The Sacrifice

Ever hear of a man named Jason Ray? Who was he? Was he important? To most of us, he is a nobody. But if you have been a Tar Heel fan for any length of time, you probably know just who he is. Jason Ray was known for his involvement in his college. The young man attended University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He was involved with the student body, campus ministries, and many other Christian groups but was most known for being the UNC Tar Heel Mascot. Jason brought joy and energy to the team, to the fans - there was nobody who didn't like Jason.

In March of 2007, the UNC basketball team was in the tournament in New Jersey when Jason went out to get a bite to eat. He was returning to his hotel from a convenience store when he was struck by a car and seriously injured. The prognosis was not good. Jason's mother and father rushed to the hospital. There a couple people began to talk to Jason's father about donating Jason's organs. His father commented on how hard it was to discuss Jason's organs like you would parts to a '57 chevy. Both parents had a hard time dealing with that thought. But the decision was already made for them. Jason on his license had marked, "organ doner."

His heart went to one man, his one kidney to another, the other kidney to a 15 year old boy, and his liver to another man. There were others as well that their lives were saved because of Jason. It is estimated that near 50 people were saved because of Jason's organs, skin, bone marrow, and other miscellaneous organs. Normally cases like this, the recipients would never know who the doner was. But given the hype of the NCAA surroundings and the ESPN coverage, it became known who the doner was and a few of the recipients were invited to meet the parents of Jason Ray.

Jason's parents couldn't be more proud. These people were so grateful of the gift of life. They thanked the parents over and over again. To this day, they still are in contact with Jason's parents.

What if these people looked at the parents and said, "your son's life meant nothing. I could care less about the fact you lost a son. His death meant nothing to me." How crushed would Jason's parents be? How devastated and sad would they be?

Yet many of us do that to God every day. "Jesus' death meant nothing to me." By the decisions we make on a daily basis, we say that to God. Jesus didn't just save 50 people, but he saved EVERYBODY and we choose to ignore that gift by things we say or don't say, by things we do, or don't do. How sad is God when we tell him that his son's life and death meant nothing? Every choice we make has good or bad consequence to it.

An anonymous person posted to an ESPN site and wrote the following:

"The world deserves to know who this person was. I don't just want him to be a 'UNC mascot dies' blurb on ESPN.com. He was such a good person. A true friend. What every Tar Heel should aspire to be."

Maybe this is what every follower of God should aspire to be. Can you think of a better example of sacrifice that what Jason Ray did?

Be conscious of your decisions and choices. Which path are you walking?

Mark Conclusion / Notes

It is finished...I think. Here ends my first discussion that I ever wrote. I pray that what I wrote makes sense, is coherent, is logical, and brings enjoyment, challenge and an appreciation to what God has done for us. This first topic is just starting. As you can tell if you read the Mark Intro is that I barely got into the first few versus of the book of Mark. But look at everything that was said. Now realize that much of what was said wasn't original thought from me. I am no pastor, no theologian, and by no means am I the final "expert" in this matter. But after reading Mark, studying my notes and listening to Mike Erre from Rockharbor Church in Newport Beach, I just felt compelled to do something. Casting Crowns, sings a song called "If we are the Body." It says that if we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching, why aren't his hands healing, why aren't his words teaching. Why aren't his feet going, why is love not showing them there is a way."

I am still not 100% sure that didn't take on more then I can handle. This was difficult for me. I am not sure if I did this study justice. I tried to consolidate excess information and give the main points and in the interest of time trying to keep you, the reader, interested - while still being informative and enlightening. I hope I accomplished this. Now writing a "large" study like this I cannot do daily. What I wouldn't mind doing is posting a larger two or three part study every couple weeks and having smaller daily discussions. I could post questions, you as the reader could post questions as well. What I want is your feedback. If you like what I've done let me know. If you don't like what I've done, go away...just kidding, I do want your constructive criticism. Seriously. I want this to be enjoyable and entertaining. My goal has always been to take something that is familiar to you and give you a different nugget of information that allows you to look at these familiar stories in a new way.

