Matt 28; Mark 16

Well.  We finish 2 of the 4 Gospels today.  The first thing Jesus says when He comes back is: Tell ALL about me.  Even though the word Trinity is never used in the Bible it is very clear in the Great Commission that there is a Father, son and Holy Spirit.  We must be confident that through Jesus death we have access to ALL 3.  We take for granted that priviledge.  Today is a great day to be in Thanks for that. 

And surely I AM with you always, to the very end of age.  Mt 28:20

Matthew 27; Mark 15

Well. I truly have a knot in my stomach.  What do write? I want to write about Love.   That is the ultimate reason for today’s reading. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.

I first read Matthew.  Event though the Gospel is for ALL I did however take the authors background into account as I read it.  Anyway, I am going to just pull out a few bullets of interest today.  otherwise I am sure the reading will be familiar without them.

First, they handed him to Pilot.  Why? He was the Roman Governor in Judea.  The ruling council of the Sanhedrin could not carry out the death penalty.  Only the Roman emperor could.  However, blasphemy was not punishable under Roman Law (it was  a Jewish Law) sooooo NOTICE that they change the charge in front of Pilot.  They NOW accuse Jesus of calling himself KING of the Jews.  This on the other hand,  was a direct threat to Caesar and would be punishable. (if it were a true accusation).

Know that  I am trying to keep this short,  but if you dig into the Old Testament you would see prophetic scriptures being fulfilled with each action…from Isaiah to Zechariah. I am however going to take a minute to discuss Barabbas.  Completely fascinating.  It was a tradition on the Day of the Feast to free a criminal.  Pilot could have easily released Jesus.  However, note that he “washed his hands clean of this mess” when he washed his hands in front of the crowd.  All the way back to Deuteronomy you may actually remember me commenting on this.

Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.  Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.  So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD. ( Deut 21:6-9)

Pilot was declaring he would not charge Jesus guilty and left it up to the crowd.  Think about Barabbas.  Barabbas was Guilty and deserved to be on the cross.  We are Barabbas!  Jesus took his place.  Took our place!  The criminal was not set free that day, he was replaced!  What makes it worse is that usually during a crucifixion the criminals were given a drink with gall to dull them to make the excruciating pain a bit less, and Jesus didn’t even do that…He took it ALL for us.

Jesus quoted Psalm 22 when in that moment He became the Sin and was separated from the Father!  As Jesus called out the Hebrews thought he may be calling on Elijah to come save him.  Elijah was a prophet that was taken to Heaven without experiencing death.  Then finally when He GAVE UP His spirit what happened??  Death was conquered immediately! How do we know, even without the evidence of the resurecion…what is called the raising of the Saints to some.  Holy people rose from the dead!  Even the Roman guard (called a centurion) at that moment professed Jesus as Lord!.

For those who spent what felt like 6 months reading about the materials inside the Tabernacle in the days of Moses you will for certain remember that God was separated from the priests by a huge thick curtain.  At the moment when Jesus gave His life for us,  that curtain was torn (top to bottom, leaving NO room for gravity explanations or rationalization) allowing us direct access to the Lord through the death of Jesus!  (aren’t you glad I am trying to keep this short)

The last note is preparation Day.  This just means the day before the Sabbath. :)

Matthew 26; Mark 14

The reading is very clear today so I actually am just going to open it for questions or discussions.  Here are a few things I pulled out that were note worthy to me this time reading it.

• Passover (and the Feast of Unleavened Bread)  The Feast took place all week, it celebrated the exodus from Egypt.  They left in such hurry that the bread did not have time to rise.  So now they commemorate this freedom with unleavened bread.   The Passover is the first night of the feast.  It was a night to remember the final plague that struck the Egyptians of the first-born child.  If the hebrew families sacrificed a perfect lamb and put the blood on the doorpost, the angel of death would not come and kill their first-born.  He would Pass Over the house.  That is when they left Egypts’ slavery. (Exodus 12)
• Judas Iscariot: he was a money lover wasn’t he.  We see that with the woman pouring the expensive perfume on Jesus’s feet.  He didn’t care about the poor…he thought about the money!  Anyway, 30 silver coins.  The same price it cost in Exodus to release a slave.  See the point.  It cost 30 shekels of silver to release our slavery to sin. (Exodus 21)
• Also,  look at Zec 11:12, the Shepard that was paid a measly 30 silver coins, an insult for how much a shepherd does.  Here too, for Judas, turning our Messiah over for a measly 30 coins.
• So here we see the Last Supper, some call it the Eucharist, and some communion.   All very fitting terms.  Last Supper is the remembrance of the last Passover, Eucharist is a term of Thanks and Communion is what we do with the Lord when we take it.  PLEASE remember WHY it is remembered. ²⁸This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
• If you have not read the Old Testament, I urge you to.   The reason I say this is because we must fully understand the entire picture for our foundation of faith and to be able to properly bring the message forward to others.  Mt 26:54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

For me the biggest thing that caught my eye was the trial process.  I remember when reading the law all the key points to a fair trial and I wish I had kept notes on it.  Jesus here is brought to 2 trials.   The first was the Sanhedrin.  See, the Hebrews (now called Jewish after the exile) were released and kind of left alone to rule their own government.  The Sanhedrin was the ruling council that would hear such civil cases.  Now,  as far as the death penalty goes,  they were not allowed to carry out the death penalty without the Roman’s Governor’s consent. (Hmmmm who is the Roman Governor, we have not met him yet but I am sure you know his name).  So the first trial which happened during the night (not supposed to occur after sundown).  You see Mark 14:57 (read it closely!) the chief priests and the Sanhedrin looking for false evidence against Jesus SO THAT they could bring him in front of the Romans.  Well 2 men came forward and declared that Jesus said “ I WILL destroy this man made temple and in three days will build another”  DID HE SAY THAT??  NO!  Go back… 

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:19

The evidence was false.  He was speaking of Himself as the temple.  He never said He would destroy it.  It says even their testimony did not agree (In Mark).  What?? What happened to the law.  After all this is the Sanhedrin right? The ones that have a law around the law around the law!  Deuteronomy 19:15

One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.  Deut 19:15…GO UNDERLINE THAT IN YOUR OLD TESTAMENT!

Mark 13

If you continue to study the Bible you may read or hear someone refer to this reading as the Olivet Discourse  being he is on Mt Olive (or the Great Discourse).  Often this is an ignored topic.  Why is it that we will sit and talk about the commandments or any other great event with a group of people, at work, with strangers, even family but start to talk about “End Times” or “Christ Coming Back” and we are stigmatized by the stereotype of being a lunatic.  Go to the food store and say to the cashier “We should try to live by the 10 commandments”…well ok, not a big deal to say but say to that cashier “The end of times  is near , Jesus might be Back today, if today is the day for Christs return, are you ready?”.  Well good golly how awkward, right.  Why? As a matter of fact there is more written word about the Second Coming than of the Commandments, so why is it so hard to talk about.  Some say well “I don’t understand the book of Revelation”.  Well guess what? I don’t either, but I do understand Jesus.  And I am reading HIS words straight from the Father here, and uhhhhhh it’s pretty clear…He is COMING BACK!  With Great Power and Glory.  I know you all looked to see if there was a Revelation Cross reference in your Margin….well heck yeah there is!

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. 
 Look, he is coming with the clouds,
      and every eye will see him,
   even those who pierced him;
      and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.  ”I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Homework: Be Bold and unashamed of your faith today.  Within the next 24 hours I want you to somehow talk about the End Times with someone in your life:  friend,  family or stranger…Can you do it?  All Jesus has done for you, can you be so bold today?

Matt 22; Mark 12

ok, let’s get our scenario.  About a month ago a man named Lazarus was raised from the dead.  A huge moment.  The crowd this created for Jesus grew exponentially.  At that point, Caiaphas said “enough! he must die”, and Jesus knowing it was not his time fled the city and crossed the border into Ephraim (where the Jews has no jurisdiction).  SO now Jesus is back in town and the crowds are huge, why?  because the Passover is in a few days and most of the Jews would travel 3 times a year to the Temple to make a sacrifice.  Since we read the Old Testament we know from the Scriptures that the Savior is the “Lamb of God who takes away the Sins of the World” repeated by the last prophet John the Baptist. The LAMB, the spotless, unblemished perfect sacrifice on the Passover.  

 So today we have 3 very powerful Political Parties that normally would be squawking at each other are now on the same team…the team against Jesus.  The highest of the high is probably standing there to ask Jesus questions they have concocted to trap Him into just one small wrong answer (enough to arrest Him), and when I say wrong it could have been against Roman Law (who had the rights to punish in all the Palestine area but since he was now in Judea, Jerusalem specifically,  the San Hedrin (the Jewish COuncil) could also arrest him now.  SO the questions they ask are double whammies!  Most of them if He answers Yes he breaks one law and if He answers No he breaks another…but It IS NOT HIS TIME, Jesus will say when He will lay His life down…we never took it.

So the first parable we read this weekend about the evil farmers.  Over the weekend we crossed out the parable names and inserted the intended names.  I will put them in comments just in case you didn’t read that day.  ANyway, did anything stand out? Well for me it did!  The landowner (God) rented the Land.  Reality check!  Nothing on this earth including the earth is ours.  He has given us ALL this and one day the lease agreement will be up and He will take it ALL back, including this earth.

We have spent a lot of time learning so that these scriptures would take a whole new meaning.  Many of you jumped on at the New Testament so PaLeeeeze feel comfortable asking questions!  Picture the scene when the Leaders start asking their questions:  The Pharisees and the Herodian. (Pharisees are a religious based political Party, Herodians are a political party that are full supporters of the Roman Government rules by the Herod Dynasty).  SO they start the ”trapping” and fail.  SO here comes the big ole Sadducee, I am sure extremely pompous in his presence questions Jesus about the resurrection.  Why??  Cmon, I know you know this…the Sadducees are a group of religious leaders that ONLY believe the WOrd of God was written in the first 5 books of the Bible.  RIght?  WHo wrote the first 5 books?  MOSES.  So unless Moses said it…it ain’t true in their eyes!  And according to the Saducees, Moses never mentioned the Resurrection! So they jump in with their ‘trapping’ questions from Laws that were brough to the Jews back in Deuteronomy 25.  HOw does Jesus answer? He knows his audience (always does…look at differently he spoke to the woman at the well vs. Nicodemus), anyway, he answered them from Scripture form Exodus, in their language!

SO now the Sadducees failed…so the Pharisees jumped back in to talk about the commandments and David’s line….are you kidding me!  What a spectacle it must have been to watch!  Oh the humanity of it all!  It’s like watching a Darwinist explain the beginning of time, keep asking…eventually they get to a point of stuttering!

And today we end with ALL these powerful, educated, rich people who own and read the scriptures (look around your church) who have no faith! And here comes a woman, old, frail, poor, uneducated, who has enough faith to give all she has to the Lord!  Man o man! what a read!

Mark 11; John 12

A Map or Jerusalem (click here)If you want to follow Jesus’ entry on this map look on the right side 11.  Mount Olives and you will see that as he enters the city, the temple is the first place he would pass.  Visually picture that the city each day will get increasingly populated because Passover is coming up and most Jews will be making a pilgrimage to the Temple for this celebration.

Palm Sunday, the crowd yells Hosanna! (Saves!) as he enters the city not as a Warrior but as a Peace Maker.  The Jews recognize Jesus on the donkey as the scriptures in Zec 9:9 however, this will be the same crowd that in less than a week will yell Crucify Him!  Did anyone keep their thoughts on the Fig tree? The symbolism?  Until I read it chronologically I didn’t realize how many reference there were to the production of fruit or actually, the lack of!  The fig tree represented Israel, a planted nation for the purpose of fruit.  But just like the tree, Israel was not producing.

John 12.  John the Gospel  is for ALL, John  recorded Jesus explaining WHY he MUST die.  Many of us still struggle with this.  RIght?  Why the awful Crucifixion.  He is God after all, why not just elevate and glow to show your Holiness…right?  Well, we see Jews and Gentiles in the crowd and Jesus explains that His death as man will Show God’s Glory!  He has come to Glorify the name of God.  Satan is death and the Jesus needed to prove that HE is the overcomer of death.  Do we forget what a huge part of the picture Satan is? In verse 31 he is referred to as the prince of the world, well he was.  But thank the Lord that the King powers of Him! Like a stalk of wheat (picture the cat tail top that hold all the seeds) When that wheat is cut down ALL those seeds disperse and scatter and GROW.  That is the analogy here.  Jesus must die to overcome death and from that,  the seeds will start to grow and grow and grow. 

I am going to touch on something that I think is difficult for many to understand.  God hardens the hearts of people and they will not see or believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  Go back to Isaiah’s commission in Isaiah 6.  How many hundreds of years did we read in the Old Testament.  From Genesis to Malachi God was so Patient with the people, He provided for them, saved them in miraculous battles, fed them with manna, split the sea for them, raised up judge after judge for them, brought them into exile as an act of correction, the scriptures go on and on and never did the people of Israel obey what the Lord commanded.  If you are unsure of what the Lord Commanded go back and look at Deuteronomy 6 to begin with, but summarized it is saying Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, Soul and strength and Teach it to your children. (the word strength really stood out this time around for me)  But click the blue Deut 6…read it! 

Anyway, God had hardened their hearts just as the Scriptures said they would (this is not the first time in History this happens).  The Pharisees were blinded not because God did not want them to see the CHrist as the Messiah, but because He knew they wouldn’t.  Please understand that, that is only one layer (as this whole read is truly only scratching the surface of God’s great book!) Had the Jews seen Jesus as the Christ, the door would not have been open for His public ministry to the Gentiles in Galilee and Samaria for 3 years and the Covenant could not have been fulfilled in Genesis with Abraham that the whole WORLD would be blessed through his line.  SO as sad as I am that the Jews have been blinded by the Spirit of the CHrist, I know and trust that God has a plan for them and through that the Gentiles were to be Loved.

SO when people ask “Why don’t the Jews (some)  believe in Jesus” the answer is not just that they expect the Messiah to be a King of Royalty (and they do) but it is also because God has blinded them to it.

Matthew 19; Mark 10

I am going got talk about the commandments,  WHen the man came to him and asked “How do you get to Heaven” Jesus answered with what the man thought would be the answer  “Follow the commandments”.  And the man responded…’Yup, I do” Then Jesus says “Really?? Well the last commandment says do not Covet your stuff or there is another about idols, So why don’t you sell it all and follow me”.  The man said “OUCH, that hurt”. 

See the point of the story is that none of us can follow the commandments.  It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for us to get ourselves into Heaven.  What Jesus is saying is “It’s IMPOSSIBLE”  It is Hard for the Rich to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven…think about that Phrase!  Now look at the 10 commandments.  How many have we broken? Golly…probably almost all of them!’

Shall have no other gods before me: Ummm make a list of 10 really important things in your life that if you closed your eyes and it disappeared you would freak out. (401K, bank account, house, car, TV,  clothes, job,) what do you walk around thinking about more than the Lord?  What do you WORRY about the most?

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.  Well this is a huge range many of fall into…some religions have actually created a false worship system inside the actual church bowing to priests or statues and others have worshipped people.  Anyone we emulate we put up as a god.  Someone on TV, musician, actor, neighbor, Beth Moore…who are we bowing down to be more like other than Jesus?

Shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.  Maybe you were brought up in a way that you have never SLIPPED on this one (doubt it).  But a person in your life that does misuse the name…do you kindly correct them or do you not say anything?

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Did you get that last part?? Keeping it Holy.  Holy means SET APART.  Is one day of your week set apart for the Lord?  I am not talking about attending Church although I hold that pretty high on my Holy Day, I am talking about getting in His Word, Doing the Work of the Lord.  Good Golly I attend a church of 6000 and I have trouble getting 20 people to give an hour a year to service…UmmmmI think Christians might be falling short on the Sabbath.  It is a day of Rest IN HIM, not a day of Rest with potatoes Chips.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.  I looked this one up in Hebrew.  Honor is a Verb, an action.  It means Heavy too.  What intentional emotion do you portray to you mother and father.  By the way, the verb “roll your eyes” does not count.  LOL.

You shall not murder.  Ummm pay attention to the new Health Care Reform Agenda.

You shall not commit adultery.   We all read it…Anyone who looks at another in a desirable way has already committed adultery. (Umm I watched State of Play last night with Russell Crow, enough said)You shall not steal.  Have you EVER taken anything that did not belong to you.  From a store, from the Office, from a friend, from God”?

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.  Have you ever said something that if the person was standing next to you, you would not have said?  It’s called Gossip.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. What? YOur not a jealous person? REALLY.  You never looked and thought…I wish I had that.  That wardrobe, that house, that boat, that butt, those kids (lol), that decorating money, that talent.  Covet means “Chamad” on Hebrew, meaning Desire.  I call it window shopping!

My point is not to make you feel horrible that you just scored maybe a 2 out of 10, my point is that God knows the one that we fail.  And we ALL have failed one.  In this story the man’s money was his idol.   We are only made righteous through the Son Jesus. (unless your camel fits through the eye of the needle) But go back to the Questions and Answer:

The Man asked:  “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus Answered:  “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

 

Matt 17; Mark 9; Luke 9:28-62

 The Transfiguration!  If any of you grew up in a church with stained glass windows (I love them!!) probably one of the windows was this.  Anyway, take the whole scene in today (not just the window).  They went to the top of Mt Tabor, not a high mountain, so trust me no one was lacking oxygen, and Jesus did something he had never done before, gave a small glimpse of who He really was, God.  See the word transfigured used in verse 2 means metamorphoō in Greek, I immediately thought of the word metamorphosis.  A caterpillar and a butterfly are the same insect, with just a different appearance.  That is what Jesus was.  He was showing these 3 apostles an affirmation that He was the Christ.  A small glimpse of Heaven’s Glory! 

