Mark Chapter 1

Mark 1:1-5 ~ The Meaning of Repentance

Repentance is part of the salvation process. You do not hear it enough. It is a work of God in a person's heart and mind. We as Gentiles, we sort of learn it backwards. We do not realize that once we receive Christ that He is going to lead us down His path not our path. And we struggle with it for years because God is just not doing things our way. We are trying all the things so that magically the Holy Spirit will bring about what we desire. But in reality God wants us to be in submission; to follow Him. That is what a disciple of Jesus Christ is.

Repentance is making a decision to change the direction of one's life while knowing you are not capable of changing yourself, that it must be Christ. It must be His Spirit coming in and taking over and changing the direction of my life. That is what salvation is, it is surrender. It is not a free ticket to heaven, it is following Christ.

Mark 1:6-13 ~ The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

What a topic, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord's ministry, that is what He does. He baptizes people in the Holy Spirit. Now it is one of the topics, one of the doctrines that people misunderstand and misuse today. It has to do with the Lord's ministry to a person's life.

Mark 1:14-20 ~ Repent and Believe in the Gospel

It is not what a person believes about Jesus Christ. Many people believe the Christian doctrine and they believe what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, but they do not entrust their life to Him.  They do not surrender by receiving Him into their heart and into their life.

So he is saying, Believe in the gospel. Put your trust in the gospel and what it is telling you. The gospel says you must submit your life to Jesus Christ to be saved. You either trust that and believe it to be the truth, or you dismiss it. So these people in Rome who are receiving this letter are faced with the Lord's message to repent and believe in the gospel.  They either will or they won't. They either reject it or receive it.

Mark 1:32-45 ~ The Authority and the Ability of Jesus Christ

As an act of submission the leper says, If it should be Your will. He is confessing the truth to Jesus, "You have the ability to cleanse me if it should be Your will." But interesting, he is leaving it up to the Lord, if it is His will. What submission is that! Do you see the kind of worship he gave? He did not even ask, he just said, "You have the ability to cleanse me if it should be in Your will." He did not claim it, he did not demand it. What he did was he told the Lord, "You have the ability to heal me or cleanse me if You want, if it is Your will."