The Ethics of the Kingdom (Mark 10.1-12)

Introduction

Today, you’re probably going to wish you’d stayed at home, because I’m going to speak to you about marriage, divorce, remarriage, adultery and homosexuality.

I’m going to raise some sensitive and contentious issues, and I won’t sit on the fence. I’m also going to speak for longer than usual, because there is so much to be said.

However we feel about it, Mark 10.1-12 is in the Bible - and is, therefore, divine revelation, God’s word. I have no liberty to skip over, or explain away any passage of Scripture just because it might be puzzling or offensive; quite the reverse. Feeling uncomfortable with what we read in the Bible is all the more reason to engage with it.

Let’s just name some elephants in the room right away. We might find Mark 10.1-12 difficult for several different reasons.

- It might be because we are unmarried; perhaps unhappily so, either single or widowed, but in any case it may feel like this just doesn’t apply to my life.

- Or we might find it hard because we are divorced. Talk of marriage and marriage breakdown opens up unhealed wounds and stirs painful memories, maybe bitter regrets.

- Or perhaps it might be that we are now remarried after divorce. If that’s the case, the words of Jesus in v11-12 might be upsetting to hear.

- Or it might be because we are more attracted to members of the same sex than the opposite sex, or we have close family members that we love who are gay. I’ll come to that later; the passage does not comment directly on homosexuality as such, but it certainly does indirectly. 

I want to say loud and clear as a preface to everything that follows that God loves everyone. God is love. There is nothing we can do that will change the thoughts of his heart towards us. His love is not based on feelings that might change if he were to learn something disagreeable about us.

There’s nothing for him to learn. He knows us through and through. He knows what we’re like when nobody’s looking, and he still loves us. God’s love is a settled, determined, committed attitude of his heart. And whatever else you take from this morning, please take that away.

Background

Well, let’s dive into the passage. We have reached a decisive phase in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus is now making his way to Jerusalem. In that city, he knows there will be a head-on collision with the authorities, but, as we’ve seen, this has been brewing for some time.

The first mention of a plot to kill Jesus comes as early as chapter 3. By now, his enemies are trying to set him up and that explains the question in v2.

Sometimes people ask questions because they genuinely don’t know the answer and want to. Other times, they just want to embarrass the speaker. Jesus faced constant questions designed to ensnare him; leading questions, loaded questions, trick questions.

The question in v2 is a trap. It actually says so. “Some Pharisees they came to test him by asking ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’” They don’t really care what the answer is. They are only interested in one thing; getting Jesus into trouble.

Everyone there knows what this question is about. It’s about King Herod, who has just ditched his own wife and taken his brother’s wife Herodias under his roof. It’s talk of the town. All the gossip magazines are full of it. It’s a national scandal.

But Herod has money and power. So while the Jews disapprove, because they want to keep their privileges, they keep quiet…

…Except one man; John the Baptist. Remember him? He doesn’t give a fig about position and reputation. Without fear or favour, he tells it like it is. So when he is asked what he thinks about Herod, he speaks his mind. It’s wrong to treat a woman like trash and throw her out when a husband gets tired of her. And as for Herod bringing his sexy sister-in-law into his playboy mansion, he calls it what it is: “adultery.” Well, that offends Herod, so they lock John up and eventually they behead him.

Can you see? This question is a minefield. It’s loaded and incendiary. If Jesus dares to say what John said, he’ll effectively pronounce his own death sentence and his enemies can be rid of him. That’s the background.

Divorce (v2-5)

So what does Jesus say? Will he sidestep the question to save his skin? Will he change the subject? Will he squirm and wriggle like a politician with John Humphreys?

Jesus does what he usually does; he replies by asking a question. And Jesus’ question, v3, is basically “What does the Bible say?” And they find a verse in Deuteronomy 24 that seems to say that there can be a case for divorce.

As a concession, being realistic that sometimes people can be hard-hearted, Moses made provision for divorce. The Pharisees were pushing for no-fault, easy divorces for frivolous reasons.

I would say that there are five scenarios where the Bible envisages the tragic possibility of divorce. And here they are:

In the case of adultery (Matthew 5.32), or sexual immorality (Matthew 19.9), or when a non-Christian partner walks out (1 Corinthians 7.10–24), for cruel neglect (Exodus 21) or what Malachi 2 calls “betrayal” which I think includes grievous breaking of marriage promises like domestic violence.

“It’s true; sadly, painfully, the Bible says, there are occasions when divorce is permitted,” says Jesus here, but it is a concession, not a requirement and it was never God’s best plan for us.

  

Divorce hurts people. It’s miserable. Lawyers get involved. People talk of their experience of divorce in the same terms as grief. If there are children, there are custody arrangements, and there’s quibbling over birthdays and holidays and weekend visits.   It’s distressing.

The whole thing is horrible. It’s why God says he hates it. The Bible never says God hates divorcees. It says he hates divorce. It breaks his heart to see love fail, families torn in two, and lives ruined.

Marriage (v6-9)

But Jesus’ focus is not on how bad it’s got to get before people should see their solicitor. Instead, he emphasises what marriage should look like and what God intended.

He goes right back, before Moses, to the dawn of creation. Before it all got messy and the lawyers got involved, and all the fine print arrived, what was God’s original idea about marriage?

In v6-9 Jesus quotes Genesis 2.24. “At the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

This is the simplest, most foundational and most beautiful statement on marriage there is. It appears 4 times in the Bible; in Genesis 1, Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Ephesians 5.

It’s like a stool with three legs; take away any one leg and the stool falls down. The three legs are: leaving parents, uniting together, and becoming one.

