Mark 2:18-28 - Jesus Faces Questions

First century Palestine is a time of competing religious movements. There were the Pharisees, the Saducees, the Essenes, more recently the disciples of John, and now Jesus. Of the first three, Jesus was most like the Pharisees. Yet in the gospels we find that it is the Pharisees with whom Jesus has the most debate. The Pharisees at the time would have been the most powerful sect, yet even in their heyday they numbered no more than about 1% of the population.

And while some of the followers of John became followers of Jesus when Jesus came on the scene, it is clear that many did not. We will find them mentioned again in chapter 6 and we are surprised to discover some of them living in Ephesus in Acts 19 who have yet to hear anything about Jesus. How this came to be is a mystery to us. But while we may have expected to see all of John's disciples become Jesus' disciples, that did not happen.

So what we have set before us by Mark are two more stories that demonstrate the opposition that Jesus faced in his Galilean ministry--an opposition that is growing. In the first we have people, regular people, come to Jesus and ask him, "Why do the Pharisees fast and John's disciples fast and yours do not?" It is an accusing question. It's like asking, "Why are the Pharisees and John's disciples more serious about their faith than you guys are?"

Jesus gives a compelling answer--something worth contemplating. But then Mark continues rapidly to the next incident, or pericope, and we see Jesus being accused of breaking the Sabbath. Did he? Did his disciples? What is going on in this story and how will Jesus respond? This and more is addressed in the sermon I preached from these verses on Sunday, February 26, 2017.  You will find the audio from the sermon below and I hope you will take the time to listen to it. Just click the link and a new window will open on your browser giving you options to listen to the sermon. I hope it will be a blessing to you.

Click here: Mark 2:18-28 - Jesus Faces Questions



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Galatians 3:1-6 - Foolish Galatians

As Paul is speaking to Peter at the end of Galatians chapter 2 the screen fades out and when it comes back into focus we see Paul talking to the Galatian readers (or hearers). The transition is seamless. We've left the narrative portion of the epistle and entered the didactic. Here begins his argument for the superiority of his gospel to the law-gospel of the Judaizers. His first argument is an argument from experience:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.--Galatians 3:1 (ESV)

This is followed by a series of rhetorical questions:

Let me ask you only this: 

(1) Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 

(2) Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 

(3) Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 

(4) Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Then Paul concludes this portion of the argument by quoting from Genesis 15 and talking about the faith of Abraham.

just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

What I did in this Bible study was cover these verses thoroughly. We look at the argument Paul is making and what it has to say to us about how we are made right with God. There are implications here for the ministry of the church as well as how we interpret the scripture. I hope you will take the time to listen, to learn, and to grow in your faith. Just click the link below and you can stream the audio. God bless.



Click here: Galatians 3:1-6 - Foolish Galatians



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Mark 2:13-17 - Jesus Calls Sinners

And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.--Mark 2:14 ESV

No one likes taxes. It is true that some people like them in principle, but even those people, I note, take advantage of every legal means they can to pay as little as possible in taxes when it actually comes down to it. And few people in our day will defend or feel sympathy for the IRS. But what I'm pointing out this morning is not intended to be political. Rather I want us to understand the attitude that the public in that day would have had toward someone like Levi. Their thoughts and feelings toward a tax collector would have been far more negative than even ours.

Levi wasn't collecting any taxes that were considered legitimate by the people from whom he collected them. He was collecting taxes for an occupying army. He was financing an illegitimate, puppet government of a foreign empire which had brutally treated his people. He was financing atrocities and horrific crimes against God. Whether or not it was actually sinful to pay these taxes was a controversial topic. Levi was a traitor to God and country.

Not only that but he was a scoundrel. Tax collecting was farmed out--contracted. They were allowed to collect whatever they wanted by any means necessary, provided they met their quota and paid it to the territorial government in a timely fashion. Anything they collected beyond that quota they kept. Tax collecting was a lucrative business.

It is hard for us to appreciate just how scandalous this episode is. We are going to encounter the Pharisees next, and when I explain what a Pharisee is and when we contemplate the fact that Jesus calls (chooses) tax collectors over Pharisees, well, it's downright mindboggling. It is so counterintuitive that the scribes and Pharisees reject it out of hand. What Jesus does is an insult to them. And grace is always an insult to human pride. Don't forget that.

This is a sermon I preached from this text on Sunday, February 19, 2017. The audio for the entire sermon is linked below. Just click to listen. What we learn about Christ from this episode is some of the best news you will ever hear.


Click here: Mark 2:13-17 - Jesus Calls Sinners


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Galatians 2:17-21 - Crucified With Christ

When we get to the end of chapter two in Galatians we are wrapping up the first part of Paul's case against the Judaizers. We are ending the narrative portion of the letter and transitioning into the theological argument. Somewhere in these verses Paul's recollection of his words to Peter meld into Paul's straightforward words to the Galatians. Where, precisely, that happens we are not sure. What we do know is that Paul's words here are some of the most profound we find in all his epistles.

First, he answers the charge of antinomianism. We are not saved to sin, we are saved to serve.

(19) For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

The law condemned me and slew me. This was its role. It condemned me and killed me that Christ might make me alive. This is Paul's answer to the charge of antinomianism. Grace does not give me a license to sin. Grace makes me finally alive to serve. Because he died and arose, we have life. Our death is in his death and our resurrection is in his resurrection.

And now comes verse 20:

(20) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

To be in Christ means that he took our condemnation upon himself. He died for us in the most basic sense of the word. Our death took place in Christ's death so that death would be destroyed in us. Do you realize that we've been freed from death? Death no longer has any dominion over us.

Our life is not our own, Paul says. Not only do we have the Spirit of Christ residing in us, but right now our life is his. Each day we are to live our lives in such a way as to be able to say that Christ lives in us and through us. We live because of him. We live for him and his purposes. We are in Christ.

There is more--much more--in this passage. I've linked the audio recording of this bible study below so you can listen to all of it. I hope you will take the time to do so and that it will be a blessing to you. Grace.

Click here: Galatians 1:17-21 - Crucified With Christ



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Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus Heals A Paralytic

This is the first of five conflict stories that Mark puts together at the beginning of his Gospel in order to show us when and how the conflict arose between Jesus and the religious authorities--the conflict that would eventually culminate in his crucifixion. Remember that Mark is writing his Gospel at least in part to comfort a people who are experiencing opposition. He wants them to know that Jesus did also and he wants them to know why. In each of these five stories (pericopes) the opposition gets a little stronger, a little more determined. In the last of them we will see his opponents getting together and plotting his death.

If you're familiar with the Gospels then no doubt you're familiar with this story. Jesus is teaching in a house. The crowd is so great around the house that no one can get in or out. A paralyzed man is carried by four men up the outside stairs to the roof and then let down through a hole they'd made in the roof. Jesus heals the man but does so in a very stunning away. He pronounces that his sins are forgiven.

Some scribes who are sitting there witnessing this event are shocked and appalled. Who does this man think that he is? No one can forgive sins but God, they think to themselves. But Jesus reads their thoughts and then proves to them that he has authority to forgive sins by telling the man to get up, take up his bed, and go home. The man does this, proving that Jesus' forgiveness of his sins was not blasphemy at all, because Jesus is God.

This is the sermon I preached from this passage and I hope you will take the time to listen. Just click the link below and it will take you to a page on SoundCloud where the audio can be streamed or downloaded for later listening. God bless you and may you be filled with all the fullness of Christ as you meditate on him.



Click here: Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus Heals A Paralytic



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Galatians 2:11-16 - Justification By Faith Alone

Remember that the book of Galatians is a polemic. It is an argument. Paul is contending with a group of false teachers and making his case for the true gospel against their false gospel. The stakes are high and Paul is very passionate. These false teachers have leveled the charge that Paul is not a genuine apostle and that his message is not sanctioned by the genuine apostles who are in Jerusalem. Paul is refuting that charge in these first two chapters. Here is his argument so far.

1. Paul's conversion and commission were not brought about through the Jerusalem apostles, but came directly from Christ. (1:11-24)

2. When he did discuss his gospel with the Jerusalem 'pillars' they agreed with his gospel, acknowledging that Paul's gospel was exactly like theirs, that it had obviously come from Christ, and they added nothing to it. (2:1-10)

3. Now he is going to point out that far from the Jerusalem pillars correcting Paul, when Peter came to Antioch, Paul corrected Peter. (2:11-21)

The story that Paul tells in this section of his epistle to the Galatians is one of the most amazing passages of Scripture in all the New Testament. Here Paul relates how he publicly called out another apostle for wrong-doing. Yes, you read that right. Here we have the only recorded account of a confrontation between apostles. The stakes are high. The future of Christianity is at stake. The gospel is at stake. This is high drama. And what comes out of it is one of the clearest statements on justification by faith alone in all of Scripture.

