ONE IF BY LAND
JESUS SERIES V: WATCH OUT
OPEN: During the Revolutionary War, our young almost-nation put up an intricate series’ of defense mechanisms to save peoples lives. The plan was simple, if the British were coming, they were to hang a lantern in the Boston’s Old North Church Tower. The famous Longfellow poem about Paul Revere records it this way:
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the NorthChurch tower as a signal light,--
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
TRANSITION: The minutemen were on watch, Jesus asks us to be on watch, and gives us a whole lotta commands in order to help us, in order to make us more Christ-like. Today we are going to look at some of these, starting with the first one in Mark 8:14-21. Called “Watch Out.”
1. WATCH OUT
BIBLE VERSE: Mark 8:14-21
14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
16They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
"Twelve," they replied.
20"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
They answered, "Seven."
21He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
A. EXPLANATION: Jesus just got done feeding 5000 people with some bread and some fish. The Jesus looks at them at tells them to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. And they think Jesus is worried about eating. What? What the heck? Did they not get anything?
B. DARWIN AWARDS: Do you know what the Darwin Awards are? They are a bunch of awards given to people for doing some really dumb things. Like the guy who was trying to get rid of a next of bees from his yard, trying not to get stung, he covered his face in a garbage bag only to be found suffocated to death. In context, I would like to make up my own Darwin Awards, only I will call them Dumbwin Awards in order not to give any glory to a pretty meaningless website.
C. DUMBWIN AWARDS:
1) A DUMBWIN AWARD GOES TO THE PERSON WHO THINKS THEY ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO GET INTO HEAVEN ON THEIR OWN.
Last week, we discussed everything with everyone about the Pharisees, and all those Pharisee rules. Jesus was serious about not listening to them, when the Lord saws Watch Out, he means it. We must be careful about listening to people who are “too good” to need a savior.
IS THIS PERSON GOOD ENOUGH FOR HEAVEN?
This will be given independently to each teacher. Just make a list of some great people who have impacted your life, OR, impacted history. Tell what they did that made them great in your opinion. Then, mention one sin they made. Then ask, do they qualify?
David Example: Is there anyone more faithful in the Bible then David? Maybe. He beat Goliath, established the nation of Israel, was an honored king, fought wars, served the Lord. But, he also committed adultery and murder. Does he qualify?
BIBLE: Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.
2) DUMBWIN AWARD #2 GOES TO THE PERSON WHO PHILOSOPHICALLY TRIES TO FIND THEIR OWN WAY TO GOD.
In year 30, there were some groups who felt that Jesus was NOT the way. Two of them were called Sadducees and Pharisees. Today is 2009, and there are millions of people or groups saying the same thing. Here are some:
WHAT SOME GROUPS ARE SAYING (VERY, VERY GENERAL):
Muslim: Get to heaven by following the 5 pillars of faith, or die in a holy war.
Mormon: Pray to the correct Jesus, get baptized for dead people, and become God of your own universe.
Buddhist: Attempt to be self-actualized through peace, and when you are there, go to Nirvana, otherwise, come back as a different animal through reincarnation.
Hindu: Worship up to 270 Million different gods, while attempting to achieve karma, or something.
NOW PAPEZ, YOU’RE BEING TOO PICKY, LOTS OF PEOPLE BELIEVE THESE THINGS? Okay, so I am, does having a lot of people believe it make it real? There have been some historically famous religions that have had a lot of believers, does it make it so?
Greek Mythology: You believe the stories of Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and others on how they fight each other. The whole educated world believed this at one time, does that make it right?
Viking gods: Worship Odin, or any of the other gods, almost all of them vicious and deadly. And for what, what do you get? Some of these religions do not even have a clear afterlife.
Aztec gods: Black-robed priests would take a virgin girl and strip her of heart will it was still beating and attached to her in order to have a good harvest. Most of the ancient Americas believed Aztecs were right.
