Steve Conover: This is Steve Conover. Today you'll hear an episode from our archives, a popular series we're sure you'll enjoy. In it, Chris explores the Gospels and why there are four different accounts of Christ's life in your Bible.

Chris, tell us what's on the program today.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, Steve, we have a great lineup. To begin with, we're going to continue our series on the Gospels Speak To Everyone, and today we're going to look at the Gospel of Mark, and then in our second segment, we're moving out of Yom Kippur and we're moving into the last of the Fall Feasts, which is the Feast of Tabernacles. And we're going to see the significance of the Feast of Tabernacles and what it means to a life of a believer today. And then finally, we're going to end our show with Apples Of Gold.

Steve Conover: And Chris, you have an interesting, if not unusual story to share with our audience today.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, this is really interesting. Israeli archeologists digging in the biblical city of Lachish were enamored with their most recent find. While excavating a pagan temple destroyed by Israelites. Archeologists unearthed a stone toilet. It's believed the toilet was purposely put there during the reign of King Hezekiah to allow the Israelites to defile the pagan temple.

Hezekiah is known for eliminating pagan worship throughout the kingdom of Judah. We know that from what the Bible says in 2 Kings, but there's a fascinating verse in 2 Kings 10:27 that connects us to this toilet that the archeologists found. It says this, "The Israelite forces had torn down the temple of Baal and people have used it for a latrine to this very day." The ruined pagan temple at Tel Lachish and the stone toilet are dated to the rule of King Hezekiah.

Isn't that interesting? Leave it to our infinitely wise God to use something as mundane as the discovery of a toilet to speak to the historical accuracy of His Holy Word.

Steve Conover: Chris. It's fascinating to think about the direct ways archeology connects us to what was really going on in the Bible. That's a great story.

Chris Katulka: And to think it was a toilet.

Steve Conover: Well, before we get into the rest of the program, I'd like to remind you quickly that if you're not yet a subscriber to Israel My Glory magazine, that's our bimonthly magazine, we'll send it to you for a full year at no cost. If you'd like to sign up, it's easy. Just visit FOIradio.org we'll give the contact information again later.

Chris Katulka: Well, today we're going to continue our series on the Gospels Speak to Everyone. And of course, if you're listening, you're thinking, of course I know the Gospels speak to everyone. I already knew that. But what I want us to do today and through this series is to unpack why the Gospels speak to everyone. We can't just assume that. The beauty of having four Gospels is that each Gospel speaks to a different audience and conveys an aspect of truth about Jesus the other Gospels don't focus on, giving us a more robust, a more complete picture of who Jesus is.

And as I said last week, you have to imagine it like this. The four Gospels are kind of like four sides of a skyscraper. Skyscrapers are incredibly large. They're impressive and to stand at the bottom of one, it can seem like the building goes on and on forever. And yet, no matter which side of the building you're looking at, it's all the same building. Sometimes it's almost impossible to even stare at one side of the skyscraper without racking your brain on the engineering that went behind building such a massive structure.

And yet, think about this. The Gospels work in the same way. Here is Jesus. And how can one gospel that's only 24 chapters or 16 chapters or 28 chapters? How can one gospel fully describe the nature of Jesus Christ in only one of the books? It doesn't do justice to the majesty of who he is. And so God gives us in the four Gospels, four different perspectives on Jesus, all of them pointing to the same Christ, which is beautiful. We get four different angles of Jesus for a more complete picture of who he is.

Now last week we looked at the Gospel of Matthew and we saw that Matthew was written for Jewish believers. Jewish believers who put their faith in Jesus. And Matthew wrote to, number one, first communicate the story of the Jewish Messiah that they could be confident in their faith and to share their faith with their Jewish friends. And the second is this, it was to encourage these Jewish believers who were facing persecution on a daily basis from the legalists of Jesus's day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees that were persecuting the early church. And remember the early church comprised mostly of Jewish people. And so Matthew's message not only communicates the truth about Jesus being the Jewish Messiah, the King of Israel, it also at the same time, is encouraging those Jewish people who are facing persecution from their very own.

