Senior Pastor
What began with a joyful procession into Jerusalem became a dark day for Israel. Jesus was rejected by the Jewish leaders. His visit to the temple was the last straw—what should have been a place of prayer had become a place of extortion. Jesus visually declared his judgment on the nation by cursing a fig tree, that, like Israel, should have been fruitful, but remained fruitless and barren.
In this passage in Mark, Jesus heals Bartimaeus. What traits did Bartimaeus demonstrate that all of us should imitate?
All of us want to live lives of significance. We want our lives to count. We want to be somebody! The problem is that our culture tends to shape the kind of somebody we want to become. In Sunday’s message, we see the disciples being influenced by the values of their culture. They wanted to be great. They wanted positions of power in Jesus’ kingdom. To reframe their vision of greatness, Jesus directs them to the cross.
A rich young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life. Knowing that the man’s god is his wealth, Jesus challenges him to give his wealth away and follow him. But because the man loves his wealth too much to do as Jesus asks, he goes away sad. This Sunday we talk about the root of this man’s problem, about his false assumptions about Jesus, his wealth, and the route to eternal life.
Faith in Jesus’ sacrifice guarantees our entrance into heaven, but how does God deal with those who are too young to exercise saving faith or those who are mentally infirm and can’t distinguish good from evil? Pastor Doug uses Sunday’s passage to explore this dilemma.
Divorce and remarriage: opinions flourish around this subject but what does the Bible say? In this message, Pastor Doug surveys the biblical teaching on divorce and remarriage and answers the common questions Christians ask.
The disciples encounter someone who is attempting to cast out a demonic spirit in Jesus’ name. They try to stop him because he didn’t belong to their little group. Jesus took this opportunity to teach three lessons: 1. We should have a more accepting ecumenical spirit towards other believers. 2. No sin should be so cherished that it keeps us from God. 3. We should avoid actions that could cause a brother or sister in Christ to stumble in their faith.
True greatness is not measured by how many people answer to you, but rather by your willingness to serve others–especially those whom our society devalues. In this passage, Jesus teaches us what true greatness looks like. It’s not what many people think!
Mountain-top experiences are great, but they are not the norm. Jesus and his disciples return from their transfiguration experience to discover their fellow disciples unsuccessfully trying to deliver a demonized boy whose father brought for healing. Why were they unsuccessful? For the same reason we often are. They tried to do God’s work in their own power. From this passage we learn a lot about how to access God’s presence and power.
Here Mark records the transfiguration of Jesus. This event is a powerful revelation of Jesus’ divine identity and his centrality to God’s salvation plans.
