JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY
| KJV WEB
| Endtime Prophecy
| Parallel Gospels
Page Numbers | Plywood Canoe
OT Commentary | Books
Contact | Gospel Tract

MARK CHAPTERS 9 & 10 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel See previous page Mk 9,1-13 (244c) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> There shall be no end to his increase >> Jesus shall be glorified forever – Peter’s mind immediately went to religion. The first thing people do when they don’t know what to do is start a building program. Peter was trying to prove that he was superior to the other disciples, and he risked looking stupid. He was busy competing with his fellow disciples, having wrong perspectives about Jesus’ plan and purpose, thinking that the Kingdom of God was about to suddenly appear. Every attempt that Jesus tried to correct their thinking failed, because they were indoctrinated into watching for His kingdom to come in power, not realizing it was the Millennium that is still to come, that there must be a 2000-year period before it. Jesus was trying to give them a better hope. The disciples’ hope was to enter the Kingdom of Messiah, yet they were still destined to grow old and die, but Jesus wanted them to believe in a kingdom that would never end that they could enjoy forever, without ever getting old or dying. God has a greater hope and purpose than any of our puny religions. We still don’t have the slightest clue about God’s plan and purpose in eternity. The only thing the Church ever considers is standing on the shores of heaven for the first time; that’s as far as they have gotten as visionaries of their own future. Making it to heaven should indeed be our ultimate goal, but that is just the beginning, the introduction of God’s plan and purpose for mankind in establishing an infinite and eternal kingdom. The Bible teaches that His kingdom is without end in both time and increase of government (Isaiah 9-6,7). Since the government forever increases, the people they govern must forever increase in population too. We understand the eternal part, but the infinite we don’t even believe. The Church thinks that in heaven we will be a lot chiefs ruling over each other. Everyone seems to think God is done creating man; but if God’s kingdom is not infinite, then neither is God. On the contrary, God is limitless. Mk 9,1-8 (117gb) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Vision >> R eal-eyes God’s purpose for the Church >> Understand Jesus' exalted position with the Father – The Bible doesn’t say that the cloud slowly dissipated, but that it immediately disappeared in a twinkling of an eye; in a single moment Moses and Elijah vanished and left Jesus as He was before they saw the vision, and everything suddenly went back to normal as though the episode never happened. It says that His clothing became white as light; it didn’t say it seemed that way; these things actually happened. It left the disciples wondering if any of it was real or if it was a mere figment of their imagination, but when they compared notes, they were able to agree that they all saw and heard the same things. On their descent from the mountain Jesus confirmed this, telling them not to tell anyone what they had seen and heard. So this vision literally happened. It wasn’t something that occurred in the mind only but in real life, in real time and in the natural realm. (238f) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> New creation >> The new creation is our spiritual composition – The Bible says that God will create a new heavens and a new earth and establish the New Jerusalem on the new earth, indicating that the new creation will be similar to heaven, whereas in this life heaven and the current creation are at odds with each other. After He makes all things new Christ will reveal Himself in His glorified body. He rendered a foretaste of heaven on Mount Transfiguration to whet the disciple’s appetite for things to come. Eternity will resume after the thousand-year reign of Christ that the Jews saw written in their ancient manuscripts, referring to the Millennium. It is what the disciples learned to expect from childhood as their great hope, and it is still our great hope, and it is what they believed in total disregard of Jesus’ words. He will not have the appearance He had on Mount Transfiguration during the Millennium but will have a natural body as he did at His first coming, only He will be King of the earth and have a resurrected body made of flesh and bone that cannot die. His temporal body was made of flesh and blood, but after the resurrection, it says He was made of flesh and bone, suggesting that the resurrected body won’t have any blood. Physical life in eternity works by a completely different set of rules and laws, in ways that we will never understand in this life. We don’t even understand how our current body works. Millions of people over the centuries have dedicated their lives to understanding the human body, and we have only scratched the surface of its intricate complexity. Therefore, how much more complex is the new creation, and at the same time how simple? Mk 9-1 (26ba) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is hell >> Rejecting Christ has the sentence of hell -- This verse needs a bit of interpretation to understand it. First, it corresponds with what He was saying at the end of chapter eight about dying to self, saying that if we don't die to self, we may one day find our place in hell, and from that perspective we will finally see the Kingdom of God come in power, and then we will fully realize what we have lost through our disobedience and unbelief. Jesus said that anyone who would be ashamed of Him would be put to shame. Without skipping a beat He then said that there are some who were standing in the crowd next to Him (2000 years ago) "that will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God coming with power." Of course everyone in that crowd has died, but the Kingdom of God has not yet come with power, and therefore, according to Jesus, have not yet fully tasted death. There were some in the crowd who would not believe in Him, and thus not make it to heaven. This verse is partly a description of hell, for Jesus was explaining that people in hell will be able to witness God setting up His kingdom here on earth. Once they realized what they have missed by refusing to believe in Jesus who came to them in love to lavish God's eternal plan on them, then they will weep and lament and truly taste death. Mk 9,2-8 (67a) Authority >> Lordship of Christ >> The glory of Jesus' authority Mk 9-4 (151e) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The Patriarchs >> The Old Testament prophets – This was literally Moses and Elijah, not a hologram of them standing next to Jesus. If Moses and Elijah were able to come to Christ at that time, what does that say about the people who died in faith in the old covenant? There is a big debate about what happens to people after they die. The New Testament answer is that they go directly to heaven, but what about people in the Old Testament who died in faith? They went to a place called Abraham’s bosom, which must be where Moses and Elijah were before they appeared to Jesus. It was obviously a spiritual location, a place where God held His people until Jesus could come for them. Eph 4-8 says about Jesus, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives….” This is in reference to emptying Abraham’s bosom of its occupants who were in a state of sleep and leading the old covenant believing souls, disembodied spirits, into the presence of God. Now both old and new covenant believers reside in heaven, as it also says in Jn 10-16, "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd." Prior to the ascension of Christ they were not yet allowed in heaven, because the sacrifice had not yet been made. Therefore, Moses and Elijah came from Abraham’s bosom. There on Mount Transfiguration the discussion Jesus was having with them was probably that He would soon be coming for them and therefore to awaken the rest in preparation to meet their Lord, even as the ministry of the Two Witnesses are to awaken the saints in preparation to meet their Lord. See also: What happens to people when they die; Lk 23,40-43; 237l KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9,5-7 (79i) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word >> Practice listening to God’s word >> The word you heard perfects God’s work in you – Jesus went to a secluded place on a high mountain with His three closest disciples, Peter, James and John and was transfigured in their presence. They loved Him and understood Him, and their hearts were wholly devoted to Him more than the others, and for that reason He showed them an aspect of Himself that He was unwilling to show anybody else. To say that they understood Him better than anyone else isn’t saying that much, since on their way down the mountain they argued with each other about who was greatest (Lk 9,28-48), indicating that the best of them were exceedingly slow to understand Jesus. (107f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing From God >> Truth of the trinity >> Father is truth – God replaced Peter’s idea of building three tabernacles with the voice that sounded from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” This is the new covenant in practice. The voice they heard in connection with the glory of Christ illustrates what inwardly happens to us when we obey the Holy Spirit. The lesson we should draw from this is that the voice from the cloud is our relationship with God. It is no longer about tabernacles or church buildings or wood and stone materials, but temples made without hands, human souls infused with God's enlightening Spirit. The essence of the new covenant is tuning our ear to the Holy Spirit and doing what He says. (144g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Father bears witness of His Son (231h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Body of Christ is the organism of God’s kingdom >> Jesus is the head of His body’s kingdom >> Jesus builds His kingdom in your midst – Peter automatically reverted to the old covenant form of worship that Israel had practiced since Moses. He was ready to fabricate a facsimile of the tabernacle, but God had since rejected this form of worship because He was in the process of establishing a new covenant. Jesus represented the transition from old covenant temple worship to new covenant worship in the temple of our bodies. We who believe in Jesus have become the accepted tabernacle of worship, and for this reason God has commanded us to live a holy life. 1Cor 6-15 asks, “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!” All sins of flesh and spirit we are to avoid, working with the Spirit and the word to overcome them. We are forgiven under a state of repentance, which God has given as a means of telling Him we are sorry, even when we are in bondage to sin. Many Christians want to stop sinning but find it difficult, being common to virtually all believers. It is not the will of God that we remain in bondage, but He does understand that we are but dust. It was the reason He came here to deliver us from sin and to free us from these evil forces, and to make a way for God to accept us into His heavenly kingdom. We are to continue striving against sin until we rise above its addictions. (246d) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> The true tabernacle Mk 9-5,6 (88i) Thy kingdom come >> Fear of God >> Fearing the power of God is the beginning of wisdom -- Although the disciples did not know what to say because they were terrified, they were assured to return from the mountain knowing something very important, since the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. They most certainly had a factual understanding that Jesus came from God, but after they saw Jesus transfigured before them and Elijah and Moses talking with Him, their mental ascent was increased to a deep seeded realization. By the way, the disciples have never seen Elijah and Moses, so how did they know it was them? Mk 9-5 (223b) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Conceit >> Thinking you are superior to others >> Having an inflated opinion of self – Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here,” meaning, ‘What would you do without us.’ Peter was trying to find the importance of Himself in what Jesus was doing without realizing that Jesus brought Him up there to experience the power of the kingdom that He would inherit in the advent of his death. Peter’s presence there was important, but not in the way that he thought; the experience itself was all the Lord wanted him to know; so when he was martyred, he would have the courage to accept it without fear. After this experience no matter what happened to him in this world, he knew that suffering for the Kingdom of Heaven was worth it. Peter obviously didn’t know what to say; he could have just kept His mouth shut and appeared wise, but Peter was the kind to open His mouth and reveal His ignorance. Note that Jesus did not correct him; instead, His Father did, and that scared him. There is something about the Father working with the Son that is beyond extraordinary. It’s one thing to see Jesus performing miracles; it’s another thing to be proven that the Father is actually doing the work though Him as a coordinated effort. Jesus was accomplishing the will of the Father; He was not doing His own will. He was obedient, meaning there is a difference between a good Christian and an obedient one. A good Christian does whatever he wants within the parameters of Scripture, while an obedient Christian listens to the Holy Spirit and does what He says, making any sins he commits along the way irrelevant, but the sins of the good Christian are not good. (224g) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The joyful kingdom >> We will recognize our family members in heaven KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9,9-13 (241ia) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecution to the death >> Kill Jesus by the predetermined plan of God >> Jesus forewarned His disciples – Jesus repeatedly told His disciples that He would be given to the Romans to be mistreated, flogged and crucified and in three days rise again, but He never told them why His Father was calling Him to do this. Had Jesus thought they would have understood it, He might have told them, but they were unwilling to accept His imminent fate, much less the explanation. It wasn’t possible at the time for them to understand God’s plan for mankind, so when Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw His glory, they had no idea what it meant. Jesus was showing them a glimpse of the glory He had in heaven before He took on human flesh, and He would be going back to heaven where His glory would be exponentially increased by the faithful obedience He showed His Father. Mk 9,11-13 (59a) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Spirit of Elijah is coming / John the Baptist was like Elijah – Jesus equated John the Baptist with the spirit and ministry of Elijah, yet He also said he was still to come. This is in reference to the Two Witnesses mentioned in Revelation chapter eleven. Just as John the Baptist was not actually Elijah, so the Two Witnesses will not actually be Moses and Elijah, but will have similar anointings and ministries designed to restore all things. Restoring all things refers to the Church and it doctrines and lifestyle, getting the people back to repentance and faith, according to the First Century Church, who wrote the New Testament. Man has since interpreted, reinterpreted and misinterpreted the Scriptures, until no two people can agree on anything it says. Another John the Baptist will come and again introduce the savior to the world as Jesus makes His return to the earth. That is, just as he introduced Jesus at his first coming, so the spirit and ministry of Elijah will introduce Him at his second coming. The second of the Two Witnesses will resemble Moses, who led the people from slavery into the wilderness in hope of the promise land. Before they could enter the promise land they had to pass through the wilderness. Mk 9-15 (143g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Popularity >> Sought commendably >> seeking Jesus to be healed -- This verse goes with verse 25 Mk 9-16 -- No Entries KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9,17-19 (20a) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Spirit of familiarity -- These verses go with verse 24 (138b) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Reproof >> Jesus reproves His disciples for their unbelief -- Jesus could not tolerate unbelief; it exasperated Him, especially when it came from His disciples. He did not accept any excuse for being unable to cast out the demon from the boy. He expected His disciples to believe in Him, whom He delegated His authority to heal diseases, to cast out demons and to perform any and all miracles that warranted God's intervention for the cause of bringing glory to Himself. Jesus was relentless in disciplining His disciples. He was building the truth in them, which entailed constructing a mental image of God in the form of a temple in their hearts, digging the foundation, laying the groundwork, and meticulously constructing the truth in them with great patience as a master builder. He taught and rebuked and reproved them until the day of His cross. Once the Spirit was given, they remembered all the lessons they learned from their Master, but first He had to dismantle the old mental structures of unbelief previously ingrained in them Mk 9-17 (146g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Deliverance from demon possession >> Deaf, dumb and blind spirits Mk 9,18-21 (146b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> Their behavior >> Epilepsy -- These verses go with verses 26&27. Epilepsy is where demons enter and exit through a narrow corridor of opportunity during an epileptic seizure. This would not be considered a possession in today's world, because we have a medical explanation for it; that is, we have discovered the physical abnormality within the brain that demons exploit. The person with epilepsy is generally not possessed before or after the seizure, and is usually unconscious during the episode, so no one really knows what happens during that time. Scientists think that if they can find a physical anomaly, it automatically rules out spiritual derivations, but that is simply wrong thinking. Just because they find physical evidence for epilepsy doesn’t rule out spiritual forces afoot. Mk 9-22 (146c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> Their behavior >> Masochism -- The Satanic behavior of Masochism is a very peculiar and revealing trait. We would think that demons who coax a person to share his or her body with them would take care of it so they could live there longer, but like germs and parasites that kill the host, demons that would seek a vessel to inhabit and then destroy it, exhibits Satan's addiction to destroy everything he craves, guaranteeing that he never accomplishes any of his plans. That way God doesn't need to fight the devil's insurgence; He can just set back and let Satan destroy himself. Mk 9,23-25 (146e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Deliverance from demon possession >> Casting out spirits with a word – We watch movies about haunted houses and poltergeist events and spirits stalking people and wonder if some of these things happen in the real world, but what is already happening right there at the theater is planting the reality of these things as the first stage of believing that demons can exert power over us. If we believe that ghosts are real and that one is stalking us, it becomes an opportunity to do just that, but a ghost cannot chase us if we don’t believe in them. It can try, but when we know the truth that we have power over them, they must leave us alone. This is why demons build empires of deception in our minds in progressive stages of control to convince us of their power before they can exert authority over us. If no one believed in them, they would have no power to manifest. Mk 9-23,24 (20c) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Having a mind that is unable to receive >> Being slow to understand God (236j) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Invest in the treasures of the kingdom >> Invest your life in God’s faith Mk 9-24 (20a) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Spirit of familiarity -- This verse goes with verses 17-19 (86f) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Mental ascent (believing a set of facts) -- Many of us believe like this boy's father; we believe, yet we don't believe. The difference between us and him is that he admitted it. Another difference is that he had the privilege of seeing Jesus. If we had his advantage, we would probably admit it too that we don't really believe. Mental ascent can be defined as believing a set of facts, illustrated by looking at a map of the world, plotting a point on it, imagining what's there, and then getting into a plane, flying overhead and parachuting to the ground exactly on that spot. We could be parachuting into the mouth of a live volcano, or into the center of a swamp twenty miles in diameter. Although the Bible is true and accurate, believing it as a set of facts will not prepare us for interacting with God and the circumstances that we find there. Think of the learning curve of missionaries, coming from the states, suddenly introduced to a voodoo culture that practices witchcraft with demon possessed people all around them. Mental ascent would not help them. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9,25-29 (45m) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >> Satan VS the saints >> Demons are subject to the Church through Christ – The demon would not allow the man to communicate with anybody, and as Jesus commanded it to leave, it sent him into terrible convulsions. We think Jesus should not have allowed the demon to do this before it left the boy, but Jesus allowed this last hurrah of torment, and the boy became like a dead man. Jesus probably allowed the demon to kill the boy and then He raised him from the dead. That would be a strong demon to exercise that much control over the boy while Jesus was exorcising it. Imagine what the demon would have done to us if we tried to exorcise it. We know that prayer and the declaration of God’s word are linked to spiritual warfare; they are the part we play in it. For this reason Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Mat 17-21). What did Jesus mean by “this kind” but to its strength and ferocity in the hierarchy of demonic forces. This was a strong demon. Remember also in Mark chapter five, it spoke about a legion of demons as a single entity, so there is no telling how many demons actually possessed this boy. The person on the mission field who runs across a situation like this will have to spend large amounts of time in prayer and fasting before these demonic forces will leave. None of us knows what is really happening in the spiritual realm, especially in times of prayer. We speculate through a few pieces of Scripture the spiritual war surrounding us, but it is unlikely that any of us knows their true ferocity. Mk 9-25 (143g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Popularity >> Sought commendably >> seeking Jesus to be healed -- This verse goes with verse 15. We think Jesus would want as many people to see His miracles as possible, but His thinking was just the opposite. The more people witnessed His miracles, the more talk would generate among the people, the more the Pharisees would hear about Him, and the sooner they would come to destroy Him. He was buying time keeping His ministry on the down-low. Every generation should have asked themselves what kind of reception they would give Jesus if He came for a visit. What kind of reception would He get if He came to our generation and tried to preach the gospel to us? It seems the gospel has stalled; case in point, there are many mega-churches preaching things that can scarcely be found in the Bible. Jesus would no doubt have something to say about that. Mk 9-26,27 (146b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> Their behavior >> Epilepsy -- These verses go with verses 18-21 Mk 9-27 (115g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Laying on of hands >> Seeing signs, wonders and miracles (147g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Raising the dead -- The reason everyone who witnessed this miracle thought the boy had died is because he probably was dead. The devil must have thought that if he must go, he's going to take the boy with him, but Jesus had other plans. One of Jesus' goals in coming here was to conquer the devil at every level. Satan was completely powerless in the presence of Christ because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Whatever the devil would do, Jesus would trump it and abrogate his works. Mk 9-28,29 (83b) Thy kingdom come >> Receiving from God through prayer >> Ask and it shall be given -- Jesus cast out the devil with a word, but told the disciples they had to cast out such a demon through prayer. This communicates our powerlessness to solve our problems but willing to believe God is able to solve our problems for us. The main ingredient to prayer is humility. Satan is evicted from any situation with the prayer of humility. (189j) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Masochism (Self-made martyr) >> Fasting simulates dying to self – (Depending on your translation the words "and fasting" may be missing in verse 29. The KJV includes it while the NAS has excluded it with a footnote denoting its addition in many manuscripts.) Fasting is another level of prayer, a mixture of figurative and literal denying self. The symbolism says we don’t care about our flesh until the problem in question is resolved, making our spiritual lives take precedence over our physical lives. Denying ourselves food doesn’t make us more spiritual, any more than eating makes us more spiritual, but if our spiritual lives really do mean more than our physical lives, then we prove it by large segments of time devoted to prayer and fasting. In this way we approach the demons on a spiritual point of view instead of on a mere physical perspective. Fasting is a way of creating faith, and when we experience higher levels of faith, they become our new standard that we strive to reach, until they become the norm. Then we start shooting for a new higher standard. This is the process of building faith using fasting and prayer while incorporating the Scriptures. It is also the process of casting out powerful demons. Mk 9-30 -- No Entries KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9-31,32 (167g) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Carnality/Secularism (mindset of the world) >> The carnal mind does not receive the things of God >> It does not understand the word of God – Jesus spoke plainly to His disciples, but they couldn’t comprehend His words as though He spoke gibberish. What we want to believe we gather evidence and information to support it, and what we don’t want to believe we deny and hope it goes away; most people build their version of truth based on this method. On a scale from one to ten, the effectiveness of this process is a zero, but its prevalence of use is an eleven, so it is very popular but it doesn’t work. It is a form of deductive reasoning and is open to subjectivity. People don’t care if it leads to the wrong conclusions; they only care about their worldview. People tend to believe their perspective is better than other’s; what they mean by “better” is more accurate, but they don’t really care about accuracy. How they view the world makes sense to them, and that is all that matters; whether it is actually true comes in second to personalization and believability. (168i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world has deaf ears to God >> Deaf to the word of God from a lack of understanding -- If they didn't understand His statement, then why didn't they just ask Him and He would have explained it to them (though He was explaining it to them). The fact that they were afraid to ask Him says that they understood enough to know that they didn't want to know what He was saying. This might sound like doubletalk, but that is exactly what was happening inside the disciple's minds; they were dodging the truth. What Jesus said to them sounded so horrific that it probably made their ears tingle. It was the exact opposite of how they were imagining their future. (175f) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Dodging the issue (willful ignorance) >> Evading the word of God – Jesus told them about His imminent suffering after their adventure to Mount Transfiguration (Mk 8,31-33), so they should have been aware of it, except that they kept ignoring the matter, making it seem that every time He told them, it was the first they heard of it. The same was true in Noah’s day; Scripture called Him a preacher of righteousness (2Pet 2-5), meaning he went around telling people what God intended to do. He preached the message so that all who listened and believed could repent and be welcomed aboard, but of course nobody came, being the reason God sent a flood. Everybody cared only for themselves and showed no interest or concern about God. A generation that quits wondering about God is one that will partake of His judgment. Instead of asking Jesus what rising from the dead meant, they asked Him a different question, and Jesus brought the subject back to His original comment regarding his suffering, but they just wouldn’t hear of it. (177h) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Misunderstanding Jesus – Their religious leaders incessantly drilled their teaching into the brains of the people (including the disciples from childhood) of a coming Messiah who would establish His kingdom on the earth and reign over the whole world, as He will do in the Millennium, but Jesus was trying to get through to them that an age of grace must come first. He performed a miracle in front of them and then turned and told His disciples that He would be crucified and then rise from the dead on the third day, and it never made a dent in their preconceived religiosity. After Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit in His place, then they understood what He was telling them. His government is one where the least is greatest and the greatest is least; it is a government that can sustain a perpetual kingdom, simply because it removes the lust for power. Jesus is even now in the process of setting up a kingdom that will be established on the principles He taught; and when He introduces His physical kingdom to the earth, it will remain for a thousand years. After that, He will create a new heavens and a new earth, and He will continue His thousand-year reign in eternity, establishing it on the simple principle of the least-greatest and the greatest-least. Some people exalt themselves in their local church, but that is different from true Christianity and the true Church that consists only of God’s chosen and faithful are the elect speckled throughout the world, comprising His spiritual Kingdom that is growing, and that kingdom is not something we can exploit for personal gain. We can only serve it. See also: Religious ignorance Mark 9,33-37; 56l / His Kingdom is opposite the world; Phi 1,27-30; 243f Mk 9,33-37 (56l) Paradox >> Opposites >> Greatest are least in the eyes of God – After Pentecost the disciples finally understood the gospel the way Jesus intended them, but before that they understood almost nothing about God’s plan, because of their preconceived ideas. They were expecting the physical Kingdom of God to be established on the earth in their lifetime, Jesus reigning from Jerusalem as king of the nations with His twelve disciples next to Him. This is why they had the argument about who was greatest. They were arguing that when the kingdom comes each would have a higher position than the other. Jesus never successfully weaned them off the teachings of Judaism, their former religion. He could have talked to them until He was blue in the face, but the disciples simply were not going to drop their ideas. It was instilled in them by their previous teachers, many who were Jesus’ enemies. The kingdom they envisioned was intrinsically no different from any of the kingdoms of the world, the only difference being that Jesus would be king, but if Christ Himself set up a worldly kingdom, it would fail like all the rest. If Jesus wanted a kingdom no different from the world, He wouldn’t have picked those particular twelve men to be His magistrates; their own characters and personalities should have clued them into what kind of kingdom He was trying to build. See also: Religious ignorance; Mk 9-31,32; 177h / Expecting the Kingdom of God to appear immediately; Mat 17,15-18; 198j (90a) Thy kingdom come >> God convicts us >> Conviction leads us in the way of righteousness KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9-36,37 (33f) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Greatness is expressed as being a child – A group of children of similar age have their own social pecking order and can be worse than adults, but children who are in a group of adults tend to be quiet and submissive. We are to be like children in the presence of Christ, but a person who tries to take over the group and seek to be head-honcho does not recognize Christ as his leader, and for that reason we should consider him least of all. Those whom God exalts is most like a child, and for this reason he is able to lead the people with the heart of a child. The one who is least of all among us is most like Christ, but those who are pushing their way into ministries and bucking against the people and competing with others for leadership roles wouldn’t know God's truth if it bit them. God is seeking those who have the heart of a child to impart ministries and gifts and spiritual abilities to lead His people like a shepherd tenderly cares for his sheep. Our leaders have the place of Christ; they are surrogate shepherds for Christ, employed by Him to do His will, so when we finally get to heaven, we will then be led by the True Shepherd, the one who bled and died for us, who took the last place in order that His Father might exalt Him to the first place. This is how it works in the Kingdom of Heaven: “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Mat 23-12). If that is not how it works in our church, then it is time to find a new church. Mk 9,38-41 (156i) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Confessing Jesus is evidence of salvation -- The disciples