Josh Rivera: Good evening everyone.
Josh Rivera: I'd like to begin first introducing myself for those who may not know me.
Josh Rivera: My name is Josh Rivera and my wife, carol Nye Carol's a beautiful young lady in the red leather jacket in the back have been members here for almost a year now and I'm absolutely honored to share the word of God with you all tonight.
Josh Rivera: But I'm also quite ironically, given what we're going to speak about tonight absolutely terrified.
Josh Rivera: So help me, if you can.
Josh Rivera: Every couple of minutes, just smile, let me see your teeth, and it'll set me at ease.
Josh Rivera: So, if you will, turn your Bibles with me to Mark, chapter 4.
Josh Rivera: Mark, chapter 4, and let's begin in verse 35.
Josh Rivera: Mark 4, 35.
Josh Rivera: I'll read up until the end of the chapter.
Josh Rivera: It says On that day, when evening had come, he told them let's cross over to the other side of the sea.
Josh Rivera: So they left the crowd and took him along.
Josh Rivera: Since he was in the boat and other boats were with him, a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.
Josh Rivera: He was in the stern sleeping on the cushion, and so they woke him and said to him Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?
Josh Rivera: He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the sea Silence be still.
Josh Rivera: The wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Josh Rivera: And then he said to them why are you afraid?
Josh Rivera: Do you still have no faith?
Josh Rivera: And they were terrified and asked one another who then is this?
Josh Rivera: Even the wind and the sea obey him.
Josh Rivera: And if you will turn with me to Mark, chapter eight, verse 27.
Josh Rivera: And I'll read to verse 30.
Josh Rivera: Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea of Philippi and on the road he asked his disciples who do people say that I am?
Josh Rivera: And they answered him.
Josh Rivera: I'd like to begin with a series of questions that we'll revisit at the very end and as I ask these questions now, I'd ask that they kind of stay in your mind as we make our way through the book of Mark, and I'll give some examples as to what I mean.
Josh Rivera: As I ask these questions based on what I'm feeling at this exact moment, why does fear often feel more real than faith?
Josh Rivera: Why do our minds naturally focus on the worst case scenarios rather than trusting in the best possible outcome?
Josh Rivera: Why is it that my mind right now can only think about the fact that my notes may or may not fall from here and I may suffer an embarrassment.
Josh Rivera: That's the truth.
Josh Rivera: Why do we trust fear so easily but struggle to trust God?
Josh Rivera: As much as I can repeat to myself in my mind right now trust God, trust God, trust God.
Josh Rivera: My hands don't stop being clammy and my heart doesn't stop beating at 200 beats per minute.
Josh Rivera: Now imagine this.
Josh Rivera: I ask that you use your imagination, although it's a realistic scenario.
Josh Rivera: You wake up very early in the morning, before the sun rises, and you're very careful not to make a sound.
Josh Rivera: The streets of your neighborhood are quiet, as they normally are at this time, but with the quiet comes danger.
Josh Rivera: Danger lurks at every corner.
Josh Rivera: Now you clutch a very worn out Bible, small enough to be able to hide but powerful enough to cost you your life.
Josh Rivera: You begin a treacherous walk that in reality only takes you a few minutes, but in your mind it feels like several hours.
Josh Rivera: And you're not walking up to a grand church building with a wonderful greeting team waiting for you at the door or padded pews to comfort you during the worship service.
Josh Rivera: No, you gather in secret in a darkened basement with only a few other believers and you whisper hymns because singing too loudly can mean that you'll be executed before the sun sets.
Josh Rivera: Every knock at the door sends shivers down your spine.
Josh Rivera: Is it a friend or is it the enemy?
Josh Rivera: Every second that you're in that basement, you're making a deliberate choice.
Josh Rivera: Do you let fear control you and leave, or do you trust in God, who has called you to stand firm where you are Now?
Josh Rivera: This is the reality for many Afghan Christians today, persecuted in their country, and that is the reality that they have to live in.
Josh Rivera: They live in a world where faith is not just a belief, but it's a risk.
Josh Rivera: And yet, despite the fear, they choose faith.
