First Baptist Church of Tampa Sermons

S1 E7: Divorce and Remarriage

• First Baptist Church of Tampa

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 38:01

Welcome !

New Sermon episodes drop every Monday Morning

Sermon Overview

Series: Following Jesus

Title: Seriously

Text: Mark 10:1-12

Date: March 22nd, 2026

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

NEXT STEPS

Are you looking to get connected or learn more about First Baptist Tampa? We would love to help you find your place in our community.

STAY CONNECTED

Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. First Baptist Tampa wants to help you find your next step.

Our Student & Young Adult Ministries:

SPEAKER_00

If you would, as you're being seated, take out your copy of God's Word and join me in Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 10. If you don't have a Bible with you, there are some there in the few back in front of you. We're going to be on page 907 as we look at the first few verses of Mark chapter 10. I am convicted that consecutive exposition is the best way to teach and preach God's Word. If you're unfamiliar with the term consecutive exposition, let me explain it just briefly. Consecutive exposition just simply means that we are taking the text of the Bible and we are allowing the text to speak for itself. We are drawing the truth out of the text. We're not trying to read into it what we want it to say. And so we are exposing the truth, the intended meaning of the author, in this case, God working through human instruments to present truth to us. And so we go to the word, trying to pull out of it what God intends for it to say, not what we go into it wanting it to say. We do this consecutively, meaning we'll start in chapter one, verse one of a book, and we will work our way until we get to the final chapter and the final verse of the book. This is the best way to put the book in context. This is the best way to put the text in context so that we don't have the tendency to pull it out of context and make it say what we want it to say. And so we read just like we would read any book. We would start at the beginning of the chapter and work our way through. There are some benefits to consecutive expositional preaching, not the least of which is that we draw truth from it, not read our opinions into it. But other benefits of it are, number one, I would say this, we don't have to guess what we're going to be speaking on from week to week. I do not have to wonder what am I going to talk about next week. I know the text that I'm going to prepare. I know what I need to be preparing my heart for. And should the person who is listening choose to, you guys know what's coming next. And so you could also read it in advance and prepare your heart for what might be coming up. Novel idea, just throwing it out there, you might want to give it a shot. That's one benefit. Another benefit of it is this. It causes us to deal with topics that we might not want to deal with. As we are going through consecutively, it causes us to not just pick the things that we want to talk about, or the things we would like to talk about, and it also prevents us from avoiding the things we don't want to talk about. That's human nature. There are things that I prefer to preach about, there are things that I prefer to talk about, there are other things that I would just prefer not to have to deal with, and yet as we read through the Bible and we come to them, we must deal with them. It would be really awkward if we're reading through a text of scripture and we get to Mark chapter 10 and I just decide to skip verses 1 through 12 and pick up in verse 13. Some astute person in the room might catch me and say, Pastor, notice that you skipped the first 12 verses of Mark chapter 10. Any particular reason why you did that? Yeah, I didn't want to talk about it. So it forces us to deal with things that we wouldn't always want to deal with. For instance, last week we spoke on eternal judgment. We spoke on hell. This week, Mark chapter 10 leads us to a discussion on divorce and remarriage. I don't know too many preachers in their right mind who would schedule one sermon on eternal judgment and follow it up the next Sunday with divorce. I'm not sure I know too many guys that would choose to do that. And yet that is what God's word presents to us in Mark's gospel. And so thus we will be discussing this morning marriage, divorce, and remarriage. Now, as we do, I recognize that divorce is a very sensitive subject. I acknowledge that because for the majority of people here in the room listening today, and those that are listening online, the majority of you have been impacted by divorce. Some directly, some indirectly. Some of you have gone through a divorce in your own life. You married somebody intending, I'm certain, to live with them until death do you part, but somewhere along the way something happened. Some of you went through bitter divorces, horrific divorces, painful divorces. Some of you are children of parents who went through a divorce. Or your grandparents went through a divorce. Divorce is a very sensitive subject that impacts so many people. So rest assured that my goal today is not to add more pain to anybody who's experienced this in your life. Nor is it to point a finger of judgment at anyone and wag my finger saying that never should have happened in your life. Jesus was approached with a woman who had been caught in adultery. People wanted to stone her to death. You cast the first stone. So my intent is not to throw stones this morning. My intent is to go to God's word and in sincerity and in sensitivity, present straightforward what God's Word has to say about marriage. One of the joys I have as a pastor is to meet with couples who are planning to be married. I'm doing that with two different couples right now, and it is a joy as I get to speak