Jesus Doesn't Play It Safe | Mark 1

that you were to walk by him. You'd be like, "I don't want to stay here." - Funny, yeah. - He wanted to get away from you. And I think that's-- - If you walk by John the Baptist, you'll be like, "I don't have any cash." "I don't have any cash." "I don't have any cash." - All of these people, I'm sure we're beggars of some way, shape, or form. And I am super convicted by Jesus' character of some of his first acts are to bring in the uncomfortable people. And I'm like, "Oh my gosh." - This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people. Just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. Hey, I'm Chuck. - I'm Mish. - I'm Caleb. - And I'm Kirsten. - And we are talking about the Gospel of Mark. This is actually the first gospel we believe that was captured. And it was really Mark hanging out with Peter and Peter telling him stories. And Mark decided to take those stories and write a biography of Jesus' life.

And so, we get to chapter one, and I love reading Mark 'cause he doesn't waste any time. He doesn't, I mean, he has some set up, but not a whole lot. - Not a ton. - Not a ton, right, you know? He does what really all the gospels probably do at some point, which is tie Jesus to these Old Testament promises that a king was coming. So I'm wondering, as you read Mark one, what was the first thing that stood out to you? - Well, every time I read Mark, two things stand out. One is, okay, this is a great way. - That's such a Bible flex. Every time I read Mark. - I was bad at it. - Every time I read Mark, when I get in my name-- - I like dreams. - Every day years. - I was in our language. - You talkin' about it 'cause it's already gonna be-- - All right. - 'Cause it's a great one. - Join the club. - You didn't get the memo up to your language. - I wouldn't have done it, even if I did. - Get outta here. - And anyways, I digress. Mark, like you said, you just get right in there and it's the shortness of the gospel.

So you get the most compact version of the gospel, which I like and I also don't like because you miss so many of the other nuances and some of the other parts of the story about Jesus' ministry that are just amazing. For example, here, I wish Mark one talks about when Jesus goes into the wilderness and it says he goes into the wilderness and then he leaves the wilderness. - He comes out. - He doesn't give any of the other context. I wish he was there, but it's also nice just to kind of set that up and just go right into the meat of what Jesus' ministry is. - That's good. - Yeah, Mark's like the Michael Bay of the gospels. He's like, "Explosion, fight, explosion, fight, explosion." - It was Michael Bay. - He makes movies. He's seen Transformers. - I'm not saying they're great movies. - Do you only agree? - They're not great movies. - If you owned a green shirt, you would know who Michael Bay is. - Yeah, totally. (laughing) - But that kind of like Miesh was saying, I mean, it's interesting because it's just right to action. And it's easy, I grew up in the church, okay?

And it's easy to just like talk about it. Have feelings about it. Like we don't get even the Christmas narrative, right? Which is like, we're all there like warm, fuzzy feelings come from. Mark's like, "Do something!" Jesus did something and then he did something. And I kind of love that because it pushes me into like, what am I actually doing? - I love that. - 'Cause I was just sitting here talking to you guys. How is it intersecting with my real life? - That's so good. That's so good. - Yeah. I think for me, I actually, I don't know, if I want more meat, I'm gonna go to Luke because he just be yapping. (laughing) But for this one, I've read this many times. The fact that it says the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness, I don't know, I just related that to my life and that's what stuck out to me in this chapter was, man, where is the spirit like driving me? Like thinking of like even Jesus being so in tune with the spirit that he could be driven somewhere. Like to go physically with his feet somewhere just because the spirit is like guiding them and you hear that so often like,