HERE’S THE POINT: All religions have something in common, all religions require worship of something without evidence and good deeds. Accept One. And Christianity, requires people to know a savior. Jesus! And based on substance AND facts, we come to a conclusion that meets both faith and fact arguments. What am I talking about? The prophesies and the laws of probability of course, here is what I mean.
LAW OF PROBABILITY: This is something I do quite often with the youth. I lay out to them certain prophesies that came true and the certain odds that make them. I do this somewhat random so that the students do it with me instead of me doing it ahead of time. But here is an example:
“The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.” I put that on the board, and ask them how many cities there were in the world at that time, maybe 2000, maybe 20,000, I don’t really know, but I use their number.
“The Messiah will be betrayed by 30 pieces of silver.” What are the odds of that? The exact price of the executioner’s bribe, what are those odds? Maybe 1 in 10,000,000? I let the students tell me.
“The Messiah will be betrayed by a kiss.” You get the idea, I grab about 6 or 7 of the prophesies, if you want a complete list from me let me know. And then mathematically multiple all the odds together, the final number is outrageous. And then I point out that there are 100s of prophecies, and the odds of it happening are just too great to argue.
3) AND FINALLY, DUMBWIN AWARD #3 GOES TO THE PERSON WHO CONSTANTLY THINKS HE CAN LIVE HIS LIFE WITHOUT JESUS.
Nothing specific here from me, on this case I will let the Bible speak by itself (use how many you want).
BIBLE VERSE: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
BIBLE VERSE: Psalm 14 :1 The fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none that does good or right.
BIBLE VERSE: Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
ODD ANIMALS AND HOW AMAZING THEY ARE IN GOD’S CREATION: Just some facts about creation, providing some amazing evidence (I could literally give 1000s):
The Dry Land Argument: Let’s go back to Genesis and take a look at the story as God gave it to Moses. Genesis 1:6 says, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters that are under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." Long, long ago the waters that were over the earth were actually right down here upon the surface. We know that there is a vast ocean in space, suspended in the atmosphere. We’ll find out just what purpose it serves in a moment, but at one time that water was resting right here upon the earth. God divided it and lifted a part of it up into the heavens while part of it remained here.
Now look at verses 9 and 10. "And God said, Let the water under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good." How did Moses know there would be several oceans or seas? He had absolutely no human way of knowing there could be more than one body of water in the entire world. He never went around to see how many oceans were in the world, but God inspired this truth in Moses’ mind. He said there were seas or oceans.
Here’s another good question to ask. How did Moses know that all these various bodies of water would be connected and would rest in only one bed? Now, isn’t that what he said? "Let all the waters be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear."
The Color Argument: God did not have to clothe the ugly, bare soil with such a covering. Functionally, there needed to be no bright colors. Human beings could have survived on a bleak planet of gray ground and colorless plants. But they could not have survived as happily. Did color evolve by accident?
The Land to Water Ratio Argument: Now let’s see how intelligence and design came into the ratio of land and water. One-quarter of the earth’s surface is dry land, and three-quarters is covered with water. In the United States alone we have three and three-quarter million square miles of dry land, and all of it has to be watered and cared for. In fact, if it weren’t watered, there would be no vegetation and no growing grass or trees.
Just imagine for a moment that the ratio of land and water was changed from what it is at present. The proportion of water and land determines the rainfall on the earth. Suppose the ocean was only half its present size. That would mean our rainfall would only be one-quarter of what we now receive. What would that mean for the three and three-quarter million square miles of land we have in these United States? All of it would be turned into a vast, dry desert! But on the other hand, if half the present land were added to the ocean, there would be four times as much rainfall as there is now, and the entire United States would be turned into a vast marshland where human life would be almost impossible. Now suppose that mankind had to water this entire three and three-quarter million square miles of land. How could we ever spread out that water and irrigate the land effectively? What a tremendous task that would be!
The Rain Argument: What about the third problem—transportation? The water that is lifted up is still hanging over the ocean, which doesn’t need any more water. God sends along winds to blow the clouds and spread them out over the dry land area where it is needed. But how to get all the water down out of the clouds? Here is another wonderful miracle. Cold will contract, of course, so when the clouds pass over the mountain peaks, the cold air reaches up and begins to cool those clouds, turning the vapor into a condensation of moisture.
