Gems in Mark

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to simple man sermons, the preachings of
a simple man called by God to share the good
news of Jesus Christ. I wanted to go through some
things that stood out to me this week in the
Gospel of Mark. Now, I don't know how many times
I've read the Gospel of Mark. I honestly don't know,

(00:22):
or just be taking a rough guess, But luckily I've
read these passages many times, but they stood out to
me in a different way this time. Couple of things,
just in that in the preamble before we get started,
the Word of God is living. And just because you've
read something once doesn't mean you won't glean from it

(00:44):
reading it again. Unlike any other book, what do you
do when you've read the Bible? You read it again
and again. It's God's guide for us on this earth
on how we should walk, how we should live, how
we should love God and love each other. With that,
let's go to the Gospel of Mark. Now. I must

(01:08):
say you guys probably know, if your students of the Bible,
that chapters and verses are very recent in our very
modern translations. That said, they are useful, but for these
were written as individual books compiled into a larger book,
the Bible, but there weren't necessarily breaks in chapters and verses.
In Chapter three, we see Jesus healing on the Sabbath

(01:30):
and says when he went into the synagogue, they watched
him closely that they might accuse him. And he said
to them, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?
Or to do harm? To save life or to kill?
They kept silent, after looking around at them with anger,
grieved at the hardness of their heart. This is the
only place I'm aware I could be wrong in the

(01:54):
Bible and the Gospels, where it says that Jesus is angry,
you can deduce in other places that he probably was
angry when he made whips and drove the money changers
out of the temple. Righteous anger is not a sin.
Bible says, be angry and do not sin. Obviously, Jesus
never sinned, it says here though specifically he was angry
and angry why at the hardness of their hearts? And

(02:16):
we see on the next next page of my Bible
the religious leaders of the day, his own well, his
own people, They said, he has lost his senses. The
scribes who came down from Jerusalem. Were saying, he is
possessed by Beel's above, and he casts out demons, by
the ruler of demons. And so he called them to

(02:41):
himself and began to speak to them in parables. Fuck
and Satan, cast out Satan. And if a kingdom is
divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. If a house
is divided against itself, the house will not be able
to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he can not stand. But he is finished.

(03:02):
But no one can enter a strong man's house and
plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man,
and then he will plunder his house. Truly, I say
to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and
daughters of men. But whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit

(03:23):
never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.
Because they were saying, he has an unclean spirit. Now
likely I've heard that before. I've heard it before. Now
in different places in the Gospel we see that demon's

(03:44):
unclean spirits. They recognize Jesus Matthew eight twenty nine, What
do you want with us, son of God? They shouted,
have you come to torture us before the appointed time?
Also we see in Luke chapter four moreover, demons came
out of many people, shouting, you are the son of God.

(04:10):
Both of those things are incredible. But I was thinking
about that this week in a way I had perhaps
never thought of it before, in that, yes, demons know
who God is, they know who the son of God is.
But his own people, all of his own people, right,
he had disciples, he had apostles, he had followers, But

(04:33):
many of his own people, his own people, who had
had prophecies about him and been foretold about him since Genesis,
they did not recognize him. The so called experts, the
educated men, the religious leaders of his day. Again not all,

(04:54):
but many of them rejected him. They did not recognize
him as the son of God. But demons they did
recognize him as the son of God. If you think
about that for a minute, that is perplexing, incredulous, and

(05:17):
it should slap us in the face with truth a
little bit. Two things being true in this that should
shake you. One is knowing who Jesus is is not enough.
Knowing that he is the son of God, that he
is Lord. That is not. Apparently the only thing, because
the demons recognize him, they're not saved. Buying out and

(05:38):
paying lip service did not save the demons. So we
see from Jesus's own mouth. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord Lord, and the Gospel of Matthew.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter
the Kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the
will of my Father, who is in he will enter.

(06:01):
Many will say to me on that day, Lord Lord,
do we not prophesy in your name, and in your
name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Leave me, you who practice lawlessness. The demons know he's
the son of God. They proclaim him as the son

(06:23):
of God, but they are not living in obedience. They
are not walking out what God tells us to do,
to love God properly and love our neighbor properly, and
God tells us how to do that. It's not whatever
we want to do. That's what sayn is saying God,
I know what you want me to do, but I'm
gonna do whatever I want to do. So just saying

(06:44):
that Jesus is the son of God. Is very true.
But apparently we see here from Jesus's own mouth, and
he will say to him, Lord, Lord, and he says,
depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness.
The law as you're talking about there. He's not talking
about US tax code, he's not talking about the constitution,

(07:06):
talking about Roman law at the time, he's talking about
God's law. Yes, absolutely know that Jesus is the son
of God, and proclaim it and practice living the way
that he tells us to live, to walk just as
he walked. Of course, we can't earn salvation. We get

(07:29):
it by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. But we see here,
I never knew you. Leave me, you who practice lawlessness.
You know, faith without works is dead. Really believe that
Jesus is Lord, and that he loves you so much,
He died for you, and he wants what's best for you,
And he tells you what's best for you, and you
constantly do the opposite of that and don't listen. Do

(07:52):
you really love? And it's not for me to judge,
it's for you to judge. Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. I don't know your struggles, I
don't know your temptations, I don't know your situation. But
God does, and you're not fooling him. One day, every
niche shaboo, and every tongue shall confess. But that really
stood out to me this week, that right his own people,

(08:15):
Jesus himself said, whereas it I think math Mark seven,
Jesus himself said, Mark six. A prophet is not without
dishonor except in his own hometown and among his own
relatives and his own household, his own people. The religious

(08:36):
educated people of the day are supposed to be the
ones watching for him. They all were, but especially the
religious leaders, understanding the text, understanding the prophecies, and they
didn't recognize him. The demons recognized him. That is incredible,
And the fact that, yeah, the demons recognize who he is,

(08:56):
but they're not living the way they're supposed to live
in doing what they're supposed to do. Obviously, we see
him proclaiming the name of Christ. They know who he is,
just not doing what they should be doing, walking contrary
to God. The religious leaders, when it says, but whoever

(09:17):
blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is
guilty of eternal sin, because they were saying he has
an unclean spirit, saying Jesus is not who he says
he is the son of God. They were trying the Pharisee.
They were trying to do the right thing, but they weren't.
They didn't realize the truth. You shall know the truth,

(09:38):
and the truth shall make you free. They didn't know
the truth. They were trying, but they didn't have the truth.
They did not realize the truth. They did not accept
the truth literally standing right in front of them, that
Jesus is the son of God. Directly after this same
chapter again, this is in Mark III. Then his mother

(10:00):
and brothers came, and while standing outside, they sent word
to him, calling for him, and a crowd was sitting
around him, and they said to him, behold, your mother
and your brothers are outside looking for you. Answering them,
he said, who are my mother and my brothers? And

(10:22):
looking around at those who were sitting around him, he said,
here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does
the will of God, this is my brother and sister
and mother. He doesn't say here proclaiming the name. He says,

(10:48):
whoever does the will of God. Part of that will
is proclaiming the name of Christ. But that's not even
the part that got me when I was reading it
this week. That got me actually right now when I'm
reading it, whoever does the will of God, this is
my brother and sister and mother. Now I'm an older brother.

(11:09):
Maybe that's why it took me so long to zero
in on this. Maybe I don't know. I am the eldest,
so I didn't have big brothers growing up. But I
understand the archetype of like a good big brother, and
who could be better than Jesus, nobody, but a good
big brother that looks out for the little siblings. It
takes care of them, that watches over them, that protects

(11:30):
them from bullies and gives them advice, like a good
big brother that has your back. Now, I often love
and have known that God is my father Abba Jesus God.
God is Jesus, the Word made flesh right, I don't
think I hopefully if you're listening to this you know that.

