Who is this Man?

Good morning, Acre Grove.

It is good to be back here with you again today.

I do not have a running story for you.

That is not true.

The only thing I will say is my marathon that I was planning on running got canceled and rescheduled for today.

What are you gonna do?

Well, hey, it is good to be back here with you again this morning.

If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to turn with me to Mark chapter four.

Mark four and five is where we're gonna be spending our time today.

And before we get into anything, there are a couple things I just feel like I need to prepare you with.

Number one is this we're gonna be covering a lot of ground this morning.

We're gonna cover three different stories at a really high level.

If you know anything about the Gospel of Mark, you know that it moves very, very quickly.

Mark is often called the gospel of motion or the gospel of action because Jesus is always doing something, doing this or doing that, going from this place to that.

And so there's a lot to cover in a small amount of time.

You guys have this thing called a second service.

And so if we were to dive into these stories into great detail, that the two services would blend together.

There's just that much in there.

So all that to say, there's gonna be a lot of meat left on the bone after we're finished today.

So I would encourage you to go back and read through some of these stories to see all the truth and all the good that we don't get to cover today.

The second thing I want to say is really more of an affirmation, affirming something that you already know to be true, and some of you probably feel in a very real way this morning.

It's this life is hard.

Profound, right?

Took me four years of undergrad and three years of graduate school to come to this.

Life is hard.

I have never been more glad to close the book on a year than I was in 2025.

2025 was a really hard year for me and for my family.

Now I know lots of people say that.

You get the social media posts at the end of the year, like, oh man, this is the worst year imaginable.

2025 was a very hard year for us.

Number one, because I uh am working, I work at a growing nonprofit, and which is a great thing, but with growth comes stress.

With growth comes change and new things, and who does the stress fall on?

This guy.

On top of that, our kids are growing up and getting more and more into into uh into their sports and other activities, and so our calendar at times just felt completely out of control.

There's some strife and some stress in my family that's just sort of always around, it just sort of feels heavy.

And then on top of that, we dealt with some mental health struggles with my wife that we've never dealt with before.

And so there were many nights this past year in 2025 where I'm sitting on the couch thinking, God, is this it?

I I didn't think it was gonna go like this.

There were many nights where I'm I'm sitting alone with my thoughts and thinking, God, can you can you fix one of these things?

Just one of them?

Life is hard.

But you know, it's not just things in personal life that get hard.

There's a lot of times where things in the world get hard, where society gets really tough and out of control.

I graduated from college and got married in 2008, and so that's sort of my line of demarcation into adulthood.

And so my adult life has contained the following in our society: a 2008 market crash, the explosion of social media, all the good and bad that that brings, a decade of amplified political tension, a pandemic, an insurrection, the tearing down of trusted institutions, the end of one war and the beginning of another, and I turned 40 this year.

Yeah, it's amazing I've made it, right?

I know you feel this too.

Some of you have lived this as well.

And please understand, this is not a political statement, but it's just my entire adult life that feels like everything in our society has been chaos and strife and struggle and fighting and some really upsetting things.

And maybe some of you who are a few steps ahead of me can can help with this, but is it always like this?

I mean, is this just what being an adult is these days?

You yes, I mean, apparently it is.

It's hard, it's frustrating, it's difficult.

We're living in a world where you're we're looking around and thinking, God, I I thought I thought things were gonna be different.

Does everything have to be so heavy?

I mean, I feel like we're living in a world where everything that we grew up believing to be true is now in question.

One side says following Jesus is too soft, the other side says it's not soft enough.

And in the overwhelming moments, I find myself asking, God, are you gonna do something here?

Sometimes life is just hard.

But as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

See, I believe that one of the reasons that Mark wrote his gospel in the first place is because he was living in a day when life was hard.

We believe that this gospel was written by a man named Mark, possibly the man named John Mark, that we we read about later on in the New Testament.

