Checkpoint

One of my core childhood memories is Crash Bandicoot on the PS1.

Anyone else play Crash Bandicoot?

My family were big Crash people, we had Crash on PS1 and PS2, all the different versions.

As I was thinking about Crash Bandicoot this week, I remembered checkpoints.

Remember checkpoints, the brown box with the C on it?

A checkpoint didn't do anything, it didn't actually move the character Crash forward, but a checkpoint, if you broke it, saved all of your progress.

It was a chance to stop and breathe, and on some levels on Crash Bandicoot, you needed that chance to stop and breathe, because it was intense.

I think in the same way, in our passage tonight, nothing actually happens, as in the story doesn't move forward in any significant way, but Mark gives us what I think is a checkpoint, a chance to breathe, a chance to end the first section of Mark and to tie together some of the threads and motifs that he's been building into his story.

I think in the passage that Beck read out for us, there are four motifs, four themes, four movements that have been boiling along, developing through the Gospel of Mark, which Mark takes this chance here in 3, chapter 3, 7 to 12, to pull together, to reflect on, to just form a checkpoint.

So this message is titled Checkpoint, and we're going to go through the four checkpoints in this passage, look at where they've come from in the Gospel of Mark, how they've developed, where we find them in the passage, and then trace them to their culmination in the end of Mark.

That's the plan.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you for your word in front of us.

I pray that you, Holy Spirit, would enlighten our hearts, that we may understand what you would have us do in response to this, how you would have us think.

We want to encounter you this morning, tonight, through your word, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So our first checkpoint, I think, is the thread of opposition from the Pharisees.

That's the first thing we find in our passage.

Mark 3 verse 7 says Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake.

If we could just pause right there.

Jesus withdrew.

What was he withdrawing from?

Well, you kind of turn the page before, and we see that Mark as the author and compiler of his gospel has strung together five stories where Jesus comes into conflict with the Pharisees.

He has some kind of opposition with the Pharisees, and those five stories lead up to tonight's passage.

And I think it's been a theme that has developed throughout the start of the Gospel of Mark.

So briefly, the five conflict stories with the Pharisees.

Well, firstly, Jesus came into opposition with the Pharisees for forgiving sins.

It led the Pharisees to say in Mark 2 verse 7, why does this fellow talk like that?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

The second of the five, Jesus came into opposition with the Pharisees for eating with sinners and tax collectors.

So the tax collector said, why does he eat with, sorry, the Pharisees said, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

The third of the five stories, Jesus' disciples were not fasting and the Pharisees came into conflict with Jesus for that reason.

The Pharisees say, how is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting but yours are not?

The fourth one, which was the sermon from last Sunday night, Jesus' disciples were picking heads of grain on the Sabbath, which led the Pharisees to say to him, look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

This morning was the final of the five Pharisee conflict stories where Jesus performs a healing on the Sabbath.

And it culminates, the five Pharisee conflicts kind of culminate in this verse, Mark 3 verse 6.

Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

That's how this theme has developed.

Very quickly, the Pharisees decide they need to kill this guy, Jesus.

When we look forward and we trace this theme of Jesus in opposition with the Pharisees, we can see, I mean, we know exactly where it ends.

They kill Jesus.

The Pharisees end up, and the Pharisees and the chief priests and that party, they end up killing Jesus.

We read in Mark 15 verse 3.

The chief priests accused Jesus of many things.

So again, Pilate, who was the Roman governor of the area, Pilate asked Jesus, aren't you going to answer?

See how many things they are accusing you of.

But Jesus still made no reply.

And Pilate was amazed.

Jesus always knew he was going to die.

He knew that that was coming.

But in this moment, Jesus withdraws.

He withdraws because it's not time yet to go to the cross.

He has a plan for the way things are going to pan out.

And in this moment in Mark 3, it's not yet time.

So he pulls back.

But we see that Jesus always knew where it was heading.

The death of Jesus is the central theme of the opposition from the Pharisees.

Our second checkpoint in the Gospel of Mark is this theme of discipling by the lake.

It's popped up a bunch of times so far in the story and pops up a bunch of times later.

In tonight's passage, we read Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake.

I think it's an interesting question to think that if the cross of Jesus was the most significant event in the history of the world, the highlight, the crux of history, what Jesus was leading up to, he knew it was coming, was his death, why did he delay the cross?

Why didn't God become a fully grown human?

Why did he become a child and wait 33 years in order to go to the cross?

Why did Jesus delay his death?

I think the answer here we might see is because Jesus had a life.

He had life to live.

It says Jesus withdrew from the Pharisees, delaying his death to be with his disciples.

Jesus had more things he had to teach them, more parables to teach, miracles to perform.

He had life to live with his disciples.

And so he withdrew with them.

This theme of discipleship is frequently put by the lake, interestingly.

The lake being the Sea of Galilee.

Mark puts these two things together quite a few times.

We saw in Chapter 1, the calling of Simon and Andrew and James and John happened by the Sea of Galilee.

The text said in Mark 1, Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two pairs of brothers, and he said, come follow me, and they left everything and followed him.

Later on in Chapter 2, we saw Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee again, and he saw Levi the tax collector, and he said, come follow me, and Levi did.

Multiple times, significant discipleship moments in Mark happened by the Sea of Galilee.

And when we look forward, there are more significant moments that happen.

For instance, in the next paragraph, after this tonight's paragraph, Jesus chooses the twelve, the twelve apostles, the twelve disciples.

Later on in Mark, Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus walks on that very water.

These are significant moments for the discipleship of the first followers of Jesus.

And they happen in connection with a place, with the lake, which I think is interesting.

My favorite discipleship moment by the lake is Mark 6 31.

Jesus said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

The life of Jesus with his disciples was one of frequently withdrawing from the world that he might be with his disciples.

Yes, Jesus calls his followers to engage, to go make disciples in the world, but there's also an aspect of faith and this life of following Jesus that is getting away with Jesus, withdrawing to be with him, because he has life to live with us.

He had life to live with his first followers.

And if we follow Jesus, it's the same for us.

Things he wants to teach us, parables for us to immerse ourselves in.

The life of Jesus is what this checkpoint is all about.

Jesus' discipling by the lake is his life.

He had life to live with his disciples, and it's the same with us.

Jesus has life to live with us.

The third checkpoint, I think, is popularity with the crowds.

This is an interesting motif that has developed throughout the start of Mark.

Mark 3 verse 7.

A large crowd from Galilee followed.

When they heard about all Jesus was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Ijumea, and the regions across the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon.

Because that's just a large period.

You don't have to know where those...

A large area.

You don't have to know where those places are.

It's a big area.

People come to Jesus, verse 9.

Because of the crowd, Jesus told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him, for he had healed many so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.

This is the checkpoint of Jesus growing in popularity with the crowds.

Over the first three chapters of Mark, we've seen this theme play out multiple times.

In fact, in at least five passages, you can kind of plot Jesus' growing fame trajectory.

The first of the five is Mark 1.28.

News about Jesus spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

The second one is Mark 1.33.

This is in Capernaum.

The whole town gathered at the door.

Jesus is growing in popularity.

Thirdly, Mark 1.37.

When they found Jesus, they exclaimed, everyone is looking for you.

Mark 1.45.

The things Jesus was doing attracted such a crowd, it got to the point where, verse 45, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but he stayed outside in lonely places.

Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

And then fifthly, Mark 2 verse 2.

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

That was the story when it was so busy, they made a hole in the roof to lower someone to Jesus.

The popularity of Jesus with the crowd has been growing and growing and growing over the course of Mark, as we've seen.

We've said a few times that the thesis statement of Mark is really Mark 1, 14 to 15.

It says, Jesus said, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near.

