Where did they Go?

Mark 1:23-24

Jesus was in the synagogue teaching when a man with an unclean spirit cried out, “What do You have to do with us, Jesus of Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are – the Holy One of God!”  Now anyone with the ability to use his or her thinker must have asked, where did all those unclean spirits go, in that we never hear about people having unclean spirits or evil spirits?  We see evil in all aspects of our world, and we know the results of evil spirits or unclean spirits in our churches, in the homes, and families of so many that have the title of Christian.  Why have we never heard anyone including this writer, address the unclean spirits as Jesus has?

It was not the man that knew who Jesus was but the demon living inside of him, and the Scriptures are very clear about this; looking ahead at Mark 3:11. “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”  You will also find the same account in Luke 4:41, and Matthew 8:29.

Why do they come to a place of worship, because they have one goal, to kill, steal and destroy your life, your kids, and your family?  Satan knows he has no power to remove you from God’s hand, but his goal is to destroy your testimony of Christ who lives in you. 

If we who follow Christ were aware of these five Scriptures and applied them to our lives, we would stand against Satan and his demons by the power of Christ who lives in us.

1.    “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27)

2.    “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”  (Ephesians 6:11)

3.    “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

4.    “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  (1Peter 5:8)

5.    “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” 1Peter 5:9)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

As one who had Authority

Mark 1:21-22

Once again we see Mark using words like immediately, or your Bible might say right away, as they enter into Capernaum Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.  How would that look today, what happens if Jesus comes in the flesh to your place of worship, and before the preacher or priest gets to deliver the message, Jesus comes to the platform and opens the Scriptures and begins to preach?  One can only imagine, but I see Him removed from the building with police and deacons all around him.

What was different in the synagogue at Capernaum?  I found this on the teaching in the synagogue at “Sermon Writer” and wanted to share it with you.  “Sabbath worship includes prayer as well as the public reading and exposition of the scriptures. The role of the president of the synagogue is more administrative than pastoral, so he invites qualified laymen to speak. Synagogue rulers would welcome a fresh, promising voice, which explains how Jesus could teach in the synagogue.” 

Do you recall when Jesus cleared the Temple in Matthew 21:13, ‘He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”  Is your place of worship a house of prayer?  Or does it seem there is always some program that sounds like a great plan to raise money to fund some good intention?  Is it directed at those who never show up to worship or much worse at non-church members?  I get sick to my stomach when I see people begging for money on a street corner to support a ministry.  Or they are sending their youth out to beg non-Church members for money, as if Jesus cannot meet every need that you have.  It is my belief that when we do such things instead of spending time in prayer and asking our Lord to do as promised by the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:19, we bring shame on the name of our God.

Are you astonished at the teaching of Scripture in your place of worship? The people of Capernaum were, and we must ask why and the answer is clear that Jesus taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes?  Are you sitting under a scribe, or a pastor, or priest that has spent time with the Lord and the message is from the Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit and you come away overwhelmed?  Does Jesus still show up at your place of worship, or has it become a den of robbers?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The meaning of the Call

Mark 1:14-20

What happens when God shows up and calls you to be His follower, as we read verses 16-20, you are going to observe what some fishermen did?  Many today are still hearing this call and doing likewise.  As we explore the Scripture, we see Jesus calling some to stay in the workplace and others to be homemakers, and all to be a fisherman of people.

Now it might be wise to cover verses 14-15, and one must be aware that from the time of Jesus being tempted by Satan and John’s arrest is possibly a year or longer.  But you do recall that Mark likes the word immediately, and his writing holds true to the word.  Mark does not give any space about Jesus’ time of ministry in Galilee and wants to move on the calling of His first disciples.

Looking at verses 16-20, “Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”

You may read past this looking for something more profound, I have many times, but slow down and ask the Holy Spirit to give you an understanding of what this call means, and has it happen to you?  Questions that came to my mind were; is this the first time Jesus saw these men, and was it the first time they saw Jesus?  He has been preaching in Galilee for some time, and because Galilee is on the sea, it makes sense that fishing is big business.  One who had grown-up in the marketplace as the son of a carpenter as Jesus had, it seems he would have been drawn to such people.

But the call to follow Jesus will change their lives if these men would have stayed in the fishing industry.  They may have employed a few people for sure and would have fed families with their fish, but would they have changed the hearts of men and women, boys and girls to seek God?  You know the answer, without the Spirit of Christ living in us we are all about taking care of number one.  Now I'm not saying that a follower of Christ does not struggle in those areas, but as we stay in the word and seek the will of the Father over ours, we will be a fisherman of people and see lives eternally changed.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Mark hits the high points

Mark 1:9-13

What a different account from Dr. Luke, Luke goes into great details, but Mark always seems to be the guy who is hitting the high points and moving on.  Picking up the account in Mark 1:9-11, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased.” 

Did only Mark and Jesus hear what was said when the heavens were being torn open and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove?  All three persons of the Trinity are represented at Jesus’ baptism.  Now I’m a dad, and I was a son, these words from the Father to His Son, “You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased,” are words any child longs to hear.  But this is not any Child; this is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus, the Son of God who was sent by the Father to become lower than the angels, to come to earth and be a servant, to teach about the kingdom of heaven, and to die for the sins of ALL mankind, to proclaim victory over death and the grave!

It must have been Mark’s personality to be in a hurry, or he liked the word “immediately,” in that he uses it 40 times in writing the Gospel of Mark.  One of the many times the word immediately is used in verse 12, and in verse 13 look at who is ministering to Jesus.  “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”  Often I have to remind myself that Jesus was all God, and also all man, He had flesh, and He got tired, and He laughed and cried, and when cut He bled.  And like you and me He had two voices speaking to Him, one was the Spirit of God, and the other was Satan.  The big difference between you and me is Jesus knew the Father’s voice, and the other that sounded like His human voice but was not able to deceive Him.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

We never done it like this!

Mark 1:4-5

“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”

What was the draw to get people to come out into the wilderness to be baptized in the river Jordan, and confess their sins?  These are Jews, and the place of worship is the temple or synagogue, and sin atoned by a blood sacrifice.  So once more I ask, what is happening and how do you think the religious leaders are feeling about this guy named John?  It seems as if his call for a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was inclusive both the country folks and the urbanites were drawn to this wilderness preacher and baptizer. 

Up to this time, all that had been promised was the blood of a lamb that would cover your sins until the next year, but John seems to be offering something very different.  He was asking them to change directions, to quit sinning and to confess sins, and to follow or obey the commandments of God.  If you turn to Malachi 4:5-6, we see a promise made to the Jewish people.  “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”  It is my opinion that this scripture is for the second coming of Christ, but John did come in the spirit of Elijah.

John was not only chosen by God but had God’s anointing to introduce His Son into His ministry.  John was different from all the others of his day in both dress and what he ate.  But John’s dress was like Elijah’s, and Mark suggests that John was Elijah.  In Mark 1:7-8, “And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

I have read that the job of untying the strap of a Jewish man’s sandals was set aside for a Gentile slave, and he is making it clear that the One coming is superior to him.  And this may be the first time they have heard the term the Holy Spirit.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Men God has used

January 24, 2018

Mark 1:1-3

Today let us look at these verses from another view.

Have you given thought to some of the men who God has used to share the gospel with the masses in our time?   D. L. Moody, his dad died when he was only four, leaving his mother, Betsey, in charge of raising nine children, all under 13 years.  His mother encouraged all her children to read the Bible and Dwight was faithful, and yet he only had a fifth-grade education.  At seventeen Dwight became a shoe salesman in his uncle's store and at eighteen while attending YMCA and Sunday school classes, he became a Christian. Shortly after that, he moved to Chicago, where he sold shoes and worked toward his goal of amassing a fortune of $100,000. 

But his new faith conflicted with his goal, and he came to understand that helping the poor was a more significant goal.  In 1858 he established a mission Sunday school at North Market Hall in a slum of Chicago. It soon blossomed into a church (from which, six years later the Illinois Street Independent Church was formed, precursor to the now famous Moody Memorial Church). By 1861 he had left his business to concentrate on social and evangelistic work. He drew the children of the German and Scandinavian immigrant underclass to his mission with candy and pony rides, and he drew the adults through evening prayer meetings and English classes. He was convinced, "If you can really make a man believe you love him, you have won him."  (Taken from Christianity Today)

As we have seen in the life of D.L. Moody, we saw in the life of John the Baptist a man who was used significantly by God, because his message had the power of the Holy Spirit and was straight to the point, Jesus Christ is your answer to life, now and eternal life.  John's message in a nutshell; “Someone more powerful than I will come after me.  “I am not worthy” to stoop down and untie the strap of His sandals.  I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

How did John get his start in preaching?  It's very simple, John was chosen by God before he was born to be the forerunner of His Son, the Christ.  How did he get into the wilderness ministry is not shared in Scripture, but in that his mother and dad were up in age when he was born it may have been that while he was still young they died, and he grew up in the wilderness.  But there is much in the way of details God has chosen to keep from us, or did he, in this case, we were told 700 years earlier all but his name.

If we look into the gospel of Luke 3:1-3, we get this report. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Isaiah, the prophet of God, had this to say around 700 years before John the Baptizer was born.  “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:  Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!”

So our goal as followers of Christ is to share that life only found in a relationship with the living Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Introductions to Mark's Gospel

Mark’s Gospel

Introductions and beginning in Chapter One

Mark is giving an account of Jesus on the go; it is all about action and the deeds of Jesus.  He shows us Jesus as a healer, and as one with authority to cast out the demons that hinder us in our walk.  He also gives us hope as we see Jesus performing miracles, and knowing His time is short but He is always hurrying from one place to another, but still taking the time needed to meet peoples needs.  We also see Jesus as our teacher always showing us the way, the truth and the light that’s only found in Christ.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem, Mark seems to slow down, and the events are marked by days, and at the end by hours.  So are you ready to explore the gospel according to Mark?

Chapter 1:1-3

Have you stopped to just ponder on verses 1-3? “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!’”

Have you put into your mind these Scripture’s?  2 Corinthians 5:19-21, “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  You may also want to look at “The Great Commission” and ask the Holy Spirit was that just for those eleven, or maybe just pastors, or is Jesus giving me marching orders, as you go make disciples?  “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Are you being sent as was John the Baptist to be a messenger of what Jesus has done and is doing in your life?  Are you making His path straight?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice