Mark 1:16

 Mark 1:16 says, Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.  As Jesus began His ministry, He began calling disciples.  The first were two brothers, Simon, later to be called Peter, and John, who were fishermen. This was not a recreational thing for them but was the way they made their living.  They were not rich men, nor highly educated.  They were simple hardworking men.  God calls us today from wherever we are to be His disciples, those who put their faith in Him and follow Him by faith.  Our worldly status has nothing to do with being His disciple.  Verse seventeen adds, And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.  Jesus told Simon and Andrew to follow Him, and He would make them fishers of men.  This required them to give up their way of making a living and follow Him with nothing said about how they would now be able to make a living.  When Jesus calls us, we need to have that same type of faith, where we are willing to walk away from everything in order to follow Him.  Verse eighteen continues, And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. They immediately left their nets, their source of income, and followed Him.  They did not make excuses for why they couldn't do what Jesus asked of them, and neither should we. Verse nineteen says, And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.  A little further along, Jesus saw two more brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were also fishermen, and He called them to follow Him.  Verse twenty adds, And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.  They didn't hesitate either, leaving their father and his servants in the boat and following Jesus.  When Jesus calls us to follow Him, we cannot allow even our family to come between Him and us.   Verse twenty-one continues, And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.  Even as Jesus was calling His disciples, He went to the synagogue, a place of worship, on the sabbath day.  We should not allow our busy lives to keep us from gathering together to worship God.  While in the synagogue, Jesus continued to teach.  When Jesus is teaching us today, and as Christians we should always be learning as God works in our lives, we need to ensure that we do not get too busy to listen.  Verse twenty-two concludes, And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.  The people in the synagogue were amazed because Jesus taught as One that had authority.  Jesus still teaches us with that same authority today, and always will.  Jesus did not teach as the scribes did, because they did not have the authority of Jesus.  They were well versed in the scripture, but they were not as qualified to teach as Jesus was and were amazed at how He taught.  We today may be well versed in the Bible, but we still need to rely on God to guide us as we proclaim His gospel to the world.  God not only calls us to proclaim the gospel, but He empowers us to do so, and we must make sure that what we proclaim is God's word and not our own.  In order to do so, we must first accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.

Mark 1:9

 Mark 1:9 says, And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. As John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing for repentance, Jesus came to him and was baptized.  We know that Jesus had nothing to repent for, but He gave validity to baptism as a symbol of His coming death, burial and resurrection and also to validate the ministry of John the Baptist.  John had always said that he was just a forerunner of the coming Messiah, and Jesus was and is the only Messiah.   Verse ten adds, And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened, and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove.  This is the only baptism that this happened at, and it was God's endorsement of Jesus and His baptism.  Still, as followers of Christ, the Holy Spirit descends on us, not at baptism, but at the moment that we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and then we are baptized to symbolize Christ's sacrifice for our sins.  Baptism did not bring salvation to anyone in John the Baptist's day, and it still doesn't.  Verse eleven continues, And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  After the dove descended on Jesus, a Voice came from heaven saying, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."  Today, even though we may not see the heavens open nor hear a Voice, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, God will always be well pleased.  Verse twelve says, And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness.  After Jesus' baptism, He was immediately led by the Holy Spirit into the desert.  Once more, we should not attempt to make Jesus and the Holy Spirit into two God's, because They are One with the heavenly Father.   We accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, which restores us to a right relationship with the heavenly Father, and then we are led by the Holy Spirit, but these are not three Gods, but One God Who manifests Himself in three ways.  After we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, then we should immediately be led by the Holy Spirit to do what the heavenly Father has for us to do.  Verse thirteen adds. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.  Mark does not say what temptations by Satan Jesus faced, only that He faced them and was ministered to by the angels after defeating Satan's temptations.  We do not have to know what temptations another person has faced in their Christian life, but it is good to know that they have overcome them.  Matthew gives us an account of the temptations, but Mark was not led to do so, which is why we need to read and understand the whole Bible to the best of our abilities under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  We will never understand it all and will never understand any of it without God revealing His truth to us.  Bible study is not an intellectual understanding of what the Bible means but is a spiritual understanding of what the Bible means.  Verse fourteen continues, Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, Mark tells us that after John the Baptist was imprisoned that Jesus began preaching the gospel in Galilee.  Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand, and people needed to repent and believe the gospel.  Verse fifteen concludes, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.  Jesus was and is that gospel, and since He died on the cross for our sins, the kingdom of God has been at hand.  It doesn't matter when Jesus Christ returns, because God's kingdom has already been ushered in.  As followers of Christ, we are not going to be a part of God's kingdom one day, but we become a part of God's kingdom as soon as we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Of course, we must first believe the gospel, which tells us that Jesus Christ died for our sins and if we put our faith in Him as our Savior and Lord that our sins are forgiven forever.   

Mark 1:1

Mark 1:1 says; The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;  Mark does not begin with the birth of Jesus, but with the beginning of His ministry, which he accurately refers to as the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Recognizing Jesus for Who He truly is will always be the beginning of the gospel. We can learn all about the historical Jesus, but unless we acknowledge that He is the Son of God it does us no good.  Verse two adds, As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.  Mark tells us that the Old Testament prophets wrote of the coming of a messenger to prepare people for the coming of Jesus Christ.  Verse three continues, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  This messenger was to call on them to prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight.  Though this messenger, whom we know to be John the Baptist, was calling on them to make ready for the ministry of Jesus then, we as Christians have the same commission to proclaim the gospel today and call on people to make ready for the return of Jesus Christ and to make their paths straight in accordance with God's word. We do not accept Jesus Christ and then just go our own way, but we must follow the leadership of God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit once we are saved by God's grace.  Verse four states, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.  Mark said John baptized for the remission of sin by repentance. The physical act of baptism did not bring about the remission of sin, but repentance through faith in the coming Messiah did.  It still does today, though now it is in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who has already come. Verse five adds, And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.  Mark tells us that many people from throughout the land of Judea and Jerusalem came to John to be baptized after confessing their sins. We still must call the lost to repentance today and also to put their faith in Jesus Christ, the only way to salvation. Verse six continues, And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; John was baptizing people for repentance, but he was not what we might expect a preacher to look and act like.  He was not concerned with the wealth of the world and what would be considered normal behavior but was dedicated to preaching about the coming of the Messiah.  We may need to be less concerned with what society says is normal today and more concerned with proclaiming the gospel.   Verse seven says, And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.  John was not preaching to call attention to himself, but to call attention to the coming Messiah, whose shoes John said that he was unworthy to stoop down and unfasten.  This is the same Messiah, or Savior, that we put our faith in today, so we can never afford to become filled with self-righteousness.  We are still unworthy to unfasten the shoes of Jesus Christ.  Verse eight adds. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.  John said he baptized with water, symbolizing the forgiveness of sin, but the coming Messiah would baptize with the Holy Ghost.  We may go through a physical baptism when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, but the important fact is that as soon as we accept Him, we are baptized with the Holy Ghost.  This is true of all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, and not just a select few at a later time.   

2 Chronicles review continued

As already stated, the book of 2nd Chronicles begins with Solomon building the temple of God and the palace of the king.  He was known as one of the wisest, richest men to ever live, because he was being obedient to God and asked Him for this wisdom.   If we want to be wise and spiritually rich, we must look be obedient to God, starting with accepting His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as our personal Savior and Lord.  There was peace in Israel during this time, and there should be peace in our soul if we are Christians.  David had wanted to build the temple but wasn't allowed to, but he still began to gather the things necessary to build it.  We may have a desire to do a particular thing for God and be denied the right to do so, but if it is something that needs to be done, we still need to work to prepare so that someone who is called by God can do so.  The kingdom of Israel was also prosperous during Solomon's reign, and if we as followers of Christ are to be spiritually prosperous, we must be obedient to the Holy Spirit.  After Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam decided to be even more severe on his rule over the people of Israel than Solomon had evidently been, and this led to the kingdom being divided, but the other person, Jeroboam, who was made king of most of Israel was not of the house of David, but of the house of Ephraim, so he was not the one that God placed on the throne.  Throughout the rest of the book, the kingdom of Israel was divided, until it was finally defeated and carried away captive once more.  We as followers of Christ must be united in serving God, and we also must make sure that those we have in power in the church are called by God to their position.  Next, we will look at the book of Mark.

2 Chronicles Review

2 Chronicles begins the reign of Solomon and the building of the temple and ends with the the carrying away of both the people of Israel and Judah, which is the divided kingdom that they had become.  Our Christian life begins when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord and will end either at our death or at the His return.  Either way, we must remain faithful to Him and not allow sin to take us away captive once more.  We must also never become a divided people as Christians.  Matthew Henry points out that the kingdom of Israel that began with its first monarch and possible reached its apex with Solomon was superior to any of the four kingdoms that defeated it for a time, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon which lasted for about seventy years.  This was followed by the kingdom of Persia with several different families as the monarchs.  It included the kingdom of Greece that lasted for about three hundred years, and concluded with the kingdom of Rome, which also lasted about three hundred years.  The kingdom of God, which Israel really was spiritually has only one true King and will last forever for all those who become a part of it.  We may want to think that America is a nation of God, but many people who live here are not a part of that kingdom, and it is not going to last forever.  The Book is broken down into the peaceable reign of Solomon, when he followed God's law overall in chapters one through nine, followed by the blemished reign of Rehoboam, who was only king of part of the kingdom and who had what Matthew Henry refers to as a blemished reign as recorded in chapters ten through twelve.  This was followed by the short but busy reign of Abijah recorded in chapter thirteen, and then this was followed by the long reign of Asa, recorded in chapters fourteen through sixteen.  This was followed by the pious and prosperous reign of Jehosaphat, recorded in chapters seventeen through twenty.  The descriptions of these various reigns are what Matthew Henry referred to them as.  Next are the imperious and infamous reigns of Jehoram and Ahaziah found in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two.  Then we have again as Matthew Henry termed them the unsteady reigns of Joash and Amaziah found in chapters twenty-four and twenty- five, followed by the long and prosperous reign of Uzziah found in chapter twenty-six.  Then, the regular reign of Jotham found in chapter twenty-seven, verse one through nine, followed by the profane and wicked reign of Ahaz found in chapter twenty-eight.  This was followed by the glorious reign of Hezekiah found in chapter twenty-nine through thirty-two, which was then followed by the wicked reigns of Manasseh and Amon recorded in chapter thirty-three.  This was followed by the reforming reign of Josiah, found in chapters thirty-three and thirty-four.  Then we have a record of the ruining reigns of Josiah's sons in chapter thirty-six.  We find that some of the kings followed God faithfully and some turned away from Him completely and the people seemingly normally followed their leadership at least in appearance, but no matter if they were good kings who followed God or not, all their reigns ended.  Our King, Jesus Christ, will never have His Kingship end and He will always lead His people to be obedient to the word of God.  

2 Chronicles 36:17

2 Chronicles 36:17 says. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.  Since the people of Judah refused to listen to God's prophets and even mistreated them, God allowed the Chaldeans to defeat them.  No one was spared by the defeating army, whether they were young or old, male or female.  All those who refuse to listen to the gospel today, which we as Christians should be sharing with them, will never be spared from God's judgment once they are old enough to know right from wrong, and it won't matter who they are.  We are all individually responsible for accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.  Verse eighteen adds, And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. All the vessels of the temple, those things dedicated to the worship of God, and all the treasures of the king and princes of Judah were brought to Babylon.  There are still places in the world today where Christians are imprisoned and have all their property confiscated, but if that happens, we need to pray it is because they remained true to God and not because they turned away from Him as the people of Judah had.  Verse nineteen adds, And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.  The temple was also destroyed by being burned, and the walls Jerusalem were torn down as well as all the palaces and any vessels that remained.  All that Solomon had built was destroyed.  Matthew Henry says that vessels here refer to all the furnishings of the temple used in worship.  We as followers of Christ should never allow anything to come between God and us, and if it does, we need to remove it from our lives.  The temple was ultimately done away with by Jesus Christ, when He, instead of the temple, became the way to get to the Heavenly Father, and if we don't accept Him, then everything we have will one day be destroyed and we will be sent away to everlasting punishment.  Even if we do accept Him, one day everything we have in this world will be destroyed and only those treasures that we have laid up in Heaven will last.  Verse twenty-states, And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:  Those who weren't killed were taken away to be servants in Babylon until the Persians came into power.  We are going to be held captive by sin and serve the powers of this world until we are set free by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and there is no other way to be set free.  Verse twenty-one adds, To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.  This captivity lasted for seventy-years, and the land if Israel, of which Judah was a part, lay fallow for that time.  God had given the people of Israel a land flowing with milk and honey, but when they rebelled against Him, the land was still there, but they no longer benefitted from it.  God has given us a heavenly home if we accept His gift of salvation, and it will always be there, but if we do not accept His gift of salvation, we will never benefit from it.  Verse twenty-two continues,  Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,  When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, God worked through Cyrus to begin to restore the kingdom of Israel.  We will never have an earthly ruler restore us to a right relationship with God, but He has already sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to make restoration possible.  Verse twenty-three concludes, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.  Cyrus said that he had been called by God to restore the temple in Jerusalem and made a proclamation to this effect, and then asked who of the Israelites would go to do the work.  Jesus Christ has set us free if wea accept Him, calls on us to do His work in the world today, then the question becomes will we accept Him and do so.  No earthly power should determine whether we do or not.

