Calvary Chapel River Oaks

We pick up in chapter 6 where Jesus goes to Nazareth, His home town and then sending out the 12 to other villages.

In our last study we learned that the demons know that Jesus not only has authority over them, but He also will eternally judge them in the appointed time. Picking up with this thought, the demons have reason to fear. They have no option to be redeemed. Man was created in God’s image, and from the beginning God knew that he would fall and His plan of redemption in place.

We will be continuing our study in Psalm chapter 5For our video teachings visit our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ccriveroaks

In this study we will see Jesus once again reveal His power and authority over all things. We will also see that though the demonic realm is powerful, they too have to bow at the feet of Jesus.

We will look at two parables. Both represent spiritual growth.

Psalm 3:1 - 4:8

I will be breaking away from our study in Mark this week, but our focus will be answering the question, what does it all mean? We know the story of Jesus’ birth. We know the story of His crucifixion and His resurrection, but while this is the foundation of the gospel message, many haven’t grasped the full understanding of what this means for us. Why did He come, why did He have to die, and why without the resurrection this would have no real impact? So I hope that as we get into this message, we can answer these questions.

We will see how Jesus comforts us in His Word and by the Holy Spirit

We will continue our study in Psalm 2:1-12

In this study we will look at one parable and what we do with the gospel we have received.

In this study we are going to finish up chapter 3 and we will see How Jesus is making a distinction between His earthly family and His spiritual family. We will also get into chapter 4 and look closely at the parable of the sower and the seed.

We are starting a new study in the book of Psalms

In our last study we saw Jesus once again declare His lordship over the Sabbath which further enraged the scribes and Pharisees. From that point on they were out to get rid of Him. We also saw Jesus anointing His disciples and sending them out with power to preach, heal and cast out demons. As we talked about last week, this is a preparation of what the early church would look like. While the Spirit of God had not yet infilled them, the Power of the Spirit rested upon them. This was a foretaste of what we have today. The church which is you and me, now are filled with the Spirit and have access to His power when we are walking in submission and obedience. Finally we saw the scribes and Pharisees accusing Jesus of being led by the prince of demons Beelzebub. Jesus responded in parables basically saying that a house cannot be divided. Everything He said and did was in obedience to the Father’s will and He was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Jewish leaders could not see Him for who He is reflects upon how hard their hearts were. In this place, they actually accused Him of following Satan. This leads us into this week’s message regarding what they actually did.

In this message we will continue in the same place we left off last message, dealing with the Sabbath. We will also see Jesus now anointing the disciples to go in His power to preach, heal and cast out demons, and how He is accused of being demon possessed.

We will be looking at How Jesus addresses the Sabbath.

We will see Jesus challenged on different points regarding who He hangs out with, and fasting.

In this study we will see the crowds still coming around, and we will continue to see Jesus displaying His authority over all things.

We began our study in the gospel of Mark last week. We saw that Jesus displayed His authority not only in word, but in action. When He began to teach, the people were amazed at His teaching with authority not like the scribes who knew the law and could quote the law, but Jesus was fulfilling the very law that they were quoting. Matthew 5:17-18,17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. He wrote it and it was always about Him and His coming as their Messiah. They missed Him but the demons knew exactly who He is. We saw His authority over them as well. Not only does he cast them out, He has authority to silence them as well. So Jesus is on the move and this week we will see his continued authority over all things and how we need to be careful not to be crowd followers, but keep grounded in Jesus.

Well we finished 1 Peter last week and it was a powerful book of exhortation, encouragement and self-examination. So I expected to go right into 2 Peter as it would make sense to do so, but as I began that study, I just didn’t sense this is where we need to go. I believe the Holy Spirit is leading us to the Gospel of Mark. There are only two books we haven’t studied in the New Testament, which are the two gospels of Mark and Luke. As God has placed it on my heart this year to go outside of our comfort zones, I also feel a sense of urgency. The book of Mark shows us how Jesus went from place to place and this gospel moves quickly from encounter to encounter. Unlike the other gospels, Mark’s gospel doesn’t spend a lot of time on each encounter, but rather shows Jesus as on the move doing the Father’s will. In David Guzik’s commentary, he says this regarding this gospel: “The Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as the Servant of God, as a Workman of God. For this reason, the Gospel of Mark is a “busy” book. In this Gospel, Jesus seems the busiest, moving from one event to another quickly. One of the key words in the Gospel is immediately, occurring more than 40 times in Mark. We see Jesus as a servant busy meeting needs and busy being God’s Messiah. In the Gospel of Mark, the emphasis is on the deeds of Jesus more than on the words of Jesus. “The Gospel of Mark pictures Christ in action. There is a minimum of discourse and a maximum of deed.” Obviously the words of Jesus are the most important for us to grasp, but seeing how Jesus moved among the people is something that I believe we need to look at as we begin our mission in this community. So may the Lord give us what we need to go forth in preparation for that call.

We move from the shepherds and those who are mature in their faith, to the younger ones who are still growing in their faith. They are to come in submission to the elders or those who are spiritually mature so they too can mature in their own faith. Now when we talk about submission, we first look to the elders and make sure they are not lording over the younger ones, but submitting to God first, then to one another. We need to set an example of humility, so pride doesn’t come in and bring division.

We have two groups of people and neither are at peace, because they are either living in a sense of self-reliance, or a place of being constantly bombarded with a wave of despair. We as believers say we have the answer that will address both groups but in all honesty, we have failed at getting this answer to the world. The church is fractured and compromised. We have been so focused on ourselves and separating ourselves from the world and even those other believers who don’t align themselves to our way of doing things or our distinctives. We have become so determined to remain safely within our own group that we have forgotten our primary objective.

This now leads us to the leadership of the church. We have the exhortation for the body, but in order for the body to move forward in this charge, the leadership has to lead. This is where we pick up in 1 Peter chapter 5.

He didn’t tell us that when you get your life together, I will come for you, He came knowing that we are broken and cannot fix ourselves. So when we come together to celebrate, it’s not just tradition, but it is a joyful time of remembrance, when God came down to us to give us the only gift that matters. The gift of life for all who would believe. If you don’t know Jesus, I encourage you this evening to consider this wonderful gift that is presented to you. It’s yours for the taking if you receive it by faith. This is not an intellectual choice. This is a spiritual choice because God is Spirit and truth.

We come to an interesting verse in 1 Peter 4:17-19 that causes us to look inward both personally and corporately regarding the church as the bride of Christ. Keeping this in context, Peter reminded us to be alert and diligent regarding our faith. Separating ourselves from those who try to bring us back into the ways of the old man and still be the light in the darkness. As the church we cannot be effective if we haven’t examined ourselves to first know who God is and what He expects from us. So as the suffering of the saints of God increases for believers, Peter brings us to this place.

We will see what faith over fear looks like.

In some circles, suffering is all from Satan and you if you have enough faith, you can cast it off and if it doesn’t leave then it’s your fault for not having enough faith. In other circles, we are told that we can strategically avoid, change or eliminate suffering by manipulating things or people to become what you think they should be or how they should act to keep us comfortable. Picking up in verse 12 this morning, we see neither of these views regarding suffering line up with scripture.

We now pick up in verse 6, which stays on this very point of God’s judgment 1 Peter 4:6-7,6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. 7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

I want to talk about thanks giving not just the holiday that we celebrate, but rather the attitude of thanks giving, an ongoing mindset which can only come with a transformed mind and heart.

We will continue our study in 1 Peter chapter 4. This chapter repeats things we have covered already which is our conduct, specifically the contrast of the old man vs. the new.

In this study, we continue the message of suffering for our faith knowing that Jesus suffered for us.

We will continue study as we look at suffering as Christ suffered for us.

Unity with others can only come when we are first united in the Spirit with the mind of Christ. For many today, unity doesn’t first begin with submission, but rather on how we can get others to come along side us and what we are doing. The mind of Christ is always about others. But this is the second greatest commandment. We cannot just do this command unless we first seek the first, which is to Love God with all of our heart soul mind and strength.

We will be finishing our study in the book of Malachi

We will be looking at the marriage relationship. It’s interesting that Peter inserts this message right in the middle of submitting to authority and engaging with others. At first glance this seems out of place, but in actuality, it makes sense when keeping things in context.

We will be looking at submitting to those in authority over us.

In this study we will be reminded that the book of Malachi is about the last prophet to speak for over 400 years. The next prophet to come on the scene is John the Baptist, who will prepare the way for Jesus’ coming.

We will look at Jesus being the chief cornerstone, is the foundation of everything.

We will continue to look at the conduct of the believer, coming to Him as a living stone in a spiritual house offering spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God.

We will continue in Malachi 2

We will look further at the character of the new man, and how this character is only rooted in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Keeping things in context, Let’s start with verse 13 and look at our conduct. Specifically holiness and fear or reverence.

God’s children are only the ones who come to Him in humility and repentance and these are the ones He calls His own and those whom He loves. When Jacob came to the end of himself, his heart was changed and so was his name. His name was changed to Israel.

We will answer the question "So where do we find prophetical writings regarding Jesus?"

We will see Peter begins to encourage those who are going through trials and suffering. We will look at rejoicing in trials which is not our natural fleshly reaction.

We will see have God dealt with rebellion and sin

we will see Peter encouraging the church in the hope that we have in Jesus even in the midst of trials and persecution.

We will finish up this book of Hebrews and the writer goes back to his original point as we began this book. We are to follow Jesus and not go back to the law or religious practices where nothing remains for us there. We cannot find our hope here in this world, but our lives are found in the eternal, which is to come.

We are going into the section of this book where mostly the text is speaking of the land distribution. If we were doing an expositional teaching on why the geographical map was important, then we would break down each of these territories in more detail, and while this would be interesting to some, to others it would be just information that they may not be interested in. My point in this study is to bring application so we will not be reading all of these chapters regarding the territories but summarize them. God showed Abraham early on the land that would be given to his descendants through His son Isaac.

We will see the importance of remaining under sound biblical teaching. Again biblical foundational truths that show we serve an unchanging God and we need to guard ourselves against false teaching and false teachers who are not teaching the word which always points to Jesus, but rather their own words that gather people to themselves.

In this study we will focus on nourishing one another as well as an exhortation to remain true to the foundations of our biblical truth.