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04-12-09... Perspectives: Dénouement

Easter Sunday 2009. We finish our walk through the of Book of Mark with the end of the dramatic complications of Jesus as the Mysterious Son of God. Our would-be tragedy has turned to anything but with the resurrection of our Lord. Jesus' rising from the dead is the basis for both the Hope and the Calling of Easter which we explore in this sermon.

Last week discussed the Cross from a more theological perspective through the eyes of the Book of Mark. This week is shear celebration as we look toward Easter and all its glory as stemming from the depths of the suffering on the Cross. To help gain a new perspective on Jesus' death we look back to Psalm 22 a truly unique prophecy from David about the suffering of the Messiah and the glory that would follow.

Sometimes Jesus' death is referred to as the "Scandal of the Cross" because His death seemed so outrageously opposed to what the people thought the Messiah, the Christ would accomplish when he came. A proper understanding of Jesus' death and what it means for the believer is essential to following Jesus, and this week we look specifically at lessons from the Cross in the book of Mark.

This week we take a look at the topic of authority, specifically Jesus' authority as it is portrayed in the Book of Mark. We look at an example of Jesus' authority challenged, an instance of His direct teaching on authority, and then the supreme authority Jesus earned by going to the Cross. We finish off by looking at what that means for the believer in terms of Jesus' mandate to His disciples.

The book of Mark has many examples of both belief and unbelief. Here we explore a few of the stories in an effort to look at the seeds of unbelief, the fruit of unbelief, and step to come back from unbelief. We seek to cry with the man from the text, "Lord I believe! Help my unbelief."

This week we take a fresh look at Jesus' parable of the sower, a couple related passages and draw valuable lessons for today. We'll finish with the seven principles of harvest as relayed from Dr. Hammond of the North American Mission Board.

The end of Mark chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 give us a unique look at types of faith. Robin helps unpack the stories and draw some solid truths for defining faith, its importance in our lives, and distinguishing "true faith" from inferior forms.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to record Dan's teaching last week on Mark entitled "Perspectives: Meeting Jesus." This week our jaunt through Mark continues with an interesting look at some practical truths we learn from two instances of Jesus defending His disciples against criticism for there service (or apparent lack thereof.) We then draw some practical conclusions about service for us within the church. * * * The microphone was giving some problems, so don't mind the occasion comments from "the guys in the back!"

This week starts our study of spiritual perspectives as seen in the Book of Mark. We'll be taking the weeks from now leading up to Easter to look at the life and ministry of Jesus in the Book of Mark. This first sermon looks forward into the book at some of its major themes as well as making a link to an important discipleship truth.