Jesus brings the kingdom in and through himself, through his teachings, his parables, his signs, his healings.

Everything Jesus does brings the kingdom.

And as the kingdom comes, we see the popularity with the crowd grows.

People are attracted to the kingdom.

They are compelled to come to Jesus to see what all this is about.

It's attractive to the crowd.

So let's pivot and trace this theme forward in the Gospel of Mark.

We're talking about the theme of Jesus and the popularity with the crowds.

On Palm Sunday, this is about three years after the present day, Palm Sunday, Mark 11, many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.

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.

On Palm Sunday, the crowds cannot wait to welcome Jesus, to welcome the King, welcome the Kingdom into Jerusalem.

But three or four days later, from Palm Sunday to the Last Supper in Mark 14, 27, you will all fall away, Jesus said.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

A couple of hours after that, in Gethsemane, Jesus is arrested by the Jewish leaders.

And it says in Mark 14, 15, 14, 50, everyone deserted him and fled.

The crowd had long gone.

Even the twelve disciples at this point had deserted Jesus.

A couple of hours after that, Jesus is on trial in Jerusalem.

Pilate is talking to the crowd.

What shall I do then with the one you call King of the Jews?

Pilate asked them.

And the same crowd who five days earlier said, Hosanna, welcome King Jesus, come take your kingdom.

These same ones say, crucify him.

The crowd have completely turned on Jesus.

And then the fifth one is on the cross itself.

Jesus is hanging on the cross.

Mark 15 verse 29.

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, so you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself.

That's where this theme ends up.

Jesus starts off attracting an insane crowd, but by the end of his life, he is alone on the cross.

All of the crowds abandon him.

The twelve disciples abandon him, and Jesus is left alone.

That's how it ends.

And yet, in tonight's passage, that hasn't happened yet.

Jesus is still popular.

But even, I think, in this passage, we get maybe a hint of what is wrong with the crowd.

That would be a foretaste of why they abandon.

It says in Mark 3.7, Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed.

When they heard about all he was doing, when the crowd heard about what Jesus was doing, they came to him.

I think it's human nature in all of us to be attracted to a spectacle, especially if Jesus is actually healing and transforming lives.

Later on in the passage that Beck read for us, it says that those who had diseases and things wrong with themselves were pushing forward to get to Jesus, clamoring to get the healing that they desire or the breakthrough that they need.

The crowd want to get to what Jesus is doing, but as the story develops, Jesus ends up not giving them healing, and so they abandon him.

When he's on the cross, no one wants to associate with him anymore.

And so there's a challenge that I feel, and maybe you feel.

With what heart posture do we come to Jesus?

Do we come partly in the mixed motivations that is in all of us?

Do we come partly that we may get the thing that we want from him, and not because of who he is?

Certainly Jesus gives forgiveness and eternal life, but he also gives me peace and meaning and purpose in life, and a way of understanding this world.

So I'm challenged from this passage and this type of thinking, what if I were not to feel peace from him anymore?

What if I were to drift and feel like I lose my sense of purpose?

Would I then with the crowd abandon Jesus because he's not giving me what I want anymore?

There's a challenge in there for all of us.

What happens when we stop feeling the peace and the comfort and the joy that he gives us?

When we go through a dark night of the soul or a difficult season, Jesus said in Mark 8.34, he called the crowd to him.

This is the very crowd that is wanting to get a healing, that is clamoring to get a touch of Jesus.

This crowd, Jesus calls to him along with the disciples, and Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the Gospel will save it.

That was probably the moment when he lost the crowd, when they realized, oh, cross, it's getting a little bit too real.

I feel like the healings have stopped.

I feel like you're not saying as many cool things anymore.

He starts to lose the crowd, but that is the call of Jesus.

The life of discipleship is a call to take up your cross and follow Jesus, to give up your life.

And in the beautiful upside down kingdom, that's how you find life in Jesus.

