Category: Band

I’ve been saved!

Saved from what?

I think this is a fair question. Sometimes we use Christian language that we have heard others use and attach it to our thoughts and emotions without fully understanding what it is that we’re talking about.

Paul is writing to the new church in Thessalonica and he is praising them for their faith, but also thanking God for choosing them, the Thessalonians, as his people. He comes to an important section that I have actually noted here on my site previously, but I want to spend some additional time talking about the rest of Paul’s message in this passage:

The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

1 Thessalonians 1:8-10

Paul says that the faith of the Thessalonians has been made known everywhere. They have left their old life of serving idols and have come into the new life to serve the one true and living God.

Paul says that the Thessalonians are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ who has been raised from the dead. He is saying that first, they believe that Jesus was sacrificed, was killed on the cross for their sins. They believe that Jesus was resurrected, having come back to life after three days in the grave, and they believe that he returned to be with God the Father in heaven. Wonderful!

Yet this last part of the last sentence is important: who rescues us from the coming wrath. What is Paul referring to here?

Paul is talking about judgment. God will judge the world and he will bring wrath upon everyone that is not found to have faith in Christ. Those that have not placed all of their hope in Jesus, but instead continue to hope in other “gods”, as the Thessalonians once did, or in other objects or ideas, will, on that day, be judged and receive the wrath of God.

And no one will be able to stand up to the wrath of God. With the swipe of his hand, or with the breath from his nostrils, the universe will be wiped away,. So if God brings his judgment upon a person, they will neither have an excuse, nor a way to escape God’s wrath. It will be terrible for that person!

And yet there is a way to escape that wrath. We can be saved from the wrath of God, and this is what we are talking about when we say that we have been saved. It isn’t all roses and rainbows. It isn’t just the shouting of Glory! and Hallelujah! without any further thought. Instead, there is death and destruction and in Christ we have been given passage to escape that wrath and instead be reconciled into right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine being Simon? No, not Simon Peter. I mean Simon of Cyrene. Simon Peter had left Jesus. He denied him, betrayed Jesus.

Simon of Cyrene wasn’t even really involved. He was there in Jerusalem from north Africa. He wasn’t even from that area. Cyrene was a Greek colony in what is today the northeastern part of Libya.

Maybe Simon just wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. Why were the people shouting? Maybe he just wanted to see.

But then suddenly a Roman soldier grabs him and tells him that he has to carry this man’s cross. “Wait, what? What did I do?” I can imagine that he had a sense of fear, a terror that he was suddenly caught up in something that was beyond him. “Why did I stick around here?” he might have thought. Simon now had to carry Jesus’s cross up to Golgotha, also known as the Place of the Skull.

Mark takes special note to write that Simon of Cyrene was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Mark 15:21

Right there, with his son’s name being Alexander, we begin to get a sense of connection to Cyrene, and Cyrene’s connection to the Greeks. But what struck me even more is that Mark evidently knew these two sons, Alexander and Rufus. Or maybe Mark’s audience, the early church, would recognize these names.

In fact, the names Alexander and Rufus do show up later in the New Testament. There was an Alexander who was a Jew and was in Ephesus at the same time as Paul and was pushed to the front by the Jews to give a defense for Paul and the Christians in the midst of the riot by the silversmiths who made Artemis idols.

And there is a Rufus who is mentioned by Paul in connection with his mother who are evidently now in Rome but who have been with Paul in other contexts as well.

It could be that these are the same Alexander and Rufus, or they could be completely different people. It is hard to say. What is clear, though, is that Mark knows them both and so would have, in all likelihood, his readers given that he makes direct reference to them as he speaks who Simon of Cyrene is that carried Jesus’s cross. Clearly Simon looked more into who this Jesus was and passed this information along also to his sons. Maybe even his sons saw their dad have to carry Jesus’s cross. Maybe they had a direct family connection with the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Maybe they had a story to tell together as a family of that time that they were in Jerusalem and they saw God in the flesh being crucified for their sins.

May the Lord help us also to teach our children. May our families truly know the faith of their mothers and fathers. May the children know Christ through their parents, and then one day also know him directly for themselves. Let us not abdicate our responsibility as parents to tell our children of our experience with Christ. Let us be close to the Lord, even taking up our cross and carrying it because of what Jesus has done for us so that he will receive all of the glory for what he has done.

As Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the people shouted for their coming king:

“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Mark 11:9-10

Jesus was entering and the people spoke of Jesus coming to conquer. They shouted for the new kingdom of Israel that would be realized through Jesus. They were proclaiming the return of their king, just as had been prophecied.

So you would expect that, if the king was coming to restore the kingdom of Israel, the first thing that he would need to do would be to throw off the oppressive Roman government. But this king… this king doesn’t go to conquer the Roman government. This one, instead, goes to the temple courts:

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts.

Mark 11:11

I wonder if the people wondered where he was going. Wrong way, Jesus!, I wonder if they shouted at him. This way to the governor’s palace!, I wonder if they said. But Jesus went precisely where he wanted to go. He went to the temple.

Jesus wasn’t interested in political kingdoms. Jesus was interested in righteousness and the throwing off of the tyrrany of sin. Jesus was on a mission to destroy everything that stood in the way of the advance of the kingdom of God, and the first thing that must happen is the purification of the temple, of the worship of God.

Jesus goes to the temple courts upon entry into Jerusalem. He returns again the next day to drive out the money changers. And then once more the following day to teach the people and explain further to the Pharisees who he is.

Jesus had a completely different agenda. His agenda wasn’t for poltical change. His agenda was for spiritual change. Jesus’s kingdom isn’t of this world. His kingdom is the world, and the heavens, and the earth. Jesus is king over all.

He was an old salt…

He uses some salty language…

Take it with a grain of salt…

There are several ways of using the word “salt” in various coloquial idioms of our day. Jesus, himself, added to these idioms, telling the disciples that they need to be salty:

Everyone will be salted with fire.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Mark 9:49-50

Jesus had just finished telling his disciples that they need to get rid of anything that causes them to sin. For example, if an eye or a hand causes them to sin, they should pluck it out or cut it off. I don’t think Jesus is being literal as he says these things, although he does tell the disciples that it would be be better to go into heaven maimed rather than go into hell with their full body.

But then he goes on to tell them that they will be salted with fire.

The disciples will be tested. They will be refined. This is the salt that they must have within themselves individually and amongst them as disciples of Christ. They must have been tested and refined. They must have lost all of the dross, all of those things that have come from our flesh instead of from the Spirit of God such that they are now living completely and entirely for Christ. In this way, they will have salt amongst themselves.

On the other hand, Jesus says that if they lose their saltiness, they are of no good whatsoever to God. Within the kingdom of God, they will not be worth anything. They will have just become like the people of the world. They will not be demonstrating anything within the kingdom. They will instead simply be just like everyone else. No salt, no refinement. Just like the world.

So Jesus says that we need to be salty. We need to be creatures of the kingdom of God. We need to be people who are set apart from the world. We need to be salty.

As Jesus and his disciples were moving through the villages of Caesarea Phillipi, Jesus asked his disciples who the people say that he is.

This is the question.

This is the question that has continued to reverberate through the centuries and through millenia. Who is Jesus?

This is the same question that the disciples asked. Who is this that even the wind and waves obey him?

This is the same question that the Pharisees asked one another. Who is this that forgives sins?

And now we have Jesus asking the disciples, who do the people say that I am?

The disciples aren’t sure what to say. There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer. Here is their response:

“Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

Mark 8:28

Why is there so much confusion? Jesus has actually been answering this question himself by revealing himself to the people. But still there is confusion. Why? Because Jesus is God, and we can’t begin to imagine that God himself would be here with us. Surely that isn’t possible, is it? And yet it is, and that is what Jesus wants his disciples to understand and live by – to believe.

At the same time, though, as we see in the disciples’ answer to Jesus’s question, there is a lot of confusion about who Jesus is. It struck me today, as I was reading this passage, that the answers are all from the past:

John the Baptist – John was the one who was to come before Jesus, to proclaim repentance and make straight the path for the Lord.

Elijah – Elijah was a prophet who was swept up into heaven without ever actually dying. Prophecy said that Elijah would return, so the people would say that Jesus is Elijah.

One of the prophets – There were many prophets that spoke to the people on God’s behalf. Moses also spoke of a Prophet who was to come to whom the people must listen, and this was another guess that we saw by the Pharisees when they questioned John the Baptist about who he was.

My point here is that the people were looking to the past, to what they knew, what they had read, and what they understood. But God isn’t just a God of the past, he is a God of the present, and a God of the future. He routinely does what the people do not expect, and often things that people have a hard time understanding. And that is exactly what is happening in this case. God has come to earth to be with his people, showing himself in the form of a man, and that man is Jesus.

