Find Your Purpose By Embracing The Good News Of Jesus Christ

Ross Sawyers: [00:00:28] What a powerful morning in worship. Brian, thank you for leading us. We love today that we get to worship a God who's worthy, and worthy is the Lamb.

Ross Sawyers: [00:00:39] This last week, I was fixated on the Olympics again. I don't know if you are. Some of you are. Some of you aren't. How many? Just for fun. So I can figure out, am I talking to 20 of us that watched it, or who kind of tuned in? All right. Good, we've got a good crowd there that watched. So there's no doubt that you watch multiple races this week, they're like Forrest Gump moments. It's like, where did they come from to come from behind and win this particular race? And there were a number of races that way. The track team won 14 golds this week, which is amazing. The next closest country won four to give kind of a picture of that. But my favorite race of the week and there were many, but this one kind of stood out to me was the 1500 meter with Cole Hocker. I've watched it multiple times. You might have watched it once, multiple times, or not seen it, but I thought it would be really good if we saw it again. And so we're going to watch the end of that race. Yeah, I did that every time, and I know the outcome. It's like every time we should have that reaction to Jesus, we know he won every time, we go to the cross, we win. on the other side.

Ross Sawyers: [00:01:58] If you'll turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 15, I didn't show that just so I could show you the video, I think it will make sense as we start to unpack. Mark, so chapter 1, verses 1 through 15. And we're beginning a series today through the Gospel of Mark. In the first several weeks of the fall, we'll work our way through Mark chapter 10. We'll break for a little bit, and we'll come back into the new year, and we'll work our way through the back half of Mark or the last third of Mark as it leads us to the resurrection on Easter Sunday. So I'm excited about our time, working our way through, Mark.

Ross Sawyers: [00:02:38] We've thought about this as the real Jesus. And I believe we live in a day where there are a number of misconceptions about who Jesus is, a number of ideas about him, a number of ideas of what it means to follow him or not follow him. And what I'd like us to do is just look from the scriptures, the way God has made himself known in Jesus so that we can see the real Jesus. And then my hope would be that if we haven't already, one, if we already know the real Jesus, that this would just cause us to love him all the more. If we don’t, that you'd see who he really is, and then somewhere along the way, there is a decisive moment where you have to say, I'm really going to follow him. There was a moment in that race where Cole Hocker said, I better make a move now, if I don't make a move now, I don't have a chance. Now, he made his first move, he got cut off and then he slowed down a little bit. But then he got one more gap, and when he saw the gap the second time, he didn't slow down; he shot through that gap, and he won that race. And somewhere along the way, all of us are going to have to sense the urgency of who Jesus really is and what it is that he's really called us to, and we're going to have to make a decisive decision that we're going to repent, believe and follow him and go all in on the race that he's in. And so we have a picture of what that looks like athletically when you move through the Gospel of Mark, we see it in the way that Jesus has laid it out, and he's called us all to run a particular race and invited us into it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:04:17] A brief overview of Mark. There are four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew and John are part of the original 12 disciples that followed Jesus. Mark and Luke are not. So where did Mark get his information to write the Gospel that we have? He was a friend and a companion of Peter, and Peter relayed to him all the different kinds of things that went on in his following of Jesus. Mark, in turn, wrote what it was that he heard from Peter. Mark is in Rome, it is believed that when he wrote this letter, he wrote it for those who are in Rome. They would not have been as familiar with Jewish customs, and so we'll find throughout Mark that he'll be careful to explain those Jewish customs. Matthew, for example, when he wrote his gospel, he was writing to a Jewish audience, and they would have understood innately what he was saying, but that's not who Mark was writing to.

Ross Sawyers: [00:05:25] Now, in that race, Cole Hocker, what we didn't see is all the hours of training and discipline and workouts and everything he did to be in a moment like that. And what we saw in that moment then was action, decisiveness, and urgency. And what Mark is doing is he is writing with an urgency, a decisiveness, and it's action-packed. Sometimes he doesn't explain things, he just says it and moves on. He's moving us to action.

Ross Sawyers: [00:06:02] In James chapter 1, verse 22. the writer says that we are to "Be doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude ourselves." And what I would say to us today that that God has called us into action as followers of Jesus, to be doers of the word. If we're not doers of what Jesus is saying, we are deluding ourselves today into thinking we're a follower of Jesus. It's really clear from Scripture what a follower of Christ looks like, and in these moments in days ahead, we'll see that afresh in Mark. He also highlights Jesus as King, and he highlights that Jesus is Deity, meaning Jesus is God. He is the God-King who has all authority. We'll see that theme resonate all throughout the Gospel of Mark.

Ross Sawyers: [00:07:00] The first 15 verses give us, at a high level, a view of what will unfold in the remainder of the book. It's in these 15 verses, I'd like us to spend our time this morning. The pace is set, and here's what I'd like us to work under, the big idea of life-altering good news. This is life-altering good news. And the question I'd like for us to all think about as we work through these verses is, is that a personal experience that you've had? Are you in the race that God has personally invited you into? Have you experienced good news in such a way, the news we're talking about here, that it has been life-altering for you? That is what the good news of Jesus is. Let's unpack it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:07:48] There are five parts that I've broken it down into, and we'll start with the first one to help us see what this means and to assess if is this something we've experienced. And the first thing I would say, just from verse 1, is to clearly recognize what the best news really is. We have to clearly recognize what the best news really is. And Mark lays it out in the very outset of what he writes, chapter 1, verse 1, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." The beginning, that would be actually a good title for the Gospel of Mark, this is the beginning of something new that's coming in. It reminds us of Genesis chapter 1, the very first book of the Bible, chapter 1, verse 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis means beginning, and that was the title of the book. You could argue that would be equally as good a title for Mark, in the beginning. So in the beginning, in Genesis, there's creation, everything perfect, everything in perfect harmony. And then Satan comes in, crashes the perfect party, and disrupts it with sin that will disrupt all of that harmony. The rest of Scripture starts to unfold in such a way and points us to another beginning that will come, and that's when the Savior comes, when Jesus comes, and now we're talking about the beginning of redemption. So there is a link here back to the very beginning in Genesis chapter 1.

Ross Sawyers: [00:09:24] But this is the beginning of redemption, and it comes through the Gospel, and the word gospel means good news. And it's the kind of good news that changes history, this is history-changing good news that Mark is speaking of, and he's speaking of the good news of Jesus Christ. The word Jesus, his name means Yahweh is salvation. In Exodus, the second book of the Bible, Moses asked God, who do I tell them that you are? And he said, I am who I am, I'm Yahweh. And then the name Jesus means, Yahweh saves. So the good news and the redemption that's coming, this new beginning, is in Jesus Christ. Christ is the anointed one, it's actually not a name, it's a title. He's the anointed one, who is Yahweh that saves. And then he says, and this will be characteristic of Mark, that he's the Son of God. He's saying that he's the Son of God; he's saying that Jesus is divinity, that he is deity, that he is God. This is that first clarity of what the best news is, it's the beginning, it's the Gospel, it's good news that changes everything. And it's the good news that changes everything is Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Son of God.

Ross Sawyers: [00:10:56] Now Mark, interestingly, does not start out like Matthew and Luke with a descriptor of the birth of Jesus. It doesn't start out with a genealogy about Jesus. He doesn't do what John does when John lays a really substantive theological layout of who Jesus is when he starts his gospel. Rather, Mark is decisive, it's action-oriented, it's urgent. He's just starting with the Gospel. This is good news, it's the good news of Jesus Christ, and he is the Son of God. This will set the pace for the rest of this gospel in the way it unfolds.

Ross Sawyers: [00:11:37] Now, this week, and last week, and in the coming weeks are a bunch of new beginnings. School starts, there'll be new teachers, new friends will be made. Sports will kick up. Some will be on new teams. Gymnastics, swimming, track will all have heavy influxes of post-Olympics of new people. There will be new relationships that are built with coaches and teachers and friendships, and some of these will be life-changing, they'll be life-altering, but there will never be anything as life-altering as a new beginning with Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We clearly recognize today that this life-altering kind comes through Jesus Christ. Is that an experience that you've had with Jesus? I'm not asking, do you believe in him? I'm asking, has he altered your life? That's what the Gospel does, It alters your life.

Ross Sawyers: [00:12:42] There's a second thing that we would think about if it's happening, and evidence of this life-altering kind of good news is patiently clearing a path for people to hear the news. Once we've received it ourselves, then we're patiently helping clear out a path so that other people can hear the good news. And when I talk about hear, I don't mean just hear the words but hear them in such a way that they're understood and that they take root, and that they impact and change the heart of a person.

Ross Sawyers: [00:13:17] When Jesus was coming on the scene, there was a messenger that was coming before him to lay out a path to smooth the road so that everybody could hear who Jesus is. And he begins by quoting a prophet in verse 2, "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY; 3THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.’” A couple of things that I would note here. One, we just finished our summer Bible study in Isaiah, and many of you were a part of that, it was a really rich study. This quote comes out of Isaiah 40, Malachi 3, and then a part of Exodus; he's combined three different parts of the Old Testament for this particular prophecy. When we look at it in the context of Isaiah 40, the reference is a path being made for God himself to come. Mark takes it and he applies a part of Scripture that was about God, and he applies it to Jesus. Sometimes we wonder, where does the Scripture say that Jesus is God? This is one spot, when we understand what Isaiah is saying, we understand he's talking about God. And here he's equating that same scripture with Jesus is the one who is the Lord. So Jesus is Deity. And then that also is a good reminder for us when we think about the Old Testament, that it always points to Jesus. When we read the Old Testament scriptures, we read in such a way, how is it pointing us to Christ? This is an example of how it does that.

Ross Sawyers: [00:15:13] In verse 4, we see who the messenger is that's prophesied, and it's John the Baptist. It could read John the Baptizer; he gets the name because he was baptizing people, "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." So how is it that someone patiently clears the path so that someone can hear the good news? What we see John the Baptist doing is preaching, or another word for preaching means to herald, it's to make an announcement. In the secular use of the day, it would have carried with it the idea of a king coming to town, and someone would announce to everyone in the town that the king is coming, that would be preaching. Or it was also used in the sense of athletic contests, the rules would be announced as to how to compete in the games. So there was this heralding, this prepping before the games would actually begin or before the king would actually arrive.

Ross Sawyers: [00:16:31] And so here's John the Baptist in the wilderness. He's not, like, in the city, he's not in a nice place, he's not in a comfortable place where it's easy for people to come, he's in a harsh and desolate kind of wilderness. And what is it that he's preaching? He's preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance comes before baptism, and they are coming repentant. The word repentance means to change my mind, and it alters everything when I repent. Repentance is a gift that God has given us. And John the Baptist is preaching this baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. When they repent, they will have forgiveness, and the baptism is demonstrating that they are repentant. This is not the same baptism that once you believed in Jesus, and when I believed in Jesus, then I was baptized; this is not that baptism. Baptism can get confusing a little bit in the New Testament, there are multiple ways that it's spoken of. This is John's baptism, it is preparatory, it is to prepare for Jesus. He's preparing them for Jesus to arrive, and this is the way that was done. A different kind of baptism; this one doesn't happen again. Jesus came, and this was preparing for that baptism. We'll talk about a couple of others here in a moment.

Ross Sawyers: [00:18:04] In verse 5, this is what he's preaching, he's calling them to repent and to be ready; that's how they can be ready for the coming king. "And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." I think social media would be on fire right now, it's a movement that's happening. This man is out in the wilderness, he's baptizing people, and he's announcing the king is coming and they are flooding into the wilderness. It's not just a few people, it's a wide region of people that are coming out to him, and they've been waiting, anticipating the king.

