The Rest Area

Mark 6: 30-32.

This sermon was delivered in St Oswald Church in Maybole, Scotland on the 19th June 2009.

Prayer:
Lord, many of us look forward to the summer as it is a time for vacations and holidays; whether we travel to the mountains or the sea side, whether it is in this country or abroad, but NOT everyone knows that it is a direct command from you, and that we should not feel guilty about resting, and just doing nothing in its proper place and time. Lord let me speak these words for you today, in Jesus name. Amen.

My last sermon included over fifty verses; the opposite now applies where I considering only three verses. Let us read through Mark 30 – 32 again and be prepared to be surprised, as to where it takes us. My text is as usual from the King James.

Mark 6:30
“Then the apostles”; we will stop right here.
What is the word then placed here for? “Then the apostles”
THEN is a logical word to conclude the mission they had just returned from. The mission mentioned, prior to this verse, is where Jesus had sent out the 12 original apostles on their own; for the first time.
Funny enough the word, “apostle,” from the Greek means “sent”; sent as in go forth, and not the smell.

The twelve disciples had been sent out on their first missionary journey alone; and we Christians are apostle-like people. We are always sent out into the world around us. We are not just Christians who sit back in our churches, or in our homes, our comfortable enclaves but we are actually sent into the communities, towns and villages around us with the message and the power of the gospel.

We do not realize that is what we do; but according to scripture, we are God’s representatives on Earth, so that must be what we do. Obviously somebody needs to tell us that, but it is up to us to believe it. Okay, we do not ram religion down other people’s throats, but by our very existence we are the representatives of Christ in this world today. Question: if it is not us, who is it then who represents God? We are the best God has, and that certainly worries me. In fact it is frightening to think of it in this way, but who else is representing Jesus in this world today?

Do you just think you come to Church every other Sunday, and do the odd good deed? No, there is so much more going on in your and my life, than you or I can possibly apprehend. Don’t believe me? Well think of a time when somebody has attacked you head on, and you cannot retaliate in the same manner because you a Christian. I am sure this has happened to you many times, it has certainly happened to me; but note when this happens, recognize the fact that you are Gods representative, you are not acting alone. You are definitely not on your own. You are acting for Him, Him who will defend you. I hope this gives you confidence. We will leave that for the time being, but think seriously about it; and try and deny it if you can.

Anyway, let us move on, verse 30 still,
We have only read three words so far, “Then the apostles” Right,
“Then the apostles gathered around Jesus.” Then the apostles gathered around Jesus? Why did they do that? Well followers of Christ always gather around Jesus. Jesus is the center, the focus, the core, the axis, the hub of the Christian church. We always gather around Jesus. Jesus is our life, or reason for being. He is the way the truth and the life. I like that verse, so I thought I would slip it in.

Verse 30 still
Then the apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.
It is almost as if the first disciples were like little children, all excited and wanting to come back and report everything to their master of what they had seen, done and taught. They wanted to share with Jesus what had happened.

We too enjoy sharing good news with people who are authority figures, especially if their have sent us out on a task. These first disciples were no different, they wanted to share their good news with their mentor and teacher, Jesus.

Verse 31 He (that is Jesus) said to them, "Come aside by yourselves, to a deserted place and rest a while”. After Jesus listened to his disciples, he suggested that they go away to a deserted place all by themselves for a while. They were obviously full of themselves, so He sent them out again to a deserted place somewhere, but this time he told them to rest. Nothing else; just rest; and for a while, (until they had refreshed themselves).

They had been enormously busy. They had been preaching and healing and sharing the gospel, and they had helped real people with real problems in their real lives. They were basically exhausted, but over the moon with it. Think about how you feel yourself after you have successfully helped someone who has been in trouble.

Jesus was basically saying, STOP! It is time now to take a breather; go away, and have a break, or as the King James says it “Come aside by yourselves, to a deserted place and rest a while”

Everybody is always telling me to do that, some day I will listen and act, but in preparing and delivering this sermon, I will have to think very carefully about a few things, in fact I am the worst person to tell anyone to rest and relax, but this command is not from me, it is from the very mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as written in the bible.

