Bible Study, Gospel of Mark, audio files

The link below is to the audio file from my Bible study that began this week in the Gospel of Mark.  This is a verse by verse study, not utilizing any outside materials, simply discussing the text and and answering the questions of those attending the study.  Each week a new link will be added until all of the Gospel of Mark is included.  Feel free to post any questions you have regarding the text to this page and I'll try to answer it in a subsequent week's study.

The audio file is hosted on archive.org, let me know if you have any technical problems with listening to and/or downloading it.

Bible Study: Gospel of Mark 1:1-18

Bible Study: Gospel of Mark 1:19-39

**** I've moved the future postings of audio podcasts to its own page, the rest of the segments for Mark and future Bible study podcasts will be placed there; simply scroll up to the top of the blog and click on the tab. ****

Looking to the future: The Terminator movies and Christians

With another installment of the Terminator movies about to be released, I am once again reminded of the harmful attitude of fatalism that permeates much of Evangelical thought about the future.  In the Terminator movies, both a hero and a villain are sent back from the future to try to change what is coming.  The villain wants to prevent the good guys from winning after a horrific holocaust, and the good guy is hoping to not only preserve that victory, but somehow make the entire dystopic future null and void.  Each of the Terminator movies ebbs and flows back and forth with the future fate of humanity hanging in the balance.  What has this to do with the attitude of Christians regarding the future?  Quite a lot actually.  Christians ought to know what the future holds, God has given us a broad outline of what will one day happen along with a variety of difficult to understand pieces of the puzzle.  What we do know, for certain, is how the story ends; it ends in the complete and total victory of Jesus Christ over all opposition: sin, death, and Satan.
So why are so many Christians walking around with an attitude that the future is doom and gloom?  The answer is simple enough, they believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and thus believe that the future of humanity is a downhill slope that cannot be altered.  Those who believe in a post-Tribulation Rapture, or a Post-Millennial Rapture are far less pessimistic because in the first case, Christians won't be taken away before the trouble starts, in other words, we're going to have to deal with it, and in the latter, the next thing to come on God's cosmic plan is the 1,000 year reign of Christ, a time of glory not tribulation.  Because many Evangelicals firmly believe in a Pre-Tribulation, Pre-Millennial Rapture, they almost welcome bad news in the world. looking at it as a sign that Christ's return is closer.  Why try to alter the world we're living in if it is inevitable that it will decline, and why try to slow the decline if it must reach its nadir before Christ can come back?
In the Terminator movies, when the heroes know that the future is bleak, they are willing to risk anything and everything to try to stop it.  For some Christians, they believe that they're interpretation of Biblical prophecy is the correct one, and therefore there is no point in trying to stop it.
I don't know which interpretation of the Scriptures is right, those willing to have a pinch of humility will agree, so why would I live like a pessimist?  It is our job to do what we can, with what we have, where we have been placed.  We do know how the story ends, but keep in mind, we have no idea how long it will be until the final chapter begins.  Christians need to ditch the pessimism, embrace the final victory of Christ, and roll up their sleeves and get to work trying to claim our world for the kingdom of God.

The importance of heaven: a life lesson from Everybody Loves Raymond

In an episode of the excellent sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray's brother Robert is faced with a moral dilemma because he for once has a beautiful woman, Stephana, who is interested in having sex with him.  Robert, a lonely middle-aged man with serious fears of commitment, makes the morally correct decision to not get into a physical relationship with Stephana, despite her overwhelming beauty and clear willingness.  As Stephana leaves in anger from his apartment after Robert informs her that they shouldn't see each other anymore, she taunts him one last time with the beauty that he had chosen to abstain from, after Robert had shouted at her, "I did the right thing, morally".  After her taunt, Robert says to himself, "there had better be a heaven".  Sitcoms are meant to be funny, first and foremost, but in this case Robert is also hitting upon an important moral principle.  The morality that we live by is not limited to this lifetime; it is affected by, and carries over into, the afterlife.  Because Robert was a Christian, a Catholic to be precise, he believed that making morally correct decisions was more important that worldly pleasures.  That Robert is counting upon heaven to recompense him for his sacrifice is not a cop-out, but a wise perspective on his part.  Too many Christians live too much of their lives as if this life is really all that they believe there is.  When we instead consider eternity as we think about today, our perspective changes, what we place value in changes, what we focus upon changes, and we find motivation and encouragement that will help us to achieve victory over temptation as well as endurance in our acts of righteousness.  Robert chose to do the right thing, he did so in the hope that there is indeed a heaven, fortunately for him and all of us, he is right.

Sermon Video: The grace of God has appeared - Titus 2:11-12

There are many ways that we learn things in life, from watching others to being taught by the spoken or written word, to the life lessons that we only learn through experience.  Knowledge of the things that we need to know about God also comes in a variety of forms.  We most often think of the Word of God as our primary teacher, whether we're reading it or having it explained to us, or perhaps the Holy Spirit as our guide, but we must also learn from the experience of being born again and transformed by our faith, by God's love for us, and as Paul explains in Titus 2:11-12, by our experience of the grace of God.
When God's grace if poured out upon us, bringing healing and forgiveness to our undeserved and unearned souls, it also acts as a powerful teacher to spur us on in our Christian faith to both say "no" to sin, and to say "yes" to living for righteousness.  The Word of God and the Holy Spirit are great and helping us see what we should and should not do as Christians, grace offers us motivation as to how we can accomplish the difficult task of living like Jesus.  Paul's combination of saying "no" to ungodliness and worldly passions, while at the same time saying "yes" to self-control, upright living, and godly lives, reminds us that our faith cannot simply be defined by what Christians say "no" to, it must go one beyond that to fully embrace the life or righteousness that God intends for us here and now, as Paul says, "in this present age".

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Who is "winning" and who is "losing", thoughts on the Pew Research Center's data

Much has been made of the recent Pew Center research showing a big gain among the "none/unaffiliated" in American religious life.  While this is certainly a concern, and one that churches know all too well when it reflects the reluctance of even regularly attending people to become members (with the rights and responsibilities that entails, which varies by denomination).  The article on the FiveThirtyEight website analyzing that data is worth thinking about as it sheds light on the bigger picture concerning the direction that American religious life is heading.  The future is, of course, unknowable by us, but it is important to have a clear understanding of where we stand at the present.

FiveThirtyEight article on Pew Research

One thought on the article: When an Evangelical church gains a "convert" from a Catholic church or a Mainline church, it isn't a "gain" for Christ's Church (unless the person in question had no prior relationship with God despite being formerly part of a church), it is simply shifting people from one a Christ's flocks to another.  The Church, the universal Church, needs to grow by bringing in the Lost, those who don't know Christ, as well as retaining our own natural growth of those raised in the Church.  It is always good to see people more committed to Christ, and if changing denominations is a part of that deeper commitment it is a good thing, but that isn't the same thing as taking the Gospel to the Lost.  Our focus in evangelism should always be to seek the Lost, not shuffle the Found into a new category.  People will always change churches, for good reasons and bad, Americans especially it seems, but our "growth" will only be growth in the genuine sense when it encompasses new sinners saved by grace.

"Sin is a brat that nobody cares to have laid at his doors" - Matthew Henry

I came across this quote from Matthew Henry in his commentary on the failure of Saul to fully obey God in I Samuel 15 as Saul attempts to deflect the responsibility for his own actions onto others.  It is an astute and memorable way to speak about mankind's propensity to try to avoid blame.  Trying to hide from responsibility or blame others is a tactic that children do not need to be taught, they hope to avoid the negative consequences of their actions, and thus are not above lying to blame others, or pretending ignorance.  That parents can see through this charade is clear to adults, and yet as adults, most people continue to try these same sorts of deceptions when trouble comes from a spouse, family member, boss, or the authorities.  Saul soon learned from Samuel that such half-repentance is worth nothing with God as he looks upon the heart and knows if true repentance lies within.  In that same passage, Matthew Henry also wrote, "it is common for sinners, in excusing their faults, to plead the thoughts and working of their own minds, because those no man can dispute; but they forget that God searches the heart."  Seeking to avoid blame is almost an art form in the business and political spheres, and utilizes well paid consultants and lawyers to shape the narrative and massage the truth.  It may keep you in office following a scandal, or out of jail after an arrest, but it won't matter a bit when standing before Almighty God.  On that day, the only thing that will save us is to have already acknowledged, without reservation, that we are a sinner saved by grace.  The brat is ours, the sooner we own up to it, the sooner God can forgive us and begin to transform us.

What have we learned, one month into our time with Clara?

Tomorrow will be one month since the birth of our little bundle of extra cuteness, Clara Marie.  What have we learned thus far, about parenting, life, and humanity?  Perhaps not all that much, sleep deprivation is not the formula for mental brilliance.  We have learned things that every parent knows: that an infant in entirely dependent upon others for his/her care, that their communication ability consists of three types of crying ("feed me", "change me", and "I'm too cranky to do anything but cry").  It is a wonder to me that anyone could harm a child, especially their own.  What does it say about humanity that we see this sort of depravity far too often (let alone the killing of unborn children in the womb)?  It doesn't say anything good about us, that's for sure.

It seems far fetched at this point, but I know that before we know it our sweet little girl will look back at us and say, "no" with all the fervor of a zealot.  That fallen nature, although nowhere on display as of yet, is there in the background waiting to come to the surface.  Soon enough, our little Clara will show herself to be just like the rest of us, a sinner in need of the grace of God.  That day lies in the future, for now, we'll just enjoy the fact that everyone's first comment about our girl involves how cute she is.

Sermon Video: "make the teaching about God our Savior attractive" - Titus 2:1-10

Do the principles of marketing apply to the Church?  How is your church being perceived by first time visitors?  Does the church website help or hinder those who are looking for a church from choosing to come?  These and many more are important questions that well meaning Christians can disagree about.  I know that some feel that Church, the Gospel, etc. ought to be difficult and hard to approach, but much of that resistance to the idea of making Church accessible to the Lost comes from a rightful resistance to those who would change the content of the Gospel to make it more palatable.  Making sure that the sign at the road is clearly visible, or that the website contains the needed information in a orderly way, is not "selling Jesus", and it is certainly not changing the Gospel.  What it is, is following Paul's example of trying to save as many people as possible through whatever tools we have available.
In Titus 2:1-10, Paul gives Titus advice to pass along to various segments of the Cretan society regarding the morality of the people who make up the Church.  This focus on morality has a three-fold purpose in Paul's mind: (1) It keeps the Word of God from being maligned, (2) it silences critics who would otherwise rightly call God's people hypocrites, and (3) it makes the Gospel "attractive".  The Gospel message itself needs no, nor does it allow for any, tweaking.  The message is the power of God, it is doing just fine, it is the messengers that need to get their act together in order to deliver the message in a way that the Lost can hear and believe.  When God's people act like they really are God's people, it removes an impediment against belief and instead reinforces the message of the Gospel by offering living examples of its power.
So go ahead, make sure the church building is clean and in good repair with proper signage, make sure you have a friendly greeter at the door, do whatever you can to make the all of the Church experience reflect our love for God and commitment to him, and make sure that while you're at it, you work on getting God's people to reflect God's holiness too, when you do, it will certainly make the Gospel message attractive to those who need its saving power.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Sermon Video: "to the pure, all things are pure" - Titus 1:10-16

In addition to appointing elders, Titus also needs to confront a divisive faction within the Cretan churches that has been spreading a legalistic teaching that has already torn families apart by its controversial nature.  The exact nature of what was being taught is less important for us than Paul's instructions as to how Titus should respond.  Paul told Titus to "silence" those spreading these false doctrines and he points out the damaging effect of them as evidence of the need to do so.  It would seem that this was an effort to ADD to the Gospel by melding it with requirements from the Jewish Law, something that Paul had already opposed successfully in Jerusalem when Titus himself was the test case to prove that circumcision was not a requirement for Gentile believers in Jesus.  This same controversy is not around still today, but there have always been those trying to ADD to or SUBTRACT from the Gospel.  Those trying to add something case doubt on the sufficiency of the work of Christ to save by faith alone and thus advocate some new additional step or requirement.  Those trying to subtract cast doubt on the person of Jesus or the historical reality of his miraculous birth or resurrection, or perhaps on Jesus' claims to exclusivity ("I am the way...").
In the end, Paul sees this opposition as evidence that these people within the church do not belong to God because their minds have yet to be regenerated (transformed).  They continue to see external things as the people, nothing to them is pure.  Those saved by grace, in contrast, recognize that purity and impurity comes from within, that external things are not pure or impure on their own, it is the use to which we put them that matters.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Sermon Video: "instruction in sound doctrine" - Titus 1:5-9

Following his greeting, Paul recounts the mission that he left with Titus when he departed the island of Crete: the appointing of elders in each of the churches.  In this passage, Paul interchangeably uses two Greek nouns when speaking about the leaders that Titus needs to appoint.  Paul's ambiguity has helped contribute to the arguments and fights that have erupted over how church leadership structure is constructed.  In this passage, however, the qualities needed by those to be appointed would apply to anyone and everyone in church leadership no matter whether he/she be called a pastor, elder, priest, vicar, preacher, bishop, rector, brother, reverend, or something else.  The overall task is the same regardless of the title, shepherding the Church of Jesus Christ.
The qualifications demanded by Paul are strict, he requires that candidates have a stable home life, that they have self-control, especially in interpersonal interactions, and that they exemplify Christ-likeness by living righteously.  It is indeed a daunting list for anyone contemplating entering the ministry, one that reminds us that this too is a task of grace by faith.  It is not supermen who will live up to this high calling, only Spirit-filled men.
Lastly, Paul speaks of the need to encourage with sound doctrine, and refute those who oppose it.  I've often found that too many preachers spend the bulk of their time attempting to refute false teachings outside of their own congregation and too little time encouraging the flock they've been entrusted with.  The basis of that sound doctrine is defined by Paul as the "trustworthy message as it has been taught".  The Gospel, plain and simple, following the example of the Apostles, no more no less.  When we, as ministers, stick to the hard to liberating truth of the Gospel, we will indeed by an encouragement to the people of God.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video