The Hard Heart

Father, we confess before you that we are very good at seeing specks in other people's eyes

and not very good at seeing logs in our own eyes.

We confess before you that we are very good at flattering ourselves

too much to detect or hate our own sin.

And we are also very good at hanging on to the sins of others.

And Father, we confess before you as well that we can say this before you,

but it's hard for us to recognize it when we're doing it.

Lord, as we come to gather around your word,

we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction within each one of our hearts.

Bring your word home to us.

Deliver us from self-deception that we might no longer be deceived,

but know the truth about you and about ourselves and about the world,

and that we might live in truth and freedom to bring you glory.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Is it me or is my thing too close or is it just my...

Everything's fine?

Just my hearing which is going or something?

Okay, well that's fine.

There's all sorts of things breaking on me.

So if hearing is just one more thing, that's just...

That's life.

Long...

Oh, I better turn on my timer.

A long time ago, long, long, long time ago, I was actually...

I was in graduate school for sociology, and sort of the area that I was best at,

I took four graduate-level courses in statistics,

and so I got hired by a couple of professors at the university to help them.

They weren't as good with the statistical aspect of it, the statistical analysis of it,

and so they hired me to help them because they were working on a project.

And part of the project was about comparing government transfer payments

or government programs where the government either adjusts taxes or gives you money

and how that affected income inequality.

And they didn't just want to have a sense about how that was going on in Canada.

They wanted to compare Canada to other advanced capitalist societies like Canada.

So, you know, Sweden and Norway and the United States and Great Britain and France and Japan,

a variety of different countries were all in this,

and I was doing the statistical, helping them with the statistical analysis.

So we do the first run through the statistical analysis,

and lo and behold, when we start to compare the different nations,

the United States was in about the middle.

And now I'm telling you that because I found this profoundly disappointing and upsetting

because going into it, I was convinced that the United States would be the worst

because everybody knows that the United States, the American government,

hates poor people, doesn't care about them, doesn't give them medical help,

you know, and on and on and on.

And that's just where I...

So we do the first run through the statistics,

and it comes out the United States is about the middle.

And I think that can't be right.

That has to be wrong.

So, you know, I'm clever enough with that type of stuff,

and I, you know, I adjust some variables,

and I look at different things,

and I go deep diving into some of the other data, etc.

We rerun things after making some adjustments,

and lo and behold, the United States is about the middle, not the bottom.

Not even close to the bottom, about the middle.

So I have a discussion with the professors.

We also say there's something must be not quite right about this data,

and we have a bit of a discussion.

I do some more models and everything.

And at the end of it, the United States was about the middle.

By the way, this isn't... I'm not leading up to a joke.

I'm leading up to a confession.

Because of this, I was just thinking, I'm going to tell you this story.

It's about like I'm going to tell you a joke.

But no, no, I'm not... I come up with a confession.

So it's still in the middle, and I'm convinced that this just can't be right

because everybody knows that the American political system and cultural system

isn't good for the poor.

And I'm just, you know, puzzled about it.

Anyway, I'm a Christian, and the next day I'm doing my morning devotions.

I'm reading my Bible and I'm praying.

Now, if I was a charismatic, I'd tell you that God spoke to me.

But because I'm not a charismatic, I don't know what exactly I would say to you

because probably the charismatics are right.

But it was almost as if there was a visible voice, almost like not a visible voice.

That would be weird.

An audible voice that came to me that said,

George, you hate Americans.

Now, me being a very devout Christian, as soon as I have this sense

that God is almost speaking to me saying, George, you hate Americans,

being a very devout Christian, I immediately argue with God.

In other words, I tell him that's not true.

I don't hate Americans.

I'm, you know, I'm all for justice.

I'm all for equality.

And I start to think of all these reasons why that can't possibly be true.

But it was that sense that continued to be there.

And I realized I hate Americans.

It was very upsetting to realize that for who knows how many years in my life,

I'd carried around this prejudice against Americans.

I mean, good grief, they'd never done anything against me even once.

