GOSPEL TALK | MARK 8:27 | INTRODUCTION I

[00:00:01] Hello, world of podcast listeners. This is Darrell Irby. Thank you so much for stopping by the Mark8.27 podcast just to take a few moments, maybe about 15 minutes, to talk about some things that I'd like to talk about today. [00:00:17] I'm calling this, in fact, a gospel talk. It'll just be a brief discussion that will involve the gospel of God about his son, Jesus Christ. [00:00:32] And we're going to look at during this talk, we're going to look at the gospel according to the evangelist St. Mark at chapter 8 and verse 27. [00:00:49] And yes, that is the theme scripture for all things Mark 8. 27. For the media work that Mark 8. 27 does, for the marketing work that Mark 8. 27 does. It is all based upon this passage of Scripture from St. Mark's Account of the Gospel, chapter 8 and verse 27. [00:01:19] So let's read that verse real quick, and I hope you have your Bibles. If not, please grab your Bible so you can read along with us. [00:01:27] And at that 27th verse, it says, and Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. [00:01:39] And by the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, whom do men say that I am? [00:01:50] And that's it for now. I mean, in upcoming days for certain, we will take a look at this scripture in greater depth as well as the contextual scriptures for this passage. [00:02:06] But for today, I just want to look at the basic understanding of what was going on there. First of all, I'd like for us to see that it says that Jesus came into the region of Caesarea, Caesarea Philippi, and he was with his disciples. [00:02:26] So he was surrounded by believers in him as well as those who he had selected as his 12 apostles. [00:02:42] And they had come into this region of Caesarea Philippi after having been in other areas and other regions ministering to people's needs, ministering the gospel to them, but not only ministering to their spiritual needs and that he was ministering the gospel to them, but he was also ministering to their physical needs. [00:03:10] Previous to this passage, after ministering to the multitudes, Jesus had fed 4,000 people, not including the women and the men, with just a little bit of bread and a little bit of fish. [00:03:34] Where his disciples thought, we don't have enough to feed all of these people. [00:03:38] Jesus took their minimal resources and multiplied those resources in order to meet the physical needs of the people who had been there listening to him for a long period of time. [00:03:59] And so Jesus going into this region of Caesarea Philippi, it says, by the way, he asked them a question. [00:04:10] Who do men say that I am? [00:04:15] And that question, I believe, is so key that that question is so critical for every human being to answer for themselves. [00:04:29] Who do they say that Jesus is? [00:04:34] But not only that. [00:04:36] Once you become clear on who you say Jesus is, that you would participate in helping other people to know who Jesus is. [00:04:55] I'm going into a phase of my life now where I get to focus more on what I was called to do, on exercising my call to the gospel ministry that is actually preaching the gospel, sharing the gospel, talking to people, educating people on who Jesus is, the gospel, the gospel is the good news of God about Jesus Christ. [00:05:32] And I believe that that is a big part of definitely my ministry, if it does not completely consume my ministerial call. [00:05:44] But not only me. I really believe that that is a key part of what all ministry is all about, all gospel ministry is all about. [00:05:56] I believe that that is a primary purpose of the work that the church should be doing in the world, is helping the world to have the proper understanding, the proper perspective on who God is, who Jesus is. [00:06:22] I mean, there are actually false teachings that are running rampant in our society today that would not be running rampant if people had a clear understanding on who God is. Let me give you an example. [00:06:44] Calvinism teaches that God, before the foundation of the world, determined certain individuals by name who would be saved. [00:07:03] And he determined certain individuals who would not be saved. [00:07:10] Even if they wanted to be saved, they could not be saved because God had already decided that they could not be saved. [00:07:22] That to believe that that doctrine is a lack of understanding, not of theological principles, definitely not of philosophical ideas. [00:07:40] That is a drastic misunderstanding and a drastic miscalculation of who God is and how God does things. [00:07:59] God is love. [00:08:01] God would never he loves everybody. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever, no matter who you are, where you come from, what you've done, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is love. [00:08:28] He is the essence of love. The scripture says that God would that all men would come to a knowledge of him and that no one would perish. [00:08:44] God does not want anyone to perish. He does not want anyone to go into eternal damnation. God would that all human beings were saved. [00:09:01] And so it is the understanding of who God is, what kind of a person God is. [00:09:10] Let me tell you, actually it is getting to the place of where you know God as Father, not as just some far removed all Powerful being in a far distant location called heaven that you have to speak to in a raised voice in order to communicate with. [00:09:38] It's important that you know that God is your father once you know him. [00:09:46] God is your father. The scripture says in the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John that he came to his own, Jesus Christ came to his own in his own, received him not. But as many as did receive him, God gave to them the right, the authority, the privilege to become the sons of God. [00:10:18] And so once we accept Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, then we are born again and we become children of God. God is our Father. [00:10:37] And so God is a God of love. [00:10:41] God is not one who would do wicked, mean, evil things to people. God is holy. [00:10:52] God is perfect God. God is righteous. He does not do wicked things. He cannot do wicked things. [00:10:59] He does not do evil things. He cannot do evil things. [00:11:04] God is love. And if you can expect that your earthly father would only do kind things to you, then you can definitely expect that your heavenly Father would only do kind things to you. Listen. [00:11:25] In several places, God inspires the apostle Paul to talk to family members, that is fathers, wives and children, and he tells the fathers about the children in Ephesians that they should not provoke them, their children, to anger. [00:11:49] In other words, fathers don't do things that would cause your children to end up with burdens that they have to carry because of the way that you lorded it over their mother or your wife or them as your children. [00:12:14] Don't provoke your children to anger with abusive and negligent ways. [00:12:23] So God would be a liar. God would be a hypocrite, which he's not capable of doing. Those characteristics are unholy and cannot be ascribed to God if he, on the other hand, did the kinds of things that provoked his children to anger. [00:12:42] And so this entire podcast and many other events that Mark 8:27 will have its name and title posted to will be all about helping the world to have a correct and accurate perception and understanding of who God is and who his son Jesus Christ is, and even who we are as the body of Jesus Christ, as the family of God the church. [00:13:23] We'll talk about all of those things. And, and I am excited about it. [00:13:30] So, um, I have so much just from this one verse here that I want to talk about that we will be talking about moving forward. So please, on whatever platform you are listening to this, click on that follow button or that subscribe button. Whatever you need to do to let your platform know that you want to know when I record another episode, Click that so that you can become a part of this listening audience and share with this experience with Mark 8:27. [00:14:13] I look forward to the next time and until then, be blessed and stand out because of your excellence.