Having begun His earthly ministry, and having performed several miracles along the way, Jesus called Levi to follow Him.
Levi was a publican, a Jewish man who had taken on the role of tax collector for the Roman government. For most Jews in Israel at the time, there was no lower life form. To the Pharisees, if a man became a publican, he had sold out his portion of Israel’s inheritance and his stake in the Kingdom of God. To the Pharisees, publicans could never be saved and would never go to Heaven.
Being cast out of Jewish society, many publicans took to self-indulgence and sinful lifestyles, which is why you often see sinners and publicans mentioned in the same sentences in the New Testament.
So, here you have Levi. Named after the son of Jacob who became the father of the Levitical tribe. Levi’s tribal namesake was responsible for the upkeep of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, and for the upkeep of the Temple in Jesus’ day. The Levites were given six cities in which to live, cities that became “cities of refuge” for those trying to escape retribution from accusations over fatal accidents.
But, even with all this heritage, Levi sits at the receipt of custom, alienated from his countrymen, and a friend to sinners and other publicans.
And it was in that state that Jesus called Him to be a disciple, and Levi happily followed. He would later be renamed “Matthew,” which is a variation of the Greek word for “disciple.”
Having been called to be a disciple of Jesus, Levi holds a dinner for his sinner and publican friends. And in this passage, we see the mission of Christ on full display.
Levi’s plight reminds us of who we are, sinners who are irredeemable without the grace and mercy of God. We see what God did, in sending Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin. And, we see the proper response to the Gospel, which is repentance and faith.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
That saying is not exactly scripture, but the truth is that man sins, and God forgives.
So, when it comes to the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, you see the Lord’s divine nature as He confronts her sin, then discusses worship while calling her and her entire community to faith. In that series of events, we see the Lord’s commitment to salvation, His divine knowledge, and His declaration that He is the Christ.
The interesting thing about this account in scripture is Jesus “must needs go through Samaria (John 4:4).” The fact that the Lord not only went through Samaria, but that He had an intense purpose for going through Samaria bucked every convention of that day.
When traveling between Judea and Galilee, most Jews crossed the Jordan river and traveled on the East Side of the river to avoid the Samaritans. There was a deep divide between the Samaritans and Jews that was as much ethnical as it was cultural. This division dated back to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, as the Israelites were returning to the Holy Land following the Babylonian captivity.
But, Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” He needed to go. He was compelled to go.
When He meets the woman at the well, we find out why. He was there because there were lost souls in Samaria, completely written off by the Jewish society at the time, who were seeking salvation.
In His desire to go to Samaria, we see the Lord’s commitment to salvation.
Then, we see His divine knowledge. He knew the woman would be there. He knew everything about her. Further, He knew that this visit would lead to the salvation of many souls in Samaria.
Then, the Lord declared plainly to the woman that He was the Christ. When the woman said, “I know that when Messiah comes He will tell us all things,” Jesus replied, “I that speak to thee am He.”
While most sermons focus on the lost condition of the woman and her journey to faith, in this episode of Ancient Scrolling, we examine how this divinely appointed meeting demonstrates the deity of Christ.
One of the most forgotten attributes of Christ is His healing power.
As Christians, we love to discuss salvation, family, work ethic, and morals. However, many times people enter the doors of our churches carrying the pain that life too often brings.
Whether that pain is grief over a lost loved one, the emotional damage brought on by divorce, the fear that ensues losing a job, or the literal pain of a chronic illness.
Many live resigned to the idea that the pain will never go away, and that the scars will remain indefinitely. This resignation, however, completely overlooks the fact that Christ is the Great Physician. He heals, calms and restores.
In Mark 1, we see the power of Christ to heal physical disease on full display as the Lord heals Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever. While we at Life Point completely support the use of modern medicine and accessing the healthcare system, we have not forgotten that the Lord can, and often does, heal us of physical disease. And when He chooses not to heal, we find peace in His plan, knowing that He brings all things into our lives for good.
For the most part, the Lord has blessed us to live in a time when medicine has advanced far beyond anything it has accomplished in human history. Those living today have unparalleled opportunity to be healed of viruses, infections, heart disease and organ failure, and even cancer in many situations. Diseases that were once terminal just a few decades ago can be managed with the patient living a meaningful life.
Still, the Lord has been known to heal supernaturally. In cases when He doesn’t heal, we are often reminded that the Lord often uses disease to transition us from this life into the next, where we will be in His presence and there will be no more pain or suffering.
What most people struggle with, however, is emotional and Spiritual pain. While modern medicine is making advancements against cancer and diabetes, it has very little to offer in terms of healing emotional and Spiritual pain.
There are medications that can numb the pain and manage mood swings, but no medication can heal grief or regret. No medication can resolve an ongoing conflict or secure victory in a Spiritual battle.
However, the Lord can.
We see His power to do this on full display as He cleansed the leper in Mark 1. Now, on the surface, it may appear that healing leprosy would fall under the heading of physical healing, and on the surface, you would be correct.
But leprosy presents a far deeper symbolism in scripture. Leprosy is very similar to sin, in that it infects, scars and disfigures, and can have an affect not only on the leper himself, but on those who come into contact with him.
This is why the Old Testament law went into such detail as to how lepers were to behave, how lepers were to be treated, and if cleansed, how their cleansing was to be made official via temple rituals.
When Jesus cleansed the lepers, He not only demonstrated His power over physical disease, but He demonstrated His power to cleanse and restore us from the devastation of sin, and from the pain of grief and regret.
Last, but certainly not least, the Lord demonstrated His power to forgive sin.
In Mark 2:1-13, we see Jesus in a house, surrounded by the “press,” when four friends broke a hole open in the roof and lowered their disabled friend to Jesus to be healed. Jesus first response was to tell the man that his sins were forgiven.
The Pharisees balked, saying to themselves that only God had the power to forgive sin. When Jesus perceived their thoughts, He healed the man’s disease to prove His divine power, and His power to forgive sin.
In the above posted edition of The Point, we go into greater detail about the Lord’s power to heal. He heals us on multiple levels. That fact should bring us relief, joy and peace.
The Pharisees were raised to believe that when the Christ came, He would go to the righteous, bless them, condemn the wicked, and defeat Israel’s enemies. At the time Christ came, the main enemy was the Roman Empire.
So, the Pharisees were looking for a messiah who would be a great military commander, a conquering hero, and one who observed the religion the same way they did.
However, Jesus defied those expectations. He didn’t come as a conquering hero, but yet a humble servant, a compassionate man committed to redeeming the lost people of Israel, and one who spoke God’s truth, which often ran contrary to the Pharisees’ traditions.
Jesus was the Only Begotten Son, the divine God in flesh, Who came to fulfill God’s promises of redemption. However, He didn’t fit the mold that the Pharisees wanted Him to fill, so they rejected Him.
But, there was still Nicodemus. Nicodemus saw the miracles and signs Jesus performed, but struggled to reconcile Jesus as being Christ with the preconceived notions of Who Christ would be. Unlike HIs fellow Pharisees, however, Nicodemus had the wisdom to inquire and learn.
So, he met with Jesus by night. And the Lord told him about the new birth, about salvation, and about the crucifixion and resurrection. In this episode of Ancient Scrolling, we look at that epic meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, and we learn the Lord’s truth from it.
The Apostle John is setting out to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth was the only Begotten Son of God, and thus was the Christ, the Savior of mankind. In order to do that, he had to prove the divine nature of Christ, that He was God in flesh.
John wrote his account of the Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish that goal. He opened his Gospel by demonstrating that Jesus was with God in the beginning, was God, and created all things. He referenced the ministry and testimony of John the Baptist to prove that point.
And then, in chapter 2, John records the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. This was something that could only be accomplished by one who was in control of the elements, Who could only be the creator of the elements in the first place.
While the miracle of the water into wine was not a public miracle, it did demonstrate the divine power of Christ. And those who were privy to the miracle not only witnessed the power of God firsthand, but also became believers.
Jesus would go on to turn the tables over in the Temple in Jerusalem, and perform many mighty miracles there. Those miracles captured the attention of one Nicodemus, who would meet with Jesus at night, setting the stage for the most consequential theological discussion in human history. Check out this episode of “Ancient Scrolling” to learn more.
Thirty years after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, many different theories and teachings on the nature and identity of Jesus surfaced. Most of these were wrong, and some were blasphemous.
For the Apostle John, these false doctrines being promoted about Jesus were personal. John knew the Lord personally, witnessed the miracles and earthly ministry of Jesus, and was at the foot of the cross while our Lord gave His life to pay the debt for our sin.
John was “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” So, it should come as no surprise that John took on the task of setting the record straight about Who Jesus of Nazareth was, that He was indeed the Christ, the only Begotten Son of God Who would take away the sin of the world.
In John 1, the Apostle John is laying out the case that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God Who created all things, was all powerful, Who was the Light of the world. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
He tells us that He became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father.
As he continues to make his case in John 1 that Jesus was the Christ, he incorporates the ministry of John the Baptist to prove the divinity and identity of Christ.
Not only did John the Baptist plainly declare that Jesus was the Christ, he proclaimed that Jesus had come to take away the sins of the world.
The Baptist’s statement, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” may not have a profound meaning to us without some theological training, for the people of John’s day, it was a bold statement.
“The Lamb of God” was a reference to the Old Testament practice of sacrificing lambs as a show of the forgiveness of sin that God offers. In pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God, John proclaimed that the Lord would sacrifice Himself to take sin from the world once and for all. This, of course, was a prophecy about the coming crucifixion of Christ.
In this episode, we examine the ministry of John the Baptist, and how his ministry support’s the Apostle John’s position that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God, who would redeem His people by paying for the sins of the world with His very life.