with them, as they are both excited and nervous heading towards their wedding day. Every couple that I ever meet with is always excited about planning their wedding day and starting their lives together, but there's also apprehension that something may go wrong in the preparations, or they might do something to mess it up along the way. It's imperative that I help them to understand what a Christian marriage looks like. To tell them the difference between what God says marriage is versus what the world says marriage is. To understand from the very beginning what the foundation of marriage is and not what the political or governmental definition of marriage is. Marriage is a good gift from God. It is a good gift from a gracious God. And it is designed to bring him glory. And it is designed for our good. But there are many distortions as to what marriage is. There are many shifts into the concept of what marriage should look like. And now I'm talking about marriage, let me say this: marriage isn't for everyone. If you are single, there's nothing wrong with you. We sometimes like to pretend like if somebody isn't married, that there might be something inferior about that person or something not lovable about that person. That's not the case at all. You are complete in who you are in Christ. Live in that truth. In fact, the Bible says if you can stay unmarried, remain unmarried and pour your emphasis and pour your energies into sharing the gospel, helping others. So if you're single and you love being single and you have no plans on getting married, don't tune me out for a little while. It's okay. Know that. Marriage isn't for everybody, but for those that it is, marriage makes a huge difference. Marriage helps families thrive. They help culture survive. And they bring God glory. There's been a shift in understanding about what marriage is all about. There's great confusion in our culture about who should be married and what marriage is and what it's not. And as Christ followers, we need to draw our understanding of marriage like any other topic, not from what the world says, but what from the Word of God says. We need to draw our understanding from a biblical world view. Culture has shifted an understanding of marriage. People are getting married much later in life now, if they get married at all. In 2015, the Supreme Court redefined marriage in a decision called the Urberfeld decision. Giving same-sex couples the same rights of marriage. Hear me, I'm not here to discuss political things. I'm not here to discuss governmental things. I'm not here to discuss whether same-sex couples should have some form of a union or not. Or have rights with it or not. That's not my point. My point is what does God's word say about marriage? And what does He define marriage as? And so I want us to spend a few moments looking in Mark chapter 10, verses 1 through 12, unpacking it. And aren't you excited right now? We need to understand God's truth. Because here's the thing: marriage is a picture. It paints a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're willing and able, will you stand with me? Mark chapter 10, just the first 12 verses this morning. Getting up, he went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him again, and according to his custom, he once more began to teach them. Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing him, and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you? They says they said Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. But Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but they are one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. In the house the disciples began questioning him about this again, and he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery. Let's pray together. Father, as we come to this text this morning, we come knowing that this is a sensitive subject because so many people have been touched by it. So many people in this room still bear scars from it. And some are confused over it. So, Father, instead of turning to the world and asking where we should go, we should turn to your word and seek to follow your model and seek to live in your grace and offer forgiveness and understand that our marriages and our lives can represent you well. Lord, let that be our goal today. Whether we're single, married, never married, divorced, remarried, Father, let our lives be a light for your gospel, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you this morning. Quickly this morning, I just want us to see a few things. I want us to see a timing of what's going on here as it relates to the rest of the Gospel of Mark. I want to see the testing that the Pharisees bring to Jesus. I want to see the truth that Jesus brings to them, the trouble that it causes his disciples, and then just some takeaways, some take-homes. The timing is this. As we kent to Mark chapter 10, it says that he got up and went from there. Remember, he had been in Capernaum. He had been teaching and preaching there after having returned there, making his way back down to Jerusalem. There's a period of time that has passed in this from Mark chapter 9 to Mark chapter 10. And he has gone down to the region on the other side of the River Jordan, beyond the river. He's there for several months teaching and preaching, and Mark does not tell us what happens during those months. If you're interested, you can turn to Luke's gospel and he fills in the timeline of what happens there. But Mark takes us about six months after the events of chapter 9. Jesus is now headed for the final time to Jerusalem. He is going to be crucified in the near future. He pauses along the way to go to this region beyond the Jordan, a region called Perea. This was the same region where John the Baptist, when he came proclaiming that the Messiah was coming and that people should repent and prepare. This is where they