Now consider what would happen if the clouds gave up all the water they contain at one time—it would flood the entire surface of the earth with three feet of water! Therefore, the cooling process must be gradual. For example, if the temperature of the cloud is lowered by 9 degrees, it will drop half its water! So God arranges for a gradual cooling process to let the rain come down in gentle to vigorous showers to provide the amounts needed to revive the earth. What an incredible process! Of course, some of it rains back into the ocean, but it is needed there to provide the necessary amount of oxygen for fish living in salty ocean beds.
Did you know that these great facts of nature were all known and understood long before the scientists and naturalists discovered them? Ecclesiastes 1:7 is a most interesting verse. "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full." Why not? The text continues to give the answer. "Unto the place from whence the river comes, thither they return again."
The Gas Argument: Now consider another, even greater, miracle. The atmosphere around us is made up of two main ingredients—nitrogen and oxygen—whose mixture is always the same, whether at the highest mountaintops or in the deepest caves. The perfect balance is 79 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen. You might ask, "Why is it this way?" Is there some particular reason for it? Is it important that we have this exact mixture of nitrogen and oxygen?" Yes, I can assure you it is most important. If the nitrogen were increased, our life processes would slow down and we would die. If the oxygenwere measurably increased, our life processes would be rapidly increased. Our pulse rate would just run away and soon we would wear out and die. But God made it just right.
Suppose, for example, it was two-thirds nitrogen and one-third oxygen. If that proportion prevailed, and an electrical reaction caused the elements to combine, do you realize that the whole world would be turned into laughing maniacs? Everybody would be laughing because that would produce the laughing gas, N2O, the same kind dentists sometimes use when extracting teeth. Or suppose it was divided half and half. That would produce nitric oxide, which is quickly fatal to all forms of life.
Was it just a lucky accident that it came out like this?
The Fish Eyes Argument: Let’s hurry along now and take a quick look at the creatures of nature and see how intelligence and design came into the picture. Think for a moment of the fish that inhabit the oceans. They are constantly subject to attack from their enemies from above—like the gulls that swoop down to make their meals off marine life. Do you know that fish have specially constructed eyeballs enabling them to look almost instantly in any and all directions? They see behind, below, above and on the sides; furthermore, their eyes are designed to take into account the refraction of light.
Yes, fish can see 30 percent farther than other visual instruments because God designed the eyeball of the fish to take into consideration the refraction of light. We tend to think it’s a wonderful accomplishment when the oculist manufactures special goggles for divers that compensate for refraction in the water, yet God did it for fish long before. Goggles could never have come into existence by chance, yet evolutionists contend that a fish’s specialized eyeballs just happened.
In the waters of Malaya lives a fish with bifocal lenses built right in its eyes. This little sardine-sized fish is prized for food by the seagulls especially. They are constantly swooping down to gobble up this little fish if they can. So the little fish has to watch carefully for this approaching danger. It must have good far vision, but since it feeds on the microscopic larvae that abound in the water, it must have very good near vision as well. And do you know the Creator provided a little membrane that comes halfway up on its eyes, giving it bifocal vision? That little fish can look up and see the gulls coming or look down and see those nearby bits of life that it can feed on!
The Ousel Argument: Now let’s examine two Pacific coast water birds. I can find no stronger evidence of design in nature than with the Ousel, a very friendly little bird that lives near mountain streams. It can usually be found where the water is swift-flowing and splashy. This buoyant bird will be floating along, apparently weightless, and then suddenly sink to the bottom like a piece of lead. There he walks around picking up bits of food on the streambed. After taking his fill, he goes over to the bank, shakes himself, and mysteriously sets himself afloat again like a wisp of smoke.
It has been discovered that this strange bird has some special equipment—a muscular apparatus that can instantly exhaust every bit of air from its body, letting it sink down; then when it walks out, it can take in air again and float off once more. Accident?
