Exodus 39:1-40:38, Mark 1:1-28, Psalms 35:1-16, Proverbs 9:11-12
Today is the 15th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today fairly…fairly disoriented from the jetlag, but welcome to Rome. We’ll be spending the next…well…today and tomorrow here capturing some film and photography of some places associated with the apostle Paul and now the apostle Peter. That includes part of the Vatican and I’ve never…never been to Italy. So, welcome to Italy. We are in route to Tel Aviv and the annual Daily Audio Bible pilgrimage in the land of the Bible. So, as disoriented as it might be and sort of not…not…quite know where you are, what day it is, and where…what’s going on and try to figure out the time difference back home and all that, it is a joy to be here and I’m sure that I can still read, I believe I can. And hey, this is this is kind of a special day. We concluded the book of Matthew yesterday. So, we’ve gone through the first of the Gospels, which means that when we get to the New Testament today, we will be beginning the gospel of Mark. And we’ll talk about that when we get there but first Exodus chapter 39 and 40. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week, which is today.
Introduction to the book of Mark:
Okay, like I said a couple minutes ago, we’re moving into some new territory today. We finished the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, now we finished the book of Matthew in the new and that leads us to the second gospel, at least in order and that is called the gospel of Mark. So, let’s just understand what we’re reading. Mark, you may have noticed his name wasn’t listed among the disciples that Jesus called to be his 12 because he wasn’t one of them and he wasn’t an apostle either, right? You ever hear anybody talking about the apostle Mark. He was actually more of a long-term disciple of the apostle Peter and we…we see him show up in the book of Acts. He’s also known as John Mark and he lived in Jerusalem and it appears that he came from a fairly wealthy family. His mother’s name was Mary and she had a big house and she had a servant named Rhoda. All this information is found in the book of Acts. And Mary was an early believer and so she opened her home to early believers. And, so, that’s how the church formed and spread. There’s a church tradition holds that her home may have been the place of the upper room where…where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early believers and where Jesus had His last supper. That’s a tradition but it’s been around a long time. So, Mark was around the faith all of his life even as a boy, even as it was beginning. He was like one of the people there at the beginning. So, the apostle Peter was captured by Herod. We’ll read that story later. And…and then he was going to be executed by Herod because Herod had put some other Christians to death and found that was seemingly pleasing to the people. So, he was planning to execute Peter too and an angel came and opened the…opened the gates and let Peter out from jail. And again, this is a story that we’ll read in the book of Acts. But why it’s important is that Peter once he left the jail went to John Mark’s house and Rhoda the servant girl came to the door and she saw him, and she slammed the door in his face because she thought he was a ghost or something. Meanwhile, the house was full of believers praying for Peter. So, that gives us just a little bit of background about who Mark is. So, we see that he’s one of the first generation to grow up in the faith. He has a cousin whose name is Barnabas who was a dear friend of the apostle Paul. And Mark went with Barnabas and Paul on Paul’s first missionary journey. So, he’s got a pedigree and a church tradition holds that he…he later then became a servant or a disciple of Peter and traveled all over with Peter, even serving as an interpreter in Italy, especially in Rome. And, so, everywhere that Peter goes John Mark goes and everywhere the Peter goes, he tells the story of Jesus. So, John Mark has heard this story over and over, which would then in some ways make the contents of the gospel of Mark the testimony of Peter. And most…most scholars would agree that Mark wrote the gospel of Mark but also almost all scholars believe Mark to be the first written gospel of the account of Jesus ministry ever…ever written. And the gospel of Mark is a part of a grouping of three Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke and they are known as the synoptic Gospels because they are so similar, like word for word in some places. And, so, for…for centuries biblical scholars have known this, it’s not like a new discovery or anything. And, so, for centuries it’s been assumed that Mark was the first gospel and Matthew and Luke knew of the gospel of Mark, had the gospel Mark, used the gospel of Mark in composing their own Gospels. And one other unique feature about Mark is…is the language. So, we’ll read it in English, and we might notice it being a little simpler but not that big of deal, but it like…it's…it's…it’s very basic Greek. So, like…I mean this is an English program so I’m speaking English and you are able to understand English if you’re listening to this and we would know the difference between say something written or spoken by an adult or something spoken in…in the vernacular and vocabulary of say a fourth-grader. That’s basically what’s going on in the Greek with Mark. It’s not written all beautiful and all flowy and crafted with all the right words. It’s very basic. I’ve even heard scholars describe it as clunky. So, that’s a little bit of a flyover of this first gospel. And…and, so, now we enter the book of Mark with chapter 1 and we’ll read verses 1 through 28 but let’s be aware that we’re probably reading the first telling of the life of Jesus.