Mark - Part Two

I left you with the kingdom of God and how Jesus is that kingdom here on Earth in the form of a man. Jesus had come to show us what life looks like when God is calling the shots. So the kingdom of God on earth is an expression of his rulership over everything. So what is all the discussion about this “kingdom” mean? I think it comes down to this. No where in the Bible does it say that you pray a prayer when you are a little kid to “accept” Jesus, and then do whatever you want the rest of your life and expect to spend eternal life with him. He never says this. What it does do for us to force us to pick a kingdom allegiance. Hopefully this will help. Adam and Eve were created into a perfect world. The Garden of Eden was the kingdom of God – perfect in every way, shape and form. Satan comes in and says you don’t need this kingdom; you can have your own kingdom. How great is that? You don’t have to listen to God, do whatever you want. They CHOSE their own counter-kingdom. We certainly have our own kingdoms. How many of our kingdoms are naturally bent for God? Zero. Their always bent to us and behind them stands the great kingdom of darkness. Jesus is saying that in order to have his kingdom you must forsake your own kingdom. You must choose your kingdom; you must choose who is king over you. It is always a choice. And everyday we choose between these kingdoms. Going back to the little kid who “accepted” Jesus…this does happen. There is a one time decision to follow Christ. From that day forward is a constant battle of kingdom allegiances.

I want to take you on a very interesting jaunt. Jesus and Moses have many things in common. Moses led the 12 tribes of Israel and Jesus had 12 disciples. Moses got the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai and Jesus gave the Sermon on a Mount. There are many more but at this time I don’t want to get into that. What I want to show you is how Jesus is being setup in Mark.
(Enter flashback sequence here)
God calls a reluctant Moses to go to Pharaoh and say “let my people go.” Pharaoh says no. Then God declares war on Egypt with plagues. (This is in the book of Exodus if you would like to read it.) What I want you to see is that in all the plagues, except the very last one, the Israelites are spared. They do not suffer the plague of locust, gnats, hail of fire etc. Only the Egyptians get the brunt of the plagues. Now in the tenth plague there is a difference. Exodus 11:1 “Now the Lord had said to Moses, ‘I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.’” Skip to verse 4, So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the first born son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.’” Skip to Exodus 12:12. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn – both men and animals – and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.” Is there any distinction between Egypt and Israel? Not one bit. But, God does give a way out for the Israelites. Take the blood of a lamb and cover the doorposts with the blood. The Angel of Death will “Passover” these homes.
(End flashback sequence here).

Do you see the correlation? Jesus comes to present and proclaim the kingdom of God in two ways. To free us from the things that enslave us but also to present himself as a Passover lamb that will die to take away the wrath of God.
The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is waging war against the false kingdoms of this earth here and now, and calling people to forsake the one to embrace his. At the same time Jesus is offering himself in our place. So when you look at Mark, the first eight chapters show Jesus waging war against the false kingdoms of the earth. The remainder of Mark shows Jesus offering himself in our place – to save us from eternal punishment.

Mark - Part One

Being an English major, I’ve written many papers. As a literary student, you are always taught to make your point quickly, and make it clear and concise. Mark does just that. Mark opens by saying, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This is very direct. In one sentence, Mark challenged the Roman Empire, fulfilled Jewish hopes, and proclaimed the main point for his gospel.

How did he challenge the Roman Empire? The word “gospel” was a word basically stolen by the church. Gospel was a word used by Caesar’s to announce births, coming into power, or other important events. It means good news. So when Mark uses the word gospel, he is announcing a great event – greater than that of any Caesar. Also, “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name, but means Messiah, anointed one or redeemer. Jesus is not just Israel’s Messiah, he’s more. He is the Son of God for everybody – Jews, Romans, Gentiles and the rest of us.

Another note about the book of Mark is that the climax of this book happens in two places. The first is when Peter says that Jesus is the Son of God. The second is when the Roman Soldier at the cross says that “truly, this is the Son of God.” “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” is more than just an introduction, it is a bold statement. The beginning of the “great news” about a man named Jesus, who is our Messiah, Savior, our Redeemer and the Son of God. Means a bit more now doesn’t it?

