January 23rd, Friday: Mark chaps. 11-12

We'll read about honour.

The donkey was in fact a royal animal.

And the event we'll be reading about is a coronation celebration.

It was the only time our Lord permitted a public demonstration in His honour.

And He did it only to fulfill prophecy and turn the people's hearts back to the Word of God.

They did not listen.

What changes would Jesus make if He entered our places of worship today?

We'll read about hunger.

The fig tree pictures Israel – taking up space but not producing any fruit.

When we stop bearing fruit, the problem always starts with the roots.

Jesus reminds us that we must have faith and forgiveness when we pray.

Or God will not answer.

We'll also read about holiness.

The psalmist proclaimed, 'Holiness adorns your house.'

But unholiness made the Temple a place for thieves to hide.

The leaders were not praying, they were preying.

And using religion only to make money.

We'll also read about honesty.

The leaders had not been honest with John the Baptist.

And now they refused to be honest with Jesus.

When we obey, God teaches us more.

If we disobey, we close the door on God's truth.

We'll see that each family chose its Passover lamb on the 10^th day of the month and carefully examined it until the 14^th day to be sure that it had no defects.

During His last week of public ministry, God's Lamb was examined in various ways and He passed every test.

No guile was found in His mouth.

In His replies, Jesus revealed to them who He was, yet they would not accept the truth.

He is the Son sent by the Father, and the Stone rejected by the builders.

His enemies were so intent on destroying Jesus that they did not realise they were only destroying themselves.

All political questions and hypothetical doctrinal questions are chaff, compared to the most important question of all.

And that is - 'Is Jesus Christ your Lord?'

And 'Do you love Him?'

if you were to point out the spiritual people in this chapter, would you indicate the pious scribes, or the poor widow?

The Lord watches how we give and examines the motives of the heart.

He also sees how much we give and measures the proportion, not the portion.

An old epitaph reads, 'What I gave, I have. What I spent, I had. What I kept, I lost'

Passover: celebration of the time when the angel of death killed all the firstborn in Egypt, but spared the Israelites (the last of the 10 plagues during Moses' time)