Read Mark 15

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the
whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus
cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?”
(Mark 15:33-34)

Thoughts… Frederick the Great was the King of Prussia for almost a half century in the 1700’s. He was in Potsdam when he encountered one of his generals, who was in his severe disfavor.

At their meeting the general saluted with the greatest respect, but Frederick abruptly turned his back on the officer. To that, the general humbly said, “I am happy to see that Your Majesty is no longer angry with me.”

That got Frederick’s attention, so he turned and asked, “How so?”

The general responded, “Because Your Majesty has never in his life turned his back on an enemy.”

It was said that the general’s daring statement led to his reconciliation with Frederick.

There was another time in a far more important place when God turned his back on his Son as he hung on the cross. He who is pure holiness could not look on sin that his Son had become. And in that moment, the Father treated his Son as an enemy; his wrath was poured out on him as he hung on that cross. Jesus became God’s enemy and paid the price of reconciliation so you could become God’s friend.

On the cross, Jesus took on your sins and mine—he became sin for us. It was our sin, the sins of the whole world, that he bore on the tree, and it was that sin at which God’s righteous anger was directed. The Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:21,

“For God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Simply, yet marvelously, Christ’s death on the cross was the only means to our reconciliation with God. Jesus paid the ultimate price to satisfy God’s righteous wrath and bring us peace with God.

We who were enemies were brought near to God, now as friends.

Prayer… How wonderful, how marvelous, is your saving love for me. By Christ’s death, I was once a sinner, but now I am your friend. I am eternally grateful!

One More Thing… “Christ took our sins and the sins of the whole world as well as the Father’s wrath on his shoulders, and he has drowned them both in himself so that we are thereby reconciled to God and become completely righteous.” —Martin Luther

Read Mark 14

A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the
word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows
twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when
he thought about it, he wept.
(Mark 14:72)

Thoughts… Poor Peter! He can’t seem to catch a break.

He is the guy who boldly stepped out of the boat to walk on the water—and promptly sank like a rock. He was the first to declare, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” but within seconds was sternly rebuked when Jesus said, “Satan, get behind me, you are an offense to me.” And here at the Last Supper, Peter blurts out, “if all else fall away, I never will”, but within hours he had denied Jesus three times!

Interestingly, each of the four Gospel writers—Peter’s brothers in Christ— have no problem recording Peter’s failures, particularly his denial of Jesus, in exacting detail, to be read again and again throughout the ages.

Peter’s blunder is like those sports bloopers of athletes blowing their teams chances for victory that get replayed over and over again on TV. Remember the poor guy name Steve Bartman, a Chicago Cubs’ fan who interfered with a Cub’s outfielder trying to catch a fly ball. The Cubs were in the playoffs for the first time in, like forever, and if they won, they would go to the World Series.

And this over-zealous fan reaches out and takes a foul ball away from his own player, and the Cubs lose. That faux pas will be replayed on TV forever, or until the Cubs win the World Series, which may be just after forever!

So will Peter’s denial. But thankfully, the story doesn’t end with this fireside blooper. If you take a sneak-peak at the end of the story in Mark 16:7, after the crucifixion, when the women came early in the morning to the tomb on Easter Sunday, an angel at the entrance of the empty tomb gave them this message,

“But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that Jesus is going before
you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”

Did you notice the specific reference to Peter? “Tell the disciples…and you especially tell Peter!”

Why did Mark add this line? He specifically wanted Peter, and by extension, you and me, to know that the cross covers the worst of our failures, and by the cross God takes the initiative to restore us to full fellowship with himself.

And that really is the core message of the Gospel! Peter’s blooper forever reminds us that by the power of the resurrection, failure is not final and sin is not fatal.

Our spiritual bloopers don’t get the final word on us. God’s grace does. Jesus made sure of that at the cross!

Prayer… God, thank you for your great grace—greater than all my sin.

One More Thing… “Free grace can go into the gutter, and bring up a jewel!” —Charles Spurgeon

Read Mark 13

“Watch therefore, for you do not know when the
master of the house is coming.”
(Mark 13:35)

Thoughts… Will there really ever be a second coming of Christ? The early believers were convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetime, but he didn’t. Were they wrong to think this way?

Now it’s 2,000 years later and he still hasn’t returned. Can we keep saying we are living in the end times and that Jesus could come back at any moment, or are we mistaken as well? All these signs that he predicted here in Mark 13 have been fulfilled—yet still no Jesus! Are we just fooling ourselves?

We would do well to remember what Jesus said in Mark 13:31 & 37, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away…And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

I suppose it is possible that Jesus could delay his coming another 2,000 years—I don’t think so, given the increasing instability of Planet Earth. Whatever the case, 2,000 years is no reproach whatsoever to God’s faithfulness or the truthfulness of his Word. That is precisely the point the Apostle Peter made when he responded to the scoffers who taunted, “Where is the Lord’s coming?” (II Peter 3:4) Peter said,

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:8-9)

The real reason Jesus has delayed his return is not negligence or carelessness, but kindness and mercy. And frankly, I am glad for that! I am glad Jesus didn’t return in 1956, because I would not have been born. I am glad that Jesus didn’t return in any one of the years since then, because in each successive year I know people who became followers of Jesus and were spared from a Christless eternity.

The fact that 2,000 years have passed is utterly irrelevant to the promise of Christ’s return. His coming is still imminent. It could occur at any moment. And his command to be watchful and ready is just as applicable today as it was to the early church. In fact, the possibility of his return should be even more urgent for us because we are now 2,000 years closer to it.

Paul said in Romans 13:11-12, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”

The writer of Hebrews said, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith.’” (Hebrews 10:35-38)

What Jesus, Paul, Peter, the writer of Hebrews and every other New Testament author are all saying is that one of the greatest acts of faith is simply this: To keep an eye on the sky and live each day as if Jesus might return at any moment!

That is how the early church lived, and that is exactly how God wants you and me to live! And if I were to truly grasp that, here is what that would mean for me today:

• I would be more patient in suffering. (Hebrews 10:32-39)

• I would be more loving and kind. (Jude 21)

• I would be more assertive in sharing Christ. (II Peter 3:9)

• I would be more forgiving to those who have hurt me. (James 5:8-9)

• I would be more careful in my moral life—my thoughts, attitudes, words and actions. (II Peter 3:11-12)

• I would be a better steward of the resources God has given me. (Matthew 25)

• And I would be more focused on the eternal and less concerned with the temporal. (II Peter 3:13)

The truth is, we were made for another world! Jesus said, “when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:28, NLT)

So as you go about your business today, keep one eye on the sky—this could be the day!

Prayer… Even so, come Lord Jesus!

One More Thing… “Has this world been so kind to you that you would leave it with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” —C.S. Lewis

Read Mark 12

“Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how
the people put money into the treasury.”
(Mark 12:41)

Thoughts… It was offering time in the Temple, and Jesus was watching! He was the “offering police” that day, and he didn’t just happen to notice what people were giving, he was watching them like a hawk.

Jesus saw the quantity and evaluated the quality of each gift, and he was providing a kind of a play-by-play commentary of offering time at the Temple on that particular occasion.

How would you like that next Sunday when the ushers received the offering? What if your pastor came off the platform with the microphone and provided a running commentary on each gift, announcing the amounts in the offering envelopes and revealing if they were proportionate to the giver’s income or not?

Well, that won’t ever happen in most churches I know, certainly not in mine. But I’ll tell you what: It sure would spice up offering time! There would be no need for an offertory; the choir could take a break; the solo could be saved for another part of the service. The play-by-by would be more than enough, wouldn’t you say!

Of course, I am being facetious, but you get the point: Your giving is private, but God knows. He knows what is in your bank account, and he knows what is in your heart. He knows if you are giving joyfully, generously, sacrificially and worshipfully, or if you are giving grudgingly, stingily, selfishly and just for show.

The amount doesn’t count; it’s the heart that God wants in your giving. The poor widow gave only two mites—the modern equivalent of not even one penny. But she gave all she had. She gave out of her poverty, trusting that the God toward whom she was being so generous would now be generous toward her.

