Learning from the Lord: The Gospels: Volume 1

By William Sauser

Learning from the Lord is a collection of sermons Dr. Sauser has preached during his twenty-plus years in pastoral service to the Union Springs Presbyterian Church (USA) in Union Springs, Alabama. Like many small-town and rural churches across the United States, the Union Springs Presbyterian Church comprises a small but lively congregation with a good understanding of the beliefs and traditions of the Christian church but a hunger to learn more about the truths revealed in God's written Word; the context in which they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down by faithful evangelists; their meaning to the early Christians who were first exposed to them; their meaning to modern-day Christians as our rule of faith and life; and how we can apply these biblical truths in our worship and life today.

What does God expect of us as we seek to assist in bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth? What would Jesus do? How do we live by the law of love as Jesus commands? How do we spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, starting from our own homes, churches, and communities? How does our loving God reconcile us to himself, forgive our sins, and grant us eternal life in paradise? How can we glorify and enjoy God forever? Learning from the Lord is not a scholarly commentary, but the sermons contained herein are informed by biblical scholars from the earliest days of the church through today.

This volume focuses on the four gospels. Each evangelist tells his story a little differently, so the sermons included in this volume emphasize different themes from the four gospels. The Marcan sermons focus on the power of God to overcome sin, evil, and death as manifested by the miracles and signs performed by Jesus. The sermons drawn from Matthew track the five great blocks of Jesus's teachings found within that gospel. Sermons from Luke's gospel illustrate Jesus's love for all as he interacts with people from all walks of life. The Johannine sermons show the Son of God engaging a variety of persons in one-on-one conversation as he reveals--in mystical words and phrases--what it means to be reborn as a believer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781638745396

Book preview

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Learning from the Lord

The Gospels: Volume 1

William Sauser

ISBN 978-1-63874-538-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63874-540-2 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63874-539-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by William Sauser

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Mark

Prologue

The Perfect Storm

An Advent Sermon

1

A Visit from Saint Mark

2

Jesus Christ Comes in Power: An Epiphany Sermon

3

Power to Preach and Teach

4

Power to Call Others to Service: An Ordination/Installation Sermon

5

Power to Heal—Part 1

6

Power to Heal—Part 2

7

Power to Forgive Sins

8

Power to Break Down Barriers

9

Power to Calm the Storm

10

Power to Fill Emptiness: A Communion Sermon

11

Power to Confront Tradition

12

Only Jesus: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

13

Power to Cast Out Demons

14

Power over Death

15

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem: A Palm Sunday Meditation

16

The Lord's Coronation: A Maundy Thursday Meditation

17

There You Will See Him: An Easter Sunday Sermon

18

The Rest of the Story

19

Testimony of a Young Man

Matthew

Prologue

Hebrew History in a Nutshell

1

Saint Matthew Pays a Visit

2

You Shall Name Him Jesus: An Advent Sermon

3

Set Your Mind on Divine Things: An Advent Sermon

4

Touched by an Angel: A Christmas Sermon

5

The Genesis of Jesus the Messiah

6

Wise Men Come to Jesus: An Epiphany Sermon

7

A Scribe Trained for the Kingdom of Heaven

8

Seven Steps to Heaven: A Lenten Sermon

9

Fulfilling the Law: A Lenten Sermon

10

One Who Says, Raca, You Fool: A Lenten Sermon

11

Let Your Word Be Your Bond: A Lenten Sermon

12

Testing Our Motives for Giving, Praying, and Fasting: A Lenten Sermon

13

When You Are Praying: A Lenten Sermon

14

Treasures in Heaven: An Easter Sermon

15

The Harvest Begins: A Pentecost Meditation

16

Ordinary People: An Ordination/Installation Sermon

17

Go Nowhere among the Gentiles: A Sermon Preached on Mother's Day

18

Sheep in the Midst of Wolves

19

No Secrets

20

Not Peace but a Sword

21

He Taught Them in Parables: A Sunday Meditation

22

On This Rock, I Will Build My Church

23

Laborers in the Master's Vineyard

24

Woe unto the Hypocrites

25

The Beginning of the Birth Pangs

26

The Desolating Sacrilege

27

Jesus Is Lord

28

When, O Lord?

29

Judgment Day

30

The Son of Man Coming in His Kingdom: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

Luke

Prologue

God's Suffering Servant

1

Saint Luke Testifies about Jesus

2

Morning Has Broken: A Sermon for Christ the King Sunday

3

Prepare Ye the Way: An Advent Sermon

4

Christmas Eve Meditation

5

The Handmaiden's Story: A Christmas Sermon

6

Things I Never Knew

7

In My Father's House

8

He Will Baptize You with the Holy Spirit: A Sermon Celebrating the Baptism of the Lord

9

Temptation

10

An Ordinary Day

11

A Sinful Man: An Ordination/Installation Sermon

12

Journeying with Jesus

13

Nonsense or God's Truth?

14

God's Justice, God's Mercy, God's Love

15

Our Dazzling Messiah: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

16

A Good Woman

17

Bad Neighbors, Good Neighbors

18

The Pharisees, Herod, and Jerusalem

19

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem: A Palm Sunday Meditation on Luke 19:28–22:1

20

By His Faith We Are Saved: An Easter Sermon

21

The Legacy of the Unknown Disciple191

John

Prologue

Did Zerubbabel Err?

