Missions Paul

Alabaster disciples

Mark 14: 4-9

“Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. ⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

The average salary in the UK is £25-27k. So we have some idea of what she was giving to Jesus.

The breaking of her alabaster jar shows us:

1. She understands the season of sacrifice. There are moments when you have to help the poor and other good causes. But this woman knew Jesus was only here for a short time, this was the right moment. There are seasons when He demands all, when the alabaster jar must be broken. When obedience is not measured by a tithe or a part offering but it is all or nothing. Alabaster people know those seasons.
2. Her giving benefited not just Jesus but the whole room. Everyone enjoyed the fragrant perfume, even if they were against her doing it. The act of giving impacts further than what we can imagine. In a Church service last week a heap food offering was given by the members. Mountains of food were placed around the altar area of the church. During this act of giving a married couple were so impacted by this that they came forward to surrender their hearts, ‘to get right their own giving’.
3. Her giving offended others who hadn’t given like this. They were not thinking of the poor. They were not thinking of the largeness of her gift. They were thinking of how small or non-existent theirs was.

My final thought (I think!) on this amazing story is this:

A moment with Jesus. We try and replicate these every week. We gather together and believe Jesus is the centre of all we do. The people who come have all been impacted by Him in some way. We are all disciples and followers of Him. Yet the ones who manage to truly connect with Jesus may not be the obvious. It could be those on the fringe of society, those who have had chequered pasts, those who are overlooked, those who have been forgiven much, those who understand the cross deeply, those who are so moved by his sacrifice they are prepared to break open their future, all that they have, their lives and become broken followers. There are after all 2 types of God-chasers (a term I am trying to dust down and re-introduce!); those who pursue-in-want and those who pursue-in-giving. Alabaster people are the latter, they become broken to give.

Brokenness part 3

Mark 14: 3-9

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. ⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

 

Broken people carry the cross in their heart; it is easy to see the nail prints and the thorn damage; they walk with a limp; they have been pierced, marked by God.

What else can we say of this kind of brokenness?

• They change their surroundings with the beauty inside of them.

As soon as the neck of the alabaster jar was broken a strong fragrant perfume burst into the room.

As it ran down the head of Jesus and as it was poured onto his feet the fragrance soaked into his skin.

Perhaps you could still smell the fragrance on Jesus as Jesus kissed him in betrayal, as the soldiers hit him, as he was nailed to the cross.

This woman’s beauty was her love for Jesus.

That’s what the smell spoke.

Mary’s beauty was her gratefulness.

Her selflessness.

Her emotional feelings of devotion.

For her, there was no one else in the room but her and Jesus.

Of course there were others.

But this beauty takes the broken into the most vulnerable of places:

1. To the place where other good things cry out for attention. There is always another good cause, the family need you, the poor are crying out, this good cause is a must, that promise has to be kept and if you are not distracted to their cry you will be accused. It is a vulnerable place to be in, there will be people challenged and effected negatively by your brokenness. The fragrance is not on everyone, it never was meant to be.
2. To the security of your future. We always want our future to be secure. She gave away her life.

What is your alabaster jar?

What’s in your alabaster jar?

Will you be broken?

‘She did what she could’ and broke her life before Jesus in honour of his sacrifice.

You are very close to brokenness. There is something we can all do and it involves surrendering it to Jesus.

Can you say this today?

“I did what I could. I gave everything and I stepped into brokenness.”

 

Brokenness part 2

Mark 14: 3-4

“While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?”

Simon the Leper and Lazarus (told of in Matthew) are having fellowship with Jesus.

They are with Jesus, listening to Jesus, speaking to Jesus, but they do not carry the act of brokenness to Jesus, that was left to a woman.

It is true.

You can come to Jesus. Believe in the Good News. Attend Church and worship with exuberance. You can even become a preacher. And never know brokenness.

The 2 men are named but the woman isn’t. People who are broken don’t worry about their names being known.

The followers of George Whitfield wanted to form an organisation. His reply was, “No, let the name of Whitfield die, so that the cause of Jesus Christ may live. Let the name of Whitfield perish, but Christ be glorified. I have had enough popularity to be sick.”

The 2 men are having fellowship with Jesus, but this isn’t brokenness.

Over the years we have sung songs to Jesus:

We have gone down the mountain, swam in the river, been breathed on by the wind, had our hearts stirred, our minds renewed, laid down at his feet, raised our banners, danced our feet, we’ve even jumped for Jesus! It’s been wonderful, it still is, but it isn’t brokenness.

So brokenness is …

1. Carrying the cross of Christ in your heart.

The disciples were there, they knew Christ, knew his power, his miracles, his teaching. Lazarus, Simon and Martha … but only this woman knew he would die. Only this woman was carrying the burden of the cross.

Jesus would go to the cross for all the people in that house that evening.

But only this woman broke open her alabaster jar to anoint him (culturally this was the norm for a dead person). If this woman was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, then maybe she had kept the perfume for him but Jesus had raised Lazarus from the grave, so she knew who to keep it for, Jesus.

There are not 2 Christ’s, an easy one and a suffering one. There is only one.

Brokenness means you have laid your life on the altar, the place of sacrifice and have literally given up everything for Christ, you have made Him Lord of all and you are consumed by his death for your sin.

Maybe today is your day of brokenness.

 

Brokenness part 1

Mark 14: 3-9

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. ⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Miracles are found in brokenness. Worship is brokenness.

Psalm 51:17 “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, O God, you will not despise.”

David has come through a nightmare of facing up to his sins. He will never be the same again. He is broken. His pride and arrogance have gone. He realises that the worship that God accepts is that of a person who is broken. This is not a brokenness because of sickness or trauma, this is broken because the person realises the cost of their forgiveness and the pain of their sin. This is worship. This for David is a remarkable shift for a man who was so lavish in the use of sacrifices to God. On the return of the ark of the covenant he sacrificed every 6 steps the priests took in carrying it. David in his lifetime literally sacrificed thousands and thousands as worship to God.

Now he realises God only accepts worship is from a broken spirit.

A professional Christian is someone who has lost such brokenness.

A Church can lost its brokenness and keep what looks like worship.

“Awesome music, Awesome preaching in an Awesome house.”

Recently I heard that a Christian band were leading thousands of young people in worship. Then in the altar call they invited young people to make Jesus their best mate and come to the big party in heaven. There was no suggestion that before they made Jesus their best mate they need to apologise to him for being his worst enemy.

This morning I have spent some time reading the story of Evan Roberts and in contrast to the ministry to those young people from the music band, in 1904 God found this young 26 yr old preparing himself for ministry, a humble coal miner in Wales. After hearing an evangelist pray ‘bend us’ the words became etched in his mind.

“I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me, my face bathed in perspiration and the tears flowing in streams, so that I thought it must be blood gushing forth. For about 2 minutes it was terrible. I cried “Bend me! Bend me! Bend us!”

“It was God commending His love which bent me, while I saw nothing in it to commend.”

“Then the fearful bending of the judgment day came to my mind and I was filled with compassion for those who must bend at the judgment, and I wept.”

In less than 6 months this young man was responsible in the leading of over 100,000 people to Christ.

You can see what is occupying my mind this morning, it is brokenness.

Jesus had entered this home in Bethany, he had been welcomed. But welcoming Jesus is not the same as brokenness. When a woman came into the meal, she broke her very expensive jar of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ head.

This is the home of Simon the Leper, who had presumably been healed of his leprosy by Jesus earlier. Also at the dinner according to John is Lazarus, again someone who had been raised from the dead only 4 days previously. Two men with an amazing testimony.

How many people over the years do you know who have been touched by Jesus and received their healing or some other blessing? Did it truly change them?

Welcoming Jesus and even having a testimony is not brokenness. It is not worship.

We will discover more over the next few days.

Surrender on time

Mark 14: 1-2

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.  ² “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

Jesus had said he would lay his life down as a Passover lamb during Passover.

The opposition said this wasn’t going to happen. They were concerned about causing a riot.

Jesus had said that he would be crucified.

The opposition said this wasn’t going to happen. They had plans to abduct him and kill him quietly.

Jesus had said that his death would be public.

The opposition said this wasn’t going to happen. They were not going to kill him till after the Festival had ended and people had gone home.

The 2 sides had never been in discussion with this but their views were vehemently opposed to each other.

The point is Mark wants us to see that there is a conflict of whose plans are going to succeed. Who is in charge of the surrender? It is not the chief priests and the teachers of the law. It is Jesus.

The enemy of your soul wants to see you die in some form and of course we are all called to take up our cross and die to self.

But how this happens is everything?

To lose your life in the timing of the enemy is to lose your destiny. To lose your life in the timing of God is to gain the whole world.

To lay your life down with the manipulation and deceit of the enemy is to cut short what God had in store for you. To lay your life down in the timing of God is surrender.

Somebody does not get their own way. Let us all make sure it isn’t us!

Where are the doorkeepers?

Mark 13: 33-37 ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. ³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

 

Who is the most important person when the man goes away?

Surely those who are in charge? Those who have important tasks of the house? After all when the man returns he needs to come to a home which is still functioning.

The Church is filled with amazing achievements and stories coming from worship to the influence the church is having in the world. Are these the most important tasks?

Maybe not. So what is?

I think it is the doorkeeper, the gatekeeper, the watchman.

 

In the Temple we see the importance of the doorkeeper, amongst other things:

1. They guarded the gates, closing and opening them at the right time. (1 Chronicles 9: 23-27)
2. They were given authority to prevent anything unclean entering. (2 Chronicles 23:19)

 

Whatever happens to our churches happens because of the doorkeeper, whether they are in post or not.

