1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,800 Now Scott knows what pastors are doing next week because Scott will be preaching next 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:06,800 week. 3 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,800 So I hope you guys will be here for that. 4 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:14,560 Really looking forward to it. 5 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:15,560 Alright. 6 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:23,360 Alright, so as many of you know, we are going through the book of Mark. 7 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:25,720 Mark only has 16 chapters. 8 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,220 It's the shortest of all the gospels. 9 00:00:28,220 --> 00:00:34,720 And since we're looking at the end of chapter 8, today we are officially at the middle point 10 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:35,720 of the book. 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,480 Now we're not going to spend as much time on the second half. 12 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:43,640 That'll become obvious why here in a little bit we'll actually be finishing up this book 13 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:48,920 on Easter, which is only five weeks and six Sundays away. 14 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:50,400 Yay! 15 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,160 That feels too short. 16 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:53,160 It's amazing. 17 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:54,160 Yeah. 18 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:55,160 Six weeks, five. 19 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:56,160 Well, five. 20 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:57,160 Yeah. 21 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:58,160 Five weeks, six Sundays. 22 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:03,320 Now I've mentioned a lot, but Mark, I want to make sure that we remember that Mark is 23 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:04,320 an author. 24 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:07,480 We need to think about how he's writing. 25 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,280 He's not just writing down random stories. 26 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:15,240 He's telling a story. 27 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:19,800 We often treat the Bible like we treat YouTube clips, you know? 28 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:25,200 Like maybe you have your favorite movie and you can find your favorite clip on YouTube. 29 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:30,520 I mean, I absolutely love the movie Tommy Boy, and Tommy Boy is just rife with perfect 30 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:35,720 clips that you can just binge a bunch of different clips and still have no idea what the movie 31 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:36,720 is actually about. 32 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:38,840 And we treat the Bible like this a lot. 33 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:44,680 We pull the stories that we like out of it without thinking about how the person writing 34 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:49,960 that book or that letter is telling a cohesive story. 35 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:55,040 When you're an author, when you're a good author, you're writing one long cohesive story, 36 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,760 you think about the end from the beginning. 37 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:05,960 And you think about how to transition from the set up to the payoff in the middle. 38 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:14,760 It reminds me of a show I watched a while back where the main character would talk directly 39 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,800 to the camera throughout the show, like literally all the time. 40 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,480 She would be in a scene. 41 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:26,840 And it wasn't the same as like sometimes there's a goofiness to it, like, oh, someone is admitting 42 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,480 that this is a show. 43 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:29,480 It wasn't like that. 44 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,240 It was like she was treating us like we were there. 45 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:37,440 Like she'd look at us like we were her imaginary friend and she would include us. 46 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,600 She'd say one thing to the person in the scene and then tell us the unvarnished version of 47 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:47,080 what she really wanted to say, or she'd give us the look that she really wanted to give 48 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:48,080 to the person. 49 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,520 And the people around her had no idea that any of this was going on. 50 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,880 It's kind of like what we do all the time, right? 51 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,680 I mean, we probably don't look at an imaginary camera. 52 00:02:58,680 --> 00:02:59,920 That'd be funny. 53 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:06,680 If I was like talking to you and then I said, all the time. 54 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,800 But we're most honest with ourselves, I think. 55 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,440 Internally, even in prayer, we'll say one thing out loud then think the more revealing 56 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:16,000 thought to ourselves. 57 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,640 And I think that that's why this technique works so well in this particular show, because 58 00:03:21,640 --> 00:03:23,640 we all do it. 59 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:28,840 And it was actually done so well in this show that you'd be watching and you'd actually 60 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:32,080 start waiting for it to happen. 61 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,760 Something would get said and you'd wonder, oh, is this when she's going to say something 62 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:39,920 to us or when she's going to give us a little look or when she'd give us a little insight 63 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,880 that maybe she hadn't shared with someone else. 64 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,920 But then something started to change in this show. 65 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:52,840 She started to fall in love. 66 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:58,720 And something beautiful and scary happens because she starts falling in love. 67 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:04,480 Because as she starts to feel seen by someone other than us, she finds out that she can't 68 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,100 talk to the camera anymore. 69 00:04:08,100 --> 00:04:10,100 She wants to. 70 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:14,720 But what happens is she starts to mix up what she wants to say to us and what she's going 71 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:16,960 to say to him. 72 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:21,760 And so in a rash moment, she'll say out loud to him what she was going to say to us. 73 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:25,320 And then she has to play it off or make a joke like she didn't really mean what she 74 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,160 just said that was extremely revealing. 75 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,600 And then it wasn't that she just mixed things up. 76 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:39,520 It was that he started to notice when she'd even just glance away to look at us. 77 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:44,400 He could see that there was a change, that she was giving these quick little looks. 78 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,320 Then he'd ask, where'd you go just there? 79 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:49,320 And she'd go, what? 80 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:50,320 Nothing, nothing. 81 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,760 And then she'd do it again and he'd go, no, just right there. 82 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:54,760 What happened? 83 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:55,760 Right there. 84 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:57,440 What just happened? 85 00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,120 He couldn't hear what she was saying. 86 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,240 She couldn't see who she was looking at. 87 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,640 She never admitted that she was talking to us, but he could tell that she was going somewhere 88 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:12,080 else, diverting her attention to something else in those moments. 89 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:17,600 And the more seen that she felt, the more she felt in love with him, the less she could 90 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:27,200 talk to us all the way through to the end of the season where she had to decide whether 91 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:29,160 she would talk to us at all. 92 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,840 I'm not bringing this up because I think you should watch the show. 93 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:39,520 I've left out the name of the show intentionally because it's not a show that's for everybody. 94 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:43,360 But I'm bringing it up because when the writer wrote this show, she did something that Mark 95 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:45,720 does in his gospel. 96 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:52,360 Because that moment when she looks at the camera and he notices, that happens at the 97 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:56,280 exact middle of the season. 98 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:02,680 Not the middle of an episode, the middle of the entire story. 99 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:09,720 She had spent all this time setting up this storytelling device, this tool for us to become 100 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:12,240 engaged in what this story was. 101 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:18,440 She had trained us that she was going to look at us, that she was going to talk to us. 102 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:23,040 And then right in the middle, she starts to take that away from us. 103 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:24,040 She starts to lose it. 104 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:28,920 She starts to spend the rest of the season figuring out exactly what she feels, whether 105 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:35,000 she wants him if she can't have us, whether she wants us, what it might mean for her to 106 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,760 have neither. 107 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,520 For us, the viewer, we've been trained to anticipate the moments when she'll turn and 108 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,480 tell us something special, something she's been saving just for us. 109 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:53,080 And now we have to decide if we're invested in her story without the little looks, without 110 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,180 the insights, without the special attention. 111 00:06:56,180 --> 00:07:00,320 And it's brilliant, not just because it was done so effectively that it was nominated 112 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:07,360 for 11 Emmys and won five, but because unless you were looking for it, unless you got to 113 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:11,560 the end of the season and went back and counted the minutes because you wondered exactly where 114 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:16,320 that moment happened, you would never have realized how creative it was that her crisis 115 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:22,680 of conversation and storytelling happened at the exact middle of the season. 116 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:32,440 Now with that in mind, let's open up our Bibles and see what it says in Mark 8, starting in 117 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:33,440 verse 22. 118 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:38,300 If you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles out on the bookshelf that you can take home 119 00:07:38,300 --> 00:07:39,300 with you. 120 00:07:39,300 --> 00:07:40,300 They are free. 121 00:07:40,300 --> 00:07:45,340 Otherwise, you can download a Bible from one of the digital app stores. 122 00:07:45,340 --> 00:07:46,340 And we're going to be in Mark. 123 00:07:46,340 --> 00:07:51,360 It was Matthew, Mark, Luke, John in the New Testament, starting in chapter 8, verse 22. 124 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,880 We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention. 125 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:56,600 One of the ways we do that is by standing together. 126 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:04,080 If you'd like to join me as you are able, I'm going to start reading Mark 8, verse 22 127 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:05,560 says this. 128 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:12,320 They, being Jesus and his disciples, came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind 129 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,320 man and begged Jesus to touch him. 130 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:18,440 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. 131 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:23,240 When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see 132 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:25,520 anything? 133 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:28,120 He looked up and said, I see people. 134 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,040 They look like trees walking around. 135 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:35,560 Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes, then his eyes were opened. 136 00:08:35,560 --> 00:08:39,520 His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. 137 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:43,760 Jesus sent him home saying, don't even go into the village. 138 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,780 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. 139 00:08:47,780 --> 00:08:51,400 On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am? 140 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:57,640 They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others one of the prophets. 141 00:08:57,640 --> 00:08:58,640 But what about you? 142 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:03,200 He asked, who do you say I am? 143 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,520 Peter answered, you are the Messiah. 144 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:10,920 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 145 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:11,920 Let us pray. 146 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,520 Father God, we thank you for the scriptures. 147 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:22,360 We pray that whatever you have for us to learn today or to notice today, I pray that it would 148 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,040 stick, that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would 149 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:29,640 become stronger, that we would become more like your son Jesus. 150 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:30,640 Amen. 151 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:31,640 Thanks, y'all. 152 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:32,640 You can have a seat. 153 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:43,280 All right, so by the time we get to this passage, the first half of Mark's gospel has felt 154 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:44,720 like a freight train of miracles. 155 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:51,920 If you read it straight through, it just feels like the pace and the motion is building and 156 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:54,880 building and building all around mostly miracles. 157 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:56,940 So let me show you what I mean. 158 00:09:56,940 --> 00:10:02,120 Chapter one, the Holy Spirit descends like a dove upon Jesus after his baptism. 159 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,160 Jesus casts out a demon. 160 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:06,520 Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law from a fever. 161 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:11,240 It says that he heals many sick and demon possessed, then he heals a man with leprosy. 162 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,520 That's all chapter one. 163 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:18,640 Chapter two, he forgives and he heals a paralyzed man. 164 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:22,480 Chapter three, Jesus heals a man, heals his hand on the Sabbath. 165 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,300 Then he goes out and it says again, he heals many. 166 00:10:25,300 --> 00:10:27,860 Chapter four, he calms the storm. 167 00:10:27,860 --> 00:10:32,140 He literally controls the weather. 168 00:10:32,140 --> 00:10:35,600 Chapter five, he heals a tormented and demon possessed man. 169 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:37,840 He heals the woman with the issue of bleeding. 170 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:41,960 He raises someone from the dead. 171 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:47,120 Chapter six, he heals a few people in his hometown, but then he goes and he feeds 5,000 172 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:49,960 people from just two fish and two loaves. 173 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:58,380 And then he walks on water and he calls Peter out to walk with him. 174 00:10:58,380 --> 00:11:01,520 Chapter seven, he frees a little girl from a demon. 175 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:04,920 Then he heals a man that was deaf and mute. 176 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:10,800 The beginning of chapter eight, he feeds a multitude again, this time 4,000, multiplying 177 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,840 just a small amount of food to provide for everyone. 178 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,760 And then at the end of chapter eight, where we're at today, there's a healing like no 179 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,480 other. 180 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:24,840 A two phase healing, the only time that I know of in the gospels where the first time 181 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:31,800 Jesus tried, it didn't work completely. 182 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,560 First the man sees blurry. 183 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:38,520 He touches him again and he sees clearly. 184 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:46,520 The first eight chapters are just packed with miracle after miracle after miracle. 185 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:53,600 And Mark is making it obvious that miracles are the marker, the sign that God's kingdom 186 00:11:53,600 --> 00:12:00,880 is breaking in, that something is happening, that this is moving somewhere. 187 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:07,760 Mark has been teaching us that where Jesus goes, that miracles follow every page of the 188 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:13,840 first half of Mark's gospels covered with the miraculous, countless miracles. 189 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:21,480 We don't know how many because so often it just says, and then he healed many. 190 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:26,600 If you were reading this book for the very first time, you're probably thinking, man, 191 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:31,240 if he did all these miracles in the first eight chapters, man, what's coming next? 192 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:33,920 You think, oh, he fed 5,000. 193 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:35,440 Oh, he walked on water. 194 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:37,320 Oh, he just fed another 4,000. 195 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:41,720 Oh, man, I can't wait for the story when he feeds 10. 196 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:45,640 It feels like there's no stopping it. 197 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,080 But then you read chapters nine through 16. 198 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:55,480 And what you find is that in the last eight chapters, miracles almost completely disappear. 199 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:59,080 There's only a few. 200 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:01,640 There's just as many chapters. 201 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:03,600 There's just as many verses. 202 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:08,920 There's just as many words, and there are just as many stories. 203 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:15,160 For some reason, there's only a handful of miracles. 204 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:16,160 We should ask why. 205 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:17,160 Why? 206 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:19,800 Why is there this transition here in this book? 207 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:26,000 And I think Mark is telling us with this passage, or at least beginning to tell us, he's telling 208 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,400 us with these two stories. 209 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:32,880 Guys, it's no coincidence that right here in the middle, that Jesus has to heal one 210 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:40,760 person twice, and then he asks his disciples two questions back to back. 211 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:45,720 It's no coincidence that the two questions and the two phases of the healing actually 212 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:47,560 mimic each other. 213 00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:49,640 What do I mean? 214 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:55,200 In the first story, Jesus takes the blind man away from the crowds, away from their 215 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:58,080 eyes, away from their opinions. 216 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,920 In the second story, Jesus' first question is about the crowds. 217 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,280 Here we are, away from everyone. 218 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:06,920 What do you think? 219 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,960 What are those people saying about me? 220 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:14,620 In the first story, Jesus spits in the man's eyes, and in the first phase of that healing, 221 00:14:14,620 --> 00:14:18,400 he only sees partially. 222 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:22,520 At first, he only receives a vision that is blurry. 223 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,060 In the second story, after the first question, they answer. 224 00:14:26,060 --> 00:14:30,840 Some say you're a prophet, others say Elijah, John the Baptist, back from the bed. 225 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:38,680 All of these answers are blurry versions of the truth, blurry versions of who Jesus really 226 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:39,680 is. 227 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:44,440 In the first story, Jesus touches the blind man a second time, and then it says, and then 228 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,960 he saw everything clearly. 229 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:54,560 In the second story, Jesus asks, but who do you say I am? 230 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,680 Peter gives a clear answer. 231 00:14:57,680 --> 00:14:59,680 You are the Messiah. 232 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:03,560 The stories are the same. 233 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:08,440 It's just that one is the healing of a physical sight, and the other is the revealing of spiritual 234 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,240 sight. 235 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:12,360 Jesus does this. 236 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:15,080 Mark does this by design. 237 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,640 Right here in the middle of the Gospel of Mark, there are almost 16,000 words in the 238 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:21,200 Gospel of Mark. 239 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:25,760 These stories are within 100, 200 to 300 words of the exact middle. 240 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:31,760 Now, if you're in first century Palestine writing a parchment story, to be within a 241 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:39,840 few hundred words of the middle is pretty impressive. 242 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:48,280 He tells these stories right here in the middle, because after eight chapters of the miraculous, 243 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:53,760 their blurry vision of who Jesus is should be clear. 