Let's turn now to scriptures, to the Gospel
of Mark.
Now, there must be very good reasons why
God allowed four biographies of Jesus Christ to
be written, not just one consolidated one.
And people who have studied these books usually
have one fixed view.
I think every single book and commentary I've
ever seen always says, Matthew shows Jesus as
the king, Mark as the servant, Luke as
the man, and John as God.
Matthew shows him as a lion, Mark as
an ox, Luke with the man's face, you
know the four faces in Ezekiel and Revelation,
and John as an eagle.
And people, since most Christians are too lazy
to think, they just accept that.
And since even most theologians are too lazy
to think, they just accept that.
And since most Indians just repeat what the
Americans and the British people say, they just
repeat it over here.
India has become a big echo for all
that is said in the West, unfortunately.
It's almost as though God does not speak
to anybody in India.
He only speaks to people there, and we
just got to echo what they say.
I decided when I came to this book,
I'm not going to stick in this rut
that has been dug for hundreds of years,
and I want to get out and allow
the Holy Spirit to bring me some freshness
and thinking in my own mind.
And I just mentioned that in passing.
Don't accept traditional concepts always.
That is how they missed out on Jesus,
who he was.
They said the traditions of the fathers, and
that's how they completely missed the will of
God in that time.
And if you're going to be a blind
follower of tradition and just an echo of
what hundreds of other people are saying, you
will never get what the Holy Spirit is
saying to you personally.
I'm not saying we go outside the scriptures.
There's no revelation outside the scriptures.
There is no Revelation chapter 23.
It finishes with chapter 22 for me.
But in this book, God can give us
revelation, which affects our life.
So, I don't know what the purpose is
fully.
I must tell you honestly, I don't understand
fully yet.
As I go along, I probably get more
and more revelation.
But I have tried to look at the
first verses.
When a person writes something, he probably writes
something at the beginning.
And I see that Matthew wrote that he
was a son of Abraham, the son of
David.
I say, okay, that's what he's trying to
say.
This is how he came as a Jew,
born of Abraham and David.
And he's introducing the kingdom of heaven.
Mark begins like this.
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
son of God.
He's telling us that this person is the
son of God.
And you find in Mark's gospel, as you
compare it with Matthew's, Matthew has a lot
more teaching.
But if you flip through the pages of
Mark's gospel, it's a lot more action and
activity of the miracles and many other things
that he did.
Not as much teaching, not as many parables
as in Matthew's gospel.
There he was laying down the teaching of
the kingdom of heaven.
And in Mark, he was demonstrating that he
was the son of God on earth.
Now I want to turn to Mark chapter
1, first of all, and verse 17.
When Jesus was going by the Sea of
Galilee, verse 16, he saw Simon and Andrew,
the brother of Simon, casting a net for
they were fishermen.
And Jesus said to them, follow me and
I will make you fishers of men.
There were hundreds of fishermen along the coast
of Galilee.
He did not call all of them.
He called two.
Then he called James and John as well.
What I want to say is, if God
calls you, only can you go for a
ministry.
You cannot just say, I want to be
an evangelist, I want to be a teacher,
I want to be a prophet, I want
to be an apostle.
We all like to be many things.
But God has to sovereignly come by us
and call us.
It is so important.
If you are going to serve the Lord
in some important ministry, God has for you,
and I believe every ministry is important.
May not be as big, but everything is
equally important, like the parts of the body.
Every part of the body is important, even
though it's not, all parts are not obvious.
You can see my face, you can't see
my kidneys and my liver.
So some believers' ministry is more prominent, some
are more invisible.
But if you want to fulfill a purpose
according to God's will in your earthly life,
it's important that you learn to hear God
calling you.
And even if you're on a secular job,
God's got a function for you in His
body.
You got to wait on Him and hear
Him calling you to fulfill that function.
And these people heard a call and said,
come and follow me.
That's all He said.
What do you have to do?
Follow Him.
This is discipleship.
In Matthew 11 we saw, learn from me.
Here He said, follow me.
These are the two things.
A disciple is a learner and a follower.
All our life, we have to learn and
we have to follow and learn and follow
and learn and follow.
It's like in the military, they say left,
right, left, right, left, right, left, right.
It's learn and follow and learn and follow
and learn and follow till Jesus comes again.
It's like taking steps, that's how we walk.
If you're only learning, you're like a man
who's only walking on his left foot.
It's like a military parade where it says
left, left, left, left, left, left, left.
what sort of parade is that?
and we just moving forward like this and
that's the odd type of way a lot
of believers are living because it's learning, learning,
learning, learning, learning, learning no!
it's learning, following, learning, following, learning, following, learning,
following this is a disciple that means what
you learn you must practice if you don't
you're not a disciple otherwise what's going to
happen is you're going to learn such a
lot and you're going to produce another bunch
of people who walk on one foot all
the time neither can you say well I've
learned enough now, now I can keep following
no!
till the end of our life we have
to learn not the scriptures but God through
the scriptures we come to know Jesus okay
and what is and the second part of
that is a promise if you follow me
I will make you think of that expression
I will make you it's like a potter
making a vessel and you know potters don't
make all vessels the same shape have you
seen a potter's you see it down the
street sometimes where people sell these earthenware vessels
they're all types of different shapes and God
also makes us in different shapes don't ever
try to tell God that you should be
in the shape of that brother there you
must have that brother's ministry he'll never give
it to you and if you struggle to
try and have some other person's ministry you
will hinder the shape God is trying to
make of you I've told people repeatedly in
my church don't ever try to imitate my
ministry don't imitate the way I speak, don't
imitate the way I teach, don't imitate my
ministry at all because God wants you to
be you God wants only one person like
me in the church in ministry and he
wants one person like you and if you
try to imitate somebody else you will never
fulfill what he wants you to be I
will make you that's the Lord's responsibility in
the case of these people what were they
supposed to become what was their ministry fishers
of men that was the ministry for James
and John for you it may not be
fishers of men it may be teachers in
the church it may be some other ministry
some are called as apostles and some are
called as prophets and some are called as
evangelists those are the fishers of men some
are called as teachers and some like Paul
are everything together apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist very
rare people who are all together like that
most of us usually have one thing I
think in the early days many of the
apostles had to be with so many gifts
because there were so few people but now
we are so many believers and God has
distributed the gifts but the important principle is
whether you are a teacher or an evangelist
or an apostle or whatever it is the
principle is I will make you the Lord
has to make us we can't make ourselves
don't ever try to make yourself into an
evangelist or a teacher or an apostle you'll
just be a total failure don't ever try
to do a ministry God never called you
to humble yourself, wait on the Lord let
him fill you with the Holy Spirit and
let him show you what he's called you
for I've seen numerous people in this country
who have tried to have a ministry for
themselves yeah, you can get money from somewhere
and continue your ministry one day God will
pull it all out and destroy it don't
waste your earthly life please remember you got
only one earthly life don't waste it trying
to impress some people that you got a
ministry fulfill what God has called you to
fulfill in the body of Christ wait on
him the Lord will make you and he
doesn't call everybody to the same thing out
of all those people all of them could
become disciples of Jesus those fishermen by the
sea of Galilee if they wanted but all
could not become apostles no those he had
to call specifically all could not become evangelists
all could not become teachers but all can
be disciples so we need to distinguish between
the two don't try to make everybody have
your ministry that's foolish ok, now we go
to verse 35 this is a habit that
Jesus had which is a very good habit
for all of us to do in the
previous evening it says verse 32 after the
sun had set they brought to him people
who were ill and demon possessed and the
whole city had gathered near the door Mark
1.34 he healed many who were ill
with various diseases casting out demons and he
did not permit the demons to speak because
they knew who he was why did he
not permit the demons to speak?
the demons would have said this is the
son of God isn't that a good testimony?
would you like a demon to say oh
you are a great man of God do
you want everybody to hear that?
Jesus did not want a testimony from demons
and I don't want any testimony from demons
that I am a man of God or
any such thing they are liars in any
case what is that testimony worth?
anything you know there are people for example
I just want to say a word about
casting out demons that there are people who
when they cast out demons carry on a
conversation with demons when did you come?
it's like sitting and talking to somebody it's
foolish Jesus never did that he just cast
it out so when you encounter that let
me mention that verse 35 even though it
was late into the night that he had
this ministry it says in the early morning
before the sun rose while it was still
dark he got up you want to be
a disciple of Jesus?
in what area?
in healing the sick?
or in this verse written here?
a lot of people want to follow Jesus
in the healing ministry what about this verse?
where after a late night the previous night
he probably missed his supper I don't know
the next morning he got up because he
wanted to find the will of God what
shall I do today?
he lived from day to day and he
arose and went to a lonely place and
prayed there see somebody has said just like
tourists when they come to a city they
always ask which are the important buildings and
sites to be seen here whenever Jesus came
to a new place he would always look
around to see where are the lonely places
here and the deserted places where I can
be alone for a little while depends whether
you are a follower of tourists or whether
you are a follower of Jesus Christ he
always wanted to find some lonely place he
was always looking for that see some people
don't like to be alone they always like
to be with company Jesus was always looking
for a place to be alone because that's
where he would get his strength where he
could get alone with God talk to God
the father, hear him do you have a
desire for that my brother sister?
