- John's relationship to Messiah is described as the one who would "prepare Your way before You." John is shown to be the fulfillment of prophecy sent as the messenger, the preparer and the voice (Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1). Go over to Isaiah 40 and read the entire message given. John the Baptizer, without a doubt, preached this entire message several times in his life. All of Isaiah 40, clearly points to Jesus and His ministry. Then go over and read Malachi 3 & 4. John would have preached this message as well. No doubt John preached other things and quoted much of what the Prophets & Moses said. These two are highlighted because they are quoted in Mark 1:2-3.
- Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John. From this point on, focus shifts from John to Jesus. John begins to decrease and Jesus begins to increase. Shortly after this, John is imprisoned and then murdered.
- Immediately after the baptism, Jesus is lead or sent by the Sprit into the wilderness (desert). Jesus must be tested and He must defeat the enemy. Whenever God does something significant in our lives, it must be tested and proven.
- (Mark 1:14) Jesus begins His ministry North of the Sea of Galilee.
- (Mark 1:16-17) Simon Peter and Andrew are called by Jesus, "Follow Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." Luke 5:1-11 gives us the details of what happened in this encounter.
- (Mark 1:21-28) Jesus casts a demon out of a man in the synagogue! Do demons really go to Church?
- Notice how Jesus is fulfilling His mission: "preach the Gospel to the poor." The poor would have been considered outsiders to the mainstream religious people. The phrase "the poor" is speaking of people whose lives are filled with chaos of some kind. Many of the religious people would have been merciless to "the poor" believing they had been cursed and rejected by God. Some of the Saduccees taught a health/wealth view of God. Another words, if God liked you, you would be healthy and wealthy. If God didn't like you, you would be financially poor and/or sick in some way. Sound familiar? Not much has changed in 2,000 years. This teaching, unfortunately, is still with us. Jesus disproves all of this erroneous thought by extending mercy, compassion, love and healing to "the poor". Many of Jesus' miracles are proclaiming the message, "God loves the poor and you should, too." In fact, when you get down to it, we all are "the poor" when we compare ourselves to God and His Messiah. Viewing yourself like this is one of the first steps into the Kingdom of God (Matt 5:3). You may want to do a study on the phrase "the poor". God takes our treatment of "the poor" very, very seriously.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Mark 1-2
This Gospel gets right to the point. Notice the use of the word "immediately" throughout this Gospel ("immediatley" is used in the NKJV, similar synonyms are used in other translations). This word seems to personify Peter's personality. Let's dive head first into the ministry of the Lord Jesus starting with the forerunner, John the Baptizer.
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6 comments:
That is so true about the rich and the poor. We see so many people today that tend to hide behind their riches and they are very empty inside. Then I see poor people who do their very best to be good stewards of what God has given them and are very happy because they know who they are in Christ. I think it is fine to have riches and wealth if it comes honestly and by hard work. God wants us to be successful people.. Jesus chose his disciples who were not remarkable for their earthly talents but were rather ordinary people. They were willing to follow and obey Jesus. In the end, most of them accomplished great things for God and laid down their lives for him. What He wants us to do today is to worship God by offering him our lives and allowing him to accomplish his will through us. HE wants us to love and forgive each other--even ourselves. The church today should be filled with many types of people, rich , poor, sick, well, all nationalities--kinda like the Varsity on Saturday night--don't you think?
P.s. The poor that you were talking about were those who had a lot of chaos in their lives. I see that everyday. There is healing for the poor, there is mercy and kindness that needs to be extended to the poor. We should apply the principle--Treat others as you would want to be treated. How do we react when someone different comes in our midst. I should hope we would all have compassion and I believe we as follows of Christ honestly do accept people and try to help. That is what we are about. We want to see people restored to right relationship with God and others and free from bondage.
P.s. The poor that you were talking about were those who had a lot of chaos in their lives. I see that everyday. There is healing for the poor, there is mercy and kindness that needs to be extended to the poor. We should apply the principle--Treat others as you would want to be treated. How do we react when someone different comes in our midst. I should hope we would all have compassion and I believe we as follows of Christ honestly do accept people and try to help. That is what we are about. We want to see people restored to right relationship with God and others and free from bondage.
I was really moved by the scripture in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." Wow. I loved being reminded of the Old Testament in this passage of how Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David had a need and God was able to provide, even at the total shock of the priests, when he and his Mighty (?) Men ate the showbread in the temple. Think of this: The Sabbath is the Lord's day and it was made for me.
As for the demons going to church...They have the audacity to enter into God's presence (as in the book of Job and also Jesus' temptation after His baptism). So what in the world would keep them from entering the church? We could probably spend most of our time casting out demons, don't you think?
To Angie T. -
Thanks for your comments. The second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as you love yourself." The world would be a different place if we obeyed the spirit of this command.
This Wednesday 10-22-08, I'm going to be preaching a message about "The Poor."
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