As good as it is to have been almost literally raised in the church, it does have its downside. A positive is our familiarity with the Holy Scriptures. It\u2019s great to be able to say with Paul of Timothy, \u201cFrom a child you have known the Holy Scriptures\u201d (II Tim. 3:15).<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all good.<\/p>\n
Familiarity breeds contempt, the saying goes. In our case, it\u2019s not so much contempt which we long-term church members contend with so much as\u2013how to put this now\u2013boredom. We have heard it so many times, it has lost its edge.<\/p>\n
One of the greatest achievements of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to continually sharpen our commitment to Christ and our enjoyment of Him. He alone keeps putting the edge on our faith.<\/p>\n
When we drift from faithfulness to the Lord\u2013and by that I mean nothing in the world so much as we quit praying and reading the Word\u2013the Holy Spirit, who can take a hint and know when He is not wanted, turns to others who want His help. You and I are hardly aware that He has moved away. Sometimes we are the last to see that something vital has changed….<\/p>\n
We have lost our edge. We have become bored with our faith and boring in our proclamation of it.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When the Holy Spirit is in the ascendancy (I\u2019m saying that the way horoscope people speak of some planet exerting great influence) in our lives, many things happen. And one of the best is this:\u00a0We see the Scriptures through fresh eyes.<\/b>\u00a0And what a good thing that is.<\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t it have been great to have been there when Jesus began His ministry and to have observed Him with fresh eyes! No preconceptions, no sermons from our favorite teachers and pastoring clouding our vision, just the pure sight of our wonderful Lord stepping out and speaking Heaven\u2019s revelation.<\/p>\n
What would our reaction have been? We can know the answer to that, to a great extent.<\/p>\n
\u2013We would have reacted the way the people then did. Some believed, some wanted to hear more, and some rejected Him on the spot.<\/p>\n
\u2013We would have treated Him then the same way we treat Him now. Seeing Him in the flesh would hardly have altered that.<\/p>\n
\u2013And, and this is what I’m here to talk about today, we would have been surprised.<\/p>\n
Nothing about Jesus was as people were expecting. Case in point: the opening chapters of Mark\u2019s Gospel.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>If there was one overriding emotion felt by almost everyone who heard our Lord speak, it was: Surprise.<\/b><\/p>\n Nothing about Him was what people were expecting. That\u2019s one reason religious experts rejected Him from the beginning.<\/p>\n 1. Jesus\u2019 Authority.<\/b><\/p>\n In Mark 1:11, Jesus is the beloved Son of God from Heaven. What? Who does He think He is? The very idea!<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 1:17,20, Jesus calls disciples to follow Him. He must think very highly of Himself to be gathering disciples around him!<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 1:22, the worshipers in the synagogue were \u201castonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.\u201d Wait a minute! He\u2019s a carpenter\u2013and He\u2019s speaking with the kind of authority not even our revered scribes assume. Again, who does he think he is?<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 1:26, Jesus commands demons to leave their victim. Fascinating!<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 2:10, Jesus forgives sin. Then, He heals the paralytic whom He had just forgiven. This is outrageous! No one but God can forgive sin! Why, if He has forgiven this man of sin, then this makes him God\u2013and we know that cannot be!<\/i><\/p>\n 2. Jesus\u2019 Announcements.<\/b><\/p>\n In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand. No one prior to Him had said such a thing. Earlier preachers and prophets spoke of the \u201ccoming\u201d Kingdom. He acts like He knows more than the rest of us!<\/i><\/p>\n (Remember, I’m speaking as one of the people listening to Jesus preach and teach back in the day.)<\/p>\n In Mark 2:17, Jesus said he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. No one can remember a religious leader saying such! Why, the first thing He ought to be doing is assembling all the religious leaders to form a steering committee!<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 2:19, Jesus likens Himself to a bridegroom at the wedding, saying this is no time to fast; it\u2019s time to celebrate. Again, who does he think he is?