Only a few times I'd ever been to the United States.

It was really, it was nice.

I went to Cape Cod, you know, old Orchard Beach.

And here I am, I'm prejudiced.

And that's what was happening with my study, is I wasn't actually interested in the truth.

I wanted to do whatever I could to find them bad.

Now, I share this because what I'm describing is a human problem.

And the Bible text that we're going to look at today addresses this human problem in a very,

very interesting way.

So it would be a great help to me if you would open up your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 3,

Mark 3:1–19

verse 1 to 19.

And let's look at these stories, especially the first one, but all three of them,

as it speaks to this human problem of unrecognized prejudice or unrecognized hatred,

or in fact what the Bible is going to call hardness of heart.

And here's how it goes.

Now, just sort of pause here for a second.

So they've gone to the synagogue on the Sabbath.

So Jesus has gone there to worship.

He's gone there to, in theory, that's why everybody has gone there.

They've gone to be in God's presence, to hear the Torah, the Tanakh read, to hear it explained,

to sing praises to God, to confess their sins, just to be in God's presence.

That's what they've gone to do.

But actually, for some of the people who are there, they've gone to accuse Jesus.

And the word accuse here is from the legal word.

They go to find evidence to find him guilty.

They don't go to find evidence to try to figure out who he is and what he's doing.

They have only one purpose, which is to find evidence that will get him in trouble.

And obviously, it's not trouble with the law in the sense of Rome.

Rome couldn't care less what happens in the synagogue.

But in terms of, you know, while Rome obviously had a huge intrusive presence,

most of their daily life was ruled by the Jewish community.

And that's the community that they wanted to get Jesus in trouble with.

And what we see here, that here we are, they're all gathered in theory to worship,

but inwardly, some of them are actually only there to get Jesus in trouble,

is a very, very profoundly human problem.

If you think about it, how many churches in Alabama would have people singing

how great thou art with their lips, but in their minds,

they're planning the lynching after the church service.

Or that night.

They're in church, hearing the Bible, singing God's praises,

but really what's going on inside of them is planning the lynching.

We're very familiar, unfortunately, that some people, some Muslims, go to a mosque,

and in the midst of their prayers, they're planning a terrorist attack.

It's not reported as much, but people can be in a Hindu temple in India,

and they're planning some type of anti-Christian or anti-Muslim action

later on that day or that week.

Or to make it more secular, they're gathered for a rally to protect the pipelines

and to protect the environment, but they urge the bombing of pipelines.

Oh, sorry, that one got cut out, didn't it, by the press?

But, you know, it's an even deeper problem than that.

It's easy to, and that's why I added the last one about the environment issue,

because it's easy to say, yeah, yeah, that's the problem with religion,

that's the problem, oh, one moment, that's the problem with caring for the environment.

But it's also a deeper problem than that.

There's something about this which is very, very human,

a deep human problem in another aspect.

How many people have thought, how many couples have thought

they're going to have a very, very pleasant romantic moment with the other person,

and one of you is having a very romantic moment,

but you can tell that the other person is, who knows,

maybe they're even thinking about another woman or a man,

maybe they're thinking about what they should do at work,

or how much they hate their mother, or something that they want to do, or sports.

How many couples have had a conversation to discuss very, very deep issues,

and at some point in time the woman realizes that the man is actually watching the television

whenever she takes her eyes off of him, because he's watching the football game.

How many times have all of us dealt with people who are very nice to our face,

but you know that inwardly, you find out later on,

that they were very, very, very, very nice to your face,

but they were actually thinking about how to ruin you.

You see, on one level, the Bible is the most profound critique of religion all the time,

but if we just think of it as purely a critique of religion,

we're going to miss the fact, you see, that what happens is that religion doesn't solve the problem

of the hardness of our heart.

As you think about these other times where you should be here for one purpose,

a good purpose, like applauding or rewarding a good employee or a good boss,

or you should be here for a romantic moment or for a good conversation,

or to be concerned about the environment,

but actually at the same time, underneath all of that, what's going on beneath the words

is plans that go completely and utterly against the good purpose of the gathering.

