Class Notes: 9/7/2014

Mark 11:22-29; Jesus enters the temple and is confronted by the Scribes and Pharisees while He is teaching

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 11:22-25; where Jesus explains to His disciples the principles for the function of faith-rest and based on this we have taken up a study of faith-rest where we have seen that faith rest is essentially understanding, believing and resting in what God's Word tells us for the dispensation we live in and waiting for God to come through for us in His way and time.

Last time we saw that the function of faith rest requires humility, professionalism, and integrity. Humility is the foundation that coordinates professionalism and integrity so that the believer glorifies God by their function in the grace policy of the PPOG.

Just before we stopped last time we noted that the spiritual life is not about self-improvement and feeling good, it's about character, integrity and self-discipline that results in obedience to God from one's accurate understanding of God's Word as it applies to the time we live on the earth.

The lust for change through human ability rejects God's grace policy and ignores the power options of the protocol plan of God (the filling of the Spirit and the recall of God's Word).

Believers who function under the spheres of human viewpoint feel entitled to do what they want to do or what some legalist has said they should do. They feel exempt from God's mandates that contradict their legalism, they expect others to rescue them and solve their problems for them rather solving their own problems with God's power.

As a result they fail to advance in God's plan and lose out on God's greater grace blessings because God has to discipline them. James 4:6b;

Losers seek to change their personalities; winners seek to change their character and integrity.

Winners change their character through following the protocol plan of God to its logical and spiritual conclusion.

Winners make these changes from metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness.

God is not looking for self-improvement, but integrity, character, and transformation that comes from His Word and establishes His protective power on the perimeter of the believer's soul.

1Pet 5:5-9; "You younger ones (younger in doctrine), likewise, be subordinate to the authority of your elders (pastors); and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward each another, because God makes war against the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble.

v6 Allow yourselves to be humbled, therefore, under the powerful hand of God, that He may promote you at the proper time,

v7 casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

v8 Attain spiritual self-esteem and be on the alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

v9 Resist him, stand firm in doctrine, because you know our fellow Christians throughout the world are experiencing the same categories of suffering."

We see here that faith-rest is required for God to promote us in His plan because God does not promote anyone apart from the function of faith-rest. Heb 11:6;

This concludes our study of faith rest for the moment and brings us to Mark 11:27; where Jesus and His disciples arrive at the temple. This is Monday morning so it is His second trip to the temple.

Jesus has come back from Bethany where He has spent Sunday night; "the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him" the parallel passage in Matt 21:23; says they interrupted Him while he was teaching by breaking into His conversation while He was teaching.

Mark 11:28; They did this by repeatedly interrupting Him and asking Him "By what authority do you do these things, who gave you this authority?"

The imperfect tense of the Greek word "lego" translated "saying" indicates that they kept on interrupting Him while He was teaching so they were rude and indifferent to Him and his listeners.

The Jewish religious leaders are jealous and afraid of Him because the people are flocking to Him and they are trying to discredit Him so they want to know by what authority He does these things.

They are trying to discredit Him on the basis of the Jewish oral law and their religion where He has no authority but the sponsor of the Jewish religion is satan not God.

Jesus does not come by the authority of satan or in the power of demon influence. He comes by the authority of God the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus does not come according to the Jewish religion and the oral traditions of men and the Talmud He comes according to the Word of God that is in the Tnach.

These leaders have rejected God's Word and established their own rules. Mark 7:7-9;

So they kept on heckling Him and rudely interrupting Him. This is the way arrogant self-righteous people act when faced with someone who is presenting truth that they don't want to hear.

They interrupt and try to discredit the communicator because they cannot discredit the truth.

Mark 11:29; So Jesus said to them." He is going to answer their question with a question. Jesus could have answered their question very simply except that they were not really seeking information; they are simply trying to discredit Him.

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