Go a little deeper
Beginning a new series through Mark, Pastor Keith asks what the word "Christian" actually means. He notes that the early movement was called "the way" and describes a Christian as a little imitation of Christ—a disciple who learns from the rabbi. He then introduces Mark: the shortest Gospel, written with Romans in mind, shaped by Mark's closeness to Peter, and authored by a man whose earlier failure and later restoration Pastor Keith traces through Acts and 2 Timothy.
Working through Mark 1 under three headings, Pastor Keith first considers "the way": the good news that Jesus is the Son of God, with John the Baptist as the messenger preparing his way. "The water" treats John's baptism of repentance, Jesus' own baptism, and the Father's audible affirmation of the Son—which Pastor Keith applies to anyone who thinks God prefers a cleaned-up version of them.
The final movement, "the wilderness," traces the Spirit driving Jesus into forty days of testing. Pastor Keith treats this as a pattern in which spiritual highs are often followed by wilderness, and he reads Mark's mention of wild animals against the persecution faced by Mark's Roman audience. The message closes with an invitation to repentance and a response prayer.
Take this with you
God uses people who have failed
In Acts 15:36-41, Mark had withdrawn from an earlier mission, and Paul and Barnabas sharply disagreed over whether to bring him along. Later, in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul asks for Mark as useful for ministry. Pastor Keith presents Mark and his mentor Peter as evidence that failure does not have to define anyone's future service to God.
God looks at the heart
In Mark 1:4-8, John the Baptist appears in unusual dress and diet, and Pastor Keith reads that portrait as evidence that God is not concerned with appearance, clothing, or background. Anyone wondering whether they fit in the church is invited to come as they are, because what matters is the heart's direction toward Jesus.
The Father's pleasure is not earned
At Jesus' baptism in Mark 1:9-11, the Father speaks love and pleasure over the Son before his public ministry begins. Pastor Keith applies this to listeners who assume God wants a cleaned-up version of them, saying that God's love rests on who he is rather than on what they have accomplished.
Wilderness follows the mountaintop
In Mark 1:12-13 the Spirit immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, and angels minister to him. Pastor Keith names this as a normal progression and turns to 1 Corinthians 10:13 for the promise that God is faithful in temptation and provides a way out for those who feel surrounded.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
so [Music] hey welcome friends my name is keith and my wife and i founded journey church 12 years ago with the whole goal that you would be transformed by jesus that's what this church is all about it's all about jesus and you came on a great sunday we're starting a new series through a book that's all about jesus called mark so if you brought a bible you want to find the book of mark right there mark gives us a glimpse of the life of jesus which is an extraordinary life i wonder what you think about when you
hear the word christian what is a christian if you were to ask a variety of people what does it mean to be a christian some might say you're born into the right family others will say if you go to church some might even just say being an american makes you a christian we live in a christian nation but what really is a christian in fact the original use of the word christian was a derogatory term it was used for those who followed jesus and the way the early movement of the church was not called christianity it was called the way and when they were persecuted when they were put down they were actually called christians the greek word that was originally used for them was cristianos it sounds more italian but it's a greek word christianos and if we were to break that up into the english just two words
christ which is anointed that's what the word christ means it's a greek form of a hebrew word which is for the messiah the anointed one of god the chosen one of god and then chian means little means you imitate like when you see a child that looks like their parent you say that looks like your mini-me they look just like you that's what a christian means to be just like christ you're you're modeling the ways of christ you look like christ you in some sense the word just means the little anointed ones we are not the christ but we look like christ and if we're going to be christians that means we must look like christ we've got to look at his teachings and better understand what did jesus do where did
he go what did he say and we want to learn from jesus and today we're going to learn three things that you must experience if you follow jesus we're going to look at the way the water and the wilderness three things a follower of jesus experiences if jesus is the teacher the the the word for that is rabbi if he's the rabbi and if we're the students the word for that is disciple if word of the disciples and jesus is the rabbi the teacher is greater than the students but we want to learn from the teacher and the days of old the disciples would go wherever the rabbi went the disciples would would start sounding like the rabbi they would start living like the rabbi and that's what we want to do with the life of jesus first let's just do a
brief introduction into the book of mark who is this mark that we're going to learn so much about well he shares about the account of jesus life there are four such writings in the new testament there's matthew mark luke and john mark is the shortest of these four mark was not one of the twelve disciples matthew was john was but mark and luke were not mark however was a close companion of peter now peter was one of the 12 disciples of jesus not only was peter one of the 12 disciples he was a part of the inner circle of jesus he got to see things other people didn't see peter james and john would go up to the mountain with jesus they often got to go in a room with jesus they often got to see very special things and so mark was close to peter so he got to hear peter preach often he got to ask peter questions he
