Opposition Implied

Call to Worship

To all who are weary and in need of rest

To all who are mourning and longing for comfort

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

We, Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, open wide our arms

With a welcome from Jesus Christ.

He is the ally to the guilty and failing

He is the comfort to those who are mourning

He is the joy of our hearts

And He is the friend of sinners

So Come, worship Him with us.

Scripture Reading & Reader

Mark 6:1–29 NIV

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!” For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him. Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” “The head of John the Baptist,” she answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Post-Scripture Prayer

Pray.

Introduction to Sermon

Good morning, my name is Brandon Morrow and I serve as one of the Pastors here at Moraga Valley! So glad to be with you all, — go ahead and open your Bible to the Book of Mark and today we’re starting in Mark 6 as we continue in our series we’ve titled, Who is this King? We’ve been looking at Mark Chapters 4-8, asking questions about Jesus and His identity — and up to this point in Mark’s gospel we see that the only option left when we know Jesus’ identity, is to decide whether or not we identify with Jesus.

Jesus forces us to make a decision: is He, or is He not, Israel’s Messiah, the World’s long-awaited Savior King?

And if we say that He is, what does it mean for us?

This is one part of Christian discipleship that I honestly wish we did better at… I wish we gave people a more robust picture of what they could expect when following Jesus. My least favorite ways that Jesus gets presented is Jesus as Cosmic Vending Machine, and Jesus as Fire Insurance.

Jesus as a Cosmic Vending machine is that if we just do the right things, in the right order, that He’ll deliver on what we asked. We end up limiting Jesus to just when He’s useful to us.

Jesus as Fire Insurance is treating Jesus like a policy that will keep us out of hell. When we treat Jesus like this, we love Jesus as Savior, but have never known Him as Lord.

I list these two ways we view Jesus because I think the scriptures give us a more full picture of the reality of following Jesus:

2 Timothy 3:12 (NIV)

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Or

1 Peter 2:21 (NIV)

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

Or Galatians 6:2

Galatians 6:2 (NIV)

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

The picture of Jesus we give the world needs to deal with the reality of persecution, the nature of suffering, and the fact that even after our conversion there will be some heavy burdens to deal with.

We have to find the more substantive thing, that isn’t rainbows and butterflies, that doesn’t view Jesus as the blonde haired, blue eyed, Birkenstock wearing, lookalike 4th member of the Bee Gee’s.

I’m sure we could all come up with a list of things that we think would be good for non-believers to know, understand, about what following Jesus might look like. Like the fact that we’re following a Saving King whose victory came through the path of suffering and ultimately death — and that ultimately our path is one of great hope and victory, that no matter how much we suffer, what difficulty we endure, Jesus’ presence is never departing us, and at the very end, whether we live, die, or Jesus returns, if we’re with Him, we win.

But, I do find a part of this that is repeatedly missing: how little we talk about opposition.

The great JC Ryle wrote,

The servant of Christ must never be surprised if he has to drink of the same cup with his Lord.

But yet I find that often when we are faced with opposition, we end up surprised — absolutely shocked — taken back, even, that we’ve gone through hardship.

But why would we expect anything less than what Jesus experienced?

Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:1 that that we are meant to imitate Jesus — and not only do we imitate Him, but we have the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, whose job is to make us more like Jesus. If we’re going to become like Jesus, it means doing what Jesus did, and being open to the fact that we very well may experience what He experienced — including opposition, all the way up to death.

Before we get into Mark 6, I’d really like to double down on something — opposition comes when there’s engagement with the world — when we’re doing what Jesus did, living how Jesus has called us to live. Serious question, who would be opposed to passive, faithless, powerless Christian living?

In the beginning of Mark 6, Jesus is preparing His followers that they’ll experience what He experiences — and the first place it starts is back in his hometown. I want you to look at verse 3, Mark 6:3

Mark 6:3 NIV

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jesus has taught, healed, and people sat back in amazement, and verse 3 says they still took offense of Jesus — the Greek word for offense, is skandalizo, it’s this idea of being appalled at something because you can’t understand it — in verse 2 it says that they saw the wisdom of Jesus, but they can’t reconcile His power and wisdom with the fact that He’s from back-water Nazareth. As far as the Nazarene community is concerned, Jesus is a nobody and they want to make sure Jesus remembers that.

Jesus is setting the tone in the early verses of Mark 6 that opposition is to be expected for His followers.

Not every act of God is going to be well received, even it’s happening right in front of people’s faces. This community has seen, they have experienced, and yet they still publicly denounce Jesus.

