What do you think is the hardest thing we would ever have to do? Well, one of the hardest things we have to do is to be a follower of Jesus. Following him is one of the best things we can do because when we die we will go to heaven to be with him. It’s also one of the hardest things we can do because we might have problems when we follow him. What problems might we have? Jesus said that we would have trouble because we follow him, and that trouble might include dying for him, but if we die because we believe Jesus we will live with him in heaven. He talks about this in John 12:20-33.

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Boys and girls, can you tell me about occasions when you’ve had to help other people, especially when you didn’t want to or when you’ve been in a bad mood? Well, that’s what Jesus expects us to do. He expects us to help others even when we don’t want to help them. He expects us to love others just like he loves us.

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We are sinners. There is no human cure for the ills of the soul. As the people who were bitten looked on the image of the serpent and were healed in Numbers 21:4-9, so may sinners look to the Saviour and be cured of the sickness of our nature. Our destiny is not determined by our actions, thoughts or intentions, but by our nature. We start out as sinners, opposed to God. Jesus didn’t come for the good, but for those hopelessly lost without Him. Our most desperate need-salvation from our sins-can only be obtained by faith in Jesus as our substitute and Saviour according to God’s plan.

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Jesus had a high regard for pure worship of His Father. He wanted to rid the temple of the abuses that had crept into that worship. The moneychangers and sellers obeyed Jesus for several reasons:

1.They were punished by their consciences
2.They thought Jesus was a prophet, and the Jews had respect for prophets.
3.Jesus had a wide reputation among the people, and many of them thought He was the long-promised Messiah.
4.He made people tremble in His presence.

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The basis for the psalmist’s worship is that God answers prayer. God’s silence was over. God does not turn away from the psalmist. The psalmist’s enemies were silenced by God’s actions. God hears the cries of the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten. He gives us hope in responding to the evils of our day. How do we think about all our relations (past, present and future) when making daily decisions to ensure that we are answering the pleas of the afflicted? How do we fashion our lives to reflect God’s plan to satisfy the poor? As we proclaim God’s deliverance to the people, we are also delivered. As we bless people with God’s abundance, we are also blessed.

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Christ’s death represents atonement for sin, and the beginning of God’s eternal, messianic rule. Nothing can make up for the loss of our soul, but there are many times when we exchange our souls and our lives for worldly things instead of spiritual things. Worldly things do not lead to eternal life. Those who give up their lives for the sake of Christ and the Gospel will find eternal life. This concept was very evident to the readers of Mark’s Gospel because they faced persecution and conflict. They saw this as a challenge to be faithful. We have the same challenge today. The world is still hateful to both Christians and the Good News of the Gospel.

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The basis of Abraham’s relationship with God was faith, and faith is the primary basis of our relationship with God. Abraham’s faith was confidence in a person-God. The object of faith matters more than anything else. Abraham’s faith was exemplary, because his faith was in God. Abraham’s faith was related to his knowledge of God, the object of his faith. He had faith in the God who could breathe life into deadness, especially since God breathed life into Abraham and Sarah so they could have a child.

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Come and see.

Think for a moment about the effect those words might have on you if you were to hear them in an everyday context. Would they generate a sense of excitement about whatever it might be you were being invited to witness? Perhaps they might ignite your curiosity. Perhaps you might be thankful that someone thought to include you.

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If the passage from Mark’s Gospel sounds familiar, it’s because we heard part of the same reading a few weeks ago on the Second Sunday of Advent. On that Sunday, we heard John the Baptist talk about the coming of Jesus and the baptism that he would provide-the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John saw Jesus as both mightier than him and more worthy than him, and Jesus said that no one greater than John had ever lived. John saw himself as not being worthy enough to untie the sandals on Jesus’ feet, and that was a task that was dirty and not very appealing according to the culture of that time.

Today, we heard about Jesus’ baptism and the coming of the Holy Spirit on him. John proclaimed Christ’s superiority by distinguishing between his own baptism with water and the baptism that Christ would provide with the Holy Spirit. Several Old Testament passages speak of the Holy Spirit being poured out like water. Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit supplies us with supernatural power just like the Holy Spirit revealed its supernatural power at Jesus’ baptism.

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God came to us in the form of Jesus so that we could come back to him. When we come to Christ, we are adopted into his family. We are also freed from the bondage of sin. That freedom has a purpose, which is being part of God’s plan for our lives. Our lives and the paths we take in life matter to God. We are to remember this when our lives seem aimless and without direction.

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