Mark Archives - Christ Church

Man, Woman, and Sexuality (CCD)

Christ Church on September 4, 2022

THE TEXT

The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.

³And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

⁴They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”

⁵And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. ⁶But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ⁷‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate (Mark 10:2–9 NKJV).

Man, Woman, and Sexuality (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on September 4, 2022

INTRODUCTION

There might not be a more contested topic in the modern era than human sexuality, and this is because a constellation of cultural leaders going back to Darwin, Rousseau, Freud, and Marx have successfully discipled a number of generations in their claims that human freedom, happiness, and fulfillment come from individuals following their own feelings and desires, and sexual desires have come to be seen as the center of what it means to be human. While it is sometimes claimed that Jesus had nothing to say about these things, that is simply not true. And here, in this text, is one such place where Jesus gives us His authoritative word on human sexuality. It has been a massive failure of the Christian Church not to declare these words authoritatively and stand behind them with loving discipline.

THE TEXT

“…But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and the twain shall be one flesh: so that they are not more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mk. 10:2-9).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Pharisees come to test Jesus with a question about divorce, no doubt trying to catch Him in the intricacies of their traditions, the law, and public opinion (Mk. 10:2). Jesus turns the question back on them, asking them for the law given by Moses (Mk. 10:3), and they reply by quoting from Dt. 24 (Mk. 10:4, cf. Jer. 3:8). But Jesus replies that Moses made this concession for Israel because of the hardness of Israelite hearts (Mk. 10:5). Jesus says that this was never God’s intention, since God made them male and female at the beginning of creation (Mk. 10:6). And it is because they are made male and female, that a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife (Mk. 10:7). This is the only way two people become one flesh, and this is something that God does and therefore man must not try to defy this union (Mk. 10:8-9).

THE MODERN LIE

The modern world has embraced the lie that human freedom and happiness is found in what Carl Trueman has called “expressive individualism,” the idea that you and I are most free when we are the least inhibited in acting on our internal desires. Sigmund Freud pressed that lie into a particularly dark and sexualized direction, insisting that the very essence of being human and human happiness was found in sexual pleasure. This is why the modern world has rejected nearly every moral and legal constraint on sexuality because if an individual’s fundamental humanity is expressed in their sexual desires and gratification, to restrain or restrict that is to deny their humanity. This of course began with pornography and fornication, but has quickly led to the rejection of marriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, and gender fluid queer theory.

THE AUTHORITY OF GOD

What Jesus teaches here fundamentally is the authority of God and His Word over human sexuality. If Jesus was the original flower child, this was an important moment for Him to say something like “chill out, dudes, the kingdom of God isn’t about that” (in Aramaic). But that isn’t at all what Jesus said. He first appealed to the Mosaic law and then all the way back to the authority of God in creation itself (Mk. 10:5-6). Not only did God Himself make mankind male and female, God Himself made marriage between one man and one woman (Mk. 10:7-8). We must not miss the fact that God is the One who joins a husband and wife together (Mk. 10:9). This is why we may not break it apart, but also why we cannot force anything else together.

SEXUAL IDOLATRY

We touched on this last week, but every person must begin all reasoning about truth and morality from some ultimate authority, either God the Creator or else something or someone within the creation. When something or someone within creation is chosen as the ultimate authority (reason, science, experience, experts, etc.), the Bible calls this an idol. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:22-25).

When Freud and others placed sexual gratification at the center of human identity and happiness, they were essentially claiming sex as a god, which is not really new, since ancient paganism always had gods and goddesses of sex and fertility. But there are two fundamental results of idolatry. When you worship some part of creation, you end up destroying it, and that worship ends up destroying you (Ps. 115:4-8). Instead of receiving sexuality as one of the great gifts of God, worshiping sex demands of sex what it cannot give and so it destroys sex and destroys human life and happiness. When we submit to God, when we worship the Creator, we are enabled to receive His created gifts for what they are and truly enjoy them under His blessing (Ps. 16:11). Being made male and female is so much more than sex. Reducing our humanity to sexual functions turns people into objects and destroys our humanity: friendship, family, worship, work, hobbies, study, creativity, laughter, beauty, and so much more.

