Disciple – Into the dark

Good morning, church. We’re in the middle of a study in the Gospel of Mark.  We’re calling it “Discipleship,” as we’re looking at what it means to follow Jesus.  We see in the Scriptures that we’re not only like students to a teacher, although we are kind of His students.  But it’s more than that.  There’s something else there.  And we’re not just followers to a leader.  The relationship with Jesus is more dynamic than just as a follower to a leader.

Look at the language.  Each of disciples speaks to a depth of relationship or proximity, a closeness to Jesus.

Throughout this study of the Gospel of Mark, we’re going to look at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, with the expectation that we’re not only going to learn from Jesus, nor we only are we going to be following His lead.  We’re going to be deepening our relationship with Jesus.

Wherever you’re at in your relationship with Jesus, — if you’re still trying to figure out who He is – just listen.  That’s all the disciples in the Gospel of Mark did.

So if you’re confused about Jesus –maybe you just have an inkling about what it means to follow Jesus — I want you to see in the text as we go through this whole study over these coming months that that’s how all the disciples of Jesus felt.  They’re super confused that He’s constantly blowing their minds and there’s this frustration, but there’s also this joy of discovery in learning who Jesus is.

For those of you who’ve been following Jesus for a long time, I know that as we engage in this series together — especially as you engage in studying this with people who are different than you who are going to bring up different ideas and opinions — your relationship with Jesus is going to grow and your understanding of who Jesus is will become more vibrant.

Last week we talked about how Jesus calls us to follow him.  He says, “Follow me.” Jesus doesn’t say “Be a Christian.”  Jesus doesn’t say “Adopt my religion.”  Jesus says “Follow me.” He’s proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.  In fact, we recognized last week that the word gospel is just the words good news.  So when we talk about the gospel, we just mean the good news and the good news — namely the Kingdom of God — that Jesus is the Risen King.  And we have opportunities to follow the King.

Today as we’re picking up in the text in the Gospel of Mark Chapter one, we’re going to ask ourselves the question:  If in the first study we learned that Jesus said “Follow me,” the next question we want to ask is where?  Follow Jesus where?  One of the things that we’ll discover today is that Jesus leads His disciples into the dark.  He leads his disciples into the dark.  I’d like to just tease that out a little bit today.

What we’re going to do here is I’m going to read the Gospel of Mark Chapter one verses 21 through Chapter 2, and I think we end at verse 12, and so for those of you who are joining us in person today, I believe you would have gotten a handout on your way in. You’ve got that printed out for you. Of course, you’re free to use a Bible if you brought one.  By the way, if you guys don’t own a Bible, we’d love to give one to you.  If you don’t have a Bible handy, no problem.  Just go to likebible.com or biblegateway.com and they’ve got digital versions.  We’re going to use the Christian standard, the CSB version today.

We talked last week, and I’ll just remind us again this week that my understanding is that the majority, if not all the material in your Bible was artistically designed not primarily to be read, but primarily to be heard.  We remembered last week that the majority of Christians throughout church history did not read the Bible, whether or not they were literate.  They didn’t have enough money to be able to buy a print or a handwritten copy.

The majority of Jesus followers throughout church history have heard the text and even memorized it.  So what we’re going to do during this series is to spend a lot of time just allowing ourselves to hear the text, as well.  So I’m going to read it.  I’d encourage you, if it’s helpful to you, to close your eyes, maybe just even take a deep breath in.  Allow the word to just be spoken over you. Here’s my encouragement to you to hear the Word read.  Would you just be attentive to what God is doing in your heart as you hear these words?  Here’s my encouragement:  Just be attentive to what God brings up in your mind in your heart, maybe even allow your imagination to be at work as you hear this word spoken over you.

“Now they went into Capernaum.  And right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath.  And he began to teach.  They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not like the scribes.

Just then, a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue and he cried out, ‘What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’

Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent and come out of him.’  And the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.  They were all amazed.  And so they began to ask each other ‘What is this?  A new teaching with authority?  He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’

At once, the news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.  As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John.  Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever.  And they told Him about her at once.  So He went up to.  Her took her by the hand and raised her up.  The fever left her.  She began to serve them.

Now when evening came after the Sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed.  The whole town had assembled at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons.  And He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him.

Very early in the morning while it was still dark, he got up, went out and made his way to a deserted place.  And there he was praying.  Simon and his companions searched for Him. And when they found Him, they said ‘Everyone is looking for you.’  And He said to them, ‘Let’s go on in the neighboring villages so that I might preach there too.  This is why I have come.’

He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, driving out demons.  Then a man with leprosy came to him and on his knees begged him.  ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’  Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him.  ‘I am willing,’ he told Him ‘to be made clean.’  Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Then He sternly warned him and sent him away at once, telling him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone.  But go and show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded, for your cleansing as a testimony to them.’

Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly.  He was out in deserted places.  And they came to him from everywhere.

When He entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that He was at home.  So many people gathered together that there was no more room.  Not even in the doorway.  And He was speaking the Word to them.

They came to him bringing a paralytic carried by four of them.  Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.  And after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.  Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

But some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does he speak like this?  He is blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

Right away, Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?  Which is easier to say to the paralytic —  ‘Your sins are forgiven, or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk.’  But I do so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins.’  And he told the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he got up, took the mat and went out in front of everyone.  As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying we have never seen anything like this.  This is the word of the Lord.”

You see in this text, Jesus not only has called his disciples to follow Him, but notice where He takes them.  He takes them into the dark.  Did you notice some of the people that we met even just in that story?  Who did we meet?  We met people who were sick.  We had people with a fever, debilitating fever.  What else do we have?  Everyone is demon- possessed, right?  You get like evil Incarnate like enfleshed.  Is this not darkness?  Jesus invites his followers to follow him into the uncomfortable broken dark corners of the world.

As a church family, we radically believe that Jesus is the Lord over every aspect of our lives.  We also truly believe that Jesus invites us to bring Him into the dark corners of our lives, into the conversations that we don’t want to have, into the spaces that we think are just so broken they’re beyond repair.

We’re working to equip us as a church family to do that through a ministry that we’re kind of kicking off this year called At the Table, where we’re able to set the table, so to speak, and invite our church family and others from our community to actual tables to have guided conversations on these difficult topics.

I love working with Dawn Farmer.  She’s our executive paster, and she’s heading up this ministry.  I want her to share more about this.

In the next couple of months, we are launching a new initiative called At the Table, where we want to create an opportunity for us to come together with people who maybe are different, –or our stories are vastly different — in order to be able to have conversation, in order to be able to ask questions again in a safe environment and maybe learn compassion for someone story who is very different than ours.  So I encourage you to watch for more information about At the Table, as we’ll be hosting those in the evening and inviting special guests to be able to have these conversations with us.

So just to give you an idea of some of the topics — just hold onto your hats, kids. –we’re going to be talking about things like racism, ethnocentrism, gender, sexuality, sexual assault and abuse.  We’ll have conversation with different religious leaders within the valley as well, along with a bunch of other conversations that as we at look at what’s going on in our community right now.

We’ve got to bring Jesus into the conversation, and we want to invite everybody into those difficult conversations.  We want to be a place where we can have conversations where we might disagree or misunderstand each other, but where all of us are committed to living out the fruit of the spirit.  And we’ll look to First Corinthians 13 love as we talk about these difficult to understand topics.  So just stay tuned for more information on that.  You can also use the next steps cards.  Let us know if you’re interested in participating in the at the table.  Jesus invites His disciples into these dark spaces into these broken places.

What we’re going to do now is just go through the text together and just notice some things.  My encouragement to you would be that you would maybe take notes or just take note of what God might be revealing to you, even as we study together.