The others that day gave out of their abundance, but they put nothing on the line in so doing. They still had plenty, so there was no sacrifice, no trust, no risky faith involved.

God probably won’t require you to empty your bank account the next time you give, but he wants you to empty your heart. That is, he wants all of you when you give. He wants your ongoing stewardship to be characterized by love, generosity, sacrifice, risky faith, and expectant trust.

Before you give again, I hope you will give that some thought. And next Sunday, when it’s offering time, take a moment to thank God that there will be no play-by-play commentary.

Prayer… Lord, impart to me the same grace of giving as the poor widow giving her two mites in the Temple offering. Equip me with that kind of generosity and heroic sacrifice. Bring me to the place where my giving is truly pleasing and acceptable worship to you.

One More Thing… “Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.”

Read Mark 11

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against
anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also
forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive,
neither will your Father in heaven
forgive your trespasses.”
(Mark 11:25-26)

Thoughts… Don’t skip past these words too quickly! Far too many Christians claim an exemption on this one—to the Lord’s dismay and their own harm.

Having said that, there is another side to the forgiveness coin that we need to consider if we are going to have theological balance in this matter. The question that always comes up when you begin to talk about forgiveness is: Do we have to forgive everyone who has offended us?

I think there is a fair amount of confusion on this, and a lot of misguided theology is to blame. Perhaps you have been taught that you are to forgive others even when they don’t repent of the wrong they have committed. And the scriptural justification for that is Jesus’ words we read here. Those words might be leveraged, for instance, to say to the wife of a chronically unfaithful husband, “You gotta’ forgive him, or God won’t forgive you.”

But that interpretation fails to reconcile Jesus’ teachings with the rest of scripture, best summarized in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:32, where we are commanded to forgive others in the same manner that God forgives us.

How does God forgive us? When we confess. Confession opens the door to forgiveness. I John 1:9 says, “If…” underscore that conditional clause, “…if we confess our sins, God will forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Nothing in the Bible indicates that God forgives sin if people don’t confess and repent of the sin.

Furthermore, the Bible always calls the sinner to repentance—that is, a radical reversal of the attitudes and actions that resulted in the sin. Confession without repentance is always hollow. (Matthew 3:7-8, Acts 2:37-38)

So when a wife is encouraged to forgive her adulterous husband while he is continuing in his sin, she is being asked to do something that God himself doesn’t require. What Scripture does teach is that we must always be ready and willing, as God is always ready and willing, to forgive those who repent.

But forgiveness without confession and repentance doesn’t lead to reconciliation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great theologian who was martyred by hanging in a Nazis concentration camp in 1945, said forgiveness without repentance is “cheap grace… which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner.”

Let me suggest that when there is no confession for a moral wrong committed against you, the better response would be to release that person to God’s justice in hopes that God will deal with them in a way that brings them to repentance and reconciliation.

If you forgive cheaply, as Bonhoeffer warns, you may very well circumvent God’s process to bring that person to repentance and in so doing, close the door to reconciliation in your relationship.

Be very discerning about cheap grace. Genuine forgiveness and Biblical reconciliation require a two-person transaction that is enabled by confession and repentance.

Yes, forgive! Do it early and often, quickly and fully. Be a forgiver, for sure, but don’t go beyond what Scripture teaches.

Prayer… Father, enable me to be a forgiver—just as you are. No more—but certainly no less.

One More Thing… “Forgiveness does not mean excusing.” —C.S. Lewis

Read Mark 10

Then they brought little children to Him, that He might
touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who
brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was
greatly displeased and said to them, “Let
the little children come to Me, and
do not forbid them; for of such
is the kingdom of God.”
(Mark 10:13-14)

Thoughts… What is God like? Since no human has ever seen him, we are left to wonder how he thinks, what he feels, how he looks, who he really is.

That reminds me of the story of a little girl who was drawing a picture, and her mom said, “Honey, what are you drawing?” Quite confidently, the little girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God!” The mother informed her that no one really knows what God looks like. To which the little girl said, “they will when I get done.”

People in Jesus’ day had never seen God. They only knew of him from laws that had become wooden, traditions that had become vacuous, and theologies that had become misguided. No one had ever seen God, but Jesus came along and said, “they will when I get done.”

So what does God looks like? Just look at Jesus. The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God.” A little later in verse 19, Paul says, “For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

In other words, when you see Jesus, you are seeing God himself. Jesus is the perfect picture of God; the absolutely accurate image of the Father. Jesus is the invisible God made visible.

So what do we learn about God by observing Jesus in this chapter? Just look at each of the stories that make up Mark 10—they make the invisible God a lot more visible:

• How does God feel about your marriage? Just look at Jesus telling the Pharisees, “What God has joined together let not man separate.” (Verse 9)

• How does God feel about your children? Just look at Jesus gathering up the children and saying, “Let the little children to come to me…” (Verse 14)

• How does God feel about your struggle to let go of earthly dependencies? Just look at Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” (Verse 21)

• How does God feel about your competitiveness with others? Just look at Jesus saying to his disciples, “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.” (Verse 44)

• How does God feel about the things you care about? Just look at Jesus asking blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Verse 51)

What is God like? What does he look like? How does he feel about you? Just look at Jesus.

Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”

In Jesus, God has identified with us so we can identify with him. In Jesus, God has come near to us so we can come near to God. In Jesus, God has made a way for us to live before him with complete confidence and daring prayerfulness.

Therefore, as Hebrew 4:16 goes on to say, “let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Prayer… Father, thank you for making yourself known to me in Jesus. And thank you for making a way through Jesus for me to come into your presence to receive the mercy and find the grace that I need to make it through this day.

One More Thing… “If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited planet. … the great Mystery, Whom we call God, has visited our planet in Person. It is from this conviction that there springs unconquerable certainty and unquenchable faith and hope. … as a sober matter of history, [in Jesus] God became one of us.” —J.B. Phillips

Read Mark 9

And He sat down, called the twelve,
and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first,
he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
(Mark 9:35)

Thoughts… Here is yet another example of the upside down logic of the Kingdom of God. We get that a lot from Jesus: To live, you’ve got to die; to get, you’ve got to give; to receive honor, you must be willing to be humble; to be rich, you’ve got to give it all away; to be first, you’ve got to be okay with last place; to be great, you’ve got to be the servant of all.

Though from the world’s point of view this is totally upside down, it is totally normal from heaven’s perspective. When you really think about these kinds of counterintuitive statements, you realize that they were values that Jesus deeply held and, in fact, were values that were lived out in his actions every single day of his life.

Furthermore, as you both study the life of Jesus in the Gospels as well as the theology of New Testament letters, you come to the conclusion that these were not simply values that Jesus suddenly embraced when he became man just to impress people and win the adoration of the multitudes. These values show us the fundamental essence of God’s being. As Jesus lived out humility, generosity, servanthood, and sacrifice, you were seeing who God is in living color.

And when we invite Jesus to become the Lord and Savior of our lives and embrace the values of God’s Kingdom as our own, these, then, become the fundamental attributes of who we are and the defining characteristics of how we go about the business of the Kingdom. Or so it should.

If we have had an authentic salvation experience, then humility will be evident to others who are watching our lives. Generosity will characterize our practices with money and possessions. We will eschew pushing and clawing our way to the top and become comfortable with the descent into greatness. And in a way that authenticates the totality of our claim to Christian faith, we will willingly lay down our lives for others—not only in dying, but in that which is much harder to pull off: in sacrificial living.

That is the kind of greatness that endures—greatness in the eyes of God.

Prayer… Lord, you were the servant of all. You came not to be served, but to serve and to give your life away in order to ransom mankind. Help me to take on that kind of selfless, Kingdom-focused mindset. May I be so deeply and profoundly touched by you that, like you, this becomes the essence of my fundamental being.

One More Thing… “The voice of humility is God’s music, and the silence of humility is God’s rhetoric.” —Francis Quarles