Podcasts about again jesus

Caleb Drahosh In his Gospel, Mark records Jesus healing many, but he gives some unique details in this instance. Jesus leads the blind man out of the town, spit on his eyes, and laid His hands on the man. At first the man's sight is only partially restored. Again Jesus laid His hands on the man and the man's sight was completely restored. Jesus performs this miracle for the benefit of His disciples, to show them that their sight, their understanding, does not come all at once, but Jesus chooses to reveal truth over time.

Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC) Jun 8, 2025 ========== June 8 - These Words Changed My Life Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo "Repent and Get Back In the Game" John 21 ‭‭John‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭25‬‬ Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I'm going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We'll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven't you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. 1. Peter wasn't doing anything WRONG, he just wasn't doing WHAT HE WAS CALLED TO DO! vs. 3 2. Jesus gives Peter a GENTLEREMINDER of his PURPOSE. vs. 4-14 3. Jesus RESTORES Peter to his RIGHTFUL PLACE- as a DISCIPLEMAKER! vs. 15-17 4. Peter shows us the most common PITFALL to REPENTANCE - COMPARISON and RATIONALIZATION. vs. 20-23

Epistle Reading: Acts 2:1-11WHEN THE DAY of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." Gospel Reading: John 7:37-52; 8:12On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." Nikodemos, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Up To Jerusalem - Teaching 17 Scripture: Luke 23:26-34, Mark 15:21, Hosea 10:8, John 19:19-27, Mark 15:29-32, Luke 23:39-43, Matthew 27:45-49, Psalm 22, John 19:28-30., Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5, Matthew 27:50-54. Today we take a look at a moving, powerful and emotionally packed teaching on the subject of Jesus' crucifixion.  We will explore the accounts of Jesus' crucifixion using all four gospels as each gives us unique details and special insights. Jesus' crucifixion was painful, prolonged, humiliating and demeaning, but the four gospel writers do not dwell on the sufferings of Jesus. What they dwell on is what He won for us and what He offers to each of us. Our story opens with Jesus' walk to Golgotha (Hebrew word - translates to “Place of the Skull” - Calvary - is the Latin word for ‘Place of the Skull.”) As Jesus was brutally beaten, tortured and whipped He is exhausted, weak, in great pain and unable to carry His cross to Golgotha, so Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry Jesus' cross. Jesus' first words from the cross were “Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing.” A display of His love even from the cross, even in extreme suffering and incredible pain, He cries out on behalf of others. Don't ever doubt God's love. No matter how we've fallen, our God loves us dearly! The enemy likes to make us think that God is the bad guy, but the truth is - if you want to know what God is like and want to know how He feels about you, then all you have to do is look at Jesus, the One who is the visible image of the invisible God - and He says, Father, forgive them.” He offers mercy to all of us - we all are sinners and we all need a Savior and that's who Jesus is! Our story continues with Pilate making a sign in 3 languages: Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The sign says, “King of the Jews.” The way Romans announced the crime for which the individual was being executed was to post it over their heads on their cross. When Pilate had the sign placed above Jesus' head the Chief Priests became upset. Pastor takes time to dig into some truly interesting insights into why the sign made them so angry. The next words Jesus says are to His mother and the disciple next to her at the foot of His cross. He says, “Woman, here is your son.” And to the disciple He says, “Here is your mother.” Jesus' second set of words from the cross were again for others and of showing his deep love and concern for His mother. Jesus was crucified between two criminals, one of them joins the crowd in mocking Jesus. The one not joining the crowd says to the one that was, “Don't you fear God? This man has done nothing wrong,..” Then turning to Jesus he says, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus replies, “I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” This criminal displays great faith in asking, Jesus, who is beaten, brutalized and nailed to a cross, “Remember me!” This man saw what is unseen - He saw into heaven. He saw what is true.  Again Jesus' words are for others, these comforting words of promise given this man hanging on the cross next to Him. The promise is for all those who believe in Him, that we will be with Him and we will see His kingdom in all its glory and fulfillment. As we continue with the story, darkness came over the land in the middle of the day and Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus endured the judgement of God for us - He became sin for us. Pastor talks about these very words of being forsaken having been written in Psalm 22, 1000 years earlier, and they were words that every Jew was familiar with. Pastor shares how that would have impacted those around Him hearing Him say these words - they were a testimony to who Jesus is! Then Jesus says, “I am thirsty.” And He is offered wine vinegar on a sponge on the end of a hyssop stalk. Pastor shares insight into this prophetic action of using the hyssop stalk being lifted to Jesus to drink from.  When Jesus had the drink, He said, “It is finished.” Meaning PAID IN FULL. The debt for sin was paid. The price for our salvation has been paid in full. Jesus drank the cup of the wrath of God, He is the sacrificial victim - the Real Passover Lamb, who offered up His blood for us all and His blood covers our sin. And then Jesus' speaks, “Father, into Your hand I commit My Spirit.” And He dies.     ⁃    The price is paid     ⁃    The battle is won     ⁃    The victory is assured At Jesus' last words the curtain of the Temple is torn in two. Why?… This was a massive curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies where a High Priest went once a year before God making atonement for the sins of the people. Now all of a sudden people, not just the High Priests can look into the Holy of Holies and have access to the Living God. God dealt with human sin in the very Person of His own Son. The curtain is now open and the way to the Father is exposed - all are given access into the place where only a High Priest could go because Jesus open it through His sacrifice on the cross. Our time together ends with the words of the centurion guarding Jesus on the cross as the day turned dark, as the curtain tore, as the earth shook, rocks split and people walked out of tombs, the centurion exclaims, “Surely, He was the Son of God!” What a shocking day this was!  This was the day the Savior gave His life for all! And it changed everything because now - He offers life to all who believe in Him. Join us next time as we discover that Jesus is our Victor! Our website – https://www.awakeusnow.com Watch the video from our website! https://www.awakeusnow.com/2-year-study-of-the-gospels-upper Watch the video from our YouTube Channel!! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOzMkhPyiNWwlJRpV6Bwpu01 Up to Jerusalem is a study of the final weeks of Jesus' ministry. The earth shakes concluding with His resurrection and ascension, using the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John together with material from ancient sources and recent discoveries. Up to Jerusalem is part five of our Two Year Study of the Gospels. Up To Jerusalem is the story of the plan of God to redeem the world, and the story of a Savior willing to obey the Father's plan. As we study Jesus' final days, we will be impacted as we discover the Love of God for each one of us.  This study is great for large group, small group or home group study and can be started at any time.

After failure, comes ______. John 21:15-25 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”   “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”  He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.    After failure, comes conversation.     After conversation, comes restoration.   After restoration, comes responsibility.    After responsibility, comes joy and pain.    18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”)  21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”   After responsibility, comes wrestling with comparison.   22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”    The cure for comparison is: “You must follow me.” - Jesus

John 20:19-23  19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

John 21 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 Im going out to fish, Simon Peter told them, and they said, Well go with you. So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, Friends, havent you any fish? No, they answered. 6 He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord! As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. 16 Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep. 17 The third time he said to him, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, Follow me! 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you?) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? 22 Jesus answered, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16]17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

John 20:19-23 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”   Locked In   It's not over just because you feel afraid. Fear may lock the door, but Jesus walks through the wall.     It's not over because of the scars. The scars are the proof that there is an after.   It's not over, you have peace.  Peace is the launchpad into purpose.     It's not over, the Spirit of God revives you. Breath gives you boldness.     It's not over when you're forgiven. You now live a life forgiving.     Locked in doesn't mean left out.  

John 8:12-30English Standard Version12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come'?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Matthew 28:18-2016 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Mark 16:15-2015 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Luke 24:46-4946 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” John 20:21-2321 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”                  A Sermon Series "Fix Your Eyes Upon Jesus"                  1. The Procession of the Commission – John 20:21 "As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you."                 2. The Preeminence of the Commission – Matthew 28:18 "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me."                 3. The Perimeter of the Commission – Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."                 4. The Proclamation of the Commission – Luke 24:47 "Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name..."                 5. The Purpose of the Commission – Matthew 28:19-20 "Make disciples of all nations... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."                 6. The Power for the Commission - John 20:22 "And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"                   7. The Presence in the Commission – Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always...”                Our Response 

{ILS} The lake Navigate the water Consider the swimming/feeding patterns of the fish What you don't deal with - crowds, judges, soldiers, governors {SCR} John 21:1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I'm going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We'll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven't you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. {MPT} We'll go with you{SCR} John 21:8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.  {MPT} He jumped in{SCR} John 21:12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. {MPT} Come have breakfast{SCR} John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”{MPT} Take care of my sheep

As we head to retreat from the busy heart of Hong Kong this weekend, we are reminded of how easy it is to rush past those in need—just like the priest and Levite in Jesus' story. But the Good Samaritan reminds us what it truly means to love our neighbor: to notice, to stop, and to care, even when it's inconvenient or unexpected. Making room for others means more than giving up a seat on the MTR; it's about opening our hearts, our schedules, and our communities to those who need support. Let's be the ones who cross the road, who reach out, who make space. Whether it's volunteering during Serve-a-thon, joining a community initiative, or simply checking in on someone nearby, every act of kindness helps restore and uplift our city. If you are new to Community Church, WELCOME! We would love to get to know you. Please fill in the following form and we look forward to connecting with you: https://bit.ly/cc-new-connect You can find all timely and relevant links from this service on https://bit.ly/cc-links You can also find out more about us at https://communitychurch.hk/ ================ This Week's Scripture: // John 21:15-19 // Jesus Reinstates Peter When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

John 20:19-31 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you! 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyones sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you! 27 Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. 28 Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God! 29 Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.[a] It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I'm going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We'll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven't you any fish?”“No,” they answered.6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[c] 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.Jesus Reinstates Peter15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Islington Baptist is a church for the Islington and wider Newcastle community sharing the life-changing message of Jesus. Our sermons / Bible teaching is a central part of our gatherings.John 201:301 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!”3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don't know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

