First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

In keeping with one of Mark’s themes, the events around Palm Sunday tell us more about who Jesus Is—presenting Jesus as the King, Priest and Prophet who fulfils all three Old Testament offices to which someone could be anointed by God.

The story of Jesus giving sight to blind Bartimaeus forces us to ask how we are like that blind beggar, and whether we will leave behind our all to trust Jesus to make us whole, give us sight, and to follow Him on the way. We have to follow the same road to redemption as Bartimaeus.

Leadership continues to be an in-demand topic, with over 15,000 books on the subject in circulation today. Why then does there seem to be a dearth of good leaders? Why are so many institutions, organizations, businesses, and governments floundering? I believe it is the failure of worldly approaches to "leadership." Jesus was skilled in the art of servant leadership. And in Mark 10:32-45, Jesus unveils His masterpiece for us to see, and He teaches us how we can also master the art of being servant leaders.

In Mark 10:13-31, Jesus reveals four roadblocks that can keep us from entering God’s Kingdom, experiencing His forgiveness, and fully embracing the abundant and eternal life Jesus offers. If you think you can come to God without dealing with these roadblocks, you’ll discover that “you can’t get there from here.”

Jesus turned the debate over divorce into an explanation of the meaning of marriage. In these few versus, we discover some fundamental truths of how God made us and why He gave us marriage. If someone wants to know what Jesus taught about gender, sexuality, and marriage, Mark 10:1-12 lays it out for us!

We can struggle with following Jesus’ example of selfless service. We need to hone our knowledge and skills when it comes to being servants of God. In today’s passage, Jesus points out some weaknesses and bad habits and offers us better qualities and attitudes so we can improve our serve.

Jesus uses this encounter with a demon-possessed boy and his heartbroken father to show us that the power of God’s glory can’t stay on the mountain—we have to bring it into the world below. And this story reveals three spiritual truths we must face in life’s valleys.

Jesus' Transfiguration was both a glance backward at His pre-existent glory and a sneak peek of His future, eternal glory! But what was the point of the Transfiguration, and for allowing Peter, James, and John to witness it? The purpose was both to confirm Peter’s confession that Jesus IS the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but also to reinforce what Jesus said to them about all He would have to endure.

We’ve been “walking with Jesus through Mark,” but what does it take to walk with Jesus through life, as His followers? In Peter's confession and Jesus’ response, we learn not only what it means for Jesus to be the Christ, but what it means for us to follow Him as His disciples.

Many of us suffer from spiritual myopathy. At the very least, our vision of Jesus can be blurry and unfocused. At worst, we can be spiritually blind to the truth and reality of the God of the Bible. In this message, we will see how Jesus addresses some reasons we may fail to see Him clearly, and what we can do to overcome our spiritual blindness and see Him clearly, just as He is.

These two stories remind us that when we don’t understand what Jesus is doing, we can trust that He does all things well—both in how He receives us when we come in saving faith and how He sends us out in faithful service to others.

In this sermon, we look at Acts 6:1-7 and Ephesians 5:21-6:4 to discover from the early church servant-leaders and Paul how Jesus can empower our parenting in the 21st century.

Using the latest confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus gets right to the heart of two important issues: the supremacy of truth over tradition and true righteousness over religious ritual. In our 21st century world, we need to examine our understanding of these same two areas.

When Jesus walked on water during a storm, coming to help His disciples, they failed to recognize Him and so were afraid. This sermon helps us understand why they couldn't recognize Jesus, when the crowds on the beach could. How can we make sure we will always recognize Jesus in our lives?

Mark reminds us of the Provision of our Good Shepherd as we navigate the world around us. May we find strength, courage, and faith in our Shepherd who Provides all our needs, according to the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus!

These next three stories in Mark reveal three key ways godly parents can raise up their children and send them out ready to meet a lost and hostile world with the love and power of Jesus.

In addition to having power over danger and demons, Jesus shows in the next two miracles that He has power over disease and even death. In this sermon, we see Jesus work in a powerful, life-changing way for two daughters, and through their stories, we learn this powerful, life-changing truth: When facing troubles, we can trust God to transform us by His touch.

Jesus used miracles to demonstrate His authority and power over the natural world and the spiritual world. Think of these miracles like road signs which point us to the Kingdom’s power to deliver us from dangers both natural and demonic.

Parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning and were Jesus' favorite teaching method. Through these four parables, Jesus reveals three key truths about how God's Kingdom works in and through our lives. If you have the ears to hear, listen!

In these next few stories in Mark’s gospel, we discover that Jesus came to initiate three new realities in which His people are to live, love, and serve. Think of these as new wineskins--new ways of thinking, being, and relating to others as a community filled with the "new wine" of God's Spirit.