Josh Rivera: Despite all the fear, they choose faith.
Josh Rivera: In the Gospel of Mark, jesus constantly asks his disciples why are you afraid?
Josh Rivera: Where is your faith Now?
Josh Rivera: We may not face a Taliban in this country, but we face storms of fear in our own lives.
Josh Rivera: You may fear the future or you may fear the past.
Josh Rivera: You may fear failure, fear rejection.
Josh Rivera: In every single one of these moments, jesus asks us the same question he asked his disciples in Mark 4.40.
Josh Rivera: Why are you afraid?
Josh Rivera: Do you still not have faith?
Josh Rivera: This gospel is technically anonymous, but early Christian tradition has firmly asserted that John.
Josh Rivera: Mark was a first century Christian often associated with Peter, and Paul composed this narrative in conjunction with Peter's memories.
Josh Rivera: It's been, through a lot of analysis of bible studies, seen that a lot of the order of events that he tells here are very similar to how peter relates his order of events.
Josh Rivera: We'll see that in the rest of the new testament.
Josh Rivera: Perhaps this was written between 50, the years 50 and 60 ad, as during this time peter and mark would have been alive to most surely have had opportunities to collaborate.
Josh Rivera: We don't know this for sure, but there seems to be quite a bit of common acceptance towards many Bible scholars.
Josh Rivera: Not much is known about Mark's personal life, but he's quite infamously known for causing a rift between Paul and Barnabas.
Josh Rivera: If you remember, in Acts 15, we discovered that Paul no longer wanted to travel with Mark because Mark had deserted them on a mission trip.
Josh Rivera: Now, eventually, it seems like they were able to patch things up.
Josh Rivera: As Paul speaks about Mark quite favorably in Colossians and then in 2 Timothy he says very specifically that Mark is useful for him in the ministry.
Josh Rivera: It seems like they were able to patch things up, which is always good to know, but sometimes other than the fact that he wrote a gospel.
Josh Rivera: He's quite infamously known for that rift that he caused.
Josh Rivera: Mark never explicitly states who he was writing to in his letter, but based on a couple of second century theologians named Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria, it was most likely written in Rome and this makes sense when you consider the fast-paced nature of the letter.
Josh Rivera: We only cover 16 chapters of this gospel narrative, much shorter than the other three gospel narratives and even much shorter than the two synoptic gospel narratives.
Josh Rivera: It's hard to miss, as you read your way through the book, the repetitive use of the word immediately.
Josh Rivera: You see it from the first chapter till the end and it appears in the original language approximately 41 times in the entire gospel.
Josh Rivera: Now, to put this into context, you only see the word immediately about 10 times in the rest of the New Testament.
Josh Rivera: So quite a heavy use of this particular word.
Josh Rivera: But it serves, and it kind of becomes a hallmark of Mark's expedited narrative style.
Josh Rivera: He's serving to emphasize an urgent tone.
Josh Rivera: He has a sense of urgency as he's writing to his intended audience.
Josh Rivera: Now we see a lot of major themes throughout the book, but the primary thing that we see in this gospel is Jesus portrayed as a servant king that we see in this gospel is Jesus portrayed as a servant king.
Josh Rivera: Although his gospel is very concise because it's so concise and expedited there's a few main themes that are hard to miss.
Josh Rivera: He leaves a lot of details that, for example, we'd see in Luke, especially when it comes to geography and historical context.
Josh Rivera: He hammers home a couple main themes through the entire book, and mark 10, 45, chapter 10, verse 45, offers perhaps the key text in the entire gospel, and I'll read it for you and it for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Josh Rivera: Mark portrays Jesus as the savior who came to serve and give his life as a ransom, and throughout the gospel we also see Jesus do the following things amongst many.
Josh Rivera: He demonstrates his divine authority through his teachings and miracles.
Josh Rivera: We'll see that.
Josh Rivera: We'll see him reveal the hidden yet powerful nature of God's kingdom through his parables and teachings, especially compared to a human, earthly kingdom.
Josh Rivera: We also see him predict his death multiple times, showing that the path to glory comes through suffering, and we also see him prove his victory over sin and death at the very end of the gospel narrative.
