To the Uttermost

Take one out of the pew, it's yours, you can take it home, bring it back with you. I'd like for you to be looking at a Bible as we go through. We're moving through the book of Acts, we're in chapter 13, and as your bulletin mentions, the title of this series is To the Uttermost, as that's our calling, to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the uttermost, the good news of life in Christ. He empowers us to do that by His Spirit, it's not a command, He's telling us the absolute effect of being filled with the Spirit of God, you will do that, you will be my witness.

If you are not, if you are hesitant where that's concerned, then number one, you need to look and examine yourself to see if you're really born again, if the Spirit of God really resides in you. If He does, He will be drawing you to Jesus, you will just have an urge to be with the Lord, and as you are with the Lord, you will just naturally be His witness, you'll be living it and telling others about Him. If you aren't, you better examine yourself, the times are short. Now as we come to chapter 13, in your bulletin it says that we're going to do verses 13-52, the end of the chapter, we're not going to quite make that today, in fact we're only going to do verse 13 today, we'll finish the rest of it next week, but bear with me if

you would, look at verse 13 for just a minute, whatever version you're looking at, I'm reading from NIV. And Luke writes, from Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. That seems like a very insignificant verse, and how are we going to spend our whole time on one verse like that? Let me give you a little bit of preliminary.

First of all, I want to give you some encouragement, and for those that have been here for a while, you are familiar with this, to stay current on what's happening in the world. You need to be reading the major news media as well as being aware of what's involved in Christian media, because much of what is happening is not discernible until you see the perspective from the biblical point of view, from a Christian point of view.

the application of these news items. The item I'm going to read to you this morning, the article is titled Clinton Order and National ID Raise Concerns, and I'll read quote, a Clinton executive order and two proposed national ID cards have created growing concern among many Americans, although most do not even know that they exist. On May 14th, President Clinton signed a new executive order, executive order number 13083, which revoked President Reagan's executive order, number 12612, that had reaffirmed federal government's few, limited, and enumerated constitutional powers. Some analysts say the new order quote, effectively revokes the Tenth Amendment and arrow gates

to the president, broad new powers tantamount to those of a totalitarian dictatorship, end quote. On July 16th, the White House announced it was postponing the implementation of this

If they reject the executive order, it's null and void. It's a dead issue. If they do nothing about it after 30 days, it automatically becomes a law because of default by inactivity. We currently exist under many executive orders that have been issued really since right around World War II. Many things that allow the president and the government certain activities and certain

accesses have become effective through executive orders. This executive order repeals the executive order that President Reagan issued during his tenure, which limited the government's involvement in state activity. This has now been removed. Let me go on with the article. The order, which some feel eliminates the principles of federalism or shared power, comes on the heels of the president's announcement that he will not spend the next two years

as a, quote, lame duck, end quote, nor be accountable to a, quote, do-nothing Congress, end quote. Rather, he pledged to issue a flurry of executive orders to further implement his agenda. The order gives the federal government authority to force almost anything deemed necessary and effectively prevents Congress from interceding. Even national disturbances such as those predicted from the Y2K computer problem could warrant the activation of the War Powers Act and martial law.

In response, Representative Bob Barr of Georgia has introduced a measure that's called the State Sovereignty Act of 1998 in the House of Representatives to restore the division of governmental responsibilities between Washington and the states as intended by the framers of the Constitution. Analysts are reporting that this new executive order will also be used to implement the creation of a national identification card. The Immigration Reform Act, which was included in the Omnibus Appropriations Act for 1997

I mean, it's done publicly, and it's like the responsibility's on us to follow what's going on, but most people don't. They just go on as long as they've got a job and they're making their payments on everything, you know, situation normal, we're okay, we don't care. And so this bill, this act, was passed in September of 96. It forces each state to make driver's licenses comply with the federal requirements by October 1st of the year 2000.

What are those requirements? What's required now by the federal government for all of our driver's licenses by October 1st of the year 2000? Well, the U.S. Department of Transportation published these regulations on June 17th of this year, which you probably missed. But they require a social security number and a digitized biometric information number. In other words, fingerprints, retina scan, DNA, and voice prints on each license.

Well, most of you probably already use your social security number. Some of you use a KS number, a nine-digit number, because you're not, you don't have to use your social security number until October 1st of the year 2000, then you have to. That's a nine-digit number. Now this biometric information, digitized biometric information, includes fingerprint information, a retina scan, DNA information, and voice prints.