A Lenten Spiritual Journey with Discerning Hearts: From Ashes to Glory – Discerning Hearts Podcast Day 35: Look Upon the One They Have Pierced Scripture Reading: (Jerusalem Bible) John 8:21–30 Again Jesus said to them: “I am going away; you will look for Me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, ... Read more The post Day 35: Look Upon the One They Have Pierced – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Passage: 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.” (John 8:12-14) Song: Light of the World by Lauren Daigle, Paul Duncan, and Paul Mabury Lyrics: The world waits for a miracle The heart longs for a little bit of hope O come O come Emmanuel A child prays for peace on earth And she's calling out from a sea of hurt O come O come Emmanuel And can you hear the angels singing Glory to the Light of the world Glory the Light of the world is here The drought breaks with the tears of a mother A baby's cry is the sound of love come down Come down Emmanuel woh He is the song for the suffering He is Messiah the Prince of peace has come He has come Emmanuel oh Glory to the light of the world Glory to the light of the world Glory to the light of the world Glory to the light of the world For all who wait for all who hunger For all who've prayed for all who wonder Behold your King behold Messiah Emmanuel Emmanuel Glory to the light of the world Glory to the light of the world Glory to the light of the world Behold your King behold Messiah Emmanuel Emmanuel The world waits for a miracle The heart longs for a little bit of hope O come O come Emmanuel Prayer: “Almighty God, and most merciful Father, we humbly submit ourselves, and fall down before your Majesty, asking you from the bottom of our hearts, that this seed of your Word now sown among us, may take such deep root, that neither the burning heat of persecution cause it to wither, nor the thorny cares of this life choke it. But that, as seed sown in good ground, it may bring forth thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold, as your heavenly wisdom has appointed. Amen.” — Middelburg Liturgy

Scripture: John 21:1-19 Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish 21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.[a] It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I'm going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We'll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven't you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[c] 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Jesus Reinstates Peter 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Teacher: Adam Barnett“Jesus didn't actually say much about the kingdom of heaven in the sense that we normally mean it. When he spoke of heaven's kingdom, he wasn't talking about a place called heaven to which people might or might not go after they die. He was talking about something that would become a reality ‘as in heaven, so on earth' (Matt. 6:10). So instead of suggesting that we could escape the earth to go to heaven, Jesus' good news was about heaven coming to earth.” – N.T. WrightThen Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” - John 11:16διστάζω – to waver, hesitate, to be uncertain.19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:19-291 - Share with others.2 - Wait on the Lord.Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! - Psalm 27:143 - Pray and confess.“Doubt is a form of rebellion. It is a refusal to relate to God on his own terms.” – Stan Harstine

Have you ever been standing on the threshold of something good – perhaps one of God's promises – and all of a sudden it's as though everything starts to go wrong?   On the Threshold Have you ever stood on the threshold of something good, I mean something really good, something fantastic? Maybe it's the promise of a promotion, or the promise of a pay increase, or you've just fallen pregnant or your wife has and in the not too many months, there's going to be this new life in your family, or a great holiday, or a new home, or peace where there was conflict and you stand there and you think, "This is going to be faaaannntastic. I just can't wait". And then all of a sudden, it's like all hell breaks loose. Everything and everyone kind of comes after you with a pickaxe; at work and at home, in your heart and in your head, there's turmoil. And you think, "Hang on a minute. I'm about to step over into this Promised Land and well, it's supposed to be fantastic. What is going on?" We've all been there, right? So has God and today we are going to look at His specific Word that He wants to speak right into that. This week on the programme, we are going to look at this ‘Promised Land' thing. And the Promised Land was born when God promised a land to Abraham, the father of Israel, and centuries later Israel crossed over into that Promised Land. It started with this beautiful promise to Abraham that we looked at last week. If you have a Bible, grab it, open it up at Genesis chapter 13, beginning at verse 14. This is what it says: The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are, to the north and the south and the east and the west, all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring will also be able to be counted. Get up, walk the length and the breadth of this land for I will give it to you'. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which is at Hebron and there he built an altar to the Lord. What a stunning promise! What an incredible promise! What an impossible promise! See, Abraham was an old man and he and his wife Sarah hadn't had any children and from that promise began a long and winding road for the nation of Israel. Centuries later they travelled through the exodus, they went through this desert and they'd gone on this long journey. And Israel ultimately is about to cross over into the Promised Land and all of a sudden their leader Moses, whom God used to set them free out of slavery from Egypt; to go through the Red Sea; that amazing miracle, to guide them through the desert for forty years – all of a sudden Moses, their leader dies. And God comes along to his successor, Joshua, with some godly advice – more than advice, admonition. Now we are going to have a look at that today. It's in Joshua chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. This is what God said: After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' assistant, ‘Moses, My servant is dead. Now then you and all these people, get ready to cross over the Jordan River into the land that I am about to give to them, the Israelites. I have given you every place where you will set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to the Lebanon, from the great river, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the great sea on the west and no one, no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead this people to inherit the land that I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong; very courageous. Be careful to obey all My law that the servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of this Law depart from your mouth but meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that's written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful. Haven't I commanded you, Be strong and courageous? Don't be terrified; don't be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.' Just think about it. They have been on this long journey for forty years, the exodus in the desert and they are about to cross over into the Promised Land and Moses dies. Oh, fantastic! What lousy timing. They had this tried and proven leader and he is gone, and so the reins get handed over to Joshua, his assistant and God repeats the promise that He made to Abram and that He made to Moses; He repeats that promise to Joshua: "I have given you this land - I have promised this land to you and no one will be able to stand against you." Oh, that's not good; that's not good at all. If God has to promise you that no one is going to stand against you. All these different tribes and nations that are already in the land; they're not going to invite Israel in to take their land. They are not going to say, "Oh, God said you could have it, well sure, go ahead, take all our land." Not likely! Israel is in for a bunch of battles and then God says: "I will never leave you or forsake you." This is not looking good. God says: "Be strong and courageous," and again, He says: ‘Be strong and very courageous.' And a third time in that passage we just read, He says: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged." Now you are Joshua, you were there forty years ago, on the other side of the Red Sea. You saw the miracle when Moses lifted his staff and the Red Sea parted and Israel passed through and all of a sudden Pharaoh's army tried to chase them and the sea came together again and Pharaoh's army was drowned. You were there. The euphoria of God's amazing miracle. You've spent forty years in the desert and you think, "surely it must be over by now. We are just days away from crossing over into this Promised Land, from realising the promise that God made to Abram centuries before". And now God's setting you up; preparing you for a tough time. He talking about battles and wars and being strong and courageous. This is life and death stuff. Is that what you expected of the Promised Land after all this time? That's why I've called this series of programmes, "It Time to Take the Promised Land" because it doesn't get delivered to your front door like a pizza. God's promise of a land flowing with milk and honey is accompanied by God's reality - battles along the way. You have to take the Promised Land. And it's the same today. You know what I've noticed? The rest of the world doesn't want me to have God's peace and joy. The rest of the world doesn't want me to live in God's promises. The devil wants to spoil God's plan for my life and every time God is about to do something amazing in my life, all hell seems to break loose. The devil just doesn't want me to have the Promised Land. Now Joshua could have sat up on his side of the Jordan River, heard what God was saying about not getting discouraged and about the battles and thought, ‘No, I'm outa here', but he didn't. He believed in God‘s promise and he crossed over and he went about taking the Promised Land. He knew it was time to take the Promised Land.   Courage in the Promises Well, here they are. They are standing on the threshold of the Promised Land after forty years in the desert and all the trials, after the nation being in slavery in Egypt. Centuries before, God had promised to Abraham this Promised Land and they are standing on the Jordan and they are looking over the Jordan and what they see is this so-called Promised Land but there are all these people and tribes and kings and fortified cities and armies. On the one hand, they believe in God's promise, but on the other hand, they're looking at this reality. God calls us into His Promised Land here and now, today. There are promises all through the Bible about our relationship with God. Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all its abundance. That's a promise! Jesus wants us to have an abundant life. He said: The Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy, he went and sold all that he had and he bought that field. Again Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13: The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who is looking for fine pearls when he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and he bought it. Do you get the picture? When we give our lives to Jesus, lock stock and barrel, He invites us into a land of promise and He is saying that this land of promise; the Kingdom of God, it's like … it's like a treasure – that's what it is meant to be like. And the promises are so different to what the world promises. Not a physical land or physical wealth or all that other stuff but a Promised Land that is quite different. In Luke chapter 17, verse 20, Jesus put it this way: Once having been ask by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of God doesn't come because of your careful observation nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the Kingdom of God is within you.' The Promised Land isn't something out ‘there' – it's not a new house or a new car or all that stuff. The Promised Land; the Kingdom of God is in our hearts. And so often we feel like Joshua standing on the threshold, looking back and then looking forward, wanting to believe in the promises of God but … they are so hard to believe-in some days aren't they? I'm going to talk right now about taking courage in the promises of God. This is so important because we normally focus on the things that we can see – all the problems and the obstacles that are in front of us. But God calls us to set our eyes on the things that are above; to set our eyes on heavenly things. Look again at what God said to Joshua about this Promised Land. Joshua, chapter 1, verse 3: I have given to you every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to the Lebanon, from the great river, the Euphrates, through all the Hittite country to the great sea on the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Isn't it interesting, he uses the past tense; actually the Hebrew perfect tense. He says, "Every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses, I have already given you." It's a done deal! As far as God was concerned, the Promised Land was absolutely a done deal. It was given and when God gives, who can block that? That's God's perspective, even though our perspective is all about the things that we can see – the obstacles and the enemies and the fears and the broken relationships and the people who are bugging us who are never going to change. I tell you, when I became a Christian twelve years ago, I had so much dysfunction in my life, I can't begin to tell you. And through that passage in John chapter 10, verse 10, where Jesus said: I have come that you may have life in all its abundance. I just let Him write that on my heart. Jesus wants you and me to have an abundant life. And if I looked at me and my life and the predicaments I was in, I had no right to believe that promise from Jesus! But the Holy Spirit takes His Word and He writes it on our hearts and He gifted me to lift my eyes to look at heavenly things. I believed so imperfectly, going through some things, I was so afraid some days and so lonely some days. But at the end of the day, what Jesus did on the cross for you and me was to remove all sin, all of the reproach of the past, and open the door to an abundant, outrageous, wonderful relationship with God. It's a done deal! It's past. It's completed. The abundant life has been purchased for you and me. And it's now time to walk in it. And the point of what God said to Joshua was there will be battles: I have given you every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. See, the promise is a done deal. When people come against us, they won't be able to stand against us and rob us of the promises of God. And God will never leave us or forsake us. It's a completely different way of looking at things. Instead of looking at the problems, we look at the promises. It's completely different. And for me in my life, over these last twelve years, in every day, here and now, where I get my courage is in the promises of God, because when God promises something, nobody can take that away. And the focus of that promise; our relationship with Him, the Kingdom of God, the peace and the joy that flows from that, is where it's all at. All that other stuff - that will come and go – relationships and health and money – they're all temporary. What will last forever is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Joshua literally means "God saves" and that's the same name that Jesus had, (Joshua was His actual Hebrew name), to lead us into the Promised Land and it is an act of faith to take courage in the promises of God. And we can do that because they're a done deal.   Prospering in God's Word Now, God is expecting some stiff opposition for Joshua and his people when they cross over the Jordan to take the Promised Land. Remember we looked at that passage, Joshua chapter 1, verse 1 and the following verses. And three times – there is Joshua with all that he has been through, standing on the banks of the Jordan ready to cross over into the Promised Land – and three times God says to him; "Be strong and courageous", "Be strong and very courageous", "Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go". I always a worry a little bit when God tell us "not to be terrified", you think, "Uh, oh, this is not going to be pleasant." That's often the way as we decide to lay hold of God's promises in our hearts. Things so often get a whole bunch worse before they get better. Jesus said: Peace, My peace I leave with you - My peace I give to you. Yeah man, that's what I want; that's God's peace; that's God's promise, I want that promise. Jesus promised that to His disciples just before He was about to be crucified at a dangerous and fearful time where there would be pain and loss and fear for their own lives. So He explains what He is on about. He says this: My peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I don't give it to you the way the world does. Don't let your hearts be troubled and don't let them be afraid. (John 14:27) We often have to deal with obstacles and fear to lay hold of the promises of God in our lives, I do, you do, we all do. And it's at those times that we grow, when we understand that that's the reality and that the promises of God stand amidst all the obstacles, all the uncertainty, all the things we look at and think, "I can never get through those on my own." That's the whole purpose of God's promises. So what's our part of this? Well, let's see what God said to Joshua. He said: Be careful to obey the law that My servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the right or the left, that you might be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of this Law depart from your mouth, instead meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful. See, God was saying to him, "You know where it's at. Let My Word come to life in your heart. Don't forget about it. Don't let it depart from your mouth". In other words, "don't let it leave your mouth permanently; instead meditate on it day and night. Do what it says and then you will be prosperous and successful." Meditate so that it becomes part of you, so that you start living your life My way, says God, then you'll be prosperous; then you'll be successful. You know, I know so many Christians who own a Bible. "Well, it's somewhere, I think. It's up in the cupboard or maybe it's at the bedside table or gathering dust somewhere." I want to tell you something about the Word of God. I would be a nervous wreck by now if I didn't spend time in God‘s Word every day. I'm in the front line of ministry, my job is leading people into the Promised Land through what I am doing right now, through these programmes; helping people to take a hold of God's promises and the devil is not happy about that. The world is not always happy about that, even other Christians sometimes, they don't always understand. And here we are, my wife and I and the team here at Christianityworks, in a ministry that's building and growing. Three years ago I started recording our first radio programmes. I didn't have a single radio station who had committed to airing them. Nothing. Just this call from God in my heart – a promise from Him written on my heart by His Holy Spirit. And today, just three years later, these programmes are being heard on seven hundred stations in eighty countries. There are millions of people listening. Now you might think, "WOW, that's fantastic; that's great," and it is. But do you have any idea how many trials, how many battles, how much opposition, the lack of funds, the uncertainty – any idea how hard that was along the way, and some days continues to be? We all have to go through this stuff in our lives. Whatever story and plan God has written for our lives. Yours is going to be different to mine. But as we step out into the Promised Land, into what God has called us to do, we are going to go through some stuff. And we will have a temptation to do it in our own strength or to give up or to compromise here and there. And the promise of God was, "Josh, get My Word into your heart. Meditate on it day and night; soak it in; let it never, ever depart from you and you will be prosperous and successful in what I've called you to do." In other words, do it God's way and not our own way. See, in His Word God reminds us of His promises and the Holy Spirit comes and writes them into our hearts in a way that we never could. What soldier would walk onto a battlefield without a weapon? The Apostle Paul, when he was talking about the armour of God in Ephesians chapter 6 says: The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. So many Christians walk out onto that spiritual battlefield and they leave God's Word, the sword of the Spirit, in the cupboard and wonder why they suffer defeat after defeat. That's nuts! God's promises are a done deal. People will come against us and they won't be able to stand against us. God said: I will never leave you or forsake you. And when we meditate on God's Word, when we let it become part of us, when we live it out through faith, that's when His success and His prosperity show up.

