Mark (Program #41) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (3)

On the day of His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross for six hours, from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon.  During the first three hours, He suffered mocking, slander and humiliation at the hands of all manner of men even though He was dying to redeem.

But beginning at twelve noon something remarkable happen and is recorded in Mark chapter 15 verses 33-34, “And when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is interpreted, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

During the final three hours of His time on the cross, the Lord Jesus was no longer been judged by evil mankind. He had taken upon Himself the sins of mankind to such an extend that God the Father even had to turn away from His beloved Son in righteous judgment, as Christ offered up Himself, an eternal sacrifice for all.

As believers we cherish this story and never tired of hearing it. But beyond this message of redemption and hope, this story also bears consideration for what it says about the inner relationship of the three divine persons in the Godhead.

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Hosea (Program #5) – On Hosea (6)—Jehovah’s Unchanging Love Versus Israel’s Stubborn Unchastity (1)

The entire book of Hosea servers as a kind of metaphor showing us how Israel as God’s wife was unfaithful to Him even becoming a harlot. Unfaithfulness in marriage always lead to more and more evil and sinfulness. And the same was true with Israel. She eventually became sinful in her social dealing, that’s in her dealing with man. And also in her relationship with God on every level. Not only was Israel given fully to idolatry and sinfulness, but also she was stubborn refusing to turn back to Jehovah. In Chapter 7 referring to the stubbornness Jehovah says of Israel Ephraim is a cake not turned. By Chapter 11 Israel as this unturned cake refusing the admonition of Hosea and all the prophets eventually losses everything, including the temple, Jerusalem, the sacrifices, and ultimately the priesthood and the prophets.

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Mark (Program #40) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (2)

Each of the four gospels in the New Testament gives us a detail account of the crucifixion of Christ.

The account in Mark chapter 15 gives us a vivid picture of the persecution that He suffered at the hands of the religious leaders as well as the judgment that He endured on our behalf by the righteous hand of God the Father.

Begin reading in Mark chapter 15 : 16-28

“And the soldiers led Him away within the courtyard, that is, the praetorium, and called together the whole ccohort.
And they clothed Him in purple and wove a thorny crown and put it around His head.
And they began to salute Him: Rejoice, King of the Jews!
And they beat His head with a reed and spat at Him. And kneeling down, they bowed before Him.
And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple and put His garments on Him. And they bled Him out to crucify Him.
And they compelled a certain passerby coming from the country, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to take up His cross.
And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is interpreted, the Place of a Skull.
And they tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.
And they crucified Him and divided His garments, casting lots for them to see what each should take.
Now it was the third hour and they crucified Him.
And there was an inscription of the charge against Him inscribed: The King Of The JEWS.
And with Him they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.
And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, a”And He was counted with the lawless.‘”

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Hosea (Program #4) – On Hosea (3)—The Sins of the Apostate People, the Punishments of Jehovah, and the Return of the Apostate People

Chapters 4 through 6 in the book of Hosea give us many details concerning God chastisement of rebellious people, Israel. For the most part He used the great nations, the great empires of the human history to accomplish this chastisement. Israel had suffered under first the Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar and then the Medo Persian empire and the Greek empire and ultimately the Roman empire. And as harshly as Israel had suffered under these four great empires that were prophesied first by the prophet Daniel, still God had used this for good. Because Israel will eventually return to Jehovah and be fully restored. But even more than that God had used these four consuming empires as factors to help in the accomplishment of His great purpose in bringing forth and manifesting Christ

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Mark (Program #39) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (1)

The record in Mark chapters 14 and 15 give a striking account of how the Lord Jesus prepared Himself for His crucifixion. Even manipulating those who would ultimately kill Him to do so according to God’s time table and not man’s.

Often overlook in this portion, however, is that the same chapters also record the experiences of Peter. In a very real sense Peter also was being prepared by the Lord to pass through the process of death and resurrection.

