Sunday Sermons | Evergreen Church

Mark’s gospel now shifts into a new phase—the mission of Jesus begins to be handed off to His disciples. They have seen great and mighty things. Now they are to learn by following His example and operating in His authority. It is significant that Mark pairs the hometown rejection of Jesus with their first attempts to imitate Him.

Kingdom impact begins with cultivating spiritual influence and fulfilling our scriptural duty. We are not hucksters selling religion; rather we are charged to bring light into dark places and to apply salt against decay. The hope of this generation rests upon the presence and witness of God’s people in the world.

Mark 4:35-41 displays the power of Jesus over nature and 5:1-20 reveals His authority over demons. Mark next stresses the supernatural power of Jesus over sickness and death. Two unlikely candidates serve as testimony that God has, indeed, become man in order to save us from the human condition. Death no longer has the final word!

Mark has demonstrated that Jesus has absolute authority over nature. Now he turns to the cosmic battle between good and evil, obedience and rebellion. Spiritual opportunities appear suddenly and demand attention. Encounters with Jesus create a crisis of decision moment.

Following instruction regarding parables, Mark confirms the authority of Jesus with a series of miraculous encounters—with nature, the demonic, and death. In each event, the presence of Jesus constitutes both affirmation of life and defeat of death. The disciples are compelled to see beyond the local teacher/healer and recognize the God of the cosmos!

Mark was as concerned about the purpose of parables as he was about providing samples of them. Parables are designed as divine tools for the separation of receptive hearts from disinterested minds. The identity and mission of Jesus was available to all who were sensitive to the illumination of God’s Spirit: the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus Christ!

Why is the gospel so obvious to some people and so distant and confusing to others? How did the scribes attribute demonic power to Jesus and His family assume insanity while so many others experienced changed lives? This commonplace parable offers the explanation: spiritual insight is not automatic, but received through a teachable heart and mind.

Opposition to Jesus now includes the attempted intervention of his own family and the official involvement of religious judges from Jerusalem. The claims made against Him are equally malicious and wrong-headed: mental instability or demonic allegiance. The consequences of such assessments are devastating and unending. Your determination about Jesus is the single most important decision of your ete...

20th-century pastor A.W. Tozer famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Simply put, how we see God is how we see the world. But in many ways, our earthly fathers have laid a distorted foundation for our understanding of our creator. If He has truly called us to change the world, our first step is to explore the mystery of God for ours...

The summary report of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee indicates widespread interest and fascination. Crowds now become multitudes which require physical accommodation. However, Mark turns our attention from large numbers to deep commitments. The story now turns on the selection, training, and sending of disciples—authentic Jesus-followers.

Mark next records a series of encounters with religious authorities where they attempt to force Jesus into the box of their legalistic expectations. Jesus won’t be limited by their essentially negative view of faith. Rather, He presses forward in each instance to put the true heart of God on display. Does your Christianity look more like Jesus or the Pharisees?

Mark completes the Galilee preaching tour with a final dramatic healing of the most horrific disease spoken of in the Scriptures—leprosy. Not merely a demonstration of power over the natural realm, this encounter serves as an affirmation of both the divinity and humanity of Jesus in a single stunning episode.

Mark now presents a representative day in the public ministry of Jesus. All the major elements of His work are on display: preaching, teaching, exorcising demons, healing the sick, prayer, and instructing the disciples. Mark implies here what John affirms in John 21:25—the events of Jesus’ life and ministry are too numerous to record.

Immediately the story turns to the calling of His first followers. The response to Jesus’ summons is always to be prompt and complete. Christology (who He is) and discipleship (what He requires) are inseparable. Jesus takes the initiative in making disciples: they do not seek Him, but He seeks them.

The author of Mark is anonymous. However, Eusebius, the early church historian, preserved the words of Papias, an ancient church father. Papias quoted “the elder,” probably John, as saying that Mark recorded Peter’s preaching about the things Jesus said and did. Written for a Roman audience, Mark emphasizes both the humanity of Jesus and His extensive ministry of miracles. Throughout, people were...

The gospel is a message, a proclamation, and a revelation. It is also, most definitely, a way of life. Evergreen is a collection of redeemed saints who are meant to help every other person in the world become more like Jesus. But we do not attempt the impossible alone! We advance…

Easter changes everything for a Jesus-follower. It impacts our present as well as our future, our relationships as well as our religion. Easter sets followers on a road of discovery with Jesus that takes an eternity to experience.

As Jesus faces arrest and execution, He finds Himself utterly alone, abandoned sadly even by His closest followers. This critical moment in Gethsemane is marked by betrayal, rebellion, and fear. In contrast, following Jesus requires acceptance, obedience, and trust.

“It’s not that Americans no longer believe anything,” says George Gallup. “It’s that they believe everything.” In a generation when people simultaneously hold to contradictory ideas, the concept of objective truth is radical. Anyone proposing the existence of truth is considered intolerant and hateful. Such is our day. How then do we live?

This New Testament postcard is written to believers regarding the insidious threat of apostates. The danger is serious and each generation must take up the challenge of preserving the Faith unblemished for those who follow. Jude speaks to Christ followers in 2025 every bit as much as he spoke to the Church of the first century.

Contending for the faith is not the most pleasant of spiritual duties, but it is action required of particular generations of believers at moments of intense spiritual warfare. Jude writes at just such an historical moment. His words are disturbingly relevant for our time.

Paul Billheimer asserts, “Prayer is not primarily God’s way of getting things done. It is God’s way of giving the Church ‘on-the-job’ training in overcoming the forces hostile to God. This world is a laboratory in which those who are destined for the throne are learning, by actual practice in the prayer closet, how to overcome Satan and his hierarchy.”

The earthly ministry of Jesus foreshadows Satan’s ultimate defeat. In Acts and beyond, Jesus extends His power over the demonic by giving His Word as a weapon to His disciples. With Word, witness, and authority, the invasion of hostile territory ravages the forces of evil.

Spiritual warfare in the New Testament is never presented as an esoteric activity reserved for specialists. Rather, spiritual warfare encompasses not only the dramatically supernatural, but also the mundane realities of “normal” life. We are consecrated for the ordinary no less than for the exceptional.

Primary opponents in spiritual warfare include both demonic influences and deep-rooted human self-righteousness. These enemies are not the same, yet they originate from a common origin—a rebellious view of God. When confronted with Jesus, there are only two responses.