“The Culture of the New”
Mark 1:21-28; Sunday, October 18, 2009

Introduction: Think about the year you’ve had so far. What are some of the new things that you have experienced? In my life I have experienced Tyler graduating from sixth grade and moving to Junior High, Tyler moving up in baseball to the Juniors division (which is a bigger field and some new rules). Tiffany having a breakthrough in her being able to study and her doing well in school. Physical changes in my kids as they get older. Losing some church members to death. Adding the band to our service. I could go on and on…
I’m sure you have had many new experiences this year. And the truth is, life is always changing, and new is always coming into our lives. We’ve gone from records, to tapes (and 8-tracks), to CD’s. We’ve gone from VHS tapes, to DVD’s and now Bluerays. This morning I want to look at how “the culture of the new”, /
bringing new things into our lives can actually be a very good thing.

I. Jesus Stirs us up- (Matt. 11:3-8; Mk 1:21-28, 2:5-12; Jn 2:12-17, 11:1-44)
Think about Jesus. When Jesus came, He challenged the prevailing culture in so many ways:
1. The temple- One thing is the temple. People were comfortable going to
the temple; for the most part comfortable with how things worked. The temple was the place that people would go to hear preaching and teaching and worship God. But then Jesus came and stirred things up.
When John the Baptist was in prison, some of his followers came to Jesus because they heard about Jesus’ ministry. And they asked Jesus if He was the One that they had been expecting; the Messiah. Jesus answers them in Matthew 11:4-5, “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.’” They had not experienced all this before; it was very new for them. Jesus was not doing this in the Temple, but out where the people were. This stirred things up greatly.
But Jesus also stirred them up when He came to the Temple one day to see the money changers making a mockery of God’s house by making a profit off those who came to worship… we read about it in John 2:12-17, “After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’ 17His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” They couldn’t believe that Jesus would speak up to the money changers and religious leaders in this way! Things were definitely changing.
2. Demons- Along with this, Jesus was speaking with and casting out
demons. We see this in Mark 1:21-28, “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24’What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’ 25’Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.’ 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” Up to this point the people didn’t know there were demons until Jesus told them! And they even responded to what Jesus did by talking about a new teaching with authority, and giving orders to evil spirits.
3. Salvation vs. healing- Because of what Jesus was doing, the Scriptures
tell us that people heard about Jesus, and were coming to Him for healing. They wanted to be physically whole. But Jesus had a different take on their predicament. When Jesus looked at them, He didn’t concentrate on their physical ailment, but on their spiritual one. Jesus knew that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus knew that they didn’t believe in Him, the Messiah, the One sent to save the world from its sins. They were blinded to their real need: ETERNAL LIFE.
We know this is true of Jesus, because Jesus would disregard their first statement about being healed. A prime example of this is the familiar story of the paralytic and his 4 friends. The man, who was paralyzed wanted to be healed, but he couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. So he has his friends carry him to the house where Jesus is teaching. There is no room to get the man to Jesus, and so being desperate he has his friends drop him through the roof right in front of Jesus!
Let’s pick it up in Mark 2:5-12, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7’Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . .’ He said to the paralytic, 11’I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” The first thing Jesus says is “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The man illustrated faith, and through this faith Jesus forgave Him of His sins. Without our sins being forgiven, we will not be saved.
4. Not hurrying- I believe that most people, throughout the history of
our world, have lived with a sense of hurry. It is in our nature to want to see results happen quickly, to want to get to that next stage in life, to want to get married, or have a child. People in general are impatient. But Jesus shows us that God is not in a hurry. That is why Peter could say in 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Peter reminds us that time to God is in many ways irrelevant. It is what happens over time that is important. And this is seen in the Bible time and time again: Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years to have a child; The Israelites wandered in the desert 40 years before God led them to the promised land; God’s people had to wait 400 years before the Messiah came to save His people.
And so Jesus helped the people to understand that a change was needed by not being so anxious or in a hurry about the things in our lives!

II. Find a way to understand- (John 15:15)
It is easy to fall in love with the whole idea of being a Christian. What greater
place could we be in than to be God’s child; God’s follower. But we have to understand that being a Christian is more than being in love with our faith, with our church, with our worship. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is about helping people to understand how “interesting” our God really is.
To do this we have to take the Scriptural version of who God is, not some watered down version. We have to let people know and come to understand that God is a powerful, amazing, personal, loving, faithful God. And yet it is more than just the transferring of accurate information. God wants us to share our life, share how we have come to trust Him, and share what it means to be in total surrender.
What’s interesting about God- So, if we were to ask the question, what
is interesting about God,? What might our answer be? I’m sure we could come up with a pretty long list, but for our purposes here this morning let’s just talk about 3:
a. God as creator- As I’m sure you know well, the Bible begins
by telling us that God created all things. In fact, we probably know it so well that it is easy for us to discount the importance of this. God existed before anything else, but decided to make a world, complete with land, and sky, and rocks and trees, and animals and humans. Of course, God took His time in regards to this process. God could have snapped His fingers, but instead the Bible says God took six days. The last thing that God chose to create was people; man and woman. And of course we know that this creation was done with care and intention: to make man and woman in God’s image, like God in many ways, above all the rest of creation!
Now as I talk about this, this is all familiar to you. You might even be losing your focus on what I am saying because you’ve heard it many times before. But there are many people who haven’t heard this information accurately, and from someone who knows this God they are talking about. So for it to be interesting to someone else, we have to keep it interesting for us.
b. God as savior- I find it very interesting to know who created
the world, and how it was created, and with the care and intention with which it was created. Along with this, we have more interesting information to pass on to people, and that is how God came to be our Savior in Jesus Christ. We all have a flaw, and that flaw is sin. We all do many things that are not healthy for us, or that help us to not live our lives well. We all do many things that keep us from being in a relationship with God, or from understanding the things of God.
As we talked about some last week, God came to redeem us, save us from our sin…Magic. We all have a curiosity about magic. That’s why there are so many of these shows in Las Vegas. It is interesting for people to watch and learn about. And as we think about what God did for us in Jesus Christ, it appears to be a bit of magic. See our sin, and now it’s gone. MAGIC. But it’s more than magic, it is MIRACULOUS. It is God at His best; His most interesting. And if we could help people understand this, then maybe they too would believe!
c. God as friend- But I believe that the most interesting thing is
that above and beyond God being our God, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, our Lord, GOD IS ALSO OUR FRIEND. Jesus makes this clear to us in the gospel of John, 15:15- “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you.” We are able to understand the things of God, the mysteries of God, the complexities of God/ because Jesus has taken us to this place. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, helps us to understand the things of the Father. Jesus has made it known to us. How exciting is this? People can know God. Even more, people can have God as their friend. People can have a close, loving, meaningful relationship with God, and we can make it happen by helping them to understand.

III. Keeping Life Fresh-
a. Be content- Many people are bored with their lives. I believe
people get bored easily because they allow their lives to be mundane. They do the same things each day, every day. They have their habits (when they get up, how they get ready, what they eat, etc...). They go to their jobs, do their work, and then go home. So many people live very predictable lives. The older we get, the more we tend to slow down and plan less and get into a rut in the way we live. Now this isn't true for everyone, but I believe it is true in many ways for those who feel boredom.
To avoid this, we need to keep life fresh. But the question is: How can we keep our lives fresh? I think we can do this in a couple of ways. First, we can learn how be content with what we have. As the familiar verse, Philippians 4:12 says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation..." How many days a week do we wake up not feeling content? How often do we get to the end of the day not feeling content? The answer is often. When we are content with our life, even the simplest of activities can be exciting. For me, just being with my kids, being with my family is exciting; we don't have to do anything special.
Our world pulls us into the thinking that we are lacking something. That is what sales is all about, getting you to think that you need something that you don’t have. And when you get to this place, it is hard to be content. Contentment is being okay with what you have, not thinking that you need something new. Now I know that this might sound like I am going against the title of the sermon, ‘The Culture of the New,’ but having to have new “things, gadgets, toys” in our lives is not what I’m talking about. The culture of the new is about the “newness” of God in our lives more and more each day. This is what will keep us feeling content. Once you go down the road of not feeling content, there is nothing material, nothing even in THIS world that will bring you contentment. Only in God can we be content.
b. Be proactive- Secondly, we should be more proactive in our
planning. We don't have to plan to do something new and fresh every day, but at least once or twice a week plan something that is fun. Plan an outing or a time to connect with someone you enjoy being with. Plan to learn more about God with a friend or in a Bible Study. Plan to bless someone through your actions. Plan to give of yourself to someone in need. There are so many ideas I could list here. But the key is being proactive; making it happen instead of waiting for it to happen. If you do these kinds of things regularly, not only will you have something to look forward to, but your life will feel Fresh because you know you are making a difference with your life.
We also need to be proactive in our growing in our faith. If we just allow ourselves to stay in the place where are at now, our faith will not be fresh. A stale faith can definitely keep us from feeling fresh and alive. As we grow in our faith, we will grow in our love for God. And as our love for God grows, how we live our lives will show this love to others. If you’ve ever met someone whose faith is fresh and alive, they have a magnetism about them that gets passed on to others. Wouldn’t it be great to be the kind of person who helps the lives of others to be fresh and alive?
Jesus was anything but predictable. I think this is one of the reasons He enjoyed His life so much, because He was out amongst the people, not knowing exactly what He would encounter. But He knew His Father was with Him, and He knew that as He walked according to His Father’s will, that all things would work for good. Jesus brought an enthusiasm of life to all He encountered.
And really, it’s this unpredictability of life that keeps us on our toes; keeps us wondering what’s next. Don’t let not knowing everything cause you to lose your excitement, or bring you frustration. Let it keep you excited about what God is going to teach you or do in your life!

Conclusion: I know that new things can make us uncomfortable. We are people of habit. We like to know how things are going to be. I can understand this. Every morning I set out the things on the counter in the same place. I have my routine; an order of how I get ready. But this isn’t always a good thing. We can get into a rut too easily. A once in this rut, it is difficult to break loose. This rut will cause us to lose perspective and excitement for life. Illustration: “The Ant and the Contact Lens,” There is a true story of a girl named Brenda who was rock climbing one day, almost halfway to the top of the cliff when the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.' She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there. At first she began to panic, but then she began praying: She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top she was more calm, but saddened because she couldn’t see the view clearly. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.' She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.' Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?' After Brenda said ‘yes’ he continued: “Well, I saw an ant slowly moving across a twig on the face of the rock carrying something. It looked awful big for an ant to be carrying, so I looked closer. Upon further inspection, I saw that the ant was carrying a contact lens. I picked it up thinking I might run into to person whose contact lens it was!! Maybe you’ve had a frustration situation happen like losing a contact lens. Maybe your life is full of frustration and seemingly dead ends. Let God show you how your life can be new and fresh and exciting every day. Let God show you the little and big miracles He can do for You. Give this all over to God today. And live a life that shows other how interesting and wonderful God is. Amen.