"Kingdom" Tagged Sermons
In this section of the Gospel of Mark, Christ walks on water and charges his disciples to be fearless in the face of danger. How can this lesson be applied to us in the church-age?
Mark chapter six, starting at verse 30. Mark six. Verse 30, before we, if you’re reading about the Word and it’s preaching and it’s accepting, that’s the word of blessing on those hands. God, let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we come again before you. We just wanted to hear from you. We praise you that…
Our New Testament reading. It’s nice to ease into new tunes. Our New Testament reading from Mark chapter six, we continue to look at Mark’s gospel. The panting gospel is called historically because it’s immediately and fast and fast moving, as Mark writes it. But before we hear from our text, let’s ask the Lord’s…
For the ancient Hebrew, if you were to ask them about the sea, they would say that it was a place of great chaos, dread-waters, and danger. In this section of Mark, the disciples find themselves in the middle of all that water represents in the Old Testament. Christ takes on this source of evil and rebukes it. In confronting the sea, Christ is really confronting the enemies of God and his people. He says to that great enemy of our souls, “Be still, and be silent!”
The King may appear to come in weakness and seem inept to accomplish his end, but the Bible promises that no matter how weak it may look, King Jesus will have dominion over all the earth. In the same way, he who has little now will be given more at the end.
The word of God is always effective: it accomplishes what it intends. To the faithful, it reveals the kingdom of God. To the faithless, it further obscures the kingdom. Listen carefully to Pastor Tony as he helps illuminate what mysteries this parable holds for us today regarding the manner of the kingdom.
As we think about Christ’s church, what should we expect for her trouble and state? Should we expect her to diminish as the wicked world around us prospers? The answer is in the meaning of mystery: what was once hidden is meant to be revealed. We can look back to the promise to Abraham to receive the nations as his heritage and here we are in 2024, in Fort Wayne, IN, and we gentiles have our lives hidden in Christ. God is sovereign and we can trust his promise.
Why did the Kingdom of God appear to come powerlessly? If the kingdom is here, why does it appear so powerless? Why is it that so many people reject it? Why did the religious leaders of Christ’s time reject the kingdom? If the kingdom is here, why haven’t all our enemies been over thrown. Christ’s response to these questions is simple, yet profound: the sower sows a word.
In this sermon, Pastor Tony looks at why Jesus communicated through parables, why his message seemed to come without power, and when the promised punishment would come. Jesus used parables both to reveal secrets of the kingdom to those with faith, but also to conceal his meaning from unbelievers. The sermon focuses on what the Parable of the Sower reveals about the nature and reception of God’s kingdom.
As we come to this text, we see again, that Christ’s ministry and the coming of his kingdom forces a decision. We see two groups of people. One group, the crowds, believe the claims of Christ and they want to draw closer to him–they stand on the inside of the house with him. Second, there’s a group that stands on the outside. Their determination is that he’s insane, or not just that he’s insane, but that he’s evil. These are the very same questions this text forces on us.
Is he deity? Is he delusional? Or, is he a deceiver?
Take heed how you hear this word.