Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS024028S
|
00:00 [uplifting music]
00:11 [uplifting music] 00:15 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:17 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:18 We're glad to have you back again with us 00:20 this week as we are looking at lesson number two 00:23 in our study of the book of Mark. 00:26 We are looking today at "A Day in the Ministry of Jesus." 00:30 What did a day look like in Jesus' life? 00:33 We're gonna find that out here very shortly. 00:35 But before we do, we're going to start with prayer. Let's pray. 00:39 Father, we thank You for giving us 00:40 an opportunity to take this journey 00:42 through the book of Mark, to get a clearer picture 00:45 of Jesus, His ministry, the gospel that He had to share, 00:49 and the lives that He changed and continues to change. 00:52 We ask that You'll bless our time together today, 00:54 and we thank You in Jesus' name, amen. 00:58 Well, we're grateful once again to have with us the author 01:01 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson. 01:03 Tom Shepherd, he's a senior research professor at-- 01:07 of New Testament--at the Theological Seminary, 01:09 Andrews University, and also a pastor of two churches 01:12 up in Michigan-- Tom, welcome back. 01:14 >>Tom Shepherd: Thank you. Good to be with you. 01:16 >>Eric: So we're looking at a day in the ministry 01:18 of Jesus. 01:20 Mark gives us some insights into the day-to-day life 01:24 of Jesus, and as we begin this gospel, 01:27 as we're diving into this gospel, 01:30 Jesus calls His first disciples. 01:32 What did that call look like? 01:35 How did He call them, and why-- well, we're going to find out 01:39 why they felt impressed to follow Him, 01:41 but let's start with how Jesus called His first disciples. 01:44 >>Tom: All right, so I want to turn to Mark, chapter 1, 01:47 verses 16 through 20. 01:49 It's the call of the first four disciples. 01:52 "Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, 01:54 "He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon 01:57 "casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 02:01 "And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you 02:04 "become fishers of men.' 02:06 "And immediately they left their nets 02:07 "and followed Him. 02:09 "And going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee 02:11 "and John his brother, who were in their boat 02:14 "mending the nets. 02:16 "And immediately He called them, and they left their father 02:18 "Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants 02:21 and followed Him." 02:22 Well, so what's interesting is you have these two sets 02:24 of brothers that Jesus calls. 02:27 It almost seems so, almost by chance; 02:30 you know, He's walking along, and there they are. 02:32 "Come, follow me," and they get up, and off they go. 02:36 Now, you know, you think about that 02:38 for a moment, and if somebody were to just, you know, 02:41 come knock on your door and say, 02:43 "Hey, I'm starting a new mission, come with me," 02:47 most people would say, "Well, where are we going? 02:51 "Well, what's the pay? Is there a health plan? [laughs] 02:56 What about vacation?" [laughs] 02:59 And there's none of that here. 03:01 It's just, you know-- really direct words of Jesus. 03:04 Just, "Follow me," and off they go. 03:07 Now, we know that these men had-- 03:11 from other gospels we know that they had had, you know, 03:14 been following John the Baptist; they had had, probably, 03:18 some contact with Jesus; they knew of Jesus, so-- 03:22 Mark doesn't tell us any of that, 03:25 and the reason he doesn't is he wants you to sense 03:29 the power of the authority of Jesus when He says, 03:32 you know, "Follow me," and up you go and, 03:35 you know, you're on your way. 03:38 The other interesting thing here is that they're two different, 03:45 kind of, economic levels, it seems like. 03:50 Peter and Andrew are on the shore 03:52 of the Sea of Galilee, they're throwing a net 03:54 into the sea, almost as though they don't have a boat, 03:58 you know, that they're not that well off. Now, 04:00 we know from other gospels 04:02 that, you know, Peter has a boat, okay, but-- 04:04 but here he's just described with his brother just casting 04:07 the net into the sea. 04:09 James and John, on the other hand, 04:12 there's a boat, there's their father, 04:15 there's hired servants, 04:17 so, they seem to be, you know, a little more economically 04:21 on the up and up. 04:22 And so, what we draw from this is that Jesus 04:26 calls both the poor and the richer people 04:31 to follow Him, and the call of Jesus 04:35 is not just for one group. 04:37 He wants everybody to follow Him, 04:40 and these men become His very important 04:44 early followers, yep. 04:47 >>Eric: So He calls them; they've got some experience, 04:51 some knowledge of Him before this, 04:55 this meeting, but why would they just drop everything? 05:00 I mean, here they are and He invites them, and they-- 05:04 again, the appearance is they just go, 05:08 no questioning about the health care plan 05:11 and retirement benefits and so forth, 05:13 as you mentioned. 05:14 But why would they leave all that and just follow Him? 05:17 >>Tom: Well, again, some of our-- 05:19 I think Mark is focusing on the authority of Jesus, 05:22 and the Lord calls and you go. 05:25 Some of the other gospels, Luke has this beautiful story 05:29 of Jesus filling their boat with fish, 05:33 and they have everything. Now, 05:36 somebody might say, "Well, that would be 05:39 "the least time that you'd want to leave, 05:42 "is when everything was-- you know, the boat's full; 05:45 "you know, you have all this fish. 05:47 Why would I want to leave this now? I'm doing well." 05:51 But of course, it's Jesus who filled the boat, and it's-- 05:57 if you're with Him, you don't have to worry 05:59 about the boat being full; He can fill it again. 06:02 So, they-- here in Mark 06:06 there's a strong sense of authority. 06:08 Now, we're gonna see that the disciples come across 06:11 as, sort of, people who don't quite get it always. 06:15 They're sort of bumbling along, you know, following Him, 06:18 and we might tend to be a little bit hard on them. 06:21 Actually, there are some scholars who are fairly hard 06:24 on them, that they-- they're failures, 06:28 and, you know, Jesus gives up on them or something, 06:31 but I don't think that's the case at all, 06:34 but rather that Jesus will provide, 06:37 and they're gonna be with Him, so it's quite a powerful kind of 06:44 presentation of the authority of Jesus in calling disciples. 06:49 >>Eric: Now, last week, when we came together, 06:51 you talked about this journey that Mark takes us on, 06:55 this journey to the cross, really, I mean, this is-- 06:58 the book of Mark is a journey to the cross, 07:01 but Jesus doesn't-- His opening invitation 07:04 doesn't say, "Hey, follow me, I'm going to the cross." 07:07 Ultimately, that's where He's going, but He doesn't-- 07:11 that's not part of the invitation. 07:13 Why doesn't He tell His first disciples 07:16 that that's where things are going to end up? 07:18 >>Tom: Yeah, so some people might fault Jesus on this 07:21 and say, you know, it's a bait and switch, 07:23 you know, "You told us we were gonna catch men, 07:26 and now we're gonna take up a cross." 07:29 You see, the expectation for-- of the Messiah in Jesus' day 07:34 was that He would be a conquering kind of a person 07:39 who would free them from the Romans. 07:41 And so, they had the wrong view of what it meant to be Messiah. 07:46 So if you start off and tell them everything 07:51 about what it's gonna be, they wouldn't understand it. 07:54 They had to get to know Him, they had to come to trust Him, 07:57 they had to see His miracles, they had to have experiences 07:59 preaching before they could carry the weight of what 08:04 His true Messiahship was going to be about. 08:07 I like the illustration that is used for the front 08:09 of the lesson quarterly and for the front 08:12 of the companion book where it's like 08:14 Mark is sitting there, and he's--there's a crown of thorns 08:17 in front of him, and he's looking at the crown of thorns 08:20 and talking about that. 08:23 This was unfathomable. 08:26 They couldn't imagine that this would happen. 08:29 And so, He doesn't tell them that at the beginning. 08:33 He's gonna have them know Him first 08:36 so that they can trust Him and then they will be able 08:39 to bear the weight. 08:43 And even then, it was extremely challenging for them. 08:46 So, that's probably why He doesn't tell them. 08:49 And of course, they do become fishers of men. 08:53 >>Eric: And so, they do follow Him, 08:54 they get to know Him, and you mentioned 08:56 they don't really know Him at the beginning. 09:01 However, there are some who do know very well 09:03 who He is, even at the beginning of the book of Mark. 09:07 I want to kind of shift over to this experience 09:09 at the Capernaum synagogue, and let's talk about 09:14 that experience and how Jesus is known 09:20 by some but not by others. 09:23 Unpack that for us a little. 09:25 >>Tom: Okay, so when we start the Gospel, 09:27 we go back to verse 1, it says, "The beginning of the gospel 09:29 of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." 