Mark 8:34

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The older I get, the more I find myself making little deals with the devil. And these aren’t interesting deals at all. I don’t get any wealth or magical powers or anything like that. These are mostly deals that center around a very particular teaching of the Christian church, something called theology of the cross. The way the Bible puts it in Mark chapter eight, verse 34, it says.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)

When you are a Christian, your life is going to contain some suffering that’s particular to you being a Christian. It’s colloquial if something very bad has happened to you, especially if it’s ongoing, you’ll say that you’re carrying your cross, right? You get cancer and now that’s just your cross to bear. These are definitely things that are suffering. There’s certainly the result of life living in a sinful world, but they aren’t actually crosses that we’re bearing. This isn’t suffering that’s unique to a Christian.

So what is then, this unique suffering of a Christian? Well, the core of it is that there is a tension that exists between what I want and what God wants. And oftentimes because I’m sinful and he’s perfect, those things are in direct opposition with each other, and I end up suffering as they contend with each other. My will is not in line by nature with what God’s will is, and that hurts. I end up having to deal with that my whole life. Maybe you’ve had this experience, actually. You’re sharing the gospel with somebody and you can see it’s clicking, right? Their head is nodding. You can see, man, the Holy Spirit is doing something. And then all of a sudden, there comes this moment where their face kind of falls, right? There listening, and then they go, oh, right. And we refer to that moment as cost of discipleship. But really it’s an extension of theology of the cross.

They have faith now. And the same moment that they got faith, they also got their cross. They realized there are things in their life that are not compatible with what God wants, right? That God’s will is not the exact same thing as their will, and that now they’re going to have to deal with some of that. That’s the special, unique pain of a Christian. If you don’t believe in God, there’s no reason to, you know, try to conform your life to what God wants.

And so to avoid this pain, this is where we make those little deals with the devil, right? Where I’ll say there’s some temptation that plagues me. And so I will shake the devil’s hand a little bit and say, I’m just going to go this far with this temptation, And I won’t go any further. And, God, you’re just going to have to be good with the fact that I’m not doing the big sin, the really big like noteworthy thing. But I’m going to go this far, and this idea that God’s just going to have to be happy with the fact that we are going only this far with things, and that he’s going to have to be okay with that. Reality is, he’s not.

This is one of those places where Christians end up in this bounce between self-righteousness and despair. So what’s the antidote here? The antidote is exactly what it says inside of our verses here. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. Right? The word deny, actually, in these verses is kind of interesting. It’s just as well maybe even better to translate disown, to disown yourself. How does one even do that? How do you, how do you disown yourself? Well, the key to it is acknowledging who actually has ownership over you. You don’t have ownership over yourself. The devil, when you were born, had ownership over you to some extent, right? We were dead in sins and trespasses. But as soon as you were baptized, as soon as there was faith in your heart, that moment Jesus puts you on his father’s knee and said, look, here is another one for whom I died. Here is another one who gets the rewards of heaven.

The way in which we find our peace, and the way in which we make God happy in this is not by something we’ve done. It makes him happy that we’ve received the blessings that he has won for us in His Son, that we are the recipients of the grace that he has laid out for us. That’s what it means when he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Mark 10:33-34

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One of the most famous moments in baseball history was game three of the 1932 World Series. New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs. The game is tied 4 to 4, and this game is being played in Wrigley Field. Babe Ruth steps up to the plate. Pitcher winds up, delivers. He just watches it go right by strike one. So the dugout for the Cubs starts catcalling, starts calling them all sorts of names, laughing at him and Babe Ruth points. Some say he was just pointing at the pitcher, but he says he was pointing at the centerfield bleachers. Ball comes back to the pitcher, wind up in the pitch right past him. Strike two. Dugout erupts even more with laughs and jeers. Babe Ruth the Bambino, very calmly again points up. He points toward the center field bleachers. Takes a stance. Pitcher winds up, delivers a curve ball, and Babe Ruth smashes it right into the center field bleachers. A home run, breaks the tie, Yankees went on to win that series.

