BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (1)
BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (1)
JT I thought it might be profitable to have our attention called to Mark’s gospel at the present time, he being one who had turned aside, but who was recovered. It answers to our own circumstances. It is a record of the Lord’s life by one who had been an unfaithful servant, but who had been restored, and the evidence of his recovery is that he is taken up with the Perfect Servant, and he delights to present Him to us. The true evidence of recovery is that we are taken up with what we departed from. The Spirit through Mark begins, not with the Lord personally, but with the glad tidings, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Mark 1:1. It suggests how thoroughly imbued Mark was with the glad tidings. He was a companion of Paul and Barnabas, and no doubt after his recovery he was more interested in the gospel than ever.
Things are introduced abruptly here. In Matthew it is “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, the son of Abraham”. Matthew 1:1. He is connected with the roots of promise there. In Mark we have “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. John has “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. John 1:1. That is the key to his gospel. Luke writes on the ground that he was accurately acquainted from the origin with all things, but what he had to say was about the word, the things “fully believed among us”. Luke 1:1.
JPW Is this presentation in Mark, the kingdom beginning in the Second Man?
JT It is the “glad tidings”, the “beginning of the glad tidings”. Mark 1:1. What you expect to find in the glad tidings is the manner in which it was presented. One difference that should be noted between Mark and Luke, is that Luke enlarges on the things that the Lord did; Mark enlarges on how He did them. Mark engages you with the Workman, and the skill with which things were done.
EM It is frequently said in Mark, that “they were amazed”, or “astonished”. It is the greatness of the power that Mark presents.
JT Yes, the greatness of the power; the skill with which the Lord did things. The Lord did everything well, We may do things, but they are not well done.
TMG He was the Perfect Servant.
RL Why is there no genealogy here?
JT It is not so much His personal greatness here, but His perfect service. The genealogy is unfolded in Matthew because of the heirship. He was the Son of David there. So in Luke we get the Son of man, because it had to be shown that He was really Man and connected with men.
EL He is a divine Person, just as in John.
JT All that is said is that He is “Son of God”, and service is made to depend on sonship. Moses was a servant, and a faithful one. Christ is a Servant, being the Son. He is Son over God’s house.
HB Does not true service always depend on sonship? “Let my son go that he may serve me”. Exodus 4:23.
JT Yes. The service is carried on in liberty.
TMG The liberty you get in John 8.
JT What value there is in this opening chapter. The future servants begin by following. In chapter 3 these same servants, who begin by following the Lord, are taken up to the mountain, so as to be with Him there. Thus they are sent out to preach.
I believe it would be a great help to us as to the glad tidings to see how it begins. The Spirit always [p. 409] presents us with the beginning. If it is the Word, it is the beginning. If it is life you get the beginning. In order to get a right apprehension of a thing you must have it from the beginning. Take marriage; to get the right idea of it, you have to go back to the beginning. The Lord says, “from the beginning it was not so”. Matthew 19:8. The idea of precedent is very prominent in connection with Christianity.
TMG You mean what is started with.
EM That was so with Mark.
JT Yes, the best evidence that he is restored is that he makes no apologies for his fall. The “beginning” was there before his fall, and he takes you back to it.
TMG Yes, that is very interesting.
RL In the address to Ephesus you are taken back to the beginning; they are reminded of whence they had fallen.
JT Yes, often when failures occur there are apologies and excuses, but the beginning is the beginning, and the beginning was before any of us.
JM Abraham returned “to the place where his tent had been at the beginning”. Before this Mark had parted company himself.
FM Why are the glad tidings put before the Person?
JT It gives you a sort of key to this gospel.
JM What was in your mind in connecting Mark with Paul and Barnabas?
JT He had been their minister when they had started out first. They had an excellent start. They went out from Antioch, where things were fresh, but Mark returned to Jerusalem in Acts 15:38, before the service was completed. That is where he failed. You will always find that failure is marked by things being left undone or half done. Things should be completed: The Lord says to Sardis, “I have not found thy works complete”. Revelation 3:2. There was nothing finished. I do not think any popular evangelist [p. 410] completes anything. He would not be popular if he did.
W.H. How is that?
JT Because he is not thinking of the assembly. The completion of the work is to bring the converts into the assembly.
SM Does Mark’s gospel run along with Philippians?
JT Yes, one feature of Mark is, that there is increase. His relation of the parable of the sower is that there were thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. That is increase, not decline. Whereas Matthew says a hundred, sixty, and thirty. That is decline. Mark does not contemplate decline. When you are recovered you do not contemplate decline.
SM The glad tidings were in his heart.
JT I hope as we go on with this gospel, that the connection with Philippians will become clearer. The assembly at Philippi was composed of households; we shall see the connection very clearly in the two next chapters. As regards completing things, there is a tendency with us in these days to look for decline, whereas a truly recovered person never looks for that. He looks for increase, and I believe he gets it. Certainly I think we should look at things from the divine side, and see that God is not going to have a dark finish. Things may be reduced in quantity, but it should not be so in quality. John the baptist was finishing, but he says One mightier than I is coming. He does not look down. His ministry was not on the down grade. It was on the up grade. John disappears, but he knows the greater One is coming after him. So with Mark, there is no thought of decline.
TMG “He must increase, but I must decrease”. John 3:30.
JT Yes. “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptised you with water; but he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost”. Mark 1:7. That is the completeness of his [p. 411] ministry.
HB I suppose that principle is constantly seen in Scripture. “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts”, Haggai 2:9.
JT Yes, it was so even in the Old Testament. Take Enoch. He was living in a dark day. We do not know that he had any fellowship except with God; the testimony is that he walked with God. If he tells us what he sees he says, “Behold, the Lord cometh with his holy myriads”. Jude 14. Every man of faith really looked on to the increase there would be at the coming of Christ.
RL The end of this gospel would show what you have been saying. The Lord went up to heaven; the disciples went everywhere.
JT Yes, they went everywhere; they were not circumscribed.
JPW How do you apply that in connection with what is on your mind as to the servant?
JT Well, the little bit any one of us may be doing is not for the benefit of this world, but for the kingdom of God. If you are working with souls your end is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. God takes account of a man’s aim. In that way you are carrying on the work of God to a completion, not as in Sardis, of whom the Lord says, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”. Revelation 3:2.
JPW There is confusion of mind if that does not control one.
JT Yes, whatever you do, do it aright; do it with the Lord before you. Whatever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might.
TMG I suppose we should have God’s thoughts and God’s purpose before us.
JT Yes. I have been often struck with Exodus 39. Every item of the tabernacle is there specified by itself as made; then at the end it is said, “and Moses blessed them”. Exodus 39:43. That is very beautiful. The [p. 412] Lord comes in and blesses those who complete a work. Bezaleel went by the pattern. If you have an idea before you, it results in a complete work.
JPW And when all is completed the glory fills the tabernacle.
JT Yes, you will notice in the last chapter but one it says, “According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and behold they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it; and Moses blessed them”. Exodus 39:42,43. He blessed them. That is a very beautiful touch, and then you have the tabernacle set up, and the glory of the Lord fills it. I think all this is most important, because it is a question of what you complete. It is not what you begin; but what you finish.
EM The finish is to be according to the beginning.
JT Yes, and the pattern is in Mark’s gospel.
TMG It must be according to the pattern.
JT There is nothing more detrimental to the testimony than drooping saints, looking at what is external instead of having faith.
TMG It is not honouring to God.
JPW Whatever is done for God is the Lord’s own work.
JT Yes, and you would have the Lord working with you. Mark says, “they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them”. Mark 16:20. But I think God gives us the credit of it. Not that you are looking for the credit, but you get it. I think the word in Numbers 23:23 is remarkable, “according to this time it shall be said ... What hath God wrought?” Man may be doing much at the present time, but what hath God wrought? Mark’s gospel teaches us that God works according to His own pattern; it is not only that things are done, but that they are well done.
RL [p. 413] Everything has to be according to the pattern. There was to be no deviation.
WH You seem to lay a good deal of stress on the way the servant serves.
JT Yes, in one short paragraph you have stated of John the baptist the history of this great servant before Christ. It was a complete service; and we are told not only what the man did, but how he lived and what kind of clothes he wore; his meat was locusts and wild honey, his clothing leather and camel’s hair.
SM What had you in your mind about the clothing?
JT He was clothed with camel’s hair. He bore the true marks of a prophet. There was an entire absence of the ease and comforts that mark the natural man. The giving of the Spirit and all was preparatory to the Lord entering upon His service. He does not take up His service till John is delivered up, as we are told.
HB What do you gather from that?
JT It is a feature of service that you do not interfere with another’s line. You wait your opportunity. You wait on your ministry. That the Lord should wait till John is removed is so perfect.
JM The Lord was the pattern in that way.
JT Yes, and here they began to follow Him.
JM It would be necessary to be with Him in order to learn how to do things.
JT It is very fine to see how John’s ministry culminated in Christ.
RL In this gospel the word from heaven is to Him, “Thou art my beloved Son”. Mark 1:11. It is direct. In Matthew 3:17 it is “This is my beloved Son”.
