What Educated Snobs Can Learn From A Madman About Christianity

Recently I read a post by the President of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Albert Mohler, about recent conversions of a few pastors to open atheism through the influence of an organization promoted by atheist Richard Dawkins called the Clergy Project. Dr. Mohler, a man I admire, uncharacteristically betrayed a bit of snobbery when he twice pointed out that one of the Clergy Project converts had “no college degree” and “no education”.

My first response when I read this was, “Isn’t that the same accusation they (some educated atheists) make about most Christians?” They say we are a generally uneducated people. And their snobbish accusation is actually true to some extent. If by “educated” some atheists and Dr. Mohler mean a college graduate then that would leave out the majority of Americans since only 30% of Americans have a Bachelor’s Degree while a little over 10% have a Post-graduate degree. A Barna Research Group study revealed that 40% of US pastors have no formal theological training.

In the world of the educated the uneducated are sometimes given little credibility and often marginalized by the gate-keepers of the educated class. When it comes to the Christian faith of the uneducated there may even be less credibility granted.

Christians should always avoid playing the education card in a debate. Not just because it is an endless argument that lends nothing to the exposure of truth, but because it runs counter to some basic principles laid out in the Scriptures. One principle is: God is intentionally unimpressed by our education. Re-read 1 Corinthians 1:17-21

Don't get me wrong, unlike the pastor who said in the preface of his sermon, “I'm like Charles Spurgeon (the great 19^th century Baptist pastor) I ain't got no education neither!” I don't consider ignorance in ministry to be a virtue. It is true that Charles Spurgeon had no formal theological education, but, as one who has read much of what he wrote, he was a broadly read, amazingly gifted, highly educated man. So while I wholeheartedly support balanced formal education I must state that it isn't the door to Christianity and has nothing to do with what it means to be a Christian. I'll illustrate this by a man who was arguably the first non-Jewish missionary commissioned by our Lord in the New Testament: the “maniac of Gadara”.

This pitiful madman... this “maniac” mentioned in Mark 5:1-20 most likely could not read or write, but he was not uneducated when it came to the power of Jesus Christ. His testimony about that one experience in his life shook the people who knew him because they knew who he had been before Jesus walked into his life.

I'm sure there were people who questioned his credibility because of his background, but this former madman knew the extent of what Jesus really did for him that day. Imagine an atheist trying to tell him there is no God. It would forever be his experience with Jesus that anchored his soul, not his future education. In fact he would attribute any future learning to Jesus putting him in his “right mind” when he saved him.

He asked Jesus if he could go with him and Jesus told him no, then sent him back to his people to tell his story of God's merciful power in his life. In this we see the essence of true vital Christianity and, therefore, Christian ministry: a saving experience with Jesus. A Pastor who has not had a life changing experience with Jesus will never be a fit Christian minister no matter what level of formal education he obtains. The passion that flows from this personal experience with Jesus becomes the energy for Christian growth and learning.

I remember when I, nothing much more than an animal, first experienced Jesus’ power. I didn’t have a High School diploma at the time I met Him, so the credibility of my faith is, I'm sure, suspect for many. But, like the “maniac of gadara” I know who I was and what Jesus did for me. I have spent 40 years since that day studying, educating myself, and being taught by others, but if all I have learned since that day were put together it would not come close to what happened on that single day. I am a beast without Jesus, and even if I had a PHD when I met Him it would be meaningless compared to the treasure Jesus gave me. Doubt as you might… this former maniac knows...

All Men Seek Him

Mark 1:37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

Seek… what a glorious word! It is among my favorites. I consider myself to be a seeker… this means I spend much of my time seeking. So what exactly am I doing when I seek?

Well... the first principle is I must know there is something I don’t know. This knowledge of ignorance usually comes from asking questions about what I think I do know. To know that I don’t know is vital to learning and living.

The second principle is the recognition of my need of this knowledge or answer. If I see no need or value I will not move to the third principle which is:

I am willing to expend time, energy, and wealth to find what I do not now possess. This is the calculation of life. What am I willing to sacrifice to get the answers I need.

The forth principle is that I do it… I sacrifice what I must to gain what I don’t possess. I get up and do what I need to do… Only then am I seeking.