09:31 So, the reader knows from the get-go who Jesus is. 09:36 Jesus is the Messiah, He is the Son of God. 09:40 So, we have this knowledge of Him that people in the book-- 09:45 you know, who aren't demon possessed, 09:48 and then we'll come to that-- they don't know who He is. 09:53 I mean, John talks about Him, and, of course, 09:58 when He's baptized, the Father speaks 10:01 to Him, not to all the people. 10:03 He says, "You are my beloved Son, 10:05 with You I'm well pleased." 10:06 So, we know who He is. 10:10 We get--we hear all these voices, 10:13 but the disciples and the early people, 10:15 they don't all get who that, you know, who that is. 10:19 And so, we're kind of above the fray, watching. 10:23 This is one of the reason why people look down 10:24 on the disciples. They're like, "Couldn't these people get it? 10:28 "Can't you hear that? 10:30 "Didn't you hear those words at the beginning, 10:33 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God'? 10:35 Don't you know who He is?" 10:36 So, we are kind of up above, and we're like, 10:39 "Oh, we know who He is," but the disciples, ahh, 10:42 they're sort of, you know, doofuses who don't get it. 10:45 And so, we have a tendency to look down on them 10:48 in that sense, but that's-- there's a special twist 10:52 that comes to this at the end. 10:54 I won't unpack that until we get, you know, down at the end, 10:58 but they are going to follow Him. 11:03 They know as much as they can know at the time. 11:05 Now, when you come to Capernaum-- 11:08 it's interesting, each Gospel opens or presents the beginning 11:13 of the ministry of Jesus in a bit differently than any other. 11:18 All four of them present Him in a different way. 11:21 Book of Matthew begins with this genealogy, 11:24 ties him especially to King David, 11:26 and then you have the wise men coming 11:30 and the whole birth narrative. 11:31 That's not in Mark, right? 11:33 Over in Luke, you also have a birth narrative. 11:36 It's presented a bit differently, 11:37 emphasizes certain people who are holy, 11:42 people like Zacharias and Elizabeth 11:45 and the Holy Spirit working on them 11:47 and working on Mary, and when Luke 11:51 begins the ministry of Jesus, he has Jesus give a presentation 11:58 in the Nazareth synagogue, and it kind of lays out 12:03 where everything is going. 12:05 Jesus' big ministry in Matthew is the sermon on the mount, 12:08 you know, really big. Now, John begins with a beautiful prologue 12:14 that goes all the way back before Creation, 12:17 and then he has the disciples that are mentioned there 12:21 and particularly focuses on some that 12:23 hardly get any press anywhere else. 12:25 So, each one presents in a different way. 12:28 Now, how does Mark present the beginning 12:29 of the ministry of Jesus? 12:32 It's a, you might say, a typical day 12:34 or paradigmatic day in the ministry of Jesus. 12:38 It's a Sabbath day, and He's going to the synagogue. 12:41 He's going to church. Jesus went to church. 12:43 You and I should go to church on the Sabbath day 12:45 just like He did. 12:46 And He goes to this synagogue, 12:51 and there's this pretty amazing event 12:53 that occurs in the synagogue. 12:56 Maybe we can read just a little bit of this. 12:58 We won't have time, maybe, to talk all about this 13:01 in the first segment, but we can read a portion of it. 13:04 Read verses 21 through 25. 13:09 >>Eric: "Then they went into Capernaum, 13:10 "and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue 13:13 "and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, 13:16 "for He taught them as one having authority, 13:18 "and not as the scribes. 13:20 "Now there was a man in their synagogue 13:22 "with an unclean spirit. 13:23 "And he cried out, saying, 'Let us alone! 13:26 "'What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? 13:29 "'Did you come to destroy us? 13:31 "I know who You are-- the Holy One of God!' 13:34 "But Jesus rebuked him, saying, 13:36 'Be quiet, and come out of him!'" 13:38 >>Tom: Okay, well, 13:40 that's where we can start in the second segment. 13:41 >>Eric: All right, so that's a bit of a cliffhanger there. 13:44 We want to figure out what's going on here. 13:46 But before we go to our break, I want to come back 13:49 and talk about that companion book that you have written. 13:52 Share with us a little bit more about that companion book 13:55 and why it would be important to help us understand 13:57 what we're looking at here in the day 13:59 in the life of the ministry of Jesus. 14:01 >>Tom: Okay, so the companion book is, 14:04 has 13 chapters, just like 13 weeks of the lesson, 14:07 and each chapter links up 14:09 with the particular lesson that we're studying, 14:12 the day and day of the ministry-- 14:13 it's got the same titles, so you--it's easy to find it, 14:16 and you get extra information in there that you don't have 14:19 in the quarterly, and it gives you 14:21 some additional material, if you're the teacher, 14:25 or if you're one of the people in the lesson study 14:28 and you wanna, you know, get a little further insights 14:31 and--very useful for that. >>Eric: Very good. 14:34 And you can pick that companion book up very easily. 14:36 Just go to itiswritten.shop. 14:39 Again, itiswritten.shop. 14:41 Look for the companion book to this quarter's 14:42 "Sabbath School" study. It's called "The Gospel of Mark" 14:45 by Tom Shepherd. 14:47 We're going to come back in just a moment, 14:48 and we're going to pick up that story at the-- 14:50 in the synagogue at Capernaum and continue looking 14:53 at a day in the ministry of Jesus. 14:56 We will be right back. 14:57 [uplifting music] 15:02 >>John Bradshaw: If you're looking for resources 15:03 to share with others, people growing in their faith 15:06 or people looking to know Jesus for the first time, 15:08 if you're trying to find meaningful gifts 15:10 or you want to enrich your own spiritual journey, 15:13 I want to encourage you to visit itiswritten.shop today. 15:17 Call 888-664-5573. 15:22 That's 888-664-5573 15:26 or text "CSR" to 71392. 15:29 Itiswritten.shop. 15:33 [somber music] 15:38 >>male 1: What does the Bible say about astrology? 15:45 >>male 2: Why do bad things happen to good people? 15:53 >>child: What color is Jesus? 15:55 >>John Bradshaw: If you have a question, 15:57 we'd love to find an answer for you from the Bible. 16:00 "Line Upon Line" from It Is Written TV. 16:04 [uplifting music] 16:09 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 16:10 brought to you by It Is Written. 16:12 We're looking at "A Day in the Ministry of Jesus." 16:15 Now, Tom, the synagogue at Capernaum, 16:18 we've--we just read what happens here in Mark, chapter 1. 16:21 There's an interesting-- it's an interesting introduction 16:24 to this episode where Jesus is having a-- 16:30 I don't know if we'd call it a discussion-- 16:32 He is addressing some demons. 16:35 Why does Jesus tell this demon to be silent? 16:38 >>Tom: Yes, so the terminology, actually, when it's-- 16:43 "Be silent" is a nice way to say it. It's-- 16:45 the verb in Greek is "to muzzle." 16:49 So, a lot of people would say, "Shut up," which we teach 16:54 our children, "Don't say, 'Shut up,'" you know, 16:56 "say, 'Please be quiet.'" 16:57 But Jesus is talking to a demon. 17:00 And so, this is one of Satan's angels, 17:02 who has possessed this man. 17:04 When you read what the man actually says to Jesus, 17:06 it's rather striking. It's in verse 24: 17:08 "What have You to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 17:11 "Have you come to destroy us? 17:13 I know who You are-- the Holy One of God." 17:15 So, he knows, the demon knows, who Jesus is. 17:19 He also says, "Do You-- have You come to destroy us?" 17:21 Now, who's the us? 17:23 Well, of course, it's a man talking, 17:25 but the demon's inside of him, and you could say, 17:28 "Well, he's talking about the people in the synagogue." 17:31 And so, just think of that, Jesus the destroyer. [laughs] 17:35 But maybe more likely what this is describing is the demons. 17:39 Jesus has come to destroy them, and so I think in some places 17:45 we have the demons say, "You've come before time, 17:48 "it's too early. 17:50 Have You come before the time to destroy us?" 17:53 So, Jesus tells him to be silent and come out of him. 17:55 Well, for one thing, he was disrupting the-- 17:58 His teaching and His, the service. 18:01 But this is one of those markers of a motif in the, or theme, 18:09 in the Gospel of Mark called the revelation secrecy motif 18:14 where Jesus is always saying "shh" to people. 18:19 And, interestingly, whenever He does that, 18:21 they never seem to do what He said. Things haven't changed. 18:24 [laughing] People still don't do what they're told. 18:27 But He silences this demon because the demon knows 18:31 who He is, and to let people know 18:34 in advance of who He was as Messiah could be dangerous 18:38 for Him, shorten His ministry. So, He silences them. 18:42 But we'll see that, actually, there's-- 18:44 and we'll unpack that more as we go along-- 18:46 that there's actually-- 18:48 this motif has theological implications 18:51 as well, besides historical, you know, realities tied up with it. 18:55 This was an unforgettable church service. 