got to be so close to peter that he's able to write this account of jesus life now of the four accounts of jesus life mark is the shortest account of jesus life so when missionaries go into a region that does not have scriptures in a particular language they will often translate the book of mark first because it's short because of its brevity but also it's easy to read it's easy to read because mark wrote the this account of jesus life for the romans he wrote it at a time that rome was the largest empire that occupied earth and they were a powerhouse and for those who are following jesus you would often be persecuted you'd pee on trial not just by the politicians but by the religious
of the day so mark wants to give an eye he wants to give an account that we would know the life of jesus that it's a life of power it's a life of love it's a life of peace it's a life of miracles and if you choose to follow jesus you too should have a life of power a life of peace a life of love you too should have a life of miracles this guy mark was not a perfect guy in fact he had his own failures we read about mark in the book of acts he's spoken of several different times in fact it was at his mother's home that the early church met on one account we read in acts chapter 15
in verse 36 it talks about paul and barnabas they they wanted to go visit the regions where they started churches paul was an early church planter he started churches to be transformed by jesus and he went with barnabas who's it's just simply a nickname for this guy who's the name means son of encouragement so paul and barnabas went all over they wanted to return and visit the cities where they had started churches now in verse 37 we read this now barnabas wanted to take with them john called mark this is the same writer of the book of mark but paul it says in verse 38 thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in panphilia when in pamphilia and had not gone with them to work
so paul's saying like no no we're not going to bring mark with us he headed home when things got tough paul is saying we're not going to bring this guy with us because when times get tough he goes home to his mama he's entitled we don't want any of those millennials with us all right this is paul's attitude barnabas is like let's bring him with us look at verse 39 and there arose a sharp disagreement aren't you glad the bible's honest it doesn't hide the difficult stuff there will be disagreements in life even in the church there will be sharp disagreements but that will not stop the work of god there will be conflicts there will be misunderstandings there will be times
that we just don't agree and here you've got the encourager barnabas here you've got paul the apostle who writes many of the books in the new testament there's a sharp disagreement and it's all over mark so they ended up separating from each other barnabas took mark with him and sailed away to cyprus but paul chose silas and departed having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the lord i just want to note in verse 41 and he went through syria and cilicia strengthening the churches now was this sharp disagreement which led into a split a failure or a success yes see i don't think the lord wants us to
fight i don't think he wants us to have disagreements in fact this probably was not fun to go through but we have a god that when you love him and you realize you're called according to his purpose god can work all things together for good it didn't stop with this disagreement they both went on to do the work of god in fact the work of god gets multiplied the devil's going to try to stop you in your life and he'll typically do with a disagreement with people close to your life but i'll tell you when you trust in the lord he can actually multiply a movement of god so mark ends up going with barnabas and does the work of god and paul ends up taking silas and they do the work of god and you know what's really amazing is paul and
mark end up reconciling at the end of paul's life he's writing a letter to timothy and it's his second letter and he makes this statement in second timothy 4 11 regarding mark he says luke alone is with me then paul says get mark and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry paul comes around and says now listen actually god does use this guy even though he failed he ends up doing great works for god and do you know who god will often use the most people who fail god loves using failures he loves using failures because you don't have to stop at where you messed up in life god loves to grow in you so that you can
trust in him so that he could work in you and through you that is not defined by what you did or where you've been or what you were like yesterday it's about trusting in the lord today now remember mark may have messed up and he may have headed home right in the middle when things got tough but i'll tell you this he's learning from a mentor that failed a lot peter peter was one of the 12 disciples but peter had his own mistakes peter was the one that he would say things he shouldn't say he would do things he shouldn't do he would over promise and under deliver peter was full of failures but peter did great works for god peter was the first person that would step up in acts chapter 2 when the holy spirit comes upon those who believe in jesus and he preached the message of jesus that's peter he didn't stop in his failures he didn't
