Welcome to our Together on Mission Podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your hopes to strive as find the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this season of the Together on Mission Podcast, and I am going to get rolling. No preliminaries, go to Mark chapter 10.
We're going to talk about marriage, and when I talk about marriage, I just can't stop talking. And so we're going to get right into it. Happy Tuesday morning, Mark chapter 10. The title of the podcast today and probably tomorrow is not to, but one.
And here's the question. If you were your marriage counselor, which is weird, but if you were your marriage counselor, what would you say to you today concerning your marriage? What action step or thing would you strongly, strongly encourage you to do today to implement in your marriage today, right now, immediately? And maybe the answer to that question comes rather quickly.
Great. Then hold it in your heart as we're just talking in the presence of Jesus morning, or maybe you have to ponder that for just a bit. And if you do, that's a really, really good thing to do. And if your first answer to that question was something that your spouse could do better, then just stay on yourself and keep thinking and pondering.
But if you were your marriage counselor, what would you say to you today to do immediately concerning your marriage? And this might be a little bit cheesy, but I tell couples all the time, especially those that I'm about to marry that your marriage can't simply be a portrait that you hang on the wall and hope that it always looks good. Rather, your marriage is like a garden and it needs to be tended and cared for and kept and pruned and new stuff needs to be planted and old stuff needs to be torn out. And that's how it stays good because when God looked at the very first married couple, Adam and Eve, he said, whoa, very, very good.
So that's the question. If you were your marriage counselor, what would you say to you today concerning your marriage that you must implement immediately? That is the question. And Mark, chapter 10, verse 1, Jesus then left the place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again, crowds of people came to him and as was his custom, he taught them. Some Pharisees came up to him and asked him this, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Well, what did Moses command you? Jesus replied.
They said, well, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away or put his wife away. It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law, Jesus replied, but at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.
You know what we're going to finish this passage tomorrow. I'm realizing that for sure. This is going to be part one of a two-part podcast. So we'll continue in verse 10 tomorrow morning.
And although the modern Bible translators call this passage, you know, divorce, that's a bad title. This is not a passage about divorce. This is a passage about what marriage is, what marriage actually is, what God intended marriage to be. When God thought up marriage, this is what he meant.
That's what this passage is about. And marriage is tough and it's wonderful and it's exhausting and it's exhilarating. And I'm actually doing a wedding this weekend. And so I'm thinking a lot about the wedding ceremony and what marriage is and what God intended to be.
And you may not be married. Don't stop the podcast because well, you may feel called to a single celibate life. And if that's your gift, what a beautiful gift. Accept it and live in the freedom of celibacy and singleness just like Jesus did.
But chances are, if you're not married, you will be eventually. And so keep listening because I think it's important, maybe even more important to know what God intended marriage to be prior to marriage. So we know what we're saying yes to. We know about the covenant, about the sacrament and just one more thing to all of us that are single.
There is a right person myth and the right person myth goes like this. When I meet the right person, then everything will be all right. But that's not necessarily true. In fact, it's hardly ever true.
Rather, when I become the kind of person that the right person is looking for, then everything will be all right. It's about becoming the right kind of person. And all of Jesus of Nazareth's teachings, especially concerning the single life, is not about finding the right person and everything will be all right. It's about becoming the kind of person that the right person is actually looking for.
So if you're dating, keep listening. Certainly if you're married, keep listening and let's pick up what Jesus is laying down because this is Jesus talking about what marriage is, the design of marriage, what God meant when he meant marriage. And it's very interesting that in the first verse in chapter 10, it gives us the region of Judea across the Jordan. Now this is Herod territory.
And maybe you remember Herod had taken his brother, Philip's wife. He had taken Herodias whom his brother, Philip, had been married to. And so this whole divorce and remarriage was a very hot social political topic in the day. It was dangerous to even speak about it because Herod ruled the land.
It was politically a hot topic. Do we know anything about political hot topics in our day and age? Never mind. That's a whole another podcast.
So this was a very hot topic, this divorce and remarriage and what God meant when he meant marriage. And notice the Pharisees come up and talk to Jesus about, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Well, in the first century, there were two rabbinic Phariseical schools, the school of Shema'i, which was conservative, and the school of Hel'el, which was a little bit liberal. And the conservative Pharisees had a bit more of a stringent divorce policy.
