Mark 2:8–11 (ESV)8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”
Mark 2:6–7 (ESV)6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Mark 2:3–4 (ESV)3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
A- Lord I think you call me to be ready to share my faith anywhere and anytime. I think that you want me teaching my family and considering your Word everywhere I go…
A- Lord you bring all of us to hear your voice in different ways and using different motivations. You make it clear here that my initial view of you may not be accurate and that I always need to be open to your revelation and correction of my perspective as you corrected the perspective of may that were there in that house this day. Please teach me to listen and to consider what it is you are asking of me as I read your Word and as I consider your teaching.
A- Lord you display a scenario where it takes humility and a willingness to surrender to what you are here to do rather than my holding on to what I think I want to happen or what I would like to see you do in my life. You demonstrate to various men here that your purpose is independent of what might be driving and motivating us and that we do best to surrender to your purpose.
A- This is an awesome picture of faithful friends going to battle for one another. These men that were willing to roll up their sleeves to help their friend out is a great display of the brotherhood that you call me to participate in Lord.
A- These men were radical in their obedience to their faith. They were certain that Jesus was the answer to their friends troubles and they stopped at nothing to get to Him. Their obedience to this conviction was radical and they were clearly not going to be discouraged by some difficulty or the need for hard work.
A- It seems necessary to take risk in the service of your kingdom Lord. These men risked physical harm, embarrassment, the cost of house repair, and possibly imprisonment in order to get their friend before Jesus. Please give me similar trust and teach me to risk like this in the calling you give me to serve and lead my family as well as in ministry.
A- These men trusted beyond doubt that you were the answer to their troubles. These men were certain that you had the power to heal their friend. These men trusted that you were worth the risk and the rouble.
A- These men didn't wait another minute before they charged toward you Jesus. These men could have said something like "well, there isn't any room so we will just come back tomorrow or maybe catch him at another time really soon." No- these men were serious about seeing you immediately. They felt an urgency and had a sincere purpose that was wrapped up in you Lord. Please teach me to also live with this sense of urgency and this purpose that is all about you Lord. Let me not pass off service to your kingdom today for the sake of doing it tomorrow. Please teach me to make your kingdom top priority in my life that I might not waste time and effort on things that really don't matter.Thank you for your Word Lord. Please continue to teach me as I consider what you reveal in this passage. Let me see the application for my life. I ask this to the glory of your name, amen.
Overview-
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So here Jesus is preaching in a small house that is cramped for space and people are there each for their various reasons. Five men (one paralyzed) interrupt the meeting as they break through the roof to get the paralyzed man to Jesus as they no doubt have heard of the other paralytics healed by Jesus recently. Jesus doesn't heal him right away but rather declares his sin forgiven. Then, seemingly in response to the unspoken thoughts of the pharisees in the house, Jesus heals the man to evidence His authority to forgive sins. God is glorified greatly in this little home and there are numerous lessons that seem to be available here in this passage.
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2 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
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Psalm 90:9–11 (ESV) 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
Sin is a very serious matter, and is taken seriously by God, though men often make light of it. It is not only a transgression of the law of God, but an attack on the great Lawgiver Himself, a revolt against God. It is an infringement on the inviolable righteousness of God, which is the very foundation of His throne (Ps. 97:2), and an affront to the spotless holiness of God, which requires of us that we be holy in all manner of living (1 Pet. 1:16). In view of this it is but natural that God should visit sin with punishment. In a word of fundamental significance He says: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” Ex. 20:5. The Bible abundantly testifies to the fact that God punishes sin both in this life and in the life to come.
Wrath. It may surprise us to find how frequently the Bible talks about the wrath of God. Yet if God loves all that is right and good, and all that conforms to his moral character, then it should not be surprising that he would hate everything that is opposed to his moral character. God’s wrath directed against sin is therefore closely related to God’s holiness and justice. God’s wrath may be defined as follows: God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin.
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine (205–206). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
Genesis 6:17 (ESV)17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
1 Chronicles 21:14–16 (ESV)14 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
Exodus 32:26–28 (ESV)26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.
John 3:36 (ESV)36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Romans 2:8 (ESV)8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Revelation 6:16–17 (ESV)16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 19:15 (ESV)15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
It is appropriate to discuss the doctrine of hell in connection with the doctrine of final judgment. We may define hell as follows: Hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. Scripture teaches in several passages that there is such a place. At the end of the parable of the talents, the master says, “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt. 25:30). This is one among several indications that there will be consciousness of punishment after the final judgment. Similarly, at the judgment the king will say to some, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41), and Jesus says that those thus condemned “will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). In this text, the parallel between “eternal life” and “eternal punishment” indicates that both states will be without end.
Jesus refers to hell as “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), and says that hell is a place “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). The story of the rich man and Lazarus also indicates a horrible consciousness of punishment:
The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom, and he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.” (Luke 16:22–24)
He then begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house, “for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:28).
When we turn to Revelation, the descriptions of this eternal punishment are also very explicit:
If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. (Rev. 14:9–11)
This passage very clearly affirms the idea of eternal conscious punishment of unbelievers.
