BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (2)
[p. 418] BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (2)
JT One is increasingly impressed with the thought that is attached to the opening portion of this gospel. It is “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Mark 1:1. We have to be prepared to follow the course of it, and I believe this chapter 2 helps to show us the associations in which this gospel is found. We were pointing out that the first chapter, after setting before us the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, shows how one and another became followers of Him; and that chapter also shows how the household arrangements of Simon, the leading servant, were put right by the Lord. Chapter 2 pursues the subject further of the household’s connection with the course of the glad tidings. The gospel of Mark is found in connection with houses, or households. That is to say, it will be found that the course of the gospel in this world is in connection with a system of affections. It is not yet the house of God as constituted by the coming of the Holy Spirit that we have here, but the gospel of Mark speaks more than any of the four gospels of the Lord’s presence in houses. This chapter opening with the Lord in a house is characteristic. It does not say whose house it was; “he was in the house”. Mark 2:1.
JPW Does not that mean blessing for the whole house?
JT Well, the house in the opening of this chapter supposes the previous chapter, where Peter’s house was regulated. His wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and the Lord healed her. It is said that He went up to her, and having taken her by the hand, straightway the fever left her, and she served them. The mother-in-law, instead of being a burden through [p. 419] sickness, is ministering to others. Naturally, there would have been irritability in such circumstances but the woman was completely recovered, and not only that, but she learns to serve. She ministered to the Lord there. It is a house in which there is ministry, as the effect of Christ’s work.
HB Do you suppose this in chapter 2, to be Peter’s house?
JT The inference is strong, but it is not of any consequence whose house it was, provided we bear in mind what we are taught in the first chapter. It was in the same town, and the house was free for the Lord. There was no restraint there. The owner made no protests when the roof was broken through.
EM “The whole city was gathered together at the door”, Mark 2:2 and there was no room at the door.
JPW Will you say a little more about the house we dwell in. Would the influence extend outside the house?
JT Well, it is certainly a great advantage to the testimony in the place if the house is true to the Lord. Of course if there is more than one all the better, as at Philippi. What marked the ministry at Philippi was that houses were opened. First, Lydia had her heart opened, and then she opened her house; indeed she went further, saying, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord come into my house and abide”. Acts 16:15. She opened her house to the vessels of the testimony, through whom the gospel came to her, and one is led to believe it was that which gave rise to the thought of the house in the apostle’s mind, because he told the next man he preached to, that is, the jailer, about the house. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house”. Acts 16:31. Salvation came to pass in that house, so that at least there were two houses at Philippi in sympathy with the testimony.
HB What would the fever [p. 420] represent?
JT I think it is a certain irritability of the flesh, augmented very largely by the awkward circumstances in which the woman was. She was a mother-in-law.
JPW There is an incident before this in the chapter, the man with the unclean spirit. What does that represent?
JT That represents the conditions in the religious sphere. It does not say that anything resulted in the way of sympathy from the casting out of the demon. It is quite clear that the Lord could make nothing of the religious system. Nothing accrued in the way of support to the testimony in the synagogue. No sphere of testimony was opened whereas in the house it was different. The Lord did not effect anything in the religious system. His power was shown, but the connection in which the glad tidings were, was in the house.
TMG I suppose it was more the setting aside of the synagogue?
JT Yes, I think Peter’s house was a basis from which the Lord could work. The synagogue gave no support to Christ, but the house did.
SL Blessing proceeded on the line of affection.
JT Yes, the gospel goes on its way; the word of God has free course. It is much easier for the minister to preach where there is affection than otherwise. The Lord did not touch the man in the synagogue, but He did touch the woman who had the fever. It is a picture of a converted person who has not yet learned to be free from the flesh. The Lord touches the woman and everything is regulated, so that instead of irritability you have affectionate service. It not only says that she served the Lord who had healed her, but it says, she served them.
SL What about the four who carried the man?
JT That is the extension of affectionate service, but you get nothing like that in relation to the synagogue. It is a great matter if there is not only [p. 421] fellowship but exercise in prayer on the part of those who are locally acquainted with the need. The Lord was in the house and carried on His ministry, but there was more than that. Were it not for the sympathy and service of these four, this poor paralytic would have been outside the blessing. It all goes with the “beginning of the glad tidings” Mark 1:1 which is seen in the Lord’s ministry. It is to show, that not only the preacher was interested, but every one around was interested in the man. Four is a numeral that denotes universality. The sympathy was general. Then as to the house in which the Lord was, it was a house in which the owner sympathised with the Lord’s ministry. He does riot object to the roof being digged through. In the synagogue there was a worldly atmosphere. In the house there was love; there was liberty attached to it. Ordinarily you would not like the roof of your house to be broken through. The truth is, the Christian’s house should be open to the Lord and to His people, and be in sympathy with His servants, so that there is no restraint attached to it. The previous chapter shows, I think, how it came to pass that this house was so free.
