THE LORD'S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (4)
THE LORD’S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (4)
JT The last chapter of Luke seems to detain us particularly, as bearing on our subject in a special way. The Lord’s appearing in the midst of the gathered ones as they were saying certain things, especially as to the breaking of bread, is significant and points to the importance of what engages us and what we say to one another in such circumstances. There is a plain intimation that the state of the brethren as gathered was not right but needed adjustment, first as to their minds and then as to their understandings, all witnessing to unbalanced conditions amongst them. It is important to note the place the Scriptures have in this gospel of Luke, both as to the interpretation of them in the early part of this chapter and then the later treatment of them in verse 44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written”. Then attention was called yesterday to the measurements coming into this gospel, Emmaus being “sixty stadia from Jerusalem” as we are told earlier, and then we have Bethany mentioned, of which the distance from Jerusalem is supplied by John, “Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia off” (John 11: 18); Luke also in alluding to the mount of Olives, not here but in Acts, tells us how far that was from Jerusalem. It was a sabbath-day’s journey, meaning, I think, that we apprehend from spiritual experience what a sabbath-day’s journey is. It seems as if these facts mentioned in Luke 24 should receive some further consideration before we proceed to Mark.
[p. 451] We have noted that there is haste in Luke to get on to what is involved in the great divine system of administration. The right hand of God is not exactly mentioned here; Mark says, “The Lord ... was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God”, but here it is that He “was carried up into heaven”, as if the great matters implied in the gospel require this in the Lord’s service — His ascension. It is essential to the whole position and is vicarious because the Lord is viewed in a vicarious way right through, even at the right hand of God. It is a mediatorial position too, even in heaven, so that He goes up with uplifted hands in blessing. The point would be that it was urgent that the position in heaven should be occupied by our great Priest, the great Administrator of the new system.
CHH The distance to Bethany is implied in the phrase “as far as”.
JT Yes, showing that it is a limited position, and there is something beyond it; it may be extended, and indeed will be. I think it is a limitation of grace here with reference to the Jews, indicating that the Jewish position is not given up immediately but comes in for the benefit of the new administration of grace. Ultimately the object of the administration is that the Spirit comes, as it is said here, “And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”, and so they began preaching there in Jerusalem.
LES The position at Jerusalem was consequent upon the position in heaven above.
JT I think that is the way the matter stands. Jerusalem still holds its place though it is not called the city of the great King, but “the city”, I think it is known in the prophetic mind on the line of grace that the benefit should immediately begin [p. 452] there; instead of judgment grace begins. The position at Bethany consequently is “as far as”; they tarried there, as it were, for a purpose.
JWD The vicarious work of Christ went beyond resurrection.
JT John tells us that He sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified, and I think it is in the mind of Luke because the Spirit begins to speak in chapter 9 of His going to heaven, and that it would be via Jerusalem — going out that way. And there He is representing us, through the whole dispensation in a peculiar way, I think; our present and ultimate blessing in divine counsels is governed accordingly. Paul went up ‘as far as’; he represents the dispensation and he went up as far as the third heaven and into paradise.
JWD We used to sing ‘Our title to glory we read in Thy blood’.
JT Well, I think it is going too far to say that. The blood of course is basic and foundational and He went in in the power of His own blood; that bears out what we are saying, but our going to heaven is a question of divine counsels, that is, our being raised up together to sit down together in the heavenlies.
JD How would you regard the scripture in Hebrews in relation to ‘Our title to glory we read in Thy blood’? “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”.
JT Well, I suppose it is true that He had to go that way; it refers to Himself, He was perfected through sufferings. It has been said that “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer” does not refer to the question of atonement, but to Himself as suffering. And then after His rising Acts says, “after he had suffered”,
[p. 453] as if the idea of the Sufferer goes the whole way. It would be involved in the title “Lamb” in Revelation, and His wife must be brought into agreement with Him in that character so that Paul says, “Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly” (Colossians 1: 24), as if she needed them to be fitted to be the bride of the Sufferer.
JD The ground of saints being brought to glory is the counsel of God as seen in Ephesians 1: 3 - 6, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”.
