Journal Day 7

October 8 2006 - Day 7

Mark 6:14-29

Passage: In this passage Mark describes people’s reactions to Jesus and he tells the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. The first part of this passage is what I intend to focus on today. In the previous passage Jesus equipped his disciples with authority to cast out unclean spirits and the ability to heal. He then sent the disciples out into the world to do these ministries. Not only did Jesus give them instructions to heal and such, but apparently He told them to preach a message of repentance. Verse 12 says that they “went out and proclaimed that people should repent.” The next passages are interesting because they describe the various responses of people to the message of repentance. Mixed in with the response to this message was their response to Jesus. Undoubtedly the hearers knew that the disciples were sent from Jesus. It’s obvious from the surrounding context that the disciples did not completely grasp who Jesus was and the salvation He was bringing and certainly most who encountered their ministry did not either. This was a time of much speculation over who Jesus was and what he was doing.

Application: The popular speculations were that Jesus was “John the Baptist…raised from the dead”, some said "He is Elijah", and some said "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." It is amazing that Jesus is still such a hot topic 2000 years later. An almost unending number of books have been written about Jesus since then which cover a vast amount of views of who Jesus was and is. Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was in Mark 8:29 which says, “And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." In the midst of all the opinions I must stay true to the Bible’s claims that Jesus is the Christ, the God-Man.