Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 1:14
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
14. put in prison ] The causes of the imprisonment of the Baptist are more fully related by the Evangelist ch. Mar 6:17-20.
came into Galilee ] and commenced the great Galilean ministry. Galilee was the most northern and the most populous of the three provinces, into which the Romans had divided Palestine. It was to Roman Palestine what the manufacturing districts are to England, covered with busy towns and teeming villages, Roman custom-houses and thriving fisheries. See Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, pp. 375 377.
the gospel of the kingdom of God ] or according to some MSS. the Gospel of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14, 15. Beginning of our Lord’s Ministry
Between the events just described and those on which the Evangelist now enters, must be placed several recorded chiefly by St John; viz., (1) The testimony of the Baptist to Christ as the Lamb of God (Joh 1:19-34); (2) the early joining of Andrew, John, Simon, Philip and Nathanael (Joh 1:35-51); (3) the marriage at Cana (Joh 2:1-12); (4) the first visit to Jerusalem, first cleansing of the Temple and conference with Nicodemus (Joh 2:13-21; Joh 3:1-21); (5) the ministry with the Baptist (Joh 3:22-36); (6) the imprisonment of the Baptist (Luk 3:19-20); (7) the return of Jesus to Galilee through Samaria, and the discourse with the woman at Jacob’s well (Joh 4:3-42); (8) cure of the nobleman’s son at Cana (Joh 4:43-54).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now after that John was put in prison – John was imprisoned by Herod, Mat 14:3.
Jesus came into Galilee – He left Judea and went into the more retired country of Galilee. He supposed that if he remained in Judea, Herod would also persecute him and attempt to take his life. His time of death had not come, and he therefore prudently sought safety in retirement. Hence, we may learn that when we have great duties to perform for the church of God, we are not to endanger our lives wantonly. When we can secure them without a sacrifice of principle, we are to do it. See Mat 24:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 1:14
Now after that John was put in prison.
Hindrances no injury
But John had been doing a good work, doing an important work, doing the very work that God had planned for him to do. Why did the Lord let him be put in prison? Just such interruptions as that to the best mens work, and just such trials as this to the best of men, are in the Lords plan of the progress of his work, and of the training of His people. When old Father Mills, of Torringford, Connecticut, heard that his son, Samuel J. Mills, the father of foreign missions in America, had died at sea while his work was at its brilliant starting, the quaint old Yankee preacher said wonderingly: Well, I declare! The fats all in the fire again. And it did look that way, didnt it? We cant understand all this; but we can see its commonness. John the Baptist was a child of promise and a child of prophecy. Jesus says of him: Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. Yet just as he was fairly inaugurating the Messiahs dispensation, and his work seemed more important than almost anyones else on earth, John was put in prison. Until you can see just why that thing was permitted, dont worry yourself over some of your little hindrances, or those of your neighbours, asking-as if half in doubt whether or not there is a God, or whether He cares for the interests of His cause and its best friends What did the Lord let this happen for? (Sunday School Times.)
The silencing of Christs ministers not the suppressing of Christs gospel
Out of the ashes of a Faithful God raises up a Hopeful; for the immortal dreamer says: Now I saw in my dream that Christian went not forth alone; for there was one whose name was Hopeful who joined himself unto him. Though the enemy burn a John Huss, God is able to raise up a Martin Luther to take his place: end the martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer does but light a candle in England which shall never be put out. The casting of the Baptist into prison signalized the commencement of that ministry which unhinged the gates of hell. (Anonymous.)
Impediment changed into new impetus
I. We see a royal ambassador silenced.
II. We see a worthier envoy substituted.
III. We see the deathless energy of truth. No power known on earth can stop her silvery tongue. (D. Davies, M. A.)
Christs preaching
Johns position had been one of honour. We now contemplate him as the occupant of a dungeon.
I. The history of Johns connection with Herod is very instructive. It shows-
1. The feeling of the world in certain cases towards the truth of its teachers-they hear it gladly.
2. The experience of the faithful reprovers of human sin-a prison.
3. A leading feature of that kingdom which John introduced.
4. This was fitted to undeceive the Jews. Are you satisfied with the gospel economy?
II. No sooner was John cast into prison than Jesus Himself began to preach the gospel.
1. When a servant of God has finished his work, he must be satisfied to retire. We think experience, etc., lost; but no.
2. The world will never succeed in suppressing the truth. Let us not be oppressed with anxiety!
III. The Evangelist records the substance as well as the fact of Christs preaching.
IV. As soon as Christ began to preach the gospel He called His disciples.
1. On the fact of His calling His disciples we may remark:
(1) He made provision for the perpetuity of His kingdom;
(2) He brought those who were to be main pillars in the Church under His own training-spiritually;
(3) He placed the apostles in circumstances which qualified them to be witnesses to facts.
2. On the manner of His calling His disciples, we may remark:
(1) He honoured diligence in humble employment;
(2) He chose seemingly weak instruments;
(3) He taught that we must leave all in order to follow Him;
(4) He furnished an example of effectual calling. Have you left all? (Expository Discourses.)
Jesus came into Galilee
The season was the spring, with its bright heaven, its fresh sweet earth, its gladsome, soft, yet strengthening air, its limpid living water. And within as without all was springtime, the season of million-fold forces, gladly and grandly creative, of sunlight now clear and blithesome, and now veiled with clouds that came only to break in fruitful showers. (Principal A. M. Fairbairn.)
The vicissitudes of a Godly life
I. That good men are often made the subject of social reproach. John was put in prison.
1. Because the inner meaning of their lives is frequently misunderstood.
2. Because the moral beauty of their character excites the envy of the wicked.
3. Because they are often called to rebuke the wickedness of those around them.
II. That useful men are often rendered incapable of work through the tyranny of others.
1. The power of regal authority to hinder the labours of the morally useful is only partial.
2. It is often capable of wise explanation-
(1) It proved that the Baptist was capable of suffering as well as work;
(2) That the history of the Baptist might the more easily merge into that of our Lord;
(3) To give him rest before entering the solemnities of eternity.
3. It is deeply responsible.
III. That though one servant of truth may be removed another is immediately found to take his place.
IV. That the ministry called forth by the emergency is often better than the one removed. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.)
Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.–
The scope of our Lords ministry
I. The kingdom here spoken of.
1. It was the kingdom of God.
2. It was at that time to be established.
II. What must we do to become subjects of this kingdom?
1. Repent of sin.
2. Believe the gospel. Application:
(1) Inquiry;
(2) Humiliation;
(3) Thankfulness. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The kingdom of God
This term is used in various senses in the New Testament.
1. The presence of Christ upon earth.
2. The second coming of Christ.
3. His influence upon the heart.
4. Christianity as a Church.
5. Christianity as a faith.
6. The life eternal.
It points out sin to be turned from in sorrow: Christ to be believed in with joy. (T. M. Lindsay, D. D.)
The Kingdom of God: God reigning in mens hearts
There is great meaning in the words that Jesus was continually using to describe the work that He did for mens souls. He brought them into the kingdom of God. The whole burden of His preaching was to establish the kingdom of God. The purpose of the new birth for which He laboured was to make men subjects of the kingdom of God. Is it not clear what it means? The kingdom of God for any soul is that condition, anywhere in the universe, where God is that souls king, where it seeks and obeys the highest, where it loves truth and duty more than comfort and luxury. Have you entered into the kingdom of God? Oh, how much that means! Has any love of God taken possession of you, so that you want to do His will above all things, and try to do it all the time? Has Christ brought you there? If He has, how great and new and glorious the life of the kingdom seems. No wonder that He said you must be born again before you could enter there. How poor life seems outside that kingdom. How beautiful and glorious inside its gates! If I tried to tell you how Christ brings us there, I should repeat to you once more the old, familiar story. He comes and lives and dies for us. He touches us with gratitude. He sets before our softened lives His life. He makes us see the beauty of holiness, and the strength of the spiritual life in Him. He transfers His life to us through the open channel of faith, and so we come to live as He lives, by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How old the story is, but how endlessly fresh and true to Him whose own career it describes. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The kingdom of God an inward state
Many people seem to suppose this means some realm after death, where those who have done nothing but mortify themselves here shall do nothing but enjoy themselves hereafter. But what Christ meant by the kingdom of heaven was a life begun here, passing through the grave and gate of death without any breach of spiritual continuity. Unchanged in essence was the life of His kingdom-changeable only in outward accidents. Its essence depended always not on where, but on what you were. The kingdom of heaven was always a state within, not a place, though it worked itself out here below in a visible Church. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
The Galilean ministry
I. When. After Johns imprisonment. One witness of the truth silenced; but another raised up. After Moses, Joshua; after Stephen, Paul.
II. Where. Galilee. Where could He find work so readily as amidst the ceaseless toil and turmoil of these teeming villages?
III. What.
1. Gospel of kingdom of God. Spiritual (1Co 15:50); righteous (Rom 14:17); near (Luk 21:31); inward (Luk 17:20-21).
2. Repentance and faith: thus completing the work of John. (H. Thorne.)
Christ the Evangelical minister
I. The preacher-Jesus. But Jesus differed from all other preachers.
1. He was Divine.
2. He was infallible.
3. He was sympathetic.
4. He was most clear and simple. Common people heard him gladly, etc.
5. He was most interesting.
6. Most faithful and earnest.
7. He preached most affectionately and tenderly. One of His very last appeals-O Jerusalem, etc. He wept over it, etc.
II. His theme. The gospel.
1. He was the subject of His own ministry.
2. He also proclaimed the kingdom of God.
3. The near approach of this kingdom.
4. The sphere of His ministry at this time was Galilee. Now the world is the field of the gospel-Go ye into all the world, etc.
III. The special appeal He made.
1. He urged repentance.
2. He demanded faith. The gospel news must be heard and received as true.
Learn:
1. We have the same Saviour.
2. The same gospel-now complete by His resurrection and gift of the Holy Spirit.
3. Its blessings are ours on the same terms.
4. Men perish by not believing the gospel of Christ. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Preaching the Gospel of the kingdom] See Clarke on Mt 3:2; and on the office of the preacher, or herald, at the end of that chapter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It should seem that John had but a short time wherein he exercised his public ministry: he was the son of a priest, Zacharias, Luk 1:13, and it is probable that he entered not upon his public ministry till he was thirty years of age (it was the priestly age, and the age at which Luke tells us our Saviour entered upon his public ministry). He was but about six months older than our Saviour, and was imprisoned as soon as our Saviour entered upon his ministry, indeed before we read of his entrance upon it. Upon his imprisonment, Christ begins to preach in Galilee the gospel by which he set up his kingdom, and which leadeth men to the kingdom of God.
And saying, The time is fulfilled, the time determined of God for the revelation of the Messias, and the grace of the gospel through him, foretold by the prophets, Dan 2:44; hence Christ is said to have come in the fulness, and in the dispensation of the fulness of time, Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10.
And the kingdom of God is at hand; the gracious dispensation of God in the gospel is at hand, or hath approached.
Repent ye, turn from the wickedness of your ways, and believe the gospel, or, in the gospel: to believe the gospel is one thing, to believe in the gospel (as it is here in the Greek) is another. The former phrase signifies no more than a firm and fixed assent to the proposition of the gospel; but to believe in the gospel, is to place our hope of salvation in the doctrine and promises of the gospel, which are the proximate object of our faith, though the primary object of it be the person of the Mediator. There is a repentance that must go before faith, that is the applicative of the promise of pardoning mercy to the soul; though true evangelical repentance, which is a sorrow for sin, flowing from the sense of the love of God in Christ, be the fruit and effect of faith. Our Saviours preaching agreeth with the Baptists, Mat 3:2; Joh 3:23.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Now after that John was put in prison,…. In the castle of Macherus, by Herod, for reproving him for taking his brother Philip’s wife:
Jesus came into Galilee: again, from whence he came to be baptized of John:
preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God: the good news and glad tidings of the kingdom of the Messiah, or Gospel dispensation; which lies not in worldly pomp and splendour, in outward observances, in legal rites and ceremonies, but in righteousness, peace, and joy; in peace and pardon by the blood of Christ, in justification by his righteousness, and in free and full salvation by him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Opening of Christ’s Ministry. |
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14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. 19 And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. 20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him. 21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
Here is, I. A general account of Christ’s preaching in Galilee. John gives an account of his preaching in Judea, before this (ch. ii. and iii.), which the other evangelists had omitted, who chiefly relate what occurred in Galilee, because that was least known at Jerusalem. Observe,
1. When Jesus began to preach in Galilee; After that John was put in prison. When he had finished his testimony, then Jesus began his. Note, The silencing of Christ’s ministers shall not be the suppressing of Christ’s gospel; if some be laid aside, others shall be raised up, perhaps mightier than they, to carry on the same work.
2. What he preached; The gospel of the kingdom of God. Christ came to set up the kingdom of God among men, that they might be brought into subjection to it, and might obtain salvation in it; and he set it up by the preaching of his gospel, and a power going along with it.
Observe, (1.) The great truths Christ preached; The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. This refers to the Old Testament, in which the kingdom of the Messiah was promised, and the time fixed for the introducing of it. They were not so well versed in those prophecies, nor did they so well observe the signs of the times, as to understand it themselves, and therefore Christ gives them notice of it; “The time prefixed is now at hand; glorious discoveries of divine light, life, and love, are now to be made; a new dispensation far more spiritual and heavenly than that which you have hitherto been under, is now to commence.” Note, God keeps time; when the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, for the vision is for an appointed time, which will be punctually observed, though it tarry past our time.
