[Jesus said,] “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Mark 10:9 Jesus’ high view of marriage was very different from the prevailing ideas of the time, where divorce had become common. Bishop Ryle writes about the “absurd and frivolous causes” for which the Jews allowed divorce, citing rabbinical texts of the day: “If the wife cooks her husband’s food poorly… she is to be put away.” How does Jesus view this? He makes it clear that remarriage after a divorce would be adulte...
Nov 24, 2024•3 min
Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Mark 10:2 The purpose of the Pharisees’ question is to test Jesus. Their questions always have an angle. They ask Jesus about divorce, but Jesus answers with teaching about marriage. Later, when the disciples ask about divorce, He answers them in private (10:10). This is significant. Jesus did not come to load guilt on people for their past failures. Remember how He spoke to the woman of Samaria who h...
Nov 23, 2024•3 min
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:1, 14 Many people manage their lives by dividing them into compartments. There’s the work compartment, for business, budgets, and sales reports; the family compartment, for marriage, children, and home; and the spiritual compartment, for God, the church, prayer, and eternity. If you divide your life like that, you will probably feel that God cares about your soul but n...
Nov 22, 2024•3 min
“It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."' Mark 9:47-48 Here are two more observations on the strong words of Jesus. 4. Hell is eternal, conscious punishment. 'Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched' (9:48). Jesus speaks not about the worm, but their worm. It is personal. The worm destroys by eating away at the inside. The thing that eats away inside a perso...
Nov 21, 2024•3 min
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Mark 9:42 These are among the strongest words ever spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are three observations from them. 1. Your influence matters. “Whoever causes one of these little ones… to sin” (9:42). You are responsible not only for your own sins, but for the sins that you lead others into. If you cause someone youn...
Nov 20, 2024•3 min
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” Mark 9:37 Jesus is giving an illustration here: a child represents the poorest, weakest, and most vulnerable people. In our society, the poorest, weakest, and most vulnerable are not just the young. In significant measure, they are defined by race, and Jesus has something to say about this. As disciples of Jesus, what is to be our attitude towards the poorest, weakest, and most...
Nov 19, 2024•2 min
[Jesus] asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for… they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. Mark 9:33-34 When Jesus asks the disciples about their argument, they are embarrassed. Trying to impress others with how great we are really is foolish. The timing of this argument is significant. Jesus has just taken Peter, James, and John up the mountain. How do you think the other nine felt? “Why are they in the inner circle and I’m not?” When some...
Nov 18, 2024•3 min
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here.” Mark 9:5 Jesus shows us two reasons for taking up our cross and following Him. The first reason is that we see Christ's glory. Here is the second reason: We share Christ’s work “Rabbi, it is good that we are here” (9:5). Peter’s instinct is to try and hold onto the moment of the transfiguration. He doesn't want this glimpse of Christ's glory to end. That’s our natural instinct, but it’s not going to happen. Jesus leads Peter, James, and John down the mountai...
Nov 17, 2024•3 min
Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain... And he was transfigured before them. Mark 9:2 Jesus has announced His journey to Jerusalem, and suddenly all the talk is about dying and a cross. Peter has already objected (8:32). He likes being a disciple, but he’s not sure that he is up for this! Likewise, you may be asking, “Why would I deny myself and take up my cross to follow Jesus? Why would I spend my life for the advance of the gospel?” Jesus shows us two ...
Nov 16, 2024•3 min
“Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:35 You go to church, and you think, Should I really commit myself? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Perhaps you have been on the fence about following Jesus for a long time. What is at stake in this decision? 1. Your life is at stake. “Whoever would save his life will lose it” (8:35). Everything that you try to keep, you lose in the end. What you lose for the gospel, you keep for ...
Nov 15, 2024•3 min
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. Mark 8:31 Here Jesus speaks clearly about His own suffering and death for the first time. From this point on, everything is about the cross. The death of Jesus is central to the gospel. This is why He came into the world. This is how He saves His people. Those who follow Jesus Christ have to understand what He is ab...
Nov 14, 2024•3 min
[Jesus called] the crowd to him with his disciples… Mark 8:34 In earlier verses, Jesus was speaking privately to all the disciples. In chapter 9 we will see Jesus teaching the inner circle—Peter, James, and John. But here, Jesus is speaking to the crowd: the wider pool of people who might become His followers. Look at what He says to them: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his ...
Nov 13, 2024•3 min
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels… Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” Mark 8:38; 9:1 Jesus is referring to the transfiguration. When Peter, James, and John saw the radiance of Jesus’ glory. They saw Him as we will all see Him when He comes ...
Nov 12, 2024•2 min
[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must… be killed, and after three days rise again… Peter… began to rebuke him… [Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Mark 8:31-33 You read Peter’s wonderful confession—“You are the Christ”—and you are tempted to say, surely the disciples are seeing clearly. But look what happens next. Peter feels confident enough to tell Jesus what He should be doing....
Nov 11, 2024•3 min
[Jesus] cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Mark 8:15 The disciples are in the boat with Jesus crossing the lake. Nobody had thought about what they were going to do for lunch (8:14). Jesus uses the boat trip to teach the disciples about the power of evil in the world. He warns them, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” (8:15). Yeast is often used as a figure of evil influence in the Bible, so Jesus is say...
Nov 10, 2024•3 min
[Jesus] asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Mark 8:23-24 We have seen what Jesus does for His people. He overcomes resistance in His people. He cleanses the hearts of His people. Now we will see how Jesus Christ gives sight—the ability to discern spiritual things—to His people. Here we see a healing begun but not yet complete. When Jesus touches this blind man’s eyes, he has some sight, but what he sees is blurry. People...
