Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 9:9

And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

9. they should tell no man ] This implies that they were forbidden to reveal the wonders of the night, and what they had seen, even to their fellow-Apostles. The seal set upon their lips was not to be removed till after the Resurrection.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And as they came down from the mountain,…. Christ and his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, whom he led up thither:

he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen; on the mount, as the transfiguration of himself, the persons of Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud from whence the voice came, which bore testimony of Christ’s sonship: he ordered to keep the whole of this a secret from every man, even from their fellow disciples,

till the Son of man were risen from the dead;

[See comments on Mt 17:9].

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Save when ( ). Matthew has “until” ( ).

Should have risen (). Second aorist active subjunctive. More exactly, “should rise” (punctiliar aorist and futuristic, not with any idea of perfect tense). Lu 9:36 merely says that they told no man any of these things. It was a high and holy secret experience that the chosen three had had for their future good and for the good of all.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Tell [] . Mark’s word is more graphic than Matthew’s eiphte. The word is from dia, through, and hJgeomai, to lead the way. Hence to lead one through a series of events : to narrate.

Questioning. Wyc., asking. Tynd., disputing.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And as they came down from the mountain,” (kai katabainonton auton ek tou horou) “And as they were descending from and coming out of the mountain,” perhaps Mt Tabor, at least a two day’s journey from Caesarea Philippi.

2) “He charged them,” (diesteilato autois) “He gave them a mandate, order, or charge,” to Peter, James, and John, the three inner circle disciples who were with Him.

3) “That they should tell no man what things they had seen,” (hina medeni a eidon diegesontai) “That they were not to relate to anyone the things which they perceived (saw or heard),” at the transfiguration, in the mountain.

4) “Till the Son of man was risen from the dead.” (ei me hotan hi huios tou anthropou ek nekrou anaste) “Unless and until the Son of man should rise, out of and from the dead,” out of the tomb and from among the dead, dead bodies, Mat 26:32; Mat 13:55; Rom 16:25.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

10. THE DISCIPLES ASK ABOUT ELIJAH. 9:9-13.

TEXT 9:9-13

And as they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, save when the Son of man should have risen again from the dead. And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean. And they asked him, saying, The scribes say that Elijah must first come. And he said unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all things: and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be set at nought? But I say unto you, that Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him whatsoever they would, even as it is written of him.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 9:9-13

435.

Why would the transfiguration mean more after the resurrection?

436.

Had the three disciples heard of the approaching death of Jesus?had any word of His resurrection been given?

437.

Why inquire at this particular time about Elijah? Cf. Mal. 4:5-6.

438.

Who were the scribes mentioned in Mar. 9:11?

439.

In what sense had Elijah already come?

440.

What was to be restored by Elijah?

441.

In what way did Jesus associate His death with the coming of Elijah?

442.

To whom did Jesus refer when He said Elijah had come?

443.

Where was it written concerning the death of John the BaptistCf. 1Ki. 19:2; 1Ki. 19:10.

COMMENT

TIMESummer A.D. 29 immediately after the transfiguration.
PLACEComing down from the mount of transfiguration,

PARALLEL ACCOUNTSMat. 17:9-13.

OUTLINE1. The command for silence, Mar. 9:9. 2. The thought of resurrection was strange to the disciples, Mar. 9:10. 3. They ask about the coming of Elijah, Mar. 9:11. 4. Jesus answers, Mar. 9:12-13.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE COMMAND FOR SILENCE, Mar. 9:9.

1.

As they came down from the mount.

2.

Tell no man what you have seen.

3.

Wait to tell until I have been raised from the dead.

II.

THE THOUGHT OF THE RESURRECTION WAS STRANGE TO THE DISCIPLES, Mar. 9:10.

1.

They thought on what Jesus said.

2.

They asked among themselves what He might mean by rising from the dead.

III.

THEY ASKED ABOUT THE COMING OF ELIJAH, Mar. 9:11.

1.

If you are the Messiah (as we believe you are);

2.

In light of your prediction of death and resurrection how is it said Elijah must come first?

IV.

JESUS ANSWERS, Mar. 9:12-13.

1.

It is trueElijah must come first and restore all things.

2.

It is also true that the Son of man must suffer and be rejected.

3.

Elijah in the person of John the Baptist has come and they have treated him as predicted.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

THE DESCENT FROM THE MOUNT

In what state of mind did the apostles return from beholding the glory of the Lord, and His ministers from another world? They seem to have been excited, demonstrative, ready to blaze abroad the wonderful event which ought to put an end to all mens doubts.
They would have been bitterly disappointed, if they had prematurely exposed their experience to ridicule, cross-examination, conjectural theories and all the controversy which reduces facts to logical form, but strips them of their freshness and vitality. In the first age as in the nineteenth, it was possible to be witnesses for the Lord without exposing to coarse and irreverent handling all the delicate and secret experiences of the soul with Christ.
Therefore Jesus charged them that they should tell no man. Silence would force back the impression upon the depths of their own spirits, and spread its roots under the surface there.
Nor was it right to make such a startling demand upon the faith of others before public evidence had been given, enough to make scepticism blameworthy. His resurrection from the dead would suffice to unseal their lips. And the experience of all the Church has justified that decision. The resurrection is, in fact, the centre of all the miraculous narratives, the sun which keeps them in their orbit. Some of them, as isolated events, might have failed to challenge credence. But authority and sanction are given to all the rest by this great and publicly attested marvel, which has modified history, and the denial of which makes history at once untrustworthy and incoherent. When Jesus rose from the dead, the whole significance of His life and its events was deepened.

This mention of the resurrection called them away from pleasant daydreams, by reminding them that their Master was to die. For Him there was no illusion. Coming back from the light and voices of heaven, the cross before Him was as visible as ever to His undazzled eyes, and He was still the sober and vigilant friend to warn them against false hopes. They however found means of explaining the unwelcome truth away. Various theories were discussed among them, what the rising from the dead should mean, what should be in fact the limit to their silence. This very perplexity, and the chill upon their hopes, aided them to keep the matter close.
One hope was too strong not to be at least hinted to Jesus. They had just seen Elias. Surely they were right in expecting his interference, as the scribes had taught. Instead of a lonely road pursued by the Messiah to a painful death, should not that great prophet come as a forerunner and restore all things? How then was murderous opposition possible?
And Jesus answered that one day this should come to pass. The herald should indeed reconcile all hearts, before the great and notable day of the Lord come. But for the present time there was another question. That promise to which they clung, was it their only light upon futurity? Was not the assertion quite as plain that the Son of Man should suffer many things and be set at nought? So far was Jesus from that state of mind in which men buoy themselves up with false hope. No apparent prophecy, no splendid vision, deceived His unerring insight, And yet no despair arrested His energies for one hour.
But, He added, Elias had already been offered to this generation in vain; they had done to him as they listed. They had re-enacted what history recorded of his life on earth.
Then a veil dropped from the disciples eyes. They recognized the dweller in lonely places, the man of hairy garment and ascetic life, persecuted by a feeble tyrant who cowered before his rebuke, and by the deadlier hatred of an adulterous queen. They saw how the very name of Elias raised a probability that the second prophet should be treated as it is written of the first.
If then they had so strangely misjudged the preparation of His way, what might they not apprehend of the issue? So should also the Son of man suffer of them.
Do we wonder that they had not hitherto recognized the prophet? Perhaps, when all is made clear at last, we shall wonder more at our own refusals of reverence, our blindness to the meaning of noble lives, our moderate and qualified respect for men of whom the world is not worthy.
How much solid greatness would some of us overlook, if it went with an unpolished and unattractive exterior? Now the Baptist was a rude and abrupt person, of little culture, unwelcome in kings houses. Yet no greater had been born of woman. (G. A, Chadwick)

FACT QUESTIONED 9:9-13

489.

In what state of mind did the apostles return from beholding the glory of the Lord, and His ministers from another world?

490.

What would have happened if they had told prematurely the events of the mount?

491.

How would silence help the disciples?

492.

Show how all other miracles relate to the resurrection.

493.

Why was it that Jesus was thinking about His death upon coming down from the mount?

494.

What Mal. 4:5-6 saidwhat the scribes had said did not agree with what Jesus saidat least in the minds of the disciplesexplain.

495.

Are we to yet expect the return of Elijah? i.e. before the second coming of Christ?

496.

When did the veil drop from the eyes of the disciples?

497.

In what sense are we in danger of doing the same thing the three apostles did?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(9-13) And as they came down from the mountain.See Notes on Mat. 17:9-13.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And as they were coming down from the mountain he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, except when the Son of Man should have risen again from the dead.’

Jesus now reminds them as they are coming down from the mountain of His coming death and resurrection and He charges them to tell no one what they have seen until after His resurrection from the dead has taken place. This should have brought home to them even more vividly that His death and resurrection were shortly to happen, and He will even back it up by re-emphasising it again in Mar 9:12. And we might think that if He could speak of His death and resurrection in such circumstances surely they would accept it and understand. But the fact is that there is no one so blind as a person who thinks that he understands and is satisfied with his own ideas, and the truth was that each of them was looking forward to his part in a physical kingdom on earth, and thinking those terms, and were prepared in the light of it to glide over the method by which it would be obtained. If Jesus was to die for the cause and then be brought back to life by God then so be it. But it was the kingdom that was important. They had dreams of glory, but it was mainly of glory for themselves. Thus they were unable to think prosaically. They just did not have an inkling that Jesus was talking about a simple arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection for the sins of the world. Their minds were filled with ‘kingdom’ ideas.

But this demonstrated how totally unable they were to get onto God’s wavelength. Indeed they must have wrestled in their own minds with how this new teaching about some form of ‘death and resurrection’ fitted in with what they had seen in the mountain and into their ideas. Did it mean that He was going to have an experience even more vivid and form-changing than the one that they had just seen, emerging from it with even more spectacular powers with which to defeat the Romans and establish Jerusalem as the centre of things? No wonder that they thought that they must secure their own positions early on. For if it was so it was clear from this that He would soon be establishing His kingdom with power, as He had just stated. And they wanted to make sure that they did not miss out. And the way to do this was to book their seats beforehand. Perhaps, indeed, they thought that that was why Jesus had let them see and hear what they had. Perhaps this was their commissioning for glory. But the last thing that they even considered was the truth, and that the reason why they had been given this experience was in order to strengthen an infant community of God’s new people after the shock of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. (It is salutary to think that one of these three witnesses would be obliterated by Satan (Act 12:2), who would also make an attempt on a second (Act 12:3-17). Only John would then have been left, and he would have been next).

‘He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen.’ They themselves were confused and it was therefore wise that they said nothing until they understood it better. All kinds of wrong ideas might have been dreamed up, both by them and by others, if what had happened came out without the resurrection putting it in perspective.

‘Except when the Son of Man should have risen again from the dead.’ In this they again learned of His coming death and resurrection, although we learn here that they were still puzzled as to its meaning. They knew, of course, of the general resurrection taught by the Pharisees but this was clearly something different, an individual resurrection. But what did it mean? Perhaps they looked back to how Jesus had taken them in with Him to see the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and thought that He was indicating that the same was to happen to Him. They should have caught on, and of course later did, that the resurrection of the Son of Man was necessary in order for Him to come to the throne of the Father to receive everlasting dominion as in Daniel 7, (as Peter declares in Acts 2) and so that the Servant could share His spoils with the strong (Isa 53:10-12), and so that Israel might be revived (Hos 12:1-2) through the death and coming alive again of the Servant (Isaiah 53).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Resulting Comments – What Of The Return of Elijah? (9:9-13).

What they had seen had stirred their thinking and they now asked Jesus on the way down from the mountain about the anticipated coming of Elijah. That is what they had been taught from childhood on the authority of the Scribes. Why then had Elijah not come?

