Jesus Calls us to Develop His Up-In-Out Rhythms

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Today's scripture reading are various passages from the Gospel of Mark, as printed in your liturgy.

A reading from the Gospel according to Mark.

They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Then he said to them,

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.

He appointed twelve that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach.

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

Still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth,

and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

Others, like seeds sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught.

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat,

he said to them,

Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida,

while he dismissed the crowd.

After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Jesus replied,

Are you not in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?

Then he went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples,

Sit here while I pray.

Abba, Father, he said, everything is possible for you.

Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

Simon, he said to Peter, are you asleep?

Couldn't you keep watch for one hour?

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Good morning, Christ Church.

We're continuing today exploring the gospel of Mark,

which we have said is the earliest of the four gospels written in about 65 A.D.

and you can also read this little book from cover to cover in about 65 minutes.

I encourage you, if you've never done that in one sitting, to try it out.

You can open in your Bibles there in the pews to page 812.

I encourage you to open that up and explore a little bit what we're going to be talking about.

You can see there on the very first page that Jesus invites and he challenges Peter, Andrew, James, and John.

He says to come follow me and I'll send you out to fish for people.

How did they respond to that invitation to come follow me?

It says that they left their old life behind and they started a new life with Jesus.

And we're exploring together what that new life with Jesus as disciples means.

And last Sunday, we said that Jesus had this three-dimensional life.

He had three great loves, three great priorities,

and that the Jesus-shaped life is up with the Father, in with the disciples, and out with the crowds.

And my kids told me, Dad, you need to pull this out so we can actually see it.

And they said, you also need to write more words up there, which I've done.

And you can see that I wrote up with the Father in red, in with the disciples in green, and out with the crowds in blue.

And the reason I did that, the deep theological mystery behind that is that the markers come in a four-pack of black, red, green, and blue.

And that's why I randomly chose those colors to go with each of those themes.

Jesus, wherever he went, he would build community in three particular ways.

Up with the Father, in with the disciples, out with the crowds.

And this forms the essential pattern of our life together if we truly want to live as a community of people who are following Jesus.

Last Sunday, we took time to kind of really dive into each of these, but really to dive into discipleship.

What is discipleship?

If you missed that, I encourage you to go back and listen to it.

We said that discipleship in the first century was this deeply committed covenantal relationship

in which a rabbi would invite his disciples to come and share every aspect of his life so that they could become like him.

And that's what Jesus is doing.

From the crowds, Jesus gathers this smaller group of disciples who are going to live in a kind of relationship with him

that not only taught them to know what he knew, but also to do what he did and ultimately to become like him.

And so being a disciple of Jesus Christ, following him as your Lord, means that he's inviting you and he's challenging you

to share the pattern of his life and to be conformed to the shape of these three loves, these three priorities.

Now, you may be wondering why in the world we're just jumping all over the Gospel of Mark today with these readings

and not just focusing on one particular text.

And that's because I want to ask this question.

What was Jesus' relationship with time?

What was Jesus' relationship with time and how did he invest his time?

Jesus experienced tremendous pressure in his life like none of us have ever experienced.

He experienced tremendous pressure.

He had countless demands on his time, but it did not overwhelm him.

And the question is, why?

When we look at Jesus' extraordinary life, we can see that the secret of that life is that

he modeled these intentional, fruitful rhythms and patterns and habits of life,

and he trained his disciples to imitate his way of life.

I'm the way, the truth, and the life, so I want you to walk in my way and trust my truth

and live my life, Jesus said.

And so, we can see in these texts that Jesus spent time alone with his Father in prayer each morning,

and from that place, he would step out into the busy yet fruitful life that God was calling him to live.

We can see that Jesus took 24 hours for restoration and renewal every Sabbath day

where he gathered with the people of God to worship and then to rest with his extended family.

We can also see that after really, really busy seasons of life and ministry,

Jesus took his disciples away to a quiet place where he would retreat with them

and give them a time of refreshment and reflection.

Daily, weekly, seasonal rhythms of life.

For Jesus, these were not burdensome.

They were not legalistic observance, but they were intentional times of renewal.

And this is what I think gave Jesus the margin and the rest and the capacity

when he met human need to respond with compassion

and to live this life that produced incredible amounts of fruitfulness for the kingdom of God.

So, when Jesus is saying, come follow me,

he's inviting us to adopt these predictable patterns, these healthy habits, these life-giving rhythms,

not so that we might earn the love of the Father,

but so that all of us might enjoy more of the grace of the Father that's already been given to us.

Enjoy is a key word today.

What is the chief end of your life?

It's that you might glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And we want to talk about habits of life that will enable you to do that now.

And so, here's the golden thread of this sermon, the thesis of my sermon.

My kids said I need to say this more explicitly.

The golden thread of my sermon, the thesis of my sermon,

is that Jesus invites us to enjoy rest with our Father

by imitating his weekly Sabbaths and daily prayers.

Jesus invites us to enjoy rest with our Father

by imitating his weekly Sabbaths and daily prayers.

I want to start with enjoying the rest with our Father

by imitating Jesus' weekly Sabbaths.

Look with me at chapter 2, verse 27.

Then Jesus said to them,

Here's a strong statement.

God's will for your life

is that you, every one of you,

would enjoy a weekly 24-hour period of rest from your work.

That is the clear will of God for every person in this room.

It's in the Ten Commandments.

It's right up there with do not kill and do not steal.

And the first time we're given these Ten Commandments

in Exodus chapter 20,

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

we're shown that the pattern of God's own activity

as the creator of the world

is that he rested on the seventh day.

And we're told that he blessed that day

and he made it holy

and that therefore we are to bless that day

and keep it holy.

When those Ten Commandments are given to us

in Deuteronomy chapter 5,

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

we're told that the Sabbath rest

is for the benefit of weary workers.

We got any weary workers here today?

Anybody that has work that wearies you?

This is reinforced by the prophets

over and over and over

more than almost any other of the Ten Commandments.

And it's not this odd moral commandment,

this burden that is to be observed

to earn merit or favor with God.

The Sabbath is a sign

that we enjoy his blessing and his delight,

that we belong to the true God,

the creator of the world,

and that he himself is offering to us

this precious gift

to receive from him

restorative, humanizing rest.

Does that feel like a burden to you?

Notice that Jesus calls himself

the Lord of the Sabbath.

And right after he calls himself that,

what does he do in Mark chapter 3 verse 1?

Mark 3:1

It says that he goes and he finds this man

with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath

who needs to be healed.

And Jesus says,

which is lawful on the Sabbath,

to do good or to do evil,

to save life or to kill?

And then Jesus makes this man's hand

completely whole.

And by doing that,

he makes this man in his life

totally restored.

And this is a sign for us

that Jesus,

the Lord of the Sabbath,

wants to use this 24-hour period of rest

to do good to you

and to give life to you.

We may not bring a shriveled hand with us

to the synagogue today,

but I imagine there's at least one person

that has a shriveled soul.

And if that's you,

if you brought a shriveled soul here today,

the Lord of the Sabbath wants to heal you.

He wants to restore you.

He wants to humanize you with the rest of God.

He wants to give you the blessing of God

and the delight of God

and to give you the joy of the life-saving,

life-giving goodness of God.

I read a book a few years ago on sleep

by Matthew Walker down the hill here

at the Sleep Lab in Berkeley.

And when I read this book,

I realized that one of the best ways

that I could love my family

and love this church

is to sleep more.

And I'm hoping this sermon will do that for you,

that one of the ways that

you could love God more

and love the people around you more

is to practice the Sabbath.

I actually want to just wonder aloud

that if over the next three months,

six months, 12 months,

if all of us on Saturday evening

after the sun goes down,

if all of us were to take

a 24-hour digital fast,

we were to put ourselves to bed

and put the people in our house to bed early

and get a good night of sleep,

what kind of healing

the Lord of the Sabbath

would want to do in us,

perhaps even healing

we don't even know needs to be done in us.

You guys with me so far?

How did Jesus practice the Sabbath?

Did He sleep in, go to brunch,

read the New York Times,

hike in the hills,

hang at the beach with His friends,

post some photos on Instagram

and say hashtag Sabbath?

For many reasons,

Jesus did not do that.

And one of the reasons He didn't do that

is because He was Jewish.

And if you look at Mark 1, verse 21,

Mark 1:21

it says,

when the Sabbath came,

He did what all Jews do

and He went to the synagogue.

And what did they do at the synagogue?

Well, He worshipped with the people of God,

which included prayers and songs

and readings from the law

and the prophets

and expositions on the scriptures

and benedictions,

much like we do here.

And Jesus and His disciples,

they were coming to center their lives.

They were gathering with the assembled people of God

to center their lives

on the love of the Father

and the power of the Father

and the presence of the Father.

You see,

Sabbath wants to do two things for us.

Sabbath invites us to realize

that if we stop working,

the world's not going to fall apart

because it's in the hands of our Creator God.

But more than that,

the Sabbath invites us to listen

like Jesus came to listen

to the voice of His Father and His Word

and to see the great drama of redemption

that His Father was carrying out in the world

and to remember all these incredible promises

that had been made in the Old Testament

and for us,

all those promises that had been kept

in the New Testament.

The Sabbath is an opportunity for us to come

and to hear those great words

from the Son of the Father

that were spoken on the cross.

It is finished.

The work of salvation is finished.

And therefore,

salvation doesn't depend on us

and the work that we do

because that work has already been accomplished for us

by the work of another.

And that is how our restless souls

can actually come and find rest.

Now Jesus,

what's interesting is

Jesus took this Sabbath principle

and He injected it

into the really, really busy times.

And I want you to see in chapter 3,

verse 13,

it says Jesus went up on a mountainside

and remember this is after last week,

everybody's pressing so hard on Jesus

He has to get into a boat

and leave the land, right?

He's getting crushed

and it says they went up on a mountainside

and He called to Him those He wanted

and they came to Him

and He appointed 12

that they might be with Him

and that He might send them out to preach.

And what Jesus is doing here

is He's retreating

and He's inviting His disciples

to retreat with Him

so that they can focus

on this smaller group

of 12 disciples together.

Why?

It says so that they can just be with Him.

So they can be with Him

and learn from Him.

Look with me at chapter 6, verse 30.

It says,

These disciples have been working hard

day after day

doing what Jesus did,

saying what Jesus said.

The crowds, because of that,

are demanding more and more

and more from them.

They're pressured in their time.

They're pressured in their energy.

They can't even eat a meal.

And so what does Jesus do?

He injects Sabbath rest

into their lives.

And He teaches His disciples

this habit of regularly

pulling away together

into quiet,

into solitude,

and He says,

Come with me

and get some rest.

And I imagine it was in this place

where He said these words,

which He says in Matthew 11, verse 28.

Matthew 11:28

He says,

Come to me.

It's not just that you need

a vacation somewhere.

You need to come to me,

all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you

and learn from me,

for I'm gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest

not just for your body

but for your souls.

For my yoke is easy

and my burden is light.

And so I want to ask you today

and just encourage you

to look at your calendar

and how you schedule your time

and just to ask yourself this question.

And if you're exploring Christianity,

this is your chance

to sort of look in the window

at what it means

to become a Christian

and follow Christ.

But if I'm following Jesus

as my Lord,

if I'm His disciple,

if I'm imitating His life,

am I taking a 24-hour Sabbath

to enjoy the Father

as my powerful creator

and gracious redeemer?

And if not, why not?

What about your plan

is better than God's plan for you?