These people were seeking the greatest of all objectives: Jesus! What is there in this life that is right for us to seek which cannot be found in or provided by Him?

Is it correct to say that “all men” seek Him? In one sense I think so... He is the treasure-chest of all things right. He is or He holds the answer to every reasonable question. If we seek those things that are exclusively found in Him then it can be said we are seeking Him even if we don't know that the answer resides in Him.

But those seekers the disciples speak of in this verse already knew Jesus held the answers... that He was the answer... now they were seeking a personal relationship with Him. What a blissful day it is when I move from not knowing the source of an answer to knowing the source and moving toward it. It is like moving from darkness to light, from being lost to being found.

There are billions each day in this world who seek answers that only He can provide.

Let us go...

Mark 1:38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.

This comment was made after Jesus left His bed “a great while” before daylight. He had spent the previous evening in spiritual close-quarters battle with the forces of evil. We are not told whether our Savior slept or not… but I think not. In the dark early morning hours he left the house for solitude.

Just as civilians often mistake war for romantic adventure while the battle scared soldier sees it in stark, cold, deadly images without romance or adventure, so the spiritual civilian sees the battle with evil in whimsical unreal images while the battle scared spiritual veteran, who has felt the breath of satan and seen the carnage of evil, bears a constant dark burden and sees the stark coldness of a war torn world. It will keep you awake at night… it will drive you to pray… it can make you wish at times that you were someone else doing anything else.

It is significant that Jesus could not even steal a few moments alone to pray and prepare. His sleepless, uneasy disciples must have heard Him leave the house, so they looked for Him... not wanting to be alone. When they found Him they said that “all men seek for thee.” Was there no place of rest in this war with sin? Not for this Captain, for wherever He went the war was there. But He would be nowhere else… this is what He came for and He would not retreat!

Hear the resolve in His words. If this past year has torn you... shaken you in your battle with evil. Take heart... your Captain will not stop advancing. If you're frightened or discouraged look for Him in those early morning hours... listen to His words of resolve: “Let us go...” Notice His use of the plural pronoun “us.” Mix His words of resolve with your own. Let “us” advance in this coming year, for this is why He has chosen us to be in this war with Him. And this long war is why He came. He is the Victor.

Jesus Can Change The Prognosis

Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus was invited to a feast at Matthew’s house, so Jesus, with a large group of His followers, joined them for the meal. This became a big issue because Matthew (Levi) was a non-practicing Jew, and also a Roman tax collector, and, therefore, an outlaw in the eyes of practicing Jews. And Jesus ate with Matthew and his rejected friends. The practicing Jews saw this as an opportunity to pull followers from Jesus, so they tried to cause division among His followers.

Jesus’ response to their trouble-making is recorded in this text for all time. He was doing what he came to this earth to do: remove the ravages, guilt, and condemnation of sin. He couldn't fulfill His mission without working among the guilty and condemned. His work was and is personal… it was and is up close. He must get close to those who need Him most, and those who need Him most are those who have been convinced by the “righteous” or the law that they are beyond help, that their sickness is incurable. This Physician ignores such a prognosis… and brings hope to the sin-sick.

Forgiveness Jesus Style

Mark 2:5b Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

It has been my experience when people discuss forgiveness that they generally speak about the personal forgiveness of someone who has wronged them. This type of forgiveness is often more beneficial to the offended than it is to the offender. In fact, the offender may experience no change in life whatsoever because there has been no penalty or effect caused by their offense. This type of forgiveness is important, but it is not the type of forgiveness recorded here, and it is important to see the difference. This person had committed no personal offense against the man Jesus Christ. As far as we know, until this moment, they had never met.

This man's offense was a legal offense against God. This type of offense or crime has three basic parts:

1. A crime had been committed. In this case it was a breach of God's covenant with Israel.
2. The person had been justly tried, found guilty, and convicted. The jurisdiction for this judgment is located in the founding documents of the Covenant, specifically Leviticus 26.
3. The sentence required by justice was executed. This man was under sentence from God's government based on a breach of covenant.

In a case of this sort the forgiver must have the legal authority to forgive.

We must be clear about our offenses against God: they are legal and personal. We tend to think of forgiveness only in a personal way because we, generally, don't have the standing to legally forgive anyone. But Jesus does have that legal power. In this case the man was guilty of breaking God’s covenant with Israel, and was being punished for his sin. But he was forgiven… this means he was immediately released from his legal and moral guilt with its consequences. This is the kind of forgiveness we receive freely through the Gospel. But Gospel forgiveness is comprehensive since it includes all our sin, and every aspect of our guilt. And... it is everlasting.

Jesus May Have Something Only You Can Do

Mark 1:44 And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

This is a rather strange command. Jesus had just healed this man of leprosy, and then He instructed him not to say anything about it to anyone but the priests. It’s strange only until we consider Jesus' motive found at the end of the verse: “for a testimony unto them.”

Why the priests? Well, they were the persons who were, by law, responsible for declaring a leper free from the disease. But they also lived somewhat separated from the rest of society, and were unreachable by the normal Jew. There is little record of Jesus personally interacting with the priests until facing the chief priests just before His crucifixion.

There will always be segments of any society which are closed to the direct communication of Christ's message. They are practically unreachable... until Jesus touches the life of someone who can reach them. Think of it... there may be only one person who can reach a whole community for Christ. One person who can carry the Word of Life to untouched lives.

When the priests asked the former leper what happened, he had to point them to Jesus. And there is evidence that the message reached the priests. John 11:47 Then later a large number of priests became believers. Acts 6:7

Perhaps there is a community Jesus has chosen only you to reach. Have you thought about it? Your testimony of what Christ has done in your life could be the key to a formerly unreachable community becoming “obedient to the faith.” Look for someone only you can reach, prepare yourself to reach them, and then go... let them know what Jesus has done for you.

Jesus Supported Religious Liberty

Mark 3:6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

We never read of Jesus plotting the destruction or obstruction of any person or religious leader with whom He disagreed. Jesus taught openly under great opposition, and vigorously debated His opponents. But it is clear, from the evidence we possess, that He did not conspire to infringe on the liberty of others in matters of belief. Jesus supported freedom of religion.

But does the rest of the New Testament support this freedom? The answer is yes. There is no example in the Bible of a church ever using governmental legislation or force to silence an opponent, or linking itself to governmental power to influence those who hold differing beliefs.

There are those who argue that religious liberty is a religious doctrine. This is true, it is a religious doctrine. They then argue that the enforcement of this liberty by the U.S. government is governmental enforcement of a religious doctrine. That is true only in a sense. The U.S. recognizes this liberty as a liberty common to all men. It is a human right derived from the evidence of our existence. The ministry of Jesus wasn't the beginning of this liberty, it began in the garden of Eden when grace entered this creation.

We live in a world still harassed by those who cannot allow, tolerate, or listen to dissent. They want the government to favor, and in some cases promote their specific religious beliefs. Thankfully the United States still stands for the right of religious liberty!

This is a companion post to Conspiracy and Liberty Of Conscience: Do We Have The Right To Be Wrong?

Conspiracy

Mark 3:6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

The more I have read this verse the more I am astounded by it. It is the open blatant expression of religious conspiracy. A conspiracy in which sometime political enemies participated because they had the same goal: destroy Jesus. The saddest meeting in human history...

The Herodians were the political supporters of Herod the Great and his descendants. You know the ones… they killed all children below 2 years old just to rid the world of the baby Jesus. They were willing to do anything to keep political power. The Pharisees... you know them too, they were also willing to do anything to keep religious/political power.

In every country today there are those who, like them, will do anything to keep power. And the missionaries of Jesus are working in those countries.

This Greek word translated “counsel” in the Gospels tracks the conspiracy to destroy the altogether lovely one, Jesus. The word culminates at the conspiracy to keep Jesus in the grave. Follow the trail: Mark 3:6, Matthew 12:14, 22:15, 27:1, Mark 15:1, Matthew 28:12. And… they believed they were right...