But the Hel'elites, the liberal Pharisees, they had a very liberal divorce policy. In fact, one Hel'elite Pharisees said that you could divorce your wife if she burnt your toast. And so this was a storm center of discussion. And of course, they're trying to fit Jesus into their old wineskins.
Which school are you in? Is it lawful to divorce your wife for any and every reason? And Jesus, as we know, will not be fit into old categories, into old wineskins, because behold, Jesus is doing something new. And so Jesus says, well, what did Moses command you?
And it's interesting that Jesus is claiming Moses instead of avoiding Moses, and their answer is, well Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. And that is true. That's in the Old Testament law. And that was actually good, or it was better, than how it was done in the ancient world.
You see, women were looked at as property in ancient Babylon, ancient Assyria, and the Mosaic law, which said, if you do divorce your wife, give her a certificate of divorce. That covered so much ground in the ancient world, in the protection, the affirmation of women. That was so honoring in its historical context, that certificate of divorce. It covered a great deal of ground, but so much more must be covered, because the Old Testament is always pointing beyond itself to a fulfillment.
And what Jesus is saying, and what he's going to say in just a moment, is what the Mosaic law intended is now here. So let's get back to God's original design. Let's get back, or forward, to what Genesis 1 and 2 was all about, because Jesus says, well, your hearts were hard. That was why that was said.
But now, something new is here. What God pointed to in Genesis 1 and 2, Jesus says, in the beginning, I have brought the fulfillment, not only of the Mosaic law, but the fulfillment of what God intended when he created male and female in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 2. And so God says in verse 6, or Jesus says in verse 6, but at the beginning of creation, God made the male and female. For this reason, the man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one, therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.
And again, this passage is not about divorce. Divorce is the abuse of marriage. This passage is about marriage. About what God intended.
See, God thought up marriage. He invented it. He created it. God created something as mysterious and intoxicating as a kiss.
God created Adam and Eve to be intimate allies. He joined them together as one flesh in the name of the fathers and the Holy Spirit. Marriage is a sacrament. It's the deepest and most complimentary relationship on earth.
It's exclusive. It's committed. And it's not two anymore, but one. And what God has joined together, let no one separate.
This is just a glorious view of what marriage is and what God meant when he made marriage. And I think a good question at this point is, what is the enemy using to separate your marriage? How is the enemy seeking to lead you toward divorce? What's the enemy's plan that's underway right now to steal and kill and destroy your marriage?
Or if you're single, what is the enemy doing or tempting you to do? That will have consequences in your future marriage. I tell people all the time and single people when it comes to marriage preparation that your present will soon be your past. And your past will always, always show up in your future.
So what is the enemy doing now or tempting you to do now that will have consequences in your future marriage? And I believe, and I got to land this plan. Remember, this is going to be part one of a two-part podcast. I believe that this is a word on marriage, a word for marriage, a word that we need to hear, male and female, committed life along, faithful, pleasure-filled journey of intimate allies together in the midst of the battle.
I think this is a word for our culture, for our church, for our marriages, for our kids to hear and to see. And it's a word that brings life. And remember, the question that I asked at the beginning of our podcast, this morning, if you were your marriage counselor, what would you strongly encourage you to implement today in your marriage? What would it be?
Right? Maybe it's time to stop talking and listen. Time to risk, time to forgive, time to let go, time to give that up, time to pursue, and that way, time to give space that's needed, time to forgive, time to go the extra mile. Maybe it's time to plan a date.
Maybe it's time to scratch your plan and just relax and just let go. Maybe it's time to be more honest or time to do the dishes or time to change that diaper, time to buy some lingerie and pursue your spouse in a way that you haven't, and maybe a while. Maybe it's time to rent a note and leave it on the dashboard of the cards. Maybe it's time to give a second chance, time to talk about that or forgive and let that go.
What is the enemy stolen that God wants to mend? How is the enemy seeking to steal and kill and destroy? What does it look like to take back the ground that the enemy has taken? What does it look like to be one with the one that God has made you want to make?
What does it look like to be one with and what God has joined together? Let no one separate. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast.
We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store, and check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvignard.org.