Mark (Program #49) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (6)

Luke chapter 17 verse 20-21 tells us, “And when He was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation;  Nor will they say, Behold, here it is! or, There! For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.“

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Mark (Program #48) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (4) & (5)

Both John chapter 1 verse 1 and Mark chapter 1 verse 1 both use the word ‘beginning.’

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Here the word ‘beginning’ denotes eternity past. John use of this word is very mysterious.  Yet Mark on the contrary speaks of the beginning of the gospel.  The gospel of Mark is unique among the four gospels in opening with the clear expression, the beginning of the gospel.

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Mark (Program #47) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (3)

A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy is the title of the life study of Mark radio program that you’ve tuned in for today.

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Mark (Program #46) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (2)

Most readers of the Bible appreciate the gospel of Mark partially as a wonderful collection of the stories concerning the miracles of Jesus. But much more than the mere collection of the Bible stories, during the course of this life study of the book of Mark, we have been brought into the view, that what Mark really presents is the biography of another kind of person, another kind of living, another kind of humanity, another kind of life, the life of the Godman, Jesus Christ. He was one Who fully rejected His natural life, even allowing that He would be put to death in every way. Instead He lives moment by moment by the very divine life that was also present within Him.

This brings up for our consideration today a profound and utterly crucial question, do we have the realization that the divine life of God is also present within us, and available for us to live by moment by moment?

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Mark (Program #45) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (1)

If one were to take a pull of Bible scholars through out the centuries as to which of the four gospels is the most important, very few would probably pick the gospel of Mark. In many ways it’s overshadowed by the grandeur of Matthew, the depth of John or the magnitude of Luke. In fact to many non-scholars Mark is mainly thought of as a collection of their favorite Bible stories that are good for children and new believers.

But if our eyes are enlightened as Paul the apostle prayed in Ephesians, then we can obtain a controlling vision from the pages of Mark, a vision of the life lived by the wonderful God Man, Jesus. A life that was 100% according to and for God’s New Testament economy.

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Lamentations (Program #4) – God’s Eternal Being and His Throne

The book of Lamentations has often been praised for its rich poetic expression of the human suffering and anguish that was experienced by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. And from this perspective, it is an astonishing work. But recall that Jeremiah, more than any other Old Testament figure, has seen much and experienced much of God in the principle of God’s New Testament economy. Even in the midst of His lamentation, he offers a very new testament encouragement in 3:22-24, “It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness”, he wrote, “that we are not consumed, For His compassions do not fail; They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him.” It is Jeremiah’s realization and expressions of God’s New Testament economy that should leave the deepest and most profound impression on us in reading his two Old Testament books.

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Job (Program #3) – The Trials of Job (2)

Job 2:1-3 say, “Then one day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, Satan also came among them to present himself before Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Satan, Where have you come from? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, From roving the earth and going about in it. And Jehovah said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, though you have moved Me against him to destroy him without cause.”

This book of Job has been a real mystery to all those who have read it for centuries and it’s a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to explore this book from the standpoint of God’s New Testament economy. To look at this book, this Old Testament book, from the perspective of the New Testament.

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1 & 2 Kings (Program #16) – The Reign of Hoshea over Israel

As the kings of both houses of Israel slid further and further into degradation and failure, the Old Testament provides us with a parallel account of the prophets that God had raised up during the same period to carry on the line of His testimony and of His economy.  Often the prophecies of these ones touch the very center and focus of God’s New Testament economy in His eternal purpose which was embodied and manifested in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The prophet Isaiah particularly is rich with references to both Christ’s incarnation, His marvelous and all-effective redemption.Yet the challenge for us as believers today is not to stop with Christ’s wonderful redemption but rather to take it by faith as God intends as a starting point for our Christian life and walk.  This is what we hope to touch in today’s life study.

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James (Program #11) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (2)

The book of James has many wonderful expressions and utterances that many Christians love to quote.  His exhortation on bridling an evil tongue for example, and on other various Christian virtues are the stuff of many good Sunday school lessons.  In chapter 4, we have another admirable example of the practical Christian perfection that James espoused.   He says in verse 13 “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit; Whereas you do not know the matter of tomorrow, what your life will be; for you are a vapor, which appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that. ”  Who could argue or take issue that such an expression “if the Lord wills”?  But by comparison we must consider another angle, another perspective. It’s the perspective of the dominant New Testament writer, the apostle Paul, who did not exhort the believers simply to follow God’s will in an objective outward way, but rather to be those that live moment by moment under the influence and direction of the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:14, “or as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.“

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James (Program #10) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (1)

In Acts chapter 2, the apostle Peter spoke boldly to his Jewish kinsman, “be saved from this crooked generation.”   Some time later, the apostle  Paul reminded the Jewish believers that God had rescued them out of the present evil age.  The context of both passages makes it clear that these strong words, “the crooked generation” and “the present evil age” both refer to the religious system that had become modern Judaism at the time when God was ushering the New Testament economy.

Peter and Paul made it very clear God was calling people out of that religious system.  Yet in other New Testament passages, it is equally clear that the apostle  James was not only comfortable receiving the Jews into the fellowship of believers, he was even willing to accommodate the major practices of Judaism into the church.  Well what lessons can we glean from this confused situation today?

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