Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 10:46-52.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 10:46-52.
Bobby: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Bobby Gilles and this is Lindsey Blair. This past Sunday, Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark ten, forty-six through fifty-two as we finished our “Kingdom Living” series.
Lindsey: Jonah said that the way up in the Kingdom of God is the way down. But if you missed the sermon or need help remembering, you’re in the right place because it’s time for the Midweek Checkup.
Bobby: We began by remembering that the world says greatness comes through achievement and notoriety. Jesus says greatness comes through smallness, obscurity, child-like innocence. In this week’s story, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus asked Jesus for help. The disciples wanted greatness; this man just wanted mercy. And just like he did with the little ones, Jesus ignores the disciples and invites this needy man near.
Just like he does last week to the disciples, Jesus asks Bartimaeus perhaps the most important question he asks any of us: “What do you want me to do for you?”
Lindsey: Bartimaeus does not come as one with a long list of aspirations.
He does not view Jesus as a genie come to grant him his wishes.
He calls him rabbi. My teacher. You say that to someone you need to learn from. Even more so, in that day, to follow a Rabbi wasn't just to say "I want to learn from you", it was to say "I want to live as you live."
This one who cried out for mercy calls Jesus Rabbi.
Bobby: The way up in the Kingdom of God is the way down. We do not strive for position or possession, but for healing and wholeness in Jesus. Our great aspiration is to know and follow Jesus, become who we truly are. Blind as we are, needy as we are, we cry out for mercy, not status. Do you feel the weight of a life you suspect is not important enough? Your job doesn't matter. Your house doesn't matter. Your friends, your car… we feel like it needs to be bigger and better.
Lindsey: Many of us have been discipled by corporate America far more than we have by Jesus. We push the children away and avoid the eyes of the beggar because surely we have important adult work to do here. This is for God, after all! But when God came, he did not go big, he went small.
He went to the vulnerable, to the oppressed, to the voiceless and choiceless.
Bobby: That burning for greatness and significance inside of you comes from being made in the image of God. It is not wrong. It is not sinful. But the world's way towards greatness is. The way up in the Kingdom of God is the way down. We do not strive for bigness, we follow Jesus. This is Kingdom Living.
Lindsey: This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series called Journey Into The Night. And it’s Palm Sunday, one of our most unique services of the year. Join us, and bring a friend.