Mark 7:1-13

The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
7 ‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; 11 but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

As Jesus reaches the apex of His earthly ministry having just performed two of the most monumental miracles imaginable to the human mind, (Creating food from His hands and walking on water) He will be met now with increasing hostility. That hostility primarily coming from the religious leaders, as their influence, way of life, and pride is overshadowed by the God-Man. At this point in the narrative, it is clear that they have had enough of this carpenter’s son that many are saying is the Messiah.

In this section of Mark, it seems word has made it back to Jerusalem regarding the feeding of the masses that took place across the Sea of Galilee. This miracle that proved Jesus has the ability to create something out of nothing did not produce in the religious leader faith that desired to be close to this One who is clearly God in Human flesh. Rather, they were indignant. No doubt with jealous pride.

Their inditement seems strange at first glance in verses 1-5. Why would they not accuse Him of breaking God’s written Law? Why would they accuse His disciples of something that seems so trivial? It would seem that they would want to have biblical grounds for their accusation. That He was a transgressor of the Law. Their desire to put Him to death should seemingly cause them to appeal to absolute authority for that to result.

The reality is, their appeal to the traditions of the elders (v.5) is what they considered to be the highest authority. They saw their traditions handed down as being the correct understanding and interpretation of the Law of God. They had turned a simple sanitary law into a manmade ritual that gave an outward appearance of an act of worship.

Jesus, of course knew the correct interpretation of the law, and the heart of it had nothing to do with a man centered outward appearance of a ceremonial washing. The religious leaders had a wrong understanding of the Law and added their own. Thus, overshadowing the correct understanding and leading people astray.

Jesus’ rebuke gets to the heart of the matter. Verses 6-8 record the implication of adding manmade rituals to the Word of God. His words to them reveal their hypocritical life and exposes their heartless and empty worship. Their outward expressions of worshiping God the wrong way had led them to completely neglect the actual commands of God for worship (v.8).

Jesus’ quote of Isaiah is the central point of His rebuking their actions. The point is clear. God must be worshiped on His terms. Even if you have the right God to worship, that worship can be empty and worthless if done the wrong way. The wrong way is clear. God wants the heart of man in worship. That is to say, you must love Him with your whole being for proper worship.

This concept of loving God for proper worship is not unfamiliar to the Jewish people. Deut. 6:4-6 says, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” God requires heart love and obedience for worship. External showings that point to you and not Him are repulsive and offensive to Him. That was what the traditions of the elders is and was to God. Jesus, being God, said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The heart of worship is love for God that leads to obedience.

In the last few verses, Jesus further illustrates for the religious leaders how their traditions have invalidated the Word of God. By dedicating all their goods and wealth to God, they say they can no longer obey the most basic of God’s commands. That is to honour your father and mother. Essentially what they were saying was, “Sorry dad and mom, I know you need help right now, but I have dedicated all my wealth to God. So, there is nothing left for you.” The truth is by dedicating their money and goods to God, they could keep it for their own greed. What they said was worship, was actually hatred for God and hatred of their parents. Both of which were punishable by death according to God’s law (v.10).

The warning for God’s people is clear.

1. Do not add to His Word, lest we end up neglecting what He has actually commanded.
2. Our worship is only acceptable when it is done His way, out of love for Him and His word.

We hope to see you this Lord’s Day to worship and study together.

SDG
Jory

We are in Galatians 5:13-26 again this week for part 2 of learning what it means to “Walk in or by the Spirit”.

Galatians is written to a group of churches in an area called Galatia (modern-day Turkey) that were in transition.

The transition from living under the Mosaic law to living under the new covenant. Jew and Gentile alike were turning to Christ, acknowledging that He was the Messiah, confessing sin, and being saved. But the “Judaizers”, also known as “the circumcision”, were a group of Jews that were teaching that these Gentiles had to be circumcised first before they could be saved.

The book is written to this group of churches to remedy that situation. To confront that false teaching. To remind them that if they returned to relying on circumcision, they would have to go back to obeying the whole law. That they would have corrupted the one true gospel by going to a “different gospel”, one that is really not a gospel at all. They would be severed from Christ.

This letter from Paul, like Romans, reminds us that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ alone. Period.

He combats this false gospel by calling the churches back to this basic teaching and reminds them that it was for freedom from the striving to be justified by the law that Christ set them free. But he also identifies the conflict that this teaching has spawned. He cautions the Galatians that if they bite and devour one another, they need to take care that they are not consumed by one another.

Satan is constantly trying to get us to dishonour God by how we live personally and how we interact corporately. He is the deceiver and the accuser. He is looking for ammunition to come before God and accuse the people of God.

No church will be free of conflict. But how we manage that conflict is the key.
Paul reminds us that the reality is that even though we are saved, we still deal with the residual flesh this side of glory. “The flesh” that is the summation of the desires of the natural inner man, apart from knowing God.

He says that “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please” Galatians 5:17

So, there is a battle between our flesh, and God’s Spirit that indwells us. It’s a battle for influence, and which side is winning in the moment shows up in our intentions, motivations and ultimately behavior.

Paul says the remedy is to walk in the Spirit, and we will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It’s a simple equation, the more we renew our mind, the more we “put on” the things of God that occupy our thoughts, the more the world is squeezed out.

This week we will see that we can also “put off” our flesh. As Christians, God calls us to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires, that is we put the flesh to death. We do that by starving it. Cutting out anything that feeds the flesh.

If you couldn’t be with us last week, I would recommend that you listen to last week’s sermon as a basis for this week. But this week we want to examine Gal 5:19-26 with two goals:  I want to examine the deeds of the flesh, that is, what a life looks like when one is NOT walking in the Spirit, compared with the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of one’s life in Christ, when one IS walking in the Spirit.

I’m convinced that this is where the battle is. This is where faith shows up.
In the day-to-day.

Our faith shows up, and is proved to be authentic, in the moments that make up this battle.
Please join us Sunday as we gather to worship at Grace Fellowship.

Quentin Smith

When you read the New Testament, one thing you find is that there are many images that the Bible uses to describe the Christian life. For example, it compares it to warfare (Ephesians 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:3), boxing (1 Corinthians 9:26), slavery (Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1), salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16), farming (Matthew 13:1-23), and childhood (1 Peter 2:2, 5).

However, one image that is often used by the writers of Scripture is that of a race because we are told to “run in such a way that you may win” (1 Corinthians 9:24). This same passage goes on to say that:

Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified (verses 25-27).

In a similar way, the Author of the Book of Hebrews uses the image of a race when he concludes the Hall of Faith. Hebrews 12:1-2 says:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The key phrase in this passage is “let us run” because it reminds us how we are to approach the Christian life. We need to do it by running. The Author is telling us that, in light of all he has taught you so far in the Hall of Faith, you cannot become apathetic. You need to sweat and strive and labor hard in your pursuit of Christ. You need to lay aside anything that holds you back (your encumbrances) and anything that dishonors Him (your sin) and flee towards the cross.

The reason this is important is because many people are not in a race towards Christ at all today because they have become so distracted. They are like a man who comes to the starting block of a competition carrying fifty pounds of luggage under each arm. They are like an athlete who shows up at the stadium out of shape because he has spent too much time sitting on the couch which could not be any further from what this passage is telling us to do because the Greek word for “race” here is “agon” from which we get the term “agony.”

It does not refer to a luxurious trot but a painful, agonizing journey where you strain every muscle in your body in order to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. It is a sobering lesson of how seriously we need to take our faith. We need to be so diligent about it that we agonize over it. It needs to consume all our thoughts and energy because the Christian life is not described as a walk or jog or trot here. It is described as a race and I think it is a very fitting thing to look at together in my last Sunday here at GFC because our church has also been in a race together.

It is a race that started in the Fall of 2015 when Grace Fellowship Church conducted its first public services in the basement of a home in Chilliwack. After several meetings, the small group determined that they would plant a church based upon Scripture and the basics of the Christian faith. By the winter of that year, the group had grown large enough to move out of a home and into the current facility at 46024 Riverside Drive.

At the same time, the people realized that they would need help in the church planting process. They reached out to Grace Advance, a ministry of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, CA that specializes in church plants and revitalization (www.graceadvance.org). In the spring of 2016, they began the pastor search process and they called me to join them on October 5, 2016. My first Sunday was January 22, 2017.

Since then, Grace has seen its first baptisms, welcomed its first members, and held its first camps. It has also hired its first Administrative Assistant and started a Care & Discipleship ministry that allows church members to meet together bi-weekly in small groups for Bible study and prayer. It has continued to grow in its Men’s and Women’s Ministries as well as in its Nursery, Children, and Youth Programs.

Now it is time for our congregation to call another man to step into the Teaching Pastor role and run with you in the next phase of the journey. My family and I will miss everyone at Grace very much but we are excited to see what the Lord will do. We think you have an excellent pastor in Jory Nunn and look forward to hearing about the great things that God will do in your time together with him.

Please join us on Sunday morning as we talk about that together. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

While the numbers vary, most scholars believe that Jesus performed over 30 miracles in the Bible. Here is a brief summary of them:

1. Jesus changed water into wine (John 2:1-11).
2. Jesus cured the nobleman's son (John 4:46-47).
3. The great haul of fishes (Luke 5:1-11).
4. Jesus cast out an unclean spirit (Mark 1:23-28).
5. Jesus cured Peter's mother-in-law of a fever (Mark 1:30-31).
6. Jesus healed a leper (Mark 1:40-45).
7. Jesus healed the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13).
8. Jesus raised the widow's son from the dead (Luke 7:11-18).
9. Jesus stilled the storm (Matthew 8:23-27).
10. Jesus cured two demoniacs (Matthew 8:28-34).
11. Jesus cured the paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8).
12. Jesus raised the ruler's daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-26).
13. Jesus cured a woman of an issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48).
14. Jesus opened the eyes of two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31).
15. Jesus loosened the tongue of a man who could not speak (Matthew 9:32-33).
16. Jesus healed an invalid man at the pool called Bethesda (John 5:1-9).
17. Jesus restored a withered hand (Matthew 12:10-13).
18. Jesus cured a demon-possessed man (Matthew 12:22).
19. Jesus fed at least five thousand people (Matthew 14:15-21).
20. Jesus walks on water (Matthew 14:22-36).
21. Jesus healed a woman of Canaan (Matthew 15:22-28).
22. Jesus cured a deaf and mute man (Mark 7:31-37).
23. Jesus fed at least four thousand people (Matthew 15:32-39).
24. Jesus opened the eyes of a blind man (Mark 8:22-26).
25. Jesus cured a boy who was plagued by a demon (Matthew 17:14-21).
26. Jesus opened the eyes of a man born blind (John 9:1-38)
27. Jesus cured a woman who had been afflicted for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17).
28. Jesus cured a man of dropsy (Luke 14:1-4).
29. Jesus cleansed ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19).
30. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-46).
31. Jesus opened the eyes of two blind men (Matthew 20:30-34).
32. Jesus caused the fig tree to wither (Matthew 21:18-22).
33. Jesus restored the ear of the high priest's servant (Luke 22:50-51).
34. Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:5-8).
35. The second great haul of fishes (John 21:1-14).

In our studies in Mark, we are currently coming up to the 20th one in this list and that is the miracle of Jesus walking on water. Mark 6:45-52 says:

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.

When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

One thing that strikes you as you read this parable is how simple it is. Jesus takes an object that everyone was familiar with at the time and that is the Sea of Galilee. The disciples fished on the Sea of Galilee. They swam in the Sea of Galilee. Many of them had homes nearby the Sea of Galilee and yet the Lord does something that none of them had ever seen before. He walked on the Sea of Galilee. So the question that Jesus wants them to consider as He performs such a feat is this: Is there anything that Jesus cannot do? The answer is: “No.”

The disciples had still not come to grips with that yet because verse 52 says “they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves.” In other words, Jesus had just fed 5,000 men in the previous passage and they were still “utterly astonished” by what He did here because they did not understand Who He truly was. He is the Son of God and there is no limit to His power. “All authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him” (Matthew 28:18) which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “Jesus Walking on Water.” It is arguably one of the most extraordinary miracles that Jesus ever did because we all have a tendency to doubt the power of Christ. None of is free form the tendency of questioning His majesty. But the good news is that you may start off as a doubter and end up with a heart full of faith if you study this passage. Jesus can open up your heart to His glory in ways that you never thought possible if you will take the time to pour over it.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person. May the Lord give you a great week and I look forward to seeing you there.

- Jeremy Cagle

This coming Sunday Jory Nunn will be preaching for us from Mark 6:33-44. 

Please join us at 46024 Riverside Drive on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30.

Mark 6:17-29 records the death of John the Baptist which has to be one of the saddest stories in the Gospel of Mark because it tells us how an innocent man lost his life for telling the truth. Here is the passage in its entirety:

For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.
 
A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb.

Obviously, there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from this passage but here are a few:

1). Telling the truth can be dangerous because John’s actions came at great risk to his own personal safety since he addressed a king. In other words, John did not stand up to a lowly person. He called out one of the most dangerous men in Israel at the time and he did it because he understood what he had signed up for when he chose to obey God and confront someone’s sin. He was signing up for a difficult task.

2). Telling the truth requires courage. Not only does this passage show us that telling the truth is dangerous but it also shows us that it demands a great deal of bravery because it is not for the faint of heart. As one pastor put it, “God does not call jellyfish into the ministry. He calls men with a backbone and that is what John the Baptist had.” He was bold to the extreme. He was not going to back down even if it put him on the wrong side of a tyrant which leads us to a final point.

3). Telling the truth requires sacrifice because it cost John his head. As a result of his bold stance, the daughter of Herodias asked Herod to cut it off and he complied which is a sobering reminder to us that we may suffer the same fate some day too. If we stand up to sin the way John did, a time may come when we will be martyred but that does not mean that we should back down, either. We need to copy John’s example and stand firm.

I mention that because some Christians think that, if they tell the truth, the leaders of this world will appreciate them for it. It will earn them their respect and admiration. However, that is not what John the Baptist experienced. Instead, he was persecuted. However, it did not stop him. John continued to remain faithful to the task that the Lord had called him to and it is my prayer that our study of this passage would help us all to do the same.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

In his commentary on the Gospel of Mark, G. Campbell Morgan writes:

Matthew and Mark tell the story of the second trip of our Lord to Nazareth. Luke records the first visit, about a year earlier, at the beginning of His more public ministry in Galilee… On the occasion of the first visit, He went to Nazareth unaccompanied by His disciples; on this one Mark declares “His disciples follow Him.” On that first occasion He wrought no miracle; on this He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. On that occasion, with madness they attempted to cast Him from the hill, He immediately departed from the neighborhood; on this, He seems to have tarried in the adjacent villages.

During the interval between the first and second visits His fame had grown, and His power had been yet more wonderfully manifested. But recently His mother and brethren had travelled together from Nazareth to Capernaum to dissuade Him from continuing His arduous labors. They said, “He is beside Himself,” and for very love of Him they attempted to persuade Him to return with Him to Nazareth, and to quietness; but He had declined to do so (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35).

Now, just before sending out the twelve who had been with Him in preparation for their work, He returned to Nazareth, taking them with Him. Thus the men appointed to coming service… now saw Him in a situation where “He could do no miracle” (Mark 6: 5)…

Unfortunately, this story is not a strange one to our ears but perfectly natural. Nazareth was a town, probably of a few hundred inhabitants, one of those towns where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone knows everyone else’s business. So they said of Jesus; this is the carpenter; the Man we know so well; His mother, and brothers and sisters are here with us… So they surmised that He is not the Messiah and we should reject Him.

What brought them to this decision? The solution is not hard to find. It may be discovered in the words of our Lord upon this occasion, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own hometown.” These are words which we constantly quote, and therefore I need not tarry with them… other than to say that Jesus affirmed that the reason for their unbelief was that of envy, of the difficulty of acknowledging the superiority over themselves of one of their own number.

We understand that sentiment so well because it describes mankind’s inability to believe that the man who worked by our side could ever be our teacher. Why? Because he is on my level. This man who comes from my village cannot come back to my village and instruct me in anything. Why not? Because he is my peer… My companion… My colleague…

We turn form this story and think of our modern unbelief… What causes the modern unbelief in Jesus? The answer is the same thing because modern man names the name of Jesus. He finds Him at the front of his New Testament and reads about Him over and over again. 1,000 times. 1 million times but does He believe in Him? No. Will He repent? Not likely because he sees Him as simply one of us and nothing more too. He has the same wrong, foolish, naïve attitude that the Nazarenes did.

What is the solution? Modern man needs to acknowledge that, even though Jesus was a human being like us, He was different. He is the Son of God (Luke 1:35) and the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14) and we need to remember it by being on guard against letting our familiarity with Christ breed contempt.

G. Campbell Morgan was right because it is so easy to let our familiarity with Christ breed contempt. We all have a tendency to take Jesus for granted because we read about Him in our Bibles. We hear about Him in our sermons and sing about Him in our songs.

But what do we do with that information? We often yawn and shrug our shoulders at it. However, we need to learn how to respond differently because the Bible says “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). It does not say shrug your shoulders at Jesus and you will be saved. It does not tell us to yawn like the people of Nazareth. We need to be broken by it and come to Him in faith and repentance.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

This Sunday, July 7th Carl Hargrove will be preaching for us. Carl is the director of Grace Advance and has been involved regularly at various times in the life of our church here at Grace Fellowship including speaking at family camp, a church conference, guest preaching and advising. We're looking forward to having Carl here!

So far, in our series on the Gospel of Mark, we have looked at several separate stories of the life of Christ such as:
However, when you come to the second part of chapter 5, you find a story within a story because it tells us about two events that overlapped in such quick succession that it is easy to miss the importance of them. Here is what it says in verses 21-43:

When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.” And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse - after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.” They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.

At first glance, it may seem like these two events have nothing to do with each other but they do.

For one thing, both stories describe someone in desperate need. Jairus’ daughter was in need of healing and so was the woman with the hemorrhage. For another thing, both of them approached Jesus. Jairus approached Him face-to-face and the woman approached Him from behind. However, they were different as well because Jairus was named while the woman was not. Also, Jairus was a synagogue official while the woman’s occupation is not given to us.

However, the point is that Jesus helped both of them. He did not turn either one away. As Mark 10:45 says “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many” which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “Two Hopeless Stories” because that is what this passage is about. These people came to Jesus with no hope and He gave them hope. They met Him when they were joyless and He left them overjoyed after saving them from their distress.

As such, He demonstrates that He can help anyone regardless of their circumstance. Young or old. Rich or poor. Sick or dying. Jesus is a Saviour for all those who need Him. In fact, He can even deliver someone from death itself.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

Demon possession was a constant issue in Jesus’ ministry. He dealt with it repeatedly and one of the greatest examples of this is found in Mark 5:1-20 where it says:

They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened. Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. And they began to implore Him to leave their region.

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

In this amazing account, there are three forces at work: Satan, the Saviour, and society. First, Satan is seen in sending his unclean spirits to inhabit this man and turn him into a maniac who was screaming, hollering, and gashing himself with stones. In other words, he sent them to ruin his life.

Next, the Saviour is seen in delivering him. By the power of his Word, Jesus cast the demons out and set the man free! Whereas Satan came to destroy, Jesus came to heal him to the uttermost.

Finally, the society is seen in imploring Jesus to leave their region because He frightened them. Even though He had saved this man’s life, it did not matter to them ultimately because this miracle rattled them so much that they tried to get rid of Him. Just like the previous miracle of calming the storm terrified the disciples (4:41), this one had a similar impact on all who heard of it which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to look at “The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac” in order to see how frightening Jesus was to those around Him. This is a story that many of us have read before but that should not take away from the shock and awe of it because that is the effect it had upon the original audience. They would have been shocked. When they were told that Jesus did this, it shook them to the core.

Have you ever looked at Christ that way before? When you read the Bible, have you ever put it down for a moment because it shook you? It should because there is no one like Jesus. However, not only is He frightening at times but He is also good and gracious and merciful. He is kind and compassionate and loving and willing to save anyone who believes in Him as we will see in our study of this text.

Please join us as we consider it together on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

So far, in our studies in the Gospel of Mark, we have seen several miracles in the life of Christ. A short list would include:
You get the picture. As you can see, the vast majority of Jesus’ miracles revolved around the issue of healing. Since Christ was a man of compassion, He was continually showing mercy to those who were in need. However, in the next episode in the Gospel of Mark, the Lord performs a different kind of miracle. Mark 4:35-41 says:

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

You can tell how unusual this miracle was because, unlike His previous ones, the Lord did not heal a person. Rather, He commanded the forces of nature to obey Him. He told the Sea of Galilee to “be still” and it submitted to His will which stunned the disciples because they had seen Jesus do miracles before but not like this. In this one, He controlled a storm on the same body of water that many of them had spent their entire lives fishing on.

The question is: Why? What caused Jesus to do this feat of strength? Scholars have given several answers to that question but the most popular one is that Jesus did it to prove His deity. This miracle gave irrefutable proof that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all creation.

John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through Him.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “He upholds all things by the word of His power.” Colossians 1:17 says, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” All of those passages ring true in Mark’s portrayal of this event as it puts Christ’s divine nature on display in a clear and unforgettable way which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This week, we are going to look at the story of Jesus calming the sea in order to study the next miracle that He does in the Gospel of Mark. It is one that many of us have read before but that should not take away from the shock and awe of it because that is the impact it had on the all those who saw it. They were shocked. When they saw Jesus do this, they said “Who then is this” (verse 41)?

Have you ever done that before? When you read the Bible, have you ever put it down for a moment and said “Who is this?” You should because there is no one like Jesus. You can search the world and back again and you will never find anyone like Him because He is the one who rules the universe.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on You Tube later that day for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

In his Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, John MacArthur writes:

Given that no news can compare to the good news of salvation, the fact that most refuse to embrace it is both shocking and tragic. Jesus Himself illustrated that truth by telling the parable of the soils (Mark 4:3-20).

Some people reject the gospel as soon as they hear it. Jesus compared their hardness of heart to the impenetrable, pavementlike soil by the road (v. 15). Others respond with superficial exuberance. When times of hardship and persecution arise, and the initial emotionalism fades, they fall away. The Lord likened such individuals to shallow, rocky ground, in which true faith never takes root (vv. 16-17). A third type of soil also looks good on the surface but is actually infested with thorns. The people in this category also react to the gospel with initial interest. But the cares of the world and the pursuit of riches, like suffocating weeds, choke out a genuine love for Christ (vv. 18-19). By contrast, the good soil represents those who embrace the gospel and bear varied amounts of fruit, “thirsty, sixty, and a hundredfold” (v. 20).

In differentiating the good soil from the bad, Jesus highlighted a critical difference between the two. The good soil is comprised of those who “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit” (v. 20) … Many may profess to “hear” the message of salvation, but true hearers are invariably characterized by fruitful obedience.

The theme of hearing runs throughout the parables recounted in Mark 4:1-34. In verse 9, Jesus told His audience, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” He underscored the importance of that phrase by repeating it in verse 23. His point was simple: true disciples listen eagerly and obediently. As those whose hearts and minds have been opened to the truth by the Holy Spirit, genuine disciples love to hear and obey His Word (John 8:32; cf. 10:3-4, 27). Divine truth has found a home in their hearts. They delight in it, submit to it, and bear fruit by putting it into practice and by proclaiming it to others.

The parable of the soils emphasized the importance of being a fruitful hearer by distinguishing the good soil from the bad. In the next passage (4:21-34), Jessus articulated several additional parables that expand on that theme. The Lord indicated that understanding the parable of the soils was key to understanding these later parables (v. 13).

These parables, then, should not be regarded as disconnected stories. Rather, they are interrelated illustrations carefully arranged by Jesus to make a divine truth clear. Having identified His disciples as those who are both able to perceive divine truth and equipped to proclaim that truth to others, Jesus used these parables to identify four characteristics of a fruitful hearer:

1. Fruitful Hearers Witness Obediently.
Mark 4:21-23 says:

And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

2. Fruitful Hearers Work Expectantly.
Mark 4:24-25 says:

And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

3. Fruitful Hearers Wait Dependently.
Mark 4:26-29 says:

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

4. Faithful Hearers Walk Confidently.
Mark 4:30-32 says:

And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.”

Obviously, the act of listening must have been very important to Jesus as He said so much about it and it should be important to us as well because you cannot be His disciple without it. Rest assured, you can be Jesus’ disciple if you are not perfect and you can be His disciple if you make a few mistakes. However, you cannot be His disciple if you do not pay attention to the Word of God. It is your Number One Priority as a Christian. John 10:14, 27-28 says, “I am the good shepherd and… My sheep hear My voice… and I give eternal life to them.”

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on You Tube later that day for all those who cannot make it in person. May the Lord give you a great week and I look forward to seeing you there.

– Jeremy Cagle

The men of our church are currently going through the parables of Jesus on Tuesday nights. While the numbers vary, some scholars believe that there are 39 of them in the Bible as can be seen in the following list:

1. The Two Houses (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49)
2. The New Cloth (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21; Luke 5:36)
3. The New Wineskin (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-39)
4. The Rude Children (Matthew 11:16-19; Luke 7:31-35)
5. The Sower (Matthew 13:5-8; Mark 4:3-8)
6. The Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30)
7. The Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19)
8. The Yeast (Matthew 13:33)
9. The Hidden Treasure (Matthew 13:44)
10. The Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:45-46)
11. The Fishing Net (Matthew 13:47-50)
12. The House Owner (Matthew 13:52)
13. The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23-25)
14. The Vineyard Workers (Mathew 20:1-16)
15. The Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32)
16. The Wicked Vinegrowers (Matthew 21:33-44; Mark 12:1-11; Luke 20:9-18)
17. The Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14)
18. The Fig Tree (Matthew 24:32-35; Mark 13:28-31; Muke 21:29-33)
19. The Two Servants (Matthew 24:45-51)
20. The Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)
21. The Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
22. The Seed Growing Secretly (Mark 4:26-29)
23. The Doorkeepr (Mark 13:34-37; Luke 12:35-40)
24. The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43)
25. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
26. The Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-8)
27. The Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21)
28. The Wise and Foolish Servants (Luke 12:42-48)
29. The Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:6-9)
30. The Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24)
31. The Unfinished Tower and the King at War (Luke 14:28-33)
32. The Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:3-7)
33. The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)
34. The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
35. The Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-9)
36. The Servant’s Reward (Luke 17:7-10)
37. The Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8)
38. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
39. The Minas (Luke 19:11-27)

In our studies in Mark, we are currently coming up to the fifth one in this list and that is the Parable of the Sower. Mark 4:1-9 says:

He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

One thing that strikes you as you read this parable is how simple it is. Jesus uses an image that everyone was familiar with at this time and that is the image of a sower (farmer) scattering seed. Later on, we discover that the seed is the Word of God (verse 14) and the sower is someone who presents it to you. So the question that Jesus wants you to consider as you read this passage is: What are you doing with the Word of God as it is presented?

The Pharisees and scribes in the Gospel of Mark were rejecting it. They rejected it in Mark 2 when Jesus healed the paralytic. They rejected it in Mark 3 when He healed the man with the withered hand and they rejected it again when the crowds came to Him in the same chapter (see verses 20-30). However, other people like the paralytic in Mark 2 received it. So did Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16-18). So did James and John (Mark 1:19-20). So did Matthew the tax collector (Mark 2:14-17) and the lesson is that you want to do the same this which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about the Parable of the Sower. While it may not be the most famous parable that Jesus ever preached, it is certainly one of the most powerful ones (in my opinion) because we all have a tendency to ignore the Word of God. None of us is free from the tendency to become like the thorny soil and let the worries of this world choke it away from us. But the good news is that you may start off life like the thorny soil and end up like the good soil if you just cry out to Jesus. He can open up your heart to hear the Word in ways that you never thought possible if you will just ask Him to.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on You Tube later that day for all those who cannot make it in person. May the Lord give you a great week and I look forward to seeing you there.

– Jeremy Cagle

What is the unforgivable sin? That is a question that has troubled people for ages and scholars have come up with 4 ways to answer it.


I mention all of that because the fourth view is the correct one. According to the Bible, the unforgiveable sin is the act of concluding that the works that Jesus did are actually the work of the devil. As s a result, He is not our Savior. He is just an imposter which is what the some of the Jews concluded about Him.

Mark 3:20-29 says:

And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”

The reason Jesus made such a strong pronouncement against these men is because they were not being neutral towards Him. On the contrary, they concluded that He was demon possessed and on the side of the evil one. In other words, they could not deny His miracles or ignore the fact that He was healing people so, instead, they chose to commit an act of “blasphemy.” Standing before the Light of the World, they defiantly closed their eyes to Who He was so Jesus pronounced that act to be unforgivable which is not something that can be duplicated today because Jesus is not on the earth. Therefore, no one can personally see Him perform a miracle.

Therefore, the only unpardonable sin that is committed today is that of continued unbelief. There is no pardon for a person who dies in his rejection of Christ. If a person does that, then he is committing an unforgiveable act. However, the good news is that if someone receives Christ as their Savior and believes in Him, there is still hope for them which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “The Unforgivable Sin” in order to address an issue that has troubled people for ages because Christians all throughout history have wondered if they have ever done what this passage is talking about. The answer is simple: Do you believe in Jesus? Then the answer is “No.” You have not.

Consequently, can God forgive you? Yes! Murder? He can forgive it. Adultery? He can forgive it. Lies? He can forgive it. Pride? He can forgive it. Hatred? He can forgive it. Greed? He can forgive it, if you just repent and turn to Christ for salvation. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Please join us as we talk about that this Sunday. The service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and posted on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot be there in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

In his Commentary on the Gospels, J. C. Ryle writes that:

Mark 3:13:19 is a passage of peculiar solemnity. Here is the record of the first ordination which ever took place in the church of Christ after the Lord told the disciples to “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (1:17). The Lord Jesus chooses and sends forth the twelve apostles. Here is an account of the first charge ever delivered to the newly ordained Chrisitan ministers. The Lord Jesus Himself delivers it. – Never was there so important an ordination or solemn a charge!

There are three lessons which stand out prominently on the face of this portion of Scripture. Let us take them in order.

We are taught, in the first place, that all ministers are not necessarily good men. We see our Lord choosing a Judas Iscariot to be one of His apostles. We cannot doubt that He who knew all hearts, knew well the characters of the men whom He chose. And He includes in the list of apostles one who was a traitor!

We shall do well to bear in mind this fact. The office of apostle did not confer the saving grace of the Holy Ghost. Ordained men are not necessarily converted. W are not to regard them as infallible, either in doctrine or in practice. We are not to make popes or idols of them, and insensibly put them in Christ’s place. We are to regard them as “men of like passions” with ourselves, liable to the same infirmities, and daily requiring the same grace. We are not to think it impossible for them to do very bad things, or to expect them to be above the reach of harm from flattery, covetousness, and the world… Above all, we ought to pray for them, that they may not be successors of Judas Iscariot, but of James and John…

We are taught, in the next place, that the great work of a minister of Christ is to do good. He is sent to “preach” – to proclaim glad tidings – and “cast out demons” or relieve those who are suffering and diminish their sorrow.

This is a high standard and a very peculiar one. Let it be well weighed and carefully examined. It is plain, for one thing, that the life of a faithful minister of Christ cannot be one of ease. He must be ready to spend body and mind, time and strength, in the work of His calling. Laziness and frivolity are bad enough in any profession, but worst of all in that of a watchman for souls.

It is plain that the position of the ministers of Christ is not that which ignorant people sometimes subscribe to them, and which they unhappily sometimes claim for themselves. They are not intended so much to rule as to serve. They are not intended to have dominion over the church as to supply its wants, and wait upon its members. Happy would it be for the cause of true religion, if these things were better understood! Half the diseases of Christianity have arisen from mistake notions about the minister’s office….

We are taught, in the last place, the nature of the office to which the apostles were ordained. They were to “be with Christ.”

Like the apostles, the faithful minister ought to keep up close communion with Christ. He should be “with Him.” His fellowship should be “with the Son” (1 John 1:3). He should abide in Him. He should be separate from the world, and daily sit, like Mary, at Jesus’ feet, and hear His Word. He should study Him, copy Him, drink into His Spirit, and walk in His steps. He should strive to be able to say, when he enters the pulpit, “that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you” (1 John 1:3).

J. C. Ryle is right because there are many lessons that we can learn from Jesus’ calling of the 12 disciples in Mark 3:13-19. It is a text that is rich in wisdom and insight because we have all grown so much as we have studied each of these men. Just by listing the names of Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the Son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot is to bring up so many wonderful Bible stories.

In order to discuss them this week during the sermon hour, I plan on doing a quick survey of each their lives in order to see how they relate to us today. I believe that we will discover that they were very ordinary men following an extraordinary Savior. There was nothing special about the disciples just like there is nothing special about you and me. The only thing that made them stand out is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please join us as we study that subject together this week at Grace Fellowship Church. The service will be at 9:30 on Sunday. The sermon will be recorded and then posted on our YouTube Channel for all those who cannot make it in person. May the Lord give you a great week and I look forward to seeing you then.

– Jeremy Cagle

True Christianity has never been popular because it has always been persecuted in one form or another. Islam has rarely been persecuted in history except for a few exceptions. Neither has Buddhism or Hinduism. However, the true faith has because it is part of the kingdom of light instead of the kingdom of darkness which makes it a target of Satan’s attacks.

Therefore, we should not be surprised when the world ridicules us. It should not come as a shock when they mock us or deride us or harass us because they did it to Jesus as can be seen in the following story. Mark 3:1-6 tells us that:

He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!”

 And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
 
The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

The interesting thing about this passage is the setting of it because it revolved around a miracle. Jesus healed a man with a “withered” hand. The term “withered” implies that the man’s hand had shrivelled up to the point that he could not use it anymore.

Yet Jesus healed Him! He told him to come to the front of the room and the Lord caused the infirmity to vanish as new cells, muscles, bones, tissue, joints, and nerve endings grew in order to replace the previous ones. The restoration was instantaneous and it makes you wonder: How did the leaders respond to this? Verse 6 says that they began to conspire against Him. The Pharisees and Herodians got together in order to find a way to kill Jesus.

Why? Because Jesus embarrassed them. They did that because they had wrong ideas about the Sabbath (verse 2) and Jesus pointed it out to them with this miracle which caused them to resent Him and plot His demise. Hypocrites typically responded that way to Jesus in the Bible. Any time you see Him encounter men like this, it was not a pretty picture. Resentment usually followed which culminated in some form of scheming against Him which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to look at “The Story of the Man with a Withered Hand” in order to see where Jesus’ persecution begins in the Gospel of Mark. It does not begin with tax collectors or sinners. It begins with the religious leaders of the day in order to demonstrate that that is where most of our trouble will come from too in the church.

According to a survey from Lifeway Chrisitan Resources several years ago, 360 million Christians per year are persecuted or deprived of something as a result of their testimony. Some of it is brought on by the secular authorities but most of it is not. It is carried out by the religious ones just like you see right here. However, those Christians endure it every year because they know that their Savior did a similar thing on His way to the cross. Jesus met tremendous spiritual opposition and overcame it in order to demonstrate that we can too through His power. As John 15:20 says, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” However, Matthew 24:13 also says, “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” And we can endure because of the work of Christ.

Please join us as we talk about that this Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and posted on our You Tube Channel for all those who cannot make it in person. – Jeremy Cagle

Job 5:7 says, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” which means that you cannot avoid trouble. No matter what you do in this life, everyone experiences sorrow and pain as the Book of Job itself demonstrates. Job 1:1 says that “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.” In other words, Job was a Godly man. He had the highest moral character.

Yet it did not keep him from pain because he lost his possessions, his family, and health in Job 1-2. To make matters worse, he could not figure out why it was happening to him because the Lord never gave him an answer. He just reminded him at the end of the book that “I know that [God] can do all things, and that no purpose of [His] can be thwarted” (42:2).