this is how we can be true servants
of God so after a little while Simon
and his companions were hunting for him and
they found him and they said everyone wants
you he said sorry we are not staying
here we got to go somewhere else because
I've got to preach there my father told
me that just think if Jesus had not
waited on the father at that time and
he had woken up late and Peter had
said you know there is a great revival
going on here last night was a fantastic
miracle ministry here and everybody has come now
for a further preaching from you Jesus would
have stayed there and he would have missed
the will of God for one day and
our attitude is what does it matter if
we miss the will of God for one
day that is the careless way in which
we behave it's like a millionaire saying what
is there if I lose thousand rupees you
lose thousand rupees for us thousand rupees is
a large amount of money for a millionaire
it's nothing Jesus was very careful with one
day he said I don't want to waste
one day I've got only three and a
half years I don't want to waste one
day outside the will of God in my
life keep that attitude we may not be
able to find the will of God so
perfectly as Jesus did but I want to
have that attitude that Lord I don't want
to waste a single day of my life
arrange my circumstances that I should be in
the place where you want me to be
every day of my life it's a good
prayer to pray even if I don't hear
a voice from heaven God can still arrange
my circumstances such that I can be where
God wants me to be every day of
my life I'll tell you that this is
the passion of my life I don't want
to be in a place where God doesn't
want me to be because I know I'll
waste my life there don't ever go to
a place because it's a comfortable place to
live ask yourself whether God wants you there
and then you won't miss the will of
God when you come to the end of
life you won't have any regrets then we
go to chapter 2 and verse 3 we
read about this man who was paralyzed and
he could not come himself and four people
carried him and they opened up the roof
and lowered him into the place and this
is the one one or two places like
this where we see you know yesterday I
said to you there was a law according
to your faith be it unto you that's
right but sometimes it's a great encouragement to
me to see this sometimes when I'm so
weak that I'm depressed and discouraged and I
don't have faith thank God for the body
of Christ where four other brothers can carry
me the paralyzed man, discouraged man depressed man
and bring me to Jesus and here is
this wonderful verse verse 5 Jesus seeing the
faith of the four people healed this man
I don't know whether this man had any
faith at all but this is the one
verse in scripture where it says Jesus looked
at one person's faith and healed another person
it's not the only place once we read
he saw father's faith and healed his demon
possessed son the Syrophoenician woman Jesus saw her
faith when she said give me the crumbs
that fall and healed her daughter saw the
centurion's faith and healed his servant so it's
not always only your faith a father can
have faith for his son four brothers can
carry a paralyzed brother and have faith for
him I praise God for the body of
Christ I don't want to live a Christian
life all alone I don't want to be
a loner I don't want to work alone
I'm not interested I know it's inconvenient when
we have to work with other people it's
much more convenient to work on our own
we can do what we like go where
we like, we are answerable to nobody subject
to nobody's authority I want to tell you
in Jesus name you will destroy yourself if
you don't understand it today you'll understand it
at the judgment seat of Christ when it'll
be too late seek fellowship that's your salvation
I've seen many loners in India and I've
always seen they don't have any light on
their spiritual condition even if they are doing
some so called work for the Lord and
they ultimately destroy themselves don't be a loner
subject yourself to somebody's authority find a godly
brother particularly when you are young find a
godly brother, subject to authority work with the
body of Christ sometimes when you are weak
and helpless their faith can help you I
know when my children were growing up and
they came to their teenage years teenage years
are difficult years for some boys particularly, maybe
girls too I found that the young brothers
in my local church could help those children
of mine more than I could at that
time how thankful I was for the body
of Christ that I was not a loner
living all by myself don't think you can
manage on your own Jesus saw their faith
and healed this man, wonderful now chapter 2
verse 18 to 22 Jesus answers a question
about fasting the disciples asked John's disciples and
the Pharisees were fasting and they came and
said to him why do John's disciples and
the Pharisees fast and why do your disciples
not fast actually the answer is you mind
your own business but anyway Jesus gave an
answer because you know I've had people come
to our church and say why don't you
all fast we fast, why don't you fast,
the same old question is here I say
if you want to fast go ahead and
fast why do you want to push that
on me and even if I do fast
why should I tell you about it but
anyway Jesus answered and said while the bridegroom
is with them the attendants of the bridegroom
do not fast, do they and now listen
to this verse 20 here is the one
word where Jesus spoke about fasting another word
rather, we saw one yesterday about don't tell
others when the days will come when the
bridegroom is taken away those are these days
and then my disciples will fast that's not
a command, Jesus never gave a command you
