having a celebration and Mary takes funeral oil, mortuary material, something everybody associates with death, weeping, and mourning and anoints Jesus with it. Talk about a party killer. And it is so fragrant, the whole household smells of it. Everybody walking by the home could smell it. “Oh, who died here?” It was Mary who was open enough to God to follow through on something God told her to do. Nobody understood, but Jesus did. And that is the good news for us. If you feel like you are all alone, feel like there are things in your heart, your mind, and your life, that nobody understands, He does. He understands. And not just some things, He understands everything. He wants to calm the storms in your life. He wants to get rid of the darkness and bring light to your life, the light of His truth.
You have a God and Savior who knows exactly how you are wired and He wants to help you function effectively, fruitfully, joyfully. He wants you to listen to Him. He wants to communicate with you. His Holy Spirit speaks. His word speaks. As you pray, He speaks to you. He wants to connect with you. Many times people read the Bible as if it were a geometry book or a physics book or a history book. They are reading it for information rather than for life transformation. When you read Scripture, read it as if God wrote something just for you and let the Holy Spirit guide your heart and thoughts as you read. There may only be one or two key things, things that come from the word of God that you may hear, but if you allow them to change you, you will grow closer to God.
If you read through the Psalms, notice what David writes. David often feels alone and shut out, unfairly persecuted. Many of his psalms start off, “God, where are you? What is going on? This stinks! I do not even know if you are around anymore. In fact, I am not sure if you were ever around.” He is honest with his heart. As you read through these Psalms, by the time you get to the end he says, “Oh, will my soul magnify the Lord. I will glorify him for his is faithful and just and his love endures forever.” By the time he gets done spouting off and talking to God, God has softened his heart. He has vented enough and God connects with him in a vital, real way. God wants to speak to your heart. When you pray, it is not just to get an answer from God. It is not just to tell God what you need. It is to let God work in your spirit, to cut into your life. It is not so much that prayer changes things, but prayer changes you and that changes everything.
The rains will come down, the bills may still be piling up, but you are not alone in it anymore. You have a friend, you have a partner, you have someone who cares about you. You are not going through it all by yourself. David says, “Search my heart O Lord and know me. See if there be any way of iniquity in me. Test me and lead me into your way everlasting.” The Lord knows your heart. If you invite God to search your heart, to look inside and see and sense what is going on, to get a grip on your life, He will point out what needs to change, what needs to happen. The Lord knows your heart and He is the one that can reveal it to you.
Many times you do not know why you act and why you feel the way you do. And many times it is often not a matter of psychology, it is a matter of letting God speak to your heart and give you understanding. He knows your world. He knows the tests and the trials and frustrations you are going through. He invites you to confess instead of giving excuses. He wants to encourage us to say, “Lord, your standards are right. I agree with those standards and I have not lived up to those. Lord, forgive me and help me do better this next week.” Hebrews 4:15 says, “We have a high priest Jesus who understands our every weakness, tempted in every way just as we are yet he was without sin.” You think Jesus does not understand sexual temptation, does not understand jealousy, does not understand envy, does not understand betrayal, does not understand frustration? Jesus understands them. He knows the world we face, the temptations and invites us not to be satisfied with living with impurity, living with bitterness and resentment and anger because He knows these kinds of things will damage our lives. Every temptation that comes your way, not that He is bringing the temptation, but every temptation that comes your way He will provide a way of escape.
I used to enjoy driving in the Sierras. In the Sierras there are a lot of rolling mountains and as truckers drive these mountains they have to contend with steep 10% declines. There are signs that read, “Trucks use lower gears.” And about two miles down the hill you will see the first sign that says, “Escape road ahead.” For trucks that lose their breaks about every five miles there is an “escape road ahead sign.” As the driver is rolling down the road and notices brake power has been lost, seeing a sign that reads “escape road ahead” is a welcome sight. But you have to turn off into it for it to do you any good. How many times do we see where the road is leading in your life but refuse to get off. We know what is most likely to happen, but we think that somehow we might escape the negative consequences. If I could just make the next couple corners, I will have it made. But, your sin will find you out. You are going to crash and God keeps providing the escape route. These escape roads are uphill inclines filled with gravel that will take a while to dig out from. You are going to lose all your momentum. But when your momentum is going in the wrong direction, isn’t it time to stop! Take the escape roads God gives you. He will help you dig out. He will keep you on track. He will keep you on schedule. A tipped-over rig on the side of the highway is going to take you a lot longer to get out than when you are stuck in the sand.
He understands the things you go through. You have a God and Father who understands your heart, your world and your life because He has made you. He has watched you and He wants to guide you. So, watch for the unique direction He may give you in your life. Ephesians 3:20 says, “He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that works in us.”
God has a plan and you can be a part of it. Your uniqueness can be used in special ways. Within the bounds of His holiness and plan, you can be used in special ways if you submit your heart to do His will. He and you can be a great team, if you want it. He has already said He wants you, but the question you have to wrestle with is, Do you want Him?!
Surpassing Solomon
What comes to mind when you think of Solomon? I think of five things--wisdom, wealth, wives, worship, and winner. Solomon had it all. Solomon has been heralded for centuries as a great man. And if you use the world’s definition of a great man, he was. The world sees men who have almost unlimited power and wealth and command of those under them as great. They are considered great because of their ability to do as they please. They either were superior military leaders or they undertook great building projects—think of the Rome Caesars and the pyramid building of the pharaohs. They are above the crowd. They are towering figures in history. When someone says their name they are recognizable and something extraordinary comes to mind. Solomon fits this description. He was the king of an influential kingdom. He was wealthy. He undertook and completed great building projects. But what happens when we take a closer look at Solomon the man? Is he someone you would want your son or daughter to emulate? Let us shine the light of God’s word on Solomon and see what we find.
He has all these wives. He has everything, experienced everything that a man could ever want. It says, “I restrain nothing from my desires. Anything I wanted, I took it. Anything I wanted to do, I did it.” A man totally without restraint. Does that not sound great, guys? I mean, do we not want that? Do we not really crave that? "Lord, just, well ok, I do not really want to be wealthy. That would be kind of self-serving, but just a little bit more. And just a little more smarts and just a little more power, a little more authority, a little more control of my life. I just want more of everything in my life."
Solomon is known as the one who composed and gathered the wise sayings we find in Proverbs. Proverbs begins by stating the purpose behind the book. “The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young-let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance-for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.” These are good objectives for any author. And as thousands of years of faithful reading and applying the wisdom found in Proverbs can testify, Solomon created a masterpiece of literature. If someone followed diligently the wisdom found in Proverbs, his or her life and relationship with God would be greatly benefited.
The first two things Solomon wants his readers to gain from Proverbs are wisdom and discipline. So as we study the life of Solomon we are going to look for wisdom and discipline. When we look at Solomon’s life we are looking at history as recorded in Scripture. Scripture is not a tabloid magazine filled with rumor, innuendo, and juicy gossip for personal titillation. God’s word is given to us to teach us about God and life. And sometimes what we see is messy and unsettling. I am going to say some things about Solomon that may surprise you and may seem a little irreverent and I do not do it capriciously. I do not want to criticize or judge anybody else because I know I am also subject to judgment. And as a pastor I want to be discerning so that what I teach will best represent God’s truth to those who hear me. That is my responsibility and I take it seriously. If after we study Solomon we find he did not please God, then I do not want to go down the same path he did. After all, I follow my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ not Solomon.
Some things in Scripture were written for us to warn us, to keep us out of trouble (1 Corinthians 10:11). These things are written down so that we can read them and learn from them so we do not make the same stupid mistakes or commit the same sins that brought trouble and hardship to others.
At the beginning I listed five things that we usually associate with Solomon. But after studying his life I come to negative conclusions in each of these areas of his life.
I see Solomon as a wise … fool
I see Solomon as a wealthy … pauper.
I see Solomon as a romantic … philanderer.
I see Solomon as a spiritual … compromiser.
I see Solomon as a successful … failure.
Before Israel entered the land promised to them, God instructed them in how both to avoid trouble and gain blessing and prosperity. In Deuteronomy 17:14-20 His instruction centers on the behavior of a king. He knew there was coming a time when they would want a king, like the surrounding nations and against God’s best plan for them, so he told them how they could avoid the usual pitfalls associated with having the power of a nation centered in one person—the king. Basically, He told them it is best to not have an earthly king rule over them but if they insisted on doing it this is how they can avoid the usual troubles associated with kingships. “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 will be the blueprint we hold up next to Solomon to see how good of a king, and man, he really was. Moses recorded these instructions 500 years before Solomon was born. So Solomon was aware of them. He was not ignorant of God’s commands concerning his role as king. The advice contains specific examples of what God wanted from the king of His nation, Israel. These examples are types indicative of the attitude and disposition he wants in His king. God instructs His king to not:
acquire great numbers of horses
return to Egypt for any reason
take many wives for they will lead him astray
accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
But what did Solomon do? Have you heard of King Solomon’s stables? He had so many horses it became legendary. I would like to think he got them from Arabia or somewhere else but he got many of them from … Egypt. Scripture also tells us he married Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3:1). Solomon not only returned to Egypt for horses but his first wife as well. Before he was done he had “700 wives and 300 concubines.” And many were foreign women who brought with them their love for their native gods and immoral worship practices. Many of these marriages were for political gain. And of course many for sex. He was focused on politics and sex instead of relationships with his first wife, his nation, and God. Instead of trusting God for peace and prosperity he made alliances with pagan nations to acquire peace by compromise. And Scripture tells us the result. First Kings 11:1-6: “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.” Astereth was the fertility god of the Sidonians and immoral sexual practices were associated and encouraged with her worship. The worship of Molech included sacrificing living children by burning them on an altar.
How did Solomon get so far away from God? Was not Solomon the one who built the temple his father, David, envisioned? He himself dedicated that temple when it was finished. Read 1 Kings 8:54-66. “When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying: ‘Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations he gave our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day's need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other. But your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.’ Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD : twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD. On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the LORD, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings. So Solomon observed the festival at that time, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated it before the LORD our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all. On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the LORD had done for his servant David and his people Israel.”
How did Solomon go from praising God and acknowledging His faithfulness to violating everything God told the king not to do? First Kings 11:4-5 tell us that Solomon did not fall into gross sin but slid into it. The foreign wives “turned his heart after other gods, and [then] his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” When David saw Bathsheba on that rooftop bathing that day he was not planning to sin—he fell. Solomon started on a path that eventually led to immoral behavior and religious practices that we amazingly shake our heads at. He was like that frog that is placed into a kettle of water. At first the water is cool and all is well. But as the temperature of the water is turned up ever so gradually the frog remains not sensing the heat of the water. That frog will literally let himself be cooked to death without attempting to leave the water because the change happens so slow he cannot detect the temperature rise, even when it becomes life threatening. Solomon boiled in his own unbelief. His long history of trusting his own opinions and the worldly practices of the nations surrounding him instead of God’s clear instructions led him to the point where his foreign wives could actually get him to worship immoral gods such as Astereth and Molech.
When God told Solomon to ask for any answer to prayer he wanted, Solomon asked for the wisdom to rule the nation. First Kings 3:4-14: “At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’ Solomon answered, ‘You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.’”
Ironically, although God gave Solomon the wisdom to make wise administrative decisions for Israel’s benefit, Solomon never learned to control himself. He did exactly what God told the king not to do in Deuteronomy. 17:20—“not consider himself better than his brothers.” He did not think it worthy to follow the exact same advice he gave others. Solomon was not a murderer or thief nor did he bear false witness against another, as far as we know, and he did honor his father, David, but he did chase after the wind when he allowed himself to satisfy his carnal desires by coveting women, things, gold and silver, and exciting, although immoral, religious practices. Solomon is the perfect example of someone who followed his innate carnal desires into immoral and idolatrous practices. The mantra of carnal living is--“because it feels so good and is so exciting I will use it as a guide for my living.” Concerning carnality, Solomon withheld nothing from himself (Eccl. 2:10).
Walter Kaiser Jr. said that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes near the end of his life. “Ecclesiastes is best placed after his apostasy, when both his recent turmoil and repentance were still fresh in his mind.” Solomon gives testimony to the lack of real value the things of this world have when taken out of their proper context. In and of themselves they are empty. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11: “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” He goes on to teach us about the inherent emptiness of living for only the things of this world as ends in themselves. He has held nothing back for himself and it brought him and his nation ruin. After learning the hard way, he finally says at the end of the book, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
So what became of Solomon? What was his legacy? Solomon had many wives but was a husband to none. Solomon had many children but was a father to none. In all of Scripture we do not read anything good about any of Solomon’s children. Solomon had 1,000 women with whom he could have had children. He probably had at least 1,000 children. Odds are at least 500 of those were boys. Can you name them? The Bible only names one and names him because he happens to be the next king. Rehoboam. Only one is worth mentioning in the Bible. Solomon knew how to sire children, but did not know how to be a dad. Solomon lamented the fact he had to leave his kingdom to an unworthy son. “Like a fool, the wise also dies and I hated life. All I had toiled for I must leave to another who comes after me whether he is wise or a fool.” Solomon leaves his kingdom to the only one, the only son, the pick of his sons, the one who has the most going for him, and he destroys the kingdom in less than a year. He defies the people, takes terrible advice, and is even more selfish and egotistical than Solomon himself.
Before I go on, let me remind you who Solomon’s father was. And what Solomon learned from his father. What did Solomon learn from his dad? “Man, kids are trouble.” David’s sons ended up killing each other or causing rebellion in the kingdom. Solomon himself has one of his brothers put to death in the first week of his rule because he is untrustworthy and is trying to usurp the throne. Family is trouble. That is what he learns.
What is David busy doing? Is he busy being a father to Absalom or Solomon or his many other children? I am sure he was there some of the time. They had Passover and they had some fun things to do now and then. They probably played ball and did sword fights or work in wars or something, but he did not pour his heart and life and values into his children. What did Solomon see? What is important in building a kingdom? More land, more property, more wives. David, although he had a heart for God as it concerned uniting the kingdom, solidifying the government, getting organized, getting his kingdom together, gaining peace for the nation, his personal life was often in turmoil. Solomon saw this up close and personal and it had a profound effect on his life.
The end result of Solomon’s self-indulgence and unbelief is recorded for us in 1 Kings 11 and 12. First Kings 11:26-40: “Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah. Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph. About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon's father, did. But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes. I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes. I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.' Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death.”
And 1 Kings 12:6-17: “Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. 'How would you advise me to answer these people?' he asked. They replied, ‘If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.’ But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, ‘What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?’ The young men who had grown up with him replied, ‘Tell these people who have said to you, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter”-tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.' Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, ‘Come back to me in three days.’ The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, ‘My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: ‘What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!’ So the Israelites went home. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.”
The people simply left Rehoboam. The kingdom was split in two. All that David and Solomon worked to achieve was gone. The kingdom was set on the road to spiritual and moral decline that would result in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. And why? The self-indulgence of the king—primarily Solomon, but also David. When persons with great responsibility stray from the truth great harm comes to the people of the kingdom. Are we not seeing that truth fulfilled in our own time? It is tragic. Ecclesiastes records for us that Solomon finally learned his lesson and repented but 1 Kings 11 and 12 tell us it was too late to save the kingdom—the harm had already been done.
Men, Solomon is your anti-example. Do not do what he did. How tragic is that? The man requested that wisdom to rule his nation be given him by God and instead of being a positive example for us to follow he became the anti-example of what we should not do. How do we become a better man, husband, and father than Solomon? How do we live a life that is pleasing to God rather than one that causes Him to voice His displeasure at what we have done? “The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel.” How do we become a man to whom our Lord says, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” It sure seems clear he could not say that to Solomon!
Solomon was a successful failure. He knew how to sire children like a bull in a pasture and then saunter away, “I did my part.” But he did not know how to be a dad. He knew how to father children, but not how to father people. He knew how to have kids but not raise men and women. He knew how to have sex, but not how to be a lover. True wisdom is not just knowing but also doing. Remember the beginning of Proverbs? “The wisdom of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, for wisdom and discipline.” Does that sound different than knowing? Discipline is different than what I know. How many of you know what the right thing is to do and sometimes do not do it? What is the difference? What is the missing ingredient? Discipline. Self-discipline; self-control! The missing ingredient for Solomon is self-control. One of his own Proverbs (25:28) said, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”
At this point I want to remind us what I said in a previous message in 1 Peter 1:13 about self-control and Spirit-control. I will reproduce what I said into this message:
“How many of you have someone in your family that needs more self-control? How many of you want more self-control? Can I fill your wildest dreams by telling you that you have all the self-control you need? You have every bit of self-control you need. I know that because my three-year old granddaughter, Natalie, has all the self-control she needs. She is totally self-controlled. Mom is telling her what to do, Grandma is telling her what to do, I am trying to get her to do things, but she knows that she is in control and she lets us know it. She does not have to obey us. We can try to bribe her, we can try to force her, we can discipline her, but she is in control of her. The same way you are in control of you. See, what you need is not more self-control. You have all the self-control you need. You are in charge of you. You are the boss and you can say, “No, I am not going to do that.” What you need is a better system of government, not more government. Not more self-control. You need a better governor for the self.
”There are four things that may adversely affect my self-control. The first one is my head. The way I think, what I think. We have seen how important right thinking is. I can reason what the right thing to do is, what I should do at a particular time, but the trouble is that I can talk myself into just about anything or out of just about anything. ‘Katie, I really think we need to do this because I want it, I need it.’ Anybody ever rationalize yourself into doing something you know you should not have done? The problem is that you are using your head to justify something you know is wrong. You can out think yourself and rationalize to make almost anything sound ok. ‘Well, I need to do this because …, and I know it is not normally right but in this situation there are extenuating circumstances that justify me doing it.’ So your head votes to go ahead and do something wrong.
”Secondly, my heart may adversely affect my decisions. Your feelings can lead you astray. Your feelings can have a tremendously powerful effect on your life. ‘It feels so good it just cannot be wrong.’ We see our feelings as the real us. ‘So why should I not just be me. If it is acceptable to me, then you cannot tell me to not do it.’ We not only say this to people but to God. After all, we see our feelings as the real us. Doing it just validates who we are. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that in many ways we are not incorrect when we say this. As we think in our hearts so are we. The problem is that the real me can be opposed to God and His ways. And by expressing that we set ourselves against Him. Can you trust your feelings to guide and control your life? Without self-examination, no! But does it cast its vote on controlling you? Does it sometimes cast a vote in some pretty dangerous directions? Oh, yeah. So, you have self-control, but what direction are you going in? Just because you want it does not make it right. That is why it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ before it is done or spoken.
”Thirdly, my stomach can lead me astray. My stomach represents my basic desires and appetites. I am not just talking about food. I am talking about sexuality and all the other basic desires I have as a human. These desires can, however, take me in the wrong direction if I do not control them. Being ‘brainless’ they can take me in extreme directions. Too much food, bad, unhealthy food, too much sex, sex with the wrong people (not your spouse), sex for pleasure alone, detached from relationship, or a lust for adventure, thrills and excitement to the point where you will risk your very life, health or family to have it--in other words, greed and excess in many areas of our lives. If we choose to indulge them, they will lead us astray. If we keep them within the bounds God has provided for them, they can enhance our lives.
”Fourthly, my spirit can lead me astray. The main problem is pride. Listen to two passages. Isaiah 25:10b-12: ‘Moab will be crushed like trampled straw and left to rot. God will push down Moab’s people as a swimmer pushes down water with his hands. He will end their pride and all their evil works. The high walls of Moab will be demolished and ground to dust.’ Obadiah 2-4: ‘The Lord says, I will cut you down to size among the nations, Edom, you will be small and despised. You are proud because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains. ‘Who can ever reach us way up here?’ you ask boastfully. Do not fool yourselves! Though you soar as high as eagles and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you crashing down. I, the Lord, have spoken!’ Three things we need to be aware of concerning pride. One, we think too highly of ourselves. Two, we think too highly of what we have done. Three, we think too highly of what we can make ourselves to be. It leads us into foolishness (Obadiah 3), destruction (Proverbs 16:18), arrogance (Proverbs 8:13), stubbornness (Isaiah 9:9), contention (Proverbs 13:10), and a lack of humility (see Eve’s fall, Genesis 2). James 4:6-10 tell us that the cure for pride is humility. ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.’ First Peter 5:5-6 tell us the same thing. ‘Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.’
”When Scripture tells us to have self-control, it is not telling us to have me-control. It is literally talking about Spirit-control. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23). It is listed last because this is the one that ties all the others together and helps them to operate effectively. The fruit of the Spirit includes patience and kindness. Does it take self-control to be patient and kind? Oh, yeah. I can say I feel very patient. But then I have to control myself when she or he is late and it has happened again and again. I need self-control to exercise patience so that anger does not control me. I have to have self-control to exercise kindness, as well. Being kind may take effort. Being kind may be contrary to how I feel. We may feel pity or disgust but self-control gives us the opportunity to show kindness to someone instead.
”The good news is God does not leave you to your spirit alone. He says, “I will plant my Spirit in you to help your spirit do what you need to do.” For it is God who ‘works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose’ (Romans 8:28). We sometimes misunderstand that verse. It is not just to do the right thing but to want to do the right thing. God works in you to move your spirit to do the right thing, to make the hard choice, the non-feeling choice, the choice to deprive yourself of something you crave in order to do what is right and pleasing to God. God works in you to will to do the right thing. It is work for God to change your will, to shift your desires. He does not make us do something. He entices and encourages us to make the right choice. “God [exerts effort] in [us] to [want to do the right thing] and [then] to [actually] do [the right thing] according to His good purpose.’ Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold. Let God remold you from the inside out. Let God’s Spirit work in you to change, to motivate, to move you. Be self-controlled. Deliberately take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus. To say, ‘this thinking is not right. This desire is not right. I know what I feel I want to do, but I know what the right thing to do is and that is letting your Spirit take me through it.’”
This ties into another important topic--accountability. Self-control is good but there are times in my life when my self does not control me as well as it should and that is when someone else can be a blessing in my life and come alongside and say, “Hey. How about? What if?” Now, I usually do not like it because I want to be the one in charge. I do not want critics coming into my life but Scripture gives us one another to encourage and strengthen each other when we do not have the self-control that we need to do it ourselves. Let us consider how we can spur each other on to love and good deeds. Why? Because by ourselves we settle back down into our lounger, kick up and watch TV all day. And sometimes we need to get spurred to go ahead and do something more, to be more. Do you have someone in your life that can come alongside you to help and encourage you to be the kind of man or woman God wants you to be? Solomon was not the man God intended. Solomon was the man Solomon wanted to be. He was accountable to nobody and failed miserably.
Men, Solomon has a reputation for being a great king but as we have seen he was not a great man. His personal failures and excesses brought down a kingdom. Men, if you heed the words of Proverbs, have Spirit-empowered self-control and are accountable for your behavior to someone who cares about you and your walk with Christ, then you can be a greater man, leader, husband, father, and what I call faith-er than Solomon.
Men, you can be a better leader than King Solomon was. Do you recognize where Solomon got all his money? All his gold? All his wealth? Do you know where it came from? From his people. He taxed them. He taxed other lands and he did not use all the taxes for a great health program. He did not use it for building infrastructure. Do you think Solomon felt like he was the people’s servant? That his job was to make the lives of his people better? Saddam Hussein, was his role to make the lives of his people better? You see, public servant is a brand new concept in leadership and do you recognize where it came from? The night in which Jesus was betrayed He sat down with His disciples and He washed their feet. He said (Luke 22:26-27), "he who should be greatest among you should become their servant. Let the one who leads among you be as a servant as I have served you." Servant leadership. The leader is put in his position to make the lives of people better, not to glorify himself and to store up wealth and pleasures for himself. It is not about him. It is about his people. Solomon lost track of this truth. As an employer, as a manager, as a friend, as a father, you can be a better leader than Solomon. Solomon did not lead his sons. Solomon did not lead his wives. Solomon did not lead his family. Solomon did not lead his kingdom. He managed it to get as much out of it as he could. You may not have a kingdom to lead but if whatever you lead is more positively effected than Solomon was to Israel then you can be a better leader than Solomon.
Men, you also have the capacity to surpass Solomon as a husband, to truly love your wife. Husband, it says in 1 Peter 3:7 that you are to live kindly and considerately with your wife. And if you do this you are a better husband than Solomon. Solomon did not even live with his wives. He put them all together in a house ‘over there’. They were just commodities to be used for personal pleasure or political gain. Husbands, be considerate and caring toward that woman God brought into your life and if you do that you will be a better husband than Solomon.
Men, you can also be a better father than Solomon. As God instructed Israel (Deuteronomy 11:19), “teach my words to your children. Talk about them at home and on the road and when you go to bed and when you get up.” Do you know where Solomon’s kids were? Where Solomon’s kids were raised? In the harem with all the women. Raised by women. I am not making that a slight. I am saying these men, Solomon’s sons, never learned how to be a father, never learned from their father because they were entrusted to the care of all these women. These boys needed to learn from their father how to live, how to be a man, what values should guide their lives. Not just seeing him out the window and saying, “When I grow up, I am going to be just like him. I am going to get the kingdom. I am going to be rich and powerful. I am going to have all these things.”
“Teach my words to your children. Talk with them at home.” Do you think Solomon talked with these kids? Do you think he walked along the road with them, took them to the park and played on the seesaw with them, had time with them, took them for drives? Solomon did none of these things with these kids. The only child of Solomon’s we read about in Scripture is Rehoboam and within just a few months under his leadership the nation was divided into two and if not for the guidance of a prophet into civil war. The so-called wise man did not pass wisdom onto his children. If you live your life showing your children that you care about what God says and honor His ways, then you will be a better father than Solomon.
Men, you can also be a better faith-er than Solomon. Notice what 1 Kings 11:9 says. “The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.” Solomon saw how God worked through his father David and the Lord personally appeared to him twice and yet unbelief still ruled his live. Solomon had the opportunity to have God speak to him twice in a clear, decisive manner. Most of you have not had that. I have not had that. I have not had a vision from heaven. And as Jesus told Thomas (John 20:29), “you believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who believe without seeing.” You believe by faith and trust and Gods says, “This is a great blessing and you will be rewarded for it.”
How many of you believe I am here? Do you have faith that I am here? Huh? Do you really have faith that I am here? No, you do not. There is no faith involved. You can throw something at me and hit me. You can hear me talk. There is no faith involved in this. This is reality. This is presence. When you get to heaven, there is going to be no faith involved in your relationship with God. You are going to see Him face to face. No faith because there can be no doubt. He will be there right before your eyes. Now is the only time we have opportunity to choose freely and say, “Lord, I want you. I believe with all my heart. I have faith with all my heart. I trust that you are there and you have great things planned for me.” And that is what God honors.
Belshazzar the Unrepentant: An Example of Hardened Arrogancy
Daniel 5:1-30: “King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.
The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom."
Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. 'O king, live forever!'she said. 'Don't be alarmed! Don't look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king, I say—appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. This man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.'
So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, 'Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.'
Then Daniel answered the king, 'You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.
'O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.
'But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
'This is the inscription that was written:
Mene , Mene , Tekel , Parsin
'This is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.'
Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.”
So what is the problem here? I want you to notice something important in this passage. Notice what it says about Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s grandfather. “But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory.” I have a question. Then why was Nebuchadnezzar allowed to live and continue his kingship and Belshazzar was cut off? Was God being arbitrary? Does He reach into His bag and pull out “you I will bless and you I will curse?” Is His mercy for Nebuchadnezzar and His condemnation of Belshazzar based on nothing more than sovereign whim?
Daniel 5 tells us. Notice what it says about each man.
Verses 20-21: “But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.”
Belshazzar
Verses 22-23: "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”
Hardened arrogance is an unforgivable problem. Arrogance fueled by ignorance can be educated. Repentance is still possible. Hardened arrogance knows better but stands in defiance to the God of all things. It therefore leads to an unforgivable state. Revelation 21:7-8 says the unrepentant remain as they are when they die—their opposition to God and His ways are set in stone because their hearts are as hard as stone toward God. And as Hebrews 6:4-6 tells us, to reject God “though you know all this” is an unforgivable problem.
A great example is Pharaoh during the time of Moses. Although he saw God’s mastery over creation through the plagues, he refused to bow before His sovereign right to do as He pleases. He wanted to lead the Israelites out of Egypt but Pharaoh stood in His face and said , “NO!.” The Bible says his heart was hardened toward God. His arrogance against God was hardened. The plagues and Moses’ testimony were enough to educate Pharaoh but his evil heart would not allow him to believe.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 talks about the sin of Sodom, the reason they were judged and removed from the face of the earth. Do you know what the sin of Sodom was? Ezekiel 16:49-50: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.” The main problem with Sodom was hardened arrogancy. The sexual sin we read about was only a symptom of a deeper problem. The people of Sodom were judged because they continued on in their sinful ways despite a witness telling them otherwise. Second Peter 2:6-10 tell us that Lot was vexed and tormented by the behavior of the Sodomites: “…if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.” The Sodomites arrogantly followed the corrupt desire of their sinful nature giving witness that they despised the authority of God.
It is much like those we read about in Romans 1:18-32: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” These people know better but in their hardened arrogancy stand in defiance against God and His ways.
Belshazzar heard the story from his grandpa about how he was humbled by God. He was aware of Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony (Daniel 4:1-3, 5:22, "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.”) but ignored it. And eventually that ‘ignoring’ lead to outright arrogant opposition—Daniel 5:23: “Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”
Hardened arrogance steps across the line and declares before the living God (v. 23), “I am going to be the boss of me. I do not care if you are there. You are nothing to me.” That is where Belshazzar finds himself. God essentially tells him, “You have defied Me. Your arrogant heart is not teachable, O Belshazzar, therefore you have been judged. You are finished!”
I also want you to notice something else about hardened arrogancy. It is not only foolish toward God (Romans 1:22) but it also underestimates the abilities and intelligence of others. And in Belshazzar’s case, it cost him his kingdom. He lived in the strongest city ever constructed. I have to say there has never been a more secure city than Babylon. Babylon was surrounded by a wall 80 feet thick, 60 miles long, and up to 300 feet high. With 250 guard towers set around the wall you could see anybody that comes close to the city. Sleeping quarters and food hidden within that wall allowed the guards to remain on duty at all times. And if they get past that wall, they would have to go another quarter mile across open fields where they can be shot at and then have to get past a second wall. The city could not be sieged because they cannot be starved because they used all that surrounding area to grow wheat and food. They had enough agricultural area in the city and enough stored in reserve to sustain the whole city for 20 years. The Euphrates ran through the city so they had all the water they needed. What have they got to worry about? Belshazzar saw himself as undefeatable, untouchable. That same untouchable attitude extended to his view of God—Daniel 5:23b.
“What are the Medes and the Persians going to do? I do not care if they are out there. They can run around all they want out there. They are going to get tired because they cannot get in here. They will give up and go home.” So in his arrogance, while Darius the Mede is outside the city wanting to destroy it, Belshazzar throws a party. So while his attention is turned away from defending the city, Darius is only hours away from taking the city. He has gone upstream twenty miles from the city to where Nebuachnezzar diverted the Euphrates River to redirect it into the city and undid that diversion to change the direction of the river so that it ceased flowing directly into the city. When he finished, all that remained was a dry riverbed in which Darius’ soldiers walked under the city walls into the city. So, while they are sitting there drinking and having a great time, a platoon of soldiers is coming in from both sides of the city, underneath the wall through the river channel. That is why the city is taken without a fight. That is why the king is killed that night.
Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty king and he conquered the known world. He was a soldier. He led the troops himself and ruled with great wisdom and knowledge. He led the troops against Jerusalem and brought Daniel, great treasure and temple artifacts back from Jerusalem. He was a soldier, warrior, and great ruler. He knew that things do not always go your way. He knew what battles felt like. He knew what hard times were. He knew that life was not always easy. But Belshazzar was different. He was given the city of Babylon by his father, Nabonidus. He was the ruler of the city of Babylon, a sort of viceroy to his father Nabonidus, the king of the empire. He never knew need. He never knew want. He never knew loss. Belshazzar takes every day for granted. He does not appreciate what he has. Genuine appreciation requires humility. Belshazzar had none.
Remember back when God wrote the first time with His finger? The writing on the wall for Belshazzar is not the first time God wrote. He wrote on stone on Mt. Sinai where He gave tablets to Moses. He gave Moses the Ten Commandments to give to Israel. He wrote in concrete form what every person on earth has written on his heart (Romans 2:13-15). People have searched for God in every country and every land and every time period. They know it is wrong to murder. It is wrong to bear false witness and steal. It is wrong to commit adultery. These things are imprinted on the hearts of people for every generation. God makes it simple. God made it very simple. It is not that we do not understand. It is that we will not, choose not to follow Him. And as Hebrews 6:4-6 warns us. To know the truth but reject it is the first step in the hardening of the heart. And continued hardening results in an arrogancy that is not forgivable because it will not allow repentance. As Sodom and Gomorrah was removed from the face of the earth and Belshazzar had his kingdom and life removed from him, so an unrepentant person will experience eternal separation from God and all His precious blessings (see Eternal Destiny series). Nebuchadnezzar repented and his kingdom was restored to him and some think we may see him in heaven some day. Belshazzar refused to repent and instead died in his sin, awaiting God’s judgment on his life. Who will you learn from; who will you follow? Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar?
Mark 1:16-18: Becoming Fishers of Men
Mark 1:16-18 (NASB): "As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed Him."
“Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” How many have heard a sermon like this before? Anybody heard a sermon about “follow me” and “fishers of men?” But what is often missed are the important words between “follow me” and “fishers of men.” “Follow me” is important because we are, after all, Christ-ians. And to be involved in the process of bringing someone to forgiveness in Christ is special and also important.
But I want to focus on the words between that are often skipped—“I will make you become.” These are key words of what Jesus has to say. “I will make you become.” Three parts to this. First, “I will make.” “I.” Who is talking? Jesus. “Will.” This is Jesus promising to do something. “Make.” Jesus will form something that previously did not exist. As a potter ‘forms’ the clay, Jesus will ‘form’ something. It will be His handiwork.