John 21:15-1915 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 

+ Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 7: 31 – 37 Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!," that is, "Be opened!" And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak."The Gospel of the Lord

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Matthew 13:1-23 1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a cropa hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 10 The disciples came to him and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables? 11 He replied, Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.15For this peoples heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heartsand turn, and I would heal them. 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. 18 Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Mark 4:1-20 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the waters edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times. 9 Then Jesus said, Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. 10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;otherwise they might turn and be forgiven! 13 Then Jesus said to them, Dont you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a cropsome thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.

Ola looks at the word of Jesus himself today and shares some thoughts on how God's send his people."Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:21-22)

John 8:12, Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” No matter how dark your world feels, Christmas is the promise that God brings hope, peace, and joy. In darkness, Jesus is the “light of life.” Join Crossroads for a 60-minute, family-friendly, beautiful Christmas experience. Live music, candlelight, and teaching. 

Hope Updated: Nov 30         John 8:12 ESV   12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”       Genesis 3:15 ESV   I will put enmity between you and the woman,   and between your offspring and her offspring;   he shall bruise your head,   and you shall bruise his heel.”       Genesis 12:7 ESV   7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.       Genesis 49:10 NASB   “The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.       Isaiah 7:14 ESV   14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.       Micah 5:2 ESV   But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,   who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,   from you shall come forth for me   one who is to be ruler in Israel,   whose coming forth is from of old,   from ancient days.       Isaiah 35:4-6 ESV   Say to those who have an anxious heart,   “Be strong; fear not!   Behold, your God   will come with vengeance,   with the recompense of God.   He will come and save you.”   5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,   and the ears of the deaf unstopped;   6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,   and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.       Psalm 22:16-18 ESV   For dogs encompass me;   a company of evildoers encircles me;   they have pierced my hands and feet—   17 I can count all my bones—   they stare and gloat over me;   18 they divide my garments among them,   and for my clothing they cast lots.       1 Peter 3:15 ESV   15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,       Titus 2:11-13 ESV   11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,       Ephesians 1:18 ESV   18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,       1 Peter 1:3-7 ESV   3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.       Hebrews 6:13-14, 17-19 ESV   13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”   17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,              

With one breath, the disciples received the Holy Spirit. Like them, you too were born to catch His mighty wind! "After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” - John 20:20-23 NIV If you would like to partner with us, please visit: https://myloh.church/give

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ...

Passage: 17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ” 18 “Why do you call me good? ” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother. ” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.” 21 Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him,“You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ” 24 The disciples were astonished at his words. Again Jesus said to them,“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished, saying to one another, “Then who can be saved? ” 27 Looking at them, Jesus said,“With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to tell him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said,“there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundred times more, now at this time ​— ​houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions ​— ​and eternal life in the age to come. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” -- Mark 10:17-31 (CSB) Song: Believe For It (https://open.spotify.com/track/0tlJgLE8ddOq2L2k6YBc2y?si=7b0323649c6448e8) by CeCe Winans, Dwan Hill, Kyle Lee, and Mitch Wong Lyrics: They say this mountain can't be moved They say these chains will never break But they don't know You like we do There is power in Your name We've heard that there is no way through We've heard the tide will never change They haven't seen what You can do There is power in Your name So much power in Your name Move the immovable Break the unbreakable God we believe God we believe for it From the impossible We'll see a miracle God we believe God we believe for it We know that hope is never lost Oh for there is still an empty grave God we believe no matter what There is power in Your name So much power in Your name You are the way when there seems to be no way We trust in You God You have the final say You said it I believe it You said it It is done God we believe for it Prayer: Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12Support the show, a product of Hope Media: https://hope1032.com.au/donate/2211A-pod/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St. John continues to bring concerns to Jesus, this time about someone performing exorcisms in Jesus' name but without being a true follower. Again Jesus has to remind John of the true mission.from Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48At that time, John said to Jesus,"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my namewho can at the same time speak ill of me.For whoever is not against us is for us.Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drinkbecause you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.Read the full scripture passage: bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092924.cfmHeart to Heart Catholic Media MinistryInspire Believers. Evangelize Seekers. Foster Disciples.--https://htoh.us/subscribehttps://htoh.us/donate