(2.) The great duties inferred from thence. Christ gave them to understand the times, that they might know what Israel ought to do; they fondly expected the Messiah to appear in external pomp and power, not only to free the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke, but to make it have dominion over all its neighbours, and therefore thought, when that kingdom of God was at hand, they must prepare for war, and for victory and preferment, and great things in the world; but Christ tells them, in the prospect of that kingdom approaching, they must repent, and believe the gospel. They had broken the moral law, and could not be saved by a covenant of innocency, for both Jew and Gentile are concluded under guilt. They must therefore take the benefit of a covenant of grace, must submit to a remedial law, and this is it–repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. They had not made use of the prescribed preservatives, and therefore must have recourse to the prescribed restoratives. By repentance we must lament and forsake our sins, and by faith we must receive the forgiveness of them. By repentance we must give glory to our Creator whom we have offended; by faith we must give glory to our Redeemer who came to save us from our sins. Both these must go together; we must not think either that reforming our lives will save us without trusting in the righteousness and grace of Christ, or that trusting in Christ will save us without the reformation of our hearts and lives. Christ hath joined these two together, and let no man think to put them asunder. They will mutually assist and befriend each other. Repentance will quicken faith, and faith will make repentance evangelical; and the sincerity of both together must be evidenced by a diligent conscientious obedience to all God’s commandments. Thus the preaching of the gospel began, and thus it continues; still the call is, Repent, and believe, and live a life of repentance and a life of faith.
II. Christ appearing as a teacher, here is next his calling of disciples, v. 16-20. Observe, 1. Christ will have followers. If he set up a school, he will have scholars; if he set up his standard, he will have soldiers; if he preach, he will have hearers. He has taken an effectual course to secure this; for all that the Father has given him, shall, without fail, come to him. 2. The instruments Christ chose to employ in setting up his kingdom, were the weak and foolish things of the world; not called from the great sanhedrim, or the schools of the rabbin, but picked up from among the tarpaulins by the sea-side, that the excellency of the power might appear to be wholly of God, and not at all of them. 3. Though Christ needs not the help of man, yet he is pleased to make use of it in setting up his kingdom, that he might deal with us not in a formidable but in a familiar way, and that in his kingdom the nobles and governors may be of ourselves, Jer. xxxi. 21. 4. Christ puts honour upon those who, though mean in the world, are diligent in their business, and loving to one another; so those were, whom Christ called. He found them employed, and employed together. Industry and unity are good and pleasant, and there the Lord Jesus commands the blessing, even this blessing, Follow me. 5. The business of ministers is to fish for souls, and win them to Christ. The children of men, in their natural condition, are lost, wander endlessly in the great ocean of this world, and are carried down the stream of its course and way; they are unprofitable. Like leviathan in the waters, they play therein; and often, like the fishes of the sea, they devour one another. Ministers, in preaching the gospel, cast the net into the waters, Matt. xiii. 47. Some are enclosed and brought to shore, but far the greater number escape. Fishermen take great pains, and expose themselves to great perils, so do ministers; and they have need of wisdom. If many a draught brings home nothing, yet they must go on. 6. Those whom Christ called, must leave all, to follow him; and by his grace he inclines them to do so. Not that we must needs go out of the world immediately, but we must sit loose to the world, and forsake every thing that is inconsistent with our duty to Christ, and that cannot be kept without prejudice to our souls. Mark takes notice of James and John, that they left not only their father (which we had in Matthew), but the hired servants, whom perhaps they loved as their own brethren, being their fellow-labourers and pleasant comrades; not only relations, but companions, must be left for Christ, and old acquaintance. Perhaps it is an intimation of their care for their father; they did not leave him without assistance, they left the hired servants with him. Grotius thinks it is mentioned as an evidence that their calling was gainful to them, for it was worth while to keep servants in pay, to help them in it, and their hands would be much missed, and yet they left it.
III. Here is a particular account of his preaching in Capernaum, one of the cities of Galilee; for though John Baptist chose to preach in a wilderness, and did well, and did good, yet it doth not therefore follow, that Jesus must do so too; the inclinations and opportunities of ministers may very much differ, and yet both be in the way of their duty, and both useful. Observe, 1. When Christ came into Capernaum, he straightway applied himself to his work there, and took the first opportunity of preaching the gospel. Those will think themselves concerned not to lose time, who consider what a deal of work they have to do, and what a little time to do it in. 2. Christ religiously observed the sabbath day, though not by tying himself up to the tradition of the elders, in all the niceties of the sabbath-rest, yet (which was far better) by applying himself to, and abounding in, the sabbath-work, in order to which the sabbath-rest was instituted. 3. Sabbaths are to be sanctified in religious assemblies, if we have opportunity; it is a holy day, and must be honoured with a holy convocation; this was the good old way,Act 13:27; Act 15:21. On the sabbath-day, pois sabbasin—on the sabbath-days; every sabbath-day, as duly as it returned, he went into the synagogue. 4. In religious assemblies on sabbath-days, the gospel is to be preached, and those to be taught, who are willing to learn the truth as it is in Jesus. 5. Christ was a non-such preacher; he did not preach as the scribes, who expounded the law of Moses by rote, as a school-boy says his lesson, but were neither acquainted with it (Paul himself, when a Pharisee, was ignorant of the law), nor affected with it; it came not from the heart, and therefore came not with authority. But Christ taught as one that had authority, as one that knew the mind of God, and was commissioned to declare it. 6. There is much in the doctrine of Christ, that is astonishing; the more we hear it, the more cause we shall see to admire it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Jesus came into Galilee ( ). Here Mark begins the narrative of the active ministry of Jesus and he is followed by Matthew and Luke. Mark undoubtedly follows the preaching of Peter. But for the Fourth Gospel we should not know of the year of work in various parts of the land (Perea, Galilee, Judea, Samaria) preceding the Galilean ministry. John supplements the Synoptic Gospels at this point as often. The arrest of John had much to do with the departure of Jesus from Judea to Galilee (Joh 4:1-4).
Preaching the gospel of God ( ). It is the subjective genitive, the gospel that comes from God. Swete observes that repentance () is the keynote in the message of the Baptist as gospel () is with Jesus. But Jesus took the same line as John and proclaimed both repentance and the arrival of the kingdom of God. Mark adds to Matthew’s report the words “the time is fulfilled” ( ). It is a significant fact that John looks backward to the promise of the coming of the Messiah and signalizes the fulfilment as near at hand (perfect passive indicative). It is like Paul’s fulness of time ( ) in Ga 4:4 and fulness of the times ( ) in Eph 1:10 when he employs the word , opportunity or crisis as here in Mark rather than the more general term . Mark adds here also: “and believe in the gospel” ( ). Both repent and believe in the gospel. Usually faith in Jesus (or God) is expected as in John 14:1. But this crisis called for faith in the message of Jesus that the Messiah had come. He did not use here the term Messiah, for it had come to have political connotations that made its use at present unwise. But the kingdom of God had arrived with the presence of the King. It does make a difference what one believes. Belief or disbelief in the message of Jesus made a sharp cleavage in those who heard him. “Faith in the message was the first step; a creed of some kind lies at the basis of confidence in the Person of Christ, and the occurrence of the phrase in the oldest record of the teaching of our Lord is a valuable witness to this fact” (Swete).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
JESUS’ FIRST GALILEEAN MINISTRY, V. 14, 15
1) “Now after that John was put in prison,” (kai meta to paraclothenai ton loarmen) “And after John was to be delivered,” imprisoned, later to be given over to the murderous whim of Herodias.
2) “Jesus came into Galilee,” (elthen ho lesous eis ten Galilaian) “Jesus came into Galilee,” of His own choice, in the power of the Spirit, beginning in the synagogue of Nazareth, where He was brought up, Luk 4:14-21; fulfilling Isa 61:1-2; Mat 4:12-22.
3) “Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” (kerusson to euangelien tou theou) “Proclaiming or heralding aloud the gospel (good news) of God.” The term “kingdom” is not here used in the original. This begins His Galillean ministry, Act 10:37.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mar 1:14
. Preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. Matthew appears to differ a little from the other two: for, after mentioning that Jesus left his own city Nazareth, and departed to Capernaum, he says: from that time Jesus began to preach. Luke and Mark, again, relate, that he taught publicly in his own country. But the solution is easy; for the words which Matthew employs, ἀπὸ τότε, from that time, ought to be viewed as referring, not to what immediately precedes, but to the whole course of the narrative. Christ, therefore, entered into the exercise of his office, when he arrived at Galilee. The summary of doctrine which is given by Matthew is not at all different from what, we have lately seen, was taught by John: for it consists of two parts, — repentance, and the announcement of grace and salvation. He exhorts the Jews to conversion, because the kingdom of God is at hand: that is, because God undertakes to govern his people, which is true and perfect happiness. The language of Mark is a little different, The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel But the meaning is the same: for, having first spoken of the restoration of the kingdom of God among the Jews, he exhorts them to repentance and faith.
But it may be asked, since repentance depends on the Gospel, why does Mark separate it from the doctrine of the Gospel? Two reasons may be assigned. God sometimes invites us to repentance, when nothing more is meant, than that we ought to change our life for the better. He afterwards shows, that conversion and “newness of life” (Rom 6:4) are the gift of God. This is intended to inform us, that not only is our duty enjoined on us, but the grace and power of obedience are, at the same time, offered. If we understand in this way the preaching of John about repentance, the meaning will be:” The Lord commands you to turn to himself; but as you cannot accomplish this by your own endeavors, he promises the Spirit of regeneration, and therefore you must receive this grace by faith.” At the same time, the faith, which he enjoins men to give to the Gospel, ought not, by any means, to be confined to the gift of renewal, but relates chiefly to the forgiveness of sins. For John connects repentance with faith, because God reconciles us to himself in such a manner, that we serve him as a Father in holiness and righteousness.
Besides, there is no absurdity in saying, that to believe the Gospel is the same thing as to embrace a free righteousness: for that special relation, between faith and the forgiveness of sins, is often mentioned in Scripture; as, for example, when it teaches, that we are justified by faith, (Rom 5:1.) In which soever of these two ways you choose to explain this passage, it still remains a settled principle, that God offers to us a free salvation, in order that we may turn to him, and live to righteousness. Accordingly, when he promises to us mercy, he calls us to deny the flesh. We must observe the designation which Paul gives to the Gospel, the kingdom of God: for hence we learn, that by the preaching of the Gospel the kingdom of God is set up and established among men, and that in no other way does God reign among men. Hence it is also evident, how wretched the condition of men is without the Gospel.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar. 1:14. John was put in prison.Delivered up. Same word used of our Lords betrayal by Judas. Such honour have all His saints. Jesus came into Galilee.From Jerusalem, where He had been teaching most of the time since His baptism (Joh. 2:13 to Joh. 4:3).
Mar. 1:15. Repent ye, and believe.We have an echo of this Divine keynote in the first sermon preached by Peter at Pentecost (Act. 2:38).
Mar. 1:16. As He walked.As He was passing along by the seashore towards Capernaum, He encountered four disciples of the Baptist whom He had previously met and impressed (Joh. 1:35-42 : cf. Luk. 5:1-11). Casting a net.Casting about (a hand-net) in the sea. Here is one of the many graphic touches in this Gospel which betray the source of Marks inspiration. Who but one of the two men engaged in the business would have thought of putting it in this way?
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mar. 1:14-20
(PARALLELS: Mat. 4:17-22; Luk. 4:14-15; Luk. 5:1-11.)
Christs early Galilean preaching and first disciples.What St. Mark here records is not the beginning of Christs ministerial work, but His first preaching in Galilee. St. John alone fills up the gap between our Lords temptation and the imprisonment of the Baptist. From him we know of the Baptists testimony to Jesus at Bethabara (Bethany, R. V.) beyond Jordan, and the impression it made on some of his disciples; of the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee; of Christs first passover at Jerusalem, cleansing of temple, and discourse with Nicodemus; of His continued ministry in Judea, baptising by His disciples, and receiving further testimony from the Baptist (chaps, 13). Then St. John mentions, in common with the other Evangelists, Christs departure from Judea into Galilee after the Baptists imprisonment; but he supplements their narrative by telling us of the incident on the way at Jacobs well near Sychar, the discourse with the woman of Samaria, and the gaining of many believers among the Samaritans; stating also as an incidental reason for Christs going to Galilee, that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptised more disciples than John (Mar. 4:1-41).
I. The Forerunners public ministry is closed.
1. The last time we heard of the Baptist, he occupied a position of peculiar honour. His popularity was great, his influence permeating all classes of society. It looked as if the nation had come to its senses, and was ready to welcome its King. But, alas! the impression proved but transitory; the King, when they saw Him, proved very different from what their carnal fancy had painted; and so in bitter disappointment they turned from the Forerunner who (as they deemed it) had misled them, and took no heed when Herod seized and shut him in prison.
2. But the Baptist, although imprisoned, is not silenced. If he has been stopped working for God, he can still suffer in His cause. Moreover, even in prison he is able to direct his disciples to Him who should come for the solution of their difficulties (Mat. 11:2-3). And in the conscience of Herod (and doubtless of many others) his faithful testimony continued to ring long after his death (Mar. 6:14; Mar. 6:16).
II. The One mightier than he takes the Forerunners place.
1. No mans service is essential to God. Though the workman be buriedwhether in prison or the graveHe can and will find means to carry on the work. What we often regard as hindrances to the Lords cause are really its greatest helps. It is not possible for a man to be cut off in the midst of his usefulness, as we term it. He cannot be cut off till his work is done, and it is time for him to make way for his successor. God never makes a mistake in these matters, and He is never off guard.
2. The world will never succeed in suppressing the truth. The gospel has come here to stay; and no power on earthor in hellcan dislodge or muffle it. Every religious persecution since the world began has resulted in the overthrow of the assailants and the firmer establishment of those assailed. The blood of the martyrs has in every case become the seed-plot of the Church, for its further development and ultimate triumph.
III. The message of Jesus is a distinct advance upon that of the Baptist.
1. While still enforcing repentance, He announces further that the time which was formerly said to be at hand has now arrived, and the gospel which He preaches must not only be believed, but believed inrelied upon as the panacea for every human ill. Faith is the hand on earth which grasps and holds on to the Divine hand reached down from heaven to strengthen and to aid.
2. He takes steps for the establishment of the kingdom of God. Few things are more striking, as a revelation of Gods method, than the measured tread with which Christ went forward to this grand enterprise. The Jews in general were eagerly desiring a liberator, who should gird his sword upon his thigh, and through bloodshed restore to them something of their ancient prestige. But Jesus is a Man of peace; His rallying cry bids them turn their weapons against no extraneous foe, but against their own darling lusts and passions. He calls upon them to repent; to change their minds, hearts, hopes, ambitions; to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; to accept the truth, which alone can make them free. For this purpose the kingdom of God is at hand; and in Him who speaks (though He does not tell them so) they behold its King. Such doctrine could only be received by a few here and there in the nation, and to them alone does He make His revelation in its fulness.
