To be human is to hope. Hope is an essential part of human existence. What you hope in is essentially the fixed reference point that you go to in your life to give you stability, comfort, & a sense of control amidst the chaos, suffering, and tragedy of life. And if your fixed point is not the gospel - if it’s not the hope found in the resurrection of Jesus then when difficulty, suffering, tragedy come your way (which they will)...You will lose hope. As we close out our series in the book of Mark we see how the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the hope that our hearts need.

When something becomes commonplace, it can lose its impact.  Similar to living your entire life next to train tracks the noise of the train can (over time) become obsolete.  One of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is when the cross becomes commonplace.  If you've been a Christian for any amount of time you know that this is a real struggle.  Mark 14 reminds us of the fact that the cross is the single most transformative event in the history of humanity.

Legendary baseball player Frank Robinson said, “Close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades.”  No one remembers the runners up - those who were close but didn't make the cut don’t get remembered.  They might have been close but close enough doesn’t count.  Here in Mark 12 Jesus says pretty much the same thing about his kingdom.  When approached by a religious leader - Jesus says it’s possible to be close to his kingdom but not in his kingdom.

Often the last words of someone’s life (or last acts) are usually lasting. Those final conversations or one last trip with a loved one often carry deep meaning and purpose. Mark 11 is a crucial turning point in the Gospel of Mark because it is the beginning of Jesus' last week on Earth. In fact, Mark spends over one-third of his Gospel on Jesus’ last days because of how pivotal they were. And knowing it to be his last week, Jesus made sure to take full advantage to help us understand just who he was and what he came to do.

We need Jesus for all of life.  In Mark 9 we see Jesus on both the mountaintop and in the valley…And what we see is that both are critical to us knowing who Jesus is and why we need Him in our life.  What Jesus is going to show us about Himself on the mountaintop is the sole key to living in the mess of life.  It’s the key to dealing with difficulty and not becoming cynical; to dealing with suffering and not despairing; and dealing with pain and loss and not becoming hard-hearted.  Mark 9 shows us how we become that type of person.

We have come to a major turning point in the book of Mark. So far the first half of Mark’s Gospel has dealt with who Jesus is. Jesus is the King – the King to end all kings and set things right. Now we begin to make a turn and see how in the second half of Mark it is about what this King came to do. And in making this turn we discover a major plot twist. Jesus is the true King but he did not come to sit on a throne but to die on a cross.

All of us want to change. Scroll through Instagram and you’ll see how many people’s feeds are about changing your diet, changing your vocation, or changing your workout routines. That's why we make new year's resolutions or set goals. The reason we’re obsessed with change is because deep within all of us is a sense that something needs to change. The gospel not only shows us what that need is but also how true change takes place. It’s not something that comes from outside of us but from belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Every single one of us has been invited to something in our life. However, not all invitations are created equal. There are certain invitations to things in your life that you would move mountains to make sure you were there. In Mark 1 Jesus extends an invitation. It is by far the greatest invitation you and I could receive. And here’s the beautiful thing…the invitation is open to all of us. Jesus is the true King who invites us into His mission.

For hundreds of years people have been ignoring the reality of Jesus or pretending that the person and work of Jesus isn’t really that important. Some have just never really taken seriously the claims of Jesus and assume he was maybe a good teacher, prophet, or just a moral person. Others would agree with everything that the Bible says about Jesus…but it doesn’t really have an overall effect on their life. Mark is going to show us right off the bat that neutrality (or passivity) is not an option. Either Jesus is who he says he is or he’s not.