Category: Saturday Study

Mark 12-16  (12.30.23)

**This is my last “Saturday Study” for this year’s reading plan. If you have journeyed with me all year, it means you have successfully read through the entire New Testament. 

260 chapters and 52 Going Deeper Bible studies. 

I praise God for all the awesome feedback we have received from many of you who are studying your Bible every day with us and who are growing every weekend through the Saturday Studies.

We are excited to be launching a brand new reading plan for this next year and I will announce Sunday at church,  The first reading will be on Monday, January 1, 2024.  In the meantime, invite with your friends and family to sign up to read along with us and they can join us as we start into a new year of studying God’s word together.

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Mark 14 & 15 :

Read:Mark 14:32-42

It says, “Jesus began to be greatly distressed and troubled.”   

We must see that Jesus is fully man and fully God.

As fully man, he experienced the weight of the hardship before him just as you and I do. 

He had to be fully human so that he could be our substitute. 

It says in Luke’s gospel account that he was so intensely distressed that he sweat blood. 

I don’t know about you, but that is a heavy weight he is carrying.    I have sat with many people through their darkest hours and I have seen many reactions to the weight of this world’s hardships, but I am yet to see anyone sweat blood in his or her distress.

What does this tell us?  It tells us that Jesus understands what it means to have heavy burdens on your shoulders, to be in the midst of the storm, or to hurt at your core.    It tells us that nothing you experience is beyond what he has known or experienced. 

Jesus is not a God who is far off and doesn’t get you.  

He came. He bore the fullness of our struggle.

He understands.   Like Jesus is running to God the Father in prayer, we need to also see no higher priority in the middle of the storm than to get on our face and go to God the Father in prayer.  

Notice he doesn’t do this once.  He spends significant time in the garden in prayer with the Father and returns to find his crew sleeping each time.

What a perfect contrast for Jesus’ righteousness and our selfishness.

Peter, James, and John, his core three disciples, are so focused on the flesh that they are missing what God is doing.  They are disobedient to their Rabbi’s instruction.   They are lazy with their posture.     They are useless to do anything by their own power for what God is about to do.


Jesus finally says: It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Praise God that Jesus was all he needed to carry out our redemption.

If he trusted one ounce of it to us, we would have messed it up.  

This is why our salvation is God’s work alone and not a synergistic work between God and us.  Because in our sin we are hopeless, powerless, not willing to participate. 

We would rather sleep!  If left to ourselves, we would lay in our grave of sin and death forever.

Praise God for his election- for his pursuit of us when we were his enemies- for his substitutionary atonement.

Praise God for his amazing grace which sets us free to see and savor the true gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We are not willing, but Jesus is!  

Mark 14: 35-36 “And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”

Jesus is both fully God and fully man in this moment. 

His flesh cries out in absolute honesty for a pass from what is about to come- that the cup of God’s perfect wrath would be satisfied another way.

But his righteousness is immediate and without pause.  He says, not my will but your will be done!

It is imperative we understand that Jesus willingly submits to being captured, to being falsely testified about, to being beaten, to being hung on a criminal’s cross and to dying.  

He says in John 10:18 “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

I want us to see the beauty of Jesus’ submission.  This is the response man should have had in the Garden of Eden.  This is the response we should have but we don’t.

What makes us not submissive to God’s will- to God’s Commands? Idolatry = Self or something else above God.

Praise God for his substitutionary atonement that sets us free from our grip on our idols so that we can submit to his will and we can enjoy his supremacy!

Even in the face of great suffering like Jesus, we too can truly say God, your will be done- not mine.    

-Please understand, in Christ alone this is possible.  

Read: Mark 14:53-65-

A quick overview of the six trials of Jesus:

Religious       Annas                    – A Religious Leader (former High Priest)              

Caiaphas               – The High Priest                                 

The Sanhedrin       – The Religious Supreme Court                 

Civil              Pilate                     – The Roman Governor In Jerusalem                        

Herod                     – The King Of Judea                                               

Pilate                     – A Second Trial                                             

The way these trials went down in the middle of the night was shady.   This makes sense because they have nothing on Jesus, but are so distraught at his teachings and influence on the people that they want him gone.

So they do what man does when we are blinded by our selfish agenda.  
We lie, we cheat, we steal, we take, we kill.

Why do they lie and give false witness?   For the same reason why you and I lie about anything- because something else is so important to them that they will do anything to have it. 

Something is functioning in our lives as god, so we will lie to keep it or have it.  

This can be a relationship thing (lie to your parent or spouse because you want to please them or not lose them).

This can be a physical thing (money is commonly something we lie to keep or to have more of).

This can be an identity thing (you are so concerned about how other people see you or talk about you, that you wear a mask to keep them or get them to like you).  That mask is a LIE!

This is all idolatry. It is elevating something to define your joy or identity that you lie to have it or keep it.

When God is our greatest joy- when He is who we worship- we don’t need to lie because we are clinging to other things to complete us, keep us, define us, complete us or make us happy. 

Romans 1: 25  “…they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

Now, do you see the contrary response of Jesus?  He is the one facing the greatest consequence being the one standing on trial.   But instead of lies and false witness about himself, he is truthful in his witness!

By saying “I AM”, Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah- the promised royal Redeemer that they have been waiting for.

Now, you and I would easily lie to save our skin, but Jesus is most concerned with God’s will and so he speaks honestly knowing what it will produce.      

We see a perfect example of how we (mankind) respond in our flesh in Peter’s denial of Christ.

Read: Mark 14:66-72

Peter is the only one we know of that risked getting close to the trial by standing in the courtyard with the cops.

This is a testimony to his love for Christ.  This was very risky.  It would be like the accomplice of a murder and while the trial for your buddy happens inside, you are sipping a venti coffee with the investigators just outside the courtroom doors.  

But Peter’s faithfulness is short lived in the face of possible ridicule or persecution.

Unlike Christ who boldly proclaims his allegiance to God, Peter lies and claims to not even know Jesus.

We need to see the depth of our lostness, of our sickness, of our spiritual death in this. 

Everything in Peter wants to be loyal and true to his master.  That is why he is there. 

He is the first one to always tell Jesus “I got your back.  I will die for you.”   He wants to be faithful.  But his flesh- his depravity- leaves him enslaved to the fear of man- to the fear of persecution.  

Like Peter, you and I can sit and tell God all day that we will be faithful!

But without Christ’s substitutionary atonement, you cannot do it. 


We are desperate for Jesus. Only Christ in and through you and me can produce true honesty in the face of ridicule or persecution- true faith in the face of suffering or death.

Read Mark 15:1-15

It is commonly said that you and I were standing there.  We would be the ones screaming out “Crucify him!”

By our sinful actions we have said this indirectly every day of our life as we are so blind in our sin that we actually think an innocent man is more deserving of death than I am.  

Our selfishness will cause us to do just about anything to stay on top of our world.  

That said, what I believe God wants us to see today is less of you and I being like those yelling “Crucify him!” and more like that of Barabbas.

We are the one who deserves death for our crimes against God.

We are the ones who should be in shackles in route to the cross.

We are the ones who do not deserve in the slightest to be released to the streets while an innocent man dies in our place.

Don’t miss this because it should change everything about us today and everyday.

Just as Jesus proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, “He is the Judge of the entire world…”,

but he is the one in shackles being judged.    Do you see it? This is our trial!

We are the ones that should be in the shackles being condemned for our sin and actual blasphemy, but he is our substitute.     Jesus Christ is worthy of all our praise forever. 

Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his love for us in this. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The question today is:  Do you feel the weight of the amazing grace of God?

The substitutionary atonement of Jesus?

It’s like Barabbas must have felt that day.  He knew he was a murderer.  He knew he should not be walking the streets a free man.   Can you imagine the power of that freedom for him?

That is what you and I should feel every day.   The good news washing over us, shaping every thought and decision we make, freeing us to enjoy God through Christ.

Now, here is the crossroad!

If Barabbas goes home that day back to his old life, murdering, he will never see or savor the life Christ gave him.     He will remain in spiritual death. 

But, if that day he found his way to the cross and watched the innocent blood of Jesus spill out of his broken body and he suffered and died in his place- if God opened his eyes to the gospel and he responded in repentance of his sin and trusting in Jesus with his entire life- he will be forever, truly, forever changed! 

He would be reconciled to God, set free from slavery of sin and commissioned to enjoy and live for the living God. 

May we always see and savor and share the fullness of the freedom of Barabbas that the substitutionary atonement of Jesus gives us.   AMEN! 

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Mark 7-11  (12.23.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Mark 11.

Read again Mark 11:1-11.

As Jesus enters the city, He is essentially saying, “I am a King, but I am not a King that fits into the world’s categories.”

There is something we see in the Scriptures that takes this to another level for us. A famous sermon given by the famous 17^th-century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards, called “The Excellency of Christ,” highlights Revelation 5:5-6, where John is told, “Behold, the Lion of Judah,” but what he sees is a “slain lamb.”

Edwards takes us into this passage with, “The lion excels in strength, and in the majesty of his appearance and voice:

the lamb excels in meekness and patience, besides the excellent nature of the creature as good for food, and yielding that which is fit for our clothing and being suitable to be offered in sacrifice to God. But we see that Christ is in the text compared to both, because the diverse excellencies of both [Lion and Lamb] wonderfully meet in him.”

Jesus fulfills this combination of diverse excellencies that should be utterly incompatible. Jesus is both a victorious Lion and a sacrificial Lamb; infinite highness and infinite accessibility; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and yet infinite humility; infinite majesty and infinite meekness.

He wears the crown of gold and the crown of thorns. He truly is the two-crowned King!

We’ll come back to this.

Mark 11:12-14 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

At first glance, this sounds bad. One could even say Jesus seems to come off as kind of a jerk in how He interacts with the tree. The tree did nothing wrong. It wasn’t fruit season yet. Right? What is this then, if it’s not Jesus having a tantrum, like a baby who is hungry and can’t get something to eat? Surely there is more to this interaction. We have to see how Jesus is teaching His audience and us.

Jesus is not getting in the face of the fig tree; He is getting in the face of you and me. More specifically, He is confronting the religiosity of the people and declaring His impending judgment on them.

From a distance, the fig tree looks as if it has fruit (I’ll explain in a moment), just as Israel had divine favor with God and a devotion to religious practices. But, as you get close to the tree, you can see it has no fruit, just as Israel was spiritually bare.

Let me explain.

Why would Jesus approach the fig tree looking for food if He knew it was not fig season as Mark clarifies? It’s because a fig tree produces two kinds of fruit in different seasons. As the leaves come in, it grows little edible nubs. If it doesn’t, that tree is diseased. Jesus sees the leaves and approaches to eat the nubs but finds none on it.

See, Jesus is revealing the tree’s deception. When we see this happen just before He enters the temple, He is giving us a parable of religiosity at work. Just like the Judiazers in that day, we, too, can look as if we have it all together by our outer appearance and self-righteous deeds. But in the end, the disease of sin is still at work, and no real, spiritual fruit is produced out of us.

In this, Jesus is showing us the failure of religion, of works-based salvation. We cannot rid ourselves of sin by our own works. We cannot produce spiritual fruit without Jesus working within and through us.

Make this personal for you. Many “Christians” are really just religious worker bees. Are you just really busy with religious activity?

This is the Mary-and-Martha comparison. Are you so busy trying to earn a chance to enjoy Jesus that you are missing the fact that He is sitting in your living room longing to spend time with you?

He is trying to tell you that He has done the work for you, and the only kind of service, or work, that glorifies God, and is truly enjoyable, is the kind that happens out of the overflow of Christ in you.

Every other religion says, “You are saved, or connected to God, because of your moral striving.” If this is true, then this picture of coexisting “power and weakness” will never be a reality, because religion says, “Only results and power win. Weakness fails.”

See the failure of religion:

1. If you are living up to standards, you will be overly cocky and confident.
2. When you see others struggling, you will be judgmental and rude as you say, “Suck it up.”
3. And when you are failing to meet the standard, you will be sad and depressed.

How is this good news?

But, what if you are radically loved because of what Jesus has done in spite of your flaws? What if your relationship to God is dependent not on your record but Jesus’ record? Not on your life but His life? This is exactly what He came to do for us!

Read with me:

Mark 11:15-19 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.

Verse 15 says, “… He entered the temple …”. When you look at a map of the Temple, the area you first walk into is like an outer ring called “The Court of the Gentiles” aka “The Court of the Nations.”

This is the only place the Gentiles could go. It was also the only place the venders could set up. It was a huge market with sellers of all the things people needed for the Passover and other activities—things like wine, oil, salt, and approved sacrificial animals. One Passover week would see the sale of 255,000 lambs.

Also, there were three kinds of money that circulated in this time:

Imperial money, Roman; provincial money, Greek; and local money, Jewish.

The “Money Changers” would then exchange, for a fee, the other money for the required coinage for the annual half-shekel temple tax.

Today, this might look like our modern Wall Street trading floor or the merchant areas, just on the other side of the Mexican border, in Tijuana.

Jesus gets all Randy “Macho Man” Savage on the crowd and starts flipping tables and kicking people out. But quickly, He uses the moment to teach. In verse 17, He says this is to be “a house of prayer for all the nations.”

Now what’s funny is, to the people watching this, this statement was more outrageous than His flipping tables. Because the belief was the Messiah would show up and purge the foreigners so the Jews could be free from them and their rule. But here is Jesus advocating for the Gentiles saying it is to be their house of prayer, too.

For Jesus to want foreigners to participate in the temple in prayer is shocking for the people, because they know the history of the Temple. It is not shocking to us, because we don’t fully grasp how serious the temple practices were.

Jesus puts on display humility as He enters on the back of a donkey. Then He puts on display His authority and power, as He turns tables in the temple.

Both of these are radical sights—the supposed Messiah riding in on a donkey; the supposed Messiah saying His Holy Temple is for people in all nations and not just Jews.

He is pressing His audience, and He is pressing us as we study this. He is saying, “Crown me. Or kill me!”

I ask you today, is Jesus your sacrificial King or is He a religious slave driver? One leads to new life and setting down your deadly doing and idolatry. The other leads to weighty rules and spiteful judgment that never gives life but instead withers like the fig tree.

For some, this will be good news, and in Christ they will be saved. For others, they will reject it and attempt to make their own salvation but will perish.

Hear me today: If you go to Him like a lamb, He will defend you like a Lion, and the gates of hell will not overcome you. Your former lack of satisfaction will finally be quenched in the glory and love of God almighty.

Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb who defeated death like a mighty Lion. He is our great two-crowned King!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Mark 2-6  (12.16.23)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Mark 4.

Mark 4:1-3 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.”

The main point Jesus is making in this parable is one of hearing. When you read the entire chapter, you will see the main point Jesus is talking about is the importance of and means of us hearing the gospel. Now, the hearing He speaks of is not just a hearing with the ears. It is a hearing with the heart. The varying receptiveness and readiness of the heart is the issue as to whether or not the gospel will take! We are also going to see that it is God’s authority that ultimately decides who hears and who doesn’t, which is fitting for how Mark is portraying Jesus in the first 8 chapters as the supreme King.

Look with me at verse 4 as we are introduced to the first heart condition.

1. Hardened Soil – Hard Heart

Mark 4:4 “And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.”

Mark 4:15 “And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.”

This path represents a hard heart—a heart that is tight and solid and rigid and cold and not pliable. It is a person who, on the outside, looks alive and maybe fun and vibrant; but on the inside, his heart is closed off and rigid and cold and dead. If you are this person, then when you hear the gospel, it is with the ears on your head only, because your heart rejects its truth and is not ready to receive it. It is snatched away by the enemy before God changes your heart to reconsider.

Some practical examples of this for today:

You hear the words of the gospel, but your affections are so stirred for something else that the gospel of Jesus is just not THE GOOD NEWS to you. In other words, you hear the words, but someone else snatches them away.

So, you go to lunch after church, and it doesn’t take more than a meaningless conversation about last week’s favorite TV episode for the gospel truth you just heard in your ears to be completely out of mind before it even gets to the heart. Some people can even be regular attendees of church, but in the end, the good news has not scratched the surface. It doesn’t matter how good the preacher is if the sovereign God has not changed the heart from stone to flesh.

God says clearly how He moves upon those He will save through His prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:26: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

For those who are reading this who have a hard heart or for those who are witnessing to others who have a hard heart—the command is to listen.

Jesus opens the parable with the word “LISTEN!” This is super important! Keep listening. Keep watching the gospel lived out in others around you who are mature in Christ. If you are the one sharing it to the person with the hard heart, keep sharing it even though they are turned off, because we don’t know if or when God will regenerate a dead heart to flesh, thereby making it ready to receive the good news.

Now, there’s a second scenario, and this one can be troubling when we are honest with what Jesus is saying.

2. Rocky Soil – Shallow Heart

Mark 4:5-6 “Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.”

Mark 4:16-17 “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.”

This seed lands in soil that is shallow due to all the other rocks and stuff in it. When seed lands in shallow soil, the person says, “Yes. Thank You,” but it never actually takes and produces growth.

Let’s say it another way: The initial response to hearing the gospel is excitement, but when hardship or trials come—because the receiving is a more emotional receiving and there is no real ROOT–the seed withers and the plant never grows.

He is talking about men and women who can point back to an event and say, “I said the prayer, I walked down the aisle for an alter call, I heard the message, or I grew up in the church. I remember saying ‘yes’ to Jesus, but from that moment on I have had no objective evidences of regeneration and conversion at all.” At most, over the years, this person has been conformed to a moral pattern or church culture but has not been regenerated or transformed by the Holy Spirit of God. To this person, the gospel was a good “idea” or an emotional momentary “experience,” but it did not take root. It did not transform the way the gospel does when it truly is taken in.

What Jesus is saying here is that there are men and women who point back to this moment where they received a gospel message with joy, but they never developed roots; and when hard times blow through, their roots in faith in God prove to be non-existent. This is what the Bible commonly calls a “dullness of hearing.” The promises come to the ear, but there is no passion for the promises, no lover’s embrace, no cherishing or treasuring, no real faith and therefore, no perseverance.

This is like hearing the Bible or the preaching of the Bible the way you hear the freeway noise near your house or the way you hear music in the dentist’s office waiting room. You hear it, but you don’t. You have grown dull to the sound. It does not awaken or produce anything.

There is a placebo effect when it comes to religion that is dangerous. It is an inoculation (baby shot)—a small dose of something so your body can adjust to it, so that you don’t fully get it. This placebo or inoculation for many people is their church attendance, prayer life, financial giving, routine confession from sin, or effort to do good things.

The problem is the placebo, inoculation, or routine religious experiences are not what save you or transform your heart. The real sickness is not addressed. Jesus is not really the Lord of your life. You said yes to the “idea of the seed growing in you,” but the actual seed never took ROOT. It never transformed your soil with sustaining plant growth.

If this is you, if your faith is much more about religion (obeying so I can get God’s acceptance) than it is about the gospel (recognizing I am accepted so I have the power to obey), what you need is to go back to the cross and discover what you missed the first time that has you longing after the world for identity and hope and not rooted in Jesus.

Let’s keep going. Soil number 3:

                                                             3. Thorny Soil – Preoccupied Heart

Mark 4:7 “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.”

Mark 4:18-19 “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

Preoccupied Heart: This kind of soil is the kind that is crowded with other affections. This person believes they have received the seed. They have said “yes” to the gospel and are taking real steps to grow in their walk with God, but it never produces true life change. WHY? Because the gospel to them is just religion. It is something they add to their life. It doesn’t radically change their life. The gospel cannot be just one plant of many you are trying to grow in your soil.

This is the person who says “yes” to Jesus, but also says “yes” to other functional saviors. This is the compartmentalized Christian life that just won’t produce fruit. This is what Jesus described when he said, “Who is your master? You cannot serve both God and money.” Your heart is trying to worship Jesus in principle, but you really have multiple idols that you worship. In the end, you have not truly made Jesus the Lord of your life. The passage says that you take the seed in, but you are also clinging to “cares of the world,” “riches,” and “desires.” All of these end up being thorns that choke out the one thing that can truly transform—the one thing that can truly bring lasting life and joy—the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Romans 1:21, we see this described:

Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him …

Romans 1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator …

Let me define idolatry for you real quick as a substitute or counterfeit God—something in the creation that is inflated to function as God—something that has become more fundamental than God in your life for your identity, personal significance, sense of security, purpose for living, or finding in Him happiness and joy.

Do you see how some might claim to have Jesus, but these things are choking them out? The other idols of the heart are the roots that are truly deep in their life. It’s not the gospel that is deep.

This person has to see their idols are killing them. They cannot give us the salvation we believe they will give nor the joy we hope they will give. We have to expose them and then replace them. See, the third person, the thorny soil still has not given their life to Jesus. They are trying to add Him to the alter of the other idols of their lives. While there is some devotion to the things of God, there is not true and lasting transformation. They have not truly been born again by the gospel. They have added religion to their lives and are trying to balance God with everything else.

With that, let’s look at the final soil:

4. Good Soil ­– Readied Heart

Mark 4:8 “And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

Mark 4:20 “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

This is the picture of the readied heart. The question is, “How do we truly hear the Word and then cultivate the soil of the readied heart?”

First, we must understand God is ultimately in charge of who hears and who doesn’t. Now, this is not a popular way to look at how God works. But I’m much more concerned with being honest with God’s word than pleasing people. So, I must be faithful to what Jesus is saying here and not put my own twist on it for the sake of making everyone feel comfortable.

Look with me at the middle of our passage at verses 10-12, because we need to see what happens right after Jesus finishes preaching the parable to the crowd and not skip it.

Mark 4:10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

Now Jesus answers, but listen to where Jesus takes them with His answer:

Mark 4:11-12 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that [and he quotes from Isaiah] ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

In Isaiah 6:9-10, God tells Isaiah that his ministry to Israel will be saving for some, but hardening for others. The time had run out for Isaiah’s people and the word of God was, by God’s will, no longer going to be effective to save them. Instead it would render their hearts insensitive and their ears dull.

This is a very boggling reference Jesus uses at first glance. It is one that man gets hung up on because we want to box God in and believe that “God doesn’t cause some to not hear this gospel.” But Jesus is saying very clearly here that to those whom Jesus has chosen, they will hear. And to those God has not chosen, they might hear with their ears, but they will not hear with their hearts.

Some will twist this to say that this means the SAVED WILL UNDERSTAND AND THE UNSAVED WILL NOT.

The scriptures are clear, God is sovereign over salvation and therefore Jesus knows who will be saved and who will not. He knows who is a part of His elect and who are not. He is saying here in verses 11 and 12 that one of the reasons he uses parables is “so that” when some hear, they may not understand.

So, every time the Scriptures are taught, every time the word of God goes out, by God’s providence it has a softening effect on some and a hardening effect on others, because God’s going to display both His mercy and His justice. If you are wrestling with this, Paul is clear in Romans 9 that there is no injustice in God’s sovereign will to choose some and not others (specifically in Romans 9:11-23). We have to be careful not to do what Paul’s audience in Romans 9 is doing, which is to challenge why a good and holy God would not work this way. I will simply say who are we to tell Him what is holy and just and right? He is God and we are His creation.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God affirms that His sovereign ways and thoughts are higher than ours. It is important when we come face to face with these kinds of workings of God that we humble ourselves before our mighty King rather than arrogantly think we know better.

So, how do we truly hear the word and then cultivate the soil of the readied heart?

• God is ultimately in charge of who hears and who doesn’t.
• Verse 20 shows us three things that go with cultivating the soil of the readied heart.

Mark 4:20 “but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

“Hear the word”

We need to listen to the word—just as Jesus commanded His listeners to do as He began to teach this parable. We need to read the Scriptures ourselves and sit under good preaching and teaching of God’s word if we are going to hear the WORD. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing. In other words, you will not ever have faith if you first do not listen and hear.

Make it personal for you today. Do you hunger for God’s word? Is this a regular practice for you? Are you spending time with people who get the gospel and reveal the gospel in their lives?

“Accept it”

“Accept it” in the Greek is better translated to “take in” or to “delight in.” The ones who hear the word and delight in it, for them, it is GOOD NEWS to their soul. We need to savor and swallow and digest the gospel and be satisfied in it. This is the miraculous spiritual event of loving what once you hated.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Are you feasting on the things of the world or on the things of God?

There are hundreds of big events and exciting things that are worth enjoying and celebrating in this life: the birth of a child, a meal at your favorite restaurant, vacation, a new bike, a clean bill of health, a bonus at work, a new job, an engagement, a wedding, a change in habits or lifestyle, sex with your spouse, a good report card at the end of a quarter, and on and on.

But here is the question: Is the GOOD NEWS of Jesus THE BEST NEWS in your life at any given time? Don’t just hear it and be done. The good soil, the readied heart, takes it in—delights in it!

“Bear fruit”

In verse 8, Jesus says the good soil that takes in the gospel produces grain. In verse 20, He says the good soil bears fruit. Whether grain or fruit, they both represent the harvest of the plant. It is what the plant is designed to produce. When God takes hold of our heart and we delight in Him, He produces harvest in us. The fruit is the proof of the soil you’re in. Lasting fruit is only produced by the one whom God gave ears to hear–“the readied soil.”

Matthew 7 says by one’s fruit you will know who they really are! In other words, many will claim Jesus, go to church, carry a Bible in their hand, even quote Scripture, but their actions and transformation–their harvest—will be the evidence of a life deeply rooted in the rich soil. Because when you take the gospel into readied soil, it changes everything—transforming your heart and life from self-centered to other-centered.

Look at the transforming power of those that God saves. See the supernatural growth (30, 60, or 100-fold) that comes from just one person whom God saves.

