The Caldwell Commentaries Podcast

In this lesson, we further discuss the Lord's "Ordination Sermon" to His men.  We discuss the men in their groups of four and then in the pairs by which they were sent forth.  Also important is why they were to travel in pairs - we talk about the various wise reasons for that.  Jesus explains to them what their ministry was to be, as well as the message they were to give and the miracles they would be empowered to perform.  So, too, He talked about their "means" (to trust God to provide) and their method(s) they were to use as they went to towns and cities and stayed in homes, etc. 

There is a lot of practical information for us today as we go forth in the name of Christ, proclaiming Him to those of our communities and beyond!

Matthew 9:35-10:42.  This is the record of the very first ordination that ever took place among those who would serve as the foundational, living stones of Church, the lord's Apostles.  In the fourth recorded sermon of Christ's ministry, He gave the ordination charge to His men before sending them out, in pairs, on their first mission venture without Him.  

To this point in His ministry, Jesus was doing everything (teaching, healing, preaching) on His own.  His men were merely observers and learners, but not participators in His works.  They needed to learn how to also become directly involved as "laborers" in the ministry of sowing seed and harvesting souls for the Kingdom of God.  The Lord's time with them was getting short.  They needed to have some "hands-on" training!

There are two kinds of blindness that afflict the human race: physical and spiritual.  The Lord encountered both types in this lesson, "Binding Blindness".  He healed the physically blind eyes of two man whose eyes may have seen nothing, but whose spiritual "eyes" were enlightened to "see" the Light of Christ!

The Lord also encountered the spiritual blindness that abundantly existed in Israel, particularly among the citizens of His hometown of Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6a).  Sadly, Jesus encountered far more cases of spiritual blindness than ALL the other types of physical deficiencies and diseases put together!

There are two miracles discussed in this lesson: the miracle of sight to two blind men (Matthew 9:29) and the miracle of healing a dumb demonian (Matthew 9:33).

Mark 5:25-34 (also Matthew 9:20-22 and Luke 8:43-48) is the record of the Lord's encounter, as He was on His way to Jairus' house to see his 12-year old daughter, who was dying, with a woman who suffered from an issue of blood for 12 years.  Not only did the woman suffer physically (never finding any physician who could help her), but she also emotionally and socially.  Her ailment made her ceremonially unclean, so in Jewish society this meant she would be excluded from all social gatherings, including to worship in her local synagogue.

The woman heard about Jesus and His incredible healing powers.  Thus, when she found out He was in her hometown of Capernaum, she carefully joined the thronging crowd around Him as He made His way to Jairus' house.  She believed that if she could just reach out and slightly touch His clothing (not Him), that she would be made whole!  When she managed to touch the hem of the Lord's clothes, the Lord felt power issue forth from Him.  He knew someone had reached out to Him in faith, and when the woman came forward to share "all the truth" about her situation and what she had done in secretly touching His garment, the Lord, on the only occasion in the gospel accounts, called her "Daughter".  Then He said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole" (5:34).   It is a beautiful story about our Great Physician!

Mark 5:22-24, 35:45 (also Matthew 9:18, 19, 23-26; Luke 8:40-42, 49-56).  This is the account of the "healing" by Jesus of the third humanly incurable situation in Mark chapter 5 (the first two were the healing of dehumanized demoniacs - Lesson #61 and the healing of the disgraced daughter of Israel - Lesson #62a).  The third consecutive healing miracle of the Great Physician (Jesus) in this chapter was the most "incurable" of all.  Jairus' dying 12-year old daughter actually died before Jesus made it to the home.  After the delay with the woman with issue of blood, the Lord arrived "too late" (it would seem), for the little girl was dead and the professional mourners had already arrived!  

If you don't already know this story, you will be richly blessed; if you do already know it, you will also be richly blessed.  Why?  Because we can never hear enough how our Great Physician Saviour, Who is incarnate God, can "heal" every humanly incurable situation, including the worst of all, death!  Halleluiah!