Josh Rivera: Now, although Jesus is the sole protagonist of this letter, his story cannot be told in isolation.
Josh Rivera: Throughout the entire book we frequently see the disciples, his followers, who are always accompanying him and through whom he uses to teach valuable lessons on discipleship, but also failure, redemption and spiritual responsibility.
Josh Rivera: The disciples provide us with perhaps the most important question that Mark aims to address in this letter, and hopefully we'll be able to answer that question too at the end and we find this in Mark 4, 41, and we read it at the beginning, and this is a question by the disciples when they say who then is this Speaking of Jesus?
Josh Rivera: Of course, who then is this?
Josh Rivera: Even the wind and the sea obey him.
Josh Rivera: Now I sincerely hope that, as we briefly look into the treasures of the word of God found in this gospel narrative, that the themes of fear and faith can pierce our hearts and minds to genuinely attempt to answer this question for ourselves.
Josh Rivera: Who then is Jesus?
Josh Rivera: Whereas Matthew, luke and John seem to kind of eat us, ease us, ease us, the readers into the narrative, a mark immediately bombards us from the first chapter.
Josh Rivera: He he does not play it easy with us to readers.
Josh Rivera: In the first chapter, he bombards us and portrays Jesus in many different manners.
Josh Rivera: He doesn't just portray Jesus as a teacher and a healer, but also which may seem kind of heavy for a first chapter of a gospel narrative an exorcist.
Josh Rivera: Jesus drives out an unclean spirit from a man and we see this instance of fear maybe the first instance of fear in this gospel and amazement in the disciples when he does this, and they respond and they say what is this?
Josh Rivera: A new teaching?
Josh Rivera: With authority, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.
Josh Rivera: Now they said these words with a lot more fear and amazement in their voice.
Josh Rivera: So try to picture that.
Josh Rivera: But from the first chapter, mark makes it very clear and reveals to us Jesus' authority, and we'll see that authority throughout the entire gospel narrative.
Josh Rivera: But he leaves it very clear from the beginning and, as would happen based on the things that Jesus was doing, news about Jesus spread all over the land and it wasn't long before Jesus couldn't enter a town openly.
Josh Rivera: That's actually how our version says it.
Josh Rivera: He couldn't enter a town openly as people from all over flocked to be near him with different reasons, some perhaps out of need, some out of curiosity, some perhaps out of fear, some out of amazement, or some perhaps out of need, some out of curiosity, some perhaps out of fear, some out of amazement, or some perhaps out of doubt.
Josh Rivera: But everyone flocked to be near him.
Josh Rivera: And as quickly as we're presented with Jesus' authority, we begin to see that authority being questioned and challenged and eventually rejected.
Josh Rivera: The fact that Jesus not only healed but also forgave the sins of a paralytic man, or the fact that he sat and ate with tax collectors and did things that, particularly within the scribes or the minds of the scribes and the Pharisees didn't sit well, the fact that he did all these things we see produces a reaction in people.
Josh Rivera: His teachings begin to evoke different reactions, and not just his teachings but also the things that he's doing.
Josh Rivera: His miracles produce different types of reactions towards all different people around him.
Josh Rivera: We see his own family, for example, react by becoming suspicious and thinking that he had gone insane.
Josh Rivera: His own family that was their reaction.
Josh Rivera: His friends, the disciples and followers were encouraged to follow him.
Josh Rivera: That was their reaction.
Josh Rivera: The community, the people, galilee and everywhere that he traveled, they chased after him in just amazement, maybe not quite comprehending what they were looking at, but they just knew that they had to see it.
Josh Rivera: But the leaders, the Jewish leaders, their reaction was to oppose him and to reject his teachings.
Josh Rivera: And so, as we continue, in the following chapters, a series of terrifyingly magnificent events occur.
Josh Rivera: First, jesus calms a raging, a raging storm of waves and of wind, which exposes the disciples' fear and lack of faith.
Josh Rivera: But in all honesty, it probably would have exposed our fear and lack of faith as well, given the circumstances.
Josh Rivera: But immediately after this, jesus' mere presence, just the fact that he was in the vicinity of this man filled with many demons, causes the demons inside of this man to go crazy.
Josh Rivera: And he cast the demons out and the demons began to beg to Jesus to be sent to pigs.
Josh Rivera: Calming a raging storm and having demons beg to him Terrifyingly magnificent, but seemingly without a moment of rest, as Mark doesn't give us throughout this gospel.
Josh Rivera: Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd of people, and among them we have a synagogue leader named Jairus, and he comes and he pleads to Jesus to rescue his young daughter who's on the verge of dying, and Jesus agrees.
Josh Rivera: But as Jesus is walking with Jairus towards this young lady and trying to get through this crowd of people, everybody just chasing after him and trying to navigate this crowd.
Josh Rivera: A suffering woman plagued with uncontrollable and incurable bleeding for 12 years touches Jesus and she's immediately healed.
Josh Rivera: Now we're going from one thing after another.
Josh Rivera: These are not regular things that we see every day, not even every month, not even every year.
Josh Rivera: It may seem normal to us because we perhaps you have read through these narratives or you've heard these stories so many times, but if you were reading this for the first time, just back to back, it would take you a while to move from verse to verse, just to understand the magnitude of what's really going on.
Josh Rivera: And you ask yourself well, who is this Jesus?
Josh Rivera: Is he actually doing these things?
Josh Rivera: Is this actually real?
Josh Rivera: Because they're so magnificent, but they also inspire fear.
Josh Rivera: That is a lot of power for a man to have, and so the faith of this bleeding woman immediately caused Jesus to realize and he noticed this immediately that power had gone out of him.
Josh Rivera: He wasn't, you know, kind of oblivious to the fact that a miracle had just happened.
Josh Rivera: He knew it immediately.
Josh Rivera: And as the reader we might look at this, we might want to celebrate with this lady, right, twelve years of just anguish and pain.
Josh Rivera: But Mark doesn't even let us celebrate for too long, because we quickly find out that where he was en route to to heal this young lady, this young girl, jairus' daughter.
Josh Rivera: Well, it turns out now she's died.
Josh Rivera: When the story began she was about to die, but now she's died.
Josh Rivera: So we can't even celebrate for too long because we're dealt just tragic news.
Josh Rivera: And Jesus shows up, but he's laughed at and he's mocked.
Josh Rivera: But the laughter on these people's faces soon turns into astonishment when, at the command of his voice, the young girl immediately gets up and begins to walk.
Josh Rivera: Who, then, is this Jesus?
Josh Rivera: Who is this man?
Josh Rivera: Fear cripples, who is this man?
Josh Rivera: Fear cripples, but faith moves people toward Jesus for healing and restoration.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 6, jesus walks on water while the disciples struggle in the boat, but their fear blinds them to his presence, they confuse him for a ghost and they're left absolutely terrified, and people all over are witnessing things happen that they've never seen happen before.
Josh Rivera: But the people in his hometown these are the people that have seen him grow up for 30 years.
Josh Rivera: Having witnessed Jesus grow up and evolve from a bright young man into a powerful, now leader of people, instead of acting in faith and following him, perhaps because they themselves were afraid and terrified at what they were witnessing.
Josh Rivera: They rejected his authority.
Josh Rivera: They rejected his divine authority.
Josh Rivera: To the people of Galilee, jesus now seemed like an unknown, and we humans tend to fear the unknown.
Josh Rivera: And although he was progressively making it known who he really was, they weren't understanding it yet.
Josh Rivera: And that unknown, that fear of what he can do and what is he going to do next, caused him to react and reject him.
Josh Rivera: For 30 years, the members of his community most likely only thought of him as Jesus the carpenter, jesus the son of Joseph and Mary, maybe that one kid that got lost one time.
Josh Rivera: But now he was Jesus the healer.
Josh Rivera: Now he was Jesus the teacher, jesus the teacher.
Josh Rivera: Now he was Jesus the commander of winds and the sea, jesus the commander of life and death and Jesus the forgiver of sins.
Josh Rivera: But this proved to be too much for his community and he was rejected.
Josh Rivera: And their loss became others' gain, because this caused Jesus to send his disciples out on a mission and he fills them with this power and grants them supernatural authority to preach so that people repent of their sins and turn to him as their savior.
Josh Rivera: But even as Jesus sent them on this mission, as he sent the disciples on this mission, they were still struggling to truly figure out who he was.
Josh Rivera: They hadn't understood it yet.
Josh Rivera: They were obeying him out of faith, but they hadn't quite understood who he was.
Josh Rivera: And this leads us to the turning point of Mark's gospel, which is Peter's confession.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 8, 29, we see as Jesus asked his disciples to give an evaluation of who they thought he was, and their answer was very revealing.
Josh Rivera: Peter immediately answered, speaking for the group, you are the Messiah.
Josh Rivera: And he was absolutely correct Jesus is the Messiah.
Josh Rivera: But their understanding of the Messiah was badly distorted.
Josh Rivera: It was very calming in Jewish culture at the time and had become very widely accepted that the Messiah would be a political military deliverer.
Josh Rivera: That had become the prevailing thought amongst those awaiting the Messiah would be a political military deliverer.
Josh Rivera: That had become the prevailing thought amongst those awaiting the Messiah.
Josh Rivera: But that's not who Jesus was, and the disciples were still struggling to come to terms with that, and so Jesus had to repeatedly remind his followers about the need for him to suffer and, ultimately, the need for him to die, and death scares everyone.
Josh Rivera: Now the conflict that had been brewing due to the Jewish authorities' rejection of Jesus' divine power is only escalated when Jesus returns back to Jerusalem and his return to Jerusalem marks the start of the conclusion of his earthly ministry.
Josh Rivera: Because, after he triumphantly enters the city, he zealously goes into the temple, he overturns the tables and he kicks out the money changers.
Josh Rivera: And this demonstration of supreme authority was too much for the chief priests and for the scribes and they made up their minds.
Josh Rivera: They said this man, jesus, has to be killed.
Josh Rivera: There's nothing else that we can do.
Josh Rivera: How did they come to this judgment?
Josh Rivera: What led them to decide to kill Jesus?
Josh Rivera: Fear.
Josh Rivera: They were simply afraid of Jesus, and they attempted to challenge and confront Jesus, to perhaps expose him to be a fraud or catch him contradicting himself, but they were simply unable to do so.
Josh Rivera: Who, then, is this Jesus?
Josh Rivera: We can't trap him.
Josh Rivera: We can't get him to mess up.
Josh Rivera: His teachings on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem were no doubt extremely challenging and perhaps a bit puzzling to understand, but despite all this, jesus' final teachings were clear His followers had to beware deception and they were to be prepared for his return.
Josh Rivera: And they were to be prepared for his return.
Josh Rivera: Now this engaging and dynamic letter reaches its climax in its final chapters.
Josh Rivera: As Jesus' final days loom, mark's account of the Lord's Supper repeatedly emphasizes the fact that it was during Passover, its Passover setting.
Josh Rivera: But soon after the Passover, jesus is betrayed by Judas.
Josh Rivera: But soon after the Passover, jesus is betrayed by Judas and Jesus, faced with the threat of losing his life, responds with prayer.
Josh Rivera: Now Mark shows us a very real and human Jesus who was, I quote, deeply distressed and troubled, falling on the ground over and over in anguished prayer.
Josh Rivera: But despite his faith being tested, he emerged reaffirming his faith in God.
Josh Rivera: But he's put on trial and ultimately sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Josh Rivera: But before he dies, he cries out.
Josh Rivera: And he cries out my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Josh Rivera: And there was a man witnessing the grotesque manner of Jesus' death, a Roman centurion in charge of the execution, who moved in that moment, hearing Jesus' cry from fear to faith.
Josh Rivera: And he provides us an affirmative answer to our primary question of who then, is Jesus?
Josh Rivera: The centurion says, truly, this man was the Son of God.
Josh Rivera: Early Sunday morning, women went to go and visit Jesus' tomb to anoint his body with spices, as was customary, but they received the greatest news Jesus had risen and he was in that tomb.
Josh Rivera: And they ran away from the tomb because trembling and astonishment had overwhelmed them Jesus, the son of God, was and is victorious over death.
Josh Rivera: Fear is deeply rooted in our brain's survival mechanism.
Josh Rivera: This instinct can cause us to run, confront or shut down when we perceive a threat.
Josh Rivera: Our brain is wired to react to danger with a survival response, but this can also cause us to panic or act irrationally.
Josh Rivera: Now God calls us to trust in His protection instead of reacting out in fear.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 4, when the disciples panicked in the storm, jesus was at peace.
Josh Rivera: Faith teaches us that God is in control even when we feel out of control.
Josh Rivera: The fear of the unknown is one of the most common and powerful fears that we can experience, and when we don't know what's ahead, our brains tend to assume the worst.
Josh Rivera: Fear thrives in uncertainty, because the unknown makes us anxious.
Josh Rivera: God calls us to trust him even when we don't know what's ahead.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 5, the woman with the issue of blood had suffered for 12 years, uncertain if she would ever be healed.
Josh Rivera: But despite her fear of rejection, as Jesus could have done, she reached out to Jesus in faith and was healed.
Josh Rivera: Faith moved her and moves us forward despite uncertainty.
Josh Rivera: Fear is often magnified by negative thinking patterns.
Josh Rivera: I'll give you some examples.
Josh Rivera: There's something called catastrophizing.
Josh Rivera: This is when you tell yourself this will end horribly.
Josh Rivera: Or black and white thinking, which is when you say if I fail once, I'm a total failure, there's no in between.
Josh Rivera: Or overgeneralization, which is when you say this bad thing happened before, so it will always happen this way.
Josh Rivera: But God calls us to take every thought captive and align it with his truth.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 6, the disciples saw Jesus and thought he was a ghost.
Josh Rivera: Fear had distorted their perception, but Jesus told them take courage, it is.
Josh Rivera: I don't be afraid.
Josh Rivera: Fear can lie to us, but faith helps us see clearly.
Josh Rivera: Fear often arises when we feel like we're losing control of a situation, and we fear when we feel out of control when in reality, we were never meant to be in control.
Josh Rivera: In Mark 14, jesus and his humanity felt distressed before the cross, but he prayed and he said not my will, but yours be done.
Josh Rivera: Even Jesus surrendered his fear to the father.
Josh Rivera: So I'll conclude answering the questions that I asked at the beginning.
Josh Rivera: Conclude answering the questions that I asked at the beginning.
Josh Rivera: Why does fear often feel more real than faith?
Josh Rivera: Well, perhaps these are my thoughts.
Josh Rivera: Fear feels more real than faith because it appeals to our natural fallen instincts and our reliance on physical senses rather than the spiritual truth.
Josh Rivera: Senses rather than the spiritual truth.
Josh Rivera: Fear feels more real because it appears to our nature, but faith becomes stronger when we shift our focus from our circumstances to Christ.
Josh Rivera: Why do our minds naturally focus on worst-case scenarios rather than trusting in the best possible outcome?
Josh Rivera: Well, perhaps it's because the human mind is wired for self-preservation, but sin has distorted this into a pattern of just worry and doubt, over and over and over again.
Josh Rivera: Our sinful nature assumes the worst because we want control.
Josh Rivera: But faith calls us to trust in God's perfect plan rather than our fearful imaginations.
Josh Rivera: And lastly, why do we trust fear so easily but struggle to trust God?
Josh Rivera: Well, the truth is that fear is immediate and it plays on our emotions, while faith requires trust in God's unseen work.
Josh Rivera: Fear is easier to trust because it appeals to our emotions, but faith is strengthened when we listen to God more than our fears.
Josh Rivera: In the gospel, according to Mark, jesus constantly calls us to replace fear with faith.
Josh Rivera: Fear is natural, but faith is a choice.
Josh Rivera: It's a choice to trust Jesus, the suffering servant of the Lord, despite the storms and difficulties of life.
Josh Rivera: Thank you.