Mark 16:1-20 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Adam Mesa

Well, if you have your Bible, turn to Mark chapter sixteen.

If you've been with us at all during this year,

we've kind of on top of a few worship nights

and some other things, we've been plugging away over the

past twelve months through the Book of Mark, and here

we are find ourselves finishing.

Today the entire chapter of Mark.

I won't be able to do every single verse, but

we will pull out a lot of the things that

you may have not known before. If you read the

Book of Mark on your own, probably about half of

it is self explanatory, and then the other half is

kind of what we're going to dig in to tonight.

How many of you guys have ever surprised.

Someone with like a gift?

You ever given like a really good surprise before to

someone and you held it in and it was something

very thoughtful, something that was very orchestrated, And you know

I did that, And I'll tell on Christmas kind of

the same story too, because it connects with the Christmas

message as well. But a couple months ago I had

planned starting around in January, this year hit ten years

since I had proposed to my wife, and so we

had nine year anniversary this year. Next year, we'll celebrate

ten years together married. And so I had an idea, Yeah,

that's something to celebrate and excited about. And so I

had planned essentially ten years ago. When I proposed to her.

It started a series of kind of unfortunate events. I'd

love to say we had the best engagement season ever,

but we did it. A lot of stuff happened in

our personal family life, a lot of like I lost

to groom's been. It was just like it was really

messy and it wasn't really a fun time. And so

anytime we would kind of think about our wedding season,

it was always filled with but also do you remember,

and it would bring up a couple of those bad things.

And so I had kind of fixed my head knowing

that I would make it to a decade.

I had great faith.

So I said, if I make it to a decade

with my wife, I'm gonna repropose because I'm gonna try

to give her the wedding she deserves, not in terms

of niceness, but in terms of just exciting and no

drama at all, even though sometimes we can't escape that.

So I started in January planning for this proposal, and

in October. Ten months later, I had proposed to Ashley again,

and I happened to do it in Mexico, and I

told her, in twelve months, I've already booked this location.

We're getting married at the same exact spot that I'm

proposing to you right now in twelve months, like I've

already put the deposit down, I've already done all the arrangements.

I've already done. And so that was my surprise.

And so ten months I worked on this surprise, and

there was a couple times that I almost thought it

would give away and she would catch it. At first,

she says she didn't want to do a val renewal,

and then about ninety days before I had this plan,

she started saying, I think we should plan a vow renewal.

And I was like, no, we're not, No, no vow

renelk because I didn't want to get ahead of it

and have to tell her. But because I've already done it,

I've already done all the planning. So for me, the

longest I've gone planning a surprise is at this point.

It happened this year. About ten months is how long

I held a secret for I held a surprise, And

did you know in Jesus's earthly ministry he held a

surprise for thirty three years. You see, he gave hints

of his surprise at his birth. And we'll see in

just a moment that there were tell signs. One of

the tell signs that my wife thought that I was

going to repropose is because about a month before I

have a friend who's in the jewelry business, and I said, he.

Offered to clean her ring for her.

And at one day she goes, hey, do you think

that he's not cleaning it? And he's like doing something

to it? And I was like, no, that'd be impossible.

He couldn't do that.

So there were tell signs to her that was like

she was putting together like I think you're working on something.

Ultimately she did it. And here's what happens for the

disciples of Jesus. Mark sixteen gives us away that there

were tell signs that God has given us from the

Old Testament to Jesus's birth, to Jesus's death, of Jesus's message.

But guess what, even in those moments, Jesus's disciples still

didn't put together fulling what Jesus came to do at

Mark sixteen is the culmination of Jesus's engagement surprise. It's

Jesus's surprise that said, Hey, my death, burial and resurrection

was so that you can be in perfect relationship with

God the Father. Everyone thought Jesus was coming and he

was gonna wear at the time an earthly crown, and

he was gonna kick all the worldly leaders off of

their thrones, and Jesus was going to rule in power

and might physically.

But in order for Jesus to do.

That, first he needs to own the heavenly places, the

kingdom of heaven. And then we still look for the

day that Jesus will return and set up his earthly kingdom.

And so I want you to see for a moment,

if you have your Bible, if you like taking notes,

we're gonna do that together with because we're going to

talk a little bit about and more than anything, as

we conclude this entire book study, like we've shared, next

week we.

Have a family movie night.

The week after that is our Tuesday Christmas Eve service,

Then the week after that is Tuesday New Year's Eve service,

and then the Wednesday after that we will launch.

Into the Book of Joshua.

And so we'll spend twelve months in the Old Testament

next year, and we'll spend majority of Wednesdays in the

Book of Joshua. And there's so much richness in the

Book of Joshua that I promise you, like if you

can make Wednesday nights part of your routine even online,

you want to do that for the Book of Joshua.

But in this case, we find ourselves landing a plane

on the Book of Mark, and I want you to

see some things as you take notes or you follow along.

There's some important things to note that we're going to

start writing on within our Bible. So because we come

to Wednesday Night and we do this, if you're new,

our Wednesday night's really here to interact with our Bible,

to learn how to study the Bible, to.

Learn how to readtext.

Sundays are kind of more sermon with notes and points

and all these type of things like that. Today we're

gonna learn the scripture as we dig into. So here's

what it says. At first, This is the first portion.

If you're looking at a scripture, when the Sabbath was passed,

Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James and Salem bought

spices so that they may go and annoint him. Speaking

of Jesus, they believe he's in the tone at this point,

and very early on the first day of the week,

when the sun had risen, they went to the tune.

Here's what I want you guys to notice right away.

If you like taking notes, we just lost it.

There we go.

Okay, Well, if you guys want to take notes, can

I get a slide up on the screen.

Or let's see there we go.

Okay, So if you're taking notes, I want you to

see this. I want you to see what hobby works.

And it says when Sabbath was passed. Here's what I

want you to notice. Does anyone know what day is

the Sabbath? Saturday? There we go. We already got some

Bible scholars in the room, and so this day is

after Saturday. So what day comes after Saturday? Sunday? So

here they approached Jesus on a Sunday. So it was

the day Mary and the three people they come and

they approach Jesus.

We'll start over right here. They approach Jesus.

And if you interact with your Bible circle after the Sabbath,

and so you're gonna put right here here we are

on Sunday. This stuff's important to note because what happens

is they come, the three individuals Mary, Mary, and Salom

come and what do they come with? They come with

spices that they bought. Does anyone know what spice is?

They would have shown up with. More than likely they

would have shown up with either frankincense or and both

or and mrr. Does anyone remember when a time Frank

and Sense and Mr Is mentioned in the Bible at

Jesus's birth, Frank and Sense and Mr. Frank and Sense

specifically was used in ceremonial worship. It's what they would

dangle in ceremonial worship, and they would burn.

In the synagogue.

And so these gifts, the gold that Jesus has given,

which we've seen in a few weeks, represents Jesus's kingdom,

that he's a king. And then the frankincense represents this

fact that Jesus is worthy to be worshiped.

And then the murr is generally what was used in.

Ceremonial worship or ceremonial burial. Because the bodies began to

smell when someone died, and.

So you would use this to cover up the smell.

And so what happens is they show up with one

of the gifts that Jesus was given at his birth.

So thirty three years surprise.

To come out and say, I was given muhr at

my birth and you're gonna use muhr at my death.

And this happens on a Sunday.

And so what happens is they approach Jesus so that

they could anoint him and prepare him. Here's what's important,

and here's what should build your faith. It claims even

more than that none of these things.

Are surprises to God.

If God sends the wise men to give these three

gifts at Jesus's birth, and Jesus is showing up here

and he's using this at his death through these individuals,

it means there are no surprises for God, which means

in your own life there are no surprises to God.

If he takes this level of care and detail to

his son's birth and his son's death, then guess what

he is utilizing care and detail in your own life.

And we take hope and joy that this is the reality.

And so what happens is and very early on on

the first day of week, when the sun had risen,

they went to the tomb. Okay, I want you to

see the next Let's read the next verse. Here's what

it says, so we know what day it is now

and are we able to go to the next next

slide or is it frozen? Is frozen? We got some

technical details today. It's always the day that you want

to use something the most, like have you ever noticed that?

It's like I haven't used this thing in like six weeks,

and then it's like the day we want to use it.

It's not there. Okay, here it is up on the top.

And when they were saying to one another, who will

roll away the stone for us? From the entrance of

the tomb and looking up, they saw that a very

large stone had been rolled back, and then let's go

to the next one. And entering the tomb, they saw

a young man sitting on the right side dressed in

a white robe, and they were alarmed.

I want you to see this for just a moment.

What happens is and I'll just I guess I'll just

use the frozen one to mark up really quick. If

you're taking notes, is so, what happens is Jesus raises

on us. I don't know if you've ever been asked

before that someone has asked you, is how come you,

as Christians go to church on a Sunday instead of

a Friday when that's when Sabbath is or instead of

a Saturday, which some people are on Saturday when the

Sabbath is.

Well, the reality is is because.

We as believers, we celebrate Jesus's resurrection, not his death.

So we go to.

Church on Sunday because that celebrates the day. We already

read it it was after the Sabbath, and so we

read that we go to church to celebrate Jesus's resurrection.

Many people have died on crosses, but on one has

died on a cross in rows three days later, and

so we go to church on Sunday to celebrate that

Jesus has risen. So every Sunday is what you could

call resurrection Sunday. And so you also notice what happens

is is Jesus from basically about noon to three pm

on Friday is when he's on the cross, and when

he passed at three pm on Friday, at that time,

the sun hadn't set in the Jewish Faith, their days

don't operate like our days, basically from midnight to midnight.

In the Jewish Faith, even.

Still to this day, their days operate from sun up

to sundown's that's twenty four hours from them. So when

the sun goes up to when the sun goes down,

that's twenty four hours. So on Friday, when Jesus passes

away at three pm, we would call that technically our Thursday,

that would be the Thursday. And so then what happens

is on Saturday. So you have Friday, Saturday. Jesus raises

on Sunday morning. That's how you get three days. Because

you may read your Bible and you may be like, wait,

if he passed away on this day, that's technically two days,

that's not three full days. It is if you use

their type of way that they tell time. And so

what happens is we find that Jesus has risen on

a Sunday, and we find that in this moment they

were saying to one another, who will roll away the

stone for us from the entrance of the tomb, and

looking up they saw that the stone had already been.

Rolled back, for it was very large. So now we immediately.

See what happens is is some type of miracle has happened.

Because they've expected to anoint Jesus's body.

They've also expected.

Here we are on a Sunday, it's been three days

since Jesus has passed, and they come and this stole

the stone is rolled away, and now we find Jesus.

And they were saying to one another, or are we

able to go to the next verse, or can we

just go to the next verse on the on the

screen we're gonna And entering the tomb, they saw young

men sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe,

and they were alarmed.

You go to the next one. Do not be alarmed.

You see Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has

risen and he is not here see the place where

they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter

that he's going before you to Galilee.

There you will see just as he told you.

And they were trembling, and astonishment had seized them, and

they said nothing to anyone, so they were afraid. Then

what happens for a few verses is Jesus starts to

make appearances to people to show them he was risen,

And if you're following along in your Bible, I want

you to see verse fourteen.

Here's what happens.

It says afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves, and

they were reclining at the table, and he rebuilt them

for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had

not believed those who saw him after he had risen,

and he had said to them, I want you to

pause right there. So here's what happens. For the disciples.

They spent three years of ministry with Jesus. They've walked

with Jesus. They've heard Jesus preach, they heard Jesus heal people.

They've heard Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount, they've

seen Jesus walk on water.

They've heard Jesus talk about the resurrection.

So what happens is these individuals come to them, the

ones who've seen Jesus eyewitness Mary Magdalency, and they go to.

The disciples they say, hey, we've seen Jesus. He's risen.

And their response wasn't Yes, this is what he's been

talking about, this is what he's been preaching out, this

is what we've been anticipating no. Instead, they respond with

skepticism and say, if I don't see him, if I

have been seeing them, then I don't believe it. And

these are individuals who've walked with Jesus, these are individuals

who've heard Jesus's message. These are individuals who've rested and

given great faith, and they still don't believe, even so

much so that the other gospels tell us that Peter

picked up his old occupation.

And went back to fishing.

And we look at that and we go, man, these

disciples they're wild. They don't trust Jesus like that, they

don't love Jesus like that, they don't have faith in

Jesus like that. But it mirrors our own relationship with Jesus,

the amount of skepticism we.

Have on a regular basis.

If God can do something, we look at the care

that God has placed in humanity. In his story of

Jesus's birth, we see that God has been involved in all.

Of our lives. And yet, time after time.

When God wants to show up, we always not always,

but there are times that we always respond to Jesus.

With skepticism, not faith.

And so in this message, as we see how the

disciples reacted. We're meant to also see ourselves in that

to say, where are times in my life that I've met.

Jesus with skepticism.

Show me first, Jesus, show me your hands, show me

the scars, Show me that you care, show me that

you answer prayers, show me that you love me, show

me that you care about us.

We signed up for three years.

To walk with you, Jesus, and it's just it's over

like that, and we all go back to our old

ways just like that.

But how many times have you and I done that?

How many times have we Jesus to come and then

we find ourselves back in our old ways, find ourselves

back in our old habits.

Well, because Jesus.

Didn't match my timeline, because Jesus didn't match my needs,

he needs to do a better job at proving himself.

It was when I was growing up and still to

this day, the family comes to our church and both

of their sons want one lives up out of state

in Washington, but Brandon Landrum, he still comes here at

the church. And so I grew up with a family

called the Landrums, and their whole family still serves on

our security team and Mow and Winn he still serving.

They lived right across the street from us.

And there was a time where the game cube, the

Nintendo GameCube, was blowing up. I don't know if anyone's

old enough, either as a parent, grandparent, or just a

millennial that you remember the Nintendo GameCube. That thing was

so popular, That thing was so hard to get your

hands on.

Everybody wanted this thing.

One day, my mom was checking out in a at

Toys Rus of all places you all remember, you remember

Jesus's play palace called Toys r Us, you guys remember,

And so my mom's checking out at Toys r Russ.

She sees a member of the church and a member

of Trip's like, hey, pastor Cindy, and you know what

do you do. Oh, I'm doing Christmas shopping for the boys.

And she's like, oh that's great. And she's like, oh

what what did you find everything you needed?

She said, oh, yeah I did. But on their Christmas

list was this.

Thing called the game something something or another. And she said, oh,

is it the GameCube? And and she said yeah. She said, oh, well,

we have a riffle for it, but I can misplace

one if you if you want it.

And shoot, favor ain't fair. So my mom my mom

was like, yeah, well, I mean if it won't.

Get you in trouble, yeah, sure. So sure enough, on

Christmas Day, we open up the GameCube, me and my

brother Caleb. Nathan was too cool for video games back then.

He played the flute or the violin or something something

nerds play, so he's a he's not interesting.

But me and Caleb we freak out and we're so excited.

So we take it up to our bedroom and then

all of a sudden, we hear Mo and we hear

Brandon playing outside basketball.

Because we all shared back, like, they had a basketball.

