(Through The Bible) Mark by Zac Poonen

[Music] let's turn now to scriptures to the Gospel of Mark now there must be very good reasons why God allowed for biographies of Jesus Christ to be written not just one consolidated one and people who have studied these books usually have one fixed view I think every single book and commentary I've ever seen always says Matthew shows Jesus as the king mark has the servant Luke is the man and John is God Matthew shows him as a lion mark as an ox Luke with the man's face you know the four faces in Ezekiel in Revelation and John is an eagle and people since most Christians are too lazy to think they just accept that and since even most theologians are too lazy to think they just accept that and since most Indians just repeat what the Americans and the British people say they just repeat it over here India has become a big echo for all that is set in the West unfortunately it's almost as though God does not speak to anybody in India he only speaks to people there and we just got to echo what they say I decided when I came to this book I'm not going to stick in this rock that has been dug for hundreds of years and I want to get out and allow the Holy Spirit to bring me some freshness and thinking in my own mind now I just mentioned that in passing don't accept traditional concepts always that is how they missed out on Jesus who he was they said the traditions of the fathers and that's how they completely missed the will of God in that time and if you're going to be a blind follower after and just an echo of what hundreds of other people are saying you will never get what the Holy Spirit is saying to you personally I'm not saying we go outside the scriptures there's no revelation outside the scriptures there is no Revelation chapter 23 it finishes with chapter 22 for me but in this book God can give us revelation which affects our life so I don't know what the purpose is fully I must tell you honestly I don't understand fully yet as I go along I probably get more and more revelation but I have tried to look at the first verses when a person writes something it probably would write something at the beginning and I see that Matthew wrote that he was the son of Abraham the son of David I see okay that's what he's trying to say this is how he came as a Jew born of this Abraham and David and he's introducing the kingdom of heaven mark begins like this this is the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God he's telling us that this person is the Son of God and you find in Mark's Gospel as you compare it with Matthew's Matthew there's a lot more teaching but if you flip through the pages of Mark's Gospel it's a lot more action and activity of the miracles and many other things that he did not as much teaching not as many parables as in Matthew's Gospel there he was laying down the teaching of the kingdom of heaven and in mark he was demonstrating that he was the son of God on earth now when it turned to mark chapter 1 first of all and verse 17 when Jesus was going by the Sea of Galilee verse 16 he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net for they were fishermen and Jesus said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men there were hundreds of fishermen along this coast of Galilee he did not call all of them he called - then he called James and John as well what I want to say is if God calls you holy can you go for a ministry you cannot just say I want to be an evangelist I want to be a teacher I want to be a prophet I want to be an apostle we all like to be many things but God has to sovereignly come by us and call us it is so important if you are going to serve the Lord in some important ministry God has for you and I believe every ministry is important may not be as big but everything is equally important like the parts of the body every part of the body is important even though it's not all parts are not obvious you can see my face you can't see my kidneys and my liver so some believers ministry is more prominent some is more invisible some are more invisible but if you want to fulfill a purpose according to God's will in your earthly life it's important that you learn to hear God calling you and even if you're on a secular job God can you God's got a function for you in his body you gotta wait on him and here I'm calling you to fulfill that function and these people heard a call and said come and follow me that's all he said what do you have to do follow him this is discipleship Matthew 11 we saw learn from me here you said follow me these are the two things a disciple is a learner and a follower all our life we have to learn and we have to follow and learn and follow and learn and follow it's like in the military they say left right left right left right left right it's learn and follow and learn and follow and learn and follow till Jesus comes again it's like taking steps that's how we walk if you're only learning you're like a man who's only walking on his left foot it's like a military parade raise his left left left left left left left what sort of parade is that and we just moving forward like this and that's the odd type of way a lot of believers are living because it's learning learning learning learning learning learning no it's learning follow learning following learning following learning following this is a disciple that means what you learn you must practice if you don't you're not a disciple otherwise what's gonna happen is you're going to learn such a lot and you're going to produce another bunch of people who walk on one foot all the time neither can you say well I've learned enough now now I can keep following know till the end of our life we have to learn not the Scriptures but God through the Scriptures we come to know Jesus okay and what does and the second part of that is a promise if you follow me I will make you think of that expression I will make you it's like a Potter making a vessel and you know Potter's don't make all vessels the same shape have you seen