MrsDrPoe: A Leper Meets The Teacher

This Theology Thursday I have a special treat for you.  Instead of sharing some of my thoughts from recent Bible studies, I'd like to point you to a lesson from Mark that Mr. Poe presented several weeks ago.  You can listen online to this lesson here; the sermon title is the same as that of this post.  Enjoy!

MrsDrPoe: The Cost of Discipleship, Part II

Welcome to this Theology Thursday on the blog!  As always, I invite you to open your Bibles with me as we look at another passage on the cost of discipleship.

In Mark 6:7-34, the gospel writer employs one of his favorite literary techniques to emphasize what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  In this 'sandwich' or story-within-a-story, Mark tells us about the sending out and return of the 12 apostles and the beheading of John the Baptist.

While the two stories in this sandwich are connected by the idea of teaching everyone- the apostles are going out to the surrounding country to proclaim repentance, and John is killed because he taught King Herod that his marriage was unlawful in God's eyes- they also emphasize that the cost of discipleship is everything.  

Throughout John's ministry, it is obviously that he has given his life for the Lord (dwelling in the wilderness, teaching the Word, dressed in camels' hair, eating locusts and wild honey, etc.), and at the end of his life on this earth, his martyrdom reiterates that he had indeed put to death his old man daily.

The apostles are just beginning their ministry when they are sent out two by two with nothing but the gospel and their trust and faith in the Lord to aid them in their journey.  As they return at the end of this passage to tell Jesus of their travels, Christ again shows them by forfeiting His own rest to show compassion on those in the multitude who are like sheep without a shepherd that being like the Lord means daily self sacrifice to His work!

As we saw in Luke passage last week, Christianity only leads to daily death on the cross, and we must be willing to pay this price to truly follow the Lord.

MrsDrPoe: The Offense of Familiarity

It's another Theology Thursday on the blog, and I'd like to once again invite you to open your Bibles with me as we look at a portion of God's word.

In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus goes to His hometown of Nazareth to continue His earthly teaching ministry.  We see Him in v. 2 preaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath as was His typical M.O.  The folks in the city regard the fact that He is teaching "wisdom" and performing "mighty works"; however, instead of heeding the wisdom of His word, they are offended at Him because they knew Him as "the carpenter" and desire to kill Him (Luke 4:29).  Because of their unbelief, Jesus provides them with no further signs of His person but instead continues teaching in other villages.

It seems so ironic to read of people who basically say, "Jesus has so much wisdom!  But lets totally ignore it."  But isn't that what we do sometimes?  Jesus says in v. 4, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."  Examining the prophets in the old testament, nearly all were ill-received and mistreated by the very people they were trying to warn.  Again I ask, isn't that what we do sometimes?

If your mom or brother or friend tells you that you should be going to Bible study, you have been very unkind lately, you have a lot of anger, the people you are hanging around with are not helping you spiritually, or any number of other things, don't we often get offended?  But if someone we didn't know quite so well told us the same thing, would we be more inclined to listen?  Just like the people of Nazareth were so familiar with Jesus the carpenter whose family they knew, they were offended by the things that he taught and did.

Not wanting to listen to advice is a pride issue that we all must struggle against.  Although every piece of advice we are given (solicited or not) may not be the best course of action to take, we must humble ourselves to truthfully examine what we are told- especially from those who know us best and truly have our best spiritual interests at heart.  And we must also humble ourselves before the word of God.  While we read the teachings of Jesus, we must examine ourselves and try to correct where we are lacking.  We must be careful not to be offended by or take lightly the instruction of "the Carpenter" or the godly wisdom of those who follow Him.

MrsDrPoe: "How Is It That You Have No Faith?"

Welcome to another Theology Thursday on the blog!  As usual, I invite you to open up your Bibles with me as we look into another portion of God's word.

One of the threads running through the book of Mark is that fear causes faith to grow or shrink.  If we look at Jesus' calming of the storm in 4:35-41, we see one particular example.  In this passage, Jesus and some of His disciples are on a boat crossing the sea of Galilee when a "great windstorm" comes up.  The disciples are frantic, thinking they are about to die while Jesus is asleep on a pillow.  (Note: Many of these men were fishermen by trade who had grown up on these waters; this must have been some storm to have seasoned seamen so shaken up.)  They wake Jesus, who calms the storm with three words and then asks, "Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?"

We may think to ourselves, "Isn't that a little harsh?  These people left everything they had to follow Him!"  Indeed they had a great enough faith to leave their old lives; however, when their faith was tested by their fear of the storm, it failed.

This example should be an important one for us- it shows that we cannot be stagnant in our faith.  We can't assume that we have "great faith" because once several years ago we believed in the risen Savior.  If our faith isn't growing, it's shrinking.

Just like we grow in bodily strength through weight-resistance, we grow in faith through resisting temptations.  When we fear ridicule for speaking up about our faith, speaking up anyway builds our faith.  When we don't have time to read our Bibles or pray, making time anyway builds our faith.  As we continue to grow our faith through these challenges, it makes it easier to grow when more difficulties are presented.  And because we are imperfect, we should take comfort in the fact that if we do shrink in our faith at one time, through the grace of God, we can overcome the next time we are tested, just like the disciples did.

I hope these thoughts have been helpful for you, and I hope you have a blessed day!

MrsDrPoe: When Is It Right to Do Wrong?

Another Theology Thursday has snuck up on us, and as always, I invite you to open your Bibles as we look at a portion of God's word.

Today we'll be looking at Mark 1:39-45.  In this passage, we see that as Jesus is going about the countryside teaching in synagogues, a leper comes to Him begging to be cleansed.  He realizes as we see in v. 40 that Jesus has the power to heal and if He is only willing, his disease will be cleansed.

Jesus reaches out and touches the man before cleansing him, showing His compassion through something that the leper hadn't experienced in a long time.  Then He speaks, and the man is healed.  Before He sends the man away, Jesus commands that the man not tell anyone.  Instead of listening to Jesus, the man "proclaims" the matter "freely" and "spreads" it.

It's been suggested that Jesus is using reverse psychology here, but there is no evidence for this conclusion- throughout scripture, God and Christ 'say what They mean and mean what They say.'  Thus, this man blatantly disobeyed the Lord.  We may think, "he was just tyring to spread the good news about Jesus."  Well, maybe, but he was doing it in a way that was in direct contrast to the command Jesus gave him.  This begs the question:

When is it EVER right to do wrong?

The answer, of course is never.  Not 'when it's in my best interest,' or 'when I don't understand why it's wrong' (Prov 14:12), or 'when I disagree' - NEVER.

So what does this mean for us?  First, we should strive to study the Bible in its entirety without bias, examining what God has given and not given authority for.  Then we must apply His teaching to our lives, even if it's difficult.

MrsDrPoe: The Gospel According to Mark

For this week's Reading Review, I present to you part of The Pillar New Testament Commentary, "The Gospel According to Mark" by James R. Edwards:

As I mentioned several weeks ago, Mr. Poe adopted the book of Mark; this commentary was given to him indirectly by our friend Mr. Ellis to start his Mark library.  Since we have recently found ourselves in several studies on this gospel, I thought it would be in my best interest to read this commentary as well.  (If you're considering adopting Mark, this is definitely a reference book you should add to your library.)

Although you could probably guess from the length of this commentary, it is very detailed and contains a plethora of information from a wide variety of sources.  Mr. Edwards has done quite a bit of research and provides essentially a very comprehensive verse-by-verse investigation of this gospel.  Also to his credit, the book is very well organized, and the footnotes contain a wealth of additional information related to the commentary.

Mr. Edwards draws the reader's attention to the themes and unique literary devices Mark employed in his gospel, such as the "sandwich" where a story is placed in a story to help draw connections between them.  One of my favorite topics discussed in the commentary is the way Mark contrasts faith and fear and shows us what true faith in God should look like.

While I have not extensively researched the available material on the topic of Mark's gospel, there are a few comments made in the book that appear to be contrary to scripture, such as those on repentance in reference to Mark 2.  While commentaries are often helpful in increasing our understanding of the scriptures, they should never replace the Bible itself; thus, as always, I would advise you to read this book with an open Bible, testing every comment made against the whole Word of God.

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: Seeking

In a couple of recent studies in Mark and Luke, the topic of seeking God has come up. I've found it very interesting how, though both writers present the concept, they each present it in a different way.

A running theme in Mark is "inside" vs "outside." As Jesus teaches outside by the sea, we see huge crowds gathered around Him listening; however, many of these individuals are not truly seeking Jesus. In Mark 4:3-9, we see Jesus presenting the parable of the sower. Christ brackets the parable by "Listen!" and "He who has ears to hear let him hear!" Obviously these people came to listen, right? Right...sort of. Jesus is telling His listeners to listen with a purpose...to listen with an ear for the spiritual, not the physical. He's not just telling a nice story about a farmer who only had some of his seed produce!

In verse 10, we see the scene shift, and Jesus is now among His disciples (including the apostles). And they're not just hanging out- the disciples are asking about the parable. Christ answers, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables." The disciples are disciples because they're asking...and because they're disciples, they're are on the inside and can know the mystery of the kingdom. They are seeking!

Luke is a little more forward with the topic, in that the theme of "seeking and finding" is prevalent in the book. In Luke 11:9-13 Jesus tells His disciples, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." It is my understanding that in this case "ask," "seek," and "knock" activities we must be continually doing. We can see this by examining the parable Jesus tells in the previous verses (5-8). At the conclusion of the parable He says, "...because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many [loaves] as he needs."

From these passages, we can see that, as Christians, we should be seeking God and seeking Him continually. Seeking and asking for wisdom to better understand His word. Seeking and asking for strength in times of difficulty and temptation. Seeking and asking for guidance and growth so that we can become more and more like Christ everyday.

But if we're always seeking, what about everything else? Matt 6:33 says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." From the verses before, we know that "these things" refer to life's necessities like food, drink and clothing. Thus we can spend our efforts seeking after God and seeking to be like Him, knowing that He will take care of us.