18:58 You know, most of us have some unforgettable church service 19:01 in our life, you know, either was where we really messed up 19:05 and just blew it or somebody did something that was, 19:10 well, unforgettable. [laughs] 19:12 And I'm sure that people never forgot this church service. 19:16 It's really interesting that this whole chapter, 19:19 the vast majority of this chapter, is one day. 19:23 When you think about it, Jesus has a ministry of, like, 19:25 three and a half years and we're using 1/16 of the Gospel, 19:31 you know, to just tell one day. 19:34 In fact, Mark does this a lot, where he will give you 19:39 a vignette, a sort of a capsule picture. 19:42 You're not seeing the whole ministry of Jesus, 19:44 but, boy, you're really zeroing in on one particular day. 19:48 So, this is the beginning of that--the Sabbath morning 19:51 where He's in that synagogue, and everybody's amazed, 19:55 completely amazed, by what goes on. 19:57 >>Eric: So we start getting a picture of who He is 20:00 in His interaction with this demon, 20:04 or the man who's possessed by the demon, 20:07 but in Mark, chapter 1, as you mentioned, 20:09 there's more that happens. 20:11 There are two people in Mark, chapter 1 20:13 who are touched by Jesus. 20:15 You have Peter's mother-in-law, 20:17 and then you also have this leper. 20:19 What was-- talk with us 20:20 a little bit about this touch that Jesus had that He gave. 20:25 >>Tom: Okay, so, first of all, we'll say that 20:27 this is the beginning, you know, sort of the introduction 20:31 of Jesus' ministry, 20:32 and the typical day of Jesus' ministry is the Sabbath. 20:36 Now, that's encouraging for us, as Seventh-day Adventists, 20:38 that Mark presents this as the, you know, the, sort of, 20:43 the paradigm of Jesus' ministry. 20:45 You get a similar thing in Luke when he gives 20:48 His sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, and that 20:51 sort of lays out where He's going. 20:54 So, Jesus will heal many people in this book of Mark, 20:59 and sometimes He touches them, sometimes it's not touch, 21:03 but He, when He leaves the synagogue, 21:05 in verse 29, it says, "And immediately"-- 21:08 that's one of his favorite words, 21:09 by the way, "immediately"-- 21:11 "And immediately He left the synagogue 21:13 "and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, 21:15 "with James and John. 21:17 "Now Simon's mother-in-law lay [sick] with a fever, 21:20 "and immediately they told Him about her. 21:23 "And He came and took her 21:24 "by the hand and lifted her up, 21:26 and the fever left her, and she began to serve them." 21:29 So, first of all, we know that Simon was married. 21:33 Paul tells us that as well, actually, 21:35 but he has a mother-in-law, so he had to have a wife. 21:37 And there's actually, in the ruins of Capernaum, 21:40 you can go there today, and there's a house 21:42 that's been designated-- was it really the case?-- 21:45 don't know, but there's a house been designated 21:47 as Peter's house, and it is kind of a octagonal, 21:51 if I recall, shape and kind of interesting. 21:54 So, He goes there, and his mother-in-law 21:59 is sick with a fever, some think it might be malaria 22:02 or something she had, and He takes her by the hand, 22:06 and the fever leaves. 22:08 We'll see other times when Jesus touches people, 22:11 but it's rather, you know-- well, should we say touching?-- 22:14 when somebody touches someone to comfort them. 22:18 Now, I'm a pastor, and I visit people 22:20 in the hospital, and I go to church members' homes, 22:25 I'm a chaplain at a prison, and touch is really important. 22:30 You touch somebody, you make a connection with them, 22:33 it lets them know that you care about them, 22:34 and I think that's part of what's going on here 22:36 with Jesus, with this touching of Simon's mother-in-law. 22:44 Now, the other person who is touched 22:46 in this chapter is a little bit later, 22:49 and that is after that paradigmatic day 22:54 of Jesus' ministry. 22:56 It's at the end of the chapter where He is met by a leper. 23:01 Now, leprosy that's referred to here is not necessarily 23:07 what we call today Hansen's disease. 23:10 Leprosy in the Bible could refer to a number 23:13 of skin diseases. 23:17 Could be--include psoriasis, could--eczema things, 23:21 different kinds of diseases, 23:23 so, not necessarily leprosy leprosy, 23:25 but this man may have been that leprosy leprosy, 23:29 it had arrived in Palestine by that time, and he comes 23:35 and implores Jesus, kneeling down before Him, 23:38 and says, "If You will, You can make me clean." 