(11:51):
But I often see God as my father Abba, a good,
loving father that wants what's best for me. All wise,
all knowing, all powerful, and that's a beautiful thing. I
often think of Jesus as Lord and he is he
is Lord, and both those things are important. King of

(12:12):
kings and lord of lords. But a relationship with a king,
a relationship with a father, is going to be different
than a relationship with a brother. Christ is all those things, king, Lord,
brother create. The Creator. In the beginning was the Word,
and the world was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God, and without
him nothing was made that was made. That's wonderful, And

(12:35):
this doesn't take anything away from those things, but it
adds another layer of relationship. Did you catch it when
he says, this is my brother. To think of Christ
as my big brother is a different relationship than I've
thought of it in the past. And again, I've never
had a good big brother. I've never had a big brother,

(12:57):
but I understand the archetype and that just to have
a perfect, loving, protecting big brother, that Christ is my brother,
that is a whole another depth of relationship. Now we
should be careful with this analogy, because you might disrespect
a brother, even an older brother, but obviously we should

(13:19):
never ever disrespect God. Same could be said for a
father or a king. People may talk about the King
behind their back, blaspheme use the Lord's name in vain,
even if they see him as God the Father, or God,
King of King, Lord of lords. But I just want
to be careful there to say that we are to
render unto God as best we can, to respect and

(13:42):
honor and glory. Do his name, our Father, who are
in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Continuing on in chapter four,
you're probably familiar, so I'm not going to read the
whole thing in tote, but the story of Jesus in
the boat and the storm. And they woke him and said, teacher,

(14:06):
do you not care that we are perishing? And he
got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush,
be still. And the wind died down, and it became
perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you afraid?
Do you still have no faith? They became very much

(14:27):
afraid and said to one another, who then is this
that even the wind and the sea obey him? When
I hear verses like that, I'm just oh awesome that
God commands the winds and the waves, the very forces
of nature that he created, and he didn't just step

(14:48):
back like some deist believe or whatever, and just a
clockmaker that winds it up and just lets it go.
He is in control. He controls even the wind and
the waves. And that's an awesome thing. That's a great
thing to understand and an encouraging thing. But I had
kind of gotten that before, of course, not completely understanding God,

(15:11):
but that he is sovereign and in control even of
the wind and the waves, which is amazing. But here's
the thing. These disciples speaking about this. Now, these disciples,
they see this like very real in front of them,
like literally God made man standing in front of them,
and you rebukes the wind and the waves, and they

(15:32):
stop from a raging stormtip dead, calm. In an instant.
He said, hush, be still. God's word. God's word has power,
just like when he created and the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless
and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep,

(15:54):
and the spirit of God hovered over the face of
the water. And God said, let there be light. And
was He creates with his word, He sustains with his word,
He governs with his word. His word is powerful. These
men in this boat see this like in the flesh.

(16:17):
They see him. They see him walk on water, not
right here in this passage, but they see him do
these miracles. They see him calm the wind and the
wave in the boat. They see him feed five thousand people.
It's not like after they see this massive demonstration of
his sovereign power over nature, which any of us would
love to see, like, they never stumble, not like they

(16:39):
never have issues after that. It's not like they never
doubt after that. Look at Thomas. He wants to see
the hands, the marks in his hands, Peter Peter, who
denied Jesus at his trial. So that also is encouraging.
Not that it's good to tho those things happened, but

(17:01):
that if Jesus's own disciples who saw him do these
mighty things, this just being one example, they still stumble,
they still have issues, They still are not rock solid
for the rest of their life. But they do trust
on that foundation that rock of God of Christ saved you.

(17:24):
Just to scary it, right, they all recover. This is
a beautiful and encouraging thing. Now, these are just a
few chapters in the Gospel of Mark that again I
have read who knows how many times. It's an encouragement
to you. What revelations, what wisdom and knowledge will you

(17:44):
glean the next time you read the Bible. I don't know,
but I've never read the Bible and regretted it. This
is an encouragement to you. No salvation by proxy. You
need to read a word of God for you. Thanks
for listening, and have a blest day.