CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 9
What bearing has this chapter on what has gone before?
In chapter 9 you are brought to the point of the kingdom.
Scripture connects the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
One important expression you get at the end of verse 1, is “the kingdom of God come with power”.
[p. 144] Would you say it came in power then?
The Scripture says so: they were not to taste of death till they should see it come with power.
At the transfiguration morally, the kingdom was there. It was not a kingdom in this world, but on the mountain top above, so that it was there morally.
It gives us a picture of what is now. We are translated out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and that is what you get here. Moses and Elias were merged in Christ, and He alone was to be heard.
What is the idea of introducing here the tasting of death?
The introduction of the kingdom anticipates death: that is with us. We are brought into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love before we taste death. In one sense we never taste death, but we must taste death before we come into it morally.
Do you identify the kingdom of God with the kingdom of the Son of His love?
Is it not so? “This is my beloved Son; hear him”.
Why do we get here the words, “hear him”, and not at His baptism?
At His baptism the Father speaks to Himself, it is “Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. The Father speaks to others here.
Why does Peter, when he speaks of it in his epistle, omit the words, “hear him”?
Peter is only insisting on the fact that they had seen the kingdom; they had seen the King in His majesty. Peter’s object was to substantiate the fact.
Why does it say, “some of them that stand here”? It does not say all of them.
It has been pointed out before that on certain occasions there were those whom the Lord chose to be present with Him; like at the temptation in the garden of Gethsemane for instance, and so here you have three of them chosen by the Lord to be with Him on the [p. 145] mount. If He saw fit to take them, with Him He was entitled to do so.
There was competent testimony there?
On special occasions the Lord took those with Him who were to be prominent in the testimony. Peter, James, and John would have that place, and the object was that everything might be substantiated in their minds.
There is a general idea that Peter had something to do with the writing of this gospel. There are illusions which seem to indicate that he had something to do with it. No one that records the transfiguration was present, neither Matthew, Mark nor Luke; John was present, yet he does not refer to it.
Has the scene here anything to do with the future, or is it realised in the present?
The kingdom abides; it is established and will come out manifestly. It is established above according to Paul, and you can understand this because nothing can go on until you have man brought under the moral sway of God.
The kingdom has a very large place in Scripture.
It is so in connection with the service of the Lord, and it became the subject of the apostle’s testimony all through the Acts of the Apostles.
What is the power connected with the kingdom?
It is subduing power; you come into the scene where everything is subdued by what is presented there.
What do you understand by the cloud that overshadowed them?
It indicates the divine glory that was present there, the excellent glory. All the glory came from above. Peter says, “he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”.
The glory that they saw here was the glory of God, equivalent to the Shekinah glory.
[p. 146] What is the difference between the kingdom in mystery, and the way in which we are speaking of it now?
It comes to us in the way of testimony, and that is really mystery.
With regard to the kingdom come in power, the point is really resurrection. They were not to tell any man what things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead. It could not be set up until resurrection, because there was no righteousness in regard of man.
In the Acts of the Apostles what you find coming in is a great deal of testimony and light as regards Christ and God. The apostles brought the light of God, and of Christ to bear upon people very much. One can remember very well a sermon of Mr. Darby’s on Philip going to Samaria and preaching Christ unto them.
It is very remarkable in Acts 8, the Spirit of God speaks of the testimony as the preaching of Christ, not Jesus.
Does the last verse of Romans 5 run with what has been said?
Yes, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; it is the subduing power of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you come into the presence of grace you are subdued by it. There is nothing more wonderful than the coming into the Lord’s presence.
There was no more spirit left in the queen of Sheba in Solomon’s presence.
And that is the effect on us in the Lord’s presence.
Those who are not subdued by grace will be by power in the end.
Every tongue will have to confess Him Lord.
What is the meaning of ‘shining raiment’?
Everything partook of the glory of the Son in that sense.
Christ pre-eminent?
He is not simply pre-eminent, but He is solitary. There was nobody to be with Him. They were with [p. 147] Him on the mount, but the voice which gave Him honour and glory said, no one was to be heard but Him.
The putting aside of Moses and Elias is not the putting aside of their testimony?
No, but people understand law and prophets just in proportion as they appreciate Christ.
What was the honour and glory He received?
The honour and glory which He received was the voice. There was the full recognition of His person. After all no glory could be conferred on Christ which was not His own.
Is what we get here that which we get now in beholding the glory of the Lord?
