Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS024032S
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00:11 [uplifting music] 00:13 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:15 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:17 We're glad that you have chosen to join us once again today 00:19 as we continue this incredible journey through 00:22 the book of Mark, a fascinating book, and we're learning 00:26 more and more about Jesus day by day as we study it. 00:30 This week, lesson number 6, "Inside Out." 00:33 Well, what's this lesson about? 00:35 We're about to find out, but let's start with prayer. 00:38 Father, we thank You for giving us this incredible opportunity 00:41 to take this journey through the book of Mark 00:43 and to learn more about You, 00:45 to learn more about Your plan for our lives as we do so. 00:49 We ask that You will bless us, and we thank You 00:51 in Jesus' name, amen. 00:54 Well, we're happy to have with us once again, also, 00:56 the author of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson; 00:59 that is Tom Shepherd. 01:00 He is the senior research professor of New Testament 01:04 at the theological seminary at Andrews University. 01:07 Tom, welcome back once again. 01:09 >>Thomas Shepherd: Good to be with you. 01:10 >>Eric: So, "Inside Out," lesson number 6, 01:12 we've worked our way through the first several chapters 01:15 of the book of Mark, we're now on, I think, 01:16 chapter 7, give or take, 01:19 and "Inside Out"-- let me ask this question 01:21 as we dive into it. 01:22 The Pharisees were a little bit upset with the disciples 01:26 as we get into chapter 7 here. They didn't wash their hands. 01:30 Now, I've heard of parents who are upset with their kids 01:32 when they don't wash their hands, but this seems 01:35 like it's a little deeper issue than a mere 01:38 not washing away of the germs. What's going on in this story? 01:41 >>Tom: Well, I can just imagine somebody studying this 01:45 with young people at the church, and the children coming home 01:50 and saying, "We don't have to wash our hands; Jesus said so," 01:53 and pretty soon the pastor or somebody would be 01:55 getting a phone call: "What are you doing 01:56 telling our children not to wash their hands?" 01:58 [laughs] You're right, Eric, that it's not about hygiene 02:02 that we're discussing here. 02:04 It's, again, about ritual purity. 02:06 And the disciples didn't do the ritual kind of washing 02:10 that the Pharisees followed. 02:14 And so, it's interesting to notice here as well, whenever 02:19 it's the disciples that are doing something they don't like, 02:23 they complain to Jesus. 02:25 And whenever it's Jesus who's doing something they don't like, 02:28 they complain to the disciples. [laughs] 02:30 They don't go straight to the individual involved. 02:33 So, here they're talking about this ritual purity, 02:37 and so the way that this progresses, then, 02:42 is that the Pharisees and the scribes 02:44 ask in verse 5, "Why do Your disciples 02:47 not walk according to the tradition of the elders?" 02:49 Notice this is actually not something 02:51 from the Old Testament. 02:53 This is a tradition that was established 02:55 between the Testaments. 02:57 It says, "But they eat with defiled hands"-- 02:59 with unwashed hands. 03:01 So, how is Jesus gonna respond to this? 03:03 Well, the interesting thing is you--in these conflicts, 03:07 it's kind of tit-for-tat, and it's not like they're asking, 03:11 "You know, could You really explain to us what it means? 03:14 Do we really need to wash our hands?" 03:16 When they attack Him, 03:18 He responds with a complaint against them. 03:23 He says in verse 6, "Well did Isaiah prophesy 03:26 "of you hypocrites, as it is written 03:29 "'This people honors me with their lips, 03:32 "'but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, 03:35 "'teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 03:38 "You leave the commandment of God 03:40 and hold to the tradition of men." 03:43 Right, so there, right away, 03:44 you see there's the commandments of God-- 03:46 that's the Old Testament, you know, regulations-- 03:49 and the traditions of men. 03:52 And He puts the two of them 03:54 on the opposite side of the fence, yeah. 03:57 >>Eric: So they're upset that 03:58 He's not following these traditions. 04:01 As we work our way down through this story, we get to 04:05 verse number 11 and this concept of--or idea of "Corban." 04:10 How does that fit into this story and what's going on here? 04:14 >>Tom: Yeah, so you've got to get the whole context here. 04:17 If you start in verse 9, "He said to them, 04:19 "'You have a fine way 04:20 of rejecting the commandment of God'"-- 04:22 now, so notice, "the commandment of God"-- 04:25 in order to establish your tradition!'" 04:27 So that's the traditions of men. 04:28 "For"--here comes the commandment of God, 04:31 verse 10--"Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother.'" 04:34 Of course, that's the fifth commandment of the Decalogue. 04:37 "And, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.'" 04:41 There was a death penalty involved. 04:43 "But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, 04:47 "'"Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban"' 04:50 "(that is, given to God)--then you no longer permit him 04:54 "to do anything for his father or mother, 04:55 "thus making void the word of God 04:58 "by your tradition that you have handed down. 05:00 And many such things you do.'" 05:02 So, how did this work? 05:04 Okay, so, if a Jew said over some, any kind of property thing 05:11 that "this is Corban," that means it was dedicated to God; 05:14 it was dedicated to the temple. 05:16 Now, they had this interesting way--you know, 05:21 the fifth commandment says, 05:23 "Honor your father and your mother, 05:25 "that your days may be long upon the land 05:27 which the Lord your God [gives] you." 05:29 That's not just about saying nice things about mom and dad. 05:31 That's about actually taking care of them when they're old. 05:35 There was no social security program, and so your children 05:39 were actually your social security and they would 05:43 take care of you when you got old. 05:45 So, some people maybe didn't want to do that, 05:48 from selfish reasons, and so you could have a situation 05:52 where a man would say to his father, 05:56 "Anything that you would profit from me is Corban." 06:02 So, he doesn't really give it to the temple. 06:07 It's if he were to give it to his parent, it would be Corban, 06:12 so he couldn't give it to his parent 06:14 because it was dedicated to God. 06:16 So you can see the hypocrisy in this. 06:18 It's just painful in that you would say, "You know, Dad, 06:24 "I wish I could help you, but anything that 06:27 I would give to you, I've already dedicated it to God." 06:30 It's not going to the temple. 06:32 It's--he's keeping it, and he just doesn't want to help them. 06:36 And Jesus rightly said that is just rank hypocrisy, 06:41 that you would actually try to hide your selfishness 06:46 under a cloak, a supposed cloak of dedication to God. 06:50 It's not dedication to God; it's dedication to yourself. 06:53 So Jesus is pretty strong here, you know, when He's-- 06:56 you know, you call somebody a hypocrite, that's not-- 07:00 that's tough language; that's strong language. 07:02 >>Eric: It is. So He's being pretty straight and calling out 07:05 some of the stuff that they've been doing. 07:08 We get down to verse 15, and there's a riddle--I guess 07:12 you could call it a riddle--that Jesus gives us in verse 15. 07:17 I'll read verse 15, and then maybe you can comment on it. 07:20 >>Tom: Sure. >>Eric: Jesus says, 07:21 "There is nothing that enters a man from outside 07:24 "which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, 07:27 those are the things that defile a man." 07:30 Now, there are some who would, perhaps, take this in a slightly 07:34 different way than I think you and I are probably going 07:36 to take it, but unpack this a little bit for us and help us to 07:40 understand it from a biblical perspective. 07:41 >>Tom: Well, you know what? 07:43 The disciples had trouble understanding this. 07:45 And when they go into the house, in verse 17, 07:47 "When He had entered the house and left the people, 07:49 His disciples asked Him about the parable--" 07:52 that's that word "parabole," and this really illustrates it. 07:56 Obviously, verse 15 is a riddle. 07:59 You know, how is it there's nothing 08:00 that goes in and comes out and so forth? 08:02 So, then Jesus kind of knocks them around a bit. 08:06 "Are you also without understanding? 08:07 "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside 08:12 "cannot defile him, since it enters [into] not his heart 08:15 but his stomach, and is expelled?" 08:17 Actually, it's a little more-- >>Eric: Agricultural. 08:21 >>Tom: Agricultural language, yeah. 08:22 When it expelled, it means it goes into the latrine. 08:25 >>Eric: Mm-hmm. >>Tom: You know, okay? 08:26 So, that's actually what it says in Greek. 08:28 And then there's this little parenthetical statement, 08:32 "(Thus He declared all food clean.)" 08:34 Now, a lot of people take that to mean 08:36 that Jesus did away with the difference between 08:40 clean and unclean foods that the Old Testament describes. 08:42 That's actually not the case. First of all, when it says, 08:46 "Thus He declared all foods clean," 08:48 actually in Greek it doesn't say quite that much. 08:51 It's more like this: Since it enters--verse 19-- 08:54 since it enters the heart-- does not enter his heart 08:56 but his stomach, and is expelled, cleansing all foods. 08:59 Now, cleansing all foods is probably a parenthetical 09:03 statement that the Gospel writer is explaining what Jesus 09:07 is talking about, right? 09:09 So, translating it "Thus He declared all foods clean" 09:12 is appropriate way to translate it, 09:14 but people have misunderstood what that means. 09:17 The things that Jesus has been railing against 09:21 are the traditions of men. 09:23 It would be really strange here for Him now to attack Moses, 09:27 attack Moses's statements, by saying, 09:31 "You know, it doesn't matter. You can eat pork, it's okay. 09:33 "You can, you know, eat all those things 09:35 that you used to think"--so, instead, what He's still doing 09:38 is He's still attacking the traditions of men. 09:42 They have this thing of touch defilement. 09:44 So if you touch something that's unclean, that makes you unclean. 09:48 Now, if you touch something else, that makes that unclean. 09:51 It's like different levels of unclean as you pass on. 09:54 Jesus is like--remember, they started off with, 09:56 "You didn't wash your hands the right way." 09:58 Jesus is doing away with touch defilement, 10:01 which wasn't an Old Testament law, 10:03 but was rather something that they had 10:05 in their, you know, traditions that they had built up. 10:08 So He does away with that. Now, 10:10 to us today that might seem like a small matter, 10:13 but actually, this created an incredible change 10:18 because it meant that Gentiles and Jews could eat together, 10:23 because they couldn't eat together 10:25 because of the defilement issues and different things. 10:28 And when He did away with touch defilement, it said that, 10:31 "Okay, Jews and Gentiles can work together. 10:34 "They can eat together. 10:35 "They can be in the church together. 10:37 They can be brothers and sisters." 10:39 And while it may seem small and sort of, you know-- 10:42 to us, sort of like, washing your hands? 10:45 What, you know, a small issue. 10:47 This really created the possibility 10:50 for union within the church. 10:52 Now, some people, like I said, have taken it the wrong way 10:55 to suggest that He's, you know, doing away with 10:59 this kind of thing, the commandments of God. 11:03 When you read the rest of it, 11:05 where Jesus describes what it is that makes a person unclean, 11:10 that's important to talk about because 11:12 often people miss that because all they want to talk about 11:14 is unclean foods. You go down to verse 20: 11:16 "And He said, 'What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 11:20 "'For from within, out of the heart of man, 11:22 "'come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, 11:26 "'murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, 11:29 "'sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 11:32 "'All these evil things come from within, 11:34 and they defile a person.'" 11:36 Actually, if you take a look at it, 11:39 He has all of the last half of the Decalogue in that list. 11:44 Honoring your parents, well, it was back in verse 10. 11:47 Murder is described in verse 21, so is adultery, so is theft, 11:52 deceit is the ninth commandment, it's in verse 22, 11:55 and so is covetousness, the 10th commandment, in verse 22. 11:58 And since He describes--He just started with the worship of God. 12:02 "In vain you worship"--you know, He's actually affirming 12:06 the Ten Commandments throughout this passage 12:08 and doing away with the human tradition. 12:11 When you see it in that light, 12:12 the whole thing fits together perfectly. 12:15 One of my students, this was his doctoral dissertation. 12:18 The external examiner, 12:20 not an Adventist, but a famous gospel scholar, 12:23 came, and she said at the beginning of his defense, 12:26 "I'm going to have to change the way I teach this passage." 12:29 He convinced her with his good dissertation. 12:32 So it was really quite impressive. 12:35 >>Eric: So it clearly means something else when you take it 12:38 in context and look at everything that's in there. 12:40 Now, if we're wanting to dig more deeply, 12:43 we do have a companion book. 12:45 Tell us a little bit about the companion book 12:46 and what's in this chapter that people might be interested in. 12:49 >>Tom: Yeah, the companion book is, goes right along 12:52 with the "Sabbath School" lesson. 12:54 All of the chapters are numbered just like the--and they have 12:57 the same titles, so it's easy to find 12:59 the chapter that you're dealing with. 13:01 Well, this one really lays out all of those commandments 13:04 that are listed there. 13:05 It goes on to talk about the challenge of verse 19 13:08 and what it means. 13:10 It talks about the woman with the--the Syrophoenician woman. 13:14 We're going to study a little bit more about her. 13:16 So it gives you additional information 13:18 that goes beyond the lessons. Well worth getting. 13:20 >>Eric: And you can pick that up for yourself 13:22 at itiswritten.shop. 13:24 Again, itiswritten.shop. 13:27 Just look for the book on the Gospel of Mark. 13:28 It's the companion book to this quarter's "Sabbath School" study 13:31 by Thomas Shepherd. 13:33 And we are looking forward to having you back again 13:35 in just a moment as we continue looking 13:37 at this concept of "Inside Out," 13:39 here on lesson number 6, as we study through the book of Mark. 13:43 We'll be back in just a moment. 13:45 [uplifting music] 13:49 >>Dr. David DeRose: Hello, I'm Dr. David DeRose, 13:51 a specialist in internal medicine 13:52 and preventive medicine, 13:54 and I've been surprised over the years 13:56 in working with patients and studying 13:58 the medical research literature just how powerful 14:02 hemorheology is when it comes to health. 14:06 You may be wondering, what is hemorheology? 14:08 Well, I call it the Methuselah Factor, 14:10 and that's the title of my book. 14:13 "The Methuselah Factor" really helps you connect 14:16 with things that can help your blood be more fluid. 14:19 You say, "Why is that important?" 14:21 It's important because it can help you decrease your risk 14:24 of a stroke or a heart attack, even lower your risk of cancer. 14:27 But it's a whole lot more than just preventing killer diseases. 14:31 If you improve your blood fluidity, 14:33 your mind will work better, 14:35 you'll perform physically better, 14:37 and you'll decrease your risk of dementia. 14:40 So don't hesitate. 14:42 Dive into "The Methuselah Factor." 14:44 Make a difference in your life 14:46 and the life of those that you love. 14:49 [uplifting music] 14:54 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 14:55 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:57 We are looking at lesson number 6 in our 13-lesson study 15:01 on the book of Mark. 15:03 "Inside Out" is what we're looking at this week. 15:06 Tom, we've been talking about what contaminates a person, 15:10 or at least from the Jewish leader's viewpoint 15:13 versus what Jesus was teaching. 15:15 What is it that really does contaminate a person? 15:18 >>Tom: Yeah, so we were talking about the story of these-- 15:24 how they were talking about His defilement 15:27 for not washing their hands; that was on the outside. 15:31 When Jesus said, with this little riddle, 15:33 that it's what comes from inside that defiles the person, 15:36 and we finished up by talking about 15:37 all the commandments that show up here and that 15:41 really affirm the teaching that Jesus is supporting Moses. 15:47 Actually, all through the Gospel of Mark, whenever Jesus talks 15:50 about Moses, He's positive about Moses. 15:53 He gives these positive statements. 15:54 And here He's supporting the Ten Commandments. 15:56 So, you can't hardly be more positive about that, so. 15:59 >>Eric: Very good. 16:01 Now, we go from that story to another story, and this story 16:05 has--it's kind of confused some people along the way 16:11 about why Jesus would talk to this woman in such a manner. 16:14 It's the story of the Syrophoenician woman. 16:16 Walk us through this story and what's going on here. 16:21 Why does Jesus appear to address this woman 16:23 in the way that He does? 16:25 There's something under the surface here, 16:28 but let's walk through it. 16:29 >>Tom: Yeah, so this is one of those rare times 16:32 when Jesus goes outside of the land of Judea or Galilee. 16:36 He goes up to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and it says 16:40 in verse 24, "He [enters] a house and did not want 16:43 anyone to know, yet He could not be hidden." 16:45 This is, again, that secrecy revelation thing. 16:47 And so, there's this woman: "Immediately a woman 16:51 "whose little daughter had an unclean spirit 16:53 heard of Him and came and fell down at His feet." 16:56 Now, He's inside a house, it's important, and she comes 17:00 and she falls down at His feet, and that's important, too, 17:03 which we'll see as this story progresses, okay? 17:06 So, she comes in, and "She [begs] Him to cast 17:10 the demon out of her daughter." 17:12 Now, in most of the stories, when somebody comes 17:15 and asks Jesus for help, immediately He helps them. 17:20 Now, we find a few experiences where He asks people questions 17:22 and everything, but the truth of the matter is, 17:26 throughout the Gospels, 17:28 and I'd like our listeners to really recognize this: 17:31 Anybody who comes to Jesus for help 17:34 always gets it. 17:36 Anybody who comes to Jesus for help always gets it. 17:39 Now, people who come to argue with Him typically lose. 17:43 [chuckles] So, it's not good to argue with Jesus, 17:46 but anybody who comes for help gets help. 17:49 Now, this story is a little odd in that regard. 17:53 She asks Him for help, "And He said to her"-- 17:58 in verse 27-- 17:59 "'Let the children be fed first, for it is not right 18:03 to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.'" 18:08 I used to teach a class on world religions, 18:11 and I would have visitors come. Students loved the visitors. 18:16 And I used to have a Jewish rabbi come and talk 18:20 to the students, talk about Judaism, what was special 18:22 to him about Judaism and so forth. 18:25 And I would have the--allow the students to ask questions. 18:28 Now, eventually I learned that I needed to teach the students 18:31 how to ask questions 18:33 because I had a student one time ask this rabbi, 18:36 "Why don't you believe in Jesus?" [laughs ruefully] 18:39 A pretty confrontational kind of question to ask a rabbi. 18:43 The rabbi referred to this passage. 18:46 He said, "Jesus called a woman a dog." 18:51 Now, you know, even in that day and even today, 18:54 to call somebody a dog is, you know, that's a real put-down. 18:59 All right, so how would we answer this rabbi 19:01 who said he didn't believe in Jesus 19:04 because He called this woman a dog? 19:06 And that's a pretty serious kind of accusation. 19:10 You have to look at this passage a little bit more carefully 19:14 to see the answer to that. 19:16 First of all, He says, "Let the children be fed first." 19:21 That "first" implies a second that's going to come. 19:24 "For it is not right to take the children's bread 19:27 and throw it to the dogs." 19:29 Now, in this setting, Jesus is in a house, the woman is 19:34 bowed before Him, He's describing the children's bread, 19:38 they're going to give it to the dogs 19:39 who are inside the house, maybe under the table. 19:42 So, there's a clear kind of representation here that 19:45 what He's talking about is what the woman sees is going on. 19:49 So these dogs were dogs that were inside the house. 19:53 They were not outside dogs. 19:55 So, there's already a sense of they're part of the family, 19:58 and this idea of "feed the children first" implies, 20:01 all right, that's not the only people who will be fed. 20:04 In fact, in the Gospels--well, in--actually, if we go 20:09 to the book of Romans, people don't often recognize this, 20:12 but Paul says that the gospel news, 20:15 if you go over to Romans, chapter 1, 20:18 you find that Paul says that the gospel message--he says, 20:26 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, 20:27 for it is the power of God"-- this is Romans 1:16-- 20:30 "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone 20:33 who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." 20:38 Okay? So Jesus--Paul is following Jesus here. 20:43 "Let the children be fed first," all right? 20:45 So there was a gospel order. 20:47 We kind of think, well, that can't be right. 20:49 Everybody's equal. 20:50 Well, [chuckles] they are the chosen people, all right? 20:53 So, Jesus is saying that the children would be fed first, 20:57 but that means that the Gentiles would be fed, too. 20:59 Calling her a dog isn't the same as saying, you know, 21:03 "She's just worthless." She's inside the house. 21:05 She's part of the family that's there together. 21:08 And she recognizes it, she calls on Him to let her have 21:12 that kind of relationship, and He agrees. 21:16 So that's really a response to that kind of argument. 21:19 It's a little in your face, if we might say, 21:22 that Jesus would say such a thing, but it actually 21:25 taught that the Gentiles were to be included, just like the Jews. 21:30 Now, our earliest manuscript of the Gospel of Mark 21:35 is Papyrus 45, comes from the 3rd century AD, 21:39 and it doesn't have the "yes." It just say, "Lord." 21:45 Now, if you think about that for a moment, 21:49 which is more respectful? 21:51 "Yes, Lord"? 21:54 "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs"-- 21:58 let's see where I'm at. 21:59 Yeah, "Yet even the dogs under the table 22:01 eat the children's breadcrumbs." 22:03 Or would it be, "Lord, even the dogs under the table 22:09 eat the children's crumbs"? 22:10 Which one is more respectful? 22:13 Probably the, "Yes, Lord." >>Eric: Seems that "Yes, Lord," 22:15 because there's an agreement there. 22:16 >>Tom: Yeah, yeah, He's agreeing with her. 22:18 But when she doesn't say "yes," when she just says "Lord," 22:21 she's kind of--she's confronting Him, you know. 22:24 She's confronting Him a bit. She's arguing with Him. 22:27 That's probably what the original was. 22:29 "Lord, even the dogs under the table 22:32 eat the children's crumbs." 22:34 So, she's arguing with Jesus. 22:37 Now, this is the only person in the Gospels 22:41 who argues with Jesus and wins. [laughs] 22:45 But He wanted her to win. 22:47 He gave her clues that she should keep on pressing 22:51 by saying "the children first" and then making the metaphor 22:55 clear that the dogs who were let into the house are allowed. 22:58 Now, her statement is really interesting because she says, 23:02 "Lord,... even the dogs under the table 23:04 eat the children's crumbs." 23:06 She's asking Him to heal her daughter of a demon possession, 23:09 which is a big miracle, but she's calling it just a crumb. 23:13 So she's actually elevating Him, and she's saying 23:17 all she's asking for is just a little bit of His mercy. 23:21 And of course, He shows His mercy. 23:23 He says, you know, "For this statement you may go...; 23:25 the demon has left your daughter." 23:26 It's a beautiful story in that sense. 23:28 Now, this is an illustration of that inside out of the person 23:33 now the--He's breaking down the walls of prejudice. 23:35 So the previous story talked about how Gentiles and Jews 23:39 could come together, and here He is illustrating 23:42 that that's possible for that to happen. 23:44 >>Eric: So it just carries--the thought carries down through. 23:47 >>Tom: Carries it through. >>Eric: Not random stories, 23:49 but a connection between them. >>Tom: Mm-hmm. 23:52 >>Eric: As we're walking down through the book of Mark, 23:54 we're getting now to chapter 8, 23:56 and I noticed in the study, in the quarterly, 24:00 there's a significant story at the beginning of chapter 8 24:03 that really doesn't get--well, it doesn't get mentioned 24:07 in the study guide. >>Tom: it doesn't get mentioned. 24:08 Right. 24:09 >>Eric: Any particular reason why? 24:11 >>Tom: Okay, so when I wrote the "Sabbath School" quarterly, 24:14 they gave me very strict, kind of, word limits 24:18 of what you could talk about, and there's only 13 lessons 24:21 for--covering 16 chapters of the Gospel of Mark. 24:25 So, there really wasn't enough space to cover everything. 24:30 I had to make choices. 24:31 And so, I left out the important story of the feeding 24:35 of the 4,000 that's at the beginning of chapter 8. 24:38 Now, if you want to get that story, then what you need to do 24:44 is buy the commentary that's going to be coming out. 24:47 There's a new series of commentaries, 24:48 "The Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary." 24:51 Three of the volumes have already been published, 24:54 and they're--Pacific Press is planning to publish, 24:57 probably, several volumes each year now until we're done. 25:01 We've been working on this project since 2011. 25:03 It's a series of Adventist scholars 25:05 from around the world-- that's why it's called 25:07 "International Bible Commentary"-- 25:09 and they're doing very careful work to make a good presentation 25:13 to be very helpful to the church. 25:16 If you enjoy the old commentary series, you're going to enjoy 25:19 this one even more because it's got a lot more depth, 25:22 a lot more information, a lot more commentary 25:25 in all portions of the Scripture. 25:28 So, well worth getting. 25:29 Now, most people when they read a commentary, 25:30 they don't read it all the way through. They're looking 25:32 for a particular text when they got a question, so. 25:34 You'll find that in this new series. 25:36 >>Eric: So three volumes already out and more coming. 25:40 >>Tom: Yup, and they're available from the ABC. 25:42 >>Eric: Very, very good. 25:43 All right, so we kind of skip through that because of time 25:46 or space purposes or reasons. 25:49 We get down a little bit later in chapter 8, and the Pharisees 25:53 ask Jesus for a sign. 25:56 Maybe you have once or twice asked Jesus for a sign 25:59 or know somebody who asked Jesus for a sign. 26:02 The Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign, 26:04 and He doesn't give them one. 26:07 Why not? >>Tom: Right. 26:09 "The Pharisees came...began to argue with Him"--verse 11-- 26:12 "seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him. 26:15 "And He sighed deeply in His spirit and said, 26:19 "'Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, 26:23 "no sign will be given to this generation.' 26:26 "And He left them, got in the boat again, 26:27 and went to the other side." 26:29 So they'd already had the signs. 26:31 They had already had plenty of, you know, demonstrations 26:35 of His power, of His miracles, 26:37 and they just want, you know, want more. 26:39 It's really reminiscent of the parable of the rich man 26:44 and Lazarus, where the rich man in hell says, "Oh, send my"-- 26:48 you know, "raise Lazarus from the dead." 26:50 And Jesus says--Abraham answers him, "Look, if they won't listen 26:56 "to Moses and the prophets, they wouldn't listen to somebody 26:58 even if he was raised from the dead." 27:00 And you know what, somebody named Lazarus was raised 27:02 from the dead, and they planned to kill him, too. 27:05 You know, that's described in the Gospel of John. 27:08 So, He doesn't give them a sign because a sign 27:10 wouldn't make any difference to them, you know. 27:13 Now, do we ask signs of God? 27:15 You know, sometimes we may ask God for a sign, to show us, 27:19 and He does promise to lead us, and He, you know, sometimes 27:22 He'll give us a providential sign that shows us the way. 27:24 So it's not wrong to ask for a sign, 27:27 but not in the way that they were. 27:29 It was hypocrites asking for more proof 27:32 that they didn't want to believe anyways. 27:34 >>Eric: And they didn't need any more evidence. 27:36 >>No. Yep. >>Eric: Plenty was given. 27:38 Well, we hope that this week's study has been a blessing to you 27:41 as we have gone through it, and hopefully it's helped 27:43 to clarify a few things in your mind, and now you can share 27:46 those clarifications with others to encourage them in their walk. 27:50 We look forward to seeing you again next time 27:52 when you join us here on "Sabbath School," 27:55 brought to you by It Is Written. 27:57 [uplifting music] 28:24 [uplifting music] 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2024-08-06