a Potter's you see it down the street sometimes my people sell these earthenware vessels there are all types of different shapes and God also makes us in different shapes don't ever try to tell God that he should be in the shape of that brother there you must have that brothers ministry he'll never give it to you and if you struggle to try and have some other person's ministry you will hinder the shape God is trying to make of you I've told people repeatedly in my church don't ever try to imitate my ministry don't imitate the way I speak don't imitate the way I teach don't imitate my ministry at all because God wants you to be you God wants only one person like me in the church in ministry and he wants one person like you and if you try to imitate somebody else you will never fulfill what he wants you to be I will make you that's the Lord's responsibility in the case of these people what were they supposed to become what was their ministry fishers of men that was the ministry for James and John for you it may not be fishers of men it may be teachers in the church it may be some other ministry some are called his apostles and some are called his prophets and some are called as those are the fishers of men some are called as teachers and some like Paul are everything together apostle prophet teacher imagine if the very rare people who are all together like that most of us usually have one thing I think in the early days many of the Apostles had to be so many with so many gifts because there were so few people but now we are so many believers and God is distributed the gifts but the important principle is whether you're a teacher or an evangelist or an apostle or whatever it is the principle list is I will make you the Lord has to make us we can't make ourselves don't ever try to make yourself into an evangelist or a teacher or an apostle you'll just be a total failure don't ever try to do a ministry God never called you to humble yourself wait on the Lord let him fill you with the Holy Spirit and let him show you what he's called you for I've seen numerous people in this country who have tried to have a ministry for themselves yeah you can get money from somewhere and continue a ministry one day God will pull it all out and destroy don't waste your earthly life please remember you got only one earthly life don't waste it trying to impress some people that you got a ministry fulfill what God has called you to fulfill in the body of Christ wait on him the Lord will make you and he doesn't call everybody do the same thing out of all those people all all of them could become disciples of Jesus those fishermen by the Sea of Galilee if they wanted but all could not become apostles no those he had to call specifically all could not become evangelists all could not become teachers but all can be disciples so we need to distinguish between the two don't try to make everybody have your ministry that's foolish okay now we go to verse 35 this is a habit that Jesus had which is a very good habit for all of us to do in the previous evening it says verse 32 after the Sun had set they brought to him people were ill and demon-possessed and the whole city had gathered near the door mark 134 he healed many who were ill with various diseases casting out demons and he did not permit the demons to speak because they knew who he was why did he not permit the demons to speak the demons would have said this is the son of God isn't that a good testimony would you like a demon to say oh you are a great man of God do you want everybody to hear that Jesus did not want a testimony from demons and I don't want any testimony from demons that I'm a man of God or any such thing there are liars in any case what is that testimony worth anything you know there are all there are people I just want to say a word about casting out demons that there are people who when they cast out demons carry on a conversation with demons and did you when did you come and it's like a city in talking to somebody it's foolish Jesus never did that he just cast it out so when you encounter that let me mention that and verse 35 even though it was late into the night that he had this ministry it says in the early morning before the Sun rose while it was still dark he got out he want to be a disciple of Jesus in what area and healing the sick or in this verse written here a lot of people want to follow Jesus in the healing ministry what about this verse where after a late night the previous night he probably missed his supper I don't know the next morning he got up because he wanted to find the will of God what shall I do today he lived from day to day and he arose and went to a lonely place and prayed there see somebody has said just like tourists when they come to a city they always ask which are the important buildings and sites to be seen here whenever Jesus came to a new place he would always look around to see where are the lonely places here and the deserted places where I can be alone for a little while depends whether you are a follower of tourists or whether your follower of Jesus Christ he he always wanted to find some lonely place he was always looking for that see some people don't like to be alone they're always like to be with company Jesus was always looking for a place to be alone because that's where he would get his strength but he could get along with God talk to God the Father here do you have a desire for that my brother sister this is how we can be true servants of God so in them after a little while Simon and his companions were hunting for him and they found him and they said everyone wants you he said sorry we're not staying here we got to go somewhere else because I've got to preach there my father's told me that just think if Jesus had not waited on the Father at that time and he had woken up late and Peter had said you know there's a great revival going on here last night was a fantastic miracle ministry here and everybody has come now for further preaching from you Jesus would have stayed there and he would have missed the will of God for one day and our attitude is what does it matter if we miss the will of God for one day that is the careless way in which we behave it's like a millionaire saying what is there to find lose thousand rupees the new thousand rupees for us thousand rupees is a large amount of money for a millionaire it's nothing Jesus was very careful with one day he said I don't want to waste one day I've got only three and a half years I don't want to waste one day outside the will of God in my life keep that attitude we may not be able to find the will of God so perfectly as Jesus did but I want to have that attitude that lord I don't want to waste a single day of my life arrange my circumstances that I should be in the place where you want me to be every day of my life it's a good prayer to pray even if I don't hear a voice from heaven God can still arrange my circumstances such that I can be where God wants me to be every day of my life I'll tell you that this is the passion of my life I don't want to be in a place where God want doesn't want me to be because I know I waste my life there don't ever go to a place because it's a comfortable place to live ask yourself whether God wants you there and then you won't miss the will of God when you come to the end of life you won't have any regrets then we go to chapter 2 and verse 3 we read about this man who was paralyzed and he could not come himself and four people carried him and they opened up the roof and lured him into the place and this is the one one or two places like this where we see you know yesterday I said to you there was a law according to your faith be it unto you that's right but sometimes it's a great encouragement to me to see this sometimes when I'm so weak that I'm depressed and discouraged and I don't have faith thank God for the body of Christ where four other brothers can carry me the paralyzed man discouraged man depressed man and bring me to Jesus and here is this wonderful verse verse 5 Jesus seeing the faith of the four people he read this man I don't know whether this man had any faith at all but this is the one verse in scripture where it says Jesus looked at one person's faith and healed another person it's not the only place once we read he saw father's faith and healed his demon-possessed son the syrophoenician woman Jesus saw her faith when she said give me the crumbs that fall and healed her daughter saw the Centurions faith and healed is servant so it's not always only your faith a father can have faith for his son for brothers can carry a paralyzed brother and have faith for him I praise God for the body of Christ I don't want to live a Christian life all alone I don't want to be a loner I don't want to work alone I'm not interested I know it's inconvenient when we have to work with other people it's much more convenient to work on our own we can do what we like go where we like we are answerable to nobody subject to nobody's Authority I want to tell you in Jesus name you will destroy yourself if you don't understand it today you'll understand it at the judgment seat of Christ when it'll be too late seek fellowship that's your salvation I've seen many loners in India and I've always seen they don't have any light on that spiritual condition even if they are doing some so-called work for the Lord and they ultimately destroy themselves don't be a loner subject yourself to somebody's Authority find a godly brother particularly when you're young find a godly brother subject Authority work with the body of Christ sometimes when you are weak and helpless their faith can help you I know when my children were growing up and they came to their teenage years teenage years are difficult years for some boys particularly maybe girls too I found that the young brothers in my local church could help those children of mine more than I could at that time how thankful I was for the body of Christ but I was not a loner living all by myself don't think you can manage on your own Jesus saw their faith and heal this man wonderful now chapter 2 verse 18 to 22 Jesus answers a question about fasting the disciples asked John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting and they came and said to him why do john's disciples and the pharisees fast and why do your disciples not fast actually the answer is you mind your own business but anyway Jesus gave an answer for because you know I've had people come to our church and say why don't you all fast we fast why don't you funds the same old question is here I see if you want to fast go ahead and fast why why do you want to push that on me and even if I do fast why should I tell you about it but anyway jesus answered and said while the bridegroom is with them the attendance of the Bragman do not fast do they and now listen to this verse 20 here is the one word where Jesus spoke about fasting another word rather we saw one yesterday about don't tell others when the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away those are these days and then my disciples will fast that's not a command Jesus never gave a command you must fast it's a statement there's a difference between a statement and a command he never told his disciples going fast but he made a statement that my followers will fast from that verse I understand that the bride will fast in the days when the bridegroom is away in heaven if you never fast something is wrong that's all I say and then he said about this new covenant type of fasting which applies to everything in the new covenant it's not like the old covenant fasts which are by rules on sudden such a day you must fast in such a such a day you must fast no here it's different a different spirit altogether he said if you take in a new patch of unshrunk cloth in those days they didn't have terylene and this type of material synthetic stuff was all cotton and you know cotton before you stitch it you must always soak it in water whenever you buy cotton materials soak it in water