Mark (Program #43) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (5)

The account of the resurrection is unique in each of the four gospels. Each one brings its’ own prospective and emphasis to this greatest of all event.  The account in Mark is typically uncomplicated but deeply and profoundly touching.

Here are the first 11 verses from Mark chapter 16:

“And when the Sabbath was past, Mary the Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might come and anoint Him.
And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb as the sun rose.
And they said to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?
And when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was extremely large.
And when they entered into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
And he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You are seeking Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has been raised; He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him.
But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, even as He told you.
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary the Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
She went and reported to those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping.
And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.“

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Mark (Program #42) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (4)

As Jesus was hanging there on the cross for six agonizing hours bearing the reproach of man and the judgment of God, He did so as a genuine man. Yes, He was unique among all mankind in that He was without sin even of Himself, but His humanity was the same as ours in every other way.

Yet at the same time He was also God and despite the fact that for the final three hours of His suffering, God as the economical Spirit had to forsake Him, while He took upon Himself the sins and transgressions of every man.

Yet intrinsically and essentially He was and still is God.  This is Christ Jesus, the Lord our Savior. The immortal Who put on mortality.  And this mysterious and marvelous God Man died a death that accomplish what no other death could ever accomplished.

His death accomplish far more than just the forgiveness of sins as we will see today. And in addition to dealing with all the negative things, His death also release the divine life to create the New Man, the New Creation and ultimately to bring in the kingdom of God.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Mark (Program #36) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (10)

It’s no coincident that the Lord Jesus final night before His death was also the Jewish Passover. The Old Testament Passover commemorated the sacrificing of a spotless lamb for the shedding of blood to atone for the sins of God’s people.

That Old Testament type signify that one day God would send the real spotless Lamb to be offered up as an eternal sacrifice not just to atone for sins but to accomplish a full redemption for all who believe.

1 Cor. 5 tells us that Jesus was that perfect spotless Lamb, the fulfillment of the Passover. And so on that more significant night the Lord Jesus shared the final Passover feast with His disciples but then He prepared another feast, at feast that would replace the passover. For all those who believe until He comes again to receive all His redeemed ones and feast with them anew in His kingdom.

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Mark (Program #35) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (9)

Just two days prior to His death the Lord Jesus gathered with His disciples in a small house in a tiny village of Bethany just outside of Jerusalem.

This little house, the house of a leper that Jesus had cleansed in the beginning of His ministry has become His dwelling place during His final days. Each night He would depart Jerusalem and return to this very humble and simple home. Now as the hours of His death approaches one of the great encounters in all the scriptures take place. Let’s read the account in Mark 14:1-8

“Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to seize Him by craftiness and kill Him,  For they said, Not at the feast, lest there be a tumult by the people.  And while He was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He reclined at table, a woman came, having an alabaster flask of ointment, of very costly pure nard, and she broke the alabaster flask and poured it over His head.  But there were some who were indignantly commenting among themselves: Why has this waste of the ointment been made?  For this ointment could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they were infuriated with her.  But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a noble deed on Me.  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you do not always have Me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.
And truly I say to you, Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her.”

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