Jesus said, when you see these things begin to take place
straighten up, Lift up your head for your Redemption draws, nigh.
And so, I am not among those who sees the calamities of our time
and say, yeah, we've been through this before, actually,
we haven't. Paul told Timothy to things
would be bad and they would only get worse.
And so though, they may have familiar themes.
They will intensify in their evil and in their influence.
And so you and I have every right to say, my Redemption is
coming near. My Redemption is almost 9:00 it
is here. Very soon.
And I want to be found faithful, I hope you feel the same way and
so let's equip ourselves by God's word and Mark chapter 3
together. We read this passage last week.
We're revisiting it this week. Because there's just so much in
it for us to contemplate. Lord, as we come to this chapter
in The Gospel of Mark. Sanctify us.
Lord. Our hearts need you.
Our minds need you. We are so weak and we confess it
gladly because you are strong in our weakness.
And you are gracious. Help us, learn help us.
Apply help us worship. Help us obey and Jesus name we
pray. Amen.
First one again, he entered the synagogue and a man was there
with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he
would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him and
he said to the man with the withered hand come here and he
said to them is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm
to sit to save life, or to kill, but they were silent and he
looked around 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, the Pharisees went
out and immediately held counsel with the herodians against them,
how to destroy him. The synagogue is more full than
it was a custom to the miracle-working rabbi from
Nazareth is in town and he is standing in the midst of this
assembly who have gathered for the Sabbath, his disciples.
Excited sitting by him closely anticipating that he is going to
do something wonderful. They've been used to his
leadership up to this point when Jesus comes to a place he is
unafraid of speaking the truth and he has unparalleled power
And across from their leader sits a man sheepishly. as he is
there to worship but his hand is withered handicapped disabled
broken and he does not realize that in a brief moment, his life
is going to be radically altered And so on.
This sabbath day, in this specific congregation, there was
a particular atmosphere a strange one.
The air was filled with excitement and yet, it was also
mingled with tension because on the scene were the Pharisees
sitting on the edges of their seat hoping and waiting for
Jesus to do something that in their minds would break the law
so that they can smear his Reputation.
And hopefully even indict him. And so with the see now before
us a fresh, I hope that you are prepared to behold something of
the Majesty, magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week, you and I took this text and we saw how the three
parties who were in that house of worship.
Provide, a wonderful illustration of just, some of
the reasons why people come to houses of worship today and what
they should be doing in some cases when they come to the
house of worship and so like Jesus, we must Just come to the
Fellowship of the Brethren ready to serve.
Not looking for the best seat, like the Pharisees, but looking
for the best in others. And for others, and we ought to
come to the house of worship. Just like this man who was
withered, but he was worshipful. Come in your Brokenness.
Don't isolate yourself, don't Reserve yourself, don't hide
yourself. Throw yourself into the presence
of God's people and allow the hands and feet of.
Jesus to bring healing to your soul, our Brokenness varies, but
our solution is the same Christ Works in and through his body.
Therefore, you must be with his body to know his power.
And lastly, I pray that there is not even one person in this
place who will ever remain in the place of what being like the
Pharisees, who knew enough about Jesus, who watched Jesus, who
studied Jesus, who knew the ways of Jesus enough to be saved a
thousand times over but never came to saving faith.
I hope that you are now among those who will say to Jesus on
that day, Lord, we ate and drank in your presence, you taught in
our streets. And he will say, I do not know
where you came from, just because you hang out with
Christians and you like to have potlucks at churches, doesn't
mean that you will be saved. With all of this here before us,
we still have much more to learn.
The Holy Spirit has so much yet to say in this text, especially
with the gospel of Mark because in Mark's gospel, he has a
detail significant detail about the Lord Jesus Christ that Luke
and Matthew have not etched in their versions and we will
discover that today it's something about Jesus that that
we for some reason do not see clearly in the word of God and I
believe it's because of an imbalance view of who God is.
We will do this by coming to this tax and looking at three
things about the Lord, Jesus Christ, three things about his
heart and the first thing is the heart behind his commands.
The second thing is the heart behind his confrontation.
And lastly, his heart. As he sees the callousness and
some. And so, we looked at verse 1 and
2. Last week, let's look at verse 3
and 6. We see here that Jesus said to
the man, with a withered hand, come here in this place, not
knowing how much time has passed.
Jesus now breaks, the silence. He breaks the Silence by
speaking up and took control of the situation and the Lord did
not give a length. Discourse.
You didn't give a powerful Parable at least at this point.
Mark tells us that he turns his attention to this man with a
withered hand. And he says, two simple words
come here That is a command and that is a command worthy of
reflection. But before we go into that
realize that in these verses in this scene, we actually have two
commands. Jesus gives to commands to the
same man and when we actually just just look at what these
commands say and what they mean we will know something about the
nature of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Even over us the first we saw it in verse 3.
He said come here. Then you scroll down to verse 5
and we see in the middle of verse 5u says, stretch out your
hand to commands for the same person and again, it would do us
good to realize that there's something behind these commands
that deal with us. And if we would respond
appropriately and understanding the nature of Jesus lordship, we
will know what this man knew. What did he know, healing, what
did he know, wholeness? What did he know life?
This is what's available. This is surely for you.
And I Now, when we understand that behind Christ orders and
his charges is our good, our blessing, his glory, and he
seeks to heal you, he seeks to heal you and what way?
Well, look at Matthews version. Go to Matthew chapter 12 and
look at verse 13, So it shall be the same for us who trust and
obey. In Matthew 12 13, we read after
the man was healed. Look at this.
Then he said to the man stretch out your hand and the man
stretched it out and it was restored healthy like the other
Matthew includes that detail healthy, like the other,
implying, what? What, why would that even be
given to us? Why is that even necessary?
Because it's a statement that Jesus wants us to be completely
whole. Completely whole, not partially
Sanctified, not some aspects of your life that had been
influenced by the work of the spirit and others that are still
dead and by the flesh Christ wants to complete his work in
you, he wants to bring fruit in every aspect of your existence
and every Arena of your day-to-day life.
And so if you long for that, if you yearn for that, if you're
tired of saying, you know, yeah, like since I became a Christian
this change but I could not shake this off.
This is just something it's I guess.
My nature to my culture. This is how we are.
Forget that. Christ wants to come and do a
complete work, make you completely whole and what that's
going to require, is us to understand his commands and what
is required of us and responding to those commands.
And we will arrive to the fullness of the life of the
spirit. And so, let's examine these two
commands. Shall we the first one in verse
3, come here, What's so significant about that?
Well, this man was obviously sitting in a way in the
synagogue that he was outside of the full view of the
congregation and so Jesus and wanting to display his power
before all, who were there brought him into the center of
the room, come here and what's amazing is when Jesus says, come
here, he did not see it necessary to explain what he was
going to do. You didn't say come here because
he just told them what to do come here and this man who has
silently compliant gets up, and I'm sure there was thoughts
going on in his mind as he was taking those few small steps,
what's this all about? He listened.
And I wonder if it's because Jesus taught in the synagogue
and this man realized there's something different about this
man in comparison to the teachers who have walked through
this place. And I wonder if it was the
authority and the compassionate with the power that compelled
and convince them to trust in his voice, come here.
All right, and so he comes and he approaches Jesus and Jesus is
going to do something wonderful for him.
And I want you to understand that there is a lesson here,
even in these two words, when we understand the lordship of Jesus
Christ, Our obedience to him, should never ever be influenced
by our inability to perceive what will happen on the other
side of that. Yes.
Our obedience to Jesus should never be influenced by our
inability to see what will this bring about in my life?
If I say yes. Or if I say no, there are many
who feel this Unholy, hesitation to actually follow Jesus and
particular, instructions for their lives and they'll
Christians have this General understanding.
Yes, trust and Obey for, there's no other way.
God will bless your life if you walk in his ways.
For some reason, that's not enough to give him the
confidence to actually move forward when it comes to real
life situations. And so these crashing thoughts
come in different ways. Well what if what if my friends
see me as a fanatic? What if my co-workers realize
that I'm so serious about Jesus that they begin to criticize and
even determine the environment of my day-to-day job?
What if, what if I do, what Jesus said and lovingly
confront, a brother or sister, that I will make this
relationship that I cherish awkward.
Right? What if my faithfulness cost me,
fine? She lost what, what if I preach
in a certain way and people don't come like the church,
right? All these thoughts.
All these hesitations but I want to tell you something, Jesus
does not owe us a personalized outline of what will happen if
you just trust him. He doesn't.
He doesn't owe us anything. He doesn't have any reason to
tell us this will play out in this way because that's not what
obedience is about. The sole motivation for our
total submission to the sovereignty of Jesus and the
Simplicity of his word is what I'm just doing.
What he told me to do. It's a simple as that.
No matter what comes out of it, no matter what comes out of it,
knowing that I've done my part in obeying him suffice us
whether it's praise or persecution promotion, or
eviction life or death, Smiles, her frowns.
When Jesus has come here, I will come.
And when he says go there, I will go. and I will trust that
the reward or the lack thereof, in this life will be his
bidding, his doing, not mine, You see that in so many ways in
the Bible, I think of the Apostle.
Paul one day, he's thrown into prison with Silas.
There they are chained hand and foot and they begin to pray and
sing and that Midnight Hour. And what does God do?
He brings an earthquake. I would like a few earthquakes
in my life, he shakes things up the prison doors, swing open and
the Jailer who was on shift that night gets saved and not just
him but his household Glory. And another time he gets
arrested by me, Paul was a frequent visitor to prisons, but
this time he's not leaving prison According to second
Timothy without his head being cut off.
God was glorified in both ways. I loved that story goes, He
three Hebrew boys. We were talking about them.
We're hearing about it through Pastor, Daniel just a couple
weeks ago and I'm paraphrasing, but they looked at
Nebuchadnezzar, they said, okay, do what you want.
We're not doing what you say, throw us in the fire, and if God
Saves us, he says he doesn't. We're not doing what you're
going to tell us to do those. Men were worried to be those
guys were ready to be rather cooked alive.
And instead, they were promoted. You can't determine these
things. All you can determine is, I will
trust what he says. He does have to explain what my
life is going to look like if I do it.
I will just trust and Obey but we come back here to the second
command in verse 5, stretch out your hand.
Stretch out your hand, what a strange command to give somebody
who is incapable of doing the very thing that was asked of
him. This man's hand was paralyzed.
And here's, Jesus telling him to move and extend it Forward
impossible. It doesn't make sense.
The man doesn't have life, he doesn't have ability.
He doesn't have the grace to be able to do this simple thing, no
matter how much he wanted to do it.
And yet Jesus in his lordship in his Is them in his grace.
Looks at this man and he says, would you stretch it out?
and we look at this, and we think, How can Jesus asked this
man to do something that he could not do?
And that's how many Believers feel about many of the commands
of Jesus. Impossible.
Lord, how is it that I look at these truths and I hear what the
preacher saying you're asked me to live like this.
You're asking to be sexually pure, I can't even walk a week
without indulging in filth. You're asking me to, to be
genuinely free from bitterness and to forget what people have
done in the sense of forgiving them.
Though, I may rehearse it in the paint is still really asking me
to actually go beyond just forgiving but loving such people
that if they're in the shop at my front door and ask for a
meal, or ask for help because their car broke down.
You want me to actually extend Greys?
You want me to Rejoice? Always, I can even Rejoice at
all. Rejoice.
Always. I'm trying to be a Godly mother.
I'm trying to be a Godly wife, but it would be really easy.
If you gave me a better husband or better children, And you're
asking me to do this with nothing in view of return with
no help here. Huh.
But here's the hoping this miracle that applies to our
spiritual paralysis. The glory of Jesus Christ being
Lord, is that he always enables us to do that which we cannot
exercise in our own strength. That's the point of this miracle
stretch out your hand and this man.
As he did it, with the little effort of faith that he had
would sense, an infusion of power that would make it
possible. Jesus is not a cruel master that
dishes out unrealistic, prescriptions and smiles while
you painfully perform. He is an empowering Savior and
all he says is give me your faith and I will give you my
power. That is the glory of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. And it's it's a truth woven from
cover to cover in this Bible, especially when you seek to
understand your inheritance in the New Covenant, what Jesus,
blood purchase for you and tapping into that power to live
and walk as he walked as we sang.
And here's an example that we have before us.
Let me give you another one, not with a man with his hand.
But with a man with his feet in the Old Testament, want to this
bless me when I read it and I just chewed on it for days.
How is it that this man? Experience is disgrace in the
old Covenant and I myself would dare to even complain that these
things in the Christian Journey are not realistic.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 2 verse 1. I want you to see this with your
own eyes Ezekiel's in the presence of God.
And a measure that was overwhelming.
Like an unimaginably, holy atmosphere, and Ezekiel to after
being thrown to the ground laying prostrate by the glory.
That was before him. God calls us profit to do
something so simple, but yet so impossible.
Is he go to one? And he said to me, son of man,
stand on your feet and I will speak with you.
And as he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me, And set
me on my feet and I heard him speaking to me.
Stand on your feet and this servant of God cannot even lift
his face. From the dust that his nose was
buried in because of the Blazing Majesty of God.
And yet God would say and commissioned him, get up.
And here's how Ezekiel rights of his experience.
Once I heard that command, that seems so impossible in that same
moment. Immediately came a supernatural
help that entered into me and lifted me up and place my feet
on Solid Ground. And when you see that, you have
to understand that that is a picture of what you and I have
permanently in Jesus Christ. See what we celebrate as
Christians. Is that the spirits enabling
work is not reserved for some profits, or special Servants of
God. Jesus purchased this access for
all of us to know the energizing assisting work of the third
person of the godhead, the holy spirit of God.
This is what we have. This is what we sell, this is
what we rejoice in Christ. Now made a way for the spirit
not just to enter into me but the live in me, he sealed me and
he's always ready to fill me and to help me.
And to meet my meager efforts by bringing about such a Grace that
I myself would give him glory for any kind of stride of
Holiness and that's something that you have to believe.
We need to recover the supernatural ality of our faith.
We got so caught up with people criticizing us for not being
rational or scientific. I believe we went to the Other
Extreme and now we promote psychology and philosophy and we
have almost drained this thing from the supernatural element of
it. Christ can set you free, he
really can. So here's my question to you
brother. Here's my question to you,
sister. What part of you is withered
Yes, Christ. Did a work in.
You praise the Lord, he saved you, Hallelujah.
But what part of you is still lifeless that can't seem to
become a branch where there's fruit hanging off of it, is it
your lack of love. Is it your lack of patience?
Is it your rage is your Purity? Is it your humility?
What is it? That you need God to do.
Well here's what I say to you. Stretch it forth by faith and
choir of the spirit of God and ask him to infuse the power that
you yourself. Could never ever, ever come to
on your own and he will meet you there, he will meet you there.
I'm not ashamed. To give such simple advice.
I'm not ashamed because I see the simple promise here.
I believe that Jesus. Purchase that for you and I that
he can actually change you. It does not matter what your
history is. It doesn't matter what
generationally a pattern might have been, doesn't matter if
you're a hot-blooded, middle easterner, doesn't matter.
Christ can change. He sanctifies our personality,
he can do something with your attitude, he can do something
with your mindset. He can do something with your
habits believe. Believe, we believe him by
faith. And justification.
Is that where it stops in Galatians, 3?
Know your faith continues in your sanctification.
What you have begun in the spirit?
Continue in the spirit. Paul says, don't rely on the
power of the flesh. There is no power in the flesh.
Give yourself to the holy spirit's work.
A great price has been paid for us to tap into such a mercy.
So we see these things with these two commands.
Do we not? Come here, availed command.
That doesn't, give us all the details, but such as the nature
of Christ leadership. He doesn't owe you any
explanation. Just know who he is, and let him
lead the way and it stretch forth your hand.
Whatever, you deem impossible. Whatever you see that seems to
be such a challenge. He is right there behind every
command. With a promise to help you.
Every single time, this is the heart behind Jesus commands.
As we see here, let us now move forward to the heart behind this
confrontation. In verse 4 of Mark chapter 3 and
he said to them. Now he's looking at the
Pharisees. He takes his attention away from
this man. I wonder if he was hiding his
hand. I wonder if he was showing his
hand to give Jesus a clue that he wants to be healed regardless
Jesus. Oh, with that Authority.
But that Authority. What a man Jesus was come here.
This man moves into the crowd and he comes forward and he
looks at this man oozing with compassion.
Then he looks at the Pharisees, I'm sure they were maybe sitting
on either side and he asked them a question, is it lawful on the
To do good or to do harm to save life or to kill and Luke 68.
You'd have to turn. There we are.
Told that Jesus knew their thoughts.
So he knew why they were sitting there.
He knew exactly why they attended on that day to witness
a miracle. Yes.
But not for the same reason that you and I would want to see
Jesus heal somebody, right that's out of desire and love
and compassion. These men wanted to try to find
a reason. To criminalize him evil,
ambition to condemn him for breaking one of their silly
traditions. And so the Lord asked the
question. It's really a brilliant
question. He says, is it lawful on the
Sabbath to do good or to do harm to save life or to kill you?
Can't like either way you answer that you're gonna look like a
fool, what you gonna say? It's evil to do good.
It's evil to save lives, they don't know.
They can't and that's why they are literally silent.
The breath has been sucked out of them, but it's even deeper
than that. Deeper than that.
Because this is what Jesus is saying, knowing their thoughts.
He knows that they're there to kill him.
Are these trying to reason, find a reason to kill him?
And so, in essence, what he's saying in this question is here,
I am on the Sabbath wanting to heal this man and to do good to
him. And here you are on the same
Sabbath. And you want to kill me.
Who's really fulfilling the law of God here?
I want to restore this man. You want to destroy this man.
Me. So who's really observing the
heart of God behind the Sabbath? You are me?
You can imagine that this simple question, created a deafening
silence. I mean, if you thought it was
tense before this, add the awkwardness, add the
embarrassment on their part, add the fury and the anger that was
just coming out of their ears. Actually, do you want to know
how I know? They were angry.
Go to Luke, and I'll tell you exactly why.
And it's enlightening for us because I want to make a strong
point with this. Luke 6.
This is Luke's version and he says, and says, in verse 9 to 11
And Jesus said to them, I ask you.
Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm to save
life, or to destroy it. And after looking around at
them, notice you didn't mention the anger of Jesus will get to
that in a moment. After looking around at them, he
said to him, stretch out your hand and he did.
So, and his hand was restored, but they were filled with Fury.
They were filled with Fury and discuss with one another what
they might do to Jesus, anger, frustration, vexed.
How can this man speak to us in such a way?
And I love it because what Jesus does here is what these guys try
to do later on. Remember they try to Corner him
it was so cute. And try to try to trick him and
put him in a place where he couldn't answer.
Like he did that to us as try to do it to him.
Jesus did it so gracefully. So powerfully.
So effortlessly, then when they try they just they just fail.
It was embarrassing part 2. you know, I was reading this and as
many ways you can go about this verse, but I was thinking about
this, I made a comment last week, I don't know if you heard
it. As you study the gospels you'll
realize how much real estate, the Pharisees, take up and God's
word. It's really interesting.
I mean, the encounters with Jesus, even let the woes that
Jesus has, I mean, they're they're from the, almost the
beginning of his ministry to the end of it.
And I thought to myself a very simple question, why why did the
Holy Spirit Reserve so much about the details of what?
Ferris, Liam looks like and and, and how it was so real in Jesus
time. And so obvious in our Bibles And
I came to think about in there are many reasons, but there is
one clear statement that Jesus makes that proves to me, why the
Holy Spirit has decided to enclose and keep these things
for generations to come. You don't have to turn there,
but just listen at one point in Mark, he doesn't in different
gospel accounts, he looks at his own disciples Jesus and Mark 8
and verse 15. And he says, watch out.
This is what Jesus says, watch out for what, Beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.
Jesus warned his own disciples don't let the leaven creep into
your life. The leaven of the Pharisees and
that leaven is not just speaking about false Doctrine.
A speaking about hypocrisy hypocrisy, He's warning his own
people. I'm telling you to be careful.
It is easy to slip into. Superficial spirituality, it's
easy, my disciples for you to become frauds.
To adopt external religiosity but to have no power of
godliness in you. So watch out.
And so I look at that statement, I think to myself, is it
possible that the reason why we have so much about Pharisees,
what they do, how they think for the reason that Jesus stated,
because he wants to warn his people not to be like them.
And if we want to know whether we are like them, he has all
these examples, all these interactions all these insights,
so that throughout the generations, I would look at my
Bible and see. Am I a Pharisee?
You know what the common picture
of a Pharisee is two people long robes.
Long beards incense, Bells Traditions over God's word,
okay? But have you ever thought about
this concerning a Pharisee? One of the marks of somebody
being a Pharisee is that they are easily offended by the
truth. Oh yeah, so now the picture is
enlarged, right? You don't believe me.
That's okay. Don't believe me.
Believe Jesus, in Matthew, 15 turn there with me because what
you see here in Mark chapter 3, is a common characteristic of a
Pharisee. so, we think Pharisees are those who come from
traditional backgrounds, I'll show you what the Holy Spirit
tells us what a Pharisee looks like.
In Matthew 15 12. Then the disciples came and said
to him. Do you know that the Pharisees
were offended? When they heard the saying, He
answered every plant that my heavenly father has not planted,
will be routed up, let them alone, I love that.
Jesus didn't go around chasing offended, people, let them
alone, they are blind guides. And if the blind lead, the
blind, both will fall into a pit.
There it is. One of the marks of being a
Pharisees that you are easily offended by a truth that you
don't like. Disciple said, Jesus, probably
concerned that perhaps Jesus should be on good terms with the
religious leaders of his day. Hey, Jesus.
Do you realize after Sunday morning the whole roll of
Pharisees left upset, after what you said in your sermon?
They're all talking to you see the fuming, there they're upset.
She's like, yeah, let him alone. They're blind.
And whoever follows them is blind also.
And I look at this and I thought, wow, maybe there are
more Pharisees than I thought. Because a Pharisee claims to
know the truth and love the truth.
But is agitated when the word exposes a particular wrong that
is found in a habit or a belief that they've held on to for so
long. That's a Pharisee.
The Pride cannot acknowledge that they're wrong.
My brother my sister, how do you respond?
Never mind from a sermon standpoint but when a brother or
sister sits with you and opens God's word and says this is out
of line. They cannot accept how God would
ever disagree with them, especially with the things that
they think is harmless or tolerable Pharisee.
The mark of a true child of God and relationship to the word is
that whatever is presented before them.
If they know, it's God's will, if it's clear then they joyfully
accept it even if it stings at first.
I embrace it. If it's God's will God's word,
God's wisdom, God's precepts. I embrace it, I want it, I will
surrender to it. One of the ways that you and
we've talked about this at Maranatha that you can actually,
decipher between false and true. Spirituality is very simple.
How does that person engage and respond to the word of God?
That's all you need to know, because that's the foundational
thing. Even when Paul is teaching the
church in Corinth, he ends one of his arguments that would
today be deemed as controversial.
And you know what he says? And First Corinthians 14, don't
turn their verse 37. Listen to these words.
He says if anyone Things that he is a prophet or spiritual, he
should acknowledge that these things.
I am writing to you are a command of the Lord because so
so yes. Some people in Corinth that were
going around saying what Jesus told me and I'm and look at my
gifts. So this this is this has to be
right? And Paul says, hold up.
Let's just, let's just deal with this.
If anybody is really a profit. If anybody is really spiritual,
they will hear what I say from this letter and they would
acknowledge that this is from God and then they I will submit
to it. And you know what, the context
of this is when Paul said it woman's role in the church.
That was the context. And I think that is a very, very
applicable truth in our day. Today, when you have so many
people are going around saying, well, Jesus appeared to me in
Jesus told me, and Jesus did this.
And Jesus, if you're really spiritual, the word is what you
will submit to. No matter what, what your
experience was, no matter what your denomination says, no
matter how much you were requested, this not matter.
Pharisaism and Pharisees are offended by the truth.
They cannot tolerate it. Do they?
Yes with lip service, acknowledge it.
But when it touches a nerve, haha, They pull back, Jesus
heart behind his confrontation. You know what?
The Lord wants to do in you and me, I believe that there is
something here. About the Heart of Jesus behind
his teaching, he always wants to save us from hypocrisy really.
And I want to be like Jesus, if Jesus was at leader and a
teacher, I want to be like Jesus.
And what way I want to first look at my own life and make
sure there's no leaven of hypocrisy and I want to exhort
others to do the same. Be free from it flee from it.
So you want to know God's heart. Whenever you hear a word that
might be strong, he wants to save you.
And I from the leaven of the Pharisees, he absolutely hates
hypocrisy. I You Don't See Jesus.
Dedicating a chapter in Matthew woing over prostitutes and tax
collectors, but religious people.
Oh, woe to you woe to you. That says something there's
Greater Grace for prostitutes and drug dealers and gang
members and pimps. Than people who put on a
religious face when in reality they're fake.
The heart of Christ in its confrontation lovingly is to
save us to cleanse us, to wash us from that Levin that so
easily can come in and make us like a Pharisee, and you don't
need the robe with a long beard. Either the heart of Christ
behind his commands, the heart of Christ behind his
confrontation, the heart of Christ.
When he sees callousness in our hearts, First 5 of Mark, 3.
And he looked around at them with anger.
Grieved at their Hardness of Heart.
I'm sure you would agree that marks writing style up to this
point has been very fast pace, he loves to jump from one scene
to the next. She loves to use that word
immediately but it's as though the Holy Spirit does something
in this one verse. It says though he puts this on
slow motion, And he slows the vehicle down so to speak so that
we can look into the window and through the window of God's
word, and take our time to digest the details of this
portrait. Jesus looked at them.
Angry And he was grieved. You know, I read that, and I
read that, and I read that in every single time I read that I
cannot help, but feel the force of that picture, it almost makes
me just step back and I wonder what his face look like.
Doesn't look like the common paintings that you see on walls
today, I could tell you that Jesus just staring out into the
distance. Know when you see Jesus here,
whoever the eyewitness was the help Mark, right this.
Yes by the spirit that person knew hey Jesus on that day
didn't say a word and we all knew he was angry.
He was angry that his eyes, widen that his nostrils, they
extend. That is the the something
happened with his face that had become a frown.
What was it? All I know from this is that
there is a penetrating gaze that pierced in that synagogue and as
I look at this, I think to myself What we're going to hear
today is probably some of that you're not going to hear very
often on a Sunday morning service especially in any
service for that matter. Jesus gets angry.
Jesus gets angry and we could praise God.
That isn't get angry for the reasons that we do generally
speaking, but that doesn't make his anger, any less intense, if
anything, it makes it more Fierce because his anger is
Holy. It's pure.
It's a reflection of his righteousness.
There is a fine line between righteous anger and unrighteous
and a very fine line. But when it's righteous anger is
actually to a degree a manifestation of what you love.
What you're angry about can reveal either your pride your
selfishness, you're undisciplined attitude, your
lack of dependency on the Holy Spirit or it can show that you
hate what? God hates.
And it moves you to action righteous action.
And I want to tell you that although hearing on a Sunday
afternoon especially as we heard earlier that, this world is very
angry may be hearing that Jesus gets angry is not the most
edifying thing. But I can guarantee you, if you
understand why he gets angry, you'll love him even more,
you'll love him even more. Why did Jesus get angry?
We're told at their Hardness of Heart.
He saw their thoughts, he read their minds.
And his heart was angered by their heart, and here's the
thing, unfortunately, the majority of our anger is stirred
by our selfishness, right? We don't get our own way.
We get upset at minor inconveniences.
We don't get the attention that we think we deserve.
There's a, there's a sense in which it's my way or no way.
And if it doesn't happen my way, I get all flared up.
That's not Jesus. Rarely do people even God's
people get angry for the same reason Jesus Does.
And one of the most explicit versus of Jesus being angry.
And we're we being told informed that Jesus was angry was
connected to an insensitive and on an unbelieving heart of
another. This is, this is what this is
what caused him to look with such a fierce penetrating stare.
I wonder if it was for an extended amount of time that
made them feel uncomfortable, but understand this, Jesus is
anger. He's very patient.
This was not his first interaction with these
Pharisees. How many times has he rebuked
them? How many time has he taught him?
How many times has he displayed his power before them?
And yet, time and time? Again, resist time.
And time again, reject, refuse and it's come to a point now
where Christ and seeking to even redirect the Pharisees Minds?
Do you think Jesus was Engaging with these Pharisees, just to
win an argument. We read an ax last week that
Jesus and his gospel Sate, some who belonged to the party of the
Pharisees. Yes, Christ even wants to save a
Pharisee. And Jesus here, with his anger
has reached a point where their unbelief was was dangerous.
Very dangerous because when a person grows in their rejection
to a truth, the truth that they are continually exposed by and
to their only in curing a growing anger on The Lord Of
Love who desires to woo, their souls to be saved.
There just comes a point where after all that God says, and all
that God does in your life and you continue to say no to him
and turn your back on him, that are righteous anger arises.
And there is something called it's a theological term in the
Bible called the judicial hardening Israel's going through
it right now that when you continue to refuse refuse,
reject reject, that God will accompany that personal Harding
that you are responsible for by finishing the job for you.
You want to stay there? Stay there.
We don't know where that line is.
I wouldn't play with it. That's why the Bible says today
is the day of salvation. Jesus looks at their hearts and
he's angry angry at their unbelief, but angry at the
unbelief that caused them to be insensitive to others in
Matthews version, Jesus gives a little teaching.
He says, you're willing to actually go and help a sheep
that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, but not help a brother
who's suffering. How skewed can you be in your
religiosity? And so what angers Jesus that
also is when we lack that compassion for others and and
our faith, cause us to be more self-righteous and treat others
with contempt, this angered is hard, Jesus gets angry at evil.
And we should be to, this is the plague of Our Generation.
This is the plague of modern Christianity, don't get upset,
be neutral, don't call things out.
Jesus intentionally. Disrupted their tradition.
He intentionally did it. If you wanted to heal and
secret, he would have met the man behind the synagogue and
heal them uses a a come here. Come here, he was
confrontational and he was holy and doing it.
And we have to understand that there is something that is
needed today. That same holy confrontation.
So Jesus here is angry at evil and there's nothing that can be
more evil than rejecting, the gospel that seeks to save evil
men. And so we see the reason for it.
But look notice the grief with it.
And he looked around at them with anger grieved at their
Hardness of Heart. You know what that means?
There is genuine deep sincere sadness, That seems like a
contradiction. But it's not for Jesus, at
least, because he's holy, he's filled with love with this
anger. There was a sorrow and I believe
the sorrow is because in realizing the hardness of their
hearts, he also knew the fate of their constant Rebellion against
God. He knew what this was going to
lead to. He knew the Eternal damnation
that they would receive because of the attitude that they were
entertaining in that moment. And so, as much as he was angry,
he was also broken. There was a Pity there was,
there was a deep sense of Mercy because he knew the cost of not
following Jesus Christ. We always talk about the cost of
following Jesus Christ. There's a greater cost of not.
And limitations 3 verse 33. It says about the Lord for he
does not afflict from his heart. He does not afflict from his
heart or grieve. The children of men.
You know what that means down deep inside God's ultimate
desires for us to turn to him and be saved.
He finds Greater Joy in redeeming than in judging.
He finds greater Delight in seeing people saved from
suffering than seeing people suffer even under his wrath.
That is his preference. That is his desire, that is not
to say that he will not judge, he will, and it will satisfy his
Justice. But we do have an understanding
the complexity of all of this. That if there was a choice on
God's part, it would be to save and to see all come to
repentance Spurgeon had a wonderful way of describing this
moment and it's interesting because it sounds almost sounds
almost unfamiliar. Spurgeon says, even when he
grows angry with men, he is angry with them because they
will not let him bless them. Interesting, isn't it?
Because they will not let him bless them, because they will
persevere in opposing him for reasons, which they cannot
themselves support. And dare, not even own, you
know, what made this even worse. I mean, Jesus presents a truth
and they could not even defend their position and they still
refuse Jesus Christ. Even when their arguments fell
in, there was nothing to stand on.
They still resisted him and this is what made him angry.
How much more do I need to prove to you that you're wrong.
