BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (5)
[p. 454] BEGINNING OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (5)
Mark 7: 31 - 37; Mark 8: 22 - 38
JT If we could see, that the instruction here is to lead up to the revelation of the Lord according to what He is personally, it would be a help to us; the transfiguration is the consummation of all that. One thing to point out in regard of the gospels, is, that they suggest a paternal influence in Christ, involving the thought that a generation was being formed. The expressions, “son”, “daughter” and “child” denote that. Whilst the Lord is not formally regarded as Father, yet there was in Him, both in His teaching and character, a parental influence bringing about a generation of a special kind.
EM He said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. John 14:9.
JT Yes; but that would be more representative; you would not there lose sight of the Father as being God; 1 Corinthians 8:6. Christ’s works were the Father’s works, indeed, as He said. I think we have to distinguish between the Father in what may be regarded as relationship and character. The Father’s relationship to Him was disclosed at His baptism, but it was in the ministry of Christ that the character of the Father came out. Thus, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. John 14:9.
EM I quoted that statement of the Lord’s, because I want to follow your thought in regard to the parental idea.
JT Well, it is what the Lord is in virtue of His moral supremacy and His influence. In the Old Testament there are those who are regarded prophetically as His house.
JPW Is it additional to their instruction as [p. 455] servants?
JT Yes, it is. I do not say it is distinctive of Mark’s gospel, for it is generally in the gospels; it brought about a generation after its kind.
JM The manner of the Lord’s preaching to souls would produce responsive affection.
JT Yes. It is said in Proverbs, “my delights were with the sons of men”. Proverbs 8:31. It does not say there “the sons of God“: we have to distinguish, I think. It reads, “my delights were with the sons of men”.
WH Would the idea be in Psalm 45:16, “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children”?
JT Well, yes; only there it is the maternal side; Israel’s side. Her children shall give her distinction instead of the fathers. Israel always prided herself on the fathers. Christ distinguishes us more than any earthly parent we may have.
TM It would not refer to sonship in relation to the Father, but to our being in Christ’s place here.
JT Yes, and having derived from the MAN. The sons of God are regarded in that light as having the divine nature, and as answering to God; but then the idea of the sons of men is different. I do not say that the thought does not go on to heaven, but it is certainly connected with the earth in Scripture, the earth shall be given to the children of men. “My delights were with the sons of men”. Proverbs 8:31.
WH Is the generation to be produced in order to take the place of Christ here in His absence?
JT Yes; wisdom’s design is men, but it is to be men in that peculiar relationship; that is, as a son with a father. It is entirely different from a servant with his master. A son with a father reciprocates affection; and that is what wisdom has in mind. So that if there is any pleasure in men, as in Luke’s gospel, it is that there is affection between them. We often read that passage in Luke 2 carelessly; it is not good pleasure in man it is good pleasure in men; it is the race that is [p. 456] in view.
EM Man would be found here in the pathway of God’s will.
JT Yes, quite so. The Lord looked on the young man in Mark 10, and He loved him; that is, as God’s creature; but then if you put a number of those young men together, and suppose they are born again and that they love God, and love Christ, and love one another, there you get wisdom’s idea. It is not simply that wisdom loves the creature, but it loves the creature that is seen in the relationship of sons. I thought it would be interesting to call attention to that, especially as it comes out in these scriptures. In chapter 5 the Lord addresses the woman who is healed as “daughter”. Mark 5:34.
JB Do you connect that with the original thoughts of God?
JT Well, yes; you get it in Proverbs 8.
JB Apart from the thought of the assembly?
JT Oh; it is distinct from the assembly; it is a thought that applies to the millennial world; “the habitable world”, Hebrews 2:5, as well as to ourselves. It is a very important truth to notice, because it brings about the thought of spiritual affection; and it is that the Spirit delights in. The book of Proverbs sets before us what cannot be improved upon; and whilst we know we can speak of Wisdom as Christ, yet it is better to let the Scripture speak for itself. It is Wisdom that speaks; and if Wisdom approves of a thing you cannot improve upon it.
I think the demoniac in Mark 5 is typical of man in his natural state as casting off all restraint; he is living among the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. Well, the kingdom of God meets that; he is affected by the word of Christ, and so the man is seen sitting, and clothed, and sensible. The kingdom has been effective, but we need more than the kingdom. So the woman who was healed in the same chapter tells out “all the truth”. Mark 5:33. That is to say, the [p. 457] inward hidden state that causes all the sorrow is confessed after our sins are forgiven. The Lord compels the woman publicly to tell out all the truth.
TMG That is Romans 7.
JT Yes; it is not simply that virtue goes out of the Lord and heals her. She would have been content to have gone home and to tell nothing about it; but after you are healed the Lord would have all the truth out. And then He says, “Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace”. Mark 5:34. The next instance in that chapter is Jairus’ daughter who was raised up, which would answer pretty much to Colossians in its application to Paul’s doctrine.
Rem. Risen with Christ?
JT Yes, risen with Christ. Not only is the fever dismissed, as in chapter 1, and the paralytic healed and set up in his house, but now in chapter 5 there is a risen person in the house. If you apply that to the house of God you see the effect. In that way chapter 6 introduces the service of the apostles. They are formally sent out in that chapter, and what may be noticed is that the Lord is pleased in His wisdom to send out His servants in twos; “he began to send them out two and two”. Mark 6:7.
WH What is the thought in that?
JT I think it brings out wisdom. In all the Lord does He acts wisely; and we know that two are better than one as a principle; we also know that two is adequate testimony. It is interesting to see that Paul was the only one, so far as we know, who acted upon it. There is nothing said about the twelve going two and two in the Acts, The Spirit said, however, in Acts 13:2, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them”. But on his second journey it was Paul’s proposal that two of them should go. We know that it was Silas who accompanied Paul the second time.
TMG What is the point for us there?
[p. 458] JT Of course we have come to a broken up state of things, but there can be no doubt that two are better than one. If two can be of one mind in the testimony it is a great power. A threefold cord is not quickly broken; if you get three you have a stronger cord; but two is a great power.
JMcF They can support each other.
JT Yes; there is sympathy and support. I believe, that in our meetings, as a practical thing, if you can get two or three brothers of one accord, things are carried. “If two of you shall agree”. Matthew 18:19. One would, however, be afraid of cliques.
JM That is a very important thing, if it is with the Lord’s approval. Any amount of agreement apart from the Lord would be of very little use.
JT Yes, and Paul’s letter to Timothy shows what great sympathy he had with that young man; he loved him with a parent’s love. It seems as if Timothy had been given specially to him; there was no one to him like Timothy; he does not speak of Silas in the same way.
EM It was in Timothy he saw the continuation of faithful men.
JT He was a brother born for adversity; his mother was a Jewish believing woman; and his grandmother had faith.
JM What is the thought in what we have read?
JT Well I thought we might just look at chapter 6 leading up to this. In the portion commencing with verse 30, the disciples returned from their labours in which they had been eminently successful, and it is said that they related to Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile. For those coming and those going were many, and they had not leisure even to eat”. Mark 6:31. That is to say, however successful one’s service may be, the Lord would [p. 459] divert you from it to rest and eat. Occupation in service, and especially if it is successful, is apt to produce barrenness in one’s soul. So there is further instruction there; the Lord does not say a single word as to their success; they had said enough about it. He thought of their souls, He watched for their souls. Very often the saints have no idea that the servant’s soul needs to be helped.
WHM Instead of criticised!
JT Well, of course, criticism does not hurt him, but a servant’s soul is not like an inexhaustible spring that may be pumped all the time. It is said of the saints generally, that he that is born of God “keeps himself” 1 John 5:18; but it is said of the servant, the man of God, that he should “take heed” to himself 1 Timothy 4:16; if he does not he will damage not only himself, but others. Here the Lord is the Overseer of the servants as well as of the saints; and He is taking good care that they shall get rest and something to eat. Now, in chapter 5 He enjoined that the little girl who had been raised up from the dead should be given something to eat. He did not give her something to eat; He enjoins that the parents should do so. If you have children you have to look after them and give them something to eat, and see that they get right food, too. The Lord here in chapter 6 31, takes them aside in order that they should have something for themselves.
JM The Lord’s interest in them is seen right through this gospel; when He chose the twelve it was that they might be with Him; then He sends them forth to preach; then He takes them aside.
JT “He restoreth (or reviveth) my soul”, Psalm 23:3. That was not because it had gone astray. That is great comfort for the ministers. Your soul needs to be kept up for the service, or the service will be too much for you. He revives, or refreshes you.
Rem You are restored.
JT “[p. 460] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul”. Psalm 23:2,3. That is what you get for yourself; then you can come out and help to minister to others. You get watered in your own soul. In Exodus 15 there were seventy palm trees and twelve wells of water, which were there at Elim for the whole company. That would be the shelter andrefreshment of ministry, but in the end of the wilderness journey Israel brings water and pours it out of their buckets; they had it themselves; that is the effect of ministry.
JPW He recompenses you.
JT And refits you, so that you can resume the work more effectively.
JMcR He replenishes my soul.
JT Then a servant may say, Well, if I do not keep at it the saints will starve, and the people will not be converted, and nothing will be accomplished. But what we see here is that the Lord takes them aside into the desert after all their report of what they had done. Then it says after that, “that he had compassion on the multitude” Mark 6:34; showing that He knew the need of the people; see verse 34. The servant in that way may be quite assured that in looking after himself the saints will not suffer, the Lord will look after them. He will take care of them.
