James White | The Cost of Change | Mark 2:1-12

uh good morning listen uh man 30 years goodness that was a long time ago well i'm glad i was a teen preacher when i came here in the southeast no not at all uh man this year i would turn 60 years old you didn't have to go ooh i could hear that through your mass it is a joy to be here and i am here because of my love for dr aiken his wife and also my love for the people who comprise this community or this group of people called southeastern baptist theological seminary but let me just say this in the beginning before we pray the views that you're going to hear today are not views expressed by danny aiken the views that you're going to hear today are not views that are expressed by the southern baptist convention the views that you're going to hear today are not views that necessarily would agree with the evangelical framework of the world that we're in but the views that you will hear today we're going to pray come from the word of god therefore there may be some things that you hear that may disrupt some of the realities of your thinking and your paradigms but this is why we will be in the text today so i just need to say that because there are now those who will take sound bites there are those who will unfortunately choose certain things to say certain things i also think i need to clarify that some may even look at documentation that has me listed as dr james white no i do not have my doctorate i appreciate that but let me clarify that in case some internet reality tries to distort who i am here in this platform would you join me so father we thank you that we're in a time period right now where the reality of the truths of your word continue to speak as they have spoken throughout time father that is why even in this moment of this chapel we so again want to look into your text because we are in a time where we're needing to see and understand some realities of who you have called us to be as your people and lord i stand here humbly knowing that there's a reality that even within my own human will and thinking cannot possibly address but your word is eternal that your word is living and active and sharper than a two-headed sword so lord again speak through me in spite of me and it's in the name of the risen resurrected savior that i pray in jesus name amen if you have your copy of god's word if you return with me to the gospel of mark to the gospel of mark we're doing a series in the gospel of mark and this is what i love about being in a place like this place that has homolytical creativity and exegetical excellence and therefore i do not have to spend a whole lot of time with a great deal of trying to somehow give you to clarify certain things because it's already done because of the excellence of bible teaching that exists in this institution in mark chapter 2 familiar story perhaps one of my favorite stories in the scripture mark chapter two let's begin with verse one and when he returned to capernaum after some days it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no more room not even at the door and he was preaching the word to them and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men and when they could not get near him because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had made an opening they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay and when jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts why does this man speak like that he's blaspheming who can forgive sins but god alone and immediately jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves said to them why do you question these things in your hearts which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say rise take up your bed and walk but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic i say to you pick up your bed and go home and he rose immediately picked up his bed went out before them all and so that they were all amazed and glorified god saying we've never seen anything like this their moments and their strategies that we use as biblical communicators sometimes we begin our messages or we begin our sermons or we begin our teaching by giving you an illustration or a thought or an idea or a picture to engage you into the text but we're in a time now where i don't think we need an illustration to engage you into the text there's an image that i want you to see because a picture the picture and the context and the story that we're living in should engage you into the text someone said it this way that a picture paints a thousand words and the images of january the sixth should engage us all especially in this community into the text especially when you see signs that are definitely out of place they give the wrong representation of the christ of scripture signs that are true that have been misleading unfortunately to a culture that unfortunately has captured the christ of culture rather than the christ of scripture a nationalized christ rather than a biblical jesus but it's not just this image that is difficult even as i am communicating you today this next image is real you are still beautiful with all of your masks on but who would have ever imagined that this would be the way we would have to exist we were sure it would be over by now and yet now things have been radically changed and let me just say for those of us who question some kind of plot i too have don't be afraid of me i have been out of quarantine for a while but i've tested positive and it's brought a reality to the fact that i don't get to control the narrative and someone said well you know you want to ask because again i am a teacher of god's word what did god teach you here's what he taught me are you ready for this you're going to die you are human i wish i could give you some of the deep theological framework but he taught me the frailty of who i am he did bring to life you are nothing but dust he did bring that very much to life he brought alive that he is the potter and i am the clay and therefore i do not get a chance to write the story no matter how important i might think my ideas my thoughts and my work is to do but then finally why would we need an illustration in light of the current continued legacy of injustice that exists in our world isn't it fascinating though and it's it's interesting the way stories are crafted because i wonder if we paid attention to this not just because of media but because we were dealing with a covet 19 reality where breath and where again the the respiratory system is challenged and yet maybe we listen because we heard again george floyd challenged with breath and one can almost wonder did it stick into the psyche of his brain the words of eric garner when eric garner said i can't breathe are those the words that simply eeked out as he was calling for his mother these are difficult moments to say the names of brianna taylor itia jefferson richard brooks daniel pruden and the list goes on and on these are difficult moments for the southern baptist movement that's in danger of becoming a monument these are difficult moments thomas carlisle said it this way no pressure no diamonds dr king said that we must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope and grand master flashing and furious 5 said it this way it's a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how i keep from going under google it if you don't know who grand master fire is but i think we must heed the words of winston churchill if you're going through hell keep going and we must keep going and i'm thankful and i that yes in this moment of frustration in this moment of wondering what will we do how do we move forward i'm thankful that i know we know an unthinkable god who's able to do the unimaginable for his glory we know that yes we've got to continue to understand that maybe we have to do unthinkable maybe we're going to have to position ourselves in a way that our paradigms and our frameworks have not prepared us for but we serve a god who's able to do the unimaginable why though for his glory mark is written by john mark who we all know and john mark's story is all throughout the text and we know that mark's purpose in writing this as many of the other gospel writers is so that we will know the real story about jesus and he begins very early he begins in the first verse so that you would not have any kind of confusion of the purpose of this book that jesus is the son of god it is the shortest of all books and there's a variety of reasons why but it's also because it's written to these gentiles who are living in the context of the roman empire and when you're in the context of persecution and challenge you don't need the lengthy words of luke the physician you matthew is great as the tax collector but give it to me plain and simple and quick and mark gets right to the point and now in chapter 2 you see that jesus his popularity is at an all-time high and when you look at the other gospel accounts you begin to see that people came from a variety of villages because jesus now is engaging everyone the understanding of who he is is going out through all the lands and now jesus is holding an audience in a house we have to remember even as you read this text that the houses at this time really were only two or three rooms they are not the houses the way our houses are structured but here we have a picture of who jesus is here we have a story that captures several things first of all when you go into the story it is it is quite fascinating that jesus is so popular at this point and it could have been because of some of his other healings that there is no room for him not even at the door and what was he doing he was preaching the word to them as it tells us in verse two and then verse three there's the shift mark records this story that is a story that is fascinating that they came bringing to him a paralytic that is carried by four men four men are carrying a paralytic this is a coordinated effort and here's the first thing that really hit me that that if we are going to do the unthinkable we will have to innovate but we don't do it alone four men are carrying him i don't know what the conversations were i don't know how they thought about this but he's a paralytic and when you look at this word and you look at the other gospel accounts he's a paralytic that very likely he was paralyzed from birth so this is not a minor sense of paralysis they are having to carry him on a cots and they have this one objective this is a coordinated effort we've got to get our paralyzed friend to jesus i wonder if they thought this is their only hope i wonder if they thought we've tried everything else and surely they've been his friend because they've watched and been around his brokenness and they understand that there's nothing else but they said listen we can try this and so the four of us together we would take you to jesus and i wonder if the paralyzed guy was just rejoicing that he had four people to carry his cot to want to see his heel and can i put a pause right here do you have people who really want to see your healing who will carry your i hope as you journey at this institution yes make sure that you get clarity of understanding some things but i hope you have some of the most incredible community that one could ever find so here they go they're trying to get their way to jesus but then i want you to notice they decide secondly to move forward when there is no way because you can say you're innovative but sooner or later your innovation will be tested you live long enough sooner or later life has a way of putting moments in you that test the rhetoric and reality of what you often say so they get to there there's a crowd they couldn't get near now i just wonder what was this crowd thinking here you see four guys carrying a paralyzed man what is the logical thing that you do let's move aside so that the paralyzed man can get to jesus and i wonder if they said excuse me and no one moved aside the audacity of this how in the world could a crowd of people be so much more interested into the teaching of jesus than the healing of someone else how in the world could someone be so interested in listening correctly to certainly what jesus is going to say even to the point where you've got scribes there probably simply there and we see later in the text to examine jesus we got to be very careful when our thoughts about jesus become more important than what it means to live for jesus got to be very careful because sometimes as many have said it this way our orthodoxy does not lead to orthopraxy what kind of crowd is this that wouldn't have the empathy of a person who needs to be healed oh let that stay with you just for a moment what kind of crowd have right biblical thinking people become who can miss that we're in a world that desperately needs to be healed when you look here in the text i wonder if one of the guys is probably thinking it's good he's got four because the crowd is a barrier it's not a benefit and they say okay we