1

A Message from Saint John

2

The Wedding at Cana: A Communion Sermon for Epiphany

3

Nicodemus by Night

4

Woman at the Well

5

The Holy Supper: A Sermon for World Communion Sunday

6

The Man Born Blind

7

Lazarus in the Tomb

8

How Do We Know There Is a God?: A Sermon for Trinity Sunday

9

Glory in the Garden: An Easter Sunday Sermon

10

My Lord and My God

11

Gone Fishing—with Jesus

12

The Last Days of Peter and John: A Sermon Preached on Mother's Day

Epilogue

What If Jesus Were Born Today?

A Sermon for Christmas

References

About the Author

To my beloved wife, Lane, and the Saints of the Union Springs Presbyterian Church (USA)—past, present, and future.

To God be the Glory!

Preface

Learning from the Lord is a collection of sermons I have preached during my twenty-plus years in pastoral service to the Union Springs Presbyterian Church (USA) in Union Springs, Alabama. Like many small-town and rural churches across the United States, the Union Springs Presbyterian Church comprises a small but lively congregation with a good understanding of the beliefs and traditions of the Christian church but a hunger to learn more about the truths revealed in God's written Word; the context in which they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down by faithful evangelists; their meaning to the early Christians who were first exposed to them; their meaning to modern-day Christians as our rule of faith and life; and how we can apply these biblical truths in our worship and life today. What does God expect of us as we seek to assist in bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth? What would Jesus do? How do we live by the law of love as Jesus commands? How do we spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, starting from our own home, church, and community? How does our loving God reconcile us to himself, forgive our sins, and grant us eternal life in paradise? How can we glorify and enjoy God forever?

Learning from the Lord is not a scholarly commentary, but the sermons contained herein are informed by biblical scholars from the earliest days of the church through today. Some of the resources I have studied and drawn from during the preparation of these sermons are listed in the reference section found at the back of this volume. In addition to scholarly commentaries, other key resources I used while preparing, revising, and updating these sermons over the years are the various confessions and catechisms of the Reformed Tradition, ideas conveyed in pop culture and other signs of the times, study of the Bible in its various versions and translations, and—of course—plenty of prayer time during which I waited for inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Listening to the Lord in prayer is a wonderful Christian discipline, one which I heartily recommend to all persons who are seeking to understand what God is saying to us through his written Word in these modern times.

Many Christian pastors use the lectionary to guide their selection of Bible passages from which to preach each Sunday. I tried this at first but found that I could not gain as much understanding as I desired from the Bible using this discipline. The lectionary moves too quickly through the books of the Bible for my taste, leaves out some books of the Bible entirely, and does not always group together on a particular Sunday passages from the Old and New Testaments that shed light and understanding on one another.

Instead, I have chosen to let the Christian calendar become my guide for preaching. During Advent, I often draw from the words of the Hebrew prophets as they proclaim the coming of God's anointed king. The Christmas season, of course, is devoted to the birth of the Christ child. During the first section of ordinary time, I follow Jesus during the joyous Galilean Spring as he spreads the good news through proclamation and miraculous signs to people longing to learn from him, to see him, to touch him, to be saved by him.

My sermons typically become darker during Lent as I follow Jesus's journey toward Jerusalem. This is a period of testing for Jesus and for each one of us as we grow closer to the Holy City; the city where Jesus is to be crucified. Easter is devoted to joyous sermons proclaiming our Lord's glorious resurrection. During the long period of ordinary time that follows, I seek to lead my flock through a period of spiritual growth since that is what the green paraments on the pulpit during this time represent after all.

Sermons during this period are often drawn from Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. They cover also God's mighty acts as proclaimed in the Old Testament books of law and history, the wisdom literature, and the prophets. Thus, during the first half of the year, my sermon texts are generally drawn from the gospels. These are the sermons I have included in this first volume of Learning from the Lord. God willing, a second volume will contain sermons from Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.

I rotate among the gospels during a four-year cycle, thus allowing each of the four evangelists to tell his story as he desires it to be told. I begin each cycle with the Gospel of Mark since it is generally recognized to be the first of the gospels to appear in written form, probably around thirty years after the events that it describes. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are believed to have been produced in their current form within the two or three decades that followed. Most scholars (though not all) believe that Matthew and Luke used Mark's gospel as their basic outline but added many of Jesus's teachings, perhaps drawn from a common source document known as Q, which stands for Quelle or Source. This is speculative since no such independent document is extant. In addition to sayings from this possible common document, Matthew and Luke draw on their own source materials, including birth narratives, genealogies, and oral traditions known to each of them. Each evangelist adapts Mark's wording to fit the context and needs of his own worshiping congregation; thus, each gospel emphasizes its own theme and tells its own story.

John's gospel, probably written near the end of the first century or beginning of the second, appears to draw on sources independent of those used by the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke—so called because they follow a common outline of story progression). John's gospel is more Christological in nature, stressing Jesus's divinity as the Word made flesh.

In John's gospel, Jesus visits (as an adult) Jerusalem for at least three Passover celebrations, implying that his earthly mission stretched out over three years, rather than the single year implied by the synoptics. John also includes signs and stories other than the ones told by Mark, Matthew, and Luke.

After preaching through a complete four-year cycle, I begin the next by starting over with Mark again. Each evangelist tells his story a little differently, so the sermons I have chosen to include in this volume emphasize different themes from the four gospels. The Marcan sermons focus on the power of God to overcome sin, evil, and death as manifested by the miracles and signs performed by Jesus. The sermons drawn from Matthew track the five great blocks of Jesus's teachings found within that gospel. Sermons from Luke's gospel illustrate Jesus's love for all as he interacts with people from all walks of life. The Johannine sermons show the Son of God engaging a variety of persons in one-on-one conversation as he reveals—in mystical words and phrases—what it means to be reborn as a believer.

