Before we celebrate with Communion, let us continue to learn from the Gospel of Mark. Again, the main point of the Gospel is to affirm our belief that Jesus Christ is God and the Only Savior for people’s sin. Open your Bibles to the gospel of Mark chapter 1….
The Gospel of Mark gets right in to the ministry of Jesus Christ. God promised a Messiah to save people from their sins. Jesus Christ was baptized by John because it was the right thing to do and God spoke affirming that Jesus Christ is the Messiah Savior of the world.
Although Jesus Christ is God, He became fully human to be an example for all people. Jesus faced every temptations and difficulties in the world and never disobeyed God!
Read along with me now Mark 1:21-28…
Jesus started His ministry by teaching and calling followers (Mark 1:14-22).
Now look again at v23-24…. What’s significant??
V23 tell us that people, even in church, can be possessed by evil spirits! Can people today actually be possessed by the devil? Let’s think of it this way; a person who chooses to believe in Jesus Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit; and so, if a person chooses the devil, can’t an evil spirit indwell that person in a similar way? I stated this in the message 2 weeks ago: Even while here on earth, we Christians must see the reality of the spiritual world! There is a heaven and there are angels around us (both godly and evil) and we must always be alert!
And, we have already noted so far 8 facts supporting the truth that Jesus Christ is God and the Only Savior for sins. We note Fact #9 here in (v23-24): All the demons in the spiritual world know that Jesus Christ is God and Savior! Demons are angels who turned against God along with superangel Lucifer, aka satan. How many angels are there in the spiritual world??
There are multitudes and multitudes of angels in the spiritual world and one third of them chose to be demons. How many demons are there? One third of a multitude is still a multitude and all know that Jesus Christ is God and the Only savior for people. I hope you are smarter than any demon and truly believe and follow Jesus Christ as God and Savior! All demons and non-followers of Jesus Christ will all eventually be judged for eternity in a place called hell. You don’t want to end up there with them!
How do we know God will judge? What can we note from v25-28??
Supporting Fact #10: Jesus Christ has authority over the entire spiritual world!
Let us repeat what we have learned so far in just 28 verses from Mark 1; here are the facts: God had been proclaiming the coming of Messiah Jesus Christ since the beginning of time throughout the Old Testament! God called John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ followed God’s plan, He never disobeyed God! Jesus Christ Himself is God, one of the Persons in the Trinity! And while on earth, Jesus Christ who is God was fully human exposed to every temptation and difficulties which He overcame! Jesus had immediate followers, ordinary people, in proclaiming the good news of salvation! Jesus had authority over God’s Word because He is God!
And today, we add 2 more facts: The entire spiritual world acknowledges Jesus Christ as God and Messiah. Jesus Christ has authority over the entire spiritual world!
Do we believe in this Jesus? What does Jesus desire for us?
We noted last week Jesus’ initial statement as He started to teach; look again at Mark 1:15….
1. Repent (say no to sin and yes to God’s Truth, the Bible)!
This is the first thing any person must do to go back to God. No one can go back to the Only Holy God without acknowledging sin and accepting God’s Word! How are we personally doing with this?
Now, let us note that there is a difference between acknowledging that sin is wrong and actually not sinning! Because we are all born into sin and we still have a sinful nature, we will sin even though we know sin is wrong! Does God understand this?? Of course God knows our dilemma of still having a sinful nature; this is why Jesus Christ is the good news. Jesus Christ who is God became a human being to suffer and die on a cross to take all of the penalty for our sins; this is why Jesus also stated..
2. Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be in the Kingdom of God!
And part of believing is following Jesus Christ; Jesus started by calling 12 disciples to follow Him; and those disciples were told to tell others to follow Jesus! And so, we are to acknowledge we are sinners, believe in Jesus Christ, and also....
3. Follow Jesus Christ. We will note more in the Gospel of Mark what Jesus wants us to do; but one of the things Jesus did and told His followers the day before He was arrested to be hung on the cross is to remember Him through bread and drink.
Turn with me briefly to Mark 14:22-24….
What does it mean? After Jesus died, was buried, but rose again, and returned to heaven, another follower, the apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 11:23-29…
4. Until Jesus returns to earth, we Believers are to remember what Jesus did for us on a regular basis and evaluate our hearts.
