Have you heard these sayings? “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover” ; or “Beauty’s only skin deep”? These common sayings express the fact that there is more beneath the surface in each case than what can be known at a glance. In our lesson today, Pastor Fisher will show us in our study taken from the Gospel of Mark that so it is also with God as He looks at mankind. So, open your bible take a few notes and listen in today as we return to our ongoing study through the gospel of Mark in chapter twelve as our teacher Pastor Fisher shares in a teaching which he calls “Seeing Things God’s Way” So please pray along with our teacher.
Old Testament Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1 – 7 (KJV)
1 Sam 16:1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
1 Sam 16:2 And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD.
1 Sam 16:3 And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.
1 Sam 16:4 And Samuel did that which the LORD spake, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?
1 Sam 16:5 And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
1 Sam 16:6 And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.
1 Sam 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Mark 12:37 – 44 (KJV)
Mark 12:37 David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. Mark 12:38 And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, Mark 12:39 And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Mark 12:40 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. Mark 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. Mark 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. Mark 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: Mark 12:44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) Many of the things that fallen man, the world in general, and even the “visible church” do defy the Word of God and this makes it all the more difficult for people in general {saved or lost} to ascertain the THUTH, which is precisely given in the Bible for the purpose of teaching all men to see things God’s way.
#2) As it was with the future Apostles at this point is the Gospel narrative given through Mark, so also it is with much of the church even today in that it was hard for them to see and accept, what seemed like radically different views on the actions of the religious community as they were being exposed by the light of the truth that Jesus was explaining directly from the Bible.
#3) It is totally possible that the disciples were just as astonished when Jesus revealed that the largest giver at the offering was a poor widow who donated a mere ‘two mites’ as the people in Samuel’s day were when God saw none of the more beautiful, prestigious, and influential sons of Jesse as acceptable to be king of Israel, but rather He chose puny little David the Shepherd boy, who by the people’s standards would not have been up to par.
#4) With all this in mind let us pray that we might come to Jesus having cast out preconceived notions about what we may have been thinking, or what we may have heard from the church, a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a clergyman, an unbeliever, or whoever else, and ask God to give us the capability to see things His way and to do away with our own personal agendas and learn His and do it!