went. In fact, this is where Jesus went out to where John was, and Jesus himself was baptized in this region. The Tetrarch, the ruler of the region, was a man by the name of Herod Antipos. We'll come back to that in just a few moments. Jesus is there, and while he's there, it says that he began to teach the crowds, he began to preach to the crowds. This is what Jesus loved to do more than anything else. He helped people, he healed people, he fed people, but the reason he was there was to reconcile sinners to his father, and the best way for him to do that was to teach them truth. We saw this back in Mark chapter 1 when great miracles were happening early in Jesus' ministry in Galilee, and crowds were coming in, and they were, they were, he couldn't even eat a meal by himself. And he said, Hey, let's go to the towns around here so that I may preach, because that is why I've come. Jesus wanted to teach people. Crowds are gathering around him as they did wherever Jesus went. Whether he was in Jerusalem or Judea or Galilee, if he went further north, everywhere Jesus went, crowds gathered around him. Some of those crowds were just curious to see what was going on. They had heard rumors about a miracle worker. They had heard about this great preacher. So some of them were just curious, kind of tagging along to see what was happening. Others were committed followers. They were people who were following after Jesus, who recognized who he was. And then there were those who were there to confront Jesus. They didn't like Jesus. They wanted to trick Jesus. They wanted to trap Jesus. Embedded within this crowd here beyond the Jordan River was a group called the Pharisees. They were the religious leaders of the day. They were not fans of Jesus. In fact, they wanted to destroy Jesus. They'd already determined that he needed to be gotten rid of. They just hadn't figured out how to do it just yet. And so they traveled behind him. They traveled around with him, trying to trick him, trying to trap him, trying to get him to do something or say something that would go against the law or against their teachings, something that would cause him trouble. They've tried it over and over again, and quite honestly, they have been miserable failures at it, but they're persistent. And here they are again, one more time, trying to trap Jesus with what appears to be a straightforward question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? At the end of the Old Testament period, divorce was a rather uncommon thing among the Jewish people. It happened, but it wasn't very common. Malachi chapter 2, verse 16, the last book of the Old Testament, that prophet in Malachi chapter 2, verse 16, it clearly says, God hates divorce. What was happening was the people of Israel, the men of Israel, were divorcing their Israelite wives and marrying the wives of the Gentile nations around them. And God called on Malachi to let his people know that's not acceptable. It was uncommon for divorce to happen in Malachi's day. Four hundred years later, however, by the time we get to the New Testament, cultural norms have shifted. Political thought had shifted. Religious teaching had shifted. It had drifted away from what God clearly taught to what people wanted it to be. It doesn't take long for culture to drift when we move away from what God created. When we drift away from God's design, there are implications. There are ramifications. Social, emotional, spiritual. And this is what has happened in the 400 years. They have moved away from what God's word taught. So the Pharisees came to Jesus with what appears to us to be a straightforward question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? But they have spent a lot of time trying to come up with just the right word to trap Jesus, to trick him, to trip him up. This word trap is used four times in Mark's gospel. Three times it's used to describe the Pharisees trying to get Jesus to do something dumb. The other time it is back when Jesus was taken into the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit out of the wilderness after his baptize, after his baptism, and he was tempted by Satan. It's the exact same word. Satan trying to trip Jesus up. The religious leaders of his day trying to trip Jesus up. Isn't it interesting that they were on the same page? It's an astute question. They have contemplated this question deeply. What question can we ask him that he doesn't have a good answer to? You say, well, why wouldn't you have a good answer to this? Why would this be such a trap? The law of God in Deuteronomy, which is just simply the second giving of the law, Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1, I think we have that up on the screen for you. Here's what God's law says. When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house. This is what they were debating. Now hear me. They were not debating whether someone should divorce if someone committed adultery. Leviticus chapter 20 lays out the law for that. The law for adultery was not divorce. You know what the law for adultery was? It was death. It was stoning. They weren't debating whether it was okay for someone to divorce because of sexual immorality. They were debating the meaning of the phrase. Go back to the other one for me. Because he has found some indecency in her. One school of thought just simply says indecency means sexual immorality. The other school of thought says it can mean anything the man wants it to mean. It could mean that he doesn't find favor in his wife anymore because she burnt his dinner. It could mean he doesn't find favor in his wife anymore because he doesn't like the way she wears her hair. And the ones who were leading this at the time were not the religious, we're not the political leaders of the day. The ones who were leading this charge were the religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees were the ones who were coming and saying, we can divorce our wives. For any reason we want. And it became noble for them to do so. And the debate wasn't, do I divorce over adultery? The debate was what's the standard below adultery that is okay with God? This is the question that they are asking Jesus, and they're expecting Jesus, no doubt, to come back with a hardline answer. Divorce is always wrong, no matter what. They're expecting a hard line answer, and they're hoping that when he gives that hard line answer, all the people will turn against Jesus because it's the common culture of the day to say we can divorce for anything. They're hoping that he will do that and the people will turn against him. They're also hoping that if he takes a hard line against divorce, where is he standing? Where is he doing this? What area? Perea beyond the Jordan. Who's the Tetrarch of this area? I said it a minute ago. Who was paying attention? Herod Antipas. Does that ring any bells for anybody? He had a brother named Philip, who had a wife named Herodias. Antipas fell in love with his brother's wife. His wife divorced his brother and married him. And a certain man by the name of John the Baptist called him out for it. Anyone remember what happened to John the Baptist? For calling him out, he was beheaded. The Pharisees are saying if we can get Jesus to take the same position that John the Baptist took, our problems are solved. They are trying to trap Jesus. They're trying to get Jesus to say something that will go against either people or go against power. But in verses 3 through 9, we see how Jesus responds to this. He does not dodge the question, nor does he get tripped up by it. He in fact directs their conversation to Scripture. He answered them, What did Moses command you? Notice what Jesus does. They ask him a question. Where does he point them? Scripture. He takes them to God's Word. When drift starts to take place, where do we need to go back and be anchored? Scripture. The Word of God. He takes them back to the Word and says, What does Scripture teach? What does Moses command? And then he gives the correct interpretation of the Scripture. He turns the conversation around. He takes the question of divorce and he uses it as an opportunity to talk about this is what marriage is intended to be. The Pharisees answer the question. They just quote the part that says a guy can take his wife, and if he doesn't like something, then he can give her a certificate of divorce and send her on her way. They fail to mention the rest of that chapter that says, if that man who divorces his wife, that wife gets remarried to somebody else, and then that man leaves her, the first husband can't go and marry his first wife because he figures out he made a mistake. What he was saying was this men don't enter into marriage thinking, oh, I'll stay in this as long as it works out, but if I find something better, I'm gonna marry her. And then if I find out the second wife isn't better than the first wife, then I'm gonna divorce the second wife and bring the first wife back, and if I don't like that one, I'll divorce her again, and I'll just keep doing it over and over again. And this was the standard that the Pharisees were saying. This is what is. And Jesus' answer was you know, Moses gave that to you because of the hardness of your heart. Moses gave that to you because he recognizes that there's sin in your life. He was permitting it, but he was not prescribing it. He was conceding it, but he wasn't commanding it. In fact, he said the reason that was written was to protect the woman. It was to protect her rights and protect her reputation. But you guys have turned it upside down. You've twisted the scriptures. What does Jesus teach us about marriage? He says, tell you what, boys, let's go a little bit further back. You want to go to Deuteronomy. Where does he take them? Genesis chapter 2. He says, From the beginning, this is how it was designed. And then he quotes from Genesis chapter 2. God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one. What God has joined together, therefore, let no man put asunder. And God says, guys, let's talk about what marriage is supposed to be. And he tells us this marriage is supposed to be a heterosexual relationship. God created them male and he created them female. You are not the gender you want to be, you are the gender God created you to be. Male and female, two different and complementary genders that I praise him for. It is to be a heterosexual relationship. It is to be a unique relationship. They're to leave their father and mother, and they are to cleave to one another. They're creating a new unit. They're leaving the protection, the provision of their parents, and they are entering into a covenant relationship with one another where they provide for each other's needs and they go through life together. It is a unique amongst all relationships in humankind. It's a unique relationship. It is a heterosexual relationship. It is a unique relationship. It is an intimate relationship, the most intimate of relationships. The two shall become one flesh. That's not metaphorical, it is also literal. Sexual intimacy is designed to be created, it is designed to be enjoyed in the marriage unit. The vulnerability, the spiritual vulnerability, the emotional vulnerability that comes with that act is designed by God as a great, wonderful gift to be used in His design in marriage. It is a heterosexual relationship. It is a unique relationship. It is an intimate relationship. And God says it's a permanent relationship. What I've put together, let no man pull apart. And it's a purposeful relationship. Jesus would, our God would later go on and tell Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply. Multiply the earth with your children. Ephesians chapter 5 tells us about the roles of men and women in a relationship, the