Most problems in marriage, in my experience as a pastor, come down to a problem with one or more of the three things in v7.

Stool Leg 1: “A man will leave his father and mother.” Ideally, this means physically moving out, but leaving is necessary in other ways too.

Some couples never really cut the emotional or financial umbilical cord with their mothers or fathers. Some couples allow well-meaning but interfering parents to come between them. No, you have to leave.

Stool Leg 2: “He will be united to his wife.” Having broken one family circle, the next step is to form a new one. This is a serious, public and permanent, not just coming together, but joining together of two lives; one male and one female. Notice, Jesus says “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Cohabitation with no promises, no commitment, and no public affirmation is not the same as what Jesus talks about here.

Living together unmarried as an alternative to marriage is normal in today’s culture. Most people think that cohabiting is practice for marriage. Actually, research shows that more often it’s practice for divorce. 

Sir Paul Coleridge, a former High Court judge, said in April this year: "Cohabiting couples are four times more likely to split up as divorcing [married] couples. This is the driver of the national tragedy of mass family breakdown.”

Stats were published in The Times last week showing that mental health problems are higher in children of cohabiting parents than children of married ones, higher still for children of divorced parents, and highest of all (38%) for children whose parents lived together unmarried but had split up.

Stool Leg 3: “And the two will become one flesh.”

This is the deeply wondrous braiding together in the sacred union of two lives, one male and one female – sexually and emotionally. Marriage is about biology; God has created us XX and XY with perfectly complementing bodies. Two become one, which mathematically is one less, but spiritually is much more. Paul (a single man remember) marvels about it in Ephesians 5, describing it as a profound mystery.

The word translated “become one flesh” is the word you’d use to describe glueing two pieces of paper together. What happens when you tear it? You tear the paper, not the glue.  

Remarriage after Divorce

As soon as Jesus is alone with his disciples (v10) they add more questions.

The culture of the first century was, in almost every aspect, different to the environment we live in today, with one exception – divorce then, as now, was on the increase.

Notice, back in v2, that the Pharisees were only concerned with men’s rights. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” But Jesus makes clear in v12 that he’s talking to men and women equally.

That was radical. In the pagan world, marriage as a loving and permanent friendship between a man and a woman was unheard of. According to Roman law, women were not persons but property and they had no rights as such. Orthodox Jewish men regarded women with condescension and contempt.

So Jesus spells it out in v11-12. Again, with the situation between Herod and Herodias at the forefront of everyone’s mind, Jesus says, “This is not marriage; it’s just adultery dressed up.”

Some of you are remarried after divorce.

- Did you go into your first marriage hoping for that outcome? None of you did.

- Were mistakes made? Certainly, probably on both sides.

- Are there things you would have changed, looking back? No doubt.

- Is everything that happened God’s best for you? No.

- In John 8, Jesus met a woman caught in the act of adultery. Did he say what she had done was OK? Emphatically no.

- Did he give her a new start? Absolutely.

Shortly after a well-publicised sexual scandal in Bill Clinton’s White House, the evangelist Billy Graham was invited to attend an event there. And, without hesitation, he went.

People were outraged that a man of God would associate with that whole scene of sexual immorality and adultery and sleaze. But Billy Graham said, “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, it’s God’s job to judge, and it’s my job to love.”

Homosexuality

I feel now I should say some words about homosexuality. Why? Because in 2014 the UK government legislated for “marriage” between two people of the same sex.

Churches are not required to offer such ceremonies if they do not wish to, and in the Church of England, we cannot offer them even if a vicar wanted to. This is a position I support.

Not least because Jesus says here in v7 “a man shall leave his father and mother” not “his mother and mother” or his “father and father.” Furthermore, he says “the man shall be united to his wife” not “his husband.” Nor does he say the woman shall be united to her wife.” “This is how God made it at the beginning,” he says.

But now, just three years after the law was changed here, some people are pressing for an amendment. People say “The church has to move with the times.” Voices in parliament and church synods alike are arguing vociferously for the legal exemption of the Church of England to be removed. This, I strongly oppose.

Before I say any more, I need to just pause and say that the media concentrate almost exclusively on two extremes you find in the church.

Firstly, they give great prominence to extremist groups who picket pride marches and hold up banners saying “God hates gays” and “Go to hell.” I absolutely denounce that. It is appalling and brings shame on Christianity. It is inconceivable that Jesus would do that.

But secondly, the media also gives prominence to liberal voices in the church, who reinterpret the Bible or reject it altogether, and who are energetically campaigning in support of homosexual partnerships.

Living at either extreme is easy. The much trickier path to tread is the middle way. It’s full of tensions. The media aren’t interested in it at all.

The middle way says we are radically committed to loving everyone, as made in the image of God, without conditions, and we are radically committed to truth as revealed in God’s word, however unpopular, however countercultural.

The truth is that all of us - bar no one; all of us - have sexual temptation. You do and I do. And all of us are called to battle against temptation, and to live holy lives according to the maker’s instructions. And all of us, no exceptions, need daily grace to do that.

We have to hold our nerve on love and not give in to hate. We have to hold our nerve on truth too. My convictions on marriage being for one man and one woman, shared by the overwhelming majority of Christians down the centuries, will certainly come under greater and greater attack.

Just three years after a free vote in Parliament on same-sex marriage legislation, it is now impossible for political leaders to be evangelical Christians, even if they keep their beliefs private, as we have seen this year.

The same pressures will come on church leaders. They are here already. The journalist Piers Morgan recently interviewed American pastor Rick Warren on his chat show. He pressed him relentlessly and forcefully about gay marriage. Warren calmly and respectfully defended his beliefs saying, “I fear God’s disapproval more than man’s.”

The line of questioning you hear the most is, “Why do you Christians think homosexuality is wrong?” and “Why is being gay a sin?” They are leading questions. In fact, you have to define your terms. It depends what you mean “being gay.” Do you just mean drawn to the same sex? Or are you talking about actual sexual intimacy?

I prefer the language of “same-sex attraction.” I have friends, Christian friends, who tell me they are same-sex attracted, but are not looking to be in a relationship, and they don’t label themselves “gay.”

“My identity,” they say, “is not about campaigning for a certain lifestyle to be embraced and promoted; my identity is that I am a child of God. I want to live as a disciple of Jesus. For you that means denying yourself in all sorts of ways, treasuring Jesus above all else. For me, treasuring Jesus above all else includes saying ‘no’ to a sexual relationship.”

  

In the media, there is an unrelenting agenda that is driving and setting public opinion. People are named and shamed if they disagree. Christians fear getting the sack if their private beliefs are discovered. That is uncomfortable.

But the New Testament norm is that Christians should feel like they don’t quite fit in with the world around them at work or in their neighbourhood. Our values and lifestyle should be noticeably different. The New Testament says we should expect to face scorn and contempt for the sake of Christ. Hebrews 11 says that all the great men and women in the Old Testament were ‘strangers on earth,’ misfits.

The bottom line for me is this; one day, the Bible says, I will stand before Christ and he will ask me to give an account to him of my record as a church leader. James 3 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

Jesus won’t care about how popular I was, or how successful I was. He will ask me, “How faithful were you to my word?”

I’ve never before felt like I needed to take legal advice before preparing a sermon, but it almost felt that way before this one. Should the talk go on the website? Will it invite hostility from campaign groups?

I spoke one-to-one with members of our preaching team about marriage, divorce, remarriage, adultery and homosexuality. Some of us have close family members (a brother, or a son, or a daughter who is cohabiting, divorced and remarried or gay so it wasn’t academic). I wanted to be able to say to you this morning that we are all of one mind and I am pleased to say that we are. 

You can sum up the thoughts of our preaching team in three points.

1) Everybody Is Welcome: Anybody can come to this church. Every last one is welcome. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are; All Saints’ has an open door. It was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us. God loves you. Whoever you are, you are welcome, we hope you will feel loved and will want to stay.

Somebody spoke to me once, very anxious that I might throw them out of the church because they had begun a same-sex relationship. I said, “No, of course, you’re welcome to stay.” I also gave absolute clarity on what I believe the Bible teaches.

2) All Can Serve: Just as anyone can come here, we encourage every last one to serve God and serve others. Helping with maintenance, being on the welcome team, serving drinks, cleaning the church, operating the sound desk, arranging flowers, doing admin, sewing banners, cooking meals etc., etc, even if you are still on a journey and are not yet sure if you are a Christian you can get involved.

3) Leadership Means Lifestyle: While everyone can serve, there are some leadership roles, like leading children’s and youth work, preaching, leading worship, and doing prayer ministry where leaders must set an example of living a holy life. In sexual morality terms, that will exclude living together unmarried or being in a homosexual partnership because that is what the Bible teaches.

What If I’m Wrong?

In the face of the constant media pressure on this issue, especially when leaders who I once respected began to say exactly what the world is saying, I started to do a lot of thinking.

I sat down about a year ago and said, “What if I’ve got this all wrong? What if this is a massive blind spot, like slavery was for Christians in the 18^th century?

What if the Holy Spirit is leading the church into a new understanding? Remember in Acts 10 when Peter was told to eat foods previously forbidden by God in the Old Testament? It was hard to come to terms with. “Surely not Lord!” Peter said. He thought the Bible was clear on the matter. It was clear on the matter. But God was doing something new. Could it be that this is like that?

Firstly, I looked hard at Scripture. What does it really say? I studied all the Bible references on sex and marriage, including the explicit references to homosexuality. I consulted several translations. I looked up the commentaries. I read articles from people advocating different views. I tried to be as fair-minded and objective as possible.

I found that the Bible speaks with great clarity and unity. God has revealed his mind to us and you have to twist the Scriptures horribly out of shape or reject them altogether to arrive at a conclusion that is any different to what the vast majority of Christians have believed for twenty centuries.

Secondly, I considered the impact on the church. Whenever the Holy Spirit does something new, he brings life, he brings blessing, and he brings growth. People come to faith, new songs are written, and churches get planted. These are the hallmarks of God at work.

In the case of Peter and the vision about unclean food, it led to a major breakthrough for the gospel – it crossed a great divide and Gentiles started to come to faith in huge numbers.

If the Holy Spirit is leading the church into fresh and exciting discoveries of truth on human sexuality, you would expect that churches promoting these new ideas will be growing, and vibrant.

But they are not. We are not seeing growth, or blessing, or great outpourings of the Holy Spirit, still less revival in those churches that claim the classic understanding of the Bible is wrong.

In fact, quite the reverse: those denominations are in steep decline, and church closures are accelerating. God is leaving the building.

At the same time, local churches that felt they had no choice but to leave their liberal denominations, even at the cost of lawsuits and losing their buildings, are thriving. New Christians are being added to the church, young people are coming forward for ordination, churches are multiplying, and the gifts of the Spirit are flowing.

Jesus said that the health of a tree is measured by its fruit.  A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Thus by their fruits you shall recognise them.

Testimony

Before I end, I want to share a testimony from a church leader in the south of England that I came across in my preparation for this talk which shows what grace can do. Here it is:

I grew up in a non-Christian family and made a decision to follow Christ when I was 16. I call the first 5 years of my new Christian life “the honeymoon period” as things were amazing and I grew deeper and deeper in love with Jesus who had saved me from so much.

However, at 21 things changed. I knew I was gay from about the age of 5. People often question me about this as 5 seems so young but, believe me, I knew that I was different and I knew that I was attracted to the same sex. I had struggled for years to hide this and so when I found Jesus, I thought it would all go away. And for those early years, things did seem to.

At 21 however, through a series of events (all of my own making) I had a gay affair. I met him via a phone chat line and gave myself over to sleeping with him. I was totally torn apart. I believed the Bible said that being gay was the worst sin ever and so I lived in fear of being found out and thrown out of the church family that I had grown to love and feel part of. I was pulled between wanting to sleep with this guy and wanting to stop.

One night, I had a dream where God clearly spoke to me about being honest. So with a lot of trepidation, I arranged to meet with someone. When I told him, he was cool, calm and non-judgemental, but I could tell underneath he was unsure what to do and I left the meeting feeling totally scared about what would happen next. To be honest, things didn’t go well and, in hindsight, some decisions were made that made matters worse rather than better.

The next 4 or 5 years were incredibly painful and left me feeling alone, rejected, misunderstood and shameful. I responded to the pain and loneliness I felt by moving from one gay encounter to the next. If I was doing well then things were OK, but when I was down, depressed or hurt, I would reach out to the nearest man for intimacy, and sex meant I was wanted. I ended up with an eating disorder, lots of self-hate, fear of men (especially of those in authority over me) and living a secret double-life, and it hit an all-time low when I agreed to have sex for money. Prostitution had never been the plan for my life and it hit me hard that I’d reached that place.

So why did I live a double-life? Simply because there was no way I was going to be honest again, because honesty just brought more pain.

So what changed? How did I move on? Well, at 27, I went to work with a ministry in Hong Kong that reaches out to prostitutes, addicts and street sleepers. What I saw there was an expression of grace I had never seen before. It blew my brain, to be honest, and God used my time there to take me on a journey of inner healing that wasn’t about simply cutting the rotten fruit off the tree of my life because, let’s face it, rotten fruit just grows back.

No, this journey was one of finding the deeper problems that lay below the surface. I found life-changing freedom from issues such as the self-hate, fear and low self-worth as I allowed God to meet me in these putrid and painful places. As I took off all my masks and kicked down all my barriers of self-defence, it was a journey of allowing love, grace and mercy to become real experiences and not just words.

Over time, I found that all the rotten fruit in my life stopped growing. After a year working amongst the disadvantaged of Hong Kong I returned to the UK a changed person.

Within 2 years I met the woman who was to become my wife and we married in 2000. 4 years later I became a father to the first of my 2 children. In disciplining me, God has brought me through to freedom, and freedom has allowed me to walk into greater levels of holiness with him. I’m no longer ashamed about my past, I live free from guilt and shame through the Son of God who loves me and died for all my sins.

I must be honest with you. I have other friends who are also living happy and holy lives as same-sex attracted people but whose sexual orientation has not changed. In fact, it usually doesn’t change – but it certainly can.

Ending

As I draw to a close, can I just say that this has been a really hard message to prepare and preach. It’s the longest message I’ve ever preached.

It occurred to me as I sat down to prepare it that people might decide to leave All Saints’, either because it’s too soft, or because it’s too hard. Or perhaps because it’s too long! That would make me sad, but this is a “here I stand” moment for me.

I know it leaves many questions unanswered, big questions, good questions, which we just don’t have time to go into. Questions like:
- Didn’t Jesus tell us to not judge people? This looks like judging to me.
- If God made me with particular desires, how can it be a sin?
- Jesus said nothing directly about homosexuality, so why is the church so obsessed with it?
- Isn’t it cruel to expect people to forego intimacy for a whole lifetime?

So I want to recommend some books for further reading if you’d like to explore more.

They have one thing in common; none is written by a happily married heterosexual. All but one are written by same-sex attracted Christians who are committed to living holy lives in happy obedience to God’s word. The other is written by John Stott, who died in 2015 having never married.

The list is printed in the pew sheet. (Is God Anti‑Gay? by Sam Allberry, The Plausibility Problem by Ed Shaw, Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill, Same-Sex Relationships? by John Stott and Walking with Gay Friends by Alex Tylee).

Finally: we, the church, are called, whatever the cost (remember what happened to John the Baptist) to preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ which is as effective for sexually broken people as it is for anyone else.

The blessings of knowing Jesus and being reconciled to God are everlasting and all-embracing, and they expose the false promises of sin as woefully lacking.

The gospel tells the truth about: the reality of sin, the necessity of repentance, the all-satisfying preciousness of forgiveness, the joy of obedience, and the freedom from guilt and shame.

That’s good news. Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 26 November 2017

The VIPs of the Kingdom (Mark 10.13-31)

Introduction

I’m going to start by asking you three questions. They are not trick questions. They are straightforward “would you rather...?” questions. There is no right or wrong answer; there are only honest answers. Are you ready?

The first is to do with money. Would you rather be £10,000 a year better off or £20,000 a year worse off? Hands up please if you would rather be £10,000 a year better off… And now raise a hand if you would rather be £20,000 a year worse off… (If you’re tempted to go for the second category, you can always give the extra to me…)

The second question is to do with age. Would you rather be 20 years older or 10 years younger? Hands up please if you would rather be 20 years older, losing two decades of your life… And now raise a hand if you would rather be 10 years younger and get a decade back…

And the third question is to do with power. Here it is… In choosing your holiday next year would you prefer a choice of 1,000 worldwide destinations or a choice of 2, both in a dodgy part of Grimsby? Hands up please if you would rather choose from 1,000 destinations… And now raise a hand if you would rather have a choice of 2…

From that unscientific survey, clearly, we would rather be richer, and younger and with more choices.

Intro: The Rich Young Ruler (v17-31)

So welcome to the world of the man in the second half of our reading. He is rich (v22), young (Matthew 19.20) and powerful (Luke 18.18 describes him as a ruler”). In other words, according to our little survey, he has what we want. He’s the kind of person that is admired. He’s successful. He’s an achiever.

Intro: The Children (v13-16)

On the other hand, in the first part of our reading, we find children. Toddlers perhaps; Mark describes them as little children.

We love little people – but in small doses. The thing everyone says to me about having the grandchildren to stay is “Oh, it’s great, you can give them back.”

Why? Because they cry easily and they cry a lot. They want you to play with them when you’re busy. They’re messy eaters. They want you to read them a story when you’re exhausted. They wake up at 5.30am and bounce on your bed. They have toilet accidents and you get to clean them up.

In Jesus’ day and in his culture, kids were not valued at all; much less than today. Nobody took children seriously. They were dismissed as silly, easily-led and immature. No public figure would waste his time talking to them.

But such is Jesus’ magnetic appeal, that people bring their offspring to him in the hope that he will at least notice them. This is, after all, the one who heals sick people, who casts out darkness from tormented souls, who lifts the mood of the oppressed, who gives hope to the crushed.

If it’s a good day, he might even quickly bless their kids before attending to more important things. So it says “people were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them but the disciples rebuked them.”

The Rich Young Ruler (v17-31)

We’ll come back to that. Let’s skip back to the rich young ruler. Apart from the fact that he’s got money, youth and power, he has four things going for him.

1. He wants life (v17). He wants eternal life, in fact. Like a kid outside Fenwick’s shop window, marvelling at the Christmas animation, he sees in Jesus something else; a quality of living in colour, HD and 3D, and he really wants it.

2. He openly admits that, while he wants it, he hasn’t got it. Despite his money, his youth, and the options at his fingertips, there’s still something missing in his life.

3. He has worked out that to get life, someone has to give it to you. Notice he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” which probably tells you how he came to be wealthy. Someone died and left him a fortune. And now he wants to know if Jesus is the one who can give him the one thing that is missing in his life.

4. He’s ready to do whatever it takes to get this eternal life. Jesus says, (v19) “How good do you think you are? Have you kept the Ten Commandments?” “Oh yes,” he says, “I’ve been there, done that,” but that didn’t bring life. It can’t. So he’s still got this great emptiness, this aching sense of needing something more, inside.

Jeremy Paxman, after leaving Newsnight said last year, “I‘m no longer interested in catching out politicians. I’m interested in the bigger questions. Is there a purpose? What do things mean? And what is the right way to live?”

Can you relate to this? Do you ever ask yourself, “Is there more to life than this? What is life all about? What am I living for? Who am I and where did I come from?

Dr. Andrei Arkhipov, of the Institute of Radio Astronomy in Kharkiv, Ukraine, a respected intellectual, claims we grew out of waste that was left here on earth by aliens. Seriously.

These are the questions that the rich young ruler is asking.

But there are two problems with his question. Here’s the first; and it’s a stumbling block that many people fall on.

The question he asks is “What must I do..?” In other words, “How can I earn eternal life?” Essentially it’s, “How can I save myself? What religious duty must I accomplish, what good deed must I do, what pilgrimage will I have to go on, so that, on top of all the other great things on my CV, I can add, “I saved myself. And I did it my way.”

His starting point is a shed load of achievements “Look how amazing I have been! Now Jesus, tell me, what more could a man like me possibly do to prove how deserving I am?”

But no. That doesn’t work. The only way, the only way to get eternal life is to come to Jesus empty handed and ask for it, offering nothing back. It’s a free gift, never a reward.

The second problem is that he’s got Jesus all wrong. This man looks at Jesus and says, “Credit where it’s due, you come across quite well. I like listening to you.” He calls Jesus “good teacher.”

So many people put Jesus in that category, just a good teacher. There’s a long list of cults, and philosophies, and spiritualties that say of Jesus “Oh, he lived a good life. He was a great moral teacher.”

Actually, Jesus is the finest teacher this world has seen. But he is not just a good teacher. He is Almighty God in human form. Jesus didn’t just live a good life; he lived a sinless life. So Jesus says here, “Only God is truly good. Don’t patronise me by calling me ‘good’ unless you think I am God.”

Then Jesus drops the bombshell. “Oh, and there’s just one thing you lack,” he says. Which is funny, because he then goes on to list four things; firstly “Go”, secondly “Sell all your stuff,” then thirdly “Give to the poor” which will give you treasure in heaven and fourthly, “Come, follow me.”

The one thing he lacks is that he is not prepared to follow Jesus. Everything else is just the obstacle that prevents him. 

Jesus doesn’t mean here, “The prerequisite of getting closer to God is that everyone must get rid of all their stuff and live like a monk.” The Bible says “God… richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” The issue is that for this young man money comes between him and God. He is unwilling to make Jesus his treasure.

Whatever comes between you and God has to go. For some, it’s money or the house. For some, it’s a particular relationship. For some, it’s food and drink. For some, it’s work and career. For some, it’s an obsession with health. For others, it’s a preoccupation with leisure and holidays. It can even be family.

These are all good things. But when you turn a good thing into an ultimate thing it’s an idol, and you have to choose between Jesus and whatever is coming before him.

You cannot have Christ and everything else any more than you can push a camel through the eye of a needle. You can try…

What a pity! He would have been such a great addition to Jesus’ team! But Jesus doesn’t call out after him, “OK, come back, I’ll do you a deal… let’s make that half your possessions, 50/50, what do you say?” Jesus lets him leave, crestfallen.

Following Jesus is all or nothing.

The Children (v13-16)

So, finally, back to the children.

When Jesus sees that his disciples are shooing the kids away, “he is indignant” (v14). Just over the page, (9.37) he had told his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me.” Now, just days later, they’re telling the kids to scram. No wonder it annoys him!

Jesus is telling his minders, “What do you think you’re doing, sending the kids away? You’re out of order. I want to see these children, and I want them to see me because the kingdom of heaven belongs to ones like this.”

Some people think that children cannot grasp anything spiritual until they become adults. It’s the exact opposite. We adults will never grasp anything spiritual until we become like children.

What is it about little ones that Jesus says is important to imitate? Was he talking about their simple faith? Children tend to trust you. Was he talking about their joy? I read this week that children laugh on average 150 times a day. For adults, it’s 6 times a day.

He didn’t mean that they were innocent. They’re not. Children tease their peers mercilessly. They have to be forced through gritted teeth to share toys. They deliberately do the very opposite of what you tell them.

I spoke on these verses a couple of years ago and I said then that there are three things you will find with practically all children; they have an open mind to believe, and an open hand to receive, and an open heart to love.

Here’s a little story that shows all three:

A vicar in Tonbridge, Kent was speaking in church a few years back on the theme of healing. And as he was in full flow, talking about the healing power of Jesus Christ, a small boy about four or five walked up to the pulpit and looked up with his big brown eyes.

So the preacher paused, and crouched down and asked the little boy if he’d like to say anything. “Yes,” he said. “I hope Jesus can heal Derrick.” So the vicar said, “O.K., who is Derrick. “Derrick is my hamster. I’d like you to pray for him.” “Oh!” says the vicar, “All right. And what is wrong with your hamster?”

“Well, he’s dead!” And so, thinking on his feet, the vicar quickly prayed along the lines of “Lord, thank you for this creature and for the joy it brought to this family. Thank you for this little boy who wants to talk to you about it. Help him to find another pet that will be just as nice.”

You see, vicars anointed with great faith for the hamster resurrections are hard to find!

One of the questions that children sometimes ask is, “What is heaven like?”

Adults often approach the subject with scepticism. But children see the whole realm of death and heaven and God, and they marvel at the wonder of it all.

That’s why they are the VIPs of the kingdom of God, and why Jesus wants us to be like them, more than the wealthy, successful celebrities our society admires.

Ending

As I end, I want to make it possible for anyone here who wants to get eternal life to do so. Remember Jesus said, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of heaven like a child [with an open mind, an open hand and an open heart] will never enter it.”

There may be somebody here who says, “I don’t want to leave this church with the empty heart I came with.”

I’m going to finish with a simple prayer. Why don’t you make it your own? And if you do, come and tell me afterwards…

Heavenly Father, I am sorry for things that I have let stand between me and Jesus in my life (maybe there’s something in particular that your conscience brings to mind). I now want to make Jesus my number one. Thank you that he died on a cross for me so that I can be forgiven and start all over again, and really begin to live. Thank you for the gift of eternal life. I now receive it, open-handed, like a child. Please come into my life to be with me forever. Thank You. Amen.

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 19 November 2017

Five Keys to Spiritual Growth (Mark 9.30-50)

Introduction

I want to start by reading you some word-for-word quotes from a current world leader. No prizes for guessing which one it is…

·         There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am.

·         I'm just thinking to myself right now let's cancel the election and give it to me.

·         The beauty of me is that I'm very rich.

·         I think I'm actually humble. I think I'm much more humble than you would understand.

·         Any negative polls about me are fake news.

·         My IQ is one of the highest and you all know it. Please don't feel so stupid or insecure; it's not your fault.

Today, I want to talk about what greatness is. Who do you truly, admire? Other than Jesus, that is. Who in life do you really look up to? Who you aspire to be like?

It might be from the world of entertainment, or politics perhaps; it could be a sporting hero - or maybe someone much closer to home; a parent or grandparent who is particularly special to you…

Who is it that commands, beyond your respect, your esteem as a figure who rises head and shoulders above their peers, one in whom there is the air of greatness? And what is it about them that attracts you and inspires you?

Welcome to the conversation between Jesus’ closest followers. For context remember, looking back at last week, they have just failed miserably, spectacularly and publicly to take care of a situation Jesus had specifically trained them to deal with.

Then, at the beginning of our reading, they have - all twelve of them - failed to understand a perfectly simple statement, in plain language, that Jesus articulated to them at least three times.

Now, they are not only discussing, but (v34) they are arguing about which of them is the greatest as they walk along the road. Who’s top of the apostles? Who’s the most distinguished and exalted of them all? Who’s going to Right Reverend, who’s going to be Most Reverend, who’s going to be Very Reverend?

This is like bald men fighting over a hairbrush! This is like the seven dwarfs in a bitter dispute over which one is the tallest! Or a dozen village idiots auditioning for University Challenge.

Jesus waits till they arrive at their destination and then he asks them what the raised voices were all about on the road. And they all have this sheepish look about them. They’re ashamed to admit they’ve been fighting about who was going to be top dog. Finally, it comes out and Jesus just has to quietly sit down and get his head around it all.

“Let’s get this straight. The question is which one of you twelve is the greatest? Seriously?”

And so Jesus takes a deep breath and starts to teach them about spiritual growth. If you want to attain true greatness there are five keys right here from the mouth of the undisputed greatest ever, for whom there is no rival, no equal, no peer.

1) Set aside time to learn from Jesus (v30-32)

Key number one; if you want spiritual growth towards true greatness, set aside time to learn from Jesus.

Right at the beginning of our reading, it says that Jesus left a crowded place and made for a quiet, secluded spot that no one knew about so he could teach them. He doesn’t want any interruptions or any distractions. This is priority time away from noise and everyone else’s agendas. He plans some privacy so his followers can learn and you will never make a good follower of Jesus unless you set aside time to be a learner.

It is often said that you are what you eat. The Bible says you are what you think. “For as a person thinks in their heart, so they are,” it says in Proverbs.

Some of you are doing the Bible in a Year, or the New Testament in a Year. Maybe that’s not manageable for you. But start somewhere. A former curate here with very young children used to say that whatever his day ahead looked like he would always start it by reading some words of Jesus.

If the disciples had had the wit to understand what Jesus taught them they would have seen that Christianity is not about going around doing good. It includes that, but that’s not the message.

Fundamentally, it’s about Jesus dying and rising again. That’s what Jesus drummed into them over and over again. People killed Jesus saying he was too bad to live. But God raised him from the dead saying he was too good to die.

Could you explain in a few sentences to a friend outside the church why Jesus died and rose again? If you don’t think you could, I think you should learn to. Set aside time to learn from Jesus.

2) Cultivate a servant heart (v33-37)

Key number 2; if you want spiritual growth towards true greatness, cultivate a servant heart.

In v35 Jesus says, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

What does this mean? It means Jesus is not impressed by outward badges of success. He is not interested in worldly displays of status. He is not looking for leaders who are up themselves and focused on discussing their own importance.

He is looking for Christians who get that it’s all about “how can I make you stronger, how can I inspire you to maturity?” and not “how can I look better, how can I get more likes on Facebook?”

Jesus is looking for individuals who unassumingly choose the humblest, most lowly positions, who will start at the bottom.

If the Queen were to pay a visit here, I know we’d have people offering to get the place spic and span and with a new lick of paint. Well, you would not believe the people who take a turn to clean this church every week. Some of them are amongst the busiest people in All Saints’.

They clean this place not because the Queen is coming next month, but because they know the King of kings is here every week.

As bestselling author, Rory Vaden said, “If serving is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you.” Do you know leaders who appear to think that serving is for less important people?

Jesus says, “I’ll tell you how greatness works. Let me tell you how to achieve that,” and he takes a young child in the crook of his arm.

Even today, this is still very counter-intuitive. In Jesus’ time, it was baffling. Children were considered a waste of time. They were in the way. No one took boys seriously until the bar-mitzvah at age 12, and girls, not at all. But Jesus has other ideas.

This was a little child. You didn’t get to climb the ladder of success and influence by spending time with kids. Jesus says here, “If you want true greatness, you must learn to minister to unimportant people.”

Let’s hear this loud and clear; God has called us to be a church that excels in loving and making disciples of children. This is prophetic and significant for us; and listen, the very first place Jesus looks for a servant heart is in investing in the spiritual development of our children.

Yes, we need, and insist on, appropriate safeguards. And of course, we understand that not everyone can do this work, but we should never, ever be in a position here where our children’s work is understaffed.

What does Jesus say? “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”

What a shock for the disciples! They argue like feral cats about who’s getting the best places at the top table. They’re focused on all the VIPs they’ll get to be seen with and Jesus says, “If you guys want to really go places, you need to spend more time in the kids’ ministry, giving out to those who won’t give you prestige or raise your social profile.”

Jesus is dead serious. Essentially he says, “You guys should stop squabbling and help some kids.” This is still revolutionary teaching 2000 years later! How often in 2017 do you see good, wholesome, competent men, as well as women, being role models in children’s lives?

As well as our Sunday morning children’s work (and we insist that no one is out with children every week, not even our Children’s Worker), and Friday morning Play and Praise, and school assemblies, and Messy Church, and the puppet team of course.

Then there are one-offs like the Life Exhibition and the Glow Party. (By the way, what a brilliant Glow Party on Tuesday. Thank you so much to all of you who gave of your time to make that such a great event, I am so proud of you).

Thank God for our magnificent servant-hearted teams who really get it that welcoming these little ones is exactly the same thing as welcoming Jesus. Might God be calling you also to serve by offering to join one of these teams, even as an occasional helper?

Cultivate a servant heart.

3) Adopt a kingdom mind-set (v38-41)

Key number 3; if you want spiritual growth towards spiritual greatness, adopt a kingdom mind-set.

In v38 John says, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.” John does not feel comfortable with the lack of protocol here.

This is like the old Yorkshire joke;

There are three kinds of people in this world.

·         Those who were born in Yorkshire.

·         Those who wish they were born in Yorkshire.

·         And those with no ambition at all.

John is saying “Lord, there’s a bloke going around casting out evil spirits and he’s not even from Yorkshire.”

Notice John doesn’t say “this guy was out of order because he doesn’t follow you.” He said, “He was out of order because he doesn’t follow us.”

“This is bad! He might have an amazing ministry but he didn’t spend three years in Cranmer Hall. He is nowhere to be seen on the electoral roll. He’s not even Church of England!”

So Jesus says, “Oh, leave him alone. Do not stop him.”

“Yeah, but he’s bringing deliverance and relief to oppressed people. And he hasn’t got the right accreditation.”

