Tag Archives: Andrew Kikkert

Sunday – November 25, 2012

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November 25, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Can We Franchise the Church? from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

The disciples, as do many church leaders today, have an over inflated view of leadership. They want to lead so others will serve them. So as the disciples argue with the teachers of the law over their failure to cast out a demon earlier, they have no problem chastising another who is successfully casting out demons in Jesus name because he was not one of them. They want to control the rights to Jesus name, as if they held exclusive rights to the franchise. This elitist worldview has continued down the centuries and infected generation after generation with pettiness and politics. If Jesus were to ask the leaders of the Church today the same question about which we are arguing, would the silence be any louder than it was with the twelve? Join this week as we continue our study in the Gospel of Mark in the first part of Mark 9 verses 30 to 50.

Word On Worship – November 25, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 9:30-31
“From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it. For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

The ministry of Jesus at this point in Mark’s gospel now shifts from public ministry to a time of intensive training of the twelve. Jesus was never swayed by the adoration of the masses, but now as He turns to Jerusalem one final time, His focus is on these few who will carry the gospel forward to the world. Jesus tells them again His destiny is to be rejected by men who will kill Him but he will be resurrected on the third day. It is here Jesus adds a new detail to His previous statement of suffering: He will be betrayed by one of His own into the hands of men.

They should have been worried about who it will be among them who will betray the Lord of Glory, but instead it becomes a catalyst to debate about who is the greatest. It will continue as they argue with the successful exorcist because he does not follow them. Their need for recognition will also be an issue at the Last Supper as Peter will argue that he will be more faithful than the rest. The picture we are given by Mark is showing Jesus walking ahead to Jerusalem to be sacrificed as the disciples push and shove to establish the order of the procession behind Him.

The disciples, as do many church leaders today, have an over-inflated view of leadership. They want to lead so others will serve them. So as the disciples argue with the teachers of the law over their failure to cast out a demon earlier, they have no problem chastising another who is successfully casting out demons in the name of Jesus because he was not one of them. They want to control the rights to His name, as if they held exclusive rights to the franchise. This elitist worldview has continued down the centuries and infected generation after generation with pettiness and politics. If Jesus were to ask the leaders of the Church today the same question about which we are arguing, would the silence be any louder than it was with the twelve?

The “cult of personality” is alive and well in the church today as it was with the twelve on the road to Jerusalem. How often is the pastor given top billing above Jesus, just as members of the local body seek for their name in the bulletin or church newsletter for their service? Yet our Lord demonstrated His definition of leadership by the cross of Calvary. When leadership is defined by sacrifice, the cross makes sense. The cross is God’s view of leadership. This is the definition of leadership established by Jesus, which He followed to His death. Therefore, any who seek to be leaders must follow Him to the cross to die themselves.

Sunday – November 18, 2012

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November 18, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Thankfulness is More Than a Word from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

On September 8, 1860, the steamship Lady Elgin collided with the schooner Augusta in the waters of Lake Michigan. The Lady Elgin was carrying more than 300 souls on the night she began to sink in the early morning hours, costing the lives of 279 people. Students from Northwestern University formed rescue teams to save the few they could from drowning. One student named Edward Spencer saved 17 people before he passed out from exhaustion. Years later R.A. Torrey asked him if anything stood out in his memory of the event, to which Spencer replied, “Only this sir, of the 17 people I rescued, not one of them thanked me.”
This Sunday we learn some lessons in having a thankful heart as we watch Jesus heal 10 lepers in Luke 17 verses 11 to 19 only to have one, a Samaritan, come back and give thanks to the Lord who healed him. This Sunday our message is “Thankfulness is More than a Word”

Word On Worship – November 18, 2012 Download / Print

 Ephesians 5:18-21
“Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”

Thankfulness is an important subject to the Apostle Paul and throughout the  Word of God. Some combination of the word appears times 195 in Scripture and Paul uses it more than 40 times in his epistles. The concept of thankfulness in the New Testament comes from two Greek words. The first is charizomai, which contains the word for “grace.” The second is homologeo which means “to confess or acknowledge”. Thankfulness is the mental and/or verbal expression of your acknowledgment and appreciation of God’s person, grace and sovereign work in one’s life and the world.

So why be thankful? Because it honors our heavenly Father.  When we are thankful, we recognize God exists and acknowledging Him as the very source and meaning of our life. True thankfulness recognizes our dependence on God and acknowledges everything going on in our lives is the product of God’s sovereign control. It is important for us to recognize thanklessness is dangerous to ourselves and to others. A thankless heart leads to proud humanism and dependence on man rather than God. Thankfulness becomes a spiritual barometer, reading the condition of our spiritual lives and providing a warning if we have ears to hear.

But is thankfulness a topic only to be considered at this time of the year? Certainly not. Scripture teaches us thankfulness is one of the primary purposes of prayer in the life of the believer. Thanksgiving turns our eyes from our problems and ourselves to the Lord in order that we might see His sovereign grace. Thankfulness is not saying all things in our lives are pain-free. But even the most difficult of life situations are used by God for the good of making us like His Son. With our eyes already turned toward God in thankfulness, we encourage an eagerness to go to God in prayer to lay our burdens as well as other matters at His feet.

So where does a thankful heart come from? Do not confuse thankfulness with what provides us with pleasure. True thankfulness requires spiritual understanding of the life situations in which we find ourselves.  Because spiritual understanding is so vital to a thankful heart, a Scripture-filled life is necessary. Living in the Word keeps our focus where it needs to be. It is through being in the Word of God that we are encouraged to grow in the Spirit and remember that we are the children of God. May your Thanksgiving this year be the start of a bountiful harvest of joy, as you seek to cultivate thankfulness in your heart and mind about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday – November 11, 2012

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November 11, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Pray For Kings and All Who Are in Authority from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

The elections are over, so now what? Maybe your candidate won or maybe they lost, but our job is more than just an election. Now is the time for us to get busy and be in prayer for all who in authority whether they are the President of the United States or local elected officials. Join us as we look at 1st Timothy 2 verses 1 to 4 and see why prayer for our leaders is of first importance and what our prayers can do to make the advance of the gospel possible.

Word On Worship – November 11, 2012 Download / Print

 Matthew 6:32-33
“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

One of our greatest problems with prayer is we do not fully know to whom it is we are praying. We have left God to the realm of human imagination and fantasy such that we say, “I would like to think of God in these terms.” That “I like” mindset guarantees that all concepts of God which come from our speculation and imagination will be seriously wrong. Such ideas continually lead to uncertainty about God because God is not the focus of our lives. The only place we can get a clear picture of the living God and understand why prayer is so essential is from the Bible, where God bears witness about Himself so we may begin to know who He truly is.

To  understand why prayer is so essential, we must first grasp how God is a personal God. Today, many people remove the personal attributes of God and think of Him as a “higher substance.”  Society enjoys the facelessness of such a God because we can collectively leave God on the shelf with our other faceless pursuits of career, family, and education, as if He were a fashion statement to be worn in the right season of Christmas and Easter. In other seasons where our devotion is spent in total pursuit of ourselves, we can fold Him up and put Him away until He is needed. The truth is, impersonal ideas about God will always be inferior to the true nature of God.

God is always described as a personal God of real people in Scripture. He speaks of Himself as “I” and addresses humanity as “you.” From Genesis to Revelation, God relates to people personally and is never seen as an “it.” Therefore, we must not allow ourselves to see Him as an object from whom we can stand apart and observe in the way scientists examine an organism through a microscope. God is always the subject, not a mere object, always above us, never below us. He presents Himself in personal terms and so we must always think of Him in personal terms as the God who is eternally here and has His eternal eye on us. He takes an active interest in us just the way we are.

So how does this relate to prayer? Since God is personal, it should be no surprise to find His relationship to humans involves two-way speech, where we listen as well as speak. There is a language between God and us just as there is between you and me.  As God used language to address the people in the Bible, such as Abraham and David, we are called to converse with God using language, seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness. His lessons and commandments as revealed in His wonderful Word remain our enduring and steadfast guide. And none of this would be possible if our heavenly Father were not a personal God who speaks to us and hears our call.

Sunday – November 4, 2012

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November 4, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Where is God on Election Day? from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

It is a week away… not the end of the world but if you listen to the advertising you might be convinced otherwise… Election Day. With both sides convinced God is on their side, the question we are all wondering is “Where is God on Election Day?” Join us this Sunday as we take a break in our study in the Gospel of Mark to look at the example of another king who learned a lesson about Who is in charge , even when we have questions about what it all means in Daniel 4 verses 28 to 37 as we try to answer that very question, “Where is God on Election Day?”

Word On Worship – November 4, 2012              Download / Print

Proverbs 11:10-11
“When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there is joyful shouting. By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is torn down.”

Dr. Haddon Robinson, president of the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver has written, “Fundamentalists who preached during the sixties that God and Caesar were to be kept apart, have had a turn of mind about what the Bible teaches. Political involvement now smacks of a religious crusade… The fact is that there has probably been no time in the recent history of our nation when evangelical Christians have been as interested and involved in the political process.” This has brought an equal and fervent response from unbelievers to keep Christians out of the political dialog under the banner of “separation of church and state.”

We often consult the Book of Proverbs for wisdom in many areas of life, but one area it shines a particularly clear light upon is politics. For many secularists, a government which seeks to uphold righteousness in any area but the environment is only out to make life miserable for people. The Book of Proverbs assumes the purpose of government is to promote righteousness because righteousness is mutually beneficial for government and the people. Righteousness is not only right, it is best. When a government promotes righteousness, the people are blessed. But when the government fails to achieve its intended purpose, the people suffer.

The problem is that government is often tasked with matters that are humanly impossible. Righteousness and justice are God-given characteristics. For any government to employ such standards would require it to seek divine enabling to accomplish their purpose. While there is wisdom in separating religious functions from political office, there is no way we can separate righteousness from political office. If the purpose of government is to promote righteousness and punish evil, how can we avoid defining righteousness and defending it as a part of our political obligation to God?

In carrying out that duty, we must recognize any form of power can be prostituted to the advantage of those who wield it. Any power given by God to man is a stewardship. And when power is abused, God may elect to take it away, just as God did with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. He had received good counsel from his advisors in 1 Kings 12:7 “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” Rehoboam did not learn leadership is really servanthood and rejected their advice. This is what Jesus taught the disciples in Mark 10:35-45. All power is given by God, whether it is political, financial or relational, so that we may serve others. When we forget this truth we are in danger of being set aside.

Sunday – October 28, 2012

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October 28, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Why Is Jesus So Cranky? from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Does Jesus ever get grumpy? Just wake up on the wrong side of the bed after dealing with the disciples with yet another problem? Maybe if we saw Jesus in His full glory on the Mount of Transfiguration we would understand what Jesus sacrificed to come to earth to redeem mankind. Join us this Sunday for our continuing study of the Gospel of Mark in Mark 9 verses 1 to 29 as we look at “Why Is Jesus So Cranky?”

Word On Worship – October 28, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 9:18-20
“I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!”

The pandemonium that greets Jesus and the three disciples when they come off the mountain might give Peter new incentive to return to the place of glory to build those shelters, far removed from the noise down below. Coming back from the glory of the Transfiguration and into collapse of the disciples’ failure to cast out the demon was not what anyone expected. How many times have we desired to retreat from life’s failures or from a faithless generation?  I am sure the disciples would understand the commercial that asks, “Want to get away?”

This episode is different from the other exorcisms we have already seen in the Gospel of Mark. The earlier encounters demonstrate the authority of Jesus over the demons but here Mark turns our attention to the failure of the disciples to cast out the demon and the father’s need for faith. The disciples are just like us – beset by failure, eager to engage in arguments, undisciplined in our prayer lives, and more interested in learning technique instead of taking the time needed to walk closely with God. This incident shows us how feeble we all are when we are running on our own steam.

To their credit, the disciples want to learn from their failure. Their question to Jesus reveals their assumption that it is all about their technique. They thought it was all about their skills and power, so the only reason why something went awry had to be the result of poor technique. Power in our spiritual lives has nothing to do with the right combination of words or actions. There is no lamp to rub to get our magical three wishes. The answer Jesus gives His disciples makes it clear that spiritual power has nothing to do with secret lore, techniques or incantations. They had trusted in themselves and their power rather than in God.

Only when we, like the disciples, come up short in failure do we realize that we posses no power in ourselves. Those who belong to the faithless generation do not cast out evil. God does. The power belongs entirely to God and must be received afresh from Him through a life of prayer and self sacrifice. We cannot take a course to learn the ins and outs of spiritual effectiveness, as if the power of God is earned like a merit badge. Our attitude must be like the father in Mark 9:24: “I do believe; help my unbelief.” It is only then we will be useful as healers and agents of comfort for those who suffer.

Sunday – October 21, 2012

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October 21, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

The Most Important Question from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

There are a lot of questions we ask ourselves about our lives. What will do to earn a living, how should we raise our families, how can we define success in our lives. But the most important question any one can ask themselves is who is Jesus of Nazareth? Who Jesus is and what you are going to do with that answer is the single most defining issue you have to make with eternity. Join us this Sunday as we look at "The Most Important Question" from Mark 8 verses 27 to 38.

Word On Worship – October 21, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 8:34-35
“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

If ever there was a man who could be right and yet simultaneously wrong at the same time, Peter must be him. In our passage, Peter makes his stunning confession of faith in Jesus being the Messiah. But then Jesus tells the disciples His path will lead to suffering, humiliation and ultimately death on the cross and Peter’s reaction is to tell Jesus no way! One can hardly blame Peter for missing the point since the cross was contrary to every interest in Peter’s life at this time. Are we any different than Peter today?

We need to remember the Jewish method of execution was stoning. When Jesus told them they would need to take up their cross to follow Him, they heard Roman execution. To be Messiah meant possessing the Wisdom of Solomon, providing bread in the Wilderness like Moses, leading in conquest like Joshua and establishing an eternal kingdom like David in the minds of the disciples. Nowhere in their job description for the Messiah was death at the hands of the same Romans they expected Jesus to overthrow. Jesus is heading to His own death and they will be following Him to the same destination.

Following Christ requires the believer to act in ways which are contrary to our basic instincts and interests. Jesus is not going the way our culture is going. That leaves us with the hard choice to follow our goals and self interests or to die to them by taking up a cross, a Roman method of execution. That certainly was no more popular in the minds of the disciples that in our minds today. The gospel is all about taking up our cross and embracing death. The result of following Jesus means our lives will turn upside down. No matter what our culture may be – American, Chinese, Islamic or even Jewish, when you come to Christ He will turn your values upside down. Following Jesus means we are going to die to the way we used to live our lives.

When I read through the Gospel of John, one of the key words is BELIEVE. But here in the Gospel of Mark the key word is FOLLOW. Many would like to apply this as a multiple choice where we can believe or follow Christ. Jesus makes it clear it is both to believe and follow. What do you believe about Jesus ? Will that compel you to follow Him? With what you know about Jesus, are you willing to get behind Him and follow His lead, even when the road He has chosen leads us to Golgotha? We must be ready to follow when Jesus leads us along the roads we would never have chosen for ourselves.

Sunday – October 14, 2012

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October 14, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Lessons from the Leftovers from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Jesus is continuing His ministry in Gentile territory and after teaching for three days feeds the crowd of 4,000 people in attendance. But instead of seeing the sufficiency of Christ in their midst, the disciples connect all the wrong dots and worry about what they are going to do for lunch with only one loaf of bread in the boat. Let’s see if we can make the connections and learn “The Lessons of Leftovers” in our study of the Gospel of Mark chapter 8 verses 1 to 26.

Word On Worship – October 14, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 8:11-12
“The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

“Seeing is believing” is more than a Madison Avenue marketing ploy. We want to test the merchandise ourselves to see if it lives up to the hype. Our generation is seen in the actions of the Pharisees. The Pharisees are looking to dictate to God the terms and conditions under which they will believe or not believe. They want unequivocal, irrefutable and visible evidence that removes any doubt from the decision of faith. In reality, they are really looking for something from Jesus to eliminate the need for faith. But is our generation any different?

Jesus has proved His authority throughout His ministry. He sent the healed leper to them as a testimony of His power to heal. He confirmed His authority to forgive sin by commanding the paralytic to walk. He taught with authority that the people had never seen from the religious leaders. He broke Sabbath commands with Old Testament precedent for His actions. He commands storms to be stilled and demons to be removed. But the Jewish leaders have rejected the evidence and moved forward to plot His death. The response of our Lord is to deny them any further evidence since they refuse to believe no matter what He says or does.

The Messiah they want will never come. They want a compliant superman who has the power of heaven to fulfill their own earthly program. They dream empty dreams of overthrowing tyrants so they may be installed as the new tyrants. They want Jesus to give them proof of what they want to be true, without having to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. Does this sound like the Jesus our generation wants? This was the very temptation Satan used in the Wilderness.  For Jesus to resist such pressure and remain obedient to God required a clear vision of God’s will, unwavering dedication and continual prayer.