The second season of “Ancient Scrolling” is kicking off with an in-depth exploration of the Gospel according to John.
In AD 65, some three decades after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, many in the Christian faith began to drift theologically. Several theories and doctrines about the identity of Christ surfaced, with many being wrong and others being outright blasphemous.
The Apostle John took this theological drift personally, as he not only knew Jesus personally, but was “The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved.”
So, John endeavored to set the record straight. His efforts, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and thus being scripture and the word of God, are what we now know as “The Gospel according to John,” and “1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.”
In Episode 1, John sets out to establish the identity of Christ, and to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
Of all the men who walked and ministered alongside Jesus, Mark may have been the most overlooked. He was a disciple, yet he was not an apostle. He provided the upper room where Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper, was present at the arrest of Christ, and remained with the apostles after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Mark’s failures are recorded in scripture, and only twice do we see his successes in the faith. The book of Acts records how Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. However, Mark left the journey prematurely and returned home. His abandonment of the first missionary journey created a rift between he and Paul, and when Barnabas suggested that they take Mark on the second missionary journey, Paul vehemently objected. That conflict led to the breakup of Paul and Barnabas as a missionary team.
When Jesus was arrested, instead of trying to fight the temple guard as Peter did, Mark fled, not even taking the time to collect his garments.
Yet, despite all of this, Mark was a mighty man of God. He provided the upper room for the last supper. He remained with the apostles following the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, taking part of a missionary journey with Paul, and ministering alongside Barnabas after that.
In his final days, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Timothy we now know as II Timothy. In it, he asked Timothy to come to Rome, and to bring Mark with him, because as Paul put it, he was profitable in ministry.
The Mark of II Timothy was a man who had grown from his failures in faith and his moments of weakness, and had become a mighty man of the Gospel.
We don’t know what prompted Mark to write his account of the Gospel, aside from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There doesn’t seem to be a specific occasion or audience. We do know that his work was an effort to record the crucial actions of Jesus leading up to the cross.
Matthew demonstrated how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ. Luke put together a comprehensive anthology of the actions and teachings of Christ. John recorded seven key miracles that demonstrated the divinity of Christ.
But Mark focused on an abridged collection of key actions and teachings from Jesus leading up to the Gospel.
Mark’s account of the Gospel is believed to have been the first written, and many scholars believe that Luke referenced his Gospel when writing his own. Mark’s Gospel demonstrates Who Jesus is so we can know Him, and knowing Him we can believe. The ultimate goal of Mark is to build our faith in the Lord.
Please understand, our efforts to provide historical and cultural context to books of the Bible should in no way lead the reader to think that these books are anything less than inspired scripture, thus being the actual word of God. It is through the historical and cultural context of these scriptures that we are able to hone in on what God was actually saying, and get the true message of the Bible.
So, as Mark opens his account of the Gospel, he provides us an introduction to Christ. He begins by showing the fulfillment of the scriptures, particularly pertaining to John the Baptist. John’s status of a prophet was almost universally accepted among the Jews and Judeo-Christian believing gentiles of the day. Mark showed through Old Testament prophecies that John’s ministry was to identify the Christ for us, and to prepare us to meet Him.
Mark then demonstrated that the ministry of John the Baptist was all about Jesus, preparing the people to meet Him and identifying Him as the Christ. He showed how John lived up to that prophetic purpose.
Mark then showed how God Himself witnessed to the identity of Christ at the Baptism of Jesus, saying “This is my Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
Through these words, and through the rest of the writings in the Gospel of Mark, one must come to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ, the Savior, the divine Son of God Who gave His life for the sins of the world, so that man could be forgiven, saved from wrath, and redeemed into the Kingdom of God.
The story of Lazarus and the rich man comes at the end of a series of parables Jesus gave in response to the Pharisees who had criticized Him for dining with sinners and publicans. In this parable, Jesus describes the rich man as an ideal Pharisee, while describing Lazarus as a most-reviled beggar. But when they enter into eternity, it’s Lazarus that is welcomed into Heaven, and the rich man who finds himself in Hell.
The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man should wake us from our slumber. It should remind us that our salvation is not tied to our culture, accomplishments or expectations, but rather by God’s grace through our faith.
Listen as Pastor Leland Acker discusses this passage, describing what God wants for us, contrasting the rich man from Lazarus, and telling us how to apply this message to our lives.
In Genesis 32, Jacob is following God’s direction to return to the Promised Land, however, there’s just one problem… Esau. The last time Jacob heard from Esau, Esau wanted to kill him. No doubt Esau still lived there, but the question was whether Esau was still angry. Despite God showing his favor upon Jacob in a very favorable way, Jacob still acts as if he is doomed once he sees Esau. That struggle in his faith sparked an epic wrestling match that continues to have implications today. Listen to our latest episode of The Gospel Expedition, on YouTube, or on Soundcloud.
The Point... 