oh, full spirit, but like hearing it be done and seeing it in your life, I kind of can relate to that. I'm like, I feel like I've been there and I love that Jesus has also been there and that's the whole reason he goes to the wilderness to be tempted like us and I believe we could be led by the spirit just as he was. - Yeah. - It was so fun. - Yeah, man, I love that. I'm thinking about what you two said and it makes me realize as I'm rereading Mark again, I'm trying to do a Bible flex like you. Guys, I'm rereading Mark again that there's a confrontation. Like there's a confrontation that Mark is putting you in a place of as a reader. Do you believe it? Do you believe Jesus did these things? right? There's the one that's like the good shepherd, you know, he's gentle and he is. Thank God he is. But he's also the once and future king, you know, like they said about King Arthur, he was the once and future king. And then as I'm reading Mark, that's the thing that I feel like Jesus is maybe imposing, and I'll use that word, imposing on my life right now, is a reminder that he is my king. Like I'm in an era of my life where obedience is really important, you know, and God is calling me to obey in some really challenging ways, right? Tell your story publicly in some challenging ways where there's like, well, there's stuff I don't want to air out that dirty laundry, no, no, I want you to tell your story into public ways. There's some things at home that God is just like, I need you to be on this at home. I need you to be present to your wife and your kids. - And how do you know that? - Are you tired? Well, I know it because of that same Holy Spirit,

right? It's that same Holy Spirit that's putting that urge in me and saying these are the things. And I feel like for me, Jesus is, Jesus is kinging me right now in some really powerful ways. I wonder for you, as you think about the Jesus that we're going to encounter in Mark, what aspects of his character are you relating to right now? - I want to jump on that. He's a king. And what I love about this chapter and the chapters that we're going to read after it is he's a king that includes what I mean. So he goes and like we see here in chapter one, he goes and gets James and John out of the boat. And he was like, come follow me. Now, like most kings can do it on their own, right? Or they just send people out to do it for them. They don't bring somebody in with them and teach them how to do it. So I was having a conversation with a buddy yesterday about how much longer it takes to do chores when you actually teach your kids to do it. But it pays off in the long run. I know doing the dishes are going to take an hour instead of 15 minutes when I show you how to do it right. But in three months or in six months when I don't have to do it with you anymore, this is going to pay off for me. But it is a big investment up front. And it's incredible that Jesus is is God can do all of this without people's help and still includes people in to teach them how to do it and send them out to do it on their own. And that's where that's where God's pressing me. Like, there's a lot of things I can do that I would have a hard time teaching or including people on doing. And that's a problem. If I can't include other people in it, if I can't teach them how to do it, that's a problem. Wow. It's so crazy that this is all in chapter one. And the fact that he is interacting with so many just like uncomfortable people, a leper, the guy who's possessed by many spirits who really is just some crazy man in like trigger, but it's like he it says that he's like cutting himself. It just is so wild, all these things. And even John the Baptist himself is such a character that you were to walk by him. You'd be like, I don't want to stay here. He wants to get away from you. And I think that if you walk by John the Baptist, you'll be like, I don't have any cash. He's a wild man. All these people. I'm sure we're beggars of some way, shape or form, at least for socialization. And I am super convicted by Jesus's character of like some of his first acts are to bring in the uncomfortable people. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, it is so humbling. I don't know. It's so easy to surround yourself with people who have it all figured out and together and you're like, wow, God, thank you for surrounding me by all these people. But like Jesus, and it gets more and more throughout this book, he chooses not to do that. It's like everyone. Yeah. So the last story about the leper,

how I read that is, you know, he tells the leper, he heals the leper and he tells the leper, don't go tell like show yourself. But don't tell anybody and the leper does the exact opposite. He tells everybody and then it says, yeah, instead he went on talking, as a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. To me, how I read that is the reason he didn't want him to tell people was so that because then Jesus would get this like type of like glory and credit that he wasn't looking for. He was looking to serve people. He was looking to go in and heal and preach to them and serve people, not get this like credit that, you know, I think we all want a king or a king is assumed to get. For me, the character that that's the character development I hear in that is how I'm serving people should not have to come with a sort of He does, he could have been the most popular person in this town and said he has to leave now, so that he's not the most popular person in the town. Wow, that's good. You know, I heard somebody once say there's a difference between reading the Bible and letting the Bible read you. And I feel like as we come into Mark and as we spend time in this story of Jesus, like I think Jesus wants to read you. Yes, read. Be a part of this with us. But I think there's some things that King Jesus wants to read into us, maybe show us some things in our life, include us in some things that he's doing. And I'm excited about kicking off this journey with all of you. So man, let's go after this King Jesus together as we read the Gospel of Mark. [MUSIC]