Ross Sawyers: [00:18:44] A few years ago in Israel, we were in the Jordan River and had the opportunity; this is actually pretty cool, there were five Brazilians that had shown up. They weren't with a group, and they asked me to baptize them, and so I baptized them in the Jordan River. And then they showed up here one Sunday, shortly after that, a pretty cool moment. But somewhere along the Jordan River, I don't know that it was there. It looks more like a Disney kind of thing, the way they got it set up. But somewhere along the Jordan River, he's baptizing these people.

Ross Sawyers: [00:19:22] In verse 6, "John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey." This would be common to someone who is out in the wilderness, this isn't necessarily an oddity for him. This is what he would have survived on, and this is what he would have been wearing. Now, people do different things with locusts. We had our grandson on Friday. He's 17 months old, and he's loving exploring, and we were outside and he's finding acorns, and there are a lot of locusts kind of hanging around right now. He didn't eat them, he crushed them, that's what a little boy does with the locusts. So there's a number of things that we would do with them and that would be one. But John the Baptist, this is what he was surviving off of. And he was preaching and saying, after me, one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. So it's preaching, and it's preaching with humility about the one who's to come. John says, I wouldn't be able to do the lowest, the most menial task for him that's reserved for either a servant or a slave, that is how worthy he is. But there was a humility.

Ross Sawyers: [00:20:55] In John chapter 3, verse 30, John would say this about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease." John the Baptist was continually trying to fade out his own name, that the name of Jesus would be the one that's known. How did he clear out the path? With humility, by preaching of the one who's coming and how to prepare for him. And he said, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. There's a different kind of baptism, there's John's baptism, and then there's the baptism of the Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, this comes to fulfillment, of what is said here. the Spirit comes in Acts chapter 2 after Jesus has ascended to heaven, every person who believes Jesus and becomes a follower of Jesus at that moment receives the Spirit of God, there is not a second time where that occurs, baptism of the Spirit. The baptism word means to immerse, that's what happens when someone comes to Jesus, we're immersed and placed into the Spirit of God, into Christ. It's a mystery, it's a beautiful thing that God does. Once that happens, not explained here, but just to draw the distinctions, then there's a water baptism, which is an initiatory kind of thing that happens after we receive Jesus in the Spirit. There's John's baptism, baptism of the Spirit that comes when we receive Jesus, a water baptism that shows the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and that we've been placed into Christ and that's a way to demonstrate its act of obedience.

Ross Sawyers: [00:22:51] How do you and I help clear out a path? This is what John the Baptist was doing. What do we do? We all have a sphere of influence that God has given us responsibility for, and we all have ways we can help clear the path so that people can hear. One of the ways we do that is prayer, is genuinely praying for people who don't know Jesus, for all the walls and all the obstacles in the path to come down. Did you notice when Cole Hocker was running again? As I said earlier, I think, but he got blocked out when he tried to make his move, but that obstacle didn't stop him. He looked for the next moment to go through the path that cleared out for him and then he shot through it. So we can pray that God will clear out those things that block people from hearing and understanding. We can give resources to people with the questions that they have, there are so many resources available with videos, and books, and so forth. We can actually serve and live in such a way that people see Jesus in and through us, and we can invite people in. There are a number of other ways we could do that, that's just some examples. The question I would have for you is, what were the obstacles? What were the things that were in the path that prevented you from seeing Jesus? And then how did how did those get cleared out? How did how did God do that in your story so that you could actually see Jesus, hear Jesus, and then respond to Jesus? Have you experienced him personally? If so, there will be at least some kind of a heart, if you've experienced this life-altering good news, to tell the good news to someone else.

Ross Sawyers: [00:24:47] The third thing we would think about comes in verses 9 through 11, to humbly receive and affirm our true identity. There is something that changes, fundamentally, in us when we actually respond to the life-altering good news that's being spoken of here, "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." It's just a simple statement he makes that Jesus is coming, he came to be baptized. Now Jesus was sinless, so why would he have to be baptized if the baptism was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin? This would have been a little stunning to the people there, and what he was doing, in Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, it says, he came to fulfill all righteousness, and he was identifying with his people through the baptism. It wasn't because he needed it, or that he was repenting, or any kind of sin confession; he was identifying with his people who were prepping for him.

