Traveling Light — Part One
January 7, 2014
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Traveling LightMark 6:7-11Theme: Stewardship.This week’s lessons teach us how to honor God with the gifts he has given us.
Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Theme: Wealth and Poverty
This week’s lessons remind us what the Christian’s attitude and response toward possessions need to be, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Mark 6:7-11
I received a letter from a couple who were going to the mission field for the first time.
Theme: All Good Gifts from God
This week’s lessons remind us what the Christian’s attitude and response toward possessions need to be, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Mark 6:7-11
Where should we go to get a proper perspective on riches? Negatively there is much to be said about them, but the place to begin is not with a negative but with a positive: All things come from God. God is the Creator.
Theme: A Christian Perspective
This week’s lessons remind us what the Christian’s attitude and response toward possessions need to be, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Mark 6:7-11
So I come back to my original question and ask again: What should a disciple’s attitude toward his possessions be? I suggest the following principles:
1. Thanksgiving.
Theme: A Christian Perspective, Continued
This week’s lessons remind us what the Christian’s attitude and response toward possessions need to be, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Mark 6:7-11
3. Stewardship.
Theme: A Heart Set Free
This week’s lessons remind us what the Christian’s attitude and response toward possessions need to be, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Mark 6:7-11
I close with an important thought. Wealth is a blessing when properly received and used, but there is something more important than wealth or even the proper use of it. It is being free, as God intends us to be free. Possessions tie us down.
Theme: How We View Other Disciples
This week’s lessons remind us of the need to show unity in the gospel with other believers, including those who are different from us.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-40
Discipleship is personal, but it is not personalistic. It always involves our relationships to others who also profess to be disciples. But are they disciples?
Theme: The Problem Explored
This week’s lessons remind us of the need to show unity in the gospel with other believers, including those who are different from us.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-40
In the incident we are studying, the exorcist not only did what he did in Christ’s name and therefore in open allegiance to Christ. He was also effective in what he did, for he was actually casting out demons.
Theme: Cause of Dissension
This week’s lessons remind us of the need to show unity in the gospel with other believers, including those who are different from us.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-40
I suppose that in the entire history of the church there has never been a division, however unnecessary or sordid, that has not been justified by some persons on spiritual grounds.
Theme: One Body, Many Gifts
This week’s lessons remind us of the need to show unity in the gospel with other believers, including those who are different from us.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-40
There is only one way we will ever defeat this tendency to an improper narrowness in our view of Christian work, and that is to recover a vision of the greatness of the church as Christ’s body.
Theme: Are They with Us?
This week’s lessons remind us of the need to show unity in the gospel with other believers, including those who are different from us.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-40
Yesterday we looked at the first three varieties within the church. Today we look at the last two.
4. There is a variety of methods. When I wrote of “styles” a moment ago I was approaching this area.
Theme: An Astonishing Statement
This week’s lessons remind us that no matter how great the persecutions we may be called to endure as Christians, we are promised blessings, both in this age and also in the age to come.
Scripture: Mark 10:29, 30
In the great collection of unexpected and challenging teachings about discipleship by Jesus there is perhaps nothing so utterly unexpected (particularly after our study of the earlier sayings) as Jesus’ words in Mark 10:29,
Theme: Encouragement to Serve
This week’s lessons remind us that no matter how great the persecutions we may be called to endure as Christians, we are promised blessings, both in this age and also in the age to come.
Scripture: Mark 10:29, 30
Although this text should not be misused to teach that every Christian is going to be well-off, nevertheless, the text is a great promise, and it does have to do with earthly relationships and material possessions.
Theme: Full Payment and More
This week’s lessons remind us that no matter how great the persecutions we may be called to endure as Christians, we are promised blessings, both in this age and also in the age to come.
Scripture: Mark 10:29, 30
Yesterday we looked at how Abraham would have answered if we were to ask him whether he felt cheated after he left everything to follow God’s call.
Theme: Certain Blessings from God
This week’s lessons remind us that no matter how great the persecutions we may be called to endure as Christians, we are promised blessings, both in this age and also in the age to come.
Scripture: Mark 10:29, 30
2. Certain blessings. It is not only the greatness of the blessings promised by Jesus that encourage us in His service. Their security encourages us too.
Theme: Encouragement to Trust
This week’s lessons remind us that no matter how great the persecutions we may be called to endure as Christians, we are promised blessings, both in this age and also in the age to come.
Scripture: Mark 10:29, 30
Christ’s words to the disciples in Mark 10:29, 30 are not just an encouragement to serve Christ, important as that is. They are also an encouragement to trust Him through difficult times.
Over the next few days everybody will be making final preparations for Christmas, and it is not exactly something we look forward to. At least I don’t. I admire people who do it weeks or even months in advance, like people who have all their gifts purchased, wrapped, and even mailed by Thanksgiving.
This is why John the Baptist is so important. John was what we would call a charismatic character. He was a prophet in the tradition of the great Jewish prophet Elijah, and he lived in the desert like a “holy man” or monastic, wearing rough clothing made of camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist. He ate the food of the desert, locusts and wild honey (v. 6).
The first part of John’s message was sin and the need for forgiveness. The second part is the person of Jesus Christ. The first verse of the Gospel already has told us who he is. He is “the Son of God.” John tells what this means when he says, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie” (v. 7).
The first two parts of John’s message are sin and the need for forgiveness, and the person of Jesus Christ. The third part is the work of Jesus Christ. The third and last part of John’s message points to the work Jesus was coming to do, and that was to achieve our salvation. In Mark this is summarized by the contrast between John’s preparatory work and the greater and more effective work to be done by Jesus. John says, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (v. 8).
Thus far in this message I have been talking about the preparation by John the Baptist for the coming of Jesus Christ. I have made a few helpful applications along the way. But I am sure you know that the important thing right now is not how John the Baptist prepared people for Jesus’ coming or even what you can learn from that incidentally, but rather how you can prepare yourself spiritually this Christmas. How are you to do this? Let me suggest three important things.
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