This is Jesus speaking. When He says, “I will,” it is more than a declaration of intent. Being the Son of God He has the ability to make it happen. If a peasant promises to change your economic and political standing in the kingdom, you would understand him to mean that he promises to try. But if the king tells you that, then you know it will happen. So when Jesus says, “I will,” we can trust that what He is saying will come true.
And the part about “making” says that it is His effort and His handiwork. It is not, “Ok, try really hard to be a fisher of men.” Jesus says, “Just walk with me and I will make you a fisher of men.” It is His power in you. It is His spiritual gift to you. It is not you gutting it out and trying harder. It is God working in you and you letting out what God has planted there. It is not you being smarter and more talented than someone else. It is you allowing God to work in and through you. It is His handiwork but it is rooted in our following Him. Notice the word ”and.” “Follow me and I will make you….” It is conditional because if you are not following Him, He cannot make you. You have to put yourself on the potter’s wheel before the Potter can do a great work in your life. If you are not following Jesus, you are on your own. Do you recognize that? We do it all the time. We treat our relationship with God and spiritual issues like we do every other area of our lives—study more, try harder.
I like to consider myself a pretty smart guy. Electronically hooking things up, doing these kind of things. I had to hook up a cable box this week. I had to call Comcast because it was not working. It must be defective, I thought. Imagine my frustration when I discovered I forgot to hook up the main cable. I hooked up all the other forty wires but forgot the main cable that comes out of the wall into the machine. I couldn’t believe it. But looking back, this was a perfect illustration of what is wrong with many Christians today. They are not connected with God. God sometimes gives us illustrations like that, doesn’t he?
I should have checked to make sure the machine was getting power but did not. I did not check because I was expecting it NOT to work. This is important. I was expecting it not to work. So, when I hooked all those wires up and it did not work, I was not surprised. It would have worked if I had hooked it up correctly the first time, but when you do not expect it to work, you are not surprised. You just kind of let it go. In the same way many of us do not expect the Holy Spirit to make a difference in our lives. Jesus said, “Follow Me.” That is our part. If you follow Him, He will make. It is rooted in following Him.
Secondly, “I will make you.” That is the beautiful thing here. It is “you.” We have different gifts, different abilities. We have different lives to live and God’s design for each of us is different. He knows you. It is personal. It is unique. There is no assembly line Christianity. There is holiness. There is godliness. There is also individuality—God and you moving through life together. “I will help you. I will transform your life.”
Thirdly, “I will make you become.” This word “become” is not in Luke’s or Matthew’s version. It is “I will make you fishers of men.” But here in Mark, by Peter’s guidance, Mark says, “I will make you become fishers of men.” Peter sees that it is not an instant transformation. Jesus guides Peter, directing him one step at a time, until he grew to the point where he could become a fisher of men. There was progressive growth. Peter saw the transition, the transformation that took place in his life that it was not instantaneous. Progressive growth. You will become fishers of men. Another way of saying it is, “Follow me and you will become more and more like me, a fisher of men.” God has bigger plans and a better life planned for you but you must follow Him.
So often we feel like our goal in life is to just get through it. You have projects at home, you have a job, you have families, you have kids, you have parents, you have all these things going on. You are just trying to get through as if getting through is the goal. But can I tell you a secret? You are all going to get through it. The goal is not simply getting through. The goal is doing something productive while you are getting through it. God has bigger plans and a better life for you than you have on your own. You can think of what you want to do, what you want to be, but God has a better idea. I wanted to build hot rods all my life. God said, “Well, you can build hot rods or you can build lives. Hot rods are going to rot and rust and corrode and break down. People are forever.” The investments you make in people here go on forever.
“I will make you fishers of men.” Peter could have had the best fishing business. One of the misunderstandings about Peter, James, and John is that they were uneducated, itinerate fishermen. No, these guys are running a good business. In fact, they may be one of the major suppliers of dried fish for all of Jerusalem. Where does Jerusalem get its fish from? From the Sea of Galilee. I guess they could fish in the Jordan River but I have seen the Jordan River and you are not going to feed a city out of the Jordan River. Sometimes it is barely a trickle. They would catch the fish, dry them and then transport them to Jerusalem. How do we know that? One clue is that even though John and James lived in Galilee, they are known by the high priest and the high priest’s household in Jerusalem. I surmise from this that they had a business selling their fish in Jerusalem and, therefore, were well-known. These guys may have had one of the best fish businesses in Jerusalem.
But does that account for a hill of beans? For eternity? No. You can have the biggest business, you can be the most successful businessman or businesswoman in this world and it will not matter for anything unless you are using what you have to glorify God and help people (Luke 12:13-21). If you want to truly be rich, invest in people for the glory of God. What you gain will then last forever.
The last thing I want to bring up is that this verse starts out with some very important words. “As he was going.” This is talking about Jesus. As Jesus was going, He passed by Galilee and saw Peter and Andrew and He starts ministering to them. “As he was going.” Just in the normal course of life, He comes across Peter and Andrew and James and John and ministers to them. He essentially tells them, “As we go, I will teach you what it means to be my disciple. As we go through life, you will learn what it means to follow Me.” This is the same thing it says in Matthew 28 when Jesus tells His disciples what to do. We all learn from the King James where it says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to obey.” But literally the words there are the same as “as you are going.” It is another participle. “As you are going about your life, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.” It is not “go” to Irianjaya. It is not “go” to Guatamala. It is as you are going through life minister to others. This does not mean missionaries are not needed. They are! But even missionaries are to minister and disciple as they live their lives in a foreign land. As He was going, He made disciples. And that is the command He gives to us.
For many of us that is welcome news because you have not felt a call to be a missionary or pastor. You just have to listen to God and follow Him for your life, right where you are, doing what you are doing. God has put you in a strategic place for you to minister where perhaps no one else can. Somewhere I cannot. As you live your life teach others to follow Him.
Mark 3:22-30: The Unforgiveable Sin
Mark 3:22-30: “And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.’ So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: ‘How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.’ He said this because they were saying, ‘He has an evil spirit.’”
Is there a sin that God will not forgive? I mean, God will forgive anything, won’t He? It says that Jesus died for all our sins. But is there a sin that is unforgivable? And how can we make sure we have not done it? Have you ever done something and said, “Man, I do not know if God could ever forgive me for that?” The passage we are looking at in Mark says, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” That does not sound like Jesus, does it? It sounds like the finger-pointing Pharisees. “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” What does that mean? What does Jesus have in mind? Is He serious or is He trying to make a point? Is He exaggerating? Is it hyperbole or is there something that is unforgivable? Is there a sin that the cross will not cover?
Open your Bible to Mark 3:22. To understand what blaspheming the Holy Spirit means, we need to understand the context in which Jesus said it. “And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul and he cast out demons by the ruler of demons.’” It says, “The scribes came down from Jerusalem.” They have heard about this renegade preacher who has been teaching things not in line with their traditions and interpretations of the law so they were sent by the Jewish leaders to investigate. They want to know if the people are being seduced by a false teacher. And if convicted of that, they will send a delegate of Pharisees to drive him out.
Who were the Scribes? In the New Testament period the scribes were teachers and authoritative leaders. Mark portrays them as high officials, advisors to the chief priests and teachers of the Law. They were appendages of the Pharisees, learned men whose main goal was to protect Judaism. Rather than seekers of the truth they were knowledgeable of and protective of the status quo. It is clear from the many witnesses that the scribes had authority because they had knowledge of all things pertaining to Judaism. They sought to preserve Judaism against opponents like Jesus. Like the high priests and religious officials, they had a vested interest in the continuation of Judaism.
In previous verses in Mark we saw that the Jewish religious leaders began to conspire with the Herodians how they might put Jesus to death. So they have made up their mind about Him. Now they are looking for evidence to build a case against Jesus. So they send the scribes who are the ‘experts’ in interpreting the Scriptures. They concerned themselves with every dotted i and crossed t. Since they did not have printing presses back then, the Old Testament scribes were the ones who copied the Scriptures word for word. If anyone can catch Jesus in a falsehood or error they can.
After listening to Jesus and witnessing His healings, they say He is possessed by Beelzebul. Beelzebul is a takeoff of Beelzebub. Beelzebub is the chief Philistine god. Do you remember Goliath? He was a Philistine. Beelzebub was the god of fertility and strength and was represented by the image of a bull. It was their strongest god. Beelzebub means the “high one in the temple.” But the Jews called him Beelzebul in mockery. Beelzebul means “lord of the flies.” It was their way of saying he was a bunch of baloney, ‘crapola’ if you will. He is a liar, full of hot air. And that is what they are saying about Jesus—He is full of hot air and teaching lies.
And it says, “… he cast out demons by the ruler of the demons.” Who is the ruler of the demons? Satan. Jesus immediately addresses this accusation. What we do not catch in Mark, because Mark is the condensed version, is that this scene happens right after Jesus heals a demon-possessed man who was mute and blind. He touched him and cast out the demon and the man saw and spoke before their eyes. The scribes cannot deny what happened. Everyone there saw it. But what does it mean? How can they square the power Jesus exhibits with the teaching that they have rejected? There are two choices, and only two. Either the power validates what Jesus is teaching and they are wrong or they are right and the power comes from a deceiving spirit. To justify themselves they conclude the power comes from the other side, from the enemy. They are saying that Jesus is not just a misguided false teacher but an instrument of the devil sent to deceive the people.
Jesus replies with a logical argument. “What you are saying makes no sense. You are saying I am casting out demons by the power of Satan? But everything I do is against that. I am working contrary to what Satan is trying to do. How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” Essentially He is saying: “This is not a civil war. There is a battle going on but it is between enemies. It is God against the evil one. And if Satan rises up against himself he divides his own side. He becomes instrumental in his own demise. Do you not see everything I am saying is against the kingdom of Satan?’” Then He goes on in verse 27, “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house.” That makes sense. Bind the one who will oppose you and you will have freedom to move about the house. Who is the strong man in this case? The strong man is Satan. Does Satan have power and control in this world? Yes, he does. Jesus calls him the “prince of this world” (John 12:31) and Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls him the “god of this world.”
He goes on in verse 28, “Truly I say to you, all sin shall be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of the eternal sin.” The context of Jesus’ declaration is their statement that He has an unclean spirit. Jesus says they are guilty of an unpardonable sin. But what exactly does this mean? The unforgiveable sin is not murder, suicide, abortion, or divorce. I was trained to think that the unforgivable sin is the rejection of Jesus Christ. That is close to the answer but it is not the answer. It hits the nail but not on the head. It kind of bends it a little bit. Do you know anybody who has rejected Jesus at some point but is still saved? How about Peter? Did Peter reject Jesus? “I do not even know the man.” How about Paul? Paul did not just deny him verbally. He spent years of his life trying to snuff out Christians, trying to kill the Christian movement. He spent years doing this, denying that Jesus was the Messiah. To him, Jesus was just a renegade Rabbi who deserved to be snuffed out. Paul was taught by the Pharisees and the Scribes. He rejected Jesus but something happened, something changed him. Therefore, the rejection of Jesus is not the unforgivable sin. In fact, Matthew 12:31-33, the passage that is parallel to Mark 3, says, “Anyone who speaks a word against the son of man can be forgiven.” So there is forgiveness for rejecting Jesus because one can repent later and accept Him for who He is—like Paul. Forgiveness is still available for someone who has rejected Jesus but it is not available for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
If the unpardonable sin is not rejecting Jesus Christ, then what is it? We need to look closer at these verses to make sure we understand the context of Jesus’ statement. Again, Matthew 12:29 says, “But the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is speaking against with malice and hurt. It is defaming, destroying the reputation of someone. And then verse 32a: “But anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven neither in this age or the age to come.” So, what exactly is happening before Jesus makes His declaration? Mark 3:30 says, “Because they were saying he has an unclean spirit.” It is not simply because they uttered those words but because that is the condition of their heart. The hardness and unbelief in their heart caused their mind to seek a reason to dismiss Jesus. Hardened unbelief will grasp the irrational in order to maintain its independence. It is an expression of their heart when they say, “The Holy Spirit is not in this man. He is doing these things by the power of Satan.” Literally, what they are doing is declaring God’s Holy Spirit to be an evil, lying spirit and that they reject His internal witness and offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.
