Mark (Program #42) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (4)

As Jesus was hanging there on the cross for six agonizing hours bearing the reproach of man and the judgment of God, He did so as a genuine man. Yes, He was unique among all mankind in that He was without sin even of Himself, but His humanity was the same as ours in every other way.

Yet at the same time He was also God and despite the fact that for the final three hours of His suffering, God as the economical Spirit had to forsake Him, while He took upon Himself the sins and transgressions of every man.

Yet intrinsically and essentially He was and still is God.  This is Christ Jesus, the Lord our Savior. The immortal Who put on mortality.  And this mysterious and marvelous God Man died a death that accomplish what no other death could ever accomplished.

His death accomplish far more than just the forgiveness of sins as we will see today. And in addition to dealing with all the negative things, His death also release the divine life to create the New Man, the New Creation and ultimately to bring in the kingdom of God.

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Mark (Program #41) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (3)

On the day of His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross for six hours, from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon.  During the first three hours, He suffered mocking, slander and humiliation at the hands of all manner of men even though He was dying to redeem.

But beginning at twelve noon something remarkable happen and is recorded in Mark chapter 15 verses 33-34, “And when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is interpreted, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

During the final three hours of His time on the cross, the Lord Jesus was no longer been judged by evil mankind. He had taken upon Himself the sins of mankind to such an extend that God the Father even had to turn away from His beloved Son in righteous judgment, as Christ offered up Himself, an eternal sacrifice for all.

As believers we cherish this story and never tired of hearing it. But beyond this message of redemption and hope, this story also bears consideration for what it says about the inner relationship of the three divine persons in the Godhead.

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Mark (Program #39) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (1)

The record in Mark chapters 14 and 15 give a striking account of how the Lord Jesus prepared Himself for His crucifixion. Even manipulating those who would ultimately kill Him to do so according to God’s time table and not man’s.

Often overlook in this portion, however, is that the same chapters also record the experiences of Peter. In a very real sense Peter also was being prepared by the Lord to pass through the process of death and resurrection.

It’s somewhat easy to realize that Peter in these chapters is representative of all the disciples. What’s not so easy to see, but just as significant is that Peter’s experiences of failure upon failure eventually resulting in his been striped of any confidence in his natural strength and ability, represents all of us, the Lord’s believers as well.

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Mark (Program #38) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (12)

Ephesians chapter 1:7-9 tells us that Christ’s all redeeming death was part of God’s eternal plan and purpose. Yet on occasion after occasion when the Lord Jesus spoke concerning His coming death to His disciples especially Peter, they continually express their natural thought that such a thing should never happen to Him.

Furthermore, on the night before His death they one by one declare to the Lord, that they would never deny Him even at the cost of their own lives. Of course we all know the story, Peter representing all the disciples within a few short hours was repeatedly denying the Lord.

On one hand it seems hard to believe that after the Lord had revealed so much to His disciples, that they can still behave in such a way. In fact Peter and his failure is representative of all our natural strength and fleshly concepts.  Yet by the Lord’s mercy, Peter and eventually even all of us His weak and frail seekers are led through a process of Christ’s death has become much more than just an objective fact. We must become those who like Peter enter into His death so that we can ultimately be ushered into the reality of His resurrection.

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Mark (Program #35) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (9)

Just two days prior to His death the Lord Jesus gathered with His disciples in a small house in a tiny village of Bethany just outside of Jerusalem.

This little house, the house of a leper that Jesus had cleansed in the beginning of His ministry has become His dwelling place during His final days. Each night He would depart Jerusalem and return to this very humble and simple home. Now as the hours of His death approaches one of the great encounters in all the scriptures take place. Let’s read the account in Mark 14:1-8

“Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to seize Him by craftiness and kill Him,  For they said, Not at the feast, lest there be a tumult by the people.  And while He was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He reclined at table, a woman came, having an alabaster flask of ointment, of very costly pure nard, and she broke the alabaster flask and poured it over His head.  But there were some who were indignantly commenting among themselves: Why has this waste of the ointment been made?  For this ointment could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they were infuriated with her.  But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a noble deed on Me.  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you do not always have Me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.
And truly I say to you, Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her.”

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Mark (Program #28) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (1) & (2)

At the end of a nearly three years long journey with His disciples the Lord Jesus at the end of His gospel ministry makes a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Just six days before the time of His sacrificial death on the cross the Lord Jesus surprises His disciples confounds His opposers and thoroughly captivated the hearts of the people of the great city of Jerusalem.

During these final days, Jesus was finished performing the miracles, the great teachings, the casting out of demons even the healing and the cleansing of lepers. For now He is totally focus on the preparation necessary for His death, His burial, His resurrection and ultimately His ascension.  Mark chapter 11 gives us a marvelous account of these six days of preparation.

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Mark (Program #27) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (16) & (17)

The second half of Mark chapter 10 brings us to the city of Jericho. The Lord Jesus has arrived at this place very near Jerusalem, near the end of the long journey He had taken with His disciples. Jesus knew that the time of His appointed death on the cross to be the real Lamb of God was only days away and He would not be kept from that hour.

Twice before on this journey on the way to Jerusalem the Lord had spoken to His disciples of approaching rejection and death in Jerusalem. But the disciples never seem to hear the words. And so here the Lord mentions it again for the third time. But still the disciples had neither ears to hear nor eyes to see as these verses in Mark 10 so clearly illustrate. Beginning at verse 32-37:

“Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus led the way before them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that were about to happen to Him:  Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and to the scribes. And they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles, And they will mock Him and spit at Him and scourge Him, and they will kill Him. And after three days He will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying to Him, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask You.  And He said to them, What do you want Me to do for you?  And they said to Him, Grant to us to sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.“

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1 John (Program #36) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (4)

The marvelous book of 1 John stresses the divine birth, the divine life and the fellowship all believers can experience and enjoy in the flow of this divine life.  It is not a book of great doctrine but rather it is a book as is John’s gospel  revealing the living and true God subjectively and experientially to mankind.

Finally in its concluding verses it tells us that above all we now possess the capacity to know Him not just know about Him.

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1 John (Program #34) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (2)

1 John is a book that focuses on the divine eternal life that we all as believers received by faith.  It is the fellowship of this life that empowers and enables us to live the Christian life.  And in 1 John it is unveiled marvelously as well as practically.  John also warns us and instructs us to be on guard concerning those things that disrupt this fellowship of life, such as sin.

In chapter 5, he even instructs us that it is possible, in the Lord to be able to discern the deep spiritual condition of other members of the Body of Christ, to more effectively pray and even to become a channel of the divine life for them.

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1 John (Program #33) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (1)

1 John, a book that stresses divine eternal life, reveals that prayer is crucial in maintaining the fellowship of the divine life.  In chapter 5 it particularly shows us that as members of the Body, we need to pray for the other members.  No doubt it’s common practice among believers to pray for healing for someone in the church who may be sick or for financial blessing for those who may be suffering material shortage.  But do we pray as the apostle John instructs us for the Lord to supply the weaken members with life?  Listen to chapter 5:16 “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him, to those sinning not unto death… “

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