Many people outside the church question who Jesus really is. Secular media and academics often search for the “historical Jesus,” as if the truth isn’t already clear. But one surprising question came from someone you wouldn’t expect—John the Baptist. In Luke 7, while he was in prison, John sent a message to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
This might seem shocking, since John was the one who introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God, the one who would take away the sin of the world. He had seen the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and heard the voice of God say, “This is my beloved Son.” Still, time passed, and what John expected didn’t happen. Jesus didn’t overthrow Roman rule or establish a visible kingdom. Instead, He travelled from place to place, teaching and healing—but not doing what many thought the Messiah would do. Meanwhile, John sat in a prison cell, facing death. This wasn’t the future he had imagined.
John’s doubt wasn’t rooted in disbelief, but in confusion and suffering. It shows that even strong believers can struggle when God’s plan looks different from their expectations.
The Bible reassures us that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9). Like John, we may not always see the full picture, but we are still called to trust. Jesus’ answer to John was not a rebuke, but a reminder of the miracles and truth already being shown—a quiet but powerful proof of who He really is.
In the Gospels, we rarely see Jesus surprised. Yet, there are two times when Jesus is said to be amazed. One of those moments happened when a Roman centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant. In Luke 7, the Bible says Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” This was a strong statement.
At that time, Jesus was travelling through Israel, healing the sick, casting out demons, even raising the dead. Crowds followed Him, but many people only showed shallow interest. They were impressed by His miracles but didn’t truly believe in Him. After Jesus rose from the dead, only 500 believers gathered in Galilee, and just 120 in Judea. This shows how few truly accepted Him.
Then came the centurion—a Gentile, not a Jew. He believed in Jesus’ power so deeply that he didn’t even ask Jesus to come in person. He just trusted that Jesus’ word was enough. This kind of deep, humble faith was rare, even among Jesus’ own people.
As believers today, we should ask ourselves: is our faith like the centurion’s—strong, humble, and trusting? Hebrews 11:6 reminds us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” May our trust in Christ be the kind that moves His heart.
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In his sermon on Mark chapters 9 through 11, Dr. McGee begins by examining the Transfiguration in Mark 9, highlighting Mark’s detailed account and suggesting it reveals Christ’s perfect humanity rather than primarily his deity, which is John’s focus. He connects this event to Peter’s later testimony as an eyewitness of Christ’s power and coming. Dr. McGee explains Jesus taking Peter, James, and John to the mountain, not as favoritism, but perhaps due to their spiritual immaturity. The appearance of Moses and Elijah signifies the law and the prophets testifying to Jesus. Despite this glory, the disciples fail to cast out a demon at the foot of the mountain, illustrating the contrast between heavenly glory and earthly struggles. Dr. McGee emphasizes that the Transfiguration itself doesn’t save; it points towards the necessity of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Continuing in Mark 9, Dr. McGee interprets the disciples’ failure as a reflection of the church’s present-day ineffectiveness in a world he describes as troubled and even “demon possessed”. He criticizes the church for engaging in various activities while neglecting the primary task of bringing people to Jesus. Jesus’ rebuke of a “faithless generation” and his statement “bring him unto me” are central to this point. The disciples’ subsequent inability to cast out the demon is attributed to a lack of prayer. Dr. McGee also touches upon Jesus’ second announcement of his death and resurrection, the disciples’ misunderstanding and argument about greatness, and Jesus’ teaching against a sectarian spirit after John forbids an outsider from casting out demons in Jesus’ name. He notes Jesus’ stern warning against offending little ones and his direct teaching about hell.
Moving into Mark 10, Dr. McGee discusses marriage and divorce, noting the Pharisees’ attempt to entrap Jesus. Jesus shifts the focus from divorce back to God’s original design for marriage as a union of one flesh created at the beginning. He explains that divorce was permitted due to the “hardness of your heart” but was not God’s ideal. Dr. McGee addresses adultery in the context of remarriage and clarifies why Mark’s account of divorce differs slightly from Matthew’s, considering Mark’s Roman audience. He then examines the blessing of the little children, highlighting their importance and suggesting adults should embrace a childlike faith. The encounter with the Rich Young Ruler is analyzed as an example of someone relying on outward obedience to the law while lacking a true relationship with God, hindered by his wealth. Jesus’ teaching on the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom is explained, emphasizing that salvation comes through God, not human effort or riches.
Finally, in Mark 10 and 11, Dr. McGee addresses Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, including his repeated predictions of his death and resurrection. He interprets James and John’s request for positions of power and Jesus’ response about those places being prepared by God. The core of Jesus’ mission is emphasized: to minister and give his life as a ransom for many. Dr. McGee briefly mentions the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Transitioning to Mark 11, he describes Jesus’ public entry into Jerusalem as a presentation of himself as the Messiah, which ultimately led to rejection. He suggests this entry occurred over three days and was not a triumphal procession in the worldly sense. The cursing of the fig tree is interpreted as a symbol of Israel’s fruitless religious outward appearance. The cleansing of the temple is depicted as Jesus purging a corrupt religious system. This event leads to a discourse on the power of prayer through faith in God, clarifying that this power is for spiritual strength rather than literal miracles, and emphasizing the importance of forgiveness. The sermon concludes with Jesus’ skillful handling of the chief priests and elders who question his authority, using a counter-question about John the Baptist to silence them.
Almost 500 years ago, Martin Luther emphasized the core message of the gospel: justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. If this is true, how should we understand a passage like James 2:24, which says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”? It might seem like this verse is saying that works do play a role in our salvation.
However, works do not provide our salvation. Instead, they have a very important role in showing that our salvation is real. Isn’t James saying that to other people who observe our lives, we are seen as justified by our actions, not just by our faith, which is invisible. We know that before God, we are justified by grace through faith. But to the world, both believers and non-believers, they cannot see our faith. Therefore, our good deeds demonstrate that we have been justified.
This is similar to what Paul said in Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” [Ephesians 2:8-10. Salvation is decided by faith alone, but it is shown by our obedience to God’s will.
The audio on this video is the property of Thru the Bible. It is offered free of charge. If you wish to make a donation, do not send it to us. Visit http://www.ttb.org for information. The audio is attributed to Dr. J. Vernon McGee and Thru the Bible. Intellectual property rights are those of Thru the Bible. Please contact us if you feel our understanding of the terms of use are in error. Copyright information obtained from https://ttb.org/about/copyright-policy
Dr. J. Vernon McGee begins his sermon by highlighting the importance of the Gospel of Mark, which he describes as a gospel of action filled with miracles. He notes that Chapter 5 is particularly significant, featuring three outstanding miracles demonstrating the power of omnipotence: the casting out of demons from the man in Gadara, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood, and the raising of Jairus’s daughter. McGee delves into the account of the demon-possessed man, emphasizing his desperate condition of living among the tombs and possessing superhuman strength. He clarifies that the man, not the demons, worshiped Jesus, illustrating a struggle within the man’s being. The demons, upon being commanded by Jesus to leave, requested to be sent into a herd of swine, which then perished in the sea. McGee defends Jesus’s action, pointing out the Gadarines’ disregard for God’s law by engaging in pig farming. He further discusses several facts about demons, emphasizing their reality, their prevalence during Jesus’s ministry, their desire to indwell mankind, and Christ’s ultimate power over them.
Moving on, Dr. McGee discusses the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairus’s daughter, both found in Mark 5. He points out the woman’s 12 years of suffering and her faith in touching Jesus’s garment to be healed, coinciding with the 12 years of Jairus’s daughter’s life. McGee underscores Jesus’s deliberate action in healing the woman before going to Jairus’s house, where he then raised the daughter from the dead with the Aramaic words “Talitha koum,” which McGee interprets as “Little lamb, wake up”. He emphasizes the practical nature of Jesus’s command to feed the girl after she was raised. McGee sees these miracles as demonstrations of Jesus’s power and his role as God’s servant who came to minister and give his life as a ransom.
Transitioning to Mark 6, McGee discusses Jesus’s return to Nazareth, where he was met with astonishment and offense by his own people who questioned his origins and were familiar with his family. McGee clarifies that this was likely Jesus’s second visit to Nazareth, contrasting it with the account in Luke 4 where no miracles were performed initially. He explains that the unbelief of the people in Nazareth limited Jesus’s ability to perform mighty works there, illustrating that faith is necessary to release God’s power. McGee then describes Jesus sending out the twelve disciples two by two, giving them power over unclean spirits and instructing them to travel lightly, focusing on their urgent mission to preach repentance. He also touches on Herod’s reaction to the spreading fame of Jesus, linking it to his guilt over the beheading of John the Baptist. The disciples later returned and reported their experiences, leading Jesus to take them to a deserted place to rest before the account of the feeding of the 5,000.
Finally, Dr. McGee addresses the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes who questioned his disciples’ traditions of washing hands before eating in Mark 7. Jesus rebukes their hypocrisy, quoting Isaiah and stating that their worship is in vain because they substitute the commandments of God with the traditions of men. He uses the example of the tradition of “Corban” to illustrate how they circumvented the commandment to honor one’s parents. McGee emphasizes that true defilement comes from within the heart of man, listing various evil thoughts and actions. He then discusses the healing of the deaf and dumb man in the Decapolis, noting Jesus’s unique method as aids to faith. McGee briefly touches on the feeding of the 4,000 in Mark 8, distinguishing it from the feeding of the 5,000 by several factors. He concludes with the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida in stages, using this as an analogy for spiritual sight, and Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ. McGee underscores the importance of acknowledging and following Christ, urging listeners to examine their own faith and relationship with Him.
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