Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Thursday, September nineteen,
twenty twenty four. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson
study series through the Bible Book of Mark, and our
caption for today is Laid to Rest, Laid to Rest.
We'll get into that in just the moment, but first
I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you
to please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community, pick up your Daily Portion book,
and let us know where you are in the world.
At your Daily Portion dot com. This is one of
the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
Let's go ahead and pray and then get under weigh. Father,
we thank you for this day and for getting us
just one more step closer to Sabbath, one more step
closer to the coming of the Son of Man. Father.
I just pray that you will find lodgment in our hearts,
that you will be welcomed in our lives. That we
will learn today to appreciate all that you have done
for us, even if we don't understand all of it.
I just pray now, God, that you will make us holy.
That's really what I'm after, Father, holiness and transformation in
Jesus name. I pray Amen and Amen again laid to rent.
I think about that song and I want you to
look it up and maybe listen to it as well.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? And the
writer of that song said, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you
there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you
there when they nailed him to the tree? Sometimes sometimes
it causes me to tremble tremble, tremble. Were you there
when they crucified my Lord? You see, it's easy to
look at these stories as some historic event. It's easy
for us to look for some cues and markers for
understanding an intellectual discussion. Sometimes, those of you who are
God's people, sometimes you can get caught up. We can
get caught up into the details and miss the worship opportunities, opportunities.
Sometimes we can get caught up in the details and
miss the close encounters that God has orchestrated in the
stories for us to see how much He loves us,
to experience Him in a new and a real way.
Sometimes we get to the point where we can become
so intellectually stimulated that we miss the opportunity to truly
connect with God. And so I'm asking you, I'm asking me,
were you there when they crucified my Lord? Lord? Help us? Lord,
help us. The Bible says that if we don't yield
ourselves to God, if we knowing good and well how
we should live, we turn away from God in anything,
then we are crucifying unto ourselves Jesus Christ afresh and
putting him to an open shame. This is what the
Bible writer said, were you there? Was I there? So
we continue the discussion from the Bible, Book of Mark,
chapter fifteen, beginning at verse forty two, and the Bible reads,
and now when even was come, because it was the preparation,
that is, the day before the Sabbath. So tomorrow for
us will be the preparation, the day before the Sabbaths.
We call it Friday. In this part of the world.
Joseph of Arimathea an honorable counselor. See, this man was honorable,
which also waited for the Kingdom of God. You see,
he was looking for the Kingdom of God. He wasn't
looking for Jesus to overthrow the government. He wasn't looking
for an opportunity to just be close to Jesus and
take selfies with Jesus and say that Jesus is his friend,
so that people in social media can say, oh, my goodness,
you know Jesus. And then he walk away. The say no,
this dude was honorable, and he was waiting for the
Kingdom of God. He was not satisfied with the kingdom
of this world, even though he was of means, And
the Bible says, the Bible continues and he came and
went in boldly unto Pilot, so we know that this
dude had influence, and craved the body of Jesus, and
Pilot marveled if he were already dead, and calling unto
him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been
any while dead, because it's like, what, how is he dead?
So quickly? I wish I had the time to deal
with the prophecies that said that they would not be
breaking Jesus's bones. He was already dead. Breaking the bones
of a person on the cross was to speed up
the death because the pain was so agonizing and so
many things were going wrong in the body systems at
this point, at a certain point of crucifixion, that they
would just end it. But Jesus was already dead because
he gave his life willingly Verse forty five. And when
he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body
to Joseph, and he brought fine linen, took him down,
wrapped him. See this man, Joseph was honorable, wrapped him
in the linen, and laid him in the sepulcher, which
was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone
onto onto the door of the sepulcher Mary Magdalene and
the mother of Joseph's beheld where he was laid. Of course,
I want to say more about that, but I think
I should just pause because we'll get more into the
story in the coming days. But let me just say this,
When you have influence, do you honor God with your influence?
I need to ask myself that because a lot of
people watch me on a daily basis, I'm also aligned.
I'm aligned with with with with powerful people in my
in my work. And I'm asking myself, as you should
be asking yourself when you have any influence at all, Really,
does it have to be as as vast as Joseph
of Arimathea, or could it be influence over the two
or three people that you encounter on a regular basis.
Whatever the influence is, but certainly, if you have massive influence,
are you willing to go on the line? Are you
willing to be accounted with God? Yes? Are you aligned
with God to the degree that you use that influence
to glorify him? This is something with which we need
to contend. I'm around successful people on a regular basis.
This is something with which we need to contend and
so Joseph of course showed who he was with, and
I thank God, I thank God that we get to
see this story. And the lesson writer says, after all
that drama, the more mundane quote things happen next. For starters,
dead people always have to be buried. But several factors
in what follows are quite touching spiritually, spiritually, and others
are extremely important historically. In this passage, Joseph of Arimathea
appears for the first and last time in the Gospel
of Mark, and he was a respected member of the Sanhedrin.
Now we know, whoe huh? One of God's people, right,
one of the so called urban elites. As a wealthy
and respected man, he had standing with the governor, which
explains how he could dare approach Pilot and ask for
the body of Jesus. It was a touching detail that
the member of the council took such interest in Jesus's burial. Meanwhile,
where were Jesus's trusted disciples in all of this? One
historical detail of extreme importance here is the verification of
the death of Jesus m This tells us of the
death of Joseph's request for the body of Jesus, but
Pilot was surprised to hear that he was already dead.
He therefore summoned the centurion in charge of the crucifixion
and acts if Jesus was already dead, and of course
the guy he confirmed it. The reason is that it
is because of the later claim by some that Jesus
did not die on the cross but only fainted. The
testimony of the centurion to the Roman government directly counters
that assertion. The Romans did, after all, know how to
execute criminals, and so Joseph brought a linen shroud and
raped Jesus, I will say, honorably, and laid his body
in the tune hewn from a rock. And the Bible continues,
See Jesus gave his life for us. He was laid
to rest. But are you using your influence for good
while you rest?
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with el David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,