Mark Chapter 10 Verse 1

• Wherever He went, folks came to Him. They had heard, many had seen, His wisdom, His power. Folks had experienced His gentleness tempered with unmistakable virtue…capacity and competency like no other and yet He wasn’t abiding in the mansions. He wasn’t eating the delicacies of the region. He wasn’t wearing the jewelries…He was entirely approachable by even the poorest and the lowest of society. He was simple yet supreme and that brought folks from all over, all the time.
• People that maybe wouldn’t come together otherwise. Different walks of life, different up-bringings, different life priorities…maybe even conflicting. One person might be the public defender, the other the public prosecutor…but when Jesus was there…where was their attention? You see the world and all that is in it is full of salesmen. From the commercials on tv to the billboards on the highways, companies are vying for you to love them, choose them and hate the other, forsake the other.
• Let me ask you, Coke…or Pepsi? Most of you have a very vehement opinion and I bet you would spend at least 60 seconds telling me happily why you prefer Coke over Pepsi (or the other way around). Well guess what. It’s the same with people. People are continually vying for the approval of others…for your approval…because ultimately something is off inside…not quite right…and so that approval isn’t inherent in their system and so we look for others to scratch that itch. (By the way, inward approval arrives with the inward presence of the Holy One)
• And so even people are selling, vying for you to approve them and in that, same as our Coke and Pepsi discussion, we demarcate, we partition, we separate…divide. Why? Conflicting priorities! I care about this…you should care about this…if you do, I approve…but if you don’t, I’ma try to sell you on it…if you don’t buy…divide. We have to have our eyes open to this…in our families and in our church family…because Jesus was not like this…
• Wherver He went, folks came out. Neighbors, enemies, allies and adversaries…partners and opponents…and guess what he did…He brought them together! He divides the seekers from the suckers for sure. The Pharisees from the seeking people…but within those that are really looking for truth…Jesus unifies.
• Why is that? Because there was an air about Jesus and is an air about Jesus…that if you press in to Him…what you find, what you may not expect, is that He approves you man…but I’m sinful, I’m a mess…Jesus stomps all that out…let Him deal with that and quit worrying about Him judging you unworthy of His love, His attention, Himself for that matter! He already judged you worthy of all that when He climbed up on that cross.
• I know folks rub us wrong. Live differently than us, like different things, different styles, different activities but man why not talk about, dwell upon, think about, give our mental priority to the 95% we have in complete common rather than the 2% that we disagree upon. In the essentials of the doctrine, we are ready to polarize. We are rigid. In the non-essentials, grace man…liberty…no reason to divide or polarize and if we do…pretty clear indication that our eyes are on us…not Jesus.
• It starts at birth by the way. When we are born or about to be born what do our parents do? Oh what should we name him…or her…immediately we are made separate from others at birth. John, or Jake or Edmond or Lafawnduh…and immediately we are different than others…and what do we think…we’re better. Why not just name our kids in accordance with their order. One, two, three and so on!? Man that would fix so much!!   This is One…and his little sister Two…Ha! Oh this is One and her little brother Two! Ha! Now you never have to ask if they have any siblings…unless they are named “One!” HA! And then you meet millions of folks and guess what…same name! HA!
• Dumb I know but this world system is set up for us to divide and isolate and dominate…but Jesus was not like that…wherever He went, He brought peace and grace and service and love and community with Him and in that He brought power…but the world sells and covets and slanders and divides…just like the world is about to try on Him…

Mark Chapter 10 Verse 2

• There it is. A non-essential that folks polarized on…God in the Book of Genesis made them male and female and He said therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined (in the Hebrew that word is literally they would be overtaken by one another, conquered, tamed, combined and mixed), and they shall become one flesh. Literally “one” as in a number…no longer 2 but now 1…and embedded in that word echad there is the concept of once…once only…once and for all…final…
• And yet Moses in Deuteronomy 24 gives them the concept of divorce and sets out guidelines for a man writing a certificate of divorce to his wife and dismissing her…Now remember…where were they at that time? Did Moses rule the Jews in Egypt? No. Did he rule the Jews in the Promised Land?   No. So where were they? The wilderness…exactly…in a time of complaining and rebelling and wonderingly wasting their lives going in circles…but nevertheless we have a tough polarizing situation here…
• God installed marriage and said it’s for life and yet Moses, the patriarch, installed divorce…folks were divided for sure on this…so this is a trap. To divide Jesus in the eyes of the people…but it doesn’t work…watch this…

Mark Chapter 10 Verses 3 – 9

• Jesus takes them to the beginning. His wisdom blows the place up…He doesn’t negate what Moses did but rather He explains it and then He takes them to (shewl – Mega Mind) school! It wasn’t so in the beginning y’all…the implication…”I was there!” BA-BOOM! You see, two can be married and yet not joined…and that was not how it was when it was installed…it’s been perverted by your own priorities…by your focus on self and the flesh and fulfilling your own pleasures but man that’s not what it was and oh by the way…God has not changed…that’s not what it is…
• Man is not complete in himself…and woman is not complete in herself but as they are joined…then they become 1 (as in 1 whole complete entity)…and no doubt the people blushed. Divorce had become so common in that culture that in order to keep the rabbinical courts from being clogged with divorce proceedings, if a man simply said to his wife, “I divorce you,” three times (like Beatle Juice) she would be lawfully given a bill of divorcement!
• So the Pharisees…the salesmen…they failed. The polarization failed. The division failed. And the truth is…it will always fail. Folks might divide and polarize and new denominations will be founded and folks will leave churches and leave relationships and whatever but man there is always an air of failure, personal failure, in each of those situations…unless the reason for polarizing is black and white, Biblical…the church is ecclesia in the Greek. The separated ones…we are to come out and be different from the world of salesmanship and personal priorities and center upon Jesus as He unites us in love and service and grace and ultimately…power! (Kids playing on the bed illustration)
• Such power in unity! And notice, when we come away with Him…we get the reality…the understanding…

Mark Chapter 10 Verses 10 – 12

• You don’t have to ask me the questions…if he divorced me…if she divorced me and the reason was not biblical (adultery, death, abandonment) and they are remarried…are they continually committing adultery? You don’t have to ask that question. It is right here…black and white or in this case red and white…but notice the point of this scripture set…The Pharisees get the commandment…the followers get the understanding…isn’t that amazing? The understanding of why peace triumphs over hostility, why mercy triumphs over judgment, why love defeats selfishness…how to always be the victor and never the victim…Not because you’ve crushed them, but because you’ve loved them…
• USA Basketball team story. 1989 pro players were allowed in. They all played for themselves. The Dream team. 1992 – Gold. 1996 – Gold. 2000 – Gold. 2004 – More losses in a single year than the country’s Olympic teams had suffered in all previous Olympics combined on its way to a bronze medal.
• The players were distraught. The country distraught. They hated each other. The air of the team was heavy with frustration and contentment…and then coach K was hired. Duke University head coach and his message to them…get over yourselves! He taught them humility…service to eachother on and off the court…preference for one another…he made them one.
• 2008 – Gold. Winning by an average of more than 30 points! And as they were presented their medals…one by one…Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, all of them walked up to Coach K with tears in their eyes and hung their medal around his neck. He unified them and made them victors.
• THAT is what Jesus will do for you if you allow Him…and when we see Him, we will cast our crowns at His feet…with tears of victorious joy in our eyes…