Analysis.

a And they asked Him, saying, “How is it that the Scribes say that Elijah must first come?” (Mar 9:11)

b And He said to them, “Elijah indeed does come first, and restores all things” (Mar 9:12 a).

c “And how is it written of the Son of man, ‘That He should suffer many things and be set at nought?’ ” (Mar 9:12 b).

b But I say to you, that Elijah is come (Mar 9:13 a).

a And they have also done to him whatever they would, even as it is written of him (Mar 9:13 b).

Note that in ‘a’ the Scribes (from the Scriptures – Mal 4:5) say that Elijah must first come, and in the parallel they have treated him badly, also as the Scriptures have said. In ‘b Jesus confirms that Elijah would indeed come first, and in the parallel confirms that he has already come (in the person of John the Baptiser). Centrally in ‘c’ He refers to what the Scriptures have said about the Son of Man, and how He too is to be ill-treated and set at nought.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

IV

SEASON OF RETIREMENT PART IV THE CLOSING INCIDENTS

Harmony, pages 94-103 and Mat 17:14-18:35 ; Mat 8:19-22 ; Mar 9:9-50 ; Luk 9:37-62 ; Joh 7:2-10 .

When Christ and the three disciples who were with him at the transfiguration returned from the Mount they saw a great multitude gathered about the nine and the scribes questioning with them. Then follows the story of the failure of the nine to cast out the evil spirit of a demoniac boy and Jesus’ rebuke of their little faith, upon which our Lord healed the boy and restored him to his father. This story is interesting from several points of view. First, the case was an exceptional One and so difficult that the nine were unable to cast the Evil spirit out. Second, this is the only case of demonical epilepsy in the New Testament, the description of which by Mark is very vivid and much more in detail than that of either of the other evangelists. Third, Christ’s momentary impatience at dwelling amid such an environment is nowhere else so expressed, perhaps the more distressing from the contrast with the scene of the transfiguration, a few hours before. Fourth, the rebuke of the boy’s father is a fine lesson. He said, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” Jesus answered, “If thou canst!” We see here the point of the rebuke. Herefore we have found the form of faith that said, “If thou wilt, thou canst,” but this man reversed it: “If thou canst do anything, help us.” But the rebuke of Jesus set him right in his faith and then healed the boy. What a lesson for us! So often the Lord has to set us right in our faith before he can consistently give us the blessing. Fifth, the explanation which Jesus gave of their failure and the possibilities of God through the children of faith are a most helpful encouragement to the Christian of today. All difficulties may be removed by the power of faith. Sixth, the prescription of prayer as a means to the strengthen- ing of faith is a valuable suggestion as to the mans of our overcoming. Prayer is the hour of victory for the child of God. This is the winning point for every worker in the kingdom. All victories for God are won in the closet before the day of battle. Let us heed the lesson.

While on the way from Caesarea Philippi Jesus revealed again to his disciples that he must suffer and die and rise again, but they did not understand and were afraid to ask him. They were very slow to comprehend the idea of a suffering Messiah. This they did not understand fully until after his resurrection. This thought is more fully developed in connection with his submitted test of his messiahship which is discussed elsewhere in this INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS.

When they came to Capernaum an event occurred which made a lasting impression on Peter. This was the incident of the half-shekel for the Temple. When asked if his Lord was accustomed to pay the Temple tax, Peter said, “Yes.” But Peter did not have the money to pay it with, and our Lord, after showing Peter that he (Jesus) was exempt, told him to go to the sea and take the piece of money from the mouth of a fish and pay the Temple tax for Peter and himself, in order that there might be left to the Jews no occasion of stumbling with reference to him as the Messiah.

In section 70 (Mat 18:1-14 ; Mar 9:33-50 ; Luk 9:46-50 ) we have the lesson on how to be great, which arose from their dispute as to who among them should be the greatest. To this Jesus replied that the greatest one of all was to be servant of all, and illustrated it by the example of a little child. The characteristic of the little child to be found in the subjects of his kingdom is humility.. Then he goes on to show that to receive one of such little children was to receive him. Here John, one of the “sons of thunder,” interrupted him with a question about one whom he saw casting out demons, yet he was not following with them. Then Jesus, after setting John right, went on with his illustration of the little child, showing the awful sin of causing a little one who believes on him to stumble, and pronounces a woe unto the world because of the occasion of stumbling, saying that these occasions must come, but the woe is to the man through whom they come. The occasions of stumbling arise from the sin of man and the domination of the devil, but that does not excuse the man through whom they come.

Now follows a pointed address in the second person singular, showing the cases in which we become stumbling blocks, in which he also shows the remedy, indeed a desperate remedy for a desperate case. This passage needs to be treated more particularly. Then, briefly, what the meaning of the word “offend”? If thy hand offend thee, if thine eye offend thee, if thy foot offend thee; what is the meaning of this word? We find it in the English in the word “scandal,” that is, “scandal” is the Anglicized form of the Greek word here used. But the word “scandalize,” as used in the English, does not express the thought contained in this text, since that is a modern derived meaning of the word. Originally it meant the trigger of a trap, that trigger which being touched caused the trap to fall and catch one, and from that of its original signification it came to have four well-known Bible meanings. An instance of each one of the four meanings, fairly applicable to this passage here, will be cited. First, it means a stumbling block, that which causes any one to fall, and in its spiritual signification, that which causes any one to fall into a sin. If thy hand causeth thee to fall into a sin, if thine eye causeth thee to fall into a sin, if thy foot causeth thee to fall into a sin, cut it off, pluck it out. It is more profitable to enter heaven maimed than to have the whole body cast into hell. The thought is as we see it in connection with a stumbling block, that we fall unexpectedly into the sin, as if we were going along not looking down and should suddenly stumble over something in our regular path, where we usually walk. Now, “if thine eye causeth thee, in the regular walk of life, to put something in that pathway that, when you were not particularly watching, will cause you to stumble and fall into a sin” that is the first thought of it.

Its second meaning is an obstacle or obstruction that causes one to stop. He does not fall over this obstacle, but it blocks his way and he stops. He does not fall, but he does not go on. To illustrate this use of the word, John the Baptist, in prison, finding the progress of his faith stopped by a doubt, sent word to Christ to know, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Evidently showing that some unbelief had crept into his heart that had caused him to stop. He was not going on in the direction that he had been going, and hence, when Jesus sent word to John of the demonstrations of his divinity, He added this expression, using this very word, “Blessed is the man who is not offended in me.” “Blessed is the man who in me does not find an obstacle that stops him.” Anything that is an occasion of unbelief fulfils this meaning of the word. If thine eye causes something to be put in thy path that suggests a doubt as to the Christian religion, and by that doubt causeth thee that had been going steadily forward, to stop, pluck it out. Let me give another illustration: In the parable of the sower, our Saviour, in expounding why it was that the grain that had fallen upon the rock and came up and seemed to promise well for awhile, afterward, under the hot sun, withered away and perished, says, “There are some people that hear the word of God and, for awhile, seem to accept it, but when tribulation or persecution cometh they are offended they are stopped.” That is the meaning of the word strictly. Persecution and tribulation cometh and an obstacle is put in their path that causes them to stop. Now, if thine eye causes an obstacle to be put in thy Christian path, that causeth thee to stop and not go forward, pluck it out. Yet another illustration: Our Saviour, who had announced a great many doctrines that people could easily understand and accept, suddenly, on one occasion, announced a hard doctrine, very hard, and from that time it is said that many of his disciples followed him no more. They stopped. Now, there was something in them, in the eye or the hand or the foot, that found an occasion of unbelief in the doctrine he announced, and they stopped. I remember a very notable instance, where a man, deeply impressed in a meeting, and giving fair promise of having passed from death to life, happened to be present when the scriptural law of the use of money was expounded, and he stopped. Some obstacle stretched clear across his path. It was the love of money in his heart. He couldn’t recognize God’s sovereignty over money. As if he had said, “If you want me to cry; if you want me to say I am sorry, I will say it; if you want me to join the church, I will join it; if you want me to be baptized, I will be baptized; but if you want me to honor God with my money, I stop.”

Now, the third use of the word. It is sometimes used to indicate, not something over which one stumbles and falls into a sin, and not an obstacle that blocks up his pathway, but in the sense of something that he runs up against and hurts himself and so becomes foolishly angry. As when one, at night, trying to pass out of a dark room, strikes his head against the door, and in a moment flies into a passion. “Now, if thine eye causeth thee to run up against an object that when you strike it offends you, makes you mad, pluck it out and cast it from thee.”

These three senses of this word have abundant verifications in the classical Greek and a vast number of instances in the Bible, in the Old and New Testaments. But there is a fourth use of the word. That is where the eye has caused a man to turn aside from the right path and to reject the wise counsel of God, and to indulge in sin until God has given him up; then God sets a trap for him right in the path of his besetting sin. In Rom 11:9 we find that use of the word: “Let their table be made a trap for them.” That is to say, God, after trying to lead a man to do right, if he persists in doing wrong, the particular sin, whatever hat may be, whether it be of pride, or lust, or pleasure, whatever it may be, that particular, besetting sin which has caused him to reject God, will make the occasion of his ruin, and in the track of it God will set the trap, and the man is certain to fall into it and be lost. Now, these are the four Bible uses of this term “offend.” Greek: Scandalon , the noun, and skandalizo, the verb. “If thine eye causeth thee to offend,” that is, “If your eye causeth you to put something in your path over which you will unexpectedly fall into a sin; if thine eye causeth thee to put an obstacle clear across your path, so that you stop; if thine eye causeth thee to put some object against which you will unthoughtedly run and hurt yourself and become incensed; if thine eye causeth thee to go into a sin that shall completely alienate you from God, and in the far distant track of which God sets a trap that will be sure to catch your soul pluck it out.”

The next thing needing explanation: People who look only at the shell of a thing may understand this passage to mean mutilation of the body. They forget that the mutilation of the body is simply an illustration of spiritual things. Take a case: One of the most beautiful and sweet-spirited girls I ever knew, before whom there seemed to stretch a long and bright and happy future, was taken sick, and the illness, whatever the doctors may call it, was in the foot, and the blood would not circulate. The doctors could not bring about the circulation and that foot finally threatened the whole body. Then the doctors said, “This foot must be amputated.” And they did amputate it. They amputated it to save her life. They cut off that member because it offered the only possible means of saving the other foot and both hands and the whole body and her life. It was sternness of love, resoluteness of affection, courage of wisdom that sacrificed a limb to save the body. Now using that necessity of amputation, as an illustration, our Saviour says, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” But that he does not mean bodily mutilation is self-evident from this: that if we were to cut off our hand we could not stop the spiritual offense; if we were to pluck out the eye we could not stop the spiritual offense on the inside, in the soul; no lopping off to external branches would reach that. But what our Saviour means to teach is this: That as a wise physician, who discovers, seated in one member of the body, a disease that if allowed to spread will destroy the whole body, in the interest of mercy cuts off that diseased limb, so, applying this to spiritual things, whatever causes us to fall into sin, we should cut loose from it at every cost.

One other word needs to be explained, the word “Gehenna.” It is a little valley next to Jerusalem that once belonged to the sons of Hinnom. It came to pass that in that valley was instituted an idol worship, and there the kings caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch, and because of this iniquity a good king of Israel defiled that valley, made it the dumping ground of all refuse matter from the city. The excrement, the dead things, the foul and corrupt matter was all carried out and put in that valley. And because of the corruption heaped there, worms were always there, and because of the burning that had been appointed as a sanitary measure, the fire was always there. Now that was used as an illustration to indicate the spiritual condition of a lost soul; of a soul that had become as refuse matter; of a soul that had become entirely cut loose from God and given up to its own devices; that had become bad through and through; that had become such a slave to passion, or lust or crime, that it was incorrigible, and the very nature of the sin which possessed it was like a worm that never dies. There was a gnawing, a ceaseless gnawing going on, referring to conscience, and there was a burning and a thirst going on. Now those images our Saviour selected were to represent the thought of hell.

