Mark 9

To Be the Best, Or Not To Be; Who is the Answer.

After Jesus was transfigured in front of His disciple in Caesarea Philippi, they leave for Capernaum. Once they reach their destination, which is a house in Capernaum, Jesus asks His disciples a question, “what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” (Mark 9:33). The first thing that comes to mind is, why does Jesus ask them this? Is He not the Messiah? Is he not God in human flesh? Shouldn’t He already know what they were talking about? After all Jesus knew the hearts of the scribes when He healed the paralytic who was lowered down by his friends (Mark 2:1-12). It’s not that Jesus did not know; it was show the gentleness He had towards them. The tone of this passage is not anger, but calm conversational. The word “dispute” means to question or doubt the truth or validity of something. They had a disagreement about what? Verses 34-35 tell us.

“But they kept silent, for on the road they disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.” Then in verse 34 Jesus responds, “if anyone desires to be first, he shall be least of all and servant of all.” So, the disciples were disagreeing on who would be the greatest, Jesus knew this but He didn’t want to discourage them. He desired to teach them how to be the greatest. Why, because it is a good thing to try to be the greatest you possible can. Jesus says to them, “Okay, if you want to be the best here’s what you do: be the least in your friends, family, schooling, church.” He continues on how to do that, “be a servant to your friends, family, at school, at church, etc.” Being a servant is hard to do because we are all prideful; and Jesus knows this. Pride was what Jesus addressed not being your best.

Jesus gives them an example, “then He [Jesus] took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, ‘whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.’” Have you received God’s people, God’s son, God? The point He makes is His authority over the people of the world and the authority God has Given Jesus. Pride is to not be submissive; Humility is to be submissive. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:20). If your desire to be the greatest you first must humble yourself under the authority of God, Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. How do you do this? Pray to ask for Jesus to help you and allow the Holy Spirit to lead your actions every day. Amen.

October Calendar & Events

Who Do We Say Jesus Is?

Mark 8

Within the eighth chapter of The Gospel according to Mark, Jesus asked His disciples a question of the utmost importance, not only for His disciples at that point in time; but for all, because in truth one’s honest answer to this question determines which direction one is headed, from an eternal perspective.

Let’s check it out as we read together: Mark 8:27-29 (And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way He asked His disciples,”Who do people say that I am?” And they told Him,”John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And He asked them,”But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered Him,”You are the Christ.”)

As we have seen Jesus asked the question: “Who to you say that I am?” There were admirable answers given, however only one answer was truly accurate; Peter’s because he said: “Christ”. The Gospel according to Matthew gives us Jesus’ agreement with Peter’s answer, check it out: Matthew 16:17-18 (And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.)

 When Peter said: “You are The Christ”, everyone who heard understood exactly what was meant. This is because the word “Christ” in the original languages means “Messiah” (which was understood by all to mean: the coming ultimate “Lord of all” who in fact would be God in the flesh).

 Now let’s check out how Jesus says we should react once we recognize that He is Lord: Matthew 16:24-26 (Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

 In fact our recognition and acceptance of Jesus as Lord is the very beginning point of our salvation. Check out; Romans 10:9 (because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.)

 As we can clearly see the only correct answer to the question asked by Jesus (“who do you say that I am”) is as follows: Christ The Lord (meaning absolute ruler of all that we have, and all that we are)

This brings us to the all important question that we must ask ourselves today: Who do we really say that Jesus is?

Is He simply our heavenly friend, who we desire to help us obtain what we personally want out of life?

 OR

 Is He our loving Lord and Savior to whom we willingly submit all that we have, and all that we are unto His power to do His will?

Mark 7

Who Are You?

Throughout all of Mark chapter 7, we read of the question that the Pharisees bring before Jesus as to traditions and customs within the Jewish culture and also their religion.

Everything the religious leaders did was very, to the point, did everything word for word and conducted their lives in what they thought was “perfection”.

The dispute arises as Jesus’ disciples were eating with what they called “unclean” hands. They were defiled, they were unwashed. In this culture they did not anything until they had thoroughly washed their hands and made sure they were “worthy” to touch the food they were about to eat. What legalism!!

They see this happening right before their very eyes and are amazed that this jewish man, the so-called Messiah, was not telling them that they were unclean as they were eating. As they are observing this, they ask Jesus this question, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

You have to know that as the religious leaders are asking this question, they are thinking to themselves, “man, we are pretty right on! we know what’s up, and we got this whole system down.” But Jesus, again as we remember that He is omnipotent, already knew they were going to ask this question and He answers in a very profound way of rebuking them as He says in Mark 7:6-8, “And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Jesus quotes to the Pharisees from Isaiah 29:13. He uses scripture to give a defense saying that they (the Pharisees), just honor with their lips, and their heart is nowhere close to the heart of God. It’s what we call “lip-service”. They were all talk and no game. They talked the talk but they sure didn’t walk the walk! They were more concerned with the outward appearance, and how they presented themselves as righteous, but God knows the motives and intent of the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

The Lord does not look at the popularity of someone. He does not check to see how many Facebook friends you have, and determine who you are, He looks on the inside. He examines and measures the heart of a man and knows every secret about that person. Someone can easily look very “religious”, they go to church every week, serve all the time, read scripture and pray, but the Lord does not even look at that! He looks at the intention of the heart, and examines the motive behind the action.

Jesus goes on to say in verses 14-23, it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but rather, what comes out of him. What does this mean? I can put things into my body such as, food, drink, medicines, even thoughts, ideas, desires and even temptations. Those things that come into me, are things I have to understand are not things that defile but rather, the things that come out of my body, more so, my mouth and mind, are what defile me.

There is a lot of junk that we allow to infiltrate our mind, that hijacks our thoughts and emotions, and then based on what is put into our mind and heart, is what we are.

So the question now needs to be asked, “What do you allow to infiltrate your body?” Is it foul language in music? If so, what do you think will come out of you after listening to lyrics with a whole lot of junk in it? You’ll repeat the lyrics, and before you know it, you will be talking like that. What about dirty images? You’ll want to make those real, and lust will overtake your entire being. What about even video games or movies with a lot of crime and hatred? What do you think will become of you if you consume your life by those things? You will allow them into our life and will act off of them and that is what will defile you.

I remember when I was in Jr. High, the pastor at the time, Forrest Rickard, would teach on this subject about what we allow ourself to look at, listen to and read, and the phrase he always used was, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” Have you allowed “garbage” into your life? If so get rid of it. Allow the things of Christ to rule and reign your heart so you may be consumed by Him.

Who are you? One who allows any sort of thing to control you regardless of how wrong it is? Or one who has a spam filter on your mind, filtering out all the bad and allowing all the good?

September Calendar & Events

Mark 6

Jesus As Shepherd

Mark 6:41-42 “And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. [42] And they all ate and were satisfied.”

The feeding of the five thousand is another one of the miracles that Jesus performed that is extremely popular. It’s definitely one I wish I could have been there for. In the chapter Jesus takes His disciples up to a place where it would be quiet and they could get some rest. It is very important for those who are constantly doing ministry to take some time to rest. But, a large crowd followed Jesus up to this desolate place to hear Him and see His miracles.

When Jesus saw them He had compassion on them because they had not been taken care by anybody. Not by their political leaders or their spiritual leaders. So Jesus takes the time to feed them both spiritually and physically. Take note of the reaction of the disciples. They were looking at the situation on a human level. They saw that there were a lot of people and that they were far away from any food source. The disciples wanted to send them away because they had no idea what to do with the people. But Jesus had a plan.

They disciples should have trusted Jesus. They still did not know that Jesus was the Messiah. They did not know what He was able to do. Many Christians live their lives this way. They look at their situation from a human perspective and make their own plans without trusting Jesus. Is your problem bigger than Jesus? Have you gone to Jesus for your needs yet?

In the end Jesus came through and many people were taken care at the hand of Jesus. If Jesus can take care of the the needs of 5000 men plus women and children, don’t you think He could take care of you too? Don’t be like the disciples who did not know who Jesus really was. We know who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He can do. Stop looking at the situation and look at Jesus!