JM This is all very important in connection with what you were speaking of last night, the connection that the preacher has with the house.
JT Yes, and it is very encouraging as to having faith about people who have need, whether it is your children, or relatives, or anyone. It says, “when he saw their faith”. Mark 2:5.
JPW In what connection does the forgiveness of sins come, after the household has been set right?
JT Well, the Lord goes to the root of the trouble. The sin question has to be solved; that is the root of the difficulty. What is very touching is that the Lord uses a designation which denotes relationship, the relationship of affection. He calls [p. 422] him child, in the light transmitted to the man’s soul there is a basis laid for the relationship that is to follow.
SL If we proceeded on that ground, the ground of affection and universal interest, we should be great people.
JT That is what the gospel is intended to bring about. Recovery is to bring you to what was at the beginning, and it is very encouraging in this way that if you have not assembly conditions in a place you can nevertheless always say, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. Joshua 24:15. You can hold your house at the disposal of the Lord.
SL When Levi was called he made a feast for the Lord in his own house, and brought in needy souls.
JT That is what you get here. It is a continuation of the subject. You see a man who has his sins forgiven, and the Lord says, “Go to thy house”. He sends him there. The house in which there is to be blessing, is his own house. The Lord extends His territory. He does not extend it in a political way, but He extends it in the family relationship. Thus Levi’s house is thrown open to the Lord, and He uses it.
RL Then every Christian’s house should be open to needy souls.
JT Those invited should not be invited on the basis of society status, but in reference to Christ. It is a question of the kind of society He would like. Levi was a rich man. He was not exactly like Peter and John and James. He belonged to a different class in society, but the kind of people he invited were such as the Lord sought, as He said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”. Mark 2:17.
RL You think Levi had intelligence as to the company the Lord would like to meet.
JT That is on the face of it; they were the kind of people He had come to seek [p. 423] and to save.
He was seeking such, and Levi intelligently facilitates it.
EM People with whom the Lord has sympathy are encouraged to come near to Him.
JT That is the idea; the extension of territory that is faithful to Christ; so that in that way it is a course of triumph.
EM Would this be the line for the true servant?
JT That is what it is written here for.
EM We find the gospel going from house to house.
RL What is set forth in taking up his bed?
JT It shows the healed man’s superiority to his circumstances. Instead of his circumstances governing him, he is superior to them. I suppose it refers to the gift of the Spirit. A paralytic is a man who is weak, unable to do anything for himself. He is dependent on other people. What a change there will be when he goes back healed, to his house.
EM There was no movement as long as the bed carried him, but there was when he carried the bed.
RL Would you say that sets forth the power of Christ as Son of man? “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to remit sins”. Mark 2:10.
JT It is the testimony of His power. “So that they all were amazed, and glorified God, saying, we never saw it thus”. Mark 2:12. Things are entirely new, and the way in which they were done was new, What strikes one is how differently things are done from what they were at the beginning. The beginning is always the test, whether it be the service of Christ or whatever it is, the true idea is presented in the beginning.
JPW Would there not be a difference in the beginning of the Acts?
JT I do not think that would be quite the idea of a new beginning. This gospel is the beginning of [p. 424] the glad tidings. It is said of Jesus, He did “all things well”. Mark 7:37. The whole idea of the clerical system and of the machinery used professedly in the work of Christ is shown by this gospel to be all wrong.
EM You were saying last night that recovery goes back to what was there at the beginning.
JT Yes, but if you take the Lord’s own Person, you cannot speak of the beginning of His Person. In this gospel it is “the beginning of the glad tidings”. Mark 1:1. As to Himself, He was in the beginning.
JMcF Every Christian’s house should in that way be a sphere of interest.
JT That is the point, but each one is to be free as to it. Even if assembly conditions do not exist in a place one can always have one’s house right, like Joshua.
JMcF The Lord says, “Arise, take up thy couch, and go to thine house”. Mark 2:11. When the man got the blessing he was to go to his own house in order that he might influence his house first. That is the third house, and the fourth is Levi’s.
