I'm Following Jesus – Page 1270 – 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.

King James Bible Study – “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.” – Mark 8:34

Date: Saturday, November 14, 2020
Chapters: Mark 15-16
Message: Prevail With Christ

Hello My Friend,

The more we see our nations falling into the abyss of evil, the more we wonder if God is the one sending the judgment as this is not just happening in one country, but all over the world. There is something that God wants us to understand through all this, there will always be evil while Satan walks the earth. This is not an attack on His people, this is actually Him allowing all these fools to turn on each other while He unites His people. The time has come for all Christians to stop living in fear and be reminded that you will prevail through Christ, [I Corinthians 15:56-57 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.]

Mark also tells of Jesus standing before the court in judgment, again, the Jews despised Jesus because one, He stood up to them and exposed them for the frauds that they were, and two, they envied Him because the people believed in and followed Him over them. Since they were too cowardly to do it themselves, and what they actually wanted was a public display of all this, they sent Jesus to the governor who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. Pilate, did not want to make the decision himself, instead he let the people decide.

[Mark 15:6-15 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. 12 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.]

[What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?] 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 15:16-22 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. 21 And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. 22 And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.]

[And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian,] Not only did Jesus have to walk to the place He would be crucified He also had carry the cross He was to be hanging on. Jesus was battered and bruised so badly that He did not have the strength to carry it Himself, at least, someone had a heart to help Him. 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.]

[why hast thou forsaken me?] When Jesus hung there on the cross His own Father could not look at Him. Why? He carried all the sins of every soul He would ever create, even the ones who had not even been born yet. God sacrificed His own Son so that HE could give man redemption once and for all to those who believe in Him.

[Isaiah 53:7-11 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.]

[he shall see his seed,] When we come to Christ for redemption, it is not us that God sees, it is His Son. It is only through this great sacrifice that we who are the real sinners can stand before God and be justified. Not of our own righteousness are we saved, but by our faith in what Christ has done for us, [Romans 3:24-26 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.]

Now, if the thugs had their way they would have just dumped Jesus’ body in some shallow grave somewhere, but one man who believed in Him, asked for His body and buried it in the very tomb that he purchased for himself, [Mark 15:43-46 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.]

[and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock,] For three days, these fools boasted of what they did, they were proud of the fact that they put an innocent man to death. For three days they thought all their fears and troubles were over and all the people would return to worshiping them. For three days, they actually thought they were doing a service to God by killing who they thought was a blasphemer. However, the joke would be on them as Jesus arose from the dead.

[Mark 16:2-6,9,12,14 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. 9 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. 12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. 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.]

[After that he appeared in another form unto two of them,] This just means that Jesus did not reveal who He was to them at the time. He still looked like a man, but because of their unbelief they could not see that it was Jesus. Let me tell you, the grief many of us are bear right now over all that is going on is clouding our faith, we cannot see Jesus. Remember, He is not in the grave! He is alive! Jesus prevailed and received victory over death, and that means we who believe in and receive Him will have the same victory. Death has no dominion on the one who believes in the sinless death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for we will resurrect also, [Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.]

Today’s Prayer: God, We keep hearing of how uncertain times are right now, but we who know Your Son as our Saviour can be at peace for we know that our place is not uncertain. We know who we belong to and where we are going. Our faith in Him alone has given us the victory, not only over the death of our soul, but death itself. Even though we do face death once, just like Jesus, we too will be raised, just as He did. Thank You, for the great sacrifice You made to give us permanent redemption, and victory over death. We will prevail all evil through our faith in Your Son. I pray this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

God Bless You, I am praying for you,

Christina

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