<\/i><\/p>\n In Mark 2:28, Jesus put Himself above the Law. He said, \u201cThe Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.\u201d This is the ultimate blasphemy! The very idea!<\/i><\/p>\n 3. Jesus\u2019 Actions.<\/b><\/p>\n In 1:31, Jesus touched Peter\u2019s mother-in-law and she was healed of a fever.\u00a0He probably just inspired her.<\/i><\/p>\n In 1:34, \u201cHe healed many who were sick with various disease, and cast out many demons.\u201dThere has to be a psychological explanation for this.<\/i><\/p>\n 4. Jesus\u2019 Attitude.<\/b><\/p>\n In 1:40, a leper approaches Jesus. Now, celebrities do not have time for personal encounters with fans, we all know that. But this fan is a hideous leper. They\u2019re under legal restraints to avoid human contact and call out \u201cunclean\u201d so no one will accidentally come near them and defile themselves. But look what happens.<\/p>\n Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, \u2018If you are willing, you can make me clean.\u2019 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said, \u2018I am willing; be cleansed.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n How wonderful is that\u2013that Jesus felt compassion, that He touched the untouchable, and that He said those most amazing of words: \u201cI am willing.\u201d<\/p>\n We can only imagine how the religious big-shots reacted to this.<\/em><\/p>\n 5. Jesus\u2019 Anger.<\/b><\/p>\n Perhaps we are surprised at the anger of our Lord. If so, nothing surprises us more than to whom it was directed. Not to the obvious, easy targets\u2013the bad guys in any community. But to the religious crowd.<\/p>\n In Mark 3, our Lord is in the synagogue in Capernaum. A man with a withered arm is brought in and placed before Him as a test to see what He would do, it being a Sabbath. If He healed the man, the leaders would have reason to accuse Him. \u201cAnd He said to the man who had the withered hand, \u2018Step forward.\u2019 Then He said to them, \u2018Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?\u2019 But they kept silent.\u00a0And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts,<\/b>\u00a0He healed the man\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n Jesus has patience with a lot of things, but not with religious bigotry and hard-heartedness.<\/p>\n Surprised? You would have been had you been on the scene and had seen it for yourself.<\/p>\n –What surprised the theologians was that Jesus forgave sin.<\/b>\u00a0(Mark 2:6)<\/p>\n –What surprised the conservative leaders was that He violated the Sabbath,<\/b>(Mark 2:24)<\/p>\n –And what surprised the \u201clittle people\u201d was how Jesus had time for them.<\/b>\u00a0Nothing they had ever heard had prepared the poor, the blind, the needy that the Messiah would have a special place in His heart for them. It was too wonderful for words.<\/p>\n –But there was one group surprised by absolutely nothing Jesus did or said: the devils.<\/b>\u00a0They knew.<\/p>\n And they were most unhappy about Him.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In Mark 1:24, as Jesus approached a fellow under the control of a demon, the evil spirit within cried out, \u201cLet us alone! What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth! Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are\u2013the Holy One of God!\u201d<\/p>\n In 1:34, we read, \u201cHe did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.\u201d<\/p>\n They did that all right. Satan\u2019s forces had planned and looked forward to and dreaded this confrontation through the ages. And now, here it was\u2013the Messiah had arrived for a showdown.<\/p>\n It was the conflict of all conflicts. The battle of the ages. The destiny of mankind hung in the balance.<\/p>\n Boring? Only if you are an imbecile or have had your mind befogged by inanities and the trivia of our earthly existence.<\/p>\n \u201cFather, forgive us for approaching the greatest story ever told as though it were an old television rerun we had seen repeatedly. Forgive us for yawning through the Gospel story and finding the words of Jesus wearisome. The fault is not in Thee, not in Thy Word, and not in the Savior. The fault is ours alone. We have become so enamored by the tinsel of Earth we hardly recognize the Jewel of Heaven. Forgive us. Restore us. Sharpen us. Put a new edge upon us, Holy Father. For Jesus\u2019 sake.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As good as it is to have been almost literally raised in the church, it does have its downside. A positive is our familiarity with the Holy Scriptures. It\u2019s great to be able to say with Paul of Timothy, \u201cFrom … Continue reading