Prayer:
Father thank You for Your word. Thank You for bringing us safely this far of the journey. Thank You for letting us come to the land that…that all of these stories that we’re reading happened in. Thank You for letting us bear witness and we open ourselves to all that You have for us in the land. Lord, for the…for the majority of us all around the world who aren’t physically going to be traveling along, I pray that You would awaken something in their hearts as we talk it about each and every day as we share the places that we’ve been and where…what we’ve seen and what it felt like and what it looked like…and the pictures and the posts. I ask Father that You would bind us together in community as a go through this pilgrimage. We pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website and home base for…for what’s going on around here in the community.
And what’s going on right now is our annual pilgrimage to the land of the Bible. So, here in Italy, in Rome today for the first time to…to actually capture some…some of the story that intersects here with Peter and Paul. We’re actually scheduled to go into a catacomb today that you have…have an archaeologist to get in there, but there are some…well…actually the earliest depictions of the apostle Paul, like the…the earliest kind of portrait that was painted on a wall, actually on the ceiling I believe, exists. So, yeah, we’re just kind of tracing some of this. We’ve worked hard over the years to try to bring context to the Bible because context is the thing that made the Bible start to make sense and matter. Just to kind of understand what was going on, it makes a difference…makes a difference to be able to see. It makes a huge difference to be able to visit, but it makes a big difference to be able to…to see. Like we were just reading in the gospel of Mark and Jesus is in Capernaum and He…He…He casts out an evil spirit from a person in the synagogue and it’s like, yeah, that’s there. Capernaum is there and there is a synagogue there and although it’s a more recent synagogue from Jesus time, the…the foundation of it isn’t. The foundation is the synagogue Jesus spoke in. And we’ll be visiting there in several days and posting pictures. So, like I mentioned a couple days ago I think, this is a really good time to follow the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page or at least be aware. Like it’s Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible or our Instagram page Daily Audio Bible because all throughout this journey we’ll be posting these pictures. So, like just talk about Capernaum. When we go through there, we’ll be posting pictures and sitting right on the Sea of Galilee and it makes a difference to visit but it helps to see. These are real places. These are ancient real places where these things happened. So, anyway, it’s a…it’s a good time to be aware of Instagram and…and Facebook for the Daily Audio Bible.
Then a week from today we’ll be broadcasting live. I need to get a little…I need to get my bearings before I can start talking about it. I know that it will happen like 7 PM local time and that’s usually like noon back in Nashville, but I’ll get that all squared away and let you know. That’ll be…be next Saturday., So, yeah, just asking again and it won’t be the last time. I’ll continue to ask for…for the continued prayers over all of the efforts here. I mean…I’ve been…I’ve been…been here, I’ve seen these things and the reason that we continue to do this is because you…you can't…you can’t see the Bible the same afternoon this. And it feels like the deepest calling and mission of my life to…to…do everything that I possibly can to help people never see the Bible the same again. So, although it’s a wonderful joy it’s a lot of work and there’s all lot involved. And, so, we pray over those things, over the technology, over the travel, over the vehicles, over the people, over health, over whether. There’s just a lot of variables. And, so, thank you, as a community. We’ve done this every year. Thank you for your prayers.
Okay. I better get out here.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi this is Lisa from Phoenix. I want to call in and put a prayer request in for my mom. She’s been a faithful listener for about three years. Her and my dad listened to this the Daily Audio Bible faithfully and did this together and two years, almost 2 years ago, God took him home. And that summer my mom went out and met Brian and Jill and it was like the best gift that you could’ve have given her is to meet to meet you guys because she has grown so much by listening to this Daily Audio Bible. And I’m so thankful. She’s been my rock cause since my dad passed away and she too has prayed for me and my kids and continues too and just lifts up my sister and her family. And she just has grown so much closer to God over the years especially after my dad passed away. And right now, her health is just not well. She is going to go in on Tuesday for an injection in her back to release the inflammation that is pinching a nerve down her right leg and she barely can walk, and she can’t take pain medicine right now and she’s in so much pain. That hides it. She even went to church yesterday and just worshiped God and it just brings me such great pleasure to watch my mom. So, please pray for Jackie. I love you mom and I hope this procedure works. And if not, God, I know you know the answer.
Hello, my name is Anna Beth and I him in Auburn Alabama. I was at church this morning and was just very convicted over the fact that I have not been faithful in sharing truth with my brother, my brother who does not follow Jesus. His name is Jay. And, so, I’m just calling to pray or to ask that you would pray for me and just pray that I would have boldness, pray that I would have a heart that breaks for my brothers lost soul, and pray that the Lord would use me as his vessel, although I’m a broken vessel and I’m week and that the Lord is powerful, the Lord is strong, and the Lord is the one who convicts and the Lord is the one who grows. And, so, I just ask that, yeah, the Lord would give me a boldness and the Lord forgive be a desire to share with my brother like never before. Yeah.