Having explained its words, look now at the passage itself: “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” What is the principle involved in that exhortation? First, that it is a man’s chief concern to see that he does not miss the mark; that he does not make shipwreck; that he does not ruin himself. That is the chief concern of every boy, of every girl, of every man and woman, to see to it that he does not miss the mark of his being; that he does not make shipwreck; that he does not go to utter ruin.

The next thought involved in it is that in case we do miss the mark; in case we do make shipwreck; in case our soul is lost, then there is no profit and no compensation to us in any thing we ever had. “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” If he misses the main thing, if he makes shipwreck of his own soul, then wherein does the compensation come to him that in his life he had this or that treasure, this pleasure or that; that he was able to attain to this ambition or that; that he for such a while, no matter how long, was on top in society or fashion in the world? What has it profited him if the main thing worthy of supreme concern, is lost?

The next thought is this: Whatever sacrifice is necessary to the securing of the main thing, that we must make. That is what this passage means, and no matter how dear a treasure may be to us; no matter how much we esteem it, if it be necessary that we should give it up or that our soul should be lost, this passage calls on us to give it up. A man may have in a ship a vast amount of money which he idolizes, but in the night he is alarmed by the cry of fire; he rushes upon the deck and he finds that the ship is hopelessly in flames and that the only way of escape is to swim to the shore. Now he stands there for a moment and meditates: “I have here a vast amount of money, in gold. If I try to take this gold with me in this issue in which the main thing, my life, is involved, it will sink me. My life is more than this money. O glittering gold, I leave you. I strike out, stripped of every weight and swim for my life.” It means that he ought to leave behind everything that would jeopardize his gaining the shore. A ship has a valuable cargo. It has been acquired by toil and anxiety and industry. It may be that the cargo in itself is perfectly innocent, but in a stress of weather, with a storm raging and with a leak in the vessel and the water rising, it becomes necessary to lighten that ship. Now whatever is necessary to make it float, to keep it above water, that must be done. If there be anything which, if permitted to remain in that ship, will sink it, throw it out. They that do business in great waters know the wisdom of this. Why? It is a question of sacrificing the inferior to the greater and better.

The next thought involved is this: Whenever it says, “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,” I venture to say that it is a demonstration, by the exhortation addressed to us personally, that if ruin comes to us it comes by our own consent. I mean to say that no matter what is the stress of outside seduction, nor how cunningly the devil may attempt to seduce and beguile us, all the devils in hell and all the extraneous temptations that may environ a man can never work his shipwreck if he does not consent.

The next point involved is, that whenever one does consent to temptation, whenever the ruin comes to him, it comes on account of some internal moral delinquency. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Out of the heart proceed murder, lust, blasphemy, and every crime which men commit. I mean to say that as the Bible declares that no murderer shall inherit eternal life, that external incentives to murder amount to nothing unless in him, in the man, in the soul, there be a susceptibility or a liability or moral weakness that shall open the door to the tempter and let in the destroyer.

Now if that be true we come naturally to the next thought in this text, that is, God saves a man, and if God can save a man, he must save him in accordance with the laws of his own nature. That is to say, that God must, in order to the salvation of that man, require truth in the inward part; that nothing external will touch the case; that God’s requirements must take hold, not of the long delayed overt act, but of the lust in the heart which preceded the act and made the act. And therefore, while a human court can take jurisdiction only of murder actually committed, God goes inside of the man and says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” From hate comes murder. If God saves you he must save you from the internal hate. Human law takes hold of a case of adultery. God’s law goes to the eye: “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” God requireth truth in the inward part. And if one is saved he must be saved internally; he must be saved, not only from the guilt and penalty of sin, but he must be saved from the love of it and from the dominion of it.

The next point: With that law looking inside, looking at our thoughts, looking at the springs of action, the question comes up, “How shall one save his soul? How shall one so attain to the end of his being as that in the main thing he shall not miss the mark?” He has to look at it as an exceedingly sober question. There is no child’s play about it. He must not rely upon the quack remedies of philosophers and impostors, or rely upon any external rite, upon joining the church or being baptized, or partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The awful blasphemy of calling that the way to heaven! God requireth truth in the inward part, and if we are saved, we must be saved inside. As a wise man, having my chief business to save my soul, I must scrupulously look at everything with which I come in contact. Some men’s weaknesses are in one direction and some in another, but the chief thing for me is to find out my weakness, what is my besetting sin, where is the weak point in my line of defense, where am I most susceptible to danger, where do I yield most readily? And if I find that the ties of blood are making me lose my soul, I must move out of my own family, and therefore in the Mosaic law it is expressly said, “If thine own son, if the wife of thy bosom, shall cause thee to worship idols and turn away from the true God, thou shalt put thine own hand on the head as the first witness, that they may be stoned. Thou shalt not spare.” It is a question of our life, and if our family ties are such that they are dragging us down to death, we must strike out for our life. And that is why marriage is the most solemn and far-reaching question that ever came up for human decision. More souls are lost right there, more women go into hopeless bondage, more men are shipwrecked by that awful tie, than by anything else.

Then he goes on to show that these little believers must not be despised, because their angels are always before their heavenly Father, just as the angels of more highly honored Christians. This thought he illustrates with the parable of the ninety and nine, the interpretation of which might be considered as follows: (1) If there are many worlds and but one is lost, (2) if there are many creatures and only man is lost, (3) if there were many just persons, and only one is lost, then we find the lost world, the lost race, the one lost man is near the heart of the Saviour, the principle being that the weakest, the most needy, the most miserable are nearest the Shepherd’s heart. “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish,” is the conclusion of the Saviour.

In section 71 (Mat 18:15-35 ) we have our Lord’s great discussion on forgiveness, i.e., man’s forgiveness of man. This subject is amply treated in volume 1, chapter xvi of this INTERPRETATION and also in my sermon on “Man’s Forgiveness of Man.” (I refer the reader to these discussions for a full exposition of this great passage.)

In section 72 (Mat 8:19-22 ; Luk 9:57-62 ) we have a very plain word on the sacrifices of discipleship. Here three different ones approached Christ asking permission to be his disciples. The first one that came proposed to go with him anywhere. Jesus told him that he had no abiding place; that he was a wanderer without any home, which meant there were many hardships in connection with discipleship. The second one that came to him wanted to wait till he could bury his father, which according to Oriental customs, might have been several years, or at least, thirty days, if his father was dead when he made the request, including the time of mourning. Luke tells of one who wanted first to bid farewell to them of his own house. But Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” The import of all this is that Christ will not permit his disciples to allow anything to come between them and him. He must have the first place in their affections. The expression, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” means that the man who is pretending to follow Christ and is looking back to the things he left behind is not fit for his kingdom. This is a strict test, but it is our Lord’s own test.

Then, following the Harmony, we have, in the next section, the counsel of the unbelieving brothers that Jesus go into Judea and exhibit himself there. But he declined to follow their counsel and remained in Galilee. This incident shows that the brothers of Jesus had not at this time accepted him, which was about six months before his death and thus disproves the theory that the brothers of Jesus were apostles.

We now come to the close of this division of the Harmony in section 74 (Luk 9:51-56 ; Joh 7:10 ), which tells of Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem in view of the approach of the end of his earthly career. This going up to Jerusalem, John says, was after his brothers had gone, and it was not public, but as it were in secret. He sent James and John, the “sons of thunder,” ahead to Samaria to make ready for him, but the Samaritans rejected him because he was going toward Jerusalem, which exemplifies the old, deep-seated hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. This section closes with a rebuke to James and John for wanting to call down fire upon these Samaritans. The next chapter of this INTERPRETATION connects with this section and gives the results of this trip to Jerusalem and his ministry in all parts of the Holy Land.

QUESTIONS

1. What was the incident immediately following the transfiguration?

2. What are the points of interest in the story of the epileptic boy?

3. What revelation did Jesus again make to his disciples while on the way from Caesarea Philippi, how did the disciples receive it and why?

4. Tell the story of Peter and the Temple tax and give its lesson.

5. What was the lesson on “greatness” here and what its occasion?

6. What was the point in the illustration of the little child?

7. What is the lesson from John’s interruption of our Lord here?

8. How does Jesus show the awfulness of the sin of causing a little child who believes on him to stumble?

9. From what do the occasions of stumbling arise and upon whom rests the responsibility for them?

10. What would you give as the theme of Mat 18:8-9 ; and Mar 9:43 ; Mar 9:45 ; Mar 9:47-50 ?

11. What are the several meanings of the word “offend” in these passages? Illustrate each.

12. What is the application of all these meanings? Illustrate.

13. Explain the word “Gehenna” as used here.

14. Looking at the passage as a whole, what is principle involved the exhortation? Give details.

15. What reason does Christ assign for the command not to despise one of these little ones and what does it mean?

16. How does he illustrate this

17. In a word what is the author’s position on the subject of man’s forgiveness of man?

18. What is Christ’s teaching here on discipleship and what is the meaning of his language addressed to each of the three, respectively, who approached him here on the subject?

19. What advice here given Jesus by his brothers, how did Jesus regard it, and what the lesson of this incident?

20. What are the closing incidents of this division of our Lord’s ministry and what are their lessons?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

Ver. 9. See Trapp on “ Mat 17:9 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9 13. ] Two remarkable additions occur in our text; Mar 9:10 , which indicates apostolic authority , and that of one of the Three ; and . in Mar 9:12 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mar 9:9-13 . Conversation during the descent , not given in Lk.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mark

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Mar 9:2 – Mar 9:13 .

All three Evangelists are careful to date the Transfiguration by a reference to the solemn new teaching at Caesarea, and Mark’s ‘six days’ plainly cover the same time as Luke’s ‘eight’-the former reckoning excluding in the count, and the latter including, the days on which the two incidents occurred. If we would understand the Transfiguration, then, we must look at it as the sequel to Jesus’ open announcement of His death. His seeking the seclusion of the hills, attended only by the innermost group of the faithful three, is a touching token of the strain to which that week had subjected Him. How Peter’s heart must have filled with thankfulness that, notwithstanding the stern rebuke, he was taken with the other two! There were three stages in the complex incident which we call the Transfiguration-the change in Jesus’ appearance, the colloquy with Moses and Elijah, and the voice from the cloud.

Luke, who has frequent references to Jesus’ prayers, tells us that the change in our Lord’s countenance and raiment took place ‘as He prayed’; and probably we are reverently following his lead if we think of Jesus’ prayer as, in some sense, the occasion of the glorious change. So far as we know, this was the only time when mortal eyes saw Him absorbed in communion with the Father. It was only ‘when He ceased praying’ in a certain place that ‘they came to Him’ asking to be taught to pray Luk 11:1; and in Gethsemane the disciples slept while He prayed beneath the olives quivering in the moonlight. It may be that what the three then saw did not occur then only. ‘In such an hour of high communion with’ His Father the elevated spirit may have more than ordinarily illuminated the pure body, and the pure body may have been more than ordinarily transparent. The brighter the light, fed by fragrant oil within an alabaster lamp, the more the alabaster will glow. Faint foreshadowings of the spirit’s power to light up the face with unearthly beauty of holiness are not unknown among us. It may be that the glory which always shone in the depths of His perfectly holy manhood rose, as it were, to the surface for that one time, a witness of what He really was, a prophecy of what humanity may become.

Did Jesus will His transfiguration, or did it come about without His volition, or perhaps even without His consciousness? Did it continue during all the time on the mountain, or did it pass when the second stage of the incident began? We cannot tell. Matthew and Mark both say that Jesus was transfigured ‘before’ the three, as if the making visible of the glory had special regard to them. It may be that Jesus, like Moses, ‘knew not that the skin of His face shone’; at all events, it was the second stage of the incident, the conversation with Elijah and Moses, that had a special message of strength for Him. The first and third stages were, apparently, intended for the three and for us all; and the first is a revelation, not only of the veiled glory that dwelt in Jesus, but of the beauty that may pass into a holy face, and of the possibilities of a bodily frame becoming a ‘spiritual body,’ the adequate organ and manifestation of a perfect spirit. Paul teaches the prophetic aspect of the Transfiguration when he says that Jesus ‘shall change the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory.’

Luke adds two very significant points to the accounts by Matthew and Mark-namely, the disciples’ sleep, and the subject on which Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus. Mark lays the main stress on the fact that the two great persons of the old economy, its founder and its restorer, the legislator and the chief of the prophets, came from the dim region to which one of them had passed in a chariot of fire, and stood by the transfigured Christ, as if witnessing to Him as the greater, to whom their ministries were subordinate, and in whom their teachings centred. Jesus is the goal of all previous revelation, mightier than the mightiest who are honoured by being His attendants. He is the Lord both of the dead and of the living, and the ‘spirits of just men made perfect’ bow before Him, and reverently watch His work on earth.

So much did that appearance proclaim to the mortal three, but their slumber showed that they were not principally concerned, and that the other three had things to speak which they were not fit to hear. The theme was the same which had been, a week before, spoken to them, and had doubtless been the subject of all Jesus’ teachings for these ‘six days.’ No doubt, their horror at the thought, and His necessary insistence on it, had brought Him to need strengthening. And these two came, as did the angel in Gethsemane, and, like him, in answer to Christ’s prayer, to bring the sought-for strength. How different it would be to speak to them ‘of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem,’ from speaking to the reluctant, protesting Twelve! And how different to listen to them speaking of that miracle of divine love expressed in human death from the point of view of the ‘principalities and powers in heavenly places,’ as over against the remonstrances and misunderstandings with which He had been struggling for a whole week! The appearance of Moses and Elijah teaches us the relation of Jesus to all former revelation, the interest of the dwellers in heavenly light in the Cross, and the need which Jesus felt for strengthening to endure it.

Peter’s foolish words, half excused by his being scarcely awake, may be passed by with the one remark that it was like him to say something, though he did not know what to say, and that it would therefore have been wise to say nothing.

The third part of this incident, the appearance of the cloud and the voice from it, was for the disciples. Luke tells us that it was a ‘bright’ cloud, and yet it ‘overshadowed them.’ That sets us on the right track and indicates that we are to think of the cloud of glory, which was the visible token of the divine presence, the cloud which shone lambent between the cherubim, the cloud which at last ‘received Him out of their sight.’ Luke tells, too, that ‘they entered into it.’ Who entered? Moses and Elijah had previously ‘departed from Him.’ Jesus and the disciples remained, and we cannot suppose that the three could have passed into that solemn glory, if He had not led them in. In that sacred moment He was ‘the way,’ and keeping close to Him, mortal feet could pass into the glory which even a Moses had not been fit to behold. The spiritual significance of the incident seems to require the supposition that, led by Jesus, they entered the cloud. They were men, therefore they were afraid; Jesus was with them, therefore they stood within the circle of that light and lived.

The voice repeated the attestation of Jesus as the ‘beloved Son’ of the Father, which had been given at the baptism, but with the addition, ‘Hear Him,’ which shows that it was now meant for the disciples, not, as at the baptism, for Jesus Himself. While the command to listen to His voice as to the voice from the cloud is perfectly general, and lays all His words on us as all God’s words, it had special reference to the disciples, and that in regard to the new teaching which had so disturbed them-the teaching of the necessity for His death. ‘The offence of the Cross’ began with the first clear statement of it, and in the hearts that loved Him best and came most near to understanding Him. To fail in accepting His teaching that it ‘behoved the Son of Man to suffer,’ is to fail in accepting it in the most important matter. There are sounds in nature too low-pitched to be audible to untrained ears, and the message of the Cross is unheard unless the ears of the deaf are unstopped. If we do not hear Jesus when He speaks of His passion, we may almost as well not hear Him at all.

Moses and Elijah had vanished, having borne their last testimony to Jesus. Peter had wished to keep them beside Jesus, but that could not be. Their highest glory was to fade in His light. They came, they disappeared; He remained-and remains. ‘They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.’ So should it be for us in life. So may it be with us in death! ‘Hear Him,’ for all other voices are but for a time, and die into silence, but Jesus speaks for eternity, and ‘His words shall not pass away.’ When time is ended, and the world’s history is all gathered up into its final issue, His name shall stand out alone as Author and End of all.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 9:9-13

9As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. 10They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant. 11They asked Him, saying, “Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 12And He said to them, “Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.”

Mar 9:9 “He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead” This was the only occurrence where a time factor is linked to Jesus’ repeated warnings about their silence (cf. Mar 5:43; Mar 7:36; Mar 8:30). This restriction is related to the fact that the gospel was not yet complete. At a future time, their memory of this event would be clearly understood in light of all the other gospel events (cf. 2Pe 1:16-18).

Mar 9:10 “discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant” The disciples did not understand the distinction between “the Second Coming” (Mar 8:38) and “the Resurrection” (Mar 9:9). The Jews of Jesus’ day expected only one coming of the Messiah into history and this coming was related to the military victory and supremacy of national Israel on a global scale. See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE RESURRECTION at Mar 8:31.

Mar 9:11 “the scribes” These were the culturally respected OT interpreters who explained the OT and how it applied to their day. In this time most of the scribes were Pharisees. See Special Topic at Mar 2:6.

Mar 9:12-13 “Elijah does first come. . .Elijah has indeed come” Jesus asserts that John the Baptist had fulfilled the prophetic role of Elijah found in Mal 3:1; Mal 4:5. There has been much discussion about the answer which Jesus gave. He stated specifically that Elijah had already come in the ministry of John the Baptist (cf. Mat 11:10; Mat 11:14; Mar 9:11-13; Luk 1:17). However, when the Pharisees asked John the Baptist, himself, in the Gospel of John (Joh 1:20-25) if he was Elijah, he flatly denied it. This seeming contradiction can be handled by the fact that John denied that he was a resuscitated Elijah, but Jesus affirmed that John symbolically fulfilled the preparation ministry of Elijah. They both dressed and acted in similar ways, so the identification would be obvious in the minds of the Jews who knew about Elijah and who heard and saw John the Baptist (Luk 1:17).

Mar 9:12 “will suffer many things and be treated with contempt” This was so shocking to the Jewish people of Jesus’ day who expected a powerful deliverer like the OT judges and were not expecting a suffering savior. They had missed several OT clues (i.e., Gen 3:15; Psalms 22; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12; Zechariah 9-14). It took the twelve disciples years to comprehend; even they did not fully understand until the special ministry of the Spirit at Pentecost (cf. Joh 16:13-14) revealed it to them.

Notice that Jesus is trying to involve the twelve disciples in theological reasoning. He is forcing them to see the relationship between two different prophecies. They were not officially “scribes,” but soon they must function like them.

Jesus surprised them with an unexpected fulfillment which was not literal, but typological (i.e., John the Baptist functioned as the fulfillment of Elijah’s coming and preparing the way for the Messiah).

Jesus took every private moment to teach His disciples. Even on the way down the mountain He brings up a related issue (i.e., Malachi’s prophecy about Elijah). This taking advantage of every opportunity for religious training is reflected in Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19.

Mar 9:13 “as it is written of him” Elijah had persecution from Jezebel (cf. 1Ki 19:2; 1Ki 19:10; 1Ki 19:14) as John did from Herodias.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

came = were coming.

from = away from. Greek apo. App-104.

tell = relate to.

no man = no one.

the Son of man See App-98.

were = should have.

from = out from. Greek. ek. App-104.

the dead. No Art. See App-139.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9-13.] Two remarkable additions occur in our text;-Mar 9:10, which indicates apostolic authority, and that of one of the Three;-and . in Mar 9:12.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

he charged: Mar 5:43, Mar 8:29, Mar 8:30, Mat 12:19, Mat 17:9

till: Mar 9:30, Mar 9:31, Mar 8:31, Mar 10:32-34, Mat 12:40, Mat 16:21, Mat 27:63, Luk 24:46

Reciprocal: Mat 16:20 – charged Mat 26:32 – I am Mar 16:6 – he is risen Luk 24:6 – remember Joh 20:9 – they

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Chapter 18.

The Descent From the Hill

“And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. And they asked Him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? And He answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that He must suffer many things, and be set at nought. But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.”-Mar 9:9-13.

The Wealth of Holy Scripture.

At first sight these five verses do not seem to suggest much of practical profit. But Scripture is always surprising us by its unsuspected wealth. You remember the words of Job: “The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold” (xxviii. 6). That verse always seems to me to be an admirable description of the Bible. Its very stony places turn out to be full of precious gems; its very dust is dust of gold. We come across what looks at first sight like a barren and desert tract, but as we gaze at it and study it all kinds of hidden beauties reveal themselves, until what we thought desert blossoms as the rose, and the wilderness becomes a veritable garden of the Lord. And so it may be with this paragraph.

The True Order in Service.

Is it neglected?

“And as they were coming down from the mountain.” So Peter’s prayer that they might make tents, and abide on the top of the mountain, was not answered. They took their way down from the holy hill to the toil and conflict of the plain. And it was the same Lord, Who now led them down, Who had a few hours before taken them up. Here in a figure you get the two aspects of Christian life. Christ bids us at one time go up the mountain with Him, for communion. And then He bids us go down the mountain with Him to service. It is of no use going down into the valley to try to minister to the needs and wants of men, unless we have first of all gone up. And that is the peril of our own day. We believe in going down in these days. That is to say, we believe in service. There was never so much done in the way of philanthropy. People were never in all their history so busy as they are to-day. And yet have you never been struck by the curious ineffectiveness of much of our philanthropy? We were never busier in our ministry, and yet we seem to do so little. Vice, temptation, sin-all appear to grow no less. We seem quite impotent to cast the evil spirit out. I wonder why it is? Is it that we have forgotten the path to the hill? Is it that we have gone down to the field of service without first going up to the hill of prayer? “Apart from Me,” said Jesus to His disciples, “ye can do nothing.” Apart from the Divine aid we can cast out no devils, we can change no hearts, we can bring about no radical reformations. Mere human philanthropies are sterile and impotent. But when men go up first, and then go down, what mighty power they wield! That is the first call we need to hear still-the call to come up. If we will follow our blessed Lord, He will take us, as He did these three disciples, up to some mountain apart to pray. But He will not let us remain up. He takes us up in order that later on He may lead us down again. He carries us up into the blessed fellowship of the holy mount that subsequently He may lead us down to the common levels of everyday life, that there we may fight against sin and vice and evil, and minister to the needs and wants of our fellow-men. Labour apart from prayer is ineffective: prayer that does not issue in toil is a pretence and a sham. The genuine Christian follows his Lord up and down, shares in the glory of the mount, and the conflict of the plain.

The Profit of Communion.

“And as they were coming down from the mountain”-they came down unwillingly, with a certain disappointment in their souls. And yet they did not come down exactly as they went up. They were not quite the same men after this great experience as they were before. They never forgot the glory. It established their faith. It made them braver, stronger, truer men. The mountain made a difference. It always does so. No man ever comes down the hill exactly as he went up. Moses went up an ordinary man. He came down a transfigured saint. And although no halo surrounds our heads as the result and issue of our communion, the mountain never fails to leave its mark upon us. “Strength and beauty,” says the Psalmist, “are in His sanctuary” (Psa 96:6). Of the man who makes the Most High his refuge, the Psalmist also says, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day” (Psa 91:5). “The mountains shall bring peace to the people” (Psa 72:3), says yet a third Psalm. Strength for life’s difficulties, calm fearlessness, a quiet spirit, beauty of character, these are the marks of the mountain. No man can hold real fellowship without having his faith quickened, his strength renewed, his love confirmed.