What he did, what Babe Ruth did was he called his shot. So I started digging around, looking at the math and all that. Turns out, since Major League Baseball started, the chances to call your shot, it’s over 10 million. There have been over 10 million at bats in Major League Baseball. Babe Ruth is the only one to have ever successfully done it. Few others have tried foolishly, arrogantly, but no one has.

Well, anyway, that got me to thinking about how Jesus called his shot. Because you see, everyone who’s ever faced the devil has been sent back to the dugout, even to the grave. Right? Adam and Eve. Noah. Abraham. David. Samson rippling with muscles. Ruth, Hannah, Peter, James, and John. All of them have stepped up to the plate, and they have either swung at the garbage that the devil has given them, or sometimes they’ve just stood there. Stood there frozen while something good has gone right by them. Maybe a few have been lucky enough to make contact, but it’s either a pop up or they don’t get to base in time. So then a carpenter’s son from Bethlehem. He steps up to the plate. He’s dressed in our uniform, that is he’s dressed in flesh and blood. And the Lord Jesus called his shot. Jesus says,

“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” (Mark 10:33-34)

I like to think of Palm Sunday as Jesus coming up into the batter’s box, calling his shot, Jesus pointing past the cemetery, past hell itself, Jesus pointing all the way to the resurrection, calling his shot. So what does this mean? Well, what this means is that for all the times that the devil has struck you out, has had you swing at all that trash that he offers you for all the times that you stood there just paralyzed while something good, something right has passed right by and you didn’t act. Even for all the times you’ve made a little bit of contact, but you were thrown out. For all those times, Jesus said on the third day he will rise. Dressed in our uniform, in flesh and blood like we have, Jesus pointed to the resurrection and said that no matter what happens, I will rise and you will rise as well.

Next time you’re watching a game, even just listening to a game on the radio, next time a batter steps up to the plate, remember your savior and how he pointed beyond the grave and how he pointed toward the resurrection. So when the ninth inning of your life comes to an end. Or the ninth inning of this world comes to an end, the scoreboard is going to say that you won.

I’m Pastor Pittenger, and until we see each other again, God bless and keep you. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Mark 12:13-17, Romans 13:1, Acts 5:29

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Last week we started the phrase in the creed, I believe he suffered, but now we need to finish a statement he suffered under Pontius Pilate. And right here is another beautiful mystery of the Christian faith that even though Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, he submitted himself underneath the rule of flawed human authority.

In fact, we see this throughout Jesus entire life. From the moment he is born, Mary and Joseph submit to a decree from Caesar Augustus to follow some order for a census. Who was Caesar Augustus? He was a tyrant who killed off the other competitors so that he could be the absolute ruler over Rome. He was a tyrant who forced the Roman Senate into passing a law that gave him supreme executive power for life. He was even looked on as a god. And yet Mary and Joseph submitted to his decree and moved.

Later in Jesus’ life, when he was asked, should we pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus asked for a coin and said, whose image is on the surface of that coin? The answer was Caesar. Not just any Caesar. Tiberius Caesar. A man whose appetite for pleasure would make most people’s skin crawl. And yet Jesus said, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and give to God that which is God’s. (Mark 12:13-17)

And of course, for his trial, his sham trial, Jesus had to put up with Pontius Pilate, himself, a spineless governor who could not recognize truth when it was staring him in the face. A man who represented a systemically corrupt Roman system that was absolutely racist, that was corrupt all the way back to the emperor in Rome. And yet Jesus humbly submitted to that rule and that authority.

Why? Because he needed to keep the fourth commandment. He needed to honor and obey the authorities, because the authorities that have been established have been established by God. (Romans 13:1) This is important for us as Christians today because so often, especially in our country, we recognize that there’s a separation between church and state, and that’s how our government is arranged. But the problem is, as Christians, when we think of these as two separate categories in our own heart, I can have my political views over here and my religious views over here. And the two boxes never touch. That isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

As a Christian, a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, my religion must rule over my politics. So some examples of this. A Christian might say to themselves, I have freedom of speech so I can say whatever I want. I can post whatever I want or repost whatever I want about government and government officials, and I don’t have to worry about the consequences. As a Christian, your freedom of speech is underneath the fourth commandment, commanding us to honor authority, and the eighth commandment telling us to defend our neighbors reputation.

Other times people tell themselves, well, because this person is corrupt, I don’t have to respect them. Or because this officer, this man or woman in a law office position because they represent a corrupt system, I don’t have to show them respect. But Jesus’ humble suffering under Pontius Pilate teaches us that this is not the case. As a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, you are forgiven. You belong to his kingdom. As such, we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. The government gets my honor. My respect, my obedience, as far as it doesn’t break God’s Word. And unfortunately, they also get my taxes.

But I give to God what is God’s. God alone commands my unquestioning loyalty. God alone has my body, my soul, my heart, and my absolute obedience. And for you as Christians living in this world, the day may come, like with the apostles, where we are asked by our government to disobey God and always remember their answer. We must obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29) And then they joyfully accepted the consequences for that confession of Jesus. They willingly suffered under their government, all for the name of Jesus. And that’s what it means when we confess in our faith that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Amen.

Christian Freedom – What Is It?

Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-20, Exodus 12:1-28

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You have been set free in Jesus. But what is that freedom about? What does that freedom mean for your life? To help us think about that, it’s good for us to think about when Jesus chose to go to Jerusalem and when, according to God’s plan, he was handed over and betrayed and died. This all happened at the Passover feast. (Matthew 26:17-30, Luke 22:7-20, Mark 14:12-26) That’s not an accident. The Passover, and actually, when did Jesus institute the Lord’s Supper? It’s when he was celebrating the Passover. This is all on purpose. Which means, then, that the Passover can help us understand the significance of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

So let’s think back to the Passover. The people of God were slaves in Egypt underneath the power of Pharaoh. And when God calls Moses to go to them, he wants Moses to go to Pharaoh so that God’s people can be free to go and worship him and really become the people of God. All the things that Mount Sinai where the covenants established, and all of that can’t really happen until they are set free from slavery, from this power that was holding them back from going forward and being the people of God. And then the Passover comes because it’s at that 10th plague where after all of these plagues, with Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is adamant, no, you can’t go. And then he decides, yes, you can go. But then he change his mind, changes his mind. Finally, you have that that Passover where you have where God has him kill the lamb and have the blood over the doorposts. And then the angel of death would pass over so that no one would die in that house, but in other houses the firstborn would die. (Exodus 12:1-28)

It was that, the Passover celebrates that moment, remembers that moment, how God then had it, where they were finally sent out of Egypt to go and to be free, and to be the people of God.

Your freedom today is about the fact that you and I, we were all slaves to sin and death. We were held back from being what God created us to be, full of guilt and shame on a path towards death and eternity separated from God. But Jesus died to take away what separated you from God to free you from what held you back. Your sin is removed. Death is overcome. Jesus rose again to give you freedom to step forward now and to know that you are forgiven. You are loved. You are right with God. You are a child of God. You are part of the people of God. You have eternity ahead of you with God and you get to take hold of worshiping that God now.

You were held back as a slave, but you are free to be part of the people of God. That’s what your freedom is all about.

Mark 9:23-24

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I give up. I can’t do this. If it’s going to work, you’re going to have to do it. I gave up, and it was the best thing for me.

I’ve had a few seasons of doubt in my life, which can sound weird to hear from a pastor, but it actually started with the fact that I was really, really good in high school at talking about my faith. I was in this class, I remember sitting there and the teacher, he had said, we’re not going to talk about religion in this class, but I just want you all to know what I think. And what he said didn’t match at all with the Christian gospel. So I raised my hand and I told him he was wrong, and we had a debate and I was winning. So he brought the principal down to try to win the debate. He didn’t win. I didn’t really win either. We kind of just decided to have a draw. But afterwards, all these people in school were asking me questions about Jesus and about God, and I was really, really good at answering all their questions.

