The Gospel of Mark part 3

The End of Religion

The Gospel of Mark part 3

Mark 2-3:6

Today we are continuing with our new series on the book of Mark ,

Livingstone’s and Life water are doing the same series in Mark blessings on all of you.

We are praying for a greater revelation and deeper understanding as we walk together through the Gospel of Mark.

If you are just joining us, the Gospel of Mark was written in the mid 60’s AD by John Mark, a disciple of Peter, Nephew of Barnabas according to Hippolytus of Rome.

Let’s pray

The end of religion

Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements

Christianity the gospel was different, a new way, a relationship with the Holy Trinity that would not fit in any religion, mind set or culture.

If you welcome and believe in the gospel, is the end of our mere religion, whatever that might be.

Mark presented this way.

1 Faith is in Jesus

Mar 2:1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.

Probably at Peter’s house.

Mar 2:2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

Mar 2:3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

Mar 2:4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

Mar 2:5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus notice their faith, they did what they could to bring their friend to Jesus, seeing their faith his response was son your sins are forgiven.

Mar 2:6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,

Mar 2:7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

In the Jewish mind this was blasphemy, only God can forgive sins, who is this to say that, is he making himself equal to God? He deserves death. He could because He is God, incarnated.

Mar 2:8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?

Mar 2:9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?

Mar 2:10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—

Mar 2:11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

Mar 2:12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

You may not have a background in Judaism, or you may not believe in God, but Jesus is the only one who can forgive our sins and has the power to heal us. unfortunately all of us have a religion, something we adopt or create, it may look like Christianity or something like a crystal but if is not the gospel we have to tear it down, because the gospel will not fit in our religion. Jesus has to be the center.

so Jesus said, rise, pick up your bed and go home, a very clear visual that he had the power and authority.

2 Jesus came for sinners

Is very important that we understand who Levi was,

The Roman empire occupied Israel in 63 BC they used local leaders to govern.

Tax collectors worked for the Roman Empire, Rome would stipulate the taxes but the tax collectors would add to that amount and they had the power to do it.

These tax collectors were backed by the authority of the Roman Empire, and they were accompanied by Roman soldiers. Furthermore, even if a Jewish person wanted to appeal to a judge for unjust tax collecting, this was of no use, because the judges “were the direct beneficiaries by the revenue.”

They were despised by the Jews and considered as traitors, the only thing lower than prostitution.

Levi or Mathew was a tax collector

Jesus Calls Levi

Mar 2:13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.

Mar 2:14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Mar 2:15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

Mathew was the host of that banquet, he invited other sinners to meet Jesus

Mar 2:16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

How could Jesus call sinners like a tax collector to follow him?

Listening to Dr, Tim Keller on the call of Mathew

Who is a Christian ?

A Christian is some one who is called

Is not some one who decided to take on a religion or Christianity

Is someone who is called who was picked up by someone else.

Is a Higher power taking over, is not your choice of doing what is right or trying something new, God is calling you to himself. Is not your idea.

To be called you have being called into something away from something else,

Many people think that because they grew up in a church, and have always being interested in church, they just need to learn more about the bible and be more consistent in what they do, they need to go to church more, and read the bible more, pray more, that’s all good but what need to happen is a complete break of our old foundations, we have to smash the old and welcome the new, whatever religion we may have embrace during our life time has to be destroyed so the gospel can expand.

Paul says like this

Php 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

In Skubalon, dung, excrement .

Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Our old foundations needs to be smash so we can become a Christian

Mar 2:17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

If you are a righteous person Jesus did not come for you, he came for sinners.

Is so much easier to share the gospel with someone who knows they are a sinner, the difficult ones are the religious ones, including those who attend church, they create ways to justify their sin, is deception but you can get stuck there all your life.

A Question About Fasting

Mar 2:18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Mar 2:19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

Jesus was with them, it was time to celebrate, and the fast they were talking about it was an add on practice.

Mar 2:20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

Mar 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

Mar 2:22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Our old religion our mere religion will not hold the gospel, needs to be destroyed, repent from it while you can.

3 Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

Mar 2:23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

Mar 2:24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

The Sabbath, or Shabbat, is a sacred day in Jewish tradition. The Torah commands us to rest on this day, to cease from our labors. But what exactly does this mean? What counts as ‘labor’?

So they wrote a whole book on it,

It’s here that the concept of the 39 Melachot, or labors, comes into play. These are the activities prohibited on the Sabbath, a list drawn from a close reading of the Torah and expanded upon by generations of rabbis and sages.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy

The list of the 39 Melachot, or labors, prohibited on the Sabbath:

1. Sowing

2. Plowing

3. Reaping

4. Binding sheaves

5. Threshing

6. Winnowing

7. Selecting

8. Grinding

9. Sifting

10. Kneading

11. Baking

12. Shearing wool

13. Washing wool

14. Beating wool

15. Dyeing wool

16. Spinning

17. Weaving

18. Making two loops

19. Weaving two threads

20. Separating two threads

21. Tying

22. Untying

23. Sewing two stitches

24. Tearing for the purpose of sewing two stitches

25. Hunting a deer

26. Slaughtering an animal

27. Skin removal

28. Tanning

29. Smoothing

30. Marking

31. Cutting to size

32. Writing two letters

33. Erasing in order to write two letters

34. Building

35. Tearing a building down

36. Extinguishing a fire

37. Kindling a fire

38. Hitting with a hammer

39. Carrying from a private domain to a public domain or vice versa

Mar 2:25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:

Mar 2:26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

Mar 2:27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Mar 2:28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Judaism will not be able to contain the gospel , Doesn’t fit, you need to let it go

Mar 3:1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

Mar 3:2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

Mar 3:3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”

Mar 3:4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Mar 3:5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Mar 3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath you can do good and even heal on the Sabath

To believe in the gospel is The end of religion

Faith is in Jesus

Jesus came for sinners

He is the Lord of the Sabbath

begins when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:16 To receive Jesus we need to accept Him as God’s son,

we need to repent from our sins and a life of selfishness,

ask Him to be your Lord and savior, not that we deserve it, but is a gift from God.

If this is your desire today, please repeat this prayer after me? Heavenly Father I’m sinner, I’m sorry for my sins, I repent of my sins I’m willing to turn away from my sins. I receive Christ as my savior, I confess Him as Lord And from this moment on, I want to follow and serve Him, in the fellowship of His church, In Jesus name, Amen!