Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  “I Can Only Imagine” Mark 12:18-27 Introduction: The popular Christian song from a few years ago, “ I can only imagine, ” and the movie that tells the story about it, got some people talking about the hope of eternal life. What will it be like? What has God planned for those who know Him? Most people seem more comfortable talking about “heaven” than about the hope the resurrection.  Why? Jesus was the firstfruits of the resurrection! His victory over death assures us that those who are in Christ will also be raised. The firstfruits came as the first part of the harvest… the rest of the harvest would soon surely follow. Think about this: the body of Jesus that was put into the tomb was raised to life. The tomb was empty! Jesus said in John 5:28-29,  “ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice  29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment .”

 [After a short break we return to our series in Mark, SN.] “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb” Mark 12:13-17        Consider the political diversity among these first, hand-picked disciples of Jesus. At one end of the spectrum you had Matthew, a tax collector, who would have been considered a Roman sympathizer and traitor by many first century Jews, and at the other end was Simon the Zealot, who was committed to oppose Rome in every way possible, even to the point of armed resistance (at least up to the time when he was called by Jesus!). Nothing would have piqued their sensibilities more than taxes! At the time of Jesus, there was a head tax, one denarius that was paid by each person in Roman territories, essentially for the “privilege” of being a Roman subject. 25 years earlier there had been a revolt, led by Judas the Galilean [JG], when the tax was instituted over the Jews, JG had called the people to revolt, to refuse to pay the tax. He went in and cleansed the Temple, casting

  The Gospel and the Ordinances (or, The Ordinances: Seeing and Believing) (Various Bible texts as noted below) Introduction : We will wait until next week to return to our series in Mark. Today I’ve decided to devote the message to the ordinances, as we’ll have a baptism and also celebrate the Lord’s Table together.   I want to focus the sermon time today on explaining the two ordinances we observe: what we are doing and why. We call them “ordinances” and not “sacraments,” because it is our understanding that they don’t impart grace, nor are they necessary for salvation. However, there is a spiritual element, in that as an act of obedience we are expressing our submission to Christ, and the symbolism of the ordinances can deepen our faith . Faith comes by hearing, and what we must have verbally in the Gospel message can be reinforced visually in these ordinances when they are explained according to Scripture. These ordinances, given by the Lord to the church, symbolize the unity