Mariner's Discovery Church

04/24/2026

04/24/2026

Greetings Church

In Matthew 9, Jesus faces questions from the disciples of John. Then Jesus performs miracles, including a women plagued with unstoppable bleeding, raising a girl from the dead, healing two blind men, and casting out the demon from a man possessed. Jesus is going through villages, teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing diseases and every kind of diseases.

Matthew 9:36 forms a hinge for what follows: Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. This is like pulling back the curtain on the heart of Jesus Christ. This reveals the disposition of the King toward broken people.

Jesus sees the people. Jesus is not merely aware of a crowd. He truly sees them. He perceives their condition as sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is deeply aware of their spiritual and physical condition. Jesus knows that the people are distressed (weary, downcast) and dispirited (harassed, troubled, abandoned). Sheep without a shepherd are vulnerable to predators, unable to find food and water, and prone to wander and perish.

Jesus felt compassion for them. In the original language, this is a deep gut-level compassion. This is a real movement of love, not a cold pity or a detached concern.

The problem of the crowd is fundamentally a shepherd problem. The compassion of Jesus is provoked by spiritual and physical misery. He sees people harassed by sin, Satan, sickness, and bad leadership. This is their condition that moves Him so deeply.

There are some implications from this for us:

Jesus is not indifferent or annoyed by the brokenness of people. Instead He is moved with compassion. We need to see ourselves as Jesus sees us.
There is a tenderness of God in Christ. God is engaged with us in our brokenness. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the compassion of God towards us.
We can cultivate a shepherd’s heart for those in our circle of influence. We can be the shepherd who is present and compassionate. We can find opportunities to feed, lead, and protect the flock that God has given us. Are we meeting them where they are and nudging them a little closer to Jesus?
Praise God that we have a Great Shepherd who feels compassion for us as we are!

Pastor Larry

04/17/2026

Greetings Church

As we noted earlier, verses 27, 28, and 29 have a triplet of phrases in each verses. The culmination is found in verse 30: “I and the Father are one." This is the theological ground for the security of verses in verses 28 and 29. The logic is:

The Son holds the sheep and no one will sn**ch them (v28).
The Father holds the sheep and no one is able to sn**ch them v29).
Verse 30 answers the question, “How can both the Son’s hand and the Father’s hand be invincible?” This is because they are ultimately one divine nature, one divine power, and one divine purpose expressed through these two.
The response that follows this simple but deep 6 word (5 in the Greek) statement is received by those listening as highly blasphemous. Their understanding was that Jesus was claiming to be God. Were Jesus just a good teacher, He would have corrected their understanding.

There is important theology in verse 30. This is a statement that Jesus shares the divine nature, while remaining distinct from the father. The gospel of John presents the good news that the One Who speaks, heals, raises the dead, exorcises the demons, feeds the thousands, and holds the sheep in His hand is not just a great teacher or a good prophet. He is the Son Who shares the nature of the Father. Jesus is God incarnate. The security of the sheep is grounded in the divine nature of Jesus as the Great Shepherd.

There is an a significant implication is that the One who suffers with His people, Who knows their weakness from the inside (Hebrews 4:15), Who wept at a tomb and felt hunger and thirst, is the same One Who shares the divine nature of the Father. Jesus is the Great Shepherd who not only sympathetic but omnipotent; not only compassionate but divine. The God Who suffers with them is the same God Who holds them with invincible hands.
As Anselm notes, only a human being can represent and substitute for humanity; and only God can bear the infinite weight of the offense of sin against infinite divine holiness.

In response (John 14:9) to a question from Philip, Jesus said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father;”. Jesus not teaching about the divine-human relationship. Jesus is the divine-human relationship, speaking from within it.
Reflection questions:
Where in your spiritual life are most tempted to seek completion, sufficiency, or security from something other than, or in addition to Jesus Christ?
How does Jesus revealing the nature of God through weeping, feeding the 5,000, forgiving the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus dying on the cross change your view of God?
Praise God for the divine-human nature of Jesus Christ that we need so desperately!

Pastor Larry

04/09/2026

https://vimeo.com/1181448607

This is "MDC 20260405 Message" by Mariner's Discovery Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

03/30/2026

Last Weeks Video Message

This is "MDC 20260322 Message" by Mariner's Discovery Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

01/30/2026

Greetings Church!

Words change meaning over time. In the sixties being gay meant one thing. Today, it means something completely different. The same is true for the word, “fantastic.” Seventy years ag, it was sometimes used to mean something extremely horrific because it was extremely unusual. That is why old newspaper stories use fantastic to describe car crashes. The word adoption in the New Testament times meant something different than it does today. Today, it means to take a child and place it in a family, so that the child can be loved and supported. That is an involved legal process that can very complicated very quickly. In the New Testament times, if a family wanted a baby, they went to the hillside or to the local temple brothel and picked one. Unwanted babies were discarded back then. In New Testament times, in the Roman empire, adults were adopted into families. This was to

Secure an heir who could be trusted and was competent,
Keep a family name going, preserving the continuity of the household.
Transfer wealth and religious rites
Endure that the patriarch and matriarch would be supported in their old age.
The adopted person:
Lost all rights to the old family.
Previous debts were canceled.
Gained full rights to the new family.
Became a legal son, not a second-class member.
Became a full heir.
Octavian (Caesar Augustus) was adopted and became Julius Caesar’s heir. This something that was widely known in the world in which the apostle Paul traveled.
Here are the key theological parallels:
Believers receive a new Abba Father (God).
Old obligations are canceled (condemnation from sin)
A new identity is granted (child of God).
The Holy Spirit is the sign of adoption.
Believers become heirs with Christ.
In Romans 8:15, it says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" It is against this cultural backdrop of adult adoption that Paul is using to communicate to those back then, and to us today. Paul is not describing a sentimental picture of God who is taking in orphans. Paul is describing a legal act that changes our status. What Paul is saying is that our legal identity (as slave to sin and condemnation) has changed to being a child of God. This is radical, total transformation, not partial improvement. Because of that, we are called to live as adult heirs of the promise of being in the family of God!
Praise God for His dedication to His promises!

Pastor Larry

12/21/2025

Free6-ft Christmas trees, just please leave us a donation at Mariners Discovery Church 1641 Bixler Road

12/20/2025

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

12/20/2025

Huge discount on Christmas trees Saturday and Sunday. 1641 Bixler Road Mariners Discovery Church Discovery Bay

12/16/2025

Christmas Trees: REDUCED PRICES!!!!FREE DELIVERY TO DB. This is the last week!!! All trees must go!!! Come check out the beautiful fresh trees hand picked from Oregon. Tree Lot at 1641 Bixler Rd., Discovery Bay. This week's hours are from 3PM to 7PM until gone!!!