Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 3:7-19
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 3:7-19
Lindsey: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Lindsey Blair and this is Bobby Gilles. This past Sunday, Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark three, verses seven through nineteen, to conclude our series called Good News People.
Bobby: Pastor Jonah said that Jesus is for everyone everywhere. If you’ve forgotten or missed the sermon, it’s time for the Midweek Checkup.
Lindsey: Jonah began by saying that one of the ways we can answer "Who is Jesus" and "What is his kingdom" is by answering "What kinds of people did he come for?” The geographic distance these people came from in this passage shows us that Jesus welcomes people no matter where they come from. Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem were primarily Jewish places. Idumea and Transjordan were mixed Jewish-Gentile areas, and Tyre and Sidon were almost entirely Gentile regions.
Bobby: Demon-possessed people were there. Physically, socially, and spiritually sick were there. Jesus came with good news, fulfilling a good news ministry to heal the broken. Next, the text says Jesus went up to a mountain, not to receive something but to reveal something. He is showing us who God is, because he is showing us who he is. He does not go to meet with God, people go up the mountain to meet with Jesus. The text says he called out “to those he wanted to go with him.”
Lindsey: The call of Jesus is birthed from desire, which is to say it's birthed from love. When we consider who Jesus chose to be among the Twelve, we see that it is not the special elite God chooses to make a new Israel; it is the ordinary, the reviled, the violent, and the betraying. What is he showing us about his kingdom? What you have done, what you bring to the table, is not most important. What's most important is the man who has invited you to sit with him, King Jesus.
Bobby: Like the disciples, we bring our broken inadequacies to Jesus. Like the disciples, we go, even with our doubts and insecurities, even with our little faith, believing God is for all people, all kinds of people, in all kinds of places. We don't have to grow or change or behave to come to Jesus. We have to receive. We receive what he has done for us and what he says about us as we trust his presence.
Lindsey: What is it about you that makes you believe you are not welcome? Turn from those thoughts, turn from those lies, believe again the gospel, and come home. To those you know, isolated and alone, hurting, oppressed, sick, filled with despair: go, give them the good news. The King has come. He is inviting them home. There is room at his table.
Bobby: This Sunday, we begin our brand new sermon series, Riddles Of Redemption. And in Bible Fellowship, we’ll discuss Exodus fourteen, where God parts the waters to allow the Hebrews to walk on dry land before the Egyptian army is drowned. Join us and bring a friend.