That's also going to be digitized numerically. The proposal is for a nine-digit numerical number that also is added to your nine-digit social security number that will carry this information required by law to be on your driver's license by October 1st of the year 2000. Nine-digit social security number, nine-digit biometric information number is 18 digits. They're supposed to be divided in three separate groups of six, which would be six digits and six digits and six digits, or 666, mandated, everybody, in all the states, by October 1st of the year 2000.

In response to this, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas has introduced the Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act, which would repeal this little-known provision requiring this national ID. You probably haven't heard about that either. So this is now currently going on in Congress. It's mandated by law, but now there's a move by certain representatives to try and repeal that, and you won't hear about it in much of the secular press.

On another front, hearings have begun this week in Chicago on a requirement that would assign a lifetime medical ID to each American. Now that one I did see before I got this article. I read that in this week's Wichita Eagle, and I have a copy of the article. Medical ID for every American is a topic of hearings. Now, I don't know if you've heard anything about that either.

It is getting a little more prominence because they're already debating it. They're already working on that. Basically what that is is the Clinton administration is looking to issue a medical ID for everybody that would be assigned to you at birth and follow you through death. All of your medical information would then be assigned to this ID number. When you go and your doctor gives you a prescription, it will be recorded on your ID number.

When you even go to the doctor's office for any kind of office call whatsoever, it'll be recorded on your medical ID. It'll stay with you. It'll be in a major data bank that's accessible by all the insurance companies and by any other physician. The insurance companies really want this because when you apply for insurance, they can know your medical history, and if you happen to omit a couple of surgeries that you had on your form that you fill out, well, they'll nail you because they've got it.

They really want this.

Now, I don't know what's going to transpire before the issuing of the cards to the issuing of the thing underneath the skin that will actually put the mark on people permanently, but we're that close. Critics, this article goes on to say, critics complain that such a system would lead to a loss of privacy for all American citizens. Quote, the American political system was set up to be inefficient, to divide power, end quote, says Dr. Richard Sobel of Harvard Law School.

Quote, what ID numbers do is centralize power, and in a time when knowledge is power, then centralized information is centralized power. I think people have a gut sense that this is not a good idea, end quote. Now, some of you sitting there are going to say, the minute I said Clinton deal, whatever, and some of you listening on tape and some of you listening on the radio, the first thing you're going to think when I share all of this is, this is a political thing, you know, we're getting political here. I thought this was a Christian deal, and what happened to separation of church and state?

Well, separation of church and state has been foisted on the American people, erroneously.

from one to two miles high and just devastate much of life as we know it today. Now where did they get that idea? Well in the book of Revelation in chapter 8, it's part of the second trumpet that sounded during the judgments, during the great tribulation. The second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain all ablaze, sounds like an asteroid of some type, was thrown into the sea.

And a third of the sea turned to blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Now in these movies, there's a theme that goes along with both of these movies. Neither one of them has to do with Armageddon, because the Armageddon of the Bible is a battle that will ensue between all of the forces of the earth and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he will simply return. And from the breath of his mouth, 2 Thessalonians 2 says he will stop the battle and annihilate the Antichrist, cast him and the beast and the false prophet and all of those who are wearing the mark of the beast into the lake of fire.

It'll be over that fast. But the idea that this kind of thing is coming, now in both of these movies, humanity wins. Humanity and their technology, they get together and they figure out how to blow these things out of the sky, so the effect is minimized, and man overcomes the elements again. What's the reason for that? Because the closer we get, and the more Christians are talking about it, the last days, the end

times, the world is going to be going, life will go on, we'll overcome, we'll draw together as humanity and we'll figure out an answer for it somehow.

I believe the church is going to be taken out before the great tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, the time the Bible calls a time that has never been like it before, nor will there ever be one like it again. I believe we're going out before that, but the church, for the most part, for these 2,000 years, has suffered persecution. You and I were fortunate to grow up in the Western culture that's the greatest culture and country ever in the history of the world, and we have not suffered persecution for our

I believe that it's very plausible that we will suffer some intense persecution before the rapture of the church, before the Great Tribulation. We spent, about three years ago, we were in the book of Philippians, and those of you that were here, do you remember what that series was titled? It was called Preparing for Suffering. As we were seeing that, yes, we're probably going to suffer.

