Mark (Program #29) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (3)

During the period of His gospel service, the Lord Jesus was traveling from Galilee first north toward Caesarea Philippi and Mount Hermon.  Then returning south all the way to Jerusalem. With Him on this long journey which took roughly three years were a small number of faithful disciples particularly Peter, James and John were with the Lord step by step.  And thorough out this period they witness first hand all the items, including the miracles, the teachings, the healing and His dealing with the religious opposers.

As those who desire to know Him and to know His word richly today, we need to realize that this long journey and all these events were not random. From the beginning the Lord’s intention was to arrive at Jerusalem, the religious, cultural and governmental capital.  For it must be in Jerusalem during the specific month and even on the appointed day that He would be offered up as the Lamb of God to accomplish His all redeeming and all-inclusive death.  But we also need to realize that all the preceding event were part of the Lord’s preparation and in addition for the real preparation of His disciples not just to be witnesses but to be those who would pass through His death and enter into the reality of His resurrection.

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Mark (Program #28) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (1) & (2)

At the end of a nearly three years long journey with His disciples the Lord Jesus at the end of His gospel ministry makes a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Just six days before the time of His sacrificial death on the cross the Lord Jesus surprises His disciples confounds His opposers and thoroughly captivated the hearts of the people of the great city of Jerusalem.

During these final days, Jesus was finished performing the miracles, the great teachings, the casting out of demons even the healing and the cleansing of lepers. For now He is totally focus on the preparation necessary for His death, His burial, His resurrection and ultimately His ascension.  Mark chapter 11 gives us a marvelous account of these six days of preparation.

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Mark (Program #27) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (16) & (17)

The second half of Mark chapter 10 brings us to the city of Jericho. The Lord Jesus has arrived at this place very near Jerusalem, near the end of the long journey He had taken with His disciples. Jesus knew that the time of His appointed death on the cross to be the real Lamb of God was only days away and He would not be kept from that hour.

Twice before on this journey on the way to Jerusalem the Lord had spoken to His disciples of approaching rejection and death in Jerusalem. But the disciples never seem to hear the words. And so here the Lord mentions it again for the third time. But still the disciples had neither ears to hear nor eyes to see as these verses in Mark 10 so clearly illustrate. Beginning at verse 32-37:

“Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus led the way before them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that were about to happen to Him:  Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and to the scribes. And they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles, And they will mock Him and spit at Him and scourge Him, and they will kill Him. And after three days He will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying to Him, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask You.  And He said to them, What do you want Me to do for you?  And they said to Him, Grant to us to sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.“

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Psalms (Program #30) –  The Psalmist’s Love for the House of God with Christ

Psalms 84 is a lovely expression of the Psalmist’s intense love and longing for God’s house.  “How lovely are Your tabernacle.” he writes.  “Oh Jehovah of hosts, my soul longs even faints for the cores of Jehovah.”  As this wonderful Psalm develops it becomes clear just what it is regarding God’s house that draws him so.  For it’s here, in God’s habitation which in His time was the tabernacle but today we realizes it’s the church that we find Christ.  It is Him that we long for and desire above all else.  Of course, this Psalm also shows us that on the way to God’s house, the journey brings us through many stations, like a valley of weeping and eventually to the two altars that reside in the tabernacle,.

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Hebrews (Program #26) – The Three Stages of Salvation

Today we will see our salvation is a journey much like the children of Israel’s of three stages. It has a goal and that goal is to enter into the Sabbath rest.

According to the divine revelation, God’s salvation is in three stages. The children of Israel experienced these three stages on their way into the Good Land. The picture painted by their experience in the Old Testament provides us with a road map into the full salvation of God in our spirit. We’ll look at these three stages of salvation in today’s life study of the Bible.

Hebrews is a New Testament book but it draws upon many Old Testament types and pictures to convey it’s New Testament message. We’re going to follow the exodus of the Israelites today.  A quick sketch of this story including the parallel to the three parts of man as they related to the three stages that the children of Israel passed through…

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