JM If the servant does not see to his own soul’s need, the tendency with him will be to give them the same thing over and over again.
JT I am sure that is true. It is very hard to keep from repeating good things, but it is most deplorable to repeat a sermon. I do not think anyone would do it habitually who knew this chapter.
So the Lord proceeds with the feeding of the multitude. He began to teach them many things. And when it was already late in the day, his disciples coming unto him say, “This place is a desert; send [p. 461] them away that they may go into the country round about and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat”. Mark 6:36. That was a very poor thing to say. If they had been in the secret of the lesson of retirement with Christ they would have known that the Lord could feed any number. But the effect of this further instruction is to lead our souls into the abundance of what is in Christ, so that a liberal spirit would mark us. “Freely ye have received, freely give”. Matthew 10:8.
EM He says, “How many loaves have ye?” Mark 6:38.
JT Yes; “Go and see”. Mark 6:38. It was for them to go and find out now what they had. But a great testimony comes out here incidentally, the fulfilment of a great prophecy as to Christ. “I will satisfy her poor with bread”, Psalm 132:15.
JM I suppose, that is the intention of the instruction here: that we might know the sufficiency that is in Christ for all.
JT How much greater it is to impress the crowd with the greatness of what is in God than to impress them with your ability as a servant; if they were to pursue man’s line it would be to impress people with the greatness of their achievements; whereas it should be to impress them with the greatness of God. Earlier in this gospel, in chapter 4:36, the crowd is sent away, they are dismissed; but here they are taken account of, being taught, and set down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties, and fed; they are really, you might say, brought into fellowship. The greatness of what God is comes out, and how He could meet the need of the crowd! It is practically what God can do for the world. The world is now divided up into nations governmentally; but we are looking for the time when the Lord Jesus will come when He will teach the nations, and feed the nations, and regulate the nations; that is what He will do.
JM He is doing that now with His saints; He [p. 462] is setting them down in companies all over the country, and feeding them.
JT I have often thought of this feature of Paul’s manner in forming assemblies. The house of God is constituted in that way, in local companies; and the disciples are of those who give them to eat; because it was what they gave them that was multiplied.
TMG They may have had little, but it was a very great deal in the end.
JT The effect of this instruction is to lead the disciples to recognise the greatness of Christ and at the end of the chapter we find that they are thinking of Him, and bringing people to Him.
RL God meets every true exercise and one cannot help being exercised when one sees the state of things today; it is, as you say, a much wider scope than the assembly.
JT O, yes it is; it is more the world at large coming under the administration of the twelve. I think it suggests what will be brought about in the millennium. And in that way it impresses the servants as to the resources that are in Christ.
JM And it has a present application, that wherever the Lord’s people are together there should be that which would benefit men according to God; there should be light and refreshment; the light of Christ; so that when souls would come into the room they would find something they never had before.
JT It is a great thing that those who serve should make what God is, the point in what they say. If the disciples had had their way it would have been what they were doing, as at Corinth, they were taking account of this servant and that servant. The Lord reminds us that He could do without all the servants. I think, chapter 7 teaches us how to speak aright because that is really the point. Of course there are other things in it, and chapter 8 teaches us how to see [p. 463] aright.
JM Will you kindly open that up a little for us — How to speak aright?
JT Well, it is that there is such a wonderful Person come on the scene; One who can do these things; One who can feed the multitude, and take care of human necessities; it is of all moment that there should be one to speak of Him.
JM Why do you think speaking comes before seeing?
JT I do not know. Paul said, “According to what is written I have believed, therefore have I spoken”, 2 Corinthians 4:13, but then he goes on to say later in that chapter, “we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal”. 2 Corinthians 4:18. Seeing, after all, is the greatest, because the horizon is so extended for Christians; our horizon is eternal.
EM The speaking is more connected with testimony?
JT Yes, it is testimony.
WHM You pass over the hearing? The one who speaks aright is the one who hears aright.
JT Yes; further on “they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech”. Mark 7:32. I was thinking of that and what the Spirit specially notes there. As you say, in order to speak right you must hear right.
WHM It was the Lord’s own voice he heard.
JM It is remarkable again here that it is noted, “he took him aside from the multitude”. Mark 7:33.
JT Yes, you see it in both instances. In this chapter the Lord took him aside from the crowd, and in the next chapter He took the man outside the village before He did anything to him.
JM In order to impress anyone about God, you need to be with God, apart from the crowd.