Again Jesus left the district of Tyreand went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,into the district of the Decapolis.And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impedimentand begged him to lay his hand on him.He took him off by himself away from the crowd.He put his finger into the man's earsand, spitting, touched his tongue;then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —And immediately the man's ears were opened,his speech impediment was removed,and he spoke plainly.He ordered them not to tell anyone.But the more he ordered them not to,the more they proclaimed it.They were exceedingly astonished and they said,“He has done all things well.He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Welcome to the Word at St Francis, a welcoming and inclusive parish community coming to you from E 96th St in New York City. The Gospel is Mk 7:31-37: Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner      Transcript of Exposition of Matthew 12:1-21 This section connects to and highlights what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 11:28-30, 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Jesus offers rest which is the express purpose of the sabbath.  He says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  This is in contrast to the legalism of the Pharisees.  They had develop 39 laws that explained what you couldn't do on a day of rest.  39 categories of activity that could be classified as work.  They claimed to “put up a fence around the law” so you would be careful not to break the law. Here are twenty of the thirty-nine categories of work: 1. Carrying 2. Burning 3. Extinguishing 4. Finishing 5. Writing 6. Erasing 7. Cooking 8. Washing 9. Sewing 10. Tearing 11. Knotting 12. Untying 13. Shaping 14. Plowing 15. Planting 16. Reaping 17. Harvesting 18. Threshing 19. Winnowing 20. Selecting   Jesus addresses these by appealing to his inherent authority and the priority of the spirit of the law over the letter of the law.   Jesus, LORD of the Sabbath At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven't you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus had offered rest in the previous chapter which was the purpose of the sabbath:  28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  The Pharisees made sabbath keeping a chore: You could not spit on the Sabbath because it would disturb the dirt and you would be guilty of plowing. You could not swat a fly on the Sabbath because you would be guilty of hunting. A woman could not look at her reflection because she might see a gray hair and pluck it out, which would be doing work. They created loopholes to get around some laws. If your house was burning down on a Sabbath, you could not carry clothes out of it. However, you were allowed to put on several layers of clothes as the house was burning down. You could leave without breaking the law because you were wearing them instead of carrying them.   12:1-2  Picking grain could fall under the category of reaping, while getting the grain out of the husks could be considered threshing, both of which were prohibited by the Pharisees.  Keep in mind that this is happening on a Saturday and must have been close enough to town to not break the distance rule of about a half mile of walking allowed.  The Pharisees were circling Jesus and his disciples, looking for any breaking of their laws. Jesus argues against the Pharisees using three levels of authority he carries because of who he is as God: Jesus is greater than King David Jesus is greater than the temple Jesus is greater than the Law or Old Testament Writings 12:3-4  Jesus asks, “Haven't you read…?” This was a subtle dig to the Pharisees who prided themselves on their knowledge and memorization of scripture.  He points out that David, their hero and king, broke their law by eating bread only allowed to the priests.  It was his authority as king that superceded the law.  Jesus is saying, how much more is it lawful for the king of the world to supercede any regulation.  Not only that, they were both hungry.  He's not saying that because the law was broken once, it could be broken again, but it does matter who is doing it.  12:5-6  Jesus builds on this theme of authority when he talks about how the priests “work” on the sabbath in doing their normal duties at the temple.  Then he says something shocking.  He says, “something greater than the temple is here.”  To the Jew, what could be greater than the temple?  This was the house of God, where God lived.  The temple was the focus of Israel's worship, it's national center, the destination for all pilgrimages and the essence of its national identity.  Jesus is saying that he himself is the center of all future worship.  This is what got Jesus killed.  His cleansing of the temple, his claim that he would rebuild the temple in three days was the final straw that confirmed in the Jews' minds that Jesus deserved death.  Jesus was saying that in serving him and eating while working, his disciples were serving the greater presence and residence of God, Jesus himself.  They were exempt from these lesser regulations. Jesus and the church he started were greater than the temple.  His role as mediator, prophet, priest and king is greater than the temple of Moses time.  That's one of the significances of the temple curtain being torn when Jesus died.    12:7  Jesus again points out his operating theology drawn from Hosea 6:6, love matters more than ritual or rules.  It's always better to err on the side of love over laws.  He also highlights the error of their human traditions that led them to people who were innocent in the sight of God. 12:8  Jesus drives the sword even deeper in calling himself the LORD of the sabbath.  The sabbath is a defining feature of the Jewish religion.  They and a few other groups are known as “sabbath-keepers.”  The sabbath originates all the way back when God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3) and was instituted in the ten commandments.  In Exodus 31:13 God calls it “My Sabbath.”    As the creator of the world and author of the law, Jesus had unique authority to interpret it as he chose. For Jesus to say, I am the Lord of the Sabbath was heresy in the ears of the Pharisees.  He was saying, “I, not you, know how to interpret the sabbath law and its application.  I wrote the law, you didn't.”  This was a direct attack on the Pharisees' religious authority and it's what made them so mad. The healing of man with the shriveled hand 9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. 11-12  He appeals to common sense that the average person would understand when he says, “If any of you has a sheep…” Jesus again stresses how much more valuable people are than animals.  Jesus also points out the inconsistency of the Pharisees' own teaching.  They would do “work” if it meant preserving their own property.  Jesus' interpretation puts responsibility on each one of us to figure out what is good or positive to do in interpreting any action.  The Pharisees had a fundamentally negative focus on what couldn't be done.  Jesus points to a higher method of asking yourself, “how can I do good in this situation?”  12:13-14  Jesus goes on to heal the man's hand publicly.  It was a public embarrassment and shaming of the Jews.  He embarrassed them in “their synagogue” (12:9).  He beat them on their home field.  Their authority was damaged, their motives were exposed and their hatred was inflamed.  The Jews want to kill Jesus.  Jesus said it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees wanted to kill on the sabbath! Turtle Illustration  This is a touching video, viewed over two million times.  How much more powerful when we help people turn their “upside down” lives right side up.  That fires Jesus up! God's Servant 15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,     the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him,     and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not quarrel or cry out;     no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed he will not break,     and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. 21     In his name the nations will put their hope.”[b]   12:15-16  What does Jesus do?  He doesn't go on the attack.  He withdraws.  He puts into practice what he had taught his disciples in Matthew 10:14 and 10:23.  When people don't accept your teaching, shake the dust off and go somewhere else.  Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  Jesus just leaves and continues his work of preaching and healing.  Why does he do this?  Why doesn't he have a massive showdown with the Pharisees right then and there.  It gets revealed in verses 18-21 as another fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy about the Messiah's character and method. 12:18-21  Again Jesus defines himself by what he “doesn't” do.  Unlike John and others' expectations that he would judge, condemn, blow away, destroy Roman rule, Jesus reveals himself as gentle and lowly or humble.  He will not quarrel or cry out.  He touts a more non-confrontational manner, an avoidance of publicity and a patient, encouraging type of ministry.  He won't argue with the Pharisees, he won't shout at them or deliberately embarrass them.  Bruised reeds and smoldering wicks.  A reed was used as a light walking stick, a musical instrument or a way to measure things.  Once it was bruised, it was typically discarded.  A smoldering wick was made of linen and if it smoked, would fill the whole house with smoke.  It too was immediately replaced.  The ministry of the messiah is one in which he won't break the reed or snuff out the wick.  Jesus is patient and kind with people who are bruised and who's fire has dimmed.  He is patient with the Pharisees who were deeply damaged and he is incredibly patient with people who have experienced trauma, trouble, difficulties and trials.  Think about the bleeding woman, the man with the shriveled hand, the lepers.  These were all bruised reeds. ·         You might be a bruised reed.  Life has bruised you.  You've taken your hits.  Guess what, Jesus is loving and patient with you.  He won't break you.  He won't say, “I'm done with you!”  He is patient, gentle and lowly and is willing to work with all of us in our bruised and battered condition.  All he asks is that you come to him.  Look to him for healing.  Don't count yourself out.  Stop tearing yourself down.  Go to Jesus. o   Share about recent appointment ·         You might be a smoldering wick.  Maybe your fire was higher in the past.  Maybe you used to light up the room when you walked into church, your home, your classroom or your workplace.  Now all you can muster is a barely burning flame and lots of smoke.  People know when you're coming and when you're around.  You're not what you once were.  Guess what, Jesus won't snuff you out.  He's willing to work with you and help you get your fire going again.  All you have to do is go to him and work with him.  Don't quit on him.  Ask for help.  Jesus offers rest and a light burden for all bruised reeds and smoldering wicks.

Closer, Pt. 1 | August 4, 2024Pastor Bria GilmoreWhere there is intimacy, there has to be proximity.Back to Life ✓ John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.✓ John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”✓ John 10:9-10 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.✓ John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life”✓ John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”Genesis 2:9 ESV - And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16–17 ESV - And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”Jesus came and gave us another chance to choose Life.Life isn't something to be understood, it's Someone to be received.Questions to ask: Is this me or is this life? Am I striving or am I resting?

Poured Out // Week 3 // 3 Baptisms in ScriptureBaptism - TO BE IMMERSED.Baptism into the Body of Christ.1 Corinthians 12:13a NASB13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...Galatians 3:26-27 NIV26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.John 20:19-22 NIV19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.Luke 24:36-37 NIV36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.Luke 24:49 NIV49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”Acts 1:3-5 NIV3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”Baptism into the Body of ChristBaptism in Water.Acts 2:41a NIV41 Those who accepted his message were baptized…Matthew 10:32-3332 Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.Baptism into the Body of Christ.Baptism in Water.3. Baptism in the Holy Spirit.Acts 8:5;12 NIV5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.Acts 8:14-17 NIV14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.1 John 5:7-8 NKJV7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.1. Baptism into the Body of Christ.2. Baptism in Water.   3. Baptism in the Holy Spirit.Ezekiel 47:3 NIV3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.Ezekiel 47:4a NIV4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep.Ezekiel 47:4b NIV4b He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist.Ezekiel 47:5 NIV5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross.

