The Lord of the Sabbath - Mark 2:23-3:6

The Lord of the Sabbath

Mark 2:23-3:6

Introduction: You may remember the story of the pastor who found the roads impassable one Sunday morning, but…

The river was frozen so he decided to skate on the river to get to church. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord's day. After the service they held a meeting to rebuke his worldly behavior. The pastor explained that it was either skate to church or not go at all. Finally one elder asked, "Did you enjoy it?" When the preacher answered, "Well no, not really" the board decided it was all right.

One of the great temptations facing fallen humans is to define spirituality in terms of what we don’t do! Nowhere was that tendency more evident than in the Sabbath regulations of first century Judaism. The background of course was the Word of the Lord stated in the decalogue, the Ten Commandments…

⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,  ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy… (Exod 20:8-11).

The Sabbath Commandment was stated again, 40 years later as Moses wrote Deuteronomy for the new generation which was about to enter the Land. This time, rather than pointing to what God did in Creation, Moses refers to the Exodus…

¹² “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.  ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.  ¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day…” (Deut 5:12-15)

God embedded “rest” in the Creation order, as He himself “rested” on the seventh day.  In Deuteronomy, for the new generation, for whom the deliverance from Egypt was not a recent memory, the Sabbath was an ongoing reminder of where they had come from, and as they had experienced God’s gracious deliverance they should extend grace toward their servants and the sojourners among them.  “Rest” was a blessing intended for all humans. God had set apart (“made holy”) this day for rest. It was also an expression of faith. To rest from labor meant trusting that God would supply, as He had in the wilderness.

       Six days were enough for work. But what is “work”?  That was one of the questions that seemingly took over the thinking of the rabbis in the centuries leading up to the coming of Christ. The traditions of the “fathers” would later be written down in the Talmud. Twenty-four chapters of the Talmud dealt with Sabbath regulations. What was intended to be a blessing had been turned into a burden. The disciples had probably broken at least a couple of Sabbath “rules.” For one, the traditions said Jews were allowed only to walk only 2,000 minus one, 1,999 paces on the Sabbath (Dick C. aims for 20,000 a day!). It may be in getting to the field they exceeded that limit.  “Harvesting” also was prohibited, as well as threshing.  Remember the context of these stories in Mark’s Gospel…

       The two scenes described in these verses are the 4^th and 5^th in a series of five controversies between Jesus and the religious establishment that began in chapter 2. The first three dealt with 1) forgiveness (2:1-12), 2) fellowship [eating with sinners!] (2:15-17), and 3) fasting (2:18-22). The two here have to do with 4) Feeding themselves from the field (2:23-38), and 5) freeing a man from his physical infirmity (3:1-6) [OK, I went too far on the alliteration with the last two!].

       Jesus was speaking and acting, and making claims, that didn’t seem consistent with what a first century rabbi should be doing. How could He speak with such authority, even claiming to forgive sins? And where did He get the power to heal? Why did He associate with tax collectors and sinners? And now, how could He allow his disciples to break the traditions regarding the Sabbath? Mark continues to write a Gospel that encourages evangelism and discipleship, still drawing the reader to consider his answer to three questions: 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? 3) What does it mean to follow Him? In Matthew’s gospel, immediately before his account of this same scene, Jesus offers “rest” to those who labor and are heavy laden, if they will come to Him. We read in Matthew 11:28-30,  

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The Maine* Idea: The spirit of the Sabbath is resting in Him, free to experience the grace and life that only Jesus could provide.

I. Who is Jesus? Lord of all… GOD the Son (2:23-28)! The initial conflict focuses on His disciples casually picking some grain to satisfy their hunger as they walked through a field. Once again the Pharisees were there, watching and waiting.

²³ One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.  ²⁴ And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  ²⁵ And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:  ²⁶ how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?"  ²⁷ And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  ²⁸ So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

       First of all, notice the setting for this scene. It is the Sabbath, and as the disciples passed through a field they began to pluck heads of grain, rub them between their hands, and eat as they went, in order to satisfy their hunger.  Were they “working” in so doing? According to Alfred Edersheim (a Jewish believer in Jesus from the 19^th century) the Talmud had added 24 chapters on Sabbath Law to the command to sanctify the Sabbath day. The idea was to have such a “hedge” around the Sabbath that no one would be guilty of violating the commandment. Some of the rabbinic prohibitions may sound a little silly, for example…

“Baths could not be taken for fear some of the water might spill on to the floor and “wash” it. Chairs could not be moved because dragging them might make a furrow in the ground, and a woman could not look into a mirror lest she see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out… If a person became ill on the Sabbath, only enough treatment could be given to keep him alive. Treatment to make him improve was deemed work, and therefore forbidden…”      

You get the idea? The rabbis had gone far beyond the Scripture and had lost site of the spirit of the Law. The Sabbath was not intended by God to be a burden. It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise, a picture of the “eschatological rest” for which we were created. The Scribes and Pharisees had lost sight of the spirit of the Sabbath commandment. And so Jesus turns to a scriptural example, a “case study” that would show that the Sabbath Law, as God had given it, did not preclude people from satisfying their hunger. Basically He is asking them, “Haven’t you read your Bible?” He points them to the story of David and his men eating the “Bread of the Presence” in 1 Samuel 21:1-6,  

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?"  ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place.  ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here."  ⁴ And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread- if the young men have kept themselves from women."  ⁵ And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?"  ⁶ So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

There was no indication either of the disapproval of the priests or the rebuke of the Lord.  Jesus is showing that we can see in Scripture that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath!  So, He is teaching the Pharisees.