then only stitch it so he was talking about that because when you soak cotton in water new cloth it shrinks and if you stitch it before you wet it before it is shrunk it'll be too tight for you so he says if you got an old dress which is already washed many times and you take a new patch of cloth which is not shrunk and stitch it on to that old dress what will happen when you wash it this will shrink and it'll tear the old dress so he's saying if you take a little bit of New Covenant truth and attach it to an Old Covenant type of understanding it's not gonna work it'll be a big hole in your life the whole garment must be new don't take a that's a good bit of teaching I like to take that teaching and attach it to my my work he doesn't work it must be totally new covenant you can't have a church which is run 75% according to Old Covenant principles and take a 25% new covenant patch and patch it on he doesn't work you will not be able to build a new covenant church that way it must be 100 percent new covenant the whole garment must be new otherwise it'll tear it doesn't agree and the same thing you said about wine skins in verse 22 those days they did not put wine in glass bottles glass was not invented those days they used to put it in skins animal skins which were stitched so well that they were watertight so it could not flow out but the thing about animal skin is again like cloth animal skin when the wine inside begins to ferment you know when wine ferments it expands if you keep it in a bottle it just flows out from the top so here in the skin they wouldn't fill it up they the skin would expand as the wine fermented because the skin has got a stretching power but once the skin is expanded to a certain extent it cannot stretch anymore and then if you fill it with wine it'll burst the skin the new wine speaks of the life of Jesus the old wine is the life under the law the old wine skin is the Old Covenant system the new wine skin is the new covenant church now if I try to take a new covenant life the life of Jesus and put it into an Old Covenant system with priests and tights and Sabbath days and rituals and legalistic rules what's going to happen thing is going to burst it won't work if you want to an Old Covenant system with priests and tights and laws and regulations and rules and don't touch and don't taste and don't all that then you must have a life under the law so you can't mix the two if you have the life of Jesus you must have a New Covenant Church everything in the New Covenant get rid of that Old Covenant system do you know that the vast majority of Christians live in church systems which are not following the New Covenant there are new wine trying to put in old wine skins and the whole thing is bursting here and there naturally that's exactly what Jesus said okay we go on to chapter 3 and verse fine here we read about Jesus going on into a synagogue on a Sabbath day and the people were watching him verse two to see if he would heal on the Sabbath day and this is the one place in scripture where we read Jesus was angry now I'm sure when he made a whip in the temple and chased people out he was also angry but here there it doesn't say that but here it specifically says in verse five he looked at them with anger grieved at their hardness of heart and he said to the man stretch out your hand he was not bothered what they were going to do to him and he stretched out his hand and as soon as the Pharisees saw it verse six they immediately went out and took counsel with the Herodians how to destroy him did you read that new phrase destroy him do you know there are people who'd like to destroy your ministry destroy your life they are the followers of the Pharisees not just the heathen there are Christians who try to destroy the ministry of other Christians by scandalizing them speaking evil about them they're jealous it's mostly based on jealousy why because that man could accomplish something in his ministry which you could not and you're jealous of that they could not heal this man with the who sat there for so many years here is this unlearn at carpenter from Nazareth who comes and heals him immediately naturally they get jealous because everybody will see this preacher can help these people far better than we can so what to do we lose our congregation destroy him destroy his ministry call him a false prophet call him a heretic destroy his ministry it's happening today just make sure you don't get involved in that type of work destroying the work of God and destroying men of God and I want to mention here something about anger there's a verse in Ephesians 4:26 which says be angry but don't sin there is an anger which is not sin and there is an anger which is sin and you see that in Jesus life here when is it angry when his anger sinful anger is sinful when I react to something people have done to me like for example when they slapped Paul on the face and he got angry and yelled back at the priest I priest that was sinful anger and he repented of it when they slapped Jesus he did not get angry when they spat on him he didn't get angry when they crucified him he didn't get angry when did he get angry when he saw people making money in the name of religion in the temple when he saw people not helping some poor man with a withered hand saw the Old Testament prophets were concerned about the poor Jesus came in the spirit of those prophets concerned about poor people in the church people who are enslaved to sin and the devil you can't deliver them and you don't let some other preacher come and deliver them either Jesus is angry where people are exploiting religion for their own benefits where people are exploiting poor people and not helping that allowing them to be delivered but he was never angry when anybody did anything to him Judas Iscariot stole his money he was not angry they spat on him they called him the devil he was not angry now human beings it's exactly the opposite human beings are anger children of Adam are angry when people do something to them you steal my money I'm angry you call me a devil I'll be angry you speak evil about me I'll be angry you slap me I'll be angry and they are never angry when the name of the Lord is Dishonored oh there are so many people in India making money in the name of Jesus Christ what to do these things happen you're not angry poor people are being exploited and what to do brethren is the way it is in the world they're not angry they are exactly the opposite of Jesus Christ and I'm sorry to say many believers are like that to you ask yourself do you get angry when you see people making money in the name of religion in the temple like Jesus got angry no you are angry when somebody calls you a devil or when somebody insults your spits on your face then you are behaving like a child of Adam Jesus says learn from me and follow me ok we go on to chapter 4 and verse we read about a time just one little thing I want to mention here which is encouraged me through the years I don't know if it'll encourage you little verses it says when they were in the boat now we know that there was a storm and Jesus still the board but there's another little thing mentioned here which encourages me it says in the chapter 4 verse 38 they were in the boat and the waves were beating and it says he was asleep on a cushion to me a cushion speaks of comfort and Jesus was not ashamed to use a cushion that's the thing that blessed my heart that there's no virtue in being an ascetic and saying no I'll sleep on the hard floor on the hard bed if you have a cushion brother use it there's nothing wrong in it because there are a lot of Christians who think you become most spiritual if you sleep on a hard bed or on the floor that's not spirituality and it's not following Jesus either chapter 5 we read about this demoniac who was healed this man who had an unclean spirit and when the demon was cast out they said please send us into these pigs and there was a big herd of swine there and this man must have had at least 2,000 demons because it went into all these pigs and the thing I want you to see here is that when the people who were looking after the pigs saw this they went to the city verse 14 and reported it and when they saw this man whom they always knew was a demon-possessed man sitting there completely healed instead of being excited and saying praise the Lord this is wonderful Lord you heal this man come and minister in our country it says in verse 17 they began to entreat him to depart from their region have you read that verse what is that teachers they valued pigs more than human beings that's what you learned they lost two thousand pigs they are not bothered that one man is he yeah it's a very sad thing when people do not value the conversion of one soul more important than any amount of property the conversion of one soul even if two thousand pigs is your entire business do you believe that the conversion of one soul is better than that so Jesus didn't stay he told this man verse 19 you go and tell other people the wonderful things the Lord has done for you in chapter six verse three is the one verse in scripture that tells us that Jesus had younger brothers and sisters he had four brothers born of Mary verse three the son of Mary and the brother of James Joseph Judas and Simon and he had sisters also we don't know how many sisters but sisters means at least two so he had four brothers and two sisters so Mary had seven children so since we don't hear of Joseph we presume Joseph had died and presumably in the many years of Jesus life he worked as a carpenter to support a family of eight members there are not many families with eight members nowadays but Jesus that is the mother and seven children including Jesus himself so Jesus went through that experience in order to learn and to be an example to people who have to struggle through difficult circumstances and bring up a large family great example of a person who worked hard to support his family because there also he had to be an example for us one more statement here verse four Jesus said a prophet has honour everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and his household that is that was true in the first century is true in the twentieth century a prophet is never accepted by his own relatives his relatives devalue him other people value him and usually a prophet is not valued in his own home church other churches value him a hundred times more that was true in the first century it's true in this century it's very sad in his own hometown and his own relatives they don't value him so much because they seem all the time and familiarity breeds contempt that's what Jesus said and because of that attitude it says in verse five he could not do any miracles there when you don't value a brother his ministry does not bless you as much as it blesses those other people who value him if you want to be blessed through a brother's ministry you got a value of him they did not value Jesus and so he could not do any miracle there and he wondered at their unbelief so we see that because of unbelief he could not do all that he wanted to do by unbelief we tie the hands of Jesus even today that he can't do for us all that he wants to do chapter 7 we read in verses 1 onwards about God's Word vs. human tradition this was the great conflict that Jesus always had with his people with the people of his time God's Word vs. human tradition Jesus stood for God's Word and all the Pharisee stood for the traditions of the elders now we may think that this is not a very big thing but this is the great conflict that we find in Christendom today as well here's a tradition that we have received for years and years and years and years and years and years that's the way my father did it my grandfather did it my great-grandfather did it but is it the right way and Jesus said tradition first of all if you hold on to tradition verse 8 you'll neglect God's commandment step 1 step 2 if you keep your tradition verse 9 you will set aside the commandment