Istrouma Baptist Church (BR) Jul 14, 2024 ========== July 14 | Kids Sunday Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo July 14, 2024 Tim Keith ‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭27‬‬ As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.” Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at his words. Again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished, saying to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.” Truth 1 Good is Not Good Enough (v.18) ‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭18‬‬ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. Exodus 20:3 “Have no other gods before Me” Truth 2 The law is not the solution; it only reveals the problem (v.19-22) Mark 10:19 “You know the commandments…” Truth 3 You cannot serve two masters; you must choose one (v.21-22,25) ‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭25‬‬ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” ‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭36‬‬ For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” Want to receive weekly announcements in your inbox each week? https://istrouma.org/email Give Online Text ISTROUMA IBC to 73256 or go to: https://istrouma.org/give Our Website https://istrouma.org

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ultraviolet-light-reveals-scientists-hidden-bible-passage-1500-years-later (for Luke) Unique passages: https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/pages/UniquePassages  Bibleref.com commentary on Mark 6:5: https://www.bibleref.com/Mark/6/Mark-6-5.html  Thanks Biblehub.com's parallel chapters tool.   Words of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures") https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/    Parallel Passages in the Gospels https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1     The Eye of the Needle (crossword/sudoku feedback): https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html#:~:text=The%20%22Eye%20of%20the%20Needle,in%20order%20to%20enter%20heaven   Camel needle w/Aquinas citation (of Anselm of Canterbury)-- Anselm of Canterbury as cited in Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, CCEL Edition. https://classictheology.org/2021/10/12/through-the-eye-of-an-actual-needle-the-fake-gate-theory/    The Widow's Mite: https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/the-poor-widows-mite/    Miracles of Jesus reference list: https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/ LINK BIBLEREF.COM MENTIONED IN CHAPTER 8 SECTION (“Can't” do miracles in hometown- keyword absolute for lookup)   Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21f: Sayings of the Savior Part VI: Messages from Mark.   All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!   In previous worldbuilding episodes, we looked at quite a few of Jesus' words: the sermon on the mount and the sermon on the plain, plus all the Parables and miracles on our list, and his sayings closely tied to all those.   All that made for a good start, but if we're going to look at the sayings of the Savior, we should be comprehensive to avoid cherry-picking. So we spent the last of these worldbuilding episodes going chapter by chapter through the first gospel in order of appearance, the Gospel of Matthew, up until things caught up with where our rosary themed tour of the New Testament will carry on when we get to the next mystery. I am aware that what was once upon a time supposed to be a couple quick background episodes introducing my listeners to, well, all of Catholicism has ballooned wildly into wheels within wheels, but hey, I wouldn't have it any other way.   Anyways, next up in the traditional ordering is the Gospel of Mark, so that's our mission today. We'll go chapter by chapter, glossing over what we've already discussed and focusing on the Sayings of the Savior, since, you know, that's the deal here.   MARK 1 opens with a description of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist, and you'll never guess what John does to Jesus when He shows up. Actually you probably will because I was trying to set you up with a fake out where John refuses to baptize Jesus but it turns out that initial refusal is in Matthew but is absent from Mark's generally sparse account. Anyways, we get Jesus' first words in Mark only after he's baptized and had an express version of the temptation in the desert. Sometime after John was arrested, we're told Jesus preached a message that sounded a lot like what John had been saying,   MARK 1:15 “The time has come,” … “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”   GREGG Of course we just got a bit meta, since “Good news” is where the word Gospel comes from. A very “Begun, the Clone Wars have” moment. This urgent call to repentance has been a consistent refrain throughout Christian history, with the good news bring that repentance really can lead to reconciliation with God. Shoutout 0.1 if you need a refresher on why such a reconciliation is needed in the Catholic perspective.   Having begun to declare the Good News, Jesus the Christ soon picks out folks to help him, starting, like all good missions, with a pun. Talking to two fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew, Jesus says   MARK 1:   Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men   GREGG When I covered this section in Matthew- we're deep in parallels here- I stuck with my usual NIV translation. Not because I'm an NIV snob, but because the New International Version is the one that shows up first on biblegateway.com and it's good enough, especially when I'm doing a LOT of scripture quoting like I have been with this series.   But because the NIV went for inclusivity, they translated the line as “make you fish for people”, which simply isn't as smooth a pun. I did check with my toddler-level skills and it looks to me like the pun is present in the Greek, so it's worth calling out. Jesus' humor is often downplayed, which is a shame.   If you're wondering why I'm going on about this, well, honestly, Mark is short and we've already covered most of what's there in Matthew. So we might as well take our time. There's plenty there, to be clear, I don't want angry letters from scholars whose primary focus is Mark saying I'm dismissing it offhand.   Alright, enough dilly dallying, what's next? Jesus calls more fishermen–the sons of Zebedee, James and John–but His actual words and possible new pun are not recorded. The next time he speaks he's talking to a demon in one of the healing miracles we discussed in 0.20, followed by another miracle–the healing of Simon's mother in law–later in the same chapter. Then, after assorted other miracles, Jesus goes out to pray by Himself in what's described as a quote unquote “desolate place”. When His disciples track Him down and tell Him everyone is looking for Him, He says   MARK 1:38 Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.   GREGG Though Jesus' disciples did in fact say no to Him on a downright alarming number of occasions, they went along with His plan this time, and another montage of undescribed healings and exorcisms finishes off with the healing of a grateful leper who ignores Jesus' command to tell no one. Mark 1 concludes with Jesus getting mobbed with requests for miracles as a result.   Chapter 2 opens with the healing of the paralytic who had been let in via the roof–a great bit of drama, but something we already covered under our review of miracles. After that, He called His tax collector disciple, who we got to know as Matthew in the Gospel of, well, Matthew, but who's listed as Levi here and in Luke. Using different names in different contexts was absolutely a thing,  but both Matthew and Levi are Hebrew names so the usual Greek vs Hebrew divide doesn't seem to be the culprit here, and what's more neither Mark nor Luke explicitly identify Levi with the apostle Matthew, though the inference isn't a terrible reach over all.   In the end, our main hook in this particular series is the actual sayings of the Savior, and this calling is carried out with a simple “follow me”, so perhaps we shouldn't dive into it too much.   After taking out a section of parables we covered in 0.21c as part of a SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP, we arrive at Mark 2:23, notably without leaving the SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP room because you can also follow along in Matthew 12 and Luke 6. As a reminder if you're rusty on Jewish customs, the Sabbath rest begins Friday at sundown and continues through the day on Saturday. Picking grain as we're going to see here would be considered working on the day of rest and therefore a violation.   MARK (2:23-2:28, NIV)) 23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.   24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”   25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?   26 in the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."   27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.   28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”   GREGG this section is one of the earlier signals of what would become a core piece of Christianity: its distancing from the Law of Moses. There are still aspects of continuity, for example most Christians including Catholics actually do still maintain *a* day of rest, just Sunday rather than Saturday and they'll generally skip the night before business though some of that has carried over in the form of vigil practices, as we'll see when we get there.   Anyways, I've always thought those last couple lines were pretty baller, and it turns out they're one of the few bits unique to Mark, so let's go ahead and hear them again:   QUOTE The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. END QUOTE   This bold claim lies at the heart of what will in time lead to the followers of Christ being seen as a religion separate from Judaism, which is fair enough but also don't sleep on just how much that takes, given there's such a thing as secular Jews and Jewish atheists. There have been other messiah movements in Jewish history; though they fizzled out it's not much of a stretch to imagine a world where Christianity is still seen as part of a wide tent Judaism, indeed there is still a common heritage. But there are absolutely differences as well, principally, of course, centered around Jesus, the Son of Man, Lord of the Sabbath.   That other part   “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”   is the context for the start of the next chapter, serving as a good reminder that, while convenient for finding your place, chapter and verse divisions are not part of the original texts of the Bible, so it's important to not treat them as fences where you have to stop. You see, in Mark 3 we have the healing of the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath:   MARK 3 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.   GREGG I mean, it's a bit of a false dichotomy perhaps, are those really the only two options? But obviously I'm siding with Jesus here, mark me down as pro-healing when one can heal. And yeah, we actually already covered that exchange when we talked about the miracle in our miracles roundup, but the words are important there and Mark is short so forgive me for fitting it in here too.   Mark 3 continues with Jesus dealing with crowds now that word is getting around due to His miracles, and simultaneously He's ordering demons not to share the apparent secret that He is quote “the holy one of God”. We don't have his exact words in commanding the demons here so there's more room for interpretation than usual but the general take on these sort of passages is that it's tied to His time not having yet come to be revealed as the Messiah. Of course, unless I missed something, the specific instances where Jesus talks about His time having not yet come are in the Gospel of John, so reading that into Mark is something most modern scholars wouldn't go for- especially since the general consensus is Mark came first by a fair stretch- but that sort of quibble wasn't much of a barrier for most of the history of Christians reflecting on Scripture, so the traditional interpretation is what it is and I don't think it's too much of a reach.   After telling assorted demons to hush up, Jesus appoints the Twelve Apostles starting in verse 13, no direct quotes there so no need to tarry though interested folks are always welcome to check out the naming differences between the Gospels.   Starting in verse 20 we have the house divided parable, covered in our parables series a few episodes back, then in verse 28 we hit “the unpardonable sin” section, and believe it or not it's not being a weeb, it turns out it's, well, let's let Jesus explain:   MARK 3 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin."   GREGG When we covered the parallel text of this in Matthew 12–seriously, over 90% of Mark is parallelled in Matthew–I focused on the idea of the sin against the Spirit as being despair. But Mark's telling has a bit of context that has lead to another popular interpretation, especially among–Catholics cover your ears– *whispers* Protestants.   MARK 3 30He said this because they were saying, "He has an impure spirit.”   GREGG Using that verse, which at a glance is simply explaining why Jesus said what He said, the passage is taken to mean that rejecting Jesus as the Son of God slash Savior slash Messiah is the sin against the Spirit being referred to here. And though I called out Protestants specifically a minute ago, it's not like that interpretation is unheard of within Catholicism, typically it's a both/and sort of thing, accepting the despair angle and the “ya'll need Jesus” angle. Nor are the two interpretations unrelated, as someone wholly given to despair will have a hard time accepting Jesus' offer of salvation.   Of course, when I speak of accepting Jesus' offer of salvation, now I really AM getting into the fundamental faith vs works discussion. That's faith and works in the context of salvation from sin. We'll be getting into it in more detail in future episodes, but as an overview all major forms of Christianity agree that faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ is fundamentally necessary for salvation. The disagreement comes in whether anything else plays any role- “anything else” being summed up under the umbrella term of “works”, or it might help to rephrase the question as whether our actions have any meaning when it comes to our salvation.   For Catholics, the answer is yes, while for most Protestants, the answer is no. Generally speaking when there are fights about it, Protestants will take the position that your works having meaning, as Catholics argue is the case, means that you can save yourself through your works. Some people do think that, of course, but not Catholics, at least not Catholics who know their onions, as the Catholic Church condemned that position as a heresy over thousand years before Protestantism became a thing. However, the Church is far from perfect, and in the time of Martin Luther, whose teachings are typically seen as the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation, it's clear that some within the Church were comfortable blurring the lines for financial gain.   I've got more on faith vs works and Catholicism vs Protestantism planned for future episodes, and I don't want to bury that conversation where no one will look for it, so let's leave that there for now and get back to Mark, with chapter 3 verse 31 to 35   MARK   31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG Thanks to the Marian doctrine of Our Lady's perpetual virginity we discussed back in episode 0.14, the surprising fact that Jesus doesn't immediately attend to his family members isn't the most discussed aspect of this passage when it comes to Catholicism. No, that would be the fact that Jesus' brothers, the Greek term is Adelphoi, show up. Generally these are understood as Jesus' half brothers, via his earthly father Saint Joseph from a previous marriage.   As for the question of whether Jesus just kind of blew off his family here, half brothers or cousins or full brothers or whoever was there with Mary, while I can see how you might get that impression, it's not like His every action is recorded. It's entirely possible that He checked in with them after making a quick positive observation- one that I don't want to lose in the rest of this analysis so I'll repeat it:   MARK 3 “35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG   Anyways, as is the custom with Mark, we're on to the next scene in a hurry, launching into Mark 4 with the next verse as a classic transition:   MARK 4 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake.   