And so today, as we come to the final Lord's Day, the final Sunday in the year 2023, as we are on December 31st, New Year's Eve, I wanted to share with you a message from the gospel according to Mark. We'll be looking at chapter one and verses from 16 to 45 in just a few minutes. Let me just say that, uh, This will be a slightly different type of sermon than I typically preach. It's more topical, I guess you could say, although we are focusing on the text. But I thought given the unprecedented times in which we have come, the past several years, and only the Lord knows what lies in the future in terms of the immediate dynamics, it would be helpful for us to think about the theme that I believe is presented to us in these verses about living on the boundary. Many years ago, the great explorer, Sir Francis Drake, was attempting to recruit a crew of men to go with him on an expedition. And he gathered, he put up a notice and he said, I'm going to be interviewing people. I'm extrapolating a little bit from this, but he said, I'm going to interview one group in the morning and one group in the afternoon. So the morning group showed up. And he told them that if they would accompany him on this exploration, they would see the most marvelous things their eyes had ever beheld. Sandy white beaches, juicy fruit trees, foreign peoples, priceless treasures, gorgeous landscapes. All of that wild adventure would be theirs if they would simply accompany him on the journey. Well, as it turned out, when he called for a show of hands of those who wanted to enlist, not one of them, not one of them enlisted to go with him. Well, later that afternoon, the other group showed up and he told them if they would come with him on this expedition, they would encounter storms that would terrify them to tears and that danger would be their constant companion. But he concluded by declaring that if they could handle those things, the joys of exploration would exceed their wildest dream. Every single one of those men enlisted and joined Francis Drake that day. And some of them, according to Drake, didn't even bother to go home to their families. They boarded the boat right away. So what made the difference in those two groups of men? Well, the answer is the difference was the message. The first words that were spoken were words of profit and rewards. The second spoke of challenges. The first offered comfort. The second promised suffering. So the paths that we are challenged to travel. must on some level promise to shape us and change our view of life if they're going to have any appeal to us at all. Now that could be for better or for worse, but those it seems to me are the facts. This is something, I bring this up because this is something I think is missing from the modern contemporary expressions of Protestant evangelical type Christianity. Modern preachers, online, on television, in pulpits, wherever you find them, some of them at least, not all of them, but most, some of the modern ones typically distort and corrupt the kingdom message. On the one extreme, there's the so-called health and wealth gospel. That's one example. You know, God wants you prosperous and rich all the time. Now, you might think, well, wait a minute, that was a thing back in the 70s and 80s, but no, not anymore. My understanding is that there are hundreds of thousands of evangelical Pentecostal type Christians in Africa and Asia and South America. This is their main understanding of Christianity, the so-called health and wealth gospel. But then on the other end of the scale, The message of the kingdom in some less, shall we say, showy or odd churches, that message nevertheless is presented, excuse me, in a different light as something boring and irrelevant. And all of that, despite what Jesus really calls us to do, is live life on the boundary. And as I said, I'm going to use this text in Mark chapter 1 on this New Year's Eve Sunday to speak of living life out on the margins. And that means specifically in contrast to the way the rest of society that we encounter typically are living. So here is the first thing. I mean, the margin or the boundary of unknown adventure. Now look, I know some of these things sound somewhat grandiose. And as I said, this is maybe a different type of sermon than I typically preach, but I think it's warranted today. The margin of unknown adventure. When Jesus' first followers joined him, they didn't know exactly what they were signing up for. Look with me at verses 16 to 20. Now I'm reading this from the New King James Version. And as he, Jesus, walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. So this part of Mark's gospel, this is the account of Jesus calling his first disciples and then examples of the signs and wonders that he performed relating to healings and other sorts of things. So he calls Simon and Andrew, they're fishermen. And then he says to them, verse 17, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in the boat, mending their nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father in the boat, and they hired servants, and they went after him. Now, all we have here is the text of what happened according to this account, and there's no discussion like what Francis Drake had with the men he called to go with him. Jesus calls them, they go. There's not a lot of discussion about where we're going, what's this about? They go. Have you ever wondered what those disciples must have thought when he called them? In terms of us, ourselves, we