“Well, that’s good. I haven’t got an issue with that. He doesn’t have to be part of our group. What is the problem, John? Are the demons not leaving quick enough for you? Is he not doing a good job?” Jesus says, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

We’re on the same team! If a church down the road is doing well, and God is blessing them - fantastic! They don’t have to be from our tradition, they don’t have to agree with our theology, they don’t have to be part of our network of churches – probably we’ve got a lot to learn from them.

When you adopt a kingdom mind-set instead of an empire mentality you stop being suspicious, or envious, or critical. Instead, you see God at work and you say, “Praise God! We want to cheer you on.”

Adopt a kingdom mind-set.

4) Be ruthless towards sin in your life (v42-49)

Key number 4; if you want spiritual growth towards spiritual greatness, be ruthless towards sin in your life.

We’ve just seen that the disciples were judgemental when they looked at other people but they were lenient on themselves. This is a common problem thing; “holier than thou.”

What’s the main reason smoke alarms don’t work? Anyone know? It’s because people disconnect the batteries. What could possibly go wrong doing that? But how many of us unplug the batteries of our conscience so that it won’t sound the alarm about falling into sin?

Jesus says here, “Don’t unplug the batteries. Show no mercy towards sin in your life.” And he uses quite graphic picture language about severing limbs if necessary in order to stop behaviour becoming addictive. It’s hyperbole; it isn’t meant to be taken literally, but Jesus does expect it to be taken seriously.

It simply means this: if there is anything you’re doing (the hand), or anything you’re watching (the eye), or anywhere you’re going (the foot) that the Holy Spirit shows you is not right, or that you know is contrary to God’s will, cut it out of your life. Don’t hold back. Be absolutely ruthless.

In China in the 1960s and 1970s the authorities decided to change the colour coding on traffic lights. They had Chairman Mao’s red book and a red flag so they thought red should be seen as a positive colour.

So the government said, “Right. From now on, red means “go” and not “stop.” Guess what happened... It was a disaster! Road accident statistics went through the roof. People were simply too accustomed to thinking that red means “stop.”

In our culture today the same thing has happened with morality. People are trying to tell you “red really means green.” “Stop really means go.” We are becoming morally colour-blind. But red is red; stop is stop; sin is sin!

Jesus says here, with absolute seriousness, that there is a way that leads to eternal disaster. Don’t go there! Cut out whatever it is that might sever you from Christ and lead you there. Notice Jesus said it to his twelve disciples. Judas didn’t listen - and he paid the price.

Be ruthless towards sin in your life.

5) Be distinctive (v50)

The last key, key number 5; if you want spiritual growth towards spiritual greatness, be distinctive. Stand out. Live differently.

“Salt is good,” Jesus says, “but if it loses its saltiness how can you make it salty again?”

This is a well-known saying by Jesus that few people understand. How can salt lose its saltiness? Sodium chloride is sodium chloride. What we call table salt doesn’t ever become less salty. It can’t. It is a physical and chemical impossibility.

So what does this mean? Here’s the explanation. Salt, in Jesus’ day, wasn’t used for seasoning. They salted fish not so much to flavour it as to preserve it. But Jesus isn’t talking about flavouring or preservative.

The two main uses of salt were as a fertiliser and a disinfectant. They got their salt from the Dead Sea; there was lots of natural potash in it, and they threw it on their fields as a very effective, organic fertiliser, greatly enriching the soil.

They also used it in sanitation. They didn’t have flush toilets, so they created earth mounds with a central hole into which they emptied their bowels. Once they had done that they poured some of this salt in and it acted as an antiseptic, neutralising the unpleasant smell.

At that time, dishonest merchants were known to mix sand into their salt/potash product, a bit like a pub landlord watering down the beer. That is what Jesus means when he talks about salt “losing its saltiness.” The more it’s thinned down the less it works.

That’s why Jesus said (in Luke 14) “If salt loses its saltiness it is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile, and it is thrown out.”

Christians can become dull. Some appear to be no different from the world around them. They’ve lost their saltiness, their distinctiveness.

Bishop Rod Thomas said recently, “A Christianity that merely recycles the norms and values of the prevailing culture renders itself irrelevant and subservient.”

What kind of distinctiveness does Jesus want to see in your life?

Fertiliser brings growth, it brings life. That’s what God wants you to do; be a positive influence at work, the one in the office who’s most likely to bring a bit of cheer. The one who always says wholesome things. The one who’s on time and does a full day’s work. The one who sends a get-well card to a colleague off sick. That’s salt on the soil, bringing life.

Disinfectant gets rid of bacteria and bad smells. That’s what God wants you to do; to be the one who never passes on gossip, who doesn’t bad mouth the boss, who doesn’t join in with vulgar jokes and swearing.

That’s what it means to be the salt of the earth.

Kathie once took a new job and, without her new boss saying a single word about Jesus, or wearing any kind of Christian badge, she just knew he was a Christian from Day 1 – it was his joyful, positive attitude, his love and concern for even the most junior employee, and his wholesomeness of speech. He was the salt of the earth.

Ending

God wants you to grow. He wants you to attain spiritual greatness. Here are five keys to help you get there. He says, “Set aside time to learn from to Jesus.” He says, “Cultivate a servant heart.” He says, “Adopt a kingdom mind-set.” He says, “Be ruthless towards sin in your life.” And he says “Be distinctive.”

These are five keys to you becoming a spiritual giant. You don’t need to go to Bible College. You don’t need to get a degree. You don’t need to be especially gifted or talented.

It’s easy. Anyone can grow. These keys are for everyone. Which key, or which keys, are you going to take hold of and use today?

Let’s stand…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 5 November 2017