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Guest (Male): What is God's will for my life?

Pastor Thom Keller: Oh, that's one of the most common questions Christians have. So many people say, "How do I know what God wants me to do?" You know what he wants us to do? Live faithfully, live honestly, keep your eyes open for opportunities, and he will call you out of each day. It's like they say, we're to bloom where we're planted.

So many people are waiting for God to call them to do something, and if we live faithfully day by day, we will find ourselves in his calling. And if he wants to call us specifically, he can.

Host (Male): It's been said that opportunities are often missed because they're disguised in hard work. There are plenty of opportunities for someone willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work. The operative word is "willing."

Hello and welcome to Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. We're just getting started with our study in the gospel of Mark. In chapter 1, Jesus calls his first disciples, those who would willingly follow no matter the difficulties and sacrifices. But we begin in verse 13 with Jesus in the wilderness, battling the enemy and leading the way.

Pastor Thom Keller: Jesus was tempted in incredible ways, probably in ways that none of us will ever experience. And yet, never gave in. So if you've ever pictured yourself in temptation and thinking that God has no idea what you're going through, oh, he does. He was tempted more than you've ever been tempted, more than you ever will be tempted. You think Satan didn't have him number one on his list?

It then says that after the temptation, the angels came and took care of him. I wonder if this was visibly or invisibly. Just picture, he didn't eat for 40 days. He's very hungry. Satan comes and just loads up on him, just lets him have it. I think for all 40 days, day and night, he just let him have it. He didn't eat, and became very weak. At the end of the 40 days, it says that the angels came and ministered to him.

I wonder how they came. Do you think they came in invisible form? Do you think he saw them, whether they were visible or invisible? I don't know. I guess we'll get that answer someday. But what's neat about it is that I don't have any doubt that when we go through temptations and trials, that the angels come and minister to us as well. Maybe not visibly.

But I would bet there have been times where you've been tempted where Satan tried to lay you out, and God sent angels afterwards, after that time of testing, to encourage you, to bless you, to strengthen you. That's what a loving God does.

Verse 14 says later on after John was arrested by Herod Antipas, Jesus went to Galilee to preach God's good news. "At last the time has come," he announced. "The kingdom of God is near. Turn from your sins and believe this good news." And he went into Galilee to preach. Jesus spent most of his time in this area. He would go to Jerusalem for the appointed feasts, but most of his time was spent above the sea of Galilee in that area there.

If you picture Galilee being kind of a desolate place with real little villages and not a whole lot of people, that is not at all how it was. The Jews and Gentiles in this area in particular lived together more than in a lot of Israel. So it was kind of a blending pot of Jews and Gentiles together. And again, a Jew is someone who was born a Jew or converted to Judaism. A Gentile is everybody else.

If you ever wondered about that, to a Jew, there are only two groups of people: there is someone who is a Jew, born a Jew or converted, and everyone else is a Gentile. And in the area of Galilee, they lived together. The Jewish historian Josephus says that Galilee was an area of about 60 by 30 miles. There were 204 villages in this area, each village with not less than 15,000 people each.

Which if you do the math, that would mean there's a minimum of 3 million people in this area. If you picture little lazy villages with four people and a couple sheep and the bells ringing, that's not what it was. It was a bustling place. And what a better place for Jesus to be preaching than where there are Jews and Gentiles alike. And he comes with a message: "The time has come. The time has come."

There are two Greek words that could have been used here. One is Chronos, which you know for time, chronological time as in hours or minutes. But the Greek word used here isn't Chronos. When it says "the right time has come," it doesn't mean a specific day and hour and minute. What it is, the Greek word is Kairos. And that word means the decisive time, the exact time, the appointed time.

The time of opportunity, the time for you to decide. It has more to do with your time, what's going on in your life, than it does a chronological day and hour. It's the decisive time. Jesus came and said, "It's the decisive time for all of you. What are you going to do with me?" He says, "Repent." That means again to turn away and walk another direction. And it says "and to believe."

The word believe is more than just agreement. We can't just agree that there was a historical Jesus. Believing isn't just agreeing to the fact that there was a Jesus who was born and lived and died. In the book of James, it says that even the demons, he says, "Do you believe that believing is enough?" He said, "Even the demons believe and tremble."

