WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.320 So, we're returning to Mark, our study in this great gospel. 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:12.560 And it's like all the gospels are different, and this is a great gospel that we look through 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.560 together. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:16.199 It's shorter than the other gospels. 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:22.699 There's a real sense of immediacy about what Mark is writing. 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:30.480 He is keen to write it down, and he's keen to move on from one story to another. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:36.399 The word immediately is used twelve times in the gospel, so he moves on and immediately 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.159 something and then immediately something else happened. 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:46.239 It's as if he's the short condensed summary of the lives of Jesus, the life of Jesus, 00:00:46.239 --> 00:00:50.200 is his focus, particularly as we saw last week, his public ministry. 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:55.200 There's nothing about his birth and his upbringing, straight into his public ministry. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:00.560 And it's like the words are running towards the cross, because he wants to get to that 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:07.840 place of ultimate significance, where the events in the life of Jesus have their greatest 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:09.480 fulfillment. 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:15.800 And it's written for the early church, and mainly it would have been written for Gentile 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:21.159 believers, so there's not the same focus on looking back into the Old Testament Scriptures, 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:26.959 for example, that the Jewish believers would have been more acquainted with. 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:31.759 But it's really good for us today to read and to acknowledge and to think about, because 00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:40.239 it was written for Christians to have a greater understanding of their salvation and who Jesus 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:41.239 was. 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:50.640 And Peter was probably the one who gave Mark most of his firsthand witness information, 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:56.319 and we see that in different ways through the book, through the gospel of Mark. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:01.759 So what I want to say to our own people today by way of introduction is that it's a great 00:02:01.759 --> 00:02:08.280 gospel and it's a great theme to invite people to church too, who are not Christians. 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:14.000 So obviously every service is a guest service, and that's a good thing. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:21.280 But there will be maybe certain sections that we look at that are extremely relevant, maybe 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:30.920 more so to someone who is maybe a really good introduction for someone who isn't a Christian 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:33.319 and who maybe is thinking about coming to church. 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:40.560 So we will highlight every so often a focus where we can invite people into a guest service 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.439 in church. 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:45.799 Not to say that you don't invite people every Sunday, it's great you can invite people every 00:02:45.799 --> 00:02:50.879 Sunday to this series and indeed any time that we come together for church. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.919 But we do feel that sometimes it's helpful to have a specific focus where you can be 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:01.359 guaranteed that the message will be especially relevant, not just to Christians, but also 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.000 to those who are maybe searching or who are interested or who might consider coming to 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.800 hear about Jesus Christ. 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:15.040 Come and hear the message of the one who's transformed my life and who is my Lord and 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:16.720 Savior. 00:03:16.720 --> 00:03:25.200 So today Mark's theme focuses, touches on two really great challenges for us that are not 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:29.960 just for us, but indeed for all humanity and in some ways and in an existential way and 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:33.360 in some ways for our own hearts and for our own understanding. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:36.000 And the first is who is Jesus? 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.800 So right through Mark you'll find that Mark is explaining who Jesus is and that is a very 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:44.200 important question always to bear in mind when we're looking at this gospel. 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:48.080 Who is Jesus and the uniqueness of Jesus? 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:53.000 And the second thing he focuses a lot on in this gospel is what does it mean to be a disciple? 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:56.319 What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:01.120 And we'll come back again and again to that because he's speaking about that right through 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:02.120 the gospel. 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.959 He keeps going back to think, this is what it means to be a Christian. 00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:06.079 This is what it looks like. 00:04:06.079 --> 00:04:10.879 This is the application of what we understand about Jesus for your life as a Christian. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:16.399 And of course that remains essential and important for us still today. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.199 It runs through the series. 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:23.680 So the first, and we're going to look at these two themes today from this passage. 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.840 First, who is Jesus and then what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:31.600 Because it is... 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:37.000 There's at least some indication here and it's followed on right throughout the book. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:42.439 So Jesus, in this passage, Jesus sets out, last week we saw his baptism and the significance 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:46.240 of his baptism and why that was important. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:53.759 And the Spirit comes into him and upon him at his baptism in that amazing Trinitarian 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:58.120 moment that was highlighted to us last week. 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:04.439 And the first thing we see here that is immediately after this public declaration of the Messiah 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:09.120 and of his work and of his anointing, he is sent out into the wilderness. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:17.160 The Spirit, having descended on him like a dove, immediately drove him into the wilderness. 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:20.160 Spirit of God drove him into the wilderness. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:27.560 Now that was a real historic event for Jesus, but there's a symbolism in what he was doing 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:33.560 and it teaches us spiritual truths as well as being a practical reality. 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:38.560 He was sent, we're told, he was driven into the wilderness. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.199 He was sent into the wilderness. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:49.920 He went, but he also went willingly into the wilderness as he was following the command 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:56.000 of his Father through the Spirit because it was purposed. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:02.199 It was an important reality for Jesus to do this as we will see. 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:11.279 And just as an aside, in a sense as an application maybe for us, when we become Christians and 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:15.279 the Spirit of God comes into our lives, we might not feel any different. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:19.279 It might not seem like we're zapped by some spiritual power. 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:23.079 But when the Spirit, we believe by faith, comes into our lives and we have spiritual 00:06:23.079 --> 00:06:31.519 life through salvation and coming to Jesus, we are often very, very soon brought into 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:34.879 the conflict. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:38.159 And that's a paradoxical reality for us, isn't it? 00:06:38.159 --> 00:06:43.719 We become Christians and we think that everything will go great because we're right with God 00:06:43.719 --> 00:06:47.719 through Jesus and what He's done for us and we've accepted His salvation. 00:06:47.719 --> 00:06:57.159 And what often happens is that there'll be this warfare instigated in our lives and in 00:06:57.159 --> 00:06:58.159 our hearts. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:02.840 The peace of God is not the peace of a graveyard. 00:07:02.840 --> 00:07:07.760 And so what we find is there's an immediate tension within our lives because we have the 00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:15.600 Spirit of God warring against our sinful desires and temptations and difficulties that we have 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:18.160 and this battle begins. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:19.160 So becoming a... 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:22.920 We need to be realistic when we invite people to Jesus Christ. 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.960 We're not naive and we're not stupid. 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:33.079 We realize that there's an unseen spiritual battle that begins in our lives that is evidenced 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:36.519 in what Jesus does here. 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:42.959 And it's indicative of two worlds, isn't it, this passage and what Jesus does here. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:45.199 There's much talk today about multiverses. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:48.679 I don't know anything about that. 00:07:48.679 --> 00:07:52.199 But there are clearly two worlds. 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:56.839 This in other words is not all that there is, what we can see, the seats that you're 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:59.439 sitting on, the people that you can see beside. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:04.599 There is a spiritual dimension to the world in which we live. 00:08:04.599 --> 00:08:08.519 It underpins everything about this world. 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:13.240 And even in this passage, we see that as He's thrown out into the wilderness, there are 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:20.399 angelic beings looking after Him and He is taken into the presence of Satan and Satan 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.919 is spoken of here. 00:08:22.919 --> 00:08:30.439 And it's just a very clear, summary picture of the reality of the world in which we live. 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:34.399 That there is both the physical world and there is also an unseen spiritual world that 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:38.600 by faith we've come to believe in. 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:46.000 And in Satan's rebellion, because that unseen world has been there from before the creation 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:47.600 of our world. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:55.560 But when Satan, in his relationship with God as part of the angelic host, rebelled against 00:08:55.560 --> 00:09:04.560 God and was thrown out of the presence of God, he then took humanity down with Him in 00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:06.879 the first temptation, didn't he? 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:10.720 He knew exactly, because he knew exactly what had happened to him. 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:17.200 He knew exactly what would press the buttons of humanity against God. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:21.840 You don't need God, he said in his greatest temptation. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:27.040 You will not die, God is a liar. 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:34.520 And all of these things have been powerfully repeated and thrown deceptively into our minds 00:09:34.520 --> 00:09:37.320 and hearts ever since. 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:45.920 And the irony of that and the paradox of that is the mystery that we need to wrestle with, 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:53.159 in the mystery of a humanity and even an angelic beings, or angelic beings that had everything, 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:58.000 except being their own masters. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:05.079 And the desire to be their own masters in doing so, they lost everything except becoming 00:10:05.079 --> 00:10:10.079 slaves to sin and death. 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:14.000 So the reality is there for us all to see that there is great mystery. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.879 You know, I said, why, well, how is humanity tempted? 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:18.639 They had everything, didn't they? 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:25.519 They had everything in the beginning, but except being their own masters. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:32.759 And they listened and they fell to the temptation of Satan, who knew that that was the greatest 00:10:32.759 --> 00:10:34.440 temptation for them. 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:41.759 And that becomes the root explanation for us of the evil in our world and in our hearts. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:46.759 So it's indicative of these two worlds, and then we recognize that the symbolic nature, 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:51.360 the reality of what he did, but the symbolic nature also of what he was doing, he resists 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.879 Satan's temptation in our place. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:58.679 When he goes out into the wilderness, we don't have a long account here of what happened 00:10:58.679 --> 00:10:59.679 in the wilderness. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:05.200 You need to go to Matthew or Luke to get the details of the temptations that he faced. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:07.799 I'm not going to go through them today. 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:12.240 But this becomes one of the last attacks that Satan makes throughout the Old Testament 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.559 into the New Testament to destroy the seed of the woman. 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:21.719 We see it in many different places, and here again we find him seeking to destroy the Messiah 00:11:21.719 --> 00:11:32.000 of God, the reference to the wild animals, the prophetic wild animals of the Old Testament 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.679 being the enemies that Jesus faced. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:38.959 And what we have here in the wilderness is really, the wilderness is just the entrance 00:11:38.959 --> 00:11:40.039 hall of Golgotha. 00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:44.319 It's the entrance hall of the cross. 00:11:44.319 --> 00:11:49.039 And we find here that he has to walk through this in order to go to the cross because he 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:55.039 has to do what humanity failed to do, which was to resist the temptation of Satan. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:56.519 And he does that. 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:01.479 He does that, and we read in the other accounts, and it's assumed in the account here. 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:08.159 He's revisiting, in a sense he's revisiting the garden in the beginning, or he's at least 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:12.200 revisiting the failure of humanity in the garden. 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:17.000 And he's there for 40 days, which is a powerful symbolic number from the Old Testament that's 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.000 used in different ways. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:24.240 Usually to do with testing, Moses was 40 years in Egypt, and he was 40 years in the desert 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:30.120 before he was sent to be the one who would redeem the people out of Egypt. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:35.519 The wilderness travels were for 40 years for the Old Testament people, and then they had 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:42.919 40 days to repent of their sins before God would come in judgment, and so on. 00:12:42.919 --> 00:12:48.799 So we have this symbolic and the reality of what he's going through in the wilderness, 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.879 and it's hugely understated here, just in a couple of verses, isn't it? 00:12:52.879 --> 00:13:02.039 He was there with wild animals, and the angels were administering to him. 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:07.159 But the declaration of this which Mark wants us to recognize is that he is here, and Jesus 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:15.159 came to defeat what we cannot defeat, and give back to us what we have lost forever with 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:17.200 our backs turned on the living God. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:23.440 What we can never find for ourselves in our own strength and in our own wisdom, true identity, 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:31.360 eternal love, genuine belonging, lasting hope, and the lasting hope of a glorious future, 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:36.600 body and soul, not just body and soul. 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:41.080 And that's what is being declared in this passage as he comes out of the wilderness 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:49.040 temptation and succeeds in defeating Satan's temptations as a human and as God, where we 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:51.040 failed. 00:13:51.040 --> 00:13:55.639 And coming out of that, he then goes on to declare in verses 14 and 15 the good news. 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:59.040 Now after John was read, Jesus came and gathered proclaiming the gospel, or the good news of 00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:03.520 God saying, the time is fulfilled, kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:05.020 gospel. 00:14:05.020 --> 00:14:10.680 So he, it's the first declaration of his message, very similar to John's message also that we 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:12.959 heard about last week. 00:14:12.959 --> 00:14:15.439 And timing is everything, isn't it? 00:14:15.439 --> 00:14:17.279 God's timing is everything. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:24.679 You know, the time, when the time was fulfilled in the right time, Jesus came at exactly the 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:27.239 right time. 00:14:27.239 --> 00:14:31.959 And everything he has done, everything he has planned is in the right time. 00:14:31.959 --> 00:14:36.599 And you know that if you plan things, don't you, if you're a planner, you know, you have 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:42.720 timings for things, and it's important that if the plan works out, the timings also work 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:43.720 out. 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:46.360 Some of us are not good at timing, I know. 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:48.879 But that's usually a case, isn't it? 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.960 If things are to work out, they're step by step things to work out, the timing needs to 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.519 be planned and prepared and considered. 00:14:56.519 --> 00:14:59.920 And we may feel that there's great mystery in God's plan. 00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:02.160 We might ask Him questions, why? 00:15:02.160 --> 00:15:03.560 Why is this happening? 00:15:03.560 --> 00:15:05.399 Why isn't that happening? 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:06.799 What is going on, God? 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:09.720 It doesn't seem like there's any plan. 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:18.799 But we, as believers, we come in faith and trust in His timing. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:25.079 And He came at the right time to establish His kingdom, proclaiming that the kingdom of 00:15:25.079 --> 00:15:27.600 God is at hand. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:31.439 His eternal, His society. 00:15:31.439 --> 00:15:32.439 He came. 00:15:32.439 --> 00:15:34.879 We maybe don't use kingdom quite so much. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:39.639 Kingdom is quite an old fashioned word, although we do talk about the United Kingdom. 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:43.240 But society is maybe a word we use more often. 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:44.399 And He did come. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:47.320 He came to establish His society. 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:53.080 And ever since He came, His society is being established in a kingdom of darkness, as it 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:56.279 were, in this two-world reality. 00:15:56.279 --> 00:16:03.159 And He's establishing His kingdom in the hearts of believers initially. 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.039 And He will then return to usher in His everlasting kingdom. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:13.839 But initially it is a kingdom where His lordship and what our submission is personal. 00:16:13.839 --> 00:16:17.679 His rule and government in our lives and hearts, He is Lord. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:18.679 He's powerful. 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:25.679 He's the author and source of life, to whom every living being, including everyone here, 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:27.879 is accountable. 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:33.799 And in establishing His kingdom, He's opening the way back to Himself. 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:40.759 And that kingdom embraces body and soul, unlike any earthly kingdom. 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:43.519 So it's huge. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:44.519 It's big. 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:52.720 It's very significant that we consider and wrestle with, as believers as well, and not 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:59.600 just fiddle about in the corner with a little Jesus that's insignificant, but see a big, 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:10.360 big work and an enormous declaration that speaks of His power and His glory and His love. 00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:13.680 He's the King of kings. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:19.920 And as believers we are called to grasp both the personal and the eternal consequences 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:24.759 of accepting and following or rejecting Jesus in our lives. 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:29.440 He came to establish His society and He says it's good news. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:33.440 He says that is very good news. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:37.880 He comes with the gospel, that just meaning the good news. 