MrsDrPoe: Jesus as a Role Model for Dads

For this Theology Thursday, I'd like to share with you a great lesson about Jesus from Mr. Maxson.  In honor of Father's Day last Sunday, he presented Jesus in a slightly different light- as a role model for dads- focusing on how He always put Himself second during His time on this earth.  Don't feel like there's no point in listening if you're not a dad though; since we're all called to be servants, this a great lesson for everyone.  You can find it online here.

MrsDrPoe: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

For this Theology Thursday, I invite you to once again open up your Bibles as we briefly examine a portion of God's word.  

Today's thoughts stem from a study Tuesday night on John 12 presented by Mr. M. Broadwell III.  In verse 20 of the passage, "certain Greeks" came to Philip saying, "'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'"  Mr. Broadwell made the point that at this time, most people were literally just wanting to "see" Jesus and His miracles- He was a celebrity of sorts and had just raised Lazarus from the dead.


The way that John refers to the miracles of Jesus as "signs" is definitely thought provoking.  As Mr. Holley says, "signs point to something."  If we see a McDonalds sign from the interstate, we wouldn't pull off to go look at the sign and marvel at its design or placement...we would pull off to go to what the sign was pointing to in order to eat, go to the bathroom, etc.  In the same way, the correct response to news of Jesus' presence in Jerusalem should have been, "Sir, we wish to hear Jesus," expressing desire to 'go to' what the signs/miracles were pointing to- Jesus' teaching with authority- as Mr. Broadwell pointed out.

Another aspect of the Greeks' request that should be considered is the frequency of the word "see."  If we happen to notice our favorite actor, singer, etc. on the street, we would want to go up to him in order to say "hi" or get an autograph, but we wouldn't expect to see him again or have any sort of long-term relationship with him.  Similarly, the Greeks probably desired and expected only to see a miracle and maybe say "hi" to Jesus.  But in His response to their request in verses 23-36, Jesus emphasizes to His disciples the fact that we can't just expect to come to see Him once- if we come to Him we must follow Him, and consistent with the verbiage Jesus frequently uses in His teachings, this command to "follow" is not just a one-time action but a continual one.


These two facets of this passage should encourage us to examine our own motives for coming before Jesus.  Are we expecting to just "see" and not "hear" by seeking teachers on the basis of entertainment-value instead of Bible knowledge or by seeking a congregation that gives us 'creature-comforts' instead of one that strives to follow the Biblical pattern?  Are we expecting to "see" Him once to ask for something or do we desire to continually serve and follow after Him? 


I hope these thoughts have been helpful for you today, and until next week, happy reading and studying!

MrsDrPoe: Seeing Isn't Always Believing

Good morning everyone! It's Theology Thursday on the blog, so I'd like to once again invite you to open up your Bibles as we examine some passages in Mark.

Today we'll be looking at comments that some folks make like, "If I had lived in Jesus' day and had seen all those miracles for myself, I'd have no trouble believing in Him and obeying the gospel." Based on Biblical accounts, I think those of us who would make this statement may be fooling ourselves...

In Mark 6:1-6, we see Jesus return to His hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath, He went to teach in the synagogue as was His custom, and "many hearing Him were astonished, saying, "Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him that such mighty works are performed by His hands?" So the people clearly acknowledged Jesus' wisdom and His works (v. 5 tells us that He did heal sick there). They SAW, but v. 3 and 6 tell us they were offended by Him and did not believe.

Furthermore, on a multitude of different occasions in the gospels, we see the Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, and scribes listening to His teachings and observing His miracles, yet they do not turn to follow, surrendering their lives to Him, the Christ, the Holy One of God. Another example that is greatly emphasized in Mark is that of the 'great unnamed character' in the book: the crowd. We see that Jesus is constantly around a huge number of people; however, the majority of this group is referred to as "the crowd" or "the multitude," which is not synonymous with "the disciples." The people who are part of the crowd HEAR His teaching and SEE His miracles, but they still walk away. They don't SEEK after the meaning of the parables like the disciples do; they are content to participate in social religion but not to FOLLOW the Savior.

One opposite example can be found in Mark 10:46-52. In this passage, Jesus comes to the town of Jericho, and, as He is leaving, blind Bartimaeus (meaning "the son of Timaeus") cries out to Jesus for mercy. He calls Jesus "Son of David," acknowledging his belief that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus calls Bartimaeus to Him, and Bartimaeus tosses aside his garment, comes to Jesus, and asks Him to give him his sight. This miracle of healing the blind is a messianic prophecy- no one else in the Bible performed this task- and asking it of Jesus again points to the man's faith that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus heals him and tells him to go his way; Bartimaeus then "followed Jesus on the road." We can see that others' testimony of the works of Christ was enough for this blind man to know who He was and to instill in him the faith to follow.

Seeing isn't always believing. We are given the written Word- eyewitness accounts of Christ, His teaching, and His miracles- and various other evidences of God and His plan of salvation. Just like Bartimaeus, we don't have to see the miracles with our own physical eyes to have the faith that Christ is "the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Heb 5:9)

MrsDrPoe: "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

Good morning, all! This Theology Thursday, I invite you all to open up your Bibles with me as we look at the topic of pointing others to Christ.

Early last Sunday evening, a visiting preacher from Ireland was informing the congregation on how the small group that he works with evangelizes. Two of the three prongs to their three pronged approach were to hand out New Testaments and to place an add in the local papers inviting folks to study the Bible. This brother pointed out that these methods of sharing the gospel with others are not difficult, highly technical, or terribly expensive. He also, very humbly, stated that he sometimes doesn't know answers to questions addressed to him in Bible study and that he readily admits it when this is the case. He encouraged us to do the same and suggested further research on our part to help supply the person with an answer.

That discussion made me think about the fact that no one knows everything, but everyone knows something. And it's what we do with what we know that defines who we are. If you were a doctor and one of your patients had a condition that would kill them in the next two years without treatment, would you tell them? If you were an airplane mechanic and you knew one of the planes that you work on wouldn't survive another flight without being overhauled, would you tell your supervisor? Now you may be saying, "Of course I would! I don't want to get sued!" or "Sure! I could go to jail for negligence or manslaughter!" or "Yes! I don't want anyone's death on my hands!" or even "Duh! It's my job!"

Think about that for a minute. People around us are dying spiritually every day- our neighbors, our friends, our families...as Christians we know that. We also know the ONLY thing that can save them! "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." (Rom 1:16) It is our job to teach others: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." (2 Tim 4:2) Furthermore, we have been given the scriptures from God, and in order to be good stewards of this blessing, we must share it with others.


Mini Case Study: Apollos
In Acts 18:24-28, we are introduced to a man named Apollos. He is described as "an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures;" furthermore, we are also told that he "had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord." But, the scriptures also point out that he "only knew the baptism of John [the Baptist]." By this time, the One that John the Baptist was preparing the way for had already come, died on the cross, and ascended into heaven; thus, as this passage indicates, Apollos' knowledge of the plan of God for salvation is limited.

Instead of waiting till he knew 'everything,' he was preaching the word at the synagogue in Ephesus. Of course, Aquila and Priscilla (after hearing him) took him aside and "explained to him the way of God more accurately." Later, we see Apollos taking his heightened knowledge and using it to continue to "vigorously [refute] the Jews publicly, showing from the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ."


We can never know everything about the Bible; therefore, we should diligently continue to read and study throughout our entire physical lives. But the fact that our knowledge is limited should not keep us from telling people about the word...about Christ and how he died for us and for them. We may not have all the answers to all the questions that might be asked of us, but we can try to find someone who does when these questions arise. We have the word, and the word is power, and "with great power comes great responsibility."

MrsDrPoe: Putting Jesus in a Box

For this Theology Thursday, I invite you to open your Bibles, where we will be looking at several instances where individuals attempt to put Christ in a box.

Wait...what? A box? Like these??


Well not a literal box, my friend! Based on knowledge of what these individuals saw/heard Christ could do, each of them has some (limited) conception of His power. For instance, if we look in Mark 2:1-11 and 5:21-24, 35-43 we see two examples of individuals (a paralytic and his friends and a synagogue ruler, Jairus) who have the faith to know that Jesus has the power to heal both the paralytic and the dying daughter of Jairus. Subconsciously, however, these individuals are limiting the power of Christ (ie putting Him in a box) in that they believe that the sick person must be acknowledged by Christ and presented to Him.

If we compare these two events with the one discussed in Luke 7:1-10, we see that the individual in this story (a Roman Centurion who was friendly to the Jews) also has the faith that Christ is the only one who can heal his servant. This centurion places Christ in a bigger box, believing that Jesus can, acknowledging the sick servant, simply speak healing words from far away.

We can see an individual extend the box size again in Mark 5:25-34, when a woman who has had a flow of blood for 12 years believes that she can simply touch the hem of Jesus' garment (without His acknowledgement) and be made well. It could be argued that the box extended past a physical realm in the gospels when individuals bring their loved ones before Christ to have demons removed from them.

What is interesting to me is that, even though Jesus tells the paralytic (Mark 2:5) that his sins are forgiven him, no one comes up to Him after that and asks for that forgiveness. All of these "boxes" in the gospels are way too small.

So the question that we must ask ourselves is - do we put Jesus in a box? Do we "limit" His power to an amount that matches our understanding of what makes sense to us? Christ is the Word and the Word is God (John 1:1-5). He was there in the beginning when all things were created. He is all that is, was, and will ever be. His power and nature are incomprehensible. God essentially defines Himself in Exodus 34:6-7:

Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and
abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and
the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

The nature of God is so hard for us to wrap our heads around, but trying to box Him in any other (necessarily smaller) nature gives us a false sense of our God and is, thus, an incorrect response to the power of Christ, which is so much greater than we will ever understand.