Mark 10:1-16
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Transcript
Big Idea:
Big Idea:
Prioritizing God’s truth will set me free.
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning everyone!
For many of the students in our town, this week was full of finals. My oldest son (George) was studying for his math final on Thursday. When I was at DGroup, I got a text saying, “Dad, I need your help studying when I get home.”
Hey - God is still in the miracle-working business, amen? For my oldest son to ask me for help - that only happens by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Anyways, I was always good at math growing up. I mean… my last name is Lim. So, I was excited to help him when I go home! But I’m gonna be honest.. I’ve forgotten a lot of stuff over the past 30 years! He had this one problem that had both a negative integer or base AND a negative exponent. It looked a little bit like this, but with no parenthesis.
I tried to guess how to do it, but got the problem wrong. I had to google how to do it because they don’t have math books anymore. And three things came to mind...
I need to relearn how to do math because I had forgotten a lot or what I thought I knew... was wrong.
I need to re-prioritize steps when processing the problem. Remember, “orders of operation.” One reason I got the answer wrong is I wasn’t processing in the correct order.
I had to learn things for the first time. For some reason, I don’t think I’ve ever learned negative exponents. And I finished high school in AP Calculus 2.
And these three things coincidentally relate to our passage today. So much of what we get wrong in life is because...
We need to be reminded of the truth, because we’ve forget it or what we thought we knew is wrong.
Sometimes we need to reprioritize things in our life according to truth.
Sometimes we need to learn truth for the first time.
Currently, most of you know, we’re going thru the Book of Mark. And today we begin chapter 10 where it says..
And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
Exegesis:
Exegesis:
Couple things to point out...
Last week, Jesus was in Galilee, the region of Israel where He grew up. And He’s been talking to His disciples about how He was going to die and rise again. But now, He travels south because… this is His final trip to Jerusalem. It’s time to go to the cross. And the common path to Jerusalem went thru Judea and into the territory beyond the Jordan.
But the emphasis of the passage is on the last part of the verse, where it says, “again, as was His custom, He taught them.” This is what Jesus does. He teaches truth. And the reason why He teaches truth is because it’s not just in math that we forget, learn incorrectly, prioritize wrong, or just never learned. This happens in all areas of life. Only the consequences in life are more than just a bad grade.
Let’s do a little spiritual equation to show how dangerous the absence of truth in our lives can be...
First off, Jesus (God in the flesh) said, “I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life.” (Jn 14:6)...
God, the Creator of life, is truth. - that’s who He is! Therefore, it stands to reason that everything He SAYS is truth. Jesus (the 2nd Person of the Trinity) speaking to God the Father (the 1st Person of the Trinity) says, “Your word is truth.,” (Jn. 17:17). And a logical conclusion for us is, “If we want to live the way we were created to live, we need to live by God’s truth.”
But Jesus says something scary in John 8...
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
In other words, when you do not live by God’s truth, there is a problem. And what’s the problem?
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
Ouch. The answer to our spiritual equation is:
When we don’t live by God’s truth, we live by the devil’s lies.
And that has consequences because the devil isn’t our friend. He ain’t looking our for our good. He doesn’t have a hope or future for us. The only thing He desires is to “kill, steal, and destroy.” Therefore, a life built on lies is headed towards destruction.
But God doesn’t want that! Which is why Jesus says, “but I have come to give you life more abundantly!” And one way He does that is by teaching us truth.
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And that’s why Jesus teaches us truth. His truth sets us free to live as God intended!
Moving on...
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
Even though Jesus came to teach, not everyone comes to learn. In this case, the Pharisees came to “test Him,” or rather trap Him. Nevertheless, what we’re going to see is Jesus is going to teach them anyways.
But it makes me think, maybe some of you came today not desiring to be taught by Jesus. Guess what… too bad. Jesus is gonna teach you anyways, because God’s word is alive and knows exactly what you need to hear today. However, the results of His teaching are up to you.
Will you receive His truth or believe the devil’s lies?
There’s a few possible reasons why the Pharisees ask this question to trap Jesus...
Jesus was known for teaching things that appeared to be unorthodox. And it’s not that Jesus wasn’t teaching truth - He is the truth - but His teaching often differed from man’s truth, or when men incorrectly interpreted God’s truth. And here, the Pharisees weren’t asking for Jesus to teach them about marriage, but rather hoping they could trap Jesus as publicly teaching something that appeared to contradict Moses, who God used to write the Law. In doing so, it could potentially turn the crowds against Jesus.
The second reason is tied to their current location. Remember, they are “beyond the Jordan” in Herod’s territory. And if you remember back in Mark 6, King Herod had married Herodias, who had chosen to divorced King Herod’s brother so she could be with him instead (say gross!). And John the Baptist called him out for it, which resulted in John being beheaded. And it’s possible the Pharisees hope Jesus’ teaching on divorce will offend King Herod, and once again result in another death - the death of Jesus.
