FREE at Bath...

Last night I got back from a week with Bath CU, helping out with their FREE week. Amazing to see God's grace at work, getting to know some of the guys stuck in to being God's mission team on the campus and seeing the fruit of God's work through them.

It was fantastic to see the FREE Mark gospels being used and students being exposed to Jesus: people reading the gospels with mates, talks preaching Christ from Mark, turning to the word to answer hard questions...

All the usuals of campus life: student union coffees, lots of curry-from-a-jar-with-rice meals, but the deep joy of knowing that life is being offered to a desperate world, of seeing brothers and sisters going all out for the cause of Jesus... thank you Bath CU, thank you LORD!

Lessons from Mark #01...

To follow is to leave.

(Mark 1.16-20)

Parables... what they don't tell you in R.E.

We were looking at the first half of Mark 4 at church last night, where Jesus begins to use parables to teach. Jesus' commands to "Listen!" (4.3, 9, 24) boom right out of the text.

It's those that follow him and ask him about the parables, who have been given the secret of the kingdom of God. What a secret! "But for those outside everything is in parables, so that...

"they may indeed see but not percieve,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven."
(Isaiah 6.9,10)

The big point is Jesus' sovereignty, not that different soils show the inability of Jesus' power. The kingdom of Jesus is sovereignly revealed to those who'll listen and deliberately concealed from those who reject Jesus. He will see that the word is removed if we reject it, in line with the principle of 4.25 - to those who have, more will be given, but to the one who doesn't have, what he has will be taken away.

To the one whom the secret has been given... well, what a privilege. Opened eyes! And so the assurance of fruit, thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold!

Humility is found at the cross

The ridiculous length of yesterday's post was made all the more superfluous by the absence in the Pauline section of this morning's New Testament exam of any question on justification or righteousness. Megadoh! Half way through now, with a hectic three-in-three-days gauntlet starting on Tuesday.

The boys and I carried on digging into Mark 14 last night. As the hour approaches and indeed arrives (v. 41) it's incredible to see just how in control Jesus is: he foretells Peter's denial and his own resurrection (28, 30), and his betrayal into the hands of sinners (41).

His fulfilment of Zechariah 13.7 shows the significance of Jesus' death: he is the shepherd going ahead and bringing in the kingdom. His prayer in Gethsemane is out of this world. And we see just how far we fall short.

Peter's response (29, 31) is probably nothing short of what mine would have been: 'I will turn over a new leaf for you this week Jesus', 'I will conquer this sin from now on'. It's echoed first in the contrast between Jesus and the disciples as he commands them to pray but they patheticly fall asleep, and then in the actions of Judas.

I'm not clear what Jesus means by 'the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak' (38) - is he just highlighting the impossibility in our fallen nature of being able to follow Jesus?

It was striking to look again upon the uniqueness of Jesus - it was striking to see the importance of prayer, as we are humbled before God. By ourselves we are very, very helpless. Yet we still think we can do it; we want to read this and think we can leave this place and give him what is his due.

Not 'I can' or 'I will', but through Jesus - be humbled, be little, be driven to the cross.

Responding to Jesus: the woman with the alabaster jar...

So Jesus is at dinner at your mate's house in Bethany, and you're just chatting post-grub. And then this woman comes along with an alabaster jar filled with a year's wages worth of permume, and she breaks it and pours it all over Jesus' head. The guy next to you exclaims, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that?' (v. 4)

What's your reaction? I can imagine myself folding my arms and muttering exactly the same words. 'What a lunatic. So over the top. She is just an embarssment.'

But Jesus? Well...

"Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." (7-9)

Can you imagine it? That's immense. He commends her beyond measure. Her radical extravagance has in some way recognised the fact that Jesus wasn't gonna be around forever. He brings it straight down to earth: 'You will not always have me... she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.' He is going to die. Her action, her hugely 'over-the-top' reaction, has recognised who Jesus is. And in fact she's probably the first person up to this point in Mark who's rightly responded to Jesus' death. Certainly the chief priests (14.1-2), the disciples (14.10-11, 18-19), and I didn't.

Nothing is too precious for Him! His blood has been poured out for many, confirming the new covenant (v. 24), by which we are cleansed and recieve the Spirit so that we may be moved to obey (Ez. 36.34-27). We have new hearts!

As Sinclair Ferguson said, 'The determining factor of my existence is no longer my past. It is Christ's past.' Praise Him! He is worthy!

Learning the lesson of the Fig Tree...

Our weekly bash into Mark took us last night into chapter 13 with that mash of information about the destruction of the temple and the end of the world... the tricky bit was trying to work out which bit was which.

We figured there may be parts of the chapter describing events that occur both pre-end-of-temple, and pre-end-of-world, for instance 3-8 (there are plenty of wars, famines, and earthquakes... 'this must take place, but the end is not yet'), and 9-13 too (the call to preach the gospel 'to all nations', which hasn't yet been completed, and the promise that 'the one who endures to the end will be saved').

14-23 seems to focus in on the destruction of the temple, with the 'abomination that causes desolation' being the sign it was soon to happen. The claims of v. 19 are big: 'for in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be', initially causing me to infer it's the end of the world on the agenda. But hang on, the destruction of the temple was, in short, a localized picture of God's judgement on old Israel... pretty massive.

The description of the coming of the Son of Man (24-27), already referred to in 8.38, seems to bring about the end of this old world, with the Son of Man gathering his elect and the natural lights coming to a halt.

And the lesson of the Fig Tree? When the leaves come out, summer is near. Thus, when the temple is destroyed, Jesus' return is also near, 'at the very gates' (v. 29). What Jesus says to his disciples, he 'says to all: Stay awake' (v.37). The command to be alert is all over the chapter (5, 9, 23, 35-37).

Is Jesus' (and Mark's) point that we have no grounds to assume that Jesus' return won't be tonight, tomorrow, this week, etc. It seems as followers of Jesus we're called to be a watching people, potentially tried & beaten 'for my sake' (v. 9, 13), preaching to all nations, and not getting so caught up that we lose an eternal perspective... would our lives look significantly different if we knew He was returning tomorrow? (...I think that's a rhetorical question).