Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James Kaddis on what a good teacher does.

James Kaddis: My hope is to create a group filled with people that understand the methods to pursue the message and be able to drive those principles into their own lives without me having to be present. That’s what a good teacher does. And Jesus did that. Jesus was one who did exactly that. The goal in doing what we do when we teach you is to elevate every aspect of the experience through your knowledge of the Word growing. It’s learning how to understand to utilize the gift of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you to become your helper.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from You. I have found the joy only comes from You. I have found the peace only comes from You. I have found the joy only comes from You. Because all I need is You. All I need is You.

What in the world did Jesus just do? That’s a question many people still ask today, and it was certainly one of the questions that was regularly asked back in the first century. Stay tuned for Light on the Hill because the answer will surprise and bless you. Here’s Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter 2.

James Kaddis: Mark chapter 2. We're going to start in verse 13. But before we do, there is one word that for whatever reason in the church, when it is utilized, it is oftentimes perceived as being hostile. Don't get me wrong. I do believe that when this word is utilized in certain contexts, it can absolutely be received as a hostile word. Like for example, when I go to my child and I tell my child that I want them to do something, if they respond to me with "Why?", there is going to be punitive action. They are not allowed to tell me why when I ask them to do what I'm doing because I'm not their best friend, I'm their father.

This is absolutely a dictatorship, and you will do what I ask you to do because you will understand the whys in the submission. The more you continue to listen and obey and you do the things that you are being asked to do, the faster you will understand the whys behind the things that are given to you. But when we ask God the question "Why?", that is not always a bad thing to do. As a matter of fact, if our heart is in the place of complete and total submission and when we give God absolute control, asking why can actually be a very healthy thing to do.

Because understand this, when we ask why, we have to make sure that the way we ask why has to be in a way that does not bring challenge to God. For example, if I were to go to God and I would say, "God, why did You do this?" or "Lord, why would You do this?", I think that you can fairly ask that question. And I think that as a pastor who teaches the Bible on a regular basis, a Bible teacher, I would be in great error if I did not regularly ask the question why because that question helps me to be able to better surmise and understand the mind and the heart of God, thus being able to give you a functional and relational understanding for what God is doing and His mindset, thus giving us more confidence in the very things that He does in the moment that He does it.

And I can also tell you this, we might not understand all of the ins and the outs behind the question why, but the one answer that God will always give us because He puts it out in front of everything that He does is that when we ask Him why, we know for sure one of the answers will always be: for our own good, for our benefit, for our edification, for our encouragement, for our strengthening, for our betterment, and in many cases, even for our empowerment. And when you understand that in its appropriate context, the why questions become not only important, but they become critical.

So there's nothing wrong with looking at a circumstance that you see in the Bible or there's nothing wrong with maybe understanding a circumstance that's going on in your life and asking God, "God, why are You allowing this?" or "God, why would You allow this?" The problem that we enter into is when we go to the Lord and we say, "Lord, if You love me, then why would You do this?" Because in essence, that no longer is a question. It is now a statement filled with rhetoric that is, in essence, accusatory. We are actually accusing God of something based on a particular matter that we don't understand or based on facts that we don't have.

And that becomes a serious problem for us, especially in the church and in the body of Christ. Because when we begin to question the motive of God, when we begin to question the reasoning and the mind of God in a way that accuses Him, we automatically close up our hearts to hearing and understanding and discerning and knowing the answer and, even more importantly, taking the answer and using it for our benefit and our growth. And the moment we begin to charge God unnecessarily or incorrectly or in a demonic way, for that matter, we immediately block ourselves from experiencing the benefit of actually being equipped with the knowledge as into why God does what He does.

And there are going to be times where we're not going to understand the complete answer for why. There are going to be times where we're going to ask God why for the rest of our lives and may not be aware until the time that we go to be with Him. But the point behind it is there's nothing wrong with asking the question so long as we are not charging Him with something that He should not be charged with. And that is a critical thing. Because when we go through the Gospels, one of the most important questions that you can ask is why.

