March 31st: Mark 11:1-6: Jesus needs a Donkey

Jesus will soon enter in to the city of Jerusalem for the last time. He will enter into peacefully, but as its king. Jesus is the king of Jerusalem, for he is the king of all. Jesus accurately predicts what the disciples will find and they bring back the donkey to him.
I want you to prepare your hearts today. This coming week we will walk through the last week of Jesus' life, and see his death and resurrection. Let us be humble and learn from Jesus last words with his disciples before his death and let us glory in the Cross of Christ and his death and resurrection.

March 30th: Mark 10:46-52: THe Blind Man Who Wouldn't Give Up

This blind man showed tremendous faith. He would not give up. He kept calling for Jesus over and over again. Jesus did not answer him at first. If he had given up after the first time he would have stayed blind. But Jesus healed him because his faith was shown in his tenacity. He knew Jesus could heal him so he kept on asking. Even when other people told him to stop he continued on knowing that Jesus had the power.
Let our faith be like this so that we may find help in God.

March 29th Mark 10:41-44: The Other Disciples

It turns out that the other disciples were not better. They were upset at the two disciples for asking, because they were beat to the punch. They were upset because they wanted those positions and thought that they should have them instead of those two disciples.
Jesus turns the whole thing on its head saying that the great ones are the servants. In so many ways we can see this is the life of Jesus, who became a servant. He died for others, this is our example. If you want to be a leader for Christ then you need to be a servant.

March 28th: Mark 10:35-40: Wow...

Wow.. the nerve of these two disciples. Can you imagine? They come up to Jesus and ask if they can be the ones that are in charge in the coming kingdom of God. They want positions of honor. They are not concerned with the honor of God or of Jesus at this moment. They desire power and honor for themselves. Jesus explains that those positions have been prepared for someone else after asking if they will drink the cup, meaning suffer what he is going to suffer.
These two disciples hearts were not in the right place. They were focused on the wrong things and needed a change of heart. Are we concerned with God's glory or our own?

March 27th: Mark 10:32-34: Jesus Fortells His Own Death and Ressurection (again)

This is not the first time Jesus has foretold his death and resurrection. He does this to comfort his disciples who will before too long see these things happen to Jesus. They will be frightened and for a period of time lose hope. They will be found hiding for fear of being executed themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. One of Jesus' closest followers will find himself denying him three times all because they failed to listen to Jesus when he told them these things.
In this passage he goes into quite a bit more detail of what is going to happen, yet they are still surprised when these things go down.

March 26th: Mark 10:28-31: The Reward

Peter points out the obvious. The 12 disciples had done what Jesus asked the rich young man to do. Jesus says that they will be rewarded far beyond what they have given up. Remember the call to follow Jesus is the call to die to self and be willing to die for Him. The call to Christianity is not an easy call but it is a worthwhile call. This is what Jesus is saying here. Yes as Christians we may give up things, we may suffer hardship and we may fight against persecution, but we will be rewarded. We find peace and friendship with God in this life and will be able to fulfill our eternal purpose in heaven for all eternity.

March 25th: Mark 10:26-27: Salvation is Impossible

The disciples are thinking if rich people cannot be saved then who can be saved? And Jesus' response is beautiful "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." The point Jesus is making is that it is impossible with man for anyone to be saved. We are so dead in our sins that no amount of good and right living could ever save us. It is impossible. But with God the rich and the poor can have salvation. With God the horrible murder can be saved. With God the rebellious teen ager can be saved. With God the self righteous person can get saved. With God the impossible can happen and a human being can be saved from damnation.

March 24th: Mark 10:23-25: Eye of a Needle

A little context may help here. Rich people were the spiritual leaders of the day. They taught that if you gave a lot of money to the temple and the poor you were more likely to gain access into heaven. They essentially thought you could buy your way to heaven. So apparently the disciples believed this as well, so they were so surprised when Jesus said it is difficult for rich people to get to heaven.
There has been quite a lot of disinformation spread about this next statement of Jesus. A camel cannot fit through the eye of a needle. It is simply not possible. For this reason some people have wanted to make this a gate instead of a literal needle, but the point is that it is impossible for people to buy or earn their way to heaven.

March 23rd: Mark 10:17-22: Rich Young Man

We like to pick on this guy. He asks Jesus what he needs to do to have eternal life. And then he claims he has kept all the commandments. So Jesus says sell all of your stuff and come follow me. The guy does not do it. He likes his stuff. Plain and simple the guy loved his stuff more than Jesus. This means that he had broken the commandment to love God. God asks for our love above everything. He commands that we love him in this manner. We should be willing to leave everything we have to follow him.

March 22nd: Mark 10:13-16: Being Like a Child

Humility. Jesus is saying that we need to admit that we are like children before we can begin to truly have faith in God. If we look at ourselves and think that we have it all under control then we will not realize our need for God. We have to be like children who readily and obviously need someone else to take care of them.
The truth is we need someone else to take care of us. We need God, and like children we need to admit it.

Mach 21st: Mark 10:1-12: Marriage and Divorce

In this passage Jesus teaches on marriage. He emphasizes that marriage is a covenant, meaning an unbreakable promise. He is essentially teaching that divorce is wrong. When we look at scriptures teachings on marriage we quickly realize that divorce is not an option for Christians except for in the cases of unfaithfulness. Even in the case of unfaithfulness there should still be a desire for reconciliation on the part of the innocent party. Marriage is supposed to be forever and we should go into marriage recognizing this, not thinking well if it doesn't work out I can always get a divorce.

March 20th: Mark 9:42-50: Sin is a Big Deal

Sin is a big deal. We like to brush aside some sins and say that those are okay sins and declare other sins to be bad sin. Of course it ends up being the sins that we commit are not the big sins and the sins that others commit are the big sins. In reality all sin is big. Every wrong act is an act of rebellion against God who deserves nothing but our love and obedience. To ensure that we understand how big a deal sin is Jesus uses some very drastic examples of what we should do to stop sin in our lives.
He says if your eye is causing you to sin pluck it out and if your hand is causing you to sin cut it off. This is clearly an exaggeration for the sake of making a point. But maybe their are things we need to cut or pluck out of our lives that are causing us to sin. Maybe their are certain things that we can do to ensure that we do not sin in a specific area that we are struggling with. Sometimes it takes drastic action that will cause us pain and suffering, but sin is a big deal and we need to treat it like it is a big deal.

March 19th: Mark 9:38-41: Disciples Get Jealous

Someone else is casting out demons in the name of Jesus. The person who is doing this is not one of the 12 disciple but is someone else. It seems to be working though. He is successfully casting out demons. The disciples are upset by this. Jesus quickly calms them down, and essentially explains that if they are doing his work they are doing the right thing.
Sometimes we get caught up in competition with other Christians. We want our church to be the biggest and the best so rather than advancing the kingdom of God we only advance our small portion of it. This is simply not the way things should be. We should want to expand God's kingdom not our own kingdom. This means that if another church is growing because they are preaching the gospel we should not be jealous we should rejoice along with them knowing that people are being added to the kingdom of God.

March 18th: Mark 9:33-37: Who is the Greatest?

Past John Piper once said "If you are standing on the edge of the grand canyon thinking of how great you are you are pathological." His point is if you are seeing or near something that is awe inspiring yet you are thinking how great you are then their is something wrong with you. I would say this also applies to the people who has been following Jesus.
Did you catch what this passage says? These disciples are arguing about who is the greatest! They have been following Jesus around and seeing him do all of these things. They heard his preach his sermons like the sermon on the mount where he talks about humility. Of course none of them were the greatest, Jesus is the greatest. And Jesus uses an illustration of a child to show them that need to have humility.
Really I think we are far too often like the disciples. Rather than focusing on the glory of God we are instead focused on our achievements and on how good we are. If our eyes and hearts are fixed on God then our pride will be demolished and we will find joy in our worship of him.

March 17th: Mark 8:30-32: The Disciples are Confused (again Part 2)

Jesus says it rather plainly. It doesn't get much more plain than this: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” They were confused though. Why? Ill give you two possible reasons, which I think are both the case:
1. They were still expecting Jesus to over throw the Roman government and set up his kingdom on earth.
They had yet to figure out that Jesus' true mission was of much greater importance than freeing the nation of Israel from its bondage to Rome, instead Jesus was going to free them from their slavery to Sin. If he was going to be a great political leader then he couldn't die.

2. I think they may have been in denial a little bit.
They had grown close to Jesus and they were not sure what they would do without him and because of this they did not want to hear anything about him dieing. They wanted him to continue leading them and continue teaching them.

The truth is if they had been able to get over their bias they would of found Jesus death a much less traumatizing event. Rather than it seeming like it was the worst possible thing that could of happened they would of realized instead that it was God's plan all along and that Jesus would not stay dead.

March 16th Mark 9:14-29: "Lord Help My Unbelief

This is a very interesting passage where Jesus' disciples are incapable of casting out a demon, and so Jesus ha to do it. But I really want to focus on the mans statement in verse 24 "I believe; help my unbelief!” This should be the cry of every Christian. We believe in God but their are many areas of our lives where we do not act as if we believe in God or where we falter in our beliefs in God. These areas need to be minimized so that we can act in true and complete faith. This will always be a process and it is something that we need to ask God for help in. We should all be praying "I believe, help my unbelief."

