ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, September 25, 2022

Rule Keeping versus Relationships.

Today, Pastor Michael is back in the book of Mark looking at the Pharisees, John the Baptist, Jesus, his followers, the whole enchilada.  And all those folks are trying to figure out what is going on…why don’t Jesus’ disciples fast for starters.  Why do they have to be so different? 

Mosaic law only required fasting only on the Day of Atonement but by the first century, it was practiced twice a week. Jesus’ response came from a custom of the time and a metaphor that John the Baptist had used. When celebrating at a wedding, did the associates of the bridegroom fast?  Jesus was picturing Himself as a bridegroom at a feast, but He indicated this joyous situation would change. A time would come when He would be taken away from them and in that day they would fast.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 2:18–22. That Jesus’s disciples do not follow the examples of the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees, both of whom were considered morally and ritually exemplary, is a further cause of offense to his contemporaries (2:18). Although fasting was technically required of Jews only on the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:29–30), Pharisees typically fasted every Monday and Thursday. The Pharisees understood true religion to consist of fasting (i.e., what is not done), whereas in this story Jesus understands it as feasting (i.e., what is done).

So, something unique was happening.  He was present and that wouldn’t last forever.  The disciples didn’t understood what that meant but sanctified grieving is coming.  So Jesus was letting everyone know that it was a time to be together and feast, the time of fasting was soon to be.

Instead of a system where people assume if they follow enough of the rules, they will have a relationship with God, Jesus put the relationship FIRST.  It didn’t come from rule following, but because there is a relationship, we want to do what is right, out of love and respect to Him.

Verses can be found today in Mark 2: 18-22.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, September 18, 2022

God Doesn’t Choose People Like People Choose People!

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about Matthew and how the Lord doesn’t pick people for His use, as we pick people.  We pick up in Mark, Chapter 2 and the story finds us in the vicinity of Capernaum and Jesus passes a tax office.  Not like today’s tax offices, this was a place where folks paid their taxes, so it wasn’t exactly a destination of choice by anyone in those days.  Jesus sees Levi in the tax office and tells him to “Follow me”, and Levi did just that.  Now Levi is also known by his better known name, Matthew.  So Matthew does start to follow Jesus, itself a crazy act from both Jesus’ side and Matthew’s side.  

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 2:13–17. Mark 2:13 describes Jesus teaching beside the Sea of Galilee. “Teaching” indicates the essential role that instruction plays in Jesus’s ministry, and the large crowds that attend it indicate the public nature of the gospel.

The Roman tax system functioned, in part, by renegade Jews like Levi receiving a franchise to collect taxes in set regions (2:14). Whatever amount a tax collector obtained in addition to the contracted sum was his to keep. The Roman system of taxation thus attracted unscrupulous individuals. That Jesus would call as a disciple a tax collector was no less offensive than his touching of a leper (1:40–45).

This story repeats and reinforces the truth of 2:1–12: there He forgave sins; here He demonstrates forgiveness of sinners by eating with them (2:15). The scandal of Jesus’s eating with tax collectors (2:16) consists in the fact that He does not make moral repentance a precondition of His acceptance and love of sinners.

The big summary herein is Jesus picks those unexpected folks that we’d never likely even consider.  A tax collector in those days was not a popular individual.  The scribes, Pharisees and other locals were pretty vocal about Jesus hanging with a tax collector.  They were essentially disgusted; guilt by association, if you will.  

Yet Jesus saw something in Matthew that no one else saw.  God does big things with people we wouldn’t necessarily pick.  The Church is made up of people that don’t always have it together; folks that know they have flaws.  If you’re a hot mess, Jesus loves you and so does Recreate Church!

Verses can be found today in Mark 2: 13-17.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, September 11, 2022

Remove the Roof to Healing.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about Jesus being all around Galilee then on to Capernaum, which was kind of his home base of ministry.  Hometown of Simon Peter as well and folks are wanting to get their healing on. Jesus was most likely staying with Simon Peter in Capernaum.

So everyone hears that Jesus is back in town, so folks swarmed the house to get some of Jesus’ healing and time.  So many were there, some couldn’t get into the house, where Jesus was preaching the Word.  A paralyzed person wanted healing from Jesus but it simply was too packed; four men came carrying him on a mat.  But it’s so packed they cannot get in the house!  

So in a brilliant bit of creative thinking, the four friends carrying him removed the roof and lowered him, on the mat, down to Jesus.  Seeing their faith, Jesus exclaimed, “Son, your sins are forgiven” which made some of the old scribes there feeling like Jesus was blaspheming by offering to forgive sins.  