2 Chronicles 36:9

2 Chronicles 36:9 says, Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Jehoiachin was only eight when he began to reign.  Being the descendant of a religious leader does us no good in being a part of the family of God if they have not been a follower of Christ themself.  Matthew Henry points out that in Kings, he was said to be eighteen when he started to reign, so one or the other was likely a transcription error. He only reigned for three months and ten days, so likely never really understood what being king meant.  Verse ten adds, And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.  At that time, Nebuchadnezzar had Jehoiachin brought to Babylon along with along with the vessels of the house of the Lord.  They were referred to as goodly vessels, and I believe that Nebuchadnezzar only saw them as a source of earthly riches, but since they were dedicated to the worship of God, they were more than that.  People of the world may see the things that we as Christians have dedicated to God only as a source of riches, but for us, they must be more than that.  They must be dedicated to accomplishing God's work and not be seen just as a source of wealth for the local congregation.  He also appointed Zedekiah, who is referred to as the brother of Jehoiachin. as king of Judah. Once more, he was attempting to take the place of God in appointing the king.  We can never just appoint who we want to be the leaders of the church today but must always appoint them in accordance with God's will.  Verse eleven states, Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.  At least Zedekiah was old enough to know how to be a leader, and he remained in power for eleven years.  Still, he was not the man God had appointed king. We may be old enough to serve as the leader of a congregation and may even be successful in doing so for years, but if we have not been appointed by God, we will never be spiritually successful.  Verse twelve adds, And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord.  Like so many others before him, even those who were of the house of David, Zedekiah did what was evil in God's sight and wouldn't even humble himself before God when Jeremiah the prophet spoke the word of the Lord against him.  Many people in power who are doing evil in the sight of the Lord will never humble themselves no matter how many times God's word is proclaimed to them.  Verse thirteen continues, And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.  Zedekiah also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God that he would be faithful to Nebuchadnezzar.  He rebelled against both God and the one who had appointed him king, believing himself to be above both.  Some people today believe that they are above God and even above those who have placed them in power and will act only out of self-pride and self-glorification.  Verse fourteen says, Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.  Not only did Zedekiah rebel against God, but so did the people of Judah, from the chief priests on down.  They followed the abominations of the heathen and polluted the house of God, even though they were a part of God's chosen people.  He had called them to serve Him alone, and they instead didn't serve Him at all..  As Christians or at least those who call ourselves to be so, if we begin to allow the beliefs of those who do not put their faith in God to become the standard by which we live by and bring these ideas into the worship service, we pollute the house of God.  Verse fifteen adds, And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:  Even though they had rebelled against Him, God still sent messengers to them calling for them to repent and return to Him, because he had compassion on them.  God still sends His messengers today to call on people to repent of their sins and come to Him by putting their faith in Jesus Christ, because even while we are sinners, He has compassion on us.  Also, as Christians, if we have strayed away from His word, He will send us a message to return, I believe starting with the witness of the Holy Spirit within us.  Verse sixteen continues, But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.  Instead of the people of Judah listening to God's prophets, they despised them and misused them.  If we proclaim the word of God today, we may often be dispised and at times may even be mistreated, but we must still continue to proclaim the truth of God.