Tag: God

Mark — Good News of Jesus, the Suffering Savior (part 2)

~ Bob Hayton

Introduction – Mark 1:1

–continued from part 1

3. Theme Verse — Mark 1:1

A. Gospel — (Evangel / Good News, from euangelizomai – to evangelize)
1) The “Gospel” is connected by the “as” in vs. 2 to the quotation in vs. 2-3. The intimation there as well as in 1:14-15 is that the “Gospel” is a fulfillment of something foretold in the Old Testament. — The “Gospel” is connected by the “as” in vs. 2 to the quotation in vs. 2-3. The intimation there as well as in 1:14-15 is that the “Gospel” is a fulfillment of something foretold in the Old Testament. [See also, Rom. 1:1-4, 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Gal. 3:8, 1 Pt. 1:25 and Ps. 40:9, 68:11, 96:2, Is. 40:9, 41:27, 52:7, 61:1]

B. The Identity of Jesus — Christ, the Son of God
1) Christ = Messiah = Anointed One
A messianic expectation was already present in Jesus day (Luke 1). An expectation of deliverance from enemies and the Messiah as King-Deliverer was current.
2) Son of God, this title has OT precedence. Psalm 2 & 2 Sam. 7 join the title Son and Christ together as we see here in Mark 1. Son was a title given to David’s heir, it was also used of Israel, as being God’s Son (Hos. 11:1). But Mark shows that for Jesus, this means even more than the idea of Messianic Ruler.

DISCUSSION: How was Jesus less and more than what the Jews of His day were expecting in a Messiah? How might Mark 1:2-3 help us see what aspect of the Messiah’s ministry that Jesus was going to focus on in his first advent? Jot down your observations.

Less = Not the physical deliverer (that is the second advent). Not concerned with Jewish state and Jews alone.
More = Suffering Servant (hinted at from Mark 1:2-3’s focus on Isaiah 40), Son of God, a spiritual Savior.

3) The identity of Jesus certainly is key to what makes the Gospel good. And the identity of Jesus is a key theme of Mark.

The words Christ and Son (of God, or of the Highest), as a title for Jesus, appear in a uniquely important way in Mark. Jesus rarely calls himself these titles, preferring instead Son of Man which appears 14 times at least of Jesus in Mark.

  Christ / Son of David / King of Jews     Son of God / Son of the Highest  
1:1 (by Mark) 1:1 (by Mark)
8:29 (by Peter) 1:11 (by God the Father)
10:47-48 (by a blind man) 3:11 (by a demon)
14:61 (by the high priest) 5:7 (by demons)
15:2 (by Pilate) 9:7 (by God the Father)
15:32 (in derision at the cross) 14:61 (by the high priest)
  15:39 (by the centurion)

DISCUSSION: What can we see from this arrangement? What stands out?

After declaring Jesus is Christ and the Son of God, Mark proceeds to keep this quiet and show how people are not understanding His identity. Jesus never declares himself to be the Messiah directly. He distances Himself form some of the wrong ideas of a physical overthrow of governments as a result of his first coming. The climactic mid-point of the book is Peter’s recognition of Jesus as the Messiah (8:29). The title Son of God is only at the end of the book used of Jesus by a person, and it is a Roman Centurion at the climax of Jesus’ suffering on the cross. In contrast before his end while on the cross, the Jews derided him challenging his claim to be Messiah.

4. Key Themes in Mark

A. Identity of Jesus
1) See questions about Jesus: 1:27, 2:7, 4:41, 6:2-3, 8:29, 10:18, 14:61.
2) See also statements of amazement about Jesus: 1:27-28, 2:12, 4:41, 5:42, 6:2-3, 6:14, 7:37, 10:24-26, 10:32, 12:17.
3) Notice the bewilderment and lack of understanding displayed by the disciples throughout the book 6:52, 7:18, 8:17-18, 8:21, 9:10, 9:32, 10:24-26.
4) Finally see how Jesus continually asks people to keep quiet about who He is: 1:34, 1:43-45, 3:10-12, 5:43, 7:24, 7:36-37, 8:26, 8:30, 9:9.

B. Mission of Jesus 1:38, 2:17, 10:45.

C. Importance of Faith: 1:15, 2:5, 4:40, 5:34, 5:36, 9:24, 9:42, 10:52, 11:22-24, 11:31, 13:13, 15:32.

D. Inevitability of Persecution 1:12-13, 3:21, 3:31-35, 8:34-38, 10:30-34, 10:45, 13:8-13.

Download this study in PDF ~ See all posts in this series.

The posts in this series include notes from a Men’s Bible Study I’m teaching on the Gospel of Mark every other Saturday morning. I am sharing them so they might possibly be a blessing to others. Feel free to download the lesson sheets and use them for your own purposes.

Casting Crowns – Set Me Free

~ Bob Hayton ~ 6 Comments

I enjoyed my first Christian concert in a large venue last night. I saw Casting Crowns with Tenth Avenue North and Caleb Chapman at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul. I really enjoyed the concert as Casting Crowns has amassed quite a list of really good, rock solid, God-centered songs over the last several years. Plus I was with some friends from church.

I thought I’d just post a video of my favorite Casting Crowns song, which unfortunately they didn’t do last night. I don’t post video clips often, and its good to have a change of pace every once in a while. Let me know if you like the song. The song is from the perspective of the demonaic of Gadeira in Mark 5. May this song move you like it has me.

On My Doorstep: The Temple & the Church’s Mission by G.K. Beale

~ Bob Hayton

I was pleased to find a book on my doorstep last week.   Adrianna Wright from InterVarsity Press was kind enough to send me a backlisted title: The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (New Studies in Biblical Theology) by G.K. Beale.

I’ve been wanting this book for some time now.   A few years back, I  took a course in Biblical Theology from The Bethlehem Institute.   We  used IVP’s New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and Graeme Goldsworthy’s intro to Biblical Theology, According to Plan (IVP), as texts (both are phenomenal books by the way).   My instructor also highly recommended this book.   Then, when I read Beale’s recent book, The Erosion of Inerrancy (Crossway), a whole chapter was devoted to the theme of the cosmic temple idea.   That plus having recently finished John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One (IVP) made me very eager to get this book.

The Temple and the Church’s Mission traces the theme of “the dwelling place of God”.   Beale argues that Eden was a cosmic temple modeled after the heavenly abode of God.   All future temples were modeled after Eden, and Rev. 21-22’s “new heaven and new earth” are expressly a renewed Edenic temple-city which fills the whole earth.

From what I’ve read and heard of the book already, it promises to be an insightful and rich read.   I look forward to jumping into the book in the near future.

Mining the Archives: The Advance of God’s Kingdom

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

From time to time, I’ll be mining the archives around here. I’m digging up Bob’s best posts from the past. I’m hoping these reruns will still serve my readers.

Today’s post was originally published January 9, 2006.

I have posted here the power point presentations used in a close pastor friend’s recent 10 week series on “The Advance of the Kingdom”. This is really a fantastic presentation focusing on God’s plan in creation and salvation as expressed in the Biblical covenants. It is really a presentation of Covenant Theology 101. The presentation is well done, and you can get the gist of his messages just from the power point slides.

This presentation really encourages us with the glory of God’s salvation and His progressive revelation of the greatness of the gospel. I encourage you to check this out, and see for yourself how Biblical the essence of Covenant Theology really is.

Here are links to the power point files for each of the 10 parts to the presentation.

the-advance-of-the-kingdom

the-kingdom-and-the-covenant

the-covenant-of-creation

the-coveant-of-adam

the-covenant-of-noah

the-covenant-of-abraham

the-covenant-of-moses

the-covenant-of-david

the-covenant-of-christ

conclusion

(Note: these were originally used in conjunction with the Sunday morning sermon, so there is some review in the individual parts. Also, if you don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint, sometimes you at least have PowerPoint viewer, or you can download Open Office.org’s software which can read .ppt files.)

For more on covenant theology and a redemptive-historical interpretation see my review of O. Palmer Robertson’s The Christ of the Covenants, which stands behind many of the ideas in this power point presentation. Also see my “Redemptive Historical” category.

Thinking Biblically about Retirement

~ Bob Hayton

I just recently picked up my October 2009 Tabletalk issue again, and came across a really good article by Alex Chediak. I bumped into him a few times when he was a member at Bethlehem here in Minneapolis, and I’ve reviewed his excellent book With One Voice: Singleness, Dating and Marriage to the Glory of God (Christian Focus).

The article I want to share with you all is entitled: “Don’t Retire; We Need You“. In it, Alex challenges those of retirement age to invest themselves in the next generation through the context of their local church. It’s a great challenge that all should consider. Please read his article.

For more resources on this issue, I recommend Pastor John Piper’s booklet, Rethinking Retirment (Crossway). Learn more about that book here, or download a .pdf of the booklet for free.