JT You must have for yourself the sense of God’s approval. If you are to have the approval of others you have to commend yourself to the consciences of men, as Paul exhorts Timothy, “Study to show thyself approved unto God”. 2 Timothy 2:15. God gives His approval to the soul that is true and upright before Him. Enoch got that for himself. Before his translation he had this testimony, “that he pleased God”. Hebrews 11:5. “The elders have obtained testimony”, Hebrews 11:2. God gave it to them for themselves. Abel “obtained testimony of being righteous”. Hebrews 11:4. God gave him the sense that he was righteous.
RL To the Lord the word was “Thou art my beloved Son. In thee I have found my delight”. Mark 1:11.
JT John understood that his service was finished, his work was done, before he went out.
JM As our brother was calling attention to it, it is it, the liberty of sonship and in the consciousness that he pleased God that the service was carried out.
JT Yes, like Enoch who got the testimony, that he pleased God before his translation. We know it after we are translated But we shall know it then because there will be nothing contrary to God’s pleasure then but the Scripture is careful to say that Enoch had the testimony before his translation. God by His Spirit produces a state in the soul that is pleasing to Him. Enoch began to walk with God when Methuselah was born, and during the time that followed, three hundred years, he had a family of sons and daughters, but they did not interfere with his walking with God. He walked with God, and he had the testimony that he pleased Him.
TM How could you serve in the liberty of sonship if you had not the consciousness that you were pleasing to Him?
JT I do not know anything that would encourage me more than to know that. If God is looking at a man’s heart He sees his motives. He searcheth the hearts. He looks at your motives, and He sees what you are aiming at. You may miss your aim, but He will tell you to try again.
EM It is the service of love.
[p. 415] JT Yes, and it puts you into liberty before God. If you begin to serve with the sense that the service is greater than you, it will overwhelm you; but if you begin with the sense that you are greater than the service, your dignity is above your work, and, therefore, you are kept from being puffed up. The service does not increase your personal dignity. The service passes away, but sonship does not.
JPW Should not service be the result of overflow?
JT If it is carried on truly, it is not carried on as a mere duty. A son does not work for wages. The man who worked long got the same as the one who worked an hour in Matthew 20. Another mark of the true servant is that he shrinks from having to do with evil. He may have to do with it in the ways of God. The Lord was driven into the wilderness. That is a very remarkable word. It was not easy for Him to go into Satan’s realm. We are greatly damaged, because we do not avoid evil, when we can avoid it.
WH The servant has to be exercised.
JT Yes, he avoids evil when he can. It brings in the supremacy of the Spirit in the servant. The Spirit drives Him. We are greatly damaged by occupation with evil. The Lord shrank from it. So should we if we have to touch it. We have heard of a beloved brother of whom it was said that he not only read the Bible, but that he read bad books because he had to combat the latter. We damage ourselves by going into evil and being occupied with it. The Lord went into the wilderness because the Spirit drove Him there, but He recoiled from it.
HB Why do we get that He was with the wild beasts?
JT It is where there is conflict. Paul went to Arabia for a considerable time. Any servant that God uses has in the secret of his soul [p. 416] to do with Satan. He has to come into contact with the devil.
HB Do you get the idea in the thought of the lion and the bear that David met?
JT Yes, that is an example, and Moses had a similar experience; and see what Joseph had to contend with. With the Lord there was no man. He was alone in the wilderness with the wild beasts. We, alas! rush into evil, and read the records of evil doings, and violence, and blood. Well, we suffer in our souls if we feed on these things. A man who dwells on high “stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil”. Isaiah 33:15. If you have to do with it, as the Lord had to do with it, it is a different matter.
EM He was sustained from heaven.
JT Yes the whole position is put in the two statements, “the Spirit driveth him” and “the angels ministered unto him”. Mark 1:12,13.
HB Are the angels interested in the service of God?
JT I am sure they are, but they do not represent the power by which you carry on your service. The Lord did things by the Spirit. He did not do things by angels. They are for our ministry in temporal things.
RL Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?
JT That is for our bodies. They do not support our ministry.
RL It was in the conflict that they ministered to the Lord.
SM It would be more providential.
JT Yes. Angels keep you from illness and accident and the like. We are not to regard them as myths. They are very real in regard to our bodies.
RL What is the difference between the kingdom of God here and the kingdom of heaven in Matthew?
JT The kingdom of God is connected with [p. 417] the Spirit down here. The kingdom of heaven is more rule and authority.
HB Would the Lord indicate the importance of this in regard to prayer in His word, “Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come”. Luke 11:2.
JT It is a second thought. When John was delivered up the Lord began His ministry. It was following on with the glad tidings. “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn nigh; repent and believe the glad tidings”. Mark 1:15. The kingdom of God had drawn near in the Lord’s ministry.
RL That is, “the kingdom of God is among you”.
JT Yes. The power of it would be displayed in His works.