must fast it's a statement there is a
difference between a statement and a command he
never told his disciples go and fast but
he made a statement that my followers will
fast from that verse I understand that the
bride will fast in the days when the
bridegroom is away in heaven if you never
fast something is wrong that's all I say
and then he said about this new covenant
type of fasting which applies to everything in
the new covenant it's not like the old
covenant fast which are by rules on such
and such a day you must fast on
such and such a day you must fast
no here it's different, a different spirit all
together he said if you take a new
patch of unshrunk cloth in those days they
didn't have terylene and these type of materials
synthetic stuff, it was all cotton and you
know cotton before you stitch it you must
always soak it in water whenever you buy
cotton material, soak it in water then only
stitch it so he was talking about that
because when you soak cotton in water new
cloth, it shrinks and if you stitch it
before you wet it before it is shrunk
it will be too tight for you so
he says if you got an old dress
which is already washed many times and you
take a new patch of cloth which is
not shrunk and stitch it on to that
old dress what will happen when you wash
it this will shrink and it will tear
the old dress so he is saying if
you take a little bit of new covenant
truth and attach it to an old covenant
type of understanding, it's not going to work
it will be a big hole in your
life the whole garment must be new that's
a good bit of teaching I like to
take that teaching and attach it to my
work it doesn't work it must be totally
new covenant you can't have a church which
is run 75% according to old covenant
principles and take a 25% new covenant
patch and patch it on it doesn't work
you will not be able to build a
new covenant church that way it must be
100% new covenant the whole garment must
be new otherwise it will tear it doesn't
agree and the same thing he said about
wine skins in verse 22 those days they
did not put wine in glass bottles, glass
was not invented those days they used to
put it in skins animal skins which were
stitched so well that they were water tight,
it could not flow out but the thing
about animal skin is again like cloth animal
skin when the wine inside begins to ferment,
you know when wine ferments, it expands if
you keep it in a bottle it just
flows out from the top so here in
the skin, they wouldn't fill it up the
skin would expand as the wine fermented because
the skin has got a stretching power, but
once the skin has expanded to a certain
extent it cannot stretch anymore and then if
you fill it with wine it will burst
the skin the new wine speaks of the
life of Jesus the old wine is the
life under the law the old wine skin
is the old covenant system the new wine
skin is the new covenant church now if
I try to take a new covenant life
the life of Jesus and put it into
an old covenant system with priests and tithes
and sabbath days and rituals and legalistic rules,
what's gonna happen?
thing is gonna burst it won't work if
you want an old covenant system with priests
and tithes and laws and regulations and rules
and don't touch and don't taste and don't
all that, then you must have a life
under the law also you can't mix the
two if you have the life of Jesus,
you must have a new covenant church everything
in the new covenant get rid of that
old covenant system do you know that the
vast majority of Christians live in church systems
which are not following the new covenant they
are new wine trying to put in old
wine skins and the whole thing is bursting
here and there naturally, it's exactly what Jesus
said ok we go on to chapter 3
and verse 5 here we read about Jesus
going on into a synagogue on a sabbath
day and the people were watching him, verse
2 to see if he would heal on
this sabbath day and this is the one
place in scripture where we read Jesus was
angry I'm sure when he made a whip
in the temple and chased people out, he
was also angry but here, there it doesn't
say that but here it specifically says in
verse 5 he looked at them with anger
grieved at their hardness of heart and he
said to the man, stretch out your hand,
he was not bothered what they were gonna
do to him, and he stretched out his
hand and as soon as the Pharisees saw
it verse 6, they immediately went out and
took counsel with the Herodians how to destroy
him did you read that phrase?
destroy him do you know there are people
who would like to destroy your ministry destroy
your life they are the followers of the
Pharisees, not just the heathen there are Christians
who try to destroy the ministry of other
Christians by scandalizing them, speaking evil about them
they are jealous, it's mostly based on jealousy
why?
because that man could accomplish something in his
ministry which you could not and you are
jealous of that they could not heal this
man with the withered hand who sat there
for so many years here is this unlearned
carpenter from Nazareth who comes and heals him
immediately, naturally they get jealous, because everybody will
see this preacher can help these people far
better than we can, so what to do?
we lose our congregation destroy him, destroy his
ministry call him a false prophet, call him
a heretic destroy his ministry it's happening today
just make sure you don't get involved in
that type of work destroying the work of
God and destroying men of God and I
want to mention here something about anger there
is a verse in Ephesians 4 26 which
says be angry, but don't sin there is
an anger which is not sin and there
is an anger which is sin and you
see that in Jesus life here when is
it angry when is anger sinful?