But then there came this point. After my junior year of high school, I went to this big event where there were all these people from all these different countries and different backgrounds and I was in a room where there was this speaker and there was like a thousand people in there, and he was saying things that were totally anti my faith. And as all these people were cheering him, I just felt that I could not withstand all the voices, all the pressure. I started feeling like, wait a minute, he’s saying some things that I don’t necessarily know the answers to. What if I can’t answer all these questions? What if I can’t stand up against all these people? My faith started to crumble a bit. It was because I was so good at answering the questions that my faith started to crumble, because I had depended so much on myself and my own ability, I started to have this fear arise because what if I’m not smart enough? What if I don’t know the answers enough? And I really start to wrestle.

God brought me through that first season of doubt shortly after I was a pastor, I had another season. At that point, I started seeing some posts online from a friend of mine who didn’t believe in God, and I was like, now that I’m a pastor, I really know what I’m talking about now. Now I’m going to answer all these questions. I got a little bit of progress, but then I actually started to realize that some of the answers I came to before were insufficient. They felt too small, and I realized I couldn’t answer all the questions. And then I started to get to where it was just weighing on me so much that I realized I was not being there for the people around me. I wasn’t doing what I really needed to do, and that’s when I finally I was like, God, if it’s going to happen, you’re going to have to do it, because I can’t. I can’t keep trying to figure this out because it’s just it’s too much for me and it’s negatively affecting the people around me.

And I wanted to share that with you today, because sometimes, too, you might get to a point where you are doubting so much, you’re like, I cannot figure this out. And if you get to that point, I want you to look right here and realize I’m still here. I’m still a Christian. God met me in my doubt, and actually it was realizing that I can’t figure it out myself. That was actually the gateway to really experiencing more of his grace. I think about in Mark chapter nine, where there is this man who has a son who’s been demon possessed, and he comes and he asks Jesus to heal him, and he says, if you can help me. And Jesus says, anything is possible for him who believes. And then this man says, Lord, I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. (Mark 9:23-24) And I love then that Jesus goes and he heals that man’s son. That man didn’t have to get rid of all the unbelief before Jesus met him. Jesus met him in this place where that man believed but also was struggling with unbelief. That’s where God met me, and that’s where he can meet you too.

I think I had this idea that I had to defeat the unbelief myself, but God never leaves us to try to win the victory ourself. God always does it for us. Jesus came into this world to take your sin and mine onto himself. He died for it on the cross. He rose again to set us right with God. Even our faith is a gift from God. It’s never about us and depending on us. You get to depend on him and you can trust him to meet you there. And it was amazing for me as I was trusting God and putting it all in his hands. It’s not like it just automatically everything was perfect. That’s not how it worked. But as I continued to read God’s Word and just wait for him to work, it’s amazing. I started to realize that some of my questions were too small for God’s big answers. That’s part of why I think God didn’t want to give me the answers I was looking for, because my questions weren’t big enough. He’s taught me so many new things. I still have plenty of questions, but I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to be able to answer all the questions. Instead, I just get to trust in him. You get to trust in him too. He meets you in your doubt. Jesus met you on the cross. The spirit met you to give you faith. God can meet you where you are today.

Lord, if it’s going to work, I’m going to need you. That’s actually a great place to be.

Mark 2:17

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Oh, I’m, I’m fine. How are you? No, we, we don’t need to talk about me. Tell me about you. How is your life? How are you doing? How are the kids? Oh, I don’t, I don’t need any help. How can I help you? I don’t need to tell them about what’s going on with me. I need to be strong for them. Does that sound familiar? Do you ever find yourself always trying to turn the conversation to how can you help other people, and how you can be strong for other people?

That’s great that you want to help people and support them. God calls us to serve and to love our neighbors like ourselves. Absolutely. But the ways of Jesus, the ways of God are not primarily about how we have to constantly give ourselves, actually or not at all, about how we have to constantly give of ourselves. They’re about how Jesus gave himself for us. Jesus said, I came not for the healthy, but for the sick. (Mark 2:17) When we think about living our Christian faith, it starts by admitting we need help. I need help. You need help.

Our Christian faith starts with the reality that we realize that God created us to live a certain way, and we don’t live it. We’ve fallen short. We’ve turned away from him. We turned away from life. We were heading towards death. And Jesus came to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. He’s everything that we were meant to be, but aren’t. He laid down his life to take the justice for your sins and mine. He rose again to set us right with God. It’s about what he has done for us. And now today too when we struggle, it’s not okay, now you got to go do it yourself. God gave us life in the beginning. Back in the garden. The whole design was that Adam and Eve would trust God to give them life instead of trying to do it their own way. Jesus has given us life again. It’s God who sustains us every day.

