Evangelical Free Church of Chico
March 21st, 2010:
Mark 10:1-12
Jesus on Divorce
Pastor Lou Diaz
Listen
March 21st, 2010:
Mark 10:1-12
Jesus on Divorce
Pastor Lou Diaz
Listen
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Mark 10.1-12
Introduction
- Did you have any experiences this week addressing pride, power, and exclusivity?
- Read the text aloud to each other.
- Spend a few minutes reviewing the context of this discussion: Jesus’ comments to the disciples about their argument about who is the greatest, and Jesus’ comments about the first/last/first (Mark 9.30-35).
- Why do you think the Pharisee’s asked this question of Jesus? Who do you think the Pharisees’ consider to be first in the marriage relationship? Last? Do you see clues in this question about how the Pharisees understand pride, power, and exclusivity?
- Discuss Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees. Why does Jesus say Moses wrote this ‘command’? How does Jesus contrast Moses’ command with God’s intention for marriage?
- Discuss vs. 11 & 12. Why do you think Jesus mentions not only men divorcing their wives but also women divorcing their husbands?
- How does Jesus’ teaching about divorce address the pride and power issues of marriage?
- How does God’s intention for marriage line up with, or contrast with our cultural ideas of marriage?
- Jesus bases his understanding of gender and marriage on the Genesis 1 and 2 creation accounts. We often build our understanding of gender and marriage on the Genesis 3 account of sin and the fall from grace. How might our understanding of gender and marriage be changed if we, like Jesus, focused on the creation account, and not the account of the fall and God’s judgement?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Let The Authors Speak For Themselves
“Mark’s story is complete in itself not only apart from reference to the historical events on which it is based but also apart from the other gospels, which are also autonomous stories about Jesus. In narrative study, we cannot legitimately use the other gospels to “fill out” or to “fill in” some unclear passage in Mark’s story. Rather we need to read Mark’s gospel more carefully as a self-sufficient story…Mark’s narrative contains a closed and self-sufficient world with its own integrity, its own imaginative past and future, its own sets of values, and its own universe of meanings. When viewed as a literary achievement the statements in Mark’s narrative, rather than being a representation of historical events, refer to the people, places and events in the story” (Rhoads and Michie: 3-4).
One of the guiding principles of manuscript study is this: let the text speak for itself. This principle fits nicely with one of the watchwords of the Free Church movement in the United States: “Where Stands It Written”.
Our intent is to discover and unleash the original author’s intent in writing their words to their intended audience. In the case of the Gospel of Mark, the ultimate author is God himself. Yet in the way of all scripture, God speaks His words though a human author, in this case Mark. And Mark learned much of what he knew of Jesus’ actual words and actions by serving as Peter’s translator during Peter’s ministry in Rome.
Mark wrote with great intentionality. The individual stories, their arrangement, and the way the stories are told are part and parcel of what Mark, under in cooperation with the Spirit, intended for his original audience to understand and apply. For us to grasp what the Lord would have us understand and apply from Mark’s gospel we need to have a similar respect for Mark’s intended meaning.
The beginning point for that respect is to let Mark speak for himself, and not impose the intent of other biblical authors until we are pretty certain we understand what Mark intends. So the way to approach Mark can be visualized something like this:
This does not mean that we should disregard the rest of the biblical record. To the contrary, the final step for understanding any specific biblical text is to consider the entire biblical record. But that is the final step, and not the second step.
All too often our thought process with scripture goes something like this:
• Read a verse
• Have some idea what that verse means to us
• Think of other verses from other books that are similar
• Reach a conclusion about the meaning and application of the verse we first read.
Instead we need to begin with a verse, place that verse in the immediate context, place that context into the larger section of scripture, then into the book, and only then in the context of all biblical writings. We need to first let the authors speak for themselves.
There is a story in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that illustrates the significance of letting the authors speak for themselves. When Frodo and friends leave Lorien for the final leg of their journey to confront evil, het elves give them special travel food: lembas bread. The travelers find, as their supplies of other food runs out , that the nourishment they get from the lembas bread increases as their dependence on other food decreases, and eventually that they are able to thrive on the travel food alone.
The same principle applies to us as we allow the authors to speak for themselves: our nourishment from the word of life increases as we rely on it more and more.
One of the guiding principles of manuscript study is this: let the text speak for itself. This principle fits nicely with one of the watchwords of the Free Church movement in the United States: “Where Stands It Written”.
Our intent is to discover and unleash the original author’s intent in writing their words to their intended audience. In the case of the Gospel of Mark, the ultimate author is God himself. Yet in the way of all scripture, God speaks His words though a human author, in this case Mark. And Mark learned much of what he knew of Jesus’ actual words and actions by serving as Peter’s translator during Peter’s ministry in Rome.
Mark wrote with great intentionality. The individual stories, their arrangement, and the way the stories are told are part and parcel of what Mark, under in cooperation with the Spirit, intended for his original audience to understand and apply. For us to grasp what the Lord would have us understand and apply from Mark’s gospel we need to have a similar respect for Mark’s intended meaning.
The beginning point for that respect is to let Mark speak for himself, and not impose the intent of other biblical authors until we are pretty certain we understand what Mark intends. So the way to approach Mark can be visualized something like this:
This does not mean that we should disregard the rest of the biblical record. To the contrary, the final step for understanding any specific biblical text is to consider the entire biblical record. But that is the final step, and not the second step.
