Mark 6:1-13 — Kingdom Irruption … Little and Much

Introduction

As we come to this text this morning here in Mark we summarize the whole by saying, that Mark has intertwined the two stories in 6:1-13 with the common theme of Kingdom work. Because Kingdom w0rk is the overarching theme we will spend some time speaking about the Kingdom.

When we come to this narrative we summarize it as follows. After days at sea and on the road Jesus astounds his hometown with His teaching (Mark 6:1-2). Next we see that familiarity with Jesus breeds contempt (6:3). Jesus response suggests that He expected their refusal (6:4) and so cannot do a thing for them (6:5a) save, incidentally, heal a few sick folk (6:5b). While such works that the Lord Christ does accomplish, to date has culminated in audience astonishment (1:27; 2:12; 4:41; 5:20b; 5:42), now Jesus is the one astonished — by rank disbelief that is so thick (6:6a) as to be a barrier to the Kingdom. This rejection catalyzes fresh ministry (6:6b-7) by empty-pocketed ambassadors (4:13, 35-41; 5:31; 6:8-11) who get the job done (6:12-13). In Mark there’s no stopping the good news (13:10) — but no telling how it breaks through (16:1-8).

If we take the two accounts together it seems that the linchpin issue that connects them is the purposeful contrast between Jesus questioned status in the first account and His unquestioned status in the second account. In the first account the Lord Christ has no honor (6:4) and so the irruption of the Kingdom of God is minuscule and negligible (6:5). In the second the Lord Christ delegates His power to the disciples (6:6-7) with the consequence that the irruption of the Kingdom is everywhere seen where His deputies are sent (6:12-13)

That is a synopsis of the text this morning. Now let us spend a bit of time looking closer.

1.) Familiarity & the work of the Lord Christ

“The Carpenter” — Perhaps a snipe at a comparatively low trade status.
“Son of Mary” — The fact that Joseph is not mentioned may have been an attack on the alleged bastard status of Jesus … an issue that was brought up in John’s Gospel,

“We  have not been born from fornication; we have one father – God!” (John 8:41)

Clearly there is some dismissing of Jesus here because they think they know him.

The tension between Jesus and his family or hometown was an on-going sub-plot of the story in Mark, (cf. 3:20-21, 31).

21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

Mark 3:31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. 32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.

What is going on here? Why the lack of receptivity? Why the offense (3) at Christ?

In the book, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, we might find an answer, for there we learn about the cultural norms in antiquity.

“Honor was a limited good.  If someone gained honor, someone else lost.  To be recognized as a ‘prophet’ in one’s own town meant that honor due to other persons and other families was diminished.  Claims to more than one’s appointed (at birth) share of honor thus threatened others and would eventually trigger attempts to cut the claimant down to size.” This seems to be what is going on in the text.

Aside — Mention of Jesus siblings and Roman Catholicism on Mary’s perpetual virginity.

2.) But we see that Christ as more than a Hometown boy

a.) Christ as Prophet

But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

By referring to himself as a “prophet,” he associated himself with a long line of counter-cultural figures within Israel. In the Gospel of Mark, others would also view him in this way (cf. 6:15; 8:28).  The role of the Prophet was often the role of one isolated. The prophet was to the Culture what a chicken bone was to the gullet.

In an honor/shame society, “prophets” would have received honor (cf. 11:32).  But the traditional wisdom of the age was that this occurred generally in places in which prophets were less familiar.

But to demonstrate that Christ did indeed have both authority and honor Mark gives us 7-13.

The rejection at Jesus’ hometown synagogue did not hinder the mission for long.  In point of fact, as suggested earlier, the whole thrust of putting these two narratives back to back may have been to contrast the paucity of Kingdom irruption among Christ’s own people, with the expansive Kingdom irruption by the Deputies of Christ under the umbrella of His power and authority.
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3.) Rejection of ministry — Dust and feet

Shaking dust off the feet appears to have been a prophetic demonstration: from those who repudiate the kingdom’s herald, nothing should be received — not even their dirt (see Nehemiah 5:13; Acts 13:51).  Those who reject are rejected. The time for the forced bowing of the knee has not yet come. If there are those who prefer the culture of death as opposed to abundant life conferred by Christ then their choice is their misery.

4.) Question of Authority

Mark 6:2 From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Note the contrast between the locals who questioned his origins and the power later declared that would have been a testimony of Christ’s origins. It may be that Mark is purposely setting up this contrast so that we might see the authority of Christ.

This isn’t the first time that Jesus and His authority has been doubted like this,

Mark 1:27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him

5.) Note the character of the Kingdom of God

 
1.) It was not a matter of a having had a new subjective interior personal or spiritual experience. People may have new interior or personal experiences in relation to the presence of the Kingdom of God but those subjective interior or personal experiences are not the Kingdom of God as the Lord Christ and His emissaries announced the Kingdom of God.
 
If you had given a testimony to a first century Jew, as we often give our testimony today, about how you had a new spiritual experience, and a feeling of forgiveness, and of how, because of Jesus, your private interior world had been reordered so that you were now a different person they may have congratulated you and told you “that is interesting,” but they still would have been asking you what all that had to do with the “Kingdom of God.” The Kingdom of God had objective markers that would have demonstrated visibly the “reign of God” in the affairs of men.
 