3. What is the kingdom of God?
(1) This inquiry is most important; for the kingdom(a) is revealed to us by God; (b) is the principal subject of Christs teaching throughout His entire ministry, most of His parables being illustrative of it; (c) is specially emphasised after His resurrection (Act. 1:3).
(2) The origin of this kingdom may be clearly traced. (a) The Mosaic economy was the kingdom of God in embryo. See Mat. 8:12; Act. 4:11; Act. 7:38; Rom. 9:4; Rom. 11:17; Heb. 12:22-24. That which existed Christ came to expand, extend, and perfect (Mat. 5:7). But this work was like a new creation, a new birth of the kingdom (Luk. 14:16). (b) The kingdom of God is therefore spoken of as to come by the Baptist (Mat. 3:2), by our Lord (Mat. 4:17; Mat. 14:18), by the apostles during their first mission (Mat. 10:7), and just before the Ascension (Act. 1:6). (c) Immediately after Pentecost the kingdom is spoken of as now come (Act. 2:16-47), and henceforth it is generally called the Church.
(3) The nature of this kingdom may be ascertained from the figures under which it is represented in Scripture, (a) A state (civitas) (Mat. 5:14). (b) A family, of which God is the Father (Eph. 3:14-15). (c) The vineyard of God (Isa. 5:1, etc.; Mat. 21:33, etc.). (d) A vine (Psa. 80:8, etc: cp. Joh. 15:1-2). (e) A flock and a fold (Isa. 40:11; Eze. 34:11, etc.; John 10). (f) A body, the Head of which is Christ (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18), and which the Holy Spirit inhabits (Joh. 14:17; cp. 1Co. 12:13). (g) The fulness of God (Eph. 1:22). From all this it clearly follows that the claims and rights of the Church are the claims and rights of Christ through His body: what is done to the Church is done to Christ. While she may suffer persecution (Joh. 16:2), and men may reject her to their own hurt (Isa. 60:12), or may be deprived of her on account of their sins (Mat. 21:43), yet she cannot be destroyed, for Christ is always with her (Mat. 28:20), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Mat. 16:18).
IV. The calling and training of disciples are marked features in the ministry of Jesus.
1. The manner of their calling is deeply instructive.
(1) He honours diligence in lowly occupations. He thinks, not of the work, but of the spirit in which it is done.
(2) He chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
(3) He demands self-sacrifice from the very beginning. If any one be inclined to urge that it was not much these men left, let him remember it was their all. And there is no tempting bait dangled before their eyes to lure them on. The promise of twelve thrones was not made till long afterwards. All they are offered is, that if they follow Jesus He will make them fishers of men, like Himself.
2. As to their training, let these facts be noted.
(1) Christ deliberately makes provision, from the first, for the perpetuity of His kingdom.
(2) He bestows personal attention on the spiritual education of those who are hereafter to be His earthly representatives and vicegerents.
(3) He puts them in a position to testify as to His words and works.
Lessons.
1. Trust in God, who is all-sufficient for any and every emergency.
2. Use every possible means and occasion for furthering Gods work.
3. Despise none of the ordinances of Christs Church. 4. The following of Christ is to be preferred to the business of the world.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar. 1:14. The audience first addressed by our Lord.Did Jesus, it has been asked, first address Himself to a small circle of acquaintances, or did He teach in public from the beginning of His ministry? The latter is more likely. It does not seem probable that He began to work in secret amongst a few individuals; for although He would at any time gladly go out of His way to restore a single wanderer to the path of virtue, yet, after all, His message was designed primarily for the whole nation. Moreover, publicity was as much in keeping with the character of the age as with our Lords intention; and He could not fail to find abundant opportunities of speaking to the populace.
The kingdom a gospel.Jesus Christ preached the kingdom of God as a gospel: rightly understood it is not a despotism, it is not a terror; it is the supremacy of light, of truth, of love.J. Parker, D.D.
Mar. 1:15. The kingdom of God
I. The nature of true religion, here termed the kingdom of God. St. Paul defines it in Rom. 14:17.
1. It is well known, that not only the unconverted Jews, but many who had received the faith of Christ, were, notwithstanding, zealous of the ceremonial law (Act. 21:20).
2. In opposition to these, the apostle declares, that true religion does not consist in any outward thing whatever; that although it naturally leads to every good word and work, yet its real nature lies deeper still, even in the hidden man of the heart.
(1) Righteousness: see Mar. 12:30-31.
(2) The peace of God, which God only can give, and the world cannot take away; the peace which passeth all understanding, all barely rational conception; being a supernatural sensation, a divine taste, of the powers of the world to come; such as the natural man knoweth not, how wise soever in the things of this world; nor indeed can he know it, in his present state, because it is spiritually discerned. It is a peace that banishes all doubt, uncertainty, fear.
(3) Joy in the Holy Ghostjoy wrought in the heart by the ever-blessed Spirit. He it is who works in us that calm, humble rejoicing in God, through Christ Jesus, by whom we have now received the atonement, and who enables us boldly to confirm the truth of the declaration (Psa. 32:1).
3. This holiness and happiness, joined in one, are sometimes styled the kingdom of God, and sometimes the kingdom of heaven.
(1) It is termed the kingdom of God, because it is the immediate fruit of Gods reigning in the soul.
(2) It is called the kingdom of heaven, because it is (in a degree) heaven opened in the soul (see 1Jn. 5:11-12; Joh. 17:3).
4. And this kingdom is at hand. These words, as originally spoken, implied that the time was then fulfilled, God being made manifest in the flesh, when He would set up His kingdom among men, and reign in the hearts of His people. And is not the time now fulfilled? The kingdom is not far from every one of you.
II. The way to the kingdom.
1. Repent: that is, know thyselfthe inbred corruption of thy heartthe bitter streams of vanity, ambition, covetousness, and all kinds of lusts flowing from itthe actual sins of which thou art continually guiltyand the just reward of thy inward and outward wickedness. If to this lively conviction of thy utter guiltiness and helplessness there be added suitable affectionssorrow of heart, for having despised thy own merciesremorse, and self-condemnation, having thy mouth stoppedshame to lift up thine eyes to heavenfear of the wrath of God abiding on theeearnest desire to cease from evil, and learn to do well,then thou art not far from the kingdom of God. One step more, and thou shalt enter in.
2. Believe the gospel.
(1) The gospel, in the widest sense, means the whole revelation made to men by Jesus Christ, and sometimes the whole account of what He did and suffered. The substance of all is (1Ti. 1:15; Joh. 3:16; Isa. 53:5):
(2) Believe this, and the kingdom of God is thine. By faith thou attainest the promise. Only beware thou do not deceive thy own soul, with regard to the nature of this faith. It is not merely a bare assent to the truth of the Bible and Creeds, but, over and above this, a sure trust in Gods mercy through Christ.John Wesley.
The requirements of the kingdom of God.
1. An assertion: The time is fulfilledthe time of patriarchs, prophets, types and figures, etc.
2. A prediction: The kingdom of God is at hand.
(1) Foretold by Daniel.
(2) Not in word, but in power; subduing passions of men, and enmity of demons.
(3) Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
(4) Of this kingdom there is no end.
3. A twofold duty.
(1) Repent. This includes(a) sorrow for, confession of, and fleeing from sin; (b) striving after holiness.
(2) Believe the gospel. Gods free gift, in spite of mans ill desert. Embodied in Christ. Look to Him for(a) pardon, (b) renewal, (c) heavenward impulses. And give God the glory.
The distinctive qualities, aspects, and relations of the kingdom are thus stated by Dr. A. M. Fairbairn:
1. It is present, an already existing reality, none the less real that it was unseen, undiscovered by the very men who professed to be looking for it (Luk. 6:20; Luk. 17:20-21; Mat. 20:1).
2. It is expansive, has an extensive and intensive growth, can have its dominion extended and its authority more perfectly recognised and obeyed (Mat. 6:10; Mat. 13:3-8; Mat. 13:19-23.)
3. It does its work silently and unseen; grows without noise, like the seed in the ground. And its intensive is as silent as its expansive action. It penetrates and transforms the man who enters it (Mat. 18:1-3; Luk. 18:17; Joh. 3:3-5).
4. It creates and requires righteousness in all its subjects (Mat. 6:33; Mat. 5:19-20).
5. It is the possession and reward of those who have certain spiritual qualities (Mat. 5:3; Mat. 5:10; Mat. 18:4).
6. It is without local or national character, can have subjects anywhere, has none for simply formal or hereditary reasons (Mat. 8:11; Mat. 21:31; Luk. 13:29).
7. It is at once universal and individual, meant to be preached everywhere and to every one, to comprehend the race by pervading all its units (Mat. 24:14).
8. It is to be an everlasting kingdom, to endure throughout all generations.
Faith and repentance.Faith and repentance keep up a Christians life, as the natural heat and radical moisture do the natural life. Faith is like the innate heat; repentance like the natural moisture. And as the philosopher saith, if the innate heat devour too much the radical moisture, or, on the contrary, there breed presently diseases, so, if believing make a man repent less, or repenting make a man believe less, this turneth to a distemper. Lord, cast me down (said a holy man upon his death-bed) as low as hell in repentance, and lift me up by faith into the highest heavens, in confidence of Thy salvation.John Trapp.
Mar. 1:16. The Sea of Galilee fills a large place in the life of Jesus; on its waters and around its shores most of His mighty works were done.
1. It was originally called the Sea of Chinnereth, either from its shape resembling a harp, or from a town of that name near by (Num. 34:11; Jos. 12:3; cp. Jos. 19:35).
2. It was afterwards called the Lake of Gennesaret (Luk. 5:1), which some consider a corruption of the earlier name; but it is more likely to have been so called from the Plain of Gennesar, so rich in beauty and fertility, on its western shore.
3. The name Sea of Galilee was derived from the province which bordered on its western side (Mat. 4:18; Mar. 7:31).
4. Another name was the Sea of Tiberias (Joh. 21:1), from Tiberias, which, although only recently founded by Herod Antipas in the time of our Lord, had become a large and flourishing town by the time St. John wrote.
5. The name given it at the present day, by Jews and Christians alike, is the Sea of the Messiah. To Christians it is the Sea of the Messiah who has come, to Jews the Sea of the Messiah for whom they still vainly look.
6. The industries engaged in were agriculture and fruit-growing, dyeing and tanning, with every department of a large carrying trade; but chiefly fishing, boat-building, and fish-curing. Of the last, which spread the lakes fame over the Roman world, before its fishermen and their habits became familiar through the gospel, there is no trace in the Evangelists. The fisheries themselves were pursued by thousands of families. They were no monopoly; but the fishing-grounds, best at the north end where the streams entered, were free to all. And the trade was very profitable. See article by Prof. G. A. Smith, in Expositor, May 1893.
The chosen lake.The Jewish Rabbis had a tradition which they expressed thus: Seven lakes have I created, saith the Lord; but out of them all I have chosen none but the Lake of Gennesaret. How have these words been fulfilled, in ways of which the Rabbis never dreamed! It is the chosen lake of Providence. Its dimensions are not large. It measures only thirteen miles by six. It does not lie high up above the ordinary homes of men. Nay, it is in a strange depression on the globemore than six hundred feet below the level of the sea. Yet it is the fountain-head of a living water that has flowed equally to palaces and huts, and that has quenched a thirst in souls of all conditions beyond the power of this worlds wine.T. Starr King.
Christs activity in doing good.Walking was His constant exercise, to find out objects of spiritual and corporal mercy. This account St. Peter gives of Him, that He went about, walked over all the country ere He had done, beginning from Galilee; but He did not walk only for the walks sake. He went about, says he, doing good, and healing all manner of diseases. He went about, as the sun goes his round, to dispense light and warmth, to communicate life and vigour to everything his active beams light upon. All His steps, whither ever He went, dropt fatness. Oh, may every pious soul not miss to meet Him in His walks! And sure enough it may, it shall do so, if itself continue to keep in His ways. So unwearied was His love, that, even to His bodily weariness, with indefatigable pains He walked up and down, to scatter health to the sick and salvation to sinners. He took a survey of the whole country, measured it with His own paces, and streamed forth blessings wherever He came. It fared with all places, with all persons, that touched Him, or He them, that came near Him, or that He came near, as it did with the woman that had the issue of blood, that they found virtue come from Him. And so it was here.A. Littleton, D.D.
Mar. 1:16-20. The Masters call answered.
I. The Masters call.
1. It is a call first to discipleship, and then to apostleship. Personal holiness must precede Christian usefulness. Faith must go before works. Let the heart first be given to Christ, and the dedication of hands, feet, tongue, and brain will naturally follow. To reverse this order is to mistake root for fruit, cause for effect.
2. It is a call to cast in ones lot with Christ, and receive the impress of His life. How could we talk of self-sacrifice in connexion with Christs service, if we realised that He only asks us to relinquish what is ruinous to our souls, in order that He may fill us with the riches of His heavenly storehouse?
II. The servants answer.What these men replied in words we know not; but their action was full of the best eloquence.
1. It was a prompt decision. Ready obedience is at the same time the easiest and the most valuable.
2. It was a lasting decision. These men had then little idea of all that was involved in following Christ and becoming fishers of men. Yet, when the full import of their choice became known to them, they never flinched, or looked back with regret to the things they had given up; for in Christ they found every satisfaction of life intensified a thousandfoldnay, they learnt that without Christ earths fairest scenes and chief delights are as a howling wilderness or as a neverresting, shoreless sea. Let us, like them, hear when Christ speaks, obey when Christ commands, believe when Christ promises, and follow whither Christ leads.
Christ and His servants.
1. Christ is the preparer of His servants: I will make youhow much was involved in that promise!
(1) Authority;
(2) Qualification.
2. Small beginnings compatible with sublime results.
3. The claims of God override all other claimsthe sons left their father.
4. The discharge of common duties the best preparation for higher callstwo were casting the net into the sea, and two were mending their nets. The transition from one duty to another need not be abrupt. The humblest duty may be very near the highest honour.