March 15th: Mark 9:9-13: The Disciples are Confused (again)

Jesus was a little cryptic at times when he told parables, but he often explained those parables to his disciples. Hid disciples has trouble understanding some things though. It seems as if they never understood him when he told them he was going to die, or when he said he was going to rise again. It is almost as if the moment he started talking about these things they closed their ears and did not want to hear it. Jesus told his disciples on many occasions that he was going to die and rise from the dead, yet they were all surprised when he died, and then when he came back. In this passage they are confused by the fact that Jesus told them not tell anyone about his transfiguration until he came back from the dead.

March 14th: Mark 9:2-8: The Transfiguration

Can you for a moment imagine seeing Jesus glorified? This is one of our many hopes. To see Jesus fully and completely as he really is. These two disciples had been with Jesus for a while now but they had never seen him in his glory, but only in his frail temporary body on earth. To see him in his glory along with two old testament saints must of been a shocking and thrilling experience. It is funny, the passage actually says that Peter did not know what to say, so rather than saying nothing he had to fill the silence with something, and suggested putting up three tents, one for each person. The main problem with this is that Peter was treating all of three of these people like they were equal, when they are not. It is clear the God was correcting peter with his voice from heaven making sure he understood that Jesus was his son, and that he should be listened to.

March 13th: Mark 9:1: They Would See the Power of the Kingdom

The people who are listening to Jesus at this time would see Gods kingdom come in with power. . All of Jesus closest disciples, except for Judas, saw Jesus ressurection and saw the day of Pentacost in Acts 2. Gods kingdom is revealed, with power, in both of those instances. Acts Chapter 2:2-4 says "Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting. And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them." That is the kingdom of God coming in power. Later on the day of Pentacost Peter, who just days before had been a fisherman, preaches the gospel. The response of the crowd is amazing Acts 2:41 says "So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added." 3000 people came to know Jesus because of the message that was proclaimed. That is the power of God's kingdom revealed!

March 12th: Mark8:34-38: Jesus Calls His Followers To a Radical Life

We tend to forget that crucifixion is a bloody agonizing torturous execution. We are so far removed from the act of crucifixion that we often think of it terms of a necklace or something similar. What Jesus said you should take up your cross and follow him, he did not mean that you should wear a crucifix. He was saying you should die to yourself. You should take up your method of execution and follow him. You deny yourself, and you should be willing to die if you want to follow Jesus. We take being a follower of Jesus so lightly but it is a radical call to be different. We get upset when we face the smallest amount of persecution, for instance of someone makes fun of us for a moral stand, but we should be prepared to die for Christ. Paul says something similar in Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." We having nothing to lose and everything to gain by serving Jesus, even if it means our death.

March 10th: Mark 8:31-33: Peter Puts his Foot in His Mouth Again

Jesus says something Peter does not like he. He says he is going to die. This shows that Peter did not fully understand what it meant for him to call Jesus the Christ. Peter must have been expecting a violent overthrow of the Roman government rather than the much more amazing salvation that is offered through Jesus death and resurrection.
In this passage Jesus predicts his death and resurrection to which Peter responds by rebuking Jesus.(Not a good idea to rebuke God). Jesus says in response to Peter “Get behind me, Satan! For you bare not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” This is a rather stern comment by Jesus, but Peter needed to hear it. God had a plan and Peter needs to not get in the way of that plan. Peter still only sees dimly, he realises who Jesus is but he fails to see God's glorious plan. We, like Peter, need to make sure that our thoughts are on the things of God and that we are not hindering his work.

March 9th: Mark 8:27-30: Who is Jesus?

There is no question more important than this one. The most important question that can be asked of anyone is who do you think Jesus is?
In this passage Jesus asked his followers who other peyle think that he is. They give him the varying responses of the crowd. The people think that he might be a prophet or some other man of God. He then asks his disciples directly, "Who Do You think I am?" and Peter responds "You are the Christ."
Peter says that Jesus is the Christ, this means the promised and anointed one that God said he was going to send into the world to save his people.
Jesus is God's son, and the saviour of the world, he is also the master of everyone and everything. Who do you say Jesus is?

March 8th: Mark 8:22-26: Jesus Heals a Mans Eyes In Stages

Jesus is actually using the healing of this man as an illustration. Of course Jesus could of just healed this man's eyes completely in one moment, but he doesn't. Because he doesn't their has to be a reason. The reason is because it perfectly illustrates what is going on his disciples spiritual lives.
His disciples have been given sight by faith to see certain things. They follow Jesus around and apparently believe but in so many ways they are still blind. They rarely understand what it is that they see Jesus do. Jesus is showing them that they partially see and that one day they will fully see through a miracle of God.
For us to truly understand God takes action on his part. We need to ask him for understanding.

March 7th: Mark 8:14-21: The Disciples are Worried About Food

This is almost comical. The disciples have seen Jesus on at least two different occasions make food practically from thin air and feed thousands of people. Yet here they are worried about not having enough bread. Jesus is actually trying to teach them something by using a loaf of bread as an example but they are too caught up in the fact that they only have a small enough piece of bread that they miss his whole point.
Jesus was trying to tell them that the actions of the Pharisees and the actions of Herod are causing the people of Israel to do bad things. But rather than listening to what Jesus is saying they are fixated on this idea that they do not have enough to eat.
Often we are so worried about what is going on in our life to listen to God in his word. We know God will take care of us so let us trust in him so that we can focus on what he has to say to us.

March 6th: Mark 8:1-13: Apparently the Pharisees are Blind

As w have seen in this book Jesus has been doing some incredible things. He has healed so many people of many different illnesses. He has stopped the storms and the waves. He keeps doing miracles. These miracles are important because it shows that he has power and authority. They in essence act as signs pointing to the special position Jesus holds as the messiah and as a God in the flesh.
Apparently the Pharisees missed all of that. They missed all of these things that Jesus had done. Including the feeding of a ton of people with a small amount of food. Imagine that sight as Jesus is break bead and passing it around it just does not run out. The Pharisees have the gall to ask Jesus for a sign proving that he is the messiah. The truth is he has given them plenty of signs, they just need to open their eyes.
How often do we miss the obvious from God?

March 5th: Mark 7:31-37: Jesus Heals a Man's Hearing

Jesus had done some incredible things so far in this book. This one seems as if it is not that incredible. But it truly is. This man had been unable to hear, and he also was unable to speak, at least much. This was rather typical at the time. If you cannot hear it is very hard to communicate. Currently people learn sign language so that they can communicate to other people, but if you do not know that then you must learn to read lips or find some other method of communication.
Jesus healed this man in both ways. After Jesus healed him he could hear and he could speak just fine. This of course radically changed this man's life. His quality of life would of sky rocketed, and he would of been able to find more productive work to do and would of been able to communicate with others.

March 4: Mark 7:24-30: Jesus Casts out a Demon....From Far Way

Jesus is just walking in between two places and a non-Jewish woman comes up to him asking that he would heal her daughter. Jesus says that he has come for the children, referring to the Jews and that they need to get his help first. The woman pleads with Jesus and Jesus heals her daughter from a distance.
The important thing here is that it shows that Jesus was here for all people, not just Jews. Jesus came to this earth to save all of mankind. He came to earth and died that all men, speaking all languages, people of races, might come to know God through the work of Jesus Christ. This is why we do missions in far away places, and this is why we should spread the gospel in our area to all different types of people. Jesus came for all, and we should spread his message to all.

March 3rd: Mark 7:14-23: What Defiles?

Jesus says something that is going to get him in trouble here. Their was the good law of God that God had given to Moses in the wilderness, but this law had been ignored and exchanged for a the law of the Pharisees. The law of God given to Moses was intended to set apart Israel, and make them different, and then point them to their need for a saviour and their inability to keep all of the law perfectly.
Jesus right here says that you are not defiled by what you eat. What you eat just goes into your stomach. Your sin issues are what defile you and they come from your heart.
The outward appearance is not what matters to Jesus. What matters to Jesus is that you are acting right, and that your attitude is correct. Sin is always a heart attitude problem that then manifests itself in an outward action. Let us check our hearts to make sure they are in line with the heart of God.

March 2nd: Mark 7:1-13: Jesus Calls Out the Pharisees

We are going to the Pharisees, Sadducee, Scribes and Priests try to call Jesus us out on certain things throughout the rest of this book. These were the religious leaders of the day and they did not like all of the attention that Jesus was getting, because they wanted that a attention for themselves.
The had added to God's word and made specific rules up that they made other people follow. This is called legalism. Jesus called out the Pharisees on keeping their own tradition but not keeping the law of God.
The Bible says that we are supposed to honour our parents and part of this means to take care of them when they die. The Pharisees had a tradition that you did not have to help your parents and take care of them if the money you would of used to help them had been set apart for God. This is of course something that is not right. How often do we replace the law of God with our own rules?

March 1st: Mark 6:53-56: Jesus Causes a Stir

You know how famous people get mobbed by fan sometimes? It can get really annoying for them and their family because how many people gather around them and annoying them asking for autographs or pictures with them? Well in some ways Jesus was a celebrity he had caused quite a stir because of all the healing that he had done. He was healing people all over the place. He also was known as a teacher and preacher and people came to hear what he said from the surrounding country side.
Jesus was different and people knew it, which is why they gathered around him, and came to hear him speak. Do we recognise Jesus as different? Do we listen to him when he speaks?