JT You cannot always reckon on sympathy [p. 464] from a crowd. What often marks a crowd is curiosity; they are sightseers, they want to hear and see what transpires; therefore in the raising of the little maid in chapter 5 the Lord put them everyone out except the father and the mother of the damsel, and Peter, James and John. You can get on better in a meeting where there is sympathy than where there is none. In fact, we know that the Lord could not do many mighty works amongst His own relatives because of their unbelief. He might have expected support from His own relatives, but He did not get it. So you would not think of presenting to the crowd the mysteries of God, but you can speak of them inside, where there is sympathy.
EM “He does all things well!” Mark 7:37.
JT Yes, that comes in here; the only place you find it. It is really the key of Mark’s gospel.
TMG He is the perfect Servant.
JT In Mark it is not only what He did, but how He did it. If another evangelist were recording this, he might only say, He unloosed the man’s tongue, without saying where, or how, He did it; but here you have both.
JM Yes, and it says of the healed man, “he spake plain” Mark 7:35.
JT “And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake right” Mark 7:35. You see the point was that the man should speak right, “If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God”, 1 Peter 4:11. It is not a question of oratory, it is a question of communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.
JMcF What is the difference between the crowd and the town?
JT Well, I think the town is the more dangerous; in any case, the crowd after all are cared for by the Lord. But a village is a miniature town, and a town is a miniature city; and the idea of a city is a centre [p. 465] for evil. So the Lord led the man outside the town. Young people, as a rule, like to see the town, forgetting that it is there that evil is centred. You would not like your children to see the mass of corruption in a city; you want to keep them away from that. If the Lord opened the man’s eyes He would open them on creation, so to speak. A city denotes man s works. Cain went out of the presence of the Lord and builded a city: it is man’s works, and man’s glory; man’s name is called upon it. The operation is most interesting. There is not time, however, to go into it, but it just bears out all that we have been speaking of as to how He does things.
TMG He took him by the hand and led him out of the town, spat on his eyes, and put His hands upon him.
JT Quite a number of things were done. And then the first question the Lord puts to him is, Whether he saw anything? It is a good thing to ask a convert as to what he sees. The Lord asked this man if he beheld anything. One wonders what people would say if they really told the truth when asked that question; what they have seen since they have been converted. Most of them would probably say that they have seen men. They have not seen beyond the brethren, and they are very big in their eyes; “as trees walking”. Mark 8:24. That will do them harm.
JB In both cases the Lord spat.
JT It refers to His humanity. All this is in connection with His humanity.
TMG Like John 9.
JPW What answers to the second touch?
JT The second touch is the Spirit. “He put his hands again upon his eyes”. Mark 8:25. Notice the words, “again” and “hands”; both His hands, too. It is not a question of the Lord’s power; it is committal. One hand denotes His power, His right hand; two [p. 466] hands denote that He commits Himself; that indicates the gift of the Spirit, as I understand this second blessing. He lays His two hands upon him; and then “he saw all things clearly”. Mark 8:25. After the Spirit is received all things are seen aright, and not till then. It is said that he “saw all things clearly” — all things; not simply all men, but everything. A spiritual man judges all things.
EM He sent him to his house, telling him not to enter into the village, nor tell it to anyone in the village.
JT That is another remarkable touch. A true evangelist not only sees that a person is converted, but he is exercised that such a one should get the Spirit, and he is exercised as to where the man is going. The Lord told him not to go back to the village; he must not go in the way of temptation. A Christian was never made for the village. The idea of a Christian is that he is a stranger and a pilgrim. God says, as it were, now you have given up the world’s cities, now I will make a city for you. So faith waits for that.
JPW And you think if the man had gone back to the city he would have lost the sense of the touch?
JT I think he would. Many a young Christian has been damaged by the city. I mean the spirit of the thing.
JPW Does the Spirit come in in connection with Romans 8?
JT Yes; one of the most important points in Romans 8 is that; it is figuratively Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah. Mount Nebo looks into Canaan. You see everything from there; you take a retrospective view of your own course, and you see that God has been with you in it; and then you look into the land, and you see all that you have there. So the second touch gives you a vision; it gives [p. 467] you a view; you review the wilderness and get a view into the land; you look into Ephesians from Romans. But then the great end of all that is, now that you have eyes, that the Lord says, What do you think of ME? You have seen men, what now about ME? It is not men now; it is ONE MAN. “But ye who do ye say that I am”, Mark 8:29.
EM Was that a test of their affections?
JT I think it was a test as to what they had learnt from all the previous instruction He had given them, and what they had seen in Him. We have nothing here as to the Father’s revelation; that is Matthew. It is a question here of the Lord’s instruction that had preceded. Peter does not say here; “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God”. Matthew 16:16. Here it is simply as He is presented in the light of this gospel, The Anointed One for service. “Thou art the Christ”. Mark 8:29.