Ross Sawyers: [00:25:48] And then immediately, and this is part of the urgency we see in Mark in verse 10, "Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him." That word immediately will show up 41 times in the Gospel of Mark, there's just a movement, there's an urgency, and he just moves from one thing to the next. So "Immediately the heavens are actually torn open," is the sense of that word, "and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” This is a stunning moment of identity and of the Triune God. I said earlier that this is reminiscent of creation in Genesis chapter 1, this is another picture of what it's like. In Genesis chapter 1, when God created, in verse 2, "the Spirit was hovering over the water." And the idea here is that the Spirit is coming down and fluttering like a dove; the Spirit is hovering. So in the same way the Spirit was present in creation, the Spirit is present in this new creation, the new beginning of redemption. Jesus, we're told in the scriptures, is the one who created it, it was through him, by him, and for him. He is the agent of creation. So the Triune God was mysteriously all present and a part of creation. And here we see the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, all present at the inauguration, the beginning of Jesus's redemptive ministry. And His Father says to him, You are my beloved Son, in You I am well pleased. This is who you are, you have the Spirit on you, you're my beloved Son, and I'm well pleased with you. This is before Jesus has done any ministry, this is before Jesus has gone to the cross, this is before Jesus was resurrected, and this is the statement his Father makes about him.

Ross Sawyers: [00:28:13] For every person who has received the life-altering good news of Jesus, your identity has changed, you don't need an adjective in front of it to describe it. You are now in Christ, and he sees you and says, you are my beloved. It's Christ that he sees because we're in Christ, he can look at us and say, you're my beloved, and I'm well pleased with you. You don't have to go to bed tonight and wonder, did you perform well enough today? You can go to bed tonight, if you've received this life-altering good news, you can go to bed tonight and know that the Father in heaven is saying to you, you're my beloved, and I'm well pleased with you, because he sees his Son that way and we're in Christ. To use today's vernacular, you're seen by him, you're safe in him, you're stable in him.

Ross Sawyers: [00:29:29] In Timothy Keller's book, The King's Cross, on the Book of Mark, Keller is a big fan of C.S. Lewis. In speaking of this triune God, he quotes C.S. Lewis and is talking about the Trinity is like a dance, it's God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one substance, and three persons. That'll be mind-boggling all our days, but they are mutually glorifying, honoring, and loving one another. And the Triune God is inviting us into the dance, and we just get caught up in the mutual love and glorifying and honoring of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, that's a beautiful place to be swept into. That's our new identity, it's not a sexual identity, it's not any other identity, first and foremost, it is the life-altering good news of Jesus, and that's our new identity. Is that an identity that you've received and that you live out of? And have you experienced that life-altering good news to have that identity?

Ross Sawyers: [00:30:52] Well, I think most of you know by now that if you've been following Jesus, at least even giving it a shot for a little bit, that it's not always easy. This was like just one of those most amazing moments, just think about amazing moments in your life where you're thinking, I can't believe what just happened and that that is just beyond what I can even fathom, that's one of those moments. And then immediately trouble comes. And I would just say today that evidence of having received the life-altering good news is hard times coming your way in my way, and if we are to live out this life-altering good news, then we obediently overcome tough spiritual battles. What do I mean? Let's continue to anchor ourselves in the word in verse 12, "Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness." The Spirit, who just came down on him, the voice of the Father who just said, I'm pleased with you, now the Holy Spirit of God impels him, that word means to drive him. The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, and it would be a place of temptation. So the Spirit of God comes and oftentimes moves us into those battles against darkness and Satan. So we don't have to wonder today, is something amiss about my faith? I thought when I trusted Jesus, things were going to go easy for me. How was it that I was having a great time right here and then, bam, this happened, and it altered everything? Bad things alter life, and good things alter life, but I'm talking about the thing that alters life in this life and beyond this life. But there will be tough spiritual battles for every one of us, this is how Jesus launches into his ministry, being driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Ross Sawyers: [00:32:55] Here's a picture of the wilderness from when we were in Israel, and actually standing there overlooking it, it was stunningly beautiful. But then think about being out in that, in the heat, for 40 days and 40 nights. And that's what it says in verse 13, that Jesus, "He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan." And that being tempted carries with it the idea that he was constantly being tempted. When we read in Matthew chapter 4, we see an account with more detail. Mark doesn't give us the details; he just says this happened. But in Matthew 4, we see at the end of 40 days that Jesus had three primary temptations that came his way. He responded to each of those with Scripture, and we might leave that believing that's the only time he was tempted out in the wilderness. But when we read Mark, we realize that he was being tempted the whole time. Satan is the evil one, he's the accuser, the slanderer, he's the liar, and he was at Jesus the whole time in those 40 days. Matthew just gives us a descriptor of what happened at the end of those 40 days. Now God gave him the angels to minister and care for him, and the wild beasts, they were out there in the wilderness with him. But it's this period of time, we know he was fasting in that time, and he is battling darkness and Satan in that space.

Ross Sawyers: [00:34:32] Do you ever feel like you're in a wilderness space, and it's a battle, and it's dark, and it doesn't seem to let up, and you start wondering, God, what happened here? I thought if follow Jesus, and then everything's good. It is good, good in Christ, but there will be tough spiritual battles. Genesis 1 and 2, creation, and everything's perfect. Satan crashes the party in Genesis 3, and everything changed. What happened? In Mark chapter 1, it's the beginning, redemption, good news is coming. Wait a minute, I had this moment where I'm affirmed by my Father, then I'm out into really hard space. Somebody said it this way, Adam, in a perfect environment, failed when Satan tempted him. Jesus, in a harsh environment, perfectly passed and overcame the temptations of Satan. We have Christ in us, and the Scripture says that no temptation has overtaken you, but such is known to man. And God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape that you might be able to endure it. He will give us the escape route every time, it's a matter of will we take the escape route. Will we decisively shoot the gap and take that route? Will we be action-oriented to run away from, or to quote Scripture to, or however God calls us into that particular temptation?

Ross Sawyers: [00:36:37] This is why, by the way, that we can take all these students and kids to camp and God does this work in them, he does a saving work, he does a cleansing work in those who are believers. And then the title from our speaker last week, Who's Waiting For Your Kids? Satan's waiting for your kids. He's waiting for them to get off the bus and to mess up everything that just happened. That shouldn't surprise us, when God does life-altering work, there may be really tough things that follow immediately in that word. It's why when someone shares their story here, we pray for them, and we try to remember to pray for them more after than before. Because it has happened when someone shares a very vulnerable story, and then they fall the next day. Satan's waiting right there, attempting to get you. Oh, you just told the church this.

Ross Sawyers: [00:37:55] It's what happens when parents raise their kids to follow Christ, and then their kids go a different route. Or again, I'll just allude to all the sexual kinds of things that have been misconstrued and are against God today. And I can't tell you how many parents I've talked to, all of a sudden, they change their view about God because of what's going on with their child. Satan's waiting right there. Do you know what, things aren't going the way you want them to go. Well, I'll just twist your thinking a little bit and turn you away from God himself. Satan's waiting. We can have incredible times of worship, and then boom, something gets said immediately after we leave. So how are we going to handle those when they come? I would just say today that if you're having tough spiritual battles, that's evidence that you have had life-altering good news, and that God will give you what you need to overcome whatever those things are.