It’s very important that at every turn, you ask questions like, "Why did God do this?" or "Why did Jesus do this?" or "Why is it that He made this statement or why is it that He made that statement?" As a matter of fact, my whole life as a believer who’s been dedicated to studying the Word of God, the fact that I ask that question on a regular basis has allowed me to be able to come to definitive conclusions that are irrefutable and help us to be able to better understand the premise behind what is being discussed in the current moment.

I'll give you one example of this, and it's very relevant to the context that we're exploring. It's actually very relevant to the Gospels. If you think about it in context of the Gospels, this is an extraordinarily relevant point and that's this: Jesus never, ever spoke to, ministered to, reacted to, or in any way acted around something that was being initiated to him. In other words, when Jesus opened His mouth, when Jesus did something, when Jesus went somewhere, when Jesus acted in any way, it was always predicated upon the aspect of the person's soul that could not be seen rather than the aspect that was on full display.

Think about it like this. When you look at a problem, when you look at a circumstance, when you look at a situation and you begin to see the signs of the core issue, you don't oftentimes address the signs. What you have to do is you have to address the core issue. Because if you don't address the core issue, then you're going to have a significant problem. I was on the flying field recently with a friend who actually, his full-time job is he's a commercial airline pilot. He flies for one of the major airlines and actually a very gifted helicopter pilot as well, radio-controlled helicopter pilot.

And the thing that I've told you guys on multiple occasions is how dangerous these helicopters can be. They are bigger than me. My biggest helicopter is literally longer than me if I were to lay down. It'd be longer than me, and they're very dangerous. If you make a mistake or an error and you do it in an unsafe manner, it could literally take your life. We've actually seen people in our hobby lose their life as a result of making careless and reckless mistakes. That's why we follow a bunch of safety rules. We keep people far away from the area that we're flying. We make sure people are far away. We hold fast to all kinds of rules. We have spotters. We have technological things that we do that keep everybody from getting injured and so on and so forth.

So the other day, I go over to where he is and he looks very puzzled and he pulls me aside. By the way, way better pilot than I'll probably ever be. The guy is easily 10 years older than me and easily a way better pilot than I'll ever be. He's just really good at what he does. But his whole life is aviation. He eats, drinks, and breathes aviation. That's all he does. I mean, this guy will land at an airport after flying a 737 and then will call the tower and ask permission from the tower to be able to fly his model helicopter off the tarmac somewhere. That's how serious this guy is about all this stuff. He loves this stuff.

So he comes up to me and he says, "Hey, come here. I need to talk to you." I said, "What's going on?" He says, "Listen, I was flying my bird just a few minutes ago and the tracking was off. And I've tried everything. I've replaced this part, I've replaced that part, I've replaced here, I've replaced there, and nothing seems to work. Everything seems to be just fine." And I said, "Okay, let me take a look at it." I look at it and literally three seconds later, I identify what the problem is. I'm like, "Hey, look, here's the mechanical component that's bad. And I'm just telling you this right now, that's what's causing the problem."

He doesn't even question me. He doesn't ask me a question. He doesn't even think about it. He takes it once he sees it, once he realizes, he's able to verify mechanically there's a problem, and he takes it and he puts it away. Doesn't matter how many batteries he has. Nothing. You want to know why? Because if he decided to go ahead and fly it, if he decided to go ahead and choose to continue to allow it to do what it does, it could kill him. Because that particular component, if it gives out, it could actually kill him or somebody else. That’s a very serious thing. If you lose elevator on a helicopter like that, that elevator will just come right at you. It's a very dangerous thing.

So as pilots, one of the things that we learn to do is we learn to address the root cause rather than the symptoms. We don't look at the symptoms. The symptoms help us to better be able to understand what's going on at the root, but Jesus is the King of that. If you think about it, Jesus never paid attention to the symptoms. He didn't care about the symptoms. He didn't care about the outward things that were happening. He didn't care about the things people were saying. He didn't care about the things that people were doing per se, because He was discerning the condition of the heart. He was looking at the core of the matter. That’s always what Jesus did.

So when I stop for a moment and I explore the life of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, and I begin to ask questions like why, I realize very quickly that an overwhelming majority of those why questions can immediately be answered by understanding that one principle. And that is Jesus rarely spoke directly to the words that were given to him, He spoke to the heart. Can I give you an example of this? We went over this recently, the woman at the well. She sees Jesus and she says, "Hey, I got a question for you. You know, my forefathers worship on this hill and then you guys all worship on this hill. What do you say? Where should we worship?"

And you know what Jesus does? He says, "Go get your husband." That sounds like a crazy off-the-wall thing to say. And she's stunned. That's basically based on the language you could realize, she's stunned. And she says, "Well, I don't have a husband." And then Jesus takes it from literally 2 to 1,000, right? And what does He say? He says, "Yeah, you're right. You don't have a husband because you've actually had five, and the one that's with you right now isn't even your husband." I mean, it's basically Jesus saying, "I know what you are, I know what you're doing, and it's not good." And can you imagine how stunned she is in the moment?

And what Jesus says seems shocking. It's like, first of all, it seems like it's come completely out of nowhere. Second of all, it seems completely discombobulated. Like you might as well wander off into the rainforest. You know what I'm talking about? I mean, it looks crazy. But if you stop for a moment to consider the depth of what's happening in that moment, you'll realize what's taking place. You'll realize based on what Jesus is saying that Jesus runs into this woman, as a matter of fact, very likely that Jesus goes there for that woman, sees her in the condition that she is in, recognizes that she has a thirst for something that cannot be quenched, and the course of her life has gone in the direction of seeking to fulfill it unsuccessfully.

And He realizes, she realizes, that the way that she can find that fulfillment is only through one person. Jesus knows that already, helps her discern it, helps her understand it, and then you begin to understand why Jesus said, "Hey, go get your husband." It wasn't cruel. It wasn't rude. And by the way, here's the thing that's really important. If you understand this very principle that I'm talking about, then it will keep you from making these cuckoo statements like this oxymoron that this gay pastor is running around saying, because that's an oxymoron. That's like saying "Christian Satan worshiper". They don't align, okay?

But he's running around basically saying that Jesus was a racist because of what He said to the Syrophoenician woman. If you remember that whole story about the dogs eating off the table? Well, if you understood the principle that I just shared with you right now, you would never perceive that as being racist. As a matter of fact, you would perceive that as being a loving Creator caring for His creation, who was reaching out to her in a moment that was so significant that He chose to put her faith on display in front of the whole world. He actually praised her instead of insulted her.

But unless you take the time to understand the premise behind which Jesus communicates these things, you're never going to understand the course or action in which Jesus is taking in order to not only rectify the core of the problem, but you will also miss the most valuable lessons. And they all work that way. They all work that way. I think some of the most basic of lessons that kids learn in Sunday school may be some of the most profound of lessons that God will teach us. The most profound of lessons that God will show us.

I remember when I first married my wife, I asked the Lord, I said, "God, give me vision, give me passages for my wife and for our marriage. Help me to be able to better understand how I can encapsulate the core of what our marriage is all about." And God over the years has given me lots of passages, lots of vision, lots of thoughts, and one of the passages that really came to my mind centers around the story of the loaves and the fishes. And the loaves and the fishes is such a remarkable story because it has absolutely nothing to do with how depraved the situation was and the fact that people were about to starve to death.

It doesn't even have anything to do with the fact that there was this massive multiplier that took effect, and that was a supernatural action of Jesus. It doesn't really have anything to do with some of the other what I would call significantly superfluous moments in all of this. It has everything to do with one thing and one thing only, and that is God desires for us to come to Him with all that we have, not a part of what we have, but all that we have. We oftentimes will not go to God with all that we have because we don't have a lot, and in our mind we think we have nothing to give Him.

And God is telling us through that story that everything that we have, whether it be perceived as nothing by the world, becomes more valuable to Him because He will take what we don't have and He will turn it into something elaborate and significant and powerful and remarkable. But you have to be willing to give Him the little that you have and give it all to Him. Not just "Hey, let me give You a little piece here, let's see, I'll break off a piece for You." Doesn't work that way. It's learning to give Him everything that you have.

So the idea here, and this is very important, is that the MO of Jesus centers around the truth that He is looking to deal with a core issue. He's looking to deal with a foundational issue. And by the way, we are going to see evidence of this again and again and again. And in two moments that are captured for us in the passage that we're going to read from verse 13 all the way to verse 22, you will see the significance of what this is all about. You will see why this is remarkable. And by the way, there's actually three specific events that are here, but two of them I tend to couple together for very specific reasons, and you'll understand that in just a minute.

But look at this, let's read here. This is verse 13. By the way, just so that you know, when we're talking about Levi here, that’s referring to Matthew, just so that you know so when you hear that name, that's who we're talking about here. So this is verse 13: "And he went forth again by the seaside; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them." By the way, this is interesting. King James Elizabethan English can often times become detrimental to somebody that doesn't understand it, and so the significance of what's being communicated here is oftentimes lost in not having a handle of Old English or 1611 type English, okay?

But basically what this is saying, and the Greek confirms it because this translation is so darn good, is that as Jesus goes to the seaside, when it talks about people resorting to him, the picture that’s being created is they're settling in to His presence. In other words, He finds himself settling or stopping at a location and people cozying in to hear from him. In other words, stopping to listen to him not as a spectacle, but literally allowing themselves to be encapsulated by the environment to take in all that He has for you. And there's a big difference between the two, right?

If you're in your car and you're looking at Christmas lights, that's going to be something that's going to be quick and very momentarily. You know, you're driving down the street, you might stop in front of a house, you might take in a few of the sights, you might look at some of the animations or whatever it might be, and then you move on. But if you're going to go to watch a special show, a Christmas show, then you would be resorting into that area. You’re going to stop and you’re going to allow yourself to take in the environment, to watch what’s going on, and to literally become a part of the very thing that you’re witnessing in that moment.

So there’s a big difference behind the two. There are two very significant differences. I think if you’re part of the younger generation, the best way to describe it is it's the difference between a vertical video, a little one-minute short video, and a long-form video, right? You can look at a clip of Joe Rogan talking for 30 seconds and it'll be pretty entertaining, but there's a lot of people that would much rather hear the three-hour video, right? And one is different from the other. You're not going to get your cup of coffee ready for a 30-second blip, but you will sit down with your coffee, your lunch, whatever it is, for the three-hour video.

And the whole idea is this: when they went to Jesus and they followed him, Jesus was not the spectacle that people made him out to be. He was the one that people enjoyed settling into, literally resorting to hear what it was that He was saying. They loved His teaching, they wanted to listen to the things that He said, and it was extremely important for them to be able to understand what was going on. And by the way, He was referred to as "The Teacher". He was the Messiah, the Teacher. And I think that there's such an incredible implication that we gain from it.

Number one, we go to the Lord to learn. We don't go to the Lord to give us this sort of falsely semi-euphoric feeling that makes us feel good when our emotions have lied to us. It's not like we go to the Lord to get our fix like someone going and smoking something that makes them feel inebriated. That's not what Christ is about. Christ is the one that when we go to, we hear Him because He has something to offer us that even though it may be uncomfortable, the teaching process causes us to grow.