So then, what is the bottom line? What is the unforgivable sin? There is not forgiveness for rejecting forgiveness. Forgiveness based on God’s grace, and only God’s grace, is available but not accepted with prejudice. Forgiveness is hostily rejected. For such a person, what more can God do? Nothing. “For there is no other name under heaven whereby people can be saved.” “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.” God has planned and provided the way for forgiveness; a plan that has been in place since the beginning. You can trace it all the way through the Old Testament and then through the New Testament into our lives today. You can see how simple and how open it is. But if you choose to reject it, there is no forgiveness available.
Remember, nothing we do can make us worthy of God’s presence. We have to be made to be like His Son, Jesus Christ. His holiness cannot tolerate our moral and spiritual crookedness and the sin that comes from it. Even voicing that we want Jesus Christ to be our Savior does not “get us to heaven.” It is God’s work on our behalf that “gets us to heaven.” It is God’s remaking of us, His transformation of us “that gets us to heaven.” And He has promised to transform those who receive the forgiveness that is available in the work and person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If your opposition to God and His ways reaches the point where you think He is the evil one then you are hopelessly lost.
Acts 3 and 4 records that their unbelief continued after Jesus’ crucifixion. As Peter was nearing Jerusalem, he saw a crippled man and the man said, “Please help. Please help. Alms to the poor.” And Peter says, “Gold and silver have I none, but what I have I give unto you. Rise and walk.” And the man got up and started walking. Upon seeing this, the Scribes and the Pharisees got upset and said, “Wait a minute. You cannot do that. By whose power, in whose name are you doing these things?” And they hauled them off to, if you remember, Ananias and Caiphas, the high priest. And Peter says, “Why are we here? Oh yeah, because a crippled man is now walking. He is walking by the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom you crucified. He who is to be the cornerstone has become your stumbling stone. You would not receive him and so you have fallen down and now your fate is sealed.” He goes on in 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” If you step out from under the blanket of God’s provision, then you are on your own and when you die you will remain as you are—an unforgiven sinner, opposed to God and His ways (Revelation 21:8).
The question is, who is the Lord? The Scribe declared that Jesus was not listening to God but He was listening to Satan. Jesus said clearly, “I am listening to the Father. All the things I am saying, all the things I am doing glorify Him. Look at what I am doing, listen to what I am saying.” The unforgivable sin is not only rejecting the internal witness of the Holy Spirit telling you that forgiveness is necessary and available through the work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, but to do so with malice and hatred. Forgiveness does not come through being good, meditating through Islam or Buddhism or something else. It does not come by following laws or strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing up others who disagree with you. It comes only through the grace of God provided in Jesus Christ, which makes it open for all mankind, every tribe, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9). Not something we earn, not something based upon us but based upon our reception of the grace and mercy of God.
Why is it called the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and not blasphemy against Jesus Christ? It is possible to misunderstand who Jesus is, like Paul, but that ignorance can be cured. However, it is called the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one who works through Jesus Christ. He is the one who brings us to truth in Scripture. He is the one that ministers to our hearts. Here it says that He draws us, brings us into relationships that help us understand who God is. The Holy Spirit is at work, encouraging, strengthening, and drawing us to the Father through the work of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son. To reject that witness is to snub Him and call Him a liar.
Can God make it any more simple? “Lord, forgive me. I want a relationship with you. I want to be part of your family. I want to be a part of what you have planned. I want to live in a world that is governed by you, where you are in control. I would rather be in a world where you are having the influence and the control. I need your control over me. Remake me to be like your Son.” We all need God’s control over us. That is what makes it heaven rather than church. That is what makes it heaven rather than just a long time on earth. God’s ways are the best ways. Do you agree? Or not?
Mark 4:35-41: Facing Life’s Storms
We are going to look at the storms that come into our lives that pull us away from God, that cause us to focus on the things that are tearing us down and forgetting about the One who wants to lift us up. To help us understand what God wants for us when we face these difficulties that come into our lives, we are going to look at the story of Jesus calming the waters. Below is my translation of Mark 4:35-41 based on the context of the situation and information gained from other scriptural passages.
Mark 4:35-41: “After teaching all day, evening came and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So, still in the boat, they set sail, leaving the crowds behind though other boats followed. A furious storm then came up and the waves were crashing over the top and into the boat. The boat was filling with water, about to sink but Jesus was in the back sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him up. They cried, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up and ordered the wind to stop and said to the waves, ‘Hush. Be still.’ Suddenly the winds stopped and there was a great calm. He said to His disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Don’t you have any faith at all?’ And they were awestruck, asking each other, ‘Who is this guy? Even the wind and the waves obey Him.’”
From the words of this passage we are going to get indications of how storms come into our lives and how God expects and equips us to deal with them. If we go back to the very first verse of this chapter, we see that Jesus meets the crowd at the seashore and there are so many people that He has to get into a boat and get pushed off shore so He can talk to the people who are there. And He spends all day teaching the people and the disciples are with Him. It was a long day for everyone. At evening Jesus tells them to sail to the other side. Not the best time to be sailing, especially if a storm occurs. A storm during the day is bad enough, but at night when landmarks cannot be seen and navigation is difficult it can be deadly. It is easy to get disoriented and lost. As we read this passage we will see that even seasoned fisherman were frightened by what was occurring around them.
I ask you an important question. Who is responsible for those guys being out in the middle of the storm? Whose idea was it to go out in the boat in the middle of the night? Jesus said, “Let us go.” I want you to catch this. Jesus said, “Let us go” and they were obedient and went. They said, “Ok, Master, we will go as you say, when you say, where you say.” Storms come even when we are obedient, when we are doing all the right things. “Lord, you said to do this. Why is it not working out? Why isn’t everything smooth in my life?” “I taught my kids what you told me to teach them. I did the best I could. Lord, what happened?” Storms come even when we are obedient. Storms come even when we are right in the middle of God’s will.
You are confused because you are exactly where Jesus wants you to be, but you are still going through a storm. That does not sound very encouraging, does it? Most of us think we want to be right in the middle of God’s will so everything will run smoothly. If you are in the middle of God’s will, you should have nothing to worry about. Right? Some Christians teach this. But is this a correct view? The disciples were following Jesus’ commands and the storm still came. The disciples were with Jesus and the storm still came.
It was a bad storm that the men fought as long as they could. They knew Jesus had a long day and let Him sleep. But things were getting out of control so they decided to wake Him. “Jesus, do you not even care? We are about to drown here and you are sleeping. Do you not care? We thought you loved us.” They should have known that storms are not signs that God does not love us. You cannot say, “God is getting after me now. God is really ticked at me now because look what is happening.” Look at Job. Job was a righteous man. God was on his side but, wow, did he go through some storms. But you know what? Why do we know about Job? Why do we care about Job? Because what he went through is an inspiration to us. God used him to teach generations about the mystery of suffering and storms. Sometimes they are not of our doing—reaping what we sow. There were reasons behind Job’s suffering that had nothing to do with punishment and personal sin.
Notice what it says. “And then Jesus ordered the wind to stop and the waves to be calm.” Literally He says, “Hush.” We know it as “peace, be still.” But the peace He is talking about is silence. “Shhh.” That is all He has to say. Storms are only a breath away from resolution. It is just the breath of God and all is still, in His time, in His way. We can try to resolve it ourselves, but if we are not allowing God to resolve it with us, it is going to create negative unintended consequences. Remember Rebecca. Remember David. Remember Abraham. Jesus ordered it. He spoke over it. The storm ended.
The passage continues and here is where I have a problem with this whole incident. I really had to work for hours trying to sort this out because Jesus’ statement to them seems critical and I do not know why. As far as I can see, they have been doing the right things. They have gone where Jesus said to go, they were rowing and putting up with the storm. They are baling the boat. I think they are even praying. I want to say at this point, which is not mentioned here, is that I think they were praying. I think they were praying their hearts out. If you have been in a storm where you are feeling out of control, every breath you are praying, “Lord, help. Lord, help, all the way through.” Just like those sailors in the story of Jonah. So, what are they doing wrong? What is the problem here?
Contrary to what many think, you can be praying and still go through storms. I wish praying averted all problems but it does not. I wish I could fast and pray and not have any storms in my life. But I have found that not to be true. So, what are they missing? They just keep on baling and rowing and trusting God. They stayed on the track that God gave them. I have a hard time finding they did anything wrong. What I find to be a more reasonable explanation is that they were just human and when storms come our faith tends to evaporate. Literally, Jesus is saying here, “Where did your faith go? You were full of faith a few hours ago when we set out. You were full of faith a while back. Where did your faith go?”
I know I can relate to that. When storms come my way, when something happens I do not like, I say, “God, why did you not stop that from happening?” And faith starts to evaporate. Anybody else experience that? When things are easy, faith is full. But when storms come--“Lord, I know you have been faithful for the last fifty years, but today is different. I know you took care of me last year, but this is more extreme. Now it is going to be harder.” Same God. Another storm, but faith wanes. I do not think they did anything wrong. I think Jesus set up this whole incident to teach these men that truth. Don’t forget, it will be these men who will go to far away and hostile lands with the gospel of Christ. And most of them will be martyred, some dying in brutal ways. This storm was not punishment for sins committed but training for future tasks yet to be accomplished.
I think they did exactly the right thing by calling upon Jesus. I mean, how much longer does Jesus want them to wait before they call on Him? Until they sink? I do not think so. I think they did all the right things. I think they were just humans overwhelmed by their circumstances. They needed to grow in their faith and it is through this that Jesus is growing them. The same way He grows us through troubles, through the storms we go through. They were just growing. Jesus asked them, “Why are you so afraid?” Here the word for afraid basically means timid. I think these sailors were brave and courageous but they are saying, “We are going down and we need help!” By His actions Jesus assures them, “Do not worry. I have not forsaken you.”
Storms tend to take our eyes off God. Do you recognize that when you keep staring at the bank statement, staring at the credit cards, staring at the problem. you take your eyes off God? Jesus is literally asking them, “Do you have any faith at all?” The King James says, “O ye of little faith.” Well, the “little” there actually means zero. “Where did your faith go? It was here just a minute ago. Where did it go?” Storms will either dissolve or resolve your faith. Faith that dissolves is like water running through your fingers. It is just gone.
Do you recognize that faith is not a feeling? Can you be afraid and be faithful? Yes, because faith is not a feeling. “Oh, I just feel so faithful.” “Ok, here comes a storm. How do you feel now?” Faith is action. Faith is doing the right thing in the face of fear. Faith is doing it God’s way rather than the easy way. Courage is doing the right thing in spite of fear. Courage is not being fearless. Courage is saying, “I will not let fear control me. I will do the right thing. I will do what I am supposed to do despite the fear. I will conquer the fear that is real, that is there, with courage and with faith.”