got to get into jesus and i wonder if one of the guys probably again this is where you use your imagination within the boundaries of biblical truth because understand the scripture is written about human stories we sometimes have this need to mythologize stories and some of it is because of our american culture because all too often we mythologize our history instead of teaching it correctly and so i just wanted one said okay must not be god's will you know you had one that understood the sovereignty of god must not be god's will hey that's okay we're going to love you no need of going even further with this i went at the paralyzed guy when they gave the idea because someone there has to do something and he is dependent he's on a bed he's totally dependent on his friends but they're not going to stop at the first barrier they're going to do something but whatever they get ready to do is going to cost them something they've done everything possible they say but there's no turning back so here's what we're gonna do don't worry uh we're gonna take you we're gonna go and get up on the roof and then we're gonna let you down through the roof the paralyzed guy said what uh i'd rather be paralyzed than dead now again many of us try to take and we take the risk out of the story and say well wait a minute james there were flat roofs and so i could see how they could think of that really you don't think of getting up on a roof putting a hole in the roof and then letting someone down through the roof so they can get to jesus but they're in a situation where they feel like they have no plan b and i wonder if that's what faith is all about because what jesus noticed was their faith i wonder that's what faith is all about faith is when you don't have a plan b faith is when we move forward no matter what creativity i believe is birth in the midst of selflessness creativity and innovation is birth when you begin to love someone else more than you love yourself creativity and risk and genius happens because you care about the condition of someone that is broken they're saying we can't turn back we have no other way other than doing the unthinkable that's even true in our history i know february is often what we call black history month but unfortunately we don't understand that black history month is american history month in american history john lewis gives us an example of this when he said he had to learn to turn himself over and follow he said to be consistent and follow and somehow believe that it's all going to be taken care of that it's all going to work out fannie lou hamer emerged from a night of torture that totally disrupted and disfigured and some even suggest part of what later caused the death of her life but she was tortured in a jail cell in winona mississippi and here's what fannie lou hamer said she said it wouldn't solve any problems for me to hate whites just because they hate me oh there's so much hate it's only god that could have kept black people saying dr king in his sermon the birth of a new age delivered at the end of the montgomery bus boycott said a boycott merely means an awakening a sense of shame within the oppression but the end of reconciliation is is reconciliation that's the goal in the end is the creation of a beloved community the creation of a society where men would live together as brothers and not retaliate but redemption to do the unthinkable to do the unthinkable is to get them to jesus and in order to get them to jesus there had to be an architect or an engineer or someone who understood thinking that went beyond the sacred writings that they had at that time we often find ourselves having to do the unthinkable as we experience god doing the unimaginable but then look at what happens when they get inside when they open up the and i don't know how this happened but somehow they were able to do it and and the the towels or the dirt it had to disrupt things but what does jesus do it says when jesus saw their faith here they get him in you have to look at this they get him in they let him down i don't know what kind of tools they use i don't know what kind of rope they use but they let him down and when jesus saw their faith and i just wonder man talk about having your sermon or having your teaching interrupted i just wanted jesus going what are they doing but what did he see first their faith he said to them son your sins are forgiven some of the scribes verse five were sitting there questioning in their hearts not saying anything why does this man speak like that he's blaspheming who can forgive sins for god alone talk about a cognitive disconnection how in the world someone comes through the roof jesus then says your sins are forgiven and now you're going oh wait a minute now this doesn't compute this doesn't follow what is supposed to happen and they're there are you kidding me but jesus knows what's going on he knows what he's needed most i even went if the paralyzed guy is going um we didn't drop in here for a sermon i don't think he did that at all because jesus knew what he needed most jesus knew what was paramount because the soul in the body is not disconnected as it is for us jesus knew what was the need of this man's life jesus knew that and what did he see he saw their faith for some of us all we can see is the struggle for some of us all we can see is the problem you may only see the messness in my life but here's what you got to understand the ultimate goal is i've got to get to jesus because you might be distracted with things that don't matter at this time you know what i love about jesus he sees what is deeply needed they came to him for external healing he does the internal deliverance that they needed and jesus knew that they were ready because he saw their faith he knew that their fundamental purpose is to get to me this is man they so are engaged with me that they're willing to risk everything he knew that they were ready and that's why he gave him what he needed most the word forgiveness in the original language is something beautiful it means to let fall to let loose to fall away forgiveness means that god indeed lets go of our debt of sin he takes it on himself don't forget that sometimes we have to do the unthinkable in order to experience god doing the unimaginable but look at what the scribes and pharisees do they are questioning in this heart why does this man speak like this he's blaspheming who can forgive sins but god alone and immediately jesus perceiving in his spirit that they best