connecting

When God Offends Me
Phil Schaefer
4/5/09

 

Key Scripture: Mark 6:1-6- “ He went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him. And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.
And Jesus said to them,” A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives, and in his own household. And He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.”

Introduction:
            The definition of the word offense- from the Greek word skandalizo, meaning to put a snare or stumbling block in the way. It is used fourteen times in the book of Matthew, and eight times in the book of Mark. It is used for something that arouses prejudice, or becomes a hindrance to others, or causes them to fall away.
Romans 9:33- “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, but he who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
1 Cor 1:23- “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to the Gentiles.”-  
This is the offense of the cross. When we’re dealing with the things of God, this thing of offense can happen. The verb  offense is very strong. These people were mentally upset. Their questions had a derogatory inflection. “Where did this man get these things?” Who does he think he is? They knew him only too well. Twice the word amazed is used. “ Those who heard Him were astonished- amazed.”( vs. 2) “And He marveled- was amazed. Because of their unbelief.” (vs. 6)
The parallel reference to this in Luke 4:16-30 has Jesus reading from Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This occurred at the highpoint of Jesus’ ministry, but also must have been a low point for Him, because of the rejection that He found among His own people. They drove Him out of the city, and were wanting to stone Him. His reputation was known among them. He was around them all of His life, They were his family, and was still misunderstood by them.

 

 

II.Being offended by God.
     A.   I suppose if there is one problem that I hear about over and over in regards to faith, it is this one of being offended by God..And my honest opinion is that we are all offended by God at some point in our lives.
     B.  The tricky part is that we usually will not say that we are offended by God. Usually we are offended by a church, or another person, or the whole Christian thing.

  • No Perfect People- John Burke- pg.90 and 106. – Deanna’s story-“ Due to a bad childhood  experience, I hated church so much that I would nearly vomit before I stepped through the door.” She hated how she believed that Christians beat people over the head with the Bible. She came to Gateway and found others who, like her, were seeking God,. like her sometimes got lost, frustrated, confused and irritated. She was taught that it was o.k. to be herself. She said “thank you for making the nausea go away,”

II. Offenses come from many different perspectives

  • We can be offended because of some adult.
    • a youth worker, a pastor, a trusted person who let you down, an authority figure who corrected you, or who didn’t talk to you.
  • We can be offended because of a system.
      • Your church, your denomination, your youth group
      • ‘Our youth group only caters to the cool kids’
      • ‘Our youth group only caters to the spiritual kids.’
      • ‘Our youth group only cares about the good kids, and I’m not one of them.’
  • We can be offended by a ministry.
    • It just didn’t work out.
    • You get passed over for something you wanted to do.
    • Someone else got the credit.
    • Your ministry didn’t get the recognition that you thought it deserved.
    •  The vote – the “thing” didn’t go your way.
  • We can be offended because of a doctrine.
    • People being argumentative, dogmatic, insistent that they are right and you are wrong...
  • We can be offended because of an expectation from God, and He didn’t come through.
    • John the Baptist was offended by Jesus,  because he expected Jesus to come in judgment, and Jesus came in compassion. It was a stumbling block for him. He asked, “Are you the one?”
  • We can be offended because of an over-familiarity with church and religious training, and how we think God should work.
    • NPPPA- page 193 -Laura’s story- Lara grew up in a Christian home, thought she knew all about the truth, but she didn’t know Jesus- the truth. She never experienced the community and love of Christ.. She hated church, she hated Jesus. She was offended by her idea of Christianity. She came to Gateway and was loved and accepted by others, she began to read her Bible. She began to see what God was like through seeing the lives of others, who shared with her and helped her.

 

III. What are some of the signs that we are carrying an offense?

    • We withdraw, so as not to get hurt.
    • We still believe but we are less trusting of people and churches and authority figures, so as not to get hurt or duped again.
    • We take back what we had entrusted to God in earlier times.
    • We assign blame to others, and carry that blame in our hearts.
    • A conversation I had in church one time

“The church didn’t come through for me.”
“Well who is the church? Do you mean that Dan didn’t come through for you?”
“No.”
”Did you mean that Mike did something to you?”
“Well, no.”
“Do you mean the elders?”
“No, I mean the church.”
“Do you realize that you’re the church? The church isn’t some organization apart from you. The church is people just like you. People who make mistakes like you do. People who don’t always see things your way, just like you don’t always see things their way.”

    • Laura-“I had such a negative stereotype of a plastic, Bible thumping façade.. But I started to realize that all Christians are just like me: They struggle just like I’m struggling. Some just express it differently.

IV. Mark gives us insight into what happens to us when we take offense.

  1. Mark 6:4-5  “a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there.”
  2. They were offended, and wouldn’t honor God for who He is. They said ,”Who does He think He is??” We won’t worship God or exalt Him because our offense is taking up space in our hearts.
  3. When we are offended we can’t see or acknowledge the work of God that is going on around us.
    1. The offense is the speck in our eye that gets in the way of our seeing God at work all around.
    2. These people could not receive anything from Jesus because of their offense.
  4. When we hold on to an offense, we can not hold onto faith. “And He marveled because of their unbelief.”

V. The Solution to offense

  1. The solution is not in letting go of the offense. That is really the problem, that we can’t let go. But that is not the solution.
  2. The solution is found in the theme of Mark’s gospel. Mark’s theme is in every chapter and every account that we have read. It is answered in two questions:
    1. Who is Jesus?
    2. What is my response to Him?
  1. Our response to Him has to be more than letting the offense go. It must be taking hold of Jesus.
  2. Laura’s account says it like this: “I started to believe what one person said to me, that I had a God shaped void in my life and only Jesus could really fill it and make me whole again. In spite of the past, the offense, the hypocrisy, the hostility, the pain, it was the realization that only Jesus could make me whole.”

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Discussion questions:

What is the root cause of offense?

Has there been a time when you were offended by a church, another Christian, or a doctrine? Share how that affected your life.

Have you ever tried to worship God with an offense in your heart toward someone? How does that affect your ability to worship?

What is the only real solution to offense?

 

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