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Today's talk comes from Pastor Ben Stewart.

Well, we are stepping into a moment of massive importance in the life and ministry of Jesus.

And if you've been following along with us in the Gospel of Mark, you know that the Gospel breaks roughly in half.

In the first half of the Gospel of Mark, that the gospel breaks roughly in half.

In the first half of the gospel of Mark

is really answering the question, who is this man?

Who is he?

And we watch Jesus cast out demons, healed diseases, calm storms, and all the time people are asking who is this man who does this kind of thing.

And in the first part of Mark kind of culminates in chapter 8 where Jesus asked the question of his disciples, who do you think I am?

And Peter says, you are the Christ, you are the Messiah, you are God's chosen instrument, the hero of his human story, and they get his identity right.

And once they get his identity right, the back of the book shifts to focus on, if that's

his identity, the Messiah, now let's talk about his activity what is he here to do and in mark chapter 8 Jesus starts to tell them hey I'm going to Jerusalem and the chief police and elders there will reject me, they will kill me, I will die, and then I will rise.

And he tells them that, and then for the next two chapters, 9 and 10,

he just starts walking towards Jerusalem.

And as he's doing it, he's saying,

when we get there, I will be rejected, killed,

but I won't stay dead.

And we watched him march towards his fate,

teaching his disciples on the way.

And now we arrive at this critical moment where Jesus is on the edge of Jerusalem about to walk in.

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