Let’s go ahead and jump right into our study of Mark.  We’ll be in verse 21 to start with.  You’ll notice they went into Capernaum and right away He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.  OK, so what’s the first thing Jesus does here?  He goes to church.  Where does He go to worship?  Synagogue.  On which holy day?  The Sabbath, right.  This is one of Jesus’s normal practices.  I just want to remind you that Jesus is a Jewish man living among a Jewish community, and you’re going to see His Jewishness kind of all over the place.

As you read through the Gospel of Mark, I just want to notice what He’s doing in the synagogue.  He’s teaching now.  Just notice that right?  Jesus calls his disciples in the previous chapter, he says, “Follow me.”  And then he takes him to synagogue and begins to teach.  Now how does He teach?  We’ll find out.

They were astonished at His teaching because He was teaching them as one who had — what’s the word?  Authority.  I just want you to notice something right here in the Gospel of Mark.  The author of the Gospel Mark is trying to elevate authority.  He’s going to do this multiple times in this text because Jesus said, “Follow me.”  Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is here,” and one of the questions we might have is:  On whose authority are you the king?”  And here you have Mark laying out the authority.  Jesus is teaching like one with authority, not like the scribes.

Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue.  This is really weird.  You guys aren’t nodding in agreement.  Imagine that a demon-possessed person jumped up in that seat next to you and began to cry out.  How would that make you feel?   Would you feel comfortable or uncomfortable?  You would feel uncomfortable.  I would feel very uncomfortable and look for a back exit.

Right, this is quite strange that immediately in the synagogue is this a person who’s got an unclean spirit.  This is quite rare, especially if the person was known to have an unclean spirit.  They would not have let him in the synagogue.  Notice that and he cries out.  Is “you” singular or plural?  You’ve got two names for the one to whom they’re speaking.  First, Jesus of Nazareth, which is what everyone would have known him by.  Right.  Everyone would have known him as Jesus of Nazareth.

Right?  Have you come to destroy singular or plural?  I know singular.  Did you guys notice the switch?  Now this is interesting. It may well be that this demonic spirit is speaking on behalf of all of the demonic spirits, and I just want to remind us that Mark has already set up his gospel in political and military language, right?  I’ll just prove it to you.  Jesus came proclaiming the good news of what?  The Kingdom of God, that the Kingdom is here in Jesus.  And so I I’m going to argue this from the text.  I think what the author of Mark is doing is showing you that there’s the Kingdom of God and who’s the baddie?  The kingdoms of darkness.  The kingdoms of this world, the kingdoms to which this demon and all the other demons belong.  Do you see it? “Have you come to destroy not just me?  Have you come to destroy us?”  Do you see?

Here you have the battle lines being drawn between the light and the dark, between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world.  Between the power of God and the powers, the rulers and authorities of this world.  “Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are.”

Here’s the second name.  “You are the Holy One of God.”  Now you might be asking, “Is this demon a Christian?”  Notice that the demon knows — even if those in the synagogue don’t.  This is a recurring literary device that Mark will continue to use throughout the Gospel of Mark.

I just want you to notice something.   In fact, I want to encourage you guys to do something today I think you should go home today and read the whole gospel of Mark.  I have a woman who’s a friend of mine.  She’s one of my neighbors.  She sent me a note saying, “Hey, I’m reading the Bible on Saturday, thanks to you.”  And I was like, “Yeah.  You could read it every day if you wanted to.  Like today.”

Read the Gospel of Mark and notice where the author puts the proclamations of who Jesus is. It’s not the faithful few who proclaim the truth about who Jesus is, primarily.  It’s the most odd and unlikely characters in the story that proclaim the truth about who God is.  Notice who is calling him the Holy One of God.  It’s the demon.  Do you catch it?  Do you see?

OK, let’s keep going.  Oh, this isn’t this fun right?  Are we, I mean, come on, this is so much fun.  OK, Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent and come out of him.” Another “be silent” is not like this.  It’s like “be muzzled,” like “shut up,” right?  Jesus can say that, can’t he?   Yeah, OK, so be silent or stop and come out of him and the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions.  Shouted it with a loud voice and came out from him.

