Unfortunately the audio is not available from last week’s Mark Bible Study. Below you will find the introduction. If you would like a copy of the full notes from this week’s study please email [email protected] to receive the notes in a Word document.
The last time we were together we saw Jesus dealing with the heart condition of the disciples that was causing them to argue over which one of them would be the greatest in the coming kingdom of the Messiah. The apostles were following Jesus, the Father had revealed to them Jesus’ identity and they had come to believe that revelation, they were no longer just following a teacher, they now knew they were following the Messiah. The issue that they had was that while they now knew that Jesus was the Messiah they still did not know what the Messiah had come to do. They understood the metaphors, that He was establishing a kingdom, that He was coming to restore Israel, but they did not understand the timing, that His work was eternal, that redemption and restoration were about freedom from the enemies of sin and Satan and that the Messiah had come to tear down the wall between Jews and Gentiles through death and resurrection. To use Paul’s language, they saw in part, meaning they knew who Jesus was but they did not understand what Jesus came to do. Jesus is now working, not just to reveal His true purpose but also to show them the areas of their hearts that have to change in order for them to believe and join Him in that purpose. In the last passage Jesus revealed the true nature of greatness in the Kingdom that He was building, that greatness is defined by a heart that is humble, that is tender and that desires to serve rather than be served. He used a child as His lesson, holding a child He said “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” Receiving a child is about humility, love and thinking more highly of others than we think of ourselves. Seeing Jesus as He is begins the work of molding us into Jesus’ image, the apostles knew who Jesus was, now Jesus had to make the apostles more like Him so that they would be prepared to take up His mantle, deny themselves and carry His cross and follow Him in the same manner that He had followed the Father. When Jesus closed His ministry with what we call “The Great Commission”, He would command them and us to go and make disciples, teaching men to do everything He had commanded; that would require becoming like Jesus to fulfill the work of Jesus. On a little bit of a side note, that piece, teaching men to do everything that Jesus has commanded is what Dallas Willard refers to as the Great Omission in our fulfillment of the Great Commission; we have become very good at going but we have missed that the purpose for going is not simply to tell the good news, but to bring men into what Jesus calls discipleship, defined by teaching men to do everything Jesus commanded, that is how we become like Jesus, that is how we are meant to follow. In our passage tonight we see the hearts of the apostles being further revealed so they can be further changed and healed. A thirst for greatness creates a need for division. Jesus has addressed the thirst for greatness in tonight’s passage He will address the cause and danger of divisions and the power of salt.