Today people still want convincing signs. If we were in the crowd when He was crucified, would we demand He come down in some dramatic show of force so we might believe He is the Christ? Each one of us must discern the truth of from the way He gave His life on the cross and the evidence of the resurrection. Scoffers will appear in every generation asking for signs only to ridicule faith in God against all evidence presented to it. Mark’s Gospel shows us the Creator does not bow to such demands from the created. We must follow the example of Jesus and demonstrate our faith by our commitment to obey God and giving ourselves as a sacrifice to others.

Sunday – October 7, 2012

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October 7, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Does God Ever Lose an Argument? from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Does God ever intend on losing an argument? Do you think He ever changes His mind? After declaring all food clean, Jesus begins to go into Gentile territory to begin ministering to those who were outside the children of Israel. Will the ministry to the Gentiles be a second class ministry? Will Jesus with hold healing from the Gentiles or does He need extra persuasion? If you want to know the answers, don’t miss this Sunday’s message from Mark 7 verses 24 to 37 as we see “Does God Ever Lose an Argument?”

Word On Worship – October 7, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 7:26-27
“She kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Why would Jesus show such contempt to a woman only seeking help for her daughter and compare her to a dog? It implies the only legitimate diners are the children of Israel. If you are confused, you are not alone. The response of Jesus to this desperate mother has confounded readers, not to mention scholars, for years. The scene upsets our sense of justice. We do not mind when Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, because their sense of entitlement deserves condemnation. But the response of our Lord seems to be out of character for a mother interceding for her child.

To deal with this incongruity of Scripture not meeting our expectations, people have found many ways to excuse the perceived harshness of Jesus. Surely He must have used a gentle, maybe even humorous tone of voice to lessen the sting. Maybe Jesus was not convinced His mission was to include the Gentiles just yet?  Or could this be Jesus testing the faith of this woman? Others, with a low view of Scripture, argue this incident is merely an invention of the Church which was read back into the history of Jesus to demonstrate Jewish prejudice towards Gentiles.

Stop making excuses for Jesus and His response.  A dog is a dog, whether they are pampered pet or feral street hound. No matter how Jesus said it, to call this desperate woman a dog is not a term of endearment. And if this is a test of faith, why does not Jesus commend her faith when it was proved true?  Mark may not be aware of the problems which step on our political correctness, but surely the Holy Spirit who inspired Mark’s account is. We come to the Scriptures with our own bias, expectation and selfish desire. Our bias is to make Jesus more Gentile than Jew because we received Him gladly.  Our expectation is for Jesus to be more favorable to Gentiles because so many Jews have rejected their Messiah. And our selfish desire obligates Jesus to respond to every request made upon Him because we expect Him to respond to our every beck and call.

Our problem with this response of Jesus is we do not understand who we are, unlike the Canaanite woman. We are self-deluded to think Jesus accepts us just as we are. When Scripture filters out our selfish expectation, we see all of our righteousness is like filthy rags and God accepts us only as Jesus is – holy, righteous and pure. We are ready to begin talking about the grace of God in the Person of Jesus Christ only after we know what we truly are without Him. Never forget the only solution for our sin is the harshness of the cross. The cross is the only way sin, Jew or Gentile, could be dealt with to be accepted by God.

Sunday – September 30, 2012

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September 30, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Why Religion is All Washed Up from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Let me say from the start- I am a HUGE fan of hand washing. And I am sure Jesus would say amen when restaurant workers read the sign in the bathroom and wash their hands. But in our passage in Mark, Jesus is not talking about hand washing from a health point of view, He is talking about hand washing from a ceremonial point of view. And this is a Supreme Court decision about washing and food. Join us Sunday in our study of the Gospel of Mark and see why “Religion is Washed Up” and let’s connect some dots to see why the menu has changed in Mark 6 verse 53 to Mark 7 verse 23.

Word On Worship – September 30, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 7:8
“Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

From our position in history, we see how the Pharisee’s tradition strangled faith. We dismiss their traditions about the washing of hands as obsessing over the gnats and missing the camels of the faith. But to connect the dots to our lives today, we must realize the honest concerns behind the traditions. The Law required the priests to wash their hands to be ceremonially clean and that standing was required for anyone in their household to eat their share of the sacrifices. The Pharisees’ tradition extended this requirement to all Jews. The desire of the Pharisees was to strive for holiness above what the Law prescribed. Since the command of God was “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2), the Pharisees saw purity as essential and it did not stop at the doors of the Temple.

For the Pharisees, the washings belonged to the traditions of Moses and became doctrine. They sought to fill in the gaps by careful analysis of the Law of Moses, as given by God. Their doctrines, which were based on these traditions, were rooted in Scripture and equal in authority in their minds. Their goal was giving practical application of the Law so lay people could live a life of holiness and purity outside of the Temple. A second benefit was protection against the influence of the world around them from watering down Judaism. It made sure people could clearly set themselves apart from the ungodly influences of those who were destined for destruction because of their moral corruption.

Now fast forward 2,000 years to the present. What doctrines have we developed from tradition to fill in the gaps of Scripture to direct what we should do (or not do) to remain holy? Before you scoff and say, I would never be so caught up in rules based on tradition, consider this: Should we tithe gross income or net income (assuming you do)? Does that include the money we get from recycling and credit card reward money? Does it include fruit and vegetables we grow in our home gardens? These are not silly questions. We use a tradition which tries to honor God’s requirements and then apply them to guide us in how to respond in situations which are not clearly spelled out in Scripture. Or is our Pharisee moment to emphasize one area of holiness over another to reinforce our being separate from the world? Because we do not engage in “this” sin (usually one which holds no sway over us) we are not like “them” who would never darken the doorway of a church. But what is our response to direct biblical direction regarding lust, anger, covetousness or gluttony? Is our answer, “Well that may be in the Bible, but it is not really for us already in the church”?

Many Christian traditions have direct parallels with the Pharisees’ concerns. If things are not done in a certain way, they are perceived to be violations. Whether it is baptism, communion, music style or use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; we must guard against the temptation to focus on the details so much that we miss the grand design of God. Jesus Christ came to make God accessible to everyone. The intent of the Pharisees was to make God accessible to everyone by obedience to the rules of the priests in the Temple, but being in the Temple has nothing to do with access to God. What matters is the righteousness of Jesus Christ which comes from His work on the cross of Calvary – not ours.

Sunday – September 23, 2012

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September 23, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

Connecting the Dots from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Jesus and His disciples are confronted with a unique problem. They are in the middle of nowhere with 5,000 men (not counting the women and children) at the end of a long day of ministry, when Jesus asks the disciples to feed the crowd. A miracle which is recorded in all four gospel. But Mark records what the discples did not get, because they could not connect the dots between the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on the water to the discples. To know who Jesus is requires us to connect the dots. The dots of His personal claims, miracles and teaching. But even more is the connecting of the Old Testament works of God the Father to the ministry of Jesus to see Jesus is the picture of what all the dots look like together. Join us this Sunday as we continue in our study of the Gospel of Mark in Mark 6 verses 30 to 52.

Word On Worship – September 23, 2012 Download / Print

Mark 6:41-44
“And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.”

Why must scholars rationalize the miraculous? And if there is one event the intellectuals must rationalize away, the feeding of the 5,000 is it.  Jesus must have hidden food in a secret cave. The disciples must have given up the food they were hoarding. The size of the crowd must have been exaggerated. It must have been a sacramental meal — a mere token piece of bread alluding to the feast that is to come. Why are we surprised when God acts like God?

Here is the One who is like Moses but greater than Moses. Here is the One who is like Elijah and Elisha but is greater than all the prophets. In feeding the 5,000, Mark demonstrates Jesus exercises God’s power and uses it for the good of the flock. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of His people and He provides for all needs in this life and the life to come. Even today, we long for good news but sadly settle for merely good advice. The question of feeding the 5,000 is the question religion has wrestled with for millennia: Is the need of mankind spiritual or physical? God recognizes our needs are both spiritual and physical.

Neither sending the crowd away nor compelling the disciples to share what they have solves the problem because they are the solutions of men. This is why politics will never solve man’s problems because they can only offer man-made solutions: send the needy away or compel those who may have to give more to those who have less. The Church needs to learn from the example of Jesus Christ Himself; neglect neither spiritual hunger nor physical hunger. The command of Jesus to the disciples was “You give them something.” A disciple of Jesus Christ is always the servant of others. We are called to feed the sheep and not just ourselves. The lesson is clear for those who have ears to hear: there will always be enough to feed the Church.

Before we echo the words of the disciples about our inventory and conclude we do not have enough, we may need to step out in faith. When self-proclaimed Christians, on average, give 3% of their income to the church and even less of their time in direct ministry, we should see we have enough. God never sacrifices the physical need to satisfy the spiritual need. Nor will God ever sacrifice the spiritual need of humanity in order to satisfy an empty stomach. Both are important to Him. So how important are they to us?