Why is all this good news? When God opens our ears to hear and receive the gospel, we are a part of the kingdom of God where life and love blossom and where harvest in our lives glorifies God and blesses others with fruit to see and eat and enjoy. This is good news because, in the end, it is not our labor or work that produces a life of meaning and restoration of all things; it is God at work in and through us. He is the Sower. His gospel is the power, and we are the clay in His hands being molded and made ready in His perfect timing.

The image Jesus chooses for the gospel in this parable is not a bomb, not a hammer–it’s a seed. But a seed–something so gentle and so dainty. WHY? Jesus said it Himself in John chapter 12.

John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

A seed only releases its power if it goes deep into the ground and dies. This is what Jesus did for you and me! He broke through our hard surface. He went deeper than the rocks and broke through the idols of our heart to transform us from the inside out. He died so that we might live and flourish and bless others with the fruit He produces out of us.

It is our great privilege to be pursued by God with the blood of His only son when we did not deserve it–to be given ears to hear and soil ready to receive the gospel–to be sanctified and transformed by our great God so that the gospel can move through us in WORD and DEED. We go out and preach the word boldly to unbelievers knowing that God will open dead hearts and make them ready as He perfectly has planned to. It is not up to us to press someone to say the prayer or to convince them to change. We just need to speak the gospel and call them to repentance and belief. For those whom God will save, He will in His perfect time!!!!

It is so important that we rightly understand that if you belong to Christ, you are saved and set free not because of you, but because of God. You are able to serve and lead others because of the purifying and sanctifying work of the KING. This is why we praise Him. Because as Romans 11 says, it is all “from him and through him and to him.” It is the name of KING JESUS who we celebrate and praise this day.

For He is the one who took our meaningless dirt and turned it into life-producing, eternal soil that springs forth a harvest for His glory and others’ joy!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Revelation 19-22 & Mark 1  (12.10.23)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into Mark chapter 1.

First, who is Mark?

Mark was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ life, but was a secretary/translator for Peter who was one of Christ’s disciples. Mark took Peter’s eyewitness testimony and pieced it together into the narrative that is the Gospel of Mark that we know today. This then helps make sense of the fact that Peter is present in every part of Mark’s Gospel.

What are the Gospels?

The word gospel means “news”, specifically, good news of an event.

THE GOSPEL–the GOOD NEWS–the greatest news of the biggest event in all of history is about Jesus Christ. Specifically, the perfect life, torturous death, miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives new life for those whom God calls to repentance and sanctification.

There are four specific Gospels in the New Testament that tell Jesus’ life story. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For the next few weeks, we will journey together through the Gospel of Mark as we finish this year’s Bible Reading Plan.

What is unique about Mark’s Gospel?

A few things that make Mark’s Gospel unique are:

• It is written in the present tense. A fast-paced, action-packed narrative helps Mark able to be read with urgency and importance as to who Jesus is.
• Mark’s Gospel recounts less of Jesus’ teaching and more of Jesus’ doing. I pray that this is a reminder to us not to just hear but to witness and respond likewise with action instead of contemplation only.
• It is a mosaic of events that tell us about Jesus’ ministry on earth. Even though the overall format of Mark’s Gospel is narrative or story, it does not possess a continuous story line, but is a collection of discrete units. The result is a collage or mosaic of the life of Jesus. As you study, put yourself in the position of Mark’s traveling companion as he assembles his documentary on the life of Christ based on Peter’s testimony.
• Finally, there is one more unique characteristic to Mark’s Gospel and that is that Mark’s telling of Jesus’ ministry is given to us in two distinct acts.

ACT 1 (Mark chapters 1-8) is all about Jesus’ identity and authority as KING over all things. The King of Glory, the King of Kings, the Crown of Gold.

ACT 2 (Mark chapters 9-16) is all about Jesus’ sacrifice and death on the cross and the purpose for it. The sacrificial Lamb, the servant Leader, our substitutionary Atonement, the Crown of Thorns.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark is said to have been the first Gospel that was written so it is fitting that it begins with that phrase.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The central figure of the Gospel is Jesus Christ. He is the good news.

He is the central figure of all of life, our world, and all that exists.

Jesus Christ is the most significant man to have ever lived in the history of the world.

In fact, human history is divided around His life. We have B.C. which is “Before Christ”

and A.D. which is “Anno Domini” or “the year of our Lord”. Our history literally hinges on this man.

The Scriptures tell us the name we will sing and celebrate of for all of eternity is Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tell us that the world was created at the word of Jesus.

Jesus lived a relatively simple life. He never traveled more than 200 miles from His home. He never wrote a book.

He never married. He never had children, never ran for political office, never oversaw a large company, never made a lot of money. The first 30 years of His life were spent in great simplicity while working a blue-collar job as a carpenter with His dad.

The part of Jesus’ life that this book covers is the last three years of His life. He spent them doing ministry, preaching, teaching, performing miracles while mentoring a small group of average Joes. Jesus Christ was then falsely arrested & publicly tortured and murdered at the age of 33!

This is the beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We are given two titles after Jesus’ name. Christ and Son of God.

Let’s look further at these important titles to better understand who Jesus is.

Christ:

The Greek word is “Christos” meaning “an anointed royal figure”.

Christ is also translated in the Hebrew as “the Messiah”.

The Messiah was the ONE foretold in Jewish history who would come reconcile God’s people to God. The Redeemer.

