Stonebrook Church, Ames, Iowa, Sermons

Today's passage shows us two of the most infamous betrayals in Scripture: Judas's and Peter's. And surrounding those betrayals are three very important trials. One is obvious. One is subtle. And the third we'll have to zoom out a bit.

In today's passage, Jesus shows his absolute knowledge and control over the circumstances of his denial and betrayal at the hands of his closest followers, in spite of their protestations. In the midst of it all, He declares the gospel hope that though he will be be betrayed and killed, he will rise again and usher in a new covenant, and one day, fully usher in the new kingdom. From this we can find confidence and hope because Jesus, knowing our betrayals, embraced the cross anyway, and secured our forgiveness, forever.

After coming down the mountain of transfiguration where Jesus revealed his divinity to his inner circle, they are immediately plunged into the clamoring crowd, full of accusing scribes and tormenting demons. His disciples had failed and are confused. Mark recounts this story to the first century church under persecution from a seemingly unstoppable opponent in the Roman empire, is there any hope? Has Jesus failed? Mark reminds them, and us, that we must rely on prayer, not our own strength and wisdom, to overcome the trials we face as we follow Jesus.

Here at the pinnacle of Mark's gospel, we are taken up to a mountain top where we get a “behind the curtain” look at King Jesus, the Messiah, in his heavenly Glory. God himself speaks and tells us what we should do in light of the revelation that Jesus is the divine Messiah, Son of God, and Son of Man: “Listen to Him.” We will explore four obstacles to listening to Jesus that Mark has presented to us so far, as well as God's merciful provision to help us overcome those obstacles.

Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 1. Imagine with me for a minute that you were sitting in a coffee shop enjoying a nice cup of tea, or a latte, reading a book, and a stranger sat down at the table across from you, and said: “Sorry to interrupt you, but I have a really important update for you. Josh says that you don't need to worry anymore, that he has forgiven you, and he's willing to repair the […]

Imagine that it's 65 A.D.  You are a Christ follower.  You believe in Jesus, that he is the only path to righteousness with God and eternal life.  You follow him.  You love him.  And so do the other Christians around you in the church.  But you live in the City of Rome.  It's a rough time…very rough time to be a Christian.  The Roman Emperor Nero is as evil as they come. One year earlier in 64 A.D., 70% of […]

Imagine that it's 65 A.D.  You are a Christ follower.  You believe in Jesus, that he is the only path to righteousness with God and eternal life.  You follow him.  You love him.  And so do the other Christians around you in the church.  But you live in the City of Rome.  It's a rough time…very rough time to be a Christian.  The Roman Emperor Nero is as evil as they come. One year earlier in 64 A.D., 70% of […]

Please turn with me to Acts, chapter 2. Last week and today, we are hitting on two points of what we could consider to be some of the core DNA of our church. Namely personal ownership of your faith.  What we mean by that is that as a church, we want to be more than just “Sunday Christians.” The Bible describes a way of life that lasts Sunday through Saturday. It influences every decision we make, every relationship we have, […]

Please turn with me to Acts, chapter 2. Last week and today, we are hitting on two points of what we could consider to be some of the core DNA of our church. Namely personal ownership of your faith.  What we mean by that is that as a church, we want to be more than just “Sunday Christians.” The Bible describes a way of life that lasts Sunday through Saturday. It influences every decision we make, every relationship we have, […]

Please open your bibles to Matthew chapter 6. If you're new with us in the past couple months, my name is Matt Heerema, and I am one of the pastors here. I've been out of the pulpit since the beginning of May so that we could allow some other voices to preach, and so that I could focus on a few other areas in ministry. I'm grateful for that time off, but I'm even more grateful to be back, and […]

Please open your bibles to Matthew chapter 6. If you're new with us in the past couple months, my name is Matt Heerema, and I am one of the pastors here. I've been out of the pulpit since the beginning of May so that we could allow some other voices to preach, and so that I could focus on a few other areas in ministry. I'm grateful for that time off, but I'm even more grateful to be back, and […]

Not long ago I heard a report about my extended family. One family member had deeply hurt another family member years ago. An abuse situation. When I heard about this recently, I had three responses: When you see or experience extreme injustice, do you know HOW and WHAT to pray?Here's a prayer from the Bible, King David, where he is essentially cursing some people.Psalm 58:3–8 CSBThe wicked go astray from the womb; liars wander about from birth. They have venom […]