And we have seen those objective markers as we have looked at the ministry of Christ — the casting out of Demons, the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the mastery over the elements — all these are present to communicate that the Lord Christ, as King, had brought and inaugurated the long anticipated Reign of God over the affairs of men.
 
2.) And so in Scripture we see that coming Kingdom of God was about public events. We see that here in this passage in Mark 6. The Lord Christ is the King and as King He commissions His Kingdom ambassadors to go out and demonstrate the long anticipated divine irruption, and so presence of God’s Kingdom.
 
Mark 6:13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
 
3.) Note though that everywhere the Kingdom is spoken of implicitly or explicitly the demand is for “repentance.”
 
Mark 6:12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
 
One is caught up into God’s Kingdom work in the context of their own repentance as given to them by God, and wherever the Reign of God is announced there the command for repentance is announced concurrently.
 
This is why we are a people characterized by repentance. This is why week in and week out, as we gather here, we — who have been swept up into God’s Kingdom — take the time in our liturgy to confess and repent of our sins. This is the disposition, character and demeanor of Kingdom Citizens. Our whole lives are marked by repentance because we are the forgiven people.

4.) Now the question that begs being asked at this point is, “If the Lord Christ brought this Kingdom of God,  “where is this Kingdom now”?
Where is this renewal of the World, and the establishment of God’s justice for the Cosmos we might ask?

Well, remember we have consistently taught that there is a “now, not yet,” dynamic to this Kingdom. Scripture teaches that with the confluence of Redemptive events in the Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost of our Lord Christ, the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated — which is to say it is present in its full and promissory beginnings.

And this is the language of Scripture everywhere. We have been translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son (Col. 1:13).  Consistent with that Paul can say elsewhere that, “as belonging to Christ the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (II Cor. 5:17). Indeed, so much are we members of this NOW Kingdom of God that we already “have been resurrected and ascended with Christ; “God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

These are all eschatological statements communicating that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated and that those who look to Christ have been swept up into it by the sovereign power, favor, and grace of God.

The early Christians were so convinced that this Kingdom of God reality was true that they organized their lives around this reality that they who were once not the people of God’s Kingdom were indeed now the people of God’s Kingdom. The first Christians re-decorated their thought world so that their symbols, their liturgy, and their habits, all communicated their conviction that the Kingdom of God was present.

But the Scriptures also teach a “not yetness.” The full leavening effect of the fully present Kingdom was and is not yet present. We still pray “They Kingdom come, thy will be done — on Earth as in heaven.”  We still live in a time when the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

As Dr. Joseph R. Nally has succinctly put it,

So, Already we experience God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but we await the complete presence of God (Eph. 1:13-14; Rev. 21:3). Already we worship, but we know that someday there will be perfect worship (Rom. 12:1; Rev. 22:3-5). Already we have fellowship with God and one another, but the perfect fellowship is yet to come (1 John 1:5-7; Rev. 21:1-22:6). Already we experience peace, joy, and love, but these will be perfect some day (Gal. 5:22-23; Rev. 22:3). Already we have experienced a resurrection, but we await a future one (Rom. 6:110; Rev. 20:4-6, 11-15). Already we participate in a special meal with Christ, but we await the wedding supper of the Lamb (1 Cor. 11:23-26; Rev. 19:9).

Well, having said that what might we summarize with?

Well, it explains why Christians are Christ centered. Christ is the Kingdom and the Kingdom is Christ. Christ is the one by whom the Exile is ended, the captives are set free, and the Cosmos is re-made. By His stripes we are healed and in, through, and by Him we have been reconciled to God and so have peace with God.

We believe that as Christ brought the Kingdom of God, that Christ marks the pivot of all history. Before Christ there was only anticipation and post Christ there is the emphasis of fulfillment. Because that is so, we further believe that in Christ alone can meaning be found. If Christ is the pivot of all time He is therefore the pivot of all meaning.  He, therefore is the King of History, and the King of Epistemology, as well as being the King in whom is found forgiveness and the relief from guilt.

 

Examining the Trump-gasm Phenomena

 

After all these decades it seems that much of the voting Christians still don’t get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=055wFyO6gag

When Woodrow Wilson campaigned in 1916 his campaign theme was “He kept us out of war.” A few months later we were in a war that was completely unnecessary for US involvement. 

When FDR campaigned in 1932 one of his major campaign promises was to balance the federal budget. Roosevelt campaigned on the Democratic platform advocating,

“immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures,” “abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating departments and bureaus, and eliminating extravagances” and for a “sound currency to be maintained at all hazards.”

Very quickly Roosevelt not only did not balance the federal budget but he began a theretofore unknown Federal spending spree which began a new era of vast deficit spending. Campaigning as a fiscal conservative FDR broke all those promises to eventually begin the modern welfare state.

When FDR campaigned in  1940 he campaigned on the promise that he would not send American boys to war,

“I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again; your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

This promise was made all the while that FDR was pursuing a course that was guaranteed to land us in the second unnecessary war of the 20th century.

