Well we finished 1 Peter last week and it was a powerful book of exhortation, encouragement and self-examination. So I expected to go right into 2 Peter as it would make sense to do so, but as I began that study, I just didn’t sense this is where we need to go. I believe the Holy Spirit is leading us to the Gospel of Mark. There are only two books we haven’t studied in the New Testament, which are the two gospels of Mark and Luke. As God has placed it on my heart this year to go outside of our comfort zones, I also feel a sense of urgency. The book of Mark shows us how Jesus went from place to place and this gospel moves quickly from encounter to encounter. Unlike the other gospels, Mark’s gospel doesn’t spend a lot of time on each encounter, but rather shows Jesus as on the move doing the Father’s will. In David Guzik’s commentary, he says this regarding this gospel: “The Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as the Servant of God, as a Workman of God. For this reason, the Gospel of Mark is a “busy” book. In this Gospel, Jesus seems the busiest, moving from one event to another quickly. One of the key words in the Gospel is immediately, occurring more than 40 times in Mark. We see Jesus as a servant busy meeting needs and busy being God’s Messiah. In the Gospel of Mark, the emphasis is on the deeds of Jesus more than on the words of Jesus. “The Gospel of Mark pictures Christ in action. There is a minimum of discourse and a maximum of deed.” Obviously the words of Jesus are the most important for us to grasp, but seeing how Jesus moved among the people is something that I believe we need to look at as we begin our mission in this community. So may the Lord give us what we need to go forth in preparation for that call.

We move from the shepherds and those who are mature in their faith, to the younger ones who are still growing in their faith. They are to come in submission to the elders or those who are spiritually mature so they too can mature in their own faith. Now when we talk about submission, we first look to the elders and make sure they are not lording over the younger ones, but submitting to God first, then to one another. We need to set an example of humility, so pride doesn’t come in and bring division.

We have two groups of people and neither are at peace, because they are either living in a sense of self-reliance, or a place of being constantly bombarded with a wave of despair. We as believers say we have the answer that will address both groups but in all honesty, we have failed at getting this answer to the world. The church is fractured and compromised. We have been so focused on ourselves and separating ourselves from the world and even those other believers who don’t align themselves to our way of doing things or our distinctives. We have become so determined to remain safely within our own group that we have forgotten our primary objective.

This now leads us to the leadership of the church. We have the exhortation for the body, but in order for the body to move forward in this charge, the leadership has to lead. This is where we pick up in 1 Peter chapter 5.

He didn’t tell us that when you get your life together, I will come for you, He came knowing that we are broken and cannot fix ourselves. So when we come together to celebrate, it’s not just tradition, but it is a joyful time of remembrance, when God came down to us to give us the only gift that matters. The gift of life for all who would believe. If you don’t know Jesus, I encourage you this evening to consider this wonderful gift that is presented to you. It’s yours for the taking if you receive it by faith. This is not an intellectual choice. This is a spiritual choice because God is Spirit and truth.

We come to an interesting verse in 1 Peter 4:17-19 that causes us to look inward both personally and corporately regarding the church as the bride of Christ. Keeping this in context, Peter reminded us to be alert and diligent regarding our faith. Separating ourselves from those who try to bring us back into the ways of the old man and still be the light in the darkness. As the church we cannot be effective if we haven’t examined ourselves to first know who God is and what He expects from us. So as the suffering of the saints of God increases for believers, Peter brings us to this place.

We will see what faith over fear looks like.

In some circles, suffering is all from Satan and you if you have enough faith, you can cast it off and if it doesn’t leave then it’s your fault for not having enough faith. In other circles, we are told that we can strategically avoid, change or eliminate suffering by manipulating things or people to become what you think they should be or how they should act to keep us comfortable. Picking up in verse 12 this morning, we see neither of these views regarding suffering line up with scripture.