anger is sinful when I react to something
people have done to me like for example
when they slapped Paul on the face and
he got angry and yelled back at the
priest, hi priest that was sinful anger and
he repented of it when they slapped Jesus
he did not get angry when they spat
on him he didn't get angry when they
crucified him he didn't get angry when did
he get angry when he saw people making
money in the name of religion in the
temple when he saw people not helping some
poor man with a withered hand saw the
old testament prophets were concerned about the poor
Jesus came in the spirit of those prophets
concerned about poor people in the church people
who are enslaved to sin and the devil
you can't deliver them and you don't let
some other preacher come and deliver them either
Jesus is angry where people are exploiting religion
for their own benefits where people are exploiting
poor people and not helping them allowing them
to be delivered but he was never angry
when anybody did anything to him Judas Iscariot
stole his money he was not angry they
spat on him they called him the devil
he was not angry now human beings it's
exactly the opposite human beings are anger children
of Adam are angry when people do something
to them you steal my money I'm angry
you call me a devil I'll be angry
you speak evil about me I'll be angry
you slap me I'll be angry and they
are never angry when the name of the
Lord is dishonored oh there are so many
people in India making money in the name
of Jesus Christ what to do these things
happen they are not angry poor people are
being exploited what to do brother this is
the way it is in the world they
are not angry they are exactly the opposite
of Jesus Christ and I'm sorry to say
many believers are like that too you ask
yourself do you get angry when you see
people making money in the name of religion
in the temple like Jesus got angry no
you are angry when somebody calls you a
devil or when somebody insults you or spits
on your face then you are behaving like
a child of Adam Jesus says learn from
me and follow me ok we go on
to chapter 4 and verse we read about
a time just one little thing I want
to mention here which has encouraged me through
the years I don't know if it will
encourage you little verses it says when they
were in the boat now we know that
there was a storm and Jesus stilled the
boat but there is another little thing mentioned
here which encourages me it says in the
chapter 4 verse 38 they were in the
boat and the waves were beating and it
says he was asleep on a cushion to
me a cushion speaks of comfort and Jesus
was not ashamed to use a cushion that's
the thing that blessed my heart that there
is no virtue in being an ascetic and
saying no I will sleep on the hard
floor, on the hard bed if you have
a cushion brother use it there is nothing
wrong in it because there are lot of
Christians who think you become more spiritual if
you sleep on a hard bed or on
the floor that's not spirituality and it's not
following Jesus either chapter 5 we read about
this demoniac who was healed this man who
had an unclean spirit and when the demon
was cast out they said please send us
into these pigs and there was a big
herd of swine there and this man must
have had at least 2000 demons because it
went into all these pigs and the thing
I want you to see here is that
when the people who were looking after the
pigs saw this they went to the city
verse 14 and reported it and when they
saw this man whom they always knew was
a demon possessed man sitting there completely healed
instead of being excited and saying praise the
lord this is wonderful lord you healed this
man come and minister in our country it
says in verse 17 they began to entreat
him to depart from their region have you
read that verse?
what does that teach us?
they valued pigs more than human beings that's
what you learn, they lost 2000 pigs they
are not bothered that one man is healed
yeah it's a very sad thing when people
do not value the conversion of one soul
more important than any amount of property the
conversion of one soul even if 2000 pigs
is your entire business do you believe that
the conversion of one soul is better than
that so Jesus didn't stay he told this
man verse 19 you go and tell other
people the wonderful things the lord has done
for you in chapter 6 verse 3 is
the one verse in scripture that tells us
that Jesus had younger brothers and sisters he
had 4 brothers born of Mary verse 3
the son of Mary and the brother of
James Joseph, Judas and Simon and he had
sisters also we don't know how many sisters
but sisters means at least 2 so he
had 4 brothers and 2 sisters so Mary
had 7 children so since we don't hear
of Joseph we presume Joseph had died and
presumably in the many years of Jesus life
he worked as a carpenter to support a
family of 8 members there are not many
families with 8 members nowadays but Jesus that
is the mother and 7 children including Jesus
himself so Jesus went through that experience in
order to learn and to be an example
to people who have to struggle through difficult
circumstances and bring up a large family great
example of a person who worked hard to
support his family because there also he had
to be an example for us one more
statement here verse 4 Jesus said a prophet
has honor everywhere except in his hometown and
among his relatives and his household that was
true in the 1st century it's true in
the 20th century a prophet is never accepted
by his own relatives his relatives devalue him
other people value him and usually a prophet
is not valued in his own home church
other churches value him a 100 times more
that was true in the 1st century it's
true in this century it's very sad in
his own hometown his own relatives they don't
value him so much because they see him
all the time and familiarity breeds contempt that's
what Jesus said and because of that attitude
it says in verse 5 he could not
do any miracles there when you don't value
a brother his ministry does not bless you
as much as it blesses those other people
who value him if you want to be
blessed through a brother's ministry you got to
value him they did not value Jesus and
so he could not do any miracle there
and he wondered at their unbelief so we
see that because of unbelief he could not
do all that he wanted to do by
unbelief we tie the hands of Jesus even
