Scripture: Mark 10:1 - 16 and Ephesians 4:32-5:2
Theme: A Heart Like Jesus
In the midst of this passage the LORD speaks on the topic of heart heartedness. It is the cause us so much pain (including divorce). How can we be tender hearted? This sermon deals with that subject - Tender Heartedness
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father and from His Son Jesus Christ - Our Savior, Lord and King!
From time to time it is easy for any of us to find ourselves on the hot seat. You get ambushed with a rather sticky question. A question that depending on your answer can open the door for a whole boatload of problems. That is what is going on in our passage this morning. The Pharisees thought that they were maneuvering Jesus into a corner with their question(s).
He and his team had traveled all the way down the River Jordan into the Judean area. This was the region that was largely under the control of King Herod Antipas. Mark tells us that a large crowd had gathered to listen to Jesus and His Message on the Coming of the Kingdom of God. No doubt they had heard of his recent exploits in Caesarea Philippi, Bethsaida and Capernaum.
The Pharisees had joined in the crowds. They were not as interested in listening to the teachings of Jesus as they were interested in trapping Jesus. That is what Mark tells us in verse 2. So, it wasn't the fact that they needed to hear some new teaching on marriage and divorce but that they were doing their best to set Jesus up with their question(s).
If you remember, just a few months ago King Herod had stolen his half-brother's (King Philip) wife Queen Herodias. It had been quite the royal scandal of the day. It was the sordid story of one brother going to another brother's house, having a secret affair with his wife and actually being able to steal her away.
By the time of our passage, Queen Herodias had divorced King Philip and had married King Herod Antipas; her former brother-in-law. It was all a rather messy business. One had to wonder if Rome was keeping a close eye on things wondering if the two half-brothers would go to war with one another. It is rather amazing that they didn't when you stop to think about it. More than once in history a war had been started over the love of a woman.
You may also remember that it was around the time of Queen Herodias' affair, divorce and remarriage that Jesus' cousin John the Baptist found himself in trouble. John had spoken out quite strongly against the immorality of the situation. He was first put into prison and then later he was beheaded because of the whole sordid mess.
And now, the Pharisees saw their chance to push Jesus into the soup so to speak. If they could get Jesus to say something incriminating about divorce perhaps they could take that and twist it just enough to make it seem as if Jesus was attacking King Herod Antipas. And if they could do that than just perhaps they could get Jesus arrested and put into prison. Then with a little more pushing maybe Queen Herodias would ask for head #2 and this whole Jesus mess would be gone. The Pharisees could go about their business and everything would go back to normal.
Jesus of course, spotted the trap a mile off. He knew what was going on in their hearts. Jesus does take the time to deal with the areas of marriage and divorce. He does take the time to remind everyone that before Moses wrote down some manmade rules that the Good God of Creation had already voiced His intended for the union of one man and one woman. God had intended for marriage to be lifelong. "What therefore God has put together, let man not separate" is not something Moses made up but something the Holy Spirit wanted Moses to write down.
Jesus comes back to focus on what the real issue is that has caused all the problems - in life, in marriage, in divorce and in following His Heavenly Father. It is a problem that we find spoken about throughout the Bible. A problem that is much bigger than divorce. A problem that Jesus spoke about just few chapters ago with his disciples.
IT IS THE PROBLEM OF HARD HEARTEDNESS.
And that is what I would like for us to look at this morning.
+What exactly is Hard Heartedness?
+How can we have a Heart that is tender, open, receptive and obedient?
+ How can we love one another and God with a Heart filled with agape love in our every day lives?
I. A Heart that Turns to Stone - Hard Heartedness
I don't think any of us ever wish for or thought that it would be nice to have a hard heart or one that is even crusty. But the truth is it is a condition that everyone who has ever lived and who will ever live has to deal with. We all can at times have our hearts - our inner person become a little crusty, a little hard and inflexible.
It's a dangerous thing to become hard hearted. It is a dangerous thing to become "immovable, unaffected and disobedient". It is a dangerous thing for us to become obstinate and calloused. It is a dangerous thing for us to lose our ability to see, understand or hear God's voice or one another's voices. It is a dangerous thing for us to become a person whose heart is no longer open, receptive, pliable and forgiving.