So why were Moses and Elijah present?  Moses represented the Law.  Moses wrote, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  Those 5 books, represent the Torah.  Jesus came to fulfill the Scriptures.  Reread Deuteronomy and you will see a recap of the first 4 books, all prophesying the Messiah to come.  Elijah was the Prophet that represented all prophets.  The prophet’s message confirmed that Jesus was not Elijah, but the one Elijah spoke of.   See, the Jews are expecting a Prophet to proclaim that the King, the Messiah, Jesus is coming, they now know that Jesus was not the prophet but John the Baptist was. Moses and Elijah’s presence confirmed the Scriptures, and the transfiguration was a vision of who truly Jesus was, God himself, in a different form.

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 Mark 9.  When I go from Matthew to Mark I am usually like, this will be the same and I could not be more WRONG!  When Jesus heals the Demon possessed boy, did you catch the last verse.  OUCH. OUCH. OUCH.  My weakest disciple is prayer.  I often fall into “Well, if God is going to heal her….he will heal her”  Uggggg I am very somber right now.

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The second (of five) predictions of His death.  This one speaks of the Resurrection.  We are only months away from this event.  Take all we have read in…we have in 3 weeks read of his almost 3 year ministry.  What part stood out to you this time?  I will comment mine.

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 Mark 9:38-41.  Please don’t misunderstand what I am about to say but get over your “denomination”.  YES keep strong on Doctrine, read these verses…it may not look like your faith, act like your faith, or seem like faith but if Jesus is ok with our differences…get over it.

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I am sorry this is long, you can tell I am trying to be short BUT when I went to LUKE again I though REPETITION and AGAIN God AWES ME.  Starting in Luke verse 51..the time is approaching.  Look at your maps, He is descending finally back down to Jerusalem, where he Knows what will happen soon.  WHen you read of James and John personality did you not just giggle.  This is the comment that gives them the nickname “sons of Thunder!”  Ohh I love their passion (even though I had the Sermon on the Mount ringing in my head….Love your enemy), the Samaritans have been a long time enemy since the return of the exile.

God is calling people to follow Him.  The scriptures show you

• it will be difficult
• it will never be good timing
• it will be against family wishes
• you will not have comfort
• the list goes on….

So???

Matt 16; Mark 8; Luke 9:18-27

Notes:  you may not need them, just thought I would take each section and make a little note of interest today.  If you are not interested go straight to the bottom for a VOTE.

The read today will open up with the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to Jesus.  Wee need to realize how strong a message that sends.  That is like saying The Republicans  AND the Democrats came together to talk to someone.  That is how strong a figure Jesus was when he preached, the political and religious stir He was creating was incredible!

Also, I never really picked up the reference to Jonah so much in Jesus’ Ministry. Anyway, the book of Jonah may be only 4 chapters but people it is CHOCK FULL O’ GOD’s Message!  Every year I read it God allows me to see more and more.   Obedience, repentance, Salvation…today is Resurrection.  The Sign of Jonah (3 days in the Belly) refers here with Jesus words,  the death and resurrection (3 days)!

The Yeast!  I was sooooo humbled by this today.  I will write it in comments in case your not that interested.  :) (I don’t blame you…lol)

Peter HUGE READ TODAY (they all are though) .  First let’s go back to John 6, the last paragraph.  Many Jews, including the disciples categorized Jesus as the great Prophet, such as Elijah or Jeremiah.   Peter called Jesus A Holy One of God  back in John 6, but here, months later, Peter refers to Jesus as The Christ! The Son of the Living God.  WOW.  Now that is music to Jesus’ ears!  Peter (Simon) has just professed the key to Heaven! So for 2.5 years even the disciples questioned who Jesus  was.  They knew he was a Holy one from God, and the scriptures said that a great Prophet (Elijah) would come a proclaim that the Messiah was to come.  Was Jesus the Prophet or the Messiah?  Peter finally professes here that He is the Messiah.  Jesus is the Christ!  So maybe tomorrow a little transfiguration will bring  2 or 3 witnesses to believe (by the way that is a Levitical law)

