CHAPTERS 1 - 3
CHAPTERS 1 - 3
It was proposed to read Mark’s gospel. We might consider the first three chapters this morning.
The beginning of this gospel does not take any dispensational character, but is occupied with the moral condition of the people in which the testimony of God was rendered. That is, what it opens with is the wilderness condition of things with the people of God. John’s testimony is the “Voice of one crying in the wilderness”, and the Lord was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, where He met the power of Satan before He began His ministry. There was the power of Satan to be met, and the moral state of things in regard to the people. Then you have the testimony of God in the vessel which was suitable in the midst of that state of things. It is of all importance for us to apprehend the state of things in which the testimony of God is rendered.
In John’s baptism, God opened a door out of this state of things. Through repentance He opened a door for the escape of the people from the condition of things into which they had got. Repentance was the testimony of God by John, with a view to their deliverance from this wilderness condition, and from the power of Satan through believing the testimony of the Son of God. He alone could be the competent vessel of the testimony of God’s gospel in the midst of evil.
The preaching of the baptism of repentance was God opening the door for the people that were in this wilderness condition.
What is the wilderness condition?
The people were not enjoying the goodness of God in His land, and they had gone back in heart from the Lord. In a sense Israel had never left the wilderness [p. 109] into which they entered when they came out of Egypt, for they never entered into the rest of God. “If Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day”.
Is a door out the door in too?
Yes. John’s preaching was more the door out, and that was the real difficulty with them. What is very remarkable, is that all had to go down to Jordan to be baptised. John did not go to one place to preach and baptise, then to another place to preach and baptise, but all had to go out to Jordan to him. It is going out that tests us.
It was the mercy of God that opened the way out. So John’s testimony was the first work in the remnant.
No one was fully competent to be the servant but the Son of God. Nobody could really come into a world of sin and evil and be competent for God, either in the testimony of the gospel, or in power, but the Son of God. He was the only One who could bring in the light of God.
With regard to the wilderness condition, you get the nominal people of God really in that state. As to the Gentiles, there can be no question as to their state of alienation, but here you get the people of God not enjoying the promises and good things of God, that is morally a wilderness condition; and they had to go out to John in the wilderness to be baptised in Jordan. The great point was for them to admit their complete failure, and that they must go out. There was a new testimony coming in in the Son, not by Moses or the ministry of angels, but in the Son, the gospel of the kingdom of God, and if any in Israel, who had failed entirely to inherit the land, were to get a place in the kingdom they must go out. In fact, the remnant had been brought back from Babylon in order that Messiah might be presented to them. The poor understood it very well, they went out and were baptised of John. The poor were those who felt their need and the misery of the state of things around them.
[p. 110] Is the thought that the people were called upon to recognise that they had not got the blessing?
Yes. There is something very striking with regard to the wilderness. It is where you are exposed to things which defile, as in Numbers 19. If you are not in the good of the promises of God, you are exposed to things which otherwise you would not be. A people abiding in the secret of God is very different to wandering about in the wilderness where defiling things abound.
The first thing here is that the Lord is baptised, and the Spirit descends upon Him, and a voice from heaven declares the secret of His Person; “Thou art my beloved Son” is what He was to the Father. Then as Man anointed by the Holy Spirit He is forty days in the wilderness, driven there by the Spirit, tempted of Satan; a very different thing to Moses who was forty days in the mount with God.
What is the force of “driveth” Him into the wilderness?
It was a necessity that He should meet Satan’s power, for man was under it. There is first His own relationship with the Father, and then His going into the place where man was.
In those who went out to John’s baptism, do we get the moral condition which is necessary in order to receive the testimony of God?
In John’s baptism the door of repentance was opened for them, and the way of the Lord prepared. They confessed their sins, and on the other side of John’s baptism they found the Lord. The Lord Himself met them there.
Was their taking that place the effect of John’s testimony?
Yes.
Why does the Spirit of God take up Mark and cause him to record things in this way?
Because it is the testimony of God in the state of things then prevailing in Israel. The first three [p. 111] chapters give us the ministry of the Lord in connection with the state of things in Israel. In chapter 4 the Lord goes out by the seashore, that is, the testimony goes out wider. He had preached in their towns, as He said “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth”. He was really sowing, but in their synagogues. Then in chapter 4 He goes out by the seaside — an intimation that the word of the kingdom would go out wider. In the working of miracles He brings in the power of the kingdom, but it was in connection with Israel especially. What comes out too in these three chapters is, that the mission of the Lord is not at all favoured by the rulers and heads of Israel. When He speaks of forgiving sins, they question it at once. There was no reception of the Lord at all with them, but He goes on nevertheless. He cures the leper and tells him to go and show himself to the priest. It was a testimony to them that their God was there; also the palsied man He forgives and heals, and tells him to go to his house; thus showing that Jehovah their Healer was among them. Then He sovereignly called Levi, and this brings out the fact that He was calling sinners. The scribes and Pharisees would not own these ways of grace to sinners. They had no heart for Him who came here in grace; they said, “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” and, finally, they attributed the power by which He wrought the miracles to Beelzebub, whereupon the Lord disowns His connection with Israel.
We first find in this gospel the Lord in relation to the Father, then He goes into the wilderness and there binds the strong man, and then spoils his goods.
Is your thought that we have here a moral wilderness?
Yes. But His place with the Father is declared, and consequently the light of God revealed in Him was here in the scene of man’s sin and misery. A voice out of heaven came to Him. Heaven could look down [p. 112] upon earth, and He could look up into heaven; this we see in chapter 6: 41. The Lord looked up to heaven, and then distributed its bounty. It was the light and testimony of heaven, and of what God was, come into the world.
Then further, what you get here is that in the world there is Satan to be met, and in two ways. It is noted here that Christ was with the wild beasts which represent the ravening power of evil; this we see in Herod killing John. Herod represents the power of the Roman beast, but the first thing is, not his raging power, but the awful temptation of Satan. The Lord was tempted of Satan forty days. It was necessary that we should know the power of Satan, and that man is under it. The Lord had to meet it and overcome it for us. John said, “There cometh one mightier than I”, and now the mightier is come and Satan bound; but besides this, John’s testimony is, that He baptises with the Holy Spirit.
That goes beyond His ministry here.
It shows the power that had come in and it was in that power that He bound Satan. His bringing in the light of heaven and the testimony of God’s love and goodness all depended upon His being the Son.
The Christian dispensation began with the Holy Spirit and the Lord Himself. We get the Holy Spirit in connection with the Lord’s Person as Man characterising the new order of things.
Why have we so little of John’s ministry recorded in this gospel?
It was the introduction of the Mightier One, and then John retires: he prepares the way of the Lord, a voice crying in the wilderness, but then he retires; he must decrease, but Christ must increase. The Lord Himself is the One who brings in the testimony of God.
The testimony for the time was the testimony of the Son of God, and for us to be in the good of it the Holy Spirit must be received.
[p. 113] John opened the door and they went out and were baptised, but there Christ joins them.
The Holy Spirit is connected with the full presentation of God, so that you have here, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How is that connected with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Is it that the full presentation of God was given to them, but they blasphemed the power of it?
Quite so. It is the glad tidings, and that must be based on the full presentation of God. The glad tidings were the glad tidings of the kingdom. The miracles are the powers of the kingdom. You could not understand the kingdom without the miracles.
Is that why we have in the last verses of Matthew’s gospel, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”?
Yes; it is all connected with the complete presentation of God.
The idea is that God has stepped in to relieve man of his misery; the Son of God comes in and presents the kingdom, and consequently you have the powers of the kingdom displayed. If the kingdom is set up, you have the powers of it here.
The first display of the power relieves man from Satan without and sickness within. You have Satan’s power, and sickness in the house, but the Lord relieves man from both.
What is the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God here?
The moral sway of God in grace. Christ’s presence was the witness of it. Man comes into the understanding of what the attitude of God is towards him.
The idea of the gospel of the kingdom of God runs right through the Acts. The very last verse is, “Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ”.
[p. 114] The great point in Romans is the kingdom, on our side of it.
The preaching of the kingdom of God is presenting the attitude of God toward man in grace; grace reigning through righteousness.
Is that in the Person of the Son of God?
It must be, because the moral sway of God could only be presented in a divine Person.
Now it is connected with the Holy Spirit. The authority of the kingdom is in heaven, but the power is on earth. The authority does not reside in the Holy Spirit but in the Lord. The power that maintains the kingdom in us — the Holy Spirit — is here on earth, and therefore the kingdom is a moral thing, but man has made a mustard tree of it. In the millennium it will be in full display.
Is the idea of the kingdom the moral force put forth in order to make way for the counsels of God and for higher things?
The first thing which must be effected for man is really to deliver him, and the only possible way for that is by his being brought under the moral sway of God. That is the secret and spring of all deliverance.
Therefore to enter into the kingdom of God is salvation.
Here we get the powers of the kingdom.
It was really set out in the Lord’s Person.
It is in the kingdom that grace is established. You cannot have the grace without having the expression of power. Mr. Darby used to speak of the kingdom as grace acting in power.
Does that same definition hold good when power is put forth for the crushing of the enemy?
Yes, but in a certain sense the enemy is crushed for us.
Every one will, in a sense, learn the reality of God’s kingdom before the power is put forth in a public way.
You cannot be delivered from the power and the [p. 115] authority of the god of this world except by the power of the grace of God. There cannot be any other possible way of deliverance for man. The time had come to an end when God was dealing with man on the ground of probation, and the time was fulfilled for God to establish the kingdom.
The sway of the wild beasts will be set aside, though it continues now for an object, but the power of the god of this world is broken, this is set forth in the casting out of the devil in the synagogue.
The devil is the prince and god of the vast system of this world, but the truth is that the mainspring of the world is its god, and his power is broken. We get more detail developed in Luke as to what the kingdom is than we do in Mark.
The prominent thought here, is the servant and service which brings about the kingdom.
It is the service of the Son of God. The service of the Son of God was altogether peculiar to Himself, though we might get a great deal of light from it.
There are two classes of evil to which men are exposed. One is connected with Satan and the power of the world, and the other is infirmity which is the fruit of sin, the latter is set forth in Peter’s wife’s mother.
After that, the leper and palsied man come in in connection with the testimony. In the casting out of the demon in the synagogue, and the raising up of Peter’s wife’s mother you see the power, afterwards in the leper you have the testimony. The leper shows defilement and the paralytic weakness. They represent the things under which man labours in regard of God. The leper was shut out by defilement, both from God and from man, he is healed and sent in testimony to the priests, and the paralytic was raised up in testimony to those in the house. They both come in that man may enjoy what is for him.
Two great things go together, (1) the testimony of [p. 116] God, and then (2) deliverance, as the effect of the testimony. Man is first delivered from the power of Satan, and then he finds everything under which he laboured in regard to God is removed; that is how the truth of the kingdom comes in.
As to the call of the fisherman, if the Lord calls a man to serve, the service, or rather the obligation of the service, is greater than any natural obligation. That is the salient point.
In chapter 3, Jesus chooses twelve that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach; what we have here is the right of God to call them, and the coming in of something entirely new. This is really the paramount claim of the Lord. It takes precedence with the one called over any other obligation.
The point here is really the call. In John’s gospel you do not get the call into the new order of testimony. It is more internal relationships there.
Does the gospel of the glory of Christ give us the kingdom?
The glory of Christ is the kingdom. The first testimony connected with the kingdom must be power (verse 22). There must be a power superior to every other power that affected man. You could not have the kingdom without it.
There was no gainsaying His words.
The authority was felt by the demons. There was an authority which was really greater than satanic power, and no power could resist it. In the presentation of the kingdom there must be the expression of power, else it would not be the kingdom of God at all. Then you get other elements coming in for the removal of everything under which man lay with regard to God.
The testimony of the leper was to the priests, the religious heads of the nation, that God was there, and there in grace. “I will, be thou clean”, was the expression of divine power acting in compassion.
[p. 117] The principle and the power of the kingdom is the deliverance of man, and the removal of everything under which man lay comes in as well. If a man is defiled he cannot approach God, and as weak he is hindered from having to say to God. Christ removes the defilement and the weakness which, consequent upon sin, hinders a man from keeping the law. The leper is cleansed and can go to the priest, not for them to pronounce upon him, but as a testimony, and the paralytic takes up his bed and walks at the word of the Lord.