Court on their side of the street and we had

one on ours, and you can basically play full court

between our two houses. So we hear them playing basketball,

and we're like, hey, we should tell them we have

a GameCube and then we should invite them over. So

we yell out and we're like, hey, Mo, Brandon, we

got a GameCube come Christmas. Immediately they're salty because they

don't know that we're gonna invite them over, so they're like.

What, how'd you get it? How'd you a mom got it?

We just like and so they're taking it in as

we're rubbing it in, like they're like, we don't believe

you that.

You got the GameCube. And we're like, it's plugged in.

We can't take don't you hear?

Like, so we're pulling the volume up right, we're restarting

the system and it makes a little GameCube sound and

all that kind of stuff, and they're like that.

Could be anything, you know. We're like, it is.

And then and then they're like, they're like, prove it.

And so I bring the box, the GameCube box downstairs,

and I give it to them, and then they and

then they and then they too because we're talking. You know, kids,

we just do weird things. So instead of talking at

the front door, I ran back up to our bedroom

to talk from the window from where they were at again,

so I hand them the box and I run back upstairs,

and the next thing you know, I see Brandon and

Mo they're stepping on the box.

They're like, you don't have no.

This is fake, this is a lie, and they're stepping

on the GameCube. And then we go fine and we

close the door and we shut it and they never

got to play the game cue.

We didn't invite them over.

They we we tried, We tried to provide every proof

possible outside of them just physically coming up and playing

it themselves. But every single proof we gave them the

sound of the game being played, We gave them an

eyewitness account, Hey, we were playing it right now, We

gave them the package that it came in, like, hey,

this was the game. And because they didn't get the

glory of seeing it first, they didn't personally get it first.

Instead, they responded in complete.

Doubt and complete skepticism. And the Disciples are met with

this same moment with Jesus. Well, if he was resurrected,

I think he would probably show me first. Me and

Jesus had a great relationship. Or if he was resurrected,

why didn't he just come here first? Why why did

he choose walking with people on the side of a street,

or why did he choose you marry and what were

you guys doing?

And all these things.

But the reality was everyone else had gone back to

their occupations, and there were only three people that actually

cared enough about Jesus's body to take care of it

even though he was dead. And so they cared about

Jesus even in the assumption that he was still dead,

they still followed him, they still loved him. In a

dormant three day period of seventy two hours, everybody else

that followed Jesus just went back to everything else. But

three people said, Hey, he may be dead in this moment,

but we can still care for him, we can still

love it. We may not be able to hear him

right now, we may not be able to see him

right now, but we could at least appreciate him for

what he's already done. And they're the ones who see

him because their faith was great, their care for Jesus

was great. But what happens is he sees the disciples

face to face, and in that moment, they're still struggling.

They've seen eyewitness accounts, they've heard the great things that

has happened that Jesus said would happen. Jesus is in

the temple the week of his death, and he says

that this place is going to be torn down and

it's gonna be risen in three days, speaking of his

own body. And guess what, when Jesus is dead, the

whole veil in the temple gets torn down between humanity

and God's never able to be restored again. There's all

these signs, there's all these moments pointing to hey, when

are you gonna choose to follow him?

What are you gonna choose to believe him?

And then here Jesus is face to face to the disciples,

and one of them being Thomas Ghost.

First, show me the scars.

Anyone could look like Jesus like, what are you talking about? Bro?

What do you mean?

Anyone could look like Jesus. Jesus had nails in his hand.

Show me the scars, and then maybe I'll start believing.

And that's often where we find ourselves in our faith,

that as God gives reassurance after reassurance after reassurance, we're like,

show us the next thing. Oh, I hear the game cube,

but I want I wanna show me the box. Oh

I see the box now, Okay, I want to play it. Well,

I've played it, But how come I don't have one now?

And we're always measuring God off of all of these

dues and all of these things and all of these expectations.

And here's Jesus's response. I want you to see what

Jesus says. Jesus makes a call to them, and he

rebukes them for their unbelief. He's disappointed that the fact

that they didn't believe. And then what happens is he

starts to give them a decree, and he says, go

into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the

whole creation.

Whoever believes and.

Is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe

will be condemned. And so what happens in that moment

that we could pause, as Jesus makes.

It very clear at this time.

And so we see that as Jesus walked the earth

in his thirty three years, but particularly his three years

of ministry, there was this continued kind of open invitation

to say, hey, come and see, come and experience, Come

and receive the Kingdom of God, Come and follow the

son of Man, believe in the Son of God. And

there was a lot of those conversations. Same way with

my friends playing basketball outside, say hey, we were just

about to be like, hey, come and play with us.

It's the only thing missing.

All we were all me and Caleb were looking for

us for them to be like, that's aught celebrate with

us of what we were blessed with, of what we

saw and then come and enjoy it with us. So

Jesus is at a moment now where he tells the

disciples go in the world and preach the gospel. Tell

them about the great news that the Son of Man

is here. But also make it known that if they

reject me in front of Man, I will reject them

in front of my father. So now he gets like

really sober, because before all of this it was the

Kingdom of Heaven's at hand. Follow me, be part of

my mission, priests the gospel. Now he's telling the disciples,

I've done everything I need to do to prove who

I am.

Now it's time to make a decision. Now you got

to let people know that salvation is here.

Jesus was preaching about the potential of salvation being in

his death and resurrection.

But now he did exactly what he.

Set out to do, and he fulfilled the surprise from

his birth that anticipated the king would come. And guess

what the King came because he holds all authority on

heaven and earth. And it wasn't the way that the

disciples thought it was going to be done, but it

was the way that you.

And I needed.

So that two thousand years later we could receive Jesus

and be welcomed into.

The Kingdom of Heaven. And so he says, let them

know that when you.

Hear the gospel, there's a decision that has to be made.

And then he says this, after he said, if they

don't receive, they may be condemned. And he says, all

these signs will accompany those who believe in my name.

They will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues.

They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if

they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.

They will lay their hands on the sick and they

will recover. And so Jesus shares what happens is is

during this time as you preach the gospel.

What this is.

Those were modern day things that were very common fears

for someone that was a messenger of a particular weighty message.

It's like, oh, what if someone tries to murder me? What? What?

What if?

What if I'm outside and I'm in the wilderness and

all the snakes and animals and come and threaten me.

He and so Jesus starts to make this degree. What

what about what if I don't know the words that

I need to say. I don't know if you've ever

thought that before. I've been in conversation with someone and

I'd be like, I'd no idea what to say right now.

Either they share with me something that's absolutely humanly heartbreaking,

I'm like, I don't know what to say to that,

Or they say something that they found on YouTube from

someone and they're like, what about that.

I'm like, I don't know. That is such a niche

question that you're asking.

From Second Chronicles, chapter two, Versus three to four, I.

Don't know that. And so what Jesus is doing.

Because you're like, I don't remember the last time I

held a serpent as a Christian. I don't remember the

last time someone tried to poison me. And you're like,

I don't how can I relate as a believer. That's

not just what Jesus was talking about. What Jesus was

talking about is these fears that if I step out

and I share the message of Jesus, will God meet

me at the place of sharing who Jesus is and

Jesus at their time takes everything that.

A person would do.

To check off and be like I'm not I'm not

gonna be on the team, like, hey, hey, Jesus, I

was on the team, but I have a fear of snakes,

and so uh, in order you know, in order to

travel and talk about you, like I gotta I gotta,

I gotta stay in a tent and I don't do tents,

and so because that's the animals can get in.

There, or Jesus, I I don't.

I don't know that I could rely because you know

how these jealous people are. When they're jealous of you,

they like they'll poison your drink and try to kill you,

or they'll go on social media and they'll talk about you,

you know, or or or or or you'll lose relationships

or you'll be heard in the process or whatever it

may be. And so what Jesus says is he says,

when you're talking about me, have boldness, that the Holy

Spirit's gonna give you words, new tongues.