And another question is,

have I committed myself

to a circle of disciples

that's regularly retreating

with Jesus

to a quiet place,

receiving that soul-deep rest

that only He can give

by learning from Him

His easy yoke

and His light burden?

And again,

if not,

why not?

I read this great book

by James Clear

called Atomic Habits.

And the subtitle of that book

is An Easy and Proven Way

to Build Good Habits

and Break Bad Ones.

And I want to just ask

if we can pull up a slide.

I think we have a slide

from his book.

He says that it's really important

to clarify an action plan

of how you intend

to implement

a particular new habit.

And so I want to invite you

to take out a pen

and a sheet of paper

and I'd love to see you

write this sentence down

and to fill it in for yourself.

And the reason I'm urging you

to write it down

is because if you don't,

you won't really commit yourself

to anything.

But what he says is,

after a particular habit

that I've already created

in my life,

I will do this new habit,

this new behavior

for this duration

at this time

and in this location.

And if you can fill in those blanks,

if you can write something down,

something you want to start doing,

something you want to continue to do,

something that you used to do

that you'd like to get back to doing,

I urge you to write something down today.

Here's something you might write down.

After making dinner on Saturday,

that habit that you already have,

you're going to eat, right?

I will light a candle

and take a Sabbath rest

for 24 hours at 7 p.m.

starting at my dinner table.

Or here's another thing

you might write down.

After leaving work on Thursdays,

I will retreat to my community group

for one and a half hours

at 7 p.m. in Berkeley.

Jesus is inviting us

to enjoy rest with the Father

by imitating His weekly Sabbath

and injecting Sabbath rest

into our lives more and more and more.

But not only that,

He's inviting us to enjoy rest with our Father

not just through weekly Sabbaths

but through daily prayers,

through imitating His daily prayers.

Last Sunday,

we talked about the source

of Jesus' power and authority

was that He had this close relationship

that He maintained with His Father

who's the King of the universe.

And He would spend quality time

in the Father's presence

praying that He might be filled

with the Father's Word

and with the Father's love

and with the Father's power.

And we said it was like spiritual breathing

that Jesus would just inhale

the Word of His Father

that He might go out

and exhale the will of His Father.

We said that Jesus was like a sponge

that was just there soaking up

the love of the Father

that He might go out

and the Father might just

wring out that sponge of love

on all the people around Him.

And we said that Jesus wants His disciples

to live this kind of life as well.

And so I want to look

a little bit deeper at that.

Mark 1.35 says that

very early in the morning,

while it was still dark,

Jesus left the house

and He went off to a solitary place

where He prayed.

And what that's showing us

is that behind all the visible activity

of Jesus that we see in the Gospels,

He had this hidden life

that was totally dependent on His Father.

Jesus, before this verse,

He's just had a very intense

and demanding day.

And in Mark 1.15,

we're told that He begins to tell people

about the good news

about the kingdom of God.

And then He goes and starts showing people

what that good news is all about,

healing their diseases

and driving out demons.

And at the end of that day,

Jesus, I'm thinking He's pretty tired,

and He knew that He had a need

for some fresh, God-given sense

of direction and inner strength.

And so He continued

this intentional rhythm of life

where He nurtured His intimate connection

with the Father.

And so He went home that night

and He slept really, really hard.

And then He rose early that next morning

while it was still dark

and He sought out this deserted place

so that He could have quality time

with His Father.

And what He would do

is He would go up on the hillsides

there above Capernaum,

which was His home base

on the Sea of Galilee,

and there He would watch the sun

just rise up on the waters of the sea,

this beautiful first light

just shining and reflecting off.

And you can just imagine Jesus there

each morning spending time

being renewed in His covenant identity

with the Father,

just letting the light of the Father's love

rise and shine on Him.

And He would just soak in those scriptures

of Deuteronomy and Psalms and Isaiah

that we hear Him quoting from memory

over and over and over,

and He would just be there enjoying the Father.

And then and only then,

Jesus would dare to step out

into His kingdom mission from the Father,

this daily rhythm He had

of going to do the will of the Father,

telling people about the kingdom of God

and showing them what the gracious rule

and the liberating reign of the Father

is all about.

Jesus had time with His Father in the morning,

but He would also return to His Father

throughout the day,

and especially at night,

He would return to His Father.

And you can see that in Mark chapter 30.

Sorry, Mark chapter 6, verse 45.

Mark 6:45

There are not 30 chapters in the Gospel of Mark, actually.

It's only 16.

Mark 6, 45, it says,

Immediately Jesus made His disciples

get into the boat

and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida.

While He dismissed the crowd,

after leaving them,

He went up on a mountainside to pray.

Now it's evening,

and the sun is setting,

and He's just multiplied the loaves and fishes,

which we'll talk about next week.

He's had a very long day of teaching

and of feeding,

and He doesn't go after this day

and just numb Himself out

with some beer and media.

You know, social media, news media,

Netflix media.

No, what He does is He walks up into the hills,

and He says,

Father, hallowed be Your name.

Father, thank You for all that You've done today.

Father, Your kingdom is breaking through

into the lives of people

in a way it never has before.

Father, thank You that Your kingdom

is erupting into all these multitudes of the crowds.

Father, I prayed to You today for daily bread,

and I was totally desperate and dependent upon You

to bring us daily bread,

not just for me, but for the thousands,

and Father, You did it.

Thank You.

And Father, just continue to deliver me

from the evil one

and continue to deliver all these people

from the schemes of the evil one in their lives.

Jesus just went up,

and He would pray like that.

We know He prayed like that, right?

That's how He taught us to pray.

Jesus' predictable pattern,

His healthy habit,

His life-giving rhythm

was morning and evening prayer,

and He modeled this for all of His disciples.

And you may be wondering,

well, how in the world do I do it?

I want to encourage you to read the Psalms.

That's the prayer book of the Bible.

It's where Jesus learned the language of prayer

and the patterns of prayer.

We've given you a guide to sort of help you.

This is not the way to pray.

It's just a way to pray

and have some training wheels on your prayer life.

I'm tempted to get deeper

into Jesus' prayer here in Gethsemane,

but what's amazing is that Jesus,

it says in Mark 14, 32,

He went to this place called Gethsemane,

and Jesus said to His disciples,

sit here while I pray.

They probably heard Jesus say that a thousand times.

Sit here while I pray.

Sit here while I pray.

You can pray too if you'd like.

And what did Jesus pray?

He says in verse 36,

Abba, Father.

Abba, Father.

If you have no other words for prayer than those,

you can start to pray.

Because the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8,

Romans 8 · chapter mention

he says,

The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship,

and by Him we cry,

Abba, Father.

He says in Galatians 4, 6,

God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,

the Spirit who calls out,

Abba, Father.

And Jesus just very simply wants to enjoy rest

with our Abba, Father

by imitating His daily prayers.

Now, as we close,

how in the world do we come to share

in Jesus' habit of daily prayer?

It's much easier said than done, right?

I mean, we're talking about rewiring neural pathways,

which is way beyond what this sermon can accomplish.

We're talking about the reformation of cells in your brain.

And I'm concerned that many of us might walk away

just totally unchanged.

Nice sermon, pastor,

but just like I've got the same old habits

that I had when I came today.

And so I just want to turn to this little passage

from Mark chapter 4 as we close,

Mark 4 · chapter mention

where Jesus says,

still others like seeds sown among thorns

hear the word,

but the worries of this life,

the deceitfulness of wealth

and the desires for other things

come in and choke the word,

making it unfruitful.

Jesus here, He's talking about

the seed of the word of God,

which is the message of the kingdom of God,

which is the rule and reign of the Father in our lives.

And He says that there are three things

that threaten to choke God's word

and His will and His work in your life.

Three self-centered concerns

that take priority over the kingdom of God

and that will rival God for your loyalty

and will make you spiritually unfruitful.

He says, first of all,

there are the worries of this life

or literally in the Greek,

it says the anxieties of the age.

Secondly, He says there's the deceitfulness of wealth,

all those promises of prosperity and pleasure,

all the seductions of success,

and the satisfaction it will bring you.

And thirdly, He talks about the desires for other things

and I'm sure if Jesus were with us today,

He'd talk about the desires

for more and more digital dopamine

or however you're getting your dopamine.

The worries, the wealth, the wants

that choke out the kingdom of God in your soul.

And I bring this up because I'm concerned

that maybe for some of us,

the soil of our souls

has become a little bit weed infested.

That maybe some of us have thorns

that are threatening our spiritual vitality.

That the kingdom of God

is trying to sprout up in you

and it's trying to grow

but it just can't get enough water,

it can't get enough nutrients

because it must compete

with many, many distractions.

And it's getting crowded out

by other issues and other concerns

that have taken up the center of your life.

And Jesus says to us,

He says,

if there's not space for God,

if you've not created time for God,

you're not gonna bear any spiritual fruit.

So how do you make daily time to enjoy the Father?

Jesus would say,

you gotta clear out the weeds.

You gotta root out the thorns.

You gotta say no to many, many good things

that are crowding God out in your life

if you're gonna say yes to God.

There's a great book

I'd like to recommend to you today.

It's called

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

And I imagine there's just some things

that you're going to ruthlessly need

to eliminate from your life

if you're going to live the way that Jesus lived.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

But secondly,

I'd like to encourage you,

if we can bring that slide back

and you could write something down again

to clarify your intention

for some sort of new habit,

for what you'd like to do

in terms of daily prayer,

I encourage you to write down

after whatever habit you have,

whatever kind of prayer you'd like to do

for whatever duration,

at whatever time,

and whatever location.

Here's what I said for me.

I said,

after I make coffee and go on my walk,

I will read the Word of God

and pray for one hour at 6.45 a.m.

in my living room chair.

And I'd love to encourage you

to write something down.

If you haven't yet.

And as you're writing something down,

to pick a time

where you have the highest likelihood

of being consistent each day.

I'm not seeing many of you write,

so you've already written this down.

It's amazing.

I want to encourage you

to pick a duration

of at least 15 minutes,

and even better would be like 30 minutes,

just to give yourself the opportunity.

I encourage you to pick a location

where you're going to be

least distracted and interrupted

and be most comfortable

yet attentive

and not falling asleep.

And having written something down,

I want to encourage you

to go out today

or some point this week

and to tell two or three other people

or tell your community group,

this is what I sense God

calling me to do.

And this is how I need you

to support me,

and this is how I need you

to pray for me.

Now hopefully they have

a habit of prayer.

They can actually pray for you.

And then I want to encourage you

to expect about 66 days

of really significant effort

to establish this new habit

in your life.

And if you give 66 days

around Easter time,

you might have the habit

that Jesus had

of enjoying time

with his Father.

The reason I'm inviting you

to do this

is not to lay a burden on you.

It's because Jesus showed us

that in the Garden of Gethsemane,

prayer is what allows

God's Spirit to come

and work in us

so that we surrender

our will to the Father.

And so that we can have a space

where we learn to obey

the Father no matter

what it costs,

no matter how much it hurts.

And I just want to ask us today,

aren't we glad

that Jesus persisted

and prevailed in his praying?

Even if you're like me

and you kind of stink in praying.

Your prayers feel feeble.

Your prayers feel weak.

They feel inconsistent.

Jesus prayed

and he prayed himself

all the way to the cross

as a sacrifice for our sins.

He said,

Father,

if it's possible,

let this cup pass from me.

But not my will.

Your will be done.

His praying

accomplished the salvation

of the world.

And I want to invite you today

just to rest yourself

in the prayers of Jesus.

In the name of the Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.