JT You can understand, if the Lord came back to Capernaum again, that the area of His influence would be extended. If you go into a town where there are no Christians at all that you know, and you have to go to the religious people of the town, you will not get much sympathy there. In Levi’s house you find that something is being done for Christ: “And it came to pass that as he lay at table in his house, that many tax-gatherers and sinners lay at table also together with Jesus and his disciples for they were many and they followed him”. Mark 2:15. Levi had made a feast for the Lord.
JMcF I notice in connection with the house in the beginning of this chapter, “many were gathered together, so that there was no longer any room, not even at the door, and he spake the word to them”. Mark 2:1. That is, from the house the word goes [p. 425] out.
JT The word has free course and is glorified. In this chapter you come from the individual’s house to the thought of the bride-chamber and the children of it. There is much teaching in that. The thought of the bride-chamber and the Bridegroom takes you out of your own circle. You honour Christ in your own circle, and then He brings you into His circle.
TMG That is the assembly?
JT Well, it leads to that. The bride-chamber is not one’s own house.
EM He comes to our side in order to lead us to His side.
JT Yes, and what follows upon that is that things become altogether new. He leads us on to His circle of things. Then you get the place of children, not now guests, but “sons” of the bride-chamber.
JPW Is this what you were saying, that everything is perfect and complete?
JT Yes, this chapter really denotes a complete period. All this leads up to what is new, and the standing corn, and that was as far as the Lord could bring them at that time. The corn was standing, not yet cut down, Mark 2:23.
HB How do you connect that which you have been saying with regard to the absence of the Bridegroom?
JT The time had come when the Lord would be no longer standing, and when He would be absent. Fasting then would be in order. He leads them on as far as He then could in that line. Already there was the voice of the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom suggests the bride, and the bride-chamber, and those who followed Him had the privilege of being sons of it, not simply friends. John was the friend of the Bridegroom. The difference between John and the disciple is that John stands. The disciple sits. John [p. 426] stands and hears. The disciple sits and hears. John heard the voice of the Bridegroom, but he did not belong to the bridechamber.
TMG He was not with Him in it, but he could recognise His voice.
JT It was the discernment he had. He discerned the voice of Christ. In the ministry of Christ there was the Bridegroom’s voice. The Lord was looking for something. His affections sought something, and His ministry indicates that. The friend standeth and heareth, whereas the disciple sitteth and heareth, like Mary.
TMG She sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His voice.
HB Is that circle open to us whilst He is absent?
JT Well, it really comes to that, for the bride now is the assembly. We have Ephesians now, you know. If you insert Ephesians here you have the full assembly conditions, but this passage does not give us the Lord’s full place. The end of the chapter is the standing corn, but it is available as food for the disciples. There was that present which was available to them.
EM Does the wine in verse 22 abide with us still? Does that not refer to a moment further than this?
JT Well, it is what the Lord was going to do. New wine was to be put into new bottles. Already the new wine was really there in Himself. The bottles were not yet formed. The Spirit had not come.
TMG The fasting would come when the Bridegroom would be taken away.
JT Yes, there is nothing amongst us harder to lay hold of than what is new. That is the most difficult thing to take in.
TMG It is easier to take in the old than the new. The old is ingrained in our very nature.
JMcF What is meant by the [p. 427] old?
JT Then it was what was established at Jerusalem.
J.McF. The Jewish system?
JT Yes, I believe so. There is nothing more difficult to take in than what is new. The book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is nothing new under the sun”. Ecclesiastes 1:9. Whatever may come up has been before. The New Testament teaching insists on what is new. You find that in Romans. You find there newness of spirit, of life, renewing of the mind. All is on the principle of what is new.
EM New things that never grow old!
TMG The heavenly things, the things that are above are new.
JT Seeing that would save us from attaching ourselves to old principles in service. It is remarkable when a servant gets away from the Lord how he goes back to old ways and methods that had previously been given up. It is virtually saying that the new is ineffective, but the new is really the only effective method. One might allude to what is called popular evangelism. It is largely carried on by those who had their part in the recovery. They are doubly guilty. To be recovered to first principles and to give them up is a double sin; compare Galatians 2:18. There may be the holding of the letter of the truth while giving up of the right methods of service. What Christ did He did well. “He hath done all things well”, Mark 7:37 is the testimony to Him.
HB Is there any contrast between the standing corn and the corn made into bread?
JT What helps us in Leviticus is the sheaf of first fruits. The grain had evidently not been detached. But afterwards the people were to bring from their houses two wave loaves baked with leaven. In order to have bread you must have fire. It would refer to the Spirit as bringing about self-judgment.