This morning I’m not going to ask “How many of you worry?” Because I know that it would be hard for some of you to raise your hand, because you’d worry what everyone would think of you.
You’d have to scan the audience, and count how many deacons had their hands up. And then you’ll get even more worried, when I say “The reason you worry may be pride.”
Have you ever made thought about that before? When you think of people who worry, do you think of proud people?
This passage shows us that humility frees us from worry by teaching us to trust God.
Note: This sermon was preached on Resurrection Sunday 2010 and concluded a verse-by-verse series through the entire Gospel of Mark.
We’ve looked at the earthly ministry of Jesus from Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
And this morning we’ll finish with chapter 16.
We’ve seen our Savior’s teaching, His miracles, His disciples, His enemies. And in chapter 15, it all culminated on the cross-where we saw that Christ paid for our sins. And how wonderful it was to see His sacrifice. The cross is what we boast in. The cross is what we proclaim.
But this morning we’re going to see that if we stop at the cross, we do not have the Good News. If we stop at the cross, we do not have the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we stop at the cross, then our preaching the gospel of Mark the last 3½ years has been a waste of our time.
Because if we stop at the cross, we don’t have Good News. All we have is a rotting corpse. Our final chapter would be death. I mean that’s where we left Jesus last time isn’t? He was dead. Christianity was dead. Our hope was dead. You see, the only hope humanity has is for a resurrection. For new life.What good is Christ’s work on the cross, if He is dead? This is the problem with crucifixes that leave Jesus on the cross. This is the problem with liberal theology that refuses to believe He rose again.
Last week I got a call at church from an elderly preacher who wanted to talk to a pastor who believes in the resurrection. He’s part of a liberal denomination that just recently stripped him of his ordination. Even though the men on his ordination council were godly professors from Wheaton and Moody Bible Institute back in the 50s. He said that at his church last Easter, the pastor got up and said “I do not believe in the resurrection.”
I don’t even understand that. Why would you have a church if Jesus is dead? I mean, “What kind of Christianity do you have if Jesus is dead?” None. You don’t have any Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15 says, “Your preaching is in vain. Your faith is in vain. You are of all men most miserable.” If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then Christians are the biggest losers.
The Resurrection is vital, because it changes everything for the Christian. This morning we’re going to look at just two areas found here in Mark 16.
Dennis Rodman was in the news again this week. And as usual, it wasn’t good. The former NBA basketball player is being sued for $800,000 that he’s behind in child support. And his lawyer says that he’s broke.
Now when most of us think of Dennis Rodman we think of his his cross-dressing, tattoos, technical fouls and criminal record -we think Hall of Shame.
But last year, the very 1st year he was eligible, Dennis Rodman was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
Jack McCallum, longtime sports writer for Sports Illustrated, responded with an article entitled “Rodman Doesn’t Belong in Hall.”
In the article he admits that Rodman is an unusual athlete. McCallum met him during practice as a rookie and admits he was a good rebounder, but he points out that he didn’t have to do anything on offense. Rodman averaged 4 or 5 points a game. How do you get into the Hall of Fame when you couldn’t score?
McCallum admits that Rodman was on some pretty great, championship-winning teams. But he was a supporting player.
McCallum says “The Hall of Fame is not for supporting players.”
He also points out that Chris Mullin of the 1992 U.S. Dream Team was “kicked to the curb several times by Hall voters.”
Now I don’t know what you think of Dennis Rodman, but I think Jack McCallum makes a good case. Dennis seems like a very unlikely candidate for the Hall of Fame.
And as we read through the Bible, we look at what Pastor a few weeks ago called the foibles of Abraham in Genesis-and they’re pretty big. In fact when we get to Hebrews 11 and see Abraham and Sarah’s names-we might be surprised. Based on what we know of their lives, they may seem like unlikely candidates for the Hall of Faith.
After years of research, the profile of the “perfect pastor” has been developed. The perfect pastor preaches exactly 15 minutes. He condemns sin, but never embarrasses anyone. He works from 8:00 a.m. until midnight and is also the church janitor. He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, drives a new car, and gives $50 a week to the poor. He is 28 years old and has been preaching for 25 years, is wonderfully gentle and handsome, loves to work with teenagers, and spends countless hours with senior citizens. He makes 15 calls daily on visitors, shut-ins, and hospital patients, and he is always in his office.
If your pastor does not measure up to this profile of the perfect pastor, simply send this description to 6 other churches that are tired of their pastor. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. One of them should be perfect.
Of course this is facetious. There’s only one Perfect Leader, the Man Christ Jesus, whom v. 4 calls the Chief Shepherd.
And in His plan, He has ordained that pastors would serve His church as under shepherds. Shepherds under the Chief Shepherd.
