Mark-Lesson 13...Continued from page 5
Thomas Klock
DAY SIX
Following Christ
1. The Transfiguration no doubt was one of the most amazing things to have ever happened on this earth, and demonstrates that Jesus is indeed not just the Son of Man, but Son of God. We too, though, go through a slow, step-by-step transformation from what we are to what He is making us to become: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, nkjv). What do you see when you look in your earthly mirror? Do you see more of Jesus and less of you? How about when you look into the most accurate mirror of all, the Word of God, which reveals just how far or not so far we have come? How are you going to pursue being more transformed into His image, and how does 1 John 3:2-3 encourage you along the way: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (nkjv)?
2. The disciples seem to have lost sight of the fact that it is God who accomplishes healing or deliverance, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they had to be dependent on Him to carry it out successfully. Prayer is one expression of that dependence, an aspect of faith which the disciples either forgot or failed to learn, and led to their failure with this young man and his desperate father.[xvii] What are some things you can learn from their failing example in this and in their prideful self-seeking that you can do to avoid such a failure and disgracing the One that we serve? Share some thoughts here so your group can talk about how to do this.
3. Mark 9:42-50 contains metaphors that mustn’t be taken literally, and neither must they be ignored. Jesus used the most startling metaphors possible to show that the possession of spiritual life is worth the most costly sacrifice. Whatever endangers spiritual life must be totally removed even as a surgeon amputates a limb that endangers the life of the rest of the body.[xviii] If we plucked out one eye, we could still sin with the other, or cut off a hand, etc. Evidently some of the most ascetic among the church in the second to third centuries practiced self-emasculation to avoid such a thing although the church had prohibited such a practice, including the godly Origen who as a young man overly literally read a similar passage, Matthew 19:12, and when he was starting to be bothered by concerns over “female catechumens,” he emasculated himself to avoid sexual sin; he regretted this later and vehemently wrote against such a practice.[xix]
The question before us then is two fold: What have you done about your eternal destiny, and what are you doing to see as many as possible avoid spending eternity first in hell and then in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20) after Jesus’ Millennial reign? How can you more effectively witness to those around you by your words as well as your life of their desperate need to turn from sin to the only One that can deliver them from this place?
On July 8, 1741, a scrawny man bent over a podium, squinting at and mechanically reading word for word the text of his sermon that Sunday. Today we may think that people either slept or snuck out of church during that long dry message, but this was not the case. Jonathan Edwards had delivered one of the most famous sermons in history at which people were crying out before he finished, “What must I do to be saved?” The sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, described the horrors of the state of the unsaved as they entered eternity. [xx] Yet here in the Twenty-first Century, Satan has done all he can to convince people there is no such thing and for us not to worry so much about it. Consider these prophetic thoughts: General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, defined it when he said: “I consider that the chief dangers which will confront the twentieth century will be: Religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without regeneration, morality without God, and heaven without hell.”[xxi]
Wow! He’s reading today’s newspaper you’d think. Think about what you need to do differently to warn people about their need for Christ because of your love for them.
Scripture Memory: Hopefully you now can write out this week’s passage completely by memory. Do so now, and keep on reviewing it so you will be ready to share it with others in your group time.
Mark 9:50:
[i] Unless elsewhere noted, all Greek word/phrase translations are based on the following: A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. In Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1932, 1933, 1997); James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Electronic Edition (Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship; in Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996); M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2002); Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Studies in the New Testament: For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Co; in Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1984, 1997); and Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, Electronic Edition (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, in Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1992, 1993, 2000).
[ii] James A. Brooks, Mark. In David S. Dockery ed., The New American Commentary, Vol. 23 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1991), p. 147; Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books/SP Publications, Inc., 1989), p. 141.
[iii] Homer A. Kent Jr., The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Winona Lakes: BMH Books, 2005), p. 125.
[iv] John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Mark (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004), p. 190.
[v] John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Mark, p. 195.
[vi] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 158.
[vii] John D. Grassmick, Mark. In John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck eds., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament (Wheaton: Victor Books/SP Publications, 1983), p. 145.
[viii] James A. Brooks, Mark, p. 145.
[ix] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Electronic Edition (Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship; in Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
[x] James A. Brooks, Mark, p. 148.
[xi] Brooks, p. 150.
[xii] Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Studies in the New Testament: For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Co; in Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1984, 1997).
[xiii] John D. Grassmick, Mark, p. 147.
[xiv] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, p. 160.
[xv] Grassmick, p. 147.
[xvi] Grassmick, p. 148; Brooks, p. 154.
[xvii] Roy B. Zuck and Darrell L. Bock, A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994, 1996), in Oak Harbor, Washington, Logos Research Systems Inc.
[xviii] Brooks, p. 153.
[xix] Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p. 43.
[xx] John D. Currid, Introduction to Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (P & R Publishing, Phillipsburg, 1992), p. 3-7.
[xxi] Tan, P. L. 1996, c1979. Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations: [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Bible Communications: Garland; In Oak Harbor: Logos Research System, Inc.
© 2005 by Harvest Christian Fellowship. All rights reserved. Written by Thomas Klock for Men’s Bible Fellowship, 2005-2006.
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