Pastor Mike : THE FINAL COUNTDOWN : A Ministry of CHRIST-LIVES MINISTRIES

Pastor Mike : THE FINAL COUNTDOWN : A Ministry of CHRIST-LIVES MINISTRIES

di Mike Letterman

Stagione 5

The Last Supper

In our text today, the Lord Jesus Christ gathers with His disciples to partake in His last meal. He does not have the privilege of requesting what He will eat for His last supper, but the meal He eats may just be the most important meal ever eaten. The meal Jesus Christ eats on the eve of His death is a meal that was designed by God the Father to exalt God the Son. It is a meal that preaches the Gospel. It is a meal that displays the grace of God. It is a meal that signifies the creation of a new spiritual covenant between God and repentant sinners.

Unconditional Love

I want you to see with me the kind of love that every redeemed heart should have for the Savior. I want you to see Extravagant Love on display. I want us to see this love in action so that we might be motivated to express that same kind of unconditional, selfless, all-consuming, boundless, extravagant love to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith

Genuine, biblical faith is a miracle! Faith in God is something we do not possess naturally. Eph. 2:8 tells us that faith is “the gift of God.” God enables us to believe in Him for salvation, then He gives every believer some “measure of faith”, Rom. 12:3. That is, God empowers His children to believe Him, to serve Him, to glorify Him through the power of the faith in Him that He gives to us! This outworking of faith in God’s people has allowed them see demonstrations of God’s power that boggle the mind. It has allowed them to receive answers to prayers for things that appeared impossible. Consider the following: · Joshua 10:12-14 – Joshua commanded the sun to stand still so Israel could defeat the Amorites. · Isaiah 38:1-6 – King Hezekiah was told that he would die. He prayed to the Lord and God added 15 years to his life. · Genesis 22:1-14 – Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac, who was the son of promise. He obeyed by faith and God spared Isaac, providing a ram in his place. · Joshua 14:6-16 – 85 year old Caleb believed God for the power to defeat a mountain infested with giants. God gave him that mountain. · 1 Samuel 17:1-54 – A teenage boy named David believed God for the power to defeat a giant named Goliath. God gave him the victory. · Daniel 3:1-30 – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed God to keep them from the power of a pagan king and a fiery furnace. God met them in the furnace and protected them there. Many, many more examples could be given, Ill. Heb. 11:32-35, but these are enough to teach about the power of biblical faith in God. The passage before us today magnifies the power of biblical faith. On Monday morning of the Lord’s Passion Week, as Jesus his disciples walked toward Jerusalem, Jesus cursed a fig tree, 11:12-14. When they passed by the next day, the fig tree was dried up. Jesus uses this experience to teach His disciples a lesson about The Power Of Biblical Faith.

The Fruitless Fig Tree

We are walking with Jesus and His disciples through the last week of His earthly life. It is amazing that Jesus was able to pack so much activity into a seven day period of time. He accomplished much during those seven days and not a single moment was wasted by our Lord. In this message, we are going to look at an event that occurred early on Monday morning of our Lord’s Passion Week. This single event was designed to teach us about the judgment of God that was coming on the nation of Israel. They had rejected their Messiah and they were about to pay a terrible price. While this text speaks primarily to Israel, there is also a word of warning here for all people. The Lord Jesus wants us all to know that He is examining our lives. He wants us to know that He is looking for genuine spiritual fruit in our lives. When He finds that fruit, we are blessed. When He does not find it, there is a high price to pay. Let’s follow Jesus and His disciples through these verses today. I want to preach about The Fruitless Fig Tree. I want you to see with me The Lord’s Desire; The Lord’s Disappointment; The Lord’s Declaration and The Lord’s Demonstration. Let’s consider these thoughts together. Let’s also be sure that we hear His message to our hearts. It is an important message that we cannot afford to miss.

Jochebad a godly mother

Today is a day when we take the time to honor the one human being who unselfishly gives herself to her children time and time again, without asking for anything in return. If your life has been blessed by the touch of a godly mother, then you have enjoyed one of this world's greatest treasures and blessings. Not everyone has enjoyed this great blessing but those who have will go to their grave remembering the love of their mother. We set aside one day a year to honor mothers. The majority of them deserve it, and they truly are VIPs. Abraham Lincoln declared, "no man is poor who has had a godly mother." A Spanish proverb reads, "An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest." Someone else has said, "The instruction received at Mother's knee, together with the pious and sweet souvenirs of the fireside, are never effaced entirely from the soul."