He says, have boldness that a serpent.

May try to kill you at night, but he's just

gonna pick it up in your hand and be like

this is nothing, and he's gonna protect you in the

night time. Or what happens is if someone tries to

poison you, it's not gonna affect you. And he's not

just talking about poison of drink. He's talking about poison

up words. He's talking about poison up gossip. He's talking

about poison of fear. He's talking about a poison of

a DM. He's talking about a poison of a Thanksgiving

party that you might have just had.

And whatever is.

He's saying, if you're moving on the Lord's behalf and

you've said yes to the Lord, can't.

Say anything about anything else. But if you've said.

Yes to the message of Jesus and living this thing out,

he said, what happens is I'm gonna bring about protection

with you.

You don't have to worry about that.

And so therefore what he's trying to do for the

disciples is not only trying to create boldness for them.

He's trying to create boldness to.

Those that they would share the gospel with, to say,

you know what, God is on your side. And then

Jesus closes, as I begin to close, I had a

lot of interaction on the screen plan, but we all

did that with our head tonight is what we did.

So it says this in verse nineteen. So then the

Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken

up to heaven and sat down at the right hand

of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while

the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by

accompanying signs. So for those next, what would happen is Jesus,

after he would resurrect for forty days, he would spend

time with his disciples, and he would be preparing them

for the task at hand. And you'll notice when we

read he appeared to eleven disciples, not twelve, because Judas

he had already turned on Jesus. He had hung himself

because of the grief that he had had. And so

now Jesus he approaches to the eleven and he tells them,

go and be bold about preaching my message, and don't

fear any earthly or humanly thing that can hurt you

or harm you. And then he says, and then what's

gonna happen is in that moment he sends, and we

ask ourselves, where's Jesus now? He's where he was the

day he ascended. He sits at the right hand of

the Father. Other verses in the New Testament tell Us

that he intercedes for you like he knows your name.

And as you face this life on earth, Jesus goes

for you to the Father on your behalf. And so

you have the Holy Spirit working inside of you. You

have Jesus, who's right next to the Father, speaking on

your behalf. And then you have the Father who's orchestrating everything,

saying I got them, I'm under control. Everything is under

God's control. Every season, every place, every platform, every leader,

every nation, every city, every continent is under the hand

of God and under the authority of Jesus. And when

Jesus goes to the right hand of the Father, what

does he teak tell us to do. He says, go

therefore and preach the gospel. He doesn't say go out

and be a good person. He doesn't say go out

and give good vibes. He doesn't say, hey, go give

great gifts.

He doesn't say.

Find the least fortunate person and help them out during Christmas.

Those are expressions of the goodness of God. But what

he says is he says, preach the message. Preach the

gospel that he died and rose again. Preach the message

God orchestrated for thirty three years, but also since the

creation of humanity, that Jesus would be born and die

and raise again. If there's any story God wants you

and I to tell regularly, it's that one and how

that one has affected your life and changed your life.

That's what he wants you and I to do.

I enjoy talking about a lot of other things, but

he doesn't care about us talking about any of the

other things.

Talking about sports.

I enjoy talking about business, I enjoy talking about politics.

But God is not in heaven like, yeah, yeah, Adam,

tell him.

Tell him your theory about what's going on in the

world right now in this country. He's like, He's like,

that's all he's completely aware of. He's like, Adam, I

want you to tell the story again about what Jesus did.

God the Father wants.

To hear his son's story told over and over and

over because every person is going to receive that story

in their life differently, over and over and over again.

So he doesn't get tired with that story.

He doesn't get tired with the gospel since he's given

it to the disciples.

It's the only thing you and I can still repeat.

That was one of the last things that Jesus had

commanded his church to do, which is that Jesus's ministry

is real. The miracles he has done is real. The

message he has set out to fulfill has been completed.

And anyone who's looking for life, and anyone that's looking

for hope, call upon his name. Don't stop on God's word,

don't stop on God's worship, don't put out on prayer,

and be like Jesus. You're not meeting my prayers, you're

not meeting my needs.

The reality is.

Jesus is with you everywhere that you go, and the

Holy Spirit is there to enable you everywhere that you go.

And Jesus.

That book closes in Mark chapter sixteen with Jesus giving

you and I command.

To priest the gospel to baptize people.

And then when he gave that, he said, I'm out,

and he went to heaven.

And what he did was he put that authority.

In mine, in your hands, and he says, the Holy

Spirit will work with you.

But now it's in your hands.

So God wants you and I to participate in that message.

And so you and I have an opportunity to first

step to participation.

As I close is first to.

Do as Jesus said that, as you hear the gospel

and the hope of Jesus is the good news, So

would you respond in saying, yes, Lord, I choose to

follow you.

Would you believe that gospel.

Whether you're skeptic today or whether you've been questioning or wondering,

the reality is is Jesus is real, His salvation is real,

and what he did is real. He died on the

cross and he rose three days later. So, as the

Holy Spirit speaks to you tonight, whether you're online or

you're in this room, I encourage you that if you

don't know Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior,

and you've never given your faith to him, today, that

right now is the moment to make a choice. You know,

I shared about on Sunday this past Sunday that everybody

has a birthday, but not everybody has a second birthday.

In the Book of.

Revelation, it's recorded that the person who would say yes

to Jesus Christ and follow him, it's written in a

book called the Lamb's Book of Life. And one day

you'll stand before God and you're name will be opened

in that book and it will either be confirmed on

the date that you made Jesus your Lord and savior

as a second birth, or the person will say the

angel will say, their name's not recorded here. And that's

what Jesus told his disciples. There will be a day

that a person will be condemned. In other words, they'll

be rejected, not because God wants to reject them, but

because they rejected Jesus.

And if you reject.

Jesus, you can't all of sudden find yourself in the

bedroom playing the Nintendo and going, Jesus, this is all

I needed. I just needed to see the GameCube myself.

It's too late at that point. God wants faith because

if it wasn't faith, and he had to bring you

to heaven to show you he made the decision for you.

At that point, there's no way you're not gonna see

heaven and see God's goodness. But faith will recognize the

fact that you recognize that you needed a savior, you

needed Jesus. That's what faith is. I didn't tell my wife,

will you marry me? I promise, well, I'll never cheat

on you, I'll never have a dorse. And the way

that I'm gonna prove it is I'm gonna lock myself

in a jail cell for seventy years and never talk

to another woman.

That wouldn't be.

Faith, that would be forced separation, to never be able

to make that mistake. And so, in other words, when

you get married, you're taking a step of faith. When

you make vows, that's a step of faith. There's no

way you can assure that other than you saying, take

this journey with me. And so when we say yes

to Jesus, it's this moment of marriage that says, Jesus,

I'm ready to take that faith journey with you.

I'm ready to rock with you. I'm ready.

I'm ready to commit my life to you in this moment.

And then throughout our life we begin to reveal as

the Holy Spirit gives you strength.

You don't walk into the.

Relationship with Jesus a perfect person. You walk into the

relationship with Jesus as a broken person that allows God

to put you back together. So as we give our

life to Jesus Christ for recognizing how much we need

his grace, how much we need that salvation. And so

if you're here in this room or you're watching online,

when we all bow our heads and close our eyes, is.

There's gonna be some people in here who are gonna

be saying this prayer for the first time.

They're gonna be rededicating their life.

It's the best decision we could ever make in our

life when we say this prayer. This prayer is not

the thing that saves you. All we're doing is affirming

the good work that God has already done.

So, if you're in this place, would you join me

in saying this today?

Would you say, dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I

confess you as Lord and Savior.

I repent of my sins.

Now I believe in my heart that Jesus rose from

the dead, and from this day forward I commit to

follow you for the rest of my days.

In Jesus's name, Amen,