Mark
Pharisees Ask Jesus About Paying Poll Tax
Herod the Great ruled all of Palestine as a Roman King. When he died in 4 B.C. his kingdom was divided into three parts of which Archelaus was given Judea and Samaria. He was a failure and in 6 A.D. the Romans stepped in and made Cyrenius governor with direct rule. This placed th …
Jesus Returns to His Home Town of Nazareth
Returning to His hometown, Jesus went into the synagogue where He had worshiped as a lad and began to teach (vv. 1-2). Remember that He did not leave Nazareth until He was about thirty years old. People knew him well and were far from being impressed by His message. Instead they …
Jesus Teaches on Sowing Seed in 4 Types of Soil
Why is it that the hearing of the Word of God does not produce the same results in every heart? As the Word of God is taught to a group of people there are varied responses to it. It is said that it makes some mad, some glad and some sad. The answer is given by the Lord Himself a …
Prediction of “The Time of Tribulation”
One day as Jesus was going out to the Temple, which was built on top of Mount Moriah, His disciples commented on how beautiful it was (v. 1). Josephus in his writings tells us how it was built of beautiful white marble stones that were 40 feet long, 12 feet high, and 18 feet …
John the Baptist Prepared The Way For Jesus
Mark opens this gospel by explaining how John the Baptist was divinely appointed by God to prepare the way for Jesus as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Mal. 3:1 & Isa. 40:3). John was a rugged prophet from the wilderness and a fearless preacher. Large crowds were com …
Jesus Attacks a System of Rules And Regulations
In this passage Jesus was attacking a system that put rules and regulations before the claim of human need (vv. 8-13). The commandment of God was that the claim of human love should come first; the commandment of the scribes was that the claim of legal rules and regulations shou …
Three Disciples Question About The Transfiguration
On the way down from the mountaintop experience, Jesus commands these three disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen “till the Son of Man be risen from the dead†(v. 9). It would not really be understood until after the resurrection, which would be proof that J …
The Parable of The Mustard Seed
In Palestine, a grain of mustard seed was a symbol for the smallest possible thing. (vv. 30-32) Actually it was not the smallest seed known. Palestinian mustard seed is about the size of our petunia seed. However, this tiny seed when it is planted in the ground becomes a tree that …
Hemorrhaging Woman Healed
We find one of the rulers of the synagogue shoving his way through the crowd to get to Jesus. This man had a high position of authority whose duty it was to be in charge of the service. In spite of his position as a leading person in the community, he humbled himself and fell at J …
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man With a Speech Impediment
Jesus now moves from Tyre through Sidon to Decapolis which was largely a Gentile area (v. 31). It seems that He went north before swinging south and some think that this journey may have stretched into as much as eight months. This would have given the Lord a lot of valuable time …