A Glimpse of the Glory of Christ

The Lord’s disciples were already reeling from the His revelation that He would be put to death and rise again, 8:31. On the heels of that stunning statement, Jesus called His followers to a life of total commitment and absolute separation. His words must have come as a shock to their system. They had left every aspect of life as they knew it to go with Jesus. They did so, expecting Jesus to destroy Rome, deliver Israel and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Now, Jesus tells them that following Him is a costly business. He has given them the negative side of being His follower.

The Mission

His miracles, His teachings, His compassion and His power were all clear evidence that the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament had appeared. Yet, when Israel saw Jesus, they refused to accept Him as their Messiah, their Lord or their Savior. Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders in Israel, Mark 8:11. He was rejected by the nation as a whole, Mark 6:3. He was even judged to be a mad man by His Own family, Mark 3:21. This total rejection is summed up by the Apostle John when he said, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not,” John 1:11. Even as Jesus was attempting to reach Israel, He was also trying to teach His disciples. Jesus spent many months teaching them, displaying His power and revealing His identity to His men is powerful ways. For the longest time, they were blind to His identity. Even though they saw Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, control the forces of nature, multiply bread and fish and raise the dead; they still could not grasp just Who Jesus was.

The Price of Being Number 1

Mark 10:35-45 THE HIGH COST OF BEING NUMBER ONE Intro: Mark 10:35-45 King James Version 35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. 36 And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? 37 They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. 38 But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? 39 And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: 40 But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. 43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: 44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. This text is designed to teach us the truth that not everyone who finishes first is victorious. Sometimes those who take the last seat, those who willingly finish last, are the real winners in the game of life. I think it is clear from reading the Gospels that our Lord’s disciples were anything but humble men. They were always in the business of trying to promote themselves. On several occasions, Jesus sought to combat that mentality, but they never seemed to get the message. In this passage, we see selfish ambition in all of its ugliness. James and John come to Jesus asking for the top seats in His kingdom. Jesus uses this event to teach us all some valuable lessons about leadership, service to others and forgiveness. As we move through this text today, I want you to see the thoughts that come out of this passage. I want you to see A Selfish Petition; A Somber Proclamation and A Spiritual Pattern. As we consider these thoughts, I hope you will see that being first can cost you all you have. I want you to see that being a servant to others is more of a blessing, in the end, than being served by others.

Well Done

Mark 7:31-37 WELL DONE! Intro: The passage opens with Jesus leaving the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon headed back to Galilee. But, Jesus and His men do not go straight back to Jewish country. Verse 31 tells us that they went to “Decapolis”. Mark 7:31-37 King James Version 31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. If you look at where they were and where they were headed to, you would see that Jesus and His men took the long way around. In fact, going through Decapolis to get to Galilee is like going through Atlanta to get to Charlotte! Scholars tell us that a journey of this nature might have taken as long as eight months on foot. If this trip took that long, it would have represented about 20% of the Lord’s total earthly ministry! That is eight months of the Lord’s ministry of which we have no record. What was He doing? We can only speculate, but I would imagine that He was teaching them and training them for the difficult days ahead. When He and His men return, Jesus finds Himself under increasing attack by the Jews. This will be one of the last opportunities that He will have to be alone with His men before He goes to Calvary to die. It is also interesting that Jesus goes to Decapolis. If you will remember, the people of that region had asked Jesus to leave their country, Mark 5:17. Jesus had cast a legion of demons out of the Gaderene Demoniac. Those demons had entered into a herd of swine and the pigs had all drowned. The people of Decapolis had rejected Jesus and forced Him to leave.

Salvation of a Child

It was a Jewish tradition to bring small children to a great rabbi so that he could bless them and pray for them. It was also common for parents to take their children to the synagogue, where each of the elders would take the child in his hands and pray for the life of the child. This is much the same thing that we still do today when we dedicate a child and parents to the Lord. These parents are severely rebuked by the Lord’s disciples. Apparently, they felt that the Master’s time was too valuable to spend on small children. Jesus, in turn, rebuked them for their attitude regarding these children. He told the disciples in no uncertain terms that little children were what the kingdom of Heaven was all about. It is appropriate that Jesus should give us this teaching about little children just after He spoke about the marriage relationship. The statement “and they twain shall be one flesh” (Matt. 19:15) is literally fulfilled when a married couple come together to produce a child.

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