Tag: Mark

Mountain trail - Photo by Fabien Wl on Unsplash
Cross, Discipleship

MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP

David R Maas

To be his disciple means to pursue self-sacrificial service for others, and especially so to the weak and insignificant.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus explained to the disciples what it meant to be the Messiah, and not for the first time, for in the city of David, he would face his final confrontation with the Temple authorities and death at the hands of the Romans. Was not that city the appointed place where the prophets were killed, and the Messiah himself must suffer rejection and death?

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Discipleship, Kingdom of God

GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM

David R Maas

To be a citizen of the kingdom requires a life of self-sacrificial service for others, and not power over them – Mark 10:35-45.

Having predicted his trial and execution, Jesus observed the disciples jockeying for position in the coming messianic kingdom. As before, he taught them that citizenship in the kingdom means a life of self-sacrificial service to others. But as he approached the city, even his closest followers had a very different idea of what it meant to “rule” in his Kingdom.

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Olivet Discourse, Signs and Seasons

KNOWING TIMES AND SEASONS

David R Maas

Instead of calculating times and seasons, followers of Jesus must always be prepared for his sudden arrival – Acts 1:6-8.

Did Jesus task his followers with knowing end-time chronologies, the “times and seasons”? Are believers able to decipher key “signs” by which they can decipher the time of Christ’s return? For that matter, did Jesus and the apostles leave us with a comprehensive list and timeline of end-time events whereby we can calculate the arrival of the end of the age?

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Olivet Discourse, Temple

THIS GENERATION

David R Maas

The generation contemporary with Jesus witnessed the events that he predicted that culminated in the destruction of the Temple – Mark 13:28-31.

Next, Jesus provided the chronological key – the disciples would know the time of the Temple’s demise when they saw all “these things” coming to pass, and before “this generation” reached its inevitable end. That was his definitive answer to the question, “when will these things come to pass?” – within one generation.

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Olivet Discourse, Temple

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE DISCOURSE

David R Maas

The Olivet Discourse presents two key events linked to two different geographic contexts, one regional, and the other global.

In his ‘Olivet Discourse,’ Jesus described several key events that would occur in the future, especially the destruction of the Temple and the “coming of the Son of Man.” In doing so, he provided geographic details related to each of these two events that alternated between the local and the universal, depending on which event he was describing.

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