In 1964 when “Landslide” Lyndon B. Johnson campaigned that his administration would not send ground troops into Vietnam. LBJ promised this all the while his administration was making plans to escalate war in Vietnam.

When George H. W. Bush campaigned in “1988” he promised,

And I’m the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he’ll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be checking into. My opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I’ll say no. And they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again, and I’ll say, to them, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’

When Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 he made a middle class tax cut a central plank in his campaign.  Clinton said h would raise taxes on people making more than $200,000, and use those revenues to fund tax relief for the “forgotten middle class.” Clinton never did provide the promised tax relief.

When George W. Bush campaigned in 2000 he promised a more humble foreign policy with no nation building,

“If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road. And I’m going to prevent that.”

How’d that turn out?

When Obama campaigned in “08” he said,

 “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

These are just the ones off the top of my head. I’m sure others could be recalled.

How many times does Lucy have to promise “I will hold the ball this time” before y’all realize that she is going to pull the ball away at the last second again so that Charlie Brown fails yet again? 

I like Trump’s Immigration promises but that is all they are is promises. What reason on earth do I or any of you have to believe the man? The system is rigged people. No white knight, as politician is going to show up to save your sorry derriere. Trump couldn’t be where he is unless the fix was in. What…. you don’t think there isn’t dirt on Trump out there that is known about that would destroy him?

Trump has a great immigration plan. However, even if elected he will never implement it. In point of fact, if the history above is instructive in the least Trump will do just the exact opposite.

Wake up and face reality.  If history teaches us anything, it teaches us not to be fooled again.

Before we end, let’s say a few things about hope. People will suggest that my observations here are a “giving up of hope.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It is just that my hope is not pinned on politicians who have a track a long and established track record of lying. My hope ultimately lies in God. After all,  Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we depend on the LORD our God.

Second, there are different kinds of hope. The hope that I hear most people talking about when they invest hope in Trump is the hope of someone who walks off the ledge of a 10th story building, all the while saying, “I hope I don’t fall.” That is not “hope.” That is fantasy.  Legitimate hope is a hope that is based on previous evidence and given that standard, when I look at “the Donald’s” past I don’t see reason for a great deal of hope.

The reason I don’t see much hope in Trump, besides the lies of politicians past at this level and besides the track of Trump’s past with his financial support of Democrat candidates is due to the fact that Trump is an Economic Nationalist. One could even call Trump a supporter for “American Mercantilism.” Trump sounds so different because he is running against a slew of Republicans who are New World Order Economic Internationalists. There is an appeal in Trump’s Economic Nationalism but it is the appeal of the girl, who having been always jilted, is now being courted.  However, that log floating in Trump’s Economic Nationalism punch bowl is the reality of a Mercantilism economy. Economic Nationalism, does not deliver us from Centralized big government. Trump is merely saying, “let’s have a Mercantilism for our sake,” instead of the Republican field saying, “let’s have a planned economy for the New World Order’s sake.” Trump’s campaign slogan could well be,

“Trump 2016 — Because An Empire Ought to be Paid Tribute.”

But what of those who don’t want an Empire? What of those old line Conservatives who want to return to being a Republic and not an Empire?

Trump has said some great things. I am delighting in the Trump-coaster as much as anyone. I love it when he breaks the PC rules. I chortle when Feminism comes dashing on the rock of Trump. His promises on immigration are wonderful to hear.

But for those who are opposed to Empire and who are for limited Government he is not a man for whom one can cast a vote.



Sermon Notes — John 6:1-21

Introduction

The Importance of Gathered Worship

As we enter into worship again we are reminded that the Church has always held this “time of gathered worship” to be “sacred” or a uniquely “set apart” time. It is as if we have stepped out of one reckoning of Time that is itself, by God’s sanctification of it, “Holy” into another reckoning of Time that is doubly sanctified by God as “Holy of Holies.” Apart from this Holy of Holy time of worship other time cannot find its own proper set apartness. In entering into Worship we have thus entered into a different kind of time. Oh, to be sure, the second and minute hand on the clock moves in the same way, and the cares and concerns of that other time are still with us, but in this sacred worship time we are reoriented ourselves to the things that matter most. In this Time meaning for all other time finds its meaning and so we find our meaning. The sacredness of Worship time is not found in the Minister — except as he serves as God’s spokesman, nor in the Church pews or building itself but the sacredness of Worship time is found in the fact that the Sovereign of the Universe has gathered His people to meet with them during this time around Word and Sacrament.

We might likewise speak of the sacredness of this space. All space is Holy as set apart unto God but this space at this time we might carefully and judiciously speak of as Holy of Holy space. Made sacred by the fact that God has condescended to meet with us in this space at this time via Word and Sacrament. It is not the building itself nor the sanctuary itself that makes the space sacred as if the building and sanctuary in and of themselves carried this quality but the building and sanctuary have sacredness to them as the place where God meets with man around God’s appointed means of Grace.

This idea then is extended to the Church calendar. We are a unique people who, because of our being named and owned by Christ are oriented to the world differently. We find that different orientation contained in the way we mark time. As we come week by week we are reminded that it is because we belong to the God of the Bible and His Christ we think differently even about the way we mark or time. Our Church calendar reminds us we are to relate to time and seasons as a uniquely Christian people. The Church calendar  lifts us out of the naked presentism that this present wicked age would press upon our minds, thus insisting that the “now” is all there is, and reminds us again that we are a people, who, because of our connection to our Christian past and our Christian Fathers, are future oriented. The Church calendar reminds us that in belonging to God and His Christ we belong to a people who though being dead still speak.

Thus Worship is set apart time in set apart space reorienting us to the past, present and future in such a way that we can spend all our time as living in the presence of God, to God’s glory.

None of this is magic or superstition. It is God who is doing all the doing not us.

I.) Miraculous Feedings as OT Anticipation

Well, as we come to the text this week

As we consider the text this week we once again come up against the idea of Miracle. The Scripture’s concept of “miracle” we note again is characterized by those happenings not explicable by solely natural processes and so can be thought of only as being done by the finger of God. In John’s Gospel particularly Miracles are seen as sign gifts providing some revelation of who the Lord Christ is as very God of very God.

We should note here, briefly, that because miracles are so carefully defined in Scripture we should be careful in using that word to describe events today. In the proliferation of the usage of the word “miracle” miracles become less and less miraculous. It is like our usage of the word “awesome.” If everything is “awesome” then awesome loses its punch.

So we come to John’s text and we note at the outset that John himself gives us the theme or purpose of this passage at the end of the first miracle recorded here,

John 6:14 — “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Obviously, the purpose of the miracle here confirms Christ as the greater Prophet that God promised would one day come. Way back in Dt. 18 God had said to Israel,

Dt. 18:15 — “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

And earlier then that this great Prophet had been spoken of,

Gen. 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;[a]
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

In the Miracles here in John 6 , Jesus is giving His credentials as that Prophet that is a greater Prophet then Moses … indeed a Prophet who is very God of very God yet remaining very Man of very man.

The Miracle here preformed by our Lord Christ has Old Testament legs and so is just the kind of Miracle that the people might expect that one greater than Moses is in their midst. That is to say that the record of Scripture as it pertains to God’s prophet feeding God’s people suggest to us that the promised King who would bring in His Kingdom would be someone who supernaturally feeds His people.

In the creation account we find God creating a world where God tells His people how He has provided food for them,

Genesis 1:29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

So from the beginning we see God as the God who provides His people food to eat.

This theme is articulated in Psalm 145

The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
    you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

This theme crops up  in the age of the Prophets where the two greatest Prophets of that age demonstrate their role as “men of God” by feeding God’s people miraculously.

Elijah and the Widow from Zarephath

I Kings 17:11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says theLord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Elisha & the 100 men

II Kings 4

42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’”44 So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

But the account that this feeding here is likely hearkening back to in the clearest manner is How God fed His people under the leadership of the Great Moses.

Notice how the text starts,

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

God providentially ordains events so that there is a kind of recapitulation going on here. This idea of recapitulation, you will recall, is the idea that an OT story is being told again in some way but only with time with the Lord Christ as He who is the fulfillment of all that was anticipatory or shadowed in the Old covenant.

II.) The Lord Christ As the Greater Moses

This real historical event is happening in such a way that a previous historical event is paralleled.  This is set in a kind of wilderness area just as Moses was with the children of Israel in the Wilderness when they were hungry. There is language of Jesus going up a Mountain which draws our memories back to Moses’ Mountain ascent to be in God’s presence. As Moses will announce God’s intent to feed His people with the Bread of Heaven, the Lord Christ feeds the people with supernaturally multiplied bread and fish. The Lord Christ is the greater and long anticipated prophet that Moses spoke of.

There is an interesting contrast here though.

Like Moses, Jesus does feed the multitude in the wilderness. Moses asked God, “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’” (Numbers 11:13).  Jesus asks a similar question of Philip (5) thus joining the two accounts more firmly together,

“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

but the difference between the two questions is found in the fact that while Moses needed God to provide Jesus already knew that He, as God, would provide (vs. 6)

“he himself knew what he was going to do”

Now combine all this that John tell us that all this is happening in the context of Passover soon to be celebrated and the idea that Jesus is a greater Moses is being screamed at us from the text.

So there is recapitulation all over this text. We have mentioned some of those points. Others would include how the supernatural feeding and the salvation from the threats of the sea are combined together. This parallels the Exodus account of being delivered from the Sea and the manna being provided in the wilderness. In both accounts instructions are given to gather up the remains (6:12, Ex. 16:19). In both story accounts you have complaining from people (cmp. vs. 41 w/ Ex. 16:2)

III.) Excursus … Miracles associated w/ Food and Drink
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As an aside here isn’t it fascinating to note all the Miracles that are associated with food and drink? The first Miracle was in Cana of Galilee at a Marriage feast where water was turned into the finest of wines. Feeding of the 5000. Feeding of the 4000. Cursing of the Fig tree because it did not provide food.
Then there is the establishment of the Eucharist in the context of the eating and drinking of the Passover. The promise of Christ to the Disciples, “But I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom,” reminds us that there will be this table fellowship in Heaven. Finally, in Revelation, the promises to those who overcome are to eat the tree of life (2:7), to enjoy the hidden manna (2:17), and to dine with the Lord (3:20). All of this is suggestive of a sermon that could stand by itself.

