We have finally reached the end of our study through the gospel of Mark! Pastor Steve took a few detours in this last section of Mark 16 to cover important topics like textual criticism (as verses 9-20 are not in all of the earliest manuscripts) and baptismal regeneration (which cannot be taught from these verses),…
We move from the finality of the end of chapter 15–where Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, asks for Jesus’s body as a final way to honor Him (as he was a secret disciple)–into chapter 16, the amazement of that Sunday morning with the stone rolled away and an empty tomb. It…
Continuing in Mark chapter 15, we finally have the end of the trials and Jesus is handed over to be crucified. Unable to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene is conscripted to do so from the crowd as they make their way to Golgotha–the place of the skull. Pastor Steve details the prophetic events unfolded…
We now enter chapter 15 in the gospel of Mark which continues the trial of Jesus, now being brought before Pilate and the Roman authorities, which the Jews need because their only hope for a death sentence is via the Romans. Pastor Steve brought us back to Isaiah 53 and the picture of the “suffering…
This week we finally finish up the 72-verse long chapter 14 of Mark’s gospel! In this final section we move to the courtyard where the high priest and a partial Sanhedrin condemn Jesus in the middle of the night, breaking many of their own rules of order to do so. The focus turns to Peter,…
Jesus and His disciples have left the upper room and their Passover meal, crossed the Kidron Valley and have gone into the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus has an intense time of prayer with the Father. Judas is already unfolding the plan with the religious leaders to betray Him. In all of this we can…
On this communion Sunday, Pastor Steve took a brief section of our continued study through the gospel of Mark, only looking at the few verses where Jesus predicts Peter’s denial that night after the arrest. We, like Peter, can be overly confident in our strength and underestimate our lack of courage in the face of…
Continuing in Mark 14, we are within hours of Jesus’s betrayal and arrest, but at this moment Jesus is preparing to share the Passover meal with his disciples. During the meal he announces the fact that someone among them will betray Him! The other gospels tell us that “Satan has entered into Judas’s heart” already…
The opening of Mark chapter 14 begins with a huge contrast: the religious elite who are both ceremonially preparing to “worship” on the Passover, but inside are plotting the sin of murder compared with a woman, unnamed here in Mark, humbly coming and pouring out a significantly costly offering onto Jesus as an act of…
Pastor Steve finishes up Mark chapter 13 this week with Jesus’s teaching on the tribulation and second coming via the prophecy from Daniel chapter 9. We took a detour to look back at this critical prophecy and its application to the current “church age” and how it relates to what we believe as the distinct…