So Jesus says, “Hush, be still” and everything calms down. And these disciples, it says, are awestruck. It says they were “extremely fearful” upon seeing what Jesus did. The Greek says three words--mega phobo phobic. In Greek, when you say something twice it means it is extreme. Mega means great, large. Mega phobo phobic--fearfully fearful. They were just dumbfounded. Storms display the power and the presence of God. All the power of that storm was overcome by the “Hush, be still” of Jesus. This is a different breed of person who can speak to the wind, speak to the waves and they do what He says. It was utterly incomprehensible that this could happen. He speaks to nature and it is under His control. Who is this guy? He is not just an ordinary man. He is Lord of creation. He can control it all. He holds it all together. He can change it, move it, do with it whatever He desires and He still can but He is also Lord of hearts—His main priority. He comes to minister to our hearts even amid the storms.
Sometimes He calms our storms, but until those things get settled, He will calm our hearts. He will care for us amid the storms. He will use them in our lives to develop our character and strength but He will also calm our hearts through them. Know that He cares. Know that He is capable and know that He is at work in your life. Much as a coach trains an athlete to excel in his or her sport, the Lord trains us. But instead of having you run or lift more, the Lord may use storms to train us for future circumstances that will come our way that we might be triumphant in them—that we might please and glorify Him. Faith that survives the storms becomes even more deep-seeded in our hearts. Do not let faith be short-circuited by fear in your heart.
Mark 10:32-39: The Father’s Plan
Mark 10:32-39: “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ he said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.' 'You don’t know what you are asking,' Jesus said. 'Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?' 'We can,' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.’”
Life is made up of choices. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus is choosing a road. He comes to a fork in the road and has to choose which way to go. Is He going to take the road to Galilee or to Jerusalem? Is He going to go back home to Nazareth? One road will take Him home to family, to His job, to security, to maybe a future family, to all kinds of things that we all strive for, that we live for, to follow the human course. The other road will take Him to Jerusalem which will take Him to betrayal, suffering, insult, and a death sentence. And He knows this ahead of time. Thank God that Jesus did not take the easy way out. He chose to go to Jerusalem. He knew what was waiting for Him but went anyway. Jesus knows at this point He is facing four weeks of life. He has four weeks left to live.
What if you got a phone call this afternoon or tomorrow morning and the doctor tells you, “We found something on your CAT scan. It is inoperable. You have four weeks left to live.” Would it change your life? I mean, would it change your perspective? Would it change your focus? Would it change the things you are worried about and concerned about? What would become important to you then? Would the scrape on your car or the cobwebs in your garage be much of an issue to you anymore? What would become the important things?
As Jesus looks at the last four weeks of His life, His eye is on the cross. It is a pretty incredible story. He has four weeks left. He is going to hand the baton off to these guys who do not seem to understand. Looking from the outside, an observer would shake his head and say, “No way!” But it is important to recognize that God has a plan. This is not a story that unfolded at random. This plan was designed by the Father “before the foundations of the world.” It makes sense to us because we are looking at it from the other side of history. But to the disciples His plan was unfathomable, even ridiculous.
The unfathomable plan of God. I love that word “unfathomable.” Unfathomable. It is so deep you cannot reach the bottom of it. And even when you have reached it and you grab a hold of it, you are not sure if you really have it. For the disciples, the plan does not make sense. Jesus keeps telling them what is going to happen and they say, “What?” They just do not get it. From our side, we take it as history and we see how things line up. We look at the Old Testament and see the prophecies. It fits. The disciples do not have the history. They have the prophecies but their preconceptions cloud their view. That the Messiah is going to die and suffer and be killed does not fit with their view of a triumphant King. That He is going to ‘lose’ is unthinkable. The Messiah is of the line of David. He is the winner in life. He is the one who establishes a kingdom. He is the one who brings peace and prosperity to the land. He is the one who clears out all the enemies. He is like David who defeated Goliath and the Philistines. He is the winner. He is like Gideon and Moses. He brings truth and established it. We follow Him through the wilderness. And He is going to get His beard pulled out? Get scourged? Die? It did not make sense.
The Messiah is supposed to make a difference and He has not done that yet. In fact, He is just getting started. It has just been a few short years. He taught a lot of people but there are still so many more to teach. There is still so much more sickness to heal. There are so many more disciples to make. There is so much more to do. There is no way He will die. It makes no sense. It is unfathomable. What good is a dead Messiah? A living Messiah can be rallied around, but a dead one?
The Father’s unfathomable plan can be traced back to Isaiah. In fact, it starts in Genesis but it is pinpointed with great detail for Jesus in Isaiah. Remember Jesus’ first sermon in His hometown of Nazareth? After preaching throughout the area and performing miracles in Capernaum He came to Nazareth, the village where He grew up, His boyhood home. He is selected from the congregation to read from the scrolls so He chooses Isaiah 61:1-2a. After reading the passage He rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant, and sat down. And with everyone’s eyes on Him He declared Himself to be the fulfillment of what was written; that He is the Messiah. They became enraged and attempted to throw Him off a cliff but He slipped away from them (Luke 4:14-30). But the most significant part of this passage is that Jesus knew who He was and what was in store for Him—the rejection, beatings, scourging, and crucifixion. All were prophesied to happen to the Messiah. Isaiah 50:5-7 records the Messiah’s, Jesus’, response. “The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away. I give my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pull out my beard. I do not hide from shame, for they mock me and spit in my face. Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be dismayed. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will triumph.”
Isaiah declared what the servant is going to go through and that whoever the Messiah was going to be, He understood who He was. Jesus understood who He was. And as Isaiah declares, He is willing to do the Father’s will. And Jesus’ life and ministry bore that out. It all comes down to Jesus choosing to say yes to the Father; choosing the hard but necessary way. His eye was on the cross from the beginning. It was what moved Him to say “no” to Satan’s offer of the easy way in Matthew 4 and “no” to Peter’s military solution in John 18.
“And again, he took the twelve and told them what was going to happen to him” (Mark 10:32b). He knew where this all was going to lead and He did not want His disciples to think His death was a failure. Mark 10:33-34: “When we get to Jerusalem the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of the religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. They will mock him, spit on him, beat him with their whips, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.” We read this passage in Mark and we ask, “How can it be anymore clear?” And what happens next? Verse 35-37: “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. ‘Teacher’, they said, ‘we want you to do us a favor.’ ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘In your glorious Kingdom, we want to sit in places of honor next to you,’ they said, ‘one at your right and the other at your left.’” Huh? Let us change the subject. Let us look at something else. I do not like the conversation. Let us just change the channel. We know this cannot happen because He is the Messiah, so something else has to be going on. I do not want to know about this. And so they turn a deaf ear to what is going on. His eye was on the cross, but the disciples’ eyes were on Kingdom glory. They were blinded to what was coming next.
The disciples watched Jesus say yes to the Father and Jesus told them, “Pick up your cross and follow me.” They did not fully understand what that meant but they would after the resurrection. They were to do what does not come naturally, to defy the natural instinct of preserving one’s own life, but give self for the blessing and benefit of others. He tells them, “It is not all about you. It is about showing My love to the world.” And that is why He tells James and John in Mark 10:39a, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with ...." We find fulfillment ourselves as we give and sacrifice for others.
The disciples were astonished, the disciples were terrified, the disciples were oblivious and so my question to you is, Do you follow in their footsteps? How often do God-leadings happen around you and you just do not see? We are so wrapped up in our own plans and our own ideas and our own thoughts and what we care about and what is really important to us we do not care what is important to God. We do not care about others. We are not focusing on Him or His ways.
This last week Jim Budzynski shared a story that I want to share with you. He was having a bad day on Monday; one of those days where everything was going wrong. Everyone seemed to have a problem and would come to him and expect him to fix it and he had no solutions. It was not a good day. He prayed in the morning, “Lord, I know I have a bad attitude, fix me. Help me, Lord.” But God did not just turn the light on. Bing! He goes through a long day and finally it was 5:00. He was ready to leave and go home. He leaves the back of his shop and is circling his car getting ready to leave when a guy with a one-gallon gas can and a check says, “I have this check and I have this gas can and I am out of gas. My truck ran out of gas and I have my daughter’s bike and rode it over here. She is sitting right over there but I was just wondering if someone could help me with getting some gas.” And Jim goes, “Ah, not again.” You ever been there? I mean, you are at the end of your rope and then somebody wants some help. He takes him to Cumberland Farms and the guy gets the gas can out. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a dollar bill. Jim says, “Ah, ok, Lord. I can spring for $3 and give him a whole gallon.” Jim goes in and pays the money to get the can filled and comes back and asks the man about himself. The guy says, “Well, you know I have been looking for a job. I got laid off. I have my mom and my daughter. We are just trying to get by.” Then as he is coming back to Jim’s shop he sees the daughter’s bicycle still sitting on the side of the building and the whole time the guy had been distracted and waiting to make sure his daughter’s bicycle was not stolen. Here is a beat-up, little 24-inch pink bicycle but it is all his daughter has and he is so relieved to see it is still there when he got back. Then Jim reached in his pocket and gave him another $20 and said, “Hey man, go get some milk. Get some food for your daughter. Get some more gas and go with God.” And it changed Jim’s day. Yes, the guy got his needs met and we do not know what will happen to him or his daughter in the future or how this incident will impact their lives but it made a difference in Jim’s life. It made a difference in his week. He was called to be a blessing to somebody and God changed his heart and attitude in the process.
Some of you have been making wrong choices one after another after another for a long time. But realize, you do not have to turn around and backtrack for 5 years, 20 years or however long you have been walking away from God. He will take you and put you on the right road from where you are. In front of you today are two roads, the world’s way and God’s way. Who are you going to listen to? You get to choose today. You do not have to backtrack. He says, “Today I am ready, I am ready for you. Will you start to choose my way? Will you listen to my voice?” And watch what Jesus will do. Watch what God will do. The Sovereign Lord will help. You have the God of creation who watched over Jesus and carried Him through horrendous stuff watching over you. You may not feel important. You are just one in a million. One in a hundred thousand in this area, but God knows you by name and is watching over you. He cares about each and every one of His children. But like the prodigal son, you must choose to stay and work alongside your heavenly Father.
Brokenness Healed
Brokenness Stated
Romans 7:14-20: "So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."
Brokenness Healed
Isaiah 53:5: "But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed."
Everywhere Jesus goes, He is faced with the brokenness of humanity. And Jesus is barraged by people who want fixes. Heal me, fix me, take care of my mess. Can you put me back together again? Brokenness comes to us from all different directions and all different categories in all different quantities. Brokenness comes to us in broken promises, broken dreams, broken rules, broken trust, broken hearts, broken families, broken relationships, broken homes, broken vows and that is just the start because each one of these breaks, breaks something else along the way. Our brokenness has real world consequences. People suffer hurt and heartache because of the outflow of our brokenness. Our world, our hearts, our lives are broken.
Jesus came to heal our brokenness (Isaiah 53:5). But for Him to do that, He needs our permission because He has created us with free will. And until we turn our will over to Him, our brokenness will remain. It is important to realize that we need to be changed; that you need to be changed. God will work on us. But what does He require? He said it very simply in Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It is not complicated. He has written this on our hearts (Romans 2:15) and in the Old Testament He plainly spells it out in numerous passages (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, for example). But the brokenness within chooses otherwise. Instead of living justly, enacting mercy, and walking humbly with God, Jesus saw injustice, cruelty, and arrogance. Jesus came to His own and He found brokenness all around Him.
