Sermons on Mark
The Family of Jesus
Scripture Reading: Mark 3:20-35 (ESV) Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in…
The One Who Calls His People
Scripture Reading: Mark 3:7-19 (ESV) Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who…
Who can forgive sins?
In Mark 2, Jesus is confronted with a man whose most obvious need is physical healing. Carried by four determined friends, the paralytic is lowered through the roof into the presence of Jesus. Everyone in the room expects one thing: healing. Instead, Jesus does something shocking. He looks at the man and says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” This moment reveals something essential about who Jesus is and what he came to do. Jesus identifies our deepest need before addressing…
Life Under the King
In Mark 1, we get one of the clearest early pictures of who Jesus is. He arrives announcing the kingdom of God, then immediately begins to embody that message. He calls disciples, teaches with authority, confronts evil, and brings healing. In other words, the kingdom is not just a message he preaches. It’s a reality that shows up wherever the King is present. Thissermon centers on four simple truths: the King has come, the King saves, the King rules, and…
A Non-Anxious Presence
This message isn’t going to be an exegesis of the text above, but rather a consideration of different texts that focus on the need for what people in recent years have been calling a “non-anxious presence.” It’s a state of mind that gives people a spirit of calm and confidence even in the midst of the chaos around them. Sort of like someone who can sleep in a boat in the middle of a raging storm. It wouldn’t have been…
King Jesus
Throughout the month of December, I’m focusing on the Person of Jesus. To some extent we always do that, of course, but each week this month I’m focusing more intentionally on some aspect of his character or role. Mark wastes no time, as is his habit. Matthew starts with a genealogy, Luke includes a lengthy birth narrative, and John goes all the way back to creation. In contrast, Mark just immediately starts in on Jesus. It’s almost like he’s thinking,…
Jesus and Legion
Mark is a notoriously pithy writer who gets straight to the point and doesn’t mince words. And yet he devotes twenty verses to this interesting encounter between Jesus and a violent, demon-possessed man that ends up with pigs diving into the sea. That makes us think that Mark thinks there’s something important for us to see here. And there is. It’s a story about demon possession, of course, but it’s more than that. It serves as an illustration of how evil…
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