Despite the fact that “some say…” this, or “others say” that, we need to continue to look to Jesus and understand who he showed himself to be. Jesus made the winds and waves obey him. The evil spirits obeyed him. He healed people of their sicknesses with nothing more than words. He fulfilled the prophecies of the one that would come. He forgave sins. And Jesus spoke and taught the people with authority…because he was the one who had authority. Jesus is God who has come in the flesh to reestablish his kingdom here on earth, purchasing the people out of the kingdom darkness to come into his kingdom. May we believe and worship him!

Jesus now has 12 disciples and they are listening to him as Jesus continues to teach the crowds of people. Jesus starts teaching, though, in parables and we see him speak about, and explain, the kingdom of God. For example:

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Mark 4:26-29

Jesus is the king in the kingdom of God. He told his disciples that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the king!

In a kingdom, what the king says is how it is. That is the way that it works. Jesus is the king in the kingdom of God, so when Jesus says that this is the what the kingdom is like, we should pay attention! He is explaining how this should work.

Jesus explained the parable of the four different soils, explaining that, those that receive the word of God should produce a crop. That is the good soil. I wrote more on this in another post here: Am I Good Soil?

Then Jesus continued on with another parable saying that the light that we receive shouldn’t be hidden. It should be placed on a stand. It should be used to light the whole room.

Then comes the parable of the growing seed that I mentioned above. We can see there a process for growth and a harvest that is taking place. Here is a video that helps explain further:

And finally, Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed that starts as the smallest of all seeds but grows into a large tree.

To me, it is clear what Jesus is teaching his disciples. He is explaining that the kingdom moves forward. The kingdom takes more territory. The kingdom doesn’t stop growing. And those who are truly disciples, those who are truly subjects in the kingdom, they are part of this work. They take part in seeing the kingdom grow.

Jesus is explaining to his disciples how his kingdom works and is about to start traveling with them to show them practical examples of what he has been explaining to them. Let us not miss the point and imagine that we can be still and believe. Jesus shows us that, in his kingdom, he and his disciples are on the move with the message, the good news of the kingdom of God. Let us do the same!

Jesus has continued revealing himself, revealing his identity to the people, showing who he is by how he is teaching and the works that he has been doing. The people are starting to understand and have begun to follow him in large crowds. But the common man isn’t the only one who has understood. The Pharisees and religious leaders have understood as well, and now they are out to get him.

Jesus had gained a reputation for healing on the Sabbath. He was doing those things that were considered to be unlawful, according to the Jewish law, and then saying that he was the Lord of the Sabbath, as we saw in Mark chapter 2 when his disciples had taken some grains off of the stalks.

Now in chapter 3, the Pharisees had specifically come to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. They wanted to catch him in the act of doing good so that they could accuse him of breaking the law. How upside-down is their thinking! It shows how much that they have truly begun to hate him.

Jesus does, in fact, heal the man. He knew what they were thinking, and in fact had the man with the shriveled hand stand up directly in front of them so that there would be nothing hidden. Jesus is challenging the Pharisees, fully knowing that it would one day cost him his life.

So it is in that context that Jesus goes on to choose his disciples. He is, on the one hand, setting himself up to be hated, and at one point soon, to be killed. Knowing this, he goes up on a mountain and calls 12 of the men out of the crowd of disciples that have been following him to come and be his closest disciples.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Mark 3:13-18

Jesus had a role for each of them to play. Even Judas. Jesus knew that he would betray him, and yet Jesus chose Judas to be part of the group of his closest disciples. Jesus is thinking about this next generation that will one day carry on the work that he has been doing, and that he will continue to do.

Jesus would send them to preach. They would speak on his behalf, on behalf of the Kingdom of God, to the people around him. And he gave them authority to drive out demons so that their word, that which they are preaching, would be confirmed. Now, Jesus would take them and show them how to do what he does, and would soon be sending them out to do the same work that he will do. Jesus, in the midst of the troubled time, is thinking of the next generation and how they will also be sent to see the kingdom of God continue to expand.

In these days, Muslim apologists try to poke holes in the idea that Jesus is, himself, God. They say silly things like:

Jesus never said, “I am God, worship me!”

And they say that because Jesus never said those precise words, he must therefore not be God. You see? Our logic is perfect. Jesus is not God. He is a prophet, and nothing more than a prophet!

