Patient Suffering for Christ Mark 15:16-32

Text: “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.  For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But, if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For (a conclusion) even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.”

1 Peter 2:19-21. 

Good morning, falsely accused Christian!  Both you, and the author, feel deeply, the hurt of being falsely accused of faults, failures, actions and words, in which we actually contributed no offence. 

Personal Note: It is, for me, almost impossible not to immediately protest innocence, or defend myself when wrongly accused.  I pray often for the power of patience, taking into full consideration also my penchant for ‘NOT SUFFERING FOOLS GLADLY’.  Having lived a life of receiving and causing violence, often instant violence – I need an ‘all-sufficient grace’ from the Lord God to keep me from unloosing the old man within me, and silencing by force the tongues of my worldly detractors.  Therefore, I can empathise completely with those Readers of my Bible Lesson blog who are similarly affected in this impatient manner.  Let us pray one for another that the Lord God Almighty might grant us more power to be patient in times of false accusation and attacks from would-be detractors.

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man (made righteous in Christ Jesus) availeth much.  Elias (Elijah) was a man of like passions as we are…” (James 5:16-18)

However, just read again the patience of our altogether lovely, Holy, impeccable Saviour, Jesus Christ, contained in our selected Bible reading from Marks’s Gospel today.  What a wonder of perfect self-control!  What a Divine patience practiced!  What an example to follow!

“He (Christ Jesus) was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)

Utter Humiliation: An entire ‘band of soldiers’ were employed to cruelly humiliate, buffet (punch hard), and ruthlessly abuse the Creator Lord God, Jesus Christ! (Mark 15:16-20)

Scourged: Pilate had the Lord Jesus scourged. “What did being scourged with the Roman flagellum involve?  The victim to be scourged was stripped and made to stretch his arms around a pillar, boulder or another large object, typically at a forward-leaning angle. His hands were then "bound...with thongs" (Acts 22:25) tightly on the other side of the pillar or boulder so that his arms were distended and his back stretched taut. He was then whipped with the Roman flagellum, which is a whip with two or three long leather strips attached to a short wooden handle. Knotted in along the leather strips were pieces of metal and bone that dug into and then tore out flesh during the whipping, which shredded the victim's back from the neck to the buttocks. It wasn't uncommon for the victims of the Roman scourge to die from the ensuing blood loss and/or shock.” (BibleVerseStudy.com)

Buffeted: The Lord Jesus was buffeted by ‘a whole band’ of Roman soldiers. Buffeting definition: “to give a blow with the fist. It describes the coarse and cowardly treatment of Jesus by the Jewish religious leaders and so-called guardians of God’s law. He was not subjected simply to insults and mockery but to violent blows with clenched fists (Matthew 26:67; Mark 14:65).  (https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/buffet-buffeting)

“I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6)

The Holy and altogether lovely Son of God, God the Son Jesus Christ, took all this punishment that ‘His people’, you and me, completely deserved to suffer, in order that we might be spared Everlasting Punishment – can we not say together, beloved reader?  Hallelujah! What a Saviour! (Matthew 1:21)

J.C. Ryle Comments:

“Let us mark, secondly, in these verses, the meekness and lowliness of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He stood before Pilate’s bar, and was “accused of many things,” He answered nothing. Though the charges against Him were false, and He knew no sin, He was content to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, not answering again. (Hebrews 12:3) Though He was innocent of any trans­gression, He submitted to hear groundless accusations made against Him without a murmur. Great is the contrast between the second Adam and the first! Our first father Adam was guilty, and yet tried to excuse him­self. The second Adam was guiltless, and yet made no defence at all. “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so openeth he not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)

“Let us learn a practical lesson from our Saviour’s example. Let us learn to suffer patiently, and not to complain, whatever God may think fit to lay upon us. Let us take heed to our ways, that we offend not in our tongues, in the hour of temptation.

“I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.” (Psalm 39:1)

“Let us beware of giving way to irritation and ill-temper, however provoking and undeserved our trials may seem to be. Nothing in the Christian character glorifies God so much as patient suffering. “…If when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is ac­ceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps.” (1 Peter 2:20-21) (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

Thought: Let us learn from Christ’s suffering, to be patient when suffering ourselves.

