Mark’s gospel is full of highs and lows. Last week our church looked at one of the highest points in Mark with the Transfiguration. This morning, we went to the other extreme as the disciples walked “down the mountain” with Jesus.
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookMay 26 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks now, but I’m back today with my latest sermon in the gospel of Mark.
Yesterday, I preached on Mark 9:2-8 and the transfiguration of Christ. John MacArthur has said that the transfiguration is the single most significant miracle in the life of Christ, outside of the resurrection. Check out the following links to find out why.
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookMay 20 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
I’m preparing to preach on Mark 8:31 – 9:1 this week and in my studies I ran across this quote from CS Lewis’s Mere Christianity. They’ve given me much to think about when it comes to this passage…and to the scope of my life.
Share on FacebookThe more we get what we now call “ourselves” out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become…our real selves are all waiting for us in him…The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surrounding and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call “Myself” becomes merely the meeting-place for trains of events which I never started and I cannot stop. What I call “My wishes” become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men’s thoughts…It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I finally begin to have a real personality all of my own…[Nevertheless], you must not go to Christ for the sake of [a new self]. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all…
Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, the death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: Submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
April 22 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
Mark 8:27-30 has been called the “Continental Divide” of the gospel of Mark. Everything before this paragraph leads up to it and everything after this paragraph flows out of it. In other words, it’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of these four verses. In them Mark is asking the most important question that any person will ever be asked, “Who do you believe Jesus is?” Mark helps us by giving two compelling insights into the messianic nature of Jesus 1) Jesus is far great than you ever dared imagine (vv. 27-28), 2) Jesus is categorically different than you ever expected (vv. 29-30).
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookApril 14 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
Mark 8:22-26 serves as an introductory paragraph ushering us into the continental divide of the gospel of Mark with Peter’s great confession starting in verse 27. The point of 8:22-26 is to remind the reader that God is the one who opens blind eyes and to prepare us for the following paragraph. It was a joy to preach on this passage this morning.
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookApril 07 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
This morning we finished up the first Act of the gospel of Mark with 8:11-21. Act 1 ends on a very somber note with Jesus alone and very misunderstood. This particular section prepares us for Act 2 (chapters 8-16) which will feature the disciples growing understanding of who Jesus is and what he has come to do.
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
BTW, we had some technical difficulties with our recording so I apologize in advance for the audio quality.
Share on FacebookMarch 03 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
I’ve been taking a short break from the blog this week as I’ve been wrapping a few things up at the church and getting ready for Shepherds’ Conference next week!
I’m planning on blogging through the entire Shepherds’ Conference next week, so be ready to get a lot more updates than usual here at Shepherd’s Notes.
In the meantime here are the links to the sermon I preached this last Sunday on Mark 8:1-10. The title of the message is “Moved with Compassion”. The main points are that: 1) God’s Compassion is Undeserved, 2) God’s Compassion is Persistent, 3) God’s Compassion is Abundant.
You can listen online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookFebruary 28 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
We finished chapter seven of Mark yesterday with a look at verses 31-37. The title of the message was “God Sighs”. Working our way through the text we asked the question, “Why does God sigh?” Verses 31-37 give us three reasons:
1) God sighs because we are profoundly broken people, yet He is a great Savior.
2) God sighs because of the profound sorrow of life under the sun, yet He enters into our suffering.
3) God sighs because of the abject helplessness of His people, yet He chooses to act on our behalf.
You can listen to the sermon online here.
You can find it in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookFebruary 11 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
Last Sunday I preached on Mark 7:24-30 and “When Hope is Gone.”
You can find the sermon online here.
You can listen in iTunes here.
Share on FacebookFebruary 07 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
Today we continued moving through Mark 7 by focusing on verses 14-23 and the question, “What really troubles you?”
The big idea in Mark 7:14-23 is that Your greatest trouble in life is not what is outside of you, but what is inside of you.
You can listen online here.
You can listen to our iTunes podcast here.
Share on FacebookJanuary 27 2013 | Blog | No Comments »
