In this passage, some scribes from Jerusalem are guilty of an enormity, and Jesus pronounces that those who accept this line of argument are in danger of a fearful judgment — that of eternal damnation. “And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth …
Proclamation and Appeal
“Fundamentally, [the apostolic kerygma] consisted of only two parts, which we may perhaps call ‘proclamation’ and ‘appeal'” (John Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, p. 40).
The Disciples
The Bible teaches us that the twelve apostles are in an important sense foundational to the Church. We are the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself as the cornerstone (Eph.2:20). We too often think of only the cornerstone, forgetting the rest of the foundation. “But Jesus …
Through His Ministers
Paul “then adds, ‘And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near’ (Eph. 2:15, 17). This preaching of peace by Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 10:36), according to the context, took place after His death. It can scarcely refer to His teaching during the forty days …
Withered Sabbatarian Hearts
The last two controversies of the five we have been considering are sabbath controversies. The nature of these controversies illustrates a perennial problem among those who take the words of God seriously. That problem is one of arbitrary selectivity. “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; …
The Larder
“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 …
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 …