When preparing a sermon to preach, I generally read the entire gospel for the respective year in several translations. This helps to reveal the richness of meaning within the text. I then read several commentaries to see how Bible scholars have interpreted the gospel throughout the years. Bible stories can be read on many levels ranging from literal descriptions of what really happened to metaphorical parables designed to reveal the heart of God. Commentators seek to explore the Holy Scriptures on several levels, interpreting them from a variety of perspectives including historical, cultural, prophetic, salvific, and other themes.

I look at concordances to find other texts that relate to the scripture lesson for the day. I then reflect on what the Scriptures meant to their original audience and what they mean to today's audience as well. Finally, I seek to understand how the Word of God guides us down paths of righteousness; how the Bible teaches us to live authentic Christian lives in today's challenging times. The entire process is enveloped in prayer as I seek the inspiration of the Holy Spirit every step of the way.

Since the Holy Spirit speaks to us in many ways, there may be a variety of valid interpretations of each passage from Holy Scripture. This is to be expected; not everyone will agree, certainly, with my own interpretations, and my thoughts have been refined over time as I continue learning from the Lord in conversation with other Christians.

I began learning from the Lord at birth as my little eyes and ears, hands and legs actively explored God's good creation. I was loved and nurtured by my parents, grandparents, and other family members—good Christians all—who helped me to understand what it means to be loved by God. When I learned to read, I began enjoying Bible stories (and other literature too, of course). I attended church services, Sunday school, and youth gatherings, and conversed with persons from a variety of faith traditions; this certainly broadened the horizons of my understanding of Christianity.

While in school at Georgia Tech, studying business management and psychology, I became very active in the Clairmont Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, where eventually I was ordained a deacon. After completing my doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology, I was appointed to the faculty of Auburn University where I had a long and enjoyable career as a professor and administrator. From the day I joined the faculty at Auburn University, my wife and I were provided Christian education and nurtured by the fine people of the First Presbyterian Church of Auburn, Alabama. I served that church in a number of voluntary roles (such as Sunday school teacher and leader of the men of the church) and took my ordination vows as a ruling elder in 1981.

When my wife and I moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to assume new job responsibilities, we had the opportunity to join a group of committed Presbyterians in a new church development. We became charter members of Immanuel Presbyterian Church and both served, at different times, on the session of that church. It was while working as a volunteer at Immanuel that I sensed a calling from God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A fellow elder and I joined a class on lay preaching being taught by the faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in conjunction with pastors from my home presbytery (Sheppards and Lapsley) based in Birmingham, Alabama. For the next three years (including a week each summer on the campus of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia), my colleague and I commuted to Birmingham one weekend a month to take classes designed to prepare us for commissioning as lay pastors.

In 1997, I was awarded a certificate in Commissioned Lay Pastor Training from the Lay Institute of Faith and Life, Columbia Theological Seminary. Shortly thereafter, I was commissioned by my presbytery to serve as commissioned ruling elder / lay pastor to the Union Springs Presbyterian Church in Union Springs, Alabama. For the past twenty-three years (as of this writing), I have served that church as its pastor, leading weekly worship services, engaging in pastoral conversations, moderating Session meetings, serving communion, and conducting baptismal, wedding, and funeral services.

During my tenure as pastor, I have been surrounded by wonderful men, women, and children of God. They have helped me continue learning from the Lord, a process I intend to follow all the days of my life. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

It has been said that if you really want to learn about a topic thoroughly, then prepare yourself to teach it! Teaching Sunday school, conversing with wise and knowledgeable parishioners, fielding tough questions from my Christian friends and from persons of other faith traditions—these activities have likely taught me as much or more about God than all the formal study I have undertaken.

Four other experiences have added to my knowledge and understanding in these matters: (1) completing a master of arts degree in business ethics from the University of Wales-Trinity Saint David, where I was exposed to learned philosophers who taught me always to challenge assumptions, reason out my statements, and be open to other viewpoints; (2) attending a weekend course in the Spirituality of Work at Douai Abbey in Reading, England, and studying and worshiping with the devoted monks there; (3) visiting the Holy Land (Israel and Jordan) and seeing first-hand the geographic and cultural context in which the stories of the Bible took place; and (4) being married to a wonderful Christian woman and ordained ruling elder in her own right. She inspires me every day.

A few practical matters: (1) As stated above, the ideas I have expressed in the sermons included in this volume benefitted greatly through the study of scholarly commentaries and other texts. Many of these are listed in the reference section at the back of the book. I apologize to any scholars whose ideas I may have failed to acknowledge while editing this book of sermons dating back at least twenty years. (2) I have provided in notes to each sermon the source of every direct quotation included in the sermon. (3) Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible. (4) The sermons included in this volume were written across many years and in a variety of circumstances.

Sometimes I had to make difficult choices regarding which sermons to include and exclude and how best to order them within each part. They are generally ordered in terms of the chapters and verses used in the New Testament lesson for each sermon. For the sake of thematic continuity, it was not always possible for me to follow this general rule.

In this book, you will find some sermons that closely track the scriptures, some that follow a classic three-point format, and even a few first-person testimonies. Jesus taught through parables, and at times, I do also.

I hope you enjoy Learning from the Lord!

Part 1

Mark

What deeds of power are being done by his hands!

—Mark 6:2

Prologue

The Perfect Storm

An Advent Sermon

Old Testament Lesson: Daniel 7:13–14

New Testament Lesson: Mark 13:24–27

It was late October 1991. The crew of the fishing boat Andrea Gale, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, had taken the vessel five hundred miles out into the Atlantic.

A cold front moving along the Canadian border sent a strong disturbance through New England, while at the same time a large high-pressure system was building over the maritime provinces of southeastern Canada. This intensified the incoming low-pressure system, producing what locals called the Hallowe'en Nor'easter.

As Robert Case, a meteorologist, put it, These circumstances alone could have created a strong storm, but then, like throwing gasoline on a fire, a dying Hurricane Grace delivered immeasurable tropical energy to create the perfect storm.

The hurricane, sweeping in from the Atlantic, completed the picture. The forces of nature converged on the helpless Andrea Gale from the west, the north, and the southeast. Ferocious winds and huge waves reduced the boat to matchwood. Only light debris was ever found.

There had, of course, been earlier perfect storms, but this was the one made famous by the book and movie of that title.¹

Yes, you may be thinking, I remember the storm and the book and the movie. But what does this have to do with the Advent of the Messiah, the Coming of Jesus Christ?

The passage I've just read is from a fascinating book by N. T. Wright, one of the world's leading Bible scholars. He uses the analogy of the perfect storm to help us understand the New Testament world into which Jesus came to the Holy Land during the first century. He also uses the analogy to describe today's twenty-first-century spiritual landscape as well, but that is another sermon for another day.

Why the perfect storm? Well, it is certainly a fitting biblical image from—and for—the time of Jesus. How can we ever forget the time the disciples were on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and a storm threatened to destroy them? The story is in all three of the synoptic gospels; here is Matthew's (8:23–27) version of the story:

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, Lord, save us! We are perishing!

And he said to them, Why are you afraid, you of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?

In Wright's analogy, the forces making up the perfect storm are not weather systems but rather forces of history, destiny, and God's presence in the world.

The cold front from the west represents the mighty imperial forces of Rome. We are familiar enough with the basic history of the world to know that empire after empire ruled the Holy Land in the centuries before the coming of Christ. Since the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, the people of Israel had been ruled successively by the Babylonian Empire, Persia, Alexander's Grecian Empire, then the warring empires of two of Alexander's successors, Ptolemy and Seleucid.

All that changed, however, when the might of Rome came into the region. The Roman armies conquered all those parochial empires like a great beast with iron jaws, crushing and trampling them into the dust. By the time of the Advent of Jesus Christ, Rome ruled supreme, and Caesar Augustus was its king, its high priest, its god. No force on earth could withstand that mighty wind from the west, the Empire of Rome.

The Romans had conquered the Holy Land along with the rest of the Mediterranean basin. They ruled through their own governor and a puppet King of the Jews named Herod, and they even appointed the High Priest of the Jewish Temple! The Temple was no longer the home of the God of Israel; instead, it was a filthy den of robbers (Luke 19:46) badly in need of cleansing. It was a desolating sacrilege (Mark 13:14).

So much for the powerful cold front blowing in from the west. What about the high-pressure system building over the territory of the Holy Land? This, in Wright's analogy, is the Jewish sense of destiny. They fully believed that God's promises, revealed through the Hebrew prophets of the past six hundred years, would come to pass.

And what were those prophecies? Why, that God would anoint a great ruler, a Messiah, who would restore the kingdom of David in all its glory! The scattered tribes of Israel would be united once again in a new Exodus. Pharaoh would be defeated once again; God would redeem his people through a man of God's own choosing, a Son of David, a Son of God; and God's own kingdom on earth would last forever.

For six hundred years, they had been waiting for those prophecies to be fulfilled, and they had not given up hope. Indeed, the immense power of the Roman Empire had fueled strong speculation that the time was at hand when God would act at last. Listen to some of these prophecies:

The Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isaiah 60:2b–3)

And what about this one:

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you. (Isaiah 35:4)

These are but two of the many, many Messianic prophecies found throughout the law, the prophets, and the psalms. The people of Israel, the Jews, knew these prophecies well; they had read them and studied them all their life and had faith that God would come and save them. The anointed king would appear, and the greatest enemies of Israel would be defeated. God's kingdom would last forever.

Within that context, I'd now like to share with you a few passages from the apocalyptic book of Daniel. Apocalyptic writing, including the book of Daniel, was very popular among the Jews during the first century. This style of writing describes in symbolic dreamlike images the coming of the Messiah and God's judgment and vengeance upon the persecutors of God's chosen people.

God's mighty prophet, Daniel, has been seeing visions in the night. He has dreamed of a succession of beasts rising from the sea—first a lion with eagle's wings, then a bear with three tusks in its mouth, and then a leopard with four wings on its back and four heads to whom was given dominion.

An angel helps Daniel interpret these dreadful animals as symbols of the successive conquerors of Israel, including Babylon, Persia, and the Alexandrian Greeks who divided Alexander's empire into four parts, each ruled by a king.

But what could the fourth beast Daniel saw rising from the sea represent? It differed from the first three and was exceedingly terrifying. How do you think the first-century Jews, living under the thumb of the Roman Empire, might have understood the fourth beast? What did it symbolize? And what might be its fate?

After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, when another horn appeared, a little one coming up among them; to make room for it, three of the earlier horns were plucked up by the roots. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn, and a mouth speaking arrogantly. (Daniel 7:7–8)

The first-century Jews undoubtedly would have interpreted this terrible beast as the Empire of Rome and its blasphemous usurping little horn as Caesar himself! In accordance with their six-hundred years of expectations about the coming of a Messiah to overthrow God's enemies and redeem the people of Israel, how do you think they interpreted these magnificent prophecies from the book of Daniel (7:9–14)?

As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One [the Ancient of Days] took his throne; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire.

A stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.

The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being [the Son of Man] coming with the clouds of heaven.

