Hello Robinshe! I hope you're having a nice summer. How is your study of Acts going? Can you tell us anything that the Lord has impressed on you? (I'm continuing to go through the Gospel of Mark) --Joosep
Hello Joosep! Just back from a long and wonderful summer vacation with family filled with much to be thankful for. Acts is keeping me in suspense - I find it fascinating how Peter is told to share the gospel with the Gentiles - he becomes convinced of something that was never apparent to him or to anyone else while Jesus was with them. Why wasn´t Jesus clearer on this subject while he was with them? Then again maybe he was, and they just missed it? And how does the church react to one person claiming that God has given him a new teaching? How would we react today? Does the meaning of his vision become clear to him because this was such an important teaching that God had to make sure that he got the message? Or were Peter and Cornelius just very open to God´s leading, more than we are today? And how are others persuaded that Peter is right about this being God´s will? I´m only on Chapter 12 right now and I think there´s more to come on this subject, so right now I have more questions than answers. How about Mark?
Hello Robinshe! Nice to hear from you and I'm glad to hear that you're thankful and had a nice summer vacation ....
That's a lot of questions you posed, they are all very good questions. I'll try taking on just one for now. "Why wasn´t Jesus clearer on this subject while he was with them? Then again maybe he was, and they just missed it?"
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (ESV). In Mark 16:15 He said, "...Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation....". In Acts 1:8 He said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." So it seems that Jesus was clear on this subject; He commanded them to go far, far, beyond the borders of Israel, and to preach to the WHOLE creation, not just Jews, and to make disciples of EVERY nation, not only Jewish disciples. But it should be pointed out that even though Jesus warned His disciples that He was going to be crucified, it came as a big shock to them -- they fully expected Him to be the political messiah who would liberate Israel from Roman rule. So they weren't yet ready for the idea that they were to go throughout the world and to spread the message of salvation, the gospel. First they had to go through the shock of His death, then His resurrection -- even when He was resurrected, they didn't believe Mary Magdalene when she reported it.
Even in Acts 1:8 they asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Even then they were STILL hoping that Jesus would be the big-time political leader they craved. It wasn't until they "devoted themselves to prayer" (Acts 1:14), all the way up to the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit filled them ... it wasn't till then that the picture started to become clearer for them.
It came to my mind that I didn't answer your question "How about Mark?" Well, I've already typed a long-winded answer above, so I'll just say that I've gone through the whole gospel of Mark and found it to be a great blessing, to have that overview of the whole gospel ... I can't put into words how much it blessed me; if I tried to, I would write another very long answer :)
Now I'm going through the gospel of John, but also going back to Mark from time to time, in order to prepare for a project I'm working on.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not "obeying" learnscripture.net's review queue; instead, I'm going through some part of the Bible in order, keeping track of my scores on an Excel spreadsheet. When the score is good enough, after repeating several times, usually about four times, then I move on to the next chapter. So, I'm using an "unorthodox" method -- it's not really Bible memorization, it's more like intense and repetitive reading, going in order. At the moment, as I said, I'm on the Gospel of John.