allow it to define him so mark who's learning from peter is going to share with us the life of jesus and right in the introduction we're going to see the way the water and the wilderness right from the beginning how how this shapes everything because all of us needs to start somewhere so here's how mark starts if you've got your bible let's dive into mark chapter one you know if you don't have a bible we would love to give one to you as a gift we have them every week here at journey church in person we've got them on the tables in the back you can always grab one as a gift if you don't have one we want to make sure that you're reading this so if you didn't bring your bible today bring it back with you next week so you can get in you can see just you should always test like is what the preacher saying true is that really what's being said so you
should study the bible on your own let's go here mark chapter one starting with verse one mark tells us the beginning of the gospel of jesus christ the son of god to start off this narrative of jesus life he starts with the beginning this is reminiscent of genesis chapter one verse one in the beginning the origins always go back to jesus he has always been he is in the beginning and we're going to learn much about jesus in this opening line in the beginning the gospel of jesus christ the son of god he calls this gospel gospel means what shout it out good news we we will constantly talk about the gospel at journey church because this world could use some more good news you could use some more good news in your life you could use some more good news in your family this city could certainly use some more good news the
world that we live in could use some more gospel which is good news now he's specific about the good news the good news is not just nice people the good news is not just people that go around doing good deeds the good news is jesus christ it's jesus christ the son of god the son of god is a favorite phrase of mark he'll use it over a dozen times where he wants us to know that jesus is not just a nice guy he's not a good teacher he's not just an ordinary guy he is the son of god he is one with god he's going to show the reader that if you choose to follow jesus you're not just following a 100 man you're following 100 god he is the one that fulfills his name now what is his name the name jesus is actually in english form of the greek word
so jesus was not the name he was actually born with in fact they would not have called him jesus that the name he was born with is yeshua everyone say yeshua yeshua is the hebrew name that he was born with if we were to just translate literally yeshua in english it's joshua so why do we call jesus jesus and not joshua or yeshua because jesus is the greek form of yeshua and when jesus lived and he died and he rose from the grave the greco world the greek culture had influenced the modern world in terms of academics and writing so we have the expression of yeshua joshua in the name of jesus now the name jesus is actually two words combined together yeshua it's the lord saves quite
literally to understand it the lord is our savior the lord is salvation jesus fulfills his name and that he is savior in jesus is salvation and he is the lord of lords now the word christ is already mentioned means anointed one there would be one true anointed one chosen by a god christ is the greek form of where we get the hebrew word messiah so christ is not his last name it's the title that's given to jesus alone the gospel is yeshua hamashiach that is jesus the christ the son of god and what we will see in the sermon today is he changes everything he is the way which changes the water which changes the wilderness
it's going to change who we are we're to see this as mark continues in verse 2. he goes right into scripture as he says as it is written in isaiah the prophet behold i send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way the voice of the one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make his paths straight mark mark follows his introduction saying this is about the good news of jesus christ by going back to scripture written long before the birth of jesus saying this jesus is the way but there will be there will be someone that prepares the way before jesus he's quoting from malachi chapter 3 and isaiah chapter 40. malachi 3 1 says behold i send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his
temple and the messenger of the covenant and whom you delight behold he is coming says the lord of hosts isaiah 43 says a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make straight in the desert a highway for our god mark brings together these old testament texts in a striking way he lets us know that god does not want us to wander as a people he does not want us to come to our own conclusions he will provide a messenger so that we will know the way specifically mark's talking about a person that will prepare the way of jesus this is not the one anointed by god this is not the christ this is not the yeshua but he's preparing the way for
the way we know this person as a relative to jesus he's known as john many have given him the nickname john the baptist not to be confused with john the apostle or disciple that writes a number of the books in the new testament that walked with jesus and talked with jesus this would be the one that would look forward to say there is one coming greater than me now jesus himself made a bold claim when he said i'm going to prepare a place for you and where i'm going you can't come right now but there are many rooms you could bring your friends his own students were a bit confused and one asked uh we don't know the way could you give us directions could you be a little more specific how do we get to this place that you're going and jesus said in john 14 6 i am