This week, we're going to focus on the smallest of the Gospels, the Gospel of Mark. Now, within the past 100 years, Mark has received a lot of attention from scholars. And it's about time because Mark was grossly neglected for a long time. Prior to the 19th century, it was easy for theologians to just glance over Mark because they considered that book insignificant and small. Because a lot of the stories from Mark appear in Matthew and Luke, and so they didn't think to put too much attention into Mark.

Yet recently, Mark has gotten the attention that it deserves because it's now considered to be the first gospel that was written. And consequently, those stories of Jesus from Mark were not just something that came from Matthew and Luke, but probably were used by Matthew and Luke to write their gospels. So Mark becomes an important source for Matthew and Luke. And thus as a result, Mark becomes an incredibly important gospel. Now Mark, of course, is written by Mark. Mark is his Latin name and according to church history and certain passages from the new testament, Mark's Hebrew name was John.

In fact, Acts 12:12 says this, "When he realized this, he went to the House of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying." Mark was an associate of the Apostle Peter. He went on missionary journeys with Paul and Barnabas. He ministered to Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome and he even served with Timothy in Cyprus.

So really, Mark has an amazing ministry resume, if you will. He's worked with some important people in this story of sharing the message of Jesus. Now, Mark was not an eyewitness of the Ministry of Jesus, but because Mark was Peter's associate, many of the stories that he records about Jesus, it seems as though when you're reading Mark come from an inside source. So how in the world can Mark, who didn't witness Jesus's ministry, have an inside source?

Well, it was because of Peter. Peter was the one giving him and influencing the Gospel of Mark. Just as Matthew had a Jewish audience that he was writing to, as we mentioned earlier, and styled his gospel to speak to them; Mark also had an audience he was speaking to, and that comes through subtly in the way he writes. Now, Mark wrote his gospel. Here it is everybody. He wrote his gospel for the Roman community. Again, Mark doesn't open his gospel: Dear Romans, let me tell you all about Jesus. It's in the way that Mark writes that lets us know his audience.

And here are just a few things to kind of get your mind thinking about this. Mark had to explain Jewish customs to his Roman audience. If your audience is Jewish, you would never need to explain what Passover is or what the Sabbath is. You just know what it is. But like many of us, even today in the church, Jewish culture and customs can be foreign, and so we need it to be explained. We need people to explain what Passover is and what it means. We need people to explain, even in the next segment, we're going to be looking at the Feast of Tabernacles, to explain what that is.

And so even within the Gospel of Mark, you see Mark having to explain what the Sabbath is and certain Jewish festivals are for a Roman audience. Another thing that Mark does for his Roman audiences that he translates Aramaic expressions into Greek for them. Now, Greek was the common language at that time. But listen to this, Mark 5:41 writes this. "Take her by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha Kumi, (which means little girl), I say to you, arise." Notice Mark writes out the Aramaic, which Jesus would have spoken, and then he tells them what it means. Again, Mark is good at using Latin phrases that the Roman audience would have understood. Using certain Latin terms for the type of coins that were there or how big an army was, was specifically geared towards a Roman audience.

Also, another fascinating thing, Mark doesn't use many Old Testament prophecies to prove Jesus is the Messiah. Why? Because the Romans would have not even known what the Old Testament was. So what did it mean to them that Jesus was fulfilling them? Unlike Matthew, you think about this, you'll want to go back and listen to our previous episode on Matthew to hear the statistics on how many times Matthew quotes from the Old Testament, both directly from the Old Testament and using illusions from the Old Testament. Why? Because he wants to prove to a Jewish audience who would have known the Torah and the Tanakh that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. But for a Roman audience, that wouldn't mean that much.

You can really also from the Book of Mark, get a sense of Mark's heart for all the nations of the world. He wants people to know that this message of the gospel goes to everybody. Listen to this, Mark 11:17 when Jesus turns the tables in the temple. Listen to what he says, "Is it not written: 'My House shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.'"