On this Rock I will build my Church.  There is more than 1 layer to this.  First, let’s get our geography lesson.  Caesarea Philippi.  Well this week we looked at the Herod Family Tree print out as well as Maps of the tetrarch area right?  (sure you did) So Jesus obviously headed north and just by the Name including the word Caesar you can imagine the type of living that went on there (ummm picture Vegas, Caesar Palace), anyway it is also is situated on a huge ROCK cliff and we all know that when Jesus preached He was a very very visual teacher (most of us are visual learners right?) so picture Jesus standing there, not only on a Rock but on the Profession of faith from the Rock (Peter “Simon” name was changed to Cephas meaning the Rock), as well as a foundation illustration (did you get all that)    Here is a picture of the location

Notice the grotto, a place of sacrifice to the god Pan, also believed to be hades or the place of the dead. They would sacrifice their children to appease Pan.  This is where Matt 16 took place, vs. 18: “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” 

 As we end today I want you to cast a vote.  Completely anonymous (even I don’t know) and you can vote more than once.

 

Click your answer, then click VOTE.  At any point today come back and click View Results.

 

 

 

Matt 15; Mark 7

Hello!  Am I the only one that wakes up excited about what we might be reading today?  Another awesome day of Jesus’ teachings.  A few thing in background I want to touch on that will put some extra depth into the reading (not that it needs it of course) but here are a few background points.

• When the Jews came out of captivity and returned to Jerusalem religious parties such as Pharisees, Teachers (Scribes), Sadducees…made laws around the laws to not come NEAR breaking the actual law.  Having centuries of this you can imagine some major man-made “religion” was made.  Most often when a man made law is created, people are more concerned with that law than God’s Law.
• Tradition.  Good or Bad?  Depends.  Tradition should be created to help us understand and celebrate God’s perfect law and history.  We never should add or take away from it, often times the tradition becomes the focal point, not God.  Example: Hanukkah or Communion is a tradition, confession to a Priest is a man made law.  Get me? 
• Corban (Korban).   Corban meaning “offering” is a practice or vow that gives the money that would normally go to their parents to support them to the temple instead.  It was a way of neglecting their responsibility of taking care of their elders.  I am not trying to make a parallel here for you,  but have you ever been prompted to help someone OR an organization and you say “well, I give money to the church…let them handle it”.  Corban.
• Clean vs. Unclean.  Very important to understand that Jesus is not coming on the scene like a renegade disputing God’s Law layed out in Leviticus on ‘unclean’ food.  That was a ver necessary law for the Jews to be Set Apart from the rest of the world.  They were to eat different, look different, act different…to be Holy, Set Apart.  Not to conform!  Are you hearing me…it wasn’t the food that made them unclean it was the conformity to the rest of the world that polluted them.  Here Jesus is saying…the food doesn’t make you “unclean” it is what is on your heart!  Hard concept for ‘Task Oriented’ religions.

Next we read about the woman. Tyre and Sidon…sound familiar?? If you read the Old Testament with us it would.  In 2 Samuel,  the life of King David,  Tyre was a wealthy city that was friendly with the Jewish nation, however being a strong Canaanite city over time they became so wicked they even called their own kings ‘gods’.  When Jerusalem was destroyed finally in 586 B.C. Tyre celebrated and rejoiced (in Ezekiel 28) because now they would flourish even more without  competition.  When we read the Prophecy books all summer we read over and over about the punishment Tyre and Sidon would receive for their evil ways.   So here we have Jesus heading NORTH out of Capernaum and going even further from Jerusalem towards Tyre then Sidon.  DOes it amaze you that the person’s furthest from a temple, 3o miles away from the seen miracles, even further from the Temple…would have more Faith then the ones that saw it all!  By the way this is NOT the first time this happened here!!!

• Go back to 1 Kings 17,  Click here to read, remember the great Prophet Elijah!  He went to Zarpetheth, Sidon and was with a widow (a Canaanite woman) and her sick daughter.  Foreshadow is incredible isnt it!!

Finally, I am hoping that reading this chronologically although frustrating in “flipping” around shows us the journey Jesus took in order to fulfill the scriptures.  I am amazed at how many miracles he actually performed (and these are just the recorded ones), I am realizing how much time Jesus spent in the Gentile nations, using the Jewish Disciples, as instruments for his message to ALL.  The read ends with ANOTHER (I didn’t realize Jesus did this twice) feeding of the masses! And it ends with Jesus headed back to the Sea of Galilee)

• By the way if you Google Magadan you would see Russia….uhhh no, it is Magdala, the west side of the Sea of Galilee.