In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis welcome newly ordained ruling elder John Cunnings to work through Mark 6:14-29, the haunting story of John the Baptist's execution, sandwiched between the disciples being sent out and their return. The placement creates a profound tension: miraculous healings are happening through Jesus' followers, yet John, the greatest man born of women, dies brutally in Herod's prison. The parallel with Elijah deepens the mystery, since Elijah escaped Jezebel in a chariot of fire while John's head ends up on a platter. This isn't just ancient history. It's a mirror reflecting our own struggles with unanswered prayers and rescue that never seems to come.

What they land on is that faith cannot rest on temporal outcomes but must anchor itself in eternal realities. John's disciples buried him with honor, an act that hints they believed the story wasn't over, and the same verb used for John being raised in Herod's fearful imagination is the exact word Mark 16 uses for Jesus' resurrection. If Christ has been raised, then John's apparent defeat is actually victory, and no trial, however dark, can separate us from God's love. The challenge is to doubt our doubts and trust that the Lord is with us in both the mountaintop and the prison cell. The person in real danger here is not John but Herod, whose self-love outweighs his fear of God, and we’re forced to see how close all of us sit in that same posture.

This exploration of Mark 6:1-13 takes us on a profound journey from Jesus's rejection in Nazareth to the sending out of the twelve disciples. We discover that Jesus deliberately bookends the disciples' training with experiences of rejection, teaching them that opposition isn't a sign of failure but an expected part of kingdom work. The carpenter from Nazareth didn't perform many miracles in his hometown because of their unbelief, yet he didn't give up on teaching them.

The passage then culminates in Jesus sending out his disciples with nothing but each other and his authority, betting the advancement of the kingdom on two things: people willing to go out and preach, and people willing to open their homes in hospitality. 

In this episode, Pastor Steven is joined by Sarah Lingerfelt of the Women's Leadership Team to walk through one of the most layered passages in Mark's Gospel — the intertwined stories of Jairus and the bleeding woman. Two daughters. Twelve years. One Savior who refuses to be rushed, even when a little girl is dying. Sarah brings a deeply personal perspective on what twelve years of physical suffering actually entails, and her own moment desperation during the COVID crisis when her daughter nearly died of sepsis.

Together they wrestle with the hard questions: Why does Jesus stop on the way to a dying child? Why does He act like He doesn't know who touched Him? Why does He tell the family to keep the resurrection quiet? And what does it mean that Jesus calls *both* women "daughter" — equalizing the prominent and the outcast at the muddy riverbank of grace?

The takeaway is one every weary believer needs to hear: it doesn't matter how strong your faith is. What matters is how strong He is. Whether you come crawling through a crowd in radical faith or stumbling forward full of doubt and "what about me?", Jesus will hold you fast.

In this exploration of Mark 5:1-20, we encounter the story of the Gerasene demoniac—a man so possessed and broken that he lived among tombs, cutting himself and crying out in anguish. Yet Jesus intentionally journeys into this dark, Gentile territory for what appears to be a single purpose: to restore this one lost person.

The discussion challenges our modern ministry metrics and our tendency to measure success by numbers rather than faithfulness. We're confronted with the uncomfortable reality that this man exists in a state of internal warfare—simultaneously human and demon-possessed, fighting for his freedom while bound by forces beyond his control.

The demons recognize Jesus' power and beg not to be destroyed, yet Jesus demonstrates remarkable mercy by separating the man from his tormentors. When the demons enter the pigs and drive them to destruction, we witness a vivid picture of what these forces intended for the man all along. Perhaps most convicting is the response of the witnesses: they see the miracle, recognize the power, yet ask Jesus to leave out of fear.

How often do we push Jesus away from certain areas of our lives because we're afraid of what His presence might demand? This passage reminds us that Jesus meets us in our darkest tombs, pulls apart what seems inseparable, and calls us to simply live as testimonies of His transforming grace.

Andy Nelson then connects the demoniac's story to Nebuchadnezzar's journey in Daniel 4 from his Sunday evening devotional, exploring how both demonstrate God's power to restore minds and the ongoing struggle between acknowledging God's supremacy and truly submitting to Him.

In Episode 11, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis are joined by Larry Peidt — retired PCA teaching elder, former staff at Coral Ridge under D. James Kennedy, former VP of Evangelism Explosion, and retired Delta captain — to walk through Jesus calming the wind and sea.

