Gospel Meditation # 182 Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit & Jesus’ Mother & Brothers

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 182

Mark 3:23-35

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit & Jesus’ Mother & Brothers

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Blasphemy—slanderous words spoken against a deity or religion.
  8. In our passage Jesus properly reacted against a form of blasphemy. His miracles could not be covered up so a more stringent tack was required by Jesus’ enemies, in this case, attributing the miracles and casting out of demons to the power of Satan.
  9. Jesus relies on common logic to counter the charge—the reality of it is indisputable.
  10. There is a problem of another, more dreadful consequence of attributing the works of Jesus to Satan or Beelzebub, meaning the lord of the flies, a Canaanite evil demon. This blasphemy is the committing of an unforgiveable sin.
  11. Most Biblical commentators think it means that believing and confessing that Jesus has an unclean or evil spirit means an utter and complete rejection of Jesus and thus His work on the cross.
  12. We would all like to know more about this but the passage does not make a clear answer possible.
  13. Jesus’ family, mother, brothers (4 of them) and many old manuscripts have “sisters” as well, are still without understanding of the mission of Jesus and only see that He is acting strangely and not caring for His physical needs. They literally think He has lost His mind.
  14. When informed that His family would like to see them, He apparently ignores them. At least we are not told that He went out to them or even that on some other occasion, He spoke with them and calmed their fears.
  15. Jesus uses the incident to teach something that is nothing less than incredible: His family consists of those who follow Him.
  16. These people would be His immediate disciples whom He had just recently called to be with Him.
  17. To believe in and follow Jesus is be become a member of His family.

 

Gospel Meditation # 181 The Twelve Apostles

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 181

The Twelve Apostles

Mark 3:13-21

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. What mountain Jesus ascended before He called the disciples to be apostles is not known but could be mount of the Sermon.
  8. He “called to him” is a very key phrase. John 15:16 explains it also. On what basis is the call dependent? No one knows except that it is those who Jesus “desired.” It certainly was not based on skill, faithfulness, or grand future achievements.
  9. Jesus appointed the twelve, which is like saying “ordained” them and carries the idea of ‘setting aside.’
  10. Jesus named them “apostles” and this means ‘sent ones’ or missionaries. Their job was to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God.
  11. But before the commission of sending the twelve would be “with him.” This is first and foremost. They would be disciples or learners before they would be apostles.
  12. Herein is the reason for the teaching ministry of the Church, that is to equip the Church for the work of ministry. (see Ephesians 4:11-16) This is why churches have Bible Studies, expositional sermons and the reason for Bible colleges and seminaries.
  13. Jesus sends them to “PREACH” and along with it to cast out demons. The connection is not apparent on the surface, but those sent to preach know how vital is the work of casting out of demons. The devil attacks the Church’s sent ones.
  14. The Twelve included Judas who betrayed Him. We will likely never understand why Jesus did this.
  15. The Adversary attacked Jesus and the newly appointed Twelve immediately – overwhelmed by needy people.
  16. Jesus’ family, probably including Mary, watching events, concluded their own was insane and made an attempt at an intervention. No one can grasp this stunning event.

Gospel Meditation #180

GOSPEL MEDITATION #180

Mark 3:1-12

A Man with a Withered Hand and

A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. A Sabbath, which for pious Jews meant no work on that day. Even healing would have been considered work.
  8. Was the man a ‘plant’? There were enemies of Jesus

there who wanted to accuse Him.

  1. Jesus was angry, and grieved, at the hard heartedness of

those who would accuse Him. A righteous anger?

  1. The healing produced a deadly, unrighteous anger in

Jesus’ enemies and they, the Pharisees and Herodians,

who would ordinarily have been at odds with each other,

now unite against Jesus and want to destroy (kill) Him.

  1. In sharp contrast, large crowds are attracted to Jesus.

These came from all over that part of the world save

Samaria, where there was a rival religious system.

  1. Jesus, perhaps sensing the danger from the large throng,

had a small boat ready for Him. Likely He pushed off a

little from the shore and taught from there.

  1. There were healings and demons cast out. The demons

were the ones who knew who Jesus was, incredibly, and

He refuse their testimony. What a turn of events.

Gospel Meditation # 192 Mark 6:45-56

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 192

The Gospel of Mark #23

Jesus walks of the Water and

Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer

4          Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.

  1. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  2. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  3. Jesus needed to create distance between Himself and the Twelve. There was a danger into being forced to declare His Messiahship following the great miracle.
  4. The disciple may have wondered why they had been sent away, but then between 3 and 6am there came Jesus walking on the water.
  5. In 1 Corinthians 12 4-11, we find one of Holy Spirit gifts is miracles, and the feeding and the walking fit.
  6. He would have passed by except for the invitation; seems Jesus waits for the invitation with us too.
  7. A ghost, a “phantasma” from the Greek; the disciples had plenty of cultural and superstitious baggage yet.
  8. Not really grasping the 5000 fed, they were again astounded when the wind ceased.
  9. Gennesaret, a very fertile valley 1 and ½ miles west of the sea of Galilee that stretched south 3 and ½ miles—again the crowds caught up with the Jesus and the twelve, which is understandable given the incredible miracles they had witnessed—and again, no time to rest and teach.

14.       We are desperate when something touches our body; rarely are we troubled when the illness has to do with the heart. And when so, the troubling is a gift of the Holy Spirit. This must be the healing we seek from

Gospel Meditation # 179 Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 179

Mark 2: 23-28

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

 

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Sabbath, the 7th day, God rested or ceased His creating work. Rules abounded around it and created impossible situation for common people.
  8. The legalists must have been tracking Jesus and accused Him of breaking Sabbath law when He and His disciples ‘gleaned’ food from the fields that were purposefully left for the poor.
  9. The Pharisees did not care if the people went hungry; their concern was breaking the Sabbath law and gleaning of the wheat was considered work.
  10. Religious people love law keeping; makes us feel good while ignoring heart felt worship and love for God and others.
  11. And we are all tending to this; faith and love are so much more intangible. Rules and more rules is the way of the world.
  12. Jesus was not promoting lawlessness; rather His intent was to teach mercy and human kindness.
  13. David and his followers were desperately hungry when they came across the old Tabernacle and there on the table was the Bread of the Presence. 2 rows, each loaves per row, directed in the Torah to be baked each Sabbath, new replacing the old.
  14. The old six would be thrown out and David and his men seized 6 loaves and ate them. The story in 1 Samuel 21 was know to all. Sabbath laws were heartless and damaging to humans.
  15. Jesus used the historical example as if it were intended to be prophetic and dramatized the fact that He was in fact Lord of the Sabbath.