Ross Sawyers: [00:39:05] The last thing to kind of give us an intro to Mark in verses 14 and 15 is to eagerly repent and believe in the Gospel. There's only one way into what I'm speaking of today, there's only one person, and there's only one way in to have that life-altering kind of good news, and it's through repentance and belief. Verse 14, "Now after John had been taken into custody." Again, this is great evidence of Mark. I've started thinking, I may be wrong about this, so I'm just kind of guessing, this is an I'm guessing. I'm wondering if Peter and Mark spent so much time together, and then Mark just didn't remember all the details, he just knew that they got taken into custody, so he wrote what he what he remembered from all the stories. I'm sure that's wrong, but that crossed my mind. "Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God." And so here comes Jesus, John the Baptist was preaching, now here comes Jesus, he's preaching. What's the content of what he's preaching? The Gospel of God, it's God's good news. And Jesus is both the content of the good news, and he's the one preaching it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:40:19] And then in verse 15, this is what he's saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” The time is fulfilled, that word time is a marked moment. This is the time, Jesus has entered and there's this new beginning, and here's the opportunity for redemption for all those who are trapped in their sin. That time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. What's the kingdom of God? What we start to see unfold, it's not what his early disciples thought it would be, but the kingdom of God is actually breaking into the hearts of men and women. It's setting up rule inside of a person, it's not just a king out here that physically reigns over a people, it's a king that sets up rule inside of our own hearts. And that's what is decisive of what he's saying here, the kingdom of God is at hand. We pray this in the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10‘Your kingdom come." What am I praying? I'm praying that the kingdom of God, that Jesus Christ Himself, will break into your life and my life into the lives of those in your family, your friends, and every bit of the sphere of influence that he's given you.

Ross Sawyers: [00:41:37] So the kingdom of God, it's here. Jesus is king. The problem is we've set ourselves up as our own king, and we believe we're the ones that are sovereign and rule. That's what Satan has done, he's tricked us into believing that we actually are the ruler. So the message is to repent and believe. Repent and believe, reverse course, it's decisive, it's not adrift. I don't accidentally believe in Jesus. I don't just somehow believe in God, and everything's good. It's decisive, it is recognizing I am a rebellious sinner against King Jesus, and I have made myself king. And I'm reversing course, and I believe that Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross, took my sins on himself and he has given me a righteousness that's only through his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection, and I believe that. The first song we sang, or the second song, I trust in him. This is a belief that's a trust, and it alters our life.

Ross Sawyers: [00:43:05] Today, if I could just possibly be offensive. If you say that you're a Christian, if you say you follow Jesus, if you say you believe in God, and it hasn't altered your life, if your character is not changing, if you're not about the actions of Jesus, then I would have to contend with was there really repentance and belief? Jesus makes no mistake about making it very clear that the way into the kingdom is to repent and believe; it is decisive when it happens.

Ross Sawyers: [00:43:42] I mentioned, and I've done this a few times, and I've enjoyed watching her story unfold. But Sydney McLaughlin Levrone won the 400-meter gold, she won a relay this weekend. But there was a decisive moment like this in 2019, and then her life just continues to change, there's such an ease about her in her faith. And I just want you to see one short interview, after her win. (Video clip unavailable) I mean, her life was altered. In 2019 she repented and believed, and when she's quoted, she believed and received the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which changed everything for her. That is six years into her faith, that is a young woman who is incredibly at ease, her life has been altered by the good news of Jesus Christ. Is that the same kind of altering that's happened for you?

Ross Sawyers: [00:44:47] Father, thank you for our time today in your word. And we love the time in praise this morning and singing of you as a God who's worthy and holy. And you are so worth it, and we love the reality of who you are today, God. So I pray for all of us that we would just sit before you and ask today, where are the places you've altered my life because of the good news of Jesus? And the things we talked about in Mark 1, that we'd let those settle in us and then flow out of us, God, let us be a people whose lives continue to be altered today by Jesus Christ. And it's in His name that I pray.

Ross Sawyers: [00:45:25] Let's just be quiet for a moment and let these things begin to settle, and then I hope you'll continue to wrestle through the scriptures and things God's saying to you that are both affirming and challenging today, as you move through the day and week.



Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.