So what will Jesus do?

What is the insight that Jesus begins to give to this human problem,

not just a religious problem?

Well, let's continue reading.

Verse 3.

And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand,

Come here.

And Jesus said to them,

Now he's talking to the room,

but he's not just talking to some of the people who don't know what's going on.

They're actually just there to hear the Torah read and to sing God's praises.

But he, Jesus talks to those that there's this other thing going on in their hearts and their minds.

Verse 4.

He says,

Is it lawful?

And really when it says here lawful,

we should really replace,

I mean, lawful is the right word,

but he's not talking about Roman law.

He's talking about biblical.

He's talking,

Is it biblical?

Is it biblical on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,

to save life or to kill?

But they were silent.

And Jesus looked around at them with anger,

grieved.

Notice this again.

I'll read again verse 5.

He looked around at them with anger,

grieved at their hardness of heart.

And he said to the man,

Stretch out your hand.

And the man stretched it out,

and his hand was restored.

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him,

how to destroy Jesus.

What is hardness of heart?

Well, hardness of heart is being closed off.

Closed off from good things,

because you're closed off from good things to pursue your own ego,

to pursue your own pride,

to pursue your own prejudice,

to pursue your own racism,

to pursue your greed,

to pursue your lust,

your envy.

You're closed off.

You're closed off from the kids that are right with you,

having a family time,

because even though you're with your children,

for family time,

in your mind,

you're raging about your dad,

or you're raging about your boss,

or you're

consumed with how you can get that promotion,

or to make more money.

Hardness of heart is being closed off from good things,

like intimacy and justice and love and truth,

to be fixated on those wrong things

that are grasping the heart.

And in our culture,

echo chambers are hardness of heart

magnified by social media and the press.

Because when in doubt,

you can always go to your favorite Twitter feed,

or your Instagram feed,

or your TikTok feed,

or your YouTube channel,

and you can fuel the hardness of your heart

with many,

many other people.

And part of the thing about the hardness of the heart

is that not only does it close you off

to the things like truth,

and justice,

and love,

and compassion,

and intimacy,

but it makes you self-righteous.

I mean,

those Pharisees in this particular story,

they leave feeling virtuous.

Let me tell you about myself.

I felt very virtuous about my anti-Americanism.

I wouldn't have said I was anti-American.

I would have said I was prophetic.

I would say that,

unlike all these other benighted Christians,

I was reading the book of Amos.

I was reading the book of Micah.

I was reading Isaiah.

I was listening to Jesus,

and all these other people,

completely and utterly opposed

to this society,

not opposed to this society to the south of me.

They're the ones who are living in illusion.

They're the ones who have their eyes closed.

I'm the one consumed with justice.

I'm the one concerned for the poor,

not recognizing that what I had

was a great self-deception

and self-blindness.

My hardness of heart

made me more self-righteous,

more claiming a higher purpose.

And part of the hardness of the heart

is shown here so powerfully

just in this simple little story.

I mean, you think about it for a second.

If Shane had the ability,

God gave him the healing ability

that you could come to him,

and he would pray for you,

and you have an arm which is bent,

somehow or another deformed,

and because it's deformed

and connected with the deformity,

I mean, I have skinny little wrists.

I should have got a picture up there

of the rock,

his wrist or something like that,

but, you know,

some skinny little wrist

that's just basically like two twigs,

and there's no flesh to it whatsoever.

And could you just imagine

that you're in a room,

like you come here to worship the God

who's the creator and sustainer

of all of all things,

and Jesus is there,

and he performs a miracle,

and you all know going in,

because it's a small community.

Everybody knew Joseph or whatever his name.

They don't tell you his name.

I'm just picking a good Jewish name,

Joseph.

They all knew Joseph.

They all knew that his arm was bent and twisted,

that his hand would hardly work at all,

and that there was absolutely no flesh there,

and when he takes his arm out,

good grief,

the bones are straight,

and there's muscle.

It would be as if all of a sudden

Shane prayed,

and my wrist looks like the rock's wrist,

not like the wrist I'm stuck with.

If Shane could do that,

he could pay a thousand dollars.

People would pay thousands of dollars to watch it,

and they're right there in the room,

and that happens.

In good grief,

you'd think that they'd go,

whoa, maybe I'm wrong about Jesus.

Like, whoa.

What's happening?

Like, who is he?

How could that happen?

Like, that's mind-blowing

to see something like that.

And yet,

all they get as a result of that remarkable miracle

is a deeper desire to destroy Jesus.

You have a perfect picture of the hardness of the human heart.

In fact, actually, it's even worse,

because you see,

normally the Herodians and the Pharisees were,

in a sense, enemies.

Herod wasn't Jewish.

The Pharisees were all about having the Jewish people

follow the Jewish laws and the Jewish rules

so that God would bless them.

And Herod wasn't even Jewish.

And Herodians were basically Herod's cheering section.

They were his spin doctors,

his public proponents,

the ones that said that,

yea, Herod, yea, Herod, yea, Herod,

Herod forever, Herod forever.

And normally the Pharisees and the Herodians,

and the Herodians didn't care a hoot about keeping the law,

but what unites them is their dislike of Jesus.

And that's what often happens with hardness of heart,

is before we know it,

we're eating bread,

and we're fellowshipping with other people

who share our hardness of heart.

Not a concern for truth,

not a concern for justice,

not a concern for the poor,

not a concern for the oppressed,

but they share our hardness of heart.

And all of a sudden,

they look like we should be spending time together,

and they never even stop to think about it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, moment.

I just saw a guy in the midst of worshipping God

do this remarkable miracle,

and here I am filled with anger,

hanging out with people I don't even agree with.

What's wrong with me?

And they can't see it.

They can't see it.

Now, there's other things.

I know I have to move on,

but there's other things about this story

which is just really incredible,

if you think about it for a second.

So one of the things,

as we go on through Mark's Gospel,

and as you read the other Gospels,

one of the things that's very obvious

about these ancient biographies of Jesus

is the disciples did not think

that Jesus would die upon the cross.

Like, that's very, very obvious.

It's one of the reasons why the historical record

is actually in the direction,

favors the belief that Jesus really, really would rise from the dead,

because nobody who knew him actually thought he'd die,

and when he did die,

they were completely and utterly defeated,

so they definitely didn't think that Jesus could ever die,

and that if he did die, he'd rise from the dead.

They didn't think that at all.

It wasn't part of how they understood the world.

But if you think about it for a second,

if Jesus could build muscle and straighten bones,

he's like Deadpool without all the foul language and jokes.

He's like Wolverine,

those of you who know the Marvel Universe.

He's like those guys.

And if you think about it for a second,

if he's able to take a bone that's all bent and make it straight,

and if he's able to take an arm with no muscle

and all of a sudden give it muscle and make the things work,

then he can break legs.

Like how could the soldier have ever hammered the nails

into the hands and feet of Jesus

if Jesus by the mere thought could break the soldier's hand

and the next soldier's hand

and the next soldier's hand

until they all gave up?

You see, this is one of the things,

as you're gripped with these stories about what Jesus does,

it's one of the reasons why you can understand

that that very old Christian saying

that it was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross

but his love for you that held him to the cross,

that that must be true.

That's the only explanation

as to why he could actually die on a cross.

He could just have had those nails,

but he could have just did it as a big joke.

Yeah, yeah, hang me up,

and the next thing you know,

the nails all just go out,

his heels are going to his hand.

He could have done that.

It was his love that held him to the cross,

and it was his love that held him to the cross

for the heart of heart.

Some people get bothered by the fact that Jesus is angry.

In fact, I've talked to people who say

that stories like this show the superiority of Buddha

because Buddha, of course,

would have taught us methods and techniques

to not be angry.

Now, I'll share in a moment

why anger is very problematic for us as human beings,

but if you think about it for a second,

people can be very, very, very anger-driven,

and that's one of the reasons why anger is very...