So, Jesus CHRIST is the anointed royal Figure. A KING!

He is not just a KING.. He is THE King. The ONE mankind has been waiting for.

He is the One who would redeem God’s people from the slavery of sin and death and deliver us to eternal victory in life with God.

Son of God:

Mark ups the stakes all the way by also using the title SON OF GOD.

In other words, He is “Divinity”. He is God.

A minute ago, I said He was not just “A King” but “THE King”.

SON OF GOD takes His kingship to another level. He is not just a King, not just the greatest King to wear a crown. HE is the KING OF THE KINGS, THE LORD OF LORDS, the Creator and RULER of the Heavens and the Earth.

He is The SON OF GOD. Upon which NOTHING holds a higher rank! NOTHING.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the first twelve words of the Gospel of Mark, we are told that:

this is a story

about a man named Jesus

who is the Christ, the anointed royal One, the Messiah

who has been foretold since the most ancient roots of Israel that He would come and reconcile God’s people once and for all to God Himself.

And if that were not enough:

this Christ, this Messiah, this royal Redeemer is not an angel, not just a man, but the Son of God in human flesh. He is the divine Redeemer King.

To cement and validate this epic introduction, Mark refers back to Isaiah’s famous prophetic passage about the man who would announce the Messiah’s arrival.

Mark 1:2-3 It is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way—

 a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

Then in verse 4, he goes on to say that John the Baptist is the announcer, the preparer, the messenger, the voice!

Mark 1:4-6 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

The wild hippie man, John the Baptist, was the one who would announce the arrival of the Messiah, the Redeemer, the LORD.

John definitely understood the power, the magnitude of the One he was setting the table for. As he says in Mark 1:7-8, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Not even worthy to untie his filthy sandals. That is like me walking up to you and saying, “I am so below you that I am not worthy to wipe snot from your nose with my bare hand.”

Now, this is either a recognition of how low you are or how HIGH the person you speak of is.

In this case, it was both. He understood how low he was in the towering shadow of the Son of GOD!

Back to Mark’s introduction of Jesus to us.

He has made it clear that Jesus is royalty like no other the world has ever known and the One who has been prophesized about and expected like no other. He is the KING.

Our first glimpse of Jesus in Mark’s telling of his story is not His birth or childhood experiences like other Gospels tell. Instead Mark skips right to His baptism. This is Jesus’ commissioning for ministry. In His baptism, we get to see an even fuller picture of who the SON of God is.

Mark 1:10-11 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

In these two verses, we get to see the Trinity at work.

The Triune Godhead, a tri-unity, or three in oneness.

The Scriptures teach us that there is one God who eternally and equally exists in three Persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God and the three make up our ONE GOD.

Here we see Jesus, GOD THE SON, being baptized.

GOD the Father saying “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

GOD the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove.

Now the imagery of the dove to you and me is not unusual if you have been in the church for any amount of time.

But, it is super significant here. The only other time in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is likened to a dove is in Genesis 1:2, “… the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The way the Hebrew rabbis would commonly translate Genesis 1:1-3 is like this:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttered above the deep like a dove. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Just as all three were active in the Creation of the universe, they are active in Jesus’ baptism.

Mark, right out the door, wants us to see the Trinity. Not just Jesus! But all three as GOD.

He wants us to see that God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is going to be instrumentally active in the redemption process and renewal of all things.

Now, look at what follows. The Trinity is at work in Jesus’ commissioning to ministry.

Mark 1:12-13 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

The first glimpse of Jesus in MARK is at His baptism where the Trinity commissions Jesus to ministry.

But where does it go next? To the desert where Jesus will be tempted by Satan just like Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden.

Jesus, like Adam, will know and experience the amazing perfection of the Trinity and then have to contend with temptation and the threat of death.

Now, that is the end of our passage for today. The question here needs to be, “So, what?”

Why is this good news? This is good news to us because the first Adam failed.

Mankind chooses to be self-centered and rebel against life, against God.

We try to make this life around our self-centered, sinful existence.

In this, we choose the battlefield that we now know as life in this world–full of sin and death.

This is what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with, “Eat the Apple and make the world revolve around you.”

Now, Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation doesn’t tell us what the temptations were.

But Matthew’s account does. The temptation is the same thing Satan used successfully on Adam.

He basically tells Jesus, “You can make it all about you. Have it all revolve around you!”

BUT, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer King, He stood face to face with the enemy on the battleground you and I face every day and instead of saying, “Ok. Let’s make it all about me.” He chooses to stay in the dance of the Trinity. He chooses to not be self-centered, but to remain other-centered, to remain in LOVE and the glory of the Godhead. He chooses life.

Now watch this:

God told Adam and Eve to obey Him regarding the tree in the middle of the garden. Right?

DO NOT eat of it. But they did eat of it and denied God and chose death. We all did.

God the Father told God the Son, Jesus, to obey Him about a tree too. That tree was the cross.

But the flip was that in obeying God the Father, Jesus would die.

He willingly stepped into the heart of the battle so that He could draw you and me into the heart of the Trinity–into LIFE.

What Jesus has known and experienced for all eternity is the beauty and love and satisfaction of the dance and He has come to offer it to you.

He has come as the KING of royalty above all other kings but He has also come as the King of sacrifice who would exchange His crown of gold for a crown of thorns so that you and I could live forever with Him and for His glory.