And he came to the Ancient One [the Ancient of Days] and was presented before him.

To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

Yes, into that storm came Jesus of Nazareth, the man of God's own choosing. Jesus, in Wright's analogy of the perfect storm, is the whirlwind—the amazing presence of God at work in the world. Thus, we have the Roman Empire, the Messianic hopes of the first-century Jews…and the transforming presence of God himself. The perfect storm!

Jesus is well-aware of Daniel's prophecy of the coming of the Son of Man. In fact, Jesus assumes for himself that very title and role: the Son of Man! Recall our New Testament lesson for this morning (Mark 13:24–27). Jesus is speaking in response to questions from his disciples about times to come:

But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

The perfect storm has occurred! The Messiah has come! The time of Advent—the long wait for the coming of God's anointed Savior—is at an end.

What will happen now? What will God's anointed King do? Will he conquer God's greatest enemies? Will he redeem Israel? Might he even reconcile the whole fallen world to God? Will his kingdom be an everlasting one?

Enjoy the following series of sermons from the Gospel of Mark, and we shall see! We must be satisfied for the moment, though, with Wright's own summary description of this metaphorical perfect storm:²

The sea is lashed into a frenzy; the wind makes the waves dance like wild things; and Jesus himself strides out into the middle of it all, into the very eye of the storm, announcing that the time is fulfilled, that God's kingdom is now at hand. He commands his hearers to give up their other dreams and to trust his instead. This, at its simplest, is what Jesus was all about.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

1

A Visit from Saint Mark

Old Testament Lesson: Joshua 1:1–9

New Testament Lesson: Mark 10:35–45

Did you enjoy your visit from Saint Nicholas this year? I hope you did and had a great Christmas as we celebrated the coming of the Christ child.

Today, we shall enjoy a visit from another saint: Saint Mark, the writer of the second gospel found in our Holy Bibles (but widely held to be the first to have been written). Saint Mark's evangelical symbol is the Lion since Mark portrays Jesus as the mighty Lion of Judah, roaring with God's power and might as he defeats the powers of sin, evil, and death.

Our gospel guide to the life of Jesus during this liturgical year will be Saint Mark. With this in mind, I offer the following message, which is intended to pique our interest in Mark's gospel so we might read it anew.

I invite you to read Mark's gospel in one sitting as Mark likely intended. Mark's sixteen short chapters are very powerful and dramatic, leaving us almost breathless as we experience Jesus's ministry and passion through the eyes of those who were there.

I hope you enjoy this visit from the evangelist. He's very eager to speak to you this morning, for he has been waiting for his chance to tell the gospel story for four long years. This has been very difficult for a man who portrays our Lord and Savior as a man of constant action. Let's hear what Saint Mark has to say, shall we?

*****

Good morning, everyone! What a delight it is to be with you this morning! My name is Mark; you know me as the author of the second of the four gospels found in the New Testament.

Most scholars will tell you that the Gospel of Mark was actually the first of the four canonical gospels to have been written and probably served as a source document for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

When the four gospels were collected and bound together, however, Matthew's gospel was given precedence because it contains the great teachings of Jesus Christ, such as the Sermon on the Mount.

Since the earliest days of church tradition, I have been identified with the John whose other name is Mark mentioned in Acts 12:12. My mother's name is Mary, and I am a close relative of Barnabas, the missionary companion of Paul. In fact, I accompanied Paul and Barnabas at the beginning of their first journey, but unfortunately, I got homesick and abandoned them early in the trip.

Thank God, after I matured a bit, I was given other great opportunities to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. I traveled about with Barnabas and later was reconciled with Paul who praised me as being helpful in his ministry.³

Papias, the bishop of Hierapolis, writes in his early church history that I joined Saint Peter in his mission to Rome and served as Peter's interpreter.⁴ Papias is one source of the early church tradition that I wrote my gospel while in the city of Rome, and that it is based primarily on the teachings and remembrances of Peter.

Mine is a gospel of action! If you've read it, you must certainly agree. In my gospel of Jesus Christ, we see the Son of God fully human yet filled completely with the Holy Spirit in near-constant action throughout Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and their environs.

My gospel is fast-paced, even urgent. In my short gospel—only sixteen chapters long, mind you—I use the word immediately twenty-seven times, more than in any other book in the Bible. Things happen at a gallop in the Gospel of Mark; Jesus moves quickly and gets a lot done. He has a big job to do, ushering in the kingdom of God, and he doesn't waste any time going about it.

In fact, I'll bet one of the reasons the Gospel of Mark is enjoyed by millions of readers even two thousand years after my writing it is that many of you living in this fast-paced twenty-first century relate well to its pace. Things happen one on top of another in my gospel story, just like they do in your own lives today.

When you read my gospel, you're going to find people living in a cosmopolitan world very much like your own. Oh, sure, science and technology and medicine and the like were much more primitive in the first century than in the twenty-first, but the cultural mixing of society brought about by the Romans then is a whole lot like the globalization and multicultural movements you are facing today.

Listen to what Justo Gonzalez, one of your modern scholars of my gospel, has to say about the religious flavor of my times. See if it sounds a bit familiar even in your own day and times. Says Gonzalez:

The multiplicity of worlds in which Mark lived was a relatively new phenomenon. For centuries, of course, cultures and peoples had met and influenced one another. But even then, most people lived within a fairly well-defined world.

An Egyptian living four centuries before Mark would have known that her world was Egypt and her gods were the gods of Egypt. Likewise an Athenian living at the same time would have known that his world was Athens and his gods the Athenian gods.

In contrast to these earlier periods, for people living in Mark's time things were very different. Each of the overlapping worlds in which people lived made its own claims, and most proposed their own gods and systems of value.

You might still live in Athens, as your ancestors did, but it was no longer taken for granted that your gods would be Athenian gods. Together with the mingling and overlapping worlds, gods and cultures were mixing in unprecedented and unpredictable ways right there in front of you.

In your very city of Athens, the ancient Roman gods would now have their shrines—some claiming to be the same Greek gods under different names. Isis and Osiris were no longer confined to the banks of the Nile; they also had followers among your neighbors.

Jews would mingle with Babylonian astrologers and with Persian Zoroastrians. Ancient fertility cults would have gained new prominence and respectability. Mithras from Persia, Osiris from Egypt, and Jahweh from Judea would vie for your allegiance.

In practical terms, this meant that religion was no longer a matter of where you were born, but one of personal choice. Given such choices, many people mixed elements from more than one religion—in some cases as if religion were a matter of concocting one's own personal recipe.

It also meant that preachers and teachers of various religions were calling for the allegiance of people in what almost amounted to a free market of religious ideas.⁵

Excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but doesn't the religious culture of the first-century Roman Empire sound a whole lot like the religious culture of modern-day twenty-first-century America? Mixing and matching of gods and religious ideas and traditions? Do it yourself New Wave spirituality? Pick and choose, take what you like, and leave the rest?

I submit to you, my friends, that the religious culture of my day—like the religious culture of modern times—was one of confusion, one of seeking, one of a desperate search for an elusive truth that would somehow give meaning to life.⁶

And into that time of confusion strides confidently the hero of my gospel story, the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Spirit-filled Son of God. He came into our lives then to show us the way and to usher in the kingdom of God.

And Jesus comes into your life even now with the very same purpose: to show you the way and to usher in the kingdom of God.

A long time ago, there lived a man of God with the Hebrew name Yeshua, meaning God saves his people. You know him by his English name, Joshua.

Joshua was the successor to Moses. Moses had led God's chosen people out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the very banks of the River Jordan, and his mission from God had been completed. The people had been prepared. Now it was Joshua's job to lead them forth out of the wilderness, across the Jordan, and into the promised land.

The book of Joshua, which follows the five books of Moses in the Old Testament, tells the story of the conquest of the promised land. God chose Joshua to lead his people into battle as they went about conquering city after city, enemy after enemy, until the Canaanites had been vanquished, and the promised land was at last in the hands of God's chosen people.

Joshua is among the greatest of the Jewish heroes, hailed as the leader who established the showcase kingdom of God on earth, the homeland of the Nation of Israel.

And yet with the work of this great hero Joshua, God was just beginning! God had far greater things in store for the human race than simply the conquest of Palestine! God's plan is for all humanity to live in the true promised land—the kingdom of God!

So God sent into the world his own Son—another man named Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth—whom God declared from heaven to be his own Son with whom he is most pleased. This Yeshua—this Jesus, the Christ—also began a battle of conquest.

But Jesus the Christ is leading his people not on a campaign to conquer Canaan but rather on a campaign to conquer sin! To conquer evil! To conquer even death!

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus, the mighty Son of God, arises as the successor to John the Baptist, just as Joshua arose as the successor to Moses. John had prepared God's people for the coming of the Messiah, just as Moses had prepared them for life in the promised land.

Just as God identified Joshua as his choice to lead the people of God into the promised land, so also God clearly marked Jesus as his chosen instrument to lead the people of God into the kingdom of God! But there is one important difference between Joshua and Jesus: Joshua was a great human being; Jesus is the Son of God!

Immediately upon his baptism in the River Jordan, Jesus jumps into action in perfect obedience to God. Jesus enters the wilderness—the playground of Satan—and beats the devil at his own game. Then Jesus moves confidently among God's people, defeating every manifestation of sin he encounters.

Jesus heals the sick. Jesus casts out demons. Jesus confronts hypocrisy and provides to the world a new teaching—with authority! (Mark 1:27). Through the work of Jesus, the blind are given sight, the lame can walk, the withered limbs are restored, the lepers are cleansed, the insane are healed, and outcasts of every shape and form are welcomed back into the fold.

God is at work here, conquering all manner of evil and sin and ushering in the true promised land, the true kingdom of God. The hungry are fed by the thousands, miracles are wrought, sins are forgiven, and even the dead are given new life!

Yes, brothers and sisters, in my gospel, you will meet the Man of Truth, the Son of God, the great Hope of humankind, the One for whom we've all been searching. Jesus the Christ! God saves his people!

And he will surprise you. Yes, he will surprise you very much, for he may not be exactly what you expected.

The Mighty God who can calm the storm, tread across the waves of the sea, cast out legions of demons, heal the sick with a word or a touch, and laugh in the face of Satan's greatest temptations—this Almighty King behaves not like a Caesar but like a servant! In fact, in his eyes, the first will be last, and the last will be first (Mark 10:31).

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? He who serves his brethren, that's who.

Don't you imagine James and John were shocked when they heard these words from their Leader? They were all set—they were all set! They were members of the inner circle, close compatriots of the King of the World.

They just knew—they just knew that their reward would be great! When Jesus came into his kingdom, James and John would be set on high thrones at the King's left and right, and they would lord it over all.

"No, no, my sons, that's not how it's going to be, says Jesus. You will drink the cup that I will drink; you will be martyred in the name of God. And you will receive the baptism that I am baptized with—the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But you will not ‘lord it' over others like a tyrant in my kingdom. In the Kingdom of God, you will be a servant, just as I am the perfect Servant of God."

