Escalate Sermon Blog & Connection Point Questions

In our culture today it's not uncommon to find people who feel like they have to earn the favor of God and Jesus. They work hard to live good moral lives and to do things that they believe will cause God to be happy with them. They believe that the faithfulness of God and Jesus is dependent on their self-righteousness (i.e. "If I am God then God will remain faithful to m...

Who do we look at as genuine followers of Jesus? Pastors? Seminary professors? Certain Christians that you know? Perhaps even yourself? What do we base that on? Their title? Their position? Their church attendance? Is it possible that some of those who we would expect to be the most devoted followers of Jesus, aren't? Is it possible that some of those that we wou...

Many of us probably wouldn't use the word "complacency" to describe our discipleship. In fact many of us would probably be offended if someone else told us that we were complacent in regards to our discipleship. But Jesus saw the danger of complacency overtaking His followers and in this portion of Mark's gospel we see Him calling His disciples to be vigilant in their di...

According to one individual, Harold Camping, Jesus is returning in just a few days. He believes, based on some unique math and personal theories, that Jesus is going to return on Saturday, May 21, 2011 to rapture believers in Jesus and take them to Heaven. When you hear his explanation you realize that this man has probably spent months and years trying to assign numbers...

This passage of Scripture is a very unique one. Not often do you find passages in which Jesus summarizes both the most important teaching of the OT and all that His life and ministry communicated to us. But that's what Mark conveys to us in these few verses of his gospel. In terms of understanding what we are called to as disciples of Christ, this has to be one of the m...

When you compare yourself to others and the way they live are you content? When you consider your own personal wisdom and understanding of the Bible are you content? Is it possible that we have presumed that our way of living and our knowledge of the Bible is sufficient and that we don't have any need for further instruction? Have we become prideful in our wisdom? In t...

Most of us have probably crossed paths with someone who was opposed to God and Jesus. We've probably all heard of someone who challenged the idea that Jesus was God's Son and that salvation is only possible through Him. Jesus, Himself, even faced outright opposition to His authority. Do you know how He responded? You probably should. Because I would argue that while f...

Two thousand years of separation, a remarkably different culture, and our own presuppositions can make understanding some Biblical texts really challenging. Even texts that we have heard many times and which we think we have a handle on can have very different meanings. I believe that's the case with this week's text. Mark records narratives that have been popularly lab...

What's the difference between 'hope' and 'confidence?' Sometimes it's just having someone to explain things to you and provide a model to follow. We can take on a task without any explanation of what we are to do and how we are to do it. But in those instances all we can do is 'hope' that we are doing the right thing the right way. But if we have someone explain to us ...

Is there any context in which 'bad' news delivered to us could actually be 'good' news? No, not just 'good' news but 'really good' news? Perhaps it's all in how we look at it. In Jesus' encounter with a rich young ruler and the dialogue that He has with His disciples afterwards we find what might appear at first glance to be some bad news. But upon a deeper examination...