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:42.840 Why is it good news? 00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:46.360 Precisely because He walked out of the wilderness. 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:52.279 That's why it's good news, because He came out victorious from that confrontation with 00:17:52.279 --> 00:18:00.439 Satan, which points forward to a greater confrontation that He had with Satan and death on the cross. 00:18:00.439 --> 00:18:08.240 All the actions of, all the actions that are recorded by Mark in His gospel that are Jesus 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:14.819 actions are moving towards, rapidly moving towards the cross. 00:18:14.819 --> 00:18:22.079 So we're reminded that the King Jesus on the cross will wear a crown of thorns. 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:27.200 It will be a crown of thorns He will wear because He has representively taken the thorns 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:31.759 and the thistles and the wilderness of our spiritual experience on the cross and our 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.279 guilt. 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.919 Mark is saying that I'm taking you towards the cross because you'll see on the cross 00:18:37.919 --> 00:18:43.720 that Jesus there errs your forgiveness and mine. 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:48.559 It's big when we're coming to wrestle with the gospel. 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:49.559 It's not insignificant. 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:54.720 It's not small stuff when we deal with the gospel. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.559 It's cosmic because Jesus is spanning two worlds. 00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:04.480 He's spanning both worlds, the spiritual and the material. 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:09.759 And He's the Son of God who the Father loves and the Father sends. 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:16.519 And He's the Son of God who comes because He loves you and He loves me and He wants 00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:21.279 to put right and has for us as Christians put right what is wrong. 00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:23.480 It's His gift today. 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:24.480 It's His gift. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:26.240 It's His gift of love. 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.160 It's a gift. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:29.920 We don't earn it. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.240 We can't work towards it. 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:32.879 It's His gift. 00:19:32.879 --> 00:19:35.640 He has done it because He loves us. 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:44.160 And it's the answer to you and my broken hearts, bruised and guilty and guilt ridden hearts. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.160 That is what we have in Christ. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:51.880 And it's the answer to the torn and broken society in which we live. 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:59.840 And it reminds us of the pointlessness of existing without the purpose of being loved 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:07.319 and having identity and having meaning, ultimate meaning beyond just a flesh and blood existence 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:13.279 that comes and goes and that gets buried in the ground six feet under. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:20.119 It's so significant in a society which is disintegrating in many ways despite all its 00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:23.439 claims of progress. 00:20:23.439 --> 00:20:25.199 So He declares that He is the good news. 00:20:25.199 --> 00:20:28.839 And then briefly, what does it mean to be a Christian? 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:30.919 We'll see that throughout the series. 00:20:30.919 --> 00:20:35.879 But here, and throughout the book, He's talking about authentic discipleship. 00:20:35.879 --> 00:20:39.359 He returns to it again and again. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:48.480 And I mentioned that Peter was probably the source of the original material that he writes 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:49.480 here. 00:20:49.480 --> 00:21:01.799 So we find quite often in the gospel that the failings of Peter are highlighted and the 00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:07.480 character and the good things about Peter maybe or the important things are underplayed. 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:10.920 It's like Peter says, don't say that about me. 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:12.240 Just point to Jesus. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:17.880 And that in a sense is why this account here of the calling of the disciples is very sparse. 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:19.319 And it's a bit weird for us, isn't it? 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:22.279 It's as if these guys are fishing and Jesus walks along and says, hey, come and follow 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:24.759 me and they immediately throw it, they're not saying follow Him. 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:26.839 They say, well, that seems a bit weird. 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:28.599 That doesn't seem very normal. 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:32.639 And of course, you need to go to the other gospels to find out that there's more to it 00:21:32.639 --> 00:21:33.639 than that. 00:21:33.639 --> 00:21:40.119 But it's as if Peter's saying to Mark, just tell them the immediacy, the important things. 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:42.759 Just that it's important to follow Jesus. 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:46.799 Don't go into all the back story because we learn in the other gospels that they called 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:50.240 and master that they were clearly had been listening to Him before. 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:51.240 They knew about Him. 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:52.240 They'd been fishing all night. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:55.599 I'll see a little bit more than that just before we close. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:22:01.000 So we have this account here of discipleship of following Jesus. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:10.680 And Luke gives, sorry, Mark here gives three very important things, repentance, faith and 00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:12.039 following. 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.639 And that's true discipleship. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:19.080 Just repentance, that means that just that, you know this, we've often said it from the 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:21.880 pulpit here, that complete turnaround. 00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:29.320 It's moving, it's turning our heads, turning our whole bodies from facing away from God 00:22:29.320 --> 00:22:32.040 in our lives to facing towards Him. 00:22:32.040 --> 00:22:36.040 It's a change of allegiance in our lives. 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:47.599 Luke chapter 4, verse 8, if I've got the reference right, is important because Jesus says in the 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:53.399 temptation that He's facing in the wilderness from Satan, Jesus answers Satan by saying, 00:22:53.399 --> 00:22:57.680 it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and you shall serve Him only. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:04.480 And that's part of what He's encouraging in repentance and in this command to follow 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:05.480 Him. 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:10.640 It's a complete change of allegiance and it's an act of faith and trust in the Jesus, the 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:14.400 historical Jesus who died and who rose again and ascended. 00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:19.079 And it involves confession saying, I've got my life thus far wrong. 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:24.759 And as Christians, it's a continual saying, what, I've got that wrong today. 00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:26.640 Lord deal with the idols in my heart. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:28.960 Deal with the things that separate me from you. 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:34.799 Confession, recognizing we get things wrong and we come to Him and He willingly, lovingly 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:40.279 forgives us because He's paid the price already Himself and He doesn't punish sins twice. 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:44.319 He's the only answer. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:50.839 But to turn our backs, and we do this as Christians as well, don't we, to turn our backs is to 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:53.359 be in the wilderness again. 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:54.359 That's what it means. 00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:56.879 It means you're in the wilderness. 00:23:56.879 --> 00:24:01.159 It's a genuinely bad place to be in life. 00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:06.320 Obviously more so in death, to say, I know better than the living God. 00:24:06.320 --> 00:24:13.640 I know better than the Jesus who loves me more than anyone in this universe loves me. 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:20.320 It's turning towards Christ to see Him for who He is and the ugliness of our selfish, 00:24:20.320 --> 00:24:21.320 sinful hearts. 00:24:21.320 --> 00:24:26.240 He says, please don't think it's ever moralism. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:28.240 It's never moralistic. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:34.640 It's never just trying to transform and adapt our lives to make them more acceptable to 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:35.640 God. 00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:37.720 It's about His presence. 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:43.079 It's seeing Him for His beauty and recognizing we can never make ourselves right, but He 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.599 gifts us salvation. 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:54.480 It's not that woe is me kind of repentance, which Mark Twain and his story of Huckleberry 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:59.240 Finn speaks about Huckleberry Finn's alcoholic papa. 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:03.160 The old drunk cried and cried when Judge Thatcher talked to him about temperance and 00:25:03.160 --> 00:25:04.480 such things. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:09.200 He said he'd been a fool and it was a going to turn over a new leaf. 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:14.200 Everyone hugged him and cried and said it was the holiest time on record. 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:18.839 That night he got drunker than he'd ever been before. 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:21.200 That's not really repentance. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:25.600 It's just trying to turn over a new leaf and we fail miserably. 00:25:25.600 --> 00:25:30.000 It's about seeing the beauty of Jesus and be motivated by the beauty of Jesus to follow 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:31.640 Him. 00:25:31.640 --> 00:25:35.480 And that's the challenge we have in our lives, is to repent that way. 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:43.080 But also to have faith, he says, repent and believe in the gospel. 00:25:43.080 --> 00:25:47.640 And faith is allowing God to persuade you. 00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:55.120 Being open to God's persuasion, to open your heart to Him, to ask Him for the gift of faith, 00:25:55.120 --> 00:26:01.560 more faith as Christians, deeper faith as believers and take it as a gift and recognize 00:26:01.560 --> 00:26:02.560 that. 00:26:02.560 --> 00:26:08.360 Take these facts and allow them to turn your life upside down by God's grace and in His 00:26:08.360 --> 00:26:09.360 power. 00:26:09.360 --> 00:26:11.240 And it also means following. 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:19.960 So there's this, you know, a great, rather dramatic visual of the disciples just leaving 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:22.279 their nets and following Him. 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:27.519 It's the outworking of repentance and faith is that we follow Jesus. 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:28.880 And what does that mean? 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.720 It means relationship primarily. 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:38.960 It means a meaningful love relationship with your Creator through Jesus Christ as Lord. 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:40.319 It's to be with Christ. 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:48.000 You see when in Mark chapter 3, I'm moving ahead and taking someone else's theme here, 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:49.240 which probably we'll look at again. 00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:54.000 Mark chapter 3 at verse 14, when the disciples, all the disciples are being named, he says, 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:01.599 He appointed twelve, whom He also named apostle, so that they might be with Him. 00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:03.240 So they might be with Him. 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:04.759 It's about relationship. 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.000 He needed and wanted relationship. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:09.279 And He calls us to be in relationship with Him. 00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:15.799 Unequivocal is that He calls us to see His beauty and to follow Him. 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:18.480 And that is what we're called to do. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:20.200 And His believers, He's... 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:24.920 And if you're not a believer, He's either right or He is rotten. 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:27.519 Now grasp that. 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:29.279 Jesus is either right or He's rotten. 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:31.960 And if He's rotten, none of us should follow Him. 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:37.680 But if He is right, then it's hugely significant the choices that we make in lives and the 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:40.240 way we follow Him, in other words. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:44.640 He's unashamedly saying He is God, and He's saying that we are made to know Him and to 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:46.279 love Him. 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:49.960 And He calls us to be part of this community of believers. 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:54.480 He says, follow Me, they follow Him individually, but He builds a team. 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:55.480 And then He builds a church. 00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:56.480 Then He builds a family. 00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:58.120 Then He builds a community. 00:27:58.120 --> 00:28:06.240 Because we're called together to help, support, and live out the society of following Jesus 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:07.480 with Him as our King. 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:14.000 We are a people with a society that are to love each other the way He loves and has loved 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.000 us. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.079 So it involves relationship, it involves therefore following Him. 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:20.200 That is Lordship, isn't it? 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:24.400 That's leaving behind as we've seen our own ideas and the whole way of life. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:25.400 And so there's great... 00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:31.519 I think there's a great symbolism in the picture of the disciples leaving everything behind. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:35.640 It's really a symbolic of them leaving their old way of life behind, that old way of life 00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:37.759 where they weren't following God. 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:40.080 And they're saying, I'm not going to live the way I want anymore, I'm not going to be 00:28:40.080 --> 00:28:43.360 a fisherman anymore, I'm going to follow Jesus. 00:28:43.360 --> 00:28:49.800 Now it's really interesting as well, isn't it? 00:28:49.800 --> 00:28:57.920 They were fishermen and it's important to recognize that He was calling them away from 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:01.480 that to something completely different. 00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:05.160 And that's sometimes what it feels like to us if we're to follow Jesus. 00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:11.600 He's taking us out of our comfort zone, out of the things we know about and it seems counterintuitive 00:29:11.600 --> 00:29:16.000 to follow Jesus and to surrender to His will. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:18.000 What are they thinking of? 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.279 That's all they've ever been trained to do and He's asking them to leave that. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:27.120 And there's a symbolism there about following Jesus in our own lives that we are to surrender 00:29:27.120 --> 00:29:31.040 to what He knows best for us and to obey Him. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:37.839 See, there's nothing more miserable than facing both ways than just following ourselves and 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:40.000 kind of half following Jesus. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:45.399 The leading of the Spirit will immediately bring us into conflict as we saw at the beginning 00:29:45.399 --> 00:29:48.639 with our disordered lives, appetites, desires and perspectives. 