Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

 [I will be away on vacation the next two weeks, and my substitute for this Sunday, Rev. Tom Huckel, will be covering Matthew's parallel to this next scene in Mark. For the sake of completeness on this blog, I am posting here what would have been the basis for my message on this paragraph.] I haven't updated the content from an earlier series I did on Mark, so there may be some out of date statements! I will pick up with Mark 3:31 when I return, looking at "The Family of God." ]. The Man and His Mission Mark 3:20-30 Introduction : A little later in His ministry Jesus will seize a teachable moment and pose a question to His disciples: “ Who do people say that I am? ” (Mark 8:27). That question is at the heart of this passage, and at the heart of Mark’s Gospel. We’ve been listening to Mark, as he tells the story of Jesus, answer three questions: 1) Who is Jesus? (the Christological question); 2) Why did He come? (the soteriological question); and 3) What does it mea...

  Twelve Ordinary Men, One Extraordinary God! Mark 3:13-19 Introduction : The résumés of the twelve men Jesus called that day on the mountain might fail to impress.  They were a diverse bunch to be sure, fishermen, a tax collector, a Zealot… we don’t know much about the others. One of the things we’ll see as we continue through this gospel, is that Mark does not “disguise” the weaknesses and failings of the people God chooses. In fact, remember that every list of the original 12 begins with Peter, who deserted Jesus and three times denied that he knew Him the night He was arrested; and the list ends with Judas, who betrayed Him! It seems to me that one of the marks of authenticity that we see in the Bible is that God is the protagonist in the story, He is building His church, and He is able to overrule human weakness and sin to accomplish His good purpose.  That points to… The BIG Idea : God uses ordinary people in His extraordinary mission to build His church. He...

  BELIEVE! Mark 3:7-12 Introduction : In our look last week at the Sabbath controversies in Mark 2:23-3:6 the question of the Law, and the spirit of the Law, was touched on. What is the heart of the matter? Rabbi Shammai said that Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands in the Law. David in Psalm 15 summarized them in eleven principles. Isaiah 33:14-15 narrows it down to 6, and Micah 6:8 reduces it down to 3. Habakkuk 2:4 brings it all down to one: “ The just shall live by faith .” The question before us today, is what does it mean to believe ? I recall a story that illustrates how shaky faith can be… A man fell off a cliff but managed to grab a tree limb in the way down. Hanging on for dear life he called up… "Is anyone up there?"  "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?"  "Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer."  "That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to wor...