Yes, glory is set forth in the face of Jesus Christ, and without a veil; it is not glory in the face of an unconscious man like Moses, the glory of God is set forth in the Lord, and the result is this, you are subdued in the presence of it. The glory set forth in Jesus is the perfect conciliation of righteousness and love.
And in seeing Him glorified we see the kingdom of God?
The Holy Spirit is received and then you have liberty to look at the glory of the Lord, and to enter into the great salvation, you have your part in the great supper.
Yes, you receive the kingdom first in that way, it is made good in the moral sway of grace.
We can understand the grace of God giving them in His goodness this marvellous vision, because they were to bear testimony to the Lord, and they had to confront everything in the world, and He gives them this grace to confirm them. Christ was going to suffer and it was of all importance that their minds should be confirmed in the truth.
The present time for us is characterised by the sufferings of Christ. We must remember that looked at down here we are in the sufferings that belong to [p. 148] Christ. They are past for Him, and it is a good thing for us to go up the mount, and there to get the other side of things; you see the Lord’s glory there, but while down here you must accept the sufferings.
It helps us to see that the vision comes in as in connection with their testimony. I think that is proved by the Lord’s word to them not to speak of these things until He was risen from the dead. When He was risen they were to speak of these things.
There is another scene that the Lord associates our hearts with, and the disciples saw it on the mount; it is an immense thing to get our hearts associated with the scene of His glory.
What comes out too is this, how very incompetent they were for the occasion, and therefore they did not like to think of what was going to happen to Him.
The kingdom and patience of Christ in Revelation, what is that?
There you have not got the kingdom and glory, but patience instead down here, while the kingdom is above.
You must now, in figurative language, go up the mountain.
You get the foreshadowing of this in Ezekiel. He was allowed to see what was above the firmament; one sitting there like unto the Son of man, and that is the case with us; you see the providential ways of God down here, and you may be reproached, and have to suffer in the scene of His ways, but if you get above them you see Jesus crowned with glory and honour.
Like Stephen, he saw Him.
Yes, he saw above the firmament.
That we should look above is very important for us. In the demoniac, the woman with the issue of blood, and the ruler’s child we have delivering grace in the state and condition of things down here, specially of Israel at that time, and in this chapter it is after the glory that Israel gets delivered. The real testimony [p. 149] for us is in connection with the three who went up the mount. The other disciples were down under the state of things in Israel, and alas! it is often so with us. The testimony therefore of the glory of Christ is an immense thing for us, because it belongs to this present moment.
Paul comes in with the same testimony; he had part in the testimony of the twelve. He saw the Lord in glory and comes in with the testimony though with more light in regard of it.
You connect power with the kingdom?
Certainly. The kingdom of God is in power, not in word. The power is established in resurrection.
And resurrection is the proof that there is a power here now greater than sin.
Yes, a power greater than anything. The kingdom is established in spiritual power, and we get the celebration of it in connection with the coming of the Holy Spirit. The power down here is what you may call subduing power.
What was said as to Israel’s deliverance after the glory is referred to in Psalm 73, “After the glory thou wilt receive me”.
Yes, and in Zechariah, “After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations”.
Looking at it figuratively, the Lord comes down from the mount, then He delivers the child which is a figure of Israel — the demon had come upon him from a child, and oft-times it had cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. It is exactly what you read of Israel. No doubt there is moral teaching for us in it.
Is the display of the glory greater now or in the coming day?
There is no display of the glory now.
The only display now is what is produced morally in the saints.
In verse 15 it says, they were amazed at seeing the Lord: do you connect that with the crowd?
[p. 150] Yes, they were amazed and surprised at His absence from the disciples.
Peter speaks about “Having a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed ... until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”. Is that present or future?
That is moral and it is present.
Do we find in that verse the reason why prophecy has dropped into the background in these last years?
No one ever understood prophecy except in the light of Christ. You will not find any people that have made it a speciality who have made much real headway with it. It is in the light of Christ, and as you are built up in Him that prophecy unfolds itself, and you then see how simple it really is.
We find in Revelation 19: 10, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”.
Exactly. In our chapter here the child is figuratively Israel, and its deliverance refers dispensationally to Israel, but we may look at it in the moral aspect for its application to us.
The tendency with us is to revert to the earth instead of being associated with what is on high, so that there is a very great moral lesson in it for us.
The kingdom means deliverance for man, that is the moral effect of entering it. Then at the end of the chapter other things come in; we get the teaching of Christ, and His teaching is the teaching of grace.
