“The faithful steward will make himself familiar with all the contents of his larder. The larder of Holy Scripture is so extensive, that even a life-time’s arduous study will not fully disclose either its riches or its variety . . . .The systematic preaching of the Word is impossible without the systematic study of it …
New Wine
We have seen that there are a series of five conflicts at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. We come now to consider the second and third of them. As you recall, the first concerned the authority of Christ to forgive the sins of the paralytic. We come here to the problem of associating with disreputable …
The One Who Trembles to Hear Need Not Tremble in Declaring
“Indeed, I am persuaded that the more the preacher has ‘trembled’ at God’s Word himself (e.g. Ezra 9:4,10:3; Is. 66:2,5), and felt its authority upon his conscience and in his life, the more he will be able to preach it with authority to others . . . True preaching is never stale or dull or …
Back to Normal
I have taking a few weeks to urge you to participate fully in the political process of our town. We have a city council election coming up shortly, and I have wanted to consider some of the implications of that. And please note again that it is not the place of the church to be …
Follow the Lord, Follow the Argument
Through the first half of the book, Mark repeatedly asks a question in various ways. That question is, “Who is this man?” The question is finally answered in Mark 8:29. Jesus is the Christ. Now in this section, the question begins to be built up and posed through various conflicts. “And again he entered into …
Cut the Road Straight
“This is surely what Paul meant when he told Timothy to be ‘a workman who has not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth’ (2 Tim. 2:15). The verb, orthotomounta, means literally ‘cutting straight’. It was employed of road making and is, for instance, used in the LXX of Proverbs 3:6: ‘He …
Saving Faith Shivers at the Spectacle
Green Baggins has resumed his treatment of my book, “Reformed” Is Not Enough, and so we come now to the chapter on apostasy. But before we get to that, Lane addresses a question I raised earlier about the difference between a corrupt church and an apostate church. As Lane puts it, “The question, then, is …
Deliver Us From the Obvious
When the Lord is pleased to reveal His wisdom to us, we must take very great care not to add our own improvements. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35-45). In the book of Mark, Jesus is …
Authority to Apportion
“The steward has no say in determining what goes into the larder; it is stocked for him by the householder. But it is his responsibility to decide what comes out of it, and when, and in what measure. This is another aspect of the steward’s faithfulness, this time not to the householder or the goods, …
The Holy One of God
We begin here with Christ’s teaching ministry. This leads directly to a public exorcism in the synagogue, followed by a private healing at Simon and Andrew’s house, and then, when the word got around, many healings and exorcisms at the front door of that house. “And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath …