Questions for Community Groups:
1. Share with your group about when you first trusted in Christ.
2. What area of obedience have you consistently struggled with?
3. Talk about a time of temptation in your life that you passed the test and did not give in.
4. How are you working for the Kingdom of God?
5. Who are some people that you are trying to impact with the Gospel?
Tonight we are going to start a study of the Gospel of Mark as tradition holds this Gospel was written by John Mark between 60-70AD. Mark was in Rome with Peter under the persecution of Nero. As we study together I will give you more background information.
I have entitled the Series “Snapshots” because in this Gospel we see quick pictures of Jesus and the disciples. The difference between a snapshot and a portrait is that a snapshot captures real life a portrait is often staged. The Gospel of Mark captures real life, especially with the disciples because at times we see the worst in them.
Ernest Hemmingway said “Every mans life ends in death, it is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another”
In this Gospel we see Jesus the God-man standing out among the rest.
Snapshot1 Mark 1:1-20 “The Supernatural Order” These snapshots of John the Baptist, Jesus and the first disciples give us insight on what the “Supernatural Order” is.
Believe v1-8 V 1 Gospel = good news
Vrs 2-3 When we look at the issue of faith it is something that begins with trusting in the Lord and His promises.
Augustine said "Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou may believe, but believe that thou may understand."
The people were looking for the Messiah and his forerunner. This also signifies and open heart to have faith. They already believed the Lord would deliver.
In Isaiah 40:3 the messenger announces the second exodus through the wilderness to the final deliverance prepared for God’s people. This also illustrates to us that salvation is a work of the Lord and not that of personal works.
We see an urgency in the message of John because this is ushering in the final plans of the Lord because technically we have been living in the end times since Jesus came.
Repent = change your mind about your sin.
Vrs 5 is a key passage to believing in the Lord Jesus “confessing sins” a person cannot trust in Christ unless they admit their sin. GOSPEL
Being baptized by John marked a turn to God, it was identifying oneself with the people who were preparing themselves with the coming Messiah. A willingness to be baptized was a public admission that we are disobedient and we want to be obedient.
Vrs 8 John administered the outward sign but Jesus would administer the inward sign, with the Holy Spirit. Put it this way anyone can be baptized with water and not be sincere but only the sincere are baptized with the Holy Spirit.
This belief in Jesus should change your life…
CS Lewis said
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?
If this faith in Christ saves our lives shouldn’t it radically affect our lives?
Obedience v9-11 It is an act of obedience to the Lord to get baptized. But then why did Jesus get baptized by John? John Grassmick in the BKC serves us with three possible answers.
–Showed that Jesus was in full agreement with the will of the Father.
–It was an act of identification with the sinful predicament Israel was in.
–It was an act of self dedication.
Vrs 11 “well pleased” Jesus is the servant in which the Father is pleased with… in contrast to Israel the servant who the Lord is not pleased with. (Isa 42:1-9)
We should aspire to be a servant that the Lord is well pleased with, being obedient is the way that is accomplished.
Many of us are not obedient in areas of our lives because we feel that it is difficult.
Think of obedience another way…
As Dr. B.J. Miller once said, "It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it."
Resolve not to sin v12-13 Tempted or trail…put to the test. Jesus withstood that temptation and He proved He could pass the test. As a Christian many times our faith is put to the test anytime by being tempted to sin. Anytime we sin we are choosing something over our relationship with the Lord. Often times great temptation comes after a spiritual high point. So obviously one of those times would be right after salvation, another time would be after times of obedience.
“wild animals” in the OT the “wilderness” was a place of great danger and a curse. Here we see the presence of wild animals is an illustration of the harsh environment that Jesus was in.
At times we feel that way in our Christian life. We find ourselves in harsh Godless environments that test our faith and temp us to do wrong thing. Maybe it is dishonesty at work because your boss is rough, cheating in school because your workload is difficult, lying to your spouse because the truth will cause problems.
John Piper says that sin "gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier."
In contrast “angels ministering” they supplied Jesus with assurance of the Father’s presence. In our lives we have the Holy Spirit but the Lord also gives us other believers to minister to us in times of difficult temptation.
We need to surround ourselves with people that remind us that we are the happiest when we are following the Lord.
Working for the kingdom vrs 14-20 The initial phase of Jesus’ ministry This section actually extends to chapter 3:6 but tonight we will only look at v14-20 If we look back to John we see that the culmination of his life was to point to Jesus. Vrs 15 the work of the Father is to believe and then spread that message.
When Jesus goes to the fishermen it is interesting to note that normally a student would seek out the Rabbi (teacher) but Jesus goes and seeks these men out.
This also helps us to realize that we don’t find God, He finds us. When He calls us… we should respond in…
Belief, obedience, resolve not to sin and ready to work for the kingdom.
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