Friday, August 05, 2022
Mark 10:1-4
Thursday, August 04, 2022
Mark 9:42-50
Click here for the Mark 9:42-50 PODCAST
42 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 44 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 46 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— 48 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ 49 “For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” ~ Mark 9:42-50
In the context of today's passage, the disciples had been arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom. So, Jesus said, "Whoever's the greatest among you has to act like he's the lowest among you, and to be your servant." Then He picked up a child and He said, "Whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. Whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." The topic was discipleship and the characteristic the Lord was accentuating was childlike faith.
In v.42 of today's passage we read, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea."
The Lord Jesus is still addressing the disciples’ desire to be great, and the child was still present. And, He gives a warning which was repeated three times about stumbling, leaving them with the impression that stumbling is equivalent to causing a child to sin.
A disciple causes a child to sin by not showing him value. And when a disciple is motivated according to God's will, he will value a child. But, if the disciple is motivated by being great in the eyes of people, he will not value the child. The root problem is selfishness, wanting to be great in the eyes of others.
In v.43-48 of today's passage we read, "43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 44 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 46 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— 48 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'"
According to Deuteronomy 14 God prohibited the removing of an appendage, so, the Lord Jesus was not suggesting we go out and actually cut off our hand, or our foot, or actually pluck out our eye.
The eye represents what we see, our hand what we do, and, our foot where we go. There are places, activities and things the believer in Christ has no business being involved with. For us, nothing is worth any kind of separation from God. We must avoid such things.
The fire in this passage is analogous of God’s judgment. And, if God did not judge evil, evil would run rampant with no end. The effects of His fire purifies our motives, so that we choose what is “good”.
In v.49-50 of today's passage we read, "49 For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another."
In biblical days, salt was a preservative, and, it was used in the sacrifice in the temple. In those days, there was no refrigeration, and, the only way they preserve meat was to take salt and rub it into the meat. Rubbing salt into the meat would slow down the putrefaction process and allow it to be kept for a while. That's why all the meats back then were very salty, because they had to rub salt in it to preserve it.
Discipleship is a purifying process. As we walk through this fallen world, we are learning to be defined by God's culture. The believer in Christ should be more and more defined by God and therefore should live a salty life. When we live as servants, we will make the lost world thirsty. Their thirst will be for the substance that the Lord Jesus brings into our yielded lives. As we live our lives and we are being consumed for God's purposes, we discover that God uses our defined by Him lives as a preservative in this rotted world.
Greatness includes service and self-sacrifice. The mature disciple does not seek greatness, he seeks to be self-sacrificing. And, it is this selfless posture which comes out of the security and maturity in our walk with the Lord that God uses most profoundly to advance His culture in the lives of those we meet on a daily basis. We do this because we have discovered our completeness in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, August 03, 2022
Mark 9:38-41
Tuesday, August 02, 2022
Mark 9:33-37
Click here for the Mark 9:33-37 PODCAST
33 Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. When they went into a house there, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest. 35 Jesus sat down and called the twelve apostles to him. He said, “Whoever wants to be the most important must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then Jesus took a small child and had him stand among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said, 37 “Whoever accepts a child like this in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me.” ~ Mark 9:33-37
Today we return to our study of Mark 9 where we discover the Lord Jesus in the final months prior to His cross. Here, the Lord Jesus is in the middle of preparing His disciples for His departure from this earth.
The main theme in Mark 9 has been discipleship. God's idea of discipleship and ours are not quite the same. Where His idea of discipleship leads us to the place that we decrease, our idea of discipleship leads to the place where we increase. Where His idea of discipleship increasingly puts the spot light on Him, our idea of discipleship increasingly puts the spotlight on us.
In v.33-34 of today's passage we read, "33 Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. When they went into a house there, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest."
Here, we see the disciples positioning for greatness. The world's idea of success is to work hard, earn money, buy toys, climb to the top, lie, cheat, and steal, as long as we succeed in the end. The Lord Jesus invites us to a much different culture. This world's culture slaps us on the back and lauds us for our good successes. But, His is a culture of selflessness. His culture navigates us to consider the need of other’s as more important than our own. His way leads us to serve those around us, instead of expecting them to serve us. According to the Lord Jesus, we truly live the abundant life that He has promised when we dethrone and die to self.