The Christian way is for you to acknowledge that you need help. You need help from God. And the way God brings help to other people is through people. And so you today, part of the Christian way, is acknowledging before God that you need help and letting other people help you too. Letting them pray for you. Carrying each other’s burdens. How do we get the opportunity to help each other if nobody is willing to be helped? You can actually be a blessing to someone else by letting them help you. You don’t need to always be the strong one. Sometimes that will be the call. Sometimes you do need to be there for someone, and that’s wonderful when you do. But don’t deprive someone else the opportunity of being there for you. When you allow others to help you, when you are honest about the fact that you need God, you need Jesus, you need his forgiveness every day you point to him. And that’s the Christian way.

Mark 10:42-45

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Back in the late 1980s, there was a little girl who was kidnaped down in Florida. She was the granddaughter of an oil executive. The family was told to come up with millions of dollars as a ransom in order to buy her back. The family put the money together, and about the time they were going to bring it to these kidnapers, luckily, the police got in the way and found out what had happened.

How valuable do you think you would be if you were ever kidnaped? What kind of money might loved ones or someone have to come up with in order to bring you back? A bigger question, though, is how valuable are you to God? Listen to what Jesus says about himself, calling himself the Son of Man.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

Now the Bible teaches us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve been, if you will, kidnaped away by the devil and to his kingdom of darkness. But Jesus has now come the Son of Man, in order to give his life as a ransom to buy us back into God’s grace. And he did this not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. And Jesus is wanting us to reflect on just how valuable we are in the eyes of God. That he would give up his own Son and have him suffer our hell for us so that we could someday come to heaven. That’s how intensely God wants you to be in heaven, and how valuable he sees you to be.

Now, he also wants Christians to look that same way toward people in their lives. How valuable are you now to the people in your life? Listen to what Jesus says. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.” Jesus instructs us to think differently than how the world does about greatness. The world defines greatness by what you get out of it. Heaven defines greatness by what you give. The world defines greatness by how far you are able to rise up above others, and heaven defines it by how willing you are to stoop low to help others. The world defines greatness as kind of a race to the top, but heaven defines greatness as a willingness to serve those, even in the lowest parts on the bottom.

God would have us seek out the different aspects in our lives, different duties and parts of our vocation where we can serve our fellow man, whether it’s at work, in your community, in your home life, in your marriage. And rather than letting our motivation be money or power or fame, look instead to how we can serve other people. I want to close with a quotation from Martin Luther. He said, “don’t consider other people like geese in your life,” In other words, lower and below you, “the better and the higher and the more honorable the station of life is which a man occupies, the more diligently should he see to it that he may advise, assist, and encourage others.”

Now we can do this knowing the great value that we have in God’s eyes because of what Christ has done for us. So may God stir up our hearts and faith to also show the great value of Christ to others by how we treat them. Amen.

Matthew 9:18,23-26, Mark 5:41

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Our devotion today comes from Matthew chapter nine. Jesus has a man named Jairus, a ruler who approaches him and says to him,

“My daughter has just died. But come, place your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18 EHV)

And then later it says,

When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said to them, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but is sleeping.” But they laughed at him. When the crowd was sent out of the house, Jesus went in, took the girl by the hand, and she was raised. News of this went out through the entire region. (Matthew 9:23-26 EHV)

I remember years ago when I was a young pastor, an elderly man came to me to talk to me about something and began telling me about his son, a little boy, who had drowned on his property back when the boy was probably about seven years old. This older man just suddenly began to cry. It showed how the death of a child can really stay with somebody. It hits you differently than like, a grandparent or an adult. It’s one of the pains that we can feel in the sadness of this fallen world. And pastors will tell you that trying to help people through the loss of a child can be one of the most agonizing, difficult things.

