The Gospel Mailman

Scripture: Mark 13: 34-35

For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

Scripture Commentary: Jesus is the bright and morning star

What time is it? Are you on the watch for God? Are you ready if He comes calling this morning or tonight? In this parable Jesus is telling us that He, in human form, is going away. The hour of His return is unknown.

But He is leaving us instructions (The Bible) on what must be done. We are the servants. We have in our possession the Word of God. The question is why are we doing what is not in the Book?

There’s work to do for God!

Do we not believe, or do we think we have all time on our side? We do not know the second, minute, hour or day when our time is up. So why act as if we know?

These verses tell us to work now because we can’t do anything in the grave. Each day that God gives us is a day for the Lord’s work. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to each of us but if we don’t ask the Spirit to awaken in us, it will stay asleep.

We don’t know the day or hour but we do know that Jesus is coming. Watch and pray!

Read the Entire Chapter:

Mark Chapter 13

Read Other Commentary from the Book of Mark

Are you Spiritually Paralyzed?

Levi Immediately Witnessed for Christ

Scripture: Mark 7 (Part Three)

Mark 7: 20-28

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities,thefts, murders, ²² adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy,^[i] slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

²⁴ He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre.^[j] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. ²⁵ Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Gentile,^[k] a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

An evil action begins with a single thought.

Jesus traveled to Tyre and Sidon. The city of Tyre was an evil, wicked place. Its king even claimed to be God.

Tyre rejoiced when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. It is here that Jesus brought His message. A Greek woman whose daughter was possessed by evil spirits asked Jesus to heal her. Many Jews would lose God’s spiritual healing because they rejected Jesus. On the other hand, many Gentiles, whom the Jews rejected, would find salvation because they recognized Jesus.

Mark 7: 29-37

Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

³¹ Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through^[l] the region of the Decapolis. ³² They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. ³³ So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue. ³⁴ Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”^[m] (that is, “Be opened!”). ³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. ³⁶ He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.

³⁷ They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Don’t miss the real message.

This miracle shows that Jesus’s power over demons is so great that He doesn’t need to be present physically to free someone. His power transcends any distance.

Jesus asked the people not to talk about this healing. He didn’t want to be seen only as a miracle worker. He didn’t want the people to miss His real message.

We must not be so concerned about what Jesus can do for us that we forget to listen to His message!

Read the Entire Chapter:

Mark Chapter 7

Other Commentary from the Book of Mark

What Was Going to Happen to Jesus?

God’s People Are the Salt of the Earth

Scripture: Mark 7 (Part Two)

Mark 7: 8-9

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” ⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

Commentary: The Pharisees added hundreds of their own petty rules and regulations to God’s holy laws. They worked to force the people to follow them.

Mark 7: 10-11

¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 

Commentary: The Pharisees used God to put money in the temple treasury rather than to help the parents or people in need. God’s law tells us to honor fathers and mothers (Exodus 20:12) and to care for those in need (Leviticus 25: 35-43).

Mark 7: 14-19

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”^[e]17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”^[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 

Commentary: Jesus points out that sin actually begins in the attitudes and intentions of the inner person. Jesus didn’t degrade the law. He paved the way for the change made clear when God removed the cultural restrictions regarding food. (See Acts 10: 9-29.)

We are pure on the inside as Christ renews our minds.

Read the Entire Chapter:

Mark Chapter 7

Read other commentary from the Book of Mark

Jesus, Son of God; Son of Man

Watch and Pray; Jesus Will Return

Receive the Kingdom of God with Childlike Faith