Tag Archives: Gospel of Mark

Joseph: An example of Faith at the Cross of Jesus

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A sample of lessons that will be taught on an upcoming trip to Liberia to teach at a Pastor’s Conference with CrossWay

It is Friday around 3pm and Jesus is pronounced dead. The long awaited Messiah who would regather the Jews and restore Israel is hanging on a cross. Didn’t He say He was the King of the Jews? Didn’t He say the kingdom was at hand? Where is the kingdom? How can a dead King reign?

When all of Jesus followers had denied and deserted Him (Mark 14:50, 14:66-72; Matt 26:55-56), and even the women who supported Him were at a distance (Mark 15:40-41;Luke 23:49), an unexpected person comes forward to insure Jesus’ body is properly handled. Continue reading →

Faith and Signs a lesson from the Cross of Jesus

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Dawkins at the University of Texas at Austin

What is faith? Many define faith as “blind trust” or irrational beliefs:

[Faith] means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. … The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. Blind faith can justify anything. (Dawkins, the Selfish Gene, 198)

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence (Dawkins)

Is faith really blind? Continue reading →

Challenged to Follow

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This post is part of a series on the Gospel of Mark based on classes I am teaching.

In chapter 1 we are introduced to Jesus and the start of His earthly ministry. One of the themes in this part of the narrative is that Jesus is growing in popularity.

So the news about him spread quickly throughout all the region around Galilee. … so that Jesus was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:28, 45 NET)

The people are amazed at His authoritative teaching and His authority over the demons and diseases so they are coming out to Him so that they can be made well. However Jesus does not stay in any one place to long and enjoy His “rock-star” status. He continues to move from village to village focusing on His primary mission which is to proclaim the good news (1:14-15, 38).

Chapter 2 picks up where chapter 1 left off noting the popularity of Jesus and His focus on preaching: Continue reading →