Dr. Terry Threadwell's Blog

Mark 3:20-27   Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.  But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”  So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?  “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. “And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  “And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.  “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

There’s always the danger that we miss what God is doing and attribute it to the work of the devil.  Several respected revivalist preachers and theologians of that time condemned the Azusa Street Revival. G. Campbell Morgan described the activities on Azusa Street as “the last vomit of Satan.” R. A. Torrey declared that this movement was “emphatically not of God, and founded by a Sodomite.” H. A. Ironside said in 1912 that the movement was “disgusting … delusions and insanities … pandemonia were exhibitions worthy of a madhouse or a collection of howling dervishes,” causing a “heavy toll of lunacy and infidelity.” W. B. Godbey saw the movement as a result of spiritualism and that the participants were “Satan’s preachers, jugglers, necromancers, enchanters, magicians, and all sorts of mendicants.” Statements like these were made because they didn’t fully understand what God was doing, it shock their foundations, jealousy, and bigotry.

A kingdom, a house and even a church divided cannot stand.  We will never be effective if we allow the devil to be in control. 

·        We need to “Come together in unity, and nothing we plan to do will be impossible” (Gen 11:6)

·        Put to one-side those things we don’t quite understand.

·        Learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and use the gift of discernment.

Mark 2:1-12  NKJ And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.  Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.  Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.  And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”  And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?  “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?  “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — He said to the paralytic,  “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”  Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

In the house there were the spectators, looking for a miracle as if it were a party trick. Jesus describes these people in the parable of the weed and the seed.  He says, “’When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes– so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ (Mat 13:14-15 NLT) Even seeing God working, they gained nothing from the experience. Then there were the legalists.  They so tied up in the theological issues that they missed the whole experience. But then there were those who wanted a breakthrough and were prepared to break through to get it.  Nothing stopped them getting what they came for—and they got it.

Mark 1:12-13 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.  And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

When you find yourself in a wilderness situation who do you blame?  The last person you would think of would be the Holy Spirit.  We always blame the Devil, but as Job found out, sometimes God picks the fight, or in this case, it was the Holy Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness.  Mark doesn’t deal with the whole wilderness experience, but we know from Luke that:

1.      The Devil will be there to tempt you

2.      The wilderness is the place you will find God,  (If you’re there it’s the will of the Father, the Word will help you, and the Spirit will empower you and bring you out)

3.      It’s the place of focus.

Next time you find yourself in a wilderness experience don’t blame the Devil.  Instead, ask the Lord what He wants you to learn.

Mark 1:9-13  It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.  And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

You may be going through a tough time right now or experiencing a blessing.  It might be a mountaintop experience or a valley.  It might be that you’re not happy with yourself, or others around you are quick to find fault.  Today, I want you to hear that voice from heaven that is speaking to you and saying, “You are My beloved son, daughter in whom I am well pleased.”  Father is happy with His children.  So at the end of this week and like me, it may seem like they run together, take a deep breath and give yourself a break.  It’s okay Dad sees the bigger picture, and he knows. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  10  (Isa 55:8-10 NLT)

Mark 1:1-4  The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.”  “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’ ”  John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Isaiah 40:3  The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.

Isaiah 62:10    Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples!

Isaiah 35:7-10   The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.  A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray.  No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,   And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Have you heard about the new road construction God has been working on and invited us to participate in?    Isaiah tells us that this highway is for the Lord coming to do the will of the Father.  It was a road that led through Calvary and beyond, Isaiah calls it the highway of holiness. 

1.      Only the redeemed can travel this way.  The powers of darkness may roam , but they are not permitted on the highway.

2.      As long as we stay on this highway, the devil can not come there.

3.      The third piece of good news is that we should invite the enquirer to walk the highway—remove the obstacles they may face and keep the road straight. Let your life be a road sign, showing others the way.

I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.  And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:12-17 NKJ)

Seven cataclysmic events would remind the Christians that God was still in complete control and able to bring all things to an end. Romans and Greeks, however, with their polytheistic society (Vulcan, god of the volcano, Neptune,  god of the sea, and Mars, god of war, to name a few) they would have thought that the gods were angry and not known what to do, and been fearful.

We need to remember that John’s understanding of he saw lacked the knowledge of the universe that we have today.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. (Rev 6:9-11 KJG)

Remember, John is talking to first century Christians about all the things they were experiencing and going through.  It would be another four hundred years before Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of Rome, and quite honestly, it was the downfall of Christianity.

