Sabbath School lessons are a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the third quarter of 2024, we will explore the book of Mark. This week’s lesson, titled ‘Jerusalem Controversies’ covers the week from August 24 to August 30. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.

<p>Sabbath School lessons are a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the third quarter of 2024, we will explore the book of Mark. This week’s lesson, titled ‘Jerusalem Controversies’ covers the week from August 24 to August 30. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter: The Book of Mark

Mark Finley

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

03 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

06 Inside Out

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

08 Teaching Disciples: Part 2

09 Jerusalem Controversies

10 The Last Days

11 Taken and Tried

12 Taken and Tried

13 The Risen Lord


This week we're on lesson 9 in our Sabbath School studies on the book of Mark. We're in a transition in the lessons. We've come now to the last week of Christ's life beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And up until this time, the Gospel of Mark 10 chapters up into the 11th chapter has dealt with who Jesus is. He's the Messiah, the Divine Son of God.

His activities have revealed that, His miracles, His care, His compassion, His parables and teachings have revealed who He is. So both his teachings and his activities. But now we come to the last week of Christ's life, and the Gospel of Mark takes up 6 chapters on just the last week of Christ's life. The title of Lesson 9 is Jerusalem Controversies. We've had a lot of controversies in the book of Mark, haven't we?

The scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees, all attacking Jesus from different areas. Do you like controversy? Do you like to be in the middle of controversy? Most of us wanna shy away from controversy. We don't want controversy in our homes.

We don't want controversy in our churches. We wanna be peacemakers and not controversy makers. But there are some people that are controversy makers. And that was the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. They were always trying to test Jesus.

1 thing is for certain, we don't want to come to confront others, try to confound them, or to try to defeat them. You want to come to support and encourage and strengthen them. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. We find the story in Mark the 11th chapter. This is in Sunday's lesson.

And you're gonna notice that this is a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus says in Mark 11, verse 2, "'Go into a village opposite you, and as soon as you have entered it, you'll find a colt tied on which no 1 has sat. Loose it and bring it. And if anybody asks you, what are you doing here? Why are you taking that colt?

You just tell them the Lord has need of it, and immediately he'll send it there. Now this is a prediction from Zechariah chapter 9. So take your Bible and go back to Zechariah 9. Their prophecy after prophecy is fulfilled in the last moments of Christ's life. This is 1 of those prophecies.

In Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey." Now, the Jews expected that their king or Messiah that would deliver them from the Roman yoke would come riding on a donkey. And Jesus comes riding on this donkey.

And so you can Imagine the crowd. I mean, they are going crazy as he rides into Jerusalem on this donkey. They're praising him. They're saying, glory to God, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Now this makes it particularly interesting because what gate does he come through?

He comes through the Eastern Gate or the Golden Gate into the Temple Mount. Now that gate, of course, is now brick shut. But he comes through that Golden Gate to the Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna means save now. And it's eventually came to me and praise the Lord.

The time for secrecy has passed. I mean, Jesus comes through that gate. The Jews believed that the Messiah would come through the golden gate. He would ride on a donkey through that gate. He would deliver them from the hated Roman yoke.

But Jesus came not to deliver them from the Roman yoke, but to deliver them from the bondage of sin. He came humbly on a donkey, showing that he was the suffering servant. You remember what Paul said in Philippians chapter 2, let this mind be in you. There was also in Christ Jesus our Lord, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. That no reputation is he emptied himself and took upon himself and became a man.

And not only a man, but took upon himself the form of a servant and died a death. Not only any death, but the death of the cross. Here's the cascade of God's love. God, Jesus, living with the Father from eternity with no beginning and no ending, now leaves all that, dwells in human flesh, but not any human flesh. He takes upon us the weakness, the frailty of all humanity.

And then he becomes not only any man, he doesn't become a king, doesn't become a proud ruler, he becomes a servant. But not only any servant, a servant that goes to death, not only any death, but the death of the cross. So here, Jesus is explaining clearly that he's come on a messianic role to Israel, but yet they do not realize it. And in Mark chapter 11, verse 12 to 26, you have the story of the cursed tree and a cleansed temple. Jesus comes by this fig tree in verse 12 and onward.

It says the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. That's the day after the great triumphal entry. He was hungry. Seeing a far fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps he could find something on it and when he came to it He found nothing for it was not the season for figs and Jesus said let no 1 eat fruit from you again Why doesn't that seem strange? He curses his tree.

There should have been early figs on the tree, but Jesus is using this as a parable. The fig tree, the vine image, was a typical image of Israel that should have been bearing fruit to the glory of God's name. But because they were not, and because they did not accept the Messiah, the religious leaders did not accept the Messiah, many of the people ultimately did after the cross, the resurrection, the outpouring of the spirit on Pentecost. The early church obviously was a Jewish church before the gospel went to the Gentiles. But it was the Jewish leadership, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees that initially rejected Jesus.

What is this cursed tree all about? It's about Israel that should have been bearing fruit to the glory of Christ's name, but did not. So Jesus leaves there and he goes into the temple. Now remember he cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry, cleansed the temple at the ends of the ministry, and he sees there the money changes in the temple, and they are charging exorbitant prices for sacrifices. People had, many of them poor people, so poor, they'd walk for miles.

And as they walked for miles, they brought their funds and they were gonna buy a pigeon, buy an animal sacrifice, a little lamb, buy a goat. They were going to buy a sacrifice, but the prices were exorbitant. And Jesus saw what was taking place. He saw the oppression of the poor. So He casts over the money changer temples and he says, is it not written, verse 17, mark 11, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you've made it a den of thieves.

And they fear him. I mean, Just imagine Jesus. See, Jesus is compassionate, but when it comes to the oppression of the poor, when it comes to righteousness and treating people righteous and decently and just, Jesus abhors injustice. Jesus abhors oppression. Jesus abhors when people are treated unfairly, particularly if it's done in the name of religion.

So they're cast out of the temple and they go running out of that temple, but yet the people come back and they see and they listen to Jesus' teaching, But yet the scribes and Pharisees come back and Mark 11, verse 27 to 33, Mark 11, verse 27 to 33, they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, scribes and elders came to him and they said, by what authority are you doing those things? Who gave you this authority? In other words, who gave you the authority to cast people out of the temple? Who gave you the authority to turn over the money changers tables.

Why could you do that? And Jesus said, I have a question to ask you. Let me ask you this question. The baptism of John, was it from men or from heaven? Now they didn't want to answer.

Why didn't they want to answer? They didn't want to answer because if they would have said, oh, it's from heaven, Jesus would have said, why didn't you believe me? Why didn't you believe John then? John predicted that I would come, the Lamb of God. If they said, oh, it was from men, the people would rise up against them because they believe that John the Baptist was sent by God.

So they said to him, what did they say? They say, oh, they said, if we say from men, they'll fear the peoples, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said, we don't know. And Jesus answered and said, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Jesus always had a biblical answer, always something from the Word of God.

But here's the point, they're always trying to trick him, always trying to raise a controversy. When we come to Sabbath school, we come not to raise controversies. When we come to Sabbath school, we come to open our heart to the Word of God. We come to be blessed through God's Word. We come not simply thinking we know it all, but we come humbly to learn from 1 another.

You know, I've been in Sabbath school at times, and people, a simple lay person, who very little education, sitting in Sabbath school, makes a point on a lesson. And I've never thought of it before. God gave them wisdom. And then I've sat there with lay people with PhDs, and they make some point that I never thought of. So we go to Sabbath school, whether a person is educated or uneducated, whether they are highly educated with a PhD, whether they're very wealthy or very poor, we come together in Sabbath school.

We come to share God's Word. We come as brothers and sisters. We come to serve 1 another. We don't come to debate or argue in controversy. Okay, we go specifically to Wednesday's lesson and we look there in Wednesday's lesson.

And again, you've got this controversy. The Herodians and Pharisees are trying to catch Jesus in his words. We read that in Mark chapter 12 and verse 1. Then they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words. Verse 14, and when they had come, they said, "'Teacher, we know that you are true.

"'You care about no 1. "'You do not regard the person of a man, "'but teach the way of God in truth. "'Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? "'Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, why do you test me, bring me a denarius.

And so they bring him a coin and Jesus said, whose picture's on the coin? And they say, Caesar's picture's on that coin. And Jesus says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's. Jesus said government has a legitimate sphere and the legitimate sphere of government, 1 of the legitimate spheres is taxation. Why?

Because taxes go to provide certain benefits in society. They go to, in a modern society, they, some of those taxes go to fire departments, police departments, they go to improve roads, They go to improve the quality of life in the community. Some may go for public parks. So Jesus said, look, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar. Government has a legitimate sphere to protect its citizens, to provide for its citizens, but it does not have the sphere to supersede its authority and mandate religious worship.

It doesn't have that sphere. It doesn't have the sphere to say to its people, you cannot speak out your conscientious convictions. Now, of course, Christian ethics keep us from pressuring other people to accept the tenets of faith that we hold dear. We are not to pressure people to accept Jesus Christ, not at all. That's a Christian ethic, but we have the right to share, the right to witness.

We have the freedom of speech. The government does not have the right to curtail that freedom of speech. It doesn't have the right to mandate religion or worship. You remember when the Roman government attempted to tell Peter that he could no longer speak in Jesus' name, he said, we are to obey God, what, rather than man. So in the area of conscience, in the area of the personal religious freedom, in the area of our conscientious convictions that have to do with our own religious experience with God, we indeed have the right to worship God directly and live in harmony with the dictates of our conscience.

But Jesus' point here is render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Government has a legitimate role. But render to God the things that are God's. In other words, keep the state and the church separate. The state has its function.

The church has its function. The state is not to dictate to the church. The church is not to dictate to the state. If you look back historically, when the church mandated its religious practices to the state, persecution often followed. We move to Thursday's lesson, the greatest commandment.

Mark chapter 12, verse 28 to 34, Mark 12, 28 to 34. 1 of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together perceived and he said to them, what's the first commandment of all? And Jesus said, hear O Israel, the Lord your God is 1. And then you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength. This is the first commandment.

The second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is the, there is no other commandment greater than these. Some people think that this is simply a New Testament. Love God, love your fellow man.

And 10 commandments are Old Testament. What they fail to see is that Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament. When he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, he's quoting Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. When he says, love your neighbor as yourself, he's quoting Leviticus 19, verse 18. You see, Jesus is quoting the Old Testament, showing that the whole 10 Commandment law can be summarized in 1 word, love.

If you want to break it down to the 2 tables of stone, love God, First 4 commandments, love your fellow man, the last, love your neighbors yourself, the last 6. So the 10 commandment laws codified love. It teaches us how to love. Jesus didn't come to do away with it, he came to expand it. The scribe says to him, "'Well said, teacher, you've spoken the truth, ' verse 32, "'for there is 1 God and there's no other but he.

"'To love him with all the heart, with all the understanding and all the soul, with all the strength and love 1 neighbor as herself is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus looks at him and he says to the scribe, you're not far from the kingdom of God. Jesus reaches out to all peoples. You know, when you look at the gospel of Mark, Jesus reaches out to fishermen, Peter, James, and John. He reaches out to a tax collector, Matthew.

Reaches out and touches the demoniacs with his grace and their change transformed. Reaches out to a Gentile woman who begs him for a few crumbs from the table. She wants to feed her daughter. He reaches out to a centurion. Later on, we're gonna see as Jesus does that.

He reaches out to blind Bartimaeus. And here he reaches out to a Jewish scribe. 1 of the things we notice about Jesus in the Gospel of Mark is that his love is all embracing, that his word is all encompassing, and his power is all strengthening. Jesus, the divine son of God, reaches out to you. His love reaches out to embrace you.

His grace reaches out to pardon you. His strength reaches out to change you. The gospel of Mark reveals a Christ who forgives those who come, who accepts those who come, who does not cast out those who come, who changes those that come. May Sabbath School this week present this, all embracing, all accompanying Christ as we pray. Father in heaven, Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for these Sabbath school lessons in the Gospel of Mark. Oh Lord, empower us, change us, transform us, make us new again as we study these lessons. In Christ's name, Amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or If You

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Series

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter: The Book of Mark

09 Jerusalem Controversies

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

25m

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

25m

03 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

29m

06 Inside Out

22m

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

23m

08 Teaching Disciples: Part 2

22m

09 Jerusalem Controversies

19m

10 The Last Days

25m

11 Taken and Tried

22m

12 Taken and Tried

23m

13 The Risen Lord

26m

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