It is very important to see grace coming in. You are in the light of the kingdom in this chapter, the power of the enemy is completely broken, that is the first effect, but then there is the teaching on the part of Christ for the subjects of the kingdom.
Yes, exactly; the kingdom really is grace acting in power.
What is the teaching here?
It is sobriety and righteousness, that is the moral teaching of the kingdom; here, it is the teaching of [p. 151] Christ and what He shows is the teaching of grace: the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where do you get sobriety in this chapter?
In the word to the apostles who were striving which was to be greatest. They were carried away and puffed up by an exaggerated idea of their own importance, and that is just our own tendency as the servants of the Lord. Every one of them was to have a sober estimate of himself in the presence of grace.
There is nothing more wonderful than the way the Lord taught them, by setting a little child in their midst, and that too without saying a word to them: then He took up the child in His arms, a very significant act with regard to the kingdom. The sense of grace gives you a sense of littleness as to yourself.
It is by the teaching of grace first, that a man comes at a very sober estimate of himself, and the flesh is to have no place if that man is in the reality of the kingdom.
Love is the character of the kingdom, is it not?
Yes, you come into love morally in the kingdom. We are translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
What do you say as regards the man who was forbidden to cast out demons, what are we to learn from it?
It is the effort to hinder and stop every one who does not go on your particular line.
It would have been better for that man if he had been following Christ. There are many people in the world who are casting out demons in a sense, and serving the Lord in that way with whom you could not go, but you cannot attempt to hinder their work, and yet you can pray for them. “He who is not against us, is for us”.
Why does the Lord say “us” here, and in Matthew it is “me”?
Here it is the wonderful grace which identifies the disciples with Himself.
But it also says, “He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad”. Was not this man scattering?
[p. 152] He was not scattering if he was casting out demons. You have to remember that demons are cast out by the power of God. The Lord here teaches the lesson of sobriety, that is the great point, we have to get away from the idea of self-importance.
How is it this man could cast out demons and the disciples could not?
He had faith to use what was there. The others failed because they thought too much of themselves.
Does it show that God was working?
Yes, the man had faith in the power that was at his disposal; and the power is there for us too if we have faith to use it.
Does the prayer and fasting mark real dependence? The latter part of the chapter proves that that is the character of this moment; it is a moment of prayer and fasting, that is, you cannot give place to the flesh. With regard to the flesh there is to be, and must be, self-abnegation.
It was said, this is the teaching of grace: in verse 49 do we get the other side of it?
Salt is in a certain sense the principle of grace, yet in a preservative sense things are tested by it.
“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt”. What is that?
It preserves you from corruption. You cannot connect corruption with grace; “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”.
What is the difference between being brought into the kingdom under the sway of grace, and into the assembly?
The assembly is the sphere of love.
The kingdom involves the responsibility that flows from grace, and the consequence is that if you do not walk here in the exercise of grace in the kingdom, you [p. 153] may come under present discipline according to Matthew 18. If a man is not affected and influenced by grace in his dealings with others, if he is hard and exacting, though he may be a Christian, it is exceedingly likely that he will come under discipline. There is a special oversight, and discipline in regard of those who walk in the spirit and principle of the kingdom.
God keeps His eye on those in the kingdom?
Yes, and exercises discipline towards them. The kingdom was typically set up in the wilderness.
The more you are under the sway of grace in the kingdom, the more gracious you will be without.
You must be. John 4 has interested me very much. The woman stands in the presence of the Son of God, and the Lord gradually unfolds Himself to her. First as the Giver of living water. Then He knows what is in her, and what is in the mind of God, and the end is that she is completely subdued. The Son of God sets Himself to subdue to Himself a poor sinful woman.
What is the meaning in chapter 10, of bringing little children to Him?
That brings in the other side, the spirit and principle in which you have to enter the kingdom. In chapter 9 we have the teaching of it; in chapter 10, how everything looks in the light of it, marriage, children, and riches are taken up. The application of righteousness must first come in in the way of self-judgment, you do not know how to deal with others if you do not begin with yourself first. It is no good attempting to exercise censorship if you are allowing the flesh in yourself.
Do we not get that in Romans 6, self-judgment and righteousness?
Yes, but here we get it in a practical way, like “bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”, etc., that kind of principle. In chapter 10 the Lord brings before you things down here; institutions of God and what is allowed in His providence, marriage, little children, and [p. 154] riches, everything is brought out in the light of the kingdom and gets its true character, but at the same time what is allowed in the providence of God may stand greatly in the way of the kingdom.
What was meant in saying that the teaching of grace brings in piety? What is piety?
Piety is that a man instead of taking things up in a natural way, brings God into the detail of life down here. “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe”.
In this last part of Mark, one great characteristic word is “the way”, we are not stopping down here. In verse 17 the Lord is on His way. We look at things now, and take them up in the light of the kingdom, but the point now is, the Lord is on the way to the cross. We do not stop in these things though we use them — riches, etc. — but you follow Christ and give up for Him, denying yourself.
So these things become tests?
Three times the Lord puts His sufferings before His disciples. First He is going to be rejected by the chief priests and scribes, the great religious leaders, then we read He was to be delivered into the hands of men. Man will not have Him, and finally He is delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and they shall crucify Him, and in all three cases what He brings in is resurrection. He puts His own path of death and resurrection before them, and they follow Him, tremblingly.
Why does the blind man come in in chapter 10?
As testimony to His being Son of David, Jesus is on His way up to Jerusalem. After that we get the complete judgment of everything that was there; everything comes up before Christ. He is borne witness to as Son of David, and He judges the fig-tree, Israel after the flesh, then we have different questions coming before Him, first the Pharisees and scribes who raise the question of authority; then the infidel question by the [p. 155] Sadducees, and worldliness in the Herodians; they try to catch Him by questions of various kinds, religious, political as to the tribute money, and infidel, but the Lord judges them all.
And He has the last word.
Is it His true servant character coming out in the close of chapter 11?
The time of service was all past now, and He enters Jerusalem according to His rights, on the part of God to claim the inheritance. It was His authority they questioned, and they owned themselves incompetent to judge what was from heaven or of men.
His service was over, and it was now the time of suffering.
The whole state of things is judged. He comes in and inspects all that is there, and passes sentence on it, but that is not service. Morally you can see the necessity of it on the part of God, but it was not part of His service exactly.
If you take the Lord as a pattern, He is not a pattern to us in what He did in these chapters, but He is in His service in regard of men, as in chapters 4 and 5 you can follow Him there.
The Lord’s ministry had practically come to a close, and now these things are brought in because He asserts His rights to the inheritance, and judges everything on the side of God and in the house. It was of the last moment that the rights of God should be maintained, but His time of active service was over and the time of suffering had come.
In the last chapter you get the changed position of Christ, no longer here labouring on earth. He is at the right hand of God in power actively concerned in the apostles’ work here, confirming their word. His being at the right hand of God is connected with service. He is at the head of all service at the right hand of God.
Is the commission given there the commission to act upon now?
[p. 156] No, you cannot act upon that, you must take your commission from Luke. This gospel is very particularly connected with the inauguration of the service. It was the introduction of a new order of things, everything was done by Christ and the apostles.
The Acts follows this, does it not?
In a certain sense this covers the whole of the Acts, but literally Acts follows Luke.
The kingdom was established and the work done by the apostles.
They carried out the work the Lord gave them.
Was it not really when Paul came in that there was a world-wide testimony?
That is so as a matter of fact, only it says here, “They went everywhere preaching the word”, but as to ourselves, we take our commission from Luke, not from this.
With regard to apostolic service, it is that which inaugurates the Church, but any idea of apostolic succession is condemned on the face of it.
Do you take this as establishing morally the kingdom?
Yes. Luke gives us the commission for any one who can take it up; it is not specially addressed to the apostles. What comes out in Luke is the purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ.
What did you mean when you said that the commission in Mark cannot be carried out, and that in Luke can?
It is viewed in Mark as a commission given to certain persons. In Luke it is a commission to no one definitely, it states that consequent upon the death and resurrection of Christ, repentance and remission of sins are to be preached in His name, and therefore, it can be taken up by any one in the power of the Holy Spirit. Mark gives you the personal service of Christ and the apostles, it does not go further; the commission in Luke is quite enough for us. If people take up what does not belong to them, it tends to give an exaggerated importance to what they do.
[p. 157] None of us could pretend to be apostles, though if you get people converted today it is a sign following. The Lord works with us in that way.
A point of importance here is, that except for the activity of the Lord Himself there was a complete breakdown. The lordship of Christ is connected with His resurrection. “For to this end Christ has died and lived again, that he might rule over both dead and living”.