Notice what happened.  The demon flees.  Did you guys see it at the presence and the command of Jesus?  What does the demon do?  Flees, right?  They were all amazed.   And so they began to ask each other, “What is this?  A new teaching with?   Not only is Jesus teaching, but also here He has command and sovereignty over the rulers and the princes of darkness.   OK, a teaching with authority.  He commands even the unclean spirits and. they do what?  They obey him.

OK, let’s keep going at once again in Mark.  We’ll notice how fast Mark is.  Mark is always saying “immediately, at once, all of a sudden at once.  At once, the news about Jesus spread through the entire vicinity of Galilee.  As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John.  Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever. Are we talking about Demon possession now? Or did we switch topics?  We switch topics right now.

What are we talking about?  We’re talking about a sickness that has a fever that makes the person incapacitated, a fever.  They told him about her at once.  She so He went into her, took her by the hand  ….

… TV timeout:  We do not have any historical record of a Jewish rabbi grabbing a woman who is sick by the hand.  This would have been dangerous because what do fevers tend to do? Moreover, she’s maybe dying even.  This isn’t an ibuprofen situation. …

And the reason I say that I think there’s a clue in the text.  Jesus took her by the hand, and what verb gets used?  He takes her by the hand and what does He do?  He raises her up.  You’re going to see Mark used “raised up” a few times, but one of the most vivid times is where Jesus is raised up from the dead.  I think what the author is doing here is he’s giving you a mini-resurrection to get you ready for the ultimate resurrection that’s going to be at the end of Mark.  I think what the author here is doing is showing that as Jesus comes into these spaces of darkness as the King of Glory, as the King of Kings, the King of the Kingdom of God.

When God comes into these spaces where the dominions of death seem to rule and reign, the dominions of death flee.  And you’ve got life where there was death.  You’ve got resurrections happening, where the kingdoms of darkness disintegrate.   So God’s a creative God.  The alternate gods are destructive guys.  If God is a loving God who breathes life, those who are subject to the kingdoms of darkness breathed not life, but what?  Death and decay.  I think that’s why Mark can just easily connect.  Not that not that one causes the other, but he puts together demon-possession and bodily sickness because he sees them both coming from the same king. — the kingdom of darkness.  Because one is a soul disintegration, so to speak, and the other is a physical disintegration.  And what God wants for us is to be whole, or to put it another way, to have life in abundance.  So King Jesus steps into these spaces, and the demons flee.

Notice what the fever did.  Did you guys catch it?  It didn’t say the fever got cooler or the fever went away.  What did the fever do?  What did the demon do?  It fled.  It fled because when the King of Life steps into these spaces of darkness, the powers of darkness cannot help but to flee.  And you have resurrections happening.  When Jesus is present, that which was dead is now made live again.  He raised her up.  The fever left her, and she began to administer to them.

When evening came after the sunset, they brought to Him all those who were sick and demon possessed.  The ancients know that there’s a difference.  Sick and demon-possessed, right?  These are people who are suffering under the domain of darkness.

I just want you to imagine.  Imagine this.  Imagine that Jesus raises up Simon’s mother-in-law and she begins to minister to them, and then all of a sudden the entire city full of people who are suffering under the demonic oppression of death starts coming out of the woodwork and they’re crowding around Simon’s mother in Law’s house. Desperate people looking for hope — so many that people can’t even get inside the house.

Do you see it?  Just imagine Light breaking into Darkness.  And people who are living under oppression of Satan, sin and death cannot help but say, “Jesus, where are you?”  There’s light here and they’re thronging around Him.  They’re longing to be with Him, longing to see the light.  The whole town is assembled at the door.

And He healed many who are sick with various diseases and drove out many demons.  Do you get this?  This is a people who have been suffering under oppression of the kingdoms of darkness for too long.  And in comes the King.  He drove out many demons and would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him.

OK, so I just want to go back one second.  I have a running prayer list for y’all.  When I find out somebody is sick — or maybe there’s a death or a need or a job or whatever it may be.  I’ve got at a running list. I pray for y’all every week, and in the last two weeks, the number people sick in our congregation is over 100 names that I know of.  That’s the first for me.  It’s hit our house.  It’s hit our extended family.  It’s hit friends and our circles.  Whether it’s Omicron or whatever, the Cron is now.  And for some of us, you know we’re not feeling so great.  For others of us, it’s really scary right now.

And my family and I, we’re trying to do the best we can.  You know, we’re trying to follow the protocols and take care of each other and take care of our neighbors.  We’re listening to the doctors.  But the fact is, I’ve never been more in need of a Jesus.  And it’s not just recently.  Over the last couple of years, in a very deep and profound way, I’ve never been so badly in need of a Jesus who brings healing.

And the great news is that there’s always resurrection in the Kingdom.  There’s always hope and healing in the Kingdom.  It may not come in the way that I want.  It may not come in the form we expect.  I’ve gone to more funerals in the last couple years than we had been at before.  And yet there’s a hope.  The kingdoms of darkness do not win — even though right now, for me at least, and I think for many of us, it may seem like they’re gaining traction.  But what better time for us to look to Jesus?  Just this throng of people coming out looking.  At Jesus.

And so, here’s my encouragement to you and the many of you that are joining us online or are out sick right now.   I know for some of you, it’s really scary right now.  And I don’t want to say trite things like “It’ll all workout in the end,“ or, you know “At least it’s not as bad as whatever.”  I just want to say this that Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine, that He holds you in the palm of His hand.  He’s the King over the cosmos and over every molecule in your body.  And He is the great Physician and Healer, however he chooses to work.  He loves you more than you could ever imagine and has only your good in mind.  So rest at peace, knowing you’re with the King.

So Jesus.  The next morning while it was still dark, He gets up, goes out and makes His way to a deserted place, praying. Simon and his companion search for Him.  Now I think this is kind of hilarious.  I think Jesus is a little annoyed, right?  Why do I think Jesus was annoyed?  For those of you who’ve like you have children, you may recall when you go to your room.  Some of you may recognize this, right?  You go to your room just for a little peace and quiet and, inevitably, where do your children end up?  Next to you, and usually is there a volume higher or lower than you prefer, right?  And you’re thinking “Just give me some peace and quiet.”

Jesus goes to be alone very early in the morning while it was still dark.  He’s like “I, I just I gotta get out of here.  I need some Sabbath.  I need some rest.” And then inevitably, what happens?  Simon and his companions are searching for Him, Jesus.  “JC ,where you at?”

Now I think that this is hilarious and here’s why.  Do you remember in earlier in this Charter Jesus said follow me?  I think maybe Simon took it really literally.  Like “I’m gonna follow Jesus every step he takes.”  So he and his companions search for Jesus and when they found Him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” And He said to them,”Let’s go on in the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too.  This is why I have come.”  He went into all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.  You guys get in the rhythm.  He’s teaching with authority.  He’s casting out demons with authority.  He’s healing with authority.

Then a man with leprosy came to him and on his knees begged Him.  “If you are willing, you can make me  …? What’s the word?  Now this is interesting.  He doesn’t say “You can make me whole.” He says you can make me what?  Clean. Because he would have been considered a social outcast because of his disease.  This man wants more than just a physical healing.  He wants to be reintegrated into community life.  And so he says, “Make me clean.”

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand.  This is interesting.  Moved with compassion, say some of the manuscripts that we have.  In others, it says He was filled with anger.  In fact, if you have a print Bible, you might have a little note that says some of the manuscripts say, filled with anger.  And I actually would prefer that translation, and here’s why.

Do you think He’s angry at the man?  What’s He angry at?  Remember, Mark has set us up here to see Jesus as the King of the Kingdom of God confronting the kingdom or kingdoms of this world or the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of death.  And here this leprosy has taken hold of this man, which has brought disintegration to his body and disintegration of his relationships.  Could it be that Jesus is furious at the kingdom of darkness?  And so, filled with a fury and anger towards that kingdom, He does a healing, and He says, “Go show yourself to the priest, offer what Moses commanded” — again, Jesus is a Jewish man – “and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely, to spread the news with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly.  Again, people are thronging around Jesus.

In Chapter 2 when Jesus entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that He was at home.  So many people gathered around Him that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and He was speaking the Word to them.  They came to Him bringing a paralytic carried by four of the men.  So you get this scene right?  All these people are crowded around Jesus.  Jesus is teaching, and these four people are carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.  Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.  Now, if this is your house, right?  Some of us want to see a miracle, but we don’t want a miracle that involves roof damage.

I’m just saying that because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.  That now this kind of happens fast as I read it out loud, but could you imagine how long this takes?  Like, especially if they weren’t great at rappelling people.  So here this paralytic comes down.  Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Is that what the paralyzed man asked for?  Do you think that’s why those four friends of his lowered him down?  “All right, we got to get his sins forgiven, so let’s claw out the roof and lower him down.”  Do you think that’s what they wanted?   Jesus flips the script.

I just want to lean into this just for a brief moment.  Demonic oppression?  A fever.  Is this not all part or manifestations of the kingdoms of darkness?  The evil out there?  The evil that’s killing me?  The evil that’s in here?  Is that not all under the domain of darkness?  Do you see how these things all fit together?

It’s not that one causes the other or anything like that, but just notice what Jesus has been doing.  He’s marching towards His enemy.  But here this man is not His enemy.  He doesn’t say, “You’re a sinner.”  But He gets it.  What’s going on in the heart? Because sin separates us from God, separates us from one another.  It gets toxic.  Shame begets internal oppression.  It begins internal decay.  And what this man needed was to hear was “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

But some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.  Do you remember that on occasion Mark will use a literary device where he will put a proclamation about who Jesus is in the most unlikely of people’s mouths.  Do you remember that?  Watch this.

Some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.  They’re opposing Jesus.  “Why does he speak like this?  He’s blaspheming.”  Notice the question:  Who can forgive sins?  There’s only one person who can do that, and the scribes know it.  Who is the answer? OK, so do you see what Mark is doing here?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?  Do you see what Jesus is doing?  He’s saying “You guys want to see God in the flesh. I’m giving him to you.”

Who can forgive sins but God alone?  Right away, Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your heart?”  If I were a scribe, I’d be thinking, “Which is easier to say to the paralytic?  ‘Your sins are forgiven’, which that is easier to say — because you can’t prove it — or say, get up, take your mat and walk.’”

What have we been talking about this whole time?  The authority of the King.  So Jesus says, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins” and then he pivots to the paralytic and says, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  Immediately he got up, took them out and went out in front of everyone.  As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying we have never seen anything like this.  We have never seen anything like this because there is nothing, nothing, nothing quite like Jesus.

So He’s the King who says “Follow me,” and then we follow Him.  And where do we follow Him?  We follow Him into the dark.  When we follow Him into the dark, He will use us to bring the light of the good news of his Kingdom into spaces where there’s physical disintegration, where there’s spiritual disintegration, where there is death and decay.  He wants to bring life.

And friends my question for you as a follower of Jesus is this.  What does it look like in your life — to be a citizen in the Kingdom of God and to follow Jesus into the scary dark places where death and disintegration seem to reign?  To be an agent of life, of healing, of peace?  To be a follower of Jesus and to follow Him even into the dark?  As a church family, we’re committed to following him together.  And so let us be a people who live in light of this truth.

Let me pray for us.  Lord Jesus, we love you and we give you thanks.  We pray that in all things we would lift you up that your name would be glorified and by the power of your spirit that you would continue to shape us into the type of people you want us to be.  Lord, as we follow you into the dark, disintegrated spaces and into the places where death seems to rule, we rest on your power, your strength in your peace.  Jesus, it’s in your name we pray.  Amen. ###