Jesus had a greater ministry than just to teach to the crowds. He also would withdraw to provide a more intimate teaching of His disciples. The purpose of this was to set in place the structure by which His message would go out once He had been to the cross. Jesus was aware that most of the crowds were simply shallow followers. Because of this Jesus took the time to impart deeper revelation into those who would take His message out and upon whom the growth of the church would be led by.
There has been an upsurge of legalism witching the church in modern times. Legalism has always been a problem, even from the early church times. Why is this? What compels the church to put themselves under law when they should be preaching the Gospel of grace?
Legalism is a powerful stinging force which seeks to fill areas of lack in a believers heart. It is usually rooted in pride and allows the adherent to minimize the areas of failing by pointing to the areas of compliance. It seems to be our natural bent to head towards legalism. The only way we can combat this is to be in the Word of God, communing with Him and learning His precepts.
So what is the purpose of the law? The law is not for salvation, but to show us out need of salvation. It is intended to drive us to the knowledge of Christ and His salvation. The law is there to condemn us, that we may know our need of the Gospel as our salvation.
It often seems we try to push our convictions upon others. Whether it is the amount of time we spend in prayer, or the number of chapters of the Bible we read a day, we have a tendency to think others should do at least what we do ourselves.
Our life as a Christian is to be joyous. This will not come out of legalistic practices. We should be doing good works, but they should flow from a desire to please God in response to His salvation. This is the Fruit of the Spirit flowing out in our lives.
When challenged on the fasting of His disciples, Jesus’ response was to point out that what He was teaching was incompatible with what the Pharisees were teaching. The Pharisees had distorted and reshaped the original teaching of the Torah and had introduced doctrines of man above those of God. Conversely, in the church today, we are not to try and make the church look like Israel.
Mark 2:17 is one of the key statements around the Gospel. Until we recognize our own need for a savior, we will not want anything to do with the One who came to save us. As Christians we are called to preach the Gospel to all men, and to those who respond we are to train them as disciples of Christ.
Fasting is one of the topics in the Bible that gets abused. The world tells us that there are many benefits for your health to encourage fasting. As a Christian, we need to form our understanding about why we should fast from the Bible and not from the world’s opinion. Our fasting is to be to humble ourselves before God so that He could work in our lives to change and mold us. Our fasting should flow from a natural desire to draw closer to Christ and experience His love more.
Too many people fast out of ritual and habit, which can lead to it being a pious ritual. This was the attitude that the Pharisees had in their fasting. They would go around looking ashen faced and disheveled to show to the world that they were fasting. Jesus condemned this attitude by stating that these people had their reward already.
When Jesus was challenged over why His disciples were not fasting, His response highlights the reason for fasting. He responds that His disciples cannot fast while they are celebrating. But the time will come when the celebration will turn to mourning. At this time fasting will become not only appropriate, but needed.
Levi was a Jew, but his occupation was very un-Jewish. The office of tax collector was rated around that of a harlot within the Jewish mindset. It was out of is mindset that the Pharisees criticised Jesus for the company that He kept. Today as a church we often look at the Pharisees and laugh at how they were so critical of Jesus’ companions. However the church itself often acts in the same way by refusing to reach out to the sinners of our day. As a church we must demonstrate the love of Christ to the world. This must be done however in balance with our love for God and for our brethren.
What are you doing to look out for your fellow Christians? What do you do if you hear of a brother or sister struggling with health or other issues? Jesus commanded the disciples to love each other, in addition to loving God and the world. As the greatest way to show love to the world is to preach the Gospel to them, the greatest way to show love to the Brethren is to serve them by discipling them in the ways of Christ.
The calling of Matthew was not to bring him into some exclusive club. It was for him to join the work of Christ in evangelising and reaching the lost, and then to disciple them to be like Christ. So it is in our lives. We are called to go into the world, preach the Gospel and make disciples (Mt 28:19). There is a cost to this however. We must set aside our fleshly desires to do the will of God. We must invest time to disciple others, and in the process we must open our lives to them as well. We must set aside our pride and humble ourselves, preferring their welfare over ours.
Of all the things that we need in life, the most important is for the Word of God to enter our lives and transform our lives. It is the truth of God that sets us free. Nothing else will set us free from the bondage that we are in. Too many Christians misunderstand the nature of the bondage that we are in, and out of this we get movements such as social justice. They are busy trying to fix a problem which is not the core issue.
Are you called to ministry? Be aware that, as with Jesus, you will not get much time to rest. Ministry is a full time endeavor. Ministry is a long term commitment. You cannot just walk out to rest when you want. Remember, ministry is a calling not a job. The best thing that any ministry can do is be faithful to the Word of God and present it in its fullness.
As we look at the example of the paralytic being lowered into Jesus, we need to understand correctly the point that Mark is making. The men were not trying to demonstrate their faith, but were showing their faith in their actions. This is the point that James makes when he tells us that he shows his faith by his works. Faith precedes works: works cannot produce faith. What did they get for their faith? Not the physical healing he was seeking, but the spiritual healing (the forgiveness of his sins) that he needed. It was only after this that he gave him physical healing to prove that he was able to give the physical healing.
If Jesus found it necessary to rise early to pray, how much more should we need to rise for prayer? In order for us to see through the immediate circumstances we need to be in communion with God. Through spending time in prayer, we become more in tune with the will of the Father.
So much of Christianity today is built around coming to get a “touch from God.” Some things haven’t changed. We see that many we seeking Christ as He walked on the earth: not for the words that He spoke but for the touch of healing that He could do.
Leprosy is commonly used in the Bible as a type of sin. As the leper was placed under the Levitical law, so are we as sinners placed under the law. The purpose of the law is to show us our need of God’s redemption. As the leper who approached Christ knew he needed cleansing, so we should approach Christ knowing that we need cleansing from our sin.
Mark gives a much briefer description of the events in Jesus’ life, but still manages to give us some insights which are not seen in the longer gospels. For example, in verse 12 Mark records that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. The emphasis given by Mark is the compulsion that Jesus felt to begin His ministry.
It was necessary for Jesus to go into the wildness to begin to undo what Adam had done. By resisting all temptation in the wilderness, Christ succeeded where Adam had failed, so that we can be made right with Him.
Nobody has ever spoken or preached with such authority as Christ. Both Mark and Matthew draw the comparison between the authority that Christ spoke with and the the lack of authority which the Scribes had. The Scribes had authority in the community which came from putting the people under a heavy burden. The authority with which Christ spoke lead to the lightening of our burdens.
Why was Jesus baptised? We can immediately rule out the reason that we get baptised. It was not because Jesus had come to faith in Himself, that is believers baptism. Matthew 3:15 gives us the reason for His baptism: “to fulfil all righteousness.” What did Christ mean however?
As Jesus walked the earth, he fulfilled all of the law, and therefore His baptism should be looked at in the fulfilment of the law. In Leviticus 8, Moses washed Aaron and His sons before the people, prior to the commencement of their priesthood. Hebrews 4:14 tells us that Christ is our High Priest, so it fits that He should have been publicly washed prior to commencing His ministry.
Mark gives an account of Jesus that is different to other accounts providing insights into Jesus character which other Gospels do not provide. These details help to dismiss the incorrect ‘effeminate’ picture which we see in so many historical depictions of Him.
It is well regarded that the Gospel of Mark is written by John Mark, who has the infamy of being the cause of the division between Paul and Barnabas in Acts. Paul refused to take Mark on a
journey because He had left them while they were in Pamphylia (Acts 15). What we see later is the reconciliation between Paul and Mark, showing us the picture of reconciliation which is the heart of the Gospel call.
The main message of Mark is of the servant-hood of Christ. Throughout the record the roles of Mark and Peter is minimized, most likely to raise up Christ and His work. And finally Mark wraps up his Gospel with the exhortation to continue the work of preaching the Gospel throughout the whole world.
View larger map