What if Jesus was from Maybole with a typical Maybole attitude, remember I am a Maybole man. He would probably say something like, “You weren’t that good, away and calm down somewhere!” Correct! But the Jesus we worship said "Come aside by yourselves, to a deserted place and rest a while”

Yes, Jesus teaches us many things about life. Jesus teaches us about the way of love and how to show compassion and grace to our neighbours, whether we like them or not. Jesus teaches us about the power of belief and faith through grace and miracles and healing and many other great and mighty things, BUT Jesus also teaches us some other very very basic simple things to do, like GO to a Quiet Place, Yourself and Rest.

To move on, we are still on verse 31, “ He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves, to a deserted place and rest a while” for there were many coming and going.

We can certainly relate to that, everybody is so busy nowadays, including myself; and if you think it is hectic here in Ayrshire, go down to England and watch the pace of life there. Those people come here for peace and rest holiday.

The world we live in has become a rat-race. We are so busy, all of the time with our comings and goings, so much so that we don’t even have time to eat. What does the end of verse 31 say, “and they did not even have time to eat”.

"Come aside by yourselves, to a deserted place and rest a while, for there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

I am going to say this again, Jesus our Lord is not teaching us here about the great and grand issues of life such as loving God and our neighbors and having a powerful faith that moves mountains, Jesus is teaching us about the simple things of life such as rest, solitude, and quiet.

Notice also the words, come aside, which clearly mean to me that, if you life is the normally the opposite, that is quiet and lonely, you to need to get away and see yourself from the distance. Get away from your familiar circumstances and routines, and re-evaluate your life and yourself from a different viewpoint, if you can. I can relate to that side of life myself, when I was unemployed years ago, so I appreciate the fact that some people are busy with a routine and boredom; in fact my heart goes more out to them.

We will finish of with verse 32
So they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves. We can envisage the disciples getting into a boat, a large boat that would accommodate them all, and then going to a deserted place, all by themselves.

That is what many people would like to do: to go to a deserted place; away from telephones; computers, TV’s, radios, etc. with their friends or friends they do not know.

Jesus was their shepherd, their leader, and their guide; and Jesus knew that it was time for his disciples to rest and recuperate, and this meant being alone in the wilderness. In the gospel story for today, Jesus our good and wise shepherd, is leading us TO rest in green pastures and lie down by still waters, and thereby restoring our souls. Today, Jesus is teaching us about the wisdom and necessity of resting out in a quiet place.

We shall now pray: Lord may these words speak for you, words that tell the apostles to rest, relax and take it easy. Let these words remind everyone here that every individual needs a rest area, and a time away from the daily stresses and hurried routines of their lives. Lord by us accepting this command; make this opportunity available for everyone who asks. We make this request as commanded, in Jesus name, Amen

Compassion and Grace.

2 Sam 1:1, 17-27 - Mark 5:21-43 - 2Cor 8:7-15

This sermon was delivered in St Oswald Church in Maybole, Scotland on the 28th June 2009.

Those readings this morning were long and difficult to decipher; 12 verses from the book of 2nd Samuel, 7 from the Psalms, 23 from the Gospel of Mark, and 9 verses from 2nd Corinthians. All on different topics and all totally unrelated. But are they?

If you ask yourself the question, “who wrote the bible?” you will probably answer with names like David, Mathew, Paul, James, and John etc. and you will be correct, but under what influence did they write their particular chapters. Well I firmly believe they were written under the influence of the Holy Spirit, in fact all of these authors and more besides, wrote the bible under the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit.

So, can we see the Holy Spirit at works within these verses? Quite a challenge, so let us have a look. In 2 Samuel we see David making a lamentation for Saul just after his death. It is a nice lamentation from David to Saul. It is an elegy however, not a divine hymn nor a Psalm as it does not mention God in it, nor does it claim to be inspired from God. It is a lamentation to honour the life of Saul and I found this very strange as Saul was the sworn enemy of David, yet here David is praising Saul’s name. Very strange indeed, but it does make sense if you considered the fact that David always considered Saul as God’s anointed, even though Saul was rejected by God, and hated David so much so that he plotted and tried to kill him many times.

