Ezekiel (Program #20) – The Temple and Side Chambers

The gospel of John gives us the unforgettable picture of Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem. And in the display of the most righteous anger, the sight of God’s house being turned into a place of merchandise and commerce, He cleanses the temple – overturning the tables and chasing the peddlers away. Immediately following this comes a profound exchange between the Lord Jesus and the religionists. In John 2:18-21, “The Jews then answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the a temple of His body.” What makes this word so meaningful is that John clearly identifies Jesus as the real temple, the real house of God. This means even as we consider the temple in the Old Testament such as in Ezekiel’s great vision in chapters 40 to 48, we must realize that this is a type of the Lord Jesus Himself and of the church, the New Testament, the enlargement of God’s house.

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Ezekiel (Program #19) – The Altar

God’s eternal purpose is to have a building and the center of that building is the altar. This is a picture of the cross of Christ – apart from which we cannot have the church.

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Mark (Program #11) – The Parables of the Kingdom (1)

The true gospel of God always issues in the kingdom of God. In the gospel of Mark chapter 4 there are 4 parables of the kingdom of God.

Prior to chapter 4 we had seen the beginning with its contents in Mark chapter 1 and the ways of carrying out the gospel service with the auxiliary acts in chapter 2 and 3.  So the simple message here is that the gospel issues in the kingdom of God.

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Mark (Program #1) – The Slave-Savior’s Auxiliary Acts for the Gospel Service (1) & (2)

The gospel of Mark is not a book concerning the great doctrines of the Christian faith.  Much more it is a book of many cases that illustrate the reality of the gospel being carried out even lived out by the Slave Savior Jesus.

Early on in the book on the third chapter there is an account of the Lord instructing His followers to prepare a boat so that He can escaped the large crowd, the pressing throng that had come out to Galilee to see this One who was performing miracles and healing the sick.  It was because of the pressing of this large crowd had become a frustration to the real seeking ones who did not desire to be part of great new religious movement but rather longed for a simple, intimate touch with the Lord Jesus Himself.

Chapter 5 shows us such an intimate encounter, “When she heard the things concerning Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment, And immediately Jesus, realizing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched My garments?“

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Mark (Program #9) – The Ways the Slave-Savior Carried Out His Gospel Service (4)

By the time Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry, a well established God ordained religious system was firmly entrenched in the land of Palestine.  But as the very God Himself who was the fulfillment and reality of all of the components of that established religion you would think that He would had taken a great care to approach the leaders of that religion and to bring them into His ministry.

But the record of the New Testament reveals quite the opposite.  The gospels, in particularly the gospel of Mark revealed that Jesus showed no interest in maintaining the old religion with its’ traditions and rituals.  Even those were among the ones that God had originally instituted such as the Sabbath.

Rather, Jesus  offended the religious community to the uttermost by breaking the Sabbath regulation repeatedly and revealing that as the Lord of the Sabbath He was well within His authority to use the Sabbath to care for His people instead of as a  religious fetter to bind them and even to kill them.

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Mark (Program #8) – The Ways the Slave-Savior Carried Out His Gospel Service (3)

After opening with the clear picture of meaning and contents of the glad tidings of the gospel. The book of Mark then give us the 5 cases in which the Lord Jesus carries out the gospel in His dealing with so many fallen people. The first of these cases involved a paralytic man who not only received healing from the Lord, but even more importantly at least in its’ significance was the forgiveness of sins.  We then had the case of a saved sinners, Matthew, the tax collector preparing a feast for His Savior and for many of His friends. This case was a case of enjoyment.

Three additional cases followed in chapter 2, and the first part of chapter 3. Each one depicting the carrying out of His gospel service. A gospel not only of forgiveness and of enjoyment but of joy, of satisfaction and freedom as well.

We come to another enjoyable, joy-filled, satisfying and liberating message from this life study of Mark.

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Mark (Program #7) – The Ways the Slave-Savior Carried Out His Gospel Service (2)

Mark chapter 2 gives us the account of the Lord Jesus as the Slave-Savior carrying out His gospel service to care for the need of fallen people. It’s a marvelous chapter that shows us 5 cases or incidents, each one demonstrating this loving care in a particular way meeting the need of all manner of weak, sick and sinful people.

What a picture of the glad tidings being lived out in their midst!  Of course, not all the people are eager and happy to see such a manifestation of the reality and the enjoyment of God.  The scribes and the pharisees, the self-righteous and religious among the people were indignant that their own the authority and their time on the traditions were completely ignored by the Lord Jesus.  For as He Himself told them, “those who were strong have no need of a physician but those who are ill. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.“

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Mark (Program #6) – The Ways the Slave-Savior Carried Out His Gospel Service (1)

The gospel of Mark is unique in many ways among the four gospel accounts of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus on the earth. One of the unique aspects of Mark, is that, it is arranged according to the actual historical sequence of events. Well, this can make it more difficult to study and understand but the divine and sovereign arrangement is really quite marvelous.

Chapter 1 for example, presents us with the complete contains of the gospel.  And chapter 2 follows then with 5 cases illustrate how the Lord Jesus as the slave savior carry out the gospel in His service to all the weak, hungry and needy people.  The first of these 5 cases is a really marvelous account that when understood correctly open the way for all us, fallen sinners to enter into the rich gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Ezekiel (Program #13) – God’s Judgment Upon the Nations

There are seven nations mentioned from Ezekiel chapters 25 through 32. Even in the midst of God’s judgment from Ezekiel in the Old Testament on the nations, you will find that there is an application to us today in the church.

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Mark (Program #5) – The Contents of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (1) & (2)

The book of Mark opens with these words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” It then reveals that this gospel is really the fulfillment of the types, the promises and the prophesies of the Old Testament. Along with the removal of the custody of the law. But Mark chapter 1 goes further because it shows us not what just the gospel is but the content of the gospel. This gospel is not something vague but rich in its’ details.  And in this chapter, chapter 1 which is divided into 5 sections. We see the rich content of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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