MARK 10:1-12
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Transcript
INTRO:
INTRO:
Story
“ During his courtship with a young woman named Julia Dent, Ulysses S Grant once took her out for a buggy ride. Coming to a flooded creek spanned by a flimsy bridge, Grant assured Julia that it was safe to cross. “Don’t be frightened,” he said . “I’ll look after you”.
“well,” replied Julia, “I shall cling to you whatever happens”. True to her word, she clung tightly to Grant’s arm as they drove safely across. Grant drove on in thoughtful silence for a few minutes, then cleared his throat and said.. “Julia, you said back there that you would cling to me whatever happened. Would you cling to me for the rest of our lives?” She would, and they were married in August 1848
Jesus will address marriage today. Now other than the leaders, i understand that this is not something that you can relate with just yet.
but we are going to parallel this marriage relationship with our relationship with God.
- See within the bible you will see many verses where God shows His relationship to His people as a marriage relationship.
For your Maker is your husband—
the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
The Lord will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Transition
God’s relationship with you and I is pictured as a marriage relationship. Matter of fact, one of the reasons that God instituted the marriage covenant was for it to be a picture both to us and to the world of what God’s love for His people is, and what a loving relationship with God should look like.
the story we started out with spoke of Julia clinging to her soon to be husband Ulysses S. Grant not only in this moment of crossing the bridge, but she clung to him until the time of death.
Ulysses S Grant would become the General for the Union Army in the Civil War and would become the 18th president of the United States. Julia made a promise early on of clinging or holding tight this man before she knew what hardships, difficulties and pressures they would face… Yet she had made a promise that she kept.
the reason i bring this up is because today in our society there is not only a problem with divorce between a husband and wife, but there is a huge problem of christian people divorcing themselves from a relationship with God.
a promise of clinging and holding on may have been the start of the relationship but after time, after pressure from outside and pressure from within, after hardships...... it has become the norm for people to walk away from that relationship claiming “unreconcilable differences”
i’m not only talking about it being normal to walk away from a marriage, but i am also talking about it being normal for people to walk away from a relationship from God.
Transition
this is what we want to look at and get to the root of the issue. This is what Jesus will address here. So as we go through this passage, we will look at both the immediate application Jesus is addressing in the context of marriage, but we will also look at the spiritual application in our relationship with God. You will see that the principals in marriage and with our relationship with God are very similar.
OUTLINE
I. THOSE THAT COME TO JESUS (V.1-2)
A. JESUS DEPARTS FROM GALILEE (V.1a)
Jesus had been doing ministry in the area of Galilee and Capernaum in chapter 9. Now we are told that he left the area.
Matt. 19 gives us the same story but has some different insights that Mark does not record. Matthew tells us that Jesus left the area of Galilee and went to the area of Judah beyond the Jordan.
B. THOSE THAT GATHER TO JESUS (V.1-2)
we are told a couple of things that were normal in the life of Jesus. We see that as He left the area of Galilee and people either followed or gathered to Him from the area where He was at.
we are also told that Jesus would teach these people just like He always did.
as i was looking at this , i couldn’t help but think of all the people that would be drawn to Jesus during His time of ministry. And there were many different things that drew people to come and see Jesus and to hear Jesus.
We have to understand that not everyone who came, had the right motive or the right heart when they came to Jesus.
Some came because.....
1.THEY HAD PERSONAL NEEDS(Matt.19:1)
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.
At this very gathering there were people who were gathered to Jesus because they were sick, they were in need of pyshical healing.
throughout the gospels we see numberous times when people gather to Jesus because they were in great need, in desperation. They had tried everything under the sun to help their situation and came to the end of themselves. I am reminded of the woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years LK. 8:43-48
i think of Jarius who had a daughter who was sick and eventually died. A moment of great desperation brought this man to his knees before Jesus.
this is always neat when we see people come broken before God understanding their need. God is able to meet people who are in this state , just as Jesus met the needs of these sick here.