This is something that Tim Challies can personally relate to because, on November 3, 2020 his son, Nick, died unexpectedly as a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he was studying to become a pastor. He had recently gotten engaged and was participating in a sports activity when he collapsed suddenly for an unknown reason. Despite the best efforts of medical personnel, he could not be revived and passed away at the age of 21. In

In his own words, Challies said, “A darkness overcame me the night Nick died. Up to that point, my life had largely been bright and easy. But the world around me began to grow hazy when I heard he had collapsed, and it grew dimmer still when I was told he has been rushed to the hospital. The doctor’s pronouncement of his death was like a heavy darkness creeping in and settling around me, dulling my senses, trapping me in shadow. Though my eyes may have remained clear, my mind was not. My heart was not. Everything felt muffled and distorted.”

However, the Lord brought him through it. Even though the time of darkness was difficult, God used it to teach him that, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). This is why we have asked Tim Challies to come speak to us this weekend at our “Seasons of Sorrow Conference.” The conference will be held on the campus of the Free Reformed Church at 45471 Yale Road in Chilliwack.

The schedule is as follows:

Friday
6:00 p.m. Arrive/Registration
6:30 p.m. Session 1
8:00 p.m. Coffee/Tea/Snacks
9:00 p.m. Leave

Saturday
8:30 a.m. Arrive
9:00 a.m. Session 2
10:30 a.m. Coffee/Tea/Snacks
11:00 a.m. Q & A with Tim & Aileen Challies
12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. Session 3

In order to register for the event, you can call our church office at (604) 712-1044 or email us at admin@gracefellowshipchilliwack.com or register online at https://form.jotform.com/240047921349254. Walk up registrations are also allowed.

We are pleased to have this opportunity to hear from Tim Challies on this important subject. As many of you know, Tim is a noted author who has written several books and blogs regularly at the website www.challies.com. He is also an elder at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario. Please pray for all those who attend this conference will be blessed and edified in the faith. We would love to see you there if you can make it! He will also be preaching at Grace Fellowship Church on Sunday morning at our 9:30 service.

– Jeremy Cagle

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 says:

Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

In other words, the Lord commanded the people of Israel to work for six days and rest on the Sabbath. It was considered to be a special day for them whereby they would put aside all their work in order to focus all their attention on Yahweh which sounds simple enough. It does not seem too complicated.

However, the Jews made it complicated because instead of turning it into a day of rest, they turned it into a burden by adding thousands of man-made restrictions unto it. One of their key books had 24 chapters on the subject that told the people that they could not walk farther than 3,000 feet on the Sabbath. Other things that were forbidden include:

- Carrying a load heavier than a dried fig
- Eating anything larger than an olive
- Throwing an object into the air with one hand and catching it with the other
- Tailoring
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Sweeping
- Plowing
- Reaping
- Grinding
- Baking
- Threshing
- Binding sheaves
- Winnowing
- Sifting
- Dying
- Shearing
- Spinning
- Kneading
- Trying or untying a knot
- Writing or dispatching a letter
- Lighting a fire
- Extinguishing a fire (except for very rare occasions)
- Taking a bath
- Moving a chair
- Looking into a mirror
- Wearing false teeth

Needless to say, the Sabbath was anything but restful because it had become oppressive by the time of the First Century which explains what happens in the Gospel of Mark 2:23-24. Here it says:

And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

As you read that, you may wonder why the Pharisees are arguing with Jesus about the Sabbath but the reason they are doing that is because they want to know why Jesus’ disciples are not keeping their man-made restrictions regarding it. They are curious as to why they are ignoring their long list of oppressive instructions so Jesus gives them His answer in verse 27.

Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Without caveat or apology, Jesus claimed to be the sovereign ruler over the Sabbath. If there had been any ambiguity about His earlier claim that “something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6), it was gone now. Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God Who ordained the Sabbath in the first place and, therefore, He is the One Who can decide how it should be treated, not the Pharisees. The Pharisees prided themselves on being the authoritative interpreters of the law. In their midst stood someone who was a higher authority than them which changed the whole conversation and that is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to look at “The Lord of the Sabbath” in order to talk about one of the most volatile issues that Jesus dealt with. It was volatile in His day and it is volatile in ours becuse people still ask the question: Does Jesus require us to keep the Sabbath now? Is it a law that He wants us to perpetuate today in the church?

The answer is “No” because the New Testament does not require any Sabbath observance. Instead, it gives us freedom on this issue. The only requirement is that, whatever position you take on it, you hold it for the glory of God (Romans 14:5-6) and do not impose our views on others (Colossians 2:16). This does not mean that the Lord does not want us to set aside one day a week in order to worship Him because the early church clearly did that. They called it “the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). It just means that the Sabbath as Israel knew it is no longer binding on us and please join us as we talk about that this Sunday at 9:30 during the sermon hour.

The message will be recorded on our You Tube Channel and then posted later for all those who are not able to come in person. – Jeremy Cagle 

The Talmud is the Rabbi’s Commentary on the Old Testament and it is important in ancient Judaism because the Pharisees used it as a textbook for how to interpret the Law. It was over 3,000 pages long and put into six volumes. Interestingly enough, one volume talked mainly about the issue of fasting.

In fact, it said that every serious Jew should fast twice a week, give alms, and say certain prescribed prayers. The Pharisees were so serious about each of these that they did them in an ostentatious fashion. When they gave alms, they blew trumpets “in the synagogues and in the streets” in order to be “honored by men” (Matthew 6:2). When they prayed, they did so “in the synagogues and on the street corners” (verse 5). Also, when they fasted, they neglected their appearance and put on a “gloomy face… and neglected their appearance” (verse 16).
All of this explains what happens in Mark 2:18 where it says:

The Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to [Jesus], “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

In other words, the Pharisees wanted Jesus to tell them why His disciples did not keep their rules. Apparently, the 12 did not fast twice a week and put on a gloomy face so they wondered what was wrong with them. So here is Jesus’ response in verses 21-22:

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.

Jesus uses these two illustrations in order to demonstrate that He is not teaching a reformed form of Pharisaism. He is not trying to improve the old system but to renounce and replace it with a new one altogether. His ways had nothing to do with their ways. Just like a new patch of unshrunk cloth cannot be placed on an old garment without disastrous results, so His new Gospel of forgiveness cannot be attached to their man-made external traditions. The same thing goes for the new wine in old wineskins.

The point is that Jesus has come to make a break with orthodox Judaism. While He upheld the Old Testament as it was properly understood, Jesus did not cave into the opinions and preferences of the Pharisees because He wanted to make it very clear that none of those things save us. The only thing that does is faith in Christ alone which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to be looking at a conversation that Jesus had with the Pharisees right after the conversion of Matthew (verses 14-17) which is not random. It lands in this place in the Bible because Jesus had just saved one of the most hated people in Israel – a tax collector – and the Pharisees are wondering why. So now He tells them that it is because His mission in life had nothing to do with theirs.

They wanted to save people by works. He wanted to save them by grace. They wanted to help them earn it. He wanted to help them receive it. They wanted to show the Jews how to climb their way up to God. Jesus wanted to show them how God has come down in the person of the Messiah which is good news because what would we do if we had to climb our way up to God?

How scary would it be if we had to keep all six volumes of the Talmud?

And fast twice a week?

And wear a gloomy face?

And neglect our appearance?

Thankfully, we do not need to any of that because of Jesus. He paid the price so we could be saved another way.

