Masterclass: The Book of Mark // The Kingdom of God
Jesus Enters Jerusalem How would you expect a king to enter his land? The Israelites thought their Messiah would come on a chariot of horses, or something equally impressive. But Jesus, the King of kings, entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Why? Jesus didn’t come to conquer His enemies, like the Jewish people expected. As we’ve…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // The Call to Serve
Relationships Over Religion Have you ever heard someone say that Christianity is a relationship, not a religion? Many of the people Jesus came into contact with during His earthly ministry were very religious, but those same people misunderstood Jesus’ teaching time and time again. Take, for example, the story of Mark 10:2-12. The Pharisees, who…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // The Bigger Picture
The Best of Your Life is Still to Come Did you know that, as a Christian, the best of your life is still to come? To be clear, we mean in eternity. Since we live in a broken and fallen world, there’s no promise that tomorrow will be easy, if we get a tomorrow at…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // The Call to Commitment
Compassion for All People As we begin Mark 8, let’s remember that Jesus is still in the Gentile territory of Decapolis. Even though the strategy of His ministry was to focus mainly on the Jews, He still spent time with the Gentiles. A large crowd gathered around Jesus, undoubtedly because they were amazed at His…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // Jesus Heals
What Defiles a Man? At the start of Mark 7, the Pharisees seek to catch Jesus in some sort of unrighteousness, but fail once again. This time, they saw that His disciples did not ceremoniously wash their hands before eating, and asked Jesus why He allowed them to do this. Jesus responded by calling out…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // Jesus Calls Us to Faith
Expect Great Things From The Lord When Jesus came to His hometown to teach at the synagogue, the people were suspicious of Him and the authority with which He taught. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // Jesus Restores Lives
Jesus Displays His Power to Restore If you’ve been in this world for long at all you know there’s a lot of imposing and scary forces out there. We don’t get much choice on the subjects of weather and erosion, or of sickness and decay, or of death. Every single day, we’re subject to the…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // Plant Seeds of the Good News
Why Did Jesus Teach in Parables? Do you ever wonder why Jesus spoke in parables instead of just saying exactly what He wanted His followers to know? About one third of Jesus’ teachings were communicated in parables! Parables are simple stories meant to facilitate the understanding of deep spiritual truth. It’s been said that a…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // The Family of Believers
People Matter to Jesus Do you ever feel like God is too busy with everything else going on in the world to be concerned about the problems in your life? Or do you think that, because you’ve done wrong time and time again, He would never find you deserving of His attention? Many of us…
Read MoreMasterclass: The Book of Mark // Jesus Invites Us to Join in the Journey
Christ and Conflict The authors of the books of the Bible chose not to bury conflict; in some cases, they not only acknowledged Jesus’ conflicts, but showcased them. Each time Jesus was questioned, He revealed His authority and wisdom through his response. As we read the second chapter of Mark, we see that Jesus Christ…
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