2.THOSE WHO WANTED TO BENEFIT FROM HIM
now within the crowds that would follow and come to Jesus were also those who wanted to benefit from what this man was offering. i am reminded of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Not all of these who gathered were believers, but many would gathered to Jesus to see what they could get out of it.
i imagine that those who present when Jesus feed the 5,000 would have the mindset of..... “ man if we get a meal everything we follow this man, lets keep following in order to see what he will do next”
The motive was not necessisarily the right one.
3.THOSE WHO WOULD COME TO TEST HIM (V.2)
Here in verse 2 we see why some people would come to Jesus..... We are told that some would come in order to test him, or to find fault with Him. There would be those who would come in order to catch Jesus saying something against the law or against the Roman empire in order to bind him.
Transition.
whatever the motive was initially it didn’t matter to Jesus. We see that Jesus took the opportunity to teach whoever would come to Him knowing that the spirit of God and the word of God was able to penetrate any heart.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
this is exactly what happen to me. I didn’t grow up in a christian home. I started going to a youth group because my friend who was a girl invited me. So i wanted to be around this girl so i went to the youth group and youth events.
but after time, God’s spirit and His word brought conviction to my heart and the Lord brought me to Himself. So you never know what God is doing in the lives of people around us, even if it looks like they don’t belong here or if they have the wrong motive.
II. THE TEST GIVEN TO JESUS (V.2-9)
A. JESUS IS TESTED WITH A QUESTION (V.2-4)
Now these religious leaders who came to test Jesus pose a question to him. They ask if it is lawful for a man to write a certificate of divorce to his wife? Now in the Gospel of Matt. we get a little more insight, the question is , can you divorce your wife for any reason?
This is a question that Jesus would not be surprised by. What the Pharisees are referencing is a passage in
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
Moses in this passage speaks of an allowance for divorce. A person would be able to write a certificate to his wife if he found some “uncleanness” in her.
this is where the question asked to Jesus comes in.... During Jesus’ day there were 2 main jewish schools of thinking. The school of Haliel and the school of Shimmei . Both of these schools debated on what “uncleanness” meant and when you could get a divorce.
School of Haliel - was a liberal school and they believed basically that you could write a certificate of divorce for any reason. if the wife couldn’t cook, or if she was rude, of if you found a prettier wife..... All these things were a part of uncleanness to them
School of Shimmei- was more conservative and they held that uncleanness was speaking about a sexual uncleanness.
Transition
now Jesus understanding asks the Pharisees” what did Moses command you ?”
Jesus is drawing their attention to the law that was given by God to Moses. In other words, Jesus was trying to draw their attention to what God had to say about the matter , not man’s opinion.
the Pharisees answer..... “Moses allowed the certificate of divorce.”
B. JESUS REVEALS THE TRUTH ABOUT MARRIAGE(V.5-9)
Jesus now brings the point to the Pharisees. He draws their attentions to 2 main things.
Drawings their attention to ......
1. GOD’S ORIGINAL PLAN FOR MARRIAGE (GEN. 2:24-25)
And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
God is the one who created man and woman. It is also God who created the covenant of marriage. After creating Adad, God saw Adam and knew that it was not good for him to be alone.
God understood the need within man, and the need for a partner to come alone side of him and to be a helper to him.
lets look quickly at God’s plan for marriage
A. MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN A MAN AND WOMAN (MK. 10:6-7)
But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
Jesus tells us what God Himself said. That marriage was between a man and a woman.
Since God created humans, since God created the institution of marriage, then it is God who can define what marriage is and what marriage is not.
you have people today in our culture arguing and pushing for the right to marry a person of the same sex, man with man and woman with woman.
they argue that it is about human rights..... human rights has noting to do with marriage. You can do whatever you want with whoever you want, that is having freedom and rights as a human....
but you cannot come and change an institution that God created and defined for us, just because you don’t agree with it.
so understand that marriage is between a man and woman.
B. MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN( MK.10:8)
God designed marriage for more than just having a helper to clean the house or to help with the kids.
but God designed marriage to be an intimate relationship that brings unity and oneness.
this is why the act of sex is only allowed in marriage. Because God designed this act to be a time of being one with your spouse.
The world around us tells us something else. They say you can be with whoever you want, whether your married or not.
C. MARRIAGE IS FOREVER (MK. 10:9)
notice that Jesus says that God’s original plan was for a husband and a wife not to be separated, no divorce.
this is putting an end to the question that these pharisees were trying to trap Moses with. Jesus isn’t worried about the interpretation of man, but is interested in what God said.
It says that God’s plan is for a husband and wife to stay together , but man is the one who will try to separate it.
transition
separate speaks of dividing or of departing.... of creating space..
this is exactly what happens in a marriage. When a husband and wife no longer spend time together, no longer are unified, they begin to allow space between them....
space creates an opportunity for something else to come in our lives and to take our attention or affection away. This is exactly what Satan is looking for, space to work within our marriage and within our lives.
this is exactly what happens in our lives, in our relationship with God. Just as in marriage, God longs to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him, for us to be in unity with Him.
but what can happen is that we can little by little stop spending time with Him, we can little by little allow space in our relationship with Him, and all of a sudden ....
that space made room for something or someone to come into my life and begin to take away my affection and my attention. it can lead me away from God.
and it leads to the next part we see Jesus talk about.
2. MAN’S ALLOWANCE IN MARRIAGE ( MK. 10:5)
Jesus tells the Pharisees that the reason Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be given was not because it was God’s plan.... but because of the hardness of heart.
-Hardness of heart speaks of becoming hard because of lack of moisture .
the inference is that there is a change in conditions because of a change in exposure .
In this case the illustration is as soil. Soil that would be watered would naturally be soft , workable , would be great ground for producing crops and fruit. At some point if the water would be taken away, with time, exposure to hot temperatures and hard conditions….. the natural bi-product of that would be …. Hard soil.
Transition
- the spiritual inference is that a heart was once exposed to the moister of the Holy Spirit and the water of the word, but the removal of these things created a hard heart.
- for these religious leaders they had the word, they read the word and tried to keep the word, but their reading and approaching God was not based on a relationship but was based on a set of works. Therefore there was a distance from God, no real relationship with Him.
there was a lack of the Holy Spirit working within their lives. This lead the people of God having hard hearts.
having hard hearts lead to bad choices, choices that were not according to God’s will but according to their own will.
Application
this is what has happened in our culture and in our churches. People have removed themselves from a real and personal relationship with God and have left space. Which has given the opportunity for all kinds of things to enter their lives.
the philosophies of the world, the thought process of the world, selfish desires, lusts, desire for pleasure..... and what you have is a world that has allowed divorce to become normal, when it was never a part of God’s plan.
Question
HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN ?
A. A HARDEND HEART IS CULTIVATED (V.5)
Removing ourselves from God, from God’s word, from God’s presence . we fail to be filled with the Holy Spirit like...
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
B. A SPACE BEWEEN IS ALLOWED (V.9)
C. A BAD DECISION IS MADE
Application
this is not just in marriage, this is in our daily spiritual lives. Every time you and i make bad choices and are disobedient to God’s word..... it is because we have started down this path. Somewhere we removed ourselves from God and His word, we have began to get a hard heart, we no longer look at the bible as the truth of God....\
but we begin to look at the bible as a book of opinions where i can pick and chose what i want to follow.
this type of heart and mindset will always lead to a distant relationship from God and will lead to making bad choices.
III. THE FURTHER CLARIFICATION OF JESUS (V.10-12)
the disciples had question about this so they asked again.
Jesus gives us insight into when divorce is allowed. in MT.19
- ADULTERY IS THE ONE ALLOWANCE GIVEN IN DIVORCE (MT. 19:9)
CONCLUSION
Is there currently space between you and God? If there is, what are the things that are filling that space?
Have i removed myself from God’s word and God’s presence? Am i in danger of being hard hearted?