Anger is a very, very, very difficult...

Anger is a very, very difficult emotion

and reaction to the world.

But think about it for a second.

If you've ever seen some of the film clips

of what Martin Luther King went through

in the 1960s,

if you've seen him lead some of his peaceful marches,

only to have him and his followers

be struck down with water hoses

and attacked by white police officers

with big sticks

and see him and his followers bludgeoned

because they just wanted the end of racism and segregation,

you would not think that the person in Alabama

who was unmoved by that was morally superior.

You would say,

how could any person not look at this

and say this is deeply wrong?

How could they not look at this and see anger?

How could they...

Like, to show no anger at that

is not a sign of moral superiority.

It's a sign of something broken in you.

And the problem with anger is

I might be feeling depressed about getting older.

I might be feeling depressed about something about my finances.

I might be feeling depressed

because I'm not getting the promotion I want

or the job isn't going the way I want

or I don't have this or I don't have that.

But then I get angry.

And when I get angry,

those things that are making me depressed,

they go away, they fly away,

and I have this anger

which I can ride.

And anger makes me tower over the others.

It makes me feel like a god.

It overwhelms my feelings of inadequacy,

my depression, my shame

with this anger.

And I can be convinced that I am right.

And that is why anger is such a hard thing for human beings.

To not experience anger

at things which are truly wrong

and unjust and unloving

is a problem.

But it is too hard for us

with our anger

to just be angry in a way

that reflects our justice,

a sense of justice and love and compassion

and what is good and right in the world

without it quickly turning into something

which is in fact very, very bad for us

and very wrong.

But what we see in Jesus

is we do not see an anger-driven man.

In fact, we see the exact opposite.

You see, because anger,

before it goes off the rails,

before we start choosing anger

and nurturing anger

and becoming more and more

and more and more and more angry

and more and more self-righteous

and more and more in our high horse.

But when we begin that little opening moment

of the proper anger,

of a great injustice,

a great cruelty which is done

and we realize that it's unjust,

it's unloving,

it's not good,

it's not compassionate

and we recognize that

and part of the recognition is anger.

Just saying it that way,

you see that it's connected to justice,

it's connected to love.

And so what we see here in this story,

because it's setting up the end of the story,

by setting up the end of the story,

we see that Jesus says,

how can you be here singing

how great thou art with your lips,

but in your hearts you're trying to kill me?

That just saddens me

and it makes me angry at the injustice.

But because it emerges out of love

and a concern for justice,

it does not lead him

to obliterating his enemies,

but to dying on the cross

for the heart of heart.

You see here the complete

and utter opposite

of anger driven.

But as he is connected to that

which is good and just

and right and compassionate,

it realizes

that you and I

cannot fix the hardness

of our hearts by ourselves,

so we need a savior.

We do not need the Buddha

to teach us how to not be angry.

We need to recognize

that we have a problem

and we need a savior.

The next story is going to show us

just to start to wind this down.

The next story is going to show us,

in fact,

the next two stories

are going to show us

the hope that we have,

but also the fear,

the temptation that we have,

the fear that we have

and the hope

that actually Jesus provides us.

Let's look at verse 7

and we begin to see here in this

a bad temptation

and a deep fear

and it's the final story

that points us

in the direction of hope.

Look at verse 7.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples

to the sea

and a great crowd

followed him

from Galilee and Judea

and Jerusalem and Edomia

and from beyond the Jordan

and from around Tyre and Sidon.

Just sort of pause there.

What this is showing

is that Jesus' fame

is expanding very, very far

and it's going both

to areas which are basically

almost like 98% Jewish

to areas that are sort of like

50-50 Jewish Christian

and Jewish pagan

and even to areas

where there would have been

very few Jewish people

that was overwhelmingly pagan

and his fame is expanding

in this large area.

Continuing on in verse 8,

when the great crowd heard

all that he was doing,

they came to him

and he told his disciples

to have a boat ready for him

because of the crowd

lest they crush him

for he had healed many

so that all who had diseases

pressed around him

to touch him.

Now, in the original language,

there's a sense to all of this

that it can't really be

communicated into English

and in that original sense

which is there

is that this is actually

a bit of a threat to Jesus.

The crushing him is a threat.

The pressing in on him

is a type of grasping.

You see, what they want

is in a sense

that part of the heart

which is still hard,

it's not there's so much

a hardness of a heart,

but there's still

at the connect of the heart

this pride

and this desire,

this, you know what it is?

It's a gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme,

gimme, gimme, gimme.

It's not praise you, Jesus,

take me.

It's not falling flat

on the face

in acknowledgement

of one who is greater than us.

The temptation is to see

the Jesus and the power of Jesus

and go like this.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Gimme.

Gimme.

Not even go in here

and take out my wallet

and give for the kingdom.

But gimme, gimme, gimme

so I can put it in my pocket

and my power can grow.

I can tell stories.

People will buy me wine

for decades

when I tell them

the stories I saw about Jesus.

And here's the fear.

Look at verse 11.

And whenever the unclean spirits

saw him,

they fell down before him

and cried out,

you are the son of God.

And he strictly ordered them

not to make him known.

Verse 11 again.

This verse is very,

very, very literal.

Sometimes the very literal

can confuse us.

I use the ESV when I'm preaching

because it's closest

to the most literal translation

that one of the most literal translations

you can get.

But what it's describing

is that human beings

have been possessed

by a demon.

For those of you

who are in the Marvel,

I think it's the Marvel Universe,

think of Venom

that's taken over Tom Hardy.

only once again

without the jokes.

And these men and women

who are demonized,

who a demon

or demons

have come into them

and controlled him,

control them now,

the spirits see Jesus

and they throw their host down

and have the host

cry out,

you are the son of God.

And Jesus strictly ordered them

not to make him known

because he doesn't need demons.

Even if demons say true things

about Jesus,

they'll do it in a way

that after just this one brief word,

it will be a lie,

it will hurt,

it will lead you away.

You don't get the testimony of demons.

But here's the fear.

Remember,

I don't recognize the hardness of my heart

and part of what happens for me

is that there's this natural part

of human beings

that have a fear

about letting Jesus,

letting the true God in.

Like,

part of us don't want

to lose our self-deception

because if we lose

our self-deception

and we actually see the world

as it really is,

as we see the triune God

as he really is,

and if we get close to him,

he'll hurt us,

he'll possess us.

But you see,

this fear

that we will be possessed by Jesus,

that we will be possessed

by the Holy Spirit,

that all of a sudden

the triune God

will so come into us,

how can he not come into us

in such a way

that he will completely

and utterly overwhelm us

and take us over?

What we're actually afraid of

is demons,

not Jesus.

I mean,

because you look at that,

that's the thing

which is so important

about the Bible

is that it's demons

that come in

and take us over.

It's demons

that do things to us

to tell us lies

and encourage us

in self-deception.

I'm sorry I yelled too loud

and I woke up the baby.

I just,

I don't plan to do this.

You know,

I just get up here

and who knows what.

Anyway,

there you go.

But you see,

really,

if you look at the Gospels,

what happens

is you come close to Jesus,

he heals the withered hand.

What happens

when he meets

the demon possessed

is the demons are cast out

and people are free.

What happens

is you get closer to Jesus

is you get closer to love,

you get closer to justice,

you get closer to truth,

you get farther away

from us versus them,

your racism

and your prejudice

is attacked,

your lust

begins to try

to be quieted,

you're making an idol

out of alcohol

or money

or something like that

begins to be challenged

and broken down

and what happens

when you come close

to Jesus

is that Jesus died

for you and I

to be free.

It's idols

and demons

that bind us

and control us.

and bend us

out of shape.

It's Jesus

who takes

our disfigured,

misfigured,

muscle-less arm

and makes it straight

and gives it muscle.

That's what Jesus does.

And here's the hope.

See,

so George,

are you saying

that, you know,

you Christians

have less hardness

of heart

than others?

No,

I am not saying that.

