Proclaim | Repent | Believe

Series: The Gospel of Mark
Title: Proclaim - Repent - Believe
Text: Mark 6:7-13

Transcript

Setting The Galilean Ministry Context

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is a uh continuation of the story, the the the story of Jesus in his uh Galilean ministry. This this uh section is elaborated, it's expanded in the Gospel of Matthew. And I'm just gonna read um just that opening so that you can see that there's a parallel. Actually, it's really good. It's worth a read. Open it up, look into it. It it's it's a full-blown conversation. We have a few, we have a glimpse of that conversation in Mark, but in Matthew it's expanded. And so in Matthew 10, 5 to 8, we read these twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. And so we see that this is a uh continuation of that ministry, uh, that Galilee, it's what uh Bible nerds call the Galilean ministry. It's pretty obvious it takes place around the Sea of Galilee, and it continues the same pattern that Jesus um inaugurates at the beginning of Mark. And so this ministry kind of ends chapter eight. We're in chapter six, but I want to read out the beginning of um what people would say is the beginning of this ministry in Mark chapter one, verses 14 and 15. And hopefully, in reading, you can see that there's this constant thread of what's actually being done through this ministry. It's a consistent act that Jesus is on, a consistent ministry. And so from Mark 1, 14 and 15, we read, Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And so from both of these, we can see that in Matthew it's consistent, in Mark it's consistent that this ministry is about Jesus, his disciples going into Galilee, uh proclaiming the kingdom of God, calling for repentance and belief in the message that's being belief in the gospel, the gospel of God. And that this is um this is accompanied by many miracles. And we've been uh the two Andrews have been leading us through a number of those. Andrew Hawes brought out um the the the calming of the seas. So Jesus and his disciples are on the boat, the seas are raging, and he calms them. Uh, the raising of Jarius's daughter, another miracle. The casting out of demons into the pigs as they are go running into the ocean, another miracle. And and just to say that these miracles are accompanied um to proclaim the righteousness or to uh acknowledge that the people, Jesus, the one who is doing these miracles, ought to be listened to. His message ought to be believed. And so this call to repent and believe is accompanied by these miracles. The miracles are not in and of themselves the primary point. The point is that they point to that gospel, the good news. The kingdom of God is at hand. And so we pick up the narrative and we pick it up last week where uh Andrew Hawes uh shared with us the uh the disbelief, the rejection, the rejection of Jesus, that the picture that the that the people had of who Jesus was, who he thought he was, um, was actually uh mistaken. They talked to him as uh they were like in doubt. Like, isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son? Like, don't we know this guy? Like, who is he to talk this way? And so we're picking it up after the end of that rejection. So Jesus has been rejected, um, and he sends out his disciples. These are the first missionaries, if you will. West Village is a missional church. I see some new faces. You're going to hear that term over and over again. Uh mission. We are on mission. We um organize ourselves within missional communities. This group of 12 men were the first missionaries. And I just want to pause a second and just uh take a look at, just do a quick little character sketch of the missionaries and the one who sends them. Because we can come to this verse and we can come to this section with a whole bunch of experience if we've been in the church for a while. If we have heard these stories time and time again, and we can say, like, well, there's Peter and uh there's the other disciples, there's Andrew, Thomas, all of them, and they're pretty good guys, right? But I just want to like peel back the historical context of this moment. These guys weren't great. Like these guys were like just ordinary dudes. Like four of them were fishermen, right? There was doubters. Thomas was a doubter, Judas was amongst