JT When we come to the eternal state we must bring in the counsels of love. Ephesians 3 says, “Of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”, that is, the Father names every family, but Ephesians is dealing with one in particular and that is the assembly. And we are told in relation to that, “because of his great love wherewith he loved us ... has quickened us with Christ”, and then, “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Ephesians 2: 4 - 6. There it is, we are raised up with one another together, “that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”. That is all a matter of the requirements or purposes of God and it refers to a certain family, and it is done not simply because they are purchased with blood because the [p. 454] blood has the same value in the redemption of the Jews, it is the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish. You could not say any more, when you speak of its value it is that, and it has the same value in regard of all things for redemption. But as to allocation it is a question of purpose; allocation involves that the ground is cleared so that God can assign the persons in His counsels to their positions. Paul is a representative man in regard of his sufferings, sufferings in which the church needed to be filled out, and they are in regard to the position of elevation. The fact that the elevation is described by the phrase “as far as” would suggest that there are elevations leading into the uncreated conditions. What is said of Christ in Hebrews 4: 14 is: “Who has passed through the heavens”; in Ephesians it is that He might fill all things, but in Hebrews that He might be a Priest worthy of this dispensation He has gone beyond all heavens and is a Priest for ever. Still, I think we might work out these things as we are encouraged to do so, comparing spiritual things with spiritual and having the Holy Spirit to lead us into an understanding of all. That is what we are to expect, an understanding of things, not inscrutable things but things that are to be understood by the creature.
JD Is that why redemption is brought into Ephesians 1?
JT The earlier verses are based on divine counsel, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, and then further on we get the thought of being taken into favour in the Beloved, and then the reference to redemption.
LES Would that not help us in service God-ward, in relation to the Father’s realm? The Father’s realm involves the thought of counsel, not exactly the value [p. 455] of the blood.
JT It is clear enough from Ephesians, because the Spirit of God begins with a high altitude, that of the heavenlies, and then redemption is treated on a lower level in the verse quoted. It is a matter of measurement or limitations for we do not enter into the territory of Deity; the inscrutable territory of Deity is beyond us and therefore we have the idea of measurement. The apostle enlarges upon it; he mentions the families named of the Father and then goes on, “In order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Ephesians 3: 18, 19. These are great measurements, but still they are measurements, that is, they are not infinite but finite. Paul says, “as far as”, suggesting creature limitations; infinitude belongs to Deity.
Rem Is the service of God in the assembly limited to us in that way?
JT All this helps the service. You begin on the platform of redemption; the Lord’s supper is on that platform; the blood is there, and the new covenant, and it belongs there because it has its own section of the service; and then room is made for what might be called the marital realm, that section of the service in which Christ and the assembly have their place; and then there is the ascension to sons, many sons brought to glory; that is the highest level we can have for it is in relation to the Son of God, companionship with Christ on that level.
CHH In the section quoted breadth, length, depth and height refer to finitude, but the phrase “surpasses knowledge” refers to infinitude.
JT We are in it as though in the ocean, we are in it even if we are in only six feet of it, whereas it might be miles deep. In a sense we know a little of it, but the heights of it belong to Deity, so the Lord has gone beyond all the heavens. We can only speak [p. 456] in terms of time and place but there is such a thing as what is uncreated and we cannot tell what that is. There is something there that belongs to Deity for God is “dwelling in unapproachable light”, 1 Timothy 6: 16.
JD That thought would keep us well within bounds, would you say? — “The King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship; who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might. Amen”.
JT Well, that checks us. We are in the thing in a way because there is the thought, “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3: 19), but we must understand the word ‘fulness’ there because that word is also used in Colossians, “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1: 19), and we cannot say we have part in that; I understand it alludes to God in His shining out. So what we have read from Timothy checks us as to Deity by Itself abstractly.
CHH What glory is referred to in Luke 24: 26, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered [p. 457] these things and to enter into his glory?”
JT Well, that brings up a very wide range of things; we are coming to the glories of John 17. Let us look at verse 4, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it; and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. There you get something that we can never touch, as far as I see; it is properly the glory of Deity that He had along with the Father before the world was, before creation, (I am only touching all this now to keep the matter within bounds.) Then the prophetic glory that is spoken of in Luke would be glory in relation to the earth, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?”. You might say that His glory is His glory and you cannot alter that, but really it is a contextual matter of prophecy and one which the Old Testament opens up. John 17 is more than that, where the Lord speaks to His Father touching His glory, the glory of Deity, before the world and before there was any need for prophecy. Then John 17: 22 says, “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”. That is the glory of sonship; it is the highest thought for us and would enter into what has been quoted from Hebrews 2: 10, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”; that is the glory that Christ Himself had which He shares with us. And then John 17: 24 says, “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. He does not say we share that but we behold it. That brings out the great thought of lower glories and higher glories and I would say that the glory of Luke 24 is a prophetic glory, covering glories contemplated in prophecy in regard of the earth, every one of them glorious of course, and each having its own fulness, some capable of being shared by the creature and others not.
Rem The two going to Emmaus do not refer to Him as Christ at all, the Lord Himself calls their attention to that name.
JT He is speaking to two Jews who had in mind the Messiah and the earthly position. In Psalm 24 we have Him called the King of glory; that is a fine expression and it is in relation to Christ as entering into Jerusalem, the Jews opening the door for Him and others getting in too, “Lift up [p. 458] your heads, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in”, Psalm 24: 7. We may call on the gates of heaven to be lifted up at the Messiah’s glory as He enters in, others entering too, for “Jehovah of hosts, he is the King of glory”.
LES The Lord says that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, so Israel speaks of His glory.
JT This great subject covers an immense range for us, and we understand as being able to touch these things by the Spirit.
AB The Lord has this in mind with the seventy in Luke 10 when they rejoice that the spirits are subjected to them; He leads them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven and then He goes on to speak of the inscrutability of the Son.
JT Just so; Matthew 11 touches the same point, but Luke takes us higher. And thus Luke 24 leaves us with the impression that the Lord did all these things in one day and then went up to heaven, that position being needed for the full efficacy of His mediatorial service.
JWD The mediatorial service then includes what goes on in heaven.
JT Well, let us turn to Hebrews 9: 23: “It was necessary then that the figurative representations of the things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with sacrifices better than these. For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hand, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us, nor in order that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy places every year with blood not his own; since he had then been obliged often to suffer from the foundation of the world. But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice”. So that [p. 459] He has gone up there, and whatever part of the heavens needs redemption (I use that word ‘part’ rightly) He has it for it. And then we have the third heaven to which Paul went, called paradise; will redemption be needed there? We cannot be sure. It is only by careful examination that we can determine to what extent and where redemption is needed, so that we are in the presence of the most wonderful things.
But we are dealing now with the Lord coming to us, not for us but to us, illustrated in the experience of the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, and we have to see how much there is still to go into in the last chapter of Luke. We have already touched on the Lord standing amongst them. He stood in their midst and took account of what was there, involving the adjustment of their minds and understandings and the opening up of the scriptures to cover the position in view of preaching, though not exactly emphasising the preachers because Mark has them in mind. The position mentioned here is witnessing, not by preachers but by a group of witnesses. Preaching is Mark’s side: “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”, but here we have the thing to be preached. The Lord outlines it, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”. And then He goes on, “And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”. What is to be preached, and where from, and where they are to begin, and what they are as witnesses — these are the things we are to carry in our minds as we go on to Mark.
[p. 460] Rem Remarkable touch of grace — the gospel begins at the city which crucified Him!
JT That is real grace! The touches of grace in Luke are very peculiar and this is one of them; leading them to Bethany is another. The Lord says, This is the place to stop for the time being, and He goes up from there and they go into the city as He had told them to do, showing that their minds saw behind the words, and our minds are to see behind the words too, to get them in an understanding way.
Ques What is the meaning of the two places, Bethany and Jerusalem?
JT Bethany we have already touched on, and Emmaus, which was a place in the country. Mark says the two were going into the country, that is, going away from the position of the testimony; when people take holidays and go out into the country they are weakening the position of the testimony. And yet grace shows that the Lord is going with them; He finds constraining power in these two and the result is that they go back to where the eleven are gathered together. As we said this morning the distance was sixty stadia out, but the distance back was another matter; it was not nearly so far! As your steps are turned in the right direction you are likely to go more quickly, it is the shortest distance between the two points.
CHH We have the expression in Scripture “another way”, in connection with the return home of the wise men (Matthew 2: 12).
JT And the spies in Joshua went back another way.
LES Does 1 Corinthians 13 shorten the distance in recovery?
JT You cannot arrive at 1 Corinthians 13 fully without the brethren; love is one.
RRT Does the word ‘return’ indicate recovery?
JT It [p. 461] is conversion.
AD Is verse 47 of Luke 24 the basis of the preaching? Paul says in Acts 20, “testifying to both Jews and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 21).
JT Just so; that is in that wonderful chapter of love, Acts 20.
JWD Would you say our Lord’s day evening meeting was preaching or witnessing?
JT A witness is a model. Without the thought of a model, of what value is the preaching? And how much of this do we have in our minds in our meeting rooms in preparing for the preaching? It is clear enough in the Philippian epistle that the state of the hearers affects us because it speaks of fellowship with the gospel. In truth we get very few hearers who require evangelistic service in the true sense, and that may raise a question of difficulty, but still it looks as if these meetings are to go on and the Lord is blessing them; there is encouragement in that. Small indeed though they be, with just a little strength, yet it is a little, and the children of the saints who have some light are brought into the truth of christianity, so there is a great purpose in them in that sense.
Rem The disciples were to go into the whole earth; the gospel is to be preached worldwide.
JT As we shall see in Mark the bearing of it is, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”. That is a very wide thought and it is worked out there; it has to do with creation, not with preaching in a room which holds only a hundred or less. We have to see that the creation is there so that it is not simply a matter of preaching to a few persons. There may be a number of children in the room, even babes, but they are held there and, in truth, they belong to the creation.
Ques In the light of what we are saying has the gospel to do with believers or [p. 462] unbelievers?
JT I would say both. What kind of a gospel would be preached to such a congregation as Peter had in the house of Cornelius? They say, We are all here to hear what God has given you to say. That shows the principle; they were mostly believers in some sense.
Rem Paul before Agrippa says, “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest”, Acts 26: 27.
JT Well, to go back to the actual things we are speaking of, the point here is the preaching rather than the preachers, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”, Luke 24: 46. Now this is to be in our minds clearly on our Lord’s day evenings, and the question is what is to be presented, what terms are to be used, and what kind of people are speaking it.
JWD It is in the general setting that we fall down? We do not preach from Ephesians.
JT It is a question of what a levite will do.
JWD Does not the idea “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” involve the epistle to the Romans?
JT The idea at that time was that those things were in mind. Simeon had said earlier of the Lord, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”, Luke 2: 32. First He is said to be a light for the revelation of the gentiles, to bring them to the light. They are brought into the light and we can see them; that is the idea; the curtain is drawn aside and we can see them. But what do we see? We have to consider who is before us, the persons whom we are to address. In Acts 14 it is said that Paul and Barnabas worked together and spoke boldly and their speaking was so good that it [p. 463] was heard by and affected a man who was lame from his birth, a type of the gentiles. The Jews had walked but the gentiles had never walked; they had never had the idea of walking before God. But Paul saw that that man had faith. He was not an ordinary man; he was seen to have faith although he did not say a word! There is no mention of what he said but Paul saw that he had faith to be healed and said, “Rise up straight upon thy feet: and he sprang up and walked”.
CHH Would that fit in with the thought that at Philippi Paul preached Christ whereas at Damascus he preached Jesus?
JT Quite so, very good.
JWD Is not what Paul says in Thessalonica the general bearing of our Lord’s day evening preaching, “And according to Paul’s custom he went in among them, and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead, and that this is the Christ, Jesus whom I announce to you”, Acts 17: 2, 3? There is some sense in which the city is held responsible for the word that is preached in our meeting-rooms.
JT That is what we must see. He had journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia; what do we see in that? Part of this Asiatic race was left out and another part was evangelised by Paul, and what does he see? He comes to Thessalonica, part of the gentile world, where he opens up and lays down things for three sabbath days and a great company responds. That shows what was there. Then we are told what goes on at Athens, “I see you given up to demon worship; for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God”. What a preaching went on from Mars hill that day! He says, “As also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his [p. 464] offspring. Being therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver ...”. It shows what was before him, and so with us now it is a question of what we find here in this town. It is a matter of what we see before us and of dealing with the condition as we find it.
JD What you are saying would be borne out by Galatians 1: 15, “But when God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me”. It was God’s work moving in him as he says, “that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”.
JT Just so. And Paul says to those at Corinth of himself and two others, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus), did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him”, 2 Corinthians 1: 19. That is what actually transpired in the year and six months Sunday night preachings in Corinth, you would say; they dealt with what was before them.
JD The great thing then is not exactly what you are going to preach on but the need of soul before you.
Ques Would Paul’s words in Romans 16 take in more than the preaching, “Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations” (verses 25, 26)?
JT I would say that “my glad tidings” would take in the thought of the Son of God revealed in him. That is the point he would bring out, that Jesus is the Son of God; we ought to be established in the present truth and in our preaching to stress that.
