August Gate Church Sermons

In this week's text, Mark gives us a story that illuminates the implications and outcomes of faith in Jesus.

This week Jesus answers the question asked of him by the Pharisees in last week's passage. But in typical Jesus fashion, he points them to the fact that their hearts are sin-sick and they are in need of a Savior, not more rules.

This week Jesus encounters the religious leaders for the first time in a while. They are concerned with the traditions of men and Jesus rebukes them for their self-righteousness that leads to their hardness of hearing.

This week's text may seem a bit repetitive if we do not ask the question, who is Jesus? In all of his miracles, healings, and teachings, Jesus has been pointing to his identity as the Christ, our Savior. But the incorrect perception of the disciples and the crowds have led them to see him in an incomplete light, which is often our problem as well.

This week we encounter a famous miracle of Jesus, the feeding of the 5,000. It is plain to see that this miracle was used to point to Jesus' divinity but as we dig deeper we will see parallels and promises fulfilled from the Old Testament.

This week's text may be a bizarre story but Mark uses it to show us the mission of God by comparing John the Baptist and Herod. John was a righteous herald of the Gospel and Herod was a wicked ruler. We have to understand that nothing will save the world but the Gospel and that unless we believe the world is lost without it we will not boldly proclaim it.

This week Jesus gives us wisdom for taking the gospel to an unbelieving world. Our obedience to Jesus should flow out of an astonishment of what he has done for us and that should drive us to be relentless in telling the world around us about it.

In this weeks text, we see the desperate situations of a father whose daughter is facing death and a woman who is chronically ill. Mark shows us how Jesus has the power over both their sickness and death. And in this Mark points to Jesus death, burial, resurrection and ultimate power over sin, death and the grave. Mark shows us that our desperation should lead us to faith in Jesus for our ultimate...

In this weeks text, we see the desperate situations of a father whose daughter is facing death and a woman who is chronically ill. Mark shows us how Jesus has the power over both their sickness and death. And in this Mark points to Jesus death, burial, resurrection and ultimate power over sin, death and the grave. Mark shows us that our desperation should lead us to faith in Jesus for our ultimate...

In this week's text, we see Jesus heal a man severely possessed by demons. We see that Jesus has ultimate power over evil but that we were once inwardly what this man was outwardly and that Jesus is our only hope.

This text may be the most irrelevant for the western evangelical church, simply because we don't believe that we have storms. We often cover up things by appearing to be fine. Mark uses this very real story to show us Jesus' power over nature and also his power over the storms in our lives.

We all have expectations for everything and most of us have very specific expectations about the Kingdom of God. As Jesus does, he turns our expectations on their head in this week's text.

We all have expectations for everything and most of us have very specific expectations about the Kingdom of God. As Jesus does, he turns our expectations on their head in this week's text.

This week's text is one of the most famous of Jesus' parables. Jesus himself says that this parable is the key to unlocking all of the other parables he tells. It's about hearing and responding in our everyday life.

Jesus lived in a culture where family was everything in the same way that it is for many in our culture today. He challenges this notion and leads us to see that God's will is to be above all things.

This week's text begs the question, who is Jesus? From John Duncan's trilemma (made famous by C.S. Lewis) we can work through this text; is Jesus a liar, a lunatic or is he Lord?

In this week's text we see to ancient doctrines; Christus Victor, Christ the Victor, and Christus Exemplar, Christ the example. Jesus won the victory over Satan, sin, and death and he also provided us the example of how to live this life.

In this week's text, we see the truth that adding to God's goal of knowing him and making him known as well as disregarding it all together are both enemies of his Gospel.

In this week's text, we find two stories with very similar outcomes. Jesus is questioned about spiritual disciplines and the answer is very clear; our aim in spiritual disciplines is knowing the Lord more, not the discipline.

In this week's text we see Jesus calling Levi (Matthew) to be a disciple. This short story has many profound implications on our lives. Pastor Todd walks us through as we see how Jesus is the perfect missionary who takes the worst people and makes the best disciples.

In this week's text we see Jesus doing the things that only he can do, forgiving sin and healing people. So to understand what this text means for our lives we have to look at the supporting cast of the friends and the Pharisees. Are we living out an active faith to see people come to Jesus or do we criticize everything and never get anything done?

The truth from this week's text rings loud and clear; Jesus has authority over everything. He is our holy King who has come to rule and reign. We see that He has authority in teaching the Word, authority over demons, and authority over sickness.

This week we see simply, Jesus calls. He called His first disciples to obedience in a process, with a purpose and all with authority. The question is, how will we respond to Jesus' call?

In this week's text, we see that Jesus' primary work was to proclaim the Gospel. Before he performed miracles or rebuked the day's religious leaders, he called everyone to repent and believe God's Gospel. This is our call today; repent and believe God's Gospel then proclaim the same thing to the world around us.

Fulfilling the promises of God from the prophet Isaiah, King Jesus came to be His people's Representative. The Gospel is God's grace is to retell our story with a different ending.