In this lesson we talk about this passage--we exegete it. But we also take the time to look at its significance for the doctrine of sola fide and discuss what it is the Bible teaches about our justification. I hope you will take the time to listen. Just click the link below. God bless you.



Click here: Galatians 2:11-16 - Justification By Faith Alone



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Mark 1:40-45 - Jesus Cleanses A Leper

We come to an early transition point in Mark's Gospel. His early Galilean ministry has led to huge crowds which hinder, more than anything else, Jesus' ability to accomplish his primary mission. This is because the crowds have not really come to hear and learn and heed his message. For the most part they hound him hoping for him to provide some temporal need or--one can imagine--just to see the show. But Jesus and his disciples are no traveling miracle show.

What takes place in this account (this pericope) serves as a transition from the early ministry to a series of stories that will demonstrate growing opposition to Jesus.

But this story of Jesus cleansing the leper does more than serve as a transition. It also serves to demonstrate the surpassing nature of the salvation Jesus brings. While the law of Moses could describe leprosy and provide for the ritual cleansing of it, the law could not heal it. In the same sense the law of Moses accurately describes our sin and even provided, temporarily, for its ritual cleansing. But the law could never actually take away sin. That's what Jesus came to do. And his healing of this man's leprosy will in many ways point to that.

What this event pictures for us is so striking that it cannot be passed over. Just as Jesus cleanses this leper by touching his disease and making himself unclean, so Jesus cleansed us of all sin by coming down in human flesh and being (1) touched by all the feeling of our infirmities. He was exposed to our dread disease of sin by (2) being in all points tempted like as we are. Then (3) he went to the cross and actually took our sin (our disease, our judgment from God) upon himself so that we could walk away free--free of sin, free of judgment, and welcomed back into the society, the friendship of God. We were outcasts and he became outcast so that we would no longer be. The clarity of the gospel in this passage is remarkable.

Below you will find a link to the audio recording of the sermon I preached from this passage. I hope you will listen to it and take it to heart. This leper represents all of us and what Jesus does for him he has done for us as well. You, too, will find that your sins have been cleansed if you come to Jesus!

Click here: Mark 1:40-45 - Jesus Cleanses A Leper

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Galatians 2:1-10 - Contending For the Truth of the Gospel

In these first two chapters of the book of Galatians Paul is giving an historical account of how he received the gospel and how he became an apostle. This second chapter can be broken down this way:

Verses 1-10 Paul and Peter at Jerusalem
Verses 11-21 Paul and Peter at Antioch

Remember that Galatians is a polemic--an argument. Paul is making the theological case for historical orthodoxy against the first major assault of heresy launched against the Church. This is Christianity's first major controversy. Paul first establishes his credentials--his authority--as an apostle and links his gospel to Jesus himself. This is important and speaks to us today.

There are many in our modern Christianity who have repeated part of the error of these first century false teachers by trying to make a distinction between the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of Paul--trying to separate the two as if Paul took Christianity and led it in a direction it was never intended to go. This is nonsense and Paul refutes this notion in these first two chapters of Galatians.

In this lesson we try to piece together the historical account given by Paul in the narrative of these verses with what Luke tells us in the book of Acts. It is not as easy as it sounds and some have gone so far as to claim the two writers contradict each other. That isn't the case. But neither is it the case that we can figure out precisely what took place when in a definitive way. What I have done is set forth a pretty good synopsis of how things likely took place based on what we have been given here and in Acts. Wiser men than I have disagreed.

What is important to take away from all this is the zeal with which Paul defends the gospel that he preached. The content of the message and maintaining its integrity are of paramount importance to Paul. Without the gospel we have no Christianity. I hope you will take the time to listen to this study with an open mind and open heart so that your faith will be strengthened and God will be glorified. Just click the link below to listen. God bless.


Click here: Galatians 2:1-10 - Contending For the Truth of the Gospel


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