[p. 465] Now to come to Mark and the way he records the facts relating to our subject, we may look first at the young man in the sepulchre but particularly at the bearing of the eleven in verse 14: “Afterwards as they lay at table he was manifested to the eleven, and reproached them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen”. We have been speaking of others and what might be said to them to bring light and to be helpful to them, but now the word is to the servants. What kind of servants are they? This will, prove what they have in their minds; they are lying at table. Are we taken up with our tables instead of our preaching, or with what is on the table? I think it is wonderful that the appearing was as they lay at table, presumably at a meal; had they not had their fill?
Rem What we witness to, in that way, is more than what we say.
JT Quite so. The point now is not what they are saying but what they are doing. They are lying at table and yet commissioned to go out into all the world; they are to be travellers. Paul and Barnabas went out from Antioch and travelled over great distances. The idea was to “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”, that is the way Mark presents it. That is to say, they are not to be afraid of travelling; travellers in this aspect are needed, both men and women. And therefore Mark tells us that the Lord found the eleven lying at table.
Rem Would lying at table be out of keeping with the resurrection position? The resurrection position requires activity.
JT Yes. Here it is said, “Afterwards as they lay at table”. Well, you might say, He joined them, but He did not join in with the eleven.
CHH “Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?” Haggai 1: 4.
JT Quite so, it was a time of fasting.
RRT Does the same thought come into Corinthians as applying to the saints coming together for the Lord’s supper, “Have ye not then houses for eating and drinking”?
JT You could bring it in because they were occupied with their stomachs: “whose god is the belly”. It is important to note this point of lying at table at this critical time. Where was the Lord? They do not know and yet they are not concerned about it.
Rem The Lord Himself as the great Servant in Mark shows us the way of urgency and haste.
JT Reference to the first chapter would indicate what you say. How quickly the Spirit of God takes us to the Son of God! We talk about service, how quickly it is reached! It comes to light as early as verse 9. How quickly things are done throughout this gospel; it might seem like only one day, all that is necessary being said; we do not hear about the interim. Luke’s word is ‘suddenly’; Mark’s is ‘straightway’; things are done in that manner, “Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might”, Ecclesiastes 9: 10. And so Mark begins, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. How quickly he gets to that great fact! Luke has to take some chapters to get to this point, giving considerable detail, but Mark comes to the point immediately, the Son of God.
Rem Mark made a remarkable recovery; he had failed in his service at the beginning but now writes beautifully of the perfect Servant.
JT That is the point; that a man who had broken down but was now thoroughly restored should be the gospel writer. He had been with two great servants,
[p. 467] Paul and Barnabas, and had been the means of their going different ways, one to Jerusalem and the other on his own way. Mark went back to his mother’s house in Jerusalem when he should have been on the road, and there was very warm feeling regarding the matter between Paul and Barnabas.
AB Is there something in the fact that in Mark 16 as they lay at table the Lord reproached them? They had not believed the word of those to whom He had appeared.
JT Just so. It is remarkable that the Lord brings in that they had not believed the witnesses. He does not here refer to what He had said to them. In Luke the two men tell the women to remember what the Lord had said but Mark has the service in mind and makes room for the service of the Lord, recognising that He is already serving and telling these eleven men that He is risen, but they do not believe it. The servant is concerned with the impression he makes on the hearers and whether they are listening to the word spoken or are in unbelief.
JWD It is interesting to see what characterises John Mark in that way: “And Barnabas proposed to take with them John also, called Mark; but Paul thought it not well to take with them him who had abandoned them, going back from Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work”. In his career he was characteristically a man that went back.
JT Quite so; but the point is that he really did not succumb to those natural traits because he is now restored and is a man that God is using, so this book of Mark is a wonderful book. These verses from 9 to 20 are filled with the Lord’s service. Here are eleven men, known as His apostles, yet lying at table, and they do not know where the Lord is nor whether He is risen or not. He finds them thus, for He chooses that time to find them in order to expose their state. He knew well enough what they were [p. 468] doing, taking their ease, and that is what servants are doing throughout christendom. Take for example the Catholic church and its participants, what does the Lord find when He comes there? He finds that ‘Saint Paul’ and such titles have a great place in the so-called worship. And here He finds them lying at table. What, you say, is it not right to eat? Certainly, but find out where the Lord is first! These men did not know. They were disciples but they did not believe; these women were reliable women, not ordinary persons, but the eleven did not believe them.
LES And these were great men too.
JT Well, one is not going out of the way in speaking against servants; we are dealing with Scripture. And that situation is to be found at the present time too, but if we are right with God we will see that we are not lying at table when there is work to be done and a long way to go. Paul and Barnabas went on long journeys, and so here the word is, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”, and further, “He that believes and is baptised shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned”.
Rem The magi were different; they were concerned as to where He was.
JT You are referring to the wise men from the east looking for Jesus; they went a long way to find Him that was born King of the Jews; they came to worship Him.
Rem They found Him, too.
JT As soon as they left Jerusalem the star went before them again and they found the Lord and worshipped Him.
CHH Would Acts 14 show how Paul and Barnabas returned to maintain the disciples locally? They were not negligent of local responsibility.
JT Quite so. “And having chosen them elders in each assembly” would show their care of the saints. Elders are to take care of the place, because it is as important to take care of them as it is to find them.
Rem This thought of the creation in Mark is a precious thought.
JT Yes. God’s consideration for the creation is implied in Jonah, “And I, should not I have pity on Nineveh, the great city, wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?” Jonah 4: 11. The cattle are in mind there too. I think the epistle to the Colossians has the thought of preaching to the creation, as it says “not moved away from the hope of the glad tidings, which ye have heard, which have been proclaimed in the whole creation which is under heaven, of which I Paul became minister”, Colossians 1: 23.
AB Noah’s ark took in all the creation.
Rem They belonged to God.
JT Just so, the whole creation is in mind. God has the cattle too; they are not merely given to us for food; nevertheless the man is not for the beast but the beast for man.
Rem “For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now”, Romans 8: 22.
JT It is waiting for redemption.
JWD Would “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation” involve the special gift of the evangelist, or would it be combined with the ministry of the servants?
JT Well, no doubt it is preaching that is in mind, bearing out the word ‘witness’ in Luke, but now it is a matter of being maintained and the question arises as to how we are to be furnished in our preaching. First, it says, “He that believes and is baptised shall be saved”. The baptism may be before or after believing, providing the person is baptised because baptism must be there; if it has not preceded then it is the first requirement; “and he that disbelieves shall be condemned”, there is nothing about baptism in that connection; the condemnation of christendom is in their unbelief, “And these signs shall follow those that have believed, in my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them; they shall lay hands upon the infirm, and they shall be well”. Now that is a list of things that accompanied the gospel among the nations; God accompanied the gospel with public signs.
JWD That is, something was effected through the apostles and now they were to be witnesses of it.
JT That is the gospel, as far as the synoptical gospels go, and it is linked with the beginning of christianity. The testimony of the gospel going into the creation of God is peculiarly seen in Paul and his companions. Barnabas and others, and we come to see in the Acts that it belongs to the way in which the testimony was established in the western world properly. Now it is a question as to whether we have this accompaniment of power, and whether it is necessary, also whether we are now going on with the truth as witnesses according to Luke and proving that the Lord is with us, “The Lord therefore, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God. And they, going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs following upon it”. We are to move on, so to say, in the light of all this; in our preaching this is to be in our minds, indeed we are to have the whole truth in our souls, for that is how John would have us, with ever a love of [p. 471] the truth.
RRT Is it not significant that Paul finishes in Acts with the preaching of the kingdom of God?
JT Yes.
Ques Would the gospel of the glory of the blessed God take in all this?
JT The glory of the blessed God is a wide thought. Mark is occupied with power in men. I suppose what he represents suggests the mighty men of David in the christian dispensation. These mighty men as linked with Christ and selected to be with Him, are, like the mighty men of David, marked by exploits. It is a question of the experience there was with them; some exploits mark every one in his service.
Rem In verse 20 the Lord has gone up on high and they are going forth, but the Lord is working with them, He is not idle there.
JT The idea of the right hand of God is characteristic of Mark; from the right hand of God power is put forth in grace to save men. Mark speaks much of the right side; the young man at the sepulchre was on the right and he was a model man. Mark himself was brought in very young; he had been in the service and had failed but is now brought back, so the young man is clothed with a white robe.
CHH The Son “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”, Hebrews 1: 3.
JT Suggesting the idea of “All power”. In Exodus the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt with a high hand; Mark has a like thought of a high-handed matter. The power of God’s right hand was worked out in the young man who is said to have been seen sitting on the right of the sepulchre, a representative of the divine idea in Mark.