BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (3)
[p. 428] BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (3)
JT You will observe that this is the Lord’s second visit to the synagogue. “And he entered again into the synagogue”. Mark 3:1. This gives the thought of complete witness there; and what is further to be observed is, that antagonism to Christ seems to have arisen there, showing that there is no hope of support on the religious side. The Lord’s service only brought out a murderous opposition.
SM What does the synagogue stand for?
JT It stands for accredited religion in contrast to the house. The Lord would have owned the synagogue, were it possible, but this chapter shows that though He cast out the demon from the man it elicited no sympathy. The word “again” in verse 1, is significant. It is His second visit to the synagogue. Again He works a miracle, but He calls attention more to the weakness that existed. There was a man there who had a withered hand. He calls the man out into the midst to show that he was impotent. The man described the condition of the religious system. It could do nothing. It was powerless. It helps us to take account of that now. Although you may get a hearing in the synagogue you will only find the more that opposition springs up, and no matter what activity there may be, there is no power in it to do anything for God. The hand signifies ability to do things. It is the power to accomplish things, but the hand was withered.
JPW What would answer to the synagogue now?
JT The religion accredited in the world. So now there are “established churches”, and so forth. The synagogue represents the accredited religion of any locality. You will always find a link between it [p. 429] and the world, and what marks it is that there is no power to do anything for God. The hand represents the ability to do things, and the hand was withered. The restored man, therefore, represents the believer as having ability to work, and this chapter shows how you are to use that ability. The possession of the ability is not enough. It has to be regulated and used and the Lord shows in what follows how use is made of it. Everyone who is a Christian has some ability given to him or her. “To each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”, Ephesians 4:7 (New Translation). The first thing is to recognise that you have the ability, and secondly, what is your aim in using it; and how you are doing the work?
SM There are many who have ability and yet cannot use it.
JT The Lord calls to him whom He Himself would. It is not enough for you to have the ability. When you have it you must use it, but under His authority. It is given by the sovereign appointment of Christ. He called some “that they might be with him, and that he might send them to preach and to heal diseases”. Mark 3:14,15.
EM Having the ability supposes having the Spirit, but there is more.
JT Yes, one has not only to have the Spirit, but to become the subject of the Spirit’s work, so that you know how to use the Spirit as the Lord did. By the Spirit He cast out demons.
JMcF You learn that by being with Him.
JT Yes. Nothing in a way is more important in studying Mark’s gospel than to note the change of position. He went up to a mountain. He withdraws from the influences of the synagogue and the crowd. You must go up into the mountain, if you are to do anything in gospel work. The disciples were with Christ before He sent them forth to [p. 430] preach.
JM It is the difference between orthodoxy and vital Christianity. Being with Christ involves exercise of soul.
JT Quite so. You withdraw from the influence of the plain, and then you are in that wonderful society above; thus the idea of apostleship is being with the One whom you represent, being sent out from the Person is the idea in it.
JB Do you connect it with the verse “he gave some apostles”? Ephesians 4:11.
JT That is the doctrine of it. “He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers”. Ephesians 4:11. One point is that He gave them wisely. He gave the greatest gift first. Authority had to be established first, and this is seen in the apostles.
RL Would you say that you get the same thing in Moses when he was with God forty days?
JT Yes, what marked Moses when he returned first to the camp was not so much that he did what he was commanded to do, but he did what was right from the judgment he had formed from being with God; he had gathered up divine principles in his soul. So far as we know he had no command as to what to do as finding the golden calf in the camp. You gather up the principles that govern another world, and these are your guide. Some say you cannot carry out these principles now, but Moses did in circumstances as difficult as ours.
EM Is that the thought of the holiest?
JT Yes; you get light here as to how things are before God.
TMG Like Asaph when he said, “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I”, Psalm 73:17.
RL The Lord did not gather the disciples around Him in the [p. 431] synagogue.
JT That is a good point. What confusion would be there!
RL It was a sort of out-of-the-world condition the Lord was in on the mount.
JT It was; the Lord was at home there and free to express and carry out what lay upon His heart. He called “whom he himself would”. Mark 3:13. It is a question of His sovereign choice. He sends them out, and He gives them distinguished names, such as “Peter” and “Boanerges”.
RL Is there something set forth in His naming them?