Yet here we see David not only praising Saul’s name to himself, but declaring it to the nation; even to the extent of stating that this lamentation is to be taught to the children of Judah. We are reading it today. David obviously had great compassion for Saul, and undeservedly we might say.

In today’s Psalm we heard:

O Israel, wait for the LORD, for with the LORD there is mercy;
With him there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

I think it is safe to say that if God is going to rescue Israel from their sins he has great pity, or great compassion for them. Here we see the word compassion arising again; and again we could say undeservedly.

Now in the Gospel message this morning we read of a man named Jairus, one of the leaders of the synagogue, who came and fell at the feet of Jesus. This man Jairus was one of the enemy: one of those who opposed Jesus, and one of those who eventually engineered the death of Jesus on the cross. But this Jairus begged Jesus repeatedly to save his daughter from the point of death, and Jesus showed him compassion and went with him and healed his daughter. Again we could say this undeserved but Jesus rose above the situation and showed grace. Grace is that merit without favour. Grace is totally undeserved or it would not be grace, it would be by works.

To continue on this same passage, we also see woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and whose condition was growing worse. Now we do not know if this woman was a Jew or a Gentile but we do know that her illness made her ceremonially unclean; and this disqualified her from mixing with the crowds under strict Jewish law. Jesus did not rebuke her as was expected, but showed great compassion, and perfected the woman to a public confession of faith. He rewards her testimony with the assurance that she can go in peace, and be healed of her disease.
Again compassion and grace clearly being seen.

We now move on to our new testament passage in 2nd Corinthians where we read in verses 13 and 14

I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.

What Paul was saying here was that the Corinthians had at that present time more resources than the Christians in Jerusalem; and Paul is implying that they had more resources than the Macedonians; who had already given the Corinthians so generously. It was only fair therefore that the Corinthian’s show compassion to the Christians at Jerusalem and help them out as they had been graciously helped out by the Macedonians in the past. Notice the compassion and grace again.

Compassion is therefore defined as a feeling of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortunes of another. Compassion is from the Latin; “com” meaning “with” and “pati” meaning to “suffer”. It is a deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with a wish to relieve it.

God's character embodies the definition of compassion. God desires to free others from their suffering. He has compassion for people that are lost. He has compassion for people that repent, and compassion from those who have a true desire to turn away from their sin. God basically has compassion for people that have a love and faith in Him.

As our Creator, God desires us to be as compassionate as Him and show human kindness to others. To be compassionate we must have love in us that compels us to do good deeds. If we just do good deeds for someone, but we have no love for that person we are therefore not compassionate.

Let us now see if we measure up with this simple example.
During the American Civil War there was this story of two women who arrived at the Whitehouse and asked Abraham Lincoln of the well being of their relative General Lou Wallace who had been reported missing. General Wallace had been involved in a vicious battle, and they had heard there was a fatality named Wallace in dispatches.

But after learning the Wallace mentioned, was a different Wallace, and their Wallace had survived, they spoke rather glibly of their gladness being thankful that it was not “their Wallace". Lincoln responded soberly, "Yes, but it was somebody's Wallace, wasn't it?"

I have two separate messages I want to highlight this morning, the first being the authority of the Holy Spirit, and how he is present throughout scripture. I think we can safely say that the Holy Spirit was present while these 4 passages were written, don’t you; giving clearly a theme of compassion and grace. So when you read your bible, be particularly aware of his presence throughout. In fact, make a point and look for look for his presence and influence, asking him what exactly what you need to hear.

My second message this morning was that of compassion and grace; which is a very big issue for the church today.

The church is a community of people who present living proof of a loving God, to a watching world. A living proof to a watching world! So we have to ask ourselves individually, and as a church, how we are living proof of a living God to the world around us. It is a fair question, and one that will challenge us if we take it seriously.

We are not just pointing at things which are wrong; it means we are part of the solution. A solution we can only achieve if we but submit to the will of God, with the outward signs of caring, strength and forgiveness.

Lets pray: God we thank you for this your word and pray that as we think about it together, we will respond with the obedience that comes through faith. For it is in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.