CONCLUSION

The same God who makes male and female, and makes them one flesh, has come for our race of fallen, sexual sinners. And He has bound Himself to us by an unbreakable covenant, in the blood of His Son, in order to take away all our sin and shame and make us human again.

Sexual guilt and shame are some of the strongest feelings in the world. And Satan is the Accuser; he brings condemnation with truth, lies, smears, spin, and shame. But here’s how you know sex is no god but just a pitiful idol: sex cannot save you. You can use it like a drug. You can seek all the pleasure and satisfaction in the world and you will still end up feeling empty. God did make us hungry for happiness and joy, but all the pleasure in this world can never make you whole. As Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”

So do not look in a humanistic mirror trying to see just how bad it all is. Every attempt to compare yourself to yourself or others will result in distortion, either patting yourself on the back for not being as bad as thosepeople over there, or else you will land in a slew of despond, drowning in despair. The only good mirror in the world is the Cross of Jesus Christ. Look there. And when you look there, you see yourself there. You see yourself and all your sin flayed, beaten, naked, and then dead, and then the body is taken down, put in a tomb, and three days later, He is risen, and you are risen in Him. All the gunk is gone. All the filth is gone. All the shame is gone. And all that remains is a holy and pure and glorious humanity: male and female.

Permit the Children

Christ Church on June 27, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

This is a remarkable period in the history of our congregation. We have never seen growth like this before, and all of us are getting used to the new situation. Of course, those of you who have moved across the country to join us—welcome. In one sense you are refugees, but in a more fundamental sense, you are reinforcements. This is a new community for you, a new setting, a new set of friends, the works. Your experience of church is very different from what it was. But the same thing is true of all you old-timers. You are attending a very different church also.

Believe it or not, there are some things about Christ Church that take some getting used to. Some of them are trivial, and some of them are practices that we consider to be very important. Consider this message as an orientation to one of our customs that we believe to be crucial, and it is the one that has to do with the relationship of our children to the congregation.

THE TEXT

“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:13–16; cf. Matt. 19:13-15; Luke 18: 15-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This is a famous incident, recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels. Young children were brought to Jesus, so that He might “touch” them. What touching meant to Jesus is seen in how He responded. He took the children into His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them (v. 16). In Matthew, He laid hands on them (Matt. 19:15). In the Luke account, we see that coming to Jesus can be accomplished when someone carries you there because the word used of the children there is brephos, the word for infants. In all three accounts, the disciples were busy grown-ups and rebuked those who brought the children. “The Rabbi is a very busy man . . .” In the Mark account, it says that Jesus was greatly displeased with this. If you want to get that reaction from Christ, then try to get in between Him and a child being brought to Him. In all three accounts, Jesus requires us to allow the children to be brought to Him. The reason He gives is that “of such is the kingdom of God” (v. 14). He does not say anything like “children are a theology-free zone.” And in addition to all that, He teaches us that children do not have to become more like adults to come, but rather that adults need to become more like children in order to enter the kingdom (v. 15). Like the disciples in the story, we often get this backwards.

SOME QUICK BACKGROUND

You will have noticed that our children gather to worship the Lord together with the rest of us. We all gather together. Your children are most welcome, fidgets and all. On those occasions when you need to deal with any moral disorder that broke out in your row, then please feel free to escort your child outside. That is the sort of thing that we take in stride, and pretty much everyone here has been in your shoes.

The keys of the kingdom are held by the elders of the church, and not by the fathers. It is the responsibility of our session of elders to guard the purity of the Word and the integrity of the sacraments. If your child is baptized, he is welcome to come to the Table together with the rest of us. If your baptized child is three months old and conked out in the car seat, don’t feel like you have to wake him up for the Supper. But when he is on your lap, tracking with the service, and he notices the tray going by and wants to partake, please don’t restrain him. But at the same time, because this is not a unilateral family decision, please let your parish elder know that your child is now partaking. And if you have a child who is not baptized, but who believes in Jesus, he is still welcome to the Table with us—but he should be baptized first. He is welcome to sit at table with us, but the way to the dining room table is through the front door—which is baptism.

OUR BAPTISMAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The Confession of Faith for Christ Church is the Westminster Confession, but in addition to that we have what we call a baptismal cooperation agreement, which stipulates an allowed exception. In other words, for about 25 years we have successfully navigated and allowed for our differences on baptism, those differences being Presbyterian and Baptist. But at the same time, we have also cultivated a church community that is a welcoming place for the children. This issue is related to the doctrine of baptism, but it is not identical with it. One of the things we want to insist on is that all of you join with us in welcoming the children.

Some of you newcomers come from generic Baptist backgrounds, and others from a more defined Reformed Baptist background. You are most welcome here, but to get straight to the point, so are your kids. We can accommodate differences on baptism, but we don’t want to accommodate ungodly extrapolations from Baptist premises, or from Presbyterian premises, for that matter. An example of the latter would be, “Yes, he is serving 5 to 10 for armed robbery, but he is a good boy. He was baptized once, and we are hopeful that something good will kick in sometime.” An example of the former would be, “Daddy, I love Jesus . . .” “Let us be the judge of that, kid. Don’t you remember that lie you told three years ago?”

COME, AND WELCOME, TO JESUS CHRIST

This is not a religion club or a theology society that meets on Sundays. We are the body of Christ, and so coming to worship the Father here means that we are coming to and through Christ. We come to the Father in the power of the Spirit, traveling the road who is Christ. We are traveling Christ the Way all together. And as we travel in that way, we want to take great care not to place a stumbling block in the road for any of our little ones.

“And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea” (Mark 9:42).

Quite apart from the doctrine of baptism itself, it is therefore a baseline assumption for our congregation here that it would be far better for us to admit a false professor to our membership than it would be to exclude a true brother. This is an assumption that we want to see cultivated throughout the congregation—because we don’t want Christ to be greatly displeased with us.

Forgiveness for All Nations (Palm Sunday 2021)

Christ Church on March 28, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

What’s wrong with this world? What do we really need? The central answer of the Bible is that our problems all flow from the problem of sin, and therefore, what the world fundamentally needs is forgiveness. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He went straight into the temple. And then over the next few days, He keeps returning to the temple: first clearing it out, then preaching and teaching in it. Jesus insists that the point of His life is to fulfill what the temple always pointed to: forgiveness for sins.

THE TEXT

And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: ¹³and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; ¹⁶and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. ¹⁷And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. ¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. ¹⁹And when even was come, he went out of the city.

²⁰And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. ²²And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses (Mk. 11:11-26).

Summary of the Text

Having ridden into Jerusalem on palm branches and shouts of ‘Hosanna!’ Jesus went directly into the temple and looked around (Mk. 11:11). The next day, Jesus is on His way back into Jerusalem, sees a fig tree without any fruit, and pronounces a curse on it (Mk. 11:12-14). The cleansing of the temple comes next: driving everyone out, overturning the tables of the money changers and pigeon-sellers, and not allowing anyone to walk in the temple for most of the day (Mk. 11:15-16). He was also preaching and teaching on Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 during much of this time and held a rapt audience of many, such that the chief priests and scribes were powerless to do anything (Mk. 11:17-19). Coming back into Jerusalem the next morning, the cursed fig tree has withered to its roots, and Peter points it out (Mk. 11:20-21). To which Jesus replies that Peter should have faith in God, and he may even command this mountain to be cast into the sea. In fact, whatever any disciple asks in prayer will be granted, particularly forgiveness for others, so that God will also forgive all their sins (Mk. 11:22-26).

The Problem

Beginning at the end of our text, the problem is forgiveness of sins. In the Old Testament, God established a system of sacrifice by which God promised to forgive the sins of Israel (Lev. 4:20ff, 1 Kgs. 8:30ff). And when this system was fully functioning, it was to be the kind of light that would draw the nations, so that they might also receive forgiveness (Num. 15:26, 1 Kgs. 8:41-43). The temple was supposed to be a “house of prayer for all nations” (Is. 56:7), and specifically keying off of Solomon’s temple dedication prayer, prayers for forgiveness. The sacrifices of the tabernacle and temple were a sign to Israel and the whole world that God forgave sins. But what was happening at the time of Jesus was what had happened in the days of Jeremiah: people went through the motions of going to worship, chanting slogans about the temple of the Lord (Jer. 7:4). The problem was not with the temple, the problem was with the people sinning up a storm and then going to the temple as an act of empty ritual and formalism. They turned the temple into a “den of thieves” because they brought their sins with them like stolen treasure – with no intention of giving them up, much less seeking forgiveness for any of it (Jer. 7:11). God says that when this happens, He will destroy the temple because it’s become a place where sin is being spread instead of forgiven (Jer. 7:12-14).

Leprous Houses & People

Wound through this episode is a fair bit of Old Testament allusion and symbolism. The fact that Jesus looks around the temple the first evening and then returns the next day refusing to let anyone do anything in the temple is reminiscent of the duties of a priest for a leprous house (Lev. 14:34ff). Leprosy in the Old Covenant wasn’t just a skin disease, it seems to have been a fairly broad category of things that made people and objects ceremonially unclean, which usually just meant they needed to wash and wait until evening before they could offer any sacrifices (although some forms of uncleanness could last longer). The general point of the ceremonial system was to teach Israel that their entire lives mattered to God, and they needed to give thought to how every detail needed to honor Him. Every detail is either pleasing to God and under His blessing and growing life, or else it isn’t pleasing to Him and in some way it’s actually spreading death. In the Old Covenant, washing could make you clean, but you were constantly becoming unclean again. Uncleanness was always contagious. The really striking thing about the New Covenant is that Jesus comes and He’s constantly touching or being touched by unclean people, but instead of becoming unclean, Jesus cleanses the unclean (cf. Mk. 5:27-34, Mt. 8:2-3). In Jesus, cleanness has become contagious. But here Jesus is essentially declaring the temple “unclean”.

This brings us to the cursed fig tree. Fig trees were among the signs that the land of Canaan is a good land (Dt. 8:8), and so the phrase “every man under his own fig tree” became a common expression in Israel for the good life (1 Kgs. 4:25, 2 Kgs. 18:31, Is. 36:16). And in the prophets, the fig tree became a common image for the people of Israel (Jer. 8:13, Hos. 2:12, Joel 1-2). In context, the fig tree in our passage represents Israel and is parallel to the temple. Just as Jesus “inspects” the temple and finds it unclean, so too, when Jesus comes looking for fruit on the fig tree, He is displeased. The curse is also the same: an empty, destroyed temple is the same as a withered, fruitless tree of Israel. And given all of this, it does not seem likely that Jesus changes the subject when He tells Peter that believing prayer will uproot “this mountain” and cast it into the sea. Which mountain? They are on their way to the temple on Mount Moriah.

Conclusions & Applications

And this brings us back to the central problem: if that temple mount is removed and destroyed, how will Israel and the nations be forgiven? Without the sacrifices, priests, and temple, how can they know if they are actually forgiven? Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples: forgive others. But how does that help us?

We sometimes hear these commands/warnings and wonder if Jesus is veering somewhat close to some kind of works-righteousness (e.g. if we do our part, God will do His…?), which can sometimes make us doubt (e.g. Have I really forgiven…? Am I really forgiven…?) But this radically underestimates the task of forgiving sins. To forgive is to release, to set free, to erase the debt of sin. But how can any mere human actually release another human from sin, which properly speaking requires death? Remember, this was one of the great objections of the scribes and Pharisees: no one can forgive sins except God alone (Mk. 2:7). And they were right. Only God can forgive sins. And that was only possible through the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). But even the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t actually take away sins; it had to be the blood of a perfectly obedient man, who could truly represent us (Heb. 10:4, 10-22).

Christian forgiveness is a promise not to hold the sins of another against them on account of the blood of Christ. In other words, whenever a Christian forgives someone, they can only do so by holding up the blood of Jesus, which is your forgiveness as well. If you say you cannot forgive someone, you are in effect saying, “there is no bled shed for this.” But if there is no blood shed for their sin, there is no blood shed for your sin. If you do not forgive, you cannot be forgiven. But when you see the blood of Jesus shed for you, there can be no doubt that it is enough for them. But no one has ever forgiven or been forgiven by humanistic good will.

We live in a sin infested world. And having rejected the blood of Jesus, we have turned to all manner of schemes and theories to try to wash away our sin, like trying to use soap on tattoos, and so our culture is quickly becoming a foul cesspool of guilt and shame and uncleanness. But we proclaim the blood of Jesus that cleanses every stain. We proclaim the blood of Jesus which is more potent that the most heinous sin, and His righteousness which is more contagious than all the filth in the world.