5. The place of the servant is after the MasterCome ye after Me; they are not invited to equal termsthey must walk in the Kings shadow.J. Parker, D.D.
Jesus and John.Jesus, in the silent conflicts of the wilderness, prepares for the open conflicts of lifetakes the place of John, delivered to death by the carnal mind.
1. The history: a testimony
(1) that He honoured the Baptist;
(2) did not fear the enemy;
(3) was faithful to His people and vocation.
2. The doctrine:
(1) The witnesses of the kingdom cannot be destroyed;
(2) After every seeming triumph of the kingdom of darkness still stronger heroes of God come forward.
3. Christ is always Himself victorious at last in every scene.J. P. Lange, D.D.
The mighty calling of the Lord.
1. Gentler than any human request.
2. Mightier than any human command.
3. Unique as the victorious wooing of heavenly love.Ibid.
The calling of Jesus.
1. To one thinginto His discipleship and the fellowship of His Spirit, or to the Father.
2. To many thingsto discipleship and mastership, to co-operation, to fellowship in suffering, and community in triumph.Ibid.
The spiritual and the worldly vocations of Christians.
1. Opposition.
2. Kindredness.
3. Union.Ibid.
The twofold earthly companionship of the disciples a foundation for the higher.
1. Companions in fishingcompanions in fishing for men.
2. Brethren after the fleshspiritual brethren.Ibid.
The Christian and ecclesiastical vocations in harmony with the sacred natural obligations of life.Ibid.
Christs glance.One glance of the Lord, and He knows the heart under its rough garment.Bauer.
The brotherhoods of life.The world is covered with a network of brotherhoods. The first and simplest relationships run on and out in every direction, and multiply themselves till hardly any man stands entirely alone.
1. The cause of this interwoven network, this reticulation of life with life, is the whole system of nature by which each human being takes its start from another human being, and is kept, for a time at least, in associations of company and dependence with the being from whom it sprang and with the other beings who have the same source with it.
2. Such relationships are full of mutual helpfulness and pleasure.
3. One final cause or purpose of this interlacing of life with life, by natural and indissoluble kinships, may be just thisthe providing, as it were, of open communications, of a system of shafts or channels piercing this human mass in every direction, crossing and recrossing one another, through which those higher influences, which ought to reach every corner, and every individual of the great structural humanity, may be freely carried everywhere, and no most remote or insignificant atom of the mass be totally and necessarily untouched.Bishop Phillips Brooks.
Mar. 1:17. Four kinds of apostles.There are four sorts of apostles, according to Jerome.
1. Some are sent only from God, and not by men.
(1) Immediately from God the Father, as the prophets under the law (2Pe. 1:21), Jesus Christ (Joh. 20:21), and the Baptist (Joh. 1:6) in the beginning of the gospel.
(2) Immediately from God the Son, in His state mortal, as the twelve (Mat. 10:5): in His state glorious, as St. Paul (Act. 9:15).
2. Others are sent by men, and not by God: as they who being unworthy both in respect of their bad learning and worse living, yet crowd into the ministry, by alliance, favour, or simony.
3. Others are neither chosen of God, nor called by men: as the false prophets (Jer. 23:21; Joh. 10:1).
4. Others are both chosen by God and called by men (Act. 20:28; Act. 14:23).
Jesus calls us.
1. Oer the tumult of our lifes wild, restless sea.
2. From the worship of the vain worlds golden store.
3. From each idol.
4. In our joys and sorrows, days of toil, and hours of ease.
Fraternity.Christ loves not singularity; He called not one alone. He loves not schism either between them whom He calls; and therefore He calls persons likely to agreetwo brethren. So He began to build the synagogues, to establish that first government in Moses and Aaronbrethren; so He begins to build the Church in Peter and Andrewbrethren. The principal fraternity and brotherhood that God respects is spiritual brethren in the profession of the same true religion (Exo. 4:14; Ecc. 4:9-10).John Donne, D.D.
Association in work.Single endeavours seldom prosper: many hands make the work both quick and sure. They can be no friends to the happy estate of a family or Church that labour to cause distractions. Division makes certain way to ruin (Luk. 10:1; Act. 11:30; Act. 13:2; Act. 15:2; Act. 15:39-40).Bishop Joseph Hall.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Mar. 1:14. Eastern prisons.In the East imprisonment means a far harder fate, as a rule, than we can realise. At Gaza I saw a crowd of men caged up in a small barred space, with no room to move, and no means of attending to they personal cleanliness; and at Rome, the Tullianum, below the Capitol, still shews, in its subterranean horrors, the dire misery inflicted in antiquity, on persons accused, whether innocent or guilty. John, however, must, at times, have been allowed to sitperhaps in another Gaza cagewhere he could see and be seen, for his disciples could converse with him.C. Geikie, D. D.
Mar. 1:15. After John comes Christ.The human heart is a castle; repentance is the gate that opens to admit the gospel. If that gate is not opened, heavens artillery must flame forth against it. Christ comes to the loyal heart as a welcome guest, to the rebellious as a conquering king. What the water cannot purify, the fire must burn.
The longer repentance is delayed, the harder it becomes.Blot a copy-book all over, and you will find it a hard matter to erase the marks. Twist the growing sapling, and you will never be able to straighten it, when it is grown. Here comes in the story of the boy whose father drove a nail into a post for every fault, and took one out for every good action. Once it happened that the post was entirely cleared. Ah, father, said the boy in tears, the marks are left!
Low in repentance, but high in faith.An old saint, on his death-bed, once used this remarkable expression: Lord, sink me low as hell in repentance; butand here is the beauty of itlift me high as heaven in faith. The repentance that sinks a man low as hell is of no use except there is the faith that lifts him as high as heaven, and the two are perfectly consistent with each other. Oh, how blessed it is to know where these two lines meetthe stripping of repentance, and the clothing of faith!
Christs watchword: Repent!In His recorded career the close student can find every modern character met by Christ and instructed. In these cures of sick souls is there a common base-line of operations? If you look in at a watchmakers window, you find the repairer doing a different thing to almost every watch. One wants a new mainspring, but otherwise is in good order; another has no fault with the mainspring, but wants new jewels. Another has neither of these faults, but a broken crystal. At least we may say there is no one fault which in every watch demands repairing. The souls of men which Christ repaired, are they like the watches, each righted in different ways, and only casually presenting the same defect? Is Zaccheus repaired as to avarice, and otherwise not touched; Paul as to intense bigotry, a very different fault you see; the outcast as to chastity; Nicodemus as to his opinions, but otherwise not, and not needing? Is Christs salvation patchwork? Or is there in every soul which the Restorer set right one and the same radical fault, treated in reality in the same way, though with different outward methods of approach? To every man He said, Repent. It is the common base-line of cure. It is as if the mainspring was broken in us all.E. J. Haynes.
Repent.Christ began His ministry with that word, preaching it. Think what it is to preach Repent to a promiscuous audience. Are there none who need not the message? You are a physician, and before you stand three men. You preach a cure to them, feeling no mans pulse, nor taking other diagnosis. Diet, gentlemen. Be careful of your food, thats the cure. But, doctor, objects the first man, that applies to the next man, for he has gout; I, however, have a broken leg, and the third man a cataract on the eye. Multiply the three men by one hundred. It is the city hospital. How absurd this curing at arms-length, standing at one end of the ward, with one word. Not a specific hospital, not if all its sufferers had trouble of the eye, could be so treated. Yet Christ stood and preached to hundreds of sick souls, and sent His ministers to do likewise, with one word, Repent. Every man needs then to repent; it is the beginning of the cure, if the Physician is to be believed.Ibid.
The salvation of man depends upon his subjection to the rule of God.To a ships company who have mutinied and deposed their captain, who alone knows how to steer the vessel, there can be no deliverance from tempest or from rocks, except by their submission and renewed allegiance. To a world fallen into disbelief and disobedience, there can be no hope except through the obedience of faith. To a revolted world groaning and travailing under the usurpers heel, there can be no gospel but the glad tidings of the reign of God.
The gospel call.There is a touching poem by Felicia Hemans, in which she describes a Crusader who has been taken captive by the Saracens, and who, whilst chained in the dungeons of some fortress in Palestine, hears the sound of a Crusading squadron passing through the valley beneath the towers of the castle where he lies in fetters. He listens to the tramp of the horsemen, the murmur of their words, and the high, clear notes of the trumpets, as they ring out with a challenge as they pass along, and then those notes grow fainter and weaker and pass away altogether. Not so, however, with the trumpet voice of the gospels call. Again and again it summons the sinner to repent and believeto escape by Gods grace from the dungeon of evil habits, and to obey the call of God.
God demands belief.What does that mean? said a Christian disciple to an elder brother, as he referred to a certain passage of Scripture. What does it say? was the answer. He read the passage over. It says so and so. Well, then, it means what it says. This first lesson in Scriptural exposition is one of the most important that can be learned. A preacher of the gospel once addressed a note to another minister, inquiring, How do you interpret such and such passages? The answer was about as follows: Dear sir, I do not interpret Gods Word; I believe it, and I advise you to do the same.
Mar. 1:16. The Sea of Galilee.Dr. Tristram, describing his approach to the Sea of Galilee from Nazareth, says: For nearly three hours we had ridden on, with Hermon in front, sparkling through its light cloud-mantle, but still no sight of the Sea of Galilee. One ridge after another had been surmounted, when on a sudden the calm blue basin, slumbering in placid sweetness beneath its surrounding wall of hills, burst upon us, and we were looking down on the hallowed scenes of our Lords ministry. We were on the brow of a very steep bill. Below us was a narrow plain, sloping to the sea, the beach of which we could trace to its northern extremity. At our feet lay the city of Tiberias, the only remaining town on its shores, enclosed by crumbling fortifications, with shattered but once massive round bastions. Along that fringe, could we have known where to find them, lay the remains of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Opposite to us were the heights of the country of the Gadarenes, and the scene of the feeding of the five thousand. On some one of the slopes beneath us the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. The first gaze on the Sea of Galilee, lighted up with the bright sunshine of a spring afternoon, was one of the moments of life not soon or easily forgotten. It was different from my expectations; our view was so commanding. In some respect it recalled in miniature the first view of the Lake of Geneva, from the crest of the Jura, as it is approached by the old Besanon roadHermon taking the place of Mont Blanc, the Plain of Gennesaret recalling the Pays de Vaud, and the steep banks opposite the bold coast of Savoy. All looked small for the theatre of such great events, but all the incidents seemed brought together as in a diorama. There was a calm peacefulness in the look of these shores on the west, with the paths by the waters edge, which made them the fitting theatre for the delivery of the message of peace and reconciliation.
Fishermen make ready converts.It is a singular fact that the fisher caste have been in every country in India the earliest converts to the Roman Catholic Church, so much so as to render it worthy of inquiry, whether it be only a coincidence, or the result of some permanent and predisposing cause. Is it that there is an habitual tendency to veneration of the Supreme Being in those who go down to the sea in ships, and see His power in the great deep? Or is it that, being a low caste themselves, the fishers of India and Ceylon acquire a higher status by espousing Christianity? Or have they some sympathy with a religion whose first apostles and teachers were the fishermen of Galilee?Sir J. E. Tennant.
The casting-net is a fine web of strong material, generally beautiful in every workmanlike respect. When open, it is either circular or more or less conical. Its rim carries leaden weights, to sink it to the bottom when thrown. It is often used from boats, and that even when a seine is used at the same time; but still oftener from the rocky shore. The fisherman runs along the rocks with his net on his arm, drawn up into a rope-like bundle, and wound about above his wrist. His motions are very stealthy as he nears the place to throw; his net is taken into his hand, with the slack so disposed as to work just as he wants it; sometimes using one hand, sometimes two hands, for the throw. As he comes to the spot, instantly the net flies off, expanding from a lean, wet swab to a circle, and thus goes down upon and into the water, with little splash; perhaps close by, perhaps thirty feet away. Scarcely has the net touched the water before the thrower is in after it; for if he was not already naked his garment is off in a twinkling. He dives down, gathers up the net by its edge, and then comes back, to take out the fish and wrap them up in the bosom of his garment.Prof. I. H. Hall.
Mar. 1:17. Ministers are fishers.A busy profession, a toilsome calling, no idle mans occupation, as the vulgar conceive it, nor needless trade, taken up at last to pick a living out of. Let Gods fishermen busy themselves as they must, sometimes in preparing, sometimes in mending, sometimes in casting abroad, sometimes in drawing in the net, that they may separate the precious from the vile, etc. (Jer. 15:19; Mat. 13:48); and no man shall have just cause to twit them with idleness, or to say they have an easy life.John Trapp.
The minister as a fisherman must fit himself for his employment.If some fish will bite only by day, he must fish by day; if others will bite only by moonlight, he must fish for them by moonlight.Richard Cecil.
Fishers of men.I have known a congregation so full of kindly Christian workers that in the low neighbourhood in which they worked they got the nickname of Grippers. Some, hearing the name, thought it must be a new sect, but it only marked the old apostolic quality. All Christians ought to pray for this power of catching souls. It is not violence, loudness, or terror that gives it; but love, goodness, the clear and strong convictions that come from following Christ.R. Glover.
Christs power to shape men.In a rough stone, a cunning lapidary will easily foresee what his cutting, and his polishing, and his art will bring that stone to. A cunning statuary discerns in a marble stone under his feet, where there will arise an eye, and an ear, and a hand, and other lineaments to make it a perfect statue. Much more did our Saviour Christ, who was Himself the author of that disposition in them, foresee in these fishermen an inclinableness to become useful in that great service of His Church. Therefore He took them from their own ship, but He sent them from His Cross; He took them weatherbeaten with north and south winds, and rough-cast with foam and mud; but He sent them back soupled, and smoothed, and levigated, quickened, and inanimated with that spirit which He had breathed into them; He took fishermen, and He sent fishers of men.J. Donne, D. D.
Mar. 1:18. Following Christ at cost to self.In 1695 Madame Guyon was imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes, on her refusal to abandon her religious convictions, and cease to preach Christ to her friends. To her brother, who besought her to throw off her religion, she wrote, If your house, my dear brother, had been made of precious stones, and if I could have been treated and honoured in it as a queen, yet I should have forsaken all to follow after God. It is said of Nebridius that he left his native country, where he lived in great luxury, forsook friends and kindred, to go into a foreign city to live, in the most ardent search after truth and wisdom. He forsook all to become a disciple of wisdom. So must we make everything else of a secondary nature, and give Christ the firstfruits of our hands, hearts, hopes.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. THE GALILEAN MINISTRY 1:149:50
A. THE FIRST PERIOD 1:143:12
1. THE BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY 1:14-15
TEXT 1:14-15
Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: Repent ye, and believe the gospel.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 1:14-15
24.
What events occurred between the temptation in the wilderness and the imprisonment of John the Baptist? Cf. John chapters two through five.
25.
Into what particular part of Galilee did Jesus come?
26.
In what sense did Jesus preach the gospel? i.e. What was the good news He preached?
27.
Why repentance before faith?
28.
What time was fulfilled?
29.
What is the Kingdom of God?
COMMENT
TIMEApril, A. D. 28. We shall consider the incidents in detail in a later section. Suffice to say here that there was a year and one half lapse of time between the temptation of Jesus and the imprisonment of John the Baptist.
PLACEProbably Nazareth and Capernaum. Cf. Luk. 4:14; also Luk. 4:16-32; Mat. 4:12-17.
PARALLEL ACCOUNTSRead Mat. 4:12-17; Luk. 4:14-15; Joh. 4:1-3; Joh. 4:43-45.
OUTLINE1. Jesus preaches. 2. His message.
ANALYSIS
I.
JESUS PREACHES. Mar. 1:14 A
1.
The time of His preaching.
2.
The place of His preaching.
II.
HIS MESSAGE. Mar. 1:14 B, Mar. 1:15
1.
Gospel of God.
2.
Time fulfilled.
3.
Kingdom of God is at hand.
4.
Repent and believe.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
I.
JESUS PREACHESMar. 1:14 A
Mark omits the marriage at Canaour Lords first Passoverhis discourse with Nicodemus and Johns testimonies of him,passing promptly to our Lords public, official ministry.
Do not fail to note that Christ begins to preach when John ceases.
Galilee. The light of his gospel was to spring up upon the borders of Zebulon and Naphtali. See Mat. 4:13. He would also go out of the jurisdiction of Herod, who had imprisoned John. Galilee was the northern division of Palestine, and was divided into Upper and Lower Galileethe former called also Galilee of the Gentiles.
Preaching the gospel, etc. How beautifully Mark here describes our Lords first preaching, as distinct from Johns, which was under the law, and a mere heralding of something better to come. The substance of this discourse was the good tidings of the kingdom having come, as spoken of by Daniel, Dan. 2:44. And this is the very message which Isaiah sees the messenger publishing, as he comes with beautiful (or timely) feet upon the mountains, (Isa. 52:7) viz. the advent of the kingdom of God. Christ preached the good news of his kingdom of gracethe new dispensation in which he was to reign. They had other ideas of his kingdom, that it was temporal and consisted in earthly power and show.
Mar. 1:15. The time, etc. The period mentioned by the prophets when Christ was to appear. The nation had expectations of the Messiah about this time. The seventy weeks of Daniel (or 490 years) were now accomplished. The time and place of our Lords birth agreed with the interpretations of prophecy common among the Jews.
Repent ye, etc. John preached repentance. So did Christ, but not without the gospel as the burden of his preaching. He preached repentance and faith. They were commanded to turn from sin and from all their false views, and to embrace the gospel.
FACT QUESTIONS 1:14-15
39.
At what approximate date did the preaching of Jesus occur?
40.
What was the time lapse between the temptation of Jesus and His preaching in Galilee?
41.
In what towns of Galilee did He preach?
42.
What prophecy was fulfilled in His preaching in Galilee? Cf. Mat. 4:13.
43.
How did Dan. 2:44 and Isa. 52:7 relate to the message of Jesus?
44.
What is repentance? How did it relate to the persons who heard Christs message? i.e. of what did they repent?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14) Now after that John was put in prison.St. Mark agrees with St. Matthew in omitting all our Lords early ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem, and takes the imprisonment of the Baptist as his starting-point. That imprisonment is assumed here to be known; but the facts connected with it are not related till Mar. 6:17-20.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Message Which Is Proclaimed (1:14-15).
This summary of Jesus’ message (He clearly said a lot more) emphasises the central point in His ministry. He has come to establish the Kingly Rule of God among men, ready for its final consummation. This is the Good News, which, as we saw in Mar 1:1, is summed up in Jesus Christ. Both aspects of His Kingly Rule are clearly brought out throughout the Gospels.
Analysis of 1:14-15.
a
b And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingly Rule of God is at hand” (Mar 1:15 a).
a “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mar 1:15 b).
Note that in ‘a’ Jesus proclaims the Gospel of God, and in the parallel He calls on men to repent and believe that Gospel. In ‘b’ we have the content of that Gospel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingly Rule of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel”.’
‘After John was delivered up.’ This is a reference to John’s imprisonment, which Mark in fact tells us about later (Mar 6:17-29), but here there is probably lying behind it a deliberate hint that there is yet Another Who will be ‘delivered up’ later. Mark’s Gospel begins with a delivering up and will end with a delivering up, for God works through tribulation, and His people must expect nothing less. The shadow of John’s death thus lies over the ministry of Jesus, Whose ministry will also lie under that shadow. But John’s ‘delivering up’ is purposely stated so that it might also be recognised that John’s preparatory ministry was now over and Jesus’ own ministry had begun, before He too would be delivered up. It answers the question, ‘what happened to John?’
‘Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel (good news) of God.’ Mark is concerned to pinpoint the importance of Galilee in the ministry of Jesus. He stresses that when He opened His own distinctive ministry it was to Galilee that He first came. This is probably in order to stress the uniqueness of His message. He had not come to pander to the religious authorities, but to reach out to men everywhere. Thus He began away from Jerusalem, in a place where men and women were more open to receive His message.
While Galilee was Jewish territory it was also known as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ (Mat 4:15, compare Isa 9:1). It was separated from Judaea by Samaria, which lay in between, and throughout its history necessarily had closer contact with Gentile nations. Indeed for a time it had been mainly Gentile territory and had had to be re-colonised by the Jews. It was of this area that the prophet Isaiah had promised that ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined’ (Mar 9:2). It had thus a prophetic future which was largely ignored by the Judaeans. It was not as hidebound as Judaea, and indeed was consequently looked down on and treated with some hosility by Judaeans because it was a little unorthodox, and it was therefore more open to receive new truth (and also innovations which were not so good). But parts of it were fiercely Jewish in its own slightly unorthodox way.
‘Preaching the good news of God.’ John had preached that the good news was coming. Now Jesus could proclaim that it was here. The word means to proclaim like a herald. The genitive ‘of God’ could be translated ‘about God’ or ‘from God’, but perhaps we are to see it as meaning ‘the good news that God has to give to His people’ or ‘the good news that God had earlier promised’. The word indicates something special that is worth celebrating, and it relates directly to God. This good news had already been mentioned by Isa 61:1. The Spirit anointed prophet would come with the good news of God’s deliverance, to bring comfort and strength to His people, and to introduce the last days. Compare also Isa 52:7 where the good news is of what is good, and is of ‘salvation’ and of the fact that God reigns.
‘And saying, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingly Rule of God is at hand”.’ This was the essence of His message, that the new beginning was here. For centuries men had waited for it and longed for it, but now the necessary waiting time was ‘fulfilled’, the centuries of waiting were over, the appointed time was now here. What the prophets had pointed to was now happening. The verb is in the perfect tense. ‘Has been and now is fulfilled.’ It is not something in the future. It is now.
‘The Kingly Rule of God is at hand.’ God’s kingship, His rule over His people, had been established at Sinai (Deu 33:5; contrast 1Sa 7:7). But the history of the Old Testament bore witness to the fact that it had never become a practical reality. Right from the beginning they had fought against it. Indeed that was why they had sought a king over them (1Sa 10:17-19). And throughout their history they had constantly rebelled, so that it had become apparent that His rule could not be established because of their disobedience. In the words of Isa 63:19, ‘we are become as those over whom you never bore rule, as those who were not called by your name’.
Thus the prophets declared that their wretched condition, so unlike what had been promised, was due to this failure. The result was that the prophets then began to look forward to a future day when God would change the hearts of His people by the pouring out of His Spirit and would establish His rule (Isa 44:3-6; Eze 36:26-28; Jer 31:31-34; Jer 33:3-4), and this was linked with the coming of a great king (Isa 11:1-5; Jer 30:9; Eze 37:24) and the coming of a great prophet (Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12; Isa 61:1-3). Now, says Jesus, that time is here. God is going to act to establish His rule.
But His kingship was not going to be limited to a particular area of land. It was to be kingly rule over His people. It was to be a living kingdom. We may understand this idea of kingship better if we think of the king of a desert tribe. He owns no land, his kingdom is his people. They have no settled area where they live but where they go, there goes the kingdom. And if you were to meet them and produce your map, telling them that you are not in fact in their kingdom but in someone else’s kingdom, they would laugh and jeer, and you would soon learn that you were very much in their kingdom. For where this king’s rule was established at any point in time, there was his kingdom. And if two such tribes were to intermingle for a short period there would be two kingdoms mingled together, but each with a separate identity.
So it is with ‘the Kingly Rule of God’. Where God’s rule is established, there is His kingship revealed, and thus in a real sense where Jesus was, there too was the kingdom. And where his true people are who are in submission to His rule, there is a manifestation of His kingship. Thus the Kingly Rule of God was both within them (the acceptance of His rule) and among them (because Jesus the king and His people were there) (Mat 6:33; Mat 12:28; Mat 21:31; Mat 21:43; Mar 4:26; Mar 4:30; Mar 9:1; Mar 10:14-15; Mar 12:34; Luk 7:28; Luk 9:27; Luk 10:9; Luk 11:20; Luk 16:16; Luk 17:21; Luk 18:17; Joh 3:3-5; Act 8:12; Act 14:22; Act 20:25; Act 28:23; Act 28:31; Rom 14:17; 1Co 4:20).
But it has, of course its vital future aspect, for God’s rule will never be fully established over all men until that day when all that is contrary to Him is done away, and those who are His enter into His everlasting kingdom (Isa 24:23; Oba 1:21; Zep 3:15; Zec 14:9; Mar 14:25; Luk 13:29; Luk 22:16-18; Luk 19:11; Luk 21:31 ; 1Co 6:9-10; 1Co 15:50; Gal 5:21; Col 4:11; 2Th 1:5). The one is preparatory to, and a part of, the other. For in the end the Kingly Rule of God is an eternal Kingly Rule, ‘Kingly Rule belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations’ (Psa 22:28). What is happening here is that men are now being called on consciously to have a part in it
‘Is at hand (has come near).’ The verb appears twice more in Mark, in Mar 11:1 and Mar 14:42. In Mar 11:1 it refers to drawing near to Jerusalem and in Mar 14:42 to Judas as drawing near in the garden and being ‘at hand’. So we may well see this as meaning that God’s kingship has now drawn near to them and is at hand (perfect tense), available to those who respond. It confronts them in Jesus (compare Mar 12:34; Mat 12:28).
But others would see it as meaning that it is approaching but not yet come. It is ever ‘at hand’, impending but not having arrived, thus seeking to stir men into response. This would then refer to the kingship in its future aspect. But it sits ill with the use of the perfect tense for it simply to be looking to an unrealised future. The whole point is that the time has come. John had looked ahead to what was to be, but Jesus is now introducing the reality. Not of course that His future Kingly Rule is excluded, for all who come under His Kingly Rule do so both in the present and for the future. They are His now, and His for ever.
‘Repent and believe in the Gospel.’ Again we note that repentance, a change of heart and mind and a turning to God, is central to the message. Without repentance there can be no kingly rule, for repentance involves turning from sin and rebellion against the King’s laws, and accepting the rule of the King. And this is what the good news is, that the King is here and they can believe in Him and respond to Him. They need no longer be cut off from God, for the way to God is now open.
Here we have both the essential similarity and the essential difference between the message of Jesus and that of John. Both demand a change of heart towards sin and towards God, both promise future blessing. But Jesus has now introduced the new element that the King is here and personal response is now possible, and it is He Who will usher in the age of the Spirit. Eternal life can be enjoyed now (Joh 5:24; 1Jn 5:13). The new age under the king has begun. What is now required is response.
There are in fact two aspects to the work of the Spirit. On the one hand he has worked in believers in the Old Testament as evidenced in the Psalms (Psa 139:7; Psa 143:10) and is evidenced as at work in the Gospels (Mat 10:20; Luk 4:18; Luk 10:21), especially in John’s Gospel (Joh 3:5-8; Joh 4:23-24; Joh 6:63), but on the other there is to be an outpouring of Holy Spirit which will so far exceed all that has gone before, that it can be described as ‘the coming of the Spirit’ (Joh 7:39).
‘The Gospel.’ It is good news of deliverance (Isa 61:1-3) and of the certain fulfilment of God’s great promise (Eph 3:6); it is good news of peace, peace with God and peace from God (Eph 6:15); it is good news of truth, newly manifested as never before, and of the arrival of Him Who is the truth (Gal 2:5; Col 1:5), and brings hope for the future (Col 1:23). It is the good news of salvation and immortality, deliverance and eternal life (Eph 1:13; 2Ti 1:10), the two great yearnings of the heart of man when he truly thinks about himself. It is the good news that ‘God reigns’ (Isa 52:7). And it is now forcing itself on the world in Jesus. But it must still be responded to. Without response it is not good news.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The First Stage in the Ministry of Jesus. (1:14-39).
Now that He had been especially empowered and had determined the path that He would tread Jesus leaves the wilderness behind and goes out among men in the power of the Spirit (Luk 4:14), after John’s imprisonment, to proclaim the good news from God in Galilee. His purpose was to proclaim that ‘the Kingly Rule of God is at hand’ (Mar 1:14-15), to begin the establishment of His band of Apostles with a view to spreading His word (Mar 1:16-20), to teach with the authority of the One on Whom the Spirit had come (Mar 1:22) and to reveal His power over evil spirits (Mar 1:23-28) and over sickness and disease (Mar 1:29-34) as He went through all the cities of Galilee (Mar 1:35-39). That it was an urgent mission is made clear (Mar 1:38), and its two main aims were to be the preaching of the Kingly Rule of God and the casting out of evil spirits (Mar 1:39). The battle for the world’s soul had commenced in earnest.