JT When you get a name from Christ you are distinguished. You go in as a disciple, but you come out with a commission. The name you get indicates what the Lord intends to be set forth in your testimony. He gives names to us when He gives us something to do and the name He gives distinguishes you; you do not need D.D. or “Reverend”. You have upon you a distinguishing name, that no one gives but Christ.
JB You go in as Jacob, and you come out as Israel.
JT Yes, I think that every servant should have some distinguishing stamp upon his service. The work is his work, the line is his line, and no one else can do it but himself.
WH Everything given by the Lord is sufficient and complete.
JT Wisdom is seen in it. He gave “some apostles”, etc. That was discriminating wisdom. Moses was honoured in a remarkable way in that God left him to act as he thought right according to Him. God confirmed what Moses did in pitching the tabernacle outside the camp.
TMG God identifies Himself with what Moses did.
JM And what he did was done in the consciousness of having been with God.
RL Paul could say, “the Lord stood with me”. 2 Timothy 4:17.
TMG [p. 432] There is a great deal in being on the mount.
JMcF Is not that the secret of power? You must come from the Lord.
JT Yes and if you do, the principles of another world govern you. You refuse the principles of this world. The whole system of Christendom is based on worldly principles. The same principle in college is applied to the clergyman as is applied to the doctor. They are all worldly principles, whereas the Lord gives new names. “Peter” is a new name and “Boanerges” is a new name; these names are given by Christ. As receiving a name we must maintain what it sets forth in work and service. He did not give them in the synagogue, nor in the house. The names were given on the mountain. It is for you to show publicly that you are called to it. You are to be formed by what that name signifies.
HB I suppose it was on the same occasion that Matthew 5, Matthew 6 and Matthew 7 were spoken.
JT I cannot say, but at any rate a comparison serves to show the difference between the two Evangelists. It is the new law in Matthew, but here it is the new service. In Acts 13:2 we read that the Spirit said, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. Barnabas and Saul were with the brethren in the assembly at Antioch then, and it is from among the brethren that the Lord calls out some to serve in a special way. In the end of Mark 3:34, it is said that the Lord looked “around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him”. That is the circle of the brethren; it is from that circle the ministers go out. They go out evangelising, but they get the sympathy of the brethren in going out on their labours.
TMG They go out from the assembly.
JT Yes, the brethren are in this chapter marked out. The Lord looked “around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him”. Mark 3:34. Think of that!
[p. 433] Think of the eyes of the Lord travelling around that circle, and not omitting one of the number. What were they doing? You might say that they were doing nothing, but they were; they were doing the will of God, for they were listening to Christ. It suggests the circle of the saints. He comes down from the mountain, and they enter into the house; Mark 3:19. His relatives are outside, and now regard Him in a peculiar way; they say He is out of His mind; Mark 3:21. There are those nearer, His mother and brethren, they are in the precincts of the house; Mark 3:34.
Rem It is very blessed to belong to the circuit, People say you are not doing much. Well, you are doing the will of God if you are listening to Christ.
JM It was in the “circle” that the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul”. Acts 13:2.
JT There is a link between the mountain and the circle.
EM That circle is influenced from heaven.
JT The relatives do not know that. It shows how little relatives can be trusted.
JPW The Lord says to His disciples, “to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God”. Luke 8:10.
JT In that way the first principles of the Lord’s ministry are seen; it is the beginning of the assembly. There can be no truth more important for us than that which bears on what the brethren are.
JPW Are they determined here by spiritual characteristics?
HB They are not outside the door, nor in the synagogue. Being in the synagogue does not prove that you are a brother.
EM It is not some low place within the door. It is in the circle.
RL His mother and His brethren according to flesh were outside.
JT All that shows that the circle is not found [p. 434] in the dearest natural relationship on earth. His mother and His brethren outside, think of that! It is remarkable how the Spirit of God speaks of Mary. She does not specially shine after the Lord was presented in the temple.
RL In that way the relatives are still outside.
JT Yes. In the journey from Jerusalem they were a good distance on the way before they missed Him. His father and His mother did not miss Him for some time. Nature is absolutely unreliable. He was about His Father’s business.
WK You said that being in the synagogue would not mark out the brethren.
JT Yes, being prominently religious in no way marks out any one of the brethren.
WK But you intimate that you might be found in a correct place outwardly, and yet not be one of the brethren.
