Mark: Making Progress?

Are you making progress in your faith? Does Jesus agree with your assessment? Mark tells us He challenged the disciples in this area and still does today.

Mark 7:31-8:26
1 Corinthians 1:22-23
2 Timothy 3:7-9
Romans 8:22-23
2 Corinthians 5:1-2
Ephesians 6:16

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why did Jesus heal these two men differently than most?
• What was Jesus' concern for the progress of the disciples' faith?
• How is our faith?
• Are we making progress?
• Are we making the connections?
• How can we nurture our faith?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Keep Rowing and Trusting

What makes you scream like a little girl? Seeing a ghost? Facing a terrifying storm? Or something more routine like finding a mouse? Mark tells us the disciples screamed when they saw Jesus walking on the water. Where was their trust and why were their hearts hardened?

Mark 6:30-56,1:35
Matthew 6:6
John 20:29

We do not obey God properly and substantially unless we simply follow whatever He commands even though it conflicts with our ideas. God always has the best reason for His purpose, but He often hides it from us for a time so that we may learn not to be wise in ourselves but to depend entirely on His will. John Calvin

Now by going up the mountain He was seeking the possibility of praying free from all interruption. We know how easily warmth in prayer can be quenched or at least cooled by the least distractions. He wished to warn us by His example to be careful to use all the helps that will disengage our minds from the snares of the world, so that we may be carried up to heaven. The most important thing is solitude. Those who set themselves to pray with God as their only witness will be more watchful, will pour forth their hear into His bosom, will examine themselves more carefully, and, knowing that they have to do with God, will rise above themselves. John Calvin

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why did Jesus spend so much time in prayer?
• Why did He often get alone to pray?
• Why are the disciples described as having hard hearts?
• How should they have responded?
• In what ways do we respond to circumstances in life with hard hearts?
• How can we do it differently?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Mission Impossible

To the exhausted disciples feeding the large, hungry crowd surely seemed like mission impossible, but Mark says to the exhausted Jesus it was still mission compassion, providing a glimpse into the Kingdom of God.

John 6:1-15
Mark 6:30-42
Philippians 4:19
1 Corinthians 3:9,3:6
Isaiah 25:6-9

Finally, let us mark the feelings of our Lord Jesus Christ towards the people who came together to Him. We read that He "was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep without a shepherd." They were destitute of teachers. They had no guides but the blind Scribes and Pharisees. They had no spiritual food but man-made traditions. Thousands of immortal souls stood before our Lord, ignorant, helpless, and on the highroad to ruin. It touched the gracious heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was "moved with compassion toward them. He began to teach them many things."

Let us never forget that our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. High in heaven, at God's right hand, He still looks with compassion on the children of men. He still pities the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. His is still willing to "teach them many things." Special as His love is towards His own sheep who hear His voice, He still has a mighty general love toward all mankind-a love of real pity, a love of compassion. We must not overlook this. It is a poor theology which teaches that Christ cares for none except believers. There is warrant in Scripture for telling the chief of sinners, that Jesus pities them, and cares for their souls, that Jesus is willing to save them, and invites them to believe and be saved.

Let us ask ourselves, as we leave the passage, whether we know anything of the mind of Christ? Are we, like Him, tenderly concerned about the souls of the unconverted? Do we, like Him, feel deep compassion for all who are yet as sheep without a shepherd? Do we care about the impenitent and ungodly near our own doors? Do we use very means to spread the Gospel in the world? These are serious questions, and demand a serious reply. The man who cares nothing for the souls of other people is not like Jesus Christ. It may well be doubted whether he is converted himself, and knows the value of his own soul. J.C. Ryle

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Luke: An All-Out Invasion

Left-click to Listen Now
Right-click to Download

Luke 9:1-17
Romans 14:17-18
1 Corinthians 4:19-20

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA