James Reed's FORGE

Today is our first Sunday of Advent. I love this time of year for a number of reasons. Advent is a time that we set aside each year to celebrate the birth of our Lord and King! It is a time when we are to long for or strongly desire His coming. The appropriate sense of the season is one of waiting with great anticipation for the Savior who will ransom captive Israel. This is the attitude of this portion of the season. It is an attitude of hope. Some of us were raised in Christian homes, and it’s hard to remember a time where Jesus was not in our life. It’s that way for several in our church. Praise God for that. However for some of us, we didn’t have that. No matter what your upbringing may have been, try to contemplate your life before Jesus saved you. Think about life before you made a public profession of faith. Think about a life of darkness and slavery. For all of us, no matter when we came to Christ, there are sins of the past which we deeply regret. We were in bondage. We were children of wrath. There was no hope for us. There is a list of sins given in 1 Corinthians 6, but there’s a great verse—verse 11 which states of those sins “such were some of you.” Now, think about the certainty that our salvation is secure. Think about our everlasting covenant from our everlasting God who does not break His promises. Indeed we hope in the promise of Christ!

This is the final installment of our verse by verse study through Mark's Gospel. We will look at the resurrection of Jesus, His ascension into heaven, and the Great Commission.

In keeping with the theme of covenant, we are going to see today what I’m calling the covenant ratified through the death and burial of Jesus. In his book, The Roman Empire Colin Wells states, “The Romans had a highly developed and theatrical sense of the public ceremonial.” They loved the triumphal parade. You could say, “Everyone loves a parade.” What is happening here with Jesus is a mock triumph. Instead of a parade with the victorious king or general leading the line, the soldiers are marching Jesus to His crucifixion. There were 2 purposes for such a horrible execution. First, as we’ve already seen, the crucifixion meant to prolong the pain, and force the victim to linger on the cross possibly for days until they slowly died from asphyxiation brought on by muscle fatigue. Second, the public exposure served as a warning and a deterrent. The victim would be marched through the streets with a placard announcing the crime, and the cross would be placed near a well-traveled road, so that a passers-by would see.

According to the historian Josephus, when Jerusalem was besieged, anyone caught outside the wall attempting to forage for food were crucified next to the wall of the city. The Roman general Titus, “hoped that the spectacle might perhaps induce the Jews to surrender, for fear that continued resistance might involve them in a similar fate. The soldiers out of rage and hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners in different postures; and so great was their number, that space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies.”

We are continuing on with the theme of the acknowledged covenant as the arrest and trial of Jesus comes to an end. Lord willing, next week up to the first week of Advent, we will see the covenant ratified through Christ’s death and burial, and we will see it vindicated in His resurrection. That will get us through Mark 16:1-8, and we will finish with Christ’s victory as we consider verses 9-20. We have seen the acknowledgment of Jesus by the counsel of Jews, and now we are going to see the acknowledgment by Pilate. Based on their trumped-up charges, they now seek Rome’s involvement.

Last week I gave us part 1 of what I’m calling “The Covenant Acknowledged.” What I mean by this is that the enemies of Christ have gathered around Him now to basically ask Him how He pleads to the charges they are bringing against Him, and in so doing they are in a way, acknowledging His teachings, miracles, and all other activities.

One of the things which I have emphasized is that Christians are covenant people. The Church is a covenant body. When we become Christians, we enter into this sacred covenant with God through Christ. When we become confessional members of a church, we are saying that we believe in what this church stands for, and we enter into covenant with each other. Covenant is what we actively do, and it is actively who we are. So, please keep this in mind as we continue to examine what our Lord goes through here.

Last week I made many references to this particular Passover feast as the last supper, or the final Passover feast. Obviously, the Jews still celebrate Passover even to this day. I used those terms in spite of these continuing

We continue to learn about the creation of the Kingdom as seen in 5 parts, and examined through the concept of covenant.

Today is a special episode from the Book of Luke. We will be back to Mark, Lord willing, next week.

There are religions out there, some of them even masquerading as some form of Christianity, which teach people in one form or another to work for salvation. They have a theology which requires certain things to achieve salvation. This kind of false teaching, at its core, does not see salvation as a free gift.

What does the Bible say about such things?

Today we begin our journey through the last 3 chapters of Mark’s Gospel. In chapters 14-16, we are going to see the creation of the Kingdom.

Today we will take a break from the Gospel of Mark and look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son. May this be a blessing to you. Don't forget to share this podcast with others.