It brings us to a place of understanding something that might not be pleasant in the moment, yet what it does for us is it allows us to materialize from within us something that’s more valuable. There’s a metabolic process here. You understand what I mean when I say that? In other words, we are metabolizing the insight that’s being given to us, we’re being equipped with knowledge of something that causes us to grow and to better be able to understand. There’s a big difference between somebody who serves as a spectacle and somebody who serves as a teacher. They’re two completely different people.

And you know the teachers. Look, the teachers will often times go out of their way to not make it about themselves. Rather, they go out of their way to deny themselves in order for the benefit of others to be able to grow in their knowledge. And this is something that's taken me a lot of years to be able to understand, that my job is not to go before you and show you all the big words that I know. It's not to show you my knowledge of this or my knowledge of that. Quite frankly, when I go to study or prepare for a Bible study to give to you, I probably know 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 times the amount that I'm going to present to you, right?

There’s a whole bunch of issues that come up even in the realm of textual criticism that are associated with this chapter that I could sit here and just go over with you. What about this, what about that? We could get into all of that stuff. But the point is not for me to display to you what I know. The point for me is to show you how to take what you're looking at, learn from it, understand it, and while at the same time doing it, elevate your vocabulary, give you a better awareness of how certain principles and thoughts and ideas come together so that not only will you be given the information, but you will also learn how to metabolize the information and you will also learn how to obtain the information for yourself.

So the goal for me isn't just for me to just simply spit something out so that you can walk away and go "Haha, thank you, that was great." The goal is to not only share with you something that might move you in the moment, it is all about me teaching you the very things that you find in here to better understand the mindset for what drives it, and then to give you the ability to take it home, metabolize it, and then apply the principles that you've learned into future reading and future learning and future discerning and future understanding.

In other words, my hope is to create a group filled with people that understand the methods to pursue the message and be able to drive those principles into their own lives without me having to be present. That’s what a good teacher does. And Jesus did that. Jesus was one who did exactly that. So people ask me all the time, "What do you model your teaching after?" You know, well I've seen teachers over the years that I've really appreciated and I've really loved. I've watched teachers over the years that I thought were spectacularly good and then just went absolutely bonkers.

They went crazy. I watched a guy in Calvary Chapel do that. I watched a guy who was a teacher that I loved listening to his teaching style. He was the guy that I enjoyed the most. I loved listening to him, and then he just went bonkers. And to this current day, he’s just a nut, he’s a cook, right? And I won’t listen to him because all he’s doing is teaching you worldly, secular humanistic garbage. So why would I want to listen to that? The point behind what I'm trying to say is that the goal in doing what we do when we teach you is to elevate every aspect of the experience through your knowledge of the Word growing. And it’s learning how to understand to utilize the gift of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you to become your helper.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at LightonTheHillRadio.com. Pastor James' teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at OnePlace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives, and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what He's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, LightonTheHillRadio.com.

We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James' new book, The Last Book. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the Rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at LightonTheHillRadio.com or through Amazon. If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at LightonTheHillRadio.com. Now, let's turn back to Mark chapter 2.

James Kaddis: So, verse 14: "And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him." By the way, the receipt of custom, the way that you would translate that is the toll for taxes. In other words, he was standing at the place where he collected taxes. And by the way, tax collectors were very, very hated by Jews, but they were even more hated if they were Jewish themselves.

Because the way Rome did this, especially in the area of Judea-Samaria, especially in this whole area, was they went to these people like Matthew and they told him, "Listen, Rome requires this of every single person." And Rome requires, let's just give you an arbitrary number, let’s say that the tax was supposed to be 20%. Rome requires 20% of everybody. Your job is to collect 20%. But it has been vested in you the authority to pay for your own expenses to add any percentage you want to that, so long as it does not surpass that which is owed to Caesar.

Guest (Male): Remember, you are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

I have found the peace only comes from You. I have found the joy only comes from You. I have found the peace only comes from You. I have found the joy only comes from You. Because all I need is You. All I need is You. All I need is You. All I need is You. All I need is You. All I need is You.