question within themselves why do you question these things in your heart so jesus knows what's going on with them he speaks to the internal conversations that's going on see this is what i love about the christ of scripture the christ the scripture can tell if your mind is wandering right now the christ of scripture knows what's going on inside of us that's why we can be authentic jesus sees what's in the heart and he speaks to that he deals with that here's why intimacy with christ becomes so important and i wonder if you have a relationship with the christ of scripture who deals with the heart and not just the intellectual cognitive stuff that you think will move your heart he says why are y'all reasoning this way why are you questioning these things in your heart and notice how jesus deals with them he says okay i'm not going to give you all a chance to answer let me go ahead and lay this out he says because guess what jesus this really isn't about you all but let me address this he says which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say take up your bed and walk here's what i love about jesus the christ the scripture always puts everyone in a place where you don't know what to answer when you don't want to reveal who you really are so jesus says okay here's what i'm going to do i'm not going to wait for an answer but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins because they are frustrated and this is a tough question to answer because first of all uh to just say forgiven sins anyone can say that but they know that the only one who can give sins is the son of god and so by him saying forgive sins his was so problematic with that he's declaring himself god but we're stuck because now we've got this paralyzed guy here and so i don't know what's going on in their mind jesus doesn't but here's what he knows he says so that you may know let me be very plain and simple it's not that complicated so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins so i want you to notice the change in the point of this story the point of this story is not just the problem of a paralytic raising up from his palate the point of the story is the identity of jesus let me pause it for a moment don't miss that the point of the story that we're going through right now is not just the confusion that we're facing in our culture the point of the story is jesus the point of the story of the dynamic that we're having in the southern baptist convention right now i told you these are the views expressed by james white the point of the story is this it's not who's southern baptist who's not southern baptist it's not even simply a doctrinal argument the point of the story is the doctrinal argument that clarifies who jesus is that's what's at stake and it's at stake because historically when you're a slave holder historically when you've not honored the imago day historically when you've enforced and endorsed segregation historically when you haven't changed positions of power here's the problem with that historically when you align up with the nationalistic america rather than the gospel of jesus christ the problem with that is simply this that you misrepresent who jesus is and so jesus changes the whole trajectory of this so now that it's about him the paralyzed guy just happens to be there in the midst similar being a tool of the story i got news for you i know you think that your ideas and everything are so important but simply you're simply just a product and a tool of the story about jesus and honestly i really don't care whether the southern baptist association goes forward or not because what's most important is will the gospel of jesus christ and will jesus be represented correctly that is what's most important so what happens so that you can know i have authority not just because i need to do some gymnastics to prove something to you he said to the paralytic i said and you rise pick up your bed and go home and what happens he rose he picked up his bed and he went out before them all i don't know what the paralyzed guys is thinking but you talk about faith he just says the word and you know what happens he gets up i serve a christ who does the impossible when we do the unthinkable i hope this is a generation that doesn't get distracted see i serve a christ that i can talk correctly about the historic reality of who we are as black people and white people i serve a jesus to where we can talk correctly about the injustices that's been done to the black church i certainly see you gotta understand i'm even dressed that way today because understand something from the top up i'm dressed for the conservatives for the top up i'm dressed for you from the bottom down i got all my jeans because i'm ready to do some work then i got on my boots too and i wear a bow tie as a reminder that i tied this myself and by tying it myself my neck will not hang from anybody's rope anymore because i'm afraid of what i might say that there's a possibility of lynching because black men often had to say those things and their speech was relegated often back but my speech will not be relegated i tied this myself this morning and i have to wear that to remind me of speaking truth but jesus says so that you may know it's about me that the son of man the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins i say to you pick up your bed and walk now because i'm here i'm gonna help some of you all out because you're wondering okay wait a minute james you do know you're talking to the college and the seminary what he's doing here is listen i'm gonna do both i'm gonna be fully god and i'm gonna be fully mad and what you see here in mark chapter 2 is the hypostatic union that's to help some of you seminary people out uh to make sure that you understand your education is value and very much so but it's the hypostatic union that you see god and man at work don't try to put him in a box he's the god that can deal with the pain of what you and i are going through he's a god that's very present in any kind of social political framework that you might want to take him out of but guess what he's also the god that can heal and has authority above all of that god and man always comes together in the hypostatic union that we see here in scripture jesus could have just left him on the palate he could have just said i forgive your sins and that would have been enough see i've heard many say you just need to preach the gospel and that is enough but jesus is showing the holistic purpose