Jesus prophesied in Mark chapter 8 when He said, “You say I am the Christ, the sent one, but I tell you that I will be rejected by the elders and the priests and the scribes and be beaten and suffer and be crucified and the third day I will rise.” He names three groups of people who will reject Him—elders, priests, and scribes. The elders are the people that everyone looked up to. They are the ones who have experience, make wise choices. They would be the ones you go to for advice. I am thinking about buying this house. Who should I talk to? I am thinking about getting a new car. Who should I talk to? I am thinking about moving to Cincinnati. Who should I talk to? Who has been through this kind of stuff? Who has made major decisions in their life and made wise choices because those are the people I want to go to. And these are the people who become schemers against Jesus. The people who should be the most respected, who are the most respected, you see their brokenness as they scheme to kill the Father’s Son. And then the priests, those who are supposed to be the most spiritual, those who represent God before the people, who take the people before God, who speak God’s words to them, show their corruption by bribing the greedy and slaying the innocent. The priests, ironically, become the most corrupt. And then the scribes, those who take God’s word and are copying it day in and day out, studying it and working it to make sure they understand what God wants, what God is trying to say, become blind. They ignore all the prophecy about who the Messiah is and what He will do. Those who are the most learned become blind, close minded and dead to God’s very word.
But what is most troubling are the people right around Jesus. It is the men who are closest to Him. Judas, I would say the most trusted of all the disciples, the one who was put in charge of the money, who is above reproach in the eyes of the other disciples, betrays Jesus with a kiss. When Jesus said, “I will be betrayed this very night,” and Judas got up and walked out the disciples still did not suspect him. He was above reproach because they did not really know him. But Jesus did. Jesus knew he was a thief (he was stealing their money--John 12:6). And Jesus knew he never accepted the gospel of grace. Judas wanted a warrior king not a crucified Christ. He wanted power not forgiveness. So when Satan approached him to give Jesus up, he found a willing participant. Judas showed his brokenness by walking with the Son of God for three years and instead of humbly trusting the plan of God sought to arrogantly enact his own.
Peter and John, the bravest, the most courageous, the ones closest to Jesus, the ones that Jesus takes with Him most on missionary journeys, become the deniers of Him. We know that Peter denies Him. We remember the story but John records that John is the one who gets Peter into the house where Jesus was taken to stand before Caiaphas. John is the one who is known by the high priest so he was able to gain entry. But the high priest does not know him as a follower of Jesus. They recognize Peter as a follower of Jesus but the high priest personally knows John but does not know he is a follower of Jesus. John betrays Jesus by his silence. Just by keeping a low profile. Just by not letting his affiliation with Jesus being known. What about the rest of the disciples? They all scattered when Jesus was taken. All who had followed Him for those three years desert Him and leave Him alone to be taken before the judges. Do you see the darkness, the blackness that surrounds Jesus on the night of His betrayal? He sees everyone who should be doing all the right things exhibit their brokenness by not standing with God’s righteous Servant. It is a dark and broken world out there. And that is because it is a dark and broken world in here, in our hearts.
Jesus endured the cross so that our brokenness can be healed. That is the good news--Jesus came to heal our brokenness. But He is not like a self-help guru or religious leader who promises to bring the best out of us. Our brokenness requires more than that. It requires more than increased effort. It requires redemption and forgiveness. Jesus wants something more for us. The brokenness that surrounded Him moved Him to action. It moved Him to endure the cross. As Isaiah 53:5 tells us, He was pierced, crushed, beaten and whipped for our healing. As the New Testament tells us, the Good News is about more than rescue from condemnation, although it includes that (Romans 8:1), healing and transformation into the image of Christ is the ultimate objective; our wholeness is the goal. And that so that we can fellowship with God.
Sin breaks the Father’s heart. Sin is wrong. Our rebellion hurts us and hurts others that He deeply loves. And worst of all it separates us from Him. We think it is just a little thing. But our Father sees the repercussions of our sin. He sees the whole picture. Sin should break our heart. Do you recognize that He bore the pain for our sin on His back, on His shoulders, on His arms, in His side, in His hands? He bore the penalty for us and it was costly.
God has a cure for brokenness. It is the application of redemption to our hearts and lives. But practically what does that look like? Four things. The first is very simple. It is confession. Say, “Lord, I am broken. Forgive me. I agree with You in your assessment of me. I am a sinner who is in rebellion against you.” Is that any surprise to anybody? “But Lord, I want to have a relationship with you. I confess that I do wrong. I have wrong thoughts. I have wrong attitudes. I have wrong behavior. Lord, forgive me.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). “Lord, thank you that the price has been paid. Thank you for applying it to my account.”
And secondly, commitment to change direction. “I want to go in your direction, Lord. I commit to walking with You.” The old fashioned word for this is repentance (Acts 20:21). As Hebrews 6:1 states, the foundation of the Christian’s new walk with God is repentance. First Peter 1:14-21: “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
Thirdly, pull yourself into community, to hang around the people who act and think the way you want to behave. You become like the people you hang with. The people that you walk with influence your thinking and thought patterns. So come alongside people who are going to lift you and carry you in the right direction. That is what community is all about. “Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together” because we need each other (Heb. 10:25). How much easier it is to walk through life with the encouragement and support of others.
Fourthly, connection. Connection, not simply with each other but connection with Him for it is “His power that works in us” to do His will and work (Phil. 2:13). We need His power and strength in us to get through and make the choices we need to make. Confession, commitment, community, and connection that are rooted in the redemptive work of Christ are the cure for our brokenness.
Duel in the Desert: The Temptation of Jesus
Mark 1:12-13: “The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.”
Matthew 4:1-11: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But Jesus told him, ‘No! The Scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, “He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Jesus responded, ‘The Scriptures also say, you must not test the LORD your God.’ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ‘I will give it all to you,’ he said, ‘if you will kneel down and worship me.’ ‘Get out of here, Satan,’ Jesus told him. ‘For the Scriptures say, you must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’ Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.”
As we look at how Jesus handled temptation we will learn how we are to handle temptation when it comes into our lives. Matthew chapter four, verse one, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Does that sound a little odd to you? The Spirit leads Jesus where? Into the desert to be tempted? Don’t we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil?” And yet the Spirit is leading Jesus into the desert where He will be confronted by the devil.
We have to recognize that there is a difference between tempting and testing. Even though it is the same word in Greek, the meaning depends on the context and the intended purpose. When the purpose is to cause someone to fall it is tempting. Why? Because the goal is failure and defeat. But when the purpose is to confirm and strengthen it is testing. A story is told of a guy on a team of engineers who built a bridge. To test the strength of the bridge the manager calls for a train four times bigger than any train that is likely to cross its tracks to park on the bridge. The other workers challenged the wisdom of doing this but he insisted. “I am trying to prove it will not break. I am trying to establish its integrity. I am trying to show that it is trustworthy. I am trying to establish that you can get from here to there safely.” The manager was trying to prove that the bridge was able to fulfill its designed purpose. He did not want to read in the paper or receive a call that the bridge collapsed taking many people to their death—that the bridge failed to fulfill its function. Before the manager was able to endorse the bridge, it had to prove it was worthy of his approval. It was. And trains were crossing its tracks soon afterward.
Although God does not tempt us to sin, He does allow it to come into our lives. The world we live in will confront us almost daily with temptations to do something we should not do. We would have to be completely removed from this world in order to escape temptation. And sometimes Satan himself singles us out for special attention. Often we put ourselves in situations that make it easier for sin to overtake us. We ourselves open the door so opportunities for sin can walk into our lives.
When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, after fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. Jesus knows what it is like to be worn out. Jesus understands the battle that goes on in our lives and how it just wears and wears and grinds and grinds on us. That is why it says in Hebrews, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness but one who has been tempted in all things just as we are yet without sin.” We have a Redeemer who understands us.
Satan’s goal, as it was with Job, was to drive a wedge between Jesus and His Father—to cause a separation between them. To do this he tries three separate times to bring Jesus down. First, the tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As you go through this passage, I want you to recognize Satan is not tempting Jesus to lie, steal, or have an affair, even to lust after something. It is distrusting the plan of God. It is following Himself and His own desires rather than the Father’s desires for Him.
James 1:12-17 makes an important distinction for us: “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.” God never tempts us to do wrong. He will not bring that woman to you for adultery, or that opportunity to get rich quick by committing fraud or theft. These are illicit things that God does not use to strengthen us. God does not tempt toward illicitness. God places stress on legitimate areas of our lives to make us stronger and firm us up for future ministry for Him. Notice what happened to Job. God allowed Satan to put stress on Job’s life. He did not allow him to tempt Job toward illicitness. Job’s time was a time of testing and it was from God. Notice another thing. God already knew what was in Job. He did not need to put him through all that suffering to prove himself to Him. He was proving something to Satan. And although Satan meant the whole ordeal for evil God allowed it to honor Job and to include it in His Word for all time as an encouragement and lesson to His people.
And it goes on to the second temptation. “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, ‘The Scriptures also say (Deuteronomy 6:16), “Do not test the Lord your God.”’ Satan here is misapplying Scripture (Psalm 91:11-12). He is attempting to apply one Scripture out of context to Jesus’ life. As we see here Scripture limits Scripture. Satan will often take a Scripture and interpret it to mean something it does not—an extreme interpretation. Jesus teaches us that Scripture limits interpretations. Scripture nowhere states that it is a good idea to do stupid and risky things so that God can prove Himself to us or we can do whatever we want because God will always rescue us from ourselves. The best way I can say this is, God will not protect you from being stupid. He will help you not to be stupid. Jesus is telling us that it is wrong to make our own plan and demand that God save us from ourselves to prove Himself to us.
The third temptation: “Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ‘I will give it all to you,’ he said, ‘if you will kneel down and worship me.’” But Jesus answered, “Get out of here, Satan,” “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’” Satan was not only offering Jesus a shortcut, but he was subtly saying he was kinder and more reasonable that God. The way of God was going to be hard, filled with blood, sweat, and tears, while he would give the kingdoms of the world to Jesus if He would simply bow before him—no sweat, no mess, no tears. “Jesus, I do not want to fight with you. The kingdoms of this world are mine. I will give them to you. All you have to do is simply acknowledge me as your provider.” Notice the similarity to what he did to Eve. To Eve he questioned God’s goodness by withholding that tree from her. To Jesus he questioned God’s goodness because the plan of God for Jesus involved much suffering and pain. Like Eve, he promised an easier way. Eve was deceived; Jesus was not. Both the Father’s and the Son’s goal was more than ruling kingdoms. They wanted redemption and transformation of the human heart. And for that Jesus needed to die and have His blood poured out on the altar of God on our behalf.
There are several things I want to highlight in this passage. There have been volumes written about this but there are some things I have found to be very helpful as I look at this passage. Satan identifies himself by his actions and the things that he says. There are three different words given about whom the evil one is. First of all he is called in verse three, the Tempter. Secondly, he is called the Devil. Thirdly, he is called Satan. What is the difference? These words have different meanings and define his character and as you know his character, it tells you how he acts so you can recognize his voice when it comes to you.
Jesus’ challenger is a tempter. The best translation I can give you of that is manipulator. He will take words and twist them. He will attempt to force you, move your emotions and bring situations to bear that will cause you to walk away from God; that will manipulate you to do his will. We do not want to be manipulated, do not want to be controlled, do not want to be forced. The evil one wants to manipulate you to take you from goodness to evil, from God’s plan to your own plan, to help you see yourself as the god of your life. Satan does not care if you worship him or not. He just wants you not to worship God.
Secondly, Jesus’ challenger is a devil. In Hebrew it means accuser. It is diablos in Greek. I have always heard people explain that he is our accuser before God. “Ah, did you see what he did today? Did you see that? This guy is just hopeless.” He is our condemner. The devil is not a forgiver, a builder of broken lives. From him there are no promises of transformation and intimate personal relationship. He is incapable of offering those things because he is incapable of stretching out his arms for us as Jesus did at Calvary. But realize he is also the accuser of God before us. The first thing he did to Eve and Adam was to accuse God of being selfish and tyrannical by withholding good things from them. “God is not really good. God has made promises that He will not really keep. He is holding you down. You cannot really trust Him.” He told Eve that he had a better plan. He told Jesus that he had a better plan. The powers and abilities he has are great but in his pride he refuses to acknowledge that they were given to him by God. His initial wisdom has been turned into craftiness. He is the great schemer and manipulator. He is a creature who has corrupted the gifts God gave him. The devil is a pretentious fraud. He is the most evil of all, yet he has the gall to be the accuser of God and His children.
And then Satan means adversary. That is the number one name for him. The Adversary, the one who stands against God. We know he stands against us but he does so because he first stood against God. He first did so not because God did anything wrong but because he wanted the glory and place only God can occupy. After that he became God’s accuser and adversary in order to justify himself. Anything he can do to prove that God is not worthy of worship, that he should be honored as equal or above him he will do. Three names for Jesus’ challenger: Tempter, Devil, Satan. If you know who he is, then you can recognize his voice when you hear it. He will twist words, misquote Scripture, and entice toward illicitness. He is a crafty, self-deluded schemer, nothing more.
Did you notice in these verses one key word in all of them? Satan says, “if” several times. “If” you are really the Son of God; “if” you will just bow before me. It is the same way Satan questioned Eve in the garden. Did God really say? He just twists it enough so that the statement seems accurate but by close analysis you discover God did not really say it. Satan’s subtle attacks on Jesus teach us about his methods. He challenges God’s provision. “If you are really the Son of God, then take these stones and make them bread.” What is wrong with that? Later on Jesus takes bread and multiplies it and feeds five thousand. Later on He turns water into wine, so what is the problem with a little bread? The problem is the source of the bread. God told Israel when they left Egypt to never return for any reason. He told the kings of Israel to not return for horses or wives. Solomon ignored God and caused the kingdom to be divided. Jeremiah records that Israel’s return to Egypt was instrumental in their fall to Babylon. The source of the bread matters. Jesus did not argue with Satan. He saw through what he was trying to do and simply said, “Him only will I serve.” And that ended that!
Jesus gives us one answer and this is critical to get, one answer to all of temptation. “It is written.” That is why David says in Psalm 119, “Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.” That is why we talk about it. That is why we spend most of our time on Sunday morning talking about what God says in His Word. Why? Because if you do not know the truth, you will end up believing the lies. If you do not know what God says, then the seductiveness of error and sin will seem good to you. It is interesting that God told the Jews, “Write it on your foreheads and strap it to your arm and put it on the doorpost of your houses.” God’s Word was to govern their thoughts, their behavior, and their allegiances. It was their protection from going astray. It is our protection from going astray. And as Jesus demonstrated, it was His as well.
It all hinges then on your choice because God has given you the freedom to choose Him, to choose His way. Jesus holds His arms out and invites us to join Him. Revelation 3:20 says He stands at the door and knocks. God’s ways are not Satan’s ways. Satan’s lack of depth in his being means he cannot offer himself to us as God does. Satan is a true tyrant. Tyrants enforce their wills on others by aggressive means. Because with a tyrant his glory matters most. All others are mere instruments in his hands to propagate his will for his glory. His subjects die for him. They are pawns in his battle for fame, fortune, and glory. God is different. The Son of God who had all the power and glory gave it up (Phil. 2:1-11) to invite relationship. Satan grasps for himself. The Son of God released for us. The Father’s plan was the best for Jesus, and it is best for you, too.
Joseph of Arimathea: Risking it all for Jesus
Matthew 27:57-61: “As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.”
Mark 15:42-47: “It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.”
Luke 23:50-56: “Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
John 19:38-42: “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
Relatively little is said about Joseph of Arimathea. The above four passages are the only references we have in Scripture concerning him. But if we look at these passages closely we can learn a lot about this man. What personal descriptions are given: 1) he was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, 2) he was a good and upright man, 3) he did not agree that Jesus was a threat to Israel, a blasphemer, or worthy of death by crucifixion, 4) he was looking for the kingdom of God; or in other words, he responded to Old Testament revelation concerning God and His promises concerning, as it says elsewhere, “a heavenly homeland” (Heb.11:14-16), 5) he was a disciple of Jesus, 6) he feared the other prominent Jewish leaders and the power they had in the community, and 7) he was wealthy.
The John passage mentions his relationship with Nicodemus. It was Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night to question Him (John 3:1-21). And it was Nicodemus who spoke up (John 7:50) to demand justice and a fair hearing for Jesus. Nicodemus heard the gospel from Jesus like no one else. The great John 3 passage plainly states the gospel of salvation. There were no parables or stories, just straight talk to a genuine seeker of the truth. Joseph heard from Nicodemus what Jesus said and he believed. But as John records his was not yet a bold faith. He was a respected counselor on the most prominent group of leaders in Israel, the Sanhedrin. As a good and upright man he could see in Jesus a man sent from God, a good and upright man, Himself.
The Jewish leaders were a powerful and wealthy group, and corruption was rampant (remember Jesus casting out the religious-leader-approved money changers and Jesus writing in the sand that convicted the leaders of their own hypocrisy and sin). It is most likely that men like Nicodemus and Joseph were sick and tired of the way things were and wanted change. They wanted true righteousness to reign in their land instead of the religious counterfeit espoused by the religious leaders, the very ones Jesus called vipers and devils. They saw the inner workings of Jewish religious power and did not like what they saw. Joseph was rooting for Jesus to bring change and possibly like Nicodemus spoke for justice for Jesus but his personal following of Jesus he kept to himself. The top religious leaders ridiculed those that expressed faith in Jesus. Listen to the attitude (John 7:45-49): “When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, ‘Why didn’t you bring him in?’ ‘We have never heard anyone speak like this!’ the guards responded. ‘Have you been led astray, too?’ the Pharisees mocked. ‘Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!’”
While Joseph’s support of Jesus might have been more general during Jesus’ life, it became specific after His death. According to Roman law a family member could take away the body of an executed person but the request of a non-relative would most likely be denied. If no one claimed the body, it would be dumped in a ditch where it would be openly feasted on by birds, scavengers, and insects, a very ignominious end. And I wonder if this was a major reason the Jewish religious leaders wanted Jesus crucified. Contrary to what they told Pilate, they had a right to execute. Remember the attempted stoning of the women caught in adultery. Jewish law had this provision in it. Read Acts 7 concerning the stoning of Stephen. Stephen gave what was perhaps the greatest ‘sermon’ in the New Testament. And the Jews stoned him to death. Acts 7:51-60: “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.’ The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. And he told them, ‘Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!’ Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ He fell to his knees, shouting, ‘Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!’ And with that, he died.” They could have done the same thing to Jesus.
Perhaps they did not want to alienate the people who were sympathetic to Jesus but they seemed to have contempt for them already (John 7:49). They were jealous and felt humiliated by Jesus numerous times and they wanted Him disgraced. They wanted everyone to know who was in power and whom to fear. Joseph made sure that did not happen. Jesus was now dead and in Joseph’s reckoning permanently so, but His life and ministry deserved to be respected so he provided a burial site that was fit for a rich man, his own. Instead of birds picking at His body, thousands of dollars worth of spices and ointments covered it. Instead of being dumped in a ditch with no afterthought, His body was cared for (Luke 23:50-24:1). The Jewish leaders’ plan to disgrace Jesus failed because Joseph respected Jesus too much to let that happen.
Read Isaiah 53:9. Isaiah 53 talks about the coming ‘Suffering Servant’, the Messiah. Verse 9 seems to have a contradictory prophesy. This one would die like a criminal but be buried with the grace and dignity of a rich man. Criminals are not treated with respect after their death. How can both be true? “He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.” How? Joseph responded to the Spirit’s prompting and fulfilled this prophecy. But what Joseph did was much more significant than saving Jesus from the mad vindictiveness of the Jewish religious leaders. His actions set the stage for the resurrection story of Jesus Christ.
Look at what this man personally does. He goes to the marketplace and buys what is now known or claimed to be the Shroud of Turin. And he took down the body. You have a man beaten and battered hanging on that cross, nailed to that cross, spikes through His hands. How are you going to get Him down? That is not a nice job. It is a bloody, gory job. Do you get a crow bar and ply out the stakes or do you just kind of jerk and whack on the hand and the wrist bones and break them so you can pull them through? Not a nice job. And then he wrapped it in cloth. Part of the wrapping process is first washing the body. If you saw the movie “The Passion,” you begin to get an idea of the bruises, wounds and torn flesh that is all over His body. And he placed it in a tomb, his own tomb, a new tomb, that no one had
laid in before, cut out of rock and he rolled a large stone against the entrance to sealed it. The John passage says that Nicodemus also helped him. How much Nicodemus does we do not know but Joseph of Arimathea is the one who takes the lead in this.
How does he stand up for Jesus? He goes to the one who authorized His crucifixion and says, “I want His body.” Now, that is not going to be a secret for long. The Sanhedrin is going to find out about that. By him going to Pilate and identifying with Jesus, he risks losing everything. He most likely will be ostracized from the Sanhedrin and possibly kicked out of Jerusalem. There might be pressure put on other merchants to no longer trade with him. And that would negatively affect his business. He risks losing everything he has worked for his entire life. But he goes anyway. Without saying it he shows that he agrees with Paul when Paul said, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
All the other disciples were “ducking and covering.” Joseph was willing to take the risk. He did not hide in a shell. He did not wait for someone else to stand up. He took the risk and initiative. He went personally. He could have sent a memo to Pilate and say, “Give my servants the body.” He had servants who could have done this. He was a wealthy man. He could have sent his employees, given them the day off to go get the body and take care of it. But it says he personally went. He took the initiative to get personally involved and that is what stands out about what he did.
Talk about dirty jobs. There are all kinds of dirty jobs but there is no dirty job like this. If Mike Rowe was to clean up mutilated and brutalized bodies, they could not show it on television. I mean, it is just horrendous. But it is not just any body. It is the body of someone that you love that you put your hope and your dreams in. And so it is not just the gruesomeness, it is also the emotional devastation that goes with that. Cara when she was little was hit by a truck and knocked unconscious. I picked up her body and the emotion I felt is indescribable. The emotion that is there is so thick and heavy, it felt like my heart was going to burst. I am sure Joseph felt similar feelings, only he had to not only bury a loved one but handle the dead body. Cara survived but had she died I do not know if I could have handled her dead body. Joseph had to do it because no one else would. The grief must have been excruciating but through the power of God’s spirit it was not debilitating. He is able to go through it because God said, “I want you to do this.” He carried that body. He washed the wounds. He wrapped it up and sealed it in a tomb. And on the third day the grave is empty. The clothes are empty and have been folded neatly waiting for witnesses to verify the Lord’s absence.
What kind of resurrection story could have been possible had Jesus’ body been thrown in a ditch? The body would have been torn apart by scavengers and if perhaps it turned up missing, anyone could have taken it. The body of Jesus would have been accessible to anyone to take. In a tomb sealed by a large stone and guarded by Roman soldiers, a missing body is hard to explain. The angel told the women who came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body the only possible explanation—He has been supernaturally raised from the dead. Not much is written about Joseph in Scripture but what he did for Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53:9 and gave witness to the authenticity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to all who are willing to believe.
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