The demons believe that Jesus was the Christ. They believe in Jesus, but they are not going to heaven. It's not just believing. It means to enter into a relationship, a trusting, dependent relationship on Jesus. That's what it means to believe in. One day as Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing with a net, for they were commercial fishermen.

Jesus called out to them, "Come, be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people." And they left their nets at once and went with him. A little further up the shore, Jesus saw Zebedee's sons, James and John, in a boat mending their nets. He called them too, and immediately, there's that word again, and immediately, they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with him.

This is not the first time that Jesus met these men. If you say, "Boy, that's really sudden for them just to pick up and go." We see in the Gospel of John that they met Jesus before this. And some time after that Jesus then comes to them along the shoreline and calls them to be fishermen. And what kind of men were they? They're fishermen. They were Jews, we know that clearly, but they were common men without degrees or without status.

Do you think they were successful fishermen? Well, we don't know that, but we do know that three of the four for sure had a lot of ambition, don't we? James and John and Peter. I mean, a lot of ambition. Now maybe that played out in their fishing, maybe it didn't. But they were the ambitious sort. It's also interesting that out of 12 men that Jesus chose, there were two sets of brothers in among them.

Did you ever wonder about that? One set wouldn't be too odd, but two sets of brothers? That four out of the 12 would have been biological brothers, blood brothers. I've wondered about that already. And I wondered when Peter denied Jesus, when he said, "I don't even know that man" three times and then ran out crying and weeping. I wonder who it was that went after him.

I wonder if it wasn't his brother Andrew. I wonder if there were some things in those dynamics of blood brothers that Jesus knew for whatever reason that they would need that at some point, there'd be some reason that that would be needed. I have no idea why. It's just interesting. There's also something else worth noting. Notice that they weren't waiting to be called. They were out fishing.

They were doing their normal daily work. And Jesus came and called them. They were not like ladies in waiting, waiting for the phone to ring, just sitting there inactive waiting for the call. They didn't have to go up to Jesus and say, "Hey, is there anything we can do for you? We'd really like to help. Is there anything we can do?" Not that that's wrong. But so many people say, "What does God want me to do? I just would like to know what he wants me to do."

You know what he wants us to do? Wake up this morning, live faithfully, live honestly, keep your eyes open for opportunities, and he will call you out of each day. It's like they say, you bloom where you're planted. So many people are waiting for God to call them to do something, and he has a call in their life that day. And if we live faithfully day by day, we will find ourselves in his calling.

And if he wants to call us specifically, he can. He can get your attention. The bigger question is, are you surrendered and willing to go? If he came up to you in the course of your work, whatever you're doing in the course of each day, if he came up to you in the middle of a day, broke into your day, just like these brothers, they knew Jesus, you know Jesus.

If he broke into your day and said, "Come follow me. Give it all up. I want you to do this. It's radical, I know, but I want you to do it." Would you do it? You know why that's such an important question? Because until you settle that, he'll never call you to do that. Why would he call you to something that he knows you won't do? Would he? The heart issue has to come first, then the call can come.

I've often said this, would I try to sell somebody if I in my foreknowledge knew they were never going to buy? Would I try to sell them if I knew they wouldn't buy? No, what would be the point? I could talk to them, I could interact in their life, but I wouldn't try to sell them because I know they're not going to buy. It would be pointless. Until your life is surrendered, you're willing to go anywhere, do anything, God isn't going to call you to that kind of a radical choice.

It doesn't mean he ever will. The life that you have may be the life that he wants you to live for him. But it may be something more radical in mind for you. But to ever live that out, it's going to come about as a result of first saying to God, "I will go anywhere and I will do anything you want me to do." Then, and if you're sincere and he knows that, then you've given him the right to call you.

Same thing with these four brothers. He says, "I will show you how to be fishers of men." He doesn't say, "I will tell you." He says, "I will show you." He modeled it. He modeled a life of love and service.

Verse 22 says Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum, and every Sabbath day he went into the synagogue and taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching, for he taught as one who had real authority, quite unlike the teachers of religious law. There were only three things that were done in a synagogue: prayer, reading of the scripture, and teaching expositionally out of the scriptures.

The Jewish law laid down that wherever there were at least 10 Jewish families, there had to be a synagogue. The closest thing we have to a synagogue today would be the church. Synagogue was not temple. There could only be one temple, that was in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. That was the only place a temple was allowed to be built. It was the only place where sacrifices could take place.

But as far as worshipping together on a weekly basis, it took place in a synagogue. This is a synagogue in Capernaum. There was no singing, there were no sacrifices offered. Prayer, reading of the scriptures, and teaching expositionally. And a synagogue had no set apart ruler or leader or teacher, I should say. There was a set apart ruler. He was called the ruler or the president of the synagogue, but he did not teach.

He was responsible to care for the word, for the scrolls, for the Torah. He was responsible to call upon someone to do the teaching, but he was more just in an administrative position. He would invite a respected and learned guest to teach on the scripture reading of that day, and then the teacher would come and sit on a stool. You may be wondering why I'm sitting on a stool today.

It's just to give you a visual of what it looked like in the synagogue. They would sit on a stool and teach. So when you picture Jesus in these days in the synagogue teaching, he would have no doubt been on a stool. Not that he wouldn't have gotten up from time to time, that's his call, and when we get to heaven you can ask him that. Maybe he didn't spend much time on it. But the typical position was that they sat on a stool to teach.

It says in verse 22 that they were amazed and astonished because he spoke as one with authority. In Jesus's day, the religious leaders and teachers would say things like this, "There is a teaching that says..." and then they'd go on to tell the teaching. They were always quoting the opinions of other Jewish writers who were commenting on the scriptures. They were always quoting the opinions of others.

And when Jesus came along, he didn't do that. Jesus said things like, "You have heard it said that thou shalt not kill, but I say that if you're ever even angry in your heart, you're in danger of the judgment. You have heard it said, but I say. You have heard it said, but I say." He spoke as one who had authority, not like what the people were used to hearing who quoted the opinions of other Jewish historians and writers.

Where did Jesus get this authority? Obviously it was given to him from God. But you know, you will never be qualified to be a person in authority until you first learn to live in submission under the authority of someone. That is incredibly important to understand. There is no rational, reasonable reason why any of us should ever be called to be in a position of authority until we have first learned to be in submission to authority. Where Jesus's authority really came from was his submission to his father.

Verse 23. A man possessed by an evil spirit was in the synagogue and he began shouting, "Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one sent from God." Jesus cut him short. "Be silent. Come out of the man." At that, the evil spirit screamed and threw the man into a convulsion, but then he left him. The demon left him. Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened.

"What sort of new teaching is this?" they asked excitedly. "It has such authority. Even evil spirits obey his orders." The news of what he had done spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee. It's interesting to note where this man was when the evil spirit came. He was in church. He was in the synagogue. This evil spirit is a demon. Demons and evil spirits are one and the same.

There are angels and there are demons. Demons are fallen angels. There was a time before the creation of man that Lucifer rebelled against God and he took a third of the angels with him. And those angels became demons. Just as Jesus can live in us, so one who does not have Christ living in them can have a demon living, residing within them. There's a lot more of this coming. We'll deal with this as we go along through the Gospel of Mark.

It's interesting the evil spirit says, "I know who you are." This goes back to the idea that people who exercise demons would have greater power over the demon if they would know the name of the demon. And there are times where Jesus did in fact call the demon out by name. "Spirit of deafness, I command you to leave." He would call out the name of the demon.

And in all probability, what this demon is doing is just reversing the thing, trying to convince himself that he will have some power over Jesus if he knows who he is. By acknowledging this demon seeing this done to others, now he in turn says, "I know who you are, the only son of God," thinking in some way it will give him power. Well, Jesus doesn't let him speak. He commands him to be silent.

It's also interesting in verse 27 that the people were not surprised at the demons. If you read the New Testament, you read the Gospel accounts of Jesus's ministry, it fascinates me that nobody was ever surprised at demons. In our culture today, if that happened, people would go, "What was that?" It says they were amazed, not at the demon, but at the authority he had over the demon.

People were always bringing people to Jesus that were demon-possessed. It didn't surprise anybody. Why is that different then than today? Well, the reason really is that in this era, no one had the authority to use the name of Jesus to deal with these spirits. And they lived unchecked with brazen power and authority that really very few people could deal with. In our era where the name of Jesus is known, it's a different game plan.