them, right? These guys were not superstars. They were ordinary, average people of the day. They'd been walking with Jesus for some time. And you can even see it in some of the ways that they interact with Jesus. Jesus will teach them something and they'll be kind of like, huh? What are you talking about? Like they also weren't that smart. Like they weren't, they didn't get where he was going a lot of the times. He would preach in a parable and he'd say that, you know, he'd preach to the people and he'd preach it in a parable. Then he'd come back and he'd go, hey, uh, this is what that parable meant. And they'd go, what? Like, what do you mean? Like they simply were not the greatest and the sharpest um nails in the uh in the bin. And if we take a look at Jesus himself and and at this point in his ministry, who he actually was. We know him as the Messiah if we are in faith. But at this point in time, he's like not quite as like crazy as John, right? But he's kind of like that. He's going around doing all these miraculous things. He's not announcing them. He's not pronouncing it. In fact, in Jarius' miracle, he actually asks them to be quiet. Like, don't tell anybody about this. So he's not um fully engaged in um taking credit for his miracles. In fact, we don't, and and the narrative flow doesn't reveal him within Mark as the Messiah until chapter eight. We got two more chapters in how many months, I don't know. Um, this Bible verse by verse being what it is here at uh West Village, but that um the ministry of uh the Galilean ministry ends and changes direction at that point. And so Jesus isn't known as the Messiah. His family doesn't even recognize him, they reject his message. Uh, his disciples go out, and if you read in Matthew, what actually Jesus warns them about is that it's not a success. Like they get kicked out, they get run out of town, they get rejected, and he warns them and he says, this is going to happen. And so from this first mission, this first mission, these first missionaries and the mission that they're called on, we don't see a lot of success. Right? We know where the story goes, we know that Jerusalem is coming, and we know that there's there's interest, right? But who is this Jesus? Who is this gospel? And so these first missionaries are called to proclaim. Proclaim the kingdom of God is at hand. Most of the people that hear that message are gonna go, hmm, yeah, maybe, but I doubt it. Even after the miracles, they're gonna go, huh? I don't know who this Jesus is. And these guys going out two by two, right? So these missionaries were not that dynamic. And they're being asked to do basically almost an impossible task. And it's not just that they're being called to, uh, they're calling the people to believe and repent and believe in the kingdom of God, they're calling people to repent. So you're gonna hear that word repentance if you haven't been around a church for a while. Um, repentance is just simply a way of saying turning from, turning away, turning away from. If you could throw up that uh slide on repentance and what it is that they're actually calling him, calling the people to repent from. So people are calling these these missionaries are not only engaged in this impossible task of actually validating the kingdom of God as appearing, they're being called to ask the people to repent. God's been doing this for thousands of years. They're calling the people to repent from unrighteousness, calling the people to repent from unbelief and into faith. And they're calling people to repent from a misunderstanding, like Andrew was talking about last week about how do we understand Jesus? Who do we know Jesus to be? Andrew was calling you to repent from that, from wrong belief. And the last thing that they're calling to repent from is self-rule. Repent, turn from self-rule, turn into God's kingdom and the rule of the king. And so we have this character sketch of the actual task that's before them, what's actually happening in it in a historical context. We have a group of missionaries engaged and called to a task by um who we know as a messiah, but at that point is the rabbi to go out into the countryside and rally the people of Israel. That missionary feel that those missionaries were largely unsuccessful. But were they?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

This morning, something happened. Something happened.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

And it it's like we know, like we can jump to the punchline. I'm sure that a lot of us in this room can actually, you know, fill in the blank what actually happened, but but these guys didn't know at that time. You know, Jesus in his human um in his human nature, right, knew that knew the tasks that God the Father had laid before him, was being perfectly obedient to those tasks, going from this place to that place. He had the Holy Spirit, he was moving in accordance to God's will. But did he know that's a question for some theologians to wrestle with, but for this morning, I'm just going to hold out that um these men were not the men that we know them as. Something had to happen to transform them from this place into the place that we know them as. Peter, Peter, who we call Peter, was actually Caiaphas. That's his original name. Jesus gives him a new name.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Petra. The rock, rock, stone, stable, foundation.

Easter And Pentecost Make Mission Possible

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Something happened to turn Peter from like this guy, one of the twelve, going out, getting kicked out of town, right? Denying his Lord three times, arguing, trying to figure this out, not knowing what's going on. Something happened that transformed him from Caiaphas into Peter, into Petrus, the rock, the foundation. To this day, the Roman Catholic Church marks Peter and the apostolic succession, that connection to them as being the foundation of the church. Paul himself talks about the foundation of the church being the prophets and the apostles. And it's very clear that these men starting off at this place, at this time, become radically transformed and carry forward that mission, that mission field, that ministry to the point where you and I are the deposit of faith. We have a church that has survived for thousands of years. We have a church that has grown. We have a mission, a gospel proclamation that has been effective to the ends of the earth. We have a church today that spans the globe largely because of that transformation. What happened to these men began a cause and effect that we enjoy today. That millions, millions of people have been transformed, have been made new because of this beginning, this first mission, this first mission trip, these first missionaries, as they grow, we have the church. Now we at West Village, we we talk about mission all the time. We um espouse that we believe that that we are called to do as they did. We are called to proclaim, we are called to believe and repent and call to repentance the world. This isn't an easy task. I don't know if you um, if some of you, we I uh was we were with Chris Sinasol. Chris Sinasol was our leader for many years. And anybody that's done the 910 uh prayer with Chris can hopefully you can remember what his rallying cry was when he'd gather everybody, we'd put our hands in the middle. What was that? The cry was making Jesus known. Making Jesus known. That has been our call, that is our call. That is the thing that we are called to do for the world. And if we take a look and we run parallels between us and this first group of missionaries, hopefully you can see that through line that that it is just as impossible a task today as it was back then. Chris was uh apt to bring out some statistics. The least churched city in all of Canada is it's actually Nanaimo, right? It's north of us.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

We're we're a close second.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

So West Village is asking us to do the impossible, just like Jesus was asking his first disciples to do the impossible. Have you ever had experience of sharing your faith and you know you're just shut down? Have you ever felt the anxiousness, the anxiety of actually trying to do that? This is not a um an easy ask. And hopefully um I can come to the um the cause of the disciples' transformation, and hopefully I can give to you a vision of hope uh as we look forward into our mission field, our ministry, our Galilean ministry, which is the city of Victoria, which is your community, where you work, where you live, and where you play. Because something happened to those first missionaries.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Given that impossible task, starting from that impossible position, they did the miraculous. We have a church today because of that. What happened?

Ezekiel Promise Of A New Heart

SPEAKER_02 17:40

I'm gonna say just in shorthand, very quickly, that that that impossible mission, whatever it is, it is impossible without Easter and without Pentecost. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Easter together, and very clearly um we were able to share in uh the bedrock foundation of our faith. Peter and the disciples are many months from that, from that moment. But their ministry, their mission, their being was changed in that in that instant, in that moment. We don't have a faith without that resurrection. That was one of the messages that Andrew Johnson brought us on Easter. When we say Christ is risen, and the response is we are proclaiming the greatest of those miracles. That Jesus, that carpenter, that rejected, that rejected son, that rejected brother, that one who, that itinerant um rabbi that was going from town to town doing miraculous things, became the first fruits of a new reality. That transformation of that group, the beginning of that transformation of that group started with Easter, but didn't end with Easter. It had to be culminated in Pentecost. Those two events is what happened. Those two things, those two realities that have transformed this world. Literally, the life and death and resurrection of Jesus has transformed this world. It has transformed my world. I'm sure that it has transformed your world. This is part of the gospel that we proclaim. This is part of the gospel that we live that transforms us as much as it transformed that original group of twelve, so that when Peter becomes Peter is in that moment in Jerusalem in which he boldly proclaims the death and the resurrection of his rabbi, of his messiah, who he now understands not only to be a good teacher, not only to be a miracle worker, but to be the first fruits of God's kingdom as it has actually taken place. Thomas has tested and shown, and Christ has been graceful and has shown him the truth, revealed his resurrected body. He has walked around Jerusalem, he has met people, he has spoken to them, and he has said, wait, wait for the Spirit, wait for Pentecost. Because Pentecost is not a happenstance, it's not something that was not expected. And I want to read to you uh from the book of Ezekiel. It is probably one of my most favorite verses because it drives home the point that I was trying to make in my introduction that it's not about me. Like it never was about me. It's not about Peter, it's not about Andrew, it's not about any of the disciples, and it's not about any of the great leaders that have come within the Christian church that have preached that gospel proclamation and have seen fruit as a result. It is about him. Just as in this moment he teaches us, he guides us, he is present and ever amongst us, there's a promise in Ezekiel that is fulfilled, was fulfilled on Pentecost. And we can rely upon this. So in the book of Ezekiel, Chapter 36, verse 26, we read, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I love this verse because it is the prophecy that is part of the Pentecost, the pouring out of God's Holy Spirit on the 40th day after the resurrection. That this group of disciples is huddled and is waiting. They've been told to wait for this moment. That spirit is poured out, and then they step out. In the fullness of that call that originally Jesus had made within that Galilean ministry, they step out and it is the beginning of everything. And it's not because they were eloquent, it's not because they knew the content. It's not because they were powerful and good or whatever it was. It was because of God. It was because of his spirit. And it was because of the work that God had done by placing his spirit within them and giving them the power. I think it's it's the verse for me that I come back to time and time again when I'm faced with doubt, when I'm faced with my natural personality of self-doubt, uh, this is the verse. Uh I have uh lived this out in different places, that there are certain things that are impossible for us to do. One of the first places that I ran into that would have been my own story of addiction. Like stopping drinking, couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Have walked with hundreds of people over the years, can't do it to the point of death.

Spirit Power For Change And Freedom

SPEAKER_02 24:24

But God can do what we cannot do, and he does that through his spirit and through his people. We have an amazing, intimate connection to the power of the universe. I heard the uh the uh elementary um conversation, just heard a little snippet of the conversation that was brought out about the vastness of space, the vastness of distance. But that power, that power is what has been given to us who believe in the Holy Spirit.

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And that is the thing that has transformed the world.

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There were hands, there were feet, there were people like us who are being obedient, there are people like us who have been transformed into something new, that have a story to tell that cannot be denied. The Bible itself, from the Acts of the Apostle onward, we get to see that original stepping out of faith and that proclamation of the gospel and the power that it was able to change the world. It changed wherever it went because the Holy Spirit went with it. And the Holy Spirit, through the indwelling of his saints for his people, has transformed this world. It's transformed our lives.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

I want to read a verse from 1 Peter 2, 9 to 10.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

And I want us to just like dwell on this. Dwell on this truth, dwell on this.

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This is what Peter is saying, we are what you are, what the church is.

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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received the mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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This is who we are. This is who the church is. And it's not because we're awesome. It's not because we're strong, it's not because we are eloquent, not because we are gifted of our own ends with our own strength.

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We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession because of what he has done.

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Full stop, beginning and ending. He has done it all for us.

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And I don't know what darkness you have come from. I don't know the details of your story. I know my own story. I know that the example of today's preaching and my experience is just one of many, one of many moments of grace, of transformation, of blessedness. I know that that is how God operates, and I know that he has done that within your lives.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

And a working out of that is that I know this world needs him, and he needs his people, he needs his royal priesthood, his holy nation, to step out, to look around, to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. I know that we need to call this world to repentance. And I know that we believe in him who sends.

Stepping Into Mission And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_02 29:32

And from that belief, from that simple faith, the power of God is unleashed. So when we take a look at mission and we take a look at purpose, and we take a look at those things, those impossible tasks that lay before us, whatever that is, we are not alone.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

His spirit is ever with us. It is the hope of the nations. So I'd like to ask the band to start coming up. And I'd like to just take a moment as we're getting some music together.

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And as an example that Andrew Johnson has uh laid out for us, I'd like us to just take a moment to pray.

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And pray for.

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that you would do for him, how you can lay your life down for him. Step into the mission field, whatever that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

What does discipleship look for you in this moment? So, Father God, I just thank you. I thank you. I thank you. I thank you for your presence, Holy Spirit. I thank you for your provision. I thank you for your life. It is captured within your word, that your life and your death and your resurrection is that which we proclaim. That it has the power to transform us, to transform this world. And I thank you for this moment together. Thank you for your teaching and your guidance and your direction. In Jesus' name.