The Lord’s Charge.

With what sort of feeling did the three disciples come down from the mountain? With feelings of regret and disappointment that they were not permitted to remain and enjoy the glory longer, no doubt; but also with hearts and minds excited and full of anticipations of triumph. Possibly the vision of our Lord’s glory revived again the hopes which Christ’s announcement of the cross had well-nigh dashed to pieces. They began again to dream of crowns and thrones. Our Lord’s perception of the kind of thoughts surging up in His disciples’ minds induced Him to lay the injunction upon them that He did. They were bristling with eagerness to tell their fellow-disciples what they had seen on the mount; but Jesus charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen. This was not at all an infrequent injunction on the lips of Jesus. “Tell no man,” He said to the healed leper. “Tell no man,” He said to the deaf and dumb man. “Tell no man,” He said to Jairus and his wife. He lays here the same charge upon the three disciples. As Dr. Salmond puts it, “The injunction to silence which had been laid on others who would have proclaimed His miracles is now laid upon the chosen three with regard to the mighty work done on Himself.”

Its Reason.

Why did our Lord lay this embargo upon His disciples? First of all, because He did not wish to stir up an undesirable excitement. The populations of Galilee were in a very inflammable condition. Already, more than once, roused to enthusiasm by our Lord’s acts of power, they had tried to take Him by force and make Him a King. If this story of His glory on the mount had reached them, and had won their credence, their enthusiasm and excitement might have become uncontrollable, and the purely spiritual nature of the Lord’s Kingdom might have been compromised. Jesus would have no story told the populace that would for a moment stir to dangerous activity their desire for a worldly Messianic Kingdom. But, further, I think that, as Bishop Chadwick suggests, our Lord did not wish this experience of theirs to be exposed to ridicule and cross-examination. For if they had told the story immediately on their coming down from the hill, there were plenty of people, like Thomas, of a sceptical turn of mind, and others like the scribes, bitterly hostile to their Master who would not hesitate to say that they did not believe it. They would laugh at the story, and say they had been dreaming. And indeed it was a strange and wondrous story to ask the people to accept. They would look at Jesus in His seamless cloak-one of themselves in garb and manner and speech-and the assertion of the three disciples that a few hours before He had shone with heavenly glory, and had Moses and Elijah to visit Him and converse with Him, would seem wildly and hopelessly incredible. And so Jesus bids them keep silence about it, in order that “the impression of this great experience might be forced back upon the depths of their own spirits, and spread its roots beneath the surface there”; to tell no man, until another event had taken place, which would make the story of what happened on the holy mount a natural and congruous story, which it would be no longer difficult to believe, but which it would be blameworthy to disbelieve. They were to tell no man what things they had seen, save when the Son of man should have risen from the dead. They could venture to tell it then. The Resurrection would make the Transfiguration believable. Men would find no difficulty in believing that He who was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead, for one brief hour shared on the mount in the glory which He had with His Father before the world was.

The Central Place of the Resurrection.

-Its relation to other Miracles.

And this leads me to ask you to notice the central and critical place which our Lord evidently assigns to His Resurrection. It is to throw light upon many a mystery. It is to explain many a difficulty. It is to make many a hard thing credible. In the old days, sixty or a hundred years ago, the miracles of our Lord were quoted as evidences of His deity. But in the meantime there has grown up such a sense of the invariable order of the universe, that the miracles themselves, instead of becoming an aid to faith, have become one of our present-day stumbling-blocks and difficulties. But the miracles cease to be difficulties, and become believable events, in the light of the Resurrection. It is with the Resurrection we must start. In a sense it is the one and only thing that matters. It is the keystone of the whole arch. It is, as Dr. Chadwick says, “the centre of all the miraculous narratives, the sun which keeps them all in their orbit.” There are certain wonderful events narrated in the Gospels which would stagger belief, if they stood there isolated and detached. But no wonderful deeds are impossible to Him who rose again the third day. Supernatural works are, shall I say it, “natural” to such a supernatural person. The Resurrection really carries every other miracle with it. And the Resurrection is one of the best-attested facts of human history. It has not only the witness of the apostles and other disciples, it has the still more striking and commanding witness of the Church, and the whole history of the past nineteen centuries, a history which if the Resurrection is denied becomes absolutely irrational and incoherent. The Resurrection is one of the great certitudes of the faith, and every act and deed of our Lord’s life is to be considered in the light that streams from His open grave.

Elijah’s Coming.

“Risen again from the dead,” said Jesus, and I imagine that word would strike a chill to the three disciples’ hearts. They had just seen their Lord’s glory, and the vision of the glory had almost banished from their minds the sad and solemn words their Master had spoken a week before, about rejection, and suffering, and death. In the light of their experiences on the hill, they had begun to dream once again about thrones. But here is their Lord talking about “death” once again. He will allow them to cherish no false or misleading hopes. The cross was as visible as ever to His undazzled eyes. He warns them once again that it was to “death” He was marching. But it was all an enigma to the disciples. They obstinately refused to believe that in the bare and literal way Christ could die. So on their way down, while Jesus marched on in front, “they questioned among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean” (Mar 9:10). They did not like to ask Jesus Himself; they had the timidity of men who fear unpalatable truth, and so they forbore to inquire. But there was one question they asked their Lord. It was about Elijah. They had just seen Elijah on the holy hill. The scribes, basing themselves on a prophecy of Malachi, had taught the people that before Messiah came Elijah would reappear, to prepare the Lord’s way. Was that transient, fleeting appearance of Elijah on the mount all that the prophet meant? And the Master, in answer to their question, said, “Elijah I indeed cometh first, and restoreth all things: and 9 how is it written of the Son of man, that He should suffer many things and be set at nought?” (Mar 9:12). At first sight these two sentences appear to have not the slightest connection with one another, and a German commentator speaks of the latter sentence as one that has “vehemently harassed interpreters.” But really there is no difficulty. Our Lord wishes the disciples to connect with the prophecy about Elijah another prophecy about Himself. The disciples-following the example of their teachers-had been eclectics in their reading of the Scriptures. They had picked and chosen. They had made much of those passages that spoke of Messiah’s glory and reign. They had ignored all those other passages that spoke of His suffering and death.

A Past Event.

“But I say unto you,” Christ added, “that Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him whatsoever they listed, even as it is written of him” (Mar 9:13). Elijah had come-and at that a veil dropped from their eyes, and they recognised that Jesus spoke of that lonely ascetic of the wilderness whose cry had rung throughout the land, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” and who in that way had prepared the way of the Lord. John had come in the power and spirit of Elijah; but they did with him as they had done with his prototype in the ancient days. They did with him and to him whatsoever they listed. They rejected him, and repudiated his message, and allowed him, without protest, to be put to death by a weak king at the bidding of an adulterous queen. They knew not the day of their visitation. They did not recognise Elijah when he came.

-Foreshadowing Another.

“They have also done unto him”-that little word “also” is full of significance. It implies that there was another whom they were treating in the same way as John. And that other was John’s Lord. “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed” (viii. 31). John’s baptism was rejected: John’s Lord was crucified. They neither recognised the forerunner nor the Messiah Himself. They did unto both whatsoever they listed. The Lord still visits us, and proffers Himself to us. Do you recognise the day of your visitation? Or do you do with Him whatsoever you list? “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way, for His wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa 2:12).

Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary

TITLE: What is the resurrection?

TEXT: Mar 9:9-13

PROPOSITION: Resurrection is a promise many do not understand.

QUESTION: How?

KEY WORD: Questions

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Jesus makes a promise of his resurrection. (9)

2.As they walk along – a debate begins.

3.What is resurrection?

4.A vital theme of Christianity is “Resurrection”

5.Without a clear understanding of and faith in the resurrection, religion is an exercise in futility.

6.Three questions that are answered in 1Co 15:1-58.

What if there is no resurrection? (1Co 15:13-19)

1.Christ is not raised – 13

2.Preaching is vain – 14

3.Faith is vain – 14

4.Yet in our sins – 17

5.Dead have perished -18

6.We are miserable (no hope) – 19

How are the dead raised? (1Co 15:36-38)

1.Illustrated with seed and plant

2.Seed must die first

3.Body planted is not same as body raised

4.God decides the type of body that is best

What will the body be like? (1Co 15:42-44)

1.Don’t know 1Jn 3:2

2.Different than this one

Physical Body Spiritual Body

Corruption Incorruption

Dishonor Glory

Weakness Power

Natural Spiritual

Mar 9:14-29 TITLE: Some jobs are tough TEXT: Mar 9:14-29 PROPOSITION: Some work is difficult and challenging for us. QUESTION: Why? KEY WORD: Failures SCRIPTURE READING: Mar 9:14-19 INTRODUCTION: 1. Obeying the gospel is simple – Faith, Repent, Confess, Baptism 2. Some things God requires are more difficult 3. My dad, Coat and pants do all the work, vest gets the gravy. 4. Here is an example of where the apostles failed. Take things for granted 1. They healed many, cast out demons 2. Began to think – Easy, anybody can do this 3. This Christianity thing is easy 4. What happens when things get tough – obstacles, challenging, harder than expected 5. Commands not grievous – 1Jn 5:3 – Love of God that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. Lack of faith 1. Jesus called them faithless (19) 2. Do you believe? (23) The man believed – came for a second try 3. Help my unbelief (24) Humble, seeking help in any area of weakness 4. Prayer and fasting are required (29) 5. The failure was of the apostles, not the man nor his son seeking to be healed Some jobs are tougher 1. Nehemiah building Jerusalem – opposition 2. Noah – preached 120 years – converted only family 3. Elijah at juniper tree – all alone, I give up 4. Jeremiah – won’t speak his name any more (Jer 20:9) 5. Jesus in the garden – let this cup pass from me 6. Moses leading the children of Israel – gripe, complain, grumble In the church today: 1. Elders – helping people who seem determined to mess up their lives 2. Deacons – getting people to be involved 3. Preachers – communicating the simple gospel 4. Teachers – explaining and applying the instructions of the Bible Mar 9:31-37 TITLE: Who is the greatest? TEXT: Mar 9:31-37 PROPOSITION: Greatness is a difficult thing to achieve in the kingdom. QUESTION: How? KEY WORD: Challenges SCRIPTURE READING: Same INTRODUCTION: 1. Jesus told his apostles of his D B R. (31) 2. They were afraid to ask about this (again). (32) 3. They disputed over who is the greatest. (33) What is the connection? 1. Jesus would be gone – Who would take over? 2. Who is next in line for the leadership role? True Greatness What does Jesus teach about greatness? 1. Opposite the Harvard Business School model 2. Want to be first, must be last (35) 3. Learn from a child (36) – Mat 18:1-6; Mar 10:13-16 4. Receive a child (37) What is TRUE greatness? 1. The one who wins this greatness does not attain it at the expense of others. 2. It is possible for one to win this greatness anywhere, anytime, any position in life. Not just rich, PhD, powerful – YOU can be great! 3. This greatness is satisfying to its possessor – It’s own reward. 2 Qualities of Greatness Self-Confidence 1. In crisis – Emergency, unexpected – others look to leaders for direction 2. In deliberation – Deep thinkers, willing to express their ideas 3. In attitude – not arrogant, boastful; just self-assured, confident Humility toward: 1. Sin – not holier than thou, Gal 6:1-2; Confess; Repent 2. Service – Wash feet (Joh 13:1-38); cup of water; bake a cake; fix a flat tire 3. Self – Not pride, arrogant; not jealous of others; willing to delegate and let go Mar 9:38-41 TITLE: How to be One of His TEXT: Mar 9:38-41 PROPOSITION: We must learn to recognize who belongs to Christ. QUESTION: Who? KEY WORD: Attributes SCRIPTURE READING: Same INTRODUCTION: 1. Background story – apostles did not know him – must be an imposter 2. Jesus discusses some attributes of those who are his. Jealousy (38) 1. Casting out demons in your name 2. He follows not us – not under us 3. Jealousy – all doing this work should be under apostles 4. Jas 3:14 – If you have bitter jealousy and strive in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth. 5. We forbade him Forbid him not (39) [Two Tests] Was he doing things FOR Christ? 1. Was he doing things in Jesus name? 2. Was he giving honor and glory to Christ? 3. Was he a proper example of a follower of Christ? Was he doing anything AGAINST Christ? 1. Was he teaching error? 2. Was he working against Christ? Undermine the mission of Jesus? 3. Was he casting out demons in some other name? 4. Was he doing wrong things in Jesus name? Can’t be neutral (40) 1. For Christ OR against Him 2. There is no neutral ground 3. Many today are trying to be on the fence 4. Verse 40 – Not against me = for me 5. Mat 12:30 – Not with me = against me Does Jesus approve of denominationalism? 1. This man was not teaching – he was casting out demons. 2. He was doing this in Jesus name – by the power and authority of Christ 3. Before church was established – not about approving various teachings 4. This passage says – Just because you don’t know them – not reason to reject 5. Started church in Russia – David Macy went there – He did not know me, I did not know him – We both accepted the work each other did Cup of water (41) 1. Jesus is not looking for those who claim 2. He is looking for servants willing to serve 3. Term is used to describe the least of our efforts. 4. We will be rewarded according to our deeds. (2Co 5:10) Mar 9:42-48 TITLE: Do you have worms? TEXT: Mar 9:42-48 PROPOSITION: QUESTION: How? KEY WORD: Punishments READING: Same INTRODUCTION: 1. Jesus uses an unusual phrase here. 2. Their worm dies not; The fire is not quenched. 3. Note this chart. Their Worm The Fire