So, why does it happen to nearly all of us at one time or the other or at least with certain things? For while our whole heart may never be hardened we can develop a spiritual type of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We can experience an area of our lives - in our spiritual hearts where they become so thick that it is hard for our agape love to flow properly. We find that instead of being tender, compassionate, loving and forgiving that we are instead rather cynical, judgmental and cold.
Some of the things that can cause this are:
+Life in General
The constant trudging of life. The constant pounding that many people experience with everyday living. The constant trials that can happen because of sickness, disease, interpersonal relationships and circumstances of life.
If you have ever been pink slipped, under paid, mistreated at work or a 1000 other things then you know how easy it is to allow your life become a little jaded and hard.
If you have ever been lied about or lied to you know how easy it is to begin to put up little barriers that can in turn can transform into large walls.
If you have ever had to deal with a million and one different hurts and disappointments then you know how easy it is to allow your heart and your life to become a little stoic, inflexible and cynical.
We were not designed have to deal with all the sin that is in our world. When our GOD first made us - male and female and put us into the Garden of Eden it wasn't for us to have to battle the pains, the struggles and the trials that come with a sin laden world. Our physical bodies and our spiritual bodies were not designed to handle sin.
We not designed to hurt one another either. We were not designed to be selfish, greedy, materialistic and all that stuff. That is what happened to us when we embraced sin. When we allowed the Devil to rob us of our supernatural glory we found ourselves in a sin sick world in which we all have added to that sickness as well.
It is easy for any of us who have lived a number of years to become a little hard hearted. We find ourselves having to deal with other hard hearted people and as a result we think we have to become a little hard as well. We can't allow ourselves to become vulnerable, innocent and pure. Sadly, we come to believe that if we are going to survive in this world then we have to put up walls, we have to protect ourselves and we have to at least in some measure become cynical, pessimistic and suspicious.
The saddest thing about all of this is we begin to not only put up walls between us and those that we don't know - because we never know what those "out there" are wanting to do to us. We begin to put up walls with those that we do know and those that we are suppose to be the closest to as well. None of this is easy is it?
+When we sin
This is what happened to Pharaoh, King Saul and King Nebuchadnezzar. They all sinned and instead of acknowledging their sins, asking for forgiveness and repenting they all became more arrogant and prideful. And with each ensuing sin their hearts became a little more harder and harder.
In Romans 1:18 - 24 the Apostle Paul tells us that when we begin to go down the road of sin it not only becomes easier for us to travel but it fundamentally changes us from the inside out. We become not only people who sin but sinners who embrace sin. That is the primary problem with sin - once sin is unleashed it grows and comes back to take over the person who accepts it.
King Saul is such a tragic example. When he was chosen to be King of Israel the Bible tells us that the LORD transformed his heart for the good. The Lord came into an intimate partnership with King Saul. Saul's heart and God's heart became one. He was infilled with God's Holy Spirit.
As long as King Saul lived in obedience and listened to the LORD that heart relationship continued to grow and mature. However, the Bible tells us that Satan began tempting King Saul to become arrogant, greedy and materialistic. Satan started telling King Saul that Saul should be in control of his own life. Satan even convinced Saul that he no longer had to follow God's will.
Slowly ever so slowly and then quickly ever so quickly the heart of Saul became crusty and harder until it turned into stone. At the end of his life Saul no longer wanted to follow God. The only thing he wanted was to put his will above the will of God. Saul's life ends in tragedy because he allowed his heart to become hard. He decided at some point that he didn't need to acknowledge his sins, ask for forgiveness and repent. We must make sure this morning that we don't follow his example.
We must make sure that when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin that we don't push it away, rationalize it or decide to take care of it at a later time. We must right then and there receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We must right then and there confess, repent and do our best to be more like Jesus. We must right then and there ask the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, our hearts and lead us towards the actions of living out a life of holiness and righteousness.
So often we are tempted to just let it go. We will do better the next time. We may even attempt to convince ourselves that we were right in how we handled that situation. They needed to hear a piece of our mind. We were right to tell them off. We were right in letting them have it. We can't let people run over us, push us around or get the best of us.
And all the while we are doing that there is a little hardening of our hearts, minds and souls. The next time we find it a little easier to give someone a piece of our minds. The next time we feel even more assured that we were right to tell them off, to hold back our affections or to treat them in an unkind manner. If we are not careful we will find ourselves with an ever growing hardening heart.
