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May 9, 2011
Can all Christians learn to evangelize? Basics 2010 speaker Rico Tice teaches us that Mark’s Gospel centers around three important questions of identity, mission, and call that each of us must answer to be saved: Who is Christ, why did He come, and what does it mean to follow Him? In Mark, even the disciples were often blind to the correct answers—until God Himself revealed them. Similarly, while we must preach Christ, we do so knowing that it is God alone who opens blind eyes.
1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, athe Son of God.1
2bAs it is written in Isaiah the prophet,2
c“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
3dthe voice of one crying in the wilderness:
e‘Prepare3 the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
4fJohn appeared, baptizing in gthe wilderness and proclaiming ha baptism of irepentance jfor the forgiveness of sins. 5And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, kconfessing their sins. 6Now John was lclothed with camel's hair and lwore a leather belt around his waist and ate mlocusts and nwild honey. 7And he preached, saying, o“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8pI have baptized you with water, but qhe will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9rIn those days Jesus scame from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And when he came up out of the water, immediately he tsaw uthe heavens being torn open vand the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11And wa voice came from heaven, x“You are my beloved Son;4 with you I am well pleased.”
12yThe Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13yAnd he was in the wilderness forty days, being ztempted by aSatan. And he was with the wild animals, and bthe angels were ministering to him.
14cNow after John was arrested, Jesus dcame into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, e“The time is fulfilled, and fthe kingdom of God is at hand;5 grepent and believe in the gospel.”
16hPassing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become ifishers of men.”6 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
21jAnd they went into Capernaum, and immediately kon the Sabbath lhe entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22And mthey were astonished at his teaching, mfor he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24n“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? oI know who you are—pthe Holy One of God.” 25But Jesus qrebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, rconvulsing him and scrying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27And they were all tamazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? uA new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
29vAnd immediately he7 wleft the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now xSimon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31And he came and ytook her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or zoppressed by demons. 33And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34aAnd he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And bhe would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35cAnd rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and dthere he prayed. 36And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37and they found him and said to him, e“Everyone is looking for you.” 38And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for fthat is why I came out.” 39gAnd hhe went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
40iAnd a leper8 came to him, imploring him, and jkneeling said to him, k“If you will, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43And lJesus9 sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44and said to him, m“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, nshow yourself to the priest and ooffer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, pfor a proof to them.” 45qBut he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter ra town, but was out in rdesolate places, and speople were coming to him from every quarter.
1And when he returned to tCapernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3uAnd they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, vthey removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5And when Jesus wsaw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, xyour sins are forgiven.” 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7“Why does this man speak like that? yHe is blaspheming! zWho can forgive sins but God alone?” 8And immediately Jesus, aperceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10But that you may know that bthe Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and cglorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
13He went out again beside the sea, and dall the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14eAnd as he passed by, he saw fLevi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
15And as he reclined at table in his house, many gtax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16And hthe scribes of1 the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, g“Why does he eat2 with tax collectors and sinners?” 17And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. iI came not to call the righteous, jbut sinners.”
18Now kJohn's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, l“Why do John's disciples and mthe disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19And Jesus said to them, n“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20oThe days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and pthen they will fast in that day. 21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine into old qwineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”3
23rOne Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples sbegan to pluck heads of grain. 24And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, twhy are they doing uwhat is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25And he said to them, v“Have you never read wwhat David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26how he entered the house of God, in the time of4 xAbiathar the high priest, and ate ythe bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27And he said to them, z“The Sabbath was made for man, anot man for the Sabbath. 28So bthe Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
1cAgain dhe entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2And ethey watched Jesus,1 to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4And he said to them, f“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5And he glooked around at them with anger, grieved at htheir hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” iHe stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6jThe Pharisees went out and immediately jheld counsel with kthe Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
7lJesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ma great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8and Jerusalem and nIdumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around oTyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9And he told his disciples to phave a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they qcrush him, 10for rhe had healed many, so that all who had sdiseases pressed around him tto touch him. 11uAnd whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they vfell down before him and cried out, “You are wthe Son of God.” 12And xhe strictly ordered them not to make him known.
13yAnd he went up on the mountain and called to him those zwhom he desired, and they came to him. 14yAnd he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15yand have authority to cast out demons. 16He appointed the twelve: aSimon (to whom bhe gave the name Peter); 17cJames the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and dMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,2 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
20Then he went ehome, and the crowd gathered again, fso that they could not even eat. 21gAnd when hhis family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He iis out of his mind.”
22And jthe scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, k“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23lAnd he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27But mno one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. nThen indeed he may plunder his house.
28o“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29but whoever pblasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
31qAnd his mother and his rbrothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers3 are outside, seeking you.” 33And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And slooking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35tFor whoever udoes the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
1Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3“Listen! Behold, ya sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. 7Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” 9And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, f“To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, 12iso that
“‘they jmay indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.’”
13lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14mThe sower sows nthe word. 15And 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. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. 17And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 18And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
21wAnd he said to them, x“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22yFor nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23zIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: awith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25bFor to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
26And he said, c“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; dhe knows not how. 28The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30fAnd he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31It is like ga grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33hWith many such parables he spoke ithe word to them, jas they were able to hear it. 34He did not speak to them kwithout a parable, but lprivately to his own disciples he mexplained everything.
35nOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37And a great windstorm arose, and the waves owere breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39And he awoke and prebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and qthere was a great calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you rso afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, s“Who then is this, that even tthe wind and the sea obey him?”
1uThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.1 2And when Jesus2 had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3vHe lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and wfell down before him. 7And xcrying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ySon of zthe Most High God? aI adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is bLegion, for we are many.” 10And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
14The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed3 man, the one who had had cthe legion, sitting there, dclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17And ethey began to beg Jesus4 to depart from their region. 18As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and ftell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20And he went away and began to proclaim in gthe Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
21And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22hThen came one of ithe rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and jlay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and kthronged about him. 25And there was a woman lwho had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29mAnd immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ndisease. 30And Jesus, perceiving in himself that opower had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32And he looked around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34And he said to her, “Daughter, pyour faith has made you well; pgo in peace, and be healed of your ndisease.”
35While he was still speaking, there came from qthe ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why rtrouble sthe Teacher any further?” 36But overhearing5 what they said, Jesus said to qthe ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37And he allowed no one to follow him except tPeter and James and uJohn the brother of James. 38They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus6 saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39And when he had entered, he said to them, v“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but wsleeping.” 40And they laughed at him. But he xput them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41yTaking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, zarise.” 42And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43And ahe strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
