Leaving A Mark
Download MP3This morning we are going to bring the gospel of Mark to a close. I've got the daunting task of trying to summarize everything we've learned in the last seventeen months to to try to put a nice tidy bow on it, which I'm not sure how I'm gonna do that yet. I'll figure it out as we go. But but I thought perhaps the best way for us to start is for me to simply read back to you some of the emails that I've received, over the last week or two about what the Lord has done in your life, as we have studied through the gospel of Mark. And so, I could spend the whole service just reading these emails.
Joel Brooks:I'm just gonna read, I don't know, I'll read maybe 10 or so of them. I've gone to church my whole life, And I've sung songs about Jesus' love, his compassion, power, and sacrifice. But all of those words have an entirely new depth after going through Mark. They are no longer just words. It was like I heard Jesus's cry from the cross for the first time.
Joel Brooks:My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I just had no idea as to the depth of Jesus's love and sacrifice for me. Next to you, Mel. Make no mistake. I'm nowhere near where I need to be.
Joel Brooks:But I've definitely gained a new boldness in my faith over this past year. Jesus told me to pick up my cross and to follow him. Nothing wishy washy about that call. You're either all in or you're all out. I can either be like Pilate and seek the applause of men, or I can follow Jesus and have the approval of God.
Joel Brooks:Next. I didn't realize how much I saw Jesus through my own political lens until this study, But Jesus is both way too conservative and way too liberal to fit into any category. The way that Mark told even some embarrassing details about the disciples, it made me walk away from the study with a much greater trust in the truthfulness of scripture. I learned that we can't make seed grow. Seeds grow.
Joel Brooks:No matter how much we want to, God grows the seed. That reminder has freed me to talk about God more often and more boldly without with my unbelieving friends and family. We love God by loving our neighbors and we love our neighbors because we love God. Those two are fused together. Brilliant.
Joel Brooks:I love that. Wow. Those words both broke my heart and made my heart burst with thanksgiving. The reality of that separation from God hit home. And I understood the anguish of that in a whole new way, and that we don't ever have to endure that separation.
Joel Brooks:Wow. When we discussed this at our home group, I asked that we actually stop to pray and to thank God. I like this one. It's all or nothing. That's it.
Joel Brooks:That's the whole email. It's all or nothing. Love it. I grew up in as you say the buckle of the Bible Belt. Apparently I say that a lot.
Joel Brooks:We're in the buckle of the Bible Belt and I can't remember ever not being in church, yet it wasn't until the sermon on Mark three about Jesus calling his disciples that I realized I had only been a fan of Jesus and not a follower of Jesus. But Jesus didn't come to start a fan club. It was a needed kick in the gut. You're welcome. I like kicking people in the gut.
Joel Brooks:I felt so encouraged by our study that I've started two bible studies over Zoom with friends back in my hometown. Most of them have never opened a bible before. And we've walked through parts of Mark, but then decided we would walk through Redeemer sermons all the way back to the book of John. Anyway, two have given their life to Christ. One of them was my brother, and the others are definitely being gripped by Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Praise. I've got a rich dad. That was a quote from October. And since then, we as a family have become more generous with our finances and our home, and have seen the Lord provide. Provide in friendships and closeness with him.
Joel Brooks:God is sovereign. God is good. You are his child. I'm sure many members were encouraged by this simple yet profound reminder that we heard. We found it to be particularly encouraging during some uncertainty surrounding our son's health.
Joel Brooks:I'll read one more. I've been amazed to see the number of things that always seem to go back to Genesis one through three, but more importantly, to see how it all points to Jesus. And yes, it does. And I could read many more, but it's just been a huge encouragement to see how the Lord has used this study over the last seventeen months. And what I wanna do first is I wanna pray, before we actually start going through some of the gospel of Mark together.
Joel Brooks:So if you would would pray with me. Father, we give you thanks for this study. Thank you for preserving your word for us for the last two thousand years. That we might come to not just hear about Christ, we might come to know him. And Lord, I pray that in this moment, we would come to know him even deeper.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, your words would remain, and they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So what I have here, this is manuscripts from the last year of going through the gospel of art.
Joel Brooks:And what I thought I'd do is just go through these for all of you. Now it's a daunting task when I I mean, it was it was good for me just all of these again. But also I felt kind of helplessly lost in knowing how do we how do we summarize? How can I summarize an entire study like that? And so what I thought I would do is actually not start by reading anything from the gospel of Mark, but by reading you these words from Paul to the church in Galatia.
Joel Brooks:Galatians chapter one, first verse, Paul says this, Paul an apostle, not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers and sisters who are with me. Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God, our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Those words, that letter written to the Galatians, most scholars say was written around forty eight AD, which was just fifteen years after the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And what I find absolutely fascinating about Paul's words here is that it's not the claims that he makes about Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And he claims that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is Lord. He is the Messiah. Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus saved us.
Joel Brooks:He took on the powers of evil. We have all of those things there. But that's not what I find fascinating. What's fascinating is that Paul just assumes everyone already believes that. He assumes his his audience already.
Joel Brooks:That's that's just these facts are just taken for granted. Paul doesn't waste a single sentence trying to convince anyone of that truth, and he never does in any of his letters. He will go on to expound the meaning of who Jesus was in his death burial and resurrection. But he doesn't ever ever waste any ink in trying to argue his case. It's just a given.
Joel Brooks:And the reason it's a given is because most of the witnesses to those things were very much alive and well. Thousands upon thousands of people who heard Jesus teach, who witnessed his miracles, or who were personally healed of their diseases, or their blindness, or their lameness. Those people were still walking around testifying to what Jesus had done. And then, of course, there were the many witnesses to his death. And then of course, there were the many witnesses to his death.
Joel Brooks:They saw the sky grow dark as night when he was crucified. They heard him cry. Die and many were witnesses to his resurrection. And of course, because of this, so many people saw these things. This is why Christianity spread like wildfire.
Joel Brooks:However, over time, these witnesses began to die off. Many of them because they were being executed. And so twenty years after Paul pinned those words to the Galatians, This is when John Mark, the cause and the burn of the apostle, Peter. This is when he decided he should write down an account of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. This is now thirty to thirty five years after the death of resurrection.
Joel Brooks:But now that the witnesses were beginning to die off, Mark decides to preserve for us his a draw. Now, I could summarize the gospel by walking through all of Jesus' teachings, all of his miracles, everything we've looked at in the past seventeen months. But we obviously don't have time to do that. So what I want to do is go back to the very beginning. I want us to look at Jesus's very first words and his initial call for people to follow him.
Joel Brooks:So Mark chapter one, we'll look at verses fourteen and fifteen. Now after Jesus was arrested, or John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. This could very well be a summary statement of all of Mark. Really, if you zoom back even more, it could be a summary statement of the entire New Testament.
Joel Brooks:Because all of those theological buzzwords you grew up hearing in the buckle of the Bible Belt, all those words are here. Gospel, Kingdom, Repent, Believe. 62 times. Repent, 47 times. And believe, two fifty times.
Joel Brooks:All according to chat GPT. Deep sync gave me slightly different numbers. The these words gospel, kingdom, repent, believe, heart of the message of the New Testament and it's what Mark will flush out in the rest of his gospel. Now, most of you likely have as a little heading in your Bible right over verse 14, a
Joel Brooks:heading that reads this, Jesus begins
Joel Brooks:his ministry. And so, Jesus begins his ministry. Now if you remember, those little headings, they're not part of the original manuscripts. Mark didn't write that heading. It was probably some intern at Zondervan Press, who gave us that little heading there.
Joel Brooks:But hopefully by now, you realize just how inadequate that heading is. Jesus begins his ministry. Ministry? I think of VBS.
Joel Brooks:I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of
Joel Brooks:Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of Upwards Basketball. I think of I think of Upwards Basketball.
Joel Brooks:I think of our men's ministry, you know, Tuesday morning breakfast, or our women's ministry, retreat this weekend. And everything. And we made Christmas ornaments that went on to change the world. Puppet mission trip all the way to Chicago, where we put on a puppet production of The Prodigal Son. Anyone here from Chicago?
Joel Brooks:We have a couple members. You're welcome. I know that's the reason that you were here. I mean, that's what we think when we think of ministries, and ministries are all fine and good, but they're way too small, aren't they, to describe what Jesus is bringing, what He's beginning here, And that's why if you feel comfortable doing this, it's not heretical. You can actually just just draw a line right through that Jesus begins his ministry, and instead, you should say, Jesus begins his reign.
Joel Brooks:He begins his reign. That's the good news that Jesus is bringing. He is announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God and he is the rightful king. That's the good news. And because he is king, he will have followers.
Joel Brooks:That's what we read next, verse 16. Passing alongside the Sea Of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who ran their boat mending the nets.
Joel Brooks:And immediately, he called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Now if Jesus if he was just starting a school, a seminary, maybe a ministry school like the Old Testament prophet Elijah had done, then he would have recruited at this moment some students. If he was starting an army, he would have certainly recruited soldiers. If he was starting his preaching ministry, he would have just been recruiting listeners.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is a king, and he will have followers. Notice he doesn't try to convince these men of anything. He doesn't try to convince Simon, Andrew, and James, and John that they should come, that they needed to join his cause. He doesn't argue with them. He doesn't try to convince them.