 

“I have posted watchman on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:6-7.

 

Every Church needs doorkeepers:

1. That are appointed
2. That continually pray and call on God.
3. They do not rest from the work until …

 

 

“For years Christians have known that every great spiritual awakening is born in a remnant committed to prayer. Countless books call people to prayer and emphasise the importance God places on His people’s praying. Yet we must answer one sobering question: If prayer is so important, why do most Christians and churches do so little of what God deems essential? We have more money, more buildings, more ministries, more media, and more people but less power than at any time in church history. We have ministers for every age group. Yet few Christians can claim that they are spiritually stronger today than they were a year ago.

We measure the success of our churches in comparison to others, saying “we are making a difference,” but on our best Sunday our combined attendance is dwarfed by the number of unchurched people. When one considers these facts, an obvious cry grips the heart. There must be more. Where is the power? The answer, quite simply, is that power has always been accessible. We are the ones who have not been available.

Every great spiritual awakening, in our nation and around the world, has had as its foundation a people who were committed to prayer.

Today we have the same opportunity for revival. We stand at the door of a passing opportunity at a critical hour in our history. Our response to this call to prayer could determine if we as a people see the glory of God and experience an outpouring of His Spirit on us or if we continue with business as usual: great churches with great fellowship and great people but with little power.”  Watchman by Larry L.Thompson.

 

Jesus says that when the man leaves the house the doorkeeper position becomes crucial.

Friends, the man has left the house. But he is returning. Where are the doorkeepers?

The doorkeeper keeps the house longing for the man’s return.

And in the meantime continues to open the gates for visitations of blessing and closes the gates to destructive influencers.

Do you have doorkeepers? Are you one?

 

A beautiful idiom and a reminder that you are wanted by HIM!

Mark 13: 32

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

 

This morning I have just been reading about the traditional Jewish wedding, one that Jesus and the disciples were so familiar with.

It was a 12 step process:

1. The selection of the bride by the father.
2. The bridegroom negotiates the prices of the bride with her father.
3. The legal binding contract of a betrothal.
4. The written contract called the Ketubah.
5. The consent by the bride.
6. The sharing of gifts in particular the cup of the covenant between the bride and groom.
7. The ritual water cleansing of the bride, the Mikvah.
8. The preparing of the bridal chamber with the announcement by the bridegroom to the bride, “I go to prepare a place for you; I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
9. The bride is set apart waiting for the grooms return which could take up to 12 months.
10. The bridegroom returns with a shout and the blowing or a rams horn.
11. Usually in the middle of the night whilst the bride’s father pretends to look away the bride is abducted by the groom.
12. The marriage supper which lasts for 7 days with many guests!

 

Look at point 9 again. The bride is waiting and preparing herself each night. Tonight could be the night! But she didn’t truly know. Neither did the groom. It was his father who would decide whether the bridal house that they had spent perhaps a year building was actually ready or not. Though no doubt it was becoming obvious as time went on. Once the father was satisfied it was ready he would permit his son to go and abduct his bride.

The time for the bridegroom to return for his bride was only known by the father. To use a sentence like this: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Then every Jewish mind would understand it is Jesus using an idiom regarding the wedding.

In fact as you study closely the Jewish wedding and read the many things Jesus said then you realise that this was the main point he was trying to communicate. The marriage supper is the end result.

So this sentence is not to be discussed regarding the Trinitarian view of Jesus and whether it proved Jesus deity or humanity in not knowing the times.

This verse is not to be thrown into the mix of those searching for dates and times.

It is an idiom. It is Jesus bringing us back to the most wonderful occasion of all occasions, a wedding. After telling us of days of distress, it is okay, there is a plan, a wedding plan. Things are being prepared right now and the Father will announce at the perfect time to his son, “Go and get the bride!”

This is about relationship. It is love. A desire of God for relationship with you. He wants you. So be ready for Him.

 

 

End times – Jesus comes and we are gathered

Mark 13:26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

The Anti-Christ comes with destruction, fear abounds and it looks hopeless. But he ends not with a bang but a whimper for he is eclipsed by the Son of Man.

Edgar Whisenant wrote ’88 reasons for 1988’ predicting the date of the rapture in that year to be between September 11 and 13th. Amazingly 4.5 million copies were sold! He stated, ‘Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong. ‘ Hmm!

Throughout history angels and men have asked ‘how long?’ and ‘when will you come?’ But there is no answer. What we are told is He will come and He will gather.

Days of distress and death is not the end.

Job 19: 25-26 “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. ²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God”

Job knew there was more than the suffering he was going through.

Jesus says there is more than the days of distress.

There is more than just existing on this earth for a set amount of years.

We are made for something else, somewhere else, for someone else.

He is coming on the clouds and will gather us to be with Him.

When and how? Who cares that much when you are just relieved and excited He is coming!

The last words of the Bible “I am coming soon!” this is all we need to know!

 

 

End times – only for a time

Mark 13: 20 ‘If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them”

Jesus prophesied days of distress that will have been unequalled up to then. In Matthew and Luke we have other details of this prophecy of Jesus which clearly speaks of AD 70 but as with all Biblical prophecy it has more than one event in mind. This is also about what is to come at the end. It is how Daniel prophesies also when firstly it is believed he is speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes but also of the Anti-Christ at the end times. Whether the final Anti-Christ is alive now or still to be born it is true that in every generation the spirit of that Anti-Christ has been alive and toppling the previous generations ‘figure’ in the abhorrent treatment of God’s people.

Jesus clearly demonstrates that the days become very difficult, that there is panic and mayhem. He advises not to return for your belongings but to get away as fast as you can. It will be terrible especially for those with small children or those expecting, the vulnerable and weak will struggle more.

Of course, there are so many experiencing this today. We may sit in the comfort of our homes reading this blog and at the same time there are people literally doing their best to survive. Evil crouches at their door. They wonder if this is actually the end times as it couldn’t get much worse. Where is their comfort? What is their hope? It is this verse.

To those who have been manipulated by a deception that has entrapped you. To those whose stronghold is under severe attack, mind, body and soul. To those in the centre of an all-out war. Let me tell you something that will help you hold on. As Daniel’s prophecy comes to an end, the last 2 chapters of his prophecy are taken up with an incurring theme which is akin to this verse today.

On 12 occasions in the last 2 chapters references are used to the timing of God. “Only for a time” and “the appointed time” are a common developing theme. Today, ‘the Lord cuts short the days.’

God sets the limits and establishes the times when evil will be brought to an end and good will triumph.

Just as Biblical prophecy has more than one event in mind then also the intervention of the Lord that Jesus speaks of happens more than once.

At the end times the Lord will step in and cut short the days of Satan’s attack. Evil will not be able to fulfil its aim, he will be curtailed, the days will be shortened, whether that be literally or preventing his plan to come into completion. For God is in charge of the clock.

So, I can proclaim over everyone who is struggling and reading this blog:

‘Only so far, only so much, only for a time.’

‘The Lord will step in and cut short this time’

End times – The Father knows

Mark 13: 14-23

¹⁴ ‘When you see “the abomination that causes desolation” standing where it does not belong – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. ¹⁶ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁷ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ¹⁸ Pray that this will not take place in winter, ¹⁹ because those will be days of distress unequalled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now – and never to be equalled again. ²⁰ ‘If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.²¹ At that time if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Messiah!” or, “Look, there he is!” do not believe it. ²² For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²³ So be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance. ²⁴ ‘But in those days, following that distress, ‘“the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; ²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” ²⁶ ‘At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. ²⁸ ‘Now learn this lesson from the fig-tree: as soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. ³² ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: he leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. ³⁵ ‘Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: “Watch!”’

 

Over the next few days I will just stay on this passage and see what we can draw from it.

 

In 168 BC Antiochus Epiphanes slaughtered a pig on the altar and offered it to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem, it became known as the abomination of desolation.

But in AD 70 Titus and the Roman Army moved in and fulfilled this prophecy of Jesus. They reduced the Temple to rubble and took the holy artefacts back to Rome. During this abomination of desolation over 1 million Jews died. However the Jewish Christians heeded Jesus warning and when the Romans were approaching fled the city.

In Matthew and Luke we have other details of this prophecy of Jesus which clearly speaks of AD 70 but as with all Biblical prophecy it has more than one event in mind. So our thoughts are on his Second Coming also, Jesus describing himself as coming on the clouds.

There is an abomination to come, for many, they are currently experiencing it. The spirit of the Anti-Christ is in the world increasing in every generation its abhorrent acts against God’s people.

Many write their interpretation of the end times using this and other passages. It is a minefield of understanding. Do we have a detailed plan of what will happen and what to look for? No. The variants are many. But this is what we know from this passage …

The Father knows

Only the Father knows when but the point is He knows also what.

Today there are estimates of 20 Christian martyrs per hour. How do they go through this? Surely by knowing that the Father knows.

Is there someone reading this who is going through the trauma of their worst day? Your Father knew it was coming and He knows what you’re going through.

God doesn’t always give us what we want.

But He is certainly the God who determines what is best. He has perfect timing, who appoints everything. He permits, assigns, chooses, selects, prescribes and establishes. Everything works according to His will and purposes which are perfect.

It takes faith and discipleship to be able to say this abomination is known by my Father.

We all love this verse in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

But it only applies if we submit to verse 35 also: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”

The end times show us that they are days of great difficulty and we never know when these days will begin for us but the Father knows.