Pastor Steven presses past the familiar, noting that the Greek behind "why are you so afraid" isn't phobeo but deilos — cowardly — the same word used in Revelation 21 for those cast into the lake of fire alongside the faithless. The question lands with weight: why are you acting like unbelievers?

The heart of this episode turns on the opening words — "on that day, when evening had come." The storm was no accident but a divine appointment; Jesus called for it. His expectation was not that the disciples would understand how deliverance would come, but that they would trust what he had already said: let us go across to the other side. Augustine's image of "Christ asleep in you" anchors the application, and Travis offers a working definition of faith Pastor Steven promises to preach: faith is believing God is who he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do.

Larry then previews his Sunday evening devotional on Job 38:8, where the same God who stilled the sea tells the proud waves, thus far and no further. The disciples' trembling question — who then is this? — is Job's school of humility in a single boat on a single night. He ordains the storm, appoints the hour, and carries his people to the other side.

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis work through Mark 4:21–34, where Jesus lays out three more parables in rapid succession: the lamp on a stand, the seed growing in secret, and the mustard seed. The question underneath them all is the one every honest believer eventually has to wrestle with — if Jesus is who he says he is, and his kingdom is really here, then where is it? Why does the world still look like this?

The conversation moves through some deep theological terrain without losing the pavement. Pastor Steven argues the lamp is Jesus himself — the light that makes sense of everything the Old Testament could only hint at, like sunlight finally hitting stained glass. From there, the seed and the mustard plant reframe the problem: the harvest is coming, even when you can't see the growth, and the kingdom's smallness now is no argument against its greatness later. Along the way, the guys touch on Isaiah 6 and 9, Zechariah's vision of the menorah, 2 Peter 3, and why walking by faith and not by sight is really about trusting what you hear more than what you see.

This episode is for anyone tempted to measure God's faithfulness by visible results, or to read slow-moving providence as absence. Why would God build his kingdom this way? Why leave sin in the world at all? And what does it look like to stop demanding the harvest now and start trusting the King who knows exactly what he's doing? 

This profound teaching invites us to see reality as it truly is: the soil of human hearts varies dramatically, and no amount of clever presentation or winsome delivery can change bad soil into good. Satan employs countless tactics—easy dismissal, intellectual objections, subtle persecution, social ostracization, and the creeping thorns of worldly cares and desires.

Yet here's the transformative truth: changing soil requires a creation-level miracle, and Jesus is precisely the One who creates new hearts. He sits enthroned over the chaos, just as the Spirit hovered over the waters in Genesis, declaring His sovereign power to transform what seems utterly hopeless. This isn't a call to despair over those we love who reject the gospel, but rather a profound invitation to prayer and humility.

We were all bad soil once. What happened? God performed a miracle in us. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay, and so the Gospel clarifies and convicts; revealing the true condition of every heart. Our calling is to faithfully sow the seed, to speak truth with love, and then to pray fervently to the Lord of the harvest who alone can perform the impossible work of regeneration.

This week, Pastor Steven walks us through his Good Friday and Easter sermon preparation, tracing the stunning literary and theological connections Mark draws between those two pivotal moments — the torn heavens at the Jordan, the torn curtain at Calvary, and two declarations of "Son of God" separated by the entire arc of Jesus' earthly ministry.

We also spend time with two men who were surprised by the crucifixion: the centurion who had witnessed thousands of deaths and still couldn't explain what he was seeing, and Pilate, shocked that Jesus was already gone. What did they see that everyone else missed?

Then we turn to Easter morning where Mark tells the greatest story ever told in just eight verses. The angel's message is almost startlingly simple: “He is not here.” “He is risen.” But those four words, Pastor Steven argues, are enough to reframe everything — every disappointment, every doubt, every moment of fear or grief.

We close with reflections on why Mark names the women at the tomb — eyewitnesses the first century would have ignored — and what that tells us about the reliability of the resurrection accounts and the dignity God gives to those the world overlooks.

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into one of the most theologically loaded passages in Mark's Gospel: the moment Jesus' family tries to pull him away while the scribes accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebub. At the center of it all is a question that has haunted believers for centuries — what exactly is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and is it possible I've committed it?

Pastor Steven walks through the Greek text to show why this isn't a one-and-done sin, but a posture — a persistent, willful rejection of who Jesus is. With help from the warning passages in Hebrews, the Acts 27 shipwreck argument from Tom Schreiner, and Jeremiah's promise that God puts his own fear in the hearts of his people, the guys unpack why these hard warnings are actually instruments of grace rather than threats to our assurance.

