Sermons on the Gospel of Mark (I) - WHAT SHOULD WE STRIVE TO BELIEVE AND PREACH?

In continuation from this morning’s sermon, we will look at the Word from the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 this evening.
The beginning of this passage states, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And then it is followed immediately by the account about the ministry of John the Baptist. The thing we all must know and absolutely be sure of is that the gospel of God begins from the ministry of John the Baptist. Although the ministry of John the Baptist cannot be compared with the importance of the ministry of Jesus, the authors of the Four Gospels shows us that the Kingdom of God starts from the ministry of John the Baptist before speaking about the ministry of Jesus. It’s because the gospel of God started when the Lord took all the sins of this world at once by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist; only after that did He complete His gospel by carrying those sins to the Cross and being resurrected from dead.

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How are you today? Today is February the 28th and tomorrow is March 1st. I feel that the sensory temperature is above freezing point although it is actually 12deg C below outside right now, and maybe it is because March is just around the corner and spring has come. It might be due to the expectation that the warm weather of spring will clearly come.

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This morning, drawing from the parable of new wine in old wineskins, I explained that we ought to all live according to the Word of God by faith. In the Scripture passage above, we see God is teaching the very same thing. Through this passage, the Lord is saying that we should cast aside our carnal thoughts, believe in the Word of God exactly as it is, and think and follow it accordingly.

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Through today’s Scripture passage, I want you to understand what you must believe in order to receive the remission of your sins before the presence of God.
Although I have received the remission of my sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I sometimes reminisce about what I used to believe in before I received salvation from all my sins like this. I had not believed in Jesus from the beginning. I used to believe in Buddhism because my family professed Buddhism back then. But in my early twenties, I became sick physically and I came to accept Jesus as my Savior in order to at least resolve my sins before I died because I thought I was going to die of this sickness. But I came to realize that my sins increased after believing in Jesus as the Savior. Thus, I came to think about what I had believed in my life of faith until then. After a long time had passed since receiving Jesus as my Savior, I came to realize through the Law of God that I had more sins at that time and questioned whether or not any prayers of repentance I had offered up was really being effective at all. How much did my prayers of repentance really clean my sins away?

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Before going into today’s Scripture reading I want to speak about the precious gospel of the water and the Spirit which the Lord gave us for the people who are here for the first time. I welcome you in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Head of this Church.
In Ephesians chapter 5, it is written, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27). It means that the Lord has made us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit born again and so loved us like this. It means that God so loves, protects, and blesses His Church. It is saying, “You husbands and wives in Christ! Love one another just as Christ so loved the Church.” This is the gist of this passage.

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It is raining. The weatherman tells us that the weather will get cold after this autumn rain. It looks like God is going to give us a new season. I pray that our hearts will be renewed as the season changes.
Chapter 2 of Mark’s Gospel teaches us what Jesus Christ means to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God fundamentally and therefore He is fully qualified to be our Savior who remitted away all our sins. He is the Messiah who came to save all earthlings by blotting out all the sins of the world. He is the Judge who can tell whether someone has received the remission of sins or not. He punishes sinners and rewards sinless people in His time. We can verify these facts from today’s Scripture.

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Today’s Scripture passage is drawn from Mark 3:7-30. Previous to this Jesus healed a paralytic and a man with a withered hand, and in a series of conversation that arose during the course of these events, He taught the religious leaders of that time that they could be truly saved from their sins only if they changed their minds. Like this, while our Lord ministered on this earth, He not only performed many miracles and signs to heal the sick and deliver the demon-possessed, but He also turned around the hearts of religious people of His days and taught them what true faith was all about. As a result, countless people came to believe in Jesus and followed Him, just as it’s written in today’s Scripture passage: “A great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him” (Mark 3:8).

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Today’s Scripture reading describes the parable of the sower. Our Lord Jesus told this parable when there were many people around and He explained this parable in detail to His disciples after all the other people had left. What truth did Jesus want to reveal to us through this parable?
Four different kinds of fields where the seeds were sown appear in the Word of the Lord: the field by the wayside, the field of stony ground, the field of thorns, and the field of good ground. And all these fields signify the heart of a person.

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When Jesus preached the Word during His public life, many people gathered together to have their fleshly problems resolved. They did not do this to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by realizing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But instead they came to Him to have the problem of hunger resolved. Concerning this matter, Jesus spoke about the parable of the sower through the Word from the Gospel of Mark chapter 4 verses 1-9. He was saying that the work of the Kingdom of God is like a farmer sowing seeds.

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We just sang new hymns together. The Bible tells us to praise God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and I am very pleased that we have done so. I thank God for the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has led us to the way of righteousness.
We read Mark 4:21-32 together for today’s Scripture passage. The Lord said to us, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light” (Mark 4:21-22). Here the Lord drew an analogy to a lamp by speaking of the gospel of the water and the Spirit spreading all over the world.

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