Staying the Course in A Compromised Church

Mark 3:1-8

Introduction

There was a conflict brewing at the Wayside Community Church over several months between Pastor Frank and Dorothy, the song leader. Each week it was becoming evident to many in the congregation that they may not be getting along. As weeks grew into months, this conflict began to spill over into the worship service.

The first week Pastor Frank preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God. At the end of the service, Dorothy led the congregation in the song “I Shall not be Moved.”

The second week Pastor Frank preached on tithing and how we all should gladly give to the work of the Lord. At the end of the service, Dorothy led the congregation in the song “Jesus Paid it All.”

In the third week, Pastor Frank preached on gossiping and how we should all watch our tongues. At the end of the service, Dorothy led the congregation in the song “I Love to Tell the Story.”

Pastor Frank’s frustration continued to grow each week. With all this going on, Pastor Frank became very disgusted over the situation, and the following Sunday, he told the congregation that he was considering resigning. At the end of the service, Dorothy led the congregation in the song, “Oh Why Not Tonight?”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. On the fifth Sunday, after Pastor Frank preached, he solemnly said that it was Jesus who led him to the church, and it was Jesus that was taking him away, and he officially resigned. After Pastor Frank sat down, the song leader, Dorothy, led the congregation in the song “What a friend we have in Jesus!”

Let’s look at our text this morning and see how this text relates to our time together.

Turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark 3:1-7.

Mark 3:1-7

Mark 3:1–7 NKJV

1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. 7 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea

Prayer

Message

This morning we reach a sad outcome after we study this 5th encounter between Jesus and the religious elite. With each encounter the Pharisees hearts hardened to the point that we see these religious leaders want to destroy Jesus.

We read a sad text at the end of today’s story:

Mark 3:6 “6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.”

What a dreadful state these Pharisees find themselves in. They are delusional and we want to look today at how we can avoid developing a calloused heart.

We are Called to be Consistent Even in Compromised Climates V. 1

Mark 3:1 “1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.”

Jesus in the very first verse teaches us an important example to follow as we walk with the Lord and serve His church.

Jesus went back to church. I want to say that again. Jesus went back to the synagogue.

I remind you that it was people from church that were creating all the tension against Him. Jesus knew their minds, He knew their hearts, He knew their rage and it never stopped Him from His mission. He never allowed the strain that was mounting to keep Him away. Remember, time and again Jesus could read the people’s minds and He felt the animosity towards Him.

When Jesus healed the paralytic

Mark 2:6–8 “6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?”

Jesus point blank confronted them about those thoughts that they were reasoning in their hearts over such matters.

Jesus knew how fragile the situation was associating and eating with all of Matthew’s tax collector friends and other sinners.

Jesus knew how frustrated they were with Him and His disciples for the fact they did not fast and they did not keep all of their traditions as it relates to the Sabbath. Jesus knew all of these tensions; He felt the conflict; He felt the uneasy atmosphere but it did not compromise His calling and the importance He found in going to worship.

Dearly beloved that is an important trait that we follow. Many times we want to exploit situations at church really to find reasons to tuck and run. That is the easier decision. That’s why our divorce rate is what it is. It’s easier to tuck and run. God calls His people to work through our differences. When someone doesn’t act in a way that suits us that provides perfect excuse to stay away.

You would think this morning that if Jesus was sitting right here in our midst (and He is), but I mean in bodily fashion, you would think that we all would have perfected hearts, perfected minds, perfected attitudes with Him here in bodily presence, but we don’t. Yes, we have been saved and made righteous in Christ for sins, past, present and future, but we are not perfected in our actions until we meet Jesus in glory. We still live in this fallen world and we still sin everyday. Hopefully we are becoming more like Him with each passing day as we are in the process of sanctification, but we still sin because we live in a fallen world.

Conditions

Mark 3:1 “1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.”

Another important truth is the fact that within the church we see a condition.

Immediately Jesus encountered a man with a withered hand. Oh listen dearly beloved, we need the church more today than ever because there are conditions of hurt, conditions of health, conditions of loss of finances, loss of life, loss in relationships and the list goes on right within the church.

This man was in church and accounted for on that particular day but that didn’t remove the fact that he was still plagued with a condition.

Withered

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 3583. ξηραίνω

3583. ξηραίνω

All form of employment in Biblical times required strength and the use of your hands. Farming, fishing, carpentry, tentmaking, stone masonry, weaving, cooking and the list goes on all required the use of one’s hands. Even a scribe that wrote scrolls or copied scripture still needed use of his hands.

Let’s understand the real need: a withered hand often meant economic dependency on others. Let’s understand society at that point in time:

Jewish tradition taught that “a man that did not teach his son a trade was in essence teaching him to steal.” Work was an essential component of dignity. Oh that America had more of that mindset today. This man had likely lost his dignity. Oh listen, there were no disability programs in Jesus’ time. The only safety net this man would have enjoyed was family, charity, someone giving alms to him or simply begging.

Do you realize that as a Jew there was a spiritual imbalance related to the use of hands for strength and identity? If you could not use your hands, as a practicing Jew you felt inferior.

Oh listen, in Scripture the hands reveal power, ability, productivity and blessing.

Psalm 90:17 “17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.”

Ecclesiastes 9:10 “10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.”

This is a dreadful condition this man is in. He has need with his condition and the religious there had no compassion. They were so consumed in a combative mindset with Jesus.

We see a man with a withered hand and some religious with a withered heart.

But praise the Lord, this man was in the right place.

This reminds me this morning that if you have a condition and most of us do you are in the right place today. The man went to seek God and He found Him. Oh listen in the midst of the imperfections of the church dear family, in the midst of the conflict this man was able to find Christ and you can too today if you are looking for Him.

2. The Danger of a Consumed Conscience and a Combative Spirit VV. 2-5

Mark 3:2–5 “2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

Oh my goodness dear church, these Pharisees hearts were so displaced. They were so focused on the wrong things. Here was a man with real need and all they could see was Jesus that had upset their applecart. They were more concerned whether Jesus would pass the test than whether the withered man’s hand would enjoy transformation.

Mark 3:2 “2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.”

Watch

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 3906. παρατηρέω

paratērĕō, par-at-ay-reh´to inspect alongside, i.e. note insidiously or scrupulously:—observe, watch.

These were eyes of surveillance.

Now what is interesting we really do not know whether this man with the withered hands just by coincidence happened to be at the right place at the right time. The religious elite bribed Judas Iscariot for 30 pieces of silver. I would not put it past them that they did not plant the man there with a specific mission in mind. They were looking for reason to destroy Jesus.

Look with me at verse 3:

Mark 3:3 “3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.””

Whether this man was totally innocent or ignorant to what the Pharisees were plotting is immaterial at this point as it relates to the man with the withered hand. He could have been guilty of conspiring with the religious elite or not but what I find interesting is that Jesus put this situation on display. He wanted the matter brought front and center.

What I love about our Lord and Savior is that He loves us and whether our heart is right or not, whether the conditions we suffer for our actions are of our own doing or not, the Lord doesn’t care. He wants to show His compassion for you. Jesus wants restoration and renewal no matter your condition.

I ask you are you like this man with the withered hand this morning? You have a condition right now in your life that you know needs the touch of Jesus and only Jesus can help it. He will. Furthermore, if this man has any wrongdoing based upon working or doing what the Pharisees may have asked Him to do, that did not matter. He made it to church and by doing so, no matter how sinful or not Jesus still showed compassion for Him.

If you are here today and your heart is as far from God as Jupiter, and your disposition is just terrible this morning, you made the right decision today, He wants to meet you, He wants you to encounter Him and He wants you to experience His saving touch today.

Listen to what the psalmist says:

Psalm 37:32 “32 The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to slay him.”

Luke 14:1 “1 Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.”

We see a pattern in these verses. When our hearts are not right we are not stayed on the right things.

Where is your heart today? What is your mind stayed on? Did you enter this morning with a critical head or a compassionate heart? Did you come to meet with the Lord or are you fixated on the externals and those things that are wrong rather than seeing Jesus and His righteousness?

Listen to Jesus’ question and the hurt in these verses:

Mark 3:4–5 “4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

Silence meant they had no recourse or comeback to Jesus’ words. The answer was so obvious. It is not just lawful, but its the loving thing to do is to do good and save life. There was no single response that could have changed the outcome of that question. The answer is so obvious.

And listen to the real issue and the concern Jesus had for this group:

Mark 3:5 “5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

His anger was a righteous anger. He was angry, but noticed he was grieved over the hardness of their hearts.

Ephesians 4:26–27 “26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.”

Let’s know something important here. Jesus grieves when we get upside down with Him and life in general. He loves you so much that He wants you to enjoy His best, to enjoy His creation and live in His abundance.

Matthew 23:37 “37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

Oh listen dear friend this verse says that Jesus wants to grab up and hug and love on the one here today that has the least reasons for anyone to love you. You may have been so mean, so hateful, so bitter, but Jesus wanted to grab up and show compassion to His most stark enemies and He wants to love you too.

Oh dearly beloved, if you find yourself displaced with the Lord right now and you would say to me, I’m not displaced with the Lord, I am displaced and frustrated with the world...with all the love I can offer that is a spiritual problem. Because we can’t love God and not love others. That is His heart and that is His command.

If you sit here this morning and you have a hardened heart to some matter whether in the church or in any relationship for that matter you need to know the danger.

A simple definition of a hardened heart: The gradual loss of the ability to feel what you once felt and see once what you saw clearly.

You can still think... but you stop sensing, you can still argue...but you stop loving. You lose all reasoning.

Ill. Calloused Hand

In our church we have many men from rural life that have calloused hands from working with their hands. Some of our men’s hands are like leather. A lady called me out one day at the back as she felt my hands. My hands are soft-I worked retail for 40 years and worked with the church. No, my hands are not calloused.

You know what callouses are. The hands become tough, thick and you can poke them, stick them, and a person with calloused hands can barely feel it because the nerves are gone and the skin has hardened.

