King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Sunday, November 14, 2021
Chapters: Mark 15-16
Message: More than Conquerors
Hello My Friend,
I apologize for getting this out late, I have not been feeling well. There is the saying, “Sticks and stone may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me.” This is not true at all, because words do hurt, and they break you. Now, I have learned to accept who God made me, and boldly proclaim that I am a Christian, not because of some religion or law, but because I have accepted Christ as my Saviour. Praise God! Let me tell you, if you thought that being different from the world brings the bullies, add being a Christian to that, even people claiming they are Christian mock and shame you. Let me tell you, it is okay to be different from the world, we are supposed to stick out, and the reason why we get bullied is because Jesus actually reflects off of us, Since they picked on Jesus they are going to pick on us, but we are more than conquerors, we are blessed, [Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.]
As we continue in the reading of the Gospels, Mark also gives an account to Jesus standing before Pilate at His judgment, and His death, burial, and resurrection. There was a tradition during the Passover, one prisoner would be pardoned and released from prison. Pilate urges the crowd of Jews to release Jesus, but instead they cried out to release a murderer named, Barabbas, [Mark 15:6-11 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. 7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. 8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. 9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? 10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. 11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.]
[who had committed murder in the insurrection.] [Insurrection; A rising against civil or political authority; the open and active opposition of a number of persons to the execution of a law in a city or state.] Okay, this man was the head of a seditious mob, accused of rising against Roman authorities, he and his accomplices were taken and put into prison. Pilate was definitely more concerned with their releasing him, but the more he urged them to release Jesus the worse the crowd got, in fact, they wanted to crucify Him.
[Mark 15:12-20 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? 13 And they cried out again, Crucify him. 14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him. 15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 16 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. 17 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18 And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! 19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.]
[And they cried out the more exceedingly,] Why did Pilate allow the people to decide the fate of these two men? He did not want them to turn on him. You see, these were ruthless people, they were determined to get their way, and they did not care who was in charge. Does this sound familiar? It sounds an awful lot like these groups of thugs who are destroying cities and threatening mayors and governors with more violence if they do not get what they want. Very few people are willing to stand up to the thugs, this is exactly why our nation is quickly falling into socialism, and we are going to lose our freedoms if our leaders keep allowing the thugs to intimidate them. And the thugs got exactly what they wanted, Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion, before they led Him up to Golgotha, they decided to humiliate Jesus.
[Mark 15:25-32 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 26 And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. 29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, 30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross. 31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.]
[and they crucified him.] Crucifixion is probably the cruelest way a person could be executed, they literally drive spikes into the hands and feet of the person onto a huge wooden cross that they have to carry themselves to the place of execution. Think about all the weight of your body being suspended up on this cross, with only three nails holding it in place. Not to mention the hot sun beating on you, and the excruciating pain of your flesh and bones. Mark goes into detail of the timeline of His death. Now, it was nine o’clock in the morning was when they hung Jesus on the cross, at noon it was completely dark upon the entire earth until three o’clock in the afternoon, which would actually be the time that the priest would offer the evening sacrifice in the temple. That was when Jesus cries out to God something we all cry out sometimes.
[Mark 15:33-39 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36 And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.]
[My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?] Is that not the question we all ask God at times when we are going through such pain? Right there on the cross, God turned His back on His Son. Why? All of the sins of every person born, even those yet to come, were covering His broken body. Jesus, became the required sin sacrifice needed to redeem and atone for, not one sinner, but all who believe in Him. Now, it was finished; the bruised would be cured once and for all from the sin that covered the body of the one who admitted they were a sinner, [Isaiah 53:3-5 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.]
As I think about it, there is something else to consider here, that blood, that innocent blood, as soon as one drop dripped from His body, it sent a sweet savor to His Father, one that I am sure sent tears down His eyes. When Jesus died on the cross the evening and Sabbath drew near, they did not want to leave the body on the cross much longer. Joseph, a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus to bury Him.
[Mark 15:42-46 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. 45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.]
[which also waited for the kingdom of God,] The kingdom of God came the second that Jesus arose from the dead, that is why the graves of believers before His passion arose and went up to heaven as well. Before Jesus gave His life for us, any believer that died prior to that went to a place called paradise, or as the Jews call it, Abraham’s Bosom, we learn of this through [Luke 16]. Now, for three nights; the Jews gloried in what they had done, having thought that they won. And for three nights; Satan himself gloried in what was done, having thought that he defeated the Son of God. And for three nights; all of the disciples as well as all those who had hoped that their Messiah had finally come, mourned. But on the third day, the first morning of the week, it was Jesus, and His believers that won when He arose from the dead.
[Mark 16:1-6 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.]
[he is risen; he is not here:] Jesus could have just died for us and that would have been enough, but God wanted more than that, once and for all, He wanted to break the spiritual curse that the devil caused upon man when he brought sin into the world. Jesus resurrecting proves that even death can no longer separate God and man. Our redemption through Christ gives us victory over death and puts the Spirit of God back into man, which had been taken away with the curse, [1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.]
Jesus shows Himself first to Mary Magdalene, she believed undoubtedly, running to the disciples to tell them, but when she told them that He was alive they did not believe her. Likewise, He shows Himself to some others and they did not believe that it was Him. Finally, Jesus shows up in Galilee as promised, and there they were all the disciples eating together.
[Mark 16:9-16 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 10 And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. 12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. 14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.]
[After that he appeared in another form unto two] Do you ever wonder why He appeared as another form, or perhaps what form it was? I believe Jesus did this to see if they remembered what He had said. When we are going through things we tend to forget the promises that Jesus makes to us. That is when we can expect Him to fuss at us for our unbelief and hardness of heart. It does not matter how strong our faith, we all have times of unbelief because our hearts harden through our circumstances, but that is what His grace is for, when we lose some of our faith, grace reminds us that not only are we saved by grace, we are more than conquerors, [Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.]
Let Us Pray: Jesus, Thank You again for the great sacrifice that You made. You did not have to die, You could have chosen any other way to redeem me, or You could have chosen not to do anything at all and leave me trying to work my way to my salvation. You endured the cross, You took my place, You took the punishment that I deserved, but You took all my sins to the cross with You. Although You died, and that was sufficient enough, you went further after your burial, by raising from the dead, three days later so that I too am more than a conquerer, even death cannot separate us because of Your great sacrifice. Lord, let me always live my life by Your example and never stop preaching the Gospel. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus, Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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