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine (1148–1149). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
Psalm 90:8 (ESV) 8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
Psalm 90:3–7 (ESV) 3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
Contrasting God’s eternity with human transitoriness, and confessing that man’s days pass away in God’s wrath, the psalmist prayed that the compassionate God would give His people success for their labors and joy for their sorrows.
According to the superscription the psalm is “a prayer of Moses, the man of God” (cf. Deut. 33:1). There are no compelling reasons to reject this view, though many commentators do. If it was written by Moses, the occasion of his writing it is unknown. However, the period of the wilderness wanderings, when a generation of Israelites perished in the desert, readily suggests itself as the background for the psalm. If Moses was the author this is the oldest of the 150 psalms.
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). Vol. 1: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (859). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Self pity-
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Numbers 11:1 (ESV)
11 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
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Setting-
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So Israel has been at the base of mount Sinai for about a year now…
From the ESV Study Bible-
Israel Strikes Camp at Sinai. The people of Israel have been at Sinai for almost a full year (see Ex. 19:1). Israel now leaves Sinai to begin its journey to the Promised Land under the guidance and direction of the shekinah glory (i.e., the dwelling glory cloud). This text describes the striking of the Israelite camp and the order of march of the tribes. | |
Sound the call!-
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Numbers 10:1–2 (ESV)10 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. |
The quiet place of prayer and meditation on the Word-
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Mark 1:35 (ESV)
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
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And the Word became flesh-
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Mark 1:21–22 (ESV)
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
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It was all for this-
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Mark 1:15 (ESV)
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
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Jesus' Humanity-
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Mark 1:12–13 (ESV)12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. |
The Need is Clear-
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Mark 1:4–5 (ESV)4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. |
Questions-
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1. Who wrote the book?
2. When was it written in comparison to other books?
3. What is the historical chronology?
4. Is there a specific audience?
5. What is the major theme or purpose of the book?
6. Anything else special?
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From the Bible Knowledge Commentary-
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Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. From the 4th till the 19th centuries it was largely neglected by scholars because it was commonly regarded as an abridgment of Matthew. But by the end of the 19th century the theory that Mark was the first Gospel written gained widespread acceptance. Since then Mark has been the object of intense interest and study.
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Unnaproachable light-
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Psalm 27:1 (ESV) 1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; |
Now remember-
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Numbers 9:2–3 (ESV)
2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.”
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The replacements-
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Numbers 8:5–6 (ESV)5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and cleanse them. Numbers 8:12–13 (ESV)12 Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites. 13 And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the Lord. |
Not the droids we are looking for-
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Acts 28:1–2 (ESV)
28 After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.
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Context-
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Numbers 7:1 (ESV)7 On the day when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle and had anointed and consecrated it with all its furnishings and had anointed and consecrated the altar with all its utensils, |
Setting:
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Paul just finished giving defense before Agrippa and although Agrippa believes Paul innocent and was willing to free him, since Paul had appealed to Caesar- he must be taken to Rome.
Chapter 27 picks up where they load Paul into a boat and head out…(for a three hour tour as it were).
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The plan-
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Acts 27:1–2 (ESV)
27 And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. 2 And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica.
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Fear NOT!-
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Psalm 23:4 (ESV) 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, |
Overview of Psalm 23-
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From the Matthew Henry Commentary-
Many of David’s psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God’s great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd (v. 1). II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd (v. 2, 3, 5). III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (v. 1), that he needed to fear no evil (v. 4), that God would never leave nor forsake him in a way of mercy; and therefore he resolves never to leave nor forsake God in a way of duty (v. 6). In this he had certainly an eye, not only to the blessings of God’s providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, but to the communications of God’s grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a warm devotion, which filled his soul with joy unspeakable. And, as in the foregoing psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good shepherd. | |
Comments: Happy Fourth of July! Again, not so clean but gotta run...
Non-priestly vow-
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6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord,
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Protect the church-
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Numbers 5:1–3 (ESV)
5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”
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A purpose fulfilled-
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Psalm 22:22 (ESV) 22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
Some comments on the entire Psalm-
This is a kind of gem among the Psalms, and is peculiarly excellent and remarkable. It contains those deep, sublime, and heavy sufferings of Christ, when agonizing in the midst of the terrors and pangs of divine wrath and death which surpass all human thought and comprehension. I know not whether any Psalm throughout the whole book contains matter more weighty, or from which the hearts of the godly can so truly perceive those sighs and groans, inexpressible by man, which their Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, uttered when conflicting for us in the midst of death, and in the midst of the pains and terrors of hell. Wherefore this Psalm ought to be most highly prized by all who have any acquaintance with temptations of faith and spiritual conflicts.—Martin Luther. |
Comments:
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Yesterday (and today) I chose to post a lot of what Spurgeon had to say about Psalm 22 because clearly he is very insightful and I didn't have much to add…nor time enough to reflect on every bit of it.
Today I pick up at verse 11 and continue through verse 21. There seems to be some natural division in the Psalm…
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