+Having a Religion rather than a Relationship
This is what happened to our friends the Pharisees. They started off well. Their whole reason for existence was to make sure that people loved God with all their hearts, minds and souls. Their whole goal was to help others be passionate in their worship, their prayer lives and in their everyday life of holiness.
Somewhere along the way they got comfortable with the status quo. They put a wall up around what they thought holiness meant. They put a wall up and painted all over the all the don'ts of religion. They became infatuated with a certain form of religion - a certain style of worship and behavior.
By the time of Jesus their main goal in life was to gain more and more knowledge about the Torah and how to perfectly obey the 613 laws and rituals. Learning became more crucial than serving God out of a passionate heart. Buzz words became more essential than growing deeper in their relationship with God. Ticking off the right boxes became more important than having to deal with the mess that can happen as God leads a person through spiritual formation.
One of the realities of holiness living is it is messy. It is messy because as you grow you sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. As you grow in your passion with the LORD you have to grow in the Word, in prayer and in fellowship. As you grow you have to become a person who is constantly reaching out not merely reaching inward. As you grow you have to constantly be prepared to help those around you grow, learn and mature. Holiness is not static it is dynamic. It is constantly maturing, growing sweeter, kinder and more loving.
It means that you can't build up walls and allow your heart and life to grow to be harder and harder. It means that you have to become a person that Jesus says children both love and want to always be in your presence. And that takes looking at life differently.
Children are great little barometers and heart diagnosticians. It doesn't take them long to realize if the people that are around them love them, accept them and want to care for them. In our passage they know that Jesus loves them. Jesus is this perfect picture of both strength and vulnerability. Jesus is both fun and enjoyable to be with. Jesus is open, sensitive and righteous.
All of this leads us to asking the question - What can do to keep our hearts tender, pure, holy and open?
II. A Heart Like Jesus - Tender/Open/Obedient
The only answer and example that the Bible gives us that we can experience a tender heart is Jesus Himself. The Bible tells us that Jesus is not only the Way, the Truth and the Life; He is the greatest example of the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is able to reveal to us the way that we can be open and obedient. Jesus can show us the way that we can be receptive and hearing. Jesus can show us how we can possess a heart that is tender/open and obedient.
It all has to do with our relationship between ourselves and God. That is our starting point. For any other relationship to be at its optimum best our relationship with our LORD has to be at its optimum best. There is no way for us to love others or even ourselves with agape love outside of us loving God with all our hearts, minds and souls.
It is that simple - the starting point has to be with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. The really amazing thing is that God will help us love Him more and more each and every day. And from that love we will find ourselves loving others more and more each and every day. It is through that love that we can make sure that our spiritual hearts stay pliable, tender and pure.
Remember the time that the Apostle Peter betrayed Jesus by the fire on the night of Jesus' trial?
Remember how the LORD had told him before hand that he would betray Him three times before the rooster crowed?
Remember how that betrayal broke the relationship between Jesus and the Apostle Peter?
As you read the story you wonder if that relationship could ever be mended or if Peter would simply go back to fishing or doing something else. It looked like the ministry and discipleship of Peter was finished.
Have you ever noticed what Jesus did for Peter that is recorded in John chapter 21?
The questions that Jesus asked Peter were questions designed to help the Apostle Peter mend his relationship with the LORD. Jesus opened the door for Peter to come back to the level of friendship that would in turn be able to lead to a deeper and deeper relationship. Jesus did not curse Peter. Jesus did not cast Peter away. Instead, Jesus opened the door for the relationship to be mended, healed and restored. Jesus made it possible for the Apostle to turn from possessing a hard heart to once again possessing a tender heart.
Jesus wants to do the same for all of us.
Jesus knows that life can cause us to begin to suffer the effects of having a crusty heart. He knows that life can cause us to become judgmental, pessimistic and cynical.
Jesus knows that unrepentant sin can cause us to begin to suffer the effects of having a crusty heart. He knows that unrepentant sin will change us and cause us to go farther and farther away from Him rather than going towards Him.
Jesus even knows that religion can cause us to begin to suffer the effects of having a crusty heart. He knows that we can mistakenly believe that we have a relationship when we are really more focus on being religious or spiritual. We know how to tick off the right boxes but we really don't enjoy being Jesus' disciple and friend. We are not passionate about our relationship with the LORD. In the end all we are is afraid of going to Hell so we follow Jesus so that we have some Hell fire insurance so to speak.
