God is F.I.A Faithfulness in Action

Welcome

Thank you all for coming, Emma and I are happy to see you all this evening.

We are going to open up with some worship

Psalm 136:1–4 LEB

1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loyal love endures forever. 2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his loyal love endures forever. 3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his loyal love endures forever. 4 To him who alone does great wonders, for his loyal love endures forever.

LORD we thank you for all that you do for us, all of the miracles, all of the things that we see and don’t see. Thank you.

Amen

Let’s worship

Worship

Announcements/HK

As we feel the LORD is leading us in the direction of Evangelism

We know that many more people would do evangelism if they felt confident in their ability to do it.

So, Emma and I are working on designing and delivering an Evangelism workshop, where we will be equipping people with the skills and resources needed to go out and do Evangelism.

This will look like building the ability in telling your testimony, being able to talk to people about what God has done and how to invite them.

We will also go over the 5 step prayer model and how to pray for people in partnership with the Holy Spirit, so that people can encounter the power of the Kingdom

So stay tuned as we release more details in the coming weeks about that.

Introduction

So,

We have been talking a lot about the Kingdom and about Jesus and doing what Jesus did.

We have talked about Being Disciples, Being Family and Being Kingdom Bringers.

So it is time to be those things, it is time to dive into Scripture and start unpacking what Scripture has to bear on the Kingdom, on Jesus, on all of it.

What does Scripture say, what does Jesus do?

As disciples, we must invest time and effort into the treasure that is in Scripture.

St. Augustine would say, when Scripture speaks, God speaks.

So we should listen and we should learn.

What better place to start than the first Gospel written, Mark.

Mark is fast paced, it is a splash of cold water and a big wake up call. It is explosive and it is meant to be and we are going to experience it all.

We are going to get right into the heart of what Mark wants to tell us

and I reckon the first thing he wants to tell us

is that we can trust in the faithfulness of God to breathe life and fulfillment to all of His Promises.

This is important because this is the launchpad for all of us, this is the certainty that we need as disciples. We need to know that God is faithful, so that we can trust Him

in and through everything that comes our way.

So let’s jump in to Mark Chapter 1 verses 1 - 8

Main Body

Mark 1:1–8 LEB

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2 Just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!’ ” 4 John was there baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the Judean region and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem went out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 And John was dressed in camel’s hair and a belt made of leather around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, saying, “One who is more powerful than I is coming after me, of whom I am not worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

This text shows us something about who God is, what God does, and How we respond. So let’s take a look.

1. Declaring the King

Mark 1:1 LEB

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mark reckons the beginning is a good place to start and so do I

What is “the” Gospel?

What is “A” Gospel?

What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Does that change it’s meaning?

Sometimes we become over familiar with church words and sayings.

A word like Gospel is a prime example.

Some times it is translated good news.

Does that make it clearer?

I don’t think so, but I believe this is something that we should know as crystal clear.

The word in the Greek is euangelion

Sounds very similar to Evangelism and it is where we get it from.

The Euangelion is the news about a King coming to reign and Evangelism is the act of telling everyone about it, for example, when a new Caesar was crowned, there would have been a pronouncement of the “Good News” that Caesar was king, and it would have been good because of all the good things that would happen because Caesar was king.

It is like when politicians make campaign promises, the idea is if they get elected, they will act on their promises and it will be good news.

So, consider the setting, Mark opens with

to his Roman Audience, right, Gospel of Mark written in Rome to a Roman audience

Where Caesar is king

And Mark says,

Here is the pronouncement of a king that is not Caesar, but Jesus the Christ. Remember Christ is a title not Jesus’ last name.

Now, I just want to take a moment and appreciate the boldness of the author for just a moment, he knows his audience

and he specifically chose to open with something that would be wildly offensive for his Roman audience, but at the same time extremely encouraging to some of the Jews in Rome and here is why.

Isaiah 52:7 LEB

7 How delightful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns as a king.”

To the Jews, this word, Euangelion is a charged word.

It has a massive expectation built right into it, remember these are a group of people who are awaiting for someone to deliver them, see these people yearn to be free from a long line of oppressors, the Roman just happen to be the most current, so they would receive this news with a whole mixture of emotions.

And that is how Mark opens.

That is a lot like how it is today.

When we tell people about the Kingdom of Jesus, when we tell them that He has come as King, we are going to get mixed reactions.

Some people will be like the Romans.

They will be utterly offended and totally against it, or just plain scared because of the implications. In those days, to call anyone king other than Caesar, was to basically say “crucify me, please and thank you”

Some people will be like the Jews, a mixed bag, some excited, some will have the “I will believe it when I see it” mentality

Some people today will likely just not be interested, and it may be because they do not know what it means for them.

So, it is our job to do some “Show and Tell” like we have been talking about.

Either way, going around telling people that Jesus is King and this is all HIs Kingdom is a good way to elicit a reaction,

so why would we take that risk?