Remember my story

at the beginning.

I've been Christian

for quite a few years

and the hardness

of my heart

towards Americans

I hadn't even recognized.

I'm not saying

anything like that.

George,

are you saying

that if you sort of

read the Bible

and come to sermons

and, you know,

listen to your

brilliant preaching

and because you're

such a brilliant preacher

that, you know,

people will go away

and their hearts

will be a little bit

less hard

and, you know,

and, no,

no,

that's not,

here's the Christian hope.

You see,

if the first story

talks about

this double mystery,

the mystery

of the fact

that,

you know,

that the Pharisees

and Herodians

are planning

to destroy Jesus,

they can't really

destroy him

if he has the power

that it is.

It's pointing to this

mystery of his

upcoming death

and the fact

that his death,

it's only going

to be his love

that holds them

to the cross.

Well,

look what happens

here,

verse 13,

and he went up

on the mountain

and called to him

those whom he desired

and they came to him.

In the original language,

this is very formal,

solemn language.

It's a solemn language.

And he went up

on the mountain

and called to him

those whom he desired

and they came to him.

And it's talking

about the fact

that in other places

in the New Testament

you'd find out

that Jesus had

lots more disciples

than the twelve.

Mary Magdalene

was a disciple.

Joseph,

Jose was a disciple.

Matthias was a disciple.

He had many,

many disciples,

but out of these

many disciples

he goes to the mountain

and verse 14,

he appointed twelve

whom he also named

apostles

so that they might

be with him

and he might send

them out to preach

and have authority

to cast out demons.

He appointed the twelve,

Simon,

to whom he gave

the name Peter,

James,

the son of Zebedee,

and John,

the brother of James,

to whom he gave

the name Boanerges,

that is,

the sons of thunder,

Andrew and Philip

and Bartholomew

and Matthew

and Thomas

and James,

the son of Alphaeus

and Thaddeus

and Simon the Zealot

and Judas Iscariot

who betrayed him.

Another implication

of the coming death

that he's going

to have on the cross.

But here's the hope.

And in the original language

in verse 14

when it says

he appointed twelve

and then again

in verse 16

he appointed the twelve.

In verse 14

when it says

he appointed,

that's a good word

in English

but the problem

is the original language,

you can't translate

the original language

in a way

that makes grammatical sense

in English

without adding

a lot of extra words.

And the actual literal word

is

and he

make,

he made,

he made

twelve.

Same in verse 16

he made

the twelve.

And if you go back

and you read

Genesis chapter 1

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

when the Jewish text

was translated

into Greek

the same word

made

is there

when it said

and God made

the heavens

and the earth.

When God made

the night and the day

God made

the sun and the stars

God made

human beings.

That word made

is the same word here

that's translated

as appointed

because

he made twelve

doesn't really make sense

in English

so they use the word

appointed

but this word is made.

And if you look at

verse 14 again

and he made

apostles

he made them

so that they might

be with him

and he might

send them out

to preach

and have authority

to cast out demons.

He makes them first.

You see this is what's saying

what the Bible

is saying

this is the wonderful

thing about the gospel

is that Jesus

he's angered

at our hardness

of heart

it grieves him

but he doesn't let

the anger

he never becomes

anger driven

the anger is connected

to that which

anger should be connected

we can't keep

connected to that

because we

build it up

we flame it up

and anger

quickly leads us

to no longer

being just

to no longer

being compassionate

to no longer

being loving

to no longer

caring

but he

it doesn't drive

that with Jesus

it's connected

to his love

it's connected

to his justice

it's connected

to mercy

it's connected

to compassion

and so he's going

to die upon the cross

and when he dies

upon the cross

he is doing

something for us

as human beings

that we cannot

do for ourselves

and when we receive

Christ

he makes us

a Christian

he makes us

right with God

you see

it's not

okay my heart's

a little bit less

hard

as a result

of this sermon

and next week

it's a little bit

less hard

and then it's a little

bit less hard

and finally my heart

becomes so soft

that I get awarded

being a Christian

it's the opposite

the work of grace

is that God

makes you

and me

with our hard

hearts

his

out of grace

by what he did

for us on the cross

and then we become

we become

because we're made

by him

first

we don't become

we don't just sort of

keep becoming

until we achieve

he makes us

and then we become

look at verse 14

he appointed the 12

whom he also named

apostles

and he gives two purposes

that they might be with him

and he might send them

out to preach

and have authority

to cast out demons

he makes us

unworthy as we are

to be his

and he makes us

unworthy as we are

to be his

so that we will

spend time with Jesus

and as we spend time

with Jesus

that the Lord

begins to reveal

to us prejudice

and racism

and a hard

heart towards the poor

and greed

and an idolatry

of money

or an idolatry

of ourselves

or pride

or selfishness

and because he makes us his

and we spend time with him

he begins to

confront these things

in us

and to change these things

within us

within the context

that everything

that we needed to do

to be made right

with God

was done by Jesus

he knows everything

about our heart

so we can look at ourselves

without becoming

thinking

oh my

if God knew that

about me

he wouldn't

no no

he did know that

about you

when he died

for you

and that as we get

closer to Jesus

and you look at

there's another place

later on

where I'll talk about

this other purpose

what is the purpose

as we spend time

with him

because he's made us him

that we will bear witness

to Jesus

and that we will be

against evil

in whatever form

whether it's

spiritual evil

which has to be exercised

whether it's

institutional evil

it leads to great injustice

or any type of

institutional wrongdoing

against the poor

or others

we are against it

we're against the evil

and the idolatry

of greed

and gluttony

and other things

which bend human beings

out of shape

and break them

that we are against it

and that we are for healing

to bring the healing

to the city

to bring healing

to people

to bring healing

to our country

he makes us

and he makes us

and we are to spend time

with him

to be with him

if you're watching this

if you haven't given

your life to Christ

if you're here

and you haven't given

your life to Christ

this is the time

to give your life

to Christ

call out to him

and say

Lord I need you

to be my savior

and for those of us

who are here

who have done that

you don't have to give

your life to Christ again

he already took it

it's a time

for us to remember

it is good

to be here

and to recommit

to this

to recommit

to be Lord

in your presence

that we might go

from here

and we might deal

with whether it's

demonic evil

or institutional evil

or social evil

or cultural evil

or intellectual evil

that we will be

against it

that we will be

for the health

of our community

and our society

and our nation

and the world

we will be for this

we will be against evil

it is good

to be here

to reconnect

to remember

Lord is it me

show me the hardness

of my heart

grant me help

that I might repent

of that hardness

of my heart

that that might not

control me

that I not be controlled

and have my eyes

and my heart

and my ears

blinded to the

not just to good

to that which is good

and just and true

and right

but the beauty

of the world

and the beauty

in human beings

that those

things of my heart

that are hard

that make me bent

and shriveled

and less than human

Lord

show me those things

in your mercy

that I might repent

of them

that I might know

your freedom

I invite you to stand

please stand

let's bow our heads

in prayer

Father we thank you

for Jesus

we ask Lord

that your word

would so work

and move within us

and Father

not that we be

blind to evil

or definitely

not that Father

that we see evil

clearly

that we see evil

clearly

and Father

it grants us

both a proper anger

that doesn't become

controlling

but a desire

Father

to see justice

and goodness done

that you'd show us

and reveal to us

the hardness of our heart

the blindness

that we have

Father

show that to us

and as you show it to us

remember

help us to remember

Jesus

and the gospel

that we might come to you

for amendment of life

for healing

for restoration

for renewal

Father

Father you know

in this room

the different ethical

and other issues

that people here face

whether it's in government

or in our neighborhoods

or our business

and Father

we ask for each one of us

that you help us

to bear witness to Jesus

and also Father

be a source

and an agent

of healing

of reconciliation

of compassion

of right ordering

in those places

that you have put us

and help us

to be people of prayer

we ask all these things

in the name of Jesus

your son

and our savior

and all God's people said

amen

amen