Nov 09, 2024•3 min
“This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Mark 7:6 Look at these devastating words of Jesus. He is saying to the Pharisees, “That’s you! You do religious things, but your heart is far from me. Your life is about yourself and your money. You do not really care about people in desperate need, and you don’t really love God either.” Religion cannot change your heart. But Jesus Christ can. You can ask Him to do this for you today. When Christ gives you a new heart, you...
Nov 08, 2024•3 min
“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him." Mark 7:15 We live in a filthy world and some of us have seen and experienced terrible things. We wonder what it will do to our own souls. These words of Jesus are full of hope. The things you see or experience may cause great trauma or great struggles, but they do not make you unclean. It helps to know this in a world where we are surrounded by sensual and mate...
Nov 07, 2024•3 min
“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Mark 7:8 The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were scrupulous about ceremonial washing (7:3-4). They felt that these rituals would preserve purity before God. But Jesus says, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men” (7:8). He gives an example: “Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’… But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (th...
Nov 06, 2024•3 min
Strive for… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 The Bible speaks about both forgiveness and cleansing. We need to be forgiven so that we can be at peace with God. We need to be cleansed so that we can live in the presence of God. Forgiveness belongs to the realm of justification: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Cleansing belongs to the realm of sanctification: without holiness “no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). For...
Nov 05, 2024•2 min
[Jesus] said to them… “Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?” Mark 8:17-18 How does Jesus overcome hardened hearts and resistance in His people? Here are three ways. 1. Jesus is patient with you. “Do you not yet perceive or understand?... And don’t you remember?” (8:17-18). There was no instant solution to the hardness of the disciples and there probably won’t be for you either. What ...
Nov 04, 2024•3 min
“They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” Mark 6:52 Some struggles in the Christian life come further down the track. You experience things that you cannot understand, and you find resentment toward Jesus growing. Here are four circumstances that can lead to hidden resentment: 1. When you are grieving. “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mat. 11:11). These were Jesus’ words, but now John has been brutally murdered. ...
Nov 03, 2024•3 min
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Hebrews 3:12 A second way our hearts can be hardened is through habitual sin. Herod knew that John was a righteous, holy man. Herod was drawn to the truth (Mark 6:20), but he followed the flesh. Herod's palace was a den of indulgence. We get the flavour of it from the story of the party where Herod, presumably having had too much to drink, saw a girl dancing and offered to g...
Nov 02, 2024•3 min
“A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown.” Mark 6:4 Have you ever wondered, “Why don’t I love God more? Why don’t I have greater joy in Christ? Why is my heart so cold in worship?” There are three ways hardness grows in a person’s heart. First, we see that hometown unbelief can harden our hearts. When Jesus returned to His hometown, He followed His normal pattern of teaching, and the people were amazed at His wisdom and miracles. But they were also offended, causing Jesus to say,...
Nov 01, 2024•3 min
“Let us go across to the other side.” Mark 4:35 Jesus’ words lead to four miracles in Mark’s Gospel that give us a taste of the blessings of life under the rule of God. No storms (4:35-41) Imagine a world where there are no tsunamis or hurricanes, and no earthquakes or tornadoes. In the book of Revelation when John was given a glimpse of heaven, the sea was like glass—no storms. And when Jesus calmed the storm, He gave His disciples a preview. No demons (5:1-20) Now imagine a world where Satan i...
Oct 31, 2024•3 min
“Those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:20 The whole point of Jesus’ parable is that where the seed is sown, there will be a great harvest. Perhaps you shared the Word of God with someone, and it fell on hard ground. That may not be the end of the story, because we don’t know where God will be ploughing next week. When the plough comes, the good seed that was sown gets tipped into the ...
Oct 30, 2024•3 min
When they hear the word... Mark 4:16 Here is Jesus’ report on what is actually going on inside people who hear the Word: Some people are hard: “These are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word.” (4:15) The seed never penetrates this soil. Why? Because it’s been walked all over. Maybe you’ve developed a crust to protect yourself. Some people are shallow: “These are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear...
Oct 29, 2024•3 min
“The sower sows the word.” Mark 4:14 The sower’s work is unimpressive. Picture a farmer scattering the seed by hand, walking 20 miles a day, up and down the same field. He looks out over the field at night and it strikes him that after all his work, the field looks exactly the same as it did that morning. Nothing has changed. He has worked all day, and what does he have to show for it? His efforts haven’t made any observable difference. This is the hidden pressure of all spiritual work. When you...
Oct 28, 2024•3 min
“Do you not understand this parable? …The sower sows the word.” Mark 4:13, 14 Jesus reveals the secret of the kingdom in a simple story: A sower goes out sowing seed. The seed falls on different kinds of ground. The seed on bad ground produces nothing of lasting value. The seed on good ground produces a marvellous harvest. The seed sown in this story is God’s Word. This living seed has the power to produce life and sustain growth. If you’re inclined to think about the Word of God simply as infor...
Oct 27, 2024•3 min
“The kingdom of God is at hand.” Mark 1:15 "The kingdom" is simply the rule or reign of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to ask that God’s kingdom would come, and that His will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven. God is sovereign. That means He reigns everywhere. He reigns in heaven, on earth, and even over hell. But in heaven, God’s rule is recognised. That’s why heaven is filled with His blessing. In hell, God's rule is resisted. That's why hell is under His judgement. On ear...
Oct 26, 2024•3 min