And finally, you can really pick up that Mark wrote his gospel to encourage those Roman believers who were under extreme persecution from Nero at the time when he wrote this. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Roman Christians suffered great persecution for being associated with the name of Christ. It's even known that the Christians were blamed for the Great Fire of Rome by Nero. And Mark tries to encourage these Christians in Mark 9:49 saying this, "They were salted with fire."

Tacitus writes that Christians were "covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses or were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired." That's the persecution that Christians in Rome were facing, and so Mark's message to them of who Jesus is, is incredibly important. And to think, seeing that persecution take place, how could the message of Jesus ever break through into a world where the emperor of Rome was seen as a god and Christians were constantly being persecuted?

Logically, it's a losing battle. Nero was all powerful. Nero controlled Rome with an iron fist, and when he spoke, it was accomplished and he would kill anyone who stood in his way. And yet the community of Jesus. ... Think about this. The community of Jesus continued to grow despite persecution. It grew by the blood of martyred saints.

The Gospel of Mark portrays the true cost of discipleship over and over again. That's the message to the Roman community from Mark, is that discipleship has a cost, and who's the model of true discipleship? It's Jesus, himself. Who didn't come as a king like Nero, but a servant king who gave everything he had for others, even his own life. And it's this message. It's this message of the servant king that permeated through Roman culture and attracted many to the faith that would cost them their very own lives. And you know, it's a fresh reminder for us today that following Jesus was never meant to be easy. He never told us it would be easy, but that true discipleship could mean being "salted with fire."

Steve Conover: Chris, October is full of Jewish feasts. We've looked on the program at Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles and we've mentioned a book a couple times over the last few weeks by Bruce Scott, our director of Program Ministries, The Feasts of Israel, Seasons of the Messiah. Is there another resource that you would recommend to our audience if they would like to study the Jewish feasts?

Chris Katulka: Yeah, actually our very first executive director, Dr. Victor Buksbazen and wrote a book called The Gospels in the Feasts of Israel. This is a 1954 classic, but it still has a relevant message for today. Dr. Buksbazen unpacks the biblical Feasts of Israel and also shows how they apply to the life of Christ and the message of the Gospel. So if you're interested in The Gospel in the Feasts of Israel, you can pick up your copy at FOIradio.org that's FOIradio.org.

Welcome back, my friends. Starting next Monday and lasting for an entire week will be the Jewish festival of the Feast of Tabernacles, which in Hebrew is Sukkot, or you might hear the Feast of Booths. When Jewish people all around the world will build little booths that are connected to their homes, and Jewish people are called by God to live in these temporary shelters for one week in order to remember the faithfulness of God as he led Israel through the wilderness.

Now just listen to what Leviticus 23:42-43 says, as it's talking about the Feast of Tabernacles. "You must live in temporary shelters for seven days: Every native citizen in Israel must live in temporary shelters so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of EGYPT. I am the LORD your God."

Today, Jewish people don't live in their little booths, but they do eat in them. And I'll never forget being invited by an orthodox Jewish family to eat a Sukkot dinner with them in their little tent off the side of their home in Brooklyn, New York. And I'm going to tell you, it was close quarters, but it was tons of fun.

God wanted the Israelites, as they were looking back to Leviticus 23, to get back in those booths so that they can show their kids and future generations how his presence led them through the wilderness, how his presence provided for them and clothed them. The presence of God was a real and present reality in Israel's life when they left Egypt. He wasn't this distant, ethereal God who lived only in the heavens. God was Israel's true source of life in the wilderness. The Lord walked with Israel through the desert and saved them from their enemies, fed them when they were hungry, housed them in the wilderness, and quenched their thirst when they were thirsty.

His presence was a real and present reality for Israel and the Feast of Tabernacles was designed to be that time to remind Israel to focus on that truth. That no matter where they are, God's presence is real and with them. God's presence is a real and present reality. The presence of God today is a real and present reality in the lives of those who believe in Jesus. In fact, I would argue it's even more real than the experience the Israelites had. For an Israelite, God lived externally in a cloud by day and fire by night or in the tabernacle or in a temple. But for a Christian, the presence of God dwells within you. You are like a little booth. You're like a little tabernacle for God to dwell in, and while God dwelling in us, he should be changing the things around in our hearts, rearranging the spiritual layout of our hearts.

