Second Thoughts with Austin Gentry

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | All through his gospel, Mark uses paradigms that non-Jews would be familiar with as a way of showing who Jesus is: i.e, King-and-kingdom, sight-and-blindness, natural-and-supernatural, reaping-and-sowing. In chapter 9, he uses another paradigm to show who Jesus - the mountaintop, the valley, and the middle. In doing so, we see who Jesus is to us in all of our highs and lows of life.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | In chapter 8, Mark draws a connection between increasing clarity of physical sight with increasing clarity of spiritual sight, i.e., seeing Jesus for who He really is. Mark 8 shows us that we all bring presuppositions, biases, expectations, brokenness, pride and sin into our seeing of Jesus - and how Jesus challenges them so that we may see Him for who He is, and live.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | In chapter 3, Mark convincingly shows the extent and expansiveness of Jesus' authority: on the earth, over the earth, and in heaven: specifically, over the Sabbath, Synagogue, & Sanhedrin; over the Spirits and Satan; and over Sin and Salvation. 

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | In the first 15 verses, Mark writes about how Jesus will bring the Kingdom of God into the earth; but starting in verse 16 and onward, Mark shows Jesus bringing that Kingdom of God to earth. In essence, the second half of Mark 1 serves as a microcosm of how Jesus overall brings the Kingdom of God to earth, and what He will continue to do throughout the entire gospel: namely, through reaching, teaching, healing, and restoring.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | Mark opens his gospel in a dramatic fashion, introducing the hero we've all wanted. However, Mark explains that God sends us a hero who doesn't arrive or arise to power through the systems of the world; instead, He would do so in a counter-cultural way, challenging and convicting our concept of a king and a kingdom, and bringing His own through repentance and belief - reigning in the hearts of men.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | The book of Jeremiah closes, not-officially, with the book of Lamentations - Jeremiah's 'epilogue' of sorts, his closing thoughts and feelings about everything he's experienced as a prophet and what he's had to endure. Chapter 3 spotlights the 'hinge' of his entire lament, i.e., what his hopes and his heart hangs on to in the midst of unyielding pain and disappointment.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | After decades of rejecting Jeremiah's words, the people finally come to Jeremiah asking his advice and guidance. They're in pain and have no plan. Jeremiah gives them 2 options, except tragically, they choose what makes sense to them instead of following God's clear decrees.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | Jeremiah 36 features arguably one of the most-epic-least-known books in the entire Bible; where God reproduces and replicates His Word in a hostile culture that wants to destroy it. He does the same today as well.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | Jeremiah 35 features a unique story where God brings the Rechabites (a quasi-Amish subculture) into the Temple, for the purpose of making a point to the larger Israelite population. Chapter 35 shows us legalism, immorality, and the path to discernment.

Second Baptist Church - Houston, TX | In Jeremiah 23, God calls out the many faux leaders and false prophets in Israel, specifically listing 5 main, signs of these types of leaders - signs that are just as relevant for us today.