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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Testing of Our Faith

(part 2)

“Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parable.”

Mark 4:1-2

It is hard to miss the sound of dissatisfaction in Jesus’ voice as He turned to His disciples in Mark 4:40 and declared, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” To better understand His displeasure, we must go back to earlier in the day when He sat with the crowds along the Sea of Galilee.

It must have been a relatively mild day in order for Jesus to have been able to teach from a boat to the eager crowd on shore. He began to teach them, through parables, a Kingdom message regarding the magnitude and importance of the “seed”. The seed in these parables represents God’s Word! He taught them the “parable of the sower” and how important it is that we receive the Word of God in it’s fullness. He shared with them the “parable of the growing seed” and how God’s Word brings us to spiritual maturity. He also explained to them the “parable of the mustard seed” and the extraordinary power that is housed in such a tiny vessel; further demonstrating the power of life that is carried in God‘s Word.

Once He had finished addressing the crowd Jesus turned to His disciples and said: “Let us go over to the other side.” Mark 4:36 tells us:

“Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.”

After a long day, Jesus made His way to the stern of the ship and went to sleep. Did Jesus know the storm was approaching? I personally believe so! Jesus had spent the entire day sowing God’s Word into their hearts. He had equipped them with all the faith they needed to face the coming storm. Romans 10:17 tells us:

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

Jesus believed enough in the “Word” that He had sowed into them that He was able to rest knowing that the storm was approaching. He was fully confident that His Word could produce the faith needed to meet any situation!

Can I challenge you today with something? Maybe YOU are in a storm! Perhaps you are facing sickness, divorce, or a loss of income! Maybe you have been feeling like God doesn’t care! You keep waiting on Him to see you in your misery and come and “rebuke” the bad things that are happening in your life. You think to yourself, “I am just going to bail water until it gets bad enough for Jesus to help me.” Or perchance, you are waiting on a special word from heaven, a “revelation” from the Lord, that will help you to make it through.

Is it possible that Jesus has already equipped you? His disciples were equipped with everything they needed to make it through the storm. In fact, they had it with them from the moment they left the shoreline. I think that for many, the answers we are looking for are already within us. We must stop waiting on Him to rebuke the wind and the waves and start believing the Word that has been sown inside of us!




Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Testing of Our Faith

(part 1)

“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be Still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Mark 4:39-40

Most of us are familiar with this story found in the book of Mark. Jesus and his disciples are crossing the sea of Galilee when a strong storm comes upon them. Jesus is sleeping in the stern of the boat as his disciples are franticly bailing water to stay afloat. In desperation one of the disciples wakes Jesus to ask him, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Immediately Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind and the waves. As the boat slowly settles from being tossed about, Jesus turns his attention to his exhausted disciples whose lack of strength is only matched by their absolute lack of faith.

Most of us have a picture in our minds of what this scene must have looked like. Twelve anxious, freezing, drenching wet disciples bailing water furiously out of the boat as wave after wave relentlessly pounds against them. In the midst of certain chaos, Jesus lay sleeping in the boat’s stern. For a while, I imagine, the disciples were not overly concerned. Some of them were avid fishermen. They knew how to command a vessel in stormy conditions. I am sure they were confident in their own ability to reach the shore. At some point in the night, however, the situation got away from them:

“A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.”

Mark 4:37

Nearly swamped! Anybody out there ever feel like that sometimes? The feeling that you couldn’t take on another ounce of water without drowning. I believe that being “nearly swamped” is a serious spiritual condition. It is the condition we find ourselves in when we fail the testing of our faith.

Upon calming the wind and the waves, Jesus turned to His weary disciples and asked:

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Mark 4:40

Most likely, that was not the response they were hoping for! Let’s be honest, after going through an ordeal that almost “drowned” them they were probably expecting more compassion. However, I am going to let you in on a little secret…God does not always respond because He is moved with compassion, sometimes He simply shows mercy on our ignorance. Jesus’ response to the wind and the waves was not motivated by compassion.


In fact, His disciples thought that He was being very uncompassionate because He lay sleeping in the boat beside them. However, Jesus laid quietly in the boat that night, not because He didn’t care about the plight of His disciples. Rather, He lay there resting because He had already equipped them to face the storm.. “earlier that day!”


Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Are You Looking For A Risen Savior?

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.”

John 20:1-3

Upon hearing the news, Peter and John raced for the tomb. John arrived first, but did not go in. Rather he stooped and looked inside to see the strips of linen lying near the place Jesus had been laid. Arriving shortly after, Peter entered the tomb and found it to be just as Mary Magdalene had told them. The tomb was empty! As I read the story again on resurrection morning, I was struck by this statement found in John 20:9 concerning Peter and John:

“They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

After witnessing His death and seeing the empty tomb, they still did not grasp that Jesus was risen! When Mary Magdalene informed them that He was not there, they did not respond as men who were running to meet Jesus! In a parallel passage found in Mark 16, Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome encountered a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting inside the tomb. The young man said to them:

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Mark 16:6-7

It is evident that Peter and John’s faith had stopped at the tomb, because if they had been looking for a risen savior they would have ran all the way to Galilee. That is where Jesus told them He would see them. Many of you, today, have a very similar ‘resurrection morning’ type of faith. You believe that He died! You believe that the tomb is empty, but you are not seeking the risen savior.

