Mark 12

Do we need to do a new thing?

Context and Frame Sermon

Try a new thing Illustration. Job, Sport? We are always looking for a “New Thing”. Cancel, binge watching culture. 1.5 years in a job is not long - Young People *Want to make a difference* - Well today, maybe we all need to try a new thing… With Jesus

Today’s message: Maybe it’s time for a New Thing

Jesus has come to Jerusalum | Changed the entire perception | Crowd | Thought he was going where?

Preached to them | Who? | Note the difference | Sanhedrin - jewish Authority comprised of Chief Preists, Teachers and Elders.

Later, all of the religious enemies, who hate each other, challenge Jesus.

Context leading into the reading

Last Public Ministry | Given them EVERY opportunity to come to kingdom but rejected | Tried to arrest him | Conspired against him | eventually crucify him | This is his last message to get them to do a NEW THING.

Are we there? Is Jesus Begging you? Is it time for a new thing?

Mark 12:1–12 ESV

And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

Jesus builds on imagery from Isaiah 51 - Prophet speaks about destruction to those that bear fruit for God |

In This Parable, God = Owner.

isreal = vineyard.

Jewis Leaders =tenents,

servants =prophets and

jesus =Son

Parable links rejection of prophets in OT and their rejection of God’s son who stands before them | Irony is great reversal coming | They will kill the son and be killed in turn | Jesus even does so quoting OT scripture

Sometimes it’s hard to Follow. Coming back from Melbourne, Change Flight earlier. If I’d just follow instructions. Did I still get home? Yes? was it harder, yes? Maybe it’s time I did a New Thing

These people had the instructions, we..have the instructions.

These leaders couldn’t arrest because of Crowd (80K there who called him king) |

Jesus is calling them Accountable and I believe in this day and age, culture he is calling us accountable | what NEW THING? | what CONVICTION? | It’s called the Spirit

Taxes to Ceaser

The story then shows Jesus teaching about taxes, there is too much here to unpack today, but he is seperating here church and state and right now we have the herdians join. So you have Herodians, Pharisees, Scibes, saducees and the high priests.

who then test him with the greatest commandment.

Now we see challenge from the Sadducees

Jesus is smashing all the denominations today.

Context: Saducees not believe in Resurrection | Only Torah | No spiritual beings | testing him with Law found in OT | They are so confident they even assume Jeses as “teacher” | They present a riddle where one wife would have 7 husbands after a range of deaths and jesus responds with;

Mark 12:24–27 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

We worship the God of living | Your justice and reward are not in this word | God raises you to a life GREATER than this one | They doubt resurection and doubted God’s power

Do we do the same? have we been made new? when saved, you are made alive. Past sins forgiven, adopted into the kingdom

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive

Is it time to start living for a living God?

Maybe, like the Saducees, you’re clinging onto something…some old thing you did from your old life?

If you do not have eternal perspective you will chase Money, Sex or Power to fulfill you. Pride and Ego will be your enemy.

We then come to the greatest commandment

Mark 12:28–34 ESV

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Which is the greatest commandment? Not from 10 but from 613 commandments | Scribes wrote the traditional law |

This question different from rest | Done with open heart? How do we know? Its an open question | They are steering away from legalism | Jesus came to fulfill and show intent of the law, which is love and relationship |

Jesus is saying love Vertically, laterally, and inwardly…in that order.

Jesus doesn’t say “Love yo’self” he says “Deny yo’self, Love ME and I will HELP you LOVE others”

Get this mixed up, our lives just become a mess.

Is this your new thing?

Morning give our life to the Lord

Jesus then teaches them that he is the Son of Christ, before offering a warning against religion and teachers before something amazing happens.

The Widows Offering

let’s read

We see religious leaders response | Now we see the Widows reponse

Mark 12:41–44 ESV

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

| What is happening here?

Context: Widow in That time | no Husband | No son to speak of | A life of Poverty | A life of shameful, unspeakable hurtful ways to make money | or Beg | Or simply die of starvation. | Isolaion

Let’s step back to Mark 11...Her hero | King | Savior | Marching in | destroy the romans ,destroy the tradition | She was about to be Set free from a life of poverty | Publich Shaming | Solitutde | Depression |

she was #pumped!!!!

And then Jesus did what? | Flipped tables | Went to the temple | Abused the Jewish People | What about her though?

She must of been Angry at Jesus for not coming through | She must of been furious

No…She went, and she gave. and she didn’t give from her overflow, she is giving from her…poverty. This woman is not even Tithing - a Tithe is the bare minimum that God is asking for back…it’s all his..she is sacraficial giving. It’s a new thing for her. She is giving all that she has.

Why? | Trust. It was Trust in Jesus. That even though she is in a storm, Jesus is right there with her. Maybe your new thing today is Trust. Trust in Jesus. She knows rewards are not in this life. Why don’t we?

----

God’s greatest commandment” Love him vertically, love around us, love inward. In that environment, God can work.

Jesus is saying to widdow | Outwardly poor is rich, like Jesus, looks outwardly Poor is Son of God, Rich in Heaven.

Skydiving - One Step out of the Plane, let go!

Conclusion

God leads us to small Opportunities that have a huge impact.

man on plane illustration

Widow 2 copper coins | Written in history books to teach us.

What’s the small step that God is asking you to take today in your new thing?

Start with wiggling your toes.

Maybe it’s time for new thing | Maybe dormant | Maybe it’s time for us, as a body to do a new thing? as a church to do a new thing?

Greatest call, build kingdom of god | Be ordinary Christian | Simple Call: Give what you have | to be an ordinary Christian in an extraordinary way. | Let everyone know about hte kingdom and give all to Jesus

When was the last time we sat in that? | All you have been given | All that you have | When last time on FIRE for lord |

Don’t swap focus…for busy. Ask God to break your heart for what breaks his heart.

Now is time to build church | get engaged

We as a Church will start discipling those that want to be discipled | We are going to start reaching community | We are going to start helping the marginalised | We are not going to be just part of the community but a light IN the community.

We will not insult God with small thinking. | Give extradonarily generously | We will be ridiculously kind and forgiving | We will hold each other to account | We will pull each other up.

Isaiah 58:6–11 ESV

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

CHURCH what can you do? What is your new thing? Let’s start a new thing together and reach people for Chirst

**Prayer**

**communion**