Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for January 22, 2012

Series in Mark

“Unexpected Things – Part II” – Mark 9:30-50

Last week we covered the first of three unexpected things, that some things happen only if people ask for them to happen; and even if God’s people pray with just a little bit of faith and cry out to God to help them in their faith, some things will happen if they pray.

Isaiah 66:22-24
In the end everyone will bow down to the Lord and Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that it is the Lord Jesus Christ to whom all will bow.
Bowing down will take two forms. The way that God’s people bow down is in the exercise of faith and reliance on Him and they will be rewarded with eternal life. The wicked will bow down also, but will be made to do so, then will be taken away into eternal mortality, decay, and pain forever.

In today’s lesson, Jesus wants you to know that the first way in which you are to bow down before history’s end arrives so that you are not in that group which experience the unending fire is by unending, enduring prayer even if that prayer comes with a little bit of faith. Every time you pray with even a tiny bit of faith you are classed with the Israel that will be resurrected and ushered into the land of blessing in the final days. If you are a people bowing the knee now, one of the things that characterizes you is prayer even when you no longer have the heart to pray. Praying when you don’t have the heart to pray characterizes the people of submission and faith today.

Jesus tells His disciples that He will be betrayed, killed, and resurrected from the dead. This was puzzling to them after witnessing Jesus in His ascension glory and power during the transfiguration.

The disciples were still in a state of awe from the transfiguration when they began to discuss among themselves who was the greatest among them.

The second unexpected thing is, if anyone wants to be first, he must be last.
A servant is someone who seeks to make someone else successful.

The third thing Jesus wants you to know in this lesson is that if we are of the spiritual family of Abraham this side of the end days, we are to value people simply on the basis that we share the same faith in Jesus Christ.

Mark 9:42-48
All of this language about cutting off body parts and plucking out this and that is “exaggeration language” to impress the hearer that it is better to suffer loss ourselves rather than to do anything to cause fellow believers to sin.

Mark 9:50
Spice up your relationships by being at peace with each other.