Mission 66 (English podcast)
Mark 2 & 3 Holy Controversy!
You need to be radical, you need to say, excuse me, please, out of the way. Just imagine an ambulance driver being passive and slow and ineffective when faced with such a situation. The consequences are too important for that. Without help right now, this patient will die. This is Mission 66. My Bob Dempsey, Mission 66, originates from the Ministry of Bible Teacher and Pastor Dr. Louis Ciao and is produced and heard in multiple languages around the world in partnership with Transworld Radio. I want to encourage you to take advantage of a valuable resource. You can enhance your understanding of the Gospels by downloading our free study guide. This guide will deepen your experience with God's Word and complement our daily teachings from John Matthews and Esther Sussulu. To access your free study guide of the Gospels, simply visit mission66.org. Pick up this valuable resource and also support the Ministry of Mission 66. Your gift helps sustain this program locally and globally. John Matthews is our teacher. His co-host, Esther Sussulu, gets us started today. We've just begun the Gospel of Mark and today we're looking at chapters 2 and 3. If you're the kind of person who just loves a good argument and doesn't let anything go without a little pushback, then you'll love today's message. Now the question comes to us. Is it true that always lead to God? Well, let's find out. I'm your host, Esther, and the theme that has been chosen by our teacher, John, is called Holy Controversy. Oh, I used to thank you so much and hello there to all you list, it's great to have your company again. Now, as we saw last time, Jesus made his appearance with this great display of power. Do you remember that? Healing the sick, casting out demons, proving that he indeed is the one sent by God. He's powerful and was victor over everything that afflicted the ancient pagan world of his time. And what happens now here in chapters 2 and 3 of Mark really captures our attention. Most leaders and other influential people sometimes perhaps shy away from controversy. You know, if our main goal is to seek the approval of others, well, we often try perhaps to be politically correct in order to please everyone and not stir things up. The common saying, we know what that is, don't we, don't rock the boat? Well, along comes Jesus. And to fulfill his mission for which he was sent by God, the Father, Jesus, will rock some boats. He's not one bit worried about what others are going to think or say about him because his mission is, it's too important. He was truly courageous, resolute and authoritative in word and deed. And in Mark, Jesus brings to us some holy controversy. Now, just picture this scene. Jesus is in Capernaum by now and some men show up there and they bring with them a paralyzed man. There are four of the man's friends carrying him and since the house that Jesus was in was crowded, they're not able to get into to where he was. And so they remove part of the roof of the place where Jesus was. That's right. Remove the roof and lower the paralyzed man through the roof. Now, could you imagine if Jesus was holding a meeting in your house and all of a sudden, he is on the roof tearing it apart and lowering a man down into the room with ropes. But when Jesus saw how much faith this man had, this is what he said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." The first great controversy, the subject of sin. Jesus could have been far less controversial by saying something along the lines of God bless you, my child. But no, he said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." You know, religious leaders and teachers of the law were in that room and what Jesus had just said sent them into a right spin. Why does this man talk like that? He's blaspheming, they said, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And so Jesus, who's able to read their thoughts, knew what these men were thinking. And so he says this in verse 9, "Which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this." What's Jesus doing here? Well, he wants to get the attention of people who are far from God and perhaps imprisoned in their own religiousness. Therefore, he acts bravely, he goes straight to the point and gives them a much needed dose of controversy. Sin friends is a much worse problem than physical ailments, and yet it's an uncomfortable subject. We don't want to call attention to it, do we? So when the subject of sin came up, everybody got nervous except the poor layman who was healed, he was so grateful. And by healing the paralyzed man, Jesus here demonstrates that he really does have power and authority to forgive sin also. Now, more controversy as we continue on to verse 13, we see that Jesus calls a disciple to follow him. And who is this disciple? Well, it's Levi, the son of Alpheus who was sitting in the tax collector's booth. Now, Levi was a tax collector and tax collectors back in those days were completely despised because they were charged taxes from their fellow Jews and hand the money over to the Romans who were dominating the nation. Now, tax collectors back in those days were completely despised because they were charged taxes from their fellow Jews and hand that money over to the Romans who were dominating the nation, and then the tax collectors were also notorious for charging extra tax to fill their own pockets. In other words, they were also cheats and thieves, so just imagine how this man had been rejected and seen as a traitor by his fellow Jews, but here Jesus accepts him. And Mark tells us in verse 15, and as he reclined at a table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples for there were many who followed him. 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?" This was such a shock to people who considered tax collectors to be avoided like the plague, but he once again here causes a controversy going against the religious hypocrisy of the time by socializing with people with a bad reputation. And Jesus then says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." And Levi was converted. Now we know this because Levi was also known as Matthew, the very Matthew, in fact, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew. And as Mark continues, the religious leaders begin to question why Jesus' disciples were not fasting like the disciples of John and the Pharisees did. The religious leaders were puffed up with pride over the fact that they themselves fasted, but the disciples did not. In fact, the disciples didn't look at all religious. They didn't talk the right talk and behave like other religious people. So the Pharisees accused them of not fasting enough. Jesus then says, "Listen, this is a time of celebration. Why would the guests of the groom fast while he is with them? Just picture yourself for a moment at a huge wedding party. Everybody, look at this, a joyful, happy being served cake and all kinds of savory treats." And you say, "No, Max, I'm fasting." They might, of course, to look at you, might they a little strangely? Maybe you shouldn't have gone to the party in the first place. And Jesus says, "But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day." Jesus is saying, "I'm here now. I, the Messiah, have come. I am the Son of God sent by him. I've come to bring you all good news. How is the time for celebration and joy? Not a time for that kind of sad, faced religious expression?" And then he says, "No one sows a piece of unshrunken 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. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the wine will burst the skin and the wine is destroyed, and so to the skin. But new wine is for fresh wine skins." In other words, the religiousness of the Pharisees and other religious men could not bring them a true life with God. They were like trying to sow new patches on old burlap sacks that were rotting and falling apart. Jesus here is getting people ready to see it for a transition from the age of law to the age of grace. And the old way of legalism was not going to be enough. Now that the Messiah was here, a radical change was necessary in the way that people lived their faith out, a change born of God's grace in the heart of mankind, not born of human effort. And Jesus then shows up with another controversy. And Sabbath, he's going through the grain fields, and as they make their way, his disciples around him begin to pluck these heads of grain. Pharisees are watching, and they say to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And he says to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiyatha, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any, but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him." He was saying, "You see, David had committed what was considered a sacrilege by eating the ceremonial bread, yet was not condemned." Jesus then said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath." Jesus here once again confronts the hypocrisy and introduces this holy controversy. And as we continue reading into Mark chapter three, Jesus goes into a synagogue, and there he finds a man with a shriveled hand. The religious leaders once again have their eye on Jesus, they're trying to find you see a way to accuse him of something, so they're by now starting to watch his every move. The thinking is he really going to heal somebody on the Sabbath? They're hoping he would, so that they could accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. Well, Jesus is going to give them exactly what they want, and he has no qualms in introducing another big controversy to challenge the weak religion of these leaders. Verse three, "And he said to the man with a withered hand, 'Come here,' 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, 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, a withered hand, completely restored to a normal hand. Wow. Then the Bible says in verse six, "The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with Herodians against him, and how they could destroy him." Just think of that a moment, that cold-hearted bunch of hypocrites, the Pharisees, would have been happy if this man with a shriveled hand had gone the rest of his life with that hand, as long as they could keep control of their strict religious system. My dear listener, our will suffers, doesn't it, from a lack of true goodness and virtue. Jesus, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, here had the courage to face that which needed to be confronted and corrected a problematic false piety that did no good to humankind. After this, we see a great many people starting to follow him as a result and no wonder. Jesus, who identifies himself with the poor, the needy, and those who are suffering, begins to bless, to heal, and to free those who are under the power of demons and bad religion. So Jesus, along this same line of identifying himself with the common people, chooses the twelve who'd become the apostles or disciples and gives them the authority to preach and to cast out demons, and the list shows up here, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Bernergies, that his sons of thunder, Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Now, the reason he picked Judas Iscariot will become clear a little bit later on as we go through the Gospels. But here we are reaching now the end of this chapter, and we're going to find two other interesting episodes, there's a lot going on here, isn't there? Whenever he cast out demons, the religious leaders and teachers of the law claim that Jesus was doing this by the power of Beelzebub, in other words, by the power of Satan. They were attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil, so Jesus warns them that they are blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, and for this they would not be forgiven. The battle lines you see were being clearly drawn here between those who listened to Jesus understanding his perfection and pure authenticity, and those who were solidly against him. And so it is, to this very hour. Now, as we close chapter three, we come to the passage that says in verse 31, and his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they sent to him and called him, and a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you," and he answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking about at those who sat around him, he went on to say, "Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Jesus shows a different sort of relationship here, doesn't he? One that he had with those who were in fact in a personal, true and deep relationship with God. Jesus also shows the essential importance of his mission, as well as the courage to say certain truths without worrying about how this would affect his popularity. Well dear listener, the great Jesus was truly God with us, full of boldness and courage. Not afraid of holy controversy, if its purpose was indeed to point men to the truth of God. And we're presenting mission 66 with our teacher, John. Alright then, let's move on to some questions from chapter 2 and 3 of the Book of Mark. Now John, do you think that Jesus really enjoyed provoking these men and causing controversy? And I mean, should we likewise be argumentative and controversial? Yeah, well Esther, I know that a lot of people are going to think this is strange because Jesus is often described as a pacifist, the gentle Jesus who is meek and mild, the one who's rightly pictured by artists holding a little lamb's in his arms. And one imagines that Jesus would perhaps be the first to avoid a conflict and not get himself involved, but the Bible teaches something a little different, and we're probably going to ask why, just as you've just asked now, was Jesus an anti-social person who enjoyed a little melodrama, you know, he really was not. But Jesus didn't shy away either from conflicts and controversy when truth and the glory of God was at stake because the truth of which he spoke was a matter of eternal life and death. And so it matters more than anything else. It matters, my goodness, it matters to you, dear listener, more than anything else. You can't have someone who has just been run over by a car who's losing their blood and you calmly say, "Ah, it's got a problem, that's too bad." No, you need to be radical. You need to say, "Excuse me, please," out of the way. Imagine an ambulance driver being passive and slow and ineffective when faced with such a situation, the consequences are just far too important for that. Without help, right now, this patient will die. But in the same way, when it came to upholding essential God-honoring truth, Jesus was so firm because there was no other way around it. Now, hold on, you might say, "Okay, now I'm going to go around causing controversy," because, well, that's what Jesus did. If you plan on causing disorder for no reason or for unnecessary and irrelevant matters, then you know you're going to be deemed and you are acting inappropriately, irresponsibly. And we know some battles are just not worth fighting, and we must not be unkind. But when God's truth is on the line, we need the courage, then, of the conviction of the truth that God lays in our hearts. Okay, so let's talk a bit about Jesus' interactions with people. And by that, I mean, it seems like he usually wanted to get involved with people who were more problematic socially. Well, I guess the question, I know what you're saying, the one I'd ask back to you is, well, who are the problematic people and how do we qualify someone as problematic? Let's look at the Bible, because the truth is there, according to the Bible, everybody is problematic, Esther. We're all sick in some kind of way. Nobody is well. We all have personality quirks and do silly, costly things. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of what God intends. And we're all in need of not only God's forgiveness, but also his help. And, you know, some admit it and some don't. And there are people who are able to disguise themselves pretty good at concealing their flaws and are able to make up that everyone around them would look on them and think, actually, they're doing really well, that they're fine on their own without God. And sometimes we all wear masks and try to make out that everything's okay when nothing could be further from the truth. So, Jesus says, "I can only help someone who's willing to be helped and who truly puts himself in a position to be helped." That's why I've come to call the sick. It's like a stubborn person, perhaps, who refuses to go to the doctor, even when he's close or he or her is close to death, and that's why Jesus confronts the religious hypocrites of his time, who thought they were okay, but deep inside were people of deep and great need. People try to disguise it, but deep down inside, everybody needs God just the same. You know, John, I'll be the first to admit that I need God too. But you know what? Let's segue now into a conversation about fasting. Did Jesus criticize fasting here in Mark chapter 2 and is fasting something that should or should not be practiced? I've got to add, Esther, me too, you know, I'm someone in need of God every day and every hour of my life. So, you know, thank you for being honest, because I think, as we've said, we all do. And on the point of fasting, well, Jesus wasn't against fasting, and fasting is a good way to discipline the body so is to enhance our prayer life. Plus, we know there are health benefits to it, but the problem is that in the religious context of this time, the Pharisees had made fasting into a self-righteous religious contest that was not achieving the proper results that God was looking for. So, Pharisees fasted, let's say, to show just how religious they were. They made their faces look sad to show people that they were fasting, and this is what Jesus was against. Jesus was really saying, "Look, I've come to bring you good news, and to fast at a time of joy like this, well, it doesn't make any sense. People don't fast at wedding ceremonies, so fasting, yeah, it's good. When done for the purpose of glorifying God, and it does enhance prayer life and potentially intimacy with God, but what we should not do is believe that fasting makes a superior in a way where maybe it leads us to look down on people who don't fast, maybe as much as we do if we do fast, and that's what the Pharisees were doing here, and that is what Jesus was speaking against." Wow, some powerful points to think about there, but I think I understood. So in my observations of the Book of Mark, I noticed that in one place, it says that Jesus was so devoted, that Jesus' own family believed that he was out of his mind, according to what we read in verses 21 of chapter 2. What is that about? Yeah, I know. Jesus often didn't do what people expected, even those, as you rightly say, Esther, who were closest to him, his own family. He was sold out for God's agenda, not man's, and that can sure generate controversy. When it comes to a good controversy, sometimes, as we've just mentioned, even family members aren't immune. Jesus acted in a way that his own family just didn't understand. His family didn't have a full grasp of his purpose, all the way that he sometimes did things. In fact, in one place, it's written that even his own brothers didn't believe in him. They just didn't grasp who he really was, and who was he? Well, we know he was God in the flesh. In fairness, that is something that would take a little grasping, isn't it? So to those of you who are listening to us, you might sometimes think, look, I don't get this. Jesus is sometimes so hard to understand. Well, you're not alone, because even Jesus' closest relatives had a similar problem. Yeah, yeah, you know, so do I at times I must admit, but hey, we're all learning, right? Now, the 12 apostles show up here in chapter 3, but not just as disciples, but apostles. So tell me, what's the difference between the two? Well, the word apostle basically means sent out one. An apostle at the time was this special person chosen to be sent out. In biblical times, it was common to choose a special messenger to be sent by a king, for example. Well, Jesus was in prayer for a long time before he picked his 12 apostles or disciples, and here we find Jesus choosing these regular men, common people, to be sent out like special messengers, and they were given by Jesus' special authority to even cast out demons, heal sicknesses as part of this apostolic mission. And these 12 apostles, being Jesus' apostles, cannot be replaced. Now, you might think, well, what do you mean by that? Well, some church leaders will take unto themselves the title apostle. Perhaps you might have heard that, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there cannot be any more apostles like these 12. And Jesus once again shows his identification with common people and begins a discipleship program that remains strong, even to this very day that we're chatting here, Esther. Yeah, fantastic. Look, we are learning so much, John, and I really do appreciate this. But how would you say we can summarize these couple of chapters? Yeah, good question, and today then on Mission 66, we were studying chapters two and three of the Gospel of Mark, and the theme today was holy controversy. Jesus was not interpleasing everyone around him. On the contrary, he often confronted head-on the lies and abuses of his time, the religious mistakes, if you like, and he was especially hard on those who knew the law should have known better and pretended to be morally above the rest of society. But, you know, if any of them had repented and obeyed him, believed in him, then they would have been accepted, of course, and some did. Well, dear listeners, I'm pretty sure sometimes you get upset, surely, because we all do and because sometimes there aren't many people in this world with the courage and the nerve to confront wrongdoing. It's a hard path to walk. You've heard the saying that every man has his price, and there are many today who have sold out to the popular culture and the world's way of thinking. Maybe for money, maybe for the need of a personal acceptance, not wanting to stand out, maybe out of fear of rejection, but thanks be to God. There are also many who remain true and follow the example set by our great Savior, Jesus Christ. The great truth that we must learn and keep in our hearts is that everyone who has a commitment to the truth should stand against that which is false, hypocritical, and dishonest. Amen and Amen. Thank you so much, John. My friend, I am Esther, and from our teacher, John, we hope to have you with us next time as we study the Word of God together on Mission 66. As we close today's program, let me remind you to download your free study guide of the Gospels, you'll be able to go deeper into God's Word and follow along with each day's program. It's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Susullo. To get your free study guide of the Gospels, visit Mission66.org. That's Mission66.org. It's a great resource. You can also support the ministry of Mission 66 when you visit the site. You'll help continue the program here and around the world. Mission 66 is a ministry of Transworld Radio in partnership with Dr. Louise Ciao. I'm Rob Dempsey. [music] [music]