The Gospel of Mark, Pt. 27

The Realities of Real Faith

A golfer who had been playing badly went to a psychiatrist who told him to relax by playing a round of golf without a ball. "Do everything you would normally do, but use an imaginary ball," advised the psychiatrist." The golfer tried it the next day. He stepped up on the first tee, imagined he got a 260-yard drive, made a fine approach shot to the green, then putted for a par.

The round went splendidly and as he approached the 18th hole, he met another golfer playing the same way--no ball. The other golfer had seen the same psychiatrist. They decided to play the last hole together and bet $10 on the outcome. The first golfer swung at his imaginary ball and announced that it had gone 280 yards right down the middle of the fairway. The second golfer matched his drive. The first fellow then took out his 5-iron and after swinging at his imaginary ball, he exclaimed, "Look at that shot! It went right over the pin and the reverse spin on it brought it right back into the hole! I win." "No you don't," said the second golfer. "You hit my ball." 

In a 1989 News and World Report, US Surgeon General C. Everett Coop said, (SLIDE) “Reality is the leading cause of stress among those who are in touch with reality.” I know from years of personal experience, golf would be a whole lot less stressful if it was played without a ball. And yet, in real life, that little ball can cause even the most patient and care-free person want to scream and break something!

Reality can be tough to handle, but that’s why I find Christianity so relevant and so convincingly true, because not only does it make the best sense of reality, but it also offers the best solutions to deal with reality. And in our text today, we’re going to witness the harsh realities of real faith and what following Jesus really means for the life of the believer.

Mark 6:7–13 (SLIDE) “And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”

Earlier in Mark’s Gospel, in Chapter 3, we are introduced to 12 men who Jesus sets apart and calls for a specific purpose. All twelve are mentioned by name, and most we get to know throughout the gospel letters, the book of Acts, and other NT epistles, while some are mentioned far less outside of a few brief instances in the gospel narratives. And yet, the text tells us that Jesus had a tremendous plan for all 12 - to be with him personally for a time of growth and discipleship in order to train them to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.

These 12 men would play a foundational role in the building of the Christian faith, minus Judas Iscariot who we know would eventually betray Jesus, commit suicide, and then be replaced with Matthias as we read in Acts 1. But it was the apostles who were the primary carriers and communicators of the fundamental doctrines of the faith, and it was the apostles who carried a unique authority to preach, teach, heal, to inscripturate the word of God, and to establish and identify what was scripture.

All of this lends to what the apostle Paul says to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2:19–20 (SLIDE) “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,...” The apostles, along with the prophets of the OT provide the foundation on which the Church - the body of Christ - is built.

Likewise, the apostles are the NT symbolic equivalent of the 12 tribes of Israel in the OT, and together they represent the whole people of God - all true believers of both the Old and New Testaments. In Revelation 4:4 we read (SLIDE) “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.” The 24 elders are believed to be symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles who throughout John’s Revelation offer worship and prayer on behalf of the entire church. Then in the end of Revelation when John describes the New Jerusalem, we read in Revelation 21:14 (SLIDE) “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

In the gospels, the apostles are typically just referred to as “The Twelve” as the word apostle was more of a descriptor of what they did. They were the apostles - they were the “sent ones” - the ones sent by Jesus himself to continue his mission to preach the good news and to cast out demons and heal the sick. That’s what we see in both Mark 3 and in our text today, in verse 7 and then in verse 13 (SLIDE) “And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”

And throughout the NT text, we see these functions explicitly attributed to the apostles themselves. In fact, there were three primary criteria to qualify as an apostle. For one, an apostle had to be a witness of the physically resurrection Christ. As he writes to the church in Corinth and defends his own apostleship, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:1 (SLIDE) “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?”

Second, an apostle was specifically chosen by Christ himself for such a role. We see this in Mark 3, and then we even see this of Paul in Acts 9:15 (SLIDE) “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” And thirdly, the apostles had the unique ability to perform signs and wonders, like we see in Acts 2:43 (SLIDE) “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” Likewise, Paul confirms this fact in 2 Corinthians 12:12 (SLIDE) “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.”