All too often our thought process with scripture goes something like this:
• Read a verse
• Have some idea what that verse means to us
• Think of other verses from other books that are similar
• Reach a conclusion about the meaning and application of the verse we first read.
Instead we need to begin with a verse, place that verse in the immediate context, place that context into the larger section of scripture, then into the book, and only then in the context of all biblical writings. We need to first let the authors speak for themselves.
There is a story in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that illustrates the significance of letting the authors speak for themselves. When Frodo and friends leave Lorien for the final leg of their journey to confront evil, het elves give them special travel food: lembas bread. The travelers find, as their supplies of other food runs out , that the nourishment they get from the lembas bread increases as their dependence on other food decreases, and eventually that they are able to thrive on the travel food alone.
The same principle applies to us as we allow the authors to speak for themselves: our nourishment from the word of life increases as we rely on it more and more.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Doing Ministry Jesus Way
Evangelical Free Church of Chico
March 7th, 2010:
Mark 9:30-41
Doing Ministry Jesus Way
Pastor Lou Diaz
Listen
March 7th, 2010:
Mark 9:30-41
Doing Ministry Jesus Way
Pastor Lou Diaz
Listen
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Mark 9.30-41, Page 21.29-22.21
Introduction
- Did you have cause this past week to pray in real dependence on God to face significant challenges? Did you experience God’s power?
- Read the text aloud to each other.
- Compare this announcement of his coming death and resurrection with Jesus’ first announcement 8.31, 19.19. What does it mean that Jesus ‘will be delivered into the hands of men…’? Who is doing this delivering? How does the idea that Jesus is being intentionally delivered impact your understanding of the gospel?
- Why are the disciples arguing about status? How does Jesus’ teaching about the first being last address the disciples’ argument?
- How do the stories of the child and the person casting out demons illustrate Jesus’ teaching about servanthood, that the first must be last?
- Application reflections
- What is our experience of how status and power are used in our work environments, and in our homes? Does it seem to be based on servanthood? How about in our church fellowship, or in our small groups? Are we practicing servanthood? Are there any areas where we need to make adjustments?
- Imagine for a bit that we are that child that Jesus took into his arms, and brought into the center of attention: how would that feel? Anything you would want to say to Jesus as he embraces us?
- Have we experienced Jesus’ promise that even apparently insignificant contributions to his cause are rewarded? Share some ways you feel you have experienced his reward for your service.
- Meditate for a few minutes on God’s decision to deliver Jesus to death and resurrection for our sake, and on Jesus’ faithful obedience to his Father’s plan.
OIA 21-.29-22.21; 9.30-41
Observations
- Who: Jesus, the twelve, a child, John, someone casting our demons in Jesus’ name; Christ;
- When: sometime after the boy’s healing
- Where: passing through Galilee, apparently on the way south from Caesarea Philippi;
- What: Second announcement of Jesus’ death and resurrection; the twelve arguing about who is the greatest; Jesus teaching and illustrating the first must be last;
- Connections: Son of Man; second announcement of three; child may link back to the healed boy;
- Contrasts: first/last; greatest/servant of all; greatest/child; the twelve/an outsider.
- Responses to Jesus:
- Questions
- Jesus’ second announcement of his death and resurrection is a bit different from his first: this time he is to be ‘delivered into the hands of men…’ Who is doing this ‘delivering’? It is God himself who delivers Jesus to his death and subsequent resurrection. The Greek work here is paraditotai, Strong’s #3860; this is the same work used in 1.14 – John was delivered into prison; this is the same word translated as ‘betray’ in reference to Judas. The point here is that God is the active agent in delivering Jesus into the hands of men; this is not a random or senseless death, rather one God is intentionally visiting on his beloved, and obedient son.
- Note that Jesus is specifically addressing the 12; my take on this section is just this – that Jesus is focusing on the 12, on driving home the core values of his kingdom, on servant hood and kingdom leadership. Jesus is on his final journey to Jerusalem; he knows it, and is emphatically teaching the 12 all he can before his passion. Part of the structure this section is Question/Answer; watch for this as we work through this section. The good news is, in contrast to the feeding of the 5000, the twelve are again asking: they are exercising the secret of the kingdom: they are responding.
- The Twelve are beginning to listen to Jesus’ announcement: and their response is to argue about who is the greatest, who will take over the movement if Jesus is in fact killed. Jesus then announces the theme of his training for the 12 in the coming chapters: The first shall be last shall be first. Power in Jesus’ practice and in his kingdom is wielded by servanthood. What a contrast to all our experience, from kindergarten on through business and government, even in our own households!
- Welcoming the child and outsider are illustrations of Jesus’ theme of servanthood. Both are examples to contradict the disciples’ perception of how power works in the kingdom – the least and the outsiders are welcomed. Jesus goes so far as to identify himself with both of these ‘least’: welcoming the child, wrapping them in our arms, is like receiving Jesus; and even an insignificant gift – a cup of water, not to mention spiritual warfare – is noted and rewarded by the same Father who is delivering Jesus into the hands of men.
- Notice the link between these two examples: in my name. This is part of Jesus’ training for the 12 – you will be acting in my name.
- The emphasis in the child story is more on imitating Jesus than it is on becoming like a child. The lesson for the 12 is to welcome the least, the last, with open arms, with warmth, with gladness.
- God is the agent behind Jesus’ coming death and resurrection: this unexpected plan is God’s idea, his intention, his means of vanquishing sin and death, and of securing resurrection. We should stand in awe of God’s redemptive plan, and of Jesus’ faithful obedience.
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