Can you imagine their faces as this message sinks in? Can you just imagine? A servant, not a tyrant, this is the character of the obedient citizen of the kingdom of God. The Messiah, the Son of God, teaches his disciples—his disciples of every age—that perfect obedience to God means a life of service, not a life of tyranny!

To be a citizen in God's kingdom, one must not order others around, telling them what to do and how to be and how to live their lives. Rather, the citizen of the kingdom of God will live a life of service, of perfect obedience to God.

Men and women of the third millennium, in this day of mix and match religion, New Wave do it yourself spirituality, and anything goes morality, where so many are seeking to lord it over others and impose upon them the tyranny of me first, me first—isn't it time to turn again to the gospel and hear the words of the Son of God?

You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their leaders lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:42–45)

We are searching and searching…and Jesus has come to find us, to lead us, to save us!

We third-millennium Christians are living in the very heart of the me generation, yet we are called by the Son of God to serve our brothers and sisters, to put ourselves not first but last, to take up our cross and follow, to be soldiers in the army of Christ, conquering sin and evil wherever we may find it.

Friends, this is Brother Mark speaking to you today. Fancy words are all fine and dandy, but actions speak louder than words! You heard the Son of God! Now let's take some action!

Amen! Let us pray:

Dearest Lord Jesus, our prayer is a simple one: Help us to learn to put ourselves not first but last. Help us to seek not to be served, but to serve. Fit us for the kingdom of God, dear Jesus, and lead us as we go forth in your name to conquer sin and evil and even death. May your name be praised forever. Amen.

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Jesus Christ Comes in Power: An Epiphany Sermon

Old Testament Lesson: Malachi 3:1–7

New Testament Lesson: Mark 1:1–15

January 6 of every year on the Christian liturgical calendar is known as Epiphany, meaning manifestation or appearance of the divine. It is the day we celebrate the arrival of the magi—the wise men from the east—to worship the divine king of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ.⁷ On this day, the divinity of Jesus Christ is revealed to us all, both Jews and Gentiles alike.

Of course, the story of the coming of the magi is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, but it is clear that the other three gospels also reveal Jesus of Nazareth to be the Son of God. In today's gospel reading, we see how Mark announces epiphany: through the voice from heaven at Jesus's baptism!

God the Father himself announces from heaven in Mark 1:11 to Jesus: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. How much clearer can a message be that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is indeed divinity made manifest, the Son of God?

In fact, the entire Gospel of Mark is a fast-paced narrative proclaiming the presence of God in the world. Mark even says so in verse 1 of his first chapter: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So…

Hold on to your hats, brothers and sisters, we're about to take a wild roller-coaster ride together! Today, we begin with a bang our liturgical year with the Gospel of Mark.

Do you like action-packed adventure stories? Do you like stories about powerful, charismatic, mysterious heroes who have lots of heart? Do you like stories filled with interesting supporting roles—the kinds of roles Hollywood character actors drool over? Do you like stories with cliffhanger endings that leave you begging for more? If so, then the Gospel of Mark is the book for you!

The Gospel of Mark is a real page-turner! It is short and tightly written—long on action and short on description and dialogue. It's fun reading, full of twists and turns, irony and suspense, and breathtaking action scenes. The entire book can be read easily in one sitting, and I highly recommend it.

Read it this afternoon! It will take you only a few short hours, and you will be richly rewarded for the effort. Indeed, you will experience an epiphany—a manifestation of the truly divine, the Son of God himself!

About Mark's gospel, the editors of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) have this to say:

This Gospel, the shortest of the four, is largely a collection of narratives that depict Jesus as being almost constantly active; a favorite word in Mark is the Greek word meaning immediately or at once or then, which occurs about forty times in sixteen chapters…

The style of the Marcan narrative is vivid and concrete, with an obvious concern for detail. The Evangelist notes, for example, the stunned reaction of the crowds…and the fear and amazement of the disciples…, as well as the pity, anger mixed with grief, and godly sorrow (or exasperation) experienced by Jesus.⁸

The Gospel of Mark is full of stylistic tricks. Just like a James Bond movie, the story begins with a spectacular action sequence. And like the cliffhangers of old, the book—at least in its original version—breaks off almost mid-sentence, leaving the breathless reader begging for more.

The very title of the story—The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ—almost begs for a sequel. What happens next? we ask in eager anticipation.

Another literary device employed by Mark is a delicious mysterious irony. Throughout the story, the characters surrounding Jesus—even his closest disciples—constantly ask themselves, "Who is this man?" We enjoy seeing the obvious answer waving in their faces as the disciples just don't seem to get it! Are they blind? Can't they see the signs? Can't they figure out that Jesus is the Son of God?

Jesus's supernatural enemies—Satan and his band of demons—all certainly know who Jesus is and shout it out at the top of their voices. But their obviously true declarations are time and time again dismissed as the ravings of lunatics.

We can laugh at this inside joke because Mark tells us at the very beginning of the story precisely who Jesus is, then gives us distinct unmistakable signs using what modern filmmakers would call special effects.

We'll take a closer look at the beginning sequence of this powerful drama in just a moment, but first let us pause and ask: Where did this gospel come from? Who wrote this story? And what is its purpose?

The earliest church traditions tell us that the Gospel of Mark was written by John Mark, a young relative of Barnabas who accompanied Barnabas and Paul during part of their first missionary journey. Mark was taken under his wing by Saint Peter and is believed to have accompanied Peter to Rome as his companion and interpreter.

It was in Rome, according to this tradition, that Mark wrote his gospel, which is based on eyewitness accounts taken from the sermons Peter preached on his missionary journeys. The Gospel of Mark was likely written prior to AD 90, making it the earliest of the four gospels we have in our Bibles today.

There is written documentation to back up this traditional claim. Papias, a disciple of John the Elder and later bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, wrote a five-volume commentary on the sayings of Jesus in AD 110 or 120. Though Papias's manuscript has been lost, he was quoted by later church historians in their own works. In one such quotation, Papias speaks of the origins of the Gospel of Mark:

[John] the Elder used to say this: Mark, having become Peter's interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, followed Peter, who adapted his teachings as needed but had no intention of giving an ordered account of the Lord's sayings. Consequently, Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he remembered them, for he made it his one concern not to omit anything which he heard or to make any false statement in them.⁹

Though not all scholars agree, there is strong evidence that Matthew and Luke used Mark's gospel as one of their original sources, reworking it to meet their own religious communities' needs as they added sermons, sayings, parables, and prayers of Jesus plus birth narratives preserved by other traditions.

Let us travel back to that point in time for a moment in our minds. Just imagine—in fewer than sixty years following Jesus's miraculous life, death, and resurrection, the story of those events had reached every corner of the Roman Empire—the known world at that time.

Without the benefit of television or radio, with no movie newsreels or newspapers, without even books or magazines or tracts or pamphlets, the gospel of Jesus Christ had been spread throughout the world in only a few decades.

The Twelve Apostles—plus other great evangelists like Paul and Barnabas, Silas and Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, Timothy and Mark—carried the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Roman Empire, telling and retelling the cherished stories in each place they visited.

The stories were passed by word of mouth from one believer to another, and Christians shared them with one another as they worshiped in their homes and meeting places. Certain stories took on special meaning as they helped Christians understand and deal with major crises in their lives.

It helped the early Christians to know from these stories how Jesus dealt with the situations, attitudes, prejudices, and persecutions he met. They identified with and empathized with the disciples whose faith grew slowly and was sorely tested time after time. And they learned what God is like by watching his very Son in action.

As the original eyewitnesses to the life and times of Jesus Christ—the apostles and their companions and disciples—began to die as martyrs, a need was felt to record the oral tradition in writing. Mark collected the cherished stories of the Roman church and pieced them together into a narrative.

Mark's narrative is not a day-by-day diary of the life of Christ nor a biography of the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. Rather, it is a gospel—an intentional telling of good news—the good news that God loves us so much that he has come to dwell for a while with us, and that through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, God has forgiven and redeemed all who believe this gospel.

The Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news (Mark 1:14); this is the message of the Gospel of Mark in a nutshell.

The stories about Jesus in this oral tradition emphasized without question the glory and power of God. Time after time, in place after place, Jesus is confronted with earthly powers, and—through the power of the Holy Spirit—he defeats them all.

Jesus Christ comes in power—power over Satan and his demons, power over sickness and want, power over wind and storm, and even power over sin and death. As we gain insights from the Gospel of Mark over this series of sermons, we, too, will be overwhelmed by the magnificent power of God. When the power of God is with us, nothing—absolutely nothing—can prevail against us.

Let us now examine the first fifteen verses of the Gospel of Mark, the opening scenes of this magnificent action story.

As the story opens, we see a huge crowd—people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem (v. 5)—gathered in the wilderness near the River Jordan. Amazing, isn't it, that the story begins with a clear Old Testament image—the Jews in the wilderness at the Jordan River, gathered around a man of God, a prophet like Moses or Joshua or Elijah or Elisha?

John the Baptist is even dressed like the prophets of old—wearing camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist (v. 6). His message is even from the ancient Hebrew prophets. He quotes Isaiah (40:3): Prepare the way of the Lord.

As he proclaims a baptism for the forgiveness of sins (v. 4), he declares to all who will hear:

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. (vv. 7–8)

The Holy Spirit? God's Holy Spirit? Can this prophet possibly be saying that a man is coming who possesses the Spirit of God? Well, who is this man?

Indeed, that is exactly what John the Baptist is saying—and Saint Mark as well! While everyone else is asking in bewilderment this crucial question—"Who is this man?"—Mark tells us straight away in the title of his book: The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (v. 1).

Jesus then steps into view—the hero of the story appears, and spectacular heavenly events proclaim the truth of the secret Mark has shared with us, his readers:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. (vv. 9–11)

Can there be any doubt in our minds at this point exactly who this Jesus of Nazareth must be? Not only has Saint Mark proclaimed him Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but God himself has ripped apart the heavens, revealed his own glory, set his Spirit upon the man, and declared him My Son, the Beloved.

We know from this point on that we are hearing God's story; that the power of God's Spirit rests upon the man Jesus and that the actions of Jesus Christ will reveal to us the very nature of God.

So what is the very first thing Jesus does? He goes forth to defeat Satan on the Devil's own turf—the wilderness. Says Mark:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. (vv. 12–13)

Wow! Wow, what a way to begin the story! Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, is literally driven into the wilderness. He is compelled by God who is eager to see his Beloved Son in action. Jesus charges into battle on the Devil's own turf. He confronts Satan head-on in the wilderness and struggles with him for forty days.

Who wins this epic confrontation? Is there any doubt? Can there ever be any doubt when Satan finds himself confronted by the power of God?

Mark doesn't even bother to tell us what happens to Satan. He lets us know by inference the outcome of the struggle. He simply shows Jesus in the next scene striding confidently into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news' (vv. 14–15).

It goes without saying, doesn't it? Of course, Jesus defeats Satan; after all, Jesus is the Son of God. Satan's henchmen, the demons, all get the point: their day is over. The