Excellence

Excellence

About Mark Scott

            This week’s lesson is provided by Pastor Mark Scott. Mark is currently the Exposition and Leadership Pastor at Mountainview Community Christian Church. Before that he was the Academic Dean at Ozark Christian College (“OCC”). Mark taught New Testament and Preaching at OCC for 28 years. Prior to his many years at OCC, Mark was the preaching pastor at various churches for many years. Mark received his Bachelor of Theology from OCC; his Master of Divinity from Lincoln Christian Seminary; and his Doctor of Ministry from Denver Seminary. Mark has authored or co-authored numerous books and scholarly articles such as: “Reflections” in The Christian Standard, Lamp Devotionals from Acts and Nehemiah, “Biblical Preaching” (chapter) in The Mind of Christ (College Press), “Christian Love” (chapter) in Essentials of Christian Practice (College Press), a book entitled, Sermons On the Gospels (Standard Publishing), and many more. Mark has ministered internationally in Barbados, Scotland, Canada, Chile, Israel, Germany, Venezuela, Turkey, Greece, Rome, and Ukraine. Mark has been married to his beautiful wife Carla for almost 41 years. They have four children and ten grand-children.

Introduction

            For about two weeks this winter, I would come home at night, turn on the TV and immediately change the channel from HGTV (I think that’s our TV’s default setting) to the Olympics. Like lots of you, I love to watch the Olympics. There is something attractive about that level of athletic excellence.  These athletes have put in countless hours perfecting their skating, skiing, sledding, shooting, and curling (which I don’t really understand). What is it that makes excellence so attractive?

            We do see it in athletics, don’t we? I saw it in a college player who later played wide receiver for the Denver Broncos for thirteen years. His name was Rod Smith (#80). Rod played his college ball at Missouri Southern State University (Joplin, MO.). That’s NCAA Division II. His coach, Jon Lantz, was a good friend of mine and a deacon in our church. Rod received three degrees from MSSC—economics, general business, and marketing. He had 849 receptions, 11,389 yards, and 68 touchdowns in those thirteen years for the Broncos. He is 43 years old, was born in Texarkana, AR, and now lives in Denver. But here’s what I want you to know. He is only six feet tall and weighs 200 pounds—not stunning. He was an undrafted free agent but played his entire career with the Broncos. He’s not physically stunning but still holds the record in every receiving category in Broncos history. Why? I’m told that he never missed a practice or extra training camp. That’s excellence!

            We see it in the military, don’t we? I had lunch with one of members this week, Chaplain, Jeff Bell. I said, “Jeff, what does excellence look like in the military?” He said, “It comes down to one letter of the alphabet, ‘T.’” That stands for “trained.” When they use that letter that means the job is done. The soldier has moved from recruitment, matriculation, school, and development. It takes five years and costs $100,000. That’s excellence!

            We see it in the kitchen, don’t we? Good cooks often learn to work their magic by trial and error. My wife is an outstanding cook. Let me tell you that she learned lots of skills from her mother and a host of church ladies. Her mom could bake the best lemon meringue pie you every tasted? I, of course, wouldn’t have a clue about what she did. I just know that pie would melt in your mouth. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. That’s excellence!

            We see it in the studio, don’t we? I am always impressed by musical excellence. My wife’s piano teacher was a woman named Tasci King. She had degrees from USC in piano performance and she demanded excellence. She was as serious as a heart attack about it too. One thing I remember her teaching Carla was that when you are preparing a piece for recital and make a mistake, you don’t just start over. You go to that place where you made the mistake, and you isolate that spot. You play it over and over and over until you can do it perfectly. Then, and only then, do you incorporate that mistake area into the whole musical piece. That’s excellence! We were with a dear friend recently in Texas; his name is Rowlie Hutton and he’s the preaching minister at Kingsway Christian Church in Omaha. One of his daughters is studying piano performance at ACU (Abilene Christian University—Abilene, TX). She practices as many hours as she sleeps. That’s excellence!

            One of the core values that we desire for our church is that of excellence. So let me show you that in the life of Jesus himself. This week’s Subject Text comes from Mark 7:31-37.

Subject Text

Mark 7:31-37

            ³¹Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. ³²There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. ³³After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). ³⁵At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. ³⁷People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Context & Text Analysis

            V. 31—Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went north to Sidon before swinging wide around to the east to reach the Decapolis (10 cities) While he had been in Tyre he ministered to a Syrophoenician woman. But he really hasn’t been in this area since chapter five. In chapter five he expelled the demons from a man who lived among the tombs. The man wanted to enlist as a disciple with Jesus, but Jesus told him to go home and witness. Evidently he did.  Earlier the crowd wanted Jesus to leave their country. Now, look what they do in the next verse.

            V. 32—They brought a man to Jesus who had a double problem. He was deaf and “had a speech impediment” (Gk. mogilalon). Of course those go together. How does one learn to speak? By listening. If one can’t hear, speaking becomes a challenge. The people begged Jesus to lay his hand (i.e. heal) on him. Side bar: I rejoice that we have several people in our church who use their spiritual gifts for our deaf friends. Do you know that our deaf friends represent a huge mission field in the United States? Only 2% of deaf people are Christian. Will you thank God for this small but significant ministry in our church and many other churches as well?

            V. 33—Watch how our Lord enters the world of this man. The miracles that Jesus performed on the deaf and blind are some of his most tender miracles. Jesus gives him private, undivided attention—do you suppose that is part of doing ministry with excellence—that when you are there, you are 100% there? Jesus goes through some sign language with his fingers, ears, and spittle. It’s hard to know where the pronouns go in this verse. Is Jesus demonstrating with himself or is he touching the man? [Spittle was regarding as medicinal in the ancient world.]

            V. 34—Jesus directed his gaze to heaven—probably to indicate to the deaf man the source of his healing. Then he sighed. Not sure what that was like. A sigh of empathy? A sigh of anger (cf. 8:12)—unbelief? A sigh of hurt—effects of sin in the fallen world? Or is it a sigh of anticipation like, “Here we go.” Then he says an Aramaic word that means, “Be opened.”

            V. 35—Ta Da! Some manuscripts use Mark’s favorite little word, “Immediately.” Ears got opened and tongues got loosed. The man spoke plainly or straightly, or correctly. If you read your OT you will see that this taking place was a sign that the Messiah had come.

            V. 36—Jesus charged (word of military command) them to tell no one. But they zealously (actually one of the words in the Bible for excellence—it means they abounded over the top). They preached (Gk. kerusso) it everywhere. We are not told why Jesus told them not to tell, but at this point he did.

            V. 37—This is the key verse.  They were “astonished beyond measure.” The phrase could be translated, “they were standing outside of themselves in a hyper way.” Jesus, especially portrayed in the Gospel of Mark, is “amazing.” He amazes us here. Then they say, “He does all things well.” Actually I need to tell you that, “well,” is the first word in the phrase. That means emphasis is being stressed. Jesus does all things (Gk. “kalos”) well. This adverb occurs 37x in the NT. It can be translated well, beautifully, fitly, appropriately, in the right way, excellently or splendidly. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Kittel) says: “organically healthy, fit, useful, serviceable.” Jesus makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

            Jesus did things well or excellently. Even the lawyer knew that (Mk. 12:32). Even the Hebrew writer knew that (Heb. 8:6). Even Peter knew that (2 Pet. 1:3). Do we know that? Do we strive to do everything with excellence? How would we know? What would excellence look like? Well let me say what we don’t mean and then develop three applications that are both theological and practical.

            By striving to do all things excellently we don’t mean “Hollywood slick in ways that look fake or non-authentic.” If people walk out of our services and say, “Wow, I don’t think the worship leader missed a note today,” or, “The slides were spot on today,” or “The fat boy (That would be me!) didn’t mispronounce any words today,” I’m not sure we are doing excellence. If none of our servers dropped a communion tray today that doesn’t mean the service was a success. I remember hearing a preacher brag once that his church of 500 could do communion in five minutes tops. He was quite proud of that. I thought, “Big whoop.” Listen, my conversations with millennials convinces me that their generation is suspect of most anything if it looks too flashy. So what does doing things well really look like?

            I think it means: 1) Take Good Care of People. Isn’t that what Jesus did here? He met the need of a needy person. If we want a ministry of excellence let’s quit walking around brain dead and open our eyes to people. Get our antenna out. 1 Cor. 12:31 says, “And I will show you a more excellent way.” Then what does Paul do? He writes the 13th chapter—about love. If we love people we will carry on a ministry of excellence. Js. 2:8 says much the same thing, talking about the “royal law,” which is the law of love. Don’t forget that the context is about not showing partiality to the poor. Are we taking excellent care of the poor? 1Tim. 3:4, 12, 13 tells us that church leaders—elders and deacons—are to lead their families well. Are we taking excellent care of our families? And 3Jn 6 says that we are to be hospitable to strangers, particularly itinerant workers to send them on their way well. Are we achieving excellence in our hospitality? A ministry of excellence means we take good care of people.

            But it also means: 2) Partner with God to Restore Creation. Let me do a little word study leap here. Kalos (Gk. “well”) is the adverb of kalos (the noun). That made you warm and fuzzy didn’t it? Here’s my point. I don’t think this excellence or doing well stuff is puny. It’s big. When they translated our OT into Greek they translated the Hebrew word, “tov,” (Heb. “good”) with the word “kalos.” In other words, goodness, excellence, and doing well, goes back to creation. When God declares his creation good (and he does it several times, Gen. 1:10, 12, 21, 25, and 31) he is making a statement about his character and putting that character judgment on what he sees. So…when we carry out our Christian duties for God we are partnering with God to move present creation to new creation. This has all types applications—stewardship of the earth called ecology, witnessing to people to get them ready for the eschaton, and joining the universe to bring praise to God—to name only a few.

            Finally I think a ministry of excellence also means: 3) Think and work hard to do your best. God being our helper and the Holy Spirit being the one who empowers, we give it our best shot. There are a cluster of passages that emphasize this: Ecc. 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Mal. 1:8, 13, “When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? Would you offer them to the governor? Shall I accept that?” 1Cor. 14:12, “Strive to excel in building up the church.” Gal. 5:7, “You were running well, what happened?” Phil. 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence…” Col. 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily (all your soul).” 1Thess. 4:1, 10, “Walk to please the Lord, more and more.”

            There is a cute little video about a young boy learning to ride a bike.  Maybe he can encourage us.  

            [I know you can do it. You must believe in yourself—just keep practicing.] Just keep practicing. Not bad advice. And may I say that this excellence thing takes all of us. There is an African Proverb that says, “If you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.”

Application

            May I tell you a story as I close? While I was working at the college in Missouri, we were in need of a huge capital gift for a project on campus. Some of our first students were serving at the large Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY so we appealed to the church for some financial assistance. The church sent their missions committee to the college for a visit. Of course we wined and dined them and made the appeal. When they left they met with us and said that they were going to help with us with a large five-figure gift. Of course we expressed our thanks and then said, “Was there something that put you over the edge in making this decision? They said, “Yes.” We responded, “Can we ask what it was?”—Thinking it was the content of our appeal, etc. They said, “Well, we noticed that your grounds crew trimmed your grass by the sidewalks very well.” We said, “What?” They said, “Yeah, it was the grass.” We said, “You’re going to grant our request because we know how to run a weed whacker?” They said, “Well, excellence is one of our core values.” We trim our grass by the sidewalks too—Kentucky Bluegrass. When we saw how you took care of the facilities and land that God gave you we figured you would be good stewards of what we would give you. Yeah, it was the grass.”

            Listen to me folks. There is a drama coach at Ozark Christian College (“OCC”) named Mary Green. She grew up Catholic in Canon City, CO. My now deceased roommate, Tom Graham, led her to Christ. She came to OCC as a non-traditional student, got her degree, was Valedictorian, and hung around the college to teach and work. She has a plaque that hangs in her office that reads, “Remember that holy shoddy is still shoddy.”