Social Pressure Peril! Mark 15:1-15

Text: “And Jesus....said, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s…”

Mark 12:17.

Good morning, Christian civil servant!  Take care how you fulfil your social services to the State; beware of peer pressures; remember Pilate’s peril; and do what is right in God’s sight.

Sincere Christians serving the State in any given Christian democracy today must be diligent to withstand social pressures to govern or serve the State in manners contrary to God’s will.

 Subtle social pressures to serve Caesar at the expense of faithfulness to Christ are ever present to believers in such positions of civil service, and therefore the dangers of being a latter-day Pilate are manifold. Be vigilant, my friend! 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8)

Pilate’s example of serving Caesar rather than the Lord God teaches us many things about social pressures today; and the peril of yielding to such pressures.  Social pressure can kill!

Pilate’s Perceptions: (V. 10) Pilate’s perceptions of Christ’s plight were sharp and plain.  He knew the Lord Jesus had been brought before him for judgment due to the envy of the chief priests.  Envy, too, is a killer! 

Beware of Envy: “For he knew that the chief priests had delivered Him (Jesus) for envy.” (Mark 15:10) (Acts 7:9) (Proverbs 3:31)

Envy sent Joseph into slavery (Genesis 37:27); Daniel into the lion’s den (Daniel 6:16); and the Living Lord Jesus to the Cross at Calvary.  (Matthew 27:15-18)

Envy fuelled the social pressures to crucify the Saviour, but Pilate chose to yield to it.  (Proverbs 27:4)

The decision Pilate made that fateful day brought him infamy in posterity and damnation in Eternity, as opposed to the mere social approval he sought.  (Proverbs 16:8-16)

Pilate’s Pandering: (V. 15) Pandering is defined as the act of agreeing to, or gratifying the evil wishes of others in society.  God’s Word clearly reveals Pilate’s pandering to social pressures via his decision - against his own perceptions of what was right and just - to release the murdering rebel, Barabbas, and crucify the sinless Christ in his place.

Pilate served Caesar instead of God.  He bowed to social pressure, at the expense of serving the Lord.  He gained the world’s esteem - yet lost his own immortal and precious soul.  (Matthew 16:24-26)

Many Christians today who are employed by the government as policemen, prison warders; prison governors; social workers; doctors; and politicians - come under great social pressures to serve the State’s interests at the expense of personal faithfulness to God.

In many cases, their honest stand for truth against State corruption; justice against State tyranny; can cost them their jobs.  Yet, praise God, NOTHING can cost them their soul’s Salvation, and their profoundest peace of mind.  All things work together for their good! (Romans 8:28)

J.C. Ryle Comments:

“These verses begin the chapter in which St. Mark de­scribes the slaying of “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” It is a part of the Gospel history which should always be read with peculiar reve­rence. We should call to mind, that Christ was cut off, not for Himself, but for us. (Daniel 9:26) We should remember that His death is the life of our souls, and that unless His blood had been shed, we must have perished miserably in our sins.

“Let us mark in these verses, what a striking proof the Jewish rulers gave to their own nation that the times of Messiah had come. The chapter opens with the fact, that the chief priests bound Jesus and “delivered Him to Pilate,” the Roman Governor. Why did they do so? Because they had no longer the power of putting any one to death, and were under the dominion of the Romans. By this one act and deed they declared that the prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled. “The sceptre had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet,” and Shiloh the Messiah, whom God had promised to send, must have come. (Genesis 49:10) Yet there is nothing whatever to show that they remembered this prophecy. Their eyes were blinded. They either could not, or would not, see what they were doing.

“Let us never forget that wicked men are often fulfilling God’s predictions to their own ruin, and yet know it not. In the very height of their madness, folly, and unbelief, they are often unconsciously supplying fresh evidence that the Bible is true. The unhappy scoffers who make a jest of all serious religion, and can scarcely talk of Christianity without ridicule and scorn, would do well to remember that their conduct was long ago foreseen and foretold. “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” (2 Peter 3:3) (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

Christian Civil Servants, by refusing to serve Caesar (i.e., the State) at the expense of their faith, show true allegiance to Almighty Lord God and are saved by His grace from the ultimate peril of social pressures - a Christ-rejecter’s Hell.  Christian – do what is right!