Internal External

Personal Universal

Conscience hurts Spirit, mind, soul Body hurts

OFFEND

Offend = cause to sin, cause to stumble, the cause of the fall, to entrap, snare

Scandalidzo – The plate where the bait goes and holds the trap open

The idea is – entice them to the bait, the plate moves and springs the trap

DON’T DO ANYTHING THAT WOULD ENTICE A BROTHER TO SIN.

Don’t offend little one – better for millstone around neck thrown in the sea

Hand offend – cut it off

Foot offend – cut it off

Eye offend – pluck it out

Rom 14:21 – Don’t eat or drink to cause a brother to stumble

1Co 8:13 – I will eat no flesh while the world stands

THEIR WORMS

The punishment most painful is on the inside

1.Guilty conscience, angry spirit, hateful soul, lustful mind

2.Ability to remember mistakes, sins

3.Rich man (Luk 16:1-31) told, Son, remember.

Degrees of Punishment = understanding, willful rejection, guilty conscience

1.Some punishment is external – jail, take a way a privilege, time out, etc.

2.Some punishment is internal – memory, conscience, guilty

Worms are parasites that live inside, do harm, destroy, and cause pain and injury.

1.Psa 68:21 – God wounds the head of one who walks in his guilt

2.1Ti 5:12 – having guilt because they cast off their faith

3.Psa 32:1-5 – Description of a guilty conscience

DO NOT DIE

These worms (guilty feelings) do not stop, wear out, slow down, and diminish

Only God can cleanse the conscience – Heb 9:13-14

Baptism can cleanse the conscience – 1Pe 3:21

Mar 9:49-50

TITLE: Salted with Fire

TEXT: Mar 9:49-50

PROPOSITION: Salt preserves even the wicked.

QUESTION: Which?

KEY WORD: Categories

READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Salt preserves, flavors and purifies.

2.Fire burns and destroys.

3.How are people salted with fire?

Salted with Fire

1.Mal 3:2 – Who can stand the day of his coming? He is like a refiner’s fire

2.1Pe 1:7 – Trial of your faith, being more precious than gold, tried in the fire

3.Salted = preserved, here – not for good, but for punishment of fire

4.1Pe 2:4 – Angels that sinned – chains of darkness, reserved for judgment

5.Fire is used in the Scripture to denote suffering, persecution, or distress of any kind.

6.Fire is used to indicate trial, suffering, and persecution of any kind.

7.Salt is used to denote penetration and preservation from corruption.

8.Every one, good and bad, must suffer.

Salted with Salt

1.Every sacrifice is salted with salt.

2.Lev 2:13 – Every sacrifice of your food offering you shall season with salt.

3.Most common use of salt -flavor, preserve, purify, and penetrate.

Salt in Yourself

1.Are you salty?

2.Mat 5:13 – You are the salt of the earth.

3.Do have salt (flavor, preserving and penetrating influence) inside?

Salt with one another

1.Col 4:6 – Let your speech be seasoned with salt

2.Treat each other with some flavor, tenderness, kindness

Worthless Salt

1.Salt can become worthless – just make a pathway with it – Kill the grass.

2.Pour out salt, ice and water from making homemade ice cream.

3.Mat 5:13 – Lose its flavor – good for nothing

Mar 10:1-12

TITLE: The Marriage Rule

TEXT: Mar 10:1-12

PROPOSITION: We look for the loophole before we know the rule.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Rules

SCRIPTURE READING:

INTRODUCTION:

1.Marriage and Divorce are difficult issues because:

2.Prevalence – 1 out of 2 marriages end in divorce

3.Emotional issues involved – family, children, grandparents

4.Eternal issue – sin and consequences, heaven or hell

5.Moral issues – fornication, adultery, broken promises

6.Biblical issues – Many are looking for the loophole.

What did Moses allow? (3-5)

1.Study Deu 24:1-22 :

2.Two schools of thought

1.Unclean = fornication

2.Found no favor in her = anything I don’t like

What was the original plan of God? (6-9)

1.Beginning – male and female (6)

2.Leave = cut ties of dependence

3.Cleave = glue (Greek – mucilage)

4.God is involved – tri-lateral contract

5.No man can void a contract with God

Private study with apostles (10-12)

1.The Rule (11)

1.Put away wife and marry another = adultery against her

2.Put away husband and marry another = adultery against him

2.Waiting Game

1.One says, Why don’t you just divorce me?

2.Then justifies self – I did not divorce, he did.

3.After divorce many just try to out wait the other to remarry

4.Wedding vow – Is to maintain the marriage – to the best of your ability.

5.Keep your promise.

Conclusion:

1.We made a contract with God and a spouse to be faithful to that contract until death.

2.It does not expire, can’t renegotiate, not a 3 year lease with option to renew

Mar 10:13-16

TITLE: Who is the child?

TEXT: Mar 10:13-16

PROPOSITION: We must learn to accept and become children.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Reactions

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Children were coming or being brought to Jesus.

2.The apostles sent them away. (Rebuked them.)

3.Notice three things about Jesus in this text.

How Jesus reacted (13-14)

1.He was displeased – indignant, emphasis much displeased

2.He rebuked the apostles for rebuking the parents.

What Jesus taught (14-15)

1.Allow them to come

2.Do not forbid them (hinder them)

3.Kingdom = little children

4.Greek word (paidion) refers to a half-grown boy or girl;

5.figuratively, an immature Christian, still growing

6.Of such is the kingdom of heaven (church)

7.Not receive kingdom as a chld – not enter kingdom

8.If you can’t accept me (faults and all) then you cannot enter the kingdom

What Jesus did (16)

1.Took them in his arms

2.Put his hands on them

3.Blessed them

4.These terms imply (each one) not in mass as a group

We get this confused

When adults act like children

1.Argue, push, shove, yell, throw things

2.If I can’t pitch, I’ll take my ball and go home.

3.1Co 14:20 – Do not be children

4.1Co 13:11 – When I was a child, I spoke like a child

When children are urged to act like adults

1.Fast paced world – many toys (Barbie, for example) encourage adult play

2.Want to drive, wear makeup, stay out late, etc. before they are ready

3.Maturing takes time – don’t rush your child through any stage of life

Mar 10:17-22

TITLE: Attitudes of Teacher and Student

TEXT: Mar 10:17-22

PROPOSITION: With the proper attitude of student and teacher, God’s Word will be learned and obeyed.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Attitudes

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Many are noticing a decline in knowledge of the Bible.

2.How can one attend SS for 18 years and be so ignorant?

3.Is it the teacher, the material, the student, or the attitudes?

4.Look at Jesus and the Rich young ruler from a new perspective.

Student Attitudes

Running

1.I could preach a sermon here about being on time.

2.Are you anxious to get to Bible Class?

3.Do you try to be on time? Awake, ready to study?

Kneeled

1.This man was coming in reverence.

2.I am not suggesting that you kneel before your teacher.

3.This is part custom of that part of the world and that time.

4.However, we should show respect to the teacher.

Earnestness

1.Did not ask for personal gain – rich, famous, powerful

2.Did not ask for now – healing, material blessings

3.But for eternal life – I am trying, what lack I yet, anything missing?

Teacher Attitudes

Beheld

1.Do not just look at the externals – hair a mess, shoes on wrong feet, etc.

2.Do not just look at the behavior – talkative, quiet, won’t sit down

3.Learn to look – inside, look deeply at the spirit, heart, soul, mind

Loved

1.The Greeks word is agape

2.This word means – I will seek what is best for another

3.This love has nothing to do with looks, emotions, feelings

4.It is a calculated decision about how to treat another person

When the Bell Rings (class is over)

Grieved

1.At the end – he rejected the message he was seeking

2.He was not prepared to make the sacrifice required

3.Teachers can not force acceptance of the message

4.We must teach, preach, and encourage obedience to the truth

5.We are the watchmen of Eze 3:17-21

Mar 10:23-27

TITLE: Impossible made Possible

TEXT: Mar 10:23-27

PROPOSITION: While man is able to do many things, salvation is not in his ability.

QUESTION: Which?

KEY WORD: Impossibilities

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Difficult we do right away, Impossible takes a little longer.

2.There are things which man cannot do.

3.We cannot save ourselves. Impossible.

4.Only God can make our salvation possible.

5.God does not owe me eternal life because I prayed, read my Bible, went to church, was baptized, believed in Jesus, etc.

Man can do many things

1.Medical advances – surgery, drugs, equipment, technology

2.Space travel

3.Electronics – Radio, TV, color, digital, satellite, computers, internet

4.In many fields – major advances in recent years

5.But there are some things man cannot do – IMPOSSIBLE

Some things are impossible (by the nature of the case)

1.Make a rock so big you can’t pick it up

2.Create a tall short person, skinny fat, (oxymorons)

3.By definition of terms these things are impossible

1.By the normal understanding of words

2.Try to imply a lack of power

Some things are impossible with men

1.Possess the power and ability of God

2.Obtain salvation (forgiveness of sins)

3.Earn eternal life – Rom 11:6

4.Work you way to heaven – Eph 2:8-9

With God all things are possible

1.Only God can forgive and forget

2.Only God can impute righteousness to us (credit our account as righteous)

3.Only God can change us from mortal to immortal

4.Only God save us in heaven, give us eternal life

Mar 10:28-31

TITLE: We Left All

TEXT: Mar 10:28-31

PROPOSITION: Following Christ has both costs and rewards.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD:

SCRIPTURE READING:

INTRODUCTION:

1.Previous verses – trust in riches, can’t enter heaven

2.Some things are impossible with men, not with God.

3.Peter – thinking of earning heaven – we left all

4.What do we get in return?

The Implication

1.If I sacrifice enough – I can earn heaven.

2.Pray, attend, sing, give, teach, deacon, elder, preacher

3.We must avoid any teaching that would lead people to think heaven can be earned or merited

4.Heaven is a GIFT – period.

The Response

1.Jesus does not deny Peter’s statement.

2.Peter (and others) had left all behind to follow Jesus. (Luk 5:11)

3.Jesus recognizes that others have also made sacrifices.

4.House, brother or sister, mothers, children, lands

5.AND suffer persecution as a result

The Others

1.Job – lost all, including family

2.Abraham – left family and went out

3.Daniel – risked life in lion’s den

4.Paul – 2Co 11:23-28

5.Read – Heb 11:35-40

The Reward

1.Receive a hundred fold – houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands

2.AND suffer persecution

3.NOW – in this time, while we are living

4.AND in the next world – eternal life

5.God’s order is opposite to the world’s

1.First will be last

2.Last will be first

What about you?

1.What did it cost you (give up)?

2.See NOTE: (below)

3.Have you lost any blood? (Heb 12:4)

4.What did you give up for the sake of the gospel?

5.What did you gain?

Note from Dennis Barnes:

I find it thought-provoking that Jesus states that we are not “worthy” if we love anyone on earth more than we love Him. The part that peaks my interest is that few (if any at all) Christians would ever deem themselves “worthy” of Jesus. It is a humbling thought.

Ed Harrell (a preacher), told me once that, during a gospel meeting, he baptized a young lady in her early twenties. She was very, very excited and bubbling with emotion. A few months later, Ed called her and asked how things were going. She sadly related that she had called her younger sister and parents to share with them her joy of the gospel. Her parents had been most angry at her, and told her to renounce her membership in the Church of Christ and return to their church or else never talk to them again.

Ed asked what she decided. She said she had cried and thought about it for several days, until she read this scripture (text for this lesson, mrl). At that point, she sadly but resolutely decided that her parents just were not worthy of Jesus Christ. They had made their decision (their church), and she had made hers (Jesus).

It is a humbling thought, and I greatly admire those who have faced such a heartbreaking choice and still chose Jesus.

Mar 10:32-34

TITLE: Way to Jerusalem

TEXT: Mar 10:32-34

PROPOSITION: The death on the cross was necessary.

QUESTION: Why?

KEY WORD: Reasons

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Jesus explains again the plan (This is the 3rd time)

2.Going up to Jerusalem – still don’t know the purpose

3.Luk 18:31 – All things written in the prophets will be accomplished

Jesus tells them again

1.We are going to Jerusalem

2.Will be betrayed

3.Turned over to chief priests and scribes

4.Condemn him to death

5.Deliver all nations (peoples)

6.Mock him, scourge him, spit on him

7.Kill him

8.On the 3rd day he will rise again

Why was all this necessary?

1.Fall of man – sin in the garden of Eden (and since then)

2.Imputation of guilt

1.Impute – write to the account – add to the bill

2.Impute = Indictment of the charges

3.Loss of spiritual life, relationship with God

1.Eze 18:4 – Soul that sins, it shall die

2.Isa 59:1-2 – your sins and iniquities separate you from God

4.Cannot save ourselves – earn, merit, deserve

5.Sins demands death

1.Rom 3:23 – wages of sin is death

2.Sin is not a misdemeanor – it is a felony, capital offense

3.Sin is abhorrent to God – nothing less is acceptable

6.Why can’t God just forgive and let it go?

1.Parent forgives child – no others involved

2.What if a child takes car, kills bank teller while he robs bank?

3.Parent can’t just forgive and let go – Others are involved

4.God cannot forgive except on a basis that allows the awfulness of sin to remain crystal clear.

5.Jesus death on the cross accomplishes this.

7.Is atonement immoral? (Innocent suffering for the guilty)

1.This is what parents do for their children.

2.This is what soldiers do for their nation.

3.This is what Christ did for us.

8.Jesus became our substitute

1.Propitiation (paid in full) for our debt to God. (1Jn 2:2)

2.Ransom (Mar 10:45)

3.Became sin for us (2Co 5:21)

Conclusion:

1.Will you accept the wonderful offer of salvation?

2.Will you reject the payment for the debt of your sins?

Mar 10:35-36

TITLE: What do you want from Jesus?

TEXT: Mar 10:35-36

PROPOSITION: Jesus can grant our request if we ask for the right things.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Requests

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.James and John come to Jesus privately.

2.Grant our request – seeking a commitment before knowing the request.

3.Jesus did not make any promise.

4.What do you desire that I do for you?

5.Similar question of blind man (Mar 10:51)

6.HOW WOULD YOU ANSWER?

Notice the context

1.The request comes right after Jesus tells them he would die.

2.Some families are like this – Learn a friend is dying – Can I have his _____?

3.Families in hospital of dying parent argue over who gets the china, jewelry, etc.

James and John answer

1.Put one of us on your right hand, other on your left hand

2.Thinking was: Put us as top two men in charge.

3.Jesus answered in verse 40.

1.Not mine to give

2.Left or right is determined by the individual

3.Goes to those for whom it is prepared

What would you say? Would your request be for:

1.Personal issues – health, happiness, love, patience, self-control

2.Family – better spouse, better children, better in-laws

3.Personal use – fame, wealth, power, patience, more kindness

4.Religious – prayer, worship, kind to others, love neighbor

5.Spiritual – faith, courage, knowledge, understanding, wisdom

6.Eternal – life with Jesus, be with God, heaven, salvation

Mar 10:37-45

TITLE: Request Denied

TEXT: Mar 10:37-45

PROPOSITION: There are valid reasons for being denied our requests.

QUESTION: Why?

KEY WORD: Reasons

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.Matthew includes the mother of James and John.

2.We have a request – will you do it?

3.One on your right hand, other on your left.

Request of James and John

Thought they were asking to be top dog in the kingdom – 37

Jesus answers:

You do not know what you are asking – 38

1.Right and left = sheep and goats = saved and lost (Mat 25:1-46)

2.We often pray for things – we really don’t want

3.Grass is always greener on other side of fence.

4.Pray If it be your will – according to the will of God

You can’t handle the Job – 38-39

1.Can you drink from the cup?

2.Can you be baptized as I am about to be baptized?

3.Baptism = immersion, burial – This is a baptism of suffering.

4.They argue that they are ready.

Not mine to give – 39-40

1.You will suffer – not as Jesus – but suffer nonetheless.

2.Not mine to give – I am not the one who decides this issue.

3.Left or right hand – determined by our lives – not whim of Christ

4.2Co 5:10 – deeds done in body, good or bad

Worldly rulers – 42

1.Other apostles were angry – didn’t think of it first

2.Worldly rulers – Lord it over – control, dictate, order, command

3.They exercise authority OVER them.

Not so among you – 43-45

1.The Harvard business model will not work in the church

2.Want to be top dog = be the servant

3.Want to be first = be slave of all

4.Note the example of Jesus

1.Not to be served – as worldly rulers

2.Jesus came to serve – work, sacrifice

3.Give his life a ransom for many

Mar 10:46-52

TITLE: What do you want from me?

TEXT: Mar 10:46-52

PROPOSITION: Jesus can do many things for us.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Blessings

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1.A blind man comes to Jesus, at Jesus invitation.

2.Jesus asks, What do you want me to do for you?

3.We think – He is blind! What do you think he wants?

4.Today is Mother’s Day.

5.What if Jesus asked you this question?

What do you want from MOM?

Love – unconditionally

Accept me – weaknesses, faults, and mistakes

Support – encourage, motivate, be there when I stumble, pick me up

Forgive – willing to forgive, forgive before I ask

What do you want from Jesus?

Help – Providence – Heb 4:15-16

Forgive – Salvation – Mat 1:21

Hear – Mediator – 1Ti 2:5

Raise – Resurrection hope – Joh 5:28-29

Judge – Find me faithful – 2Ti 4:1

Confess – Confess to Father – Mat 10:32-33

Shepherd – Feed, lead, protect – Psa 23:1-6

Will Jesus help me with my request? Yes, if you –

Have Faith – Mar 10:52; Heb 11:6

Follow Jesus – Obey – Heb 5:8-9

Remain Faithful – Rev 2:10

Mar 11:1-7

TITLE: The Lord Needs It

TEXT: Mar 11:1-7

PROPOSITION: God expects us to use the gifts that we have in the proper way.

QUESTION: How?

KEY WORD: Ways

READING: Same

1.We all have talents, gifts, to be used for God.

2.What does Jesus need from me?

3.Need = use, business, necessity, need, want

4.What do I have that Jesus needs?

5.Eph 4:11-15 tells us how to use these gifts.

God gives gifts. 11

1.Temporary – Apostles, Prophets

2.Permanent – Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers

He gives the purpose. 12

1.Perfecting the saints

2.Work of ministry

3.Edifying of the body of Christ

He limits the duration. 13

1.Till we are united

2.Till we have the knowledge

3.Till we measure up to the stature of Christ

He issues a warning. 14

1.Don’t be children

2.Don’t be tossed to and fro

3.Don’t be carried about with every wind of doctrine

4.Don’t be deceived by craftiness and cunning deceit

God explains the motivation. 15

1.Speak the truth – Plainly, Simply, Clearly

2.In Love – with kindness, compassion, consideration

3.Help them to grow up into Christ

4.Assist them to obey the head, ruler, Lord, Master.

Conclusion:

1.Bloom where you are planted.

2.Do what you can with what you have where you are.

3.God does not ask you to do beyond your ability.

Mar 11:8-11

TITLE: Hosanna

TEXT: Mar 11:8-11

PROPOSITION: Jerusalem recognized Jesus as one who could save them.

QUESTION: How?

KEY WORD: Demands

READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1. This event occurred on what is often called Palm Sunday. 2. Triumphal entry into Jerusalem 3. Laid garments on pathway; cut palm branches 4. They cried, Hosanna; Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. 5. Hosanna = Greek transliteration of Hebrew word ? Save now, Save, I pray. 6. Save = save, deliver, protect, heal, make whole 7. Today ? word is used to mean ? praise, honor, glory, worship, halleluiah! 8. In NT ? 6 times in 5 passages ? means save me, same me now 9. We often misunderstand how this works.

What is necessary for salvation?

Act 2:38

There 1 John 8:24 e Hebrews 11:6 2 desire for salvation

Act 17:301. Luke 13:337:25 ? He is able to save to th Mat 10:32-33 th Rom 10:9-21 Joh 5:6 ? to 1Pe 3:21 t Act 22:16 you desire to be made whole? 3. Heb 11:6 ? salvation is to those who diligently seek him 4. Not talking about a mourners bench ? just genuine desire for salvation

Have you cried for salvation?

Joh 12:27

Conclusion:

My Psalms 6:4; 7:1; 55:16 2 g less than Jesus blood an Matthew 14:30 3.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.

As we sing the invitation song ? What do you DESIRE from God?

Mar 11:12-26

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Subdivision 4. (Mar 9:9-50.)

God’s way for us and our way.

We have now the way put before us in its moral features, along with that which experience does not permit us to make marvel of, the contrast of our own ways naturally. Two things are specially insisted on here, the second of which is involved in the first: faith, – which, putting God in His place, puts me in mine; and lowliness, which is just the taking this creature-place before God. As a foundation principle of the path itself we find, what the disciples as yet could not enter into, and in the Gospels could not be much more than hinted at, – resurrection; which is twice declared here as to the Lord Himself, but the application of it to disciples is left for us to make. This part closes with a most solemn affirmation of a day of recompense, – the most emphatic, perhaps, that we find in Scripture.

1. As they come down with Him from the mount of transfiguration; the Lord charges the three who have been admitted to this wondrous sight to say nothing of it to any one until the Son of man is risen from among the dead. At this, though He has already plainly spoken of it, they are perplexed. A rising from among the dead is a thing strange to them, though resurrection itself was an accepted truth. This is now the Christian form of it, the Lord Himself being the firstfruits and pattern. No such application is as yet made of it however: only the Son of man is to arise alone on the third day. It is a foundation of our faith that He has done this.

But the disciples have a question they would fain put. How is it that the scribes say that Elias must come before Messiah’s day? They know that here is Messiah. The Lord answers that indeed Elias must come first and restore all things. And how is it written; on the other hand, that the Son of man must suffer many things and be set at nought? That did not look like coming after all things were restored. And yet in fact there had been a coming of Elias, – one who had come in such a spirit and power. But that light had gone out: they had done to him according to their will; and so the Son of man would suffer also.

Thus a world contrary, and power in the meantime with it, a path leading down to death, with resurrection as the answer of God beyond: these are the features of the way traveled by the Lord, and upon which His disciples follow Him.

2. The power of Satan has also to be reckoned with; but the enemy here is one already vanquished, and faith only is needed for full deliverance. Faith, alas, may be lacking so that power which has been given may not be available. The child brought to the Lord has been already in the hands of those who were expressly authorized to cast out demons; yet they have only shown their incompetency in this case to do anything. It is over these He groans as an unbelieving generation, though still there is a resource in Himself, however much disciples fail. Here, as He says to the father of the child, “all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark emphasizes the malignity of the demon and the long time of possession. After he is gone out, the child seems for the moment dead; but Jesus takes him by the hand and he rises up. To His disciples He says that so virulent a case could yield only to prayer and fasting. But how great is the encouragement in such an enemy so certainly to be vanquished. The demand for faith to be in energy is no abate, meat of the blessing.

3. Next we have once more the pressing of death and resurrection, possibly in a wider circle than before. There is no comment upon it, except that “they understood not and were afraid to ask Him.” How many things we are disposed to shirk after this manner; and in doing so lose, as far as we can, our own best blessings. By and by, this death and resurrection will be the staple of the gospel that they everywhere proclaim; and beyond this still, new glories will develop in it: Christians will learn and rejoice to realize that they are dead and risen with Christ.

This repetition of the announcement of Christ’s death may, as I have said, point to that which could not yet be uttered. As a principle of the walk, for us it is of primary importance. To “walk in Christ,” involves of necessity the being risen with Him; and this is the only Christian standard.

4. Grace has put us in such a place, and only grace could do it. There is no possible room for the thought of merit in our gaining that which man in innocence could never have pretended to, and which makes our whole life henceforth but a thank-offering for it. Faith is that by which we regain what we had lost in the fall, the place of creature nothingness before God, with the sense also of our guilt in having lost it. Thus there should be for us no claim of greatness any more, while the glorious example before our eyes of One who became for us a servant in His love, self-humbled, poor, emptied of the glory proper to Him, should rid us of all desire of self-exaltation.

Yet, alas, the next thing that we read of after His announcement of the death to which He is going, is an unseemly strife among the disciples as to who should be the greater. The Lord meets it promptly. The desire to be first would only qualify one to be last, and servant of all. Then He takes a little child, young enough to be taken up in the arms, and tells them that He could link His Name with one like that. Nay, here was the type of what He could identify Himself with. He who received one such little child in His Name received Himself, and thus the Father also. Before God indeed, what is the man beyond the babe? Only the happy thing is to recognize it.

John thereupon tells Him, as inviting His judgment on it, how they had found one casting out demons in His Name and had forbidden him as not following them. Here, too, the spirit of meekness had been lacking. They who had but so lately failed (spite of having authority) to cast out a demon; should have known that one who could do so must have some title. Christ’s name was not a thing that one could conjure with. There must have been some reverence for that Dame which could use it as a word of power against Satan. Such an one could not turn quickly round from this to speak evil of Christ. But among men there were only opposing ranks: he who was not against was for Him. And he who thought so of Christ’s name as to give but a cup of water to one who belonged to Him, should not in any wise lose his reward.

5. The Lord passes from this to speak of recompense upon the other side in the same manner but with more emphasis than in Matthew. Every one must be salted with fire: for “our God is a consuming fire.” This jealous holiness by its judgment of the evil would only preserve the good: for, when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. On the other hand, for the wicked the salting with fire applies to the awful judgment of Gehenna, “where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” Here the holiness of God as pure wrath upon sin, eternal as His unchanging nature, unites with the undying worm of a remorseful conscience to torment the sinner. Ah, better surely to give up what may seem necessary as eye or hand or foot, live here in whatever maimed, imperfect way, and enter into life, than; having here the fulness of all good, pass on to the eternal fire!

But “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt:” that which is to be presented to God must answer to His nature; there must be “the salt of the covenant of thy God,” as the law puts it, or what must be in all relationship with Him. Salt is the energy of devotedness to God which keeps out corruption: “salt,” therefore, “is good,” and if it lose its power, what shall replace it? Salt, therefore, we must have in ourselves. It will diffuse its savor round, of course: if it has any, it will surely do so. But this is ministering, not requiring. We must be jealous over ourselves – careful, of course, to maintain this character in all our intercourse with others; but in peace – so easily broken by a legal and exacting spirit: “have peace one with another.”

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Observe here, 1. The strict injunction given by Christ to his disciples, not to publish or proclaim this glorious vision at his transfiguration, till after his resurrection; because being now in a state of humiliation, he would have his divine majesty and glory veiled and concealed.

Learn hence, That the divine glory of Christ’s person, as God, was not to be manifested suddenly, and all at once, but gradually, and by steps.

First more obscurely, by his miracles, by the forced acknowledgments of devils, by the free confession of his disciples, and by the glorious vision of his transfiguration; but the more clear and full, the more public and open, manifestation of is divine glory, was at the time of is resurrection and ascension.

Observe, 2. The disciples obedience to Christ’s injunction, touching the concealing of his transfiguration till after his resurrection; They kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

Not that they questioned the resurrection in general, but Christ’s resurrection in particular, because his resurrection did suppose his death; and they could not conceive how the Messiah, whom they erroneously supposed must be a temporal prince, should suffer death at the hands of men.

Observe, 3. The question which the disciples put to Christ, how the observation of the Jewish doctors holds good; namely, that Elias must come before the Messias came; we see the Messias, but no Elias.

Our Saviour answers, That Elias was come already; not Elias in person, but one in the spirit and power of Elias, to wit, John the Baptist, who was prophesied of under the name of Elias; there being a great resemblance between the Elias of the Old Testament, and of the New, viz. John the Baptist, they were both men of great zeal for God and Religion, they were both undaunted reprovers of the faults of princes, and they were both implacably hated and persecuted for the same.

Thence learn, That hatred and persecution, even unto death, has often been the lot and portion of such persons who have had the courage and zeal to reprove the faults of princes. Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Verse 9

On all occasions Jesus evinced a strong desire that the fact that he was the long-expected Messiah, should not be generally made known during his life. His course in this respect shows us that the principle, which is sometimes strongly urged, viz., that the truth should always be made known, at all hazards, was not sanctioned by his example.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

9:9 {2} And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

(2) The Lord has appointed certain times for the publishing of the gospel.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

4. The coming of Elijah 9:9-13 (cf. Matthew 17:9-13)

The appearance of Elijah on the mountain led to a discussion of his role as Messiah’s forerunner. This conversation developed as the disciples followed Jesus down the mountain.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Jesus again commanded secrecy (cf. Mar 1:34; Mar 1:43-44; Mar 3:11-12; Mar 5:43; Mar 7:36; Mar 8:30). William Wrede developed the view that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and that the early church originated that idea. [Note: William Wrede, The Messianic Secret.] Mark, he argued, invented incidents in which Jesus commanded secrecy about His messiahship to resolve this contradiction. Most conservative scholars have rejected this theory because the evidence for Jesus’ messiahship is pervasive in all the Gospels.

If the multitudes heard about this demonstration of Jesus’ glory, it would only fuel the fires of popular messianic expectation that created pressure for Jesus to depart from God’s will. This is the last command to maintain secrecy in this Gospel. It is also the only one with a time limit. The people the disciples would tell the transfiguration story to would only understand it after Jesus arose from the dead. With His resurrection behind them, they could appreciate the fact that He would return in glory to establish the messianic kingdom.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER 9:9-13 (Mar 9:9-13)

THE DESCENT FROM THE MOUNT

“And as they were coming down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, save when the Son of man should have risen again from the dead. And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean. And they asked Him, saying, The scribes say that Elijah must first come. And He said unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all things: and how is it written of the Son of man, that He should suffer many things and be set at nought? But I say unto you, that Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him whatsoever they listed, even as it is written of him.” Mar 9:9-13 (R.V)

IN what state of mind did the apostles return from beholding the glory of the Lord, and His ministers from another world? They seem to have been excited, demonstrative, ready to blaze abroad the wonderful event which ought to put an end to all men’s doubts.

They would have been bitterly disappointed, if they had prematurely exposed their experience to ridicule, cross-examination, conjectural theories, and all the controversy which reduces facts to logical form, but strips them of their freshness and vitality. In the first age as in the nineteenth, it was possible to be witnesses for the Lord without exposing to coarse and irreverent handling all the delicate and secret experiences of the soul with Christ.

Therefore Jesus charged them that they should tell no man. Silence would force back the impression upon the depths of their own spirits, and spread its roots under the surface there.

Nor was it right to make such a startling demand upon the faith of others before public evidence had been given, enough to make skepticism blameworthy. His resurrection from the dead would suffice to unseal their lips. And the experience of all the Church has justified that decision. The resurrection is, in fact, the center of all the miraculous narratives, the sun which keeps them in their orbit. Some of them, as isolated events, might have failed to challenge credence. But authority and sanction are given to all the rest by this great and publicly attested marvel, which has modified history, and the denial of which makes history at once untrustworthy and incoherent. When Jesus rose from the dead, the whole significance of His life and its events was deepened.

This mention of the resurrection called them away from pleasant day-dreams, by reminding them that their Master was to die. For Him there was no illusion. Coming back from the light and voices of heaven, the cross before Him was as visible as ever to His undazzled eyes, and He was still the sober and vigilant friend to warn them against false hopes. They however found means of explaining the unwelcome truth away. Various theories were discussed among them, what the rising from the dead should mean, what should be in fact the limit to their silence. This very perplexity, and the chill upon their hopes, aided them to keep the matter close.

One hope was too strong not to be at least hinted to Jesus. They had just seen Elias. Surely they were right in expecting this interference, as the scribes had taught. Instead of a lonely road pursued by the Messiah to a painful death, should not that great prophet come as a forerunner and restore all things? How then was murderous opposition possible?

And Jesus answered that one day this should come to pass. The herald should indeed reconcile all hearts, before the great and notable day of the Lord come. But for the present time there was another question. That promise to which they clung, was it their only light upon futurity? Was not the assertion quite as plain that the Son of Man should suffer many things and be set at nought? So far was Jesus from that state of mind in which men buoy themselves up with false hope. No apparent prophecy, no splendid vision, deceived His unerring insight. And yet no despair arrested His energies for one hour.

But, He added, Elias had already been offered to this generation in vain; they had done to him as they listed. They had re-enacted what history recorded of his life on earth.

Then a veil dropped from the disciples’ eyes. They recognized the dweller in lonely places, the man of hairy garment and ascetic life, persecuted by a feeble tyrant who cowered before his rebuke, and by the deadlier hatred of an adulterous queen. They saw how the very name of Elias raised a probability that the second prophet should be treated “as it is written of” the first.

If then they had so strangely misjudged the preparation of His way, what might they not apprehend of the issue? So should also the Son of man suffer of them.

Do we wonder that they had not hitherto recognized the prophet? Perhaps, when all is made clear at last, we shall wonder more at our own refusals of reverence, our blindness to the meaning of noble lives, our moderate and qualified respect for men of whom the world is not worthy.

How much solid greatness would some of us overlook, if it went with an unpolished and unattractive exterior? Now the Baptist was a rude and abrupt person, of little culture, unwelcome in kings’ houses. Yet no greater had been born of woman.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary