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Who Is This Man?Jesus Is The Christ
(Mark 8:27-29)
As readers of Mark's gospel, we already know. Mark used his first words to introduce us to Jesus. His first words were: *"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"* (Mark 1:1). (8 Minutes/2000 Words)
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Be Shaped by Jesus' Compassion
(Mark 8:1-10)
If this episode sounds familiar, it's because Jesus has already fed a large crowd of five thousand earlier in Mark (6:30-44). And there are many similarities between this miraculous feeding and the first—a deserted setting, Jesus' compassion on the crowd, the dividing of bread and fish, and leftovers of bread. But there are also many differences between the two episodes. (5 Minutes/1300 Words)
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Accept the Message of Jesus and His Kingdom
(Mark 4:1-20)
Many modern people think Jesus used parables to make everything clearer. As we will see today, Jesus did not use parables that way. They were not a preaching trick for him or a way to capture everyone's waning attention. They were not his way of "putting the cookies on the bottom shelf," making the truths he was trying to communicate accessible to all. (14 Minutes/3700 Words)
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Seeing God Correctly: God Is Angered by Dead Religion
(Mark 3:1-6)
It is amazing how religious leaders would not answer Jesus' questions. He'd asked, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? And they responded with silence (4). I mean, the answer was so obvious, but they couldn't bring themselves to respond. They couldn't confess it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good. (5 Minutes/1400 Words)
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Seeing God Correctly: God Is Compelled To Do Good
(Mark 3:1-6)
So one Sabbath Jesus again went to church, to the synagogue, to the public meeting. Mark says, a man was there with a withered hand. Luke, who was a doctor, tells us it was the man's right hand (Luke 6:6). To have a withered hand meant his hand was stiff, deformed, and paralyzed. (6 Minutes/1500 Words)
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Jesus Joy
(Mark 2:9-22)
By this point in Mark, it has become increasingly clear that Jesus' coming was a massive event. He was not just another leader with fresh religious claims. He did not come with some good advice. He did not come to tinker. (13 Minutes/3000 Words)
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Friend of Sinners Part 1
(Mark 2:13-17)
In this three-part series, we are going to explore this question: What kind of people enter into God's kingdom? We are going to ask this because the first time Jesus spoke in Mark's gospel, he said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Jesus came. The time is fulfilled and, with him, came the kingdom of God. It is at hand. (7 Minutes/1700 Words)
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Cain and Abel
(Genesis 4)
Here, we learn Adam knew Eve, which is the Bible's way of saying they knew one another in the act of sex. As an aside, this should be instructive concerning sex. To God, sex isn't the mere collision of bodies who are out for a good time. Instead, though it should be clear, because of the design of our sexual organs, that God designed sex to be intensely pleasurable, he always thought of it as a major expression of an intimate relationship. A married couple is to know one another. (10 Minutes/3000 Words)
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