Some time ago (1996), the staff at the Bridger Wilderness Area in the Teton National Forest in Wyoming received the following responses on comment cards from hikers on their trails. These are actual responses!
Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.
Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.
Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the areas of these pests.
Chair lifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.
A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed?
Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.
A MacDonald's would be nice at the trailhead.
The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.
Too many rocks in the mountains. (Mike Neifert, Light and Life, February 1997, p. 27; www.PreachingToday.com)
Can you believe it? I think those people forgot where they were. Well, sometimes on life’s journey, people have similar complaints. They forget that life is not a paved highway to heaven where we can tool along at 65 mph in air conditioned vehicles. Rather, it’s more like a wilderness, mountain trail. Sure, there are beautiful vistas along the way, but often the trail gets steep and hard.
So what are we to do in this journey called life, especially as we start a new year? Complain about the hard times? Or is there a better way to enjoy the trip?
In the first century, Christians under Emperor Nero’s regime had a very difficult time. Nero came to power as the Roman Emperor in A.D. 54. He killed his mother in A.D. 59, his wife in A.D. 62, and himself in A.D. 68. This gives you an idea of the kind of man he was. He was insane, and Christians suffered terribly under his rule.
When the city of Rome burned in A.D. 64, Nero caught the blame. So, in order to remove suspicion from himself, he passed the blame onto Christians and began to arrest them. Some he dressed in wild animal skins and let the dogs tear them apart. Others he crucified, and still others he made into torches. He coated some of the Christians with tar, impaled them on posts, and set them on fire to light up his gardens.
Life wasn’t supposed to be this way for the followers of Christ, or so some of them thought. At least young Mark did. He grew up in a wealthy home in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Mary (Acts 12:12), and it was her home that became an important meeting place for the early Christians. It was one of the few homes big enough to hold a lot of people.
Paul and Barnabas, two of the first Christian missionaries, met Mark in Jerusalem and took him with them on their first missionary journey (Acts 12:25). But Mark, who was raised in the lap of luxury, couldn’t handle the hardships of ministry. When they got to Perga, he deserted Paul and Barnabas and went home to momma (Acts 13:13).
Since Perga was a low swampy area, some Bible scholars suggest that Paul contracted Malaria there. Later, he writes about coming with a “bodily illness” (Galatians 4:13) to the people he visited after he was in Perga. Well, that “illness” gives people extreme nausea and diarrhea, and leaves them very weak.
I think Mark took one look at Paul, looked ahead at the prospect of going into some treacherous mountain passes, thought about the hardships of service and said, “Forget it!” He deserted Paul and Barnabas at a time when they needed him most.
He didn’t think following Christ was supposed to be that hard. But later, after his own struggle with the cost of serving Christ, he wrote a book about the life of Christ and Christ’s original followers. He wrote a book to encourage the Christians under Nero and later followers of Christ in their time of suffering.
That book is found in our New Testaments, the 2nd book in the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 1, Mark 1, where in the introduction to this little Gospel, we catch a glimpse about what it means to truly follow Christ.
Mark 1:1-8 The beginning of the gospel” (or the good news) about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (NIV)
John was the messenger sent to prepare the way for Messiah, and he did it, by calling people to repentance. Now, before John, it was only the Gentile “heathen” who immersed themselves in a river when they were converting to Judaism to serve the true and living God. But here, we see the people of Judea and Jerusalem being immersed in the Jordan River, the Jewish people themselves! They too needed to be converted – these who already worshipped of the true and living God. They too needed to repent. They too needed to change to be ready for the Messiah.
You see, it’s not only the “bad people out there” who are in need of transformation. It’s us “good people in here,” as well! “It’s not my brother, not my sister, but it’s ME, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.” And that’s the 1st step we need to take as we seek to follow Christ into a new year. 1st, we need to RECOGNIZE OUR OWN NEED. We need to…
RECOGNIZE OUR OWN SIN.
We need to recognize that we ourselves are on the wrong trail and admit it. That’s what these early believers were doing here. Even though they were good Jews, they confessed their sins and allowed John to baptize them as an indication that they too, like the “heathen Gentiles,” needed to be changed.
Kevin Baugh has his own country—The Republic of Molossia—and if you don't mind, he'd prefer you call him “His Excellency Kevin Baugh.” After all, he has an impressive khaki uniform with six big medals, a gold braid, epaulets at the shoulders, and a blue, white, and green sash. Oh—and a general's cap with a gold starburst over the bill.
Never heard of The Republic of Molossia? That's understandable, because it consists of Baugh's three-bedroom house and 1.3 acre yard outside of Dayton, Nevada. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, “He has a space program (a model rocket), a currency (pegged to the value of chocolate-chip cookie dough), a railroad (model size), a national sport (broomball), and—in his landlocked desert region—a navy (an inflatable boat).”
The Tribune goes on to say that “Baugh, a 45-year-old father of two, is a micro-nationalist, one of a wacky band of do-it-yourself nation builders who raise flags over their front yards and declare their property to be, as Baugh puts it ‘the kingdom of me.’” (Colleen Mastony, “One Nation, Under Me,” Chicago Tribune, in the “Tempo” section, 7-3-08; www.PreachingToday. com)
We laugh at that, but that’s really what most of us want, isn’t it? Oh, we might not be as blatant as Kevin Baugh, but don’t we really want to build a “Kingdom of Me?” Don’t we really want to rule our own lives and live by our own laws instead of God’s? You see, that’s the essence of sin. It’s not so much doing “bad” things as it is doing our own thing apart from God, and that’s what destroys us in the end.
My friends, if we want to follow Christ into the new year, then, 1st of all, we must realize we’re on the wrong trail. In other words, we must recognize our own sin. Then we must…
RECOGNIZE GOD’S SON.
We must acknowledge his right to rule even as one who suffered, and we must look to jesus as our own suffering sovereign.
Mark 1:9-11 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (NIV)
This declaration from God, “You are my Son,” means that Jesus is God’s appointed King. It’s the same thing God said in Psalm 2. There, after He declares, “I have installed my King,” He said to that king, “You are my Son.” This is more than a declaration of relationship. It is a declaration of authority and power. Jesus has all authority and power. Jesus is king by declaration of heaven itself.
But he is not a king who cannot sympathize with our pain. Rather, He is a king who suffered just like us.
Mark 1:12-13 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. (NIV)
Oh, how those early Roman Christians under Nero must have marveled to read this of Jesus, their King. They were reduced to a catacomb existence, and here they read that their Lord was driven deep into the desert. Many of them had to enter the arena where they stood helpless in the presence of wild beasts, and here they read that their Lord was with the wild beasts, a detail recorded only by Mark. Here, in Mark’s Gospel, these Roman Christians found that nothing they could suffer from Nero was alien to the experience of Jesus. (William Lane, The Gospel of Luke, p.15)
Speaking of Jesus, the author of Hebrews says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is sovereign, yes! But He came to suffer on our behalf.
I like the way Philip Ryken put it in a sermon not too long ago. He said, “Most kingdoms do anything they can to protect their king. This is the unspoken premise of the game of chess, for example. When the king falls, the kingdom is lost. Therefore, the king must be protected at all costs.
“Another notable example comes from the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill desperately wanted to join the expeditionary forces and watch the invasion from the bridge of a battleship in the English Channel. U.S. General Dwight David Eisenhower was desperate to stop him, for fear that the Prime Minister might be killed in battle. When it became apparent that Churchill would not be dissuaded, Eisenhower appealed to a higher authority: King George VI. The king went and told Churchill that if it was the Prime Minister's duty to witness the invasion, he could only conclude that it was also his own duty as king to join him on the battleship. At this point Churchill reluctantly agreed to back down, for he knew that he could never expose the King of England to such danger.
“King Jesus did exactly the opposite. With royal courage he surrendered his body to be crucified. On the cross he offered a king's ransom: his life for the life of his people. He would die for all the wrong things that we had ever done and would do, completely [paying] for all our sins. The crown of thorns that was meant to make a mockery of his royal claims actually proclaimed his kingly dignity, even in death.” (From Philip Ryken's sermon Long Live the King! www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus is the King who suffered on our behalf. Yes, following Jesus is hard sometimes, but no harder than what He went through for us; and afterwards, there is a resurrection!
On this difficult journey called life, if we’re going to endure and even enjoy the trip, then 1st, we must recognize our own sin. 2nd, we must recognize God’s Son. And finally, we must…
REPENT.
We must recognize we’re on the wrong path, look to jesus, and get on the right path. We must change the direction of our lives. We must stop living in “the kingdom of me” and start living in “the kingdom of God.”
Mark 1:14-15 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (NIV)
There’s that word “repent.” It simply means to change your mind, i.e., to change your whole way of thinking, which leads to a change in your whole way of living. We must change our minds about ourselves, and we must change our minds about Jesus, and believe Him when He says “the Kingdom of God is near.”
The Kingdom of God is available to all who will trust the King. That’s what Jesus means when he says, “believe the good news.” The kingdom of God is near, because the King is near. Jesus Himself is right here; and when we trust Him with our lives, we enter into His Kingdom.
Dallas Willard talks about growing up in “an area of southern Missouri where electricity was available only in the form of lightning.” Finally, in his senior year of high school the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) extended its lines into the area where they lived, and electrical power became available to the households and farms.
Dallas Willard says, “When those lines came by our farm, a very different way of living presented itself. Our relationships to fundamental aspects of life—daylight and dark, hot and cold, clean and dirty, work and leisure, preparing food and preserving it—could then be vastly changed for the better. But we still had to believe in the electricity and its arrangements, understand them, and take the practical steps involved in relying on it.
In essence, those farmers in southern Missouri began to hear the message: “Repent, for electricity is at hand. Repent, or turn from your kerosene lamps and lanterns, your iceboxes and cellars, your scrub-boards and rug beaters, your woman-powered sewing machines and your radios with dry-cell batteries.”
The power that could make their lives far better was right there near them where, by making relatively simple arrangements, they could utilize it. Strangely, a few did not accept it. They did not enter the kingdom of electricity, because some of them just didn't want to change. (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, HarperCollins Publishers, 1997, pp. 30-31; www.Preaching Today.com)
Sadly, that’s the way it is with many people and the coming of the Kingdom of God. They just don’t want to change. Please, don’t let that be you. Please, hear the good news! God’s Kingdom is near, and it is available to you through simple faith in Jesus Christ, the King!
Why stay away any longer? If you haven’t yet done it, come to the Lord Jesus Christ today. Put your faith in God’s Son. Trust Him with your life, and enter into a new realm, a new Kingdom, where you can enjoy the power of God to live a new life.
If you want to truly change the direction of your life, trust Christ with your life. Then with God’s power, choose to follow Him the rest of your life. That’s what Jesus invited the some of the early believers to do.
Mark 1:16-20 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (NIV)
Now, these were men who had seen Jesus minister for over a year. It’s not evident just here in the Gospel of Mark, but when you put all four Gospels together, Jesus’ call to his initial disciples comes after he had been around a while. In other words, these men had heard Jesus preach and they had come to believe in His message. Now, Jesus calls them to a deeper level of commitment. He calls them to follow Him, to go where He goes, and to do what He does. And that’s His call to every believer here this morning. Jesus calls us to love like He loves, to serve like He serves, and yes, for some of us, to suffer as He suffered.
C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, put it this way. “Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself: my own will shall become yours.’” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperOne, 2001, p. 196-197)
How about it? Will you give Christ your all? Not just Sunday, but every day of the week? Not just your religion, but your relationships, your recreation, and your work? Will you give Christ not just a PART of you, but your ALL and choose to follow Him, even if means hardship and suffering?
If you give Christ your all, He will make you “fishers of men.” He will allow you to have a significant influence on others for God. Sure, following Christ may be hard sometimes, but it’s the only way to make your life count.
So if you want to follow Christ into the New Year, recognize your sin. Recognize the Son and Repent. Don’t be content with your old life. Instead, trust Christ with your life, and follow Him to a whole new way of living.
Reflecting on the September 11, 2001, tragedy, Stanley Hauerwas, of Duke University, put it this way. He said, “It's hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe, but rather to make us disciples, citizens of God's new age, a kingdom of surprise.” (Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University; Religion News Service, Book Probes Post-Sept. 11 Spirituality, by Douglas Todd, 8-27-02)
Christ invites you to come into that Kingdom today. Will you come? Will you trust and follow Him today?