JT That is no guarantee of itself; therefore the importance of this intimation the Lord gives as to what marks the brethren; they do the will of God.
JPW Will you say a word more about the top of the mountain?
JT That is the place where appointments are given. I am afraid we do not know much about that place. The influence comes from thence into the circle. The Lord “calls whom he himself would”, Mark 3:13 and from among them He appointed twelve, who would be with Him and to whom He gave commissions. From thence they came down into the circle, into the house; Mark 3:19.
JPW Does that indicate separation of heart to the Lord?
JT That is just what I think separation leads to. Satan is ever seeking to hinder one from going up to the mountain. Satan is foiled if even one or two brothers go up to it.
WH We should all aspire [p. 435] to it.
JM I suppose it requires exercise of soul to get near to the Lord? We cannot teach one another this in terms of doctrine.
EM Is it not education by the Lord?
JT Yes, but it says that they might be with Him. This advantage is, in principle, open to us all. The order is, that He is first in the synagogue, and in the synagogue the murderous opposition arises against Him. “The Pharisees going out straightway with the Herodians, took counsel against him, how they might destroy him”. Mark 3:6. Then He withdrew to the sea and the multitude followed Him. Then He spoke to His disciples that a little ship should wait upon Him on account of the crowd that they might not press upon Him. He is leading on to what we have been dwelling upon. He is showing them that effective service must be free from the crowd. You are to serve the crowd, but in order to serve them, you must be free from them. That is what He is showing. Then comes the next paragraph in which He shows, as it were, the necessity of not only being free from the influence of the crowd, but that you should get under the influence of Christ. You want the positive influence of what is above, so that the position is extremely clear if you connect it with the Acts and Ephesians. The preaching of Jesus Christ has come out from that atmosphere and the place where the disciples were with Him, the disciples whom He distinguished by the names He gave them there.
ELM He said to Paul, “delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee”. Acts 26:17.
JT He delivered him from them, and then sent him to them. You cannot serve people unless you are free from them.
RL This is the same occasion as when the Lord continued all night in prayer.
[p. 436] JT Yes, Luke shows Him as the dependent Man. I like the thought of the names; that you have a certain title or commission from Christ; that is given to you in private. It is for you to discover that it is given to you, and that it carries with it the sense of His approval and of your fitness for what He has given you to do. Then you are to prove that you are “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed”. 2 Timothy 2:15.
EM It is the opposite of officialism.
WH It is so encouraging to know that you are approved of God.
JT You get your commission in private, but the service is to be performed in public. What you get in private gives you an impression of Him, so that you have light in your soul as to what you are to do. You know it yourself. You do not run and tell the brethren about it. You know you have your commission, and that is enough for you.
HB Is there any moment in Peter’s history when this teaching marked him?
JT Yes. I think it was seen when he stood up on the day of Pentecost. He stood up at Pentecost with the eleven. There was wisdom in that. It showed that Peter had been at school. He was not a novice. He remembered that these had been on the mount, and that they got their commission then. One often hears that the meeting is responsible for the gospel. Scripture never places responsibility for preaching on the assembly. Peter showed that he had profited by the Lord’s teaching; so he stood up with the eleven; not with the one hundred and twenty. The eleven were the preachers; the others were not preachers and they were not “sent”.
RL When Moses came down he wist not what others saw, and of the disciples, it is said by the Jewish council in Acts 4:13, “they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus”.
JB “We are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works”. Ephesians 2:10.
JT It was “ordained” that we should walk in them.
JPW Peter is the first that is named.
JT He was the leading apostle, so much so that Paul refers to him as the one who received the apostleship of the circumcision. The Lord gave him the keys of the kingdom. The Lord made no mistake.
JPW He is true to the place that the Lord gave him at the beginning.
JT Yes, you see that in the first chapter of Acts he quotes the Scriptures, and he quotes them correctly and intelligently.
EM In regard to Peter standing up with the eleven, would you give that a present application, that the preaching is dependent on gift?
JT It is dependent on commission. You must be sent to preach “the preaching that I bid thee”. Jonah 3:2. It is a remarkable thing about Paul that he says, “that by me the preaching might be fully known”. 2 Timothy 4:17. When Lydia was converted she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul. I do not think anyone can preach unless he has a sense of gift. Of course, he finds it out.
EM Paul says to Timothy, “do the work of an evangelist”. 2 Timothy 4:5.
JT That shows that we are not to be presumptuous in a day of weakness. We get that in 2 Timothy, not in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy assumes that the evangelists are there; in 2 Timothy the work is there, and has to be done. If you have power to do anything, do it. The work has to be done. These two things should be kept together.
SM What is the difference between power and gift?
JT A gift is power itself. It is a power that is superior to all that is contrary. “Having ascended [p. 438] up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men”. Ephesians 4:8. He has overthrown all that was against Him and He gave gifts to men. The gifts that the Lord has given to us are greater than all contrary power. They are to be used, however, in subjection to the Lord.
JM If we have no gift in the meeting should we not have any gospel preaching?
JT Well, the Lord would come in and give gift. The assembly was to be evangelical, although, as already said, it is not to preach.
JPW Mr. Stoney said that gift is in most cases subject to desire.
JM We should go back to the beginning for our instructions as to how to serve, and not seek to do things according to human methods.
SL What about the universality of the service?
JT The palsied man in Mark 2 was borne by four; that is 1 Timothy.
SL Is it not a great help when you feel you have the sympathy of the saints?
JT That is what you get in the four.
HB Is not that the eleven as in Acts 2?
JT No, I think it is the 120. In 1 Timothy prayer in the house of God is universal. There is prayer for all men. That is the work of the four. The whole world is in need, and there is sympathy and prayer, so that all men should be saved.
RL In the sheet that was let down to Peter there were four corners.
JT That is universal, too. All are included. “What God has cleansed”. Acts 10:15.
SL No one is shut out from the gospel. Everyone should be invited.
JT Yes, we should pray for all men.
SM The gospel, as you said, is not preached by the assembly.
JT The assembly represents the four that bare [p. 439] the man. The saints are to bring those in need to where the preacher is. It is remarkable what is said in chapter 2; “it was reported that he was at the house”. Mark 2:1.
HB It would not have been enough to have simply invited the man.
JT No, it was urgent. The Lord was in that house. The people gather, and these four would get the man there at all costs. It was noised that Jesus was there. It was made known that this wonderful MAN was in that house. The reporting shows that an evangelical spirit was active.
JPW If we all knew what it was to be with the Lord on the top of the mount there would be much service of this kind.
JT “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”. 1 Timothy 2:5. This is the basis for evangelisation. God will have “all men to be saved”, 1 Timothy 2:4 and the preacher is a herald of this. There is abundant encouragement to pray.
RL What gives interest to that house is, that the Lord is there.
JT And like the four who bore the paralytic, we may still bring people to where the Lord is. Of course you invite them, but it may be open to you to do more.
TMG The saints bear up the preacher.
JT Yes, and they bear up needy souls also.
HB The service is the same, whether I am simply praying for the preacher, or whether I have the need of souls on my heart.
JT Timothy shows that the house of God is sympathetic as to human need, hence the prayer. We have a priestly place in regard to all nations.
HB Will you say a word about speaking injuriously against the Holy Spirit?
JT Well, that is a thing you have to deal with [p. 440] too. Where service has been carried on according to divine principles and the work is undeniable, it brings out inveterate opposition to Christ. The enemies of the truth attribute the power by which He did the work to Beelzebub. The Lord shows the foolishness of it saying, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Mark 3:23 and, “if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand”. Mark 3:34.
Ques Can that exist now?
JT Yes, it has existed all along from the time clerisy came in, which always militated against the recognition of divine principles. Opposition to the work of the Spirit is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
TMG That is what clerisy is.
JM The thing is for us to get back to first principles.
JT Then you come to the circle of the brethren. The Lord says, “Who is my mother or my brethren?” Mark 3:33.
And, looking around in a circuit at those who were sitting around Him, He says, “Behold my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister and mother”. Mark 3:34,35. Here the crowd sitting around Him are regarded as His brethren. It is well also to note what is said of the crowd in verse 20; they prevented the Lord and His disciples from eating. It shows what a crowd may do. In verse 20 we read, “again a crowd comes together, so that they cannot even eat bread”. Mark 3:20.
EM What is in your mind in connection with that?
JT People may be very favourable to you, and show you all sorts of kindness, and yet they may really hamper you. You cannot get anything for yourself.
AA In chapter 2 they prevented the paralytic from getting into the house.
JT Yes, that is the same thing.
WK So that a crowd may hinder you.