were concerned about a "lone ranger" type character casting out demons in the name of Christ who did not associate with the group. Jesus was not concerned about him. His method was to let things run their course and let the fruits of people's actions and motives do the judging for Him. If demons are being cast out and people are being made whole, then God is glorified, and if we try to stop him, we may be the ones fighting against God. Jesus' interpretation of the situation was that if a person is not doing anything to hinder the Kingdom of God, then he is with us, but those who are not with us are against us, and there is no gray area in-between. One of the purposes of miracles, signs and wonders was to validate the person performing them. If we witness someone performing a genuine miracle (not a staged gimmick), we are obligated to listen a little closer to his message, because they appear to have God's seal of approval. (226c) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven >> Reserved in heaven >> God crowns us with glory for sharing our rewards Mk 9-39 (105a) Thy kingdom come >> A pure heart is a genuine heart – The way Jesus spoke about miracles made it sound like they were normal. Performing miracles was actually ordinary to Jesus, and He advocated that those who believed in Him should also perform miracles in His name to the point of normalizing them, that even those who were not part of the inner circle should perform miracles. No one can perform a miracle without the Lord, and for this reason he cannot speak evil of Him soon afterward. There is a true saying, “People don’t change,” but they do occasionally recant their faith. Miracles should be an aspect of Christianity as an environment that God uses to relate to His people and convey the gospel of the Kingdom to the world, suggesting the absence of miracles is a sign that God finds fault with the Church. (146k) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Purpose of miracles, signs and wonders >> Get peoples’ attention to hear the word – The Church doesn’t see miracles because God perceives our phony doctrines as speaking evil of Him. The contemporary gospel hardly encapsulates the truth, and God doesn’t perform miracles apart from the truth, because He doesn’t want to endorse anything but the truth. People cannot perform miracles if they do not love God; hence, miracles prove that the person performing them has an accurate understanding of Him. This is one of the purposes of miracles, they establish authentication of the preacher and his message, so he can preach Jesus and the people can be confident that what they are hearing is an accurate depiction of God. Jesus combined His preaching with miracles for the very purpose of authenticating His message and His identity as Israel’s Messiah. If a person performs miracles but doesn't preach Jesus, we can know that person is a magician of sorts, whose aim is to glorify self, but combine a genuine miracle with the word of God, and it makes the hearers think twice about what they heard, and the truth will stay with them for life. Mk 9-42 (28i) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> God crushes those who make us stumble – If we took this verse without comparing it to other verses in the Bible, we could say that causing His little ones to stumble is the only reason that God made a hell. However, God made hell also for those who break His laws, and it is those very lawbreakers who cause His little ones to stumble. Lawlessness and disobedience erodes good faith, so the sinner cannot believe in God; this is the catch-22 of salvation. How can anyone be saved if everyone is a sinner? This is where Jesus steps in and says, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mat 19-26). If it were up to people, nobody would be saved, but because God is involved in salvation, people can be saved. He said all things are possible, anybody, no matter how great a sinner can be saved. The question remains, though, will the person ever regret his sins to ask God for help in forgiveness and repentance? KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9,43-50 (59c) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Literally cut off your hand if it causes you to sin / Commit yourself to this extent and you will stop sinning – This is both sarcastic and literal at the same time. If we were that serious about repenting to take our own hand or eye, the adjustment would have been made before we brought down the ax, so we would not have to harm ourselves. dying to self is a form of masochism; it is a spiritual of separation from the body, otherwise known as sanctification (set apart). Jesus has given us a standard of commitment that we should use in relation to God. He said that our evil deeds will lead us to hell, not our wrong doctrines. He said, “If our hand causes us to stumble…” not if we have joined the wrong denomination, “If our foot causes us to stumble…” not if we have neglected to read the Bible. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that if we believe the wrong things we will go to hell for it. Instead, it talks about our works condemning us, both what we say and do. Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith, but maybe it is time to go back to the drawing board and question everything, including and especially Paul’s meaning of faith; apparently “faith” has the concept of obedience embedded into it. (236g) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest your treasures into the kingdom >> Invest your flesh Mk 9,43-48 (47c) Judgment >> Hell >> Hell is a place of sorrow >> Hell is to be avoided at any cost – Jesus made the point that hell should be avoided at any cost, even if we must jettison our body parts to quit sinning, yet people are lackadaisical in their avoidance of hell. They feel the afterlife will take care of itself, being too busy to worry about it now. However, it will be too late to worry about the afterlife when it comes, because God wants us to live for Him now. It would seem that God doesn’t mess around with sin, yet when we look for this same attitude about sin in the Church, we would be hard-pressed to find it. The grace of God is truly a wonderful thing, for without it no one would see the Lord, but that is also what the Bible says about holiness (Heb 12-14), "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." There is almost no room anymore in the Church for teachings about hell, having been crowded by the doctrines of easy-believism. If hell doesn’t exist, then why did Jesus talk about it more than he talked about heaven? How many churches today are warning people about hell? Jesus said that the majority of the world will not make it to heaven (Mat 7-13,14). The phrase: “Where their worm [body and soul] does not die, and the fire is not quenched,” If people say that those who are cast in hell are exterminated from existence, then why does it say in Isaiah 66-24, "Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched," the Old Testament passage where Jesus got this statement? Although it is found in only some manuscripts and not in all, it is definitely found in Isaiah. Apparently fire does not burn up the bodies. The Bible teaches that those of us who make it to heaven will receive indestructible bodies, and so it stands to reason that those who go to hell will be tormented in flames without being destroyed. The fact that Jesus called them corpses suggest that they are the living dead. (48a) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment >> Eternal consequences for sin – When we read various commentaries of the Bible, they rightly say that this was taken from Isaiah 66-24, “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” Most commentaries say that this is referring to actual worms that are feeding on the corpses of bodies in hell. However, what they fail to provide is other exemplar ways the word “worm” is used in the Old Testament. For example, just a few chapters earlier Isaiah 41-14 it says, “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you...." Then, Job 25-6 says, “How much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm!” Once more it says in Psalm 22-6, “But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people.” Therefore, it is not a stretch to say that Jesus was referring to people and not actual worms to mean that the inhabitants of hell are utterly detestable. He said that in their debased state they will never die but will be tormented forever. Most people cannot believe that a loving God would do this, but the reality of hell and our unwillingness to accept it merely accentuates the fact that we are a long way from understanding the person of our creator. (101e) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal does not count the cost >> Zeal goes to extremes -- Jesus commanded us to make a commitment against sin to such an extent that if we cannot stop sinning, we should cut off our limbs and pluck out our eyes. Of course He didn't mean we should literally dismember ourselves, since making a commitment to that extent would lead us to simply stop sinning. What is literal about these words is the importance of abstaining from sin. Essentially, He was saying that those who go to hell wish they would have cut off their hands instead of using them to do the things that led them to this place of misery and horror. Again, He was not saying we must pluck out your eyes to get to heaven. In fact, it wouldn't do any good, since sin is conceived in the heart. Take away the means of sinning and we would still sin in heart. Instead of truncating our body parts God wants to harness them for His service and glory. (208e) Salvation >> Salvation verses >> Preaching on hell KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 9-47,48 (22i) Sin >> Lust (craving pleasure) >> Lust of the eyes Mk 9-49,50 (70k) Authority >> Believer’s authority >> We are the salt of the earth (Preservative) (113m) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> The anointing >> Guard the anointing -- Do not abuse the anointing, since we do not have anything to re-anoint ourselves, only God can do that. He never promised to anoint us again after we have allowed the initial fire to die. The quickest way to kill the anointing is to use it for our own glory in a leadership position, telling people that they have to pay homage to us since we have a special anointing from God. Those who are truly anointed know abuse when they see it and will keep their distance from anyone who would attempt to abuse them. The best way to protect the anointing is to use it to glorify God by blessing others, which involves offering our services free of charge to anyone who is thirsty and wants to drink from our spirit. (184i) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Abusing the grace of God >> Spending His grace on your pleasures >> Adding leaven to His grace – Make a brine of saltwater, then use it to soak fish that we have caught and cleaned, and then place the fish in fresh water to pull the salt from the flesh, and it pulls out the toxins with it, but the salt is no longer useful for anything after that and must be discarded. Salt that God has given us was not meant for uses such as this, which represents spending His grace on our pleasures. Jesus told us to be salted with fire, referring to the anointing. Jesus was talking about possessing and maintaining an anointing that acts as a seasoning, so that people who come in contact with us may be blessed. Mk 9-50 (126c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Peacemakers are a blessing _________________________________ MARK CHAPTER 10 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,1-12 (73h) Authority >> Respect authority in the family >> Respect the institution of marriage – In terms of nature, the man needs to ignore his natural instincts to engage in a personal insemination campaign, because we don't need anymore fatherless children in the world, and the woman needs to ignore her interests in romance and focus on her nesting instincts. So the solution for the man is to ignore his instincts and the solution for the woman is to focus on hers. This would promote a healthy family environment, but men and women don’t do what they should because of their hardness of heart. They do what they want without caring about the consequences even when it negatively impacts the fruit of their own bodies. Mk 10-1 (143k) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Jesus is popular because of His words (174a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Good customs – Jesus followed a custom of teaching the people, and it was a good custom; it was His religion. He followed a certain tradition; life had a pattern; the disciples knew approximately what to expect each morning and evening and parts in-between. Religion, then, could be defined as a routine. In our own day too people routinely hold their services in a certain way; the Methodists have their methods; the Lutherans have their ways; the Presbyterians, the Pentecostals, the Baptists all have their routines, and every week they can expect about the same thing. They have a certain sequence they follow; they sing their songs and give their tithes and the pastor his sermon along the sequence. In some ways it is a good thing, and in other ways it is not so good. People can get used to their routine and stop thinking about what they are saying and doing because they have done it so many times. Their mind turns off, and they just follow the routine. (239h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers are construction workers >> Jesus is a teacher Mk 10,2-9 (3f) Responsibility >> To the Family >> Divorce because of your hardness of heart -- Jesus made it clear that Moses made the provision of divorce under one condition, that the one who seeks it has a hardened heart. The one who wants to divorce is seeking the answer to their problems from the law and not from the grace of God. Perhaps if the couple were living by the grace of God instead of by the law they wouldn't be filing for divorce. Jesus spoke about it as though it were not so much God’s law as it was Moses’ exception. The Scriptures are the inspired word of God, so we know that Moses was inspired to write the divorce clause. The reason for it was simple, divorce is a lesser sin than murder. If there were no divorce clause, there would be more murders, for without the option to divorce the two would commit murder to get away from each other. (151d) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The Patriarchs >> Moses Mk 10-2 (75e) Thy kingdom come >> Motives >> Being manipulative >> Questioning God’s judgment -- The Pharisees questioned Jesus about the subject of divorce for a couple reasons, first because they were confident about their answer, since they were largely in agreement with how the law read after Moses spelled it out for them. They must have thought they could refute whatever He might say that conflicted with their theology, but they were intrinsically wrong. Many of them personally took advantage of the provision of divorce in the law, which they considered a privilege (that is what was wrong with their theology). Secondly, it was a hot, moral issue and they hoped He would make an incriminating statement that conflicted with Moses' teaching to reduce His popularity with the people. Their goal was to drive a wedge between He and the His followers, and possibly even cite Him as a heretic in hope of imposing criminal charges against Him. Jesus admitted that the provision of divorce was written into the law, but went back to the very beginning of God's creation and His vision of man and his wife. He taught what was God's heart for us to do, not what the law says. Such ponderings are impossible for men like the Pharisees. They used the law because it was flexible enough to make it say whatever they wanted. However, Jesus taught that the man and wife should work out their marriage by loving one another, and there is no interpretation to love. Mk 10,3-5 (177l) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Presuming the will of God >> Presumption interprets God’s word Mk 10-3 (90j) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> We do not nullify the law through faith; we fulfill it Mk 10-5 (74l) Thy kingdom come >> Let not your heart be hardened >> Insensitive to the things of God KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,13-16 (33d) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Kingdom belongs to the children of God -- The disciples resisted the children coming to Jesus, but Jesus wanted to see them, because of all people they reminded Him most of heaven. When adults make a mess of the world, the answers to all their problems reside in the hearts of children. Parents provide for them and solve all their problems so they don't have to worry about anything, but children have something to offer their parents: a faithful, carefree attitude about life. Jesus was a grown man, yet He never worried about the future, because He had a Father who looked after Him. He could sleep in a boat in the middle of the sea during a raging storm, because He knew His Father was greater than any possible threat. What we often forget is that Jesus' heavenly Father is also our heavenly Father, and as Jesus' health and welfare was His Father's concern, so our health and welfare is not our concern but the Lord's. Children usually know these truths better than adults. Mk 10-13,14 (21e) Sin >> Disobedience does not understand God Mk 10-13 (176e) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Zeal without knowledge (Spirit w/o the word) >> Devotion without direction Mk 10-14,15 (221d) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides from the mind of man >> He hides behind man’s intellect Mk 10-15 (207f) Salvation >> Salvation verses >> Children of God’s kingdom – What is it about children that is more heaven-like than adults? It all depends on the child. Children are growing-up fast these days, so some of them are poor reminders of heaven, but many children at certain ages, such as two to five years have sweet spirits and are totally dependent on their parents. They understand that if their parents don’t supply their needs, they can’t get what they need for themselves. Dependence on God is one of the things adults have lost; they have become self-reliant. It is good to be self-reliant, but the result is that adults find it very difficult to rely on God. They need to understand that everything they have has come from God, as James said, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (Jm 1-17). Everything we need: food, shelter, clothing comes from God. We may receive those things through our self-reliance, but sometimes life gets tough and our self-reliance just can’t make ends meet. When times get hard, we must become like children and rely on God. This is how children live, and this is why Jesus loved them: they know what it means to trust. Jesus wants us to trust our Father for everything and realize that the things we posses have come from Him. When times get hard, we can rely on Him and He will help us, and we will realize that He has been our source all along. One of the great benefits of hard times, it teaches that all things come from God. (224i) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The people of heaven >> Traits of people who make it to heaven -- In other places Jesus said we must be converted and become like children. The world tells children they must become like adults, so it is not surprising that Jesus spoke opposite of the world. He always does, because the world is opposite heaven. Mk 10-16 (115h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Laying on of hands >> Bestowing the Holy Spirit KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,17-31 (249i) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> World’s perception of wealth >> The world's wealth erodes good values >> Being a slave to wealth – Jesus told the rich young ruler that if he wanted heaven He had to inflict poverty on himself and repent of being one of the richest men in his region to being dirt poor. If anyone else would have told him this, he would have laughed in his face and maybe even hit him for being stupid. Instead, this miracle worker, the teacher, recognized by some as the Messiah, told him to do this, meaning He was obligated to take Him seriously. This was a huge price to pay for the hope of eternal life. We always hear that salvation is a free gift, but not to this rich man; to him it would cost him everything. We often quote Paul in Eph 2-8,9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” He also spoke about the futility of giving away all my possessions to feed the poor without love, “it profits me nothing.” Perhaps if he cultivated love he could hold on to his possessions, but Jesus was saying that this was impossible. Instead, He promised that if he gave away all his possessions, love would find him. Halfway through giving away all his money, the faith he used to do it would have had a transformative affect on him. So we see that Paul in first Corinthians chapter 13 was stating a mere anecdote in that if someone actually gave away all his money, he would have to do it in faith, and the faith would transform him, making him capable of love. The rich, young ruler was a nice guy but he didn’t have the love of God in his heart. Being nice created an image he wanted people to see. Go through the Scriptures and look for the word “nice” and it is virtually absent. The Bible never commanded us to be nice, but “good” is pervasive throughout the Scriptures. There is a difference between being “nice” and being “good”. Nice is self-promoting but "goodness" seeks the glory of God. Mk 10,17-25 (233g) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the kingdom >> Do not seek the kingdom by the flesh Mk 10,17-22 (90f) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Law is our tutor >> It shows our need for Jesus -- This rich man was a good person in the eyes of the people. Jesus quoted him all the commandments that were not a problem to him; they were the commandments that pertained to the way he treated his fellow man, and he replied that he had kept them from his youth. Jesus, however, failed to mention the most important commandment that he had not kept: "you shall not covet." The rich man came to Jesus for spiritual advice because he sensed there was something missing in his life. He was not keeping the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20-3). He loved something else in God's place, the infamous unrighteous mammon. The rich man had an interest in heaven, but he wasn't going to give up his money for it. He was in bondage to idolatry; his wealth is where he gained his identity, and he couldn't visualize himself without it. Mk 10,17-21 (174d) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Form of godliness >> Self righteousness >> Trying to please God by your own good works -- The bible teaches that we can use our relationships with others to determine our faith in God, but too often people use how they relate to others as their relationship with God. Most people who don't understand the grace of God will use the law to justify themselves. They gravitate to this form of religion because it is easy to emphasize the good things they do and ignore the bad things. They fail to understand the rudimentary problem of man: the question is not how good or how bad we are, but whether we are forgiven. We cannot be forgiven by being good, because then there would be nothing to forgive. The only thing good about us in the eyes of God is our faith in Jesus' blood sacrifice for our sins. Mk 10-17,18 (133b) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> God is holy >> Jesus is holy Mk 10-17 (159d) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Counterfeit godliness >> Counterfeit righteousness – The rich, young ruler was a good person, according to human standards, who knelt before Jesus and asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. According to the teachings of the Church today, Jesus should have said, ‘There is nothing you can do to earn salvation; all you must do is believe.’ In fact, Paul taught, “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2-8,9). However, Jesus gave the rich man something to do, “Sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (v21). At that, the rich young ruler hung his head and walked away, because he loved money. The question the rich man asked was a little odd; he probably hoped Jesus would tell him he was a good person and there was nothing he needed to do and was already going to heaven. The last thing he wanted to hear was that his love of money was keeping him from heaven. The Bible says that God is a jealous God and will not accept us if we are worshipping other gods. Idolatry is the one and only real sin; all other sins can be traced back to this one. The fact that we are willing to worship other gods is the greatest insult to Him. We cannot believe in Him when we are worshipping other gods, and Jesus was saying that the rich man believed in his money like he should have believed in God, and the only way he could repent was to get rid of his money (Lk 16-13). KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10-18 (58k) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Only God is good / Jesus is God -- Why did Jesus seem to deny that He was a Good person? The rich man had a misconception about being a good person; he was trying to get to heaven based on being a good person. He was probably not keen to the fact that Jesus was God in human flesh, and Jesus didn't want him thinking there could be someone good enough for God, so instead of giving him a deep theological dissertation about his deity (because He was trying to keep that fact under wraps), He just reminded him that only God is good. That is all the rich man needed to know anyway. It answered being justified by law as futile, which was the rich man's strategy. The grace of God does not allows us to do things that the law prohibits, but because enables us to believe in God's righteousness and empowers us repent of the sins that the law condemns. Mk 10,19-23 (195a) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Serving two masters >> You can only love one at a time – The true believer acknowledges God in all things. We are to always have our mind trained on Him, but the rich young ruler trained his mind on his money. The idolater practices the absence of God, which is the basis of His idolatry, the refusal to acknowledge Him. The Bible teaches that there is a demon behind every idol, and its intent is to twist the idolater's mind into knots, until he becomes so contorted that he becomes worthless for any good work (Tit 1-16). Jesus was saying the only way this rich young man could acknowledge God in his life was to give up his wealth, because it was stealing his attention from God. Mk 10,19-21 (208c) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The expectations of God >> God expects us to repent and be saved (237m) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> Transferred from the law to the Spirit Mk 10-19 (80d) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word to learn the ways of God >> Leading to the truth Mk 10,20-25 (182k) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Deceitfulness of riches Mk 10,21-27 (209f) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Righteous saved with difficulty >> Righteous saved with hardship >> Righteous saved with grief Mk 10,21-23 (242i) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Worldly pressure >> World pressures you to forsake your values Mk 10-21 (44g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Complete >> Lacking in nothing (123c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Spiritual affection >> Compassion is the emotion of the Spirit (236h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest your treasures into the kingdom >> Invest everything you value KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,22-25 (22b) Sin >> Greed tries to satisfy man’s need for security >> The idolatry of greed Mk 10-27 (213b) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> God is all powerful >> All things are possible with God – In this statement Jesus declared salvation to be impossible without God. In other words, a person cannot choose to be saved by his own volition. The only way salvation occurs is when God draws the person to Himself, and then the person can take steps to be saved, but apart from God drawing him, no one can be saved, simply because the person doesn’t know where to look, yet the searching process is critical to finding God. The search for God can last sometimes decades. Human reality is like trying to make something set still on a bobbing ocean of ideas. A person who seeks God is not interested in people’s opinions, but looks beyond human thought for something concrete and authoritative. We could say that people wrote the Bible, but they did it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Essentially, God wrote the Bible through man; it is authoritative; we can stand on it and know for certain that it won’t change. Tomorrow it will read the same. Many people have tried to debunk the Bible, but none of them can prove anything they say; it is all conjecture. They are not seeking the truth; they are seeking to remove the truth, trying to remove the light that is shining in their eyes. They want to live in a world of absolute darkness, and if they don’t have Jesus abiding in them by the time they die, they will get their wish. Mk 10,28-31 (131jb) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Many members but one body >> Many titles but one entity – Note that wife and husband were not mentioned, and the reason for this is that Jesus previously said that in the age to come “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mk 12-25). Jesus was describing heaven; this is the kind of experience we will have in eternity. We will have houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children and farms in heaven. He said we will also have them here through unity in the body of Christ. If there is unity, then this statement is true, but without unity this statement is false. Therefore, a lack of unity in the Church makes Jesus a liar as it pertains to this verse and many others. If the Church is united, then everybody who goes to that church is a brother and a sister to their peers, a mother and father to the younger, and are children to the elders, and all possessions belong to the group. Unity is the interaction of God’s people with each other, the network of souls sharing all things in common. A church that enjoys unity understands heaven and the Scriptures better than anyone. (224c) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> Describing the kingdom after he makes all things new >> Description of the new creation – God intends to create another species of man, commanding them to increase and multiply as Adam and Eve did, and their numbers will increase to infinity throughout eternity, and God will put us in charge of them, and we will have mothers and fathers and children and brothers and sisters, as many as we can possibly imagine. The only difference between them and us is that God will withhold the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from them. They will be innocent, not knowing evil. We will try to explain sin to them but they will never understand it, like God trying to explain past eternity to us; we can't understand it because we never experienced it. The attraction to the tree in the midst of the garden to Adam and Eve was their desire to experience sin first-hand, but they had to sacrifice their relationship with God to receive it. Now man is all the better for knowing good and evil, thanks to Jesus who redeemed us from the curse of sin and death, because now we have both our relationship with God restored and the knowledge of evil intact. He has caused us to benefit from man’s mistake beyond our wildest dreams. We are so far above and beyond what God had initially created. Man’s knowledge of evil will make us very useful to God in the ages to come as He continues to create a future without sin. See also: New heavens and a new earth (God will create another race of man and put us in charge of them); Jn 13-36; 231g Mk 10-28 (100j) Thy kingdom come >> Devotion in your ministry to God >> Fulfill God’s calling in your life -- This verse goes with verses 32-34 Mk 10,29-31 (243f) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecuting the Church of God Mk 10-31 (56i) Paradox >> Opposites >> Last is first and the first is last (73a) Authority >> Hierarchy of authority >> Authority makes you accountable >> Kingdom of God is opposite of the world KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,32-34 (100j) Thy kingdom come >> Devotion >> In your ministry to God >> Fulfill God’s calling in your life -- These verses go with verse 28. While they were walking the people became fearful as Jesus walked ahead of them with His gaze fixed on Jerusalem. Why was He so fixated on Jerusalem? His purpose for being born was coming to fruition, and the moment had come to give His life a ransom for His brothers and sisters who would believe in Him for eternal life. The vision He had with His Father of creating a people for His own possession was about to become a reality. He and His Father had been thinking about this moment from eternity past, but the reason He was fixated on it today was to keep from walking the other way. The cross was His destiny; it literally defined Him as the Son of God. The cross was His way back to the Father; He anticipated it, but He also mourned over it. The decision had already been made when the Father fertilized Mary’s womb with the Holy Spirit. This march to Jerusalem was the beginning of His resolution regarding His destiny, and the Garden of Gethsemane was its fulfillment. In the garden He was tempted to get off His knees and run for His life, but He remained on His knees and submitted to His Father. Every moment that passed was a moment His enemies gained on Him, the closer to His suffering, and a second less He had to change His mind. He just stayed there and let them arrest Him and took the punishment that followed. He marched to Jerusalem not behind everybody, cowering, but leading the way; it was everybody else who was tentative and fearful for His sake. They thought He was crazy, for they knew what they would do to Him; Jerusalem was headquarters of Israel's religion; we would think these should be first to receive Him because they knew the Scriptures, yet they called for His death, and they chanted for His blood until all Jerusalem chimed with them. (105la) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Led by the Spirit into the wilderness >> Wilderness of pain (118i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Giving God your attention >> Resolutely focus on the glory of God >> Focus on the direction He is leading you (234g) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Sold out >> Placing no boundaries on your commitment to God >> Completely given over to the will of God (241ia) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecution to the death >> Kill Jesus by the predetermined plan of God >> Jesus forewarned His disciples Mk 10-33,34 (99i) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Enduring circumstances >> Humiliation – When we look at some of the things Jesus said would happen to Him, one of the things He specifically mentioned was that they would spit on Him. Compare that with some of the torturous violence they imposed on Him. God almighty spat on by his own creation, this was hard for Him to accept. He put it right up there with being flayed alive with a whip and nailed to a cross. He endured it for our sake that we who believe in His blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin would be accepted into His heaven after this life, and that we might use His example whenever injustice comes knocking on our door or something just as humiliating happens, we know to endure it for His sake, for He endured for us. (152h) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Jesus is a prophet >> Jesus prophesies about the fulfillment of Scripture KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,35-45 (56l) Paradox >> Opposites >> Greatest are least in the eyes of God Mk 10,35-41 (23d) Sin >> Pride wants to be first – The question that James and John asked Jesus was very revealing about the comfort level they had with the Lord, suggesting that Jesus was very approachable, not just to his disciples but to everybody. They probably had some expectation level about Him granting their request; after all, Jesus did say, “Ask and you will receive.” So they asked Him if they could have first place in His kingdom, and they received an answer—No. These were some of Jesus closest disciples, and He made it clear that they were not even in the running to have first place in His kingdom. Jesus alluded to the idea that these seats were reserved for somebody else, meaning someone was predestined to sit there. God knew who would sit there from the very first day of eternity. This was not something Jesus knew; for those who think that Jesus was all-knowing, he wasn’t. He was the word of God well enough, meaning that Jesus knew everything that His Father wanted Him to know, for the Father was Jesus’ source of truth and knowledge and wisdom, and He had a finite amount of it. After Jesus ascended to heaven and entered into His glory, He sat at the right hand of His Father, and then He regained possession of all knowledge, truth and wisdom, which He relinquished at conception in the womb of His mother Mary. Mk 10,35-40 (17e) Sin >> Judging in the flesh >> Based on greed – You could say these boys were evil for making such a preposterous request of the Lord, but perhaps they were one of the few who were actually listening to Jesus, who taught them that if they ask for "anything in my name and I will do it" (Jn 14-14). Of course they put their human spin on it, but their theology was right; they felt free to ask for very big things. That is what Christ had been teaching them all along. Now all they have to do is ask for the right big things and He will be happy to oblige them. However, to ask for the right big things will require a change of heart, and that is not easy. (76b) Thy kingdom come >> Motives >> Seeking authority for security >> Motives based on desire for power (196h) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Immaturity >> Not mature enough to love God (217b) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God is independent of His creation >> No one can tell God what to do (241c) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Obstacles in the way of the kingdom >> Ask but don’t receive >> Asking with wrong motives -- Fortunately, God doesn't give us everything we ask. We perfectly understand why James and John didn't get their prayers answered, but we often don't understand why our prayers go unanswered. The truth is often difficult to accept, but there is probably just as good a reason we don't get what we want from God as why they didn't. Down the road we often can see the past more clearly and can better understand why our desires were not realized. At the time everything seemed to make sense, but it's the things that make sense to us that confuse us the most, like being lost in the woods and are sure we know which way is north. If our life is confusing to us now, give it time; things will clarify, and we will see the way we should have gone. However, the question is always: which way should we go today? That answer is never as easy. Pray about it; make sure we are praying for things God wants us to have; then we can't go wrong! KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10-35 (167c) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Carnality/Secularism (Mindset of the world) >> The carnal mind is set on the flesh >> Wanting authority without responsibility – Had Jesus been an ogre, they would not have felt comfortable asking Him this question, but being approachable and generous, they thought they had a chance of receiving their request. Some of the things we ask from the Lord are not according to His will and not even something He is able to give. Jesus told them that it was not in His power to decide who sits next to Him in His kingdom but was the decision of His heavenly Father. It generally doesn’t hurt anything to ask amiss, but it does prove that our heart is in the wrong place. If we want to be a little less selfish, we should seek the Lord for what He wants us to have and pray for those things. Imagine if people were given great authority, who were so immature as to ask for those positions, what chaos would ensue. God is far too wise to give a person his request when he is aiming off the mark. Mk 10-36 (89ea) Thy kingdom come >> Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom >> Wise questions Mk 10-39 (17k) Sin >> Unrighteous judgment >> Ignorance >> Misinterpreting Jesus (59c) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> You shall drink my cup and experience my baptism / Your cup and baptism are not like mine – Jesus asked James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” and they answered, “we are able.” Jesus' question was rhetorical, and their answer should have been No, but they answered Yes. The cup that Jesus drank and His baptism were different from the cup of His disciples and their baptisms. The fact that the disciples were already baptized by John and that Jesus was speaking in future tense, suggests that He was talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in which they would be immersed in an anointing that would prepare them for their future ministries, which would involve drinking a cup filled with suffering that they would undergo, similar to Jesus' sufferings but not the same. The amount of suffering they endured could not hold a candle to the suffering that Jesus endured, for not only did He endure the cross, but He also took on the sins of the whole world, being immersed in them, though having never committed a sin of His own. Imagine the misery of sinners throughout their lives, and then multiply that by the number of people who ever lived, representing the amount of suffering Jesus endured on the cross at His death and in hell, reaching near infinity, until the Father fished Him from the bottomless pit and placed Him at His right hand in a state of glory that far exceeded His former glory in heaven. Mk 10,41-45 (130i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Accept one another >> Accepting the great and the small >> Great leaders accept small people Mk 10-41 (17l) Sin >> Unrighteous judgment >> Discerning by the flesh >> Making distinctions between each other Mk 10,42-45 (13k) Servant >> Serve God though small in stature >> Greatest is the least – The Kingdom of God is opposite of the world system. Jesus said that world leaders lord it over those they govern, whereas God’s leaders are the greatest servants of the Church. God never intended the world to be this way; the whole world would stand to benefit from its leaders if they followed the pattern outlined in Scripture and serve the people instead of expecting the people to serve them. God's church is based squarely on the principle of humility. It seems that whenever someone tries to make God give them whatever they want, they always ask for the moon. In the next verses (42-45) He reminds them that the world seeks positions of authority in order to lord themselves over the masses, but the Kingdom of God is not based on competitive oppression, but is in fact the direct opposite of that; the greatest is least and the least greatest. These are immutable spiritual laws to ensure humility sown into the fabric of God's kingdom, so that anyone who wants to make his mark in the Church will have to first humble himself and become servant of all, and the hotshot among them will not receive the attention from the people in a spiritual church who knows the truth. A person can set up a cult to resemble the ways of the world where the greatest is greatest and the least is least and lord himself over the people, but neither the leaders of that church nor the Church itself will be recognized before God as a member of His body. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,46-52 (35e) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> Ask to receive -- Jesus asked this question twice, "What do you want me to do for you?," once to James and John, who asked of Him for an erroneous favor, and once to the blind beggar, who asked according to His will. Just because Jesus asks us what we want doesn't mean we will get whatever we ask. He told His disciples in Jn 14-14, "Ask me anything and I will do it," but there were parameters surrounding that in the next verse, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." In order to keep His commandments we must know what they are. Now we must learn the will of God, and in discovering it build a relationship with Him, leading to the request according to his will (1Jn 5-14,15). (43g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfect (mature) >> Flawless (114c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Believing the Father by obeying the Son >> Obeying Jesus’ ways (145e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Pursuing the healing power of God – The fact that the Bible not only mentions Bartimaeus’ name but also mentions his father’s name “Timaeus”, indicates the significance of this blind man. He wasn’t just another face in the crowd but a person of great faith. Bartimaeus heard about Jesus that He was a miracle worker and that He had opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf and performed many other miracles. Note that Bartimaeus called Him the son of David. He was only aware of Jesus’ identity as a miracle worker, though he may have correctly understood Him as Israel’s Messiah. Actually, anybody with a remnant of faith would have known that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah by the miracles He performed and by the words He spoke. (194b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Run to God >> Run to Jesus when He calls for you – This particular subject, “Run to Jesus when He calls for you”, is iconic to blind Bartimaeus (Mk 10,46-52), who kept crying out to the Lord, “have mercy on me,” so Jesus stopped and called for him. Jesus asked him a very curious question, ‘What do you Me to do for you?’ Bartimaeus wanted to receive his sight. Jesus gave him an opportunity to voice his request; it is very important for us to voice our concerns to the Lord, even when it is obvious. (234aa) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> God chooses us as we seek His glory >> As we appeal to Him – The more people tried to silence Bartimaeus the louder he summoned the Lord who alone could help him, and when Jesus called for Bartimaeus, the very people who were trying to silence him were now leading him to His side. Jesus had created an environment of faith around Him when he commanded Bartimaeus to approach Him. He spoke with authority, so the fact that Jesus was calling him epitomized his healing, and when Jesus spoke the words, Bartimaeus literally regained his sight. Mk 10,46-48 (82d) Thy kingdom come >> Three elements of prayer >> Our approach >> How to pray -- If we were blind, and a known miracle worker walked passed us, what would we do and to what extreme would we strive to get His attention? Would we let people who could see tell us to be quiet? What would we stand to gain by listening to them? Was Bartimaeus after the people's approval, or did he want to regain his sight? What if we received a revelation from the Holy Spirit and decided to pursue it with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, investing many hours a day in the word of God and prayer, until it became obvious to those around us that we were spending an exorbitant amount of time with God. Would we listen to our critics advise how we should live? If we told them what they should do with their life, would they listen to us? KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10-46,47 (219g) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> God chooses us as we choose ourselves >> God chooses us as we fulfill His calling -- Do you believe in predestination, that Bartimaeus was on God's schedule to receive his sight that faithful day? There is no indication in Scripture that Jesus would have healed Bartimaeus had he not called out to Him, though the Bible is quite clear about predestination. Therefore, both of these statements are true at the same time: Bartimaeus was scheduled to receive his sight, and Jesus would not have stopped had Bartimaeus not called-out to Him. You could say then that Bartimaeus was predestined to call Jesus' name until he got His attention; so does this suggest that our actions and responses are also prescheduled to occur? That would mean we were not free agents. The fact that God has made us totally free to exercise our will to do whatever we want partly defines us as being made in His image, and He cannot violate our free will without redefining us. Just because God knows beforehand what we will do does not mean He has tampered with our ability to make choices. Since Bartimaeus was required to fulfill his calling (shouting) before Jesus could heal him, this statement is true: God chooses us as we choose ourselves. Mk 10,47-52 (32d) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Grace >> The grace of God’s healing power – There are three levels of faith as it pertains to healing in the Scriptures: (1) Jesus rubbed mud in one man’s eyes before he could see, (2) Jesus touched the person before he could be healed, and (3) Jesus spoke healing over certain people without making any physical contact at all. Where there is less physical contact there is more faith. Jesus exonerated the Roman official whose servant was healed by the word of Christ alone without Jesus having to physically go to him. The Roman official exclaimed, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Lk 7,6-10). How did the Roman official know that Jesus could heal that way? He understood the government of heaven, being similar to that on earth; it is organized in a hierarchy. Authority disseminates from God’s throne like authority disseminates from the office of the president. The Roman official stood as a testimony of faith in regard to healing. Receiving a touch from the Master’s hand is always good, but He healed in those cases when the person’s faith wasn’t strong enough to receive the divine virtue through His word alone. God does all things through His word; the touch of the Master’s hand was essentially a way to help the person being healed to believe. The healing virtue did not travel through Jesus’ hand but through His word that originated from heaven, and it is through His word that all things exist. Mk 10,47-49 (1h) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> False burden >> Serving God in ignorance >> Not knowing His will – What people say and what Jesus said were in direct contradiction to each other. People were telling this blind man to shut-up, and Jesus told him to come forward. People told him that Jesus didn’t want to see him, but Jesus said, 'Bring the man to Me.' People said that Jesus didn’t care about him, but Jesus stopped what He was doing to focus specifically on his needs, not because he was blind, but because of his faith. If we entreat the Lord with genuine faith, He will stop whatever He is doing and focus His attention on our needs in total disregard to what people would teach us about God. Why were people telling him to be quiet? He was probably yelling at the top of his lungs and being obnoxious, hurting people’s ears. Possibly, they didn’t want to believe that Jesus would be concerned about a person like him. They wanted to believe that Jesus cared about people like them, but the fact is Jesus cares about anybody who would believe in Him. (68b) Authority >> Doing God’s work under His authority >> Natural Ministry of helps – It says in other passages that people were carrying the sick and the lamb to Jesus for healing, but this man didn’t have someone to advocate for him; he had to advocate for himself, and when he did, initially instead of getting assistance, he got suppressed, indicating that he was an undesirable, yet he had faith in Jesus, and that is all he needed to get Jesus’ attention. People changed their tune immediately after Jesus stopped and called for the man; people then suddenly wanted to fall in line with the word of Christ, but until Jesus spoke they had their own views about God's will, and they were imposing their views on the blind man. To better serve God and find His will in our lives, we need to understand His will for all people. They should have known that Jesus would be interested in a man like him, whose faith debunked the unbelief surrounding him. Jesus was waiting for someone to escort the man to His side without being told, but nobody volunteered, and so Jesus had to request an escort for the blind man. Mk 10-47,48 (99l) Thy kingdom come >> Perseverance (Working to keep in motion) >> Persevere in prayer Mk 10-48 (164j) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world hates the Church -- Let's use blind Bartimaeus as a microcosm of the Church, and the fact that Jesus is present represents revival. The Church raises her voice to get the attention of her Master and the world discourages the Church from seeking God, because it knows if it grows strong the Church will hold the world responsible for its sin, but so long as the Church is disconnected from her Lord she is merely an annoyance. When she hooks up with Christ, she will receive her sight. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Mk 10,49-52 (121d) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope is the expectation to receive >> God initiates His interest – There is only one piece missing from every healing, our faith. God’s will is already present; we don’t need to entreat God to change His mind to heal us. The blind man’s faith told him that it was the will of God that he should be healed, but he still needed to hear the words of Christ for his faith to be complete. Now, Jesus is in heaven, but He has sent the Holy Spirit in His place, and He ministers to us in the same way that Jesus would if He were bodily present. The benefit of the Holy Spirit is that He can minister to all of us at the same time, whereas Jesus was just one man. What we need in order to be healed is a word from the Spirit indicating the Lord’s specific will for our healing. We may understand the general will of God for everyone to be healthy, but the specific will of God is in the voice of the Holy Spirit; we need to find His voice. Mk 10-49 (150a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Invitation to the Kingdom of God -- Now let's use blind Bartimaeus as a microcosm of the world, and those around Him as members of the Church. People in the world who are lonely for God cry out to Him. Jesus hears their cries, and commands His church to evangelize the world. Those who are destined to receive eternal life respond to the message of the Church, who leads the world to Christ, who gives them their sight. Mk 10-50 (174c) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Overcoming religion (190e) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >> Undressing >> Take off your sins -- Bartimaeus casting his cloak aside represents circumcision, the shedding of the foreskin, and circumcision represents taking off your sins, which signifies repentance. Bartimaeus cast off his cloak prior to approaching Christ, so he wouldn't trip over it along the way, implying that sin as an impediment to our spiritual walk with God. Heb 12-1 says, "Let us lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Mk 10-51,52 (83b) Thy kingdom come >> Receiving from God through prayer >> Ask and it shall be given – It was obvious to everybody what the blind man wanted from Jesus, but instead of just giving it to him, the Lord asked the blind man to state his request. This is a clear indication how God wants us to pray; He wants us to express our interests and desires. The importance of this is to draw a definitive line between our request and the answer to our prayers. The things we received from His hand were meticulously scalped into words, so the devil cannot come later and try to convince us that our needs were supplied by coincidence and not through the agency of prayer. We have a record of specifically asking God for certain things, so when He answers our prayer, we can give glory to God in full assurance of faith. (145a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Healing >> Methods of healing >> Healed by speaking the word – Jesus didn’t have to touch the blind man, he had so much faith. He just need Jesus to tell Him that his sight was restored. The word that Jesus said to him represented the Father’s will to heal his blindness and to answer his prayer. Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.” This doesn’t mean the man’s faith literally made him well, as though to exclude God from the equation; rather, it means God healed him through his faith. To say the man’s faith healed him and not God is essentially the new age philosophy in a nutshell. It is like saying to a man who wants to go from Colorado to California, ‘Go, your gasoline will get you there.’ That’s not true; we cannot fill up a giant tank with gasoline and sit on the tank and expect to go anywhere. Instead, his car will get him there, but his car needs gasoline to work. The car represents God and the gasoline represents the blind man's faith. Mk 10-51 (89ea) Thy kingdom come >> Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom >> Wise questions Mk 10-52 (93k) Thy kingdom come >> Following Jesus as He lights the way (216a) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> Suddenly >> Being healed without delay See next page