Mark 15:23 ¡V ¡§And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.¡¨
l. INTRODUCTION ¡V THE THINGS THAT ARE MISSED
-People who read books generally find something occurring with their reading patterns. A reader will usually understand what the author says and means. But once you become familiar with an author, you begin a journey with him.
-To read an author¡¦s books, one generally gets into the mind of that writer. But to observe what the writer omits in the early stages of the book is a far more difficult process.
-One particular writer that I have read in the last few years is like that. A. J. Cronin writes his books in such a way that when you get to the end you either do not want it to end or sometimes you feel as if you have walked the whole way with the characters.
-Often the things that are left out are key elements in understanding what is written.
-Such is true with the four Gospels, we catch the high points and feel the active parts. One finds the focus on the miracles, the important sermons, the key concepts of Christian living, and the sturdy, strong, robust characters that rivet us.
-But what do we do with the times when the Lord said ¡§No!¡¨ We never work to discover the premise of His prerogatives. Do we ever think about or even consider what the Lord refused to do?
-I am preaching about: The Royal Refusals. There is a world of meaning in the silences of the Lord. There are so many royal lessons in the refusals.
ll. THE ROYAL REFUSALS
A. The Refusal to Work a Miracle
-The first refusal comes very early in the beginning of the earthly ministry of the Lord, in fact it is His first recorded refusal in Scripture. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this in their Gospels.
-It was immediately after His baptism that the Lord was met with an extraordinary time of testing. A period of struggle is always followed by moments of spiritual elevation and decision. The inevitable testing will always come no matter what we try to do to prevent it.
-The Lord had traveled the steep road leading from Jerusalem in to Jericho. This road was called the Ascent of Blood because it was infested with robbers. He finally gained the mountain that rose out of the Judean plain, fifteen hundred feet above sea level. It is a barren place, scarred by numerous artificial caves created by both good men and bad men. Wild animals inhabited this place. The whine of the coyote could be heard during the nights, the scurrying of small rodents in the rocks could be heard, the slithering trails of serpents could be seen, and the nests of eagles high in the rocks existed.
-We find the Lord alone in the wilderness at the end of a forty day fast. His body is depleted. He is near exhaustion. Obviously, He would be very hungry. . . . and it is at that point of weakness that Satan appears to Him. One must understand that the enemy will attack you whether you are ready for it or not.
-The enemy of His soul wanted Him to turn the stones into bread. It would have been such a small, minute feat for the Lord to do this. His ministry would be marked by the miraculous but it bears our attention that the Lord came to minister to others. . . . Not to minister to Himself.
„« A day on the near horizon would come and He would feed five thousand with a few fish and a few loaves of bread.
„« He might have usurped the political kingdoms from both Herod and Pilate.
„« He might have caused twelve legions of angels to save Him from Judas and his rabble.
„« He might have allowed His cries from the Cross to save Him. . . . . . . But none of that did He desire.
-But today He refuses to turn the stones into bread.
-The lesson that comes from this refusal is this: There arises the mastery of self, of the passions of life, and the discipline of character when we refuse.
-This refusal marked the fact that He was not here for his own gratification. Bread is not always the thing that should fill us. It was an appeal to the baser element of the flesh and the despicable desires of the flesh.
-Any time the fulfillment of the baser things come into play, one has to keep returning again and again to be filled. There is no lasting satisfaction in this temporal world. Seek the higher callings of life.
Matthew 4:4 ¡V ¡§But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.¡¨
Philippians 3:14 ¡V ¡§I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.¡¨
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 ¡V ¡§I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:¡¨ ¡§But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: . . . . . . .¡¨
Luke 10:42 ¡V ¡§But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.¡¨
Matthew 5:6 ¡V ¡§Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.¡¨
Hosea 10:12 ¡V ¡§Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.¡¨
-Another time the Lord would say, ¡§I have meat to eat that you aren¡¦t even aware of.¡¨ (John 4:32). This Man of Nazareth had a whole different set of values.
-The point of the most fearful temptation is when men are tempted to sacrifice the interests of the higher life to inherit the claims of the lower life.
-If there is no power in one¡¦s life to refuse, poverty will rule you. Spiritual poverty, material poverty, and poverty of character.
One man is awed by a single drop of water, by the majesty of the mountain ranges he can see, by the power of the forest waving in a summer breeze. Another man wonders to himself how many hundreds of acres there are and what the value of the timber is.
-A man¡¦s character will be revealed according to their standard of values, if a man¡¦s standards are entirely held to a ¡§bread¡¨ standard, he can only see the material interests of this world.
B. The Refusal to Answer a Prayer
-In Mark 5 (also in Luke 8), the miracle of demoniac is given. He is delivered from the tormenting demons that writhed within his own soul. There prayers come from that incident and the very one that one would expect to be answered is refused.
„« The demons prayed, ¡§Lord let us go into the swine.¡¨ They gained permission.
„« The Gadarenes prayed, ¡§Depart out of our coasts.¡¨ This request was granted.
„« The restored man prayed, ¡§Let me go with you.¡¨ This prayer was refused.
-It was the only prayer that was refused. I would suspect that it greatly disappointed the delivered man. Yet every man must understand that he is saved to serve. We are not filled with the Spirit to spend all of our final days in Youth Camps, Seminars, Conferences, and Camp Meetings.
„« Peter, James and John were assigned to Galilee.
„« Paul was marked for Rome.
„« Timothy was destined for Ephesus.
„« The delivered man was appointed for Decapolis.
-Sometimes our prayers are refused. Some men seem to have even their slightest prayers answered. While it may seem that we labor on, pray passionately, sometimes it may seem as if our prayers hold nothing, say nothing, and accomplish nothing.
