Mark 7:31-37 - Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

The prevailing modern theory on the origins of the four gospels is that Mark was first and that Matthew and Luke took Mark’s basic outline and shaped it into their own image. So according to this theory Mark wrote first, then Matthew and Luke/Acts, then John. 

The first three gospels, of course, are known as the synoptic gospels because they follow roughly the same outline and cover many of the same events. John’s gospel has a different outline and covers many different events, in some cases filling in gaps left by the previous writers. 

Think of the gospels as witnesses in a court room. Each writer tells the story from his own perspective, emphasizing what is important to him, writing for the purpose of convincing his prospective audience to believe in and become a follower of Jesus of Nazareth.

Mark is the shortest of the gospels and if it was first then that does make sense, because Matthew and Luke then become sort of expansions of his more concise telling of the story. But that's an oversimp-lification. The truth is that in some cases Mark gives more detail than Matthew or Luke when covering the same event. And sometimes Mark includes stories that are completely ignored by Matthew, Luke, and John. Such is the case with this one.

What we have in these seven verses is one of three pericopes unique to Mark’s gospel. Matthew gives a brief allusion to it, but without details. It is a miracle story told in parabolic form. In other words, the incident is recounted in a way specifically designed to convey deeper truth than what lies on the surface. So Mark tells the miracle truthfully, as it happened, but he also manages to craft it in terms that paint for us a larger picture and remind us of larger truths. In this miracle Jesus is revealing himself to us clearly--if we have eyes to see it.

Below you will find a link to the audio from the sermon I preached from this text. The sermon was just short of 27 minutes long. I hope you will take the time to listen and perhaps see Jesus in a greater way than ever before. God bless you.



Click here: Mark 7:31-37 - Jesus Heals a Deaf Man


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Galatians 6:1-8 - The Law of Christ

Having proved that we are justified through faith alone by Christ alone the question becomes “How then should we live?”

Or, to put it another way, since Paul has stated unequivocally that the believer is no longer under law, but under grace, how does Paul answer the charge of antinomianism? Hasn't he just given all believers a license to sin? And if the law is not our focus, what is the principle guideline of our Christian life?

And Paul has answered by pointing out that the law points us to Christ who is all-sufficient for believers. Through faith in him, walking by the Spirit, Christ-focused, we produce the fruit of the Spirit within us against which there is no law. All of that was in chapter five.

Remember we pointed out from Jesus’ correction of the Pharisees in Mark 7 how Jesus announced the end and fulfillment of the ceremonial law in him, and at the same time re-affirmed the moral aspects of the law. God’s moral precepts are unchanging because they are derived from God’s moral character which is itself unchanging. But the ceremonial aspects of the law were temporary serving a specific people, place, and time in redemptive history. So we are now living in that phase of redemptive history known as the Messianic age, or the age of the Spirit. He has been poured out on all flesh (meaning all kinds of people, not just Jews) and all those who (not just Jews) call upon him (worship him in spirit and truth) will be saved.

In the previous chapter Paul taught us to ‘walk by the Spirit’ and promised that in doing so we would not fulfill the desires of the flesh, but rather we would produce the fruit of the Spirit. But what happens when someone falls? What happens when someone is ensnared in the traps of the devil? What happens when someone goes astray, does not walk by the Spirit, does gratify the desires of the flesh? That's where Paul begins in chapter 6.

Below you will find a link to the audio from the Bible study we did on this passage. We covered the first 8 verses of chapter 6 and discovered the Law of Christ. Take a listen to find out more and I hope you are blessed.


Click here: Galatians 6:1-8 - The Law of Christ


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mark 7:24-30 - The Syro-Phoenician Woman's Faith

The placement of this story is impeccable. It would be good right now for us to be reminded that Mark did not write the events of Jesus’ ministry in chronological order. Neither did the other gospel writers. Chronicling someone’s life in that way is more of a modern thing, a part of the way we do biographies. But the gospels aren't biographies and thinking of them in those terms doesn't help. Mark is painting a picture. He's telling a story intended to convince us that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God--and that we should be willing to leave all, if necessary, to follow him. So while his telling of the story leads more or less from beginning to end, it is told in a way to convey certain things that Mark deemed important. He gathers his stories, his pericopes, together in a purposeful way to convey truth in a more powerful way.

The story we have before us this morning is an example of this. He places it right after the episode of Jesus correcting the scribes because it is a perfect illustration of what we are supposed to have learned from that incident. There are no unclean foods. And, by the way, there are no unclean people either--not in Christ.

At some point after the argument of the last 23 verses Jesus leaves and takes his disciples into Phoenicia. And while it is not stated explicitly, Jesus is essentially done now with his Galilean ministry. For the rest of this chapter and the next he will be ministering among predominantly Gentile and pagan peoples. 

There is also a great contrast here between this story and the last. In the last story Jesus is essentially rejected by Jewish men who consider themselves the keepers and guardians of sacred Torah, from which they believe they earn God’s favor, and which they guard zealously by adding to it their own traditions. In this story we have a Gentile woman, someone who would have no status whatsoever with those men in the previous story, someone who finds in Jesus the favor of God.

When we remember that Mark is writing his gospel for a predominantly Gentile church, his placement of this story makes perfect sense. What hope could Gentile pagans possibly find in the God of Israel? As it turns out, great hope--for that very God, when he came down, had in a sense sought them out. This turning now to the Gentiles after being rejected by the Jewish religious leaders is a perfect picture also of what took place in the first century church. 

None of this, however, is the theme of this story. The theme of this story is the contrast between this woman's faith and the blindness of everyone else we have come across. The scribes and Pharisees are blinded by their own self-righteousness. The crowds see before them only someone who might provide a need or a spectacle. Even the disciples, who are given the benefit of extra revelation in the form of private instruction and explanations, still do not get it. But this woman, this Gentile woman, understands. She gets it. She believes. That is the contrast.

Below you will find a link to the audio recording of the sermon I preached from this text. It's just a little over 20 minutes long and I hope you will take the time to listen to it. On the spectrum of rejection (the scribes and Pharisees) to full faith (the Syro-Phoenician woman) where are you? Have you believed yet? Have you committed your all to him?


Click here: Mark 7:24-30 - The Syro-Phoenician Woman's Faith


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Galatians 5:24-26 - Crucified Flesh

In our bible studies in the book of Galatians we have been occupied with the fruit of the Spirit for several weeks now. We have been reminded that our focus in this life is Christ, that when we are attentive to the means of grace we are walking by the Spirit, that when we thus walk this fruit is produced in us. 

It is not self-effort, but Spirit-dependence through which God works in our lives. To walk by the Spirit is to walk by faith. We need the gospel and the message of Christ over and over and over, because it is that which produces faith in us and, consequently, fruit in us as well.

So our lives should be Christ-focused not law-focused. When they are such the Holy Spirit will bring us into conformity to God’s law, making us more like Christ. By the way, the Bible, understood properly, is all about Christ. To be much about Christ, then, is to be much about the word of God, the Bible. We need more and more and more of his word in us each day. It is the word of God which transforms us into the image of Christ, producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. 

Now in this study we took a look at verses 24-26 of chapter 5, with a focus on verse 24 and what it means to crucify the flesh.

What does Paul mean by this? How do we do this? Does this have anything to do with the death of Christ? We give answers to these questions and more in this Bible study. The audio is linked below. I hope you will take the time to listen and gain a greater understanding of this work God is doing in us and what role we play in that work. God bless.



Click here to listen: Galatians 5:24-26 - Crucified Flesh



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mark 7:14-23 - Jesus Corrects the Scribes (Part 2)

This is how I introduced the sermon from this passage:

"We are looking this morning at the second part of a confrontation that Jesus had with the Pharisees and scribes. It began last week when some of these scribes confronted Jesus about the non-compliance of his disciples with their laws about ritual cleanness. The disciples were not following the tradition of the elders. This is not the first time Jesus and his disciples have run afoul of the ‘tradition.’ The first time was when they were in the fields on the Sabbath plucking and eating the heads of grain. After that it was for healing on the Sabbath. Now it is this matter of the washing of the hands.

"We saw last week how Jesus responded to their accusative questions. He said they were hypocrites. He said they had no heart or love for God at all, but rather for appearing religious outwardly and for keeping and maintaining a system of traditions that Jesus called ‘the commandments of men’--as opposed to the law of God. He said that Isaiah had spoken about them in Isaiah 29 when he said that they drew nigh to God with their lips, but their heart was far from him. Then he pointed out how their tradition, which was supposed to be a fence around the law of God, was actually opposed to God’s law in one specific way (that of Corban) and in many other ways as well.

"That's where we left the argument last week and this morning we pick it up again in verse 14 with Jesus now turning to the crowds and addressing them openly about the scribes and Pharisees and correcting their teaching."

This is how I outlined these verses:

   I. Nothing outside of us defiles us (v. 14-15)

  II. The disciples are confused (v. 16-17)

 III. Jesus explains further (v. 18-19)

 IV. The significance of what he just said (v. 19)

  V. Jesus explains what does defile us (v. 20-23)

 VI. Where is the gospel in this passage?

Below you will find the audio to this sermon which was preached on Sunday, June 25 at the Winnsboro Reformed Church. I hope it will be a blessing to you and that through it God will minister grace to the hearers. To listen, just click the link below.

Click here: Mark 7:14-23 - Jesus Corrects the Scribes (Part 2)



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Galatians 5:23 - Gentleness, Self-control

In this lesson we looked at two more virtues listed under the heading ‘fruit of the Spirit'--the last two. But before delving into them we took the time to remind ourselves of these key points about the fruit of the Spirit:

(1) These are kingdom virtues and eschatological in nature. Remember, we do not belong to this world. We are being prepared for the next. All of these virtues are grounded in the hope of the future glory and will never be perfected until then. In that world, these will be the character of everyone.

(2) These are a striking description of the character of Christ who excelled in and exemplified all of these virtues.

(3) These are all supernatural virtues produced by the Spirit in us when we ‘walk by the Spirit.’ While there may be something like these achieved by the natural man apart from Christ, these all go above and beyond what our sinful nature can produce by itself. When unbelievers display something like these virtues we may be assured that what we see on display is corrupt and inferior. What Paul outlines here are graces produced in believers only, and only by the Spirit of God.

In this Bible study we looked at gentleness and self-control. We discussed what they meant from a biblical context and how they would manifest themselves in our lives. I hope you will take the time to listen and grow in your faith and in your knowledge of Scripture. And I hope that you will learn to walk by the Spirit so that these virtues will manifest themselves in your life. Just click the link below to listen. God bless.

Click here: Galatians 5:23 - Gentleness, Self-control



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mark 7:1-13 - Jesus Corrects the Scribes (Part 1)

In chapter 7 of Mark's Gospel we come across, again, confrontation with the scribes. This confrontation began when Jesus healed the paralytic who had been carried by his friends to Jesus. These men, when they could not approach Jesus where he was, took their friend up on the roof, dug a whole, and then lowered him down to Jesus. Jesus sees their faith and says to the man, “Your sins are forgiven you.” What? Who can forgive sins but God only? Precisely.

Then Jesus provokes them further by calling a wicked tax collector to be his disciple. He goes even further by reclining at table in the man's house with even more tax collectors and sordid characters. Sinners.

After that they were in a grain field on a Sabbath morning and Jesus’ disciples are plucking grain with their hands and eating it. How dare they do that on the Sabbath? Jesus is challenged by the Scribes of the Pharisees. Formal charges may be brought! But Jesus defends the practice with Scripture and declares himself Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath.

From there he is followed to the synagogue where they are watching him, looking for any reason to bring charges against him. He purposely provokes them by healing a man who didn't have to be healed right then and doesn't even appear to have approached Jesus initially for healing. The story ends with the Pharisees conspiring with the Herodians how they might kill him.

It doesn't take long before scribes, official scribes, come down from Jerusalem to render judgment on Jesus. What is their assessment? That Jesus is possessed by Satan and does his miracles in the power of Satan.

And that's where we are as far as the relationship between Jesus and official religious Judaism. The Church has rejected him and is seeking to kill him. That's why they're watching him and his disciples now. They're looking for something, anything they can nail him on and have him arrested.

So in chapter 7 Jesus is again confronted by these scribes about why his disciples ignore the 'tradition of the elders.' Does Jesus acquiesce? Does he challenge them? How does he respond? In this sermon we look at his response, or at least the first part of it, and consider its ramifications for you and me today and where it all fits into the gospel. In the next sermon we will bring Jesus' complete argument to a conclusion. I hope you will take the time to listen. The sermon is linked below.


Click here: Mark 7:1-13 - Jesus Corrects the Scribes (Part 1)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^