Sunday 29th March 2020

(Not in) Gloucester Baptist Church

Mark 6:13-29 Making the most of Opportunities

How to make the most of opportunities

While we are not able to meet together or go about life in your regular patterns, you may find yourself with new opportunities. I want to encourage you to make the most of them.

Some will find that they have more time to spend with their kids
Some will find time to do those jobs around the house that they have been putting off for too long.
Some will look forward to getting out, going for a walk around the block and waiving to their neighbours rather than being content to laze about on the couch.
Some will consider God in new ways where they have not had much time or interest in Him before.

Today I want to encourage you to read about Herod’s response to Jesus when He appeared with His disciples teaching throughout the countryside, casting out demons and healing people from sickness. Herod had heard something of the message of Jesus and the new Kingdom he spoke about and even shown some interest. But it wasn’t busyness that kept him from listening.

Read Mark 6:14-16

When Herod heard what Jesus was doing and teaching he thought that he was John raised back to life again.

This John we know of as “John the Baptist”. Before Jesus started his ministry it was John whom God sent to get people ready for Him.
Think of the pre-game commentary before a major sporting event where you are introduced to the players and told what records could be broken tonight.
John spoke about two things; repentance and forgiveness

Repentance is like when you’ve wandered off the path and found yourself about to tumble off the top edge of a rock face and you decide to turn around.
Forgiveness is like the voice that calls from someone on the path who helps you find your way again.

Mark tells us that John’s life had been taken by Herod because of this message he preached.

Read Mark 6:17

When John spoke of repentance, or people wandering from the path, he told people things like

Don’t buy food only for yourself when you know there are others who are hungry, or clothes for only for yourself when you know others are shivering in the cold.
Don’t be unfair in your business dealings with others, be content with what you have.
To Herod he said, don’t marry your brother’s wife - that is against the law of Moses, that is adultery.

He was saying to people, if you’re living only for yourselves, you are on the wrong path and one that leads to great danger. God will not let these things go unpunished.

Have you ever had anyone say something to you that you didn’t want to hear but you knew was true? It is hard to admit when we’re wrong, even when we know fairly plainly that what the other person is saying is right. But those moments are opportunities. You can focus on how those words make you feel or you can respond to them in a way that will actually benefit you.

Read Mark 6:19-20

If Herodias had her way, John would have been silenced fairly quickly. But Herod saw something of God in the man. He saw him as righteous and enjoyed listening to him - never changing but always listening.

Sometimes people in the church can fall into this trap. We listen to the preacher week in week out and sometimes shift uneasily in our chair, but overall think that hearing a challenging message is a good thing. In the book of James we are warned

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22

It’s not enough to be challenged and then turn up next week to be challenged again. We have to respond to the Word of God.

Sometimes outside the church we act in similar ways. We love to have long chats with Christian friends about life and God and see who wins the argument this week. But win or lose there is only temporary satisfaction in discussion and debate. So many arguments only ruin the hearers and lead to greater ungodliness. As we see with Herod.

Read Mark 6:.21-28

Herod thought that there might come a day, sometime in the future, that John’s confronting message might come in a way that he was able to accept, that wouldn’t require quite so much of him to make himself right with God. He might have even thought that by keeping John alive despite his wife’s wishes that he might earn some favour with God.

There’s some danger straddling a barb wire fence. Once those barbs bite you cannot be sure what side you are going to tumble into.

In the end, Herod made a choice that he was not prepared for, but that he alone had set himself up for. Rather than look bad in the eyes of others he committed an even greater crime.

You might not think that stepping off the path is as bad as stepping off a cliff but often it is one action that leads to another. John had been trying to bring him back to the right way and he listened to him to the point of no return.

I said that today is a day of opportunities. Perhaps it is the day when you stop listening to what you know is right and start doing what you know is right. Neither John nor Jesus were looking for people who had already got it right - for they knew they could find many who thought they had. They were speaking to those who were willing to face their shame and to be released from it.

It is a beautiful thing to walk the trail with God. Hope joy peace. Way truth life.

Jesus came to seek the lost and bring them back to Himself. He is calling your name - are you ready not simply to listen but to respond?

Let me lead you in a simple prayer that might begin that walk:

Lord Jesus, I hear your voice. It speaks to me in my conscience, it cries out to me from within my broken heart. I am lost and far from You but I want to feel Your love within my life.
Please forgive me for living my own way, for turning my back on the needs of others, and for closing my ears to you.
Please open my eyes to what God has done for me in Jesus’ death and resurrection and give me the forgiveness that washes me clean, makes me a new person and offers me joy and hope and life.
Thank you that this is your gift to me, not because I deserve it but because you love to bring the lost back home again. Thank you for the eternal home and loving family you promise to me.
Amen