When we encounter times of hardship, we can find ourselves feeling hopeless and afraid. In Mark 4:35–5:43, several stories demonstrate that faith overcomes fear when our hope is in Jesus.

Jesus Conquers Danger

The first story tells what happened when Jesus and His disciples were on a boat in the middle of a storm. Waves crashed, strong winds blew, and water was filling the boat. In great fear, the disciples asked Jesus if He even cared. This question was absurd — the God of the universe voluntarily became a baby, came down to earth, and went to a cross to die for us. We can be confident that He cares about us.

The wind and the waves did not gradually become still like they naturally would; they were immediately calm at Jesus’s words of rebuke. Through this miracle, He showed that He controls not only the wind and the waves but also the laws of nature.

Jesus Conquers Demons

The second story tells of a demon-possessed man who was sent into isolation because he could not be controlled. He was not only isolated from society but also tormented by the voices inside his head. He cried out in anguish and cut himself with stones. The devil wants you to harm and destroy yourself. He wants to be the voice in your head that’s driving you crazy. Jesus showed this man how much He cared by casting the demons into the pigs.

Rather than wanting to know more about Jesus after seeing this incredible display of power, the townspeople wanted nothing to do with Him. They didn’t want to inconvenience their comfortable lives, so they turned Him away. Do you desire comfort and control of your own life more than an encounter with the Savior?

Jesus Conquers Disease

Being desperate with no other options left, Jairus begged Jesus to come heal his daughter. On the way, they met a woman who had suffered with a discharge of blood for twelve years, causing her to be unclean and alone. She touched Jesus’s garment and was healed. Jesus told her that her faith in Him was what had made her well. We have been saved by grace alone through faith alone.

Jesus Conquers Death

After this, Jairus received the news that his daughter was dead. In his hopelessness, Jesus spoke these words to him: “Do not fear; only believe.” You will need these words at some point in your life too. Take them to heart and drive their roots deep.

The Lord of wind, waves, demons, and disease demonstrated that He is also the Lord of death and life. He continued to Jairus’s home, took the girl by the hand, and raised her into life.

There will be a moment when you experience hopelessness and fear in your life. You must speak truth to yourself, combatting lies with the words of Scripture. You must have faith and hope in Jesus.

Who is this Man? This is the Son of God! Live your life for Him!

Mark 4:1–34 is all about listening and hearing. It explains that the Kingdom multiplies through hearts that receptively hear and faithfully sow.

Hear the Word

In verses 1–20, Jesus describes how four different types of hearts respond to hearing the Word. When the Word is sown in a hard heart, the person denies the Gospel because evil things snatch the Word away. The hard heart is represented by a seed that is dropped on a path and is snatched away by the birds.

When the Word is sown in a shallow heart, the person initially seems to be on fire for God, but they have no real root, so their faith soon dies out. The shallow heart is represented by a seed that grows at first, but withers away when the sun rises.

When the Word is sown in a crowded heart, it is choked out by the cares of the world. Examples are social media, pressure to excel academically, and fear of missing out. These are not necessarily entirely bad things, but they become so when they choke out our faith. The Word is also choked out by the deceitfulness of riches. Money is morally neutral, but if we aren’t careful, we can become enslaved to it and buy into wealth’s lies. The crowded heart is represented by a seed who is choked out by thorns.

Finally, the receptive heart accepts the Word when it is sown, and the person bears fruit. It is represented by a seed that falls into good soil and produces grain.

Share the Word

In verses 21–25, Jesus talks about letting our light shine rather than hiding it, so that others may give glory to God. We share the Word not only with our words but also with our lives as we generously invest in our families and churches.

Trust in the Word

In verses 26–29, Jesus talks about Gospel ministry. As we share the Word with others, it takes root in some hearts and not others. We don’t understand why, but God does, and we need to trust His Word to work. It’s our job to sow; we don’t have to worry about the growth.

Hope in the Word

In verses 30–34, Jesus explains that the Kingdom started small, with a little baby born in Bethlehem. This small seed planted will grow. It is so strong that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It will go to the ends of the earth, and one day every nation will bow down and confess Jesus is Lord.

Application

We must fight to avoid the shallow heart and the crowded heart. We can do this by listening to the Word, meditating on the Word, memorizing the Word, and fasting from our distractions.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Lord is saying to him!

In Mark 3:7–35, Jesus demonstrated that whoever does the will of God is part of the family of God. This is not referring to a works-based salvation — doing the will of God means we repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus. This leads to works that confirm that we have been saved by grace alone through faith alone.

Seek the Messiah and Not Just Miracles

In verses 7–12, the crowd was desperate to get near Jesus, but they didn’t actually know who He was. They were close to Him physically but very far from Him spiritually. Is this you? You can attend church regularly and be part of the crowd without actually being a genuine disciple.

These people wanted their wishes granted, not a Lord they had to obey. They desired salvation from their sickness, not their sinfulness. They didn’t realize that Jesus Himself is the ultimate prize.

Share His Mission by Walking With Jesus

If you want to do great things for God, you need to be with Jesus. Spend time walking with Him and investing in the relationship you have with Him.

In verses 13–19, Jesus called His disciples to Himself. He did this so that they would first “be with Him,” and so that after this, “He might send them out.” These men did not look like promising people, but God was going to use them to accomplish amazing things. If He could use them, He can use you, too. All of us are fallen, broken people. Let’s go be with Jesus so we, too, can be sent out by Him to do great things for Him!

Stand With Jesus Even When Others Reject Him

In verses 20–30, the people rejected Jesus, saying that He was crazy and that He was partnering with the devil to cast out demons. Blasphemy is a willful, belligerent denial of Christ. Don’t be like those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. When you mess up, don’t think He doesn’t have enough grace for you. If you repent, He is faithful to forgive you and cleanse you. So, when you sin, run to the Father. Stand with Him, even when everybody else is denying Him.

Submit to His Will and Belong to His Family

In verses 31–35, Jesus said that His mother and brothers are those who are in His inner family, doing the will of God, rather than those who are on the outside, rejecting Him.

On the outside stood the crowds, who sought miracles and not the Messiah. On the outside stood His earthly relatives, who thought He was crazy. On the outside stood the religious leaders, who questioned His identity and allegiance.

On the inside stood the disciples: a group of unlikely people who believed in Jesus and learned to walk with Him through faith. On the inside stand those who do the will of God, practicing an obedience that demonstrates true faith.

Most of us have hearts that drift toward legalism. Legalism comes from a positive desire to take the Lord’s rules seriously. However, problems arise when we make up our own rules, take pride in keeping them, and apply our personal standard to everybody else.

When we do this, we are not finding joy in Jesus anymore; we are trying to perform in an attempt to please the Lord. God’s rules cease to become guardrails that keep us where we’re supposed to be — instead, they turn into goalposts that cause us to believe we are scoring points with Jesus.

In Mark 2:13–3:6, Jesus encourages us to forsake legalism and follow Jesus in joyful freedom.

Follow the Friend of Sinners

In vv. 13–17, Jesus called a tax collector to come follow Him and then ate a meal at his house. In that day and culture, tax collectors were despised. The legalistic scribes wondered why Jesus chose this man, so different and so hated. But Jesus explained that He came to help those who need help. Let’s be willing to go where people are — where people need help — in order to share the Gospel with them.

Feast Joyfully with the Bridegroom

In vv. 18–22, the Pharisees asked Jesus why His disciples did not fast. The Pharisees had added to the Bible’s rules about fasting, communicating that anyone who was truly spiritual would fast twice a week. In Matthew 23:5, Jesus explained that their motivation for making all these rules was to be noticed by people. Do you do your good deeds to be seen by others?

Find Freedom in the Lord of the Sabbath

The Pharisees also made up many specific rules that God had not commanded concerning the Sabbath. In vv. 23–28, Jesus explained to them that the Sabbath was made for our good because we need to rest. He wanted the Pharisees to understand that people were more important than their principles.

Face Foes with Fearless, Compassionate Faith

In vv. 1–6, the Pharisees lacked compassion and became upset because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Jesus looked at them with anger and grief because they cared more about their rules and principles than they did about people created in His image.

Application

In our own hearts, sometimes we identify more with the Pharisees and scribes than we do with Jesus and His disciples. We puff ourselves up with a self-righteous heart that puts others down, rather than just loving Jesus and finding joy in Him.

Jesus wants us to celebrate the freedom we have in Him, without going into sinfulness — keeping in mind that His rules are good guardrails that help us flourish. The problems are the rules that we make in our own hearts. Let’s cultivate a culture of friendship toward everyone, joy and freedom in Christ, and compassion for others. Through Christ, we are free from the legalistic rules we create!

What is your greatest longing, the thing you desire the most? What does that longing tell you about what you think your deepest need is?

We tend to believe we would be happy and fulfilled if only Jesus would give more to us: more friends, a better job, or whatever else we long for. Mark 2:1-12 challenges that by revealing our true, deepest need — what we really need in order to be filled with satisfaction and joy.

Saving Faith

In Mark 2, four men with a paralyzed friend hear that Jesus is in town. They become determined to do whatever it takes to bring their friend to Him for healing. They encounter an obstacle when they realize the house is too crowded to bring their friend in, but rather than giving up, they get creative and dig a hole in the roof. After much hard, sweaty work, they are finally able to lower the paralyzed man down through the hole to Jesus.

But surprisingly, healing this man was not the first thing Jesus did. When he looked down at the man, His first thought of compassion was not, “This man needs to walk.” Instead, it was, “This man needs a relationship with Me. He needs to understand that his wildest longing should be for Me.”

Jesus knew that the man’s greatest problem was not actually anything physical but something inward: his guilty standing before God. He gave him what he truly needed most, saying, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Skeptical Faith

In the front row before Jesus were some scribes who had come as skeptics — not because they loved Jesus but because they wanted to criticize. They didn’t like how Jesus was speaking with such authority, and they accused Him of blasphemy in their hearts.

Jesus, knowing this, asked them which was easier: to say the man was forgiven from his sins, or to say he was healed from his paralysis. The scribes probably assumed it was easier to say his sins were forgiven, but in reality, only God can forgive sins.

When Jesus forgave the man’s inward sins, he showed that He is God. He then performed the amazing outward act of healing the man’s legs physically. We each must make up our minds about who we personally believe Jesus is. Either He is God or He’s not — there is no middle ground. And if He is God, we must live like it, talk like it, and commit our lives to it.

Our Response

Our response to this passage is fourfold:

• First, we must look to Jesus. He is the greatest gift.

• Second, we must long for Jesus above all else. Your greatest longing indicates your heart’s posture.

• Third, we must lean on Jesus with every need. Bring Him your deepest desires.

• And fourth, we must lead people to Jesus, no matter the cost! Let us be like the paralytic’s friends, who stopped at nothing to bring him to Christ.

The Way of Jesus: Chapel Reflections from Mark 1 With Dr. Thomas White

In this chapel service, Dr. Thomas White continued the Marked by Jesus series with a powerful message from Mark 1:14–45. His central theme was “This is the way!” While others pointed to the way, Jesus revealed that He Himself is the way.

Dr. White reminded us that Mark’s Gospel is written with urgency: “Mark is on a mission to the cross.” In this passage, Dr. White highlights five defining marks of Jesus’ ministry that reveal His identity and shape our response as His followers.

1. The Content of His Message (vv. 14–15)

Jesus centralized His ministry on proclaiming the Gospel of God: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (v. 15).

2. The Call to Action (vv. 16–20)

When Jesus called the disciples, His words were direct: “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (v. 17).  Therefore, following Jesus always requires action.

3. The Commanding Authority (vv. 21–28)

Crowds marveled at Jesus’ teaching because it carried an authority that even demons obeyed. Jesus wasn’t given authority; He is the authority.

4. The Commitment to His Mission (vv. 35–39)

Even at the height of His popularity with the crowds, Jesus withdrew to pray. He stayed focused on His mission: preaching the Gospel and moving forward to new towns. His communion with the Father anchored His commitment to the mission.

5. The Compassion of His Touch (vv. 29–34, 40–45)

Whether lifting Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand or cleansing a leper, Jesus revealed His deep compassion and miraculous power. Dr. White then drew a parallel between leprosy and sin: Both corrupt, isolate, and spread, but both can be cleansed by the grace of God.

From these five marks, Dr. White reminded us that our lives should mirror Jesus’ pattern.

Therefore, we must:

• Repent — Be faithful to the content of the Gospel and believe
• Respond — Follow the call to action and follow Jesus
• Reach — Commit to His mission of sharing the Gospel to all who need to hear it
• Rely — Follow Jesus’ example and pray to our Father
• Reveal — Show compassion by loving the least of our society

Who is Jesus? The answer to that question should change everything. The way we think, speak, and act should reflect what we actually believe about who He is. In Mark 1:1–13, He is introduced as the Son of God and the adversary of Satan.

The Beginning

In vv. 1–8, John the Baptist lived his life in a way that reminded the Israelites of their history and called them to repent because the Messiah was coming. Everyone was talking about him. John could have gotten prideful because of his fame, but instead, he was humble, saying he was not even worthy to untie Jesus’s shoes. He firmly believed that he was only preparing the way for Someone far greater.

Just like John, we should be a voice crying in the wilderness of our generation. Rather than trying to be popular, we should focus on making Jesus popular, realizing that our lives are not all about ourselves — they are all about Him.

The Baptism

In vv. 9–11, Jesus came to be baptized in order to identify with humanity and be an example of obedience to God. When He came out of the water, the heavens were immediately torn open, and the Spirit descended on Him. A voice came out of heaven from the Father testified that Jesus was His beloved Son. This supports Mark’s thesis that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

The Battle

In vv. 12–13, Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, starting with the phrase, “If You are really the Son of God.” He appealed to Jesus’s hunger. We are guilty of satisfying our physical pleasures in many sinful ways, but Jesus resisted the temptation.

Satan also went after Jesus’s ego when he tempted Him to test God. We are guilty of fostering pride and exalting ourselves at the expense of other people, but again, Jesus resisted.

When Satan told Jesus to bow down to him and promised the whole world as a reward, he was tempting Jesus to take the easy shortcut, getting the crown without having to go through all the pain of the cross. We are guilty of taking shortcuts to get the reward without the work. We don’t want to do things the right way at the right time, but Jesus resisted this temptation too.

Who Is Jesus?

Some of us are living like Jesus doesn’t exist. We need to ask ourselves the question, “If Jesus is the Son of God and a real battle exists between good and evil, then how should that impact my thoughts, words, and actions in day-to-day life?” We should be passionate about the Gospel, meditating on Scripture, telling others about Jesus, and resisting sin.

This is real. If you have confessed, repented of your sins, and turned to Jesus, you are a beloved child of the King. There is a cosmic war taking place, and you need to be ready for that. It’s time to get in the game.