today that he can't do for us all
that he wants to do chapter 7 we
read in verses 1 onwards about God's word
versus human tradition this was the great conflict
that Jesus always had with his people with
the people of his time God's word versus
human tradition Jesus stood for God's word and
all the Pharisees stood for the traditions of
the elders now we may think that this
is not a very big thing but this
is the great conflict that we find in
Christendom today as well here's a tradition that
we have received for years and years and
years and years that's the way my father
did it my grandfather did it my great
grandfather did it but is it the right
way and Jesus said tradition first of all
if you hold on to tradition verse 8
you'll neglect God's commandment step 1 step 2
if you keep your tradition verse 9 you
will set aside the commandment of God and
step 3 you hang on to your tradition
you will cancel the word of God there
are 3 steps here verse 8 verse 9
and verse 13 you start with neglecting God's
commandment then you set it aside finally you
cancel it that's the danger of holding on
to traditions check your traditions with the word
of God if it's not according to the
word of God it cannot be what God
wants you to do I'm surprised that so
many Christians when they want to go see
for example if I want to take my
children and my small children are sick and
I want to take them to a hospital
I don't find out which hospital my great
grandfather went to that doesn't interest me I
don't even want to find out which hospital
my father went to because we have got
more updated hospitals today right you will do
the same you don't go to the hospital
your father or great grandfather went to ok
when I want to put my children in
school I don't find out which school my
great grandfather went to or even which school
my father went to I find out which
is the best school today I find out
which is the best hospital today because these
are earthly things we are very interested in
it but when it comes to the church
which church do you go to the one
your great grandfather went to why is that
when it comes to spiritual things you don't
find out the best available because we are
not interested in spiritual things as much as
we are interested in education and medical health
that's the truth if you were as interested
in your spiritual life as you are interested
in medical health and education just like you
look for the best hospital today and the
best school you look for the best church
even if it is not the one your
father or grandfather went to but how many
people have the courage to do that one
in a hundred perhaps most of them stick
to what their great grandfather did and that's
like going to a third rate school and
a third rate hospital and a third rate
church that's the plain truth that's the result
of tradition following tradition instead of following the
word of God and I want to challenge
all of you young people be bold stand
for God's word I am not telling you
which church to join I am telling you
join the best group of disciples in your
hometown you must find the best group of
disciples in your hometown and be there just
like you go to the best hospital and
the best school that's what I would do
and that's what I encourage everybody to do
you know what I do we have some
churches in different places but I have sometimes
told people if you find that church which
is in fellowship with us is not the
best church in that town please don't go
there even though it is one of our
churches you find another one which is better
please go to that one I don't believe
in this denomination type of loyalty my loyalty
is to Jesus Christ not to our group
of churches there is no such thing as
my group of churches in every locality the
quality of a church depends on the quality
of its eldership and you must go to
the best church in that locality chapter 7
and just one more thing before I proceed
verse 10 and 11 this matter of helping
our parents some people think it's a very
spiritual thing to tell our parents I'm sorry
I'm serving the Lord I can't help you
in any way you know what Jesus said
about that that is cancelling verse 13 the
word of God of course you must help
your parents you can't say I've sacrificed it
to God you can serve God and help
your parents you don't have to obey your
parents after you've left your home but you
don't have to make them hinder you from
serving God but he's talking about practically helping
them financially or in some practical way you
must certainly care for them chapter 8 verse
6 he speaks here about the feeding of
the multitude we could look at that in
another study in chapter 8 and verse 15
he speaks about the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod Jesus spoke about
three types of leavens in another study we
saw that Matthew 16 the leaven of Pharisees
the leaven of Sadducees and the leaven of
the Herodians or the Herod of Herod what
is the difference between these three the Pharisees
are the ones who had all their doctrines
correct Jesus said Matthew 23 3 all that
the Pharisees say to you do because what
they're teaching is correct they are the evangelicals
and fundamentalists of their of Jesus time the
Sadducees were the people who did not believe
in miracles or angels or resurrection or anything
these are the liberals of Jesus time who
did not believe all these things that the
Bible is literally true and the other people
who study the higher critics and all these
people type of stuff they are the Sadducees
and then we have the third group which
is the Herodians the Herod Herodians were followers
of Herod who were thoroughly worldly they just
believed in having parties and having a good
time worldly Christians there are three types of
Christians today Evangelicals liberals and worldly Christians now
the important thing is when you look in
the gospels whom was Jesus fighting with most
of the time that's quite a word to
us he wasn't fighting with the worldly Christians
all the time he wasn't fighting with the
liberals he was fighting with the evangelicals because
they were the biggest Pharisees of his time
and very often you find that today some
of the biggest Pharisees are the people who
got all their doctrines correct and are pretty
proud of their correct doctrines but don't realize
what legalistic narrow minded stuck in the mud
type of believers they are there's no freedom
there's no liberty because the Holy Spirit does
not come and set them free and Jesus
is in conflict with such people today just
like as he was in those times so
remember these three leavens in chapter 8 we
go on to verse umm 23 to 26
which is a very important passage about healing
Jesus prayed for a blind man and he
was not healed immediately fully he asked him
how do you see everything clearly he said
no I can see sort of men like
trees walking and if Jesus were like some
preachers today they say no brother confess that
you are healed you must say that you
are healed even when you're not healed speak
say I'm healed Jesus didn't say that because
Jesus doesn't ask us to tell lies he
said ok you're not healed we'll pray again
now why did Jesus ever allow that one
incident to take place always in every other
case one touch healed people why were there
need for two touches here I think this
was written for because Jesus knew that in
the 20th century people will go around teaching
people that even when you're not healed you
must confess that you're healed and this incident
was deliberately there for the sake of 20th
century people to say when you're not healed
say you're not healed don't say you can
see clearly when you're still seeing men like
trees so don't be confused by this false
teaching of faith that goes around today where
even when you're sick you're supposed to confess
you're healed that's a lie and Jesus never
expects you to tell a lie that's what
we learn from this passage ok we go
on to verse 33 where we read about
Jesus rebuking Peter saying get behind me Satan
why did he tell Peter get behind me
Satan what is the mark of a man
who is influenced by Satan that's very important
do you think Jesus will say to you
get behind me Satan you say no he'll
never tell me get behind me Satan are
you better than Peter remember Peter had forsaken
everything to follow Jesus perhaps we are not
as good as him and even he could
be deceived by Satan who is the one
who is deceived by Satan if I can
understand that question the answer to that question
I can be protected from deception here is
the answer in the same verse get behind
me Satan your mind is set on your
own interests and not God's interests you got
the answer who is the one who will
be deceived by the devil in Christian work
the one whose mind is set on his
own interests and not God's anybody sitting here
you may be born again you may be
baptized in the Holy Spirit and I want
to tell you this in Jesus name if
your mind is set on your own interests
and your own gain you are a candidate
for deception Satan will deceive you any day
deception means you'll be thinking you're doing God's
work and you won't be doing God's work
you'll be thinking that you're serving the Lord
and you're actually serving yourself there were many
people like that in Paul's time who sought
their own only Timothy was one who didn't
seek his own so I find the way
to escape deception is by making sure that
my mind is not set on my interests
or my gain or my profit but on
God's interests ok chapter 8 and verse 35
he said whoever seeks to save his life
will lose it this is a statement that
comes 7 times in the gospels and I'll
deal with it in another gospel chapter 9
and verse 1 I say to you that
some of you standing here will not taste
of death until they see the kingdom of
God after it has come with power not
everybody standing here not nobody standing here but
some of you standing here will not die
till you see the kingdom of God come
with power what does that mean some people
say it refers to the transfiguration which was
in the next verse I don't believe the
kingdom of God came with power on that
mountain and I don't believe the very next
day somebody so many people already died because
he said only some of you standing here
will see it some of you here you
think most of the people died by the
next day it cannot refer to verse 2
because it says 6 days later most of
the people didn't die 6 days later but
some of you will see the kingdom of
God come with power I believe refers to
the day of Pentecost that is when power
came the Holy Spirit brought the kingdom of
God compare scriptures with scripture Romans 14 17
says the kingdom of God is righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit till
the Holy Spirit comes there is no kingdom
of God and when the Holy Spirit came
Jesus said you shall receive power that was
a reference to the day of Pentecost when
the kingdom of God came with power so
there we understand what Pentecost was this is
Jesus definition of Pentecost the kingdom of God
the government of God coming to earth with
power forming the church that's what the church
is meant to be on earth a demonstration
of a pocket of the kingdom of God
in the midst of the kingdom of the
devil manifesting the power of God chapter 9
and verse 7 and 8 we see this
beautiful verse where the Lord turned the minds
of people away from looking at Moses and
Elijah they were looking at Moses and Elijah
and you know Peter said let's make 3
tabernacles verse 5 here and Jesus said and
God said from heaven don't you ever dare
to put my son on the same level
as Moses and Elijah this is my son
listen to him what is the message for
us however great a man of God comes
and blesses you even if it be Moses
or Elijah don't put him on the same
level as Jesus Jesus must be unique in
your life the greatest man of God who
has been the greatest blessing in your life
may be a Moses or Elijah the moment
you begin to admire them you know what
happens a cloud formed and they could not
see anything clearly after that verse 7 why
is it so many believers their vision is
cloudy because they are looking at Moses and
Elijah and they are not looking at Jesus
they are not listening to Jesus now that
doesn't mean we should not respect Moses and
Elijah definitely you must respect godly men but
our eyes must not be we don't look
at Moses or Elijah or any godly man
today that's the message here and chapter 9
verse 20 to 29 here is another example
of a father's faith brought deliverance for his
son who was demon possessed and verse 29
the disciples verse 28 said why couldn't we
cast out this demon and Jesus said that's
because you did not pray you did not
fast and pray such demons can be cast
