Looking for Jesus according to Mark

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- Then he goes into a house, and again the crowd gathers, so that they are not even able to eat a meal.

- Another big difference, serving Yah.weh with PLENTY OF ZEAL which is perpetual motion and life itself like a devouring and consuming fire!

- A devouring and consuming fire!

- In comparison this world is tasteless!

- If we remember Jesus in the temple when he was 12 or later when chasing the merchants, there is always this burning fire, this incredible strength!

- Then you may wonder what faith is!

- How can we feed it to develop the same strength?

- How can we fuel it to develop the same strength?

- In the Bible there is no difference between visions and dreams!

- The quality of our faith must make us see and hear what others can’t see and hear!

- We must be special!

- It is not possible to be normal when we see such a zeal!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- The scribes say Jesus expels the demons by means of the ruler of the demons!

- How is it possible to be so ignorant? Through man’s tradition? And they can see all his miracles! How is it possible? Unfortunately, everything can happen in this world again and again!

- How is it possible to be so stupid?

- This kind of stupidity is normal today!

- That’s modernity!

- Superficiality!

- No more senses!

- Only man’s tradition!

- No more sharpness of thought!

- So why 66 books?

- Why so much diversity?

- Why so few faithful servants of Yah.weh making shining so much faithfulness among so much darkness?

- Unbelievable!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 4:

Then he adds: “Let the one who has ears listen, listen.”

- How do they want people to listen to them if they are not able to listen themselves!

- Jesus is able to speak and listen at the same time that is why he goes directly to the point!

- It is hard to learn how to listen carefully but it is easy to speak for nothing!

- In fact, first it is necessary to listen carefully and second you can speak meaningful words!

- The reverse doesn’t work!

- It is the same when studying, you need to deeply penetrate the context, otherwise you will only bring what is superficial!

- Can we learn how to hear with the brain?

- Can we learn how to see with the brain?

- Can we learn how to smell with the brain?

- Can we learn how to touch with the brain?

- Can we learn how to taste with the brain?

- Can we learn how to get inside?

- It is a never-ending trip!

- There is no frontier for the one who really wants to learn!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 4:

- Jesus tells us about receiving more when we have and being taken away when we have nothing!

- Religious leaders have nothing to offer, they lead people to destruction: that’s what we find in the Bible!

- But if they have nothing to offer, it means that those who follow them won’t receive anything from them except destruction! So we must be careful about what we do if we don’t want to pay the price!

- Think about what happens when parents don’t educate their children and look at the world today: the result is clear!

- Receiving more implies making efforts to learn more and more!

- We must never be satisfied!

- We must never be superficial!

- We must always give arguments!

- We must not speak emptiness!

- We must not speak empty words!

- We must not speak for nothing!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders


Mark 6:

On the Sabbath, Jesus starts teaching in the synagogue, and most who hear him are astounded!

- They don’t understand such wisdom!

- They don’t understand such powerful works!

- Because he is the son of the carpenter and of Mary!

- And they know his brothers and sisters!

- They clearly don’t want to listen and understand Jesus’ words!

- Of course, they don’t accept him because he didn’t go to their schools!

- And he doesn’t speak according to their own interests!

- So they are ready to find any excuse!

- They can hear his teaching and see his miracles, but no!

- They have their own decisions, their own responsibilities, their own choices!

- We can’t let others make decisions for us and decide for us!

- We must understand!

- We must see!

- We must hear!

- We must act!

- We must demonstrate our faithfulness!

- We must demonstrate we have something to offer!

- We must demonstrate we are alive and not dead!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 5:

- Jesus tells us about a woman who has been having a flow of blood for 12 years.

- She has suffered much at the hands of many physicians and has spent all her resources, and she is no better but, rather, has become worse!

- When she hears the reports about Jesus, she comes up behind him in the crowd and touches his outer garment!

- She thinks she can be cured just by touching his outer garments!

- And the Pharisees don’t know that!

- Come on, it is ridiculous!

- You get people coming to Jesus from everywhere!

- Thus the Pharisees are stupid or they don’t want to listen to Jesus!

- And immediately her flow of blood dries up, and she senses in her body that she has been healed of the grievous sickness!

- Immediately Jesus realizes in himself that power has gone out of him, and he turns around and he wants to know who has done it!

- Jesus is close to people, they can approach him easily except when there are too many people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus lives among people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus eats with people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus lives like people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Do we show such a proximity in terms of learning?

- Are we always ready to tell about the Bible?

- Are we always ready to share about the Bible?

- Are we always ready to transmit about the Bible?

- Do we live with the knowledge of the Bible?

- Do we see the knowledge of the Bible?

- Do we hear the knowledge of the Bible?

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The Pharisees and some scribes see some of his disciples eat their meal with defiled hands, that is, unwashed ones. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands up to the elbow, clinging to the tradition of the men of former times…

- Once again we hear about the religious leaders who follow man’s tradition!

- How easy it is to become blind or to stay blind because of man’s tradition!