of him being god and man he doesn't leave this man paralyzed because when you leave someone simply talking about forgiveness of sins you leave them at the cross but you don't take them to the three days later of the resurrection and so when you only preach necessarily theological truths without sociological and practical realities you got to cross gospel but you don't have a full gospel because the resurrection says there will be change you cannot have theological truth without social impact because that would mean you would say that people are free and still leave the chain zone we've had a history of that we have you don't simply have vertical celebration without horizontal reality finally verse 12 and he rose and immediately picked up his bed went out before them all so they were all amazing glorified god saying we've never seen anything like this we're at a place in our history where the world is still waiting for some real jesus followers who have a christ that's willing to not simply be confused and not take anyone's side but who willing to say we've never seen anything like this when i look at this there's a question that just struck me why does jesus tell him to pick up his beard that was always confusing because i'm going okay jesus if he's paralyzed been laying on his bed sorry not trying to gross anyone out but gosh that's gross i mean why would you want him to carry his bed because when jesus engages when jesus heals when he's fully god fully man when he is the son of god here's what he loves to do he loves to put his glory on display so that there's no mistake because if he gets up out and walks without his bed you might not know who he is but when you see him carrying his bed that's the paralyzed guy there will be no mistake that it was god and i love how god worked god often would take the thing that's been carrying you but when the gospel impacts our life when jesus changes us when there's resurrection the thing that you've been carrying you you carry it now because it has no more control over you he carries his bed but there's a cause because as i close there's another paralyzed man there's another paralyzed man who also experienced public humiliation because being paralyzed on a bed is public humiliation there's also another paralyzed man who would have crowds watching him there's another paralyzed man and i wonder that's why mark has sort of given us a preview mark is giving us a picture of coming attractions because there's another paralyzed man but he wasn't paralyzed because of something that he had done he was paralyzed as well not because of his sickness but because of our sickness and how was he paralyzed he too they placed him and they paralyzed him they nailed his hand they nailed his hand with a nail right here paralyzing him with piercing pain they nailed his other hand paralyzing him with piercing pain and even before he got to that point they took him through a scourge and they ripped the flesh off of his body paralyzing him with piercing pain and so that he wouldn't move they put another nail and they drove that through the back of his ankles and they drove it in a torturous way he was paralyzed so that he wouldn't move he was paralyzed yes jesus wasn't paralyzed on a mat he was paralyzed on a cross and he was paralyzed for you and for me no wonder mark put this in the gospel no wonder jesus saw their faith because it was a picture of what would happen to him and they paralyzed him to the point as if that wasn't enough couldn't move from being on the cross they paralyzed him even more because they put his body in a tomb and when they put his body in a tomb they paralyzed it even more because they put a stone over the tomb they paralyzed him even more but i got good news for you three days later he rose again from the dead no wonder jesus says get up pick up your palate and go home and here's the beautiful part about our savior he went through all of that for you and for me and you don't have to carry your mat but you need to carry the cross and the cross that he died on for you and for me we now carry not ashamed of the cross because there's life and freedom in the cross so much so that we're not paralyzed when we talk about the truth of history we're not paralyzed when we look at the times that we're going through because here's the beauty mark chapter 2 reminds us that sometimes we do the unthinkable because god would do the unimaginable i want to pray for us that we continue to move forward doing and through these times because the identity of jesus is at stake but i'm so thankful he's risen again from the dead and here's the beautiful part if the american church can't represent his identity that's what i love about this being a great commission and a global seminary if we can't do it because we're trying to guard something or we're trying to protect some kind of institution he's got a witness he's risen again from the dead i have hope but i hope you will join me and let's pick up the match let's do the unthinkable because god can do the unimaginable father thank you thank you that i i even i'm feeling a level of emotion that really comes out of the tradition that i come through of a black church that understood that there is resurrection and we're in a culture right now where i think we've lost lord that there is resurrection but help us to not be ashamed of the truth of our condition help us to not keep making excuses help us to not stand again in the wrong place but to stand with the christ of scripture not the christ of culture father thank you thank you that lord you've given us an incredible opportunity but i pray that you would even change our mindsets that we would do the unthinkable because we have the god who does the unimaginable and god thank you that we will gladly pick up our cross and follow you in the name of the living ruling reigning king i pray [Music] amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

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Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, Danny, Great Commission, Training, Education, Southern, Boyce, SBTS, Al, Mohler, MWBTS, NOBTS, Gateway, Universtiy, ERLC, Matt, Chandler, B21, IMB, NAMB, SBC, SBC20, NCSU, ECU, UNC, Duke, Divinity, School, Platt, Greear, JD, David, Whos, Your, One, Midwestern, Akin, RDU, Conversations, That, Matter, New Orleans, Critical, Race, Theory, Orlando, Florida, Coronavirus, COVID-19

Id: dWDfJCqzloE

Length: 40min 46sec (2446 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021