out only if you are fasting and praying
I don't, I can't explain that I don't
try to explain it I've never been able
to explain prayer and I've never been able
to explain fasting but I believe there is
something in it it works I just believe
what Jesus said that some demons some places
when the devil is entrenched somewhere you can't
cast him out unless you fast and pray
and we move on to verse 42 to
48 where Jesus spoke about if your hand
offends you verse 43 cut it off otherwise
you could go to hell where the worm
never dies and the fire is never quenched
verse 45 if your foot offends you cut
it off otherwise you can go to hell
where the worm never dies and the fire
is never quenched and again a third time
where the worm never dies 47 and 48
Jesus spoke about hell more than anybody else
more than any other preacher and he spoke
about hell as a place where the fire
is never quenched and the worm never dies
I believe it that people go to hell
where the fire never dies and the worm
is never quenched clever intellectual people may say
how can worms never die in a fire
and I say I don't want to find
out those who go there can find out
that I don't want to find out but
it's true it's enough for me to know
that there is an eternal fire and a
worms that because Jesus is the only one
who knows about hell and if you are
a true servant of God you'll preach about
hell like Jesus did, we don't preach only
what we understand, we preach what we believe
and then he said in verse 49 everybody
must be salted with fire I understand it
like this, either the fire of heaven or
the fire of hell, you can have your
choice I've chosen the fire of heaven everybody
must have one of these fires this wishy
-washy, neither cold nor hot, lukewarm type of
people Jesus says I'll spit you out of
my mouth you choose this fire or that
fire, which one do you want Jesus came
to baptize in the Holy Spirit in fire
and here is this unquenchable fire of hell
chapter 10 we read in verse 17 of
this rich young ruler who came to follow
Jesus and Jesus told him that you cannot
follow me unless you give up your money,
all your money now Jesus didn't say that
to everybody, Zacchaeus gave away only half his
money to the poor Mary and Martha had
a house and they did not give it
up and Jesus never told them to sell
their house to me it's like cancer surgery,
you go to a surgeon, one person when
he's operating him, he removes certain organs, another
person who's got cancer, he removes more organs,
another person who does cancer surgery on him
removes a major lot, major surgery why is
it, all three have got cancer but in
one case the cancer had spread so much
that he's got to cut out so much
and that's why in the case of the
rich young ruler he said your case, the
cancer of the love of money has spread
so much that the only way for you
to be delivered is to get rid of
all your money but Zacchaeus did not spread
so much and Mary and Martha did not
spread so much, so God doesn't tell all
of us to give up all our money
but if it has spread so badly he
may have to do it but it's such
a terrible cancer, otherwise he said you cannot
follow me and then he said that it's
easier for a rich man to it's easier
for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle verse 25, than for a
rich man to enter God's kingdom it's very
difficult when other things on earth attract us
now we turn to chapter 12 and we
read in verse 43 about this widow who
put in two copper coins, 42 to 44
it says Jesus sat beside the treasury verse
41 it's a very good verse Jesus sat
near the treasury watching how people were giving
money, not how much, notice what it says
not how much but how very important distinction
in the old covenant it was how much
10%, in the new covenant it is how
you are giving very important, and this widow
gave cheerfully all that she had and the
Lord appreciated it and then we move on
to towards the end of Jesus life he's
talking about his return in chapter 13 and
chapter 14 we read about the Lord's supper
and his betrayal and arrest, we'll come to
that in another gospel and in chapter 15,
I just want to point out one verse
here that when Jesus was standing before Pilate
and he was accused about so many things,
he made no answer and Pilate was amazed
he never opened his mouth like a lamb
stood before his shearers he was dumb, one
last verse, chapter 16 and verse 15 to
18, this is the other commission, there are
two commissions, one commission is Matthew 28 going
to all the world and make disciples in
every nation, the other commission is verse 15
of Matthew Mark 16, go and preach the
gospel to all creation, remember these are like
two sides of a coin like two sides
of a currency note one, go and preach
the gospel, he doesn't say anything about making
disciples, this is evangelism Matthew 28 is disciple
making the two must go together, if you
do the evangelism somebody else must do the
disciple making unless you can do both together
and if somebody is doing disciple making, then
he can do it on the basis of
somebody else is doing evangelism, these people are
not in competition with each other it's like
some people going to the mountain side, cutting
the quarry, going to the quarry, cutting the
stones and bringing it to one site, another
person is taking those stones and building them
into a building, now whose work is more
important I say both are required Mark 16
speaks about going to the quarry and cutting
out the stones, it's very hard work don't
ever go there unless God's called you but
don't criticize the masons who are building those
stones into a building don't say you fellows
are having a cushy life why are you
going to the quarry I hope it's because
God called you there if God called you
there you have no business to compare yourself
with the masons go where God has called
you, maybe God has called those masons to
build those stones now what's happening very often
is masons who should be building the house
are going to the quarry and the result
is piles and piles and piles of stones,
no church being built, no fellowship because masons
are doing the work of evangelists let's learn
that lesson and let's say Lord help me
to fulfill my calling let's pray Heavenly Father
thank you for your word that guides us
into all truth help us to walk in
the light of your word we pray in
Jesus name