       Jesus left some room for His hearers to exercise “hearing with faith”. First of all, Jesus chose to use a potentially ambiguous messianic title, “Son of Man.” Secondly by using the title in the third person, there could have been some question about to whom He was referring. For example in John 12:34 we read, 

“We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

Only Jesus used that title for himself, and the ambiguity was intentional. Remember Jesus had a plan which included three years of ministry with His disciples, teaching and preparing them, before culminating in the unfolding plan of God: His own death and resurrection. The conflict with the leaders would culminate in the passion, but not yet, His day had not come. For those with “ears to hear,” the title “Son of Man” would evoke the passage in Daniel 7:13-14…  

 ¹³ I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.  ¹⁴ And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Who is the Son of Man? Jesus. And He is Lord, even of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was intended as a blessing, not a burden. And it looked forward to the “rest” that He would offer in Christ. The spirit of the Sabbath means resting in Him, free to experience the grace and life that only Jesus could provide.

II. Why did He come? (3:1-5)? To reveal the truth and the (only) Way to Life.

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.  ² And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.  ³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here."  ⁴ And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent.  ⁵ And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 

       We have two different lines to the story to consider at this point: 1) a confrontation with the religious leaders that exposes their depravity, and 2) a miracle of healing that both vindicates Jesus and looks ahead to what He came to do. There is irony here as the leaders are “watching” Jesus, not to hear what He would say or do that might enlighten their understanding of who He is, but rather that they might witness something that would give them grounds to accuse Him. This word implies watching critically and closely, ready to spring a trap. The same term is used in Acts 9 to describe the men who had taken an oath to kill Saul (Paul). They were waiting for him at the city gate. It is clear that the religious leaders, as they watched Jesus with critical eyes, viewed this as a trap, and the man with the withered hand was the “bait”!  The word “accuse” has legal ramifications, the idea was to bring a charge against Jesus for violating the law. 

       Would Jesus do the “work” of miraculously healing the man and so violate the Sabbath? He is grieved by their hard hearts.  We see Jesus teaching the Pharisees. And He shows compassion on the man. The Lord of the Sabbath does “good.” This healing was temporary, provisional. It pointed ahead. The spirit of the Sabbath is resting in Him, free to experience the grace and life that only Jesus could provide.

III. What does it mean to follow Him? Take up your cross (3:6)!

⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

       That of course points ahead to what Jesus had just spoken about in the preceding context: the day would come when He would be “taken away” from them… as Isaiah 53:8 said.  Now the reader get an ominous indication as to how that would happen: the leaders of His own people, the Jews, were already plotting to kill Him! The context anticipates what Jesus later said in the upper room: don’t be surprised if the world hates you, remember it hated me first! It seems that Mark is writing to a community of believers that is experiencing persecution. Remember, we are pilgrims, and yes, we live in a fallen world.

       The corollary to the suffering of Christ, that is, the suffering of His disciples, is explicitly addressed by Jesus after the confession of Peter (Mk 8:29) and before the Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-8).  In that context, as He speaks to the crowd along with His disciples, He says,

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it…” (Mk 8:34b-35).

What does it mean to follow Him? If Jesus was hated by the world and suffered, so will those who follow Him. As Peter said in his first epistle,

“⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…” (I Pet 1:6,7).

God has a plan, and it will culminate in true rest, eternal life in intimate fellowship with God, the abundant life, unencumbered by sin, for which we were created.

What is God saying to me in this passage? The spirit of the Sabbath is resting in Him, free to experience the grace and life that only Jesus could provide.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? I can safely say your pastor has never skated to church on a Sunday morning! And yes, I know that we have a breadth of views regarding the application of the Sabbath Law in our lives (Is it 7^th day, Sunday, or everyday consciously dedicated to the Lord?). Did you know that there was some debate in the Colossian Church? Paul said in Col 2:13-17 (cf. Rom 14:5,6)…

¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross…  ¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.  ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath!  Jesus said, “Come to me… and I will give you rest.” That rest is, and will be, ours in Christ. We have the Spirit as a seal and down payment on our inheritance. Jesus will return, and we will fully enter our “rest.” That is our hope! Until that day we are here “on assignment.” Remember, you can’t change the world, but you can change your world! Pray for your mission field, share, invite, point them to Jesus!  AMEN. 

Tradition or Transformation? Mark 2:18-22

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Tradition or Transformation?

Mark 2:18-22

Introduction: One of the things we see in the Gospel of Mark is that Jesus is guiding the story, first, revealing himself to those who would believe, and laying a foundation for what He would soon do as the Father’s plan unfolds. He is also exposing unbelief, as he seemingly provokes the religious leaders time after time. His actions are shocking… he was eating with sinners and tax collectors (2:13-17), and soon he will claim (and demonstrate!) that He is Lord of the Sabbath (2:23 ff). Jesus subtly turns the discussion from what people were doing (or not doing!), to what He Himself was about to do… As he said in the previous passage, He “…came not to call the righteous, but sinners…” to repentance.

        As we look at this exchange in 2:18-22, those three simple (but life changing!) questions we have come back to in almost every paragraph of Mark can guide us through the text once again, 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? And, 3) What does it mean to follow Him? These questions will point us to…

The Maine* Idea: Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new, and, by grace, have a life changing relationship with the King!

I. Who is Jesus (18,19)? He the Bridegroom, God incarnate, God the Son!

¹⁸ Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"  ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 

       The Pharisees especially venerated the traditions of the fathers… the man-made rules that had been added to the practice of Judaism in the centuries from the return from exile to the time of Christ. In the book of Acts the disciples seem to have more problems with the Sadducees on theological grounds—they denied the resurrection, which was at the heart of the preaching of the apostles—Christ was risen, the first fruits of the resurrection!  In the gospels, however, Jesus is repeatedly confronting the Pharisees, who, for all their outward piety, missed the Spirit of the Scriptures—and in fact lessened the authority of God’s word by elevating human traditions alongside of it. The rabbis’ intention was to protect people from sinning by building a hedge of human regulations around the law.  The problem was that by the time of Christ, the distinction between the absolute truth of the Word of God and the traditions of the fathers that had developed, was blurred. Jesus did not adhere to the man-made traditions of Judaism. One of those practices was the twice weekly fasts practiced by the Pharisees.

       On Tuesday and Friday of every week, the Pharisees would fast from sunrise to sunset. The practice no doubt had noble beginnings as they sought to humble themselves and get closer to God. We know however, that by the first century, there was a lot of hypocrisy in the religious practices of the Pharisees. So much so, that in the Sermon on the Mount the subject of fasting came up, and Jesus said,

¹⁶ “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  ¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,  ¹⁸ that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

 Some irony: At our Tuesday morning prayer men’s prayer time we’ve begun discussing in advance the passage that I am planning to preach on that week, and as we had a huge platter of Herb Mullen’s jelly donuts on the table the subject of fasting came up in this text. Bob pointed us to a passage in Isaiah 58:1-4…  

Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.  ² Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.  ³ 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' [Why isn’t God delighted in their fasting? He replies] Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.  ⁴ Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Our fasting and prayer has to be with a right heart. Denying the flesh so that we can seek God with a submissive heart is a good thing, if we come to Him in repentance and faith. Isaiah rebukes the Old Testament people of God for fasting and seeking their own will rather than God’s will. “Fasting” is not a means to manipulate God! Once before I recall Herb saying, “There is a difference between fasting and going on a hunger strike!” Isaiah goes on to point to a right heart…

⁶ "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  ⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  ⁸ Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.  ⁹ Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,  ¹⁰ if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  

It seems a little surprising in our passage in Mark to see the disciples of John mentioned in the same sentence as the disciples of the Scribes and Pharisees. John’s disciples probably were following the example of their teacher – John lived simply, I think we can call his an ascetic lifestyle. I don’t know if locusts and wild honey are on the “Paleo Diet” but that was John’s bread and butter!  John had probably been arrested, and his disciples were “fasting and praying,” crying out to God for his deliverance. Fasting is not being disparaged, it is not a bad thing. Jesus fasted in the wilderness when he was tempted by the devil, and in the sermon on the mount he tells the people to have a right attitude when they fast. When the disciples are not able to cast out a demon Jesus says “…this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting.” And here in Mark 2, Jesus points ahead to his being “taken away,” and says “in that day they will fast.” Fasting is a discipline that has value in the church, as long as we don’t view as a means of manipulating God, but rather as a means of denying the flesh so that we can seek God without distraction.

       He is the Bridegroom.  Jesus uses the imagery of a wedding feast to explain why His disciples are not, at this time, fasting. Weddings in the ancient near east were a time of celebration, typically a party lasting several days. In a Jewish context, using this allusion to the Scriptures in such an unexpected way, to describe himself, was shocking. The prophets used the imagery of a marriage feast to describe the coming messianic age. We read in Isaiah 25:6-8,  

⁶ On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  ⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  ⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

It is a picture of celebration and abundance; feasting, not fasting! As with the miracles of healing Jesus did, the disciples of Jesus were getting a glimpse of the age to come, when the curse will be undone and God’s people will experience the life of blessing for which they were created. Using the language of a wedding feast was a subtle messianic claim. Those with ears to hear could discern what Jesus was claiming: this is that, and I am the One for whom you are waiting!  The Kingdom was coming, and now, while the King Himself was present, was not the time for fasting!

        The Bridegroom: An image reserved for Yahweh in the Old Testament – He is God! There is yet another element to this wedding imagery: in the prophets, Yahweh himself is the Bridegroom. So we read in Isaiah 62:5,   

⁵ For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Hosea brought the Word of the Lord as well,

¹⁹ And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.  ²⁰ I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD… (Hosea 2:19-20).

       With this in mind, Jesus’ applying the image of the bridegroom to himself is even more shocking. “Yes, God is the bridegroom, but what are you saying?” Those who had ears of faith, those who were His sheep, no doubt had their hearts stirred by Jesus’ words! Those who would not believe, like the majority of the religious leaders, would only feel the anger and resentment welling up in their hearts. And so the question came, “Why don’t your disciples fast?” Jesus answers: The promised age was at hand, the bridegroom was present, this was time to celebrate!  Who is Jesus anyway? Answer: The Bridegroom, the promised Messiah, God incarnate! Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new, and, by grace, have a life changing relationship with the King of Kings! That brings us to the second question Mark wants us to answer…

II. Why did He come (20 f.)? To give His life to ratify a New Covenant.

²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 

       The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away (Isa 53:8).  There ae probably two levels to what Jesus is saying here. On the one hand, the day was coming when Jesus would be “taken away” in death. The same root word appears in the Septuagint translation of the words of the prophet Isaiah in 53:8,

⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

In the upper room Jesus told his disciples they would weep while the world rejoices, but that their weeping would be turned to joy (cf. John 16:19,20). Good Friday would give way to Easter morning! This reference then to the coming day when “the Bridegroom” would be taken away, is a subtle allusion to His coming passion and death. Remember why He came, to give His life a ransom for many, or as Isaiah said to be “…stricken for the transgression of my people…”

       It may also be that Jesus also was looking ahead to His ascension. He would no longer be physically present to correct and teach and encourage His followers. He would send the Spirit, but in that day, through fasting and prayer they could experience the kind of intimate fellowship that they had now, with Jesus walking with them. The time would come when the Bridegroom would be taken away.

       A New covenant (in His blood) was about to be ratified (Jer 31:31-34). The dominant theme seems to be that Jesus is not “patching up” the religion that had developed around biblical Judaism. The traditions of the fathers were an offense to God, they pointed to human effort, works, rather than the Gospel of Grace. Jesus was offering new wine in new wineskins, a New Covenant in His blood. Jeremiah anticipated this when he said,

³¹ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,  ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.  ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more..." (Jer 31:31-34).

A new day was coming, when God’s law would be written on the hearts of his people, and they would be transformed from the inside out! Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new, and, by grace, because of what He did we have a life changing relationship with the King!

III. What does it mean to follow Him (21, 22)? Discipleship is not an outward commitment to religion, but something new: a life changing relationship with the King! (By the way, there is a hint here of what will become explicit later, there will be a cost for those who follow Him! Jesus will be taken away, then they will fast!).

²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.  ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins- and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."

       Jesus uses two illustrations to make the point that something new was at hand: Not “religion” – but a new heart! Remember He did not come to call the righteous, no, He came to call sinners to repentance! There were no simple tweaks that would get the religion of popular Judaism in the first century back on track. The new age that God had promised was at hand. Jesus used two images to convey that idea: a patch on a garment, and new wine and wineskins.

       I don’t think people patch clothes anymore, in fact they buy them with holes in them! (I don’t get it, I put my own holes in my clothes soon enough!). New, unshrunk cloth couldn’t be used in an old garment. Jesus’ point: there was no simple “patch” that could fix the religion of the Jews.  Something new was needed. Same thing with the wineskins. You couldn’t pour new wine into old wineskins. They would burst as the wine fermented. It was time for something new. The New Covenant that promised a new heart was needed.

       The context here in Mark is showing the contrast between what Jesus was preaching and doing and the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees.  In the previous context they complained that He was eating with sinners. Next they’ll complain that He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. The leaders complained about what Jesus and His disciples were doing. In this passage they complain about what they are not doing. That is the point. It isn’t about what we are doing or not doing, but what Jesus would do for us… He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves: make a way for sinful humans to be reconciled to a Holy God. That is the way of G.R.A.C.E.! That is the message that will change the world!

What is God saying to me in this passage? Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new, and, by grace, have a life changing relationship with the King!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? We are not immune from falling into the trap of “Pharisee-ism.” Look at me Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men… You get the idea.  Of Him you are in Christ Jesus. If we really believe that Jesus did it all, all to Him I owe, humility should well up in our hearts, and thanksgiving for His amazing grace. And it should remind us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and that He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. 

       There is nothing that happens in our life that is mere chance. God has placed us where we are, in a mission field (Maine) where 98 out of 100 people don’t know Him.  Think about that. The events on the Common, the crowds downtown, the people we see year round at Hannaford or Hammond Lumber, or the Y. Statistically, only 2 out of 100 know the Lord. And He has placed you where you are, with the smaller group of people in your oikos, the 8 to 15 people that you interact with in your close sphere of influence. Some don’t know the Way. Will we embrace the mission to be a Lighthouse of God’s grace and truth? We need to look around, and be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us.  It means to invite people to come and hear the truth.  Will you? AMEN.

Home Missions: Mothers' Day 2017 2 Timothy 1:3-9; 3:15

HOME Missions!

2 Timothy 1:3-9; 3:15; Proverbs 22:6

Introduction:  When Mary Ann and I were recruited to join our mission in the early 90s, it was known as “The Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society,” CBFMS (it later was called CBInternational, and then currently, WorldVenture). The companion mission, known today as “Missions Door,” was called “The Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society,” CBHMS. Even though the names have changed, when we discuss “missions” in the church, we usually think of “Foreign Missions” (referring to those serving overseas) and “Home Missions” (referring to those serving stateside).  There is a sense in which God’s mission broadly encompasses the life of every Christian.  Yes, I know it is Mothers’ Day! We want to honor mothers today, and all of our ladies, for the role they have in impacting the next generation for Christ. You have heard the biblical Greek word, oikos, a few times over the last year. (We’re not talking about yogurt!). The word literally means “house” or “home.” It can also refer to small group of people that we “live life with,” those that we spend time with and interact with on a regular basis. At the heart of that group of 8 to 15 people is our family!  Do you see the connection of the “home” to the mission of God? From that perspective, the most basic mission field may be the most important, and the most fruitful, of all…

The Maine* Idea: The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

I. The Missionary challenge moms face: S-I-N. We have constant reminders of how desperately the world needs the gospel. And here’s a newsflash… it has been that way since the Fall! By one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all because all have sinned. By birth and by choice every human since the fall is a sinner. The consequences of living in a fallen world are all around us every day.  Around AD 250 Cyprian of Carthage wrote a letter to his friend Donatus.  He referred to the “state of the world” when he said,

"Donatus, this is a cheerful world indeed as I see it from my fair garden, under the shadow of my vines. But if I could ascend some high mountain, and look out over the wide lands, you know very well that I should see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds, selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a company of quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which [7] is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not: they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians,—and I am one of them."

It only takes about 2 seconds to look around and know beyond any question that we live in a fallen world. War and sickness, violence and poverty, injustice and prejudice. Ungodliness. Yet we have joy and hope in the midst of it! Why? How? We know that life is hard, but God is good, and glory in coming! And it is in this world that God has entrusted parents with the task of protecting, teaching, and discipling their children!

       This is a sinful world! (cf. 2 Tim 3:1-5). The “busyness” of life today has only added to the pressures mothers face. No one deserves a special day all to herself more than today's Mom. A cartoon showed a psychologist talking to his patient: "Let's see," he said, "You spend 50 percent of your energy on your job, 50 percent on your husband and 50 percent on your children. I think I see your problem." Indeed! Consider the picture Paul paints of life in the latter days in 2 Tim 3:1-5…

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,  ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Great… that is an encouraging start to a Mother’s Day message! That is only part of the problem.

      There is a Corollary to living in a fallen world: Our children are born sinners (and so are we)! There is a corollary truth that complicates a mother’s calling: our children are born sinners (and so are their parents!).

       My mother was completely gray at a young age. The fact that there were seven kids in our family might have been a factor (the other six were really bad!). I read the story of a little girl who was watching her mom do dishes at the kitchen sink. Suddenly she noticed several strands of white hair contrasting her mom’s brunette head. She asked, “Mommy, why are some of your hairs white?” Her mother replied, “Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.” The little girl thought about for minute and then asked, “So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?” Kids are cute. They are funny. They are sinners. And so are we. So we’ll never be perfect at disciplining and discipling the next generation! But I think God gives mothers a special grace to raise children. Someone said “Motherhood is the ultimate reward and the ultimate sacrifice all in the same breathe.” I like the story of the little boy who was being quizzed by his teacher…

“Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you, Mom and Dad, and five children. What part of the pie would you get?”

The little boy answered, “A sixth.”

The teacher shook her head, “I am sorry, you don’t know your fractions! I said there were seven of you.”

The boy said, “You don’t know my mother. She would say she didn’t want any pie!”

       The highest calling that God has entrusted to humans is to guide the next generation(s) to the Truth. The most impactful context for that mission is the family.  The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

II. The Mother’s Calling: Trust God for wisdom to raise your kids well. There is a lot that goes on the agenda for mothers…

The most creative job in the world involves fashion, decorating, recreation, education, transportation, psychology, romance, cuisine, literature, art, economics, government, pediatrics, geriatrics, entertainment, maintenance, purchasing, law, religion, energy and management. Anyone who can handle all those has to be somebody special. She's a homemaker.

        Timothy’s mother, Eunice, didn’t have an ideal situation (see Acts 16:1)… According to the book of Acts, her husband “was a Greek,” and we have no indication that he had yet, by the time Acts and Paul’s letters were written, come to faith in Christ. But Eunice had a believing mother, Lois, and together they had shared their faith with Timothy.

        Timothy was marked by a “sincere faith.” The word Paul uses is literally, “unhypocritical” faith. It wasn’t an act, it wasn’t outward conformity to a set of rules, it was sincere, life changing, trust in Christ alone. Believing who He is and trusting in what He has done for us. Putting on a religious mask does nothing for our soul. The faith that saves, authentic, sincere, “unhypocritical” faith, was something that Timothy saw lived out in his mother and grandmother.

       Mothers can affect the life, character, and eternity of their children (2 Tim 3:15; Prov 22:6). One oft quoted proverb sets forth an important principle…

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when

he is old he will not depart from it…” (Proverbs 22:6).

The point is that the lessons learned from the cradle go all the way to the grave. Timothy had that kind of godly, biblical input in his life. We read in 2 Timothy 3:14,15,

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it  ¹⁵and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

It seems God has especially gifted mothers with the capacity and the burden to love and teach their children. One mother reflected on that truth when she wrote the following under the title, “My child, what can I give you?”

…I give you my love, which means I accept you, without reservations, just as you are and will be. I give you my personal presence in order that you will have the security you need during your childhood. I give you my ears, in the sense that I will never be too busy to listen to you—sometimes never uttering one word. I give you opportunities to work so that you might learn to do it without shame and come to enjoy the satisfaction of work well done. I give you my counsel only when it is necessary or you ask for it so that you may avoid some of the mistakes I have made. I give you my consolation when you have failed or feel discouraged, but I will not always protect you from the consequences of your sins. I give you instructions in the way of the Lord so that when you are old, you will never depart from it. I give you my daily prayers that the Lord will keep you and guide you in such a way, that you, my child, will be a man or woman who will serve and glorify our Heavenly Father… This I give you with all my love — Your mother, Lydia Lightner

That kind of love will impact the hearts and minds of children. Yes, the home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

III. The Multiplication of a Godly Heritage: We can affect not only our children, but our children’s children, and the countless other lives they may touch (2 Tim 2:2; Titus 2:3-5). Paul talks about the potential for spiritual multiplication in general in 2 Tim 2:2, as he calls Timothy to make disciples who themselves will become disciple-makers. Women, maybe even grandmas like Lois, can impact younger women, and through them, their children. Paul said to Titus in 2:3-5,

³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  ⁴ and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,  ⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

       One great example of the impact of a godly mother is Susanna Wesley. She was one of twenty five children that her father had in two marriages. She herself gave birth to 17 children, but only ten survived infancy. So she knew the pain of losing a child. She was also periodically left alone by her husband, who twice went to debtors’ prison because of his poor handling of finances. But Susanna stood firm and faithful in the Lord. Two of her sons, John and Charles, had a profound impact on Christianity from the time of the Great Awakening…

The interesting thing about these two men is that the primary spiritual influence in their lives up until her death was their mother. She was the one who even toward the end of her life, when she was elderly and in bed, they would go and sit and she would pray with them. She would counsel with them. They would discuss difficult passages of the Bible. They could not say enough about her and her spiritual walk with Christ, about her counsel, and about her example… Susanna had a profound influence over these young men. They, in turn, had such a profound influence on Christianity.

Susannah Wesley had some Rules for Raising Children. Here are just a few of them:

1. Subdue self-will in a child and thus work together with God to save his soul.
2. Teach him to pray as soon as he can speak.
3. Give him nothing he cries for and only what is good for him if he asks for it politely.
4. To prevent lying, punish no fault which is freely confessed, but never allow a rebellious, sinful act to go unnoticed.
5. Commend and reward good behavior.
6. Strictly observe all promises you have make to your child.

The point I want to emphasize is that Mrs. Wesley would have been thought of as a hard-working mother who loved her children by most observers, but she viewed herself as God’s co-worker, and she trained up two men who would impact the world for Christ. Charles Wesley wrote thousands of hymns that have been a blessing to the church to the present day. John Wesley preached before possibly more than a million people – thousands coming to faith in Christ. And not only those that they won directly, but those who were won by their followers… we see the ripples of the ministry of a faithful mother that will likely carry on into eternity. Yes, we are here on a mission, and…

What is God saying to me in this passage? …The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? For the church at large, let’s be thankful for the impact that our mothers had on us. For those had mothers who knew Christ, there is little doubt that they were our first and most influential teacher. For those who did not yet believe when we were children, they likely did their best to love us and teach us and help us have a life that was better than their own. By common grace it seems God gives women that nurturing, protective nature. My mother had a difficult upbringing but did her best to raise 7 children, largely on her own since my dad almost always worked at (at least) two jobs.

       We’ve talked a lot this last year or so about the oikos principle, and our calling to love and reach out to the people that God has placed in our sphere of influence.  Let’s not forget that the word oikos means “house” or “home” and our “8 to 15” begins with our own family, your spouse, your children. One mother expressed her sense of calling with this poem…

Some would gather money along the path of life,

Some would gather roses and rest from worldly strife.

But I would gather children from among the thorns of sin,

I would seek a golden curl and a freckled toothless grin.

For money cannot enter in the land of endless day,

And the roses that are gathered soon will wilt along the way.

But oh, the laughing children, As I cross the Sunset Sea,

As the gates swing wide to heaven, I can take them in with me!

Why does God have us in the world? Jesus is building His church, and we are here to do our part in carrying out His mission as His ambassadors, for His glory.  The church is called to make disciples of every nation. None of us, individually, can do that. We can’t change the world—but we can influence our world for Christ. And that starts with making disciples of our children. The home is our first mission field, and the truth is that mothers are the greatest influencers of children, the most effective missionaries in reaching their families for Christ. If your mother is living, take time to thank her today for the impact she had on your life. If she has passed, thank God for her. And men, thank you wives for their role in loving and teaching the children.      AMEN.

Jesus, Friend of Sinners (or, Calling all Deplorables!) Mark 2:13-17

Jesus, Friend of Sinners (or, Calling all Deplorables!)

Mark 2:13-17

Introduction: I posted a link to an old message on Facebook last week entitled “The Failure of Religion” [ http://boothbaybaptist.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-passion-of-christ-part-2-failure-of.html ]. The idea was that our efforts to be good enough to earn God’s favor will always fall short. Our only hope is the mercy and grace of God.  Billy Graham illustrated the idea of grace with a story from his own life…

When Billy Graham was driving through a small southern town, he was stopped by a policeman and charged with speeding. Graham admitted his guilt, but was told by the officer that he would have to appear in court.

     The judge asked, “Guilty, or not guilty?” When Graham pleaded guilty, the judge replied, “That'll be $10 – a dollar for every mile you went over the limit.”

     Suddenly the judge recognized the famous minister. “You have violated the law,” he said. “The fine must be paid—but I am going to pay it for you.” He took a ten dollar bill from his own wallet, attached it to the ticket, and then took Graham out and bought him a steak dinner! “That,” said Billy Graham, “is how God treats repentant sinners!”

We see both mercy, not receiving what we deserve, and grace, getting what we don’t deserve! The Bible says we are saved by grace: God’s unmerited favor. The religious establishment of the Jews in the first century was fixated on “religion,” not “grace.” It was easy for the “religious” leaders to point to the failings of others that they felt didn’t “measure up.” That included tax collectors! April 15^th has recently passed, and even today, it seems like nobody likes the tax man! In first century Palestine tax collectors were even less popular than the IRS… Not only were they looked down upon by the pious Jews, but they were not popular with the common people either! They were notorious in that many of them padded the tariffs they collected for their own pockets. They were commonly viewed as thieves and traitors by the populace. Thieves, because of the money they took from their countrymen, and traitors, in that they were viewed as puppets of Rome.  It was such a despised profession that one expression the pious Jews used to describe “undesirables” was the phrase “tax collectors and sinners”!

The Maine* Idea: Salvation by grace means that no one deserves to be part of God’s family, and no one is beyond the reach of His love.

I. God graciously calls the weak and despised to follow Him (13-14).

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.  ¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. 

       Jesus was “teaching” the crowd of inquirers… We don’t have the details about the content of his teaching, but we can be pretty sure the heart of it was the same as we saw back in 1:14,15…

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,  ¹⁵ and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

So far, He has been preaching, and “declaring the Gospel,” and speaking the Word. Now He teaches. He taught as One who had authority as He had in the synagogue in Capernaum. Some were probably there listening, but also waiting, hoping to be amazed by another act of power, another miracle. The Jews longed for “signs.”  Jesus’ mission was not about the signs, but about people. Signs were simply one line of testimony He used to validate His words.

       Notice that it wasn’t as He stood or sat to teach, but as he walked along, “as he passed by” the tax booth of Levi, that he calls this man to follow him.  Multitudes were drawn to Jesus wherever He went, but he didn’t wait for His lost sheep to come to Him, He went to them. We saw it when the crowds came to Jesus in Capernaum in Mark 1. Remember when He went out early in the morning to pray, and then set out for other villages in Galilee? He didn’t minister only to those who came, He went to the people. We can learn from the Master’s example here. As we are out in the community, as we rub shoulders with people in our day-to-day life, we need to be sensitive to the spiritual needs around us. People need the Lord! And we have been entrusted with the message of His grace.

       He saw Levi, and called him to follow. Jesus knows the hearts of men. And he knew that Levi would hear His voice and follow Him. So, He called, and Levi rose and followed him! There was another tax collector that Jesus called in Lk 19:2-6,   

² And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.  ³ And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.  ⁴ So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.  ⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."  ⁶ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully…

       Zacchaeus was not a mere collector of tariffs like Levi, he was a “chief tax collector.” He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but Jesus already knew all about Zacchaeus, and in fact he calls him by name, and announces His plan to stay at his house! He was someone despised by most of the populace, viewed as a traitor and a thief. Nevertheless, God was at work! Think about it for a moment. Is there someone in your sphere of influence, someone you rub shoulders with on a regular basis, that you feel might be the last person in the world that would ever come to Christ? Maybe someone you’ve witnessed to for years, but they’ve shown no sign of interest in spiritual things?  Jesus came to save sinners. Remember, it is not the healthy that need a physician but the sick! Jesus means life for all who recognize their need and put their trust in Him. After all… salvation by grace means that no one deserves to be part of God’s family, and no one is beyond the reach of His love.

II. Reaching our World for Christ: Infiltrate, don’t isolate (15)!

¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 

      Jesus went to a “dinner party” at Levi’s house (oikos).

       When Jesus went to Levi’s house for dinner, who would you expect to be gathered there? His oikos of course, his extended family and friends!  Levi called together his friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors and he invites them to come to his house for dinner to meet Jesus and his disciples.  And they came, a bunch of people who were pretty much like Levi—tax collectors and sinners, people who would have been looked down upon by the religious leaders and “respectable” Jews. Half of them might even be described by a political leader of the day as a basket of “deplorables”!  But God loved them! [We looked at this on Tuesday at our men’s meeting, and one of the guys said, “Jesus doesn’t only see what we are, He sees what we are going to be.”]  Levi was also known as Matthew, and he would become the writer of the Gospel of Matthew. God had a plan! And so, Jesus and his disciples reclined at the table with them, and many came to follow Jesus.

         Eating with someone, sharing a meal, was considered a rather intimate expression of fellowship. Those present, now dining with Jesus and his disciples, were tax collectors and sinners! Jesus is our example. Remember the words of Pastor Greg Laurie in the video we saw a couple of weeks ago: “We are not called to isolate, we are called to infiltrate…” the world around is, to be “in” the world, and to show people the love of Christ and the reality of grace.  There is a line here that we need to be careful about. We are part of a “New Creation” if we are in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). We are told to not be “conformed to the world” (Rom 12:2). So we need to make sure that we are light, shining for Jesus. We want to be a “stepping stone” for others to believe, and not a “stumbling block” that gives them an excuse to turn away! Remember that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and that He has committed to us, sinners saved by grace, the ministry of reconciliation. And so, we go about our lives, interacting with our friends, relatives and neighbors, seeking to influence them with the Word of Truth. Some may seem like unlikely converts, but then, so were some of us. And here we are! Yes, salvation by grace means that no one deserves to be part of God’s family, but it is also true that no one is beyond the reach of His love!

III. Why did Jesus come? To call sinners to repentance and faith (16,17)!

¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

        Jesus’ mission was not about gathering the most righteous… Why? Humanity had a sin problem, which meant that humans were unable to remedy the consequences of the Fall (Rom 5:12; 6:23). Remember the big questions Mark is answering in this gospel: 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? And 3) What does it mean to follow him?  He is God, and He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We all were lost and dead, without God and without hope. No one deserves to go to heaven. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray…” (Isa 53:6).

       Mark L. Strauss wrote concerning his own reaction when personally exposed to a similar scene in the present day…

…I remember on one occasion my wife and I attended a New Year’s Eve party at the home of friends. I was surprised to notice that almost everyone present was an unbeliever, and I remember thinking, “I wonder if my friends are falling away from the faith?” When I came to my senses, I realized that perhaps it was I who was not living out the life of Christ. I was teaching in a Christian school, preaching at a Christian church, and socializing with Christian friends. By contrast my friends were engaged with the world around them, modeling the love of God before their non-Christian friends. God calls us to be salt and light... (Commentary on Mark, 133-4).

That is the point: Jesus came to call “sinners” to repentance and faith and He has left us in the world to be His ambassadors, His spokesmen!  How will we do that if we don’t engage with the world?  It is true, that many of our “friends” will leave us after we come to faith in Christ, it always seems to happen. But we don’t want to give them reason to leave by being judgmental or “holier than thou”!  We want to love them and with gentleness and respect, we can urge them to be reconciled to God, always looking for opportunities to give a reason for the hope that is in us.

What is God saying to me in this passage? Salvation by grace means that no one deserves to be part of God’s family, and no one is beyond the reach of His love.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? If we have been saved by grace, our hearts should be filled with humility and thankfulness: Humility, because we have no room for boasting, we were without God and without hope in the world; and thankfulness, since Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. That should translate into compassion for the lost. Our desire is to implement in our church a Laser-Focused commitment to Team Evangelism.  Remember our vision statement: We envision a community of Christ followers, rooted in the Word, treasuring God as supremely valuable, proclaiming the message of His grace to the world. That is our vision as a church, and each of us has a part in accomplishing it. Only a few in a group this size probably have the gift of evangelism. But all of us are called to be a witness. Think of the people God has put in your life… We want to make it easier for you to influence them for God by giving you some tools that you can use. Firstly, we all want to be praying for opportunities to be a witness.

       It is a high calling and privilege to be used of God to share a testimony with someone, showing them that God is real and that He has made a difference in our life. You should also have resources from the table in the back that you can give to your friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers.  Like the PTL Gospels of John (they have a very simple gospel presentation on the first few pages…). Gospel tracts, or the Jesus film DVDs are there for you to take and pass on.

       We want to point out the Boothbay Baptist / Truelife.org cards that you received today. It is a low stress way to hand out “personal invitations” to people that you come in contact with. This week I gave invitation cards to about five people… Even if they don’t come immediately, they will have a web address on the back that can point them to video answers to the questions they might have. This news is too good to keep to ourselves. Let’s embrace our mission to be His witnesses!  The Lord’s Table is a remembrance, and a reminder: a remembrance of why He came, and a reminder of what it means to follow Him…   AMEN.