Jesus told the scribes it was easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven” rather than “Get up, take your mat and walk”.  But to reinforce that the Son of Man has true authority, He told the man, “I tell you: get up, take your mat and go home”.

Which he did.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 2:6–12. Mention of forgiveness of sins shifts the story abruptly from the paralytic to the scribes (2:6). Offended by Jesus’s pronouncement of forgiveness, the scribes accuse Jesus of blasphemy, for only God can forgive sins (2:7; cf. Ex 34:6–7; Ps 103:3; Is 43:25; Mc 7:18). Desiring the onlookers to know that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (2:10), Jesus provides evidence of forgiveness of sins (which cannot be verified) by healing the paralytic (which can be verified).

Verses can be found today in Mark 2: 1-12.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, September 4, 2022

Who We Are.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking a little bit about who we are today.  Identity and what we stand for and what we believe.

We’re trying to recapture something very old.  We aren’t nearly as formal as most church services are.  In the Old Testament it was less about formality than vibrance.  For us it’s not about being seen and more about making progress towards Jesus.

Our motto is “No matter your story, you are welcome, you are wanted and you are loved.”

Today Michael is talking about a leper that came up to Jesus, went down on his knees and begged him to make him clean. Jesus answered, “I am willing” and healed him.  We need to be like Jesus, walking towards those not accepted by others, not welcome, and not loved.  

Verses can be found today in Mark 1: 40—45.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, August 28, 2022

Why Sometimes God Heals and Why Sometimes He Doesn’t.

Today, Pastor Michael is back in the book of Mark.  Being the fast paced Gospel, we have to pay attention to Jesus’ ministry, where he’s healing people, left and right!

Jesus is healing folks and there is no rest in His work.   Everyone’s here and we need healing!  Yet, we need to rethink our assumptions on healing.  For one thing, we assume healing should be the norm.  Healing did NOT happen all the time; it was a rare occurrence.

We also assume healing is the proof that God loves us.  But the idea that God should just give us what we want: is that really a mature way to view God?   

The biggest assumption of all: We assume that healing is always the best thing that could happen.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 1:29–34. “As soon as” (1:29) contributes to the sense of urgency: the time is at hand (1:15) for the authority of God’s Son to bear witness to the gospel. Close to the synagogue is Peter’s house, where Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever (1:30–31). The Greek word for “serve” (1:31) is diakoneō, from which “deacon” is derived. Mark’s use of this word to describe Peter’s mother-in-law serving the company following her healing may have been included to remind the members of the church in Rome to which he is writing to use the gifts, health, and opportunities God gives each believer to serve the Christian community in tangible ways. What Jesus has done to one person in healing Peter’s mother-in-law he now does to the whole community (1:32–34a).

After sunset on Saturday, Sabbath prohibitions against work and travel ceased, and Capernaum shows up en masse with people suffering from a host of physical and demonic maladies. Mark closes the day’s activities in Capernaum with a reference to Jesus’s forbidding the demons to speak (1:34b). This unexpected command seems to contradict Jesus’s mission to proclaim and promote the kingdom of God, but it serves a greater purpose until his identity will be fully revealed on the cross.

The healing ministry of Jesus wasn’t really about healing.  It was about leading people to spiritual redemption. 

Healing doesn’t come in the forms we expect it, nor in the time we think it should.

Verses can be found today in Mark  1: 29-32.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley---Service, Sunday, August 21, 2022

Nobody Transforms Lives Like Jesus!

This week, Keith Stephenson shares the radically honest story of a life in progress.

Next week we return to the Gospel of Mark where we tackle the tough question, "Why doesn't God heal everyone?"

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, August 14, 2022

Church People and Jesus People: Not the Same Thing!

Today, Pastor Michael is in his series on Mark and Jesus is in Capernaum, going to a synagogue on the Sabbath.  Entering, Jesus was offered the chance to preach and was on a pretty good roll when one person in the crowd interrupted the service.

This guy jumps up and wouldn’t you know it?  He has a demon in him, not too cool, but he reacted to Jesus’ teaching, asking what Jesus was doing there and what he was wanting to do to the people.   But Jesus doesn’t break a sweat and tells the demon, it’s about time you exited that man’s body.  To which the demon obeyed because, the real teaching note here is, because of Jesus’ authority.  (CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Jesus teaches and heals with one and the same authority.

Advice from Michael on how to avoid evil spirits: First, if you continually invite the devil to visit, he might try to move in!  Second, a saved person cannot be possessed by an evil spirit.  If you have the Holy Spirit in you, there’s only room for one!

Verses can be found today in Mark 1: 21-28.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, August 7, 2022

Is Following Jesus Worth the Cost?