This is what happens to the heart. The Pharisees could watch this suffering man and feel nothing.

The greatest danger is not that your heart breaks... but that it stops breaking.

The Pharisees are a great example in this story that hardness leads to loss of perspective, loss of compassion, and loss of reason.

There is no greater picture of the demise of a hardened heart than in the life of Pharoah.

IN Exodus 7-14 despite the fact that God through the hand of Moses turned the Nile into blood, despite the frogs, the lice, the boils, the flies, the darkness and death of his own people, Pharoah’s heart was so hardened he lost perspective, he lost compassion, there was no reasoning with this man and the first thing you might say is well, God made his heart hard. No, that is not accurate and we need to understand this important truth in the bible.

Hardness of heart is both a human responsibility and a divine judgment.

Many people struggle with the series of verses that speak of the hardening of Pharoah’s heart. And one of those areas that will throw us all a curve ball initially when we first study this area of text is in:

Exodus 4:21 “21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”

God is speaking to Moses in Midian after He asked Jethro permission to leave and go back to Egypt to save God’s people.

The next time God confronts Moses, He is in Egypt with Aaron just before they are to begin their assignment of confronting Pharoah. The Lord provided assurances to Moses that God was in control and He has the plan mapped out.

Later in Exodus 7:3 “3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”

In these two initial verses God is prophesying a future event. God is all knowing and he knew how Pharoah would respond. Meaning God is sovereign. Another word we use is omniscient-all knowing, past, present, and future and dearly beloved, that should sober everyone of us here this morning.

God knows your heart at this very moment. Are you loving or legalistic? Are you critical, or combative, or compassionate? Are you delightful or dutiful or dismayed this morning? Are you free in Christ this morning or internalizing and frustrated with something about or within the church?

Let’s continue:

God offers man free will, the ability to make our own choices. And God, knew initially what Pharoah’s choices would be.

All of these verses are the actions from the initial visit made by Moses to Pharoah and following:

IN Exodus 7:13, 8:15, 8:32, and 9:34 Pharoah hardened his own heart.

Only later does the scripture say:

It is after four times that God acted when Pharoah made the choice to harden his heart on his own accord.

Exodus 10:20 “20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.”

This is an important theological truth and it is a sobering truth. You can continue, and continue, and continue to have a hardened heart and there can be a point of no return to the Lord to His desires for your life.

God’s hardening was a divine Judicial act. God confirmed Pharoah in the path he had already chosen. God gave him over to his own rebellion.

God did not create the rebellion, He confirmed it.

Romans 1:28 “28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”

3. We Must Remain Committed to Christ Despite Corrupt Opposition VV. 6-7

Let’s see where this story lands both emotionally and spiritually. Look at Mark 3:6 with me:

Mark 3:6 “6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.”

Is this not shocking or what? They just saw this man miraculously healed and...instead of celebrating, they are orchestrating. They are conspiring and conniving. They didn’t leave in an attitude of worship, they were entering the warzone.

Notice the word there again, immediately. There was no accidental or impulsive behavior on the part of the Pharisees. Their actions were intentional, well thought out and calculated.

And you know just how interesting it gets? They ally with the Herodians. It is interesting how two stark enemies can pull together when they are both opposed to the same enemy.

Pharisees were religious conservatives.

Herodians were political compromisers aligned with Rome.

They disagreed on almost everything—

But they agreed on one thing:

Jesus had to go.

A compromised heart will unite with anyone if it helps them resist Christ.

Oh dear church please listen this morning:

When the heart becomes so hard, conviction becomes inexistent, truth is grayed, and the only button to push is to war against the opposition.

And a sobering reality is this:

Religion without Christ will always become hostile to Christ.

Here was a group in the church that had rather protect its systems than surrender to the Savior.

Mark 3:7 “7 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea”

Let’s learn from Jesus. He did not quit, He was staying on His quest. Jesus did not quit, He did not compromise, he was staying His mission.

Yes, in the days ahead, did opposition increase it did. But so did His following. The hatred grew...but so did the harvest. And I remind you in the midst of the struggle, an imperfect man in a an imperfect church was healed by the perfection, and holiness and righteousness and compassion of Christ.

Invitation

Which heart do you have this morning? The withered hand or the withered heart? The man with the hand was broken and healed regardless of his initial manner in which he showed up. It didn’t matter because Jesus loves us regardless of our attitudes and hearts.

There was another group there. A group so hardened, so proud, so defiant. The man with the withered hand stretched out his hand and the religiosity clinched their fists. One left restored feeling real revival and liberality. The other group left enraged and plotting.

What’s the difference? One man surrendered to Jesus and the other group chose to stay their hardened course.

What’s our challenge today dear church?

Let’s be real this morning. All of us have been hurt by something inside the church or outside the church. Stay tender in Christ. Stay faithful and allow Jesus to tenderize your heart. Stay committed and push through the struggling times and the Lord will bring restoration.

Why? Because Jesus is still restoring lives today.

Let’s pray.