Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Have A Purpose | New Testament | Mark 1

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Do you have an "it is what it is" attitude? Does your life feel dull and stale? Do you feel like you're not moving forward? In today's episode, Patrick shares some good news from Mark 1: your life has a purpose. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 1

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. There's a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that he probably didn't say, but it still has the ring of truth. Preach the gospel and when necessary, use words. Today we're starting into the gospel of Mark, and we're going to see some of the words that Jesus preached, but we're also going to see some of his actions. You see, Jesus did use words. He built his ministry by traveling around. Galilee and Judea announcing that God's kingdom was arriving on earth as it is in heaven. But he didn't always use words to preach the gospel. In Mark 1, verses 16 to 34, Jesus follows

up his kingdom announcement with actions. It's no accident that Mark puts three stories side by side because each story illustrates what happens when God's kingdom comes to earth. Let's pick up in verse 16 with our first story. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once, they left their nets and followed him. Then Jesus calls James and John in a very similar way. What does this first story show us in actions?

Well, when the kingdom of God comes, it gives us a mission and a purpose in our lives. One thing we've lost in the 21st century is the idea of cosmic purpose. When you evict God from reality, you evict God from reality, you have to be a mission. evict transcendent purposes and meanings, as Richard Dawkins puts it. There is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference. We are machines for propagating DNA. It's a startling statement, isn't it? But it's honest. If God is dead, then everything is permitted. If God is dead, then no purpose is ultimate. We're simply globs of atoms selfishly bustling to reproduce ourselves by the impersonal rules of natural selection.

In fact, to call that a purpose is to anthropomorphize it, it just is what it is. Do you have a, it just is what it is vibe to your life? You go to work, it just is what it is. Maybe you get married or you stay single, well, it just is what it is. I wonder, if Peter and Andrew, James and John, if they were asked that very morning what they thought about fishing every day, what would they say? Maybe it just is what it is. Do you feel a sense of dull, empty, vacuous, purposelessness in your life?

I want you to know this. You were made for so much more. And Jesus wanted James and John and Peter and Andrew to know that exact same thing. They were made for so much more. When God's kingdom comes on earth as in heaven, purpose erupts into your life with volcanic power because you are suddenly connected with the super pressurized molten power just beneath the surface of reality. God himself. Jesus looks at those fishermen and his actions say to them,

your life is not, it just is what it is. The world is charged. with purpose and I, Jesus, have a purpose for you. Follow me. You were made to follow Jesus, to apprentice yourself to his character, his way of speech and acting, his way of seeing others, seeing you, seeing the world, his way of defining good and evil, his pattern of prayer, trusting God, community with others, service and care for those in need and those who are hurting. You were called to his lifestyle of hard work and excellence and productivity, loyalty, and commitment. Put differently, Jesus is offering us, you and me,

and education and how to live fully human lives by modeling ourselves after him the most fully alive human who ever lived life can be so much more than it just is what it is god has a purpose for you that will give your life meeting weight direction and value that purpose is to follow jesus let's do a quick recap remember jesus is showing the gospel in this passage he's showing what happens when god's kingdom comes to earth and the first story he says when God's kingdom comes to earth, people get a purpose. Let's go to the next one. Mark 1, verse 23. Then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are,

the holy one of God. Be quiet, said Jesus sternly. Come out of him. The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. Jesus confronts the powers of darkness. This was controversial in his day, not because people doubted the reality of spiritual darkness. That's a modern phenomenon, which creates its own cultural pathologies. No, this was controversial because the Pharisees, the zealots, and the most average people all knew the real problem. It's not the demons, it's the Gentiles. Specifically, the Roman occupiers who ruled over them by the edge of the sword. They had good reason for this assessment. Jews had lived under foreign domination for almost 580 years with only a brief and disappointing respite. Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many of the most

popular books at the time spoke about the fall of those powers. And so every Jew thought they knew the truth. When God's kingdom comes to earth, the kingdoms of the world will fall. But when Jesus came as a king announcing a kingdom, he staged his war against something far deeper and far darker than the physical Roman empire and its predecessors. He staged a war against the spiritual forces of darkness behind every Rome. He staged a war against the power of sin that infects the hearts and cultures of every Rome. And in this story, he shows that he can actually do it by setting Israelites free from those demonic powers. Jesus is marching around Israel like David, defeating Israel's true enemy. Do you know that your true enemy isn't a politician? It isn't someone in the other tribe?

No, it's the malevolent powers of sin and darkness infecting our world with hatred, pride, and selfishness, idolatry, impurity, and rebellion against God's ways. Okay, so again, recap, the first way Jesus shows the gospel is that when God's kingdom comes to earth, people get a cosmic purpose. But the second way he shows the gospel is that when God's kingdom comes to earth, he defeats our true enemies, the powers of darkness, sin, and death. The third thing he does is he heals. So, Mark 129. As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up.

The fever left her, and she began to wait on them. So after this, we learned that crowds begin to gather outside of the house and Jesus begins to heal more people. You see, when God's kingdom comes to earth, it brings healing holistically. Jesus heals our bodies, our minds, and our emotions. He heals communities. He heals families. He heals workplaces. Where do you see hurt, sickness, division and hatred in our world. Jesus doesn't wage war on it. He heals it. He makes it whole. All these stories show us what happened in the past, but they're telling us that these things can happen in the present and that they will fully happen in the future when Jesus returns. But here's what I want you to take away from this passage. When God's kingdom comes, you get a purpose.

The powers of darkness are defeated, and everything that is wrong is healed.