How many “counsels” will meet today to stop the ministry of Jesus? Will you pause now and pray for those who carry on the ministry of Jesus while in harms way? Missionaries who serve in Islamic countries. Missionaries serving in countries who are unfriendly to the Gospel of Christ. Missionaries who work among the tribes and in the regions beyond. These are amazing people who are worthy of our support and prayer. Know we have prayed for you today.

Blasphemy

Mark 2:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

The term blasphemy is not often used today, but in the past someone found legally guilty of blasphemy could receive the death penalty. In fact, this is the crime that Jesus was accused of which led to His crucifixion. Mark 14:64 I address this issue in my post Did Jesus Blaspheme?

One of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20:7) says we are not to “take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.” Through this command blasphemy became a legal principle applied to any disrespectful use of God’s name. It soon developed to comprehend all human communication concerning the person of our Creator.

Blasphemy, in its common use in the U.S., is applied to the use of God’s name in verbal profanity. Profanity of this sort is allowed because of the U.S. reverence for freedom of speech and religion. But blasphemy has a much broader application. It applies to any form of communication, including art, which could be considered to be disrespectful to God's person. It is a matter of respect for God, respect for the revealed truth about Him, and respect for His authority over creation.

The word blasphemy also includes the use of God’s name for empty purposes or profit. For example, a politician blasphemes when he uses God’s name for political purposes. A blasphemy, in my opinion, that is much worse than other common forms of profanity. But blasphemy could also apply to the use of God's name by a Christian who says something is the will of God when it is clearly only the will of that Christian. Christians often use God's name to spice up their show of spirituality... but that's blasphemy, and is much more serious than the profanity used at the neighborhood bar.

I don't want to belabor this point, but I do want to raise awareness on this subject. What about speaking for God in the first person when we have no record of God ever having said what He is quoted as saying? Is that blasphemy? I think so. Speaking for God seems to me to be the most presumptuous of all human acts, and is most common among those who appear to be nearest Him. An open, public familiarity with God can create pressures that are most easily released by taking authority and license that is not ours. That God loves us is clear... that believers, through the Gospel, are in a relationship with Him is also clear... but that does not make us as He is... He is still God our transcendent Creator and we must revere Him.

Is He Thinking About Me?

Mark 1:41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

The verb "will", when it comes to human nature, is a profoundly important word. It means “to purpose, generally based upon a preference and desire”. Louw-Nida Our intelligence allows us to choose between options. And when we have made a decision that choice is described by this word “will”.

The leper Jesus healed in this verse wisely knew that if Jesus decided to heal him he would be healed. When Jesus decides to do something, it gets done. So when Jesus said, “I will,” there was no question something was about to happen, and Jesus always makes the right choice.

The human will is a product of our complete personality. In some specific cases it can be said to reveal exactly who we are inside. For sure, the cumulative choices we make over time do indeed become the full expression of who we really are. 

In this passage we are told Jesus was “moved with compassion.” His compassion was the dominant factor in His decision. We decide only after a process has taken place inside us, and the process in the mind of Jesus was overwhelmed by His heart.

It is difficult for us creatures to grasp the being of our transcendent Creator. What we know of God's transcendent mind He has revealed to us in His Word, or we make judgments about Him based on what we see around us. But we can also see Him in Jesus. And what I see causes me to pause, and rejoice in such a benevolent Creator.

Jesus thought about this man, then He acted on his behalf. I have no question in my mind that Jesus has done things to and for me as well, and that He loves me. Based on this passage, and what we know of human nature, this means he looked at me, thought about my needs, then He acted on my behalf. It thrills me to think that He might be looking at me right now... is He thinking about me? How many times has He already acted on my behalf today? Wow...

Jesus Was Angry... We Should Know Why

Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,

The word anger appears 234 times in the Bible, but only once concerning Jesus. He was angry with a specific group of people, on the Sabbath, in a synagogue. There was extreme tension in that room, and it was deliberately caused by Jesus.

It seems he stood in full view of the audience with anger clearly visible on His face. Then he looked directly into the face of person after person to make sure they were sure of His displeasure with them. Luke said their response to this was “they were filled with madness;” Luke 6:11

The people He was angry with were the most disciplined, knowledgeable, and conservative in the audience. They were the watchers… we saw them in the last chapter, and will see them more often in the Gospels as the days grow darker. They watched Jesus and His disciples for any variance from the accepted Jewish standards of behavior.

In this particular instance they were critically watching to see if He would heal a suffering person on the Sabbath day. This is what made Jesus angry. Human religion had so hardened their hearts that they couldn’t feel the tenderness of God’s heart. And here they were, opposing Him in a building built to worship and talk about Him. How many times over the years had these people, in this place, heard about the Messiah... and here He was...

His anger should still the souls of all who claim to be His followers. It should cause us to check and re-check what we are about. It should cause us to critically assess the path of our journey to make sure we didn't leave His path somewhere. It is easy to get off that path... religion looks so right sometimes, but it can turn out so wrong. So wrong it could put us on the angry side of Jesus. Not a place I want to be.

I must ever be sure it is the living Christ I am following. I must know Him as the center and sum of my faith. I must tell you that I am more afraid of religion than I am the world. The paths of religion are closer to the path I follow, and, therefore, more dangerous.

Jesus' path, in this case, should be easily recognized by those who know Him. It is the path of mercy, that's the path He always seems to take. Mercy exalts justice and love at the same time. It is mercy that first put me on this path, and it is mercy that has kept me here... so I shouldn't be surprised that this is the path He chose.

The Lord Of The Law

Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

This is one of Jesus' most amazing statements. In this passage Jesus openly defended His followers who were charged with breaking the Sabbath laws. Breaking the Sabbath, one of the ten commandments, was a death penalty offense.

What's so astonishing is they did break the Sabbath laws as interpreted and applied by the Jews, and they did it with Jesus' permission. This was not just another Rabbinical conflict over an interpretation of the law, it was about the authority of the Lawgiver to interpret and apply His law.

These Jews missed a truth about Jesus: He is the lawgiver. The Author of the law knows the purpose and intent of every statute and text, so the application and interpretation are as much His as the words of the statute. The practical power of law doesn't rest in the statute, it rests in the interpretation and application of the statute.

The Jewish elders had become the interpreters of His law and the judges of His intent. So the application of the law had become the exclusive domain of these religious power-brokers. It would be similar to James Madison, called the father of the U.S. Constitution by some historians, coming back from the dead, and finding himself accused by some influential group of modern lawyers of breaking constitutional law.

Here Jesus set them straight: this is His law, and He will interpret and apply it. The application of God's law and Word is as much a part of His domain as the written statute or text. For some reason, some modern Christians have a habit of separating the authority of the Bible text from the authority of the application. They see the text as His, and the application as theirs. This was the same problem the Pharisees had. We should be as cautious with the application of Scripture as we are the text itself, since both belong to the Author.

The Beauty Of Brutal Honesty

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. 24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Brutal honesty has a unique beauty. But, oddly, religion can provide the motivation to abort that beauty before it is born. In religion people often cloak the truth about themselves so they will appear to be what they know they are not. But this man, looking into the face of Jesus, knew he couldn't hide the truth from those eyes. He believed, but he also struggled with doubt. So the hard truth just came tumbling out. Beautiful... So vulnerable and real...

I once heard a preacher say, “If you doubt, you’re damned!” He taught that a constant perfect faith is necessary for eternal salvation, and if we ever waver in our faith it is evidence we weren’t really reconciled to God in the first place. I was intrigued and repulsed all at the same time. Intrigued by how far people will go to steal the credit for salvation. Repulsed by the pain and confusion caused by deflecting attention away from Jesus, the source of salvation, to self. This is the slight of hand used to place the chains of religion around fearful, guilt-laden hearts. An honest person's examination of self will always find insufficiency, but when we keep our attention on Jesus and His gospel we will find all sufficiency.

It would be a wonderful thing if we could compartmentalize our personality so that one part of us was perfectly pure, while the other part struggled with imperfection. But, sadly, imperfection stains every attribute of our being. When religion says you must be perfect in this way or that, we either fake it, or walk away.

Jesus either died for all our sins, or He effectively died for none of our sins. There is nothing completely pure in us this side of heaven, and that includes our faith. It is mercy that our struggling faith seeks from God, or it is nothing at all. Heaven will not be ours because of our perfections. It is ours because God chose in His mercy to save us in and from our imperfections by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus for salvation... and be brutally honest with Him.

Jesus In The Outlaw Camp

Mark 2:15 many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus

The word “outlaw” is a very old English word (first recorded over 1000 years ago). Only in the last century has it come to primarily mean a fugitive living a lawless life. An outlaw, under the old English usage, was a person who was banished from the community. Banishment sometimes included the confiscation of all possessions. Outlaws were put outside the law and, therefore, deprived of its benefits and protections. The word “sinner,” as used in this passage, is very similar.

The word sinner, in modern English, conjures up the image of an immoral or evil person, very similar to the word outlaw in modern English. But sinner, as used in this verse, is closer to the old English “outlaw”. To practicing Jews, sinners were a class of outlaws who had by will, law, or circumstance of birth been placed outside the benefits and protection of covenant law. Even though they were, to some degree, racially Jewish, they could not socialize with practicing Jews, or attend their religious ceremonies. They also had no standing in Jewish courts.

Outlaws, or sinners, tended to congregate in communities, or “outlaw camps.” They would take the only jobs available to them, which were jobs the practicing Jews didn't want or, because of religious/cultural prohibitions, couldn't take. This made them doubly unclean to the Jews, but, other than their outlaw status, they were not necessarily any more sinful in their behavior than the Jews.

Jesus, ignoring the prejudice, freely walked from one camp to the next. To Jesus, the camp of practicing Jews and the outlaw camp were filled with the same people: sinners. All were guilty of breaking God's law, and we are all the same today. We are the banished of Heaven. Some of us live comparably moral lives, but it matters not to God. We are outlaws, the exiled of the Kingdom and we cannot change our condition ourselves. We were all born outside the benefits and protection of God's law.

Some, today, use, “I was born this way!” as some sort of excuse, imagining their behavior is justified by genetics. They are ignorant of the indictment in those words. Some modern pharisees will respond: “Yes, you were born that way. As trash you came into this world, and trash you shall remain.” The spiritually pure, Jesus and the Angels, hear that disclosure and may give no response, for, to them, that statement is a self-indicting truism, so there is nothing more to say. We were all born bent to sin. To those born and raised, like me, in the outlaw camp, we smile or laugh at the ruse. We know the only reason such an exclamation has any traction is because the blue-bloods are having one of their “culture wars” to make some favored condition or sin more acceptable in their camp.

But, in this passage, Jesus walked right into the outlaw camp. He came to sinners... outlaws. He walked right past the boldly painted, cultural Keep Out signs carefully erected by the Pharisees. He came to invite us to His camp. We are, by repentance and faith, welcome in His home... forever. That is gospel sure, and He is an amazing Savior of sinners.

New Wine

Mark 2:22 And no man puts new wine into old bottles… but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Jesus used this illustration to answer the accusations of those who were watching for any departure from the normal behavior expected of all devout Jews.

This seems to be a key subject in this chapter. It began with some scribes raising an objection about Jesus forgiving sins. Then some of these self appointed judges didn’t like the company Jesus’ kept. Next they didn’t like their eating habits. Then they had a problem with Jesus allowing his disciple to break their Sabbath laws. Sadly… there is no shortage of these calloused critics in today's world.

It is clear that the metaphor of old wine and old bottles was intended to illustrate the Jewish traditions and their religious context. These traditions had grown over the centuries, tightly weaving themselves into Jewish religion… this was not God’s doing, but it had become a religious reality.

Jesus refused to be forced into their religious box… in fact He could not do His work and adhere to the teachings and cultural contexts which had created this corrupt religious system. So He placed His new wine (teachings) into a new bottle (His church). He is Lord of both His Word and His Church, and His servants must commit to that reality.

Forsook, An Uncomfortable Word

And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. Mark 1:18

The net was an essential tool of their trade. The word translated “forsook” means a deliberate departure or separation. This separation was considered, the decision to separate made, and the action taken.

There is comfort in holding on to the tools I've used to make my life, so once this kind of decision is made the action must be swift, or, like Lot's wife, the decision may die in a longing glance back.

