Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Good morning, everybody. I'm Ben Fleming. I'm the other senior pastor and excited to be with you to share the word Today. We are continuing through the Book of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, and we're going to be in Mark, Chapter two today. And then it's going to spill over into Mark, Chapter three. And in this story, we're going to see Jesus continue to push against the religious leaders and really a lot of the systems and structures that they have established in order to create this deep sense of religiosity among the Jewish people. And so what Jesus did just a little while ago, earlier in the chapter is there's this story about a paralyzed man getting lowered down from the roof while Jesus is teaching. And then Jesus heals this man, but right before he does, he tells this man that his sins are forgiven. And this sends the religious people into a fit of rage, because how it's set up so right now is that you would come to the temple and that you would make sacrifices and that you would go to the priests in order to have your sins forgiven. So the idea that this man can come and he can actually forgive sins ruins and upsets a lot of the system and the structure. Well, the next big thing that's a part of the system in the structure of this religion at the time is this concept of Sabbath. And Jesus turns that one on its head as well. So In Mark, chapter 2, verse 23, it says this one Sabbath day, as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath? And Jesus said to them, haven't you ever read in Scriptures that what David did when he and his companions were hungry, he went to the house of God during the days when Abiathar. Abiathar, just say it to yourself, was a high priest. And he broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. And then Jesus said to them, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, not the people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. That's huge. I'll read it again. The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not the people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.
[00:02:19] And there's essentially a part two here that goes Into Mark, chapter three, verse one, it says, jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. And since it was the Sabbath, Jesus's enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. And Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, come and stand in front of everyone. And then he turned to his critics and asked, does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath or is it a day for doing evil?
[00:02:49] As I say to my kids, sometimes this is an easy one.
[00:02:54] And then he does it again. Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?
[00:02:59] But they wouldn't answer him.
[00:03:02] We're not sure.
[00:03:05] Actually, we're going to have to stop and consider this one. I love their criticisms of Jesus as he's performing miracles.
[00:03:11] Their commentary and idea about what's going on, and the things they choose to focus on when they have no idea what's going on. They're speaking to things with no expertise. It's a lot like me commenting on gymnastics during the Olympics.
[00:03:24] You know, have you noticed that almost every one of us, I would imagine in this room, we know one thing about diving and about Olympics and about gymnastics, it's the landing. Oh, I stuck the landing. It was amazing.
[00:03:37] Did they fall down and did they stick the landing? The divers, was there a splash?
[00:03:43] I have no idea how many times they turned in the air, but that was a big splash.
[00:03:49] Not good for them.
[00:03:52] These Pharisees come in and bring this commentary that is completely off base. Forget about the healing of a deformed hand, but instead let's focus on this thing that is actually proving to be very secondary. And so he says in verse five, he looked around at them angrily and deeply saddened by their hard hearts. And then he said to the man, hold out your hand. So the man held out his hand and it was restored. And at once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus. This assault on the Sabbath was so extreme to these religious leaders that they went to the supporters of Herod who were there mortal political enemies.
[00:04:41] Think of the most staunchly conservative leader that you can in this country, and think of the most staunchly progressive. These two people coming together only for the reason to destroy someone that had just brought healing into someone's life.
[00:04:56] We won't work together on a single thing, but this one thing bringing life into the world, we will work against it together.
[00:05:05] Let's go ahead and pray, Father God, we thank you for the Sabbath. We thank you for rest. Pray that you would teach us what it really, really, really means for our souls to find rest in you today. Pray that we would hear your words and not mine.
[00:05:20] That we'd be implored to live and to sound and to look more like you. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:05:29] I told you guys a few weeks ago, my wife and I have been doing some work on our house to make some more space for my parents who moved to Bend about a year ago. And when, I mean, we've been doing work, I mean, people that we are paying to work.
[00:05:45] Because I have no skills, I can talk a little bit. And that's about all I got. And just about any of my life. Anybody in my life can go ahead and confirm that fact.