Now Mark begins with John the Baptist. John was the one who came before. In Isaiah “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way.” John the Baptist was this messenger. John baptized in the desert and was a prophet like the old prophets in the Old Testament. John’s message – “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This is an important detail, for this is the first time God spoke to his people in over 400 years. Jesus comes to be baptized – not because he was a sinner, but to be identified with John the Baptist’s ministry and with Israel. “As Jesus came out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from Heaven ‘you are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” It is like God is so eager to speak this. Then Jesus was sent out to the desert for 40 days (which is very symbolic) and was tempted.

Mark has to be broken down into sections. This is easier when spoken and obviously more difficult as I am trying to type all this out. But at least for this series the next few verses in capsule form, is the message of Jesus Christ.

Mark 1:14-15 “After John was put in prison; Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’ Again, these versus really are the focal point of Jesus’ message.

Now we can’t really appreciate this in English. But in the Greek tongue, there are two words for time. Chronos: This is regular time. Example – “honey, what time is it?” “It’s 4:30 dear.” Then there is special time, urgent time, opportune time. This is Chyros time. Example – This is when it is 4:30 in the morning and your wife wakes you up and says “my water just broke. It’s time.” That’s not regular time. This is urgent time – opportune time. So this phrase is loaded with meaning to a Jewish audience back then.

Then he goes on to say that the Kingdom of God is near. Now this is hard for us to understand since we don’t live with Kings. But understanding the Old Testament does help us out. God for a long time was Israel’s king. He commanded them and led them. In his kingdom, God was exalted above all other things in creation. He’s king, he's sovereign, he’s lord. He not just my buddy or pal, he’s not just my life enhancer, he’s more. He is King of the universe and worthy of my worship. So the kingdom of God is an expression of God’s rule, his reign; where his will is done. Now in the New Testament, his kingdom is pictured small but able to grow. It is like a treasure that is hidden but that you can find and grab a hold of it. Jesus is now saying that the kingdom of God is available differently than it was before. Before, in the Old Testament, you had to go through the priesthood, the temple and the sacrificial system. Now Jesus has the "audacity" to walk around saying “You’re forgiven.” No sacrifice, no priesthood, no temple. He was systematically dismantling the entire system that was pointing to him, being fulfilled in him, but was now irrelevant because the kingdom was making a personal appearance in Jesus Christ.

Mark - Introduction

I decided to do a study of Mark after listening to messages at RockHarbor Church in Newport Beach, CA. They just inspired me to take notes and I had a burning desire to share what I had learned with others. So without further ado, here begins the study of Mark – and my first shared study (and hopefully more).

Mark is a very interesting book of the Bible. Of the four gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) it is the smallest book. Where it is small, don’t take it to be any less than the other three gospel books. Mark is a very simple, unadorned, yet brilliant account of Jesus’ life and ministry. In my study, I will make reference to verses in Mark, and may even type some of them out. But in no way am I going to write the entire book of Mark out. I recommend sitting down and reading the book of Mark straight through. It takes about a half hour to forty-five minutes to read. You get the best impact of the book when doing this. We actually do a disservice to Mark when we pull stories out versus reading the whole book. The book shows a progression that is hard to see when you just read certain stories.

A statement was made in the message that “it has always been the temptation of the people of God to tame and soften him.” After hearing that statement I realized just how true that was. The people of Israel did that back in the Old Testament. God reveled himself on Mt. Sinai with smoke, thunder, fire and lightning. All while Moses was getting the commandments from God. What do the people of Israel do? They build golden calves to worship – because apparently fire and lightning was just too much. We too wrestle with this daily. If you think about it, much of Christianity doesn’t bare a whole lot of resemblance to Jesus Christ.

Up above I wrote that we should really read Mark from beginning to end. Reason being is that in the book of Mark, we really see that Jesus really stirs up controversy everywhere he goes. The people either loved him or hated him, there was no middle ground. Religious people wanted to kill him – his family wanted to remove him forcefully because they thought he was crazy. The only people who knew who he was then were demons. Mark does a great job in showing us this. We, as followers of Jesus, forget what it is really like to follow him; what it is like to become more like him.

There are people out there, blogs out there that say that “religion” is not only false, but harmful. It makes you a worse kind of person to follow Jesus. There are many arguments against this, but to keep this study simple, we’ll use this one rebuttal. People who have truly met Jesus and have been radically changed by it are proof enough that “religion” is good. Our goal is for Jesus to transform our lives like he did for those people in the past.