The demons, I believe, are just as present, but they go underground. It is not to their benefit to be this out in the open because in a country where the name of Christ is so well known, they can be dealt with so easily. If you go into other cultures today where the name of Christ has not yet been preached, you will find this kind of thing this openly still today. And again, the people in those cultures know they are evil spirits. No one has to tell them. They know.

We live in a somewhat different, a great advantage in that. But that's the difference. Still just as present, but not as in the open. Jesus doesn't allow them to speak. It's also interesting, a cemetery from the pre-Christian era was found with 120 skulls. Out of the 120 skulls, six of them had been trepanned. That means that a hole had been surgically cut out of the skull of the person.

A disc was cut out of the skull of the person, and because bone growth had occurred around the hole, it's clear that this surgery had been done during their lifetime. Out of 120 skulls, six of them had had this done: a hole put in their head. The reason this was done was in their belief at this time was to allow the demon to leave. They put a hole in the head so that the demon could leave.

This little disc of bone that was cut out they would then wear around their neck as a good luck charm. So again, I'm only making that point to make it known the people of this culture of this era, they knew about demons. They knew about demonic possession. And even outside of the Jewish faith, they had ways of dealing with it. That was one of the ways.

Let's go into verse 29. It says after Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they went over to Simon and Andrew's home, and James and John were there with them. Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. He went to her bedside and as he took her by the hand and helped her to sit up, the fever suddenly left and she got up and prepared a meal for them.

His mother-in-law, again notice that he was married. Verse 32 says that evening at sunset many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. And a huge, when you hear huge, picture huge crowd of people from all over Capernaum gathered outside the door to watch. So Jesus healed great numbers of sick people who had different kinds of diseases and he ordered many demons to come out of their victims. But because they knew who he was, he refused to allow the demons to speak.

My guess is in all probability the reason he did not want them to speak was the same reason that Paul did not want the demon-possessed woman to be acknowledging who he was. Because a testimony from a non-credible source is not a positive testimony for Jesus. That's why in Revelation, Jesus said, "I would rather you be hot or cold but not lukewarm."

I want you to be one or the other. But when you're in that middle ground, when you're living a life that sends mixed messages to the people you're witnessing to, I'd rather you be one or the other because it just confuses people. And I think that's what's going on here. He says, "Look, a positive testimony from a demon is not going to help my cause."

It says that evening, their evening would have begun, there were no watches obviously, but it began when you could see three stars. If you ever see in the Bible it says when evening fell, what determined what evening was was when you could see three stars. When somebody could go out in the sky and see three stars, that was officially evening. That's when it began.

Verse 35 says the next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him and said, "Everyone is looking for you." But he replied, "We must go on to other towns as well and I will preach to them too because that is why I came." So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and expelling demons from many people.

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus begging him to be healed. "If you want to, you can make me well again," he said. Moved with pity, some say moved with compassion, Jesus touched him. "I want to," he said. "Be healed." Instantly, the leprosy disappeared. The man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way and told him sternly, "Go right over to the priest and let him examine you. Don't take anyone along the way.

Don't talk to anyone along the way. Take along the offering required by the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy so that everyone will have proof of your healing." In all probability this is the first man that was ever healed of leprosy that was a Jew. We know Naaman was healed, but he was not a Jew. This would have been the first person healed of leprosy that would have gone back to a priest and said, "I was healed."

It would have taken the priest by storm because although the Bible gave what a priest was to do in this instance, they had never practiced it. So this would have been a major shock to the priest, this man coming back. But he didn't do that. Verse 45, but as a man went on his way, he spread the news telling everyone what had happened to him.

As a result such crowds soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn't enter a town anywhere publicly. He had to stay out in secluded places and people from everywhere came to see him there. This is the end of chapter 1 and already he's so sought after that he can't enter a village or a town because of the crowds. He has to stay outside.

Host (Male): Pastor Thom Keller highlighting the exciting days in the ministry of Jesus recorded for us in the Gospel of Mark. And this is Study the Word. You can hear this message again by going to ccleb.com and look under resources. We house all of Tom's messages at ccleb.com. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862.

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Thom Keller's the pastor of Calvary Chapel Lebanon and you can study the Word with him virtually every Sunday. Turn to ccleb.com for service times and directions to the church. Download our free church app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. We'll get back into the Gospel of Mark next time we get together for Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. We hope you can join us.