Leading
a Rebellion: Jesus Challenged the Way People Thought
Mark
12:13-37
Rebel:
Anyone who goes against any authority, control, or tradition.
Intro:
I had a friend in high school who had a poster in his room that said “Punk is
not how you dress. It’s how you think.” I always liked that because I always
considered myself a punk. I didn’t dress outlandishly, or have crazy hair, but
I did dress and act differently than almost everyone else at my school. What’s
interesting is that even though I dressed, acted, and thought differently than
everyone else, I still desperately wanted to fit in and belong. I just wanted
to fit in and belong with a different crowd.
If you think differently than the
majority of the people, are you necessarily wrong? Are you necessarily right?
·
If a building was on fire and everyone
was running out of it would it be right to think differently and run into it?
What if you were a firefighter?
·
If I paid you a million dollars to jump
out of an airplane without a parachute would you do it? What if the plane was
on the ground?
·
Which month has 28 days in it? All of
them.
·
A father and son were riding in a car
when they had an accident. The father was killed and the son was rushed to the
hospital. When he got there the doctor said, “I cannot operate on this boy
because he is my son.” How is that?
Thinking differently is what makes
successful people successful and thinking differently is what makes
unsuccessful people unsuccessful. Henry Ford thought differently and invented the
car. Ray Kroc thought differently than the McDonald brothers and turned three
small restaurants into thousands of restaurants. But thinking differently can
also make you unsuccessful. How many of you have ever gone to McDonald’s
because they have the best tasting hamburger you ever put in your mouth? No, of
course not. People go to McDonald’s because it’s cheap, fast, and you know
exactly what you’re getting. Have you ever noticed that every McDonald’s you
have ever been in has the same napkins, cups, straws, hamburger wrappers, fry
box, and all of the food tastes exactly the same? That’s because they have a
system: one supplier that every franchise must order from; and an educational
system that teaches you how to run and operate a successful McDonald’s. You
cannot deviate from the McDonald’s plan. If you deviate from the plan, and
think differently you will be unsuccessful.
I actually have eaten at the
McDonald’s that invented the Big Mac. They have a little plaque on the wall
commemorating the location. The sandwich is named after the founding brother
and thankfully not after the man that made McDonald’s famous. Imagine taking a big
juicy bite from a Big Mac. Now imagine taking a big juicy bite from a Big Kroc.
Every McDonald’s in America has a Big Mac. You wouldn’t go into a McDonald’s
and eat a Big Sean, or a Big Adam. You have to think and act like everyone else
if you want to be a successful franchise owner. The advantage to this system is
that if you think the way they think, and do what they tell you to do you have
a very high chance of success.
The Rebellion:
“This is all very awesome Adam, but
what does this have to do with Jesus?” In Jesus’ time there were three
different groups of people who all had a way of thinking, but Jesus confronted
them and showed them that their way of thinking was wrong.
Matt 20:16: In one of Jesus’ parables He taught that
those that are first now will later be last. That doesn’t even make sense. It’s
like the tortoise and the hare. In 100 races between a hare and a tortoise, the
hare will win 100 times. But we all know that story because the stupid rabbit
takes a nap, and loses the race. But it really is like that in the Kingdom of
Heaven. A couple of weeks ago Miss Candace’s aunt passed away. She had MS. She
doesn’t have MS anymore. She has been freed from her earthly body for all of
eternity. She once was last but now she’s first.
Matt 5:21-22
“You have heard that it
was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.’
22 But I say to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to
the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
The old thought process was “I haven’t
broken a commandment because I haven’t murdered anyone.” The new thought
process Jesus introduced was that if you have been angry with someone without
cause you will face the same judgment as if you had murdered them.
Matt 5:27-28
You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The old thought process was “I haven’t
broken a commandment because I haven’t committed adultery.” The new thought
process Jesus introduced was that if you looked at someone with lust in your
heart, you have broken a commandment and already committed adultery in your
heart. By the way, neurologists have proven that your brain sends off the same signals,
and produces the same chemical response in your body if you are viewing pornography,
as it would if you were actually having sex. So Jesus may have been on to
something when He said lustful looking is the same as committing adultery.
He also challenged them on the
Jewish process of divorce. Remember a few weeks ago when I went over all of the
reasons a Jewish man could divorce his wife? Here Jesus is challenging their
way of thinking on divorce.
Matt 5:31-32
“It was also said, ‘Whoever
divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his
wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and
whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Application: In
every example Jesus raised the bar of thinking from “just getting by,” or “this
is how it’s always been” to a whole new level. All of a sudden what people
thought was doing just fine was no longer acceptable. What the Pharisees, the
people known for their perfect keeping of the law, thought was clean living was
sin ridden.
We talked about this in Middle
School Sunday School class this past Sunday: The Ten Commandments were never
intended as a road map to get to heaven because no one can ever perfectly live
out every aspect of each of those commandments from birth to death. The Ten
Commandments demonstrate to us how depraved we are. We’re all guilty of breaking
almost all ten of the commandments, usually on a daily basis. For instance, how
many of you all have ever carved yourself an idol out of rock or wood, set up
an altar and worshiped it at your house? Probably not many of you, but how many
of you have ever put something, even temporarily, in a higher position than
God? “I know I should be reading my Bible but I just need to check my facebook.”
Or How many of you have ever said something like, “The God I worship would
never…” and then fill in the blank “want me to carry this baby full-term;” “breakup
with my boyfriend/girlfriend;” “say that two people who love each other should
not be married no matter what their gender.” That’s making God into something
He’s not, and worshiping something other than God, both of which is against the
1st Commandment.
Anybody here ever steal anything
from the time they were born until right now? Stealing is taking anything that
doesn’t belong to you. Caleb stole rice off of Rebekah’s plate yesterday, that’s
stealing. If you get paid to work and you are texting someone not during break
time, that’s stealing. Anybody ever steal anything? What do you call someone
who steals? A thief.
Anybody here ever look at someone
with lust in their hearts? Jesus says that you are an adulterer at heart?
Anybody here ever tell a lie? What do
we call someone who lies? A Liar
Anybody here ever use the Lord’s
name in vain? Instead of using a cuss word, you used the name of the One who
gives you life? Or when we are praying we use God’s name as we would a comma. The
Bible says that’s blasphemy. Making something holy common.
So by our own admission we are
lying, thieving, blasphemers, that worship idols. And that is just looking at
five of the Ten Commandments. Do I need to ask about honoring your father and
mother?
Do you realize that if we sin just
ten times a day by the end of the year we will have sinned 3,650 times? And all
of our righteous living can’t take away a single one of them. So if you died
tonight, based on the Ten Commandments, would a righteous and holy God find you
guilty or innocent? If He found you guilty where would you spend eternity?
The Good News is that Jesus lived
the perfect life that I could never live and then took the punishment that I deserved
so I wouldn’t have to. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Someone
has to die for my sins. It can be me, or it can be Jesus. I accepted the gift
of Jesus’s death on the cross for my sins, and I pray that you will too.
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