Today, Pastor Michael is discussing Seward’s Folly, the purchase of Alaska coordinated by William Seward.  Many felt it wasn’t worth the cost, but William Seward felt it would be an asset for America.  Today only a few states have more millionaires per capita than Alaska, a treasure trove of natural resources.

Many felt it was not worth the cost.

The cost of following Jesus.  Be sure, there is a cost to follow Jesus. Is following Jesus worth the cost?

In Mark, we find John is in prison.  John is in prison for doing what was ‘right’.  King Herod would send for John to talk spiritual things, however he got upset with John when Herod confided to John that he had stolen his brother’s wife.  And John confronted him about that.  So what did Herod do?  He put John in prison.  So John paid a price for following Jesus.  Yet he never complained about that.  John understood the story wasn’t about him.  He sent a messenger to Jesus and wondered, did he do the right thing?  He became imprisoned over it.  The messenger told John of the miracles that Jesus was performing and lives were being changed by the Gospel.

John knew then he had made the right decision. 

Perhaps it’s time for us to step out of the way and let someone else to shine.  Or maybe YOU step up and prepare for the ministry God has prepared you for.  We are afraid to reach for the things God has set aside for us.  

The cost can be high but so worth it!

Verses can be found today in Mark: 1: 14-20.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, July 31, 2022

More Mark.

Today, Pastor Michael is starting round two of his series on the book of Mark. Jesus is in the wilderness, battling Satan, for 40 days.  Battling wild beasts with the angels supporting Him, in an area that is arid, rocky, open land.  And the wilderness is also a metaphor for places we are at in our life when the devil is just ‘picking’ on us, a place we’re alone at, a place with little hope.  

There are purposes for trials in our life that we do not understand.  Jesus wasn’t sent out to confront Jesus as a confrontation; it was to bring purpose to a trial.  A greater understanding, a greater faith can be found in our trials, as Jesus was there for 40 days, doing just that.  A period of testing, preparation and preparing Jesus for his purpose in the world.

We all have our ‘wildernesses’.  Just because God has allowed something in your life doesn’t mean He has planned on a hardship for you or a punishment for you.  God always has a purpose, even if we cannot see it at the time.  He will always bring purpose out of our pain!

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Immediately after the baptism, the Spirit literally “drove” Jesus out into the wilderness (1:12). The same Spirit who descended on Jesus at the baptism has an appointment for him with God’s adversary to determine whether Jesus will use his divine Sonship for his own advantage or in obedience to God’s saving purpose for the world. Jesus’s forty-day trial in the wilderness (1:13) may reflect God’s testing of Israel in the wilderness for forty years (Dt 8:2). The wilderness plays an important role in the OT, not only in the wilderness wandering after the exodus, but also in the prophets, as a place of Israel’s refreshment with God and refinement for obedience to his call.

Verses can be found today in Mark 1: 12-13.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, July 24, 2022

A New Series on the Book of Mark.

Today, Pastor Michael is starting a series on the Book of Mark.  A series of fast past action stories, Mark is the ‘good stuff’ in one book, even being the shortest of the Gospels. 

In these first two verses of Mark, the Old Testament is being quoted (Malachi and Isaiah, respectively) and it’s stating someone is going to come as an announcer for Jesus.  And that someone is John, as in John the Baptist.  

So, if this book’s about Jesus, why start with John?  In ancient times, when someone important was traveling, they sent an ambassador to ensure the roads were in good condition and to prepare the destination for their arrival.  Therefore, John was the herald for Jesus in these references.

John himself is an interesting character; a straight-up ‘caveman’ kinda guy!  Camelhair tunic, no haircuts, eating honey and locusts…the whole nine yards!

Jesus choosing John as his forerunner tells us a lot about Jesus and how he chooses those that are exactly right for the job.  Mark doesn’t give us a lot of background information on Jesus except that he came from Nazareth.  Mark first distributed this book amongst Romans.  The Romans were action-oriented; not talkers.  In Roman culture people could rise from obscurity to greatness.  That’s a huge reason this Gospel is so ‘action-oriented’.

Jesus was being baptized by John as an act of leadership.  To show an example of repentance.  Therefore John baptized Jesus in the Jordan river to show his followers he would submit to the Lord and it was a powerful symbol.  What could the baptism of Jesus foreshadow as a future event?

The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was the foreshadow of His baptism. 

So after He was baptized a voice came from heaven and a dove floated down from heaven.  The voice that was heard was not for Jesus’ benefit; it was for the others that were there and listening.  The Lord was exclaiming that Jesus was His son, the son of God.

Verses can be found today in Mark 1: 1-11.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.