There are 3 main titles used for pastors in the Bible. And they’re all found in vv. 1-2.
The word “feed” in v. 2 means to “shepherd” or “pastor.”
In v. 2 we also have the word “oversight,” from the Greek word “episkopos” where we get the title “bishop” or “overseer.”
Last Sunday while we were looking at verses 7-11, Matt and Lana Cretzman, were in North Carolina. They’ve been on deputation with their two daughters to go to the mission field of Cuba. Monday morning they were driving toward Ohio for a missions conference when they hit a patch of black ice on a bridge.
“the back wheels started sliding around and it was almost as if there was a bulls eye on [their little 3 year old daughter] Azlynns door and she slid right into the pole. The windows exploded. The airbags blew out. And…umm… I held her in my arms as she took her last breath.”
Just this week, Iran sentenced a 34 year old pastor and father of two, Yousef Nadarkhani, to be hanged for becoming a Christian.
Here are two Christian families in their late 20s and mid 30s, in Iran and NC. Both have two young children. Both are serving the Lord in full time Christian ministry. And yet God is allowing them to go through fiery trials.
This evening we conclude one of the key themes in this letter with the question: How can you, as a Christian, find joy in fiery trials?
Remember the context of 1 Peter 4? Peter’s talking about suffering. What does suffering usually do to our focus? It keeps our focus on eternity. Suffering makes us long for heaven.
When everything’s going well we often feel drawn to this life. When you’re driving down the highway to Florida for you dream vacation, and you nearly get run off the road, you say “Thank you Lord for sparing my life. I want go to heaven. But not today. ”
When everything’s going well, we often feel drawn to this life. Suffering is a tool God allows to wean us from this earth, to fix our eyes on heaven.
When we’re suffering, it’s a comfort to know that “the end of all things is at hand,” that Christ is coming again. And His coming is imminent-it could be any day.
So what do we do in the mean time? How do we occupy til He comes? How can we prepare for the end? Peter gives us four ways.
When 53-year-old Danny Anderson was feeding his horses, a 5-foot rattle snake slithered onto his central Washington property.
Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and used a shovel to chop off its head. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a truck.
Anderson said, “When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger. I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose.”
His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Mr. Anderson’s tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of 6 shots of anti-venom he needed to save his life.
They say a snake can still strike for an hour even after its head is cut off. If another rattlesnake comes along, Anderson said he’ll probably try to kill it again, but said next time he’ll grab a shovel and bury it right there.
The 1st mention of the Gospel was to a snake in Genesis 3:15, God tells the serpent Satan, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Satan is a defeated foe (Col. 2:15), but he’s still a dangerous foe. Like the head of a dead snake, he can still do damage, he can still bruise us.
In 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter tells his readers “our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood.”
Certainly God breathed out some difficult doctrine and scripture through the apostle Paul. Ironically Peter’s passage here in 1 Peter 3:18-22 is considered one of the hardest to interpret in all the New Testament. But we know that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable” for our lives. So let’s strap on our thinking caps and look for the doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness that God has for us in this difficult text.
Almost all of us have something that we fear. Some of those fears are a little more unique than others. I read about some phobias this week that I’d never heard of before:
Peladophobia: the fear of bald people.
Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people.
Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple.
Auroraphobia: fear of the northern lights.
Calyprophobia: fear of obscure meanings.
Odontophobia: fear of teeth.
Phobophobia: fear of being afraid.
I think many of us fear the unknown. Many Christians fear being attacked by a hostile world. Parents fear seeing their children targeted in a world that’s increasingly hostile to their faith.
But in v. 14, Peter tells Christians facing extreme persecution, “Be not afraid of their terror (intimidation), neither be troubled.”
Our response to this world’s intimidation and hostility does not need to be fear. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, of a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).
In fact, v. 15 says there is a hope that is in us. Our response to this world’s hostility should be hope, not fear.
This morning we saw why we should love life. Tonight we’ll see why we should love the good life. Look at verse 10 “For he that will love life, and see good days.”
This is what most people today want-the good life. They want to love life and see good days.
That’s what we say to each other “Have a good day.” Our founding documents say that’s our inalienable right-life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We want a happy life. We want the good life.
The problem is we look in the wrong places. Most people think they’ll find the good life in cars, houses, money, clothes, drugs, alcohol, etc.
Solomon is an biblical example. We saw this in Ecclesiastes. Here’s the man who has everything. 2 Chron. 9:4 says the Queen of Sheba had her breath taken away by all his wealth and power. But Solomon says in Eccles. 2:17 after all his pursuits of happiness, “Therefore I hated life.”
How many people today really love life and see truly good days?
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