Joel Brooks:Instead, he commands them, follow me. And immediately, they follow him. And that couldn't have been easy for them. And their dad's dad's dad was a fisherman. I mean, the trades at this time, they were they were a family business, and they went back many generations.
Joel Brooks:Maybe two, three hundred years of family business being fishermen, handed down to and
Joel Brooks:they just walk away. And they just walk away.
Jeffrey Heine:And they just walk away. And they just walk away.
Joel Brooks:And they just walk away. And they just walk away. And they just walk away. And they just walk away. And They just walk away from that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, can you imagine how hard it would have been to drop everything and to follow Jesus, to drop everything familiar, all to go to an unknown future? Call, God, called Abraham. Abraham, leave your family. Leave everything familiar, and go to this unfamiliar place that I will lead you. And here in the New Testament, we have the exact same call.
Joel Brooks:Now, these men had no idea what that call would lead to. I mean, Peter, Andrew, it would lead to them being crucified. Stoned. John would die an egg cell. But do you think for a moment that right now they regret that call and obeying it?
Joel Brooks:Moment? Because following Jesus, yes, it ended in their death deaths, but it also ended in unending joy and glory. I mentioned this when we first studied the passage, but the Christian life can be called many things. It could be considered challenging, beautiful, surprising, adventurous. But one thing the Christian life is never is
Joel Brooks:That's
Joel Brooks:it. It's an act of surrender. When we first looked at this text, I mentioned to you that if you were to actually compare the sermons that are preached now with the sermons that are preached a generation ago, you will notice a number of differences. Some of them positive, some of them negative. But one of the main differences is this, that the modern preacher often when they're sharing the gospel in a sermon, they give an invitation and then they ask everyone to make a commitment for Jesus.
Joel Brooks:You won't find that language over a generation ago. For people to make a commitment to Jesus, The preachers then they ask people to surrender their lives to Jesus. To surrender to Jesus, it means that you have to recognize that you've been living as your own king and your own kingdom with your own self rule. And you have been battling against Jesus and his rule your entire life, but now's the time to lay it all down. Lay down your weapons, lay down your opposition, lay down your life, and you're saying, Jesus, you have complete and utter control of everything.
Joel Brooks:I surrender. And it is the sweetest of all, surrendering to a righteous king who loves you even more than you love yourself. And what you're gaining is eternal joy and life. Worldly kingdoms. And, of course, they're all underneath the umbrella of the kingdom of Satan.
Joel Brooks:And so what you would expect is there is going to be a clash of kingdoms happening. And sure enough, that's what you see throughout the entire gospel of Mark. The kingdoms are clashing. As a matter of fact, the very first thing that Jesus does after he calls his disciples to come and follow him, is he takes the fight to Satan. And he casts out a demon.
Joel Brooks:And then he will cast out another demon. And then another. And then another. And he just keeps on casting out demons. So much so that even his staunchest enemies can no longer deny his authority and deny his power.
Joel Brooks:They can't just say, oh no he really didn't do that. Everybody knows he was doing that. There were witnesses to him doing that. So they had to come up with something else and they they made an accusation against him. Well, you realize the only reason Jesus can do that is because it's the power of Satan within him.
Joel Brooks:Do you remember how Jesus responded? Kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. Kingdom cannot stand. And if a house
Joel Brooks:is divided
Joel Brooks:against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one strong man.
Joel Brooks:Then indeed he may plunder his house. I get chill bumps every time I read that.
Joel Brooks:I mean,
Joel Brooks:Jesus looks his enemies straight in the eyes and he says, Granted, you're right. There is a battle going on. You're right about that, but it's not a civil war. It's not Satan fighting against Satan. It's my kingdom fighting against his kingdom.
Joel Brooks:And can I tell you, it's not even close to a fair fight? For I have gone into Satan's very fortress, and I have bound him, and I will take whatever I want. You know what's you know what Jesus wants? You Jesus, he goes, he tells all his disciples to get in a boat, and that's when he goes across the sea, all in order to deliver one man who's bound by a thousand demons. And that's when Satan, once again, throws everything he can at Jesus.
Joel Brooks:There's this huge storm, wind, waves. Jesus just sleeps. It's not a fair fight. He wakes up. Would you just be quiet and stay quiet and the wind and the wave cease.
Joel Brooks:He goes and he casts out a thousand demons. Every demon shriek. Every demon being cast out. That is Jesus binding Satan and liberating that person. It's what Jesus has done for us.
Joel Brooks:We have been bound by Satan. We have believed his lies. We're in bondage to sin. First John three eight, we read that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And Mark is just Jesus going through destroying, destroying, destroying the works of the devil.
Joel Brooks:This morning and there's some sin, there's some evil in your life that just has a hold on you, hear me. Jesus is stronger than that. He is stronger than that evil. He did not defeat satan, go to hell and back, all in order that you may stay bound to that. Satan has no hold on you.
Joel Brooks:We read that Jesus would then go on to bring his kingdom to this world, where he goes. He would preach good news to the poor. He would heal the lame. Give sight to the blind. Make the and it's just undoing all of the damage of sin.
Joel Brooks:Every place his foot stepped the kingdom of God. God. It's the good news of the gods. It's the good news of the kingdom of God. Preached that people have to repent, and they have to believe his gospel.
Joel Brooks:So we must turn away from our sins and turn to him in order to be saved. To repent means to reverse course or it means to turn around. And of course, when we hear repent, the first thing we think of is we have to repent of our sins. And that's true because all throughout the gospel of Mark, Jesus called people to repent of their sins. We read through Mark and we read that he he called people to turn away from their greed, to turn away from their deceit, to turn away from their sexual immorality or violence or envy or political idolatry or to instead and to instead live by his laws.
Joel Brooks:There are now citizens within his a We do what Jesus commands us to do. But, we are here Jesus. He's not just calling people to turn away from sin. Having people turn away from all the things that they have placed their trust and their those things cannot save you. Only I can save you.
Joel Brooks:That's ultimately what every person has to repent from is I can no longer pursue all these things that I think will save me. The gospel of Mark, it ends by telling us exactly how Jesus does save us. The Jesus, his enemies, they they understood that Jesus was a revolutionary, and they were right. But he was unlike any revolutionary they had ever seen, because Jesus wasn't coming with an army. He wasn't coming to wield the sword.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was coming to fall under the sword, and to lay down his life for his enemies. That's how he was going to save the world, by giving his life. Jesus, he went to the cross and there he took on all the evil of the world. He said, do your worst. And we did, didn't we?
Joel Brooks:I mean, we've been looking at that for the last month. We did our worst to Jesus. All the mocks, all the spitting, all the slapping, the pulling of the beards, the nails pierce through his hands and his feet. He absorbed all of the darkness and the evil of this world. And then he absorbed the very punishment of God that we deserved.
Joel Brooks:He did it all, taking on all our sin or shame in order that we might be forgiven and have new life. That's how he ultimately defeated evil. People around, they thought, we're gonna crucify him. That cross, that's your death. What they didn't know is Jesus decided, no, you lift me up and I will draw all men to me.
Joel Brooks:That cross is not my death. That cross is my enthronement. We'll look at that more next week. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave conquering sin and death forever. And that is the good news of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's not the good advice of the gospel. Don't make the mistake as you read through this thinking that the mark is about giving us some moral imperatives, just some ways we have to live better, some things we have to try and do to become better people, maybe earn favor with God. No. No. It's news.
Joel Brooks:It's not about what you do. It's about what Jesus has done for you. He has brought his kingdom. He has provided salvation for you. Believe it.
Joel Brooks:Believe it. Number of you who have struggled to believe. And thank you. Thank you that you have reached out and we've been able to sit down and been able to talk through this. I know that had to be hard for you to do so.
Joel Brooks:You know, as we've been going through this study and you've been wrestling with who Jesus is and all of this, I feel like you you you keep waiting for this gentle on ramp to believing that Jesus is the son of God, and that you're to surrender to him. Just keep waiting for that nice gentle on ramp. But what I think you're gonna get instead is a fork in the road. You've heard Mark. You've heard him state his case.
Joel Brooks:You've been confronted with Jesus. It's time to decide. And I'm not just talking about those who are unbelievers, those who don't know Jesus. And maybe you're at this point where you're just Maybe you're at this point where you're just I'm just really scared to give that. That's where you should hear.
Joel Brooks:Mark's words in chapter five, do not fear. Only You know, your your hold on thinking money is your security or or your lack of concern for the poor or that your refusal to forgive anyone or the envy that you're like believe. And if you're struggling to believe, hear the words we heard in Mark chapter nine. I believe. Would you help my own belief?
Joel Brooks:Enough. So right now, if you would just close your eyes as we end our time in prayer. And I just want to first just give you a moment to ask the Lord, is there something in my life where I am not surrendering to you? And whatever thing that is that the Lord just almost immediately brought up to you, Would you turn away from it? Would you lay it down at his feet?
Joel Brooks:I promise you Jesus is the greater treasure. He's the greater King. King. Jesus, thank you for being our king. And I pray in this moment, we joyfully surrender to you our entire lives.
Joel Brooks:Ultimately, all we're surrendering is death and embracing life. Thank you for taking our sin and shame, nailing it to the cross, being separated from the father so that we might never know a single second of separation from him. Thank you for doing all of that for the joy that was set before you. We pray this in your name, Jesus. We pray this in the name of our present and our future king.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
