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| Mark 9 Memory Verses: 2 Timothy 2:15; Mark 8:35-36 Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, Shelley and I are enjoying our vacation, today is the first day of the Pastor's Conference, so I probably will not be writing tomorrow or the next day. Please do not let your study slide, I will be reading through the chapters, but am sure that there will not be time to write. If by some miracle you see a message come over the wire, it will only be by the Lord's will, I cannot see how there will be time. In today's study we see the transfiguration take place, Jesus has spent a lot of time establishing His Godship before men, it is interesting that now God the Father is getting in on the act to verify that Jesus is God, along with Moses and Elijah. We see healings take place, and Jesus teaches us about discipleship and the cost of not being disciples. Mark 9:1-13 The Transfiguration. In v. 1, Jesus says clearly that some of them standing with Him will not taste death. I believe that He is speaking literally, and that it is possible that He took some of the apostles to heaven without them tasting death. But, I also believe that this could refer to spiritual death, in that once we accept Jesus as Savior, we will not taste death. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5:8. Death no longer has a hold on us, it has no sting, because Jesus has given us eternal life. Now we simply move from a earthly shell into the heavenly dwelling that has been prepared for us. vs. 2-9 Jesus is revealed before them with the Glory of God. It is interesting that Jesus stood speaking with Moses and Elijah and that the disciples knew who they were. There was no doubt in their minds as to the identity of these two men. We can understand the excitement that the disciples were experiencing, and the enthusiasm. Can you imagine, they saw the actual Glory of God, and they were not hidden from it, they experienced it firsthand. How could they have doubted from this day forward as to the identity of Jesus? He took with Him, Peter James and John. Look in the parallel passages Matthew 17:1-8; Luke 9:28-36. As I pointed out in the previous two chapters, Jesus was trying to make the disciples understand that He is God, but somehow they kept missing the message. Now, perhaps with this startling new evidence, they would finally get the message that Jesus is not only the Christ, but He is also God. vs. 11-13 The disciples had seen Jesus raise the dead up to this point. Now they saw at least one dead man alive, Moses, and one man who had never died, Elijah, 2 Kings 2:11. They were excited, and were trying to figure out what Jesus meant by him having to rise from the dead. Mark 9:14-29 Jesus was up on the mountain top with the three disciples, and the others were left to fend for themselves. It sounds as if they ran into quite a challenge. They had authority over demons, but in this case, the authority didn't seem to work. What is interesting to me, is that when we try to exercise spiritual gifts through the flesh, or through our own efforts without relying upon God for strength, we will fail. These men did not have the Holy Spirit in their lives yet, and they did not have Jesus with them, they were on their own. Notice also that as a result of the efforts of the flesh, the faith of the father was damaged. He had presumably watched the disciples in their efforts to cast out the demon and they had failed. So his response to Jesus was that "if You can", which Jesus quickly corrected. I think that when we try to do spiritual things in the flesh, then the spiritual lives of all those around us will suffer. We are Christian, if the world watches us, or young believers watch us flounder around living out the Christian life through our fleshly efforts, then they will be led to believe that this is the way the Christian life is like, weak and ineffective. But if we are surrendered to Christ through lots of prayer, and we have an attitude of prayer, then we will influence people to be strong and to follow a strong God. If people evaluate Jesus through our lives will they come to the conclusion that our God is weak and ineffective, or will they see a God that is all powerful? I believe that our prayer should be the same as the prayer of the father, "Lord, help me in my unbelief, I do believe." Jesus says that all things are possible to us if we only believe. What does it take? How do we believe in our God? Do we think that our God is all powerful, or do we think that He is weak and ineffective? This is something that we don't often think about, yet it is very important in our lives. The important thing here, is that for us to truly believe in God, this will be demonstrated by a strong prayer life. If our prayer life is not strong, then just maybe, we think that we are strong in ourselves and do not need prayer. Mark 9:30-37 Private teaching. Jesus warns the disciples of His coming crucifixion, death and resurrection. The disciples did not understand this, but they did discuss which one was the greatest. Isn't that typical of man is to find out who is the highest on the pecking order? We have a natural tendency to try to rank individuals in order of authority. Jesus established that in order to be the greatest, one must be the greatest servant. One thing that has always stood out to me in v. 37, is that whenever we believe Jesus with the faith of a little child, we will receive Jesus completely. Have you ever watched the faith of a little child? When they believe something, they totally believe it, without doubting. They are an example of true faith to us. Mark 9:38-41 Miracles performed in the name of Jesus. There are those who are able to use the Bible effectively to accomplish great good. Jesus did not discourage this, because, if they are using the Bible effectively, maybe they will soon be joining us in salvation, since they are already reading and understanding the Scriptures. Unfortunately today, we have a heavy emphasis on denominationalism. We are so focused on the outward denomination, that we forget that within other denominations there are millions of other brothers and sisters in the Lord. Although we may not see eye to eye on issues, in most cases, the one issue that is important, the need to accept Jesus as savior is most important to all Christians. Otherwise, they are not Christian. We can't see past the denominational differences, but Jesus can. Jesus is being preached, people are being saved, isn't that what it is all about? I know, I ran off on another tangent. Mark 9:42-50 Jesus is still talking about the faith, and what it takes to be the greatest in the kingdom. Still talking about having faith as a little child does. Here He is referring to young believers, who are young in the Lord as a little child is young in life. If the false teachers lead these new believers astray, they will certainly be messing up. We as believers are to guard our hearts and our minds to make sure that they are in complete compliance with God's word. If we have secret sins that keep cropping up, we need to make sure to get rid of them, to gouge them out, cut them off, amputate the errant limb in our lives, in order to focus upon God and His will in our lives. Just as with little children, our faith is demonstrated through our lives. If we have no faith, or very little faith, aren't we like fake salt? It will make no one thirst, because our life will not display Jesus Christ. If on the other hand, we are in submission to Christ, living His life to the best of our ability, then the world will be made thirsty by the salt in our lives, and will be seeking their way to heaven. The worm never dies, and there is unquenchable fire, are we condemning people to this fate because our lives do not reflect Christ Life? Are we as mature Christians a stumbling block to the young Christians as a direct result of our witness? Are we causing them to stumble and flop around with no direction? It is time to become active in the lives of our neighbors, and our brothers. Lord, help us in our unbelief, let us believe, completely. I pray that in each one of our lives we will be able to focus intently upon prayer and surrendering our lives to You. In Him, Joe Turner |
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