In v.35 of today's passage we read, "Jesus sat down and called the twelve apostles to him. He said, 'Whoever wants to be the most important must be last of all and servant of all.'"
According to the culture of the Lord Jesus, being first means being last. And being last means being a servant. But the disciples had not shirked this world's culture that they had long been defined by. Like them, the world has convinced us that we can do acts of service and still not be servants. In the culture of God, servanthood is a must for the disciple of Christ. And, if our intended outcome is personal recognition, we will not be defined by God as servants. True servanthood begins with selflessness which will seek the good of others. This only happens as we are engaged in a meaningful relationship with the Lord Jesus who fully understands our greatest enemy is within us.
In v.36-37 of today's passage we read, "36 Then Jesus took a small child and had him stand among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said, 37 'Whoever accepts a child like this in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me.'"
That day, when the Lord Jesus took that child into His arms, He spoke a language that was foreign to the culture that His disciples had grown up in. At that time, their world did not find any value in a kid. But, according to the Lord's culture, a dependent child is the greatest. Like the disciples, we most often have a contrary understanding of greatness than the Lord. In fact, their argument in that house that day revealed their ignorance of the ways of the Lord.
Having said that, the Lord Jesus did not rebuke the disciples for wanting to be great. He didn't because He made us to desire to succeed at whatever we do. What the Lord Jesus did do was to tell the disciples the true way to greatness. True greatness is not accessed by seeking to be first, it is accessed by a willingness to be last. According to God's culture, greatness is when we are defined by Him which will always lead us to the ambition of pleasing Him.
True greatness is championed when we serve the insignificant and expect nothing in return. True greatness desires to serve in the name of our Savior, so that He gets the glory. Serving the insignificant comes on the heels of being defined by God. But, our problem is we are relentless worshipers of self. It is our nature to worship ourselves. But, when we come into a personal relationship with Christ, He teaches us to be defined by those things which are contrary to our natural way of living. And, His culture is dominated by the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Monday, August 01, 2022
Mark 9:30-32
Today, we return to our study of Mark 9 where the Lord Jesus has just delivered a young man who had been possessed by a demon since his childhood. We are not sure how long this young man was in that state, but the day he met the Lord Jesus, he returned to the normal life that he once knew when he was a boy. This story was a part of the discipleship program the Lord was providing for His disciples.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Mark 9:20-29
Click here for the Mark 9:20-29 PODCAST
20 So the followers brought him to Jesus. As soon as the evil spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy lose control of himself, and he fell down and rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening?” The father answered, “Since he was very young. 22 The spirit often throws him into a fire or into water to kill him. If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to the father, “You said, ‘If you can!’ All things are possible for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father cried out, “I do believe! Help me to believe more!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he ordered the evil spirit, saying, “You spirit that makes people unable to hear or speak, I command you to come out of this boy and never enter him again!” 26 The evil spirit screamed and caused the boy to fall on the ground again. Then the spirit came out. The boy looked as if he were dead, and many people said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took hold of the boy’s hand and helped him to stand up. 28 When Jesus went into the house, his followers began asking him privately, “Why couldn’t we force that evil spirit out?” 29 Jesus answered, “That kind of spirit can only be forced out by prayer.” ~ Mark 9:20-29
Today, we continue our study of the deliverance of the young man from demon possession. As soon as the demon saw the Lord Jesus approach, it reacted as if it had prior knowledge of the identity of the Lord Jesus. We could only imagine how traumatic these fits of rage were for the young man and his father. And, this had been going on for many years.
In v.20-22 of today's passage we read, "20 So the followers brought him to Jesus. As soon as the evil spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy lose control of himself, and he fell down and rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, 'How long has this been happening?' The father answered, 'Since he was very young. 22 The spirit often throws him into a fire or into water to kill him. If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.'"
The Lord Jesus asked the question in v.21 because He wanted to give the father the opportunity to tell his story of suffering. The Lord Jesus wanted the father to know that he was not just coming to a power, he was coming to a person. And if there’s anything demonstrated in the miracle ministry of Jesus Christ, it was His compassion, the fact that He cares about the things that break our hearts.