Hi Daily Audio Bible my name is Samuel and I’m calling in to ask for prayer for a court date I have tomorrow. I just needed to do one thing on Friday to be able to get reinstated back on probation after a self admitted relapse on drugs and alcohol this past holiday season. However, because of a of a social anxiety disorder that I have that I can control sometimes I was not able to do what they asked me on Friday. So, I have to go in front of the judge. The last time I got in front of this judge he did not believe that the social anxiety was true because…because I don’t have health insurance, I’m not able to get it specifically diagnosed and I wasn’t able to see a doctor this weekend. So, tomorrow I have to go in standing on faith and that believing that our God is truth and standing on the truth of what I’m dealing with. And I need Daily Audio Bible DABber’s prayer as I go into this tomorrow. My families interceding, my brothers in Christ are interceding, my serve and lead team are interceding for me that I have favor with the honorable judge of my County in the 292 district. Just please have me in your prayers. I trust that God will have me exactly where He needs me to be regardless of what happens. I just trust in His faith, faithfulness, faithfulness Lord. Thank you, Jesus and thank you DABber’s and thank you Brian. Let God bless you and protect you the rest of the week. Thank you.
Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABber’s. I wanted to pray for my precious sister Sharon who’s afraid that she’s gonna lose out on her daughter, that her oldest daughter and she’s getting ready to move. I want to pray for you Sharon and I want to let you know that God knows where you are no matter where you are and you don’t have to…she don’t have to go where you live but God will allow you all to meet face-to-face. Gracious Father, we praise you and we just praise you and magnify you to touch our sister Sharon. Oh Lord encourage her Lord, strengthen her Lord, help her to see her through your eyes. Help her to know you more and know you’re a God that can go more places than just her home. Oh Lord you can find her daughter on the street that she’s walking on one day and then you…He knows that you’re going to be there and you’re all going to meet face-to-face. Our God can do anything but fail. Don’t be afraid of any…of anything. Just be…just meet your eyes on Him. Oh, just begin to think about Him and think about what He can do. He’s a God can do anything. Lord you bless her. You bless that daughter to come home. Lord you regulate her mind, you convict that heart. You tell her let her come to herself like the young man like the prodigal son, let her come to herself instead of __ going to my mother. Oh Lord in the name of Jesus Lord you have your way. Lord I ask You to also touch Isaac Lord and You continue to bless him, continue to strengthen him Lord. Let that forgiveness begin to penetrate and begin to give him more strength even those who are going through anxiety, those who are going through depression. Oh Lord You have Your way in the name of Jesus, You, strengthen him Lord and continue to direct his path in the name of Jesus. Lord let him know that sometimes God takes care of us before we even know we need help. Just remember that He is God and He is not man. Oh Lord we just ask…
Hello, I’m calling anonymously tonight but I’m going to attach the name pink paint I think, so I have some type of reference. I’m an artist and I love the color pink and I’m reaching out because it feels safe to reach out to this community. I’m newer to the community. So, I just really need prayer. I’m feeling really helpless. And I’m reaching out…I’m just…God doesn’t…doesn’t just have the color pink on His pallet. He has red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, purple, white, black, brown, and then shades on top of shades on top of shades of those colors. And then when we get to heaven there’s going to be more colors we don’t even know exist, but that’s a whole nother conversation for another time. But I’m reaching out to all the colors on the pallet. I’m the color pink and I need the other colors to pray for me. Today is February 10th, it’s my birthday. I’m turning 43 today and it’s…I’m…it’s been one of the hardest times of my life and I just need prayer. God bless you all. I’m praying for you all. Thank you.
DAB family this is Laura in South Florida. I am so grateful for this program for being able to be involved with listening to God’s word every single day with all of you. Thank you, Brian, Jill, China, everyone who’s involved in producing this program to get it so we can hear it all over the global community. I am praying for all of you Brian as you travel to the promise land, all of you who will be making this pilgrimage and will be walking where Jesus walked and see where this history is made. I also will be traveling to Rome to see my grandson during is…the same time you’re traveling. But I am praying for each of you every day. I am praying…with you in heart, and spirit, and I’m praying for safety as you travel for the Lord’s blessings to be on you, for you to come home with a renewed sense of…of God in your life. And I’m thanking you Father God for this opportunity for everyone and I pray blessings and Your Holy Spirit to guide every word, every step, as they travel and bring them all home safely. Thank you, Father for Your holy word in Your precious name I pray.