Thought: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve...” - the Lord God, or some worldly Government Caesar?

Jesus Declares His Full Deity! Mark 14:60-72

Text: “…Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? (Capital B) And Jesus said, I AM: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven.”

Mark 14:61-62.

 “And Moses said unto God, Behold (look closely, and fully understand), when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His Name? What shall I say unto them?  And God said unto Moses I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Exodus 3:13-14.

God morning, Fully-believing Christian!  Not for you some half-way-house belief in the Lord God, or some parttime belief in the veracity of God’s revealed will.  No!  You and I are called to be 100% Bible-believing Christians, fully-believing Christians, or we are not true Christians at all! Fact. 

Those that quibble and hesitate, and falter in belief that Jesus Christ IS, was, and Eternally has been, and Eternally shall be – God of Very God, the Creator of this entire world, and mankind in Adam – are NOT genuine Christians at all.  FACT! 

We have God’s own inspired Word on this vital matter: “He that believeth (continual verb: believes and continues to believe; trusts, and continues to trust) on Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) Now, this is as clear as a bell, right?

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him (God the Father) that sent Me (God the Son), hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)

The Lord Jesus Christ is, was, and always shall be God of Very God. Believe it, dear friend, for there is no Salvation for those that do not believe this vital fact of Salvation. Believing that Jesus Christ was a very good man; or God’s example of what we should be as Christians – is just NOT ENOUGH to be Eternally saved.  But it is enough to be Eternally lost!  Jesus Christ IS the Lord God.  If you are to miss some fact of faith – don’t let it be this one!

The Apostle Paul writes (at all times in the full inspirational authority of God the Holy Ghost) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself (by the incarnation – God in bodily form) of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient (to God the Father’s will) unto death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore (a conclusion) God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:5-11) Amen! Hallelujah!

J.C. Ryle Comments:

Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, what distinct testimony our Lord bore to His own Messiahship, and second advent in glory. The high priest asks Him the solemn question, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” He receives at once the emphatic reply, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”

“These words of our Lord ought always to be had in remembrance. The Jews could never say after these words, that they were not clearly told that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God. Before the great council of their priests and elders, He declared, “I am the Christ.” The Jews could never say after these words, that He was so lowly and poor a person, that He was not worthy to be believed. He warned them plainly that His glory and greatness was all yet to come. They were only deferred and postponed till His second advent. They would yet see Him in royal power and majesty, “sitting on the right hand of power,” coming in the clouds of heaven, a Judge, a Conqueror, and a King. If Israel was unbelieving, it was not because Israel was not told what to believe.

“Let us leave the passage with a deep sense of the reality and certainty of our Lord Jesus Christ’s second coming. Once more at the very end of His ministry, and in the face of His deadly enemies, we find Him asserting the mighty truth that He will come again to judge the world. Let it be one of the leading truths in our own personal Christianity. Let us live in the daily recollection, that our Saviour is one day coming back to this world. Let the Christ in whom we believe, be not only the Christ who died for us and rose again, the Christ who lives for us and intercedes, but the Christ who will one day return in glory, to gather together and reward His people, and to punish fearfully all His enemies.” (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

The high priests and religious rulers of Jerusalem reacted to Christ’s declaration of His full deity by accusing Him of ‘blasphemy’!  Then they proceeded to ‘…condemned Him to be guilty of death…spit on Him…cover His face…buffet Him (punch Him hard), torment Him; and “the servants did strike Him with their hands.” 

Hell will be so much more torturous to those that have treated the Christ of God, and His Christian followers, with such brutal contempt.

Peter was faithful enough to follow Christ into the heart of the conflict – but then began to ‘warm himself at the fire of the world’.  Are Christians like you and I doing the same today?  Are we obvious Christians when in the company of other believers, then warming ourselves at the fires of the world when we are not?  Sobering thought, beloved in Christ.

Thought: Keep fully believing that Jesus is the Christ – God of Very God – He is risen! Hallelujah!