To me, this strongly suggests that they have never actually read what Jesus did, nor what Jesus said.

I was reminded of this today as I read through Mark 2. The Pharisees and the rest of the Jewish people were trying to figure out who Jesus was. Jesus, through both his words and his actions, allowed them to see. Here are three examples in this one chapter:

First, some friends come to the house where Jesus is staying in Capernaum. They can’t get in because the crowds are so numerous that the doorway is blocked so they go up on the roof, dig a hole, and let their paralytic friend down on a mat through the hole in the roof. Jesus looks at the paralyzed man and instead of immediately healing him, Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven.

The Pharisees who are there ask themselves, “Who is this that forgives sins. Only God can forgive sins!” And of course they are correct. Only God can forgive sins.

And yet Jesus tells the Pharisees that he wants them to know that he has this authority. Remember, only God can forgive sins, just as the Pharisees said. So what does Jesus do to prove that he has that authority? He asks whether or not it is easier to forgive sins or to tell the paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk. And that is exactly what he was. The man is healed and he walks out of the house.

So the lesson is clear. The lesson isn’t just that Jesus can heal a paralytic. It isn’t that he was such a great teacher that there was a crowd there such that the friends couldn’t come in. The lesson is that Jesus is God! The Pharisees were exactly correct. Only God can forgive sins. And yet Jesus not only forgave them, but he also proved through the miracle that he had the authority to do so.

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Mark 2:10-12

Next, let’s look at how Jesus refers to himself. With Levi, Jesus hangs out with the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. Jesus refers to them as the “sick”. Sick from what? Sick as a result of their sin. They are spiritually sick. They have the disease of sin corsing through them. But Jesus refers to himself as the doctor. He is the one who has the cure for their sickness. He is the God who can take away their sins. He is the one who can make them well.

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:17

However, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He also refers to himself as the bridegroom. When the Pharisees come to ask Jesus why his disciples don’t fast like John’s disciples, he explains that the bridegroom is here. No one fasts while the bridegroom is with them. It is time to party! It is time to celebrate.

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

Mark 2:19-20

Why would Jesus refer to himself as the bridegroom? The people of Christ are his bride. He has come to marry himself to them.

But maybe we can understand more from the question of fasting. The disciples and the Pharisees fast in their devotion to God. They take time to focus upon the Lord, not upon themselves and on their own needs, but upon God.

But if the bridegroom is with them, and we are referring to Jesus who is with the disciples, and the disciples are in question because of their lack of fasting, Jesus is saying that they don’t have to fast because the bridegroom is with them! God is there in their midst!

Now, finally, Jesus is questioned as to why his disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that even David and his men did what was unlawful by eating the bread in the temple that was dedicated to God. That was considered to be unlawful as well, and yet they were celebrated for what they had done.

So Jesus says that the Sabbath is intended to serve the people, not the people to serve the sabbath. The Sabbath should give rest, but if the people can’t eat, we shouldn’t be slaves to the Sabbath. In other words, you do not simply follow rules thinking that you are going to please God by following the rules. There is a need, in this case, a need to eat. The Sabbath should not stop them from eating.

Jesus is, though, even more pointed in his explanation. He says that he, himself, is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Let’s remember where the Sabbath came from. First, God had rested on the seventh day, a rest that continues to this day. That seventh day never ended.

Then, God commanded the Israelites in the midst of the 10 Commandments to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. The Israelites were commanded to do no work on that day. It was to be only a day of rest.

So keeping the Sabbath was commanded by God. But now, Jesus says he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord over a command that was given by God? Yes, because he is, himself, God.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:27-28

Should we think that, in our feeble minds, we can come up with arguments that suggest that because Jesus didn’t say exactly what I think he should have said, he is therefore not God? No, that makes no sense. In fact, let’s think about what would have happened. Imagine that Jesus does exactly what Muslims suggest that he should have done, saying:

I am God, worship me!

Immediately, Jesus would have been taken for a crazy man, or a blasphemer, or both. He would have no credibility. No opportunity to do what he was actually there to do. He wouldn’t be able to teach his disciples. His timing would have been man’s timing for his death, not God’s timing. That would have been pretty silly and worthy of a lot of doubt…exactly how we should think about our Muslim friend’s arguments.

Instead, Jesus is revealing himself to the people. Those who had eyes to see and ears to hear would be able to do so. They would be able to see Jesus’s miracles, hear that he was giving forgiveness to sinners, and understand that he had the authority to do all of these things. May God forgive us for placing our own expectations upon Jesus.

Jesus was beginning to get some notoriety. He had healed Peter’s mother-in-law there in Capernaum and when word of what had happened got out, the news began to spread. The people of the town and around the area lining up at the door of the house where he was staying and now it was on. Jesus’s fame was beginning to spread and he could start to build his ministry.

But after having healed all of those people and going to bed for the night, Jesus gets up early in the morning and goes away to pray. He needs to hear from the Father. He needs to talk about what he has seen and determine the next steps. The ministry could really begin to grow here in Capernaum. What should he do?

In the meantime, the disciples come looking for him. The people had been looking for Jesus, so they came to fetch him. After some time, they do finally find him, but what does Jesus tell them that he will do? He says exactly the opposite of what they are expecting: It is time to leave.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Mark 1:35-39

The disciples had better get used to this. Jesus will rarely do what they think that he should do. He has work to do that they don’t really understand. He has priorities that they most certainly don’t understand. The disciples are in for a wild ride, one that will be quite confusing for them.

It is clear that God’s priorities are different than man’s priorities. Jesus is God and he is thinking differently than all of the men around him. They are thinking that they need to set up their ministry, open their shop, make a name for themselves with this teacher that not only speaks with authority, but heals people with a word of the touch of his hand. Jackpot!

But Jesus’s priority is that all will hear. He doesn’t care about crowds of people. He cares about all people. Capernaum is not enough. Others must hear as well. One city seems like enough to the disciples, but for Jesus, it isn’t enough until the news of the kingdom of God goes everywhere.

We also have the same tendencies and temptations as the disciples. We have been given a mandate, a plan. The scriptures tell us that Jesus has called us to make disciples, and we see churches planted. We don’t need anything else. We need to be faithful with what we have been given and do what we have been asked to do. With the little that we have, God will do the rest, so let’s stay focused on the task that he has given to us.

Not too long ago, someone taught me that there is a point, an end, to discipleship. That point is that the other person might fully follow Christ, that they would go on to do the same things that you have learned, and more. I am discipling someone because I want them to know Christ and live in him as much as I do, and even more.

Paul tells the Corinthians that they need to examine themselves to confirm that they are, in fact, in Christ. Confirm that they know him. Confirm that they are walking with him.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you —unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.

2 Corinthians 13:5-7

He is telling the Corinthians that they need to make sure that they are in the faith. There are many reasons for this, of course, but this isn’t what Paul is most concerned about at the moment. He wants to make sure that this church isn’t full of people who are there for the social connection, but are instead there in community to know and glorify Christ.

Paul wants them to make sure that they are truly in the faith. Do they believe what they have been taught? Do they practice what they have been taught? Actually believe and practice?

In the end, Paul says that it may turn out that they have failed. Maybe he and his apostolic band of brothers haven’t fully fulfilled all that they were supposed to do to help the Corinthians become who they were to become. But as we stand before God, that will be a conversation that God has with them, with Paul and his compadres. God will also, though, have a conversation with each of the Corinthians. Were they in Christ?

What is more, and this is the reason that I wanted to write this today, Paul says that, if they are in the faith, Christ is in them! What does that mean? It means that they don’t need to keep coming to Paul to get the answers. They don’t need to argue with him as to whether Christ is truly speaking through him. Why? Because they have Christ within them already! He is already there. They, the Corinthians, simply need to listen to what he is saying.

There are a couple of lessons here, I think. First, I think that it is important for those of us as leaders to continue to remember that the people that we are working with have also received the Holy Spirit. As believers, they have Christ within them as well. And Christ wants to speak to them and through them. And Jesus doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t need my help. He can do all of the talking and instructing and leading and guiding that he wants to do, even without me.

The second lesson is for each person, that we need to pay attention. If we are in Christ, we must follow him. We must do what he tells us to do. It isn’t the responsibility of the leader of our church to tell me what to do. Yes, they have authority, but the greatest authority is that of Christ. What he says needs to be done. And if he says it, and it isn’t happening in my life, I don’t need to wait for the leader to point it out, or lead me to do it. I need to listen to Christ. And the more that I do that, the more that I learn to hear his voice and do what he says. And that will produce an ever-increasing strength of faith and action as a result of Christ in me.