This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  May our entire lives be all about it.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Revelation 14-18  (12.3.23)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into Revelation 15.

Let’s look at verse one through eight again together.

Revelation 15:1-8 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

This is such a great text in the middle of Revelation as it focuses on our worship of the Lamb who was slain.

King Jesus is worthy of our praise forever and ever. We will sing the song of the Lamb and worship God for His great grace forever. I wanted to focus on this phrase, “the Lamb who was slain” today as a way of stirring our worship for all that God is and has done for us.

Jesus Christ. God the Son. One of the three members of the holy Godhead. Equal with the Father and Spirit as God. Worthy of all honor and praise forever. He is pure and holy. Spotless in every way.

We must see the innocence, the purity, the perfection, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is the spotless Lamb!

1 Peter 2:22-23 says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Now, not only did Jesus avoid bad things, he committed no sin, deceived nobody, reviled nobody, threatened nobody. The things that Jesus did He did unto the glory of the Father. He entrusted his life to God. This is important because doing the right things for the wrong reasons is also sin. This is huge because many people think that they don’t need Jesus because they are generally good people. Even many Christians think they are doing fine in life and in the faith when they simply avoid bad movies, don’t cuss, or chew, or run around with girls who do. But sin is more than avoiding bad things. 

What is sin?

First we must see that sin is a matter of our actions and of the heart.

1. Sin is doing the wrong thing (disobedience of God’s perfect law).

2. Sin is also doing the right thing for the wrong reasons (self-salvation or self-exultation).

Some of you need to confess your sin today before the Lord not because you are guilty of doing a bunch of horrible, bad stuff but because you have been doing a bunch of great and helpful things for self-exalting motives. Your aim has not been righteousness for the name’s sake of God. It has been right living for the moving up the ladder in others’ eyes, or in life, or just for YOU!

Now, here is the thing we have to see with full eyes. Jesus never sinned! He was PERFECT!

Not only did He never commit sin, deceive anybody, revile anybody, or threaten anybody, but He did all that He did “entrusting himself to him who judges justly”. He did it all for the glory of God the Father!

Jesus was sinless!  In 1 Peter 1:19, Peter refers to Christ as a Lamb without blemish or spot. No imperfections. Jesus is the spotless Lamb. 

Now, why was it so essential that Jesus was spotless?  Sin= Death

If a sacrifice is going to take on the sin of another (atone for the sin of another), then that sacrifice cannot be carrying a bunch of its own sin. The cost of a valuable animal sacrifice was part of the cost of paying for your sin.  So, Jesus’ sinless nature and sinless practice are the perfect gateway to life.

This is why:  “… in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Those who are in Adam are condemned to death because their representative sinned. Those are who are in Christ are saved to life because their representative never sinned. See the spotless Lamb!  See the fact that He is worthy of total pardon from any chastisement because of HIS PERFECTION!

But not us. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Everyone one of us is worthy of eternal punishment for our betrayal of a holy God. You have to have a right view of your sin not compared to others but compared to our holy God.

Jesus is the only one who was sinless. Jesus was worthy of Praise and exultation.  Yet, He came near. He took on flesh so that He could be our representative. And even though He was tempted in every way as we were, He did not sin!

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  So, Jesus was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. This is why what happened to Jesus is so huge!  

Isaiah says Jesus was “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent” (Isaiah 53:7b).

The spotless Lamb took on the sin of the sheep that had gone astray. We were the ones that went astray.

Isaiah 53:6

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Luther calls this “the great exchange.” My death for His life. My sin for His righteousness.  

My condemnation for His salvation. My failure for His success. My defeat for His victory.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He suffered. He died physically. He did so as a substitute in our place. He died the death we deserve. He absorbed the wrath of God for us. He took our due penalty resulting in our receiving His righteousness.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”

Brothers, at that moment, Jesus Christ, who was sinless, perfect God became a man and took our sin upon Himself.

In that moment, Jesus was making atonement for the sin of His people.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf …

He became sin on our behalf! He became the scapegoat. He paid our price. He atoned our sin.

Now, we must also understand, at that moment, the wrath of God was satisfied.

The justice of God was met. The holiness of God was respected. AMEN?

But notice what else Paul says,

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  

Because the Lamb was slain and bled out, not just so we can have heaven but, so we could live in righteousness for God’s glory and others’ good! 

Romans 6:11-14 & 17-18 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace …

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Oh, how blessed we are to no longer be slaves to sin but now be slaves to righteousness.

We were in the “the snare of the devil”. We were in his grasp, and Christ our God came and He set us free.

He paid the price with His life, with His death on the cross so that you could be set free from sin and become a son, a daughter of God. That’s THE good news!    

For the saved, oh, we have so much to praise Him for. We should have been slaughtered. WE should have bled out.

But He showed us His amazing grace. He took our penalty. He substituted Himself in our place! He made atonement for us so we could be reconciled to God.

Beloved, He did this so we could DIE TO SIN and LIVE to RIGHTEOUSNESS!

This is why we will sing “the song of the Lamb” forever and ever.

Revelation 15:3-4

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds,

O Lord God the Almighty!

 Just and true are your ways,

O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord,

and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

 All nations will come

and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

May we worship Him today and every day as worthy of all of our lives.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church