You see, it is not enough to have faith in His birth, His miracles, His death on the cross, or an empty tomb. It is “eternally significant”, however, that you embrace His resurrection:

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

1 Corinthians 15:17-19

If our faith stops at an empty tomb, then we are to be pitied as men who have no hope! Peter, one of the men who went looking for an empty tomb later wrote:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”

1 Peter 1:3

It is clear from this passage that Peter realized that there was no hope in an empty tomb. He traveled to Galilee and had an encounter with the Risen Lord that forever changed his life. How about you? Have you allowed your faith to bring you to the Risen Lord? Or are you still stuck at the door of an empty tomb?



Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Are You Looking For A Risen Savior?

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.”

John 20:1-3

Upon hearing the news, Peter and John raced for the tomb. John arrived first, but did not go in. Rather he stooped and looked inside to see the strips of linen lying near the place Jesus had been laid. Arriving shortly after, Peter entered the tomb and found it to be just as Mary Magdalene had told them. The tomb was empty! As I read the story again on resurrection morning, I was struck by this statement found in John 20:9 concerning Peter and John:

“They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

After witnessing His death and seeing the empty tomb, they still did not grasp that Jesus was risen! When Mary Magdalene informed them that He was not there, they did not respond as men who were running to meet Jesus! In a parallel passage found in Mark 16, Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome encountered a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting inside the tomb. The young man said to them:

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Mark 16:6-7

It is evident that Peter and John’s faith had stopped at the tomb, because if they had been looking for a risen savior they would have ran all the way to Galilee. That is where Jesus told them He would see them. Many of you, today, have a very similar ‘resurrection morning’ type of faith. You believe that He died! You believe that the tomb is empty, but you are not seeking the risen savior.

You see, it is not enough to have faith in His birth, His miracles, His death on the cross, or an empty tomb. It is “eternally significant”, however, that you embrace His resurrection:

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

1 Corinthians 15:17-19

If our faith stops at an empty tomb, then we are to be pitied as men who have no hope! Peter, one of the men who went looking for an empty tomb later wrote:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”

1 Peter 1:3

It is clear from this passage that Peter realized that there was no hope in an empty tomb. He traveled to Galilee and had an encounter with the Risen Lord that forever changed his life. How about you? Have you allowed your faith to bring you to the Risen Lord? Or are you still stuck at the door of an empty tomb?



Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Let the Cross Finish It's Work

“Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others- one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”

John 19:16-18

American pastor and author, A.W. Tozer, once wrote:

“The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down
the road had already said good-bye to his friends. He was not coming
back. He was going out to have it ended. The old cross is a symbol
of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being…
the cross made no compromises, modifies nothing, spares nothing;
it slew all of a man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep
on good terms with it’s victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when
it had finished it’s work, the man was no more.”

The man who took up the cross was keenly aware of it’s implications. To say the least, this experience would be a life-changing one. The march of death through the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary’s Hill suddenly brought a lot of things into perspective. The old way of life was about to come to an abrupt halt. Jesus was very mindful of where the road heading out of the city would take him. He knew that when the cross finished it’s work-”The man would be no more.”

I am certain that there were many who were shocked to see Him in the procession of criminals that were passing by. The cross was reserved for traitors, thieves and murderers. Jesus, however, was not surprised. In fact, months before His crucifixion, He told his disciples:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

He knew precisely the manner of death in which He would die and tried to prepare His disciples for it. Soon they were going to be faced with the reality of the cross. Jesus’ death on Calvary would bring new meaning to the cross. It would become the means of putting an end to the old nature. Calvary would represent death to the old way of living…

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Romans 6:7-8

Have you “died” with Him? Have you “died” to the things that He died for? Have you taken up our cross and followed Him? You see Christ finished His work on the cross, but the cross has not finished it’s work in you! If you let the cross finish it’s work, you will no longer compromise in the area of sin. You will no longer be interested in holding onto anything from your “old nature” because the cross spars nothing. You will no longer be interested in being on good terms with sin or anything else in your old life.

Jesus did not go to Calvary so that we could simply memorialize it, take the day off of work and receive communion together. As His disciples He fully expects us to “take up our cross”, follow Him and die to things that He died for. We cannot live with Him if we do not first die with Him. It is time that we come and let the cross finish it’s work in our lives crucifying the old habits, attitudes and relationships that at one time kept us from our Savior.




Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com