Mark 9:2-29
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Mountain Top Glory and the Descent audio (4MB)
Mountains play a large part in the history of Israel. It was on a mountain that Abraham proved his faith in God in preparing to offer his son Isaac to God as a sacrifice. It was on a mountain top that God showed Abraham all the land of Canaan and promised him all he could see in every direction. It was on a mountain that Moses encountered God for the first time and then later received the 10 commandments; and on the same mountain God later revealed himself to Moses. It was on a mountain that Elijah overcame the prophets of Baal and on a different mountain again that he encountered God himself. And of course Jerusalem was established on Mt Zion. So it’s not by chance that Jesus takes his inner circle up a mountain to witness what will be a most significant moment in their apprenticeship.
He takes them up a high mountain by themselves. This is not for the crowds to witness – not even for the other 9 disciples. This is an event that’s mainly for him but that needs to be witnessed by these three so they can tell people about it after his resurrection.
Series: 41: Mark 8-12 - Why Did Jesus Come?
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Why Did Jesus Come?
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Physical & Spiritual Perception |
Mk 8:22-9:1 |
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Mountain Top Glory & The Descent |
Mk 9:2-29 |
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Jesus Death & Discipleship |
Mk 9:30-50 |
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The Key to Gaining the Kingdom |
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Jerusalem Looms Ahead |
Mk 10:32-52 |
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Jesus Enters Jerusalem |
Mk 11:1-25 |
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Debate In The Temple |
Mk 11:27-33; 12:28-34 |
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Living in the Vineyard |
Mk 12:1-12 |
Mark 8:22-9:1
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Physical & Spiritual Perception audio (5MB)
Last week I had an experience I’m not keen to repeat anytime soon. I had to go into VicRoads. After forty-five minutes I was still waiting for my number to be called. I don’t know how you pass the time in situations like that, but I found myself trying the eye-testing charts that they had up behind every counter. Even sitting far away I found I could do pretty well. The sad truth though is that if I took my glasses off, I couldn’t even see the charts, let alone the letters on them!
Mark 7:24-37
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Faith of Foreigners audio (4MB) Save
In the previous section of Mark 7 Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees over the issue of washing hands. He responds by pointing out that their reliance on their traditions has blinded them to the much more central issue of purity of heart.
He points out to them that washing your hands won't make you clean. You first need to be clean on the inside. The Pharisees were too concerned with outward appearances and not enough with inward reality.
Well in today's reading Jesus leaves the region of Galilee and travels to the region of Tyre, over on the Mediterranean Sea in what's now modern Lebanon. Now I don't think he's just going off for a few days at the beach to rest and recuperate as you or I might. Rather he seems to be getting away from the places where the Pharisees can come and speak against him; perhaps even try to kill him.
He goes there incognito, obviously trying to avoid the attention of the locals. Perhaps he wanted to escape all the attention, hoping to have a break from the constant demands for healing that he'd experienced back in Galilee. But when he gets there he encounters someone who reflects exactly what he's just been saying to the Pharisees: a woman who would have been considered unclean by the Jews and yet who shows that on the inside she has a pure heart of faith in Jesus.
Mark 7:1-23
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Secret to Purity audio (4MB)
I wonder how many of you have been watching the series “Meet the Amish” on SBS over the last 4 weeks. It’s been fascinating to watch a group of Amish young people experiencing the wider world after living a very sheltered life surrounded by a family and community dedicated to maintaining a complete purity of life.
There’s much to admire in the principles they’ve grown up with in their community. They have good reasons for doing things differently from the rest of the world. Yet at the same time I wonder whether the lengths they’ve gone to, to keep themselves pure, are actually necessary or, for that matter, enough.
Of course, God’s people through the ages have always looked for ways of maintaining their purity of life by external structures and rules. The Jews developed a whole range of rules and regulations to govern everyday life, to help people be sure they were being faithful to God in every circumstance. But it didn’t stop with the Jews. The monastic movement in the Medieval Church developed various rules of life to help Christians structure their lives around the worship of God. So in one version, the day was broken up into periods of work or rest separated by times of prayer - not unlike the Muslim prayer times in fact.
In the reformation many of these practices were abandoned because they were thought to promote religion rather than faith. But then they were replaced by other rules that were there to help people stay away from temptation and to remain faithful to God. The Amish come out of that period of time.
In more recent times evangelical Christians have created other rules of life. The daily “quiet time’, reading the Bible and praying, at one stage became a law rather than simply an encouragement to faith. Certain behaviours were considered to be not acceptable: gambling, swearing, smoking, drinking alcohol - particularly beer; even dancing and going to the movies was considered questionable by some when I was growing up.
Mark 6:30-56
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Food and Water audio (5MB)
It’s good to be back, after our little trip to Queensland. We had a great time away, visiting family and enjoying lots of fantastic weather. I can’t say we’ve returned well rested, as Micah & Joshua decided that since the sun rises sometime around 5am, that would be a good time for them to start the day too. And our last 24 hours were something of a disaster, with two trips to the hospital. So it’s good to be home, back into regular routines and it’s especially good to be back with our church family.
Just as we’ve returned, our passage today starts with the disciples returning. You might recall from last week, that Jesus has just sent them out on a short-term mission trip. He gave them power over the unclean spirits and sent them out in pairs. They went out and cast out demons, healed the sick and proclaimed the good news about Jesus, calling people to repent. Jesus trusted them to join in his mission, his work and he even shared his power with them so they could do so. By all accounts they’ve been successful. Now, in verse 30 they’ve come back. There’s a lot of energy and excitement as they gather around Jesus. You can imagine them all pumped up, eager to tell him everything that they’ve done, all that they accomplished in his name. But they can’t quite do this. Mark says there were so many people around them, the crowd is so large the disciples couldn’t even sit down to share a meal with Jesus.
Mark 6:1-13
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- Written by: Ivy Wong
Many successful people have been rejected.
For example, Woolworth’s founder Frank Winfield Woolworth.
He was not allowed to wait on customers when he worked in a dry goods store; his boss said he lacked the sense needed to do so.
Soichiro Honda is the founder of the Honda company, one of the well-known large car companies. When Mr Honda went for a job interview to work for the Toyota Company as an engineer, he was rejected and was told that he was not fit for the job!
Walt Disney was hired to work at the Kansas City Star newspaper. He was later fired from the paper for his “lack of creativity”.
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 years old and did not read until he was 7. His parents and teacher thought he was “sub –normal” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable.”
Thomas Edison: his teacher said he was “too stupid to learn anything”
Beethoven, his music teacher once said of him "as a composer, he is hopeless".
Jesus did so many miracles; including healing the sick, calmed the wind and sea and brought people back to life. Yet he was rejected by people in his home town.
Jesus is just like these famous people, people rejected them just because they didn’t have faith in them. They didn’t trust them.
Why’s that?
Let’s find it out from today’s bible passage.
