Sermon Tone Analysis

Mark 9:2-10:16

!

Introduction

If you have ever visited another country, you know that there are ways of doing things which are different.

For example, when I went to Paraguay, one of the things I knew I would have to do was to drink terere.

I was a little concerned about this because I did not know or understand the culture of terere.

My hosts were very gracious and explained that sharing a bombilla was not a problem and that when I had had enough it was acceptable to say thank you and stop participating.

In thousands of ways, we have learned to live in our world and many of the practices and habits of that world are taken for granted by us because we grow up in a culture and understand that culture and its ways.

When we become Christians, we become members of another culture.

We become members of the kingdom of God.

When that happens it is like going to another country and we need to adopt a different worldview - God’s worldview.

The question is, “does God’s worldview fit with the worldview we have been living under all our life?”

“What do we need to change in order to live with God’s worldview?”

In Mark 9:2, Jesus took three of his disciples up onto a high mountain.

There he was transfigured before them and his garments shone whiter than any washing machine or any detergent could make them.

Moses and Elijah appeared before them and Jesus was talking with them.

The disciples were stunned because they could not understanding what was happening and Peter in his inimitable way suggested that he would build three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.

Peter didn’t know what he was talking about because by suggesting this he was putting Jesus, Elijah and Moses on the same level.

He didn’t understand that a change of worldviews was taking place.

Jesus was not on the same level as Moses and Elijah and right away a cloud came over them and a voice came out of the cloud from heaven to explain what was happening.

God spoke and made it clear that Jesus was superior to Moses and Elijah.

Jesus was and is the Son of God and as one who was superior to any who had gone before, God commanded the disciples, “Listen to Him!”

            Since a change of worldview has taken place the way to discover how to live in the kingdom of God is by listening to Jesus.

What an appropriate statement for the disciples of Jesus then and now.

In the chapter that follows, the public healing and teaching ministry of Jesus began to change primarily to a time of teaching the disciples.

In each of the stories which follow, Jesus took time to instruct his disciples on what it meant to be members of His kingdom.

In each of the stories normal human thinking was revealed and Jesus instructed his disciples on the way in which they should live as members of the kingdom of God and so divine thinking was revealed.

The worldview of the kingdom of Heaven was declared.

Since we are members of that kingdom, we need to think about these things as well.

We need to listen to Jesus.

We need to understand divine thinking and compare it to the world’s way of thinking which permeates our thinking so much that we are not even aware of it.

We will not fully explain the rest of the verses we are looking at today, but we will focus on this one thing.

We will think about and contrast human thinking and divine thinking in each of the seven accounts found here.

Each is important and stands alone as a lesson on divine thinking, but more than anything, I would like to challenge us to open our eyes to be able to see and consider how our thinking is impacted by the world’s thinking and to open our hearts to be able to receive God’s way.

!

I.                   The Path to Victory - 9:9-13

As they came down the mountain, Jesus told them not to relate this experience until after his resurrection.

They didn’t know what He was talking about.

Having seen Elijah and trying to process the experience and the information, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

Malachi 4:5, 6 predicted the coming of Elijah to prepare the way for Messiah.

Jesus responded that Elijah had come, by which he meant that John the Baptist was Elijah and had prepared things.

But he had not restored all things and his life had ended in suffering.

Then Jesus said something puzzling.

He said, “Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer and be rejected?”

What is this interchange all about?

The disciples were engaged in human thinking, in which they hoped that Elijah would come and “restore all things.”

They were hoping for a great and clear victory of God.

Jesus’ question forced them to think about divine things.

In God’s plan, victory does not always come by power and by everything going right in this world.

Victory often comes through suffering and death.

That is the way in which Jesus brought victory and it was a theme which repeated itself.

But the disciples could not understand this message of victory through suffering.

Whenever Jesus announced that he would die before he rose to victory, they were troubled and puzzled.

They didn’t get it because they were thinking human thoughts.

We continue to think in similar ways.

We also wonder why everything doesn’t go perfectly.

We also wonder why there has to be suffering.

If God has won, why do we have all this trouble?

Divine thinking helps us understand that sometimes the victory of God comes through suffering so that His resurrection power is demonstrated.

When we go through hardship we need to learn to think divine thoughts instead of human thoughts and see where God is at work bringing resurrection out of death.

!

II.

Faith in God - 9:14-29

As Jesus and the three disciples met the other disciples, they found them in the middle of a dispute.

A man had brought his son to the disciples for healing.

The boy had a spirit in him that made him mute and also threw him into convulsions.

The disciples were unable to heal the man.

Jesus inquired about what happened, asked the man about his son and promptly healed him.

As the incident closed, Jesus was together with his disciples again and they were alone and we once again realize that this is teaching time.

The disciples asked Jesus, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

It must have been quite puzzling for them because they had in the past driven out demons.

What went wrong?

One possibility is that they had fallen into human thinking.

Perhaps they thought that they could drive out the demons by their words.

The phrase, “only by prayer” suggests that they had not brought God into the picture.

In human thinking, we fall into one of several errors.

One is that we think we possess the power to call God into action, especially if we have had some success in doing so in the past.

Another human way of thinking is that we believe that God acts if we do the right things or say the right words.

Some translations have added the word, “and fasting” which conveys exactly the wrong kind of idea.

It suggests that if we do the right things, God will act.

Divine thinking is clearly evident in the whole story.

It is evident in the exchange between the man and Jesus.

How is the boy to be healed?

The man must believe.

How much faith must the man have?

He admits that he does not have much faith, but Jesus assures him that his small, weak faith is enough.

Geddert writes, “Faith is measured in degrees of genuineness, not in degrees of certainty.”

How does faith act?

It acts when we ask God.

Prayer and faith are the keys to God acting.

We cannot manipulate God and we cannot act without God.

God acts when we ask Him and when we trust Him.

Our faith must be a faith in Him, not in what He will do for us so that our wishes are fulfilled.

That is divine thinking.

Once again, it speaks loudly to our own situation.

We struggle with the same things and need to learn the same method of divine thinking.

Geddert writes, “’Thinking divine thoughts’ means trusting in the unlimited power of God, and humbly asking for increased faith.”

!

III.

Servant Attitude - 9:30-37

As Jesus travels on through Galilee with his face set resolutely to Jerusalem, he announces once again that he will be betrayed, killed and will rise again.

Once again the disciples do not understand.

Yet these thoughts prompt them to think about the kingdom of God.

As they do so, their thoughts are once again permeated by human ways of thinking.