-It was Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone of the church, who struggled in the Garden. ¡§Let this cup pass from me.¡¨ If that desire would have been granted, the world would not discover salvation. That refusal saved the world.
-Paul struggled with the thorn but that refusal enriched and strengthened the heart of Paul and gave him new eyes for the sufficient grace of God.
C. The Refusal of Explanation
-Sometimes Jesus refused to give an explanation. The scene of the Temple cleansing in Matthew describes how the Lord had rooted out the thieves, had tossed aside their money tables, and had run the captured animals out of the Temple.
-The chief priests and elders had questioned Him, ¡§By what authority doest thou these things?¡¨ They could not deny the power of His deeds. But they were too famous to allow all of this to happen on their watch.
-So the least they could do was to require some credentials from Him. Surely He had some certificate or degree or association. Show us your parchment.
-But Jesus in His wisdom began to question them. He asked them about John the Baptist.
Matthew 21:25-27 ¡V ¡§The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?¡¨ ¡§But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.¡¨ ¡§And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.¡¨
-His refusal to answer them was pointed and frank. If they had eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to feel they would have found in Him the works of the Kingdom and the authority of God.
-The common people needed no explanation, they knew who this Man from Nazareth was. Yet there are none so blind as those who will not see, and that was the blindness of the scribes. Had their question been truly motivated by right purpose and reasons, Jesus would have explained everything to them.
-But the question was one that came of malice, not sincerity, it was to find fault, not follow. It was that spirit that Jesus refused to satisfy. He is always willing to guide, to help, to save, but He is not always willing to explain.
-There are eternal issues that our minds can never fathom. We are like gnats trying to understand atoms when we turn our minds to the mysteries of God.
-There are mysteries of God that can be explained yet they are not apparent to us right now. The fault lies not with the brain, but rather with the heart.
-Sometimes the Lord is intolerant to idle curiosity was He was with Peter who inquired as to what John was going to do in the Kingdom. Jesus had strong words to one of His favorite disciples, ¡§What is that to thee? Follow thou me.¡¨ (John 21:22)
-When men come to God with intellectual problems, He will meet with a thousand difficulties that have no explanation. But let a man who has the heart of a child come to God and step by step he will be guided toward heaven.
-It is the man who has the yielded heart who gains the explanations. It is in proportion to the surrender of the life that the misting, baffling fog and the haunting shadows began to clear away.
D. The Final Refusal
-But it is the text that we read at the beginning that brings to us the final refusal. This text picks up in the final act of Jesus Christ.
-His lips are now bloodied and bruised. They are parched, cracked. The mouth fills full of cotton, a throat so dry He could hardly swallow, a voice so hoarse He could hardly speak. To find the last time that He has had anything to drink would be to reverse time for twelve hours to the meal in the upper room.
-Since the last time He had drank anything, He has been beaten, spat upon, cursed, bruised, and cut. . . . . to a word, humiliated. He has been a cross-carrier, a sin-bearer, and no liquid has soothed His throat, He is now in the torture of thirst.
-Why doesn¡¦t He do something about it?
„« He could turn water into wine.
„« He made a wall out of the Jordan River.
„« He made two walls out of the Red Sea.
„« He calmed the seas.
„« He banished the storms.
„« Psalm 107:35 gives Him power to bring water springs out of dry ground.
„« Psalm 78:16 informs that He brought streams out of a rock.
„« Isaiah 44:3 tells us that He will pour water on the thirsty.
-Six hours earlier, He had been offered a drink, but He refused it. Before the nails were pounded into the relenting flesh, a drink had been offered. Mark says the wine was mixed with myrrh. Matthew described it as being mixed with gall.
-Both myrrh and gall contain sedative properties that numb the senses. But Jesus refused them. He refused to be mystified by the drugs, opting instead to feel the full force of his suffering.
-Why did He endure all of this? Why did He not want something to numb the pain?. . . . . Because He knew. . . . . .He knew. . . . . . He knew that we would feel these feelings too!
„« Weariness
„« Forsaken
„« False Accusation
„« Taunts from the Enemy
„« Anger
„« Betrayal
„« Humiliation
„« Doubt
„« Shame
„« Jealousy
„« Sleepy
„« Hungry
„« Grief-stricken
„« Hurt
-He knew that you would have to face pain. If not pain of body, then pain of soul. . . . pain too sharp for any drug. He knew that you would face thirst. If not thirst for water, then at least a thirst for truth. He endured because He wanted you to trust Him.
-We are unaware of who mingled it and offered it to the Lord. We will never know that this side of heaven. I am sure it was kindly meant. But for all the kindness and sympathy intended, the Lord refused the cup.
-Not unkindly but firmly and deliberately.
„« He had come to suffer.
„« He had come to die.
„« He was bearing the whole weight and curse and transgression of the world.
„« He was enduring the Cross.
„« He was despising the shame.
-In the last storm, it would not do for the Savior to be sleeping. He would need His full senses to battle sin, and death, and hell.
-From the hour that He refused to turn the stones into bread until the moment when He refused the myrrh on the Cross, try to realize that He was reaching for you.
lll. CONCLUSION ¡V SOFTLY AND TENDERLY, JESUS IS CALLING
-If the Christ has never found you by His call, I wonder if now, He might bring you with His refusals? For every rejection of that Man of Nazareth was serving a fallen world. He did not seek to please Himself.
-If that cannot reach you, nothing can! It is a noble service to serve such a God as that. For the unsettled hearts, that is an easy yoke.
Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me,
See on the portals He¡¦s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?
Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, death-beds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.
Oh! For the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me;
Tho¡¦ we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.
Come Home, come home, ye who are weary come home;
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling, O Sinner, come home.
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