244 00:15:53,760 --> 00:16:05,360 If it is clear to them who he is, then maybe they'll be ready for whatever comes next. 245 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:11,160 Because in the way that Mark tells the story of Jesus, things are about to change a lot. 246 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:18,400 There are still great stories, but the way that he tells the stories, the things that 247 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:24,320 he starts to leave out are noticeable. 248 00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:34,800 Miracles are about to all but go away, and Jesus is going to end up on a cross. 249 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:39,720 And if here, at the end of chapter eight, here in the middle of this story, if they 250 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:49,680 do not see Jesus clearly, then what comes next might lead them back to spiritual blindness. 251 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:53,360 And we, I don't think that we're any different. 252 00:16:53,360 --> 00:17:01,120 Mark is showing us what happened to them because it's the exact thing that we can feel or maybe 253 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:08,120 has happened to us, some of us. 254 00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:14,160 We watched the first eight chapters of our life. 255 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:21,440 We watched as maybe someone else believed in Jesus and their life started to change. 256 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:27,000 We watched as God moved and our blindness started to turn to blurriness. 257 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,480 And we saw God do miracles. 258 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:32,800 We saw enemies become friends. 259 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:34,840 We saw all of our sins forgiven. 260 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:41,360 We saw Jesus do things that only Jesus can do, and then Jesus asked us, who do you say? 261 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:44,000 I am. 262 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:45,000 And we told him. 263 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,760 We answered, I think that you're the son of God. 264 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:49,800 I think that you are the Messiah. 265 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:51,360 You are my Lord. 266 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:55,080 We boldly said, I believe, and you are. 267 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:56,720 Vision was clear. 268 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:08,840 The first eight chapters of Mark is where everybody wants to be in their lives. 269 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:20,240 Some of us, we feel like we're in the second half of Mark, in the second half of our lives. 270 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:25,440 It's been a while since we've seen a miracle. 271 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:28,160 Our car broke down. 272 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:31,520 Our pet died. 273 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,440 Maybe anxiety started getting the best of us. 274 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:36,120 We lost that job that we loved. 275 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:38,500 We didn't stop praying. 276 00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:39,500 Maybe we had to move. 277 00:18:39,500 --> 00:18:43,800 Maybe we had to leave a house we thought we would grow old in. 278 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:48,200 We lost friends that we thought that we would always have. 279 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,680 We never stopped praying. 280 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:58,160 We remember the first eight chapters, our vision of Jesus is clear. 281 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:00,760 We saw miracle after miracle. 282 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:05,080 We know that they happen, even if they're not happening right now. 283 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,480 We know that God can change everything. 284 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,520 And then we lost a parent. 285 00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:16,240 Maybe our marriage fell apart or your kid got sick and didn't get better. 286 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,320 Or your own health started to dissipate and deteriorate. 287 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:27,120 And you start to wonder when these chapters are going to end. 288 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:34,880 When the author is going to get back to telling the story the way he used to tell it. 289 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:42,040 Then confusion starts to fill the space where confidence used to live. 290 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,100 Imagine you're a disciple and you have seen the miracles. 291 00:19:45,100 --> 00:19:49,040 You have performed the miracles. 292 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,560 You have declared that Jesus is the Messiah. 293 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:56,760 And then for the next eight chapters, it seems like no matter what you do, there is no other 294 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:02,160 place for this story to end but with your rabbi dying on a cross. 295 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:09,760 What do you do when you see your king, your Messiah placed in a grave? 296 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:14,180 Do you still believe? 297 00:20:14,180 --> 00:20:21,000 Even a stone has covered your view of the Almighty? 298 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,680 You continue to follow a faith that you just watched die? 299 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:36,360 Is your vision of Jesus still clear-eyed when it feels like life is doing everything that 300 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:49,000 it can to make your eyes blurry with tears? 301 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:56,080 I think the answer depends a bit on whether you finish the story. 302 00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:03,680 See, we have an advantage to the disciples that they didn't have. 303 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:13,160 They had to live this story with Jesus, not knowing why the miracles were slowing down, 304 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:18,280 not knowing what was coming next. 305 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:24,000 We have the benefit of knowing that that story wasn't over. 306 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,040 It might be true. 307 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:31,520 The last half of Mark only has a few miracles. 308 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:44,520 And it might be true that maybe you feel like that's where you are in your life right now. 309 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,120 But the last miracle in the Gospel of Mark is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 310 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:52,400 dead. 311 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,560 Mark's Gospel doesn't end with a crucifixion. 312 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,200 It doesn't end void of miracles. 313 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:06,200 It ends with the miracle. 314 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:11,720 I think so often that us in our lives, we become so obsessed with the chapters that 315 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:22,160 we're in because we remember how good the other ones were. 316 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,920 Once you get to chapter 9 and 10 and you're like, oh, life's a little different right 317 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:30,080 now, and you get to chapter 11 and you're 12 and you're like, oh, this has been a long 318 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,160 season of things being different right now. 319 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:37,120 And then you get to 13 and 14 and you're starting to feel like this is all that there is now. 320 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:42,720 And then you get to 15 and you see the best thing that you would just, the only thing 321 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:48,600 that you would still been holding on to die. 322 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:57,920 How do you hold on to the idea that chapter 16 might be a resurrection? 323 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:10,720 How do you hold on to the idea that your story is not yet over? 324 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:17,440 The only answer I have is chapter 16. 325 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:26,440 Mark sets us up with the first eight chapters because he knew that chapter 16 would pay 326 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:27,440 off. 327 00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:34,480 And I hope that today, no matter what it is that you're going through in your life, whether 328 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,760 anything that I have said sounds like you or whether you feel like, no, my life is kind 329 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,640 of chapter one through eight right now. 330 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:50,160 No matter where you are in your life, I hope that you'll remember the number 16, that you'll 331 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:55,160 remember that when everything seemed like it was starting to go downhill, when these 332 00:23:55,160 --> 00:24:02,920 disciples that were betting absolutely everything that they had on this Messiah, when they saw 333 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:10,320 him die, that the author did not stop writing. 334 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:15,480 Whatever you're experiencing right now, I want you to hear, I want you to hear that 335 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:20,840 the author is not done writing. 336 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,440 Your story is not over. 337 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:30,680 It doesn't matter whether you're elderly in your older years, in your 60s, 70s, 80s. 338 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:35,640 It doesn't matter if you feel young and like you've already made huge decisions. 339 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:42,440 The pen is still in God's hands. 340 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:49,440 And this thing that he began, he will finish. 341 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:55,780 I just hope that the Spirit of God convicts our hearts today, that we are not the authors 342 00:24:55,780 --> 00:25:01,480 of our own story, and that as much as we feel like if there's just one thing that I could 343 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:14,680 do to fix this, that Jesus loves you, and he's got more words to say about you. 344 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:16,200 Amen? 345 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:17,600 Amen. 346 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:18,600 Let's pray. 347 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:25,320 Father, I think that you, thank you that you are an author. 348 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,320 This is not something that we're making up. 349 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:29,840 It's not a metaphor. 350 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,480 It's not just a good example. 351 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:38,200 Your scriptures say that you are the author and perfecter of our faith. 352 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:45,080 And I pray that your spirit would just work its way through this room right now. 353 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:54,520 We would experience your presence, that we would see you writing more words, and that 354 00:25:54,520 --> 00:26:00,600 we would believe that even though it looks like some of our stories are headed toward 355 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:13,520 a bad ending, you have a way of resurrecting the dead to life. 356 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:15,960 Just convict our hearts, Lord. 357 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:19,120 Convince us. 358 00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:26,600 Let us not just live on the faith of the first eight chapters, but let us see clearly for 359 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:37,160 whatever pages we have left, that you are God, that you are good, that you are love. 360 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:52,380 Amen.