of God and step 3 you hang on to your tradition you will cancel the Word of God there are three steps here verse 8 verse 9 in verse 13 you start with neglecting God's commandment then you set it aside finally you cancel it that's the danger of holding on to traditions check your traditions with the Word of God if it's not according to the Word of God it cannot be what God wants you to do I'm surprised that so many Christians when they want to go see for example if I want to take my children and my small children are sick and I want to take them to a hospital I don't find out which hospital my great-grandfather went to that doesn't interest me I don't even want to find out which hospital my father went to because we have got more updated hospitals today right you'll do the same you don't go to the hospital your father a great grandfather went to okay when I want to put my children in school I don't find out which school my great-grandfather went to or even which school my father went to I find out which is the best school today I find out which is the best Hospital today because these are earthly things we are very interested in it but when it comes to the church which church do you go to the one your great-grandfather went to why is that when it comes to spiritual things you don't find out the best available because we are not interested in spiritual things as much as we are interested in education and medical health that's the truth if you were as interested in your spiritual life as you're interested in medical help and education just like you look for the best Hospital today and the best school you'd look for the best church even if it is not the one your father or grandfather went to but how many people have the courage to do that one in a hundred perhaps most of them stick to what that great grandfather did and that's like going to a third-rate school and a third-rate hospital and a third-rate church that's the plain truth that's the result of tradition following tradition instead of following the Word of God and I want to challenge all a few young people be bold stand for God's Word I'm not telling you which church to join I'm telling you join the best group of disciples in your hometown that you must find the best group of disciples in your hometown and be there just like you'd go to the best Hospital in the best school that's what I would do and that's what I encourage everybody to do you know what I do we have some churches in different places but I have sometimes told people if you find that church which is in fellowship with us is not the best Church in that town please don't go there even though it's one of our churches you find another one which is better please go to that one I don't believe in this denominational type of loyalty my loyalty is to Jesus Christ now to our group of churches there's no such thing as my group of churches in every locality the quality of a church depends on the quality of its eldership and you must go to the best church in that locality chapter 7 and just one more thing before I proceed worse ten and eleven this matter of helping our parents some people think it's a very spiritual thing to tell our parents I'm sorry I'm serving the Lord I can't help you in any way you know what Jesus said about that that is canceling verse thirteen the Word of God of course you must help your parents you can't say I've sacrificed it to God you can serve God and help your parents you don't have to obey your parents after you've left your home but you don't have to make them hinder you from serving God but he's talking about practically helping them financially or in some practical way you must certainly care for them chapter eight verse six he speaks here about the feeding in the multitude we could look at that in another study in chapter 8 and verse 15 he speaks about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod Jesus spoke about three types of lemons in another study we saw that Matthew 16 the leaven of Pharisees the leaven of Sadducees and the leaven of the Herodians or the hierarchy of Herod what is the difference between these three the Pharisees are the ones who had all their doctrines correct Jesus said Matthew 23 3 all that the Pharisees said you do because what they're teaching is correct they are the Evangelic ills and fundamentalists of there of Jesus time the Sadducees for the people who did not believe in miracles or angels or resurrection or anything these are the Liberals of Jesus time who did not believe all these things that the Bible is literally true and the other people who study the higher critics and all these people to have to stuff you stuff they're the Sadducees and then we have the third group which is the Herodians the Herod Herodians were followers of Herod who were thoroughly worldly they just believed in having parties and having a good time worldly Christians there are three types of Christians today evangelicals liberals and worldly Christians now the important thing is when you look in the Gospels whom was Jesus fighting with most of the time and that's quite a word to us he wasn't fighting with the worldly Christians all the time he wasn't fighting with the Liberals he was fighting with evangelicals because they were the biggest Pharisees of his time and very often you find that today some of the biggest Pharisees are the people who got all their doctrines correct and are pretty correct pretty proud of their correct doctrines but don't realize what legalistic narrow-minded stuck in the mud type of believers they are there's no freedom there's no Liberty because the Holy Spirit does not come and set them free and Jesus is in conflict with such people today just like as he was in those times so remember these three levels in Chapter eight we go on to verse 23 to 26 which is a very important passage about healing jesus prayed for a blind man and he was not healed immediately fully he asked him how do you see everything clearly he said no I can see sort of men like trees walking and if