THE KINGDOM OF GOD COME IN POWER
A. B. Parker
It has occurred to me that Mark’s reference to the mount of transfiguration is like a psalm.
Matthew tells us that the Lord Jesus said, “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste of death at all until they shall have seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom”, Matthew 16: 28. Luke tells us that the Lord Jesus said, “There are some of those standing here who shall not taste death until they shall have seen the kingdom of God”, Luke 9: 27.
Mark’s account is, “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste death until they shall have seen the kingdom of God come in power”. The point Mark makes is that the kingdom of God has come—come in power. Mark’s experience was witness to the fact that the kingdom of God had come in power; its power had recovered him.
It would seem that Mark was a young man with pure motives. It would seem that he had been sheltered in a godly home—that he was a choice young man. I suggest that his motives were pure, based on his remarks about the young man that followed Jesus when He was apprehended, with a linen cloth cast about his naked body. It would seem that he was referring to himself, figuratively. The linen cloth would suggest that his manner of life was pure and his going with Barnabas and Saul would be with pure motives, but he lacked in definite committal to discipleship. The cloth was soon snatched away. But later in his gospel he refers to a young man in the torch clothed in white. Much soul history would be experienced in between.
The kingdom of God became a very special subject with Mark after he was recovered. He realised that he had not been a very good subject of the kingdom. He had been weak in the day of battle. When the enemy’s power showed itself in the false prophet Bar-jesus, he went back from the conflict to Jerusalem, to a sphere of shelter and care. Nevertheless, God had His eye upon him and in some way Mark was recovered, and the Holy Spirit would use his experience in failure to develop an appreciation of the perfect service of Christ. Later, as we know, Paul could tell Timothy to take Mark and bring him, for he was serviceable to Paul for ministry (2 Timothy 4: 11). Elsewhere he tells us that Mark was one of a few who had been a consolation to him as fellow-workers for the kingdom of God (Colossians 4: 10, 11). So we are not surprised that in his gospel he makes much of the kingdom of God, telling us that it was seen as “come in power”. And his recovery was a witness to this.
Dear brethren, our ministry takes on power when we can witness to what we minister. Mark was a witness to the fact that the kingdom of God had come in power. The kingdom is not in outward manifestation as yet; it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and we are to be witness to it because the Holy Spirit still is here. The kingdom of God relates peculiarly to the power and operation of the Holy. Spirit sent from heaven.
Mark was not one of those who were with Jesus on the mount. The writers of the synoptic gospels recorded what they were told as to that occasion. It is right to minister what we learn from others, but we need to appropriate it so that it becomes our own, and power in such ministry comes as we go through things experimentally. So when Mark describes the transfiguration scene he tells us that Elias was there, with Moses. The other writers say Moses and Elias, but Mark names Elias first for Elias peculiarly represents the kingdom of God come in recovering power—the power of recovery in the prophetic word. So, dear brethren, we want increasingly to value this character of meeting, to appreciate its possibilities. Mark would tell us that if we want to see the kingdom of God come in power, put proper appreciation on the prophetic word—give it the place to which it is entitled. It is not greater than the ministry of Moses, for Moses was the apostle, but Elias was, outstandingly, the prophet. The kingdom of God come in power in this day of recovery relates peculiarly to God’s voice being heard through the prophets.
Word in meeting for ministry, Brooklyn, N.Y.
13 December 1977