God's real and present reality in our lives should change the way we think about everything. It should alter relationships that we have with others and it should provide a fruit in us that is consistent with God's goodness and character. And here's what's amazing, the Feast of Tabernacles as we think about all of this reminder, remembering what he's done, is also a harvest time in the Jewish calendar. And it's not just any harvest time, it's the harvest time that every Israelite got excited about it. It's the best harvest.

See, all the other harvests are centered around the idea of harvesting wheat or barley for bread, the sustenance of life, but the harvest during the Feast of Tabernacles is when grapes for wine and eating are picked. It's the sweet time of the year for picking all the amazing fruit that's been growing. And that's why this time of the year is also called the Feast of Ingathering. God's real and present reality provided those sweet fruits during harvest for the Israelites to enjoy all throughout the year.

My prayer during the Feast of Tabernacles is that, we, as a church of Jesus the Messiah would realize the real and present reality of God's presence in our lives. And that when we get our minds and our hearts wrapped around that truth, God's presence would produce a sweet harvest of his character in your life, that people will see God dwelling in you.

Steve Conover: Now, Apples of Gold, a dramatic reading from the life and ministry of Holocaust survivor, Zvi Kalisher.

Mike Kellogg: Recently a friend, who was deeply depressed, asked me to visit. When I arrived, he told me about his problems and lamented, "No one ever listens to me."

I said, "There is someone who is always there to listen to your difficulties. I have experienced many odd situations in life and I always go to him."

"Tell me who it is," he said.

I opened my Bible and read Psalm 34:18, "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart and saved such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all."

"You seem surprised that I had found just the right words."

He asked, "How did you find this?"

I said, "I put my trust in the  living God and he enables me to understand his word. You should know this passage. You told me you go to the synagogue often.

When he asked if other people suffered like he had, I opened my Bible and read Isaiah 53. I explained, "This chapter describes the Lord's great suffering and crucifixion. He suffered and died for people like us."

He became defensive and said, "This is not written in the Jewish Bible. It is only written in Christian books."

I showed him my Bible and he saw I had been reading from the Old Testament. I then read Zechariah 12:10. "They will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son."

"Who's pierced," I asked, "if not the Lord Jesus Christ? Our prophets foretold all of these things.

"Perhaps I will go to the rabbi and ask him what he thinks," he commented.

I responded, "It is certainly your privilege to do so, but you have been listening to rabbis all your life and they have never explained to you how to have true faith in God."

He asked if I had any other books and I replied, "No. The Bible tells me everything I need to know about God."

I then turned to Psalm 22 and read how they pierced Jesus' hands and feet. I said, "This happened when the Lord was crucified for the sins of mankind. If you still do not believe the Old Testament speaks about the Lord Jesus then take this Bible, cast it into the garbage and continue to dance around the golden cap of your commentaries. You told me no one would listen to your troubles. Turn to the Lord. Do what King David did when he was in trouble. If you read the Psalms, you will find that David prayed, asking God to lead and strengthen him when he was weak. The choice is yours. Will you do what I have told you or not?"

His deaf ears we're beginning to open and his blind eyes were beginning to see. His sour expression became joyful as the truth began to penetrate his heart. I believe this man is very close to accepting Jesus as his Savior and Messiah. Please pray for him, and for me.

Steve Conover: Join us next week as we continue our series the Gospel Speak to Everyone. Chris is going to show us why it's important for Luke to have written to the Greek person of his day. And don't forget to order your copy of The Gospel in the Feasts of Israel written by one of our executive directors, now with the Lord, Victor Buksbazen. You can order your copy by calling our listener line. That number is (888) 343-6940. Again, that's (888) 343-6940 or you can write to us at FOI radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey 08099.

You know The Friends of Israel relies on the generous donations of its supporters. Please consider financially supporting the Friends of Israel to continue our outreach around the world. You'll find a donate link on our website. Visit FOIradio.org. Again, that's FOIradio.org to learn more about the ways you can support us. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide Christian ministry, communicating biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah while fostering solidarity with the Jewish people.