00:29:48.639 --> 00:29:52.440 But He is worth it and I'm saying, stake your life in Him. 00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:53.440 He is worth it. 00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:57.359 And it's a massive change. 00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:02.479 Only for us as believers to recognize that it's, I'm not going to trust in myself. 00:30:02.479 --> 00:30:05.879 I don't even know what color of socks to put on in the morning. 00:30:05.879 --> 00:30:13.599 And I'm not, I can't even make that decision. 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:19.319 And yet I seem to trust, it's easy to trust myself about the big eternal matters and issues. 00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:20.519 And He says, don't do that. 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:21.519 He's worth it. 00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:23.679 Stake your life in Him. 00:30:23.679 --> 00:30:26.879 He will never let us down. 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:31.720 Filling in ourselves for the meaning of life is a far too great a weight to bear. 00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:32.720 We can't bear it. 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:36.360 And it always takes us six feet under and dead. 00:30:36.360 --> 00:30:38.680 We can't do it. 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:42.600 So follow Him and follow His Lordship and learn to resist temptation. 00:30:42.600 --> 00:30:47.560 You know that James 4 verse 7 says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. 00:30:47.560 --> 00:30:52.400 And that's got to be taken from what Jesus did in the garden. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:59.280 So we have that important focus in our lives to resist temptation because we are empowered 00:30:59.280 --> 00:31:02.280 to do so through Jesus' strength in us. 00:31:02.280 --> 00:31:06.200 Not because of we just kind of rally away and say we can do it. 00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:10.320 But because Jesus did it in our place, He resisted temptation and won the battle for 00:31:10.320 --> 00:31:12.600 us. 00:31:12.600 --> 00:31:13.600 Relationship, Lordship and then calling. 00:31:13.600 --> 00:31:14.600 And with that I'm finished. 00:31:14.600 --> 00:31:17.759 I've gone on longer than I meant to. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:19.560 He calls them to be fishers of men. 00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:26.480 And that's really simply a picture of spiritual fruitfulness because Jesus knows better and 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:27.919 Jesus knows what's more important. 00:31:27.919 --> 00:31:33.519 And He helps them to understand that by telling them to put out, they've been fishing all 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:34.519 night. 00:31:34.519 --> 00:31:36.839 We're not told it here but in the other accounts we're told they were fishing all night. 00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:37.839 They didn't catch anything. 00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:41.440 And then He said, put your nets over just now. 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:43.440 Okay, just because you said so Jesus. 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:46.559 They put their nets over and the nets are bulging with fish. 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:50.319 And He says, right now, leave all of that. 00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:51.559 I've shown you who I am. 00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:52.559 Leave it all. 00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:53.559 And I'll make you fishers of men. 00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:57.279 I'll give you fruitfulness in a way you can't understand or believe. 00:31:57.279 --> 00:31:59.079 And that's our calling. 00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:04.119 Our calling is to be fruitful and to be involved in this kingdom work of bringing others into 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:09.599 the kingdom so that we hope that if we invite people to hear the gospel and our lives are 00:32:09.599 --> 00:32:17.000 reflecting the loveliness of Jesus, these pews and seats will not be enough. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:22.519 Even if we only took one person, each of us took one person all year to hear the gospel 00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:25.000 and as we pray for them, they come to faith in Jesus. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.159 We'll need to plan another church again. 00:32:29.159 --> 00:32:31.519 I'll take all the new ones down to Leith. 00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:33.759 And then we'll start a new church there. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:34.759 But isn't that good? 00:32:34.759 --> 00:32:37.480 One person each a year. 00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:38.480 Two people each a year. 00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:43.200 What a difference that would make if we see God working in that powerful way because we're 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:44.200 all Fisher. 00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:45.680 We're all to bear fruit. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:47.960 We're all to have that work of the kingdom. 00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:54.519 We are to partner with Him in bringing in the lost and we are to live and share His good 00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:55.519 news. 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:59.599 Father God, help us to live and share your good news. 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:04.039 So much in this passage that we could talk about it forever. 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:07.079 But help us to know and understand it better. 00:33:07.079 --> 00:33:12.359 And as we go through Mark, help us to see through your spirit in our hearts the beauty 00:33:12.359 --> 00:33:20.159 of Jesus, the power and the glory of Jesus and also the call to authentic discipleship 00:33:20.159 --> 00:33:21.599 and what it looks like in our lives. 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:22.599 We ask it in His name. 00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:39.599 Amen.