SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/11/2013 9:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Servant’s Resurrection
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark 16:1-8
Message of the
verses: “1 When the Sabbath was
over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices,
so that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early on the first day of the
week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 They were saying to one
another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the
tomb?" 4 Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away,
although it was extremely large. 5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man
sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he said
to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who
has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place
where they laid Him. 7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ’He is going ahead of you to
Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’" 8 They went out
and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and
they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
The first thing that I want to say is that this will be
the last Spiritual Diary on the book of Mark.
The reason is that the remaining verses in Mark 16 were added later to
Mark’s Gospel and were not in the original letter that he wrote. In most Bibles these remaining verses (9-20)
have brackets around them or have a note stating that they were not in the
earliest and most reliable manuscripts.
When you look at how the book of Mark began and how it proceeds, the
rapid fire way the books reads, the way Mark uses the word immediately so many
times you can understand why Mark ended the book with chapter 16:8, for it just
ends sort of like it began. Another
thing you have to remember who Mark was writing to, for his audience was Roman,
and so that is why He does not go into great detail about things that they
would not understand. Mark ends his book
with the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is what we will be looking at in
this Spiritual Diary.
I hope that this study of the book of Mark has
been profitable to all who have looked at it.
We began looking at Mark in December of 2011, trying to look at a
chapter each month and so we finish the book of Mark in February of 2013 taking
almost sixteen months in all. I want to
remind you that the next book that I will be studying is the book of
Daniel. I will again be taking a chapter
a month looking at it, and in the remaining time during the months I will
continue to go through the Old Testament books in order. We are not in the book of Proverbs about half
way through it. On the other blog site I
have been placing a study of the book of Revelations that I did in 2005 along
with other Old Testament books that I studied before beginning the blog in July
of 2011. I am looking forward to the
study of Daniel for many believers today believe that the things that Daniel
wrote some twenty-five hundred years ago will soon come to pass as it seems
that history is rapidity winding down.
I
would like to go all the way back to the book of Genesis as I begin this
commentary on Mark 16:1-8. “16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From
any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from
it you will surely die (Genesis’ 2:16-17).”
We see the word die in this passage, and this is the first time that
this word is used in the Bible. Do you
think that Adam knew what God meant when He used the word die? My thoughts are that he surely knew what the
word meant, for when Adam was made he was very smart, probably smarter than any
man ever was. We are told that humans
only use ten percent of their brains, but many scholars believe that Adam was
able to use all of his. At any rate the
word die comes up a lot in the Scriptures for we are told that Adam and Eve
died spiritually when they ate the forbidden fruit, and then we see the first
human death when Cain killed Able. Of
course the first death was that of an animal to cloth Adam and Eve after they
sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. I
would like to think that they both ended up with wool clothing for it would
make sense for the Lord to kill a lamb to cover are first parents after their
sin.
Death
has been a hated enemy ever since we first read about it in the book of
Genesis, but we also read about a coming Savior in the third chapter of the
book of Genesis when God says, “14 The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because
you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every
beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the
days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between
you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise
him on the heel’ (Genesis 3:14-15).” I have been told that this is the only time
when you will see the term “her seed” in all of the Scriptures. You see the sin nature was passed on through
the man since the man did not fall because of being tempted like the woman did. Of course the term “her seed” speaks of the
coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ and it would be through Him that the
promise of the resurrection would come to all those who have put their faith in
Him for the forgiveness of their sins.
We
don’t see a lot about the resurrection in the Old Testament, but we know that
those believers must have believed in it for in the book of Job, which is one
of the earliest books in the Old Testament it is mentioned and it is also
mentioned in the book of Daniel. We also
know that Abraham believed that God could raise the dead when we look at the 22nd
chapter of the book of Genesis and then compare it with what is said about
Abraham in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. I want to go to some verses in the 11th
chapter of John to show that Mary and Martha both believed in the resurrection. “21 Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if
You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “Even now I know that
whatever You ask of God, God will give You." 23 Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to Him, "I know
that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day’ (John 11:21-24).” We see here that Martha did believe in the
resurrection of the dead at the end of the age, but then Jesus says to her in
verse 25-26 “25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he
who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and
believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” Now we see that Jesus is the resurrection and
the life. When Jesus states “I Am” He is
using the term that is seen in the book of Exodus when Moses asked God who He
was and He answered “I Am that I Am.”
I
want to move onto the order of events that happened about the resurrection of
Jesus Christ as Warren Wiersbe explains it.
In his commentary on the book of Mark he comments on the entire
sixteenth chapter of Mark. “When you
combine the accounts in the Gospels, you arrive at the following probable order
of Resurrection appearance on that first day of the week. (1) to Mary Magdalene
(John 20:11-18 and Mark 16:9-11), (2) to the other women (Matthew 28:9-10), (3)
to Peter (Luke 24:34 and 1Cor. 15:5), (4) to the two men going to Emmaus (Mark
16:12 and Luke 24:13032), and (5) to ten of the disciples in the Upper Room
(Mark 16:14 and John 20:19-25).”
We
have the probable order and now we must briefly look at the importance of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The
resurrection of Jesus Christ is as important as His birth and His death, for
without the resurrection of Jesus Christ we would have no hope of a
resurrection ourselves. Paul writes comprehensively of this in 1Cor. Chapter 15
where he states “12 Now if Christ is
preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the
dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even
found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He
raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even
Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is
worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life
only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
At the end of this chapter Paul writes about the hope of the rapture and
then ends this chapter with these words, “"DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in
victory. 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR
STING?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that
your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
We
began looking at the subject of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by first
looking at the book of Genesis where we first see sin and death, for they go
together, and now we come to the conclusion of this commentary on the book of
Mark by looking at what the Apostle Paul writes about the victory we have
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who believe in Him and have
accepted the pardon He gives through His death on the cross.
I
want to close by looking at the word that is found in 1 John among other places
in the Bible: “1 Jo 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The verse says the
Jesus Christ is our propitiation and this has to do with the satisfaction of
our Holy God, which is evidenced in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
grave. John MacArthur stated in one of
the sermons I listened to that this word propitiation was used in secular
culture of the Greek’s to mean “the satisfaction of an angry God.” God is angry with sin and because of the
death of Jesus Christ on the cross, where the Father punished His Son for our
sins, God is no longer angry with our sins and to prove this Jesus Christ was
resurrected from the grave after three days.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It has been
said about the death of Jesus Christ by commentators that I read that there is
little written in the Scriptures about the process of the crucifixion and this
is true, but I believe that many people look at this far more than the
importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I am so glad that Jesus died for me, but I want to focus on the fact
that He raised from the dead as a first fruit and that I will one day be raised
from the dead also if the Lord tarries.
If He comes when I am alive then I will be changed on the way to meet
Him in the air as Paul writes about in 1Cor 15:51-58.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Just as the women were telling others about
the resurrection of Jesus Christ as soon as they found out about it so I want
to be ready to tell others of this wonderful truth at a moment’s notice.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:1-2
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is
the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no deceit!
Turning Points Wisdom for
Today: “Let every student be plainly
instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main ends of his life and
studies; to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to
lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning
and see that the LORD only giveth wisdom.”
John Harvard) [Harvard University]
“If you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you…then you
will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth
come knowledge and understanding.”
(Proverbs 2:1, 5-6)
2/11/2013 10:43 AM
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