The “Forceps” Bird Argument: Another kind of bird found on the Pacific coast lives on a diet of large worms that live in holes in the sand. Because this worm is down at the very bottom of its hole, the bird must go down to get the worm out. It so happens that, although its beak is exactly the right length to reach into the hole, the narrow hole keeps the beak squeezed shut. What a predicament—to be able to see and reach a luscious worm but not be able to open his beak to pick it up! Do you know what God arranged for this particular bird? He created a tiny flap much like a surgeon’s forceps at the bottom of the beak. With this special organ the bird can pick up the worm, back out of the hole, and gobble it down!
The Bee “Brush” Argument: When bees crawl into pollen-filled blossoms, their breathing apparatus gets all stopped up with pollen. In fact, they can’t even breathe while they are inside gathering their pollen.
Now it so happens that every bee has a special brush located on its knees—a stiff brush—that it uses to clean out its breathing apparatus when it comes out of the flower so it doesn’t suffocate. This biologist noted that if it were true that these insects develop special equipment in response to a need, the very first bee to exist did not have those brushes on its knees. When it went into the flower, it would have suffocated; consequently, the whole bee family would have become extinct right then and there. No, rather than these brushes developing slowly through the ages in response to a need, they were provided by God to meet the need and save the very first bee that was made.
The Cocklebur Argument: One of the most thrilling facts I learned about the miracles of nature concerned the lowly cocklebur. Surely it is one of the most despised of all plants due to its clinging, pricking nature. Yet consider the marvel of its reproduction. Every pod of the cocklebur has two seeds inside to guarantee its survival. But during the first year only one of the seeds will begin to grow. The other seed waits till the second year to start growing in order to perpetuate two seasons of growth. But if something happens to the first seed so that it does not grow and produce, the second seed begins to grow immediately instead of waiting for the next year. What built-in wisdom of God communicates to that waiting seed that it should begin to grow when the first seed is destroyed? No evolutionist has been able to harmonize miracles like this with their theories of naturalism and chance.
I COULD GIVE THOUSANDS, AND IF I HAD THE TIME MILLIONS OF REASONS JUST LIKE THESE.
QUICK TRANSITION (say it abruptly): “But there are those who say the whole world is an accident—AN ACCIDENT. An accident applies no purpose, no purpose applies worthless, and those who are too arrogant to accept the truth of the World’s Creation are directly saying they and every human is worthless. Are you Worthless?
CLOSE: We are too keep watch. An order. And watch for what? Watch when non-believers or false religious leaders author up bogus tails about Christ, and dismiss those. Amen? Amen.
Sources:
Crews, Joe. Amazingfacts.org, ONE: God’s Handiwork, Amazing Wonders of Creation, Copyright 2005.
Swanger, David. Darwin Awards 2003, Tennessee Christian Church of Christ, March 2003.
NAME: ___________________
ONE IF BY LAND
JESUS SERIES V: WATCH OUT
OPEN
WATCH OUT:
BIBLE VERSE: Mark 8:14-21
EXPLANATION: _______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
AWARD #1: GOES TO THE PERSON WHO THINKS THEY ARE __________________ ___________TO GET INTO HEAVEN ON THEIR ______________________________.
BIBLE: Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall _________________________ of the Glory of God.
AWARD #2: GOES TO THE PERSON WHO PHILOSOPHICALLY TRIES TO FIND THEIR _____________________ WAY TO __________________________.
What some groups are saying:
A. ________________________________________________________________________________
B. ________________________________________________________________________________
C. ________________________________________________________________________________
D. ________________________________________________________________________________
E. ________________________________________________________________________________
F. ________________________________________________________________________________
G. ________________________________________________________________________________
AWARD #3: GOES TO THE PERSON WHO CONSTANTLY THINKS HE CAN LIVE HIS _____________________ WITHOUT _____________________________________.
BIBLE VERSE: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is ______________, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
BIBLE VERSE: Psalm 14 :1 The ______________________________ says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none that does good or right.
BIBLE VERSE: Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.