+So, Jesus invites us to just spend time in His presence.
He invites us to come and walk with Him. He invites us to give Him all our burdens, our hurts and disappointments. When we do that then we are no longer tempted to create barriers and walls between us and others. When we do that we find our hearts being healed and made more tender and pure.
He also invites us to help others do the same. Internalized, unprocessed and unreleased pain is one of the main ways our hearts can become crusty and hard. We need to give our hurts, our pains to Jesus and then we need to help others experience the same transforming grace. There is a real need in our world for people to minister to one another and help one another release all that trials, struggles and pain can build up in our lives. We need people who can be Jesus to us and we need to ask the LORD to help us be Jesus to others.
+ Jesus invites us to be loved unconditionally by Him, His Heavenly Father and His Holy Spirit.
He invites us to be healed through that love, that connection and that oneness. That is the power of confession, forgiveness, grace and mercy. That is the power of reading His Word, spending time in communion with the LORD and basking in worship. All of those things tenderize our hearts. All of those things take away the deadly spiritual calcium build up of pride, arrogance and selfishness.
It is amazing what happens when we receive forgiveness and in return grant forgiveness. The quickest way for us to have a hard heart is to practice unforgiveness and allow bitterness to grow in our heart which of course leads us to possessing a spirit of malice and revenge. When we do that we allow the Devil to come in and create a monster within us that in the end will destroy us.
But when we receive and give forgiveness something supernatural happens. Instead of our hearts becoming crusty they become healthy and growing. Our hearts take back a measure of innocence and vulnerability. Our hearts become open once again receptive to God and to others.
Listen to this letter found in the clothing of a dead child at the Ravensbruck concentration camp in WW II Germany. Ravensbruck Concentration Camp was built in 1939 by the Nazi to house and later exterminate women deemed unworthy to live. It is estimated that over 90,000 women and children were exterminated.
“O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Instead, remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering: our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.” (Faith in the Fog: Believing in What You Cannot See By Jeff Lucas)
That is an example of how God can give us tender hearts when everything around us screams for us to be hard hearted.
+The Bible tell us that God has many blessings for all of us if we will guard our hearts and make sure that they stay in God's Hands.
Blessings that come because we allow the LORD to keep us open, vulnerable, able to confess, repent and be Jesus to others. Blessings that we may change not only our lives but the lives of others as well.
“Many years ago, professor Stuart Blackie of the University of Edinburgh was listening to his students as they presented oral readings. When one young man rose to begin his recitation, he held his book in the wrong hand. The professor thundered, ‘Take your book in your right hand, and be seated!’ At this harsh rebuke, the student held up his right arm. He didn’t have a right hand! The other students shifted uneasily in their chairs. For a moment the professor hesitated. Then he made his way to the student, put his arm around him, and with tears streaming from his eyes, said ‘I never knew about it. Please, will you forgive me?’ His humble apology made a lasting impact on that young man. This story was told some time later in a large gathering of believers. At the close of the meeting a man came forward, turned to the crowd and raised his right arm. It ended at the wrist. He said, ‘I was that student. Professor Blackie led me to Christ. But he never could have done it if he had not made the wrong right.’”1
This morning we are invited once again to the Table of the LORD. We come not as perfect people but as God's people needing grace, mercy and love. We come as people who need the LORD to assist us through the power and presence of His Holy Spirit to be tender hearted and pure.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
We come this morning to receive from the LORD His grace, His mercy and His love in the form of the bread and the cup. We come giving to the LORD our hard hearts, our cynicism, our judgmental attitudes and our apathy. We come asking the LORD to renew our hearts - to make them tender towards Him and towards others. We come asking the LORD to renew us and help us to become authentic human beings who will reflect God's Glory and Honor. We come confessing our need for Him - not for another program, not for some denominational guidelines - but just Jesus. Jesus is all that we need.
Today, you are invited to come to the Table. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, cleanse you and renew you today. Then let us go forth and be Jesus to our World with hearts that are tender and kind - hearts that are open and receptive and hearts that are obedient and loving.
Lord's Supper/Prayer/Blessing
1(Source unknown - shared byhttp://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVSermons/TenderHeart.htm)