are called to follow Jesus, but he's definitely not calling us into boredom. He is calling us into the greatest adventure that has ever been available to humanity. And if we aren't looking forward to that kind of journey in the year 2024, it isn't because those following Jesus It's not like that like it used to be. That's not the reason. It's because we've forgotten what it means to really follow Christ, to be Christians. Christianity isn't about meetings or hymn books and altar calls. Christianity is supposed to be about pressing the authority of the claims of God's law, word, and the kingship of Christ our King in all areas of life. And anybody who's not in a church that doesn't teach that message, or at least some form of it, you need to find one that does, because you're not getting the true message of the kingdom. It is about living God's kind of life, the Christian life, in and in opposition to the present culture. And I can assure you, there is no more difficult and challenging journey, and it is largely an unknown one in some sense, than that. All right, then secondly, there is the margin or the boundary of extreme challenge. Now, these first disciples of Jesus faced really unbelievable challenges. They, as we read, they left their occupations, their homes, some of them left their families to follow Jesus. And they went with Him to previously unknown places, for them unknown, and for an uncertain length of time, without even knowing exactly what it was, they would be doing. I mean, they maybe have some general idea. I mean, Jesus was not the only holy man or divine teacher or teacher teaching divine truth who was walking around in that place. So people had a general idea when you became a disciple, something of what it might be. But these men had no idea, really. They had no money. They had no security. They had no shelter to sleep in at night, at least not initially. They would face things that not only had they never seen before, but never imagined. Jesus called them to give up everything for Him for the cause of the kingdom of God. There's no holding back when it came to being a disciple of Jesus. And so, friends, we, too, are called to a faith that forces us to face extreme challenges in life. Doesn't Jesus call us, like His disciples of old, to give everything up in order to follow Him? Yes, He does. It was over 30 years ago now, maybe a little longer, when the Marxist communist system that had dominated and enslaved the former Soviet empire collapsed in Russia, Romania, Hungary, all the satellite Soviet countries. One in particular, it was quite dramatic, the country of Romania. Now historically, Romania was a Christian country of the Romanian Orthodox Church. I think there are a sizable population of Reformed and Protestant Christians in Romania. But there was one Christian leader in particular, well, there were several, but this guy is named John Oros, O-R-O-S. He was speaking to an audience about his experience as a Christian leader during that transition period and during that time when Romania was dominated by the communist dictator Ceausescu. And he told that audience about an experience he had. And he said, during the communist era, many of us preached and people would come to us at the end of the service. And they would say, we've decided to become followers of Christ. And he said, we would tell them, look, it's good that you want to be a Christian, but we need to tell you that you are going to pay a price. Why don't you reconsider what you want to do? Because many things can happen to you. You can lose and you can lose big. And he said a high percentage of those people nevertheless chose to take part in a three-month catechism class. And he said at the end of the time period, many of the participants declared their desire to be baptized. None of them had been Christians, so none of them were baptized. And he said, typically, he responded this way, it is really nice that you want to become a Christian. But when you begin to speak to others about Jesus, there will be informants who will hear you and jot down your name. And then the next day, the problems will start. You need to count the cost. Following Christ is not easy. It is not cheap. You could be demoted at your job. You could even lose your job. You could lose your friends. You could lose your neighbors. your children who are climbing the social ladder because you've been a good communist will lose all of that. You could even lose your life. And then he told that audience, let me tell you what typically would happen next. He said, when we looked into the eyes of these people, their eyes were filled with tears. And they said this, if I lose everything, it is still worth it. So long as I can be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Now friends, that is a testimony to living on the boundary, living out on the margins of, in this case, a communist country. And when you read about those Romanian Christians, and we could add to that Russian Christians, Christians in Communist China and other places, it's hard to know whether to sit in awe at their devotion or bow our heads in shame wondering why our commitment is not the same. Well, I think we know the answer to that, at least one possible answer, and it goes back to the very beginning of that story I told you about Sir Francis Drake. The call to discipleship is a call to face extreme challenges in some cases and hardships because of the faith that we have in Christ Jesus. And I'm wondering more and more if we make it all sound too easy when what Jesus is calling us to is in reality very hard and very challenging. Thirdly, there is the boundary in terms of living on the boundary, living with the boundary of supernatural experience. All right, here's where, in our Reformed churches, people start to get uncomfortable. And I understand that. I would, too, in some cases. What I want to say about this is that, more than likely, before Jesus called His disciples, they had never seen what we would call a miracle. But now that they're following him, they find themselves living through supernatural experiences on a more regular basis. Look at verses 23 to 26 of Mark chapter 1. Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet. Come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him." Can you imagine what would have been your reaction in seeing something like that? I mean, this would definitely make you want to consider or reconsider at least some things. And remember now, this is an important fact to remember. Those people, those men were no more prone to believe in supernatural occurrences than you are. You know, we think ourselves so advanced and smart because we've got all kinds of technocratic stuff going on. But look, those people lived in a culture that had been for hundreds and hundreds of years affected by and dominated by Greek philosophy and skepticism. But here, God overturns their philosophy. Look at verses 29 to 31. Now, as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she served them. So Jesus went in and healed Peter's mother-in-law of her fever. When he entered, she was very sick. And by the time they left, she was completely healed of her sickness. Listen, friends, we know and believe that those signs and wonders Jesus did were part of his messianic ministry and identity. And I do not mean to suggest to you that we today should be seeking miraculous signs or that they ought to somehow be the normal course of church life and Christian life. I believe that age is over. That was a part of the dawning of the kingdom, the day of the Lord, the signs and wonders that attested to who he was. But look, what I am suggesting here is that we can perhaps swing too far in the opposite direction from those who claim to see and experience these things every day almost. And I think we would be wrong, frankly, to not expect remarkable things to happen as we minister as followers of Christ. I mean, you know as well as I do that there have been and still are plenty of phony faith healers and fake miracle workers, whether, again, on TV or online or in pulpits. And those who are false prophets, whose only real miracle are they figured out a way to get the money out of your wallet. But let's not forget that God we worship is the same God who did all of these incredible signs and wonders. And He is still a God who can do those things should He choose to do them. How those occurrences come about and what form they take, that is all up to God. I, for one, am not willing to shake my fist in God's face and hold up a copy of a King James Bible in one hand and the Westminster Confession in the other and say, okay, God, we've got this Bible translation and we've got this confession of faith. You are bound by this. Now look, I know that's not the way those things came about. The confession is a good faith effort and I think a very, very good faith effort to distill and systematize what scripture teaches. But the confession of faith is not a divine book. And no translation is divine, but God is. And this is his world and his creation. Praise the Lord. He has revealed himself. Listen to me carefully, please. He has revealed himself in a logically consistent way so that we can read the words, we can understand with reason and understanding. Praise God for that. But that doesn't change the fact that our God is a supernatural, miracle-working God when He chooses to do so. Fourthly and finally, there is the boundary of divine knowledge. Well, actually, this is only the fourth point. I do have another one. Many of you may remember when Jay Leno was the host of The Tonight Show some years ago, he used to do this man on the street thing where he would go outside the studio, I don't know whether it was New York or Hollywood, I don't know where he recorded these programs, and he would encounter people, unrehearsed, and he would ask them fairly simple questions and receive all kinds of crazy, silly answers, stupid answers in some cases. Well, one afternoon, one evening, he walked out and he quartered some young people to ask them questions about the Bible. And he said to two college age women, he said, can you name one of the 10 commandments? And one replied immediately, Oh yeah, freedom of speech. And then he asked the other, could you please complete this sentence? Let he who is without sin. And her response was have a good time. And then he turned to a young man who was standing there and said, who, according to the Bible, was eaten by a giant fish? And the confident answer was, and this guy wasn't joking, Pinocchio. Now look, friends, most likely these early disciples, being devout Hebrews, would have had some awareness of biblical history and biblical doctrine. But they had never encountered the advanced spiritual knowledge that Jesus was teaching them versus the Talmudic tradition that most of them had been raised in to believe. Look at verse 21 to 22 again. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. Another translation, verse 22, and his teaching made a deep impression on them because unlike the scribes, he taught with authority. Jesus was speaking as God himself in absolute concrete terms. They were being exposed to divine knowledge in a way they had never been before. After Jesus cast out an evil spirit, we read this response from the witnesses, Mark 1 27, and they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves, who is this? What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. See, to speak of divine knowledge is about being the beneficiaries of the authoritative word of God. That's what I mean. As followers of Jesus, you are not basing your faith or the message that you share with anyone as just anybody's word, but on the very words of God. And so when we speak with the same authority then, as Christ spoke with himself, because we are repeating his very words. We are not divine. We are not God incarnate as he was. But if we speak his words, we are speaking divinely inspired words. This is reinforced in 1 Peter chapter 4. If some of you here today were in Bill's Sunday school class a few weeks ago when we covered 1 Peter chapter 4, we read there where Peter says, whoever speaks as one who speaks, speaks the oracles of God. Another translation, do you have the gift of speaking? Then as you speak, then you should speak as though God himself were speaking through you. The boundary of discipleship means that you accept the word of God and you live the word of God and you speak the word of God with the divine knowledge and authority that has been given to you by God himself. And then now finally, number five, there's the boundary of true compassion. See in the culture of the disciples, and this is why this is the fifth one and a very important one. In the culture and time in which those people lived, there was a measure of compassion that was shown to those in need, especially among the Israelite people. But until they began to follow Jesus, those apostles didn't have any idea of the lengths to which compassion could or should go. See, the very reason Jesus came to earth was because of God's compassion for the condition of his elect humanity. Why did Jesus cast out demons? Because he hated to see people controlled by a presence that kept them from experiencing God and was ruining their lives. Why did he heal people's sicknesses? Because he hated to see their suffering. A leper came to Jesus seeking healing. Jesus' response in Mark 141, this is from the NIV translation, filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. Jesus taught the disciples that sickness and demon possession and death and our lost fallen condition are not part of God's original plan. They are the result of a world tainted by a lack of awareness of who God is and who we are in him. And through his compassion, he has shown us that he wants us to help remedy that problem. And the Lord expects us to have the same kind of compassion. You know, when you think about these issues that we've looked at today, it's hard to look at the Christian faith and the Christian walk as something boring or irrelevant. If Christianity is the mundane, task-oriented, rule-keeping religion that some people have made it out to be, people understandably don't want anything to do with it. And perhaps in taking that attitude, they are more like Jesus than some of us because that was the prevailing religion of his day. And he didn't want anything to do with it either. But the fact is real Christianity, real biblical religion is living on the boundary in every area. And that is what Jesus has called us to do. I want to leave you with one more story, one that I'm pretty sure I've shared before, but I think it bears repeating. I think it gets the point across in a good way. There was a big shoe company with branches and stores all over the United States, and six of the company's executives were called into a board meeting and then sent out to look over prospects for expansion in a third world country that was just emerging from a primitive economy to being more open to standard American and European business practices. Well, those company executives toured that country, six of them, and then they got together and compared their notes. They disagreed about the potential for that market for their shoe company. So there was a majority report and a minority report. Four of the executives cabled the majority report, they called it in, and they said to the board, there's no market here at all. Everybody here goes barefoot. But the other two had a very different take on the situation. They knew that doing business in that emerging nation was going to be risky and that it would involve moving that company into uncharted waters. But this is the report they sent back. Everyone here needs shoes. We recommend opening a branch factory and office immediately. See, all of those executives, they noticed, they commented that all the people were barefoot. But it was how they interpreted that situation and applied it to themselves and that company that counted. Four of the six saw that doing business was risky and involved hard work. It meant going out on the boundary lines of the company's abilities and resources. But two of the six said, we must do this. In spite of the limitations, in spite of the boundary line, we can cross it and be successful. And so, my friends, as we begin the year 2024, the Lord wants to know from us, are we ready to move out to the margins and live life as He wants us to? Let us pray.