At the end of v.22, the father said, "If you can do anything for him." After this man and his son had suffered so much, they had begun to second-guess and doubt if anyone could help them. The honesty shown here in their desperation garnered the attention of the Lord Jesus even more.
The word "help" used at the end of v.22 is a rare word. It means to run to the aid of someone who needs help or to run to the aid of someone who cries out for help. Literally, the man asked, "If you can, would you run to the aid of my son and help us?"
In v.23-24 of today's passage we read, "23 Jesus said to the father, 'You said, If you can! All things are possible for the one who believes.' 24 Immediately the father cried out, 'I do believe! Help me to believe more!'"
The weakness of this man's faith he did not hide. To varying degrees we have all been there. There is a part of us that believes and there is a part of us that does not believe. There will always, this side of heaven, be this battle between faith and doubt. And, actually it must happen this way because doubt is the shadow cast by faith. We can't have the one without the other.
At the heart of this story is the response of the Lord Jesus. He said, "All things are possible for the one who believes." This is the first time the Lord Jesus showed the importance of faith and made it a mandate in Mark’s gospel. What we have here is an issue of faith. It was not an issue of power, it was an issue of accessing that power that comes by faith.
The Lord Jesus had healed many people who had no faith. Faith wasn’t always the issue. He healed lots of people who didn’t believe. But, the lesson in this story was about the power of faith. You see, the Lord Jesus knew He would soon be gone from the presence of His disciples, and, they had to learn how to access God's absent power and make it present by faith. The Lord Jesus was training the disciples to live by faith and not by sight.
The Lord Jesus never expects perfect faith from us; it would be pointless, though He is worthy of it. He is realistic with us and He expects imperfect faith mixed with doubt because that is our reality. The Lord Jesus also wants us to see the battle which called for the need of this miracle in the first place, which was the battle between good and evil. The question is which one will we place our faith in, God or the evil one? When we do not place our faith in the God of the Bible, we are essentially placing it in the evil one without even knowing it.
In v.25-27 of today's passage we read, "25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he ordered the evil spirit, saying, 'You spirit that makes people unable to hear or speak, I command you to come out of this boy and never enter him again!' 26 The evil spirit screamed and caused the boy to fall on the ground again. Then the spirit came out. The boy looked as if he were dead, and many people said, 'He is dead!' 27 But Jesus took hold of the boy’s hand and helped him to stand up."
In response to the order of the Lord Jesus for the demon to come out of the young man, the demon put up a fight. His desire was to kill the young man, but the Lord Jesus desired for him the kind of life that ushers the willing of heart into a personal relationship with God.
In v.28-29 of today's passage we read, "28 When Jesus went into the house, his followers began asking him privately, “Why couldn’t we force that evil spirit out?” 29 Jesus answered, “That kind of spirit can only be forced out by prayer."
The disciples were perplexed by their failure. So, they asked, "Why couldn't we cast the demon out?" The Lord Jesus then said, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer." Other translations read, "This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting."
Prayer attaches us to God, while, fasting detaches us from ourselves. It is in the context of saying "no" to our flesh, and, "yes" to our God that we do ministry. The disciples obviously tried to do this in their own strength without prayer. For every spiritual miracle that the Lord ever does, we have to depend on Him. We must not depend on the cleverness of our presentation. And, the casting out of demons requires fasting and prayer.