This theme of the growing popularity of the crowd that grows throughout Mark, it speaks to the way of Jesus.

Jesus' way is the way of the cross, to give up your life.

And when you give up your life in the kingdom, you find your life.

But the crowds didn't want that.

And so, the journey of Mark is from very popular with the crowds to totally alone for Jesus.

The fourth and final checkpoint in this Gospel, in Mark 3, 7-12, is silencing the spirits.

It's an interesting kind of theme that's appeared multiple times and will appear multiple times in the rest of Mark, Mark 3-11.

When the impure spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and cried out, You are the Son of God.

But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.

Seems bizarre.

They're saying something true about who Jesus is, but Jesus silences them.

Multiple times, when you look, and I'll get to that later, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It's an interesting motif.

When we go back to the start of Mark, we see early in Chapter 1, there are three affirmations of the identity of Jesus.

And it seems like after those three, Jesus and Mark, Jesus in the story and Mark as the author, pretty much doesn't let anyone else claim to know who Jesus is.

These are the three affirmations of Jesus' identity.

Firstly, it's Mark's opinion.

Mark 1 verse 1, this is his editorial comment.

The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.

So who does Mark think Jesus is?

The Messiah, the Son of God.

The second one would be John the Baptist's opinion in Mark 1 verse 7.

This was John the Baptist's message.

After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

That's another picture of who Jesus is.

And the third one would have to be the most important.

It's God the Father himself.

Mark 1 verse 10.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water in his baptism, as he was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open, and the Spirit descend on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven.

You are my son, whom I love.

With you I am well pleased.

So we have three testimonies to who Jesus is.

Mark, the author himself, John the Baptist, and God the Father.

But after that, we see multiple times Jesus silences anyone who would claim to know who he is.

We see in Mark 1, 23, there's a lot of scripture here, but that's kind of what this sermon is.

It's a checkpoint, so bear with me.

Mark 1, 23.

Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

Be quiet, said Jesus sternly.

Jesus silences the spirit.

And it happens again in Mark 1, 34, about ten verses later.

Jesus also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

It seems that demons and impure spirits are spiritual beings who live in the spiritual realm and see Jesus for who he is.

And yet they can interact with the physical realm.

But here in this physical material realm, Jesus does not let them say who Jesus is.

It's weird.

It's a bizarre kind of thing in Mark, but it appears so frequently.

I think, as I'm trying to understand what is going on with this, and I don't really know, but when we look forward into the Gospel of Mark, how this theme plays out, we see Mark 8.27.

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.

On the way, Jesus asked them, Who do people say I am?

They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others one of the prophets.

But what about you?

Jesus asked, Who do you say I am?

Peter answered, You are the Messiah.

Correct, right?

He is, tick.

But what does Jesus say in verse 30?

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

It's just weird that you would have a correct answer to the question of who Jesus is.

But it's not time, it's not yet time in the Gospel of Mark for the full, real, true identity of Jesus to be made public.

So Jesus keeps it on the low down.

I didn't put this on the screen, but towards the end of Mark, in Mark 15, Jesus has just breathed his last breath on the cross.

And a Roman centurion says, Surely this man was the son of God.

It's almost as if Mark and Jesus is waiting for the whole story of his life to play out, for the crowds, for us to see everything that Jesus does and then to decide who we think he is.

Jesus is the Messiah, and he is the son of God.

It's a bizarre motif that we see Jesus silencing people who claim to know who his identity is.

But I think that question is before us.

We who could look back from 2,000 years, we look at the full Gospel story.

We see his life, his death, his resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, the birth of the early church.

We look back at that story, and the question is put to us, who do we say Jesus is?

And we can't be silent about that.

It's not time to be silent anymore, but to decide who Jesus is to us.

Will we agree with Mark that he is the Messiah and the Son of God?

Or will we agree with the crowds that he's kind of a person who says nice words, but ultimately he's nothing more than that?

This motif is about the identity of Jesus.

And those are the four checkpoints, I think, in our passage.

So as we wrap up and pull them together, we've seen four themes develop, at least four, but four themes Mark records in this passage that have developed through three chapters of Mark and will develop and find their culmination in the cross and resurrection.

And each one, I think, speaks to something central about the life of following Jesus.

The theme of Jesus' opposition from the Pharisees is about Jesus' death.

Jesus always knew he was going to die.

And even though he delayed it for a couple of years, he was resolutely heading to the cross.

And he went to the cross to bear our sin, to atone for everything that we have done wrong, so that in the second point, we might have life.

The theme that we find all throughout Mark of Jesus doing significant discipleship by the lake, it speaks to Jesus' life.

He wasn't in a rush to go to the cross, but he delayed the cross because he needed to be with his disciples.

He had more words to say to them, more life to live with them.

The theme of Jesus' popularity with the crowds, which grew so much and then completely dropped off, it speaks to Jesus' way.

The way of Jesus is the way of the cross.

Give up your life, and as you give it up, you will find it in the kingdom.

And then that theme of Jesus silencing the spirits, whenever that comes up in Mark, we think this is about the identity of Jesus.

Who do we say Jesus is, is the question that that puts before us.

So in terms of application, I would encourage you now, but it's going to take more time than the couple minutes we have left tonight.

Sometime this week, do a checkpoint of your life.

A review of where you're at on these four things.

Jesus' death, Jesus' life, Jesus' way and Jesus' identity.

Because all four of those things are key, absolutely key themes and motifs which run throughout the Gospel of Mark.

All of them are central to the life of following Jesus.

I've been reflecting this week, and for me, it was Jesus' death that I felt conviction to return to the heart of again.

I'm on a bit of a discipleship, John Mark Comer, practicing the way thing, which is great.

And like the life of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, his teachings, his kingdom, awesome.

But I was convicted this week.

I've elevated that to the point where I'm not thinking on the cross so much.

For me, I've had to return to the cross and to say, Lord Jesus, I can do nothing if you don't forgive me of my sin.

But he did in the cross.

So I encourage you this week to just take stock of where you're at in life and faith, where you're at even in 2024, we're coming to the end of two months in.

Where are you at with Jesus' death?

What do you believe?

Where are you at with that?

Is that slipping?

Where are you at with Jesus' life?

The life of discipleship.

Where are you at with Jesus' way, the way of the cross, to give up our life in order to find it?

And what do you say about Jesus' identity?

Who do you say He is?

I encourage you to ask yourself these questions and answer these questions.

Would you like to stand as I pray and close?

And then we'll have a time of worship together.

Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word, which we have in front of us.

We thank You that You breathed Your Spirit on the human authors.

And so what we have in our hands is a masterpiece.

We thank You for the Gospel of Mark that we're spending so much time in this year.

We thank You for the way that You empowered and spoke through him.

And as we look at the text, we see so many themes that are so significant in our life.

And in particular, tonight, we've seen the theme of Your death, Lord Jesus, Your life, Your way, and Your identity.

And I pray for us now as we go into our weeks, would You help us to reflect on where we're at with each of those?

We want to return to the cross, Lord, and say, we remember that that's the time when You said, It is finished.

It was in the cross when evil was totally defeated, and in the resurrection when You triumphed.

And Lord, we thank You for Your life, Your resurrection life that fills all of us who have faith in You.

We thank You for Your way, Lord.

It's not the way of the world, but it's the way of the cross.

Would You form us into people who would lay down our lives for each other?

And as we do that, that You would bring life in us and breathe life through us to the people we come into contact with.

And Lord, we remember who You are.

Jesus, You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You are glorious and worthy of our praise.

You're the Son of God and the Messiah, and we believe that.

And now as we worship, we want to declare these things that we believe to be true about You and ask You to continue to lead us and guide us and form us in Jesus' Name.

Amen.

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