Marked: Intro to Mark

``But Jesus did not come to make us smarter or braver. He came to take our cold, dead, black hearts and turn them alive. Because scripture said that we were dead in our transgressions apart from Christ. Listen. That is not just an analogy. That's not metaphor. We were dead in our transgressions, and Jesus causes our dead hearts to start beating. [00:30:44] (28 seconds)  #FromDeadToAlive

But if Jesus is only a moral example, then that makes Christianity only about morality. But it's more than that. We start constantly trying to live like him without ever being changed by him. A moral example can tell us what to do and can show us what to do, but only a savior can give us the power inside that we need to do what we could never do on our own. [00:31:49] (28 seconds)  #SaviorNotJustExample

Because here's the truth. If you are admiring Jesus without submitting to him, you do not see him clearly and you cannot follow him fully. If you appreciate Jesus without bowing a knee, if you're like, I will worship you on Sundays, but I won't give you the rest of my week, then you are not seeing him clearly. And if you're not seeing him clearly, you cannot follow him fully. [00:32:30] (28 seconds)  #SeeAndSubmit

And so we see two main things in this first half of Mark. We see Jesus' authority on display. And what what what I mean is we see Jesus showing authority and power over things like demons and disease and nature itself and sin and tradition and even death. He he shows power and authority over those things, and every story that you read is whispering sort of this narrative. This is no ordinary man. [00:18:28] (31 seconds)  #NoOrdinaryMan

That's the heartbeat of the gospel. I think that's the heartbeat of the bible if you ask me. That everything points towards this coming messiah who did come and he came to serve. Not to be served, not to be a powerful king that everyone bowed their knee to because he was just had a big sword and just ruled everything. That's coming, but it wasn't then. Jesus came to serve and to lay down his life. Do you understand how backwards this was for everybody's understanding of what the Messiah would do? They thought the Messiah would come in and clean house. Jesus came in and changed the world forever, including us. [00:24:26] (50 seconds)  #ServantKing

It's a valid question and I still wanna ask that but I think a better question for this series is this, which version of Jesus have have you been living with? So even more than just, yeah, I believe in Jesus. I believe he did some great things. I believe he died on the cross. My question for the for this whole series is this, which version of Jesus have you been living with? Who is Jesus in your head? [00:34:01] (25 seconds)  #WhichJesusAreYouLivingWith

And so my closing challenge as we go through this series, yes, for this week, but also for the whole series, is I want you to ask yourself, which version of Jesus have I been living with? And then I want to you to follow that up with a a simple prayer that just says, Jesus, help me see you clearly so I can follow you fully. [00:34:56] (21 seconds)  #HelpMeSeeYouClearly

And so that second half of Mark, what was this very fast paced example of who is this man turns into this very slow and methodical journey towards Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus sets his eyes on Jerusalem because he knows that's where he must go. So what we see in that second section is we see the road to the cross, and we also see the cross as triumphant. [00:22:34] (30 seconds)  #RoadToTheCross