And Mark’s gospel shows that opposition can either be natural, or supernatural — from people or because there’s evil lurking around the corner — but Mark’s gospel also shows us that neither of these forms of opposition will not, cannot, not in Jesus’ day, and not in ours, ever thwart the progress of the gospel.

The Kingdom is always on the offensive, it is always advancing forward. Jesus has promised us this much in the scriptures, particularly in Matthew 16:18

Matthew 16:18 (NIV)

… I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Mark has reminded me of one powerful truth: you can’t shake the church. We are a people that cannot be rattled. I mean, think about it — we haven’t just barely held on by a thread over the past 2,000 years, through unstable political climates, through tragic world wars, through death and famine, through the changing realities introduced to us by technology.

What we’ve learned from the history of the church is that you can threaten us, kill us, back us into a corner, displace us from our homes, strip away from us every comfort we have — and we don’t cower in fear, we don’t run for the hills — we come alive.

Just the way that Mark 6 reads, shows us that we don’t skip a beat.

Look at verse 3, Jesus is heckled by His hometown, and then next — in verse 6, He continues to preach from town-to-town. Immediately following that — In verse 7, the lack of faith of the community living in Nazareth hasn’t slowed down the progress of Jesus and His disciples, because in verse 7 He sends out the disciples, two-by-two, and as they are sent out, they are given authority over the forces of darkness.

Look at verse 11 with me, this is Jesus reminding His disciples that His authority won’t be stopped.

Mark 6:11 NIV

And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

When the disciples go with the authority of Jesus, some will not receive them, and in doing so, they reject the authority of the Jesus Himself, — which is a really wild concept to think about — we go, not under our own authority, but because Jesus sent us, and when people receive us — or not receive us — it’s Jesus they’re responding to — we go as the voice and action of Jesus — and Jesus’ response is, “brush the dirt off,” and go to the next house, to the next person. The Kingdom of God is relentless — this is exactly why someone would call Mark the Action Gospel, not because it’s fast, but because nothing can stop the gospel.

There’s a pretty big chunk of scripture, verses 14-29, about the death of John the Baptizer, that might make somebody think — oh, death, that could stop the gospel.

We learn at least two things from verses 14-29:

First — Death is the worst that is to be expected — but the Kingdom of God has a different opinion about death. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:21-22

Philippians 1:21–22 NIV

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!

There is no lose-lose situation in the Kingdom, death is a victory, because Jesus has conquered death; and living is a victory, because nothing can stop the gospel. We won’t get there until next week, but take a peek at verse 30 (Mark 6:30

Mark 6:30 NIV

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

This is the action-oriented nature of Mark’s gospel: in verse 29 John the Baptizer is laid to rest, and in verse 30 they give a progress report about how the gospel is going forward. Opposition doesn’t stand a chance.

The second thing we see from verses 14-29 is that there’s always opposition to God and His mission. What John the Baptizer’s death does is reveal to us the stark reality of doing what Jesus did — when the powers of the world hear that Jesus and His Kingdom have arrived, they don’t take kindly to being dethroned.

This is one of those facts that looms in the back of our minds — following Jesus is risky business, our lives could be at stake.

Jesus has not abandoned His disciples to face opposition by themselves, Mark 6 is so clear about this — they go with His authority.

It was Plato who said, “the wisest have the most authority.”

Of course Jesus is the wisest, He knows that all opposition gets their final day. He knows that opposition is minor compared to what He has in store for us.

The puritan Thomas Watson has a quote about that, that sticks out so clearly in my mind. Watson said:

The weight of glory makes persecution light.

The weight of glory makes persecution light, it makes opposition bearable, it makes the insurmountable nature of rejection surmountable — because the gospel still changes lives, and not a single scheme of man or the devil can stand against the power of God. In the Christian life, opposition is implied — absolutely guaranteed — but it’s not victorious over us. Just because opposition happens doesn’t mean that it wins — doesn’t mean that it has a say over the authority of Jesus.

Scholar Tom Wright wrote, “there is no advance for the gospel without opposition.”

Opposition is how we know we’re doing this right! And the reason we would be opposed is because Jesus can actually change lives, and He does.

Look… opposition or not, nothing can stop the gospel — so what do we have to lose?

I’ve invited my friend Jim McGill to give his testimony this week, because I think real stories of real life change show to us that we have everything to gain — and the weight of one more brother or sister experiencing life with Christ is worth any and every amount of opposition we might face.

Would you give my friend Jim a warm, MVPC welcome?