the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me aren't you glad that jesus did not make it confusing to get to heaven he didn't say you have to be good enough to get into heaven he didn't say you have to go to the right church to get into heaven he didn't say if you follow the right rules and you get into heaven he says if you know the right one you're in because that's where i'm going and i'm going to make sure there's room for your friends so make sure you invite them and point them to me the way so that you know who i am and that changes everything now mark is speaking of the one that's preparing the way for the way when he says in chapter 1 verse 4 john this is john the who the baptist
john appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and all the country of judea and all jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river jordan confessing their sins he goes into great detail of what he looked like which is incredibly unique check out this character now john was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey now it's rare in the scriptures that we get a description of what someone looks like or even what they eat this is like the early instagram mark is letting us know what kind of
character john is i need you to go with me here because the guy that's preparing the way does not look very religious he's not wearing the traditional religious garments he's not wearing the traditional religious hats he's he's not even wearing gucci he's not on preachers and sneakers this guy is just doing his own thing he looks a little more like a hippie he it's hard to describe this guy because he seems to be marching to the beat of his own drums he seems to be if you will reflecting the creativity of the creator and what i see in this text is that god's not so concerned about what you wear or what you look like or what you eat he's concerned about your life he's concerned about your heart do you understand your way or do you understand
yeshua the way and what we see with john the baptist is the ones that god wants to invite into his family is it doesn't matter what you look like so if you've ever wondered do i have a place in church because people don't look like me if you ever wonder like i'm not sure if i fit in here i'm here to tell you in today's text that god loves you you could come as you are you could look however you want god absolutely cares about you it doesn't matter what you're wearing to church it doesn't matter what you eat last night for dinner what matters is where your heart is right now for jesus and this guy john is going to point us forward we read in verse 7 and he preached saying after me comes he who is mightier than i the strap of who sandals i'm not worthy
to stoop down and untie he's greater i'm down here he's up here i john says have baptized you with water but he will baptize you with the holy spirit john brings to the world baptism the greek word for baptism is baptism it's not a spiritual word it just means to immerse underwater so he was immersing people under water but it wasn't a religious duty they were confessing their sins they were being changed he he was preparing the people for jesus that you you can't keep living the same if you get baptized so he baptized them with
water with a message of repentance now repentance is a very important word when it comes to relationship with god repentance means a changed mind it means you've changed your thinking see gentiles would get baptized to join the family of god because they weren't born into the judeo the jewish the hebrew family they would get baptized saying i want to be a part of this family i want to be one of them i want to follow the one true god and now john comes onto the scene and says we all need to be baptized we all need to turn from our sins we all need to change our thinking we need to repent now repent i believe has a bad rap in the church that word it's a wonderful word it means to change your ways and go to god's ways repent means i'm going to quit doing
things the way i want to do them i want to do them the way god wants to do which is why it's so important to study the scriptures how did god do it what is god doing so when you get water baptized you're recognizing a deep need for god you're sharing an allegiance to the lord god now all these people were coming to john so many loved his preaching they loved his style they thought maybe he was the god he says i baptize you with water but there's one that's coming to baptize you baptiso immerse you with the holy spirit this is god himself god wants to give you himself that you'd be covered with who he is that the direct response of you surrendering your life to the way is an obedience to him water baptism but it goes even further god will baptize you with the holy spirit when peter preached the first sermon
after the holy spirit came upon the followers of jesus he got up and he preached jesus crucified and risen from the grave a powerful sermon you could read in acts chapter 2. this is the same peter that failed just just weeks earlier peter preaches jesus he was crucified for our sins he rose from the grave and at the end of the sermon verse 37 of chapter two it says now when they heard this they were cut to the heart that's when you know it's a good sermon it speaks to your heart and they said to peter and the rest of the apostles brothers what shall we do and peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the holy spirit see repentance changes everything
you no longer want to keep coming back to what you were doing you now want jesus you realize that your ways weren't working the things of this world they just weren't working you want jesus and when you repent you get jesus now you step into obedience and the obedience starts with baptism it's what jesus told us to do he said go make disciples not of a few people not of some people not of one nation go make disciples of all the nations and then he said baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and if you're new to church we're gonna explain why we have a triune god in just one moment as we better understand what jesus did in his baptism but it all starts and comes back to repentance paul to the romans put it in the form of a question when he said do you presume on the riches of his kindness
and the forbearance and patience not knowing that god's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance do you know how kind god has been to you that should make you want to run to him the fact that god has not just wiped you out for the way you've been living i can't believe god's kindness to me just yesterday he could just wipe me out with his thumb but he didn't do it his mercies are new every morning and so i stand before you to testify he's patient he's kind he's so loving and good you should change your thinking and be more like him you should be more kind and patient and loving to other people just like god has been kind and loving to us he hasn't given to us what we deserve he's done so much more and that leads us
to this place of obedience which is why mark said in verse 8 i baptize you with water but i'm not the one to change you he says he jesus will baptize you with the holy spirit now look at the life of jesus what he did the way he actually will go into the water look at verse nine in those days jesus came from nazareth of galilee and he was baptized by john in the jordan now let's stop there for a moment jesus comes and he gets baptized i thought baptism was the repentance of sins it is the repentance of sins but look what jesus does he actually looks forward to something even greater jesus was without sin in fact we read this in second corinthians 5 21 it says for our sake he god made him jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we
might become the righteousness of god here's what paul is writing to the church here jesus had no sin because he's 100 god 100 man so when he died on the cross he did not deserve death he did not sin to get death but he took our sin on him on the cross and by taking our sin he bears the burden he identifies with humanity and does what needs to be done and exchanges it with righteousness so when jesus gets baptized it's not for the repentance of sin he's actually prophetically pointing forward to what he would do because it's a picture of what he would do jesus when he died he was buried when you get baptized it's a picture of death you go under the water it's a picture being buried in the earth when
you come up out of the water it's a picture of a resurrection aren't you glad you don't stay under the water it's symbolic of the new life you have in christ you're born again the old is gone the new is coming just as you're immersed by the water you're immersed by the holy spirit you've been forgiven of every single one of your sins because of jesus so when he gets baptized it's not for his sins because he had no sin it would point forward to the sin that he would die on the cross be buried and he would conquer death that's that's the picture he was pointing he did what he wants us to do but with jesus baptism look at verse 10 when he came up out of the water immediately he saw heavens being torn open and the spirit this is capital s
one spirit the person of god descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven i just wonder what this sounds like he didn't describe the voice he just describes the words you are my beloved son with you i am well pleased jesus modeling for us what would soon need to be done and trusting him gives us a picture of his burial and his resurrection and and john shows us something very unique jesus is just stepping onto the scene this is just the introduction to the book of mark he hasn't even begun his his public earthly ministry there are not many miracles at this point that we know of he hasn't done this wonderful preaching and teaching
yet he hasn't done all of these things and yet god the spirit shows up and the father shows up the spirit shows up in a tangible way the invisible spirit of god shows up as a dove symbolic of peace gentleness god shows up in a way so that we would see he's real and he's over his son the spirit of god and the father it says in verse 11 speaks audibly you are my beloved son with you i am well pleased this emphasis of the father and the son being one the triune god one god and three persons we call this the trinity the father the son jesus and the holy spirit completely one affirming one another one
god three persons and god the father speaks of the son before he does anything says this is my son whom i love and i'm well pleased i need to speak to someone today that needs to hear this about god as your father he loves you and he is well pleased with you not because of what you've done but because of who he is so many of us have been hurt maybe in our childhood or in our youth or somewhere in our earthly lives where we actually think that god would be more pleased with the better version of us a cleaned up version of us someone that hasn't made mistakes that's not what god loves about you god loves you because he made you and he doesn't make mistakes
god loves you because he has a plan for you he's got a purpose for you so that when you trust in him it's because of his love that it changes your life but you don't have to go get your life right first to be right with god when you're right on the inside it starts to change you on the outside but so many of us think we got to change on the outside to work our way on the inside and that's called religion and now we'll leave you empty when you try to be good enough when you try to live like jesus when you try to do all these things on the outside but not change on the inside and today the lord wants to tell you your father in heaven says i love you not because of the things that you'll do when you allow god to change you you start to live and look a lot more like god and there are all kinds of issue in our
lives so many of us can look back and we've got mommy issues and we've got daddy issues and we wonder why in the world is there so much brokenness in this world and then if you get married you just bring that into your marriage not enough people talk about that then you have kids you just go ahead and pass that on to your kids and then your kids get messed up and they wonder why are we so messed up don't worry it's just been passed down it didn't start with your parents it kept going back and your your parents are meant to just be a temporary view of something permanent let me put it this way to the fathers fathers you're not the real father of your children they have an eternal heavenly father
so your role as the father is just meant to give your kids a glimpse of something far greater their heavenly father so then if you mess up you you just say listen listen i'm not the real deal but we got a heavenly dad that is so let me tell you about him because he'll never stop loving so if you have any mommy or daddy issues sometimes they're just to magnify the reality in the depth of god's love jesus demonstrates for us amazing grace that we get to live in this not because of the family you're born into but because of who jesus is in john's gospel he writes of jesus in chapter 1 verse 12 and 13 says but to all who did receive him jesus if you receive jesus and you believe in his name he gave the right to become children of
god and he clarifies who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man so you're not a child of god because you're born in the right family but of god you are a child of god because you have believed in what jesus has done for you that god has made himself known and once you surrender your life to jesus there's a motivation that it changes your identity you have repented of who you were and now you become who god made you to be when you're water baptized it's a proclamation of the decision that you've made and here mark indicates the triune god that jesus said we should baptize in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and i want you to see this progression today don't miss this remember it's the way the water and the what
the wilderness i've got to warn you of this because this is a typical progression of life and jesus models it it says in verse 12 of chapter 1 the spirit immediately so note this after he's baptized immediately he was driven out into the wilderness the wilderness and he was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by satan and he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him so god knew exactly what he was doing when he brought jesus out into the wilderness now i've got to tell you when you have a spiritual mountaintop high there will be a wilderness that follows
it is totally confusing you go to camp and experience god up in the mountains and you get back home and then all of a sudden it just feels like all hell broke loose because it has you go to church god speaks to you think i can do anything because of jesus i can do all things because of christ who strengthens me as like the moment you get home satan's going to be like really let's test that out he's going to set up some traps and he's going to see is this really true in your life now matthew tells us jesus fasted for these 40 days so not only was he hungry he was weak physically and god knew what he was doing he is proving who he is now the wilderness in the scriptures is a reminder that we've not yet arrived the wilderness is what i would just
describe as the in between this is not the promised land don't get too comfortable here when you're in the wilderness you're reminded even though i go through the valley of the shadow of darkness of death i will fear no evil now because i know who's with me and even if he has to comfort me with his rod and his staff i'm not going to fear any evil because the enemy is going to try to get me to fear in the place of the wilderness because the wilderness is not your home so this world that we're living in right now what you're going through in your life right now is not the end of your story you're in the wilderness and you're going to get through this you're not going to get through this on your own god's going to help you do you notice what mark says because he knows something that i'm not sure the other
gospel said he was with the wild animals now let me just clarify here these aren't kittens these aren't cute little puppies these are wild animals why why does mark note this remember the book of romans excuse me the book of mark was written with the romans in mind now at this time in the roman empire if you follow jesus and you give an allegiance to jesus as the king and as the lord of all there's a chance that you would be arrested you'd be prosecuted and one of the things they were doing with christians is they wanted to to show the world what a fool you are following christ and so they would take christians alive throw them on stakes pour tar on them then light them on fire to light up the streets they would take christians and here's what they would do is while they were alive they would throw dead animal carcass over them throw them into an arena
with wild animals and then for sport for fun people would watch lions come devour christians so when mark says that jesus was with the wild animals he's describing something that all of us will go through at some point where you feel like you're being devoured feels like the world's against you you're wondering why would god let you go through this when all of a sudden it just seems like what why is everyone attacking me and you know this happens when you go through financial problems come on that's when your car breaks down that's when you get sick that's when your your school all of a sudden needs to be paid i mean this is where we get the phrase when it when it rains it pours
it's like it's this flood that just keeps coming but what we read here is that god actually gave him angels to minister to him was you might have angels that you don't even know about but you got to focus on the way you got to look back to the day you were water baptized that you have the holy spirit and god's not going to leave you alone jesus out of his own mouth said i will never leave you i will never forsake you paul in writing to the romans chapter 8 says can anything separate you from the love of god can a wild animal can the devil himself can death separate you from the love of god no nothing can separate you from the love of god you are more than a conqueror because of jesus christ [Applause]
but we can't be naive to this progression that happens in just chapter one when you choose to follow the way you might just end up in the wilderness jesus ends up in the wilderness right after being water baptized and satan is going after him if you re you want to read a longer more in-depth account of this read matthew chapter 4 when satan is tempting him and jesus actually fights off satan with a weapon which is the word of god so if you want to win in the wilderness get into the word of god let god's word get into you what mark's going to do throughout this book is he's going to show us the deeds of jesus not so much the teachings of jesus if you want to learn the teachings of jesus go to the book of john and both are necessary but if you really
want to see someone's life look at their actions look at how they live their life and jesus shows us how we should live our lives that you can trust him this is why you obey him when paul writes to the corinthian church and i'll close with this last scripture today he says no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind in some sense this is what paul's saying like what you're going through other people have gone through it too i know people look like they have their lives together here but there's a lot of broken people around you don't give in to temptation in the wilderness he says god is faithful he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you're tempted he will also provide a what a way out so that you can endure god can provide a way the enemy is so
sly that he wants you to give into temptation he wants you to think that it's the only way out he wants you to think that somehow you'll be satisfied that somehow you'll get something that only deep down inside god alone can give you you are made to have a relationship with jesus you are made for more than just given into sin so what we do is we repent and we run to god and today i just want to turn your attention to that right now as we just have a response time to the lord have you believed in jesus for the forgiveness of your sins have you taken your next step of obedience where are you right now are you in the wilderness and you need jesus as the way and in just this moment i want you to just i want you to pray with me right now
prayer is a conversation with god it's you being honest to god in your heart you can pray silently you could pray out loud you could pray wherever you are prayer is not limited you don't have to stop it [Music] it's a life with god and while we just pray with all the eyes closed i just want to know who i'm praying with today if you want to pray to surrender your life to jesus if you're saying today i want the forgiveness of my sins today i'm done do it on my own i'm just going to ask would you slip your hand up right now would you throw your hand up as just an act of action saying today i give my life to jesus today i want to follow him praise god just be bold right now in your life you throw it up i want to know who i'm praying with today you're saying i no longer do on my own praise god praise god amen amen yes praise god the lord sees you he loves he knows your heart he knows
everything you're going through anyone else praise god [Music] amen praise god the lord loves you so much amen i want to just pray this prayer with me in your heart it's got to be sincere from you to the lord say jesus i trust you forgive me of my sins i receive the holy spirit i receive the gift of eternal life in this moment of prayer i want to continue to pray for us as a church then lord you would awaken us to what following you means that being a christian would not be something we just identify with but our identity would be children of god
that were shaped and changed by your love your grace the fact that you don't give up on us when we fail but lord you you make something out of failures for that we praise you and i ask for more i pray revival would happen out of these hearts i pray as we step into obedience that god this would be the beginning of greater things to come the lord you'd bless the families here you'd bless those who are hurting those who feel like they're in the wilderness being devoured right now that you would minister to them i declare healing in the mighty name of jesus today in your name we pray so be it and amen and amen
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Failure, Conflict, and Being Useful Again
Acts 15 records a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over whether to bring Mark on a return journey, since Mark had previously withdrawn. Pastor Keith reads the split honestly while tracing Mark's later restoration in 2 Timothy 4:11, where Paul calls for Mark as useful for ministry.
Acts 15:36-41 · 2 Timothy 4:11
- Pastor Keith says the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas was neither simply a failure nor simply a success. How do you usually categorize conflict, and what changes if you hold both?
- Pastor Keith teaches that earlier failure did not define Mark's later usefulness. Where are you tempted to treat a past failure as final?
- Where might God be at work in a conflict that once felt like a loss?
Come as You Are: The Messenger in the Wilderness
Mark describes John the Baptist's unusual clothing and diet in detail. Pastor Keith treats this portrait as evidence that God is less concerned with appearance than with the heart, and he reassures listeners who wonder whether they fit in at church that God cares about where their heart is toward Jesus.
Mark 1:4-8
- Pastor Keith says God isn't concerned about your clothing or appearance but about your heart. Where have you felt pressure to perform or look a certain way at church?
- John's unusual appearance leads Pastor Keith to say anyone can come as they are. What keeps you from believing that about yourself?
- Where is your heart currently directed toward Jesus, and what would it look like to bring that honestly before him?
The Water: Repentance, Baptism, and the Father's Pleasure
The message defines repentance as a changed mind and baptism as immersion, then notes how unusual it is that Jesus, who had no sin, was baptized. Baptism is presented as a picture of Jesus' burial and resurrection and an identification with him rather than a work of self-improvement.
Mark 1:9-11 · 2 Corinthians 5:21 · John 1:12-13
- Repentance is described as a changed mind rather than a purely negative word. How would you describe repentance to someone who has only heard it used as a judgment?
- Jesus' baptism pointed forward to his death and resurrection. How does that shape what baptism means for those who follow him?
- The Father spoke love over Jesus before Jesus had begun to preach. Where might you be trying to earn what the Father already says about you?
The Wilderness: Testing, Wild Animals, and Help
Mark notes that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, that he was with wild animals, and that angels ministered to him. Pastor Keith connects this detail to the persecution Mark's Roman readers faced, and presents the wilderness as a normal stage following a spiritual high rather than evidence of abandonment.
Mark 1:12-13 · 1 Corinthians 10:13 · Romans 8
- Pastor Keith says a spiritual mountaintop is often followed by a wilderness. When has that been true for you, and how did you respond?
- Pastor Keith says the wilderness does not mean God has left you alone, pointing to the angels who ministered to Jesus. Where do you need to hear that right now?
- The message says God provides a way out in temptation. How do you recognize that way out when you are in the middle of it?
Answers from this recording
Start a conversation.
Who was Mark, and why does the message spend time on his failures?+
Mark is described as a close companion of Peter, which allowed him to hear, question, and eventually write about Jesus' life. Pastor Keith traces him through Acts 15:36-41, where a sharp disagreement arose between Paul and Barnabas over Mark, and 2 Timothy 4:11, where Paul later calls for Mark because he is useful for ministry. The message's own framing is that God loves using failures and that a person's story does not have to be defined by their worst moment.
How do you hold an honest account of someone's failure together with genuine hope for their restoration?
What is the difference between the way, the water, and the wilderness in this message?+
The message uses these as three things a follower of Jesus experiences, drawn from Mark 1:2-13. The way is Jesus himself, the one John the Baptist prepared for, and the path disciples learn to walk by imitating their rabbi. The water is baptism, tied to repentance and to the Father's declaration of love over Jesus. The wilderness is the Spirit-led place of testing immediately afterward, where Pastor Keith says we should expect opposition and look for God's provision.
Which of the three best describes where you are right now, and why?
Why did Jesus get baptized if he had no sin?+
Pastor Keith explains that Jesus was without sin and that 2 Corinthians 5:21 describes him becoming sin for our sake. He therefore treats Jesus' baptism in Mark 1:9-11 as a prophetic picture—not a confession of his own sin, but a forward-looking sign of his death, burial, and resurrection. Describing baptism as going under water and coming back up, he frames it as the old life buried and a new life in Christ raised up.
What does it mean that baptism pictures Jesus' burial and resurrection?
What does the message say to someone who feels like they are in a wilderness right now?+
The message does not treat the wilderness as a sign of failure. Reading Mark 1:12-13, Pastor Keith describes a normal pattern after a spiritual high and says the wilderness is not the promised land or your final home. He points to the angels ministering to Jesus, the truth in Romans 8 that nothing separates us from God's love, and the promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God provides a way out of temptation. The closing response invites repentance, trust in Jesus, and surrender.
What would trusting Jesus in the wilderness look like in practical terms, without pretending the difficulty has gone away?