23:42 So Jesus is moved with pity. 23:45 He stretches out His hand and touches the man. 23:47 Now, if you read the Old Testament, 23:50 you'll see that you weren't supposed 23:53 to touch people with leprosy because 23:56 they were ceremonially unclean, and if you touched them, 24:02 you became ceremonially unclean, 24:05 and people didn't want to do that. 24:08 And so, they would stay away from touching those people. 24:11 Now, Jesus, however, is not defiled 24:14 by touching the leper. 24:16 He has power that cleanses the leper. 24:19 So, I would say to students sometimes, 24:23 "Which is stronger, clean or unclean?" 24:26 And usually, the perceptive students would recognize 24:29 that unclean was stronger than clean. 24:31 It's like if you're playing rock, paper, scissors, 24:33 you know, and one is stronger than the other. 24:36 Well, unclean has the power to make the clean unclean, 24:42 but not in the case of Jesus because He has-- 24:46 He's Jesus, He has this power that can cleanse it away. 24:49 And that's exactly what happens. The man is cleansed. 24:52 "And [He] sternly charge[s] him and sent him away at once." 24:54 He says in verse 44, 24:56 "'See that you say nothing to anyone'"-- 24:58 there's that secrecy again-- "'but go, show yourself 25:01 "'to the priest and offer for your cleansing 25:03 "what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.' 25:06 "But he went out and began to talk freely about it, 25:08 "and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer 25:11 "openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, 25:14 and people were coming to Him from every quarter." 25:17 So, again, here He is, He says, 25:20 "Don't say anything about this." And what do they do? 25:23 They go, and they say things about it and tell people. 25:26 So, yeah. 25:28 >>Eric: And it makes His ministry more difficult. 25:30 You sometimes wonder, if people had just listened to Him, 25:33 how much more effective might His ministry have been? 25:35 Speculation, you know, maybe one day we'll find out. 25:39 We don't have too much time left, but I do want to touch 25:41 on something very significant here, and that's the role 25:43 of prayer in Jesus' ministry. How important was that? 25:46 >>Tom: Well, you come to the end of that typical day, 25:49 and you find that Jesus, you know, they-- 25:53 people come after sunset, so they knew, 25:56 the readers evidently know how Sabbath ends at sunset, 26:00 and people wait to come to Jesus until after sunset, 26:04 and the whole city gathers at the door. 26:05 Now, that took time, to heal all these people, 26:08 but then early in the morning, He gets up, and He goes out 26:11 and prays in a lonely place. 26:13 So, yeah, prayer was very central 26:15 to the ministry of Jesus, and we find Him in prayer, 26:19 the Gospels report Him in prayer, to the point 26:22 where the disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. 26:26 You get the Lord's prayer in Matthew and in Luke. 26:29 So, yeah, it was very central to His power, His connection 26:32 with God, and His miracles. 26:35 >>Eric: So a huge role, prayer, and it should be a huge role 26:38 in our lives as well. 26:40 And we hope that as you're going through 26:42 this quarter's lesson, as you are delving 26:44 into the book of Mark and getting a picture of Jesus, 26:48 we hope that you're going to see as well how important 26:50 it is that prayer be a part of our lives. 26:54 Because without prayer-- you can study all you want, 26:58 but it's only your intellect and your knowledge 27:00 trying to understand, but with prayer, 27:02 Christ enters into it, the Holy Spirit enters into it, 27:05 and you'll see things that you have never seen before. 27:08 So, we are looking at the book of Mark, 27:10 delving into it and helping us to see a clearer picture 27:13 of Jesus, His ministry, His love for us. 27:16 And we are on the second week of a 13-week journey, 27:21 the second lesson of a 13-lesson journey 27:24 digging into the book of Mark. 27:26 And next week we are going to look at something 27:28 very fascinating, and that is some controversies 27:31 that surrounded Jesus. 27:34 A very, very fascinating study, 27:36 and we look forward to having you join us once again. 27:40 Next week we'll be back with Tom Shepherd, 27:42 the author of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson, 27:44 and we're looking forward to having you with us as well. 27:47 Until then, God bless you, and we'll see you again 27:49 next week here on "Sabbath School," 27:51 brought to you by It Is Written. 27:53 [uplifting music] 28:24 [uplifting music] 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2024-07-02