Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge

Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge

Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge

“Why Pray?” – Genesis 3:14-19

In light of the fact that God is sovereign and does whatever He wishes, why pray?
Perhaps you have prayed for something for years and have seen no movement from God. Why should you continue to pray?
If things don’t appear to be going the direction of your prayers, why pray?

Genesis 3:14-19
In Genesis 1 and 2 we see God bringing forth everything into existence, topped off with the creation of man. God has brought everything into existence and provided for the proper functioning of everything in existence; but in chapter 3 everything changes. After man has sinned, the serpent who enticed them to sin is cursed, the woman will experience pain and subjugation, the soil will no longer spring forth with good things to eat, but the man will experience heavy toil in producing his food, and they both shall eventually die. Things are no longer the same. The things of Genesis 1 and 2 are gone forever.

Genesis 2:15
Man did not create the garden in which he was to live; God did and placed the man in the garden to take care of it. But now, instead of merely tending the grounds of the garden, man must toil over the ground and the lives of the man and the woman are to be characterized by pain; for the woman, it is in childbirth; for the man, it is in toiling over the ground.

We are in a predicament and because of that we need to pray. We need to remember that we are in this predicament because God has brought it about because of our sin. God has recompensed us by turning things upside down. Man is no longer ruling over the earth, but the earth is ruling over man.

Jonah 1:17
Jonah is in a predicament. He is experiencing the wrath and judgment of God because he has disobeyed. Although the fish was God’s judgment, it was also God’s mercy in providing safety from the sea.

Jonah 2:1
Here we have Jonah praying to God in his distress and receiving an answer from God. Jonah acknowledges that his predicament was all brought upon him by God. The prophet is under judgment; he lives in a Genesis 3 world. Whether Christian or unbeliever, we are all living in a Genesis 3 world. Even though Jonah is under judgment, being washed over by waves and tangled in sea week, he still has the faith in the midst of toil and pain to cry out to God who will even in the midst of judgment reach down and bless him.

Jonah 2:6-10
The prophet understood that, although his pain and toil was a recompense of judgment from God because of his sin, this did not remove God from a relationship with Jonah of mercy, kindness, and deliverance. Jonah, because he believed God to be not only judge but redeemer, cried out to God for mercy.

We are in a fix. But even in the midst of circumstances caused by God’s judgment on us, we can still call upon God who might bring us deliverance and relief in the midst of His judgment because He is not merely judge but also savior.

So the basic reason we pray is because we are in a fix.

Jeremiah 29:4-14
Jeremiah speaks to those exiled in Babylon. Because of Judea’s unfaithfulness to God, God has exiled them. And there false prophets among them who are saying everything is going to be fine; it’s not as bad as you think; you really shouldn’t consider this as God’s judgment. But God sends Jeremiah to tell them that it is God who has sent them into exile and they should settled down where they are and know that they shall remain for seventy years and, while they wait to return, they should find wives for their sons and give their daughters in marriage and increase in number and pray for the city in which they now find themselves because if the city prospers they will also prosper. God tells them that He has plans for them to prosper and have hope and a future.

Not only should we be praying because we are in a fix, but a second reason we ought to pray is because we need a future that is different from our present. What you have now is not God’s ultimate plan for you. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.” So even under God’s judgment, we pray for God to be merciful to us in our toil and pain. The apostle Paul tells to pray without ceasing.

End of Series in Mark

“The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ” – Mark 15:46-16:8

Jesus’ crucifixion is being told in Mark with Psalm 22 as background. The first part of the psalm speaks of feelings of abandonment but in verse 22 that all changes from despair to triumph, praise, and rejoicing. We think what happened was that a prophet or a priest came to him and told him that the Lord was going to revive him and bless him or that the actual deliverance arrived in an overwhelming way and David went to the Tabernacle where he began to praise God for it and to call the people to join him in praise. Remember though, that deliverance came only after a long period of despair. David was so much in agony over his dilemma that he was sore all over; he could count all his bones, which felt like they were all out of joint. God brings David deliverance but only after his suffering. It is against this background that the crucifixion and resurrection are told in Mark. Chapter 15 of Mark corresponds to verses 1-21 of Psalm 22 and chapter 16 of Mark corresponds to the remainder of the psalm.

Jesus died as a result of His suffering. He was completely and totally dead; He was not simply asleep but His body was completely lifeless so that they had to take Him down from the cross and wrap Him in linen and place Him in a tomb for the dead. That was how terrific Jesus’ suffering was; it took His life.

Mark 15:46-47
Chapter 15 ends with Mary the mother of Jesus, along with Mary the mother of Joses, observing where they laid Jesus’ dead body. The chapter ends on the saddest note you could ever imagine — a mother experiencing the death of her child. This isn’t supposed to happen; parents are supposed to die before their children.

Chapter 16:1-8
They had no way of embalming bodies at that time, so Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices after the Sabbath was over to anoint Jesus’ body to preserve it. Although these women cared deeply, they are women who do not believe. They are coming to the tomb to anoint someone they believe is still dead.
Very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb and observed that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb where Jesus had been laid. The women are told by angels that Jesus had risen and for them to tell the disciples that He would meet them in Galilee just as He had told them.

Mark 8:31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34
Jesus told the disciples plainly on three different occasions that He would be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, be turned over to the gentiles, suffer humiliation, be killed, and after three days rise again.

Mark drives this point home in Chapter 16, when the angel speaks to the women. The crowd around Jesus’ heard Him tell them how it would all happen, but nobody believed it. Jesus will never lie to you and never spin anything to His advantage; it is against His divine nature to do so.

The women left, trembling in fear and bewilderment. Again those who should have been comforted by the faithfulness of Jesus’ word reacted with fear. We see in Mark’s gospel that the majority of the people who witnessed Jesus’ miracles reacted with fear and bewilderment or amusement rather than belief.

The most trustworthy manuscripts of Mark end with verse 8 chapter 16.

Faith is nothing more and nothing less than taking the Lord and his prophets and apostles at their word. It will always be just as Jesus has said.