Sermon for Sunday April 27th, 2008
Do you hit the ignore
button on the call of God? by Sean-David McGoran
Mark 3:1-3:5
When I was in college, church, Christianity, the Gospel, and the truth were the
last thing on my mind. There were so many choices, so many things to do. I like
choices, and you know, I love the fact that I have a choice every time my phone
rings. I can answer the call, or I can reject it. You know, on my cell phone
when someone calls, if I want to answer I can hit the little “ignore” button-
but that doesn’t change the fact that someone called me. I just didn’t answer.
So, when God calls you to save your life and your soul, you can hit the ignore
button if you want: but that doesn’t change the fact that you rejected the call.
It’s amazing to think that really, there are only two possible reactions to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every time the Gospel is proclaimed, there is a call .
Every time the Gospel is proclaimed, there is a call [and there should be an
invitation- but regardless, there is a general call]. So I want to share a story
with you about two different types of people, with two very different reactions
to the Gospel: those who rejected, and one who answered.
Setting the scene
First things first, Mark tells us that Jesus is entering the synagogue another
time. He’s been there before, and preached there before, and probably performed
miracles before, and is planning to again this time [specifically to prove and
confirm this point: that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or the Lord’s
day] So let’s see what happens, and then, specifically I want to ask this
question of the text today: why do people come to church?
Pray: Read Mark 3:1-5
Some people come to accuse, refuse, and reject
Read vs.1-2a
1.Now, don’t forget about this guy with the shriveled hand, we’re going to come
back to him- but I want to focus on these guys who were looking to accuse Jesus.
See, most scholars believe and I would tend to agree that this guy with the
messed up hand, he wanted healing- sure [wouldn’t you?] but these other guys,
these accusers... they probably made sure this guy got a front row seat. Why?
Because they were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus of breaking the law. They
were just looking for something, anything!
a) Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus
b) These guys didn’t show up to worship God, they didn’t show up to hear from
God’s Word, and they didn’t show up to answer a call to repentance or to seek
forgiveness. They showed up for one selfish reason, to accuse Christ of breaking
the law!
c) So they watched Him.
Let’s finish this verse
Read vs.2b
2.So, some come to church for the wrong reasons, just looking to make a point,
looking to make accusations against Christ and His Church, and they’ve decided
to reject the call before they even hear it.
But Some come to answer the call
Let’s look at this guy with the withered hand now.
Vs.3
3.Jesus tells him to stand up, so he stands up. He wanted to receive from God,
and he was smart enough to know that meant he’d have to answer to God. So when
the Son of God said stand up, he didn’t argue or accuse Him of being a
Bible-thumper or a fundamentalist, he just stood up.
So, some people come to accuse, refuse, and reject the call. Others come to
accept the call.
Christ came to heal and forgive all who will answer that call
Jesus gave these accusers a fair shot, He gave them a chance to change their
position. He just asked them a simple question in verse 4:
Vs.4
4.The question was a very simple question, which holds an obvious truth. Every
single one of them knew they were wrong, and they knew He was right: yet not a
single one of them could speak! They remained silent.
What Jesus sees
5.Now, I want to look at verse 5, and I want to show you what Jesus sees. Jesus
sees the heart of man. He knows the heart of man.
Vs.5a
6.He looked around at them in anger
I want you to think about something now. I want you to seriously think about
this. Jesus knows your heart, He knows what you think and how you feel. Imagine
what you would feel like next time your heart is not right- and He was standing
in front of you, looking at you with this anger.
7.By the way, this is the only place in the entire New Testament where we have
record of Jesus looking at anyone with this anger, which is very likely because
these people came to accuse Him of breaking a law which was His in the first
place, on a day that belonged to Him, was created for Him; and for Him, to do
His work.
8.But He was angry. Very, very angry. I want you to notice by the way that He
didn’t speak, He didn’t speak a word to them. But I’m certain it was more than a
brief moment, when Mark tells us that He looked around at them in anger we can
only imagine that this synagogue was packed with Pharisees. It must have felt
like forever. Yet He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to, He was saving His
words for the one that wanted to hear them!
9.Now, if you are a Christian and these guys make you angry too, don’t worry,
they make me mad too- but you know what? Jesus does have words for them, they’re
just going to have to wait a while. They will have to tell their story to the
judge, and do you know what He will say to them: Jesus tells us plain as day in
the book of Matthew, He will say “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
10.You see, until this they only saw Jesus who was often meek and mild, and
sometimes I think the Church does a disservice to Jesus today by portraying Him
only in this way, but when He returns He’s not coming on a little donkey, He’s
coming on a great white horse with a sword coming out of His mouth and a tattoo
on His leg, and He’s coming to bring tribulation, judgment, and eternal
damnation to all who have judged, accused, and rejected Him!
The anger of Jesus
I want you to understand something about this anger. This isn’t the same kind of
anger we experience when our college professor gives us a really unfair grade,
this isn’t the kind of anger you experience when your boyfriend or girlfriend
dumps you- it’s not even the same kind of anger you experience when the
razorbacks loose. This is righteous anger!
11.Jesus came to do God’s work, and they were against Him doing it! He came down
from the Heavens into the darkness to bring light, and they didn’t get it, they
didn’t understand it, in fact- they hated it! Now, Mark tells us not just about
the look of anger from Jesus- but also His feelings that came with it and must
have been apparent to the disciples as they saw their Lord with this intensity
in His eyes.
12.Vs. 5 tells us that Jesus was angry, and He was deeply distressed. Deeply
distressed. Well, if He was angry, why was He deeply distressed. They almost
seem contradictory don’t they? They might be, for us, for the sinful creatures
we are- but not for Jesus Christ who is both the sinless man and God.
13.Mark tells us that Jesus was distressed with their stubborn hearts, the KJV
translates that hardened here. Now, if we had time, I would love to take you on
a Biblical tour of the hardened heart and show you how that happens and why it
happens, and who it happens to- but let me just say this: Jesus was angry
because they didn’t care about this poor mans condition, they didn’t care about
the work of Christ- but He was also grieved, and saddened by it. One scholar
says it like this: “He was softened because of their hardness.”
14.The Greek word for His grief here implies a connection between His grief, and
their grief [which obviously is future grief, because they certainly weren’t
grieving now]. But somehow it’s as if Jesus was saddened by the fact that they
weren’t just accusing Him, but they were rejecting Him... and that my friends is
the only sin that will condemn you to Hell: rejecting Christ.
15.Jesus was angry with their hard heartedness, but grieved over their rejection
of Him, and also their future condemnation for rejecting Him. It’s an amazing
thought. I mean, if you’re a Christian and you’ve read the sermon on the mount,
we know that we are supposed to mourn over the problem of sin: but it’s not
easy, and it doesn’t come naturally. How would you have felt? Would you have
been grieved, or just angry?
I want to look specifically at why Jesus was so angry and grieved at the same
time:
because
They saw the truth
16.Jesus showed them the truth. He made them see that what He was doing was
right, and the will of God, and therefore good, to be done on the Lord’s day,
and in the Lord’s house. He revealed the truth to them, right before their very
eyes- and yet they refused to accept it.
They refused to accept the truth that they saw, but had no problems attacking
what they could not see
[attacking the Gospel without knowing what it is]
17.So Jesus showed them the truth, as plain as day, and yet they rejected it.
Which would be kind of like objecting to the law of gravity after someone
dropped a cinder block on your foot! So, they refused to accept the truth they
could see- but yet they proceeded to point out the flaws that could not be seen.
Have you ever known someone that has countless objections to the Gospel, maybe
you have countless objections to the Gospel, maybe you think they are flaws. You
know what’s pathetic: that’s just like these Pharisees.
Oh man, I used to tell people when I was in college that I didn’t need to go to
church, I didn’t need Jesus, I’d read the whole Bible and decided that churches
had it all wrong- of course I was lying, I had know clue what the truth of the
Gospel even was. Neither did these guys.
They saw the truth, refused to accept what they saw, attacked what they couldn’t
see, and them they claimed to know it
18.The worst part is this. These guys were a bunch of fakes, phonies. These
weren’t worshippers, these were Holy-rollers, these guys thought they were going
to ride into Heaven on their religion. They were probably the first ones there
at the synagogue, they probably made sure people saw [and heard] them pray....
if it were a self-righteous Christian today... maybe they’d even do it in King
James English so they sounded super spiritual. I pray, sincerely, that there
isn’t anyone in this room like that. They didn’t know who Jesus was, they didn’t
care what He came to do, and they certainly didn’t care about this poor soul
with the withered hand.
Now, let’s get off of these guys and get to the really good stuff. These guys
had already rejected the call, and Jesus knew that: so He makes the call to
someone else:
The call
Vs. 5b
19.Jesus told the man to stretch out his hand. Now, what do we know about this
man’s hand? The Greek is pretty clear, this man’s hand wasn’t just in bad shape,
it was disabled, it was paralyzed, it was good for nothing. This man had to beg
for everything surely, because he couldn’t move his hand. I mean, check this
out: these religious holy roller Pharisees guys are sitting there looking for
fault in Jesus, and here is where many people today would like to find the fault
too: Jesus just told a guy who is totally incapable of moving his hand, to
stretch it out. Well, that’s just mean- and impossible isn’t it?
But that was the call. The call of God was for him to stretch out his hand. Now,
let’s finish this verse. Read vs.5c
20.Mark says that the man stretched out his hand, and it was completely
restored. How? The man’s hand was physically incapable of moving, and yet Jesus
gave Him an invitation, a call, He asked Him to stretch out His hand: but
really, He was just asking him to answer the call, to be willing. The man with
the paralyzed hand didn’t have to be able to move his hand, he just had to be
willing, willing to pick up the phone, willing to answer the call. To trust and
obey, to have faith. He didn’t move his hand, God did! It was the grace of God
that moved that hand, and the grace of God that restored it!
An illustration of the Gospel
One of the reasons that I love this story is that it is such a beautiful
illustration of the invitation and call to the Gospel. In Mark chapter 10 Jesus
is explaining to the disciples how hard it is for a man to be saved from his
sins, and here’s what He says in Mark 10:25-27. And that’s where many people
today would like to give there rejection, that’s where they’d like to hit the
ignore button. They’d like to say, it’s impossible, or I can’t ask for
forgiveness, I can’t even forgive myself.
21.This man with the withered hand could have easily said: but Jesus, can’t you
see that my hand is paralyzed; how am I supposed to move it?. He could have
said, look, why don’t you heal it first, and then I’ll move it. You’ll notice
when you look at the text here that Mark doesn’t record this argument, cause it
didn’t happen. I think it does however happen far too often today. No, Jesus
made a command to the man: stretch out your hand, and the man stretched out his
hand. The man had faith. He simply believed, and in his mind and heart he had
made the decision to follow Jesus, to follow His command.
Every single one of us, all of human kind is lost in our sins, spiritually
paralyzed until we are born-again through the Holy Spirit, and with the
forgiveness and grace of Jesus Christ. But Jesus came down from Heaven to earth,
to take on humanity and to die a horrible death on the cross to pay for our
sins, and now He makes a call to everyone everywhere, every time the Gospel is
preached: and as sinners it is impossible on our own to come to repentance [to
come begging before the Lord for mercy]. But praise God, He has made a way, and
that way has been made through the mercy and grace of Jesus and through the
invitation and call to repentance.
He has made the call, and you can hit the ignore button if you want to; but it
won’t change the fact that He called. So, the choice is yours. If you are a
Christian here today, then praise God, you have answered the call. Go share the
good news with everyone, and let this be a great reminder to you that no matter
how paralyzed someone may be in their sin- nothing is impossible with God. You
go share the Gospel with them, you invite them to church, and you let God call
them, and the Holy Spirit convict them-
Now, if you’re here today and your not a Christian then you’ve heard the call.
It’s your choice. Why did you come here today? There are really only two types
of people that come to church? Did you come for the cheap eats? Did you come to
accuse, refuse, and reject? Or did you come to answer the call? The choice is
yours.