husband and the wife, fulfilling the roles that God has created for us, men to be the spiritual leaders, sacrificially and servant leading our families and our wives, submitting to the authority of their spiritual leadership of their husbands, as Christ did the church. And he goes through Ephesians 5 and he says, You're not going to understand this, but this is a great mystery. Marriage is a great mystery because it paints a picture of the love of Christ for the church. Marriage is purposeful. And it paints a picture. What the Bible teaches about marriage, okay? Number one, it's a good gift from a gracious God. Marriage is a good gift from a very gracious God. Number two, it's between one man and one woman. It's not between whatever the government says it's between. The government can call that whatever they want, but they cannot redefine what God says marriage is. It's between one man and one woman. It's not a social construct, it's not a court definition, it is God's divine design. Further, God tells us that he hates divorce. He hates divorce because it distorts the gospel, because it destroys family, and because it damages society. Divorce is neither commanded nor commended nor condoned in Scripture. There is an exception clause that we find in Matthew chapter 9, the same, a parallel account to this exact text. Mark tells the story, and he says that man is to stay with his wife, Mark says, except for the case of immorality. Paul, writing the church in Corinth, says that if a believer is married to an unbeliever, and the believer should remain married to the unbeliever because they should win them over to Christ by their lifestyle. But if the unbeliever abandons the believer, then it's okay to be separated and it's okay to remarry. God desires reconciliation in marriage. God desires reconciliation in broken relationships. The disciples were troubled by this teaching. They didn't say anything publicly, but verse 10 says, when they got into the house, they began to question Jesus. You know why they were troubled? Because they stopped believing what the Word of God said and they started believing what the world said. And when Jesus started taking them back to Scripture, they were confused by it. But the society says this. But the Pharisees say that. They were troubled by it. God compares the nation of Israel and their idolatry to adultery. God says you guys are going to go and you're going to worship false gods and you're going to be a harlot. You're going to be unfaithful. He compares that to adultery. He called a prophet by the name of Hosea. He said, Hosea, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a bride who is going to be unfaithful to you. And Hosea marries a woman by the name of Gomer. He has two boys and a daughter with her. And Gomer abandons him and goes into a life of prostitution. And God said, Go get her back and love her even when she is unfaithful to you. You know, if my relationship with God was a marriage, he would have left my backside ten thousand times by now. But it's not based on what I do, it's based on who he is. And he is faithful even when I am not. And God says, I want your marriage to be a picture of the gospel to the world. I want them to see grace in relationships like they've never seen grace before. Even when there is unfaithfulness, even when there is hurt, even when there is harm, there must be, there must be repentance, there must be forgiveness that is asked for, but there can be restitution. There can be restoration. It can happen. It's probably the hard route. No, it's not probably. It is the hard route. But it's probably the best route. We got to finish. What are some takeaways? I've got more I want to say. I've got more I think the word of God says, but we're we're running out of time. What are some takeaways? First of all, this your marriage matters. Your marriage matters. Whatever state your marriage is in right now, whether it's the best it's ever been or you're struggling right now, your marriage matters to God. Because he designed it. And he designed it to paint a picture to a lost world of what unconditional covenant love looks like. Secondly, God hates divorce. He hates it for all the reasons I've already mentioned. It distorts the gospel, it destroys family, it damages society. But did you know this? God forgives sinners. And that divorce is not an unforgivable sin. It's not condoned, it's not commended, it's not even commanded, but it can be forgiven. And marriages can be reconciled for the glory of God and for our good. And past sins do not invalidate God's future plans for your life. So if you're in a second marriage or a third marriage and you're reading this and saying, wow, I got married and now I'm guilty of adultery. Past sins do not invalidate what God can do with you in the future. You ever read one of Jesus' genealogies? You wonder why they're in there, and there's people in there, and you read through them. You know, not everybody in that genealogy led a perfect life. In fact, not a one of them did. There are some people in the genealogy of Jesus with some very questionable backgrounds. And yet God still used them for his glory. Finally, I would say this. Assure that whether you are married or not married, are married for another time, that your life is being used to bring God glory. You can't go back and fix the past, you can't go back and change the past, but you can ask God for forgiveness for the past. You can learn from your past, and you can use your future for His glory. So, whatever your state of marriage, wherever you are, use it for the glory of God. Culture wants to turn away from the truth of God's word. They want to drift away from it, but there are implications to that. We live in a time of confusion. Confusion about what marriage should look like and what it is. And we just need to go back to God's word. Trust him. And live for his honor.