[00:05:56] But I do love being around contractors, builders. Cause there's such a vision that these people have. I live on the northeast side, and there's a lot of work and construction going on. And I love to walk my dog kind of through these areas. And I see them through the leveling out of the process. And then they're moving rock and dirt around and they're bringing in materials. And the whole time I'm going, there is no way anybody knows how this is going.
[00:06:22] There's piles of things and people and people from all sorts of different companies. This is amazing that they can even work together. In my mind, basically goes from there's no way anything can be built right here to oh, wow, it's done.
[00:06:35] I don't know how you can get from A to B. I don't know how you can see through all these things and plans. And so when we brought in some contractors, look at our house and talk through some different things, I ran into a thing that a lot of us run into when we start looking and thinking about spaces is that we have this half wall at what was our current entryway. And then a big pillar that went up to the ceiling from that half wall. And it really took away a lot of the space. It created empty or wasted space in our living area. And I have noticed while you do a remodel, you have to say the word space all the time. Just so you know, just in case you're unfamiliar like me. Space, spaces. Beautiful spaces. Cold spaces. Nobody says cold spaces. Okay? But I'm going through this and you know, we've kind of made good use of this half wall in the pillar. Like we've. We've got the kids growth chart on it, you know, where we've been marking them. And some of them are really too close together. Because my kids were sure that they could grow, you know, just overnight. And we'd have to mark that. So somewhere a little. Anyway, it's a very sacred and holy thing in our living room. So I'm going through and I'm talking with the contractor, and I go, look, I feel like this thing takes up so much space, but I guess we're just kind of stuck with it. And he does a thing that grid contractors do, and he kind of knocks on it twice and goes, no, you take this whole thing out.
[00:07:57] And again, me no vision for this. I'm going, but it's a wall and a pillar.
[00:08:06] We'll die in here. You know, like, also, the growth chart.
[00:08:11] What would we do with the gr. It'll be gone. The history, the heritage of my people in this home, you know, he's like, look, give me a board. I'll mark this for you. You can transfer it anywhere you want. Okay, well, I guess I'm a little less anxious, but how do you keep the. You know. And of course, it turns out he's knocking on. He goes, this isn't carrying any weight.
[00:08:34] I know you think it is. I know you think this is vital to the structure of your home, but it actually has no real bearing on it. You can take it out and then what do you know? It takes it out. And the room isn't completed yet. But I stand over in that area and I do that thing where you go, look at all this room.
[00:08:53] Look at all this. This is amazing. This is a huge space. Now, I believe that Jesus is doing something similar with this discussion on the Sabbath.
[00:09:06] He's saying how you're treating. This is not how God had intended in the first place.
[00:09:13] You're building walls and structures that maybe at one point or another had served you for a time.
[00:09:21] But these things actually don't carry the weight that you think they do.
[00:09:25] You've fallen in love with the structure in instead of falling in love with God.
[00:09:35] Now, it's tempting for us to do this in our day and age. And it doesn't always look like the practices of the Sabbath and how they had it, but we can take something that God had intended for good and for beauty, and we can distort it in a way where we now serve that structure instead of serving Jesus.
[00:09:53] So a little bit of the history on Sabbath. The Sabbath was instituted, and you can find it in Exodus, chapter 20.
[00:10:00] It was established for the nation of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness to have these beautiful Moments every week where they stopped their toil and they rested and they considered who God was, who God would be. And they would even more consider the fact that this is a representation of this promised land that we believe that is in our future. And it says in Exodus 20, it says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. And on it you shall not do any work. You or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
[00:10:49] The Sabbath for the people of Israel was to serve as a fragrance and a vision. Heaven.
[00:10:57] Me and my family love to go to Seattle Mariners games every year, and my family's been doing this. I have memories of going to the Old Kingdome in Seattle to watch Ken Griffey Jr. And Randy Johnson as a 6 year old.
[00:11:09] And back then you would walk up to this giant concrete structure that was the kingdom. But on the way there was these little alleys that they call Hot Dog Alley. And it's these guys cooking and grilling just the most wonderful sausage you can imagine right outside the doors. And they make something called a Seattle Dog, which is cream cheese with grilled onions.