So how many Christians were there that were martyred? (Acts 1:8, being a witness) Different sources quote different figures. Some sources list the figures as high as nearly 100,000 up to 313 AD, with over 20,000 of them under Diocletian’s Great Persecutions between 303-311 AD, and still, the Church grew.

Western Christians that held to a dispensational theology would always talk about the ‘Rapture’ followed by ‘Tribulation,’ while that sat in their recliners, getting fat and lazy.  Elsewhere in the world Christians were being persecuted, even killed for their faith. Faith that costs you nothing, and I am not talking about salvation, but the personal investment is no faith at all.  In fact, the few minutes it has taken you to read this devotion somebody, somewhere has paid the ultimate price for their faith.  How much are you willing to invest?

When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.  (Rev 6:7-8 NKJ)

Wherever an empire goes death comes along for the ride. Literally, the Roman Empire was given the liberty to do as they chose. God knew that they would steal, kill and destroy, that’s why Hades followed Death, not to clean up the mess but to swallow up the empire.

Eight reasons why the Roman Empire would fall. 

1.      Invasion by an empire more evil than they were. The Barbarians became strong and when the Roman Empire split in two, east and west, they saw their opportunity to attack.

2.      Economic troubles and over-reliance on slave labor. With Rome under attack from the outside, the empire started to crumble on the inside. Too many wars, over spending, high taxes, inflation and a widening gap between rich and poor, with the rich moving their money elsewhere to avoid paying taxes.

3.      The empire split in two. An Eastern and a Western Empire became easy to manage at first, but they became divided and vulnerable.

4.      Military budget too big.

5.      Corruption and political instability

6.      Treatment of the alien and the stranger.  The Huns were attacking the Goths, pushing them up to the edge of the Roman Empire.  The Romans allowed them to cross over for safety but treated them terribly. The Romans forcing the starving Goths to put their children into slavery in exchange for dog meat. Eventually they turned.

7.      Christianity destroyed traditional Roman values—the Emperor was no longer god. The popes became the power house. The Church also suffered until the 1500’s

8.      Unable to recruit citizens for the army, they relied on mercenaries. The mercenaries were available to the highest bidder and became the enemy within.

John four horses didn’t come and go overnight, but God was in no hurry, others had come and gone before.  After all, the Lamb was now enthroned.

Could we learn from history–Yes! Will we learn from history–No!

When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword.  (Rev 6:3-4 NKJ)

Seal number two talks about power.  Every entity, like the Roman, Babylonia, Assyrian, Persian or even  the United States of America is given power, and that power comes from God.  It is not uncommon that when a major power falls, like the old Yugoslavia, that smaller powers try to gain more power and will war against each other. Remember, what we see in flesh and blood is only a manifestation of the spiritual realm.

Even the average Christian has power given by God. John tells us, but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God — to those believing in his name, (Joh 1:12 YLT) When you link this to the power to witness  (Acts 1:8), the Christian is a dynamic force for good in the world.

When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Rev 6:5-6 NKJ)

Just to recap, in Revelations 6 we have the four horses, often referred to as the four horses of the Apocalypse, and taken completely out of context and brought into the future. I believe the Apostle John was showing the Christians that the wicked and cruel Roman Empire was not outside the government of God. Yesterday we looked at Rome government, symbolized by the Caesar on a white horse.  The Caesar would return from a campaign and parade into Rome on a white horse, and wearing a crown, ‘king for a day.’ No wonder, when Christ returns in Revelation 19, on a white horse, he comes as ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. King forever!

I’ll come back to the second seal, power, tomorrow and turn to the third seal, the economy of God. John warns the people that the Roman economy would collapse, but those who followed the economy of God would prosper. Rome had no central bank to regulate their economy, every coin bore the head of Caesar and so whenever the Caesar wanted to gain popularity he minted more coins—hyper-inflation followed that would eventually play a part in their down fall.

The economy of God was laid out in Leviticus, not as a law so much as it was a set of principles to succeed by. They included.

*Sustainability, *Employment laws, *Loan and Mortgage regulation, *Immigration policy, *Food, and Nutrition and the *Tithe, all linked to a seven-year cycle that culminated in a Jubilee. Follow Rome and pay the price.  Trust in the Lord and see the blessings flow.