And there are certain times in life when the troubles and pain of this world can really land on one individual. And this Jairus coming to Jesus is one who’s experiencing that. But he’s also going to the right place. He’s bringing his petition, his prayer to Jesus. And we’re told in the rest of the Bible that he came and worshiped Jesus and made this request known to him.

And so Jesus now goes to this man’s house, and he passes through this crowd of professional mourners, people that would actually be paid to come and express the sadness in your house. And one of the translations says that Jesus said to them, make room. Kind of like, get out of the way because I need to go to this girl’s side. It’s almost like a rescue of a paramedic. And when a child has been drowning and has to tell everybody going through the crowd to get out of their way so they can go and rescue the child.

And this wonderful declaration, and God’s analysis of this girl’s situation. Listen, Jesus says she is not dead, but sleeping. That’s a great way for the Christian to look at death. She is not dead, but sleeping. Now, of course, the crowd reacted like, well, that’s ridiculous. And they even laughed at him and they mocked him for this. But notice how different our human minds are when they look at things compared to the power of God, who controls all things and has his hand over all the laws of nature.

And the Bible records many of these resurrections to give us comfort with our own future death and the resurrection that we can have by faith in Christ. Jesus, because of his power and because of his invitation for us to believe in him, he invites you and me now to stare at your future death, just like a nap or like a sleep that you will awake from. And to look at it with defiance. Martin Luther once said that if the devil comes to make you afraid of being in your grave, say to him, I have Christ, Satan, even if you should explode on me with all of hell.

And I want you to notice one last thing. Notice what Jesus uses to bring this little girl back to life. The gospel of Mark tells us he spoke two little words. “Talitha, koum!” (Mark 5:41) “Little one, get up” is how it’s translated. “Little one, get up.” God opens these graves and raises these people, as we see in the Bible, as kind of a little foretaste for us of the coming resurrection that we will get to enjoy.

And that’s why Easter and the resurrection has been such a wonderful, important part of Christians in their lives. In fact, that’s why they pick Sunday mornings as the day to worship, because that was the day our Lord was raised as well. Amen.

Mark 11:9-10

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You’ll never meet anybody more fickle than a sports fan. I spent some time serving in Nebraska, and during that time I became a Nebraska fan. It’s hard to cheer for Nebraska. Their football program has been rough for the past few years. And it’s funny, I’ll look forward to the game. I’ll set aside time so I can watch the game on television. The week leading up to it you won’t catch me in anything besides a Husker t-shirt or maybe a Husker sweatshirt. Every morning I drink out of my Husker cup.

But then, after yet another loss to yet another team that we should have beat. Suddenly those Husker t-shirts stay in the drawer a little bit longer. Those Husker sweatshirts are folded up and in the closet. That mug begins to gather dust as opposed to coffee. It’s fickle thing to follow a sports team. One moment you’re on cloud nine and you’re supporting you’re shouting, you’re cheering, but then the next moment you change.

We see that in the story of Palm Sunday, right?

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:9-10)

We see Jesus entering into Jerusalem. And the crowd, they’re excited. They’re welcoming. They are shouting praises and adoration, shouting Hosanna! They’re laying down their coats for Jesus. They’re laying down palm branches as a way to honor him as a king entering a city. But something changes and it changes quickly. In that same city during that same week there going to be different shouts, not shouts of praise and adoration, but shouts of anger, shouts of dishonesty, shouts of crucify him!

In our faith we too can be fickle, right? There are times in which we are on fire for God. We are shouting praises to God. Think of an Easter Sunday morning. Think of a Christmas Eve service. We’re so quick to invite our friends. We’re excited to be there. We’re shouting those songs and it’s a beautiful thing. But quickly it can change even just the next week, a few weeks later. Suddenly, those shouts of joy, that eagerness to attend worship, the invitations that we offer to our friends, suddenly those kind of disappear. Kind of a fair weather fan sometimes.

But while we are fickle in our faith. Christ is steadfast. That’s the beauty of Palm Sunday, isn’t it? Christ knows what’s coming. Christ knows why he’s entering Jerusalem. Christ knows how this week is going to end. But he is steadfast, he continues. He knows that those who are shouting praises will later be shouting words of hatred. He knows that times in which we’ll be on fire for our faith, and times in which we hide our faith, but still he is steadfast. He rides in on that donkey. He gives us the Lord’s Supper and he dies on the cross. He lays down his life. He doesn’t trip up. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t give up. He is steadfast and he dies on that cross. So that all those times in which we are not steadfast, they’re forgiven. We are still loved. We are still his children. We rejoice in the fact that we have a God who is not like us. A God who is steadfast and loving in all that he does. Amen.

Mark 4:39, John 24:36, John 19:30

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“Peace, be still.” Jesus said. (Mark 4:39) And instantly the wind and the waves died down. The sea was so calm you could see the stars reflected in its surface. Can you picture it? That perfect peace.

That peace characterizes the life of the Christian. It’s a peace that Jesus wants you to have. It’s a peace that he, Jesus, came to give his disciples that very first Easter day when he appeared to them and said, “peace be with you.” (John 24:36) However, even though many Christians today believe that Jesus really rose from the dead, their faith is full of doubt. They doubt because when we look inside our hearts, I see everything but peace. When I look inside my heart I see a sea of regret. I see wind and waves of temptations. I see storms of sin and doubt and fear. And when I look inside I see everything but peace. And so, so often for a Christian, when we see that, we can start to ask ourselves, can I really have faith, then? Can I really be saved?

It’s important for us to know that when it comes to the Christian’s peace. Our peace doesn’t come from looking within ourselves. Our peace comes from focusing on Jesus, and that’s why he showed the disciples the wounds in his hands and feet that very first Easter morning. Those wounds are your peace. Those wounds mean that your sins are forgiven. Jesus has suffered the storms of hell on the cross, and he calmed those storms with his own quiet, be still. “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

Jesus wounds mean your peace because those wounds are where we find healing. We live in a world where we’ve both wounded others and others have wounded us. But when we see those marks on Jesus, when we see Jesus, who was transformed, who went through this metamorphosis Easter morning, who, when we saw him before on the cross, was bloody and gory, but on Easter morning he is resurrected in glory. You worship the God who takes scars and he uses them as proof that no sin, not the devil, and none of the powers of hell have the power to defeat Jesus. And they don’t have the power to defeat you.

Those wounds are your peace, because those wounds mean that Jesus gives you the power of the forgiveness of sins. And that is power. You know, in a world where we’re constantly told that we’re the victims and we look at all the different ways that we’re victims. Forgiveness empowers you. You’re able to turn to someone and say, I forgive you. You roll the stone away and call them alive from the dead of their own sin. That’s power. Jesus gives you peace. And I want you to know today that the peace gives is so much more than your emotions.

We’ll always have emotions. We’ll always have storms. But the peace Jesus gives you is deeper. It’s the bedrock on the base of the sea. And no matter what storms come our way, nothing can change that fact. Christ has risen. He is your peace. Amen.

Mark 1:11, Job 2:3

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Do you remember the account in the Bible of Jesus’ baptism? Where God, the Father spoke from heaven. I like the version in the Gospel of Mark, where God, the Father from Heaven actually speaks directly to Jesus. And there he says,

“You are my son. In you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)

This wasn’t the first time that God, the Father, spoke to his Son that we can read about in the Bible. But in the Old Testament, there are these beautiful conversations that we will find being spoken between the members of the Holy Trinity, between the divine persons of the Trinity, between the Father and his Son. One of these is in the beginning of Isaiah, chapter 42, where God, the Father says, I will hold your hand and give you as a light to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:6) And even as he is speaking tenderly and intimately with his Son about what he will do, it is also speaking about us because it is about what Jesus the Christ would do for all people. And in a sense, He’s speaking to us, to let us know.

This is what we call the heavenly council, the triune God, and how the persons of the Trinity converse and are in a beautiful harmony together, where there’s great love and caring that’s modeled for us in the Trinity itself. We see the heavenly council in another way in Job chapter one and chapter two. There we see that Satan appears before the Lord. He comes before the heavenly council and we heard God speak to him, to Satan, actually, and say,

Have you considered my servant job? A man who is blameless and upright? (Job 2:3)

And what does the devil do at that point? He begins to accuse, for that is who he is. Revelation Chapter 12 (verse 10) says that he is the accuser who accuses the children of God night and day. And so he accuses Job. And the rest of the Book of Job we see that Job is on trial. Satan presses him hard. And the question is, is God right about Job?

Now, Job isn’t perfect, and he does complain at various times being in confusion about his afflictions and wanting to understand what God is doing. But at the end of the Book of Job God says, My servant Job has spoken what is right. And it says these words. God had accepted Job. (Job 42:8-9) Again, not because Job is perfect in his thoughts, words and actions, but it is by faith that God accepted Job.

Now we see this scene that I’ve just described taking place in our own life. Where does Satan come to accuse? He comes in our conscience. That’s the battleground now, where Satan accuses. He comes into your conscience and he accuses you and Satan presses you hard. And the question that you may find sometimes in your own mind is, does God accept me? Am I acceptable to God? And how can I be? Well, the good news is he defends you. Jesus speaks up for you to the Heavenly Father. He pleads for you with his blood that he shed for you, that you would be considered forgiven and holy and blameless in God’s sight. And God does accept you, for Jesus sake. And even more, He speaks this to you and He speaks this about you. But more importantly, I think for us, he speaks it to you in your conscience.

He says that you are his child. Don’t miss where he says this in the forgiveness of sins, that he speaks to you in multiple ways in the church service and in his word, he says, just as God, the Father said at Jesus baptism, You’re my Son. You’re my daughter. He says it to you. In you I’m well pleased. The heavenly council stands behind us. Against Satan. Fighting for you. This victory is yours in Jesus name.

Mark 4:38

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Jesus, don’t you care? This was the question that the disciples had on their minds as they fought against the wind and the waves of this huge storm that had come upon their small boat. Meanwhile, Jesus slept in the stern. And so they wake up Jesus and they say,

Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? (Mark 4:38)

Don’t you care that we’re about to die? How often do we feel like this? We’re going through our life and suddenly a storm of life hits us out of the blue and we’re left feeling like we are floundering. Like we’re drowning in this difficulty and that Jesus is asleep at the wheel like his attention is somewhere else. Maybe it’s a job lost. Maybe it’s a relationship that has been broken. Maybe it’s because we are grieving over the death of somebody that we have loved and lost. Maybe it’s financial issues, health troubles, the list goes on and on. And as we’re floundering, we feel like Jesus’s attention is somewhere else. God, don’t you care?

This feeling in itself is a temptation. It’s a temptation to give in to the worry, to give in to the fear, to let these troubles overwhelm us, to cause us to doubt the promise and the providence of our God, the promises that he will be there for us, that he will lead us through these difficulties, that he will give us everything that we need. The very fact that Jesus was on that boat that day is proof of God’s care and not just for the disciples, but for us.

Jesus, who is God, he took on human flesh in order to come and show us His care. He lived every single day according to the law. He fulfilled God’s law for us because He cares for us. He came to proclaim the good news because he cares. He came to go to the cross and to pay our price, to die for us in our place and to win for us forgiveness as the greatest display in the history of the world of how much he cares for us.

God sees the storms of life that you are facing right now. He sees the difficulties and the challenges that are mounting up. He knows your struggles and your difficulties, and he who never slumbers or sleeps. Hears your prayers. He knows your needs and he promises to supply everything necessary for you.

Because of the work of Jesus in every single storm that you face, you know that God himself is standing by your side. As Jesus calmly wakes up from his slumber, he goes to the front of the ship and he rebukes the wind. He tells the waves to be still. And suddenly calm comes over. The disciples seeing this there, they understand and they learn more about who their Savior is, who this teacher is, the power that he has and their faith in him grows. This is the result of God bringing us also through the storms of our life. Whatever storm you’re facing right now, quiet your troubled heart by hearing again and again the comforting promises of God’s Word and know that they are true.

Every single storm, every trial of your life, God will use for your good. He will use them to empty you of any reliance you have on yourself and to remind you to put your faith and your trust in him. Who is he? The one who even the winds and the seas obey. He is your Savior from sin. He is the conqueror of death and Satan. He is the Son of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.