IV.) Christ; The Bread Come Down From Heaven — Cross speak

We would not have done this text justice though if we were to have stopped here. The fact that the Lord Christ is a greater Moses is only penultimate to the thrust of the Miracle. As we learn later in this chapter the ultimate purpose of the Miracle is to point to Christ as He who is the Bread from Heaven. The Lord Christ is the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives His life for the World (John 6:33).

This passage reminds us again that there is no life apart from Christ who was broken by God on the Cross as God’s Bread for God’s people. Those who refuse this bread of heaven remain dead from their spiritual malnutrition. Christ was broken that we might be made whole and there is no wholeness for those who remain apart from Christ crucified, risen and ascended.

Again we are reminded that there is no life outside of Christ. All adherents of other religions must repent before Christ and His work on the Cross. If men remain outside of Christ they remain outside of God’s favor. Because we are pro-Christ we are anti all other religions and proclaim that they are death. Because we are pro-rege we must tell adherents, out of a compassionate love for them, that they are dead men walking apart from Christ.

Conclusion

Re-cap

Redemptive History
Brief refutation — Higher Critical methodology
Harmony of Scriptures — Read Scripture as one book

Mark 4:35-41 …. Peace, Be Still

From the very Beginning of Scripture we have imagery of the creational Spirit of God moving in a setting of a chaotic water existence bringing order into being by God’s Sovereign Word.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”   (Genesis 1:2)

This theme of water being associated with the dark forces of chaos as chief enemy to man and in opposition to God is a theme that is traced all the way through Scripture. As is the theme that God has sovereign control over these forces of chaos.

As said, we find it first in Genesis 1:2 but notice the theme played out throughout Scripture.

“The seas have lifted up, O LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves” (v.3). Yet, as mighty as the waves seem, Yahweh is sovereign over them: “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea– the LORD on high is mighty” (v.4).

Again we see here the combination of the mighty power of the chaotic seas but the even mightier power of God.

God is so sovereign that the chaotic seas are under his command so that He can churn up the seas

Job 26:12a He stirs up the sea with His power,

And He stills the seas by that same power

Job 26:12b — And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.

Again,

Psalm 89:9 You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.

In Psalm 107:23-30 God toys with these great forces as His own so that those who ply their trade on the Seas is dependent upon God.

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters,
24 They see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 They mount up to the heavens,
They go down again to the depths;
Their soul melts because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.

Over and over again this triumphing of God over the watery forces of chaos is seen throughout the Scripture.

Psalm 65:5-7 5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, 6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, 7 who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.

Psalm 66:5-7 5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot– come, let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations– let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah

Isaiah 23:11 11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.

Then of course there is the flood account of how God unleashed the watery chaos upon the earth in order to be judgment to those who opposed Him and salvation to those who found grace in His sight. Neither can we forget the Exodus stories how God tamed the river Nile and the gods associated with it to do His bidding. Or how God made a ally of the Red Sea by making it serve His ends of deliverance for His people.

In all of this God is like the one who masters the wild bronco to make it serve his ends. The beast is wild but God is greater than the beast.

Indeed so great is God’s power that when we get to the book of Revelation we see the sea their again but this time with a meek and tamed presence.

Revelation 4:6says, “Before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”

Revelation 15:2says, “I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire.”

The fact that it is a “sea of glass” in my estimation speaks to its calmness. It is so tamed it is as glass.

When I was a boy we’d wake early in the morning to go fishing and with a lake less than 100 yards from our back door we would look out the windows and and on still days often say, “the water is like glass.”

Now with all this as backdrop let us turn to the account in Mark as read this morning and without me even taking a second to explain any of this you already get it. You see what this demonstration of our Lord Christ over the winds and the waves is all about. It is a proclamation that the Lord Christ as Creator has the authority that God has always had over the elements. This account my Mark is placed here to demonstrate that the Lord Christ is very God of very God.

Psalm 107:23-30 is being played out before them in real time.

When we consider the particulars in this account in Mark 4 we should remind ourselves that the “Sea” of Galilee is a large, shallow body of water. Being shallow it is comparatively prone to be easily whipped up when the wind hits it.  Pigeon Pass in the mountains west of the lake forms a funnel for the prevailing winds blowing in from the Mediterranean over the lake, as many fishers and boaters have learned to their dismay over the centuries. So the wind rises and the geographic features make for an accentuated affect. This may well be what happened when this storm suddenly descended upon them. Now there they were … these seasoned and salty Fisherman and they are suddenly in a panic.

And like Psalm 107 they 28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. 2He calms the storm, So that its waves are still.

What Mark is communicating here is just what he has labored so assiduously to demonstrate in other ways thus far. He is communicating to those who have eyes to see that the long promised King and Kingdom have come.  Previously Mark has communicated that via the casting out of Demons, the healing of the sick, the cleansing of the unclean.  The Chaos in the Hebrew mindset would have been associated with demon possession, sickness, and in the natural world the violence on the waters. At the command of Christ all are stilled and relieved.

Subsequent to this account Jesus will continue with this ministry even to the point of raising the dead (Mark 5:21f). Calming of Waters is commensurate with casting out of Demons, healing the sick,the forgiving of sins, and raising the dead. All manifest chaos in the lives of people which is the descriptor of those who live in and belong to this present evil age. They are the chaotic ones. The Kingdom as come with Christ the King and so Chaos is being rolled back at every turn.

As an aside here we should note then that this is a classical Miracle. This miraculous work of Christ is a sign pointing to the reality of who Jesus is as the Divine Messiah. This was always the purpose of Miracles and when we speak of something being a Miracle today we cheapen the idea of Miracle as demonstrating Christ’s person and work in the Scriptures. Better to speak of God’s inexplicable care today in terms of “remarkable providence” then downgrading the word Miracle.

The mastery of Christ over the sea by way of Miracle is taken up again by Mark in chapter 6, where Christ walks on the water thus emphasizing again that the Lord Christ has all the authoritative virtue of the Father.

Note also for Mark that the ministry of the Lord Christ is a word and deed ministry. This miracles comes immediately upon the word ministry of the Lord Christ where He teaches His disciples on the nature of the Kingdom.   The Gospel writers routinely link the mighty deeds of Christ with his teachings so that the mighty deeds legitimate the teaching ministry.

This combination of ministry of Word and Deed is also a theme we see in Scripture. St. Paul can tell the Thessalonians, “as it pertains to our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power.”

To the Corinthians St. Paul could say,

my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Christ who is the Word demonstrates not only the wisdom as Word in His teaching but then also the power of the Word in Miracle.

Let us consider something of this control of God and His Christ over chaos as it applies to us today. This metaphor of the waters standing in for the powers of chaos end up being applied in other ways in Scripture. One example that we don’t have time to consider in any depth this morning is how the pagan nations are characterized by the chaos that is conjoined to the violent sea.

Psalm 65 equates the “roaring of the seas” with the “turmoil of the nations” (v.7). Daniel sees, in his vision at night, “the great winds of heaven, churning up the seas” out of which four beasts emerge (Dan. 7:2-3). These beasts are later identified as four nations (Dan. 7:17). Egypt is also depicted as the great monster of the deep: Rahab (Ps. 87:4; Is. 30:6-7; Is. 51:9-10).

Another example I do want to spend a wee bit of time looking at is how the life of unbelief is characterized by the same chaos that is conjoined to the violent sea.

Isaiah 57:20 20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.

The life of the wicked is a going from chaotic unto chaotic. Instability is pursued with abandon. Passions and lusts like wind and waves are storms set loose unto the destruction of themselves and potentially all those around them. Anyone living in contradiction to God’s authority and God’s Law Word is a tossing sea which cannot rest. Like the sea they are unstable in all their ways.

Typically, especially in our culture, the chaotic tossing sea character is demonstrated by the wicked in their inability to control their lusts. Scripture speaks of these chaotic people as being

18  darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

As your Pastor I plead with you to keep yourself from the chaos of lusts that can mark people as being like the tossing sea.  Do not give into your wicked lusts that might push you towards porn on the web or which might push you towards illicit affairs. Check your entertainment habits for the stirring up of mud and mire. Your lusts lie and can not provide for you what they promise. I beg of you to turn to Christ who alone can still the chaos of your lusts just as he stilled the chaos of winds and the waves.

We live in a culture that is as chaotic as the Sea of Galilee in Mark 4. Only God in Christ as Sovereign can deliver us from our lusts which make us like the tossing sea casting up mire and mud. Everything in our culture screams at you to live dissolute lives, from our education centers which teach “safe sex” to children, to our Jewish media outlets, to our Churches who speak nary a word on modesty or chivalry the winds blow that would toss us like the Sea. Only the Lord Christ can calm those lusts.

Now, in rounding off we look at the “faith and fear” mentioned in the text (4:40-41).  Six times in Mark, the disciples are said to be seized by a “fear” that blends terror and awe (phobos, or the verb phobeomai).

Two are in the stories of the storms at sea (4:41; 6:50). Two others accompany predictions  of the death of our Lord Christ (9:32; 10:32). The others are at the Transfiguration (9:6) and the empty tomb (16:8).

Four out of the 6 of these find the disciples in the presence of God in the context of epiphanies.

This teaches us that the fear mentioned is not sinful. This is not the fear of the wicked in rightly being destroyed. This is a fear that bespeaks being in the presence of God.  This is the fear of Isaiah crying out in the presence of God. This is the fear of John in his apocalypse falling as dead before Christ.

Would to God that we might have more of this reverential awe as we walk before God.

Conclusion

The liberal voice

I’ve tried to warn you about the Higher Criticism school. You will recall that this is the School of thought that presupposes the supernatural can’t be true and so reinterprets all scripture in light of that presupposition. I found some of that in my study this week.

Here is an example and notice the subtlety and the not so subtle.

Did Jesus perform a miracle, controlling the forces of nature by a simple word? Or is this a simple story of a stormy day on the lake that the gospel writer inflated into a “fish tale” about Jesus’ power? In either case, what difference could it make to believers living in the twenty first century?

Note how the supernatural is irrelevant. This theologians says “in either case…” Whether it be supernatural or not is unimportant, what we need to look for is what difference this true or false story could make to us today.

Well … if it is not true, the only difference it might make is the necessity to not be fooled by BS 1st century fairy tales.

Another quote,

Perhaps that is what happened one day when Jesus was napping in the boat with some disciples, who woke him because it was getting dangerous. He reassured them, and the storm stopped. Coincidence of time was interpreted as cause, seen in the light of faith.

This one is fairly obvious.

There is a great deal of this about. Until a couple years ago this approach was taken by a prominent church in Lansing. One sees it frequently.

Mark 6:14-29 — The Death of John the Baptist

I.) The Characters

Herod Antipas (ca. 21 B.C. — post-A.D. 39): tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, answerable to the Emperor Tiberius.

Herodias was a daughter to one of the sons of Herod the Great (A chap named Aristobulus). This Aristobulus had half brothers who would have been Uncles to the she wolf Herodias. Their names were Uncle Herod Philip and Uncle Herod Antipas. Herodias had been married to her half uncle Herod Philip. Herodias then left him for an adulterous relationship with his brother and another half Uncle, Herod Antipas.

This lends new meaning to “keeping it all in the family.”

We should be reminded by this that the more things change the more they stay the same. I suppose we should be pleased that Herod Antipas took his brother’s wife and not his brother’s husband. It would seem that the household of Herod was less twisted then many households in our own culture.

Herodias’ Daughter — Thought by some to be named “Salome.” She is thought to be the daughter of Herodias by Herod Philip and so not the blood daughter of Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas would have been to her both her step-dad and her great-uncle. Obviously, though the text does not state it she has an interest in shutting John the Baptist up as well.

John the Baptist as Herald for Christ — John was the one who came preparing the way for Christ. He was the one who was a model of OT prophet desert dwellers. He was known as a rough man wearing camel hair for clothing and dining on locust and honey. He was the one who came saying “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He said of Jesus “Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World,” thus emphasizing from the beginning the redemptive work that would end in a sacrificial death as substitute for our sins.

II The Background

A.) But when Herod’s birthday was kept,…. The birthdays of princes, both of their coming into the world, and accession to the throne of government, were kept by the Gentiles; as by the Egyptians, Genesis 40:20 and by the (n) Persians, and Romans (o), and other nations, but not by the Jews; who reckoned these among the feasts of idolaters.  So, the very fact that this birthday extravaganza was being held is testimony of how afar Herod was from really being concerned with Jewish protocol. Herod was a pretender to the throne.

B.) The Background of the role of Prophet

John the prophet …. long line of prophets

Some thought John the Baptist to be Elijah (6:15a). This might make some sense since Elijah was another prophet who collided with another weak king named Ahab as manipulated by another murderous wife named Jezebel (1 Kings 18–21). So, John’s actions here calling out Herod would have looked familiar to those who knew their History.

Whether John the Baptist or Elijah part of the prophetic function throughout God’s revelation has been to hold up God’s standard before those think themselves above God’s standard. Whether it is Moses with Pharaoh or whether it was Nathan with King David or whether it was Micaiah with Ahab or whether it was Amos as speaking before the rich and powerful women who he styled “Cows of Bashan,” God’s mouthpieces have almost universally courted trouble by speaking God’s standard to those who have forgotten themselves to be but mortals.

So John is a flashback of what once was but He is also promissory of Christ who is to come. Christ Himself would speak God’s standard to those in Power and the same resentment that killed John would be part of the mix in the murder of the Lord Christ.

We should especially note here the work of the Prophet in what has been styled by some as “the common realm.” John the Baptist, in this rebuke of Herod is poking his nose in political business …. a business that many Reformed clergy and Seminary professors argue today is none of our business. Many modern Reformed clergy argue that John the Baptist belonged to a different age then the one ushered in by Christ. John the Baptist, they argue, belongs to the Old Testament but we live in a new age where men of God are not to speak to the common realm. These modern Reformed Seminary professors and clergy argue this way with only the slimmest of evidence and by conjecture built upon conjecture. They insist that men of God today should not speak to the common realm because with the arrival of Jesus we have the hyphenization of reality as between the Church realm and the common realm. With the new and better covenant, as brought in by the Lord Christ, the explicit Lordship of God is split in twain so that God in Christ only rules in the common realm via Natural Law. So part of the new and better covenant is the reality that God’s singular revelatory hegemony over all of life, as found in the old and worse covenant, is eclipsed so that now God’s revelatory word and rule is now only for the Church realm in the new and better covenant. All common realm issues are not to receive a “thus saith the Lord,” from God’s spokesman or God’s Church.

Of course all this is balderdash and a completely unique and innovative way of reading the Scripture. Repeatedly in the New Testament we find Paul disagreeing with the powers that be. From his refusal of the proper authority’s demand to skulk away quietly after wrongly being beaten, to his defense against the powers that be on Mars Hills, to his work in Ephesus that led to common realm riots and book burning St. Paul was repeatedly involved in the common realm.

What we see in the work of God’s spokesman, John the Baptist, is that Christianity applies to all of life. The Christian, as prophet, priest, and king, under sovereign God, brings all of God’s word to bear on all of God’s world. There is no area cordoned off area where a “thus saith the Lord” as given by God’s spokesman from God’s Holy desk, is not potentially applicable.

C.) The Dance

Very possibly a lascivious and sexually suggestive dance.

Salome’s dance was a particularly popular subject during the Renaissance and Baroque periods and her popularity continued well into the 19th century. I don’t know how old Salome was when she danced before Herod, but artists tend to portray her as a sultry, confident (young) woman. To most of art history, Salome is the sole, conniving figure behind John’s death.

III.) The Occasion

The occasion for this is John’s work in upholding God’s law. Torah in Leviticus clearly taught against Herod’s behavior,

Lev. 18:16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

Lev. 20:21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.

Obviously John’s preaching hit home (6:17). Herodias was exposed as the trollop she was and her memory required the silence of the one who was making known what she preferred to be unknown.

Interesting, that regardless the century, speaking out against improper sleeping arrangements always seems to be a flash point. There is something about upholding God’s standards in terms of sleeping arrangements that will  earn enmity in an accelerated fashion. Pagans want to sleep with who they want to sleep with … God’s standards be damned and pagans will damn whoever stands for God’s standards on sleeping arrangements.

We should note here before we move on that while we can admire John for championing God’s truth before Herod and Herodias we must concede that speaking God’s standard to the rich and powerful often does not end well from a merely temporal perspective. John is another example of one who obeyed God and was persecuted for obeying God. Not all who obey God end up with what we would style as temporal blessings hunting them down. Many who obey God, by holding up God’s standards are, as Hebrews tells,  “tortured, and have chains and imprisonment. Many have been sawn in two and were slain with the sword. If it were true for Apostles

God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

How much more true might it be for we who are far far less than Apostles?

IV.) The Purpose

The purpose is hinted at in the way Mark arranges his material. Mark, known for his pithy and straight to the point story-telling ability gives us his longest narrative of his Gospel. I believe this is so not only because it is giving us John the Baptist as one who stands as the apogee (climax) of OT prophets in his role of holding up God’s standard but I think Mark also spends time here because in John’s story we find the foreshadowing of the story of the Lord Christ.

Scratch the surface of this narrative of John the Baptist and you will find the narrative of the Lord Christ.

Right out of the gate Mark tells us in this account of John the Baptist’s death that there is confusion over just who Jesus is. Indeed, that confusion over who Jesus might be sets the table for telling the account of the death of John the Baptist. Interestingly enough Mark will use this same confusion over who Jesus might be in chapter 8:27-29 as the table setter for Christ’s words about His coming death and resurrection.

In Herod’s work with John, we see foreshadowed the coming work of Pilate with Jesus (1:1-15; 9:9-13; 11:27-33). So, Herod here is to Pilate as John is to Jesus later.

1.) Both Herod and later Pilate are nominally in charge but in the end their authority is eclipsed by events.  Yet, of course, both remain responsible.

2.) Like Herod here with John, Pilate will later be “amazed” (6:20; 15:5) by circumstances surrounding an innocent prisoner (6:17, 20; 15:1, 14a).

3.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are swept up in events that fast spin out of their control (6:21-25; 15:6-13).

4.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are unable to back down after being publicly outmaneuvered (6:26-27; 15:15).

5.) Like Jesus, John is passive in his final hours (6:14-19; 15:1-39).

6.) Both John and Jesus face with integrity their moment of truth (6:21: hemeras eukairou, “an opportunity came”; 12:2: to kairo, “the season came”).

7.) Both Jesus and John are executed by hideous capital punishment (6:27-28; 15:24-27), dying to placate those they offended (6:19, 25; 15:10-14).

8.) Both Jesus and John will die a shameful death. John’s shameful death is found in it coming at the instigation of a woman. In ancient history to be executed or to die by a woman’s design was a mark of shame. Jesus shameful death is being pinned on a Cross.

So, you take all these parallels in the story telling of Mark’s account of John’s death, and you place this death tale as sandwiched (intercalation) between accounts that are placarding the power and victory of the Kingdom of God in Mark’s Gospel and what you have is a theology of the Cross sandwiched between a theology of glory. The Kingdom is rolling forward. Preceding this account we are looking at many demons being cast out. Many are healed (Mark 6:13). Subsequent to this account of John’s death there is there is the feeding of 5000 and Jesus mastering the elements by waling on the sea. The Kingdom has come.

And yet Mark sticks this account in between the outrageous success of the coming Kingdom of God in order to remind us that there is about the Kingdom of God not only exaltation but also humiliation. The Cross awaits the Lord Christ.

Consequently there is an ability to preach the Cross from this passage. John the Baptist’s death adumbrates the death of Christ in many ways. Or course John the Baptist’s death is not redemptive, but it does point us to the death of Christ which is redemptive. John the Baptist’s death points to the death of Christ which is propitiatory, and reconciles. John the Baptist death points to the death of Christ which is substitutionary and works the work of reconciliation of God to man.

Everywhere through the Gospels there is the shadow of the Cross and that is no less true here in this account of John the Baptist’s death.