Mark 5:1-20.  The fifth chapter of Mark is often referred to as the Bible chapter for "incurables" because it contains the written record of Christ's confrontations with three humanly incurable cases.

First, He had "a divine appointment" with two men who were mentally deranged because of demonic possession.  That will be the subject of this first of a three-part study on "The Great Physician". 

The Lord's second encounter was with a physically disabled woman who had gone to every doctor she could find, and none could cure her of the issue of blood that plagued her for 12 years.  The third situation was the most "incurable" of all, from the human perspective,  It was death, in this case it was the death of a 12-year old girl, the daughter of a man named Jairus.  Both of these situations will be discussed in the second part of this study (see Lesson #61a and b).

The three humanly incurable situations of Mark 5 picture man's incurable situation regarding sin.  Apart from the healing/saving power of the Great Physician (Jesus Christ), men are the hopeless, helpless victims of Satan (first case of this chapter), of disease (second case), and of death (third case).  

America, and, in fact, the world, is in the midst of a "storm" this very hour.  These are unsettling times as we face the potential for World War III or some kind of nuclear or cyber attack, terrible inflation, open borders, anti-Semitism on the rise, inflated grocery prices, the continual possibility of another pandemic, government corruption on every level, the dangers of AI technology in the hands of evil people, the expansion of extreme Islam and Communism into the Western world, the push for globalism, the apostacy of much of Christendom ... and on and on.  How are Christians to respond?  Well, actually, the same way we should respond to all the rest of life's storms!  It is often said if you are not in a storm, it is either because you have just come through one or one is waiting ahead!  Storms are a natural part of living in a sin-cursed world.  There is no way to avoid them, but there is a very calm way to "ride them out" free of fear and full of faith - not faith in ourselves (or we will surely sink); not faith in all the resources of government and science (we will still sink, for there are storms greater than mankind's combined intelligence and strength), but faith in the one Person Who is able to guide us safely through any and all storms. 

There is no reason to fear the furies and floods of life if you have invited Jesus Christ "on board" to be the Captain of your ship!  He will see you safely to your final destination, no matter what is happening in your personal life or in the world today.

This lesson comes in our "Caldwell Commentary" series "Life of Christ Vol. 3" (available through www.scripturetruth.com   and Amazon.com

From Matthew 13:44-52, the Lord continued to teach what theologians call "The Mystery Parables Discourse".  In the next two parables: "The Parable of the Hidden Treasure" and "The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price," He spoke of what God Himself would gain during the intermediate stage of His Kingdom.  He would gain a precious treasure and a valuable pearl.  

In the seventh parable, "The Parable of the Dragnet" (13:47-50), the Lord spoke of the judgment that would come at the consummation of the mystery form of the Kingdom, when He would return to establish the Messianic form of the Kingdom offered at His First Coming - but postponed because of Israel's rejection of Him, the King.  The judgment will be a time of separation (wheat from tares; good fish from bad fish).

Matthew 13 ends with "The Parable of the Householder," by which Christ charged His disciples with personal responsibility to generously distribute both the old and new truths they were so very privileged to have!

In this lesson from Matthew 13:24-43, the Lord Jesus fulfilled another Messianic prophecy, which is that the coming Messiah would speak in parables (Psalm 78:2), for in teaching His men on the inter-advent Kingdom of God on earth (roughly equivalent to the Church Age), He gave seven parables.  It was followed with an eighth parable, not directly related to the others, but one that taught a Biblical principle: with understanding comes responsibility (see "The Parable of the Householder" in Lesson #59).

We discuss the reason the Lord often taught by way of parables before we then get into an indepth look at three important parables which shed a lot of light on the current age of Christendom.  They are (1) "The Parable of the Wheat and Tares," (2) "The Parable of the Mustard Seed," and (3) "The Parable of the Leaven Hidden in Meal".  We spend valuable time explaining the varied interpretations of these parables, always settling on the one that best fits the context, the original meaning of the Greek, and the rest of Scripture.

This is the second half of our study of "The Parable of the Sower" and the four types of human heart types upon which the Seed (God's Word) is sown!