And that I'm right. But Spurgeon goes beyond that
and he says that the sorrow that Jesus knew was because he really
wanted to bless them and their rejection of his lordship
canceled that possibility and only encouraged judgment
instead. That's that's God's heart.
Can you imagine that? You might disagree with Spurgeon
but I think he has something going on there.
But I see something else in a very, very powerful way that is
applicable to us. I don't just see the reason for
his anger or the grief of his anchor.
I see the control of his anger. Notice what he's what happens
here? He looked around at them with
anger grieved at their Hardness of Heart and then what happens
and he said to the man stretch out your hand.
Majestic control Mastery over his emotions.
He did not lose his composure. Be angry and sin, not be angry
and sin. Not and here's the Lord standing
before these men infuriated by their unbelief and by their
resistance and you know what Jesus doesn't do.
It doesn't look at them and He doesn't curse underneath his
breath. It isn't cussed them out, didn't
give them a Unholy attitude or an Unholy.
Look He channels that and he directed towards even greater
compassion to this man. Here's the thing, I look at
Jesus and I think to myself, if I'm going to follow him in all
of his ways and I want to know how to be angry like him.
Have you ever thought about that being angry like Jesus?
No, emotion of Jesus ever interfered with his testimony or
his obedient to the father. Remember that man, who was a
leper? Jesus healed him says, don't go
tell anybody. Just go to the priest and he
goes tells everybody and doesn't go to the priest and we try to
figure out why. That was maybe he was excited,
maybe he was thrilled. Maybe you couldn't contain
himself out of Joy but it's still led to Disobedience.
Our emotions can lead us to Disobedience, especially the
emotion, the feeling of anger. And yet Jesus here, We can feel
that anger in that room without a word being said.
Was also radiating, the fragrance of the spirit.
I want to say something to you. I work of the spirit is seen
here just as much as in the man who stretched forth his hand and
in Ezekiel being stood on his feet.
As full circle as a knot. As Christians.
We feel I know some Christians don't like feelings and they
don't want people to have feelings.
I don't know what's wrong with you.
Feelings are a gift, they're engaged.
They shouldn't guide us, but they're a gift from God.
Jesus felt very powerfully but he never permitted.
What he felt to determine from pleasing, his father or
dishonoring the father. He was in control.
And this was a man who is as we know from The Book of Mark and
example, of strew servanthood and the name of God. and I want
you to know that in these days if you feel angry if you feel
angry, why they ingest this and the evil around us and the
corruption Be like Jesus and allow that feeling to lead you
to do something of good service. Let that channel into something
where you bear fruit just as he does here.
And what happens the Pharisees and verse 6 went out and
immediately held counsel with the herodians against them, how
to destroy him. I don't want to speak about the
herodians too much. But do you notice what I said
about mark 8:15 that there isn't just a leaven of the Pharisees?
There's a leaven of Herod 11 of Herod.
You know what the leaven of Herod is, you got to come to
church next week and find out. Let's pray.
I encourage you in this moment in silence.
Not the silence like the Pharisees, who were infuriated
with the truth. That was preached to them, but a
Silence of adoration. To just meditate on these
things. It's speak to the Lord as a
response and ask him, maybe you don't even need to ask him for
anything. Maybe he's just to worship him.
Lord, you are beautiful. You are perfect in all of your
ways. I thank you that you are angry
at evil and that you will one day do something about evil.
But I thank you. That even in your anger, you
long, you long to see men and women turn to you and when they
don't It Grieves, you. Because you want to save them
and bless them. Lord.
We thank you for this service. And we are moved by.
By Your Word. It Lord in silence.
We worship you. But we want to obey you when you
say come we want to come when you say stretch out we want to
stretch out, help us trust your word.
Even though it might be a scary thing to move in obedience,
especially in this day, help us believe and trust in your word.
For the weak brother or sister. Let them know that your powers
ready to meet their faith. So that they can walk and
wholeness. Thank you, that Lord you love us
enough to confront us to continually confront us to save
us from the leaven of the Pharisees.
We are not offended by your truth.
We love your truth. It is honey to our lips water to
our souls finer than gold. Even Feingold more precious than
silver. Thank you that your word whether
it's a rebuke or Comfort is our Delight.
Save us from unrighteous anger. Help us be angry for the things
that anger you and may it lead us to Greater Holiness, greater
sacrifice, greater compassion, May our anger at the evil around
us only cause us to preach this gospel more. at the serve, those
who are undeserving even more Help us know a grief of
Brokenness for sinners. Even a Brokenness for those who
are in the church, but not in Christ to feel to feel
absolutely sad. And for that to lead us to pray
and to be faithful and preaching, truth, regardless of
the lack of fruit. Low.
It's so much before us today at this Feast.
We thank you and we worship you. In Jesus name.
Amen. Let's stand and Worship the Lord
together.