Tag Archives: rise again

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – DESTINATION JERUSALEM!

Bible Study, ,

DESTINATION JERUSALEM!

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again, he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” Mark 10:32-34

Once again, Jesus attempted to orientate His disciples to the idea that a cruel and violent death awaited Him in Jerusalem. He was still in Galilee but, although Mark does not mention it, the Passover was drawing near. It was time to head south for the most important annual festival of the year. The disciples had no problem with that. They joined Jesus in all His faithful observance of the Jewish festivals but what they could not grasp was that, this time, He was about to become the Passover Lamb.

No matter how many times He brought up the subject, it was as though they had selective hearing. Two things were fixed in their thinking; one, that Messiah was a king and that He would set up His kingdom in Israel; two, that He would drive out the Roman oppressors and re-establish the Davidic throne in Jerusalem. Dying did not fit into their scheme of things. It’s no wonder, then, that they imagined themselves to be cabinet ministers in this new Israeli government. The issue for them was, “Who would be Prime Minister?” In the very next paragraph, James and John try to secure the positions for themselves.

All of their reactions, their deafness to Jesus’ warnings about His coming death, their squabbles over positions, and their insensitivity to the spiritual nature of the kingdom, revealed that they were locked into a concept of the kingdom of God that ignored sin and the true nature of the two kingdoms at work in the world. They watched Jesus at work and admired His power over nature and over the demonic realm but they did not connect Him with a dimension of which they were to be a part, a kingdom which would transcend geographical boundaries and reconnect them with the Father who rules over all the kingdoms of men.

This kingdom is governed by a constitution based on the nature of God and expressed in obedience to only one law – the law of love. It is God-centred and self-forgetful and allows no place for any kind of imperfection. It is open to all who give Jesus the right to rule over their hearts.

It would take the memory of a limp and very-dead Jesus hanging on a Roman execution stake, the mind-blowing experience of a very-alive Jesus standing among them, eating fish and showing them His wounds, and the powerful intervention of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to write the truth of all that the prophets had spoken on their hearts. Only the reality of God’s kingdom once again breaking into their world would finally to set them on the path to understanding its true power and glory and give them a place in it.

THE GOSPEL 0F MARK – THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND

Bible Study, ,

THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND 

30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. Mark 9:30-32

This seems to have been quite a long interlude in the region of Caesarea Philippi. Isn’t it likely that the high mountain Mark was referring to was Mount Hermon since Caesarea Philippi lay at the base of Mt Hermon? The nine disciples were in the same vicinity for a whole week, waiting for Jesus and His disciples to return, surrounded by all the evidence of godless idolatry and depraved behaviour. It is difficult to imagine what went on in the minds of these twelve men in this atmosphere.

Jesus was completely unfazed by His experience. As always, these kinds of experiences only served to strengthen His awareness of the kingdom in which He lived and which He represented. He used every opportunity He could to condition the minds of His disciples to His impending death as a very necessary part of His purpose for coming “from the other side” so that they would also learn to live in the awareness of the kingdom of God.

At this point, His disciples were still held captive by their “this-worldly” perceptions of the kingdom of God, to the idea that Jesus was going to restore a David-type kingdom in Israel. After all, were not many of the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah related to His being the son of David? Although the two streams of thought were clear in the Old Testament, both king and suffering servant, it was the king-concept that was uppermost in their minds. They could not embrace His death as an atoning sacrifice for sin and the concept of the kingdom as a spiritual domain open to all who would receive His sacrifice as a once-for-all act to reconcile them to God.

Their failure to make this paradigm shift shut their minds to all His efforts to prepare them for the apparent disaster that loomed ahead. It was almost as though there was a part of their brains that was deaf and dead to His words. They could not make the connection between their sacrificial system of offering animal sacrifices to atone for sin and Jesus, the Lamb of God, being the one offering for all time to take away the sins of the world. It would take revelation truth from the Holy Spirit to make this connection.

Strange as it may seem, despite the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers today, there are still many who do not understand the relevance of the suffering and death of Jesus in their own lives. They may wear the symbol of His death as a piece of jewelry around their necks but they do not carry the cross daily and follow Him. Their connection to Jesus is no more than a free pass to heaven, not an indissoluble union with Him in His death  and resurrection.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – NO, LORD! NOT THAT WAY

Bible Study, , ,

NO, LORD! NOT THAT WAY

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:31-33

This whole incident at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’ question, Peter’s response and what followed is an important part of the disciples’ understanding and experience of Jesus as their Messiah. It was part of refashioning Messiah’s person and role in Israel as a nation and in their lives as individuals. Messianic expectation was very high because of the hated Roman oppression. Further, John the Baptist’s ministry had raised their hopes, topped with this man whose ability to do miracles seemed to have no limit.

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus actually acknowledged Peter’s conclusion, representing the opinion of all the disciples, as true. Then, in the very next breath He warned them to keep quiet about it. Why? Peter may have been accurate in his confession, but he was way off the mark in his understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah. His very next response to Jesus betrayed his complete misunderstanding of what the Messiah was all about.

It was imperative that the disciples accurately represent their Messiah to their nation and to the world. Jesus did not want them to go blabbing a lot of nonsense about Him because they attached their notion of what they expected of Him to His identity as Messiah. They had to wait until the revelation was complete – until they were thoroughly instructed and convinced by the Holy Spirit of who He was and why He came.

Following His warning not to disclose His identity yet, He began to fill in the details of His mission – suffering, death and resurrection as the imperative route of victory – over a far more powerful and sinister oppressor than Rome, the power of sin and death. Sadly, His words fell on ears padded with the pre-conceived idea that the Messiah had come to conquer Rome and set up a restored kingdom like that of David’s kingdom. They could not take in His apparently failed mission. Peter vocalised their objection and received a sharp rebuke from Jesus. At that moment Satan was speaking through Peter and Jesus silenced him

Elijah Has Come

Bible Study, , ,

ELIJAH HAS COME

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. And they asked Him, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restore all things. Why, then, is it written that the Son of Man must suffer and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.’ (Mark 9: 9-13).

What an unending struggle Jesus had with these twelve men! Their mental block to His talk of His suffering shut them off from understanding much of the prophecies associated with the Messiah.

Malachi’s prophecy is clear.

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes (Mal. 4: 5).

Of course, Elijah would not come literally because he belonged to another era and he had been dead for many centuries. But God would send another prophet in the spirit of Elijah. Who would not have recognised John the Baptist to be that one? If the disciples had any sensitivity to the times, John’s dress and demeanour would have alerted them to something unusual. They had seen and recognised Elijah on the mountain but they had not recognised his spirit in John.

Yes, “Elijah” had come and, like many of the other prophets before him, he had been silenced for speaking the truth. His was the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Why did Malachi call it “that great and dreadful day of the Lord”? It was the day – the time in history – when God would judge sin once and for all. Every word that came from John’s mouth and from the mouth of Jesus pronounced judgment, and the eventual violent death of both forerunner and Messiah sealed that judgment on all mankind.

Darkness had tried to extinguish the light but Jesus rose from the dead to proclaim forgiveness for all mankind. Sin was finally judged, once for all in the Messiah. Those who killed Him thought that they had silenced Him forever but no one can ever kill truth. ”Elijah” came and Herod shut his up, but he still speaks because he spoke the truth. Jesus came, and the whole world, in those who represented us then, tried to shut Him up but He lives and speaks today.

People may ignore Him, deny His existence, lie about His person, deny that He died and rose again, create their own theories and religious systems and believe the nonsense they have fabricated but, sadly for them, Jesus just not go away. Sin was judged on the cross but those who choose not to receive the forgiveness His death purchased and the real life He offers in union with Him, will face the alternative. Their sin will not go away. It’s Jesus and eternal life or sin and eternal destruction. Everyone has a choice.

People did to “Elijah” whatever they wanted. They took him from the earthly scene but they could not erase him from history or deny what he did. People did to Jesus whatever they wanted but in His dying He paid the debt of sin and overcame death. We can ignore Him, deny Him, ostracise Him, write Him out of our history books, constitutions, governments, schools, homes and lives but He will never go away.

What is the alternative? Submit to Him now and enter into everlasting life or bow to Him as Lord on judgment day and be sent away into everlasting punishment. Whether you are Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, agnostic, atheist or any other variation of God-denying religion, the outcome will be the same.

Who, being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death in a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father  (Phil 2: 6-11).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com