Jesus were like some preachers today they say no brother confess that you're healed you must say that your heel even when you're not him speak say I'm healed Jesus didn't say that because Jesus doesn't ask us to tell lies he said okay or not he will pray again now why did Jesus ever allow that one incident to take place always in every other case one touch healed people why would they need for two touches here I think this was written for because Jesus knew that in the 20th century people will go around teaching people that even when you're not healed you must confess that you're hip and this incident was deliberately there for the sake of 20th century people to say when you are not healed say you're not healed don't say you can see clearly when you're still seeing men like trees so don't be confused by this false teaching of faith that goes around today but even when you are sick you're supposed to confess you're healed that's a lie and Jesus never expects you to tell a lie that's what we learned from this passage okay we go on to verse 33 where we read about Jesus rebuking Peter saying get behind me Satan why did he tell Peter get behind me Satan what is the mark of a man who is influenced by Satan that's very important do you think Jesus will say to you get behind me Satan you say no he'll never tell me get behind me Satan are you better than Peter remember Peter had forsaken everything to follow Jesus perhaps we are not as good as him and even he could be deceived by Satan who is the one who is deceived by Satan if I can understand that question the answer to that question I can be protected from deception here is the answer in the same worse get behind me Satan your mind is set on your own interests and not God's interests you got the answer who is the one who will be deceived by the devil in Christian work the one whose mind is set on his own interests and not God's anybody sitting here you may be born again you may be baptized in the Holy Spirit and I want to tell you this in Jesus name if your mind is set on your own interests and your own gain you are a candidate for deception Satan will deceive you any day deception means you'll be thinking you are doing God's work and you won't be doing God's work you'll be thinking that you're serving the Lord and you're actually serving yourself there were many people like that in Paul's time who sought their own holy Timothy was one who didn't seek his own so I find the way to escape deception is by making sure that my mind is not set on my interests or my gain or my profit but on God's interests ok chapter 8 and verse 35 he said whoever seeks to save his life will lose it this is a statement that comes seven times in the Gospels and I'll deal with it in another gospel chapter 9 and verse 1 I say to you that some of you standing here will not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power not everybody standing here not nobody standing here but some of you standing here will not die till you see the kingdom of God come with power what does that mean some people say it refers to the Transfiguration which was in the next verse I don't believe the kingdom of God came with power on that mountain and I don't believe the very next day somebody it so many people are already dying because he said only some of you standing here will see it some of you here you think most of the people died by the next day it cannot refer to verse 2 because it says 6 days later most of the people didn't die 6 days later but some of you will see the kingdom of God come with power I believe refers to the day of Pentecost that is when power came the Holy Spirit brought the kingdom of God compare Scripture with Scripture Romans 14:17 says the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit till the Holy Spirit comes there is no kingdom of God and when the Holy Spirit came Jesus said you shall receive power that was a reference to the day of Pentecost when the kingdom of God came with power so there we understand what Pentecost was this is Jesus definition of Pentecost the kingdom of God the government of God coming to earth with power forming the church that's what the church is meant to be on earth a demonstration of a pocket of the kingdom of God in the midst of the kingdom of the devil manifesting the power of God chapter 9 and verse seven and eight we see this beautiful verse where the Lord turned the minds of people away from looking at Moses and Elijah they were looking at Moses and Elijah and you know Peter said let's make three Tabernacles verse five here and Jesus said and God set from heaven don't you ever dare to put my son on the same level as Moses and Elijah this is my son listen to him what is the message for us however great a man of God comes and blesses you even if it be Moses or Elijah don't put him on the same level as Jesus Jesus must be unique in your life the greatest man of God was being the greatest blessing in your life maybe a Moses or Elijah the moment you begin to admire them you know what happens a cloud formed and they could not see anything clearly after that verse 7 why is it so many believers their vision is cloudy because they are looking at Moses and Elijah and they are not looking at Jesus they are not listening to Jesus now that doesn't mean we should not respect Moses and Elijah definitely you must respect godly men but our eyes must not be we don't look at Moses or Elijah or any godly man today that's the message here and chapter 9 verse 22 29 here is another example of a father's faith brought deliverance for his son who was demon-possessed and verse 29 the disciples verse 28 said why couldn't we cast out this demon and Jesus said that's because you did not pray you did not fast and pray such demons can be cast out only if you are fasting and praying I don't I can't explain that I don't try to explain it I've never been able to explain prayer and I've never been able to explain fasting but I believe there's something in it it works I just believe what Jesus said that some demons some places when the devil is entrenched somewhere you can't cast him out unless you fast and pray and we move on to verse 42 to 48 where Jesus spoke about if your hand offends you verse 43 cut it off otherwise you could go to hell where the worm never dies and the fire is never quite verse 45 if your foot offends you cut it off otherwise you can go to hell where the world never dies in the fire is never quenched and again a third time where the worm never dies 47 and 48 Jesus spoke about Hell more than anybody else more than any other preacher and he spoke about Hell as a place where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies I believe it that people go to Hell where the fire never dies and the worm is never quenched clever intellectual people may say how can worms never die in a fire nicely I don't want to find out those who go there can find out that I don't want to find out but it's true it's enough for me to know that there is an eternal fire and the worms that geez because Jesus is the only one who knows about Hell and if you are a true servant of God you'll preach about Hell like Jesus did we don't preach only what we understand we preach what we believe and then he said in verse 49 everybody must be salted with fire I understand it like this either the fire of heaven or the fire of Hell you can have your choice I've chosen the fire of heaven everybody must have one of these fires this wishy-washy neither cold nor hot lukewarm type of people Jesus says I was pretty out of my mouth you choose this fire or that fire which one do you want Jesus came to baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire and here is this unquenchable fire of Hell chapter 10 we read in verse 17 of this rich young ruler who came to follow Jesus and Jesus told him that you cannot follow me unless you give up your money all your money now Jesus didn't say that to everybody Zacchaeus gave away only half his money to the poor Mary and Martha had a house and they did not give it up and Jesus never told him to sell their house to me it's like cancer surgery you go to a surgeon one person when he's operating him he removes certain organs another person who's got cancer he removes more organs and another person who does cancer surgery only removes a major lot major surgery why is it all three of got cancer but in one case the cancer had spread so much that he's got to cut out so much and that's why in the case of the rich young ruler he said your case the cancer of the love of money is spread so much that the only way for you to be delivered is to get rid of all your money but Zacchaeus it did not spread so much and Mary and Martha did not spread so much so God doesn't tell all of us to give up all our money but if it has spread so badly he may have to do it but it's such a terrible cancer otherwise he said you cannot follow me and then he said that it's easier for a rich man to and it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle verse 25 then for a rich man to enter God's kingdom it's very difficult when other things on earth attract us now we turn to chapter 12 and we read in verse 43 about this Widow who put in two copper coins 42 to 44 it says Jesus sat beside the Treasury was 41 it's a very good verse Jesus sat near the Treasury watching how people were giving money not how much notice what it says not how much but how very important distinction in the new Old Covenant it was how much 10% in the New Covenant it is how you are giving very important and this vido give cheerfully all that she had and the Lord appreciated it and then we move on to towards the end of Jesus life is talking about his return in chapter 13 and chapter 14 we read about the Lord's Supper and his betrayal in the rest we'll come to that in another gospel and in chapter 15 I just want to point out one verse here that when Jesus was standing before Pilate and he was accused about so many things he made no answer and Pilate was amazed he never opened his mouth like a lamb stood before his Shearer's he was dumb when last verse chapter 16 and verse 15 to 18 this is the other Commission there are two Commission's one Commission is Matthew 28 going to all the world and make disciples in every nation the other Commission is verse 15 of Matthew's mark 16 go and preach the gospel to all creation remember these are like two sides of a coin like two sides of a currency note one go and preach the gospel he doesn't say anything about making disciples this is evangelism Matthew 28 his disciple making the two must go together if you do the evangelism somebody else must do the disciple making unless you can do both together and if somebody's doing disciple making then he can do it on the basis of somebody else's doing evangelism these people are not in competition with each other it's like some people going to the mountain side cutting the quarry going to the quarry cutting the stones and bringing it to one site another person is taking those stones and building them into a building now whose work is more important I say both are required mark 16 speaks about going to the quarry and cutting out the stones it's very hard work don't ever go there unless you're God's called you but don't criticize the masons who are building those stones into a building don't say you fellas are having a cushy life why are you going to the quarry I hope it's because God called you there if God called you there you have no business to compare yourself with the Masons go where God has called you maybe God has called those Mason's to build those stones now what's happening very often is Masons who should be building the house are going to the quarry and the result is piles and piles and piles of stones no Church being built no fellowship because masons are doing the work of Vangelis lesson and let's say Lord helped me to fulfill my calling let's pray

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen

Id: bJOqOaycQ9U

Length: 57min 37sec (3457 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2017