But you can’t trap Jesus. Jesus is like Barry Sanders or Tyreek Hill (football season is coming… you’re going to have to get used to me using sports examples again - sorry)… but it’s like, you think you got him, but you don’t. Jesus knows what they’re doing and is like, “You trying to jam me up, but I’m gonna teach you instead.”
He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”
In other words, what does God’s word say about divorce?
They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”
Now, this answer comes from the book of Deuteronomy, which says...
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
When reading this verse, the key word is “indecency.” It’s easy to read this and think, “Oh, so if a man finds out that his wife is cheating on him (something indecent), he can divorce her.”
And that would make sense because Jesus allows for that in His teaching on divorce in Matthew 19, but...
It doesn’t make sense to interpret “indecency” that way in Deuteronomy because the Law already had more serious consequences for sexual immorality and adultery in marriage - things harsher than a certificate of divorce.
Additionally, that definition of “indecency” doesn’t seem to fit what Jesus says here in Mark 10...
And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
You see what I mean? It doesn’t make sense that if my wife is unfaithful in marriage, God allows for a divorce, but only because... MY... HEART... IS... HARD?
Now, what fits better is how the NLT translates Deuteronomy 24:1, “Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please HIM, having discovered something WRONG with HER...”
Now considering what Jesus says here in Mark 10:5, it makes more sense that we interpret “indecency” as this married man decides, because of the hardness of HIS heart (by the way - we can also say, because your heart is all dried up)… because of that… he decides he WANTS to get a divorce, not because his wife did anything wrong, but because HE BELIEVES THE LIE that there’s something better out there. He’s gotten bored of his wife and is looking for something new and exciting.
Therefore, Moses is not giving permission to divorce, but rather making allowance… not to give freedom for the man who wants the divorce to move on and pursue his sinful passions, but rather TO PROTECT THE WIFE. In that ancient culture, a divorced wife was a vulnerable person. This certificate insured her community knew it wasn’t her fault. That she was in good standing and an honorable woman. It was the dude who was a scumbag.
The problem was, by the Jesus’ days, the religious leaders had embraced a scumbag-friendly interpretation of what Moses wrote on divorce. They believed...
A man could divorce his wife for whatever reason as long as he gave the certificate.
Once he did, he was free to remarry as he wished.
It was a very loose, dishonorable, worthless view of marriage - like marriage is no big deal. It’s just a formality, a thing to do or undo, as you please. Sound familiar?
But Jesus was like, “I don’t think so… how YOU view marriage... is INCORRECT. And that WASN’T Moses’ command!”
And for a second, I think the Pharisee thought, “We got him! He has publicly disagreed with the Moses! He contradicted God’s word!”
Not so fast, because look what He says...
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
This is a quote from Genesis… and guess what… God used Moses to write the book of Genesis too! Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Therefore, Jesus isn’t contradicting Moses, He’s teaching what Moses truly believed about marriage and divorce, and not just what He allowed because of the sinfulness of man.
Because God’s purpose for marriage is between a man and woman, and for that marriage to be lifelong, because the two have become one. Where in the eyes of God, they are one unified flesh. It is a holy union between two people that was never intended to be broken or undone. Furthermore, it isn’t something to jump in and out of, but rather valued as holy, and treated with honor and lifelong commitment. Which is why Jesus finishes with...
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
And guess what, since God is truth, and He is the creator of marriage, He alone gets to define it. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. If our perspective on marriage doesn’t line up with God’s teaching of it, then what we learned didn’t come from God. It’s based on a lie.
God is serious about marriage! And that’s what Jesus found an opportunity to teach here. He even adds to that seriousness in the next couple of verses...
And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
How do you view marriage? Does your view align with God’s truth about marriage? And how is that impacting your life?
Before I move on… maybe some of you think I’m teaching on this subject as a response to current cultural practices. But honestly, I’m not. I mean… I’m not afraid to. We at The River Church believe and teach the Bible. And the Bible has truths about marriage. And the Bible also has truths about how we are to LOVE all people. And since both of those are part of God’s truth, we embrace and fully intend to practice both!
But the cool thing about teaching thru a book of the Bible is I don’t get to pick the topic. I preach whatever passage is next. And this is where we are at. That being said, let me challenge you… if the truth in this passage stands out to you, maybe Jesus is taking the opportunity to teach you - right now - about something you forgot, learned incorrectly, and never learned at all.
Now, the next story seems a little disconnected, but I believe Mark intentionally included for a reason...
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Just like they didn’t culturally value marriage, they didn’t value children either. That doesn’t mean people didn’t love their children, but adults often viewed their interests above the younger generation. And when people brought children (which the phrase can refer to anywhere from infants to teens) to Jesus, the disciples saw them as an inconvenience and intrusion. Like, “Hey! Get these kids out of here. Don’t bother the Master! He’s too busy for such insignificant young humans.”
And while we may not view children exactly the same way today, we still under value them...
We say things like, “Children should be seen not heard.” I’m guilty of that one.
We don’t always make the right decisions in preserving children’s lives. Apply that however you want. Rather, let God speak to you about how to apply that.
And even in church, we don’t always treat kids like they belong in God’s house. Too noisy. Too messy. Eat all the good hospitality snacks after service.
But is that the way we should live? Is our current treatment of children based on God’s truth? Well once again, Jesus uses this opportunity to teach us His truth on children… And to Him...
Children belong in His presence. Jesus embraces them and wants to bless them. Is that our response to children too?
Children have a full share in the Kingdom of God. Applying that to our context, this is the River Kids’ church as much as it is our church. They matter!
Children are an example of how WE (as adults) should be if we want to enter and operate in the Kingdom of God. Their example of joy, dependence, trust, forgiveness, faith, and ability to receive by grace, teach us things we have forgotten are truly important according to God’s truth.
God’s truth is: Children teach us how the Kingdom of God should be.
What’s the point?
What’s the point?
But as I begin to close, let me ask, “What’s the point of this passage?” Is it just a teaching on marriage and children? I don’t think so. I think Mark (inspired by the Holy Spirit) is giving us a greater truth....
We started today talking about God’s truth on marriage and divorce. And as important as that is, I don’t think it’s the main point… but I do think part of the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee can help us see the point...
And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
He goes onto say...
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
To summarize the truth being taught, Jesus say, “I have a given truth (on this matter specifically, marriage and divorce), but you reject My truth because your hearts are hard.
Then, remember when Jesus said...
And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Studying the language a little bit reveals Jesus is saying, “Whoever divorces [their spouse] and marries another is CHOOSING FOR THEMSELVES (THEIR OWN SINFUL DESIRES) to commit adultery.” They reject God’s truth on marriage. Instead, they believe the lie that the institution of marriage doesn’t matter and divorce is an easy fix to continue “following our heart.”
And to be clear, this is not an argument against divorce when there is sexual immorality, adultery, or abuse in marriage. God’s truth is against all of those and Jesus confirms that. But the potential of those things do not give us permission to treat marriage outside of God’s truth. God loves marriage and hates divorce. That is the truth-standard.
Furthermore, look at the details Matthew’s account gives of this same passage...
And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
They were like, “Master, we’re having trouble accepting your truth on lifelong marriage. In that case, we’ll just never get married.” But they rejected God’s truth because they had hard hearts too… And we saw that when in verse 13...
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.
Didn’t they remember that Jesus had recently taught them...
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
The reason they didn’t receive the children in Mark 10 is because their hard hearts rejected God’s truth. They chose the world’s definitions and cultural values instead...
What do I believe the point of this passage is?
It truly is a teaching on marriage and divorce.
It truly is a teaching on the how to view children in God’s Kingdom.
But more than that, it is a teaching that...
God is the one who defines truth.
But our hard hearts often reject it.
And our life decisions reflect it.
We are a sinful and broken people. Thank God Jesus headed to the Cross for us!
Response:
Response:
So, as we close, how do we respond? Well, like the “order of operations,” we need to prioritize how we process the world. And Jesus said...
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
When you don’t do this, the answer is gonna be incorrect. And for many of us...
We’ve never learned what God’s said - what His truth is. So we process this world wrong and get wrong life answers.
Or, we’ve forgotten what He has said and need to be reminded.
Or, we’ve assumed we know what right (maybe because someone taught us something that made sense, but wasn’t God’s truth), and so we just went with that. But again… the answer keeps coming out wrong.
The way to get the correct answer in life is to put God first. To prioritize His truth. To listen to His teaching and let BIBLICAL TRUTH shape your life.
So maybe your response is you need to commit to reading your Bible more.
Maybe you need to commit to coming to church more because you know God’s truth is going to be taught.
Maybe you need to throw away the lies in your life that lead you to sinful living, and surrender to Jesus and Lord and Savior - who is the way, the truth, and the life, and died for your sins so you can be forgiven. You need to receive this gift of grace like a like child!
Another way we can respond is to consider how we treat the kids in our church family. You heard Anna talk about it earlier...
We got kids who need help going to Berea.
And these kids are going because it’s fun, but it’s also a week when they get to dedicate their lives to seeking God first. Where THEY can learn to prioritize God and His truth.
Can you help them do that today? Because Jesus said - the Kingdom of God belongs to them. If we believe that truth, we’ll prioritize and sacrifice to make sure they can go into Jesus’ arms so He can bless them at Berea.
Let’s pray...
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