What must I forsake to follow Him? I must forsake the tools I've used to make my life my own, and let Him, the Master of His own tools, make it all over again. Follow Jesus.

Is The Church Invisible?

Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. Mark 1:16-17

Over the years I have served in various offices in city government. I’ve never heard the word “invisible” used about city, state, or the federal government. People seem to automatically expect government to be visible. Imagine the usefulness of an “invisible” police department, city council, or court. All the issues we deal with in municipal government are visible: roads, sewers, services, staff, law enforcement, etc. The Bible teaches that civil government is rooted in the spiritual, but the spiritual roots of government are seen in physical realities. Romans 13:1-7

Does Jesus have a government on earth? Yes… While Jesus was here on earth He organized a visible government, and called it His church. In this Bible text He chose men who were to become some of His first governmental officers. He formed His government, then commissioned it with laws, authority, offices, and purpose. Through the years His power has kept His government alive and active in this world. A Church is a visible government tasked with physical responsibilities that are rooted in spiritual authority, power, and guidance. It is no more “invisible” than civil government. Its spiritual roots can be seen in physical realities. Matthew 28:18-20

If you want to make your life count for God in this world, be an active member of a sound, Bible teaching church. If you need help finding one drop me a note. You can also read some helpful posts on church life by selecting church in my subject index.

Jesus Reads Hearts

Mark 2:8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

A few months back I proved by Scripture that Jesus could both read and write. Here Now we find he can also read and write on human hearts.

To know Jesus can read my heart makes praying so much more inviting. He knows me better than my closest companion. It also enhances my understanding of grace. These men could not hide their doubts and internal sins from Him, and I am unable to hide mine. Jesus knows all about my doubt and sin. Yet... He still loves me, and died for me.

He also confronts me about my wayward thoughts… sometimes very openly, just like he did with these men. Sometimes He writes a private message of conviction on my heart. How should I respond to such glaring revelations? With anger or resentfulness? Or with the careful repentance of one who knows His wounds of love are for my growth and benefit. Please... write on my heart Lord Jesus.

Jurisdiction To Forgive

Mark 2:5b Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Forgiveness in this passage is a specific type of forgiveness which cannot be given by just anyone. It is legal forgiveness: the forgiver has jurisdiction to forgive. A mother may want her much beloved, but legally convicted, son to be lawfully forgiven of his crimes, but she has no jurisdiction to forgive. It would be a crime for her to set him free.

Sin is a departure from God’s legal standard of uprightness or covenant obligations, and carries legal penalties. In this case the man was guilty of breaking Israel's covenant with God, and was suffering lawful punishment. But he was forgiven… which means he was released from his legal punishment and the record of his crime was expunged. It was as if the sin had never been committed. “Forgiven” in v. 5 is a perfect indicative verb which is “an action as standing at the time of speaking complete.” Burton

Forgiveness in our common usage is generally personal, because that's the forgiveness that is under our jurisdiction. So we tend to think of God's forgiveness in warm personal terms... But the forgiveness we receive from God was won in a cold, hard legal battle for our souls. We believers, who were all convicted sinners waiting for our execution, are now justly allowed to walk free. Our legal debts have been permanently expunged by the gospel work of Jesus Christ. True lasting forgiveness...

Did Jesus Blaspheme?

Mark 2:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

Jesus was the subject of these questions. It may seem strange for me to write this, but both questions are valid. Each question should be asked by anyone in the presence of someone claiming jurisdiction which God alone possesses. This is a very serious issue in the Bible, and it should be to each of us.

Under Old Testament law a person who claimed God spoke through him (prophet) faced the death penalty if his claim was found to be false. Blasphemy, of the type referenced in this text, takes the issue one step further: instead of speaking for God, a man speaks as God.

Under Bible law this type of speech carries a multifaceted condemnation. It is grossly disrespectful to God by implying that God is equal to a man. It also displays a callous use of God’s name for personal gain or power. Furthermore, the offender is placing himself between God and the hearers.

But Jesus was not blaspheming. He was what His words claimed. He is God manifest in the flesh. As such He possesses the power and jurisdiction of God, and He does have the authority to forgive sins. And all forgiven sinners are eternally thankful He has this jurisdiction.