GREGG I'm not going to go into detail about what He taught by the lake here, because Chapter 4 is made up entirely of miracles and parables we've already covered in 0.20 and earlier in 0.21, respectively. We've got the Parable of the Sower, then the Lamp on a Stand, then the Growing Seed and the Mustard Seed, capped off by Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm at sea.   Similarly, Mark 5 is a string of by-now familiar miracles- and if any don't seem familiar you know by now Miracles are in one of the 0.20 episodes, right? The Gerasene Demoniac, the Bleeding Woman, Jairus' Daughter, they're all there, and in Mark 5 too.   Mark 6 give us a bit more food for thought on Jesus' local life and family dynamic. A sign of how things hit differently at home, it's worth a long quote:   MARK 6:1-6 6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.   “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What's this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.   4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.   GREGG Many of Jesus' sayings have become proverbial, and while it's not in the level of turning the other cheek, “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town” has some popularity. It does seem to speak to a common truth of celebrities.   I do like the touch that He was unable to do any miracles there except for the miracles which He did do, which evidently still failed to impress. Of course, the idea of Jesus being *unable* to do miracles is theologically interesting, since He's, you know, God. Of course, God does seem to have had some trouble dealing with iron chariots back in Judges 1:19, so maybe there is some precedent.   But we've got our Pope-colored glasses on, so not only is Jesus God but God is omnipotent, so it's fair to ask: what gives? It could be that old favorite, the translation issue, but I admit my personal Greek skills are basically at the naming barnyard animals level, so I decided to bring in an expert to verify. An expert by the name of bibleref.com, linked in the show notes. Their commentary on the passage notes that in the parallel passage in Matthew, it simply says Jesus “did not” perform many miracles in his hometown, which isn't as controversial though of course it's always fair to ask why God doesn't just fix everything for everyone since he's all good and all knowing and all powerful. But that popular question isn't where we're at today because apparently it's not a translation issue, Mark 6:5 does specifically say Jesus *could not* perform the miracles in the Greek according to the commentary. But it goes on to note that there can be multiple senses of inability, like how you can't touch the ball when playing soccer, or football for my non-US listeners, and yeah, I'm not counting goalies. Anyways, obviously you can physically touch the ball, but you cannot in the sense that it's against the established rules of the game. If that's the sense, it makes some sense that Jesus quote unquote “can't” perform miracles in His hometown because His miracles are supposed to draw people to Him and they aren't having that effect at home. At least not much, keep in mind he did do some miracles there according to Mark, so in any event the whole “can't” thing definitely isn't absolute.   Of course, I personally find it awful to think that God would play games with our salvation- hence my quasi-universalism. I get respecting our free will, but I also know He's omnipotent and isn't going to give up on us, no matter how much we try to give up on ourselves if there's another chance we can get He's going to give that to us. But we have to accept at some point, so don't think I'm downplaying the urgency there.   Anyways, let's get back to Mark 6, now in Verse 8 where He's sending the disciples out in pairs with the following instructions:   MARK 6:8-11   8 Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.   9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.   10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.   11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”   GREGG As you should by now have come to expect, these instructions do have a parallel in Matthew that we covered in the last worldbuilding episode. But it's not as close a parallel as you might think. Often, as we've talked about before, parallels in the synoptic gospels are so close that you'd get dinged for plagiarism, with maybe a word being changed here or there. But here, it basically reads like two different people were told to write down a speech shortly after they finished hearing it. Which, I mean, matches tradition, for what it's worth. The most obvious difference is that Mark's telling skips Matthew's bit about only going to Jewish households, forbidding visits to Gentiles or Samaritans. Though as we've seen Mark's Jesus was already laying the groundwork for some serious reframing of Mosaic Law by taking on the title of Lord of the Sabbath, I think on the whole it's more likely that in Mark's account that's simply taken as a given and perhaps left off for brevity rather than this being a separate incident or its absence being a sign that the disciples were to ignore those cultural barriers at this stage.   The rest of Mark 6 is taken up by his narrative of the death of John the Baptist, where, unusually for the Gospels, Jesus is offstage, and then there's two banner miracles, the Feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water.   Which brings us to Mark 7, which has Jesus… let's see… excoriating the Jewish authorities… then calling a woman a dog… and let's not forget giving someone a wet willy.   Don't believe me? Let's go.   MARK 7   1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” 6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' 8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9And he continued, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 11But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)-- 12then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”   GREGG Note that while there's a close parallel between these passages and Matthew 15, Mark is apparently much more concerned with explaining Jewish custom to his audience, suggesting the intended audience is not Jews themselves.   The rest of the chapter we've covered before, from the Parable of the Heart of Man to the two miracles that give the tibits I teased earlier. Jesus calls the syrophoenician woman a dog in the runup to healing her servant, and he totally heals a deaf guy via wet willy at the end of the chapter. But I already covered both of those in 0.20c, so check them out there for more.   So that means we're on to Chapter 8, which opens with… another miracle! Turns out Jesus did a lot of those! Who knew?   That's the feeding of the four thousand, but you know the drill, we're skipping that and on ahead to verse 12, where Jesus is responding to a group of Pharisees asking for a sign.   MARK 8:12 He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it."   GREGG Ok. Remembering that by a sign here they mean a miracle, we've got the guy known for working miracles getting annoyed at requests for miracles. Why? You'd think He'd be all about that. Is it another sort of hometown situation, where folk's lack of faith is an impediment?   Well, kind of sort of. But not quite.   In the parallel passage from Matthew 16, which I admit I kind of glossed over last time because I was excited to get to the Papally significant Matthew 16:18, Jesus calls those asking for a sign “a wicked and adulterous generation”, which can help explain why Jesus is refusing the request–after all even in Mark's shorter version their motives are implicitly questioned, with Jesus asking why they're asking for a sign.   The typical interpretation goes that Jesus is refusing the request for a sign because the Pharisees have the wrong *motives* in asking. Unlike those in His hometown, they seem to believe Jesus can work miracles, but they just want to see a show, they aren't interested in Jesus' message beyond that. And Jesus for His part, is interested in signs *for the sake of* His message, He isn't there to entertain.   These various passages that show Jesus specifically not working miracles could be taken to suggest some embarrassment by the authors about Jesus' miracles not being as renowned as they would like, forcing them to give explanations for why that's the case. I can definitely picture some neckbeard arguing if God wanted to make everyone believe he'd make miracles known to all and be undeniable. Which is a reasonable enough thought except unless God removes free will, there's never going to be such a thing as undeniable anyways.   In the next few verses, Jesus warns against the teachings of the Pharisees and Herod. Though technically the “teachings” part isn't spelled out in Mark, so it could be He's actually meaning to go in another direction with things than He does in Matthew's version, though I think their teaching or at least their general influence is His most likely target. Let's hear it and regroup after.   MARK 8 14-15 14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.   15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”   GREGG Certainly He isn't talking about literal bread, as is evidenced from His reaction. Also, it's interesting that Mark warns against Herod's yeast specifically, while Matthew leaves Herod off in favor of tossing in the Sadducees to accompany the Pharisees. If Mark is the rougher, earlier version as most scholars currently argue–and as I'm inclined to believe looking at the two side by side these last few months–then it seems like one can argue Matthew's account has been modified to perhaps be a little more authority-friendly in this case, keeping in mind the Herodians were the client-kings in charge of the area in Jesus' day. Check out 0.13 on the Hasmoneans for more on that.   After a miracle interlude–healing the blind man in a two-step process where the miracle is evidently incomplete at first–a fairly intriguing Mark-only one that is arguably sanitized out of other accounts, but one we already covered so I'm not getting back into it today– anyways after that we hit Mark's account of Peter's testament, you know, with the binding and loosing and the keys and all that. Except actually *without* all that in Mark's version.   Here's the whole exchange as Mark tells it:   MARK 8:27-30 27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?” 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah.” 30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.   GREGG Like I said, not a key in sight. Peter does give the critical answer, but none of what would become the principal text for the Papacy is presented here. And again, if you consider Mark as the older account, as most scholars do, it's fair to raise an eyebrow at that. Yet in the end, one way or another, we have a Pope, and I do think there's something to be said for the unifying force of the role. After all, if no one is Pope, then everyone is Pope. But I digress.   Of course, poor Peter can only wish he were simply downplayed in Mark 8. The reality is he does pop up again later in the chapter, in a familiar but unflattering way:   MARK 8:31- 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”   GREGG So there you go. If you want to make a case for the Pope not always being right, there's an easy one. Not everyone gets called Satan by, well, God. Of course, there's a surprising amount of room where you can accept Papal Infallibility *and* the idea that the Pope isn't always right, but we'll get to that in time.   The chapter finishes with Jesus reflecting on what his stated fate means for his followers, and it's, uh, not the cheeriest image. It bleeds into chapter 9 so don't put your Bible down too quickly If you're following along.   MARK 8:34-9:1   34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels. CHAPTER 9 1And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.   GREGG Goodness, Jesus, it's hard for me to keep my running joke of treating the Crucifixion as a spoiler when you're literally telling your disciples to take up their crosses before it actually happens. Oh well.   Mark 9 continues with The Transfiguration, but like I mentioned in our Matthew discussion, that's it's own mystery of the rosary that we haven't gotten to yet, so pardon me and I'll skip that here too.   After that, we have a miracle- the boy with an unclean spirit that can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. So on to verse 30, where we have more talk of the upcoming Passion:   MARK 9:30-32 “30They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.   GREGG Jesus was speaking pretty plainly here, so it's not immediately clear why the disciples didn't understand what Jesus meant, but it's probably related to the way Jesus keeps telling folks either to talk or not to talk about things. There's definitely a focus on pacing the spread of the Good News throughout the Gospels, especially in Mark, and it seems like a supernatural barrier to the Apostles' understanding here would fit in with that.   The fear of asking is more easily explained: if someone you know is really good at making predictions and you're pretty sure they just predicted something awful, you may well be hesitant to confirm that with them.   Being hesitant to talk about stuff with Jesus carries us into the next few verses, where Jesus apparently puts His omniscience to good use in a wonderfully passive-aggressive way:   MARK 9: 33-35 33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   GREGG The first will be last is one of Jesus' recurring themes, and the whole “I'm-pretty-sure-I-heard-you-but-since-you-won't-confirm-I'm-just-going-to-respond-indirectly approach reminds me of dealing with the drama of children, though I suppose a lot of things remind me of interacting with children these days given my current life situation, and that approach is not necessarily one that exclusively applies to children. Either way, Jesus does bring children into the conversation as His next move.   MARK 9:36-37 36He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”   GREGG That passage is one of the more often-remembered portions of the Gospels, in part because it's in all three synoptics [air horn], but also in part because it's a handy pastoral lesson to push back on folks who might complain about the presence of children in worship services. As they say, if no one in your church is cryin', it's dyin'.   Next up we have some verses you might wish had been left off if you've ever gotten tired of hearing “in Jesus' name” a lot:   MARK 9:38-41 38"Teacher," said John, "we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.   GREGG Personally I'm thankful for that passage, because I'm a big supporter of ecumenism and cooperation, and “whoever is not against us is for us” is an immensely helpful sentiment in that context.   For the next section, where Jesus gets pretty intense, there are several verses that simply aren't present in my go-to NIV version, presumably for bible nerd manuscript reasons. Now, the point of the Sayings of the Savior series is to make sure we cover *everything* Jesus said in the canonical scriptures, and those verses are speaking lines for Jesus, so that won't do. Thankfully the King James version has us covered, so I'm going to switch to that for those verses.   So you can tell the difference easily, I'll be switching to a guest narrator as well. Lebron James hasn't responded to my calls, so the King James Version of the King James Version will have to wait, but my brother has come in clutch for podcast purposes. PJHERE MARK 9:42-48 42"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [NIV leaves off verse 44 “44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [NIV leaves off verse 46 “46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, NIV leaves off verse 48 “48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV]   GREGG So yeah, by “verses” I kind of meant “one verse used as a refrain”, but it's officially verses 44, 46, and 48, so I am technically correct, which I'm told is the best kind of correct.   Thanks to the reference to “leading little ones astray”, the great millstone imagery has had some use in response to the sexual abuse crisis, though the most commonly cited of these evocative instructions is plucking out the eye, thanks in no small part to the frequency of admonitions against pornography in the online era. Cutting off the hand is also referenced, while I think most folks if they're being honest won't even necessarily recall cutting off the foot is among the scenarios mentioned.   Anyways, Jesus finishes this section with a few salty verses that initially bear a strong resemblance to Matthew 5:13- the salt of the earth bit from the Sermon on the Mount. I'm thinking I might have actually pointed these verses out when I was going over that due to the similarity, but just in case, here they are:   MARK 9:49-50 49Everyone will be salted with fire 50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”   GREGG “Have salt among yourselves” is an unusual turn of phrase, the typical interpretation of this Mark-only phrase is that Christians are supposed to bring out the best in one another, the way salt brings out the best in food.   We're now entering Mark 10, which- surprise surprise, has close parallels to Matthew 19 and 20. I'm not going to give the Matthew sections as a side by side, partly because we've already covered them independently, partly because this episode is already going to be one of my longest despite Mark being the shortest Gospel. But it's worth giving it a thorough treatment since scholars tend to think it's the oldest and also because if I'm going to go all-out it might as well be with the shortest of the bunch. You know, for efficiency.   Anyways…   MARK 10:1-12 1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3"What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”   GREGG This version of Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce notably does not include the exception for adultery we saw in Matthew's account. Additionally where Matthew focused on Eunuchs for the kingdom–and other kinds of Eunuchs–Mark concluded with that extra condemnation of divorce, with remarriage as adultery.   In the next passage, the conversation changes direction:   MARK 10:13-16 13People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.   GREGG We'll meet the Church Father who was allegedly one of the children in this scene as we go about our big timeline, once we get through this worldbuilding and go into that. But for now, it's time for one of the most inconvenient passages in the Gospels, at least if you're rich.    MARK 10:17-31 17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'” 20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28Then Peter spoke up, "We have left everything to follow you!” 29"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--along with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”   GREGG There is a surprisingly thorough and ranging discussion of the whole “eye of the needle” bit in the digital edition of the British newspaper The Guardian, in the Nooks and Crannies section of their Notes and Queries page. Which I think makes it the most random thing I've cited here, but hey, it's got it all so let's get a sampling going:   First, the original query: The Guardian.com “I recently read that one of the gates into Jerusalem was named "The Eye of the Needle," and was quite tricky to negotiate, since it was quite small. Does this mean that when Jesus said "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," He meant that, far from being impossible, it was merely tricky?” Dara O'Reilly, London, UK   GREGG The first reply is a fairly representative take on the gate theory:   GUARDIAN The interpretation that seems to make sense is this. The "Eye of the Needle" was indeed a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Since camels were heavily loaded with goods and riders, they would need to be un-loaded in order to pass through. Therefore, the analogy is that a rich man would have to similarly unload his material possessions in order to enter heaven. Rick, Brighton Uk   GREGG But then the plot thickens, as William Elsom of the UK is having none of it:   GUARDIAN No. The failure is in the translation. The original word that should have been translated was "camella" which means rope. (presumably Greek, but I am open to this being corrected.) "It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" makes more sense as a comparison. William Elsom, UK   GREGG There's something of a scholarly telephone game going on in the background, as basically every “mistranslation” take offers a variation on the root word and apparent correct meaning. Which is fairly normal for translations especially when there are different alphabets involved, but still, I chuckled.   GUARDIAN I am currently studying the Aramaic language and indeed the word "gamla" (transliterated) does mean both "camel" and "thick rope." Assuming the original manuscript with that teaching of Jesus was recorded in Aramaic and later translated to Greek, the translator may have been familiar with only the "camel" definition of the word. I have not been able to find any reliable information on a city gate called "The Eye of the Needle." -Xakk, FL USA   GREGG As much as I hate agreeing with someone who spells Zach Xakk–though presumably that's a choice his parents made– anyways as much as I hate to admit it, this overall take seems the most likely to this non-Aramaic specialist. The general meaning is still the same, it's not something you're going to get done.   It's also worth noting that at least as of the return from the Exile, if the Book of Nehemiah is to be believed, there was no “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem. And I can state that with confidence because as longtime listeners will recall, I had a whole special episode devoted to the topic from July 2020 entitled “Literally A Detailed Description of the Gates of Jerusalem and Who Fixed Them in the Time of Nehemiah”, which, despite being exactly what it says it is, has been a pretty popular episode. In any event, it *could* be that an Eye of the Needle gate was established at a later point, though really the whole gate thing feels like wishful thinking on the part of the rich or the would-be rich to me.   Of course, as you might expect, there are also literalists who agree it's wishful thinking and would rather cut to the chase. Plus people like my man David:   GUARDIAN The translation is irrelevant. We all know in our hearts we cannot love money above God.   David Porter, Orangevale, US   GREGG Let's conclude with my favorite take:   GUARDIAN “Blessed are the cheesemakers?” Mike Conn, San Francisco,    GREGG After the second Gate-Gate scandal we've come across in this show (shoutout Samson if you've forgotten), we arrive at Jesus' third prediction of His own death in Mark   MARK 10:32-34 32They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”   GREGG Mark gives no record of the Apostles' reaction to this third prediction, unless the next verse is the actual reaction, which is a hilarious thought because it would be shockingly tone deaf. But yeah, it's the very next verse without any transition except the word “then”, so you can certainly read it that way:   MARK 10:35-45 35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. 37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.   GREGG It turns out James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, have massive… cojones. But in the end their reward is understood to be martyrdom–perhaps not what they had in mind, they certainly seem to have had more of an earthly kingdom in mind.   In any event, here we have more of the “first will be last” motif popping up, and Scriptural background for why the Pope is considered, at least in theory, the “Servant of the Servants of God”.   Mark 10 finishes up with the healing of the blind Bartimaeus, so it's on to Mark 11, with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem:   MARK 11:1-11 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'” 4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.   GREGG We'll talk more about Palm Sunday in the future, for now just know that this scene is the basis for that. It's also a sign that Jesus is approaching the end of His earthly ministry, though we've still got another couple chapters for today after we finish this one.   We'll skip verses 12-14 as that's the cursing of the fig tree we covered under miracles--and that's right, it's a non-healing miracle. At least His target is a tree and not a human as happens in some of the apocrypha.   Which brings us to Mark's version of the scene with the moneychangers in the Temple:   MARK 11:15-18 15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'” 18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.   GREGG Mark's somewhat abbreviated account leaves off Him making a whip, which is a loss, but hey, the core is there. As a reminder, and yes, I'll say this every time, just remember when someone asks “what would Jesus do” that flipping tables is absolutely a valid option.   Then, we're back to the fig tree, seeing the result of the curse on the way out, and this is extra special because this is actually an extended Mark only reflection. Including another King James specific verse that the NIV leaves off. Let's hear it!   MARK 11:20-26 20In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Of course, when I said “Mark exclusive”, that may have been a bit of an oversell, because while the now-proverbial “faith to move mountains” doesn't appear in Matthew's fig tree discourse, it does line up closely to another section, Matthew 17:20, several chapters before Matthew's fig tree. As for the rest, the sentiment is overall familiar, but worth repeating so I'll say it again:   MARK 11:25-26 if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Next up we've got an attempted trap that Jesus turns around, Bugs Bunny style.   MARK 11:27-33 27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?” 29Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John's baptism--was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!” 31They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'Of human origin' . . . " (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."   GREGG Mark 12 opens with the Parable of the Tenant Farmers, which I personally prefer to call the Parable of the Bad Tenants since I think just calling them farmers ignores the amount of murdering they do in the parable. But anyways, we're not covering it here, ‘cause parable. So on to Verse 13:   MARK 12:13-17 13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose image is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.   GREGG This tax exchange, which we saw in Matthew and we'll see again in Luke (SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP AIRHORN?) is intended to be a sort of sting operation, with the expected result being Jesus objecting to the tax and therefore being guilty of rebellion against the Roman government. But I don't think Jesus even needed to tap into His omniscience here, they were acting pretty suspicious with the leading flattery and line of questioning. Plus, what does God ultimately need money for?   In the end, of course, everything we have ultimately comes from God, so while I mentioned it with Matthew it's worth mentioning again now- when we give Caesar what is Caesar's and God what is God's, God gets everything.   Next up we've got Jesus fielding yet another insincere question from religious authorities, this time from the Sadducees:   MARK 12:18-27 18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”   GREGG That last bit– “You are badly mistaken!” is a Marcan flourish that helps emphasize Mark's generally less Pharisee-slash-Sadducee–friendly stance, underlining the intensity of Jesus' disagreement with them.   The next section is the part about The Greatest Commandment which we used to open the Sayings of the Savior, so check out 0.21a for that. Then we have a theological question apparently designed to further undermine the Credibility of the Teachers of the Law. This time around, it's Jesus who picks the fight,   MARK 12:35-40 35While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' 37David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. 38As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”   GREGG “The large crowd listened to him with delight”, we're told, as Jesus excoriated the religious establishment of His day. Sounds like a political rally almost. No wonder He was condemned as a revolutionary.   The last scene in Mark 12 is one we haven't seen before- it's one of the few passages in Mark not paralleled in Matthew- and it's one of my favorites:   MARK12:41-44 41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on.”   GREGG This scene is generally called the Widow's Mite, not because “mite” was the term for small copper coins in ancient Judea–though they would retroactively be called mites–and not because the mite was the term for small copper coins in 17th century England where the King James Bible was produced, though they would pick up that name, but rather because the King James translation used a Dutch term for some small denomination coins that had originally been picked up for Biblical use by William Tyndale.   For once, I'll spare you a deeper rabbit hole, and move on from the names of coins to the lesson of the coins.   I mentioned before this passage is one of my favorites. While I appreciate the challenge behind Jesus' admonition to be perfect that we saw in Matthew, here we see that if all you have isn't much, God still sees the effort and meaningful sacrifice. There's something comforting in that for extremely inadequate folks like myself.   On the other hand, there's the lesson that giving out of your abundance may be mathematically and physically helpful but it's not spiritually significant. It's the right thing to do, of course, but an even better thing than giving your excess is to give beyond just your excess.   “But I need the rest”, you might argue. And it's certainly true, you may well have just reasons for keeping some aside. It would be irresponsible of me to sell all my worldly possessions and go live in a cave, as even if my wife signed onto it we've got kids too young to voluntarily renounce the world, it's our responsibility to care for them.   So, where's the line? When do we go from taking care of our responsibilities at home to hoarding?   Well, if you have any money, you should be giving. It doesn't have to be all you have, especially if you've got responsibilities to those in your household, but it should absolutely be more than nothing, and everything is best.   Ultimately Christians are not to see money as theirs to use how they see fit, as something they've earned. That simply isn't a Christian mentality. Money is a means by which you can help others–those you have primary responsibility for first, like your children, and those in need should be prioritized urgently as well. The Church speaks of the “preferential option for the poor”.   I'm not saying you need to become a shell of a human, doing nothing for yourself and allowing your own mental and physical health to collapse- though certainly some saints lives point in that direction. But putting yourself first is something that needs to be balanced against your ability to be a blessing to those around you.   This isn't the last time I'll bring up this sort of thing by any means, and it looks like I avoided one tangent only to go into another, so let's get back to Mark, now in Chapter 13, which opens with a prophesy of the destruction of the Temple, then flows into a description of the End Times– keep in mind from the Christian perspective time has not only a beginning but an end–that parallels Matthew.   It's understandable to want to read this as being written after the actual historical destruction of the Temple in 70AD, but as I argued in my chat with Garry Stevens last June, it's not like it was hard to see such a calamity coming during Jesus' life, Rome was already in control of a rebellious Judea with the Temple as a potential center of nationalist resistance. And that's of course if you discount the possibility of actual prophecy, which, remember, we're making our Pope-colored glasses, so Jesus actually prophesying Is the most straightforward explanation. Either way, a post 70AD dating for Mark is really pushing the outward edge of scholarly dating for the work, keeping in mind scholars tend to argue it's the oldest of the Gospels.   Without further ado, here's a long quote, going from Mark 13:1 to 27.   MARK 13 1As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2"Do you see a

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”​ John 8:12 (ESV)Jesus is the only light of the world. He makes a way to the Father through his light. As we look at what Jesus says, we learn the impact of his statement on humans on a grand scale and on you as an individual.

54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don't know him,” he said. 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. 59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” 60 Peter replied, “Man, I don't know what you're talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly. 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

John 21:15-19   When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”    Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Jim Keena | Guest Speaker | April 28, 2024 A Follower of Jesus Unfollowed but Re-followed Jesus. The Backstory: One day, a man named Simon and some other fishermen had been fishing all night in the Sea of Galilee (Luke 5:5). They’d not caught anything, when Jesus gave an unsolicited fishing tip (Luke 5:4-5). After instructing them to cast their nets into the deep water, they caught a boatload of fish (Luke 5:4-7). Jesus then said to Simon, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people” (Matt. 4:18-20, Mark 1:17). In addition, Jesus told Simon that he would be called Peter, which means “Rock” (John 1:42). And that was when, Peter left everything and became one of the 12 disciples, a follower of Jesus. “Peter could be brash, impetuous, impulsive, and vacillating. His passion often got ahead of his head. There were times when Peter was a windbag, a blowhard. He made these unnecessary—as well as empty—boasts. In the upper room, Peter bragged to Jesus that he would lay down his life for Jesus (John 13:37).” —John E. Johnson The Story:Feed My Sheep When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17 (NIV) Follow Me Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” John 21:18-19 (NIV) Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them…. When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” John 21:20a-22 (NIV) Your Story: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20 (NIV) Reflection Questions: 1. Have you ever quit a team, class, or job? Why did you leave? In hindsight, was it a good decision? 2. Would you call yourself a follower of Jesus, a former follower, curious about following Jesus, or something else? 3. In the sermon, the question was asked, “How do we love Jesus?” The answer was, “We love Jesus by feeding his sheep and following him.” What would it look like for you to do those two things? 4. Journey Church’s purpose statement is: “Together, we’re leading people to become all-in followers of Jesus.” How do you envision your role in our church fulfilling that statement? 5. How would you answer the question, “What’s your next step?” in the growth path? For more information, go to: https://journeybozeman.com/about/ Next Steps: Complete the Connect Card to receive more information, have us pray for you, or to ask us any question: http://journeybozeman.com/connectcardWant to worship through giving and support the ministry of Journey Church:

Welcome to Day 2351 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom He Is Risen - Blessed Are You Who Have Not Seen, and Yet Believe – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 03/31/2024 He Is Risen – Resurrection Sunday: Blessed Are Those Who Believe Without Seeing Me – John 20:19-31 Today, we finish our five-week Lenten series this Resurrection Sunday. Today, our message is “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Our Scripture passage for today is John 20:19-31 on pages 1686-1687 of your Pew Bibles. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. There is no more important question than, “Did Jesus rise from the dead?" Because if Jesus did rise from the dead, then he has conquered sin and death. But if he did not rise from the dead, his claims are entirely false. There's nothing to them and no hope to be found in them. Either Christ is the hope of the world, or he is the great...

No Other King: “No Other Kingdom” John 20:2-21, Acts 1:6-2:41 John 20:2-21  pg. 1,687 v.21 “Again Jesus said, Peace be with you! As the FATHER has SENT ME, I am SENDING YOU.” God was doing something NEW in the world, FOR the WORLD. Acts 1:6  pg. 1,690 v.6 “So when THEY met together, they asked […]

THE CROWDS Resurrection Tour 3.31.24 John 20:19-20 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Jesus comes for those who love Him and desire to follow Him but struggle with fear and lack of courage. John 20:24-28 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus comes for those whose faith will fail, who have doubts, and who need to see before they believe. John 21:15-19 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” Jesus comes for those who have failed in every possible way and think they've missed their opportunity and their calling. Jesus meets us where we are. Jesus never stops pursuing us. Jesus resurrects the dead things in us.

Welcome back to the Jesus Glow Series! Friend, today we will overcome the sneaky things that dull our shine. Remember, Jesus is the light that shines within you. Let it GLOW!