Pause

We take it because God is in it and He has been for a long time, lets keep going and look at the verses showing God’s faithfulness

2. Showing God’s faithfulness

Mark 1:2–3 LEB

2 Just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!’ ”

So after Mark gets done, slapping his audience in the face and waking them up by splashing cold water on their faces literarily.

He does something peculiar and anchors what he is saying to the past, specifically Israel’s past.

Why would he do this?

Who cares what the religious scriptures of a distant peasant people group have to say and why is it relevant?

It’s relevant because it says something about God and who He is!

It says that this God, (who Mark will make the case for later) is the Creator God, and has incarnated, come to Earth in flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ and is announcing His rightful claim to the throne of the universe and He has been saying this will happen,

Often and for a long time.

Isaiah was prophesying about 750 years earlier.

For reference, about 750 years ago, Ghengis Khan was doing his things and the crusades, they just ended.

See Mark does something, that is actually just the tip of the iceberg because he is opening the door, to something that has a much longer history.

The first Messainic promise happened in the garden.

Genesis 3:15 LEB

15 And I will put hostility between you and between the woman, and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel.”

Right from the very start of the problem, God has a solution.

To be fair, the whole of Scripture is anticipating the coming of the Kingdom and its King, right from the Garden, we see there is a plan in place.

But did humans cause this to come to pass?

No, of course not.

God did.

It is God, who has been faithful to this promise, this promise to save us from the power of Satan, Sin and Death.

Listen to this, this most quoted passage in Scripture and it is God’s revealing His character to Moses on Mt. Sinai

Exodus 34:6 LEB

6 And Yahweh passed over before him, and he proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh, God, who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding with loyal love and faithfulness,

See whatever God has promised, He is faithful to see it come to pass. This is the point that Mark is making so clearly here, is that Yahweh is faithful and not only that,

Yahweh is coming and Yahweh is to be our King.

Look at the middle of v.3 whose way is being prepared?

Yahweh’s

This is the climax of history and people knew it and that is what Mark is saying, but what does that look like on the ground and what should we as people do about it?

All we are asked to do is keep...

3. Responding in Faith

Mark 1:4–8 LEB

4 John was there baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the Judean region and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem went out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 And John was dressed in camel’s hair and a belt made of leather around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, saying, “One who is more powerful than I is coming after me, of whom I am not worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

See God chooses, to partner with people, it has been consistent from the garden to today.

God partners with people and invites us to partner with Him to accomplish His will.

John did this.

John chose to trust in the faithfulness of God and prove that trust by living a lifestyle that many of us would not like, myself included.

Wild Honey Yes, Locusts Hard Pass.

His message was a tough but necessary one, it was a message that is similar in tone to this whole Gospel of Mark, which is WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

John was going around telling everyone to wake up, stop walking in the direction that they are going, look at your sins, turn around and wash clean and start heading in a new direction because God is coming.

See, Mark is employing a ton of Exodus language and allusions in this section because he knows that what the people needed was a new Exodus a new Salvation, but this time, not from Pharaoh or as many thought Rome, but from the ones that are empowering them.

Ephesians 6:12 NRSV

12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The same is true today, people need to be part of the Kingdom, because these enemies are still present today.

They are defeated enemies because of what Jesus did on the cross and through his resurrection, but present still and people need to be saved from them.

See John didn’t have the full picture, he knew the one that came after him was special but there were moments of doubt for him

Matthew 11:2–6 LEB

2 Now when John heard in prison the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have good news announced to them. 6 And whoever is not offended by me is blessed.”

or as the Bible Project would translate it, has the good life.

John chose to act even without having the full picture, just like us, he knew he could trust God to see it through, when speaking about the one to come John said:

John 3:29–30 LEB

29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. 30 It is necessary for that one to increase, but for me to decrease.”

John partnered with God to bring about what was to come, in the same way God is inviting us to partner with Him to do what God has already planned for us. As Paul says

Ephesians 2:10 LEB

10 For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.

John had his role to play

and he had the ability to do that because he trusted in the faithfulness of God

and that same invitation is being presented to us.

I am not saying that you are going to have to go out and eat bugs, but Emma and I have been homeless. We had to close a business and move countries because we believed God called us to fulfill something in America. Who knows what God will ask of you, but I know it will be an adventure.

Conclusion

Look, We have been slapped in the face by Mark

Intentionally

God is using these scriptures to reveal Himself

He is telling us, He is the faithful King that we have been waiting for, someone who will deliver the whole world from the power of the enemy.

Now, He is calling us to partner with Him, just like John did. We all have our parts to play.

As John Wimber, would say, “everyone gets to play”. We all have our part, and maybe this is the first time you’re considering what part it is that you have. I promise you this, you have one and if you seek God about it, He will reveal it and even more importantly He will be faithful to support you through it.

Here at the Vineyard, we are committed to helping all of us answer the call that God has put on all of our lives.

So what is our response?

Our only response is to say Yes to what the Lord is inviting you into and to trust that He will be with you through it.

So, what is the LORD inviting you into?

Thank you.

If anyone, would like prayer for anything, if not, food is available.