- It prevents us from understanding Yah.weh’s Word!

- It prevents us from opening our eyes and ears and heart!

- It makes us insensitive!

- It leaves us in the past when we must live in the present and prepare for the future!

- It is so easy to forget the basics!

- It is like being dead while still alive!

- It is like being in a coma!

- We need to wake up instead of sleeping!

- We need to be hot instead of cold!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The religious leaders follow many traditions such as baptisms of cups, pitchers, and copper vessels!

- Once again, the religious leaders are only interested by man’s tradition!

- In fact, they put a heavy load on ordinary people!

- They mix man’s tradition with God’s teaching!

- They dilute God’s teaching!

- How do you want ordinary people not to be puzzled?

- What a responsibility!

- Man’s tradition kills us!

- Man’s tradition kills our faithfulness!

- Our faithfulness must be sharp!

- It’s a never-ending process!

- If we don’t keep sharpening it, we can lose it!

- It will never be sufficient, never enough!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The Pharisees and scribes accuse Jesus’ disciples of eating their meal with defiled hands and thus not observing the tradition of the men of former times!

- Jesus tells them that Isaiah prophesied about them, calling them hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.” You let go of the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men.”

- How powerful!

- How accusing!

- How striking!

- How real, unfortunately!

- How sad!

- May people remember these words of Jesus!

- What about our lips, what about our hearts!

- Do we really show what we have inside?

- Or does it stay outside?

- Alive or dead?

- Dead or alive?

- There shouldn’t be any doubt!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

Jesus tells the Pharisees they disregard the commandment of Yah.weh in order to keep their tradition. Thus they make the word of God invalid by their tradition.

- They use man’s tradition against God’s word to serve their own interest!

- They turn the truth into falseness and falseness into the truth!

- They turn people away from Yah.weh!

- They just bring emptiness!

- Remember: a translation is only a translation!

- You must always check the original!

- You must never be satisfied by what people tell you!

- You must learn how to sharpen your mind!

- You must learn how to sharpen your spirituality!

- You must learn how to fight for Yah.weh!

- You must learn how to fight for Jesus!

- You must never be satisfied!

- It is an extreme serious matter!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 8:

- Jesus warns his disciples against the Pharisees and their leaven and the one of Herod!

- Yes, the religious leaders are dangerous because they look for their own interests!

- They are more interested in man’s tradition than Yah.weh’s word!

- It can only lead to the wrong way!

- Remember the destruction of Jerusalem!

- The foreign army would come and leave and come again to stay!

- When they first left, it was the signal to go away!

- But the religious leaders didn’t follow Jesus’ advice!

- And Jerusalem was destroyed and the inhabitants who didn’t listen to Jesus but to the religious leaders paid a high price!

About Mark:

- Yes, I prefer to do like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who used to carefully examine the Scriptures daily to check what Paul was telling them!

- But concerning what happened after Jesus’ death is another story!

- It went in all directions and the religious leaders were eager to defend their own interests and pay more attention to man’s tradition!

- Remember the “super apostles” Paul speaks about!

- And Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire and they mixed everything!

- It became an exotic mixture which had nothing to do with Jesus’ teaching!

- The religious leaders were busy going nowhere except serving their own interests!

- Is that the lambs among the wolves or the wolves among the lambs?

- Death or slavery!

- And the scenario didn’t happen once!

- Exactly the same situation and the same end!

- Faithfulness to Yah.weh is priceless!

- It is extremely precious!

- The way you speak expresses how you value it!

- If you care about man’s tradition, faithfulness has no value for you!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 8:

Jesus tells the crowd and his disciples that to come after him means disown oneself and pick up his torture stake and keep following him!

- Losing his life for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the good news means save it!

- There is no worth gaining the whole world and losing his life!

- Yes, the religious leaders want to gain the whole world and lose their lives!

- It is not possible to get both!

- it is not possible to serve two masters at the same time!

- We need to make a choice!

- But you can’t let the religious leaders decide for yourselves!

- You must do it yourselves!

- Today it probably means a strange message for the majority!

- Because of superficiality!

- We must start learning again about spirituality, about looking for knowledge!

- We must completely renew our minds and hearts!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 9:

Jesus asks his disciples about what they are arguing about on the road!

- They don’t want to answer because it is about who is greater!

- So he tells them that the one who wants to be first must be last of all and minister of all!

- Religious leaders, political leaders and commercial leaders want to be greater!

- They are only looking for power!

- But power leads to destruction!

- Each empire went up and down!

- And the world is going down!

- But the worst is that it is going down faster and faster!

- But religious leaders, political leaders and commercial leaders are not going to last, they just think about the present, they don’t care about the future!

- They just need illusion, they don’t care about reality!

- Do we want to be destroyed with them or do we want to be saved?

- We must not put our confidence in them!

- We must put our confidence in Yah.weh!

- And we must demonstrate our confidence in Yah.weh!

- When it is still time!

- And if we have found the right direction, we must keep it!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 10:

Some Pharisees ask Jesus whether it is lawful for a man to divorce a wife!

- If The Israelites were authorized to divorce their wives by writing a certificate of dismissal according to Moses and their hardheartedness, from the beginning of creation, man and woman must become one flesh and can’t divorce!

- Once again man’s tradition vs Yah.weh’s word!

- You can’t choose both!

- You must choose one!

- It’s a simple one!

- Man tries to find ways not to choose!

- It doesn’t work!

- There is only one way!

- Man is always trying to follow his own way!

- He will only get lost!

- The Israelites chose the wrong one and they got lost!

- Mankind will always choose the same wrong way and get lost!

- Do we have the same hardheartedness?

- Or do we open our hearts and minds to Yah.weh?

- If we do it, we must keep doing it!

- Deeper and deeper!

- it means everlasting life!

- There is no coming back!

- Meaning death and emptiness!

 

[JLG]

Someone said:

Just like then the scribes of today with their titles which are not "Gifts of Dad to Brothers" are teaching from the tree of knowledge. They studied God. But God is now our "Abba Father/Daddy". And He said we have to invite Him inside and Live with Him. That is how you know Him. In Living with Him. Just as the Disciples "Lived with Him". No father nor The Father can be studied. A Father exists in Love and knowledge by His Kids Living with Him. And they spoke in the same Spirit which is creating Life and not knowledge for the mind.

John 6: 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Knowledge given by those who studied knowledge create more Adam. Life spoken by the Brothers with Gifts create the Brotherhood in Love.

 

[JLG]

-My answer:

- Yah.weh is a God of precision!

- When Jesus was on earth, he showed the same precision!

- If we want to look like them, we must look for precision!

 

[JLG]

- What did Jesus do when he was on earth?

- He spent his time teaching people about his Father (Mark chapter 2)!

- All the time he taught lessons to the scribes and the Pharisees (Mark chapter 2)!

- Knowledge is one thing!

-Titles are another!

- If scribes and Pharisees were taught by Jesus, it shows their titles to be good to nothing!

- But if Jesus taught people about his Father, it means we must learn about Him!

- All the time the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus questions to confuse him and he corrects them!

- Mark 3:5 (first part):

“Jesus looked around at them with anger

(ὀργῆς (orgēs)

Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular

Strong's 3709: From oregomai; properly, desire, i.e., violent passion (justifiable) abhorrence); by implication punishment.)

And sorrow

(συλλυπούμενος (syllypoumenos)

Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Singular

Strong's 4818: To be moved to grief by sympathy. From sun and lupeo; to afflict jointly, i.e. sorrow at someone.)

At their hardness

(πωρώσει (pōrōsei)

Noun - Dative Feminine Singular

Strong's 4457: Hardness of heart, obtuseness. From poroo; stupidity or callousness.)

Of heart.”

 

[JLG]

- It also shows we must develop the right condition of heart and mind!

- It is not something natural!

- And all faithful servants of Yah.weh in the Bible are good examples to follow!

- But to understand them, we need to read them again and again!

- Human beings are naturally good to nothing as we can see the situation of the world today and during the whole history!

- And when we look at the so-called “Christian nations”, they have spent their time killing each other!

- And it is not better with all human nations!

- All religions were good to nothing in this area!

- So of course, we must keep learning about Yah.weh but not according to man’s knowledge or tradition which leads nowhere or is a dead end!

- In chapter 3, we see the same about the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus’ attitude and teaching to them and people!

 

[JLG]

- And in chapter 4, the illustration of the sower is quite instructive and about the necessity of listening!

- And he explains everything to the disciples again and again!

- Have a look at verse 13!

- It is only the beginning and they can’t understand so Jesus asks them how they will understand the other illustrations!

- Thus we see Jesus’ disciples who can spend all their time with Jesus when he is on earth that is 24 hours a day and he uses a progressive teaching for them and yet they won’t understand his message till his death!

- It will be only after his death that they start to understand it!

- So let’s think about us in comparison!

- And of course we need to learn a lot!

- And of course we need to acquire knowledge from the Bible!

- But of course we don’t need human titles which are good to nothing!

- And of course, we don’t need religious leaders who will prevent us from doing our part in learning!

- Yes, we must do our job!

- Yes, we must keep learning and searching!

- It doesn’t matter if we make mistakes if it helps us make progress!

- On the contrary, how can we progress if we don’t make mistakes?

 

[JLG]

- We should all remember Deuteronomy 11:19 where Moses tells the Hebrews to teach their children about Yah.weh any time “when you sit at home and you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up”!

- Parents were supposed to do that!

- Fathers were supposed to do that!

- Unfortunately for them, they didn’t do it as usual!

- And it is the same with mankind!

- And the majority keep saying the same!

- Apparently, they don’t know this way leads to destruction!

- Destruction for the Hebrews!

- Destruction for mankind!

- And it is written in the Bible!

- Find the mistake!

- Here is the best conclusion: Deuteronomy chapter 11!