[00:11:33] And it's as if the Lord has appeared. Yeah, some of you were just blessed with the Holy Spirit just now. Did you feel that?
[00:11:46] And you know what? The kingdom is gone.
[00:11:50] God bless it. It was gross and nasty and the ceiling tiles are falling in and it's been replaced by what's known as T Mobile park now. But when I take my kids and my wife to a Seattle game, we walk through Hot Dog Alley, and I swear to you, it's the same guys. It's definitely the same smell, the same carts. They haven't cleaned their banners in any of these years.
[00:12:17] And you walk through Hot Dog Alley. And the fragrance, the smell, the experience.
[00:12:22] I can literally see myself as a 6 year old again in these places.
[00:12:28] This is what the Sabbath was intended to do for the people of God.
[00:12:33] It was intended to be a moment where we stop and we remember, oh, the love of God.
[00:12:39] That's why if we're to truly rest, if we're to find rest for our souls as a regular rhythm in your life, which I would highly recommend you do, I pray that you would Indulge in the most beautiful things of God, that you would walk in nature, that you would love those who are around you, that you would eat maybe even a little bit more food than you regularly would just because it's so tasty.
[00:13:01] And in all of these beautiful and wonderful and restful experiences, you would stop and you would remember that this goodness that happens inside these bacon waffles reminds me of the goodness of God. The beauty of a view at the end of a hike reminds me of the creation and the love and the goodness of God. That is what the Sabbath is intended to be. That's where we find rest for our souls.
[00:13:31] But in this context, and by the time Jesus is addressing these religious leaders, there are 39 types of work that you could not engage in on the Sabbath.
[00:13:41] The Sabbath is now crushed by rules, and people now feel oppressed by its presence instead of enriched by it.
[00:13:51] And these religious leaders, who are supposed to be leading people closer to God, are now using this as an opportunity to police and to condemn people who do things outside of these 39 rules on the Sabbath to the point where they have lost the plot so deeply on their religion that they completely miss the miracle that is happening in their midst for the sake of the system that they have now fallen in love with as opposed to the Savior. They've completely missed it.
[00:14:19] It has led them in the direction of condemning and hating people whom God truly loves. The Sabbath was never intended to do this.
[00:14:29] They miss the real work of the Sabbath because they're obsessed with its regulations.
[00:14:34] So Jesus says, there's two paradigms here.
[00:14:38] In one case, obedience is a burden, and in the other case, it's a gift.
[00:14:46] The two paradigms are the gospel of Christ and what I'm going to term is simple human religion.
[00:14:53] Most religions set us up with the premise that we can relate to God by being good, right? We can be good. If we're good, then God is seeing us, and then we're doing the right things. There's nothing worse in my life than somebody that I'm having a conversation with that I just met, discovering that I am a pastor.
[00:15:09] You know, some of my friends, I'll be talking with someone, they go, hey, yeah, you know, he's a pastor Westside. And I'm like, oh, no, the conversation is terrible. After that, they don't talk to me about anything. They stop cussing. They stop doing all these things like, no, no, no, say the words again.
[00:15:27] We were having a good time because of what? Because, well, I want to hear him. Cause that's not, that's not the case. But you people know this. They inherently know this, that we relate to God by being good. Because in this conversation, all of a sudden they find out I'm a pastor and they go, okay, what are the five things that I actually think fit into this religion that actually term you to be a good human being? Well, I don't cuss, I don't talk like that, and I don't think like this. And it's like this weird little game of hopscotch where all of a sudden they got to dodge the bad squares and engage in the good squares.
[00:16:01] And I go, this is how people think of Christianity.
[00:16:06] It's not, oh, I'm talking to someone who's well acquainted with grace and mercy and humility. They're going, oh, I'm well acquainted now with somebody who I should be really careful around.
[00:16:17] Oh, yes, I hope people think of Christianity this way.
[00:16:22] But not only do we miss the plot a lot of times, but we've encouraged other people to miss the plot because of this dichotomy, this difference that Jesus is setting up in here. This idea that we connect to God by coming into our people group is a nationalistic way of thinking about religion or Christianity. We connect to God by coming into a people group and then we just simply take on their markers of spirituality.
[00:16:43] Some religions, some simple religions, are formally legalistic. If you perform, you check all the boxes, you'll be blessed. Jesus is completely opposed to all of these ideas.
[00:16:55] The gospel of Jesus is actually, I am fully accepted by Jesus Christ right now.
[00:17:04] No other moves necessary or no other things to be made. And then I, I love to obey from there, not the opposite way around.
[00:17:15] If I obey to a certain degree, then I will be fully accepted. Instead, we are simply fully accepted by Jesus and then we live life from there.
[00:17:24] Now, in this simple kind of religion, we're saved by being better than everyone else, right? We love rising above the masses.
[00:17:31] But in Jesus, in the gospel, we're saved when we realize that we're actually no better than anyone else and we can only be saved by grace.
[00:17:40] In simple religion, the law exists to reassure us that we're doing the right thing and that the blessing is coming.
[00:17:47] No, I'm doing the right thing. I'm on the right path, so I'm going to get blessed.
[00:17:51] This kind of way of approaching Christianity makes us judgmental like the Pharisees and the religious leaders. It makes us self assured that we're rising above the rest.
[00:18:01] But the gospel, in the gospel, the law actually exists to assist us in how to live well, to love God and to love others.
[00:18:11] We're constantly reminded we can't live up to this and we're humbled by the law to the point of love for God.
[00:18:20] And in that we find love for ourselves and we find deep empathy for others.
[00:18:28] This kind of arrogance that we find in simple religion can distort things in such a way where we miss out on the miracle and the love that God has for us in our lives.
[00:18:39] And if we're not careful, our theology can slip in such a way where we find ourselves not celebrating the miracles that God is doing, but instead celebrating the destruction of people that we consider to be outsiders or other to our group.
[00:18:54] Between the pandemic and recent events, I have had friends on social media and this is extreme examples, so I understand that not everybody is in this situation. But I have had very, very progressive friends that are Christians overtly celebrating the death of people to Covid in the middle of a pandemic as like some kind of God's judgment on their lives. And I have also had incredibly conservative friends celebrating the fires in LA as some kind of an expression of modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. If your theology has pinged on either of these sides, you have completely missed it.
[00:19:34] You're way off the systems that we've allowed our mind to set up that have created this other group and out group and then we're the in group and so we get to celebrate when these things are going on. You have allowed your theology, you've allowed your walk with Jesus to be distorted in such a way where you have missed the human souls that existed inside of those houses that lost everything, the people that lost brothers and sisters and parents in the middle of a global pandemic. To celebrate any of these things is to completely miss out on the gift of life being brought by God into our world.
[00:20:10] Come on.
[00:20:15] This is another great example for why we cannot simply exist on a political spectrum on either side. Eventually we will drink the Kool Aid of a side to such a way that we will miss out on what God is doing in our midst.
[00:20:32] And so what should we do with all of this? Well, we should rediscover the Sabbath's purpose, the true purpose.
[00:20:41] We should find a regular rest and life rhythm.
[00:20:44] But we should ultimately understand that the Sabbath means that when we are wholly loved by God, we can rest because of the work that he has done and not because of the work that we are doing. We view the Sabbath as an opportunity to Rest in God, and not as a burden of rules.
[00:21:05] Second thing is this. We can prioritize compassion. Let love and mercy guide our actions, especially in moments of worship and rest. Jesus says in Matthew 19, he says. Then he added, now go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show compassion and not offer sacrifices.
[00:21:23] For I have come to call not those who think that they are righteous, but those who know that they are sinners.
[00:21:31] The third thing is this. We can recognize Jesus ultimate authority. This is for all the control freaks in the room.
[00:21:39] I know you think you've got it, and if you just get your grip a little bit tighter around your life and your circumstances, then everything will finally go the right way.
[00:21:50] And you've got people in your life telling you it's not gonna work out for you, and you go, yeah, but I'd like to give it a shot.
[00:21:59] You know, you hear these stories from wealthy people or from celebrities or whatever, and there's always this story that's like, you know, I've learned that money just doesn't make me happy. And I'm going, yeah, you guys all say that, but I'd like to give it a shot.
[00:22:19] I mean, I know. I know all the warning signs, but, you know, let me get in there with all the cash and see how it goes. For me, it'll all work out.
[00:22:32] And we think, oh, if we can just grab enough control. If we can just. Ah. And we.
[00:22:38] We can't control every single little thing around, but when we embrace Jesus authority through the act of Sabbath, we rest in him, and we trust him as the one who fulfills and redefines the Sabbath, who fulfills and redefines our lives.
[00:22:55] That gives us a real rest.
[00:23:01] Okay, so that's specifically Sabbath. But now I want to project this idea onto you. What are some things in your life that you think are structural important pieces to who you are?
[00:23:14] And maybe if you allowed Jesus to come to the equation, he would knock twice on the wall and go, this actually doesn't carry any weight.
[00:23:26] I'll give you an example. In my life through the last three, four years, and I've kind of referenced this before, I ended up becoming a really angry person, a lot angry at the church.
[00:23:40] Through the pandemic and through some other things that happened in my own personal life, I had realized that I had created in me this angry, depressed, kind of desperate person.
[00:23:53] But through the building of those things in my life, I began to think, well, maybe this is who I need to be in order to accomplish the change that I hope to help change inside the church and outside the church. Church and in my family.
[00:24:04] And so, of course, all those things brought me to a place where I knew that I needed someone to speak in my life, to help maybe in a way that hadn't been before. And so I got into a therapist, and she pretty quickly said. She said, I think you. You. You feel like you need these things.
[00:24:23] You need to be really angry.
[00:24:26] You need to be depressed and cynical.
[00:24:30] And she stopped. She said, look, I want to acknowledge first of all, why you built these things in your life, right, for our purposes today, why these walls went up.
[00:24:39] I know why. And actually, maybe there's some of these things inside of this that were good. They preserved you. They kept you safe for a certain amount of time.
[00:24:49] But you don't want to live this way.
[00:24:53] I don't want to stay angry and vindictive and bitter and depressed.
[00:25:03] And it was funny. I'm sitting there and I'm going, but who am I? Kind of without this.
[00:25:13] Without this angst that I have in me that I think is so valuable? This is important to me. Therapist comes, knocks on the wall a couple times, actually not carrying the weight.
[00:25:24] You can get rid of this, and actually you can have a full open room to your employee after this.
[00:25:35] What is it for you?
[00:25:38] Parts of your personality, maybe you are going through what I experience. You say, no, these. These things that I want to hold on to, these regrets, this anger, it's an important part of who I am now. I want to encourage you today that they're not carrying the weight.
[00:26:00] Maybe you, whenever you consider yourself leaving the job that you feel like is bringing you so much pain, and you would go, well, who am I outside of this workplace?
[00:26:09] I got to stay because this is who I am. I don't think it's carrying the weight.
[00:26:15] How do we allow even our religious structures, right?
[00:26:20] How do we prevent ourselves from worshiping a structure that we built in our life and really understand that God just wants to meet us inside it?
[00:26:31] How do we make sure that our religious practice brings life and not death? We have to keep this whole thing in perspective, that this is about the love of Jesus. Jesus and true rest comes from knowing that he loves us and has given Himself for us.
[00:26:50] I want to read this. Romans, chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. It's not going to come up on the screen, but I want to read it over you.
[00:26:56] Says, by entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us, set us right with him, make us fit for Him. We have it all together with God because of our Master, Jesus.
[00:27:09] And that's not all. Now listen to this. We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us.
[00:27:20] We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand, out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and his glory, standing tall and shouting our praise Jesus. We pray for a lifting of the burden today that can only come from this deep foundation of I am loved right now.
[00:27:48] Regardless of how things have gone in the past, regardless of whether or not I'm making this perfect decision for the future. I am loved right here and now. I pray that we would find satisfaction in that. That we would find relief from that. That we would find Jesus in that. Lord. We reject falling in love with our religious structures.