Please join us as we talk about that this Sunday at 9:30. The sermon will be recorded on our You Tube Channel and then posted later for all those who are not able to come in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

Our sermon for Easter Sunday will be taken from John 20 which describes the time when several people went to the empty tomb in order to see Jesus after the resurrection. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Peter and John. In my studies this week, I came across a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached on this passage and I wanted to share some of his thoughts with you as we prepare our minds for this text. Here they are:

THIS was the first appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection. In sundry places and at diverse times, during the ensuing 40 days, He appeared to different disciples, showing Himself openly to them when they were assembled for worship and at other times. But this was the first occasion of His being seen by any of His followers after He had risen from the dead. The whole incident is full of consolation and we who are poor weary pilgrims through this earthly wilderness need some words of comfort every now and then to cheer us on the road.

First, IT IS PECULIARLY ENCOURAGING TO REMEMBER THAT THE FIRST PERSON TO WHOM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST APPEARED AFTER HIS RESURRECTION WAS MARY MAGDALENE.

It was a woman, then, who first beheld the risen Savior. It was a woman who was first in sin. It had, therefore, to be a woman who should first behold Jesus Christ when He rose from the grave. If there is—and there certainly is some degree of opprobrium connected with womanhood, because Eve first of all touched the forbidden fruit, there is a far greater degree of glory now connected with it, because Mary Magdalene first of all beheld the Savior after His rising which should be a great source of comfort to you who, after years of sin, have lately found the Savior.

Not only was it a woman to whom Christ first manifested Himself after His Resurrection, but it was a woman out of whom He had cast seven devils. I am inclined to think that there were other devils in Mary Magdalene beside those that made her a demoniac. Luther used to say of her, "So many devils, so many sins." She had been first a sinner, then she became a demoniac and afterwards Christ changed her into a saint. How strange it was that Jesus should appear first to her! What? Give the highest honor to her who had the most of sin! Sweet thought!

The experience of Mary Magdalene should be a great source of comfort to you who, after years of sin, have lately found the Savior. Think not that those years that you spent in folly, though they must always make you weep, will be the means of robbing you of fellowship with Him. Oh, no! He will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten and He will not take away from you the pleasure of enjoying the bliss of God on earth—and certainly He will not diminish your glorious happiness when you shall stand before His Throne above!

In thinking over this subject, I have come to the conclusion that Mary Magdalene was selected to see Christ first because she loved Him most. John loved Jesus much, but Mary loved Him more. John looked into the empty sepulcher and then went home. But Mary stood there and wept until her risen Lord appeared to her because love will look for Jesus and discover Him where none else can.

Charles Spurgeon is right because our love for Jesus can draw us near to God when everything else fails. After all, that is what God wants us to do to be saved. We do not have to be perfect because Mary was not perfect. And we do not have to have our life together because she failed at that too. However, we do need to stay close to Him which is where she excelled the most.

Please join us as we study her story this Easter. It is a good reminder that Jesus does not look for the greatest people to be His followers. He just wants those who will be humble and treasure Him more than anything else in the world. Our service begins at 9:30 and it will be recorded and later posted on our You Tube page for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle

Tax collectors have never been popular for the simple reason that no one likes to pay taxes. We all get upset when the government comes asking for more money. However, this was especially true in the New Testament because the tax collectors in Israel gathered money for Rome. They were Jews who sold out their fellow Jews in order to get rich working for Caesar.

Such an act caused the tax collectors to be shunned at every level of society to the point that they were not allowed to enter the synagogue. They were also excluded from temple worship and not allowed to talk to a priest because, in essence, they were dead to all things Jewish. As far as the people of Israel were concerned, they were worse off than a Gentile which makes Jesus’ behavior seem so strange because, in Mark 2:14, He chooses a tax collector to be one of the 12 disciples. The passage says:

As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

When it says that Jesus saw Levi (also known as Matthew) sitting in a tax collector’s booth, that means that Matthew was one of the most despised publicans of all because the Jews had two types of tax collectors.


Yet what did Jesus do? He called Matthew from his tax booth.

How did Matthew respond? He followed.

Jesus tells us why he did that later on because Mark 2:15-17 says:

And it happened that He was reclining at the table in [Matthew’s] house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In other words, Matthew followed Jesus because he was sick. The reason that he answered Jesus’ call is because he knew that Christ had come to heal him. As he was sitting in his tax booth, Matthew must have heard the rumors about Christ being a teacher who had appeared in Palestine banishing disease, casting out demons, and doing miracles so when Jesus showed up and presented Himself, he believed. In fact, Matthew’s faith is indicated not only in the immediacy of his response but in the fact that, after following Jesus, he held a banquet in his home and invited all of his friends to meet Jesus too.

Church history says that he would go on to write the Gospel of Matthew for the Jews in order to reach them. There is no reliable record of how he was put to death but the earliest traditions indicate that he was burned at the stake. Thus the man who walked away from a very lucrative career would end up giving his all for Christ to the very end because when he said that he would follow Jesus, he meant it.

Please join us as we study the call of Matthew this week at Grace Fellowship Church. Of all the stories that we have studied so far in this Gospel, I believe that this will be one of the most encouraging because it will show us that, if Jesus could save Matthew, He can save us anyone. So far in this book, Christ has reached out to some fishermen (Mark 1:16-20), a demon possessed man (Mark 1:21-28), a leper (Mark 1:40-45), and a paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). Now he is going to rescue the scum of the earth. You simply could not get any lower than a tax collector at this time in Jewish history but it did not matter to Christ. No matter how low Matthew went, God’s grace went deeper still.

If you would to learn more about that, the service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person. - Jeremy Cagle

In the opening chapters of the Gospel of Mark, we are told that Jesus heals people on six separate occasions. For example, He heals:

1) The demon possessed man in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28)

2) Simon’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31)

3) Various people from the town of Capernaum (Mark 1:32-34)

4) Various people throughout the province of Galilee (Mark 1:39)

5) An anonymous leper (Mark 1:40-45)

6) An anonymous paralytic who was lowered through a roof by his friends (Mark 2:1-12)

We have already covered the first five events in our series on Sunday mornings. However, we have not discussed the sixth one yet. Mark 2:1-12 describes it this way:

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

When it says that the crowd was amazed by this miracle, that means that they were shocked. Not only because this man’s friends lowered him through a roof in order to help him but also because Jesus was able to cure him instantly. In the blink of an eye, Jesus took a man who could not move his legs at all and He enabled him to walk “in full view of them all.”

This event also left some of these people dumbfounded because Jesus told this man that his sins were forgiven (verse 5). The reason He did that is because the Jews often equated paralysis with sin. They believed that, if you could not walk, it was on account of the fact that you did something wrong in the eyes of God so Jesus tells this man that He is going to help him with that problem too because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Such an idea would prove to be too much for the teachers of the law because they would scoff at it. In their minds, it was blasphemous for a mere man like Jesus to say something like that. However, Jesus showed them that He could do it because He was not a mere man. He had the power to do miracles which is what we are going to look at this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “The Man Who Went through the Roof to See Jesus” in order to study one of the most fascinating stories in the Gospel of Mark because this man literally came through the ceiling in order to meet Christ. He descended from the rafters so he could sit at the Savior’s feet because he believed Jesus was worth it.

In fact, he and his friends were so passionate about this that they would have done anything to get to Jesus. Tear up a roof? Sure. Dig through a ceiling? Yes. Make a scene in front of everyone? No problem because they believed that He was worthy of anything. Their love for Christ overcame every obstacle.

Do you have the same sort of passion today? I hope so. Does your love for Christ overcome every obstacle too because you believe He is worthy? It should but, if not, I believe that this passage will help to rekindle your fire because it is hard to read it without walking away with a greater appreciation for Jesus and how much He should mean to us. We should all be willing to tear up a roof in order to get to Him.

Please join us as we discuss that together over the weekend. The service will begin at 9:30 on Sunday morning and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

- Jeremy Cagle

The Greek term “leprosy” comes from a word that means “scales” due to the scaly appearance that the infection created on a person’s skin. According to some sources, it is one of the oldest diseases known to man and one of the most bizarre because it attacks a person’s body by obstructing the nervous system so that the victim cannot feel pain anymore. The way it worked is that, if a person contracted leprosy, he would begin to scratch his nose and scratch the skin right off without ever being aware. Or he would grab hold of a red-hot iron and burn his fingers down to the bone.

Such an experience would cause stumps to appear where a person’s fingers were supposed to be. Stubs would also form in the area of the feet. The hands would become claw-like as the muscles wasted away and the skin around them began to rot. Leprosy would also bring swelling to the face which made the person “look like a lion” as the ancient Egyptians tell us.
All of which was made more miserable by the fact that the disease had no cure. However, Mark 1:40-43 tells us that God found a cure for it. When Jesus came, He healed it by performing the following miracle:

And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

When it says that the leprosy left this man, that means that his fingers and feet went back to normal and his hands lost their claw-like appearance. The muscles that had wasted away were instantly repaired and so was the skin that had begun to rot. The swelling around his face subsided because the man’s health was fully restored.

Why? Because Jesus showed mercy to him. What caused Him to do this? Because He was “moved with compassion.” In other words, Jesus did not heal this man because He was moved with justice and He wanted to give this man what he deserved. On the contrary, He wanted to give this man what he did not deserve and that was grace.

God’s gifts are always this way. They always come to us in the form of grace because, just like this leper, we do not deserve them for we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23). However, Jesus reassures us that anytime a sinner falls down on his knees before Him with a heart full of faith and asks for His help, He will give it. As John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will … not cast out.”

I mention that because this week we are talking about “Jesus & The Leper” because that is how Jesus continues His ministry in the Gospel of Mark. He begins by preaching in Verses 14-15 and healing a demon possessed man in verses 21-28. Then He heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in verses 29-31. Then He heals many people in the town of Capernaum in verses 32-34. Now He will heal a man with leprosy.

In fact, this miracle will make Jesus so popular that, afterwards, verse 45 says “Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.” His fame became so renown on account of this event that the people would follow Him even unto the uncultivated regions of Israel far away from town because they believed that, if Jesus could heal this leper, He could heal them too. His grace was sufficient for anyone who asked for it and it is a good reminder for us today.

Do you need God’s grace today? You can have it. Would you like to know His mercy? It can be yours if you will fall down on your knees before Him with a heart full of faith and ask Him for it. His grace is sufficient for anyone including a leper which is what we are going to talk about this Sunday morning at Grace Fellowship Church.

If you would like to join us, the service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

Jeremy Cagle

One of the greatest joys in ministry is to support other like-minded churches in the spread of the Gospel. Our Vision Statement says that it is our mission “To proclaim grace upon grace to Chilliwack, British Columbia, and to the ends of the earth.” However, we cannot do that alone. It is impossible for us to do all the work of preaching, teaching, witnessing, counselling, and reaching people here in this part of the country all by ourselves so it only makes sense that we need help from other congregations.

One of those congregations is Grace Church on 99 in Squamish. Grace Church on 99 began several decades ago when a group of believers wanted to start a church that was founded on the Gospel and the basic teaching of Scripture. Since then, they have seen a considerable amount of growth and called a new pastor to lead their congregation in 2015 named David Corrente. David is originally from Ontario and is a graduate of The Expositor’s Seminary where he was trained in expository preaching and sound theology. He and his wife, Chelsea, have four children.

In order to learn more about their ministry and the work that they are engaged in, this Sunday we will be doing a Pastor Swap where Pastor David will preach for us here at GFC and I will preach for their people in Squamish. The goal in doing this is to have him give a report to you on the ministry over there and remind you that you do not stand alone in your faithfulness to the Scriptures. The Lord has called other congregations to proclaim the Word right along with you and we want to do everything we can to encourage them in that task.

Pastor David will be speaking from Acts 1:9-11 and the title of his sermon is “Christ’s Ascension the Church’s Assurance.” The passage is as follows:

And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

I pray that this Sunday will be a blessing to us all. Please come join us if you can as it should be a great encouragement and please pray for me that I would be an encouragement to the people in Squamish.

– Jeremy Cagle

In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, William Barclay writes:

The things that Jesus did in the early verses of Mark 1:21-28 could not be concealed for too long in the small province of Galilee. The emergence of so great a new power and authority was not something which could be kept secret. So, by the time you come to verses 29-39, the crowds had begun to besiege Him seeking His healing touch.

They waited until evening came because the law forbad the carrying of any burden through a town on the Sabbath day. To have carried such a burden would have been to work and work was forbidden. They had no clocks or watches in those days … and the law was that the Sabbath was ended and the day had finished when three stars came out in the sky. So the people of Capernaum waited until the sun had set and the stars were out and then they came, carrying their sick, to Jesus; and He healed them. We have already seen Jesus healing someone. Once, He healed in the synagogue but now He will do it in Simon and Andrew’s house and out in the street because Jesus helped anyone who needed it.

The people flocked to Jesus because they recognized in Him someone who could do things. There were plenty who could talk and expound and lecture and preach; but here was one who dealt not in words but in actions. Jesus could, and did, produce results… But there is the beginning of tragedy here.

The crowds came, but many of them did so merely because they wanted something out of Jesus. They did not come because they loved Him; they did not come because they had caught a glimpse of some new vision; in the last analysis they wanted to use Him. That is what nearly everyone wants to do with God and the Son of God. For every one prayer that goes up to God for God’s sake ten thousand go up for selfish reasons.

Many a man who has never prayed when the sun was shining on life begins to pray when cold winds come merely so that they can make it stop. … Religion to him is a crisis affair. It is only when he has got life into a mess, when life deals him some kind of knock-out blow that he begins to remember God.

It must always remain true that we must all go to Jesus for He alone can give us the things we need for life; but if that going does not spring from a true, saving faith there is something tragically wrong. Jesus is not someone to be used in the days of misfortune only. He is someone to be loved and remembered every day for the rest of our lives.

The reason I mention that is because this week we are talking about “The Healing Power of Jesus” since that is how Jesus continues His ministry in the Gospel of Mark. He begins by preaching in Verses 14-15 and now He heals people in Verses 29-45. According to Mark, He will heal Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in verses 29-31 and all those who were ill and demon-possessed in Capernaum in verses 32-34. Then He will cast out demons “throughout all Galilee” in verse 39 and heal a leper in verses 40-45.

In fact, Jesus will heal so many people that verse 35 says “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left he house, and went away to a secluded place” in order to pray because He was so busy that He could not find the time to do it otherwise. The crowds would not leave Him alone which makes you wonder: Why? What made Jesus so compassionate?

He did it because that is the heart of God. Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” which means that God is not calloused to the suffering of this world. He does not forget the sick and dying and that is why Jesus spent much of His ministry with them. He could not help it which is what we are going to study this Sunday morning at Grace Fellowship Church.

If you would to learn more about that, the service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

- Jeremy Cagle