This unique role and the specific title it carried ended with the death of these first apostles. There’s nothing in Scripture that suggests this title and role would continue past these 12 men and Paul, and because the apostles are always associated with the number 12, there’s no expectation that this role will continue on in future generations of Christians and church leaders. That’s we consider any Christian group that continues to use the term and title of apostle to be going against Scripture and disobeying God’s word. This is found exclusively in hyper-charismatic groups that abuse the word of God in a variety of ways, and so the better we understand God’s word as it pertains to apostles, the better we can remain in obedience to Scripture as a whole.

Nevertheless, we can see how the general function as defined by the term apostle can certainly continue on throughout future generations of the Christian church. Again, in its most basic function, an apostle is simply one who is sent, and therefore, missionaries can certainly be seen as fulfilling an important function of the apostle, namely to go out and preach the good news of Jesus Christ and help orchestrate the continued building of the Church globally. Many still do that to this day, and that’s what we see the apostle doing in the gospels.

And although one could make the argument that the 12 apostles and Paul could be due some sort of unique honor in the household of God, their early ministry was marked by anything than unique or special honor. In fact, it was marked by hardship, humility, and a total dependence on the grace and power of God to sustain them in everything they did. And this leads to our first reality of real faith (SLIDE) - We are sent to represent Jesus. Notice some of the characteristics of the lives and ministry that the apostles led. Look at Mark 6:8–9 (SLIDE) “He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.”

Its amazing how apt we all are to fill our lives with the many comforts and conveniences of modern life. We’ll spend all kinds of money on gadgets and devices, as well as food and clothing, as ways to make virtually every aspect of life - from work to ministry to life at home - as easy and enjoyable and efficient as possible. And if we felt called to go be a missionary or to embark on some other ministry for the Lord, its only natural that we’d spend a significant amount of time and resources planning and preparing and accumulating things necessary to help us along the way.

But notice what Jesus told the 12 apostles - take nothing for the journey except a staff. The text tells us that they were sent two by two, which probably relates to their roles as witness of the truth of Jesus Christ, and in the OT, two witnesses were required to authenticate a testimony. But both could only bring a staff, and nothing else. In the ancient Near East in their day, it was customary for visiting travelers to be cared for by those whom they were visiting. So if the traveler lacked provision, those they were visiting would feel obligated to take of them, other wise, the traveler could perish and die.

Furthermore, the great physical needs of the apostles encouraged them to enter towns and homes with great enthusiasm for the gospel and to share the message of the Kingdom with genuine passion and care for those whom they were visiting. If you’re visiting the home of strangers and your relying on them for physical provision and shelter, you’re more likely to build intimate, close relationships with them. You’re sleeping in their home.....eating their food.....wearing their spare clothes. And that level of dependence creates a certain level personal connection that will create a greater sensitivity to share the gospel with those who are far from God.

When we spent time in Haiti, we stayed at what they called a hotel, which was just a building with a few bedrooms, a common room in the middle, and a bathroom with no running water in the back. And every day, the people from the church made us dinner, which was the only full meal we had each day. And when you have nothing, and you’re basic needs are being met by others, their compassion towards you softens your heart towards them, reinforcing one’s desire to respond in like compassion. So when someone meets your physical needs, you’re more likely to want to meet their spiritual needs.

Likewise, when you’re completely depending upon the Lord, its amazing how his grace is more than sufficient to meet your every need. In our modern context, we tend not to live in any kind of environment that produces such need. We’re used to looking to the physical world to meet our needs. We have homes filled with more food than we could eat in one sitting.....more clothes than we could possible need....more money and more access to things than most people in human history could ever imagine. And so the question is.....how much are we actually sustained by the grace of God in any given moment?

Look at what Jesus forbids the apostles from taking.....no bread....no bag....no money. No personal source of physical sustenance......no way to accumulate things and take things with them......and no financial security. And aren’t these the things that we all depend on on a daily basis - food.....stuff.....and money? This isn’t a lesson on fasting, but it sure highlights the importance of it and why Christians were expected to fast by Jesus himself. We are so dependent on the things of this world to meet our every need, and so faith in God almost becomes just lip service in many ways. But when we fast, we intentionally deny our flesh to depend solely on God. We refuse to be mastered by our flesh, but rather turn to the Master himself, and as a result, we’re able to master our flesh. This was the lesson that Jesus was teaching those 12 apostles - depend on God alone so as not to be ruled by the things of this world. And in doing so, they would be uniquely empowered to meet the spiritual needs of others.

Now in the instances when people refused messages and the ministry of the apostles, they were given specific order in how to respond. Jesus says in verse Mark 6:10–11 (SLIDE) “And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.””

The idea of “shaking off the dust from your feet” was a symbolic act of renunciation and it indicated the breaking of a relationship. If people were unwilling to respond positively to the gospel message, then the prudent thing to do was to simply leave and not press the issue. You know....often times when we’re engaged with conversations about God and the Bible and people aren’t very receptive to what we have to say, we often see that as a challenge to try to prove them wrong and come out on top. However, Christ teaches us not to respond in any kind of confrontational or adversarial manner, but to simply leave in humility and move on to those who had receptive hearts and minds. People can be stubborn, and trying to force our beliefs onto them will often only make matters worse. Sometimes its just best to move on, and pray that God does the work that’s necessary to open them up to the truth of the gospel.

Now by doing so, the apostles were able to more clearly and effectively remain on mission. They were commissioned to a specific ministry, and they remained faithful to that ministry, as its expressed in verses 12 and 13 Mark 6:12–13 (SLIDE) “So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what they were called to do as well.

This is what it means to represent Jesus. Jesus warned those early disciples that foxes have holes, but the Son of Man would have no place to rest his head. Therefore, if they wanted to rightly follow him, they would have to be willing to forego all comforts and conveniences for the sake of the gospel so that ultimately they could focus on meeting the spiritual needs of others by depending solely on the provisions of God. Our comforts and conveniences should always come second to the spiritual needs of others. And when we live our lives as ambassadors of Christ, as representatives of the Kingdom of God, they way in which we live our lives needs to match up with the gospel that we preach and teach. In other words, if we’re telling the world to turn to God who can meet their every need and save their souls, yet they see us living completely dependent on the world and just like everyone else, then that inconsistency deters them from being convinced of the truth of the gospel. If our methods don’t align with our message, we lose all credibility, and the gospel loses credibility in the minds of others.

Likewise, when anyone rejects the gospel and refuses to listen, we should humbly move on to those with more receptive hearts, but never lose sight of the mission. Remember last week what we talked about - stay on mission. Jesus did it perfectly in his life, the apostles did it imperfectly but by the grace of God, and we are called to do the same. Stay on mission, and don’t allow the actions or reactions of others to sway you from that God-given mission.

And in today’s political and social climate, I see far too many Christians compromising in those areas. By now, most of us have heard about the shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota involving an ICE agent who was part of an arrest raid of illegal immigrants and a 37-year old Minneapolis resident who was actively trying to obstruct the job of the ICE agents. Believe what you want about the story, but the mounting video evidence seems quite convincing about what truly happened, regardless of the emotionally inflammatory rhetoric that’s sweeping the mass media.

Here’s the thing.....two things can be true at the same time. It is truly tragic when someone loses their lives. The death of a person created in the image of God is something we should all mourn, no matter what side we want to take. This was a mother of 3 children, who will now have to live the rest of their lives without a loved one. And as Christians, we should mourn with those who mourn. But at the same time, truth should cause us to recognize the stupidity of an action that obstructs justice, threatens the lives of those sworn to protect the US, and that the ensuing consequences of those actions are well within the legal boundaries of federal law. With that said, despite the fact that the ICE agent appears to have acted well within the law, he’s still going to have to live with the fact that he took a human life. Now I don’t know about you, but legal or not, I don’t know how that affects the heart and mind of a human being, and I hope I never will.

So regardless of where we might stand on this issue, or any other political or social issue of our day, we have to remember that we represent Jesus and we take his side alone! Ultimately, we’re not beholden to a national citizenship....a political party.....a cultural affiliation......or a personally or socially-constructed identity. We’re beholden to Christ and his word. And we need to remember that when we choose to share our opinions and speak out publicly about what we might believe about the issue of the day. We are citizens of heaven who are part of a different kingdom that is not of this world. And so no matter how the world around us might be behaving and reacting, we are to stay on mission as Jesus’ representatives. And that’s what the apostles continued to do - to preach the gospel and perform the signs and wonders that Jesus did to authenticate their message.

And now in the text, we come to a passage in Mark’s gospel that is the only passage that is not specifically about Jesus. Everything else in Mark’s narrative focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus, but here in verses 14-29, we see a unique story about the circumstances surrounding the death of John the Baptist. We read in verse Mark 6:14 (SLIDE) “King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.””

So quickly, who is King Herod and what did he hear? Well, this is Herod Antipas, the son of King Herod the Great who we hear about in the beginnings of Matthew and Luke which record the events of the birth of Jesus. He was the King of Judea who ruled from about 37 BC to 4 BC, and was a ruthless, ungodly ruler. His grandson Herod Agrippa I was the one who reigned towards the end of Jesus’ life and who Jesus was sent to by Pontius Pilate when on he was on trial before he went to the cross.

This Herod here in Mark 6 is the son of Herod the Great, and is commonly referred to as Herod Antipas. He wasn’t a true king, but a tetrarch who ruled the specific regions of Galilee and Perea under Roman control. And as we know from history, the entire line of kings and rulers that descended down from King Herod the Great, including his sons Herod Antipas, Philip, Archelaus, and his his grandson Herod Agrippa, were all evil, corrupt rulers. And we see this play out in this story about the death of John the Baptist.

So the text tells us that Herod the Tetrarch, or King Herod, got word of the growing fame of Jesus’ ministry in the Galilee region, and this ministry was now only gaining more traction and fame as the 12 apostles were going throughout the Galilee region and expanding the ministry of Jesus. And as any power-hungry, egotistical ruler would do, Herod became threatened not only by Jesus, but also by John the Baptist whom Herod knew was connected to Jesus. And so the rumor mill around Galilee flourished with all kinds of ideas about who this Jesus was. Look again at verses 14-15 (SLIDE) Mark 6:14–16 “King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.””

In Jesus’ day, and throughout the last 2,000 years to the present day, people still struggle to rightly identify who Jesus really is. Some say that he was Elijah, because the OT prophesies spoke of a day when the great OT prophet, who never died but was taken into Heaven according to 2 Kings 2:11, would come back to usher in the Jewish Messiah. If you remember from our past Passover Dinners that we’ve done over the past few years, there’s a tradition in the Passover Seder to leave an empty spot at the table for the Prophet Elijah as Jews await his return. Well, in the days of Jesus, people began to think that he might have been Elijah or one of the other prophets of the OT. However, Jesus affirms that it was actually John the Baptist who came in the spirit of Elijah, thus fulfilling the OT prophecies of the return of Elijah ushering in the Messianic Age, making Jesus the Jewish Messiah.

But Herod also thought that this might have been John the Baptist raised from the dead, since resurrection was a common belief amongst the Jews in Jesus’ days, and therefore maybe a resurrected person could wield the power that Jesus was showing throughout his ministry. Now this was an odd thing to include at this point in the story since Mark has yet to explain how John actually died. But he goes on to do just that in verses 17-19. So as the story goes, Herod imprisoned John the Baptist for the sake of his wife Herodias, who was also the former wife of Herod’s brother Philip. So not only did Herod marry his sister-in-law, the entangled web of incest gets even more fascinating......Herodias is actually the granddaughter of Herod the Greater, which means both Philip and Herod Antipas married their niece.

So Herod’s wife, who was his sister-in-law and also his niece, wanted John to be imprisoned. Why? Well, we’re told in verse 18 (SLIDE) Mark 6:18 “For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”” So apparently, Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted him dead, however, we’re told in the text that Herod feared killing John because he knew he was a holy and righteous man who might be able to yield the power of Yahweh against the evil ruler, but also that if he did anything to John, the Jews might revolt against him and Rome would remove him as tetrarch. So Herod left him alone against the desires of his wife. However, beginning in verse 21, Mark tells us about his instance when Herod through a great banquet for his own birthday, and at the banquet, Herodias teenage daughter danced for Herod and all the leaders in Galilee who were in attendance. This was normally a practice reserved for hired women who would perform artistic and seductive dances to divert the attention of the male guests, so this would have been an inappropriate activity for any woman of honor, let alone the host’s own step-daughter.

But these were evil, sick people, and we’re told in verse 22 that Herodias’s daughter “pleased Herod and the guests”, so much so that the King vowed to give her anything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom. And when this got back to Herodias, verses 24-25 tell us that Herodias told her daughter to tell Herod that she wanted the head of John the Baptist to be served on a platter. Herod immediately regretted his vow, but because he made it publicly in front of everyone at the banquet, he begrudgingly complied and sent an executioner to go to the prison and behead John. And verse 28 tells us that the executioner brought the head of John the Baptist on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. What a grotesque ending to the life of the great prophet and forerunner of Jesus Christ.

But this leads to our second reality of real faith that we’ll consider for today (SLIDE) Following Jesus will cost you your life.

In the case of John the Baptist, his commitment to the word of God and calling people to repent of their sins and turn to Christ not got him imprisoned, but it cost him his life. And see the same fate for many of the main disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ in the NT. Both Scripture and early church history and tradition tell us that all the apostles, with the exception of John - the author of the gospel letter, the epistles 1, 2, 3 John, and Revelation - were all martyred for their faith in Jesus. And it was Tertullian in 197 AD who coined the phrase - “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”, reflecting on how many Christians were killed for their faith in the first two hundred years of Christianity, which only gave rise to great growth of the Church and its global expansion of the Kingdom of God, which we see continue to this very day.

Statistically speaking, Christians are the single most persecuted people group worldwide. That typically doesn’t make sense to us in the west and here in American, but as we know, there are brothers and sister in Christ throughout the world who are losing their lives to follow Jesus. So in our context, although we may not face the threat of physical death for being a Christian here in America, we nonetheless must be willing to give up our lives in order to follow Jesus. This is what Jesus means when he says in Mark 8:34–35 (SLIDE) “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

One of my greatest fears in ministry and for the future of the Church is that too many Christians today view the Christian faith as simply one of many self-help, self-improvement options that are up to the person to choose. Right, we see this throughout culture and society......do what works for you in order to help you thrive.....just acknowledge a high power that helps you clean yourself up and improve your life, but it doesn’t really matter in the end who you identify that higher power to be. It can be Jesus.....it can be Buddha or Muhammed......it doesn’t matter, as long as it makes you better, that’s all that really matters.

And this is a lie from the pit of hell. Because Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good.....he came so that dead people could live. And the only way we can truly find life is if we’re willing to lay down this life we already have for the sake of Christ and his gospel message. This sounds ridiculous to some people and is often met with much resistance, even within the church, but isn’t that exactly what Paul said would be the case in 1 Corinthians 1:18 (SLIDE) “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” For many, it simply doesn’t make sense that you must die and give up your life in order to follow Jesus. I thought Jesus would improve my life, not end it! But that’s actually what must happen if we want to truly follow Jesus like John the Baptist and the apostles, who realized the power of God which transcended this life here on earth.

Real faith in Jesus will cost you your life, maybe in the physical sense, but most certainly in the spiritual sense. And when we lose our life for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the gospel, we become better equipped to represent Jesus as He sends us out into the unbelieving world around us to live for Jesus......to love like Jesus.....and to lead others to Jesus!