road2answers

John 11 When Lazarus’s sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was ill, they said, “Lord, he who you love is ill.” The idea that God is love originates with the Bible.  The gods of the Greeks and Romans were not loving.  The gods of the Asians and Africans were not loving.  The gods of the Native Americans were not loving.  Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” [i]   (John 14:9)  Jesus was loving.  Jesus taught that God is love, and said: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16) This loving God delayed two days after He received word that Lazarus was sick.  John tells us: 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.   6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.  (John 11:5-6) According to this, it was because He loved them that He delayed. Jesus was working to give them a

Mark 5:21-43 Jairus feared for his little girl’s life.  He said to Jesus, “My little daughter is at the point of death.”  (Mark 5:23, ESV) [i] The woman, who to this day remains un-named, feared exposure.  Both came to Jesus for deliverance and healing, and had to face their fears.  Both came to Jesus and found so much more than they first sought.  In their fear and desperation, they came to Jesus and found the answers they were looking for. Mark 5:21 finds Jesus getting out of the boat, presumably on the western shore having just crossed the Sea of Galilee from the region of the Gerasenes.  Jesus had cast a legion of demons from a man.  The demons had left the man and entered some nearby pigs.  When the people saw the man seated and in his right mind and the pigs dead and floating in the sea, they asked Jesus to leave.  Having been rejected by the people of the Decapolis, Jesus got back into the boat and crossed the sea. By this point in his account, Mark has establ

Mark 5:1-20 This is a great story of deliverance. We have here before us an account of extreme demonic oppression. As we go through this account, we are going to look at the condition of the demon-oppressed man, the condition of the evil spirits and the condition of those who observed the deliverance. Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee and came into the region of the Gerasenes (also known as Gergesenes or Gadarenes ).  This area was part of the Decapolis.  The map below shows the area. [i] Decapolis literally means “ten cities.”  This area was the center of Greek and Roman culture in an area otherwise dominated by the Jews and other Semitic speaking people.  To the Jews, this was known as a Gentile area, and was generally southeast of the Sea of Galilee.  The fact that this was a Gentile area would account for the large herd of pigs. Living as they were in close proximity to the Jewi

Mark 2:1-12 Mark 1:46 tells us that because of Jesus’s ministry of healing and casting out demons “Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.”  ESV [i] Mark 2:1 tells us that Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, and word got around that Jesus was at home.  Because of this, Mark 2:2 says: Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door.  While he was preaching God's word to them…  NLT [ii] People were flocking to Jesus.  He healed the sick, cast out demons and taught the word of God.  People flocked to Jesus by the thousands seeking healing, deliverance and truth. I am using healing, deliverance and truth to summarize what Jesus was doing.  When the crowds built up in one area, Mark tells us that Jesus moved on to the next.  He explained: “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for