It’s somewhat easy to realize that Peter in these chapters is representative of all the disciples. What’s not so easy to see, but just as significant is that Peter’s experiences of failure upon failure eventually resulting in his been striped of any confidence in his natural strength and ability, represents all of us, the Lord’s believers as well.

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Hosea (Program #3) – On Hosea (2)—The Symbol of a Wife of Harlotries (2)

The Lord used the prophet Hosea to signify His own sorrow and anguish over the unfaithfulness of His people Israel. Jehovah commanded Hosea to take Gomer who was a harlot as a wife and to love her in spite of her adultery. This was to show Hosea that the Lord view His people Israel as an unfaithful wife. Well, Hosea obeyed the Lord and married Gomer. But after he had born children to him, she left again to chase other lovers. Once again Jehovah came to Hosea and told him to receive her back, and to love her again. Here we see that the Lord patiently drawing Israel His people back to Himself. With a clear promise that at the end of this age He would restore her. This age of restoration would be at the coming of the Lord Jesus. The Minor Prophet Hosea gives us both a clear window into God’s heart for His people and also an unmistakable prophecy of the coming age of the kingdom.

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Mark (Program #38) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (12)

Ephesians chapter 1:7-9 tells us that Christ’s all redeeming death was part of God’s eternal plan and purpose. Yet on occasion after occasion when the Lord Jesus spoke concerning His coming death to His disciples especially Peter, they continually express their natural thought that such a thing should never happen to Him.

Furthermore, on the night before His death they one by one declare to the Lord, that they would never deny Him even at the cost of their own lives. Of course we all know the story, Peter representing all the disciples within a few short hours was repeatedly denying the Lord.

On one hand it seems hard to believe that after the Lord had revealed so much to His disciples, that they can still behave in such a way. In fact Peter and his failure is representative of all our natural strength and fleshly concepts.  Yet by the Lord’s mercy, Peter and eventually even all of us His weak and frail seekers are led through a process of Christ’s death has become much more than just an objective fact. We must become those who like Peter enter into His death so that we can ultimately be ushered into the reality of His resurrection.

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Mark (Program #37) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (11)

In Mark chapter 14, the Lord Jesus initiated the Lord’s Supper as we know it today and is very deep in its’ significance.

Mark chapter 14: 22-24  tells us, “And as they were eating, He took bread and blessed it, and He broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body.
And He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them; and they all drank of it.
And He said to them, This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many.”

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Hosea (Program #2) – On Hosea (1)—The Introductory Word and The Symbol of a Wife of Harlotries (1)

Do you realize that the subject of the two bookends of the Bible is the same?  It is marriage.   The Bible both begins and ends with the loving union of a husband and a wife.  In Genesis chapter two, the couple is Adam and Eve.  In Revelation 21 and 22, the couple is Christ and the church which becomes the New Jerusalem.  In fact the entire Bible is the story of Romance.  A romance between God and His corporate people.  In Genesis, Adam is really a type of Christ and Eve a type of the church.  In Song of Songs, Solomon typifies Christ while the Shulammite maiden represents the church.   In the books of the prophets, the bride is typified by the nation of Israel.  So now we can see truly the Bible is a romance, the story of a divine person pursuing, wooing and eventually winning the delight of His heart.  By Revelation 21, we are told that the bride has made herself ready and that she is spotless and without blemish.  But she was not always so.  As we see in many places in the Bible, like Hosea, this bride needs much work before she can be ready to be presented to the most lovely and attractive One in the universe, the Lamb of God, our dear Lord Jesus, our bridegroom.

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Hosea (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

The book of Hosea begins the final group of books in the Old Testament.  These twelve books call the Minor Prophets may actually been combined into one book in ancient times called the Book of the Prophets.  It was to these and the four Major Prophets that the Lord Jesus Himself refer to in Luke 24:44, “And He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me must be fulfilled.”  Hosea, like all of the Minor Prophets is a book that is full of the revelation of Christ.  Particularly, Hosea also reveals that it is God’s deep longing to have a love relationship as a husband to a wife with His people.

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