Does that apply now in the gospel?
It must do, it is the effect and power of the kingdom. You are made conscious that defilement is gone and the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in you. The leper was to approach to God. If the kingdom comes in, there must be something for God; and the first principle of blessing for man must be approach to God, but he cannot approach if he is a leper.
The present effect of the establishment of the kingdom in the heart of man is, that he is delivered from the power of evil, he is conscious that defilement has gone in regard to God.
In the early part of chapter 2 we see that the Lord would not conform to the ideas of man. He came in the power of divine righteousness, and could not, would not conform to their ideas.
You see in the end of chapter 1 and beginning of chapter 2, the Lord met the actual state of things in Israel, but then in verses 13 and 14, He goes to the seaside and passes beyond the mere need of men, and calls a man to follow Him. He heals a leper and sends him to the priest, and He sends the palsied man home after forgiving and raising him up. Then He calls Levi clean away from everything in Israel to follow Him.
The last clause of verse 44, shows that the Lord still acknowledged the system of Israel, but now in the power of the kingdom He calls out of Israel to Himself.
[p. 118] Was not the testimony to Israel that their Jehovah was there in His Person?
Yes; but they were not at all prepared to receive Him, they said, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies?” It is important to see in the service of the Lord that He brought in what was absolutely new. We get an important lesson out of it; that when the new comes in you cannot go back to what is old. That is just what Christendom has done. There is the acknowledgment of what is new, but at the same time they have gone back to what is old.
The old garment was the threadbare forms which would not hear the knowledge of forgiveness and divine righteousness.
Everything has to begin anew in Christ.
He came in the power of what was wholly new.
Why does this incident of passing through the cornfields come in here?
It comes in as the witness that the covenant between God and Israel was about to be broken up. The sabbath was the sign of the covenant, and the Lord shows that it was about to be broken up.
In the next chapter, the Lord takes His own course. They seek to destroy Him, and then He takes His own course and separates Himself from His kindred after the flesh, and then the point is, hearing the word of God and doing it. Everything is now put on a moral footing.
The teaching of verse 28 is that the grace in the Lord superseded the covenant with Israel. Then the Lord goes up into a mountain and chooses twelve that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach. The Jews sought to kill the Lord, and consequent upon that He takes His own course. It is a wonderful thing to think that He should choose twelve to be with Him and send them forth to preach. Many of us go forth to preach without having been with Him very much. They were with Him some time before He sent them forth.
What is the force of “The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath”?
The sabbath was made for man, therefore God was not bound by it. The Jews seemed to think it was made for God and that He was as much bound by it as man.
What is the thought in the two sabbaths here?
The one is on the Lord’s side, they refused His rights and preferred their own legal observance to the Lord’s claims, but He asserts His title of supremacy, that is His side. Then there is man’s side, they would not have this poor man healed on the sabbath and so enjoy the blessing of grace.
Everything which is for man is put under the Son of man, and hence the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath.
Jesus maintains in chapter 3 His right to act in grace, but more, He clears Himself from those who opposed. In chapter 2 there was a certain recognition of Israel, here He withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea. The more He gets clear from them, the more you see Him coming out in His own proper place. In the end of chapter 3, everything is put on a new footing. The foundation of association with Him now is, hearing the word of God and doing it.
Is the sabbath connected with God’s rest?
It comes in as a mercy for man. Wherever men have tried to give it up it has been a poor affair.
Children of the bride-chamber implies the recognition of Him as Bridegroom.
What is the distinctive character of Mark’s gospel? It is distinctly the testimony of the kingdom, the introduction of it.
The great point we have now arrived at is, that they seek to destroy Him (chapter 3: 6.) He then withdrew Himself with His disciples, and afterwards ordained twelve to be with Him, and to send them forth to preach. Then He recognises as in relationship with God those who do the will of God.
[p. 120] He severs morally the connection after the flesh and the ground of association is in doing the will of God. You get things now put on moral ground. Any ground after the flesh is ignored.