Are we ready for that? And I ask you that again this morning. Are you ready? Are you ready for what's ahead?

to suffer, and we must work hard to tell the good news and to do that job well. Are you ready? Now, that brings us to Acts chapter 13, verse 13. And we're going to look at this today. We're looking at this series in to the uttermost, in the divisions that are, if you're reading a study Bible, your study Bible's divided up through chapters 13 and 14 by various cities

where Paul and Barnabas went in presenting the gospel. And so we're looking at this in this way by the designation of the different cities. Certain things happened in these cities. In Antioch, where they began, it was a place of preparation. In Cyprus, where they have just been, it was a place of opposition. And now we come to this next section. Now, if you're looking in your Bible, it says in Pisidian, Antioch, but it misses one in

the study Bible, one that they went to that seems real insignificant.

And you and I will stand there regularly during our Christian walk, a place of decision or desertion. Now, quickly, geographically, let me show you where Perga is in Pamphylia, and you won't be able to see it really well here, but we'll try. This is Antioch. This is where Paul and Barnabas and John Mark left from. They went to Seleucia, which is on the coast of the Mediterranean, and they sailed by ship

from Seleucia to Cyprus. They landed at Salamis on the east end of Cyprus and traveled by foot 90 miles across

It's there that we read in verse 13 that John Mark left and returned to Jerusalem. This one little verse shares with us some powerful information that we need to ponder, we need to consider. It's in Perga that John Mark left to go to Jerusalem. So big deal. Well, it evidently was a big deal because when you come to chapter 15, which we'll get to in a few weeks or months, Paul and Barnabas have returned to Jerusalem from their first

been established, and they're primarily Gentile churches. And the Jerusalem Council meets, and we'll see all this when we get to chapter 15, and they decide what the Gentile churches need to do. They don't want to place any heavy burdens of Jewish law on them, so they decide what needs to happen. And they send Paul and Barnabas out again with a letter that they're to take to all these different churches and really encourage them in the faith, and then they walk with the Lord. Now, at the end of chapter 15, it says that

when they're getting ready to go, Barnabas wants to take John Mark again. He wants to

that arose over that that they split. They had a split. One of the first church splits was Paul and Barnabas. And Barnabas took John Mark, and he went a different direction. And Paul took Silas and went back on virtually his initial first missionary journey, bringing this letter and encouragement to the churches that had been established. So it's important. What happens here in verse 13 is very important. It's something for us

to consider because something caused John Mark to leave. Something caused him to desert.

from our trust in the Lord. He wants to turn us from that place of establishing that love relationship with the Lord. And so I want you to consider these seven considerations as to why John Mark possibly split. First, number one, it's very possible that he was discouraged by the weak response to the gospel. It's very possible that John Mark was discouraged by the weak response to the gospel. Now, where do you get that? Well, back, remember last

week when we looked as they first came to Cyprus back in verse 4, it says they sailed from Seleucia and sailed to Cyprus. Verse 5, when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues and John was with them as their helper. Luke wanted us to know that for sure for some reason. And I think it's to consider what happens to John Mark. And then they traveled through the whole island. Verse 6, we don't know what

happened in Salamis at Cyprus. We don't know. We're not given any account of anything that happened. Now, if something major happened, if the whole island came to Christ, I think

tear their clothes and sit in ashes in repentance before the Lord. Evidently, nothing like that happened. Just the governor may have believed, and we don't know if his belief there was full on or just a seed that fell on rocky ground and maybe was scorched down later. We don't know. But I think that it's safe to assume that John Mark probably had an idea how this whole thing was going to go, like all of us. Whatever you have on your schedule

John Mark off to take the good news to the uttermost parts of the earth, what do you think John Mark is anticipating? Here we come to... I mean, not only do a lot of people not get saved, there's probably many that are very hostile towards them, and it probably didn't go as he planned it would. Now, how about

about that. Jesus is becoming real to you, and you want to take that to the uttermost, wherever that is, wherever God's sending you. You go there, and you're anticipating, God, we're in the last days. You're just going to use me as a mighty servant, and you go in, and people just blow you off, and they call you a fanatic and a holy Joe and a whatever, and they just kind of... And husbands, you got saved, and you went home, and your wife

is saying, yeah, let me see it for about 25 years active in your life, and then I'll know

weak response to the gospel. Secondly, he very probably could have been unnerved by the opposition itself, not just the fact they were rejecting the gospel, but number two, by the blatant direct opposition. Now, we read about that as they come to Paphos in verses 6 through 11, and they encounter the sorcerer, Bar-Jesus, also called Elimus, who was not only schooled in the word of God, not only schooled as a Jew in the understanding of the Torah, but also in the Magos, in the art of the Magi, in the sorceries. And he was able to confront them boldly and blatantly and openly for the purposes we saw down in verse 8, to turn the procouncil from the faith.

And maybe this opposition, this satanic opposition, this blatant satanic opposition was just overwhelming to John Mark. They couldn't, we talked before about, maybe it wasn't just so blatant satanic

is Barnabas John Mark's uncle, nice Barney, the encourager in charge. But now you've got hook-nosed little Jewish Paul, who as you read the accounts of the historians and all, he was brusque, he was belligerent, he was coarse and brash, he was harsh in his personality, just hard to get close to initially. Now you've had Uncle Barney leading the way, and now you've got this little guy who just irritates the daylights out of you. Now maybe you've experienced that. Maybe you've experienced something similar to that on your job. You

were working in this wonderful job in a wonderful place, and your foreman left, and they brought in this guy that's just a killer. I mean, he's no heart for anybody, out for himself or herself, and just doesn't care about how you work, and you just feel like there's no possible way that I'm going to do anything but die here. Or maybe that's true in your marriage relationship. Maybe you are experiencing that from your mate, and there's just this friction, and there's just this callousness that you just, as a wife and as your husband, you just can't stand. Or maybe as the kid in that relationship, your parents just seem

like they don't understand, they don't listen, and this kind of leadership relationship is just out the window. Maybe it's the church. Maybe there's things that you see here that you don't like the decisions that are made, or there's things you just think ought to be done that aren't done, and there's just irritating you that these things aren't done. So if you're that way, maybe you can kind of sense how John Mark might have felt with this change in authority, this change in leadership, and he's just ready to split because he can't stand Paul. Now, it's a blessing, because later on, God has moved in both John Mark's

heart and Paul's heart, and when Paul's in prison, as he's writing his prison epistles, he writes to the brothers that they would bring John Mark to him while he's in prison because he's really been comforted much by John Mark's ministry. So the Lord's done a work in both Paul's and John Mark's heart over a period of time. So it's a blessing. Growth and forgiveness has occurred after some time, but as of right now, maybe this is what John Mark is feeling, and maybe you're feeling that in a certain area of leadership as well. Number four, John Mark could have been very

uncomfortable around Gentiles, so I don't relate to that. Well, you have to realize that his background is Jewish, and Jews thought Gentiles were worse than dogs. I mean, that God was going to fire the flames of hell with Gentiles. He was going to stoke the fires of hell with Gentiles. That's what the average Jew figured, and yet Paul has been called by God through Barnabas and all as what? The apostle to the Gentiles. That's his main call.

That's the main mission of the trip. Paul's going into the synagogues, but his main mission is Gentiles. These barbaric, dirty, unclean, filthy, uncouth, they eat anything that crawls Gentile, and so John Mark could really be troubled by this ethnic or cultural or racist hangup where Gentiles were concerned. Look down at verse 16 for just a second right there in chapter 13. Paul, as they come into this synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, he comes in

and he addresses, he says, men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God. Now, I don't know if you're familiar with synagogue worship, but only men come to synagogue. Only the men would come into the synagogue proper, and the women, if it was a nice synagogue, would be in the balcony with a screen pulled across where you couldn't see them. They could hear and they could kind of see through the screen, but they're separated from the men. Also,

if it's not a balcony, then it would either be at the back of the entrance to the synagogue or along a side. It still would be screened off where the women are separate from the men, and the Gentiles would also be out there, the believing Gentiles, the proselytes, those who have come to faith in Yahweh. Paul starts off and so he would be addressing men of Israel, and he would look wherever that is, wherever that screen is, and you Gentiles, he's talking specifically to the Gentiles, you Gentiles who believe in God. He had a heart for them.

That's who God was calling him to. Now, it kind of irritated Peter, and we'll see some of that later, so it probably irritated John Mark. Now, let me ask you a question. Are there some people around you who are called Christians, maybe even those who fellowship here, who are from a different culture or from a different status in life, above you or below you in status? Maybe a different race. Listen, maybe even a different intelligence.

You just don't like to be around them. I mean, you come here, and they're there, and you're around them, and they just irritate you. Maybe some of them even smell, and just the thought of going to church and possibly seeing them, I just don't want to go. Then you have kind of an idea of maybe what John Mark might have been feeling. Now, number five, maybe the

conditions were those that he just really hadn't anticipated. Maybe the conditions were such that he just had not anticipated just how severe the conditions would be. Remember

believer. I went to Las Vegas as a non-believer, and it was fine, but as a Christian, coming into Las Vegas now, it's just like a heaviness, just hard to breathe. If you come into it at night, you come in from one of the towns away from it, and there's nothing, and then all of a sudden, boom, there's this huge city out in the middle of the desert, lights up the sky from a distance. You drive down the strip, and there's just all of this stuff going on, not only the gambling, but you realize all the prostitution and all the alcoholism and the drugs and the oppression that's there, and it's just something you can feel. It's

an oppressiveness that you can't anticipate. You hear about all the things that are going on out there, but as a believer, you can't anticipate it until you're there, and that's kind of how I see John Mark. Yeah, I mean, he's been in this great revival in Antioch, and there's a lot of junk there, too, but things are going so well, and he's anticipating going to Cyprus, and he knows about it, but he gets there, but the paganism and the temptation

They say, by the way, the Cilician pirates are really out heavy. And when they see you, they'll board the ship and kill everybody on board and, you know, take all the plunder and sink the ship. Oh, great. Now, you somehow make it across the Mediterranean to Pamphylia. Now, when you get to Pamphylia, something I forgot to mention is Perga, the city Perga and the region of Pamphylia, after you get across the beach, after you land, it's 3,600

feet straight up. So they would have to make their way on trails and climb some 3,600 feet through the city of Perga and the regions of Pamphylia. He'd just been walking 90 miles, probably robbed, no real great things going on that you can see. You get on the ship, the 100 miles, know you're gonna die from pirates. And you get over there and finally got to land

and you gotta climb 3,600 feet. And he got to Perga and he said, that's it. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going any further, I'm done. Maybe the conditions were just not what he really anticipated. Everywhere, everywhere I have gone to minister, both stateside and overseas, is nothing like I anticipated. I went to Nigeria, I was in Lagos, Nigeria for two weeks.

And I read all the brochures and I anticipated, you know, it's gonna be bad. It's gonna be terrible, the conditions there are terrible. There's seven million people in an area that's just shanties and shacks. And okay, you try and psych yourself up for this and I'm ready to go to Lagos and minister to these pastors over there that are suffering for Christ. And there's nothing to prepare you for something like that.

You walk out of the airport terminal and the smell that hits you is a combination of urine and mildew and feces and car exhaust. The poverty is overwhelming. We minister to pastors as we sat in 110 degree, 100% humidity conditions and bugs and mosquitoes flying around and we're seeking to encourage them in the Lord. Nothing, I've gone to different places and it's supposedly in this country.

To do a pastor's conference or to teach at a different church and you anticipate that everything's gonna flow fine and all you have to do is walk up and teach. And you get there and there's things that are going on and you have to minister beforehand because the pastor and his family are going through struggles and trials and nothing's working right where the sound is concerned. And you know that when you get up there, there's some guy that said he was gonna come to church and kill his wife in the middle of the service. And so you're, you know, kind of looking out like, okay, where's his wife?

And I'll stand over on this side over here. Nothing ever happens the way that you anticipated. Conditions are never the way that you anticipated. Maybe you found that out in your marriage, in your new job, in your new school, whatever your circumstances are that you anticipated it and nothing will prepare you for what you're facing. But then you can kind of get an idea maybe

of the pressure that's on John Mark. Sixth, maybe he deserted because he was just simply young and inexperienced. Maybe the pressures got too much for him just simply because he was just a little bit young and inexperienced. That's very possible. You see, youth has its zeal, but age has its experience. Youth says, I can do anything. Age says, I know specifically what I need to do.

So I don't wear myself out doing all these other things. John Mark probably still had to learn how to read people, how to read circumstances. And in spite of that, how to follow the Holy Spirit, how to just stay calm, prepare to suffer, and press on to do that job that God has called us to, to do it well, to take the gospel no matter what. But that's something that we have to learn.

That's something that you cannot just be schooled in. You have to experience it. And it's probably just that he needed more time. He needed to go again with Barnabas and go through similar situations again with just Uncle Barney and learn how to trust the Lord, learn that the Lord would lead him, learn that the Lord would bring encouragement. Now, maybe you're at that point.

Maybe you are young of age. You're considered a youth by your age. Or maybe you're young as a Christian. You're new in the Lord and you aren't very experienced as a Christian. And you hear about these things and you see the things that are coming and you're looking at life as a young person. And you're thinking, man, it just seems like things are so dead end.

You know, where can I ever go? And besides, people don't listen to me anyhow because of my youth. Because I'm either young as physical age or young as a Christian. Timothy experienced that as the elder over the church at Ephesus. And Paul had to write to Timothy and say, hey, don't let anybody despise you. Don't get discouraged because people think you're just a whippersnapper.

You just hang in there and keep presenting the truth and love. And God will honor that. And one of the things that John needed to learn was patience. He needed to learn to just sit and wait, just like Paul says here, just stay calm. You know how hard that is? You know, as I say that to you today, you know how hard I know that is for you to even think about doing?

Just stay calm, wait patiently. In the age in which we live, where nothing is calm, nothing is patient, you don't do anything one at a time. You know, I can remember, and I'm not that old, but I can remember a time when I used to talk on the phone and that's all you did, remember? Was talk to the person on the other end of the phone. When you were on the phone, that's all you did.

The phone rang and you answered the phone and it was time to take a break because you'd sit down and just talk to the person on the other end of the phone. Now you don't do that anymore. I mean, why are you talking to the person on the other end of the phone? You're getting things in order here. You're putting stuff, you're writing down notes of things you gotta do after you get off the phone

and you're setting that over here and you're making notes over here and you're pulling this together because you gotta call somebody else as soon as you get off the phone with this person and you're kind of half listening to what they say and every now and then you have to say, I can't believe that, could you tell me that again? Because I really wasn't listening to you because I was writing this thing down and you have to, and you're telling them again and you can't just get to the file cabinet because you don't have the portable phone so you gotta make a note here, I gotta go to the file cabinet as soon as I get off of it and you're doing a half a million things at the same time. You don't ever just drive anywhere.

You've got the radio on, you've got the CD player on, you're trying to chew gum or drink a pop or eat burgers and fries and you don't, you're trying to do a million things at once. So I understand when it says stay calm and just sit how hard that is, but that's what we need to do as Christians is just wait on the Lord to move and to direct us into those certain areas. Now I am learning that in all areas of my walk. Now I don't want you to be stumbled by this but I play cards.

Oh boy, that's terrible, I know. When I play cards with people, I watch and the people around, when somebody's dealing, the people are, I mean they're quick to grab these cards and I just sit there and let them all pile up till they're all dealt out and then I take them one at a time and I put them in my hand. I can hear somebody, oh God, I'm ready to play, let's go, I'm gonna take the whole hearts, you know, I'm gonna bid them all, that's fine and I'm still sitting here putting cards in my hand and you know what, I don't care. Because I'm sitting there and I know what I'm doing, I'm getting there and I know my first play, I know what the thing is and I'm in control and I'm not feeling the pressure that you're feeling.

Now I'm learning to do that in other areas, just to wait and just watch and just, the Lord does so many neat things when we just are quiet for a minute, just to stop and to watch. Now as youth, that's very difficult to do because you already know how to do everything and you wanna just get it done and show everybody else that you know how to do everything too but if you can learn just to wait and let the Lord raise you up, you don't have to prove, you don't have to prove to anybody that at 16, 17, 18 years old, you already know how to do everything, you don't have to prove that, let the Lord raise you up, you just be a servant and love as the Lord's called you to love and watch God work and you don't have to do all those things at work

to climb the ladder and you know, make sure that everybody sees you so that you know I'm here and I'm gonna be a junior executive and I'm gonna climb that ladder of success, you just do your job consistently and faithfully and in the love of the Lord and let your light shine and you'll be amazed. Psalm 73 says it's the Lord who raises one up and puts the other one down and if you can learn that, if you can come to that point, it's just really a restful time and John Mark hadn't come to that point yet and so I think because of his youth, he was a little intimidated and it just wasn't going the way he thought it ought to go and it was real easy for him to wrap it. Seventh and finally and we'll close. He very possibly had not yet learned

what we saw back in chapter 12 where remember Peter, prison and praise, Peter, prison and prayer, the first thing that we saw in chapter 12 was that we have to understand that God is all sovereign. He's in total control. Now you can know that intellectually but you have to learn how to submit yourself to that practically in all situations and he very possibly had not yet learned that because he was young and had just needed to go through some experiences with the Lord to realize that God is faithful. God will not leave you nor forsake you.

He will constantly pour his mercy and grace upon you. He will always bring you through the situation and he just had not experienced that yet but let me show you that he did finally come to that point and we'll close. Turn to Mark chapter 16 if you would. Mark chapter 16. This is the same John Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark and as you read, if you read Matthew first

and then read Mark in succession, I can see why the Holy Spirit put it that way as the canon of scripture was established because you read through Matthew and Matthew is very meticulous in establishing the traits of Judaism that Messiah would fulfill and then you come to Mark and Mark's like running a hundred yard dash. Well, first we went here and then we went there and Jesus did this and Jesus did that and he's very practical and absolute and quick. We're doing this, he's the moving gospel. He gets you through the life of Christ quickly.

Matthew took 28 chapters, Mark only took 16. You know, he writes quick and you see that but when you get to chapter 16, if you're reading NIV, if you look down at verse eight, between verses eight and nine, you probably have a footnote or maybe right in the middle of your page, it says the most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have these next verses, verses nine through 20. Well, that's fine, they're in here. So they must have had, somebody had them and they're okay and as you read it, you read down from verses nine through 14 and it's just basically the same thing you read in any of the other gospels of the account of the resurrection.

Jesus appeared to Mary and then to the other disciples and they didn't believe Mary, they didn't believe the two on the road to Emmaus at first and later Jesus appeared to the 11, verse 14 and he rebuked them for their lack of faith and stubborn refusal. They did not believe that he'd been risen. Verse 15, as he said to them, go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Basically, same as Matthew 28. Then he said, and these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name, they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes with their hands and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all and they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well. And those who don't believe the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit are for today will emphasize the fact that this is really not in most manuscripts because of that little footnote there and those that really do push the charismatic part of this will jump on Mark 16 and say, this is what we need to be doing.

So we need to get out there and let the gifts just really flow. How come the gifts aren't moving through you and they're pushing it as though that's what we need to be doing and yet, if Mark did write this and I believe he probably did and it was just kind of an addendum and who knows with all of it, but I think Mark is writing that now, not telling us that that's what we need to do, he's telling us that as we go, as we love the Lord and are drawn by him to the uttermost in the midst of these experiences, this kind of stuff's gonna happen. It's just gonna happen. You don't go looking for snakes to pick up to demonstrate your authority as a Christian.

You don't go drinking poison to demonstrate your authority as a Christian. Listen, you don't even speak in tongues according to the word to demonstrate your authority as a Christian. That's abused by a lot of denominations today. Say, unless you speak in tongues, you're not saved. I don't see that. I see Paul's relationship with Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 as a love relationship.

He's just come out of chapter 13 and it's in this love that he prays to God in a tongue and he worships God in a tongue and it just comes out of him. It's not a demonstration. I'm saved because I speak in tongues and I'm saved because I handle poisonous snakes. There's a church of the firstborn, they do that. I'm saved because I can drink deadly poison. I'm saved because I can heal the sick.

And so you have all these big things focusing on that. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, I have learned God's in control. I have learned God is sovereign. I have learned to trust the Lord. I have learned to trust him in all those deadly circumstances that I can't anticipate, whether it's walking on snakes or drinking poison that I'm not aware of. I've learned to trust him and he's been faithful.

And as you go forth, you will see that faithfulness of God. And you know why I'm convinced of that? Because look at verses 19 and 20. He writes, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. And then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. And the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

That's not a theological treatise by a kid who heard that from Peter. That's written by somebody that experienced it. He went out in the world again with Uncle Barney and then later again, ministering with Paul. And he found that God was sovereign and he found that he could trust the Lord. And these wonderful things happened as a result. He didn't go looking for them.

They just happened because he trusted the Lord. Now you're at a point of decision today and you're either gonna rabbit and defect like John Mark did, and you're gonna miss out on some glorious blessings that God has for you. Or you're gonna make a decision wherever you are to just stay calm, prepare for a little suffering and work hard at sharing the gospel because you know that's what God called you to do. Father, help us.