Then Jesus does something strange: he looks at the crowd sitting around him and says, these are my mother and brothers. Not a rejection of his family — but a redefinition of what family means for those who follow him. The church isn't a club. It's a covenant community, and membership in it means more than shared bloodlines ever could.

In this episode, Pastors Stephen and Ben are joined by a special guest: Pastor Buck Rogers of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Braselton. Together they walk through Mark 3:7–19, where Jesus takes his disciples to the beach before ascending a mountain to call the Twelve. It's a deceptively simple passage that opens up into something bigger: a master class on how Jesus showed ministry before he shared it.

From the crowds pressing in at the sea to the quiet of the mountain where Jesus names his apostles, Pastor Buck traces two movements — observing ministry, then learning it. Along the way, the conversation gets practical: What does it mean to withdraw when the world won't stop chasing you? What does the calling of the Twelve tell us about friendship, vocation, and belonging? And what does Judas being on the list have to teach us about what it means to let people belong before they believe? In other words … So, what about us?

This exploration of Mark 2:23-3:6 challenges us to examine whether we're clinging to old wineskins when Christ offers us new wine. The passage reveals Jesus walking through grain fields on the Sabbath, his disciples plucking heads of grain, and the Pharisees immediately crying foul. But Jesus doesn't argue about rule-keeping—instead, he points them to David entering God's house and eating the bread of presence.

The profound truth here isn't about which rules we can bend when we have needs; it's about recognizing that the Sabbath itself was always pointing forward to something greater. Jesus claims to be Lord of the Sabbath, then proves it by healing a man with a withered hand.

The Pharisees had made their identity so wrapped up in Sabbath-keeping that when the fulfillment of the Sabbath stood before them, they couldn't recognize him. We face the same temptation today—making our identity about how well we serve Christ rather than resting in what Christ has done for us.

The shift from working six days then resting to resting first in Christ then working out of that rest changes everything. Are we approaching Sunday as a burden to check off, or as the refreshing renewal God intended? The bread of presence sat in God's light all week, then was refreshed every Sabbath—a beautiful picture of how we're meant to be renewed in God's presence regularly.

The question for us isn't just what we shouldn't do on Sundays, but whether we're experiencing the joy and rest that comes from being with our King.

In episode 4, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into the calling of Levi — what it actually cost him to walk away, why Jesus didn't bother explaining the benefits package, and what it means that the "sinners" in this story were comfortable enough to show up for dinner.

They also wrestle with some of Jesus's most confusing imagery: new cloth, old garments, new wine, old wineskins. What's he really saying to people who keep living like the promises haven't been fulfilled? And what does that look like in our own lives?

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into Romans 1:1-7 and 16:25-27, exploring the surprising connection between the resurrection power of Jesus and the everyday grind of life. Starting with an honest confession about feeling overwhelmed — selling a house, juggling kids' schedules, and the temptation to see missions as just one more obligation — the conversation unpacks how the gospel reaching the nations isn't separate from your daily struggles but is actually fuel for them.

The guys trace the Greek word for "power" through both the introduction and conclusion of Romans, celebrate what they call the "kingdom wins loop," and tackle a listener question about whether Satan still has access to heaven. If you've ever wondered why you should care about what God is doing on the other side of the world when you can barely keep your own life together, this one's for you.

So, what about us? Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis talk about what happens when your mind hits a mystery it can't solve — the Trinity, the problem of evil, why suffering exists — and why Jesus doesn't hand you a theology textbook. He points you to the power and says, "Let that settle your heart." We also ask what it looks like to be the kind of friend who won't let obstacles, comfort, or busy schedules keep you from getting someone to Jesus.

If you have questions as we continue through Mark or as we look ahead to Romans 1:1-7 for the Mission Conference, please send them to: podcast@cmpca.org.

Jesus didn't just speak healing from a distance. He reached out His hand and touched the untouchable FIRST. Before the miracle. Before the cleansing. In that moment, this isolated man knew: I am loved.

We're all like that leper. We hide our uncleanness in our hearts while he wore it on his skin. But Jesus offers the same compassion, the same costly cleansing through His blood. The question is: Are you desperate enough to admit the truth and come to Him?

True cleansing required sacrifice—the spotless Lamb who died so we could be made clean. Don't settle for a bloodless Christ or a crown without a cross.