John Mark was a traveling mate with Paul and Barnabas and an associate of Peter as well.

So in his travels, Mark got to see just how hard life as a follower of Jesus could be.

We believe his gospel was written somewhere in the mid-60s, and so Mark got to see the rise of the followers of Jesus and also their persecution as well.

In his time, being known as a follower was a dangerous thing.

Your business could suffer because if someone else found out that you were a Christian, they wouldn't buy from you because they didn't want to be associated with you.

In Mark's day, Christians were considered social pariahs because they didn't take part in the rituals and worship of these pagan gods.

The Romans actually thought that the Christians were the seditious ones and the pagan ones because they only believed in one God.

And after Christians were blamed for the fire of Rome in 60 AD, Christians are forced to flee because the persecution is so great.

Mark lived in a day where there were corrupt leaders at every rung of the political ladder, where there were oppressors and oppressed and not many in between.

He lived in a day where power and influence was everything.

And so religious leaders cosied up to political leaders for their power and influence.

They lived in a day where the normal people were taxed into poverty so that the rulers could build cities and towers and other monuments to their own glory.

And so I imagine there were many followers of Jesus that are looking around and saying, I thought things were going to be different.

I imagine there were many who are frustrated at what they thought they believed to be true, but yet they're looking around and saying, The kingdom of God, this looks nothing like what we had hoped for.

I imagine there were many in Mark's day questioning everything that they now put their faith in.

So Mark steps in to write this gospel with the help of the Holy Spirit and Peter's preaching to remind people this is exactly who Jesus is.

If you find yourself today feeling like, man, life is hard, if you find yourself feeling like everything you hoped for isn't coming to fruition, that you believed something else would be here, if that's where you find yourself today, I want to share three stories with you and point your focus back to Jesus to be to remind us all of who this man is, the man that we put our ultimate faith and trust in.

So story number one, Mark chapter four.

If you know anything about Mark, whenever Jesus teaches, he teaches this big crowd of people, and that's what's happening in Mark 4.

He's teaching these people, it's getting late in the evening, and so he dismisses the crowd.

The crowds start to leave, and then Jesus and the disciples get on the boat and they travel across the Sea of Galilee.

Well, as they're on their way across the sea, a giant windstorm, as the ESV tells it, a giant windstorm blows in and shakes the boat.

Waves are crashing all over.

We don't get many details regarding the size or the duration, but what we do know is this storm was so great that the disciples, these seasoned fishermen, were afraid for their lives and they went to say to wake up Jesus and say, Hey, don't you care about our predicament?

Have you ever been like on the water or around the water when one of these giant storms blows in?

It it is a it is a crazy sight to see.

Uh several years ago, my family and I were at um on vacation at the beach when one of these storms blows in, and we're in the safety of our hotel room, but we're watching out and we can't believe what we're seeing.

The winds are blowing so hard, the flagpoles are just whipping back and forth.

The rain is so loud, we have to shout to each other in our hotel room.

The waves are so high that when they crash onto the beach, they completely cover the beach area.

I remember watching this through the glass door thinking, man, this this is an amazing sight to see.

When seasoned fishermen, someone who've someone who's grown up on the water and around the boat is convinced they're gonna die, that tells you something about this storm.

And in this moment, the disciples got caught in a situation I think we've all found ourselves in.

See, they were in a storm that wasn't their fault, but also wasn't in their control.

And I think we've all been there.

In a storm that's not really our fault, but also not in our control.

For example, the market crashes, and now finances get tight and your job goes away.

The doctor's visit doesn't go like you hoped it would, and now you see a long, tough road ahead of you.

One disaster that flips your life completely upside down.

Have you been there?

I think we all have.

And I think in those moments where we're feeling dark and overwhelmed, we just are begging God, God, show up.

Wake up.

Don't you see what's going on down here?

Mark 4, verse 38.

Mark 4:38

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown?

Now pause for just one second because I find this a little mind-boggling.

How is it possible that Jesus is asleep in the middle of a storm?

And really, this is more of like a physical question than an existential question.

The only time I've ever been seasick was when I laid down in the cabin of a boat.

So this kind of boggles my mind a little bit.

But this just speaks to something that the disciples didn't fully realize just yet.

The man who was totally unbothered by their predicament is the same man that with three words can calm this raging sea.

Verse 39.

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Quiet, be still.

The wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid?

Do you still have no faith?

They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this?

Even the wind and the waves obey him.

With three words, the storm went from raging to peaceful.

With three words, the threat was gone.

With three words, the disciples learned that even though they were not in control of the situation, the man in the boat was in control.

Because the man on board with them was the incarnation of God Almighty, who created those waves in the first place.

In the middle of these storms in life that we face, I'm always encouraged and challenged by the words of Jesus from Matthew 6.

Therefore, I tell you, he says, don't be anxious about your life.

Don't worry about this.

This life, what you come to, don't be anxious.

Don't worry.

Don't spend endless nights staring at the ceiling, afraid of what tomorrow is going to bring, what you will eat, what you'll drink, about your body, what you'll put on.

Is not life more important than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sowed nor reaped nor gather in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

And the answer is, of course you are.

Of course you are.

He goes on to say, Don't worry about your outer appearance, your sh the shell.

Look at the flowers.

They're beautiful, and then they end up on the fire when they die.

You are his children.

We are his most prized possession.

Don't you think he's going to take better care of us?

Of course he will.

Because that's who he is.

Now, there may be times when you have to sweat through this storm.

Let's make no bones about that.

Storms are coming, and there may be times that you have to just endure the storm.

For whatever reason, only God and his sovereignty knows.

However, in the middle of that storm, you can rest assured that though it's terrifying, the man in the boat with us has the power over it.

The man in the boat who says, Be still to the storm, and it listens, walks with you every single day.

Because that is who he is.

Story number two.

When Jesus and his disciples get to the other side of the lake, they come to the region of the Gatarenes, or it's called the Garasenes in some translations.

The story picks up here.

Mark 5, verse 2.

Mark 5:2

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been chained to hand and foot, but tore the chains apart, broke the irons on his feet.

No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Gathering demoniac.

I've heard this story before.

There's something evil going on inside this man.

Something powerful, something dark, something evil going on inside of him.

There is a lot of theology, a study of demon possession and spiritual things to say, but I think it's enough for this morning to say this man was tormented by the evil that was inside of him.

He would cut himself with stones.

All night long, he would cry out and he would wail because he's crushed by evil.

He's lost everything.

The story said he lived among the tombs, and that's a significant detail.

For Jewish people, dead things were unclean.

And so anything that lived among dead things was also unclean and to be avoided at all costs.

So to live among the tombs meant that this man was not only a social outcast that nobody wanted anyone anything to do with, it meant that he was feared, that people actively avoided him at all cost.

He was stripped of everything.

His family, his dignity, his social standing, his personhood, everything was taken from him by this evil and dark spirit inside of him.

And then lo and behold, one day, getting out of the boat on the shoreline, here comes the light of the world.

Now let's pause here for just a moment because I want to just affirm something.

There is evil in this world, and it takes many forms: rampant evil, rampant sin.

We are living in a world where our spiritual enemy has infected every corner of our society.

About 20 years ago, as a dumb college kid, me and some friends of mine were on a road trip, and we pulled over in this little town and we saw a shop that advertised itself as a store of wicked and witchcraft.

So four Bible college students were like, we've never seen this before.

Let's let's take a look.

I at that time thought, this is this is this is dumb.

Like, this is nothing.

This is all made-up stuff.

There's nothing here.

It's just a bunch of rocks and powder and stuff.

Like it's it's nothing.

I walked in and my mind was changed immediately.

I I can't really describe the atmosphere of this store other than to say there was a heaviness in the air.

It was like my heart and my soul recognized something there that my eyes could not see.

It's a hard feeling to put into words, but you know when you're in the presence of pure evil.

And so we stayed about a minute and then left.

We got back in the car, back on the road, and I think we sat in silence for about 30 minutes because we all just experienced the same thing.

There is evil in this world.

In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Friends, our enemy is trying to destroy you.

The enemy is here to steal your faith, to harden your hearts, to tempt you into sin and to ruin your life.

Our enemy is actively working to do everything he can to corrupt you, to take your eyes off of Jesus.

Our enemy is trying to get you to believe that the words of this world and society and the government and political leaders and social media influencers and anybody else you listen to, it's trying to get you to believe that their words are more important than the words of Jesus.

And in a moment of vulnerability, I have to tell you, at times I feel really overwhelmed by it.

I feel really crushed by what I see going on in our world today.

I uh I've actually been off of Facebook since 2016 because I can't stand what social media has become.

Lying, fighting, AI, algorithms that are intentionally meant to deceive you.

I gave it up when I stopped recognizing people I thought I knew.

I can't watch much of the news today because I don't know what to trust, honestly.

And I feel like so much of what I hear is meant to get me angry and hate someone else, and my heart can't manage that.

If I'm being honest, I am overwhelmed at times by the anger and the hate and the immorality and the justification of unethical behavior.

I am crushed by war and violence and death, and I'm I'm so irritated that it feels like evil is on the rise, accepted and winning.

But look at what happens in the story when the man approaches Jesus.

5-6.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.

He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

In God's name, do not torture me.

For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you impure spirit.

When Jesus shows up, evil falls on his face.

Evil recognized Jesus for who he was.

He knew exactly when he stepped out of the boat who Jesus was, and evil cannot stand up against the light of the world.

When Jesus comes, he comes with the authority of a king and the power of God Almighty.

And we have this promise that there is coming a day when evil will be dealt with once and for all, when all will be made right and good again.

Until that day comes, you focus on the light, you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and you faithfully do the work that God has put in front of you to do.

Work hard, pray hard, work for the things of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of men.

Hold on to your faith because we serve a king that when that king shows up, evil falls on its face.

That's who he is.

That is exactly who he is.

Story number three.

After Jesus casts out the evil spirit from this man, he goes back to his family and the town comes out and they beg Jesus to leave.

Please take your disciples in your boat and get out of here.

Now, truthfully, I think that's kind of a strange response to what they just saw happen.

However, we did skip the section where Jesus cast these evil spirits into pigs, and the pigs run down the shore and they drown.

If I walked out of my house on a Monday morning and saw a herd of pigs run down the hill and drown themselves, I would probably respond strangely as well.

So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this particular thing.

So the disciples they get back in the boat, they go back across the sea, and there is the crowd waiting for Jesus again.

This time in the crown, there is a crowd, there's a man named Jairus waiting, who Mark describes as a synagogue ruler.

Now, this is an interesting detail because a synagogue ruler was a Jewish leader in charge of many.

Of the inner workings of the temple.

So he was a man of honor, a man of respect and status, not a man that's going to come to Jesus asking for help, especially considering the fact that the Jewish ruling officials and Jesus have been at odds with each other from the very beginning.

But this man was desperate.

His daughter was sick.

And he was going to do anything he could to get her well.

And I understand that.

I've got three kids that are almost 13, 10, and 7, and they have my whole heart.

I would move heaven and earth if one of them was sick.

That's what Jairus does.

He comes, and when he gets to Jesus, he falls down on his face and says, My daughter is sick, please help her.

Here's this man of prominence and power at the feet of Jesus.

He lays down his pride, his dignity, his prejudice, and says, Please help.

So Jesus sees his earnestness and has compassion on him and says, Hey, lead the way, and I'll follow.

So we're going to skip a section here, but the section we're going to skip is a story of when Jesus heals the woman who's been bleeding for 12 years.

This is a story of a woman who is suffering.

Jesus saw her life, and her life mattered to him, and so he healed her.

With the touch of his robe, he healed this woman of her suffering because her life mattered to him.

So that story happens, and then they're on the road to Jairus' house when a messenger comes with the worst news imaginable.

You're too late.

Daughter is gone.

Leave the teacher be.

How devastated must Jairus have been in that moment?

He had done everything he could.

He laid down everything he held on to and said, please help, but it was too late.

What kind of turmoil must he have been feeling and carrying that moment?

Jesus sees all this and says, Hey, just believe.

Show me the way and just believe.

So they continue on.

And when they get to Jairus' home, it is everything you think it's going to be.

People crowded around, mourning, crying, weeping, burdened, just broke in this broken scene.

So Jesus comes in.

Chapter 5, verse 40 begins like this.

After he put them all out, so he sends everyone out of the room.

He took the child's father and mother and disciples who were with him, and they went where the child was.

He took her by the hand and said to her, Khalitha Kum, which means, little girl, I say to you, get up.

Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around.

She was twelve years old.

At this, they were completely astonished.

He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat.

This man has the power over life and death itself.

And this little girl's life mattered to Jesus.

And so he breathed new life into her.

What a testament to his heart.

What a testament to his compassion.

What a testament to the power that this man holds because that's who he is.

Today we have the hope that though these imperfect bodies will pass away, these temporary bodies will give way to an eternal life that is waiting for us.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, death lost his power because death used to be the final enemy.

But now, because of Jesus, death is just a doorway from one life to another.

And in the new life, Revelation says all the worst things of this world will be gone.

The crying, sickness, pain, darkness, sadness, all those things are gone, and the new has come.

That's who this man is.

Now I want to zoom out for just a second and see how Mark stacks these three stories on top of each other.

In story number one, we see that Jesus is in total control over the forces of this world.

The things that we see, the disasters we find ourselves in the middle of, the storms, he is in total and complete control of them.

And while you may have to sweat it out, someone with power is with you.

Story number two shows us that there are forces that are outside of our control, but they're totally in his control.

The supernatural things, they answer to Jesus.

And while we still have an enemy that will continue to ruin people's lives and wreak havoc and lead astray, when Jesus shows up, evil falls on its knees.

Story number three shows us that additionally, Jesus has power over life itself, which is the ultimate power.

He has the power to heal a broken woman, the power to breathe new life into a dead girl.

So Mark is communicating here that's who this man is.

Do you see that?

That's who this man is.

We've been called to put our faith in the one who has power over this world, power over things we can't see, and power over things that over life itself.

That's the message for today.

Life is hard.

But Jesus is greater.

Life is hard, period.

Jesus is greater exclamation point.

When you find yourself in a storm, when the forces of this world feel that they're crushing down on you, don't worry.

Because the one who has the power over the raging sea walks with you every single day.

When you feel overwhelmed by the evil in this world, be reminded that that evil answers to someone.

And while it may have its day, and maybe that day is today, when God says enough, evil falls to its knees.

Evil's days are numbered.

Be reminded that we worship the one who has power over life itself.

Over life itself, and life matters to him.

Not just this life, but life after life.

That's who this man is.

May this challenge you.

May it comfort you.

May this be the anchor that you need on whatever road you find yourself on.

Let me pray for us.

Father God, I am so so humbled by you, by the opportunity to be here.

So just talk about who you are.

I'm so thankful that while we are weak, you are strong.

I'm so thankful that you are with us in everything we encounter.

I'm so thankful that you are the one that we can call on whenever life feels too much.

God, thanks for being our strength.

Thanks for being our comfort.

Thanks for being the one who is enough.

Thanks for holding us in the palm of your hand.

Most of all, thank you for your son.

In his name we pray all these things.

Amen.