{"id":1236,"date":"2015-02-09T06:39:23","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T12:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2015-02-09T06:39:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T12:39:23","slug":"the-greatest-story-ever-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/02\/09\/the-greatest-story-ever-told\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Story Ever Told"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/sermons\/?sermon_id=54\">Audio Version<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lxi8t13SXD8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>1 Corinthians 9:16\u201323<br \/>\nMark 1:29\u201339<\/p>\n<p>Sickness, not being whole, comes in all forms. Our sins, keep us from being whole, as God intended. We cannot make ourselves whole. We are a broken people in need of healing. The greatest story every told, the gospel of Jesus Christ, tells us of how to be whole again.<\/p>\n<p>Proclamation of the gospel is what Jesus is about in our reading from Mark. Proclamation can and does take many forms and how we respond to the proclamation of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, comes not out of obligation, not our of rules, dogma of a religion. Our response comes when we realize who Jesus is, in what Jesus defines Himself as, and what Jesus does for us.<\/p>\n<p>We are in the first chapter of Jesus\u2019 ministry, the first chapter of the greatest story every told. Let me set the stage. Before our text for today, Jesus has called his first disciples and we find them in the synagogue, Jesus teaches the people there and someone among those being taught is sick. This man is not healthy; another way of looking at it is he is not whole, his entirety of his body, mind and soul are not as God would have it. On the Sabbath, Jesus heals this man and then leaves the synagogue.<\/p>\n<p>Now we are into our text for today. After the healing in the synagogue, Jesus and the first disciples head to Simon\u2019s house. It is still Sabbath, a time of rest, a time for NO work to be done. Jesus shows compassion, grace when he finds Simon\u2019s mother-in-law, sick in bed. Jesus reaches out to the woman and taking her by her hand, extends her His grace to her, lifts her up and makes her whole. The woman then responds to the gospel of Jesus Christ and ignores the law of the Jewish religion and begins to serve Jesus and the others present.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry of Jesus has started and the woman is the first to respond to the gospel. It\u2019s not about tradition, but about the good news of Jesus and response to being made whole by God, through Jesus Christ. The good news, the gospel being preached, God comes to bring wholeness to everyone, and this day it started in a home.<\/p>\n<p>The first churches were in people&#8217;s homes, they were missionary in nature and involved being in small communities. In many ways, we are seeing a trend of that today. Congregation sizes are dropping and churches are closing. That doesn\u2019t have to stop the proclamation of the gospel and neither will it stop the gospel. There are reports of home churches all over the country. Now we the faithful disciples need to become creative in carrying out the Great Commission.<\/p>\n<p>I was recently gathered with some pastors and seminarians at what is referred to as \u201cBeer and Theology\u201d. This gathering of people is held at a tavern and we have beverages while we discuss theological issues we have been thinking about. This in its self can seem a little creative. The last discussion we had was over the idea of something called \u201cAshes to Go\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The concept of Ashes to Go, is to do something a little different than a traditional Ash Wednesday night service. This nontraditional act would take place in a public place, such as a parking lot of a church, or a public parking lot, a business parking lot. The idea is to be able to provide ashes to anyone that you see. Our discussion centered around wither this was a valid way of distribution of ashes. Some people felt the ashes should only be given during a full service. Others added, by offering outside of the normal service, behavior of not attending church was being encouraged. What I kept hearing was exclusivity, rules, law not grace.<\/p>\n<p>When Jesus reached to the woman at Simon\u2019s house, he healed her. He did not wait for sundown, as the law would have required. He violated the law of the Sabbath. He did not question her first, put rules or anything else that would have excluded her from His healing grace.\u00a0\u00a0 This healing act was the start of something new. When ashes are provided to people outside of the church service, who says that this is not the start of something new, a way of entry into the gospel. One person during our discussion kept on bringing up the point that the there was no proclamation, meaning nothing of God\u2019s word. However, I disagree. The ashes show us our mortality. Humans seem to have an innate desire for life and Jesus is the way of life, in our mortality. Those providing the ashes are Christian, followers of Jesus the Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Proclamation can come in many different forms. Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words. This quote is attributed to St. Frances of Assisi but there is no proof that he actually said this. Either way, the gospel proclaimed, comes in many different shapes and forms. We look for new and creative ways to preach the gospel. The gospel is over 2,000 years old and it is tried and true.<\/p>\n<p>The good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ died for our sins. The woman made whole, I am sure was not aware of Jesus\u2019s pending death, or of His resurrection. What she did know is that Jesus made her whole and Jesus makes each of us whole through His death. It is grace through faith that we are saved, because of God in Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>In 1956 Billy Graham conducted a crusade in Oklahoma City. One noonday he spoke to a joint meeting of the city\u2019s civic clubs. Dr. Graham\u2019s message was a simple sermon on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. \u00a0At the end of the meeting some of the men in attendance rushed forward to thank him for his message. One said, \u201cI have been going to church all my life, but that is the first time I have ever heard that! It is the greatest thing I ever heard.\u201d<sup><sup><a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The story has been around for over 2,000 years. It has been translated and will continue to be translated into multiple languages. Proclaimed in different ways but at the core of it is, we are saved by grace through faith.<\/p>\n<p>From the Nicene Creed it says,<\/p>\n<p>For us human beings and for our salvation [H]e came down from the heavens, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and \u00a0became a human being. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; [H]e \u00a0suffered death, and was buried.<sup><sup><a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Proclamation of the gospel, now matter what form that someone is made whole through, is the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the greatest story every told.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\"><sup><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Herschel H. Hobbs, <em>My Favorite Illustrations<\/em> (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 126.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\"><sup><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, <em>The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/em> (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audio Version 1 Corinthians 9:16\u201323 Mark 1:29\u201339 Sickness, not being whole, comes in all forms. Our sins, keep us from being whole, as God intended. We cannot make ourselves whole. We are a broken people in need of healing. The greatest story every told, the gospel of Jesus Christ, tells us of how to be &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/02\/09\/the-greatest-story-ever-told\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[87,29,11,37,78,10,5,34,58,83,39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-1236","6":"format-standard","7":"category-christ","8":"category-community","9":"category-death","10":"category-discipleship","11":"category-gospel","12":"category-jesus","13":"category-law","14":"category-mission","15":"category-response","16":"category-sermon","17":"category-sin-2","18":"category-theology-of-the-cross"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-jW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":492,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/15\/gospel-centered-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":0},"title":"Gospel Centered Change?","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"June 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio Version Galatians 1:11-17 11\u00a0For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man\u2019s gospel. 12\u00a0For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13\u00a0For you have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Grace&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Grace","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/grace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1970,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2017\/12\/24\/god-does-and-comes-to-us-in-all-circumstances\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":1},"title":"God does and comes to us, in all circumstances","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"December 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday, December 24, 2017 | Advent Fourth Sunday of Advent Year B On the same date: Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Eve Old Testament 2 Samuel 7:1\u201311, 16 Luke 1:46b\u201355 New Testament Romans 16:25\u201327 Gospel Luke 1:26\u201338 \u00a0 https:\/\/youtu.be\/BVbl-DOgRXk God comes to us even from the very beginning. Sometimes I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Advent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Advent","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/advent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.turnbacktogod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Mother-Mary-and-Angel-02.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1375,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/26\/faith-in-jesus-and-his-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":2},"title":"Faith in Jesus and His Power","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"July 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/gFXr2HVmFm0 Audio Version Lamentations 3:23\u201333 Mark 5:21\u201343 The gospel of Mark tells of another story of the power that Jesus has.\u00a0 First Jesus shows His power over the natural elements, in the calming of the winds and sea.\u00a0 Then he shows the power He has over demons, in the casting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Death&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Death","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/death\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/gFXr2HVmFm0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1292,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/11\/truth-and-witness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":3},"title":"Truth and Witness","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"April 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/XodTgtIaY68 Audio Version Easter Resurrection of the Lord Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 John 20:1-18 Can I get a consensus, that to tell a lie is wrong? What about a \u201cwhite lie\u201d? What about withholding information that would be beneficial to someone? What if the information may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Christ&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Christ","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/christ\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/XodTgtIaY68\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1017,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/12\/respond-step-out-and-trust-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":4},"title":"Respond, Step out and Trust Jesus","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"August 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio Link [youtube:http:\/\/youtu.be\/lW2vcgw0pa0] 1 Kings 19:9\u201318 Psalm 85:8\u201313 Romans 10:5\u201315 Matthew 14:22\u201333 Our God comes to us in many shapes and forms.\u00a0 God loves us and wants the best for us always.\u00a0 God loves all of humanity and wants the best for all of God\u2019s creatures.\u00a0 Do you believe that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Evangelism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Evangelism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/evangelism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/lW2vcgw0pa0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1193,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/27\/sloth-or-caterpillar\/","url_meta":{"origin":1236,"position":5},"title":"Sloth or Caterpillar?","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"January 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Audio Version http:\/\/youtu.be\/kBwSV4Iu0Rs Jonah 3:1\u20135, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29\u201331 Mark 1:14\u201320 How do we respond to the calling for change? Many people do not like change and often, put up a fight or flight response to change. 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