This miracle was done on the basis of the father’s faith which expressed itself when he requested of the Lord Jesus, "Please run to the rescue of my weak faith." That day, this father's faith grew and was found to be sufficient faith. The Lord Jesus could have let the disciples succeed without the prayer of the young man's father, but, that would have precluded the father from persisting in his faith in the Lord Jesus. This is His goal in all of our lives, that we would seek a relationship not with the miracle but that we would seek a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Mark 9:14-19
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Mark 9:9-13
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Mark 9:1-8
Monday, July 25, 2022
Mark 8:34-38
Friday, July 22, 2022
Mark 8:31-33
Click here for the Mark 8:31-33 PODCAST
31 Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and that he would be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He told them that the Son of Man must be killed and then rise from the dead after three days. 32 Jesus told them plainly what would happen. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to tell him not to talk like that. 33 But Jesus turned and looked at his followers. Then he told Peter not to talk that way. He said, “Go away from me, Satan! You don’t care about the things of God, but only about things people think are important.” ~ Mark 8:31-33
Today, we continue our study of Mark 8 where we discover the Lord Jesus leading His disciples toward what has been called the "Transfiguration" which took place on Mount Hermon. Now, Mount Hermon is 9,232 feet above sea level, the highest mountain in the Middle East. We can be sure the transfiguration took place on Mount Hermon because in Mark 8:27 the Lord Jesus and His disciples were traveling in that direction when Peter made the observation that the Lord Jesus was God.
In v.31 of today's passage we read, "Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and that he would be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He told them that the Son of Man must be killed and then rise from the dead after three days."
This was the first of three times the Lord Jesus told the disciples that they were going to Jerusalem where He would be killed. Even though this was a foreign idea to the disciples, the Lord Jesus knew He was going to Jerusalem to die a horrific death in order to pay the penalty for that which separates people from God. As a result of His death, burial and resurrection, justification has been provided for all who place their trust in His finished work.
From the opening verses of Scripture, God is presented as eternal, independent, holy, loving, righteous, and good. One crucial implication of this description of God is that God, by nature, is the moral standard. This is why God’s law is not external to Him. The God of the Bible is the law; His will and His nature determine what is right and wrong. He is the ultimate definer of all things good.
A biblical view of God is foundational to understanding the cross of Calvary. God's “righteousness, justice, and holiness” are a threefold cord which largely makes up His nature. This is why God cannot overlook man's sin. This is why He can not just wink at sin and dismiss it. Sin had to be dealt with, otherwise it would have triumphed. God’s holy justice demands that He punish all sin.
As a result of the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden, all people are conceived wicked, corrupt, and, therefore guilty before God. And, all are, therefore, under God's judicial sentence of death. Based upon God's moral perfection and man's imperfection, God decided to send His Son who willingly came to suffer the punishment for all of mankind's willful rebellion against God and all that is good and substantive. And, in order to redeem mankind, Christ had to become the ransom for man's freedom from sin. This results in man being able to enter into a personal relationship with God and therefore overcome the deceit of the evil one.
In v.32 of today's passage we read, "Jesus told them plainly what would happen. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to tell him not to talk like that."
Mark's gospel was written a bit different from the other three Gospel accounts because he received his information from none other than the Apostle Peter. Speaking for all the disciples, Peter took the Lord Jesus aside and tried to turn Him from the cross and His destiny. Can you imagine being in Peter's shoes, trying to turn around the execution of a plan that has always been eternal? And, Peter thought he was doing a noble thing. Oh, the deceit of the evil one.
In v.33 of today's passage we read, "But Jesus turned and looked at his followers. Then he told Peter not to talk that way. He said, “Go away from me, Satan! You don’t care about the things of God, but only about things people think are important."
After Peter spoke those words, the Lord Jesus responded with, “Go away from Me, Satan!” Of course, Peter was not Satan, but Peter's previous conclusion and demand was a temptation from Satan. God's presentation of the cross through the Scriptures is consistent and multifaceted. It’s like a beautiful gem that can be looked at from many angles. The cross of Christ is central to the New Covenant which results in the transformation of the willing human heart.
We have all been tempted with Satan's philosophy on life, and, his message is based upon selfishness and arrogance, and, he will always tempt us to put ourselves first. Satan never tries to get us to follow him or to worship him, He always appeals to our pride and arrogance. He knows that if he can get us to worship ourselves, we will be indirectly worshipping him.
When Peter resisted God's plan for the cross, he was siding himself with Satan without even knowing it. We live in a day when the evil one is lurking, seeking whom he may devour. We must be diligent to be defined by God's word, thus we will resist Satan's lures of selfishness, hatred, and lies. We must be diligent to stay close to God by talking to Him often and remaining in His word daily. God not only wants to rescue us from the diabolical schemes of the evil one, He wants to include us in on His rescuing efforts of others.