Had it not been for John’s Gospel (Joh 3:22 to Joh 4:42) we might have seen this as His first activity. But this may well be because Mark sees this movement into Galilee as being the first stage in the establishment of Jesus’ own ministry in contrast with John’s and is concerned with this and with the further stage of the calling and appointing of the Apostles. If Jesus’ ministry alongside John was seen as Jesus assisting in John’s ministry, for He was careful not to supersede John and withdrew when He began to overshadow him (Joh 4:1), Mark may well not have been concerned to draw attention to it as it had little to do with his purpose. He is in a hurry to deal with the main ministry of Jesus and is depicting a triumphant movement forwards. He is concerned to demonstrate that Jesus is the Son of God.
Alternately, but less likely, for he must surely have enquired into what had gone on in the period between Jesus’ baptism and John’s imprisonment, it may be that he was not aware of what had gone before. It is far more likely, however, that it is rather a deliberate choice on the part of Mark so that He can move immediately on to Jesus own unique ministry, proclaiming that the Kingly Rule of God was within reach. The preparations were over, the forerunner had broken the ground, and now the great reality had come. What came in between could be seen as irrelevant. It may be accepted that Mark’s knowledge of the period may have been scanty (Peter may not have been present at much of it) but the fact that Mark carefully states that this was after John had been imprisoned indicates that he knew that there was a gap to be considered.
Analysis of 1:14-39.
a
b Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John to follow Him and become fishers of men (Mar 1:16-20).
c They go into Capernaum and immediately on the sabbath day He enters into the synagogue and teaches (Mar 1:21).
d They are astonished at His teaching because He teaches them as One having authority, and not as the scribes (Mar 1:22).
e Jesus delivers a man with an unclean spirit by commanding it to come out of him (Mar 1:23-26).
d And they are all amazed, insomuch that they question among themselves, saying, “What is this? a new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” (Mar 1:27).
c The report of him goes out immediately everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about (Mar 1:28).
b They then enter the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John, and Jesus heals Simon’s wife’s mother who then ministers to them. And at evening, when the sun had set, they bring to him all who were sick, and those who were possessed with devils, and He heals them all and will not allow the devils to speak because they know Him (compareMar 3:11) (Mar 1:29-34).
a Jesus insists on going on to the next towns to preach there as well, because that is the reason why He has come, and He goes into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons (Mar 1:35-39).
Note that in ‘a’ Jesus comes into Galilee and proclaims the good news of the Kingly Rule of God, and in the parallel does so throughout Galilee revealing God’s Kingly Rule by casting out demons. In ‘b’ Jesus calls four disciples to become fishers of men, and in the parallel He enters Simon’s house with the four, and there He reveals His power to heal and cast out evil spirits. In ‘c’ He teaches in a synagogue of Capernaum, and in the parallel the report about Him goes out throughout Galilee. In ‘d’ they are astonished at His teaching and authority, and similarly in the parallel. Centrally in ‘e’ Jesus delivers a man from possession by an unclean spirit.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Begins His Preaching Mar 1:14-20 records the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in the office of an evangelist as He travels throughout the region of Galilee preaching the Gospel of the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven (Mar 1:14-15). At this time early in His ministry, Jesus begins to call young men to forsake all and to follow Him (Mar 1:16-20).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Jesus Preaches Repentance & Faith Mar 1:14-15
2. Jesus Calls Disciples Mar 1:16-20
Mar 1:14-15 The Beginning of Jesus’ Galilean Ministry ( Mat 4:12-17 , Luk 4:14-15 ) Mar 1:14-15 gives us the account of the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Mark’s Gospel introduces Jesus’ ministry with Him preaching the Gospel, and this emphasis on the proclamation of the Gospel fits the theme of this Gospel. The opening verse of Mark declares his Gospel as the “beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” (Mar 1:1). Thus, the message of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ in Mark’s Gospel was the proclamation of the Gospel, which was two-fold: (1) repent and (2) believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
Comparison of Parallel Passages Recording the Beginning of the Public Ministry of Jesus Christ – When we compare the parallel passages of Jesus beginning His public ministry in the four Gospels, we find the third underlying themes clearly reflected.
The Gospel of Matthew – Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes the testimony of Old Testament Scriptures, which prophesies of the Messiah coming to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. In this Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven is established by making disciples of all nations. Thus, Matthew explains how Jesus’ public ministry began as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Mar 4:12-17). Jesus then calls disciples, who will be trained to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations (Mar 4:18-22). Jesus then begins to establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth through His teaching ministry (Mar 4:23-25). Thus, Matthew’s Gospel places emphasis upon Jesus’ teaching ministry as Matthew states, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (Mat 4:23)
The Gospel of Mark – Mark’s Gospel emphasizes the office of the evangelist, who preaches the Gospel with signs following. Therefore, he describes Jesus beginning His public ministry with the statement, “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mar 1:14-15) Mark describes Jesus beginning His public ministry by preaching (Mar 1:14-15), which emphasizes Mark’s theme of the testimony of Jesus’ miracles through the preaching of the Gospel.
The Gospel of Luke – The parallel passage in Luke records the testimony of His ministry as one of great anointing and power (Luk 4:14-15), which emphasizes the testimony of those who were eye-witnesses of the authority of Jesus’ public ministry. Within the context of Luke’s Gospel, which reflects the prophetic ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the statement, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee,” emphasizes the fact that Jesus was walking in the office of the prophet. In the opening chapters of Luke, we have already seen a number of people filled with the Spirit and deliver prophetic utterances. Zechariah, Elisabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna have all been filled with the spirit and spoke of the Messiah. To show that this motif runs through the Gospel of Luke, in the closing chapter we see Jesus commanding His disciples to “tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luk 24:49) Thus, the fact that Jesus was “full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,” (Mar 4:1) then “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luk 4:14) to tell the people that “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” (Luk 4:18) tells us that Jesus will deliver prophetic messages throughout the Gospel of Luke.
The Gospel of John – John’s Gospel emphasizes Jesus in the office of the pastor. Thus, John describes Jesus as a Shepherd gathering His flock and gently leading the disciples. In this Gospel Jesus begins His public ministry in the office of a pastor by gathering His first disciples: John, Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael (Joh 1:35-51). He will not move into the offices of Evangelist, Teacher, and Prophet until after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels.
Mar 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar 1:14
Comments – The Synoptic Gospels begin recording Jesus’ ministry after the death of John the Baptist, while John’s Gospel begins with the first days of His earthly ministry.
Mat 4:12, “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;”
Mar 1:14, “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,”
Luk 3:19-21, “But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,”
Mat 4:17 tells us that this particular event marks the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry.
Mat 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Thus, the reason the Synoptic Gospels begin at John’s death is because this is also when Jesus began to preach and to teach publicly.
We know from a study of the Gospel of John that the imprisonment of John the Baptist took place between the First (Joh 2:13) and Second Passover (Joh 6:4). Therefore, there was up to a year difference between the time when Jesus was baptized and when He began His public ministry. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that Jesus began His public ministry at John’s death, although the Gospel of John gives us testimony of earlier miracles in Jesus’ ministry. Why would Jesus wait up to a year to go public? Perhaps an answer lies in the suggestion that Jesus respected the ministry of John the Baptist so that He did not make a public display until John’s ministry had come to an end. It is interesting to see how God never seems to be in a hurry.
Regarding Jesus’ respect for John the Baptist’s public ministry, I suggest this reason for Jesus waiting until John’s death to go public because of a careful study of the lives and ministries of some of the apostles both within and outside of the Scriptures. This study reveals such an attitude between the apostles themselves. There was a tremendous respect and reverence for one another’s ministry and hesitancy to overlay the other’s work, lest one gain undue credit above the other. The apostles may have learned this respect for one another as a result of observing Jesus’ behavior towards John the Baptist.
Mar 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mar 1:15
Mar 1:15 Comments – The message that Jesus Christ preached was two-fold: repent and believe. We find John the Baptist preaching the same two-fold message. He preached a baptism of repentance of sins (Mar 1:4) and he asked the people to believe upon Him who was coming after him (Mar 1:7-8). It is important to note that this two-fold message is reflective of the first two foundational doctrines of the New Testament, which is (1) repentance from dead works, and (2) faith towards God.
Heb 6:1, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”
Mar 1:16-20 Jesus Calls His Disciples ( Mat 4:18-22 , Luk 5:1-11 ) Mar 1:16-20 gives us the account of Jesus calling four of His disciples by the Sea of Galilee, Peter and his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus had already been introduced to three of these disciples immediately after His water baptism and public presentation by John the Baptist (Joh 1:37-42). At this encounter by the Sea of Galilee Jesus calls these four men to forsake all and follow Him.
Jesus Calls His Disciples While They were Busy Notice that when Jesus called His disciples in the first two chapters of Mark’s Gospel, they received their calling in the midst of a busy working day. In developing nations, with poor economies and large unemployment, there are always idle people standing around the market places and streets. Jesus made reference to the idleness of His day in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mat 20:3). Thus, Jesus appointed men that were busy in the midst of idleness. When my pastor called me to the mission field in July 1997, I was also busy at work that day. I had been with my company for eight years, and had moved up from a labourer to a supervisor with a number of promotions and raises. The day my pastor called me to come to a meeting regarding this calling, I had to cancel two other appointments and leave my job that afternoon with the permission of my boss. Jesus calls those who have good work ethics.
The twelve apostles are listed in the four Gospels in the order of their importance and contribution to the kingdom of God. For example, Peter is always listed first by the Evangelists. Thus, Mark mentions him in front of his brother Andrew (Mar 1:16) for this reason. In the case of James and John, we would have listed John first because we see his contribution as being greater than that of James because he wrote five books of the New Testament canon. Mark chooses to list James first, perhaps because during the writing of his Gospel in the middle part of the first century, James was viewed and honored as one of the early Church martyrs, long before John had made his way to Ephesus and served over the churches in Asia Minor and finally writing his five books. In fact, Church tradition tells us that John cared from Mary, the mother of Jesus, for fifteen years after Christ’s ascension into Heaven. Thus, from Mark’s view, James would be listed ahead of John as the greater of the two.
Jesus Called His Disciples Publicly – Billy Graham once noted that every person Jesus Christ called to follow Him was called publicly. [86] This is one reason why preachers give a public altar call for people to commit their lives to Him publicly.
[86] Billy Graham, “Classic Sermons,” Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (Charlotte, North Carolina), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
God Prospers His Servants Did Jesus Christ cause Zebedee’s business to suffer loss when He took the two sons of Zebedee from him? I believe Zebedee consented with his two sons, who gave their lives to Jesus because his wife took part in Jesus’ public ministry (Mat 20:20; Mat 27:56). I believe that God is always concerned about the finances of His children, and He would be concerned about the prosperity of Zebedee’s business. God is a God of prosperity. I believe God prospered Zebedee, the father of James and John, for the sacrifice he made in giving his two sons to work for the Lord (Mar 1:19-20). God delights in the prosperity of His servants (Psa 35:27). During my thirteen years as a missionary in Africa, I witnessed prosperity in my parents’ lives. For example, my father bought and sold land that reached a value of over one million dollars through divine business encounters and impartation of wisdom. Thus, I believe Zebedee prospered as well.
Mat 20:20, “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.”
Mat 27:56, “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.”
Psa 35:27, “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”
Mar 1:16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
Mar 1:17 Mar 1:17
Mar 1:18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
Mar 1:19 Mar 1:20 Mar 1:21-34
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Jesus Casts Out a Demon Mar 1:21-28
2. Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law Mar 1:29-31
3. Jesus Heals the Sick & Casts Out Demons Mar 1:32-34
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Narrative: Indoctrination Through Preaching and Healing – The message of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God within Mark’s Gospel is two-fold: to repent and to believe (Mar 1:4-7; Mar 1:15), which is the basis of our justification. When the people humbly repented, they also experienced the manifold healings that accompany the preaching of the Gospel because of their faith in God, as listed in Mar 16:17-18. When some of the Jews confronted Jesus with their doubt and unbelief, Jesus responded by teaching them and working miracles through the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a testimony that His message was truly from God. Jesus told the Pharisees in Joh 5:20 that the Father would work miracles through Him so that they may marvel. Thus, miracles are primarily for the unbelievers as a witness to the truth that is being preached.
Joh 5:20, “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.”
As we examine Mark’s Gospel, which emphasizes the proclamation of the Gospel with signs following, we find many verses where the people marveled or feared after witnessing the miracles of Jesus Christ (Mar 1:22; Mar 1:27; Mar 2:12; Mar 4:41; Mar 5:15; Mar 5:20; Mar 5:42; Mar 6:2; Mar 6:6; Mar 6:51; Mar 7:37).
Each book of the Holy Bible is structured in a way that reflects one aspect of our spiritual journey. The book of Mark is structured to reveal to us a journey that will take us into a lifestyle of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ with signs and wonders accompanying it, just as Jesus preached and miracles followed. This is the promise that Jesus made to His disciples in the closing verses of Mark’s Gospel when Jesus said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe” (Mar 16:17)
Thus, upon closer examination, we see that the narrative material of Mark’s Gospel alternates between Jesus preaching or teaching and with signs following. This is because the theme of Mark’s Gospel is the testimony of Jesus’ miracles through the preaching of the Gospel. Every evangelist desires to see miracles accompanying the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; for this is the passion of an evangelist, to see lives transformed and people healed. In fact, Mark closes his Gospel by saying, “And these signs shall follow them that believe.” (Mar 16:17) Thus, the ministry of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark is structured in this same way.
Outline: Here is a proposed outline:
1. Jesus Begins His Preaching Mar 1:14-20
a) Jesus Preaches Repentance & Faith Mar 1:14-15
b) Jesus Calls Disciples Mar 1:16-20
2. Jesus’ Ministry in Capernaum Mar 1:21-34
a) Jesus Casts Out a Demon Mar 1:21-28
b) Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law Mar 1:29-31
c) Jesus Heals the Sick & Casts Out Demons Mar 1:32-34
3. Jesus’ Ministry Throughout Galilee Mar 1:35 to Mar 2:12
a) Jesus Preaches in Galilee Mar 1:35-39
b) Jesus Heals a Leper Mar 1:40-45
c) Jesus Heals a Paralytic Mar 2:1-12
4. Jesus Faces Opposition Mar 2:13 to Mar 3:6-17
a) Jesus Calls Levi Mar 2:13-17
b) Jesus Teachings On Fasting Mar 2:18-22
c) Jesus Teaches About the Sabbath Mar 2:23-28
d) Jesus Heals Man with Withered Hand Mar 3:1-6
5. Jesus’ Ministry Grows Mar 3:7-35
a) Jesus Heals the Multitudes Mar 3:7-12
b) Jesus Calls the Twelve Mar 3:13-19
c) Jesus Faces More Persecutions Mar 3:20-30
d) Jesus’ Family Comes for Him Mar 3:31-35
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Indoctrination Through Preaching and Healing In Mar 1:14 to Mar 4:34 Jesus begins to indoctrinate those who believe in Him through His public ministry of preaching and healing. This section of Mark can be divided into narrative material (Mar 1:14 to Mar 3:35) and sermon material (Mar 4:1-34).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Narrative: Indoctrination Through Preaching and Healing Mar 1:14 to Mar 3:35
2. Sermon: Jesus Teaches on the Kingdom of Heaven Mar 4:1-34
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Preaching Ministry of Jesus Christ Mar 1:14 to Mar 13:37 describes the preaching ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the miracles that accompanying the proclamation of the Gospel. His public ministry can be divided into sections that reflect God’s divine plan of redemption being fulfilled in Jesus’s life.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Indoctrination – The Preaching of Jesus Christ in Galilee Mar 1:14 to Mar 4:34
2. Divine Service Training the Twelve in Galilee Mar 4:35 to Mar 6:13
3. Perseverance: Preaching against Man’s Traditions Mar 6:14 to Mar 7:23
4. Perseverance – Beyond Galilee Mar 7:24 to Mar 9:50
5. Glorification – In Route to and in Jerusalem Mar 10:1 to Mar 13:37
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The beginning of Christ’s preaching:
v. 14. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God,
v. 15. and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the Gospel. The narrative moves forward very rapidly, since the evangelist merely sketches the early days of Christ’s official work. He omits the visit to Samaria, the journey to Galilee, and the return to Judea. Jesus purposely waited with a more public demonstration of His powers until John the Baptist was no longer engaged in His preparatory labors. With John’s being placed into prison his career was practically ended, though some of his disciples continued to adhere to him. Now Christ journeyed into Galilee and came forth openly with His message. This was due partly to the fact that even at this early date the Pharisees of Judea were planning to remove Him, Joh 4:1, and partly to the prophecy to which Matthew refers at this point, Mat 4:14-16. His work, His constant occupation at this time, was preaching the Gospel of God, the good news of which God is the Author, which God had made possible, and which tells about God and His concern about the entire sinful and fallen mankind. It is the characteristic message of the New Testament. Its summary is: Fulfilled is the time, and near is come the kingdom of God; repent and believe the Gospel. In and with the coming of Jesus the time which the prophets of old always had in mind was fulfilled, Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10. For the entire Old Testament points forward to His coming. With His coming also the kingdom of God has come near. His presence, message, and work invite faith in Him, by which all men should become members of His kingdom. For “that is what it means,” as Luther says, “to be in the kingdom of heaven, if I am a living member of Christianity, and not only hear the Gospel, but also believe. If this were not so, a man would be in heaven, just as though I would throw a log or block among the Christians, or as the devil is among them. ” Repentance must necessarily precede faith; for the latter implies the acceptance of the Savior of sinners and therefore also the acknowledgment of sins committed. The sinners, those that know their sinfulness, will then be more than willing to put their trust in the Gospel, whose essence is the forgiveness of sins through the merits of Jesus Christ. It was a message of salvation and glory which Jesus was here proclaiming.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 1:14. Now, after that John was put in prison, &c. We have here a remarkable particular in the conduct of our Saviour: no sooner was he informed that Herod had thrown John in prison, than he quitted Judea, and went into Galilee. (Comp. Mat 4:12to the end.) And traversing it all over,as well that part of it which was under Herod’s jurisdiction, as that under Philip’s; see Mar 1:39 and Mat 4:23.he there began first to preach continually to the people, elected several of his disciples to accompany him wherever he went, performed most astonishing works, and drew the attention of the whole country upon him. Now, had Jesus and the Baptist been associate impostors, as some infidels have supposed, nothing seems more improbable than that Jesus should single out this particular time, and the dominions of that particular prince, who had but just then imprisoned his partner in the same wicked imposture, in order there first to make trial of all his devices, procure more associates, and attended by them to draw the multitude about with him from all parts of the country. In an impostor, this would have been voluntarily seeking the same fate that his fore-runner had but just experienced, and in reality provoking Herod to put an end at once to all joint-machinations: but this is what no impostor whatever can be supposed desirous to have done. See Bell’s Inquiry into the Divine Missions, &c. p. 388.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mar 1:14 f. See on Mat 4:12 ; Mat 4:17 ; Luk 4:14 f.
. .] in order to be more secure than in the place where John had laboured; according to Ewald: “He might not allow the work of the Baptist to fall to pieces.” But this would not furnish a motive for His appearing precisely in Galilee . See Weizscker, p. 333. In Matthew also the matter is conceived of as .
] present participle with . See Dissen, ad Pind. Ol. vii. 14, p. 81; Bornemann, ad Xen. Anab. vii. 7. 17; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaed. p. 116 C.
. ] See on Mar 1:1 .
] recitative.
] the period , namely, which was to last until the setting up of the Messiah’s kingdom, , Mar 10:30 . It is conceived of as a measure . See on Gal 4:4 .
.] Believe on the gospel . As to . with , see on Gal 3:26 ; Eph 1:13 ; frequently in the LXX. The object of faith is conceived as that in which the faith is fixed and based. Fritzsche takes as instrumental : “per evangelium ad fidem adducimini.” This is to be rejected, since the object of the faith would be wanting , and since . is just the news itself , which Jesus gave in . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
PART SECOND
Royal Appearance of Christ after the Baptist. His Conflicts and Victories in Galilee, in the Old Jewish Church (Mar 1:14 to Mar 9:50)
________
FIRST SECTION
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
________
Mar 1:14-15
(Parallels: Luk 4:14-15; Mat 4:12-17; Joh 4:43 seq.)
14Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the15 Gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying6, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe [in] the Gospel.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
See on Matthew, Mar 4:12-17.
Mar 1:14. Jesus came.Ewald: He would not let the Baptists work fall to the ground. Meyer, on the contrary: that He might be safe; but see our Notes on Matthew in refutation of this. By the Baptists imprisonment the Baptist community in Israel was broken up; Jesus therefore saw occasion first to receive to Himself the poor people in Gentile Galilee, and that as the representative of John. John was put in prison by the Galilean prince; Jesus summons the people of this prince to repentance, and to faith in the Gospel: this is the true political retaliation, and the sacred way to salvation and the restoration of right.
Mar 1:15. The time, .Not the period, but the right time; the great, fore-ordained, predicted and longed-for time of Messianic expectation; more closely defined by the following the kingdom of God is at hand. (See Gal 4:4.) Repent, .See the lexicon for the original meaning and the various significations of the word. [It includes the ideas of reflection, afterthought, and change of mind, i.e., of judgment and of feeling, upon moral subjects, with particular reference to the character and conduct of the penitent himself. Alexander in loc.Ed.] Believe the Gospel, . Gal 3:26; Eph 1:13.By this expression faith is more strongly emphasized. Entering into the Gospel, we have decisive faith. The object of faith in this view is the manifestation of the kingdom of God.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. From the still prayer of the wilderness, or from the new paradise in which Christ had conquered Satan, He has now come forth to endure all the individual conflicts of life for the founding of His eternal kingdom. Adam came from his paradise conquered, to endure in his descendants a constant succession of defeats.
2. As here, so everywhere, the economy of the Gospel takes the place of the economy of the law. The legal economy yields at last to the lawlessness of the world: the economy of faith and salvation triumphs over it even in yielding, and saves with itself also the ideality of the law.
3. An economy of the law which, in its tragical conflict with the spirit of the world, recognizes not the deliverance which is in the coming economy of salvation, like Elias (1Ki 19:13), is thereby converted into an economy of carnal precepts, which finally combines with the world against the economy of salvation. But, on the other hand, true evangelical faith knows how to give its due to the precursory office of the law, just as Christ gave honor to His forerunner, John the Baptist.
4. Almost all the Jews of that time hoped for the kingdom of God; but it was a strange and unrecognized idea, that repentance and faith must be the entrance into it. Jesus begins with the promise, but immediately goes on to the conditions. Gerlach.
5. Mark, like Peter in his first and second Epistle, places the announcement of the kingdom of heaven at the head of his writing. The kingdom is his fundamental thought.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jesus, in the silent conflicts of the wilderness, prepares for the open conflicts of lifetakes the place of John, delivered to death by the carnal mind. 1. The history: A testimony, a. that He honored the Baptist, b. that He did not fear the enemy, and c. that He was faithful to His people and His vocation. 2. The doctrine: a. The witnesses of the kingdom of God cannot be destroyed; b. after every seeming triumph of the kingdom of darkness, still stronger heroes of God come forward. 3. Christ is always Himself victorious at last in every scene.Persecution the primitive furtherance of the kingdom of God.The blood of the Church, the seed of the Church.Where the law falls in the letter, it is reestablished in the spirit.The preaching of Christ: 1. It appears as the announcement of salvation in the place of danger and ruin. 2. What it announces: that the time is fulfilled, and that the kingdom of God is come. 3. What it requires: repentance (as change of mind, ) and faith. 4. What it signifies: the saving presence of Christ Himself.Christ and John as preachers: the might of their preaching itself. 1. John preaches in his whole life and manifestation; 2. Christ preaches out of the depth of His own divine life.The seal of evangelical preaching the full harmony of the person and the word.
On the whole section (Mar 1:14-45).The first victorious appearance of Christ the prelude of His whole path of victory: 1. In the announcement of His Gospel; 2. in His dominion over the hearts of the chosen; 3. in His victory of the kingdom of Satan; 4. in His miraculous removal of human misery; 5. in His salutary shaking of the world.The glory of the Lord in its first actual exhibition: 1. A glory of grace (Mar 1:16-20), 2. of sacred judicial and redeeming power (Mar 1:21-28), 3. of healing mercy (Mar 1:29-39), 4. of purifying purity (Mar 1:40-44).Christ proceeds from the wilderness of the earth into the wilderness of human life for the restoration of paradise.Christ confirms His victory over Satan in the solitude of the desert by His victories over satanic powers among all the people.
Starke:Satan seeks to bind and to oppress Christ and His Gospel; but Gods wisdom and power set at naught all his aggression.
Gerlach:With the public appearance of Jesus, the end of Johns work had come.Gossner:He who understands repentance to mean that he must first become pious and good, and then come to Jesus, and believe His Gospel, goes out at the door of grace instead of entering in. Repenting and believing the Gospel, or believing in Christ, must go together and be one.
Footnotes:
[6]Mar 1:14.Codd. B., L., and several cursive MSS. and versions, leave out . So Lachmann and Tischendorf. Meyer thinks it an exegetical addition. But what follows might also have caused the omission.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1416
THE SCOPE OF OUR LORDS MINISTRY
Mar 1:14-15. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel.
THOSE Christians who have taken up religion lightly, and have not the root of divine grace within them, will, as soon as persecution threatens them, be ready to renounce their holy profession; whilst those who have been influenced by a truly Christian principle, will be intimidated by nothing. When Paul was imprisoned at Rome, some were ashamed of his chain and forsook him: but others waxed confident by his bonds, and were much more bold to speak the word without fear [Note: Php 1:14.]. This is the true spirit of Christianity, and agrees with the example which Christ himself has set us. St. John was cast into prison for his fidelity in executing the ministerial office. But no sooner did our Lord hear of his imprisonment, than he went into Galilee, where John himself had been preaching, and bore testimony to the very truths which John himself had maintained. The scope of Johns ministry had been, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand [Note: Mat 3:1-2.]: and the instant that this holy man was precluded from any further discharge of his ministry, our blessed Lord insisted on the same awakening topic: saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.
To elucidate this important subject, we shall shew,
I.
What is the kingdom here spoken of
The terms used respecting it in our text, sufficiently shew what we are to understand by it:
1.
It is the kingdom of God
[Every kingdom may be considered as His, inasmuch as he is the founder of all the empires upon earth: he pulleth down one, and setteth up another. But this is his in a more eminent manner. It is an empire which he raises over the souls of men: it is erected, not by means of carnal weapons, but by an invisible and spiritual influence which he exerts over their minds, whereby he brings them into captivity to the obedience of Christ [Note: 2Co 10:4-5.]. It is not an empire determined by any particular boundaries, but spread over the face of the whole earth. His laws are written in the hearts of his subjects, and reach to the thoughts and desires, as much as to their outward actions. It comes not with observation and pomp, as other kingdoms: it is seated altogether within men, and consists in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost [Note: Rom 14:17.]. His subjects have peculiar privileges, such as no other people upon earth can partake of: but these are altogether of a spiritual nature, and invisible to carnal eyes. Their King is ever with them; every one of them has access to him at all times: and all that he possesses is theirs. His power is incessantly put forth for the protection and support of every individual amongst them; he orders every thing for their good, and is ever occupied in making them happy; giving them a peace which passeth understanding, and a joy which is unspeakable and glorified. In short, it is frequently called the kingdom of heaven; as it well may be, seeing that it is an exact counterpart of that which is in heaven, and differs only from that in its measure and degree. If only we conceive of God reigning amongst his saints and angels in heaven, it will help us more than any thing else to understand the nature of his kingdom on earth: the laws of both realms, yea, and the privileges too, are the same: holiness is the law both of the upper and the lower realm [Note: Eze 43:10-12.]; and happiness in God is their one great privilege. The two are allied to each other as the acorn and the oak: grace is glory begun; and glory is grace consummated.]
2.
It is a kingdom which was at that time to be established
[The prophets had spoken clearly of a kingdom which was to be erected by the Messiah at an appointed period [Note: Dan 2:44; Dan 7:13-14.]; and it was generally understood, not only among the Jews, but among the Gentiles also, that the time was nearly arrived. What the Samaritan Woman said, We know that the Messiah is coming, may be considered as the public voice at that time. Now our blessed Lord says respecting it, The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand: and he commanded his Disciples to declare the same; and, in the event of their message being despised, he bade them declare with increased vehemence to the very people who should reject them, Be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you [Note: Luk 10:9; Luk 10:11.].
This then decidedly shews, that the kingdom here spoken of was the Messiahs kingdom, even that which, in name at least, is established amongst us: in name, I say, because all are not Israel who are of Israel, nor is he a Jew who is one outwardly. It has before been observed that this is a spiritual kingdom; and the subjects of it are spiritual subjects.]
This leads us to shew,
II.
What we must do in order to become subjects of it
We have no need to emigrate from one country to another in order to place ourselves under the dominion of Christ. There is a way appointed for all to have their names enrolled among his people; and that is,
1.
To repent
[This is a duty independent of Christianity: every one that has violated the holy laws of God, ought to be deeply humbled for his iniquities. But this is an indispensable requisite for our admission into the Redeemers kingdom. An impenitent sinner, whether his sins have been more or less heinous, cannot possibly be numbered with his subjects. Such a man hates the laws by which they are governed; he will not yield to the authority which they obey: he even despises the privileges which they consider as their most inestimable treasure: whatever therefore he may call himself, he is, in fact, an enemy, a rebel, a traitor; and as such he will be considered by that King to whom he has professed allegiance In order to become a fellow-citizen with the saints, he must himself become a saint. Till then, he is accounted a stranger and a foreigner [Note: Eph 2:19.] ]
2.
To believe the Gospel
[Repentance is necessary to prepare men for the kingdom; but it is faith which actually introduces them into it. The Gospel sets forth Christ, not merely as a Prince, but as a Saviour also. It represents him as having borne our sins in his own body on the cross, and as having made thereby a full and perfect satisfaction to God for them. It assures us also of a complete reconciliation with him, the very moment that we embrace its glorious truths. On our believing its testimony, we begin to see the Lord Jesus in his true character: we no more account him a hard Master, but one whose service is perfect freedom. We then long to have our very thoughts subjected to his dominion, and our whole souls made obedient to his will. Thus we become enlisted under his banners, and entitled to all the privileges of his subjects In short, by repentance we cast down the weapons of our rebellion; and by faith we devote ourselves to him as his peculiar people.]
This subject furnishes us with abundant matter,
1.
Of inquiry
[Should it not be an object of anxious inquiry with us all to ascertain whose subjects we are? There are but two, who divide between them the dominion of the world: Satan is the god of this world, who has usurped a power over all mankind: but of these, Jehovah, the Creator of all things, has a few, whom he has rescued and redeemed from his tyrannic sway. If we belong to Christ, God has brought us out of the kingdom of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Inquire then whether such a change has taken place? Inquire whether you have deeply repented of your past subjection to Satan, and whether with humble gratitude you have fled for refuge to the hope set before you in the Gospel? Can you appeal to God that you have returned to him as a base rebel, acknowledging your desert of death, and imploring mercy solely in the name of Christ? Can you appeal to him, that you do yet daily, and hourly as it were, give up yourselves to his service, desiring to live, and, if need be, to die, for him? O consider the importance of these inquiries, and the proneness of your hearts to self-deceit! And pray to God to instruct you by his Holy Spirit, that you may know, before it is too late, whose you are, and whom you serve ]
2.
Of humiliation
[Be it granted, that we are the Lords: still what cause for shame have the very best amongst us, when we think how little love we bear to our heavenly King, and how little zeal we have manifested in his service. The subjects of earthly monarchs will go to the very ends of the earth to preserve and to extend their territories. Life seems of no value to them, in comparison of the honour of their, prince: to die in his cause appears an object of ambition rather than of dread: and the smallest testimony of his favour is deemed an ample recompence for all the dangers and difficulties that can be endured. Ah! who does not blush at the consideration of these things? If called to preach his Gospel to the heathen, who does not demur, and ask a thousand questions, which shew, that our own ease is of more importance in our eyes than his honour? Even a contemptuous look, or a reproachful name, or some little sacrifice of worldly interest, are often sufficient to deter us from embracing opportunities of exalting him. Whose conscience does not reproach him as shamefully deficient in duty to the best of Kings, and in gratitude towards the greatest of Benefactors? Truly when we consider what sovereign mercy, what almighty power, and what unbounded grace have been exercised towards us, we may well mourn and weep on the retrospect of every day, and at the review of every hour ]
3.
Of thankfulness
[We ought not to compare ourselves with others for the purpose of fostering self-preference and pride; yet we may well take occasion from the state of all around us to admire and adore that grace which has caused us to differ from them. For though, in the view of our high attainments, we have need of humiliation, yet, in the view of our high privileges, we have cause for most exalted joy: and if we felt as we ought, our every act would be obedience, and our every word be praise.
Nor is there wanting abundant cause of thankfulness even to those who are yet in rebellion against him. What reason have they to bless his name, that he has not yet said, Bring hither those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me! What a blessing should they account it that his Gospel is yet sounding in their ears; and that they may yet, if only they will repent and believe the Gospel, be partakers of his kingdom and glory! People are apt to think us harsh and severe when we call them to repentance: but we call you to repentance and faith, not as duties, but as privileges. What a privilege would those who are now in hell account it, if they could have one more such message delivered to them from the Lord! Know ye then, beloved, that this is the accepted time: I pray God, ye may find it also the day of salvation.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(14) Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. (15) And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. (16) Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. (17) And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. (18) And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. (19) And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. (20) And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him. (21) And they went into Capernaum; and straight way on the sabbath-day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. (22) And they were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
These verses are almost the same as was noticed, Mat 4:17-22 . It appears from both accounts, that the LORD JESUS entered upon his preaching with only those four Apostles at the first; and there should seem to have been some interval between their call and the others. But what a surprising call must it have been to those men; how unlooked for; and yet how powerful: instantly to leave all their earthly concerns and connections to follow Jesus. Reader! it is still the same in every instance where the claims of nature would thwart the calls of grace. Painful to flesh and blood, as numberless circum stances are sometimes found, the plucking out an eye, or cutting off an arm, are needful to be done if they stand in the way of CHRIST, See that scripture, Luk 14:26-27 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXVI
OUR LORD’S GREAT MINISTRY IN GALILEE
Part I
Harmony pages 85-39 and Mat 4:17-25
We now come to our Lord’s great ministry m Galilee. We will take a sort of preview of this whole division and then follow it up with more detailed discussions. The general theme of this division of the Harmony is “The kingdom of heaven.” We are prone at times to fall into errors of interpretation concerning the kingdom similar to those which led ancient Israel so far and so harmfully astray concerning the advent of the Messiah. Either we so fill our minds with the sublimity of world redemption, as applied to the race, in the outcome, so satisfy our hearts with rhetorical splendor in the glowing description of universal dominion that we lose sight of its application to individuals in our day, and the responsibilities arising from the salvation of one man, or we so concentrate our fancy upon the consummation that we forget the progressive element in the development of the kingdom and the required use of means in carrying on that progress. The former error breeds unprofitable dreamers the latter promotes skeptics. The preacher is more liable to be led astray by the one, the average church member by the other.
Perhaps the most unprofitable of all sermons is the one full of human eloquence and glowing description excited by the great generalities of salvation, and perhaps the most stubborn of all skepticism is that resulting from disappointment as not witnessing and receiving at once the very climax of salvation, both as to the individual and the race.
Such a spirit of disappointment finds expression in words like these: “The prophecies here of the kingdom are about 1,900 years old. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since the Child was born. Wars have not ceased. The poor are still oppressed. Justice, equity, and righteousness do not prevail. Sorrow, sin, and death still reign. And I am worried and burdened and perplexed. My soul is cast down and disquieted within me.” In such case we need to consider the false principles of interpretation which have misled us, and inquire: Have we been fair to the Book and its promise?
Here I submit certain carefully considered statements: (1) The consummation of the Messiah’s kingdom was never promised as an instantaneous result of the birth of the Child. (2) The era of universal peace must follow the utter and eternal removal of things and persons that offend. This will be the harvest of the world. (3) Again, this consummation was never promised as an immediate result, i.e., without the use of means to be employed by Christ’s people. (4) Yet again, this aggregate consummation approaches only by individual reception of the kingdom and individual progress in sanctification. (5) It is safe to say that the promises have been faithfully fulfilled to just the extent that individuals have received the light, walked in the light and discharged the obligations imposed by the gift of the light. These receptive and obedient ones in every age have experienced life, liberty, peace, and joy, and have contributed their part to the ultimate glorious outcome. (6) And this experience in individuals reliably forecasts the ultimate race and world result, and inspires rational hope of its coming. This is a common sense interpretation. In the light of it our duty is obvious. Our concern should be with our day and our lot and our own case as at present environed. The instances of fulfilment cited by the New Testament illustrate and verify this interpretation, particularly that recorded by Matthew as a fulfilment of the prophecies of Isaiah 4-13 inclusive, of his gospel. What dispassionate mind can read these ten chapters of Matthew, with the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, without conceding fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies uttered seven centuries before?
Here is the shining of a great light, brighter than all of the material luminaries in the heavens which declare the glory of God and show his handiwork. This is, indeed, the clean, sure and perfect law of the Lord, converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, more desirable than gold and sweet “r than honey in the honeycomb. Here are judgments true and righteous altogether.
Here in sermon and similitude the incomparable Teacher discloses the principles and characteristics of a kingdom that, unlike anything earth-born, must be from heaven. Here is a fixed, faultless, supreme, and universal standard of morality. The Teacher not only speaks with authority and wisdom, but evidences divinity by supernatural miracles, signs, and wonders. But there is here more than a teacher and wonder worker. He is a Saviour, a Liberator, a Healer, conferring life, liberty, health, peace, and joy. To John’s question John in prison and in doubt the answer was conclusive that this, indeed, was the one foreshown by the prophets and there was no need to look for another: “Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And whosoever shall find no occasion for stumbling in me, blessed is he” (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The special matter here most worthy of our consideration is that the kingdom of heaven was not expanded by instantaneous diffusion over a community, a nation, or the world, regardless of human personality, activity, and responsibility ill receiving and propagating it, but it took hold of each receptive individual’s heart and worked out on that line toward the consummation.
To as many as received him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. Those only who walked in the light realized the blessings of progressive sanctification. To the sons of peace, peace came as a thrilling reality. From those who preferred darkness to light) who judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, the proffered peace departed, returning to the evangelists who offered it.
The poor woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years experienced no imaginary or figurative release from her bonds (Luk 11:10-16 ). That other woman, who had sinned much, and who, in grateful humility, washed his feet with her tears was not forgiveness real and sweet to her? That blind Bartimeus who kept crying, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me” did he not receive real sight? That publican, who stood afar off and beat upon his breast, crying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” was he not justified?
And when the Galilean disciples went forth in poverty and weakness preaching his gospel, did they not experience the Joy of the harvest on beholding the ingathering of souls? And when they saw even demons subject to them through the name of Jesus, was not that the joy of victory as when conquerors divide the spoil?
When the stronger than the strong man armed came upon him and bound him, might not our Lord justly say, “As lightning falls from heaven, I saw Satan fall before you”? And just so in our own time.
Every conversion brings life, liberty, peace, and joy to the redeemed soul. Every advance in a higher and better life attests that rest is found at every upward step in the growth of grace. Every talent or pound rightly employed gains 100 per cent for the capital invested, and so the individual Christian who looks persistently into the perfect law of liberty, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the Word, is blessed in every deed. Willing to do the will of God, and following on to know the Lord, he not only knows the doctrine to be of God, but experimentally goes on from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and is changed into the divine image from glory to glory.
In the light of these personal experiences he understands how the kingdom of God is invincible, and doubts not the certain coming of the glorious consummation foreshown in prophecy and graciously extended, in the hand of promise. His faith, staggering not through unbelief, takes hold of the invisible, and his hope leaps forward to the final recompense of the reward.
The opening incident of the Galilean ministry is the healing of the nobleman’s son, the second miracle of our Lord in Galilee, and a most remarkable one. The nobleman was Herod’s steward, maybe Chuza, as many suppose, but that is uncertain. The nobleman manifested great faith and it was amply rewarded. This is an illustration of the tenderness with which Jesus ministered to the temporal needs of the people, thus reaching their souls through their bodies. The effect of this miracle was like that of the first: “He himself believed, and his whole house.”
The next section (Luk 4:16-31 ) gives the incident of his rejection at Nazareth. The account runs thus: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.” How solemn, how sad in its immediate result how pathetic that scene in Nazareth when the Redeemer announced his mission and issued his proclamation of deliverance: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to publish good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To send crushed ones away free, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Oh! what a day when this scripture was fulfilled in the hearing of the captives I But the Spirit on him was not on them.
As Jewish widows in Elijah’s day, perished of famine, through unbelief, and left to Sarepta’s far-off widow in a foreign land to believe and be blessed with unfailing meal and oil, as Jewish lepers, through unbelief, in Elisha’s day died in uncleanness and loathsomeness while touching elbows with One having power to heal, leaving to a Syrian stranger to wash in Jordan and be clean, so here where Jesus “had been brought up,” the people of Nazareth shut their eyes, bugged their chains and died in darkness and under the power of Satan died unabsolved from sin, died unsanctified and disinherited, and so yet are dying and shall forever die.
The Year of Jubilee came to them in vain. In vain its silver trumpets pealed forth the notes of liberty. They had no ear to hear, and so by consent became slaves of the Terrible One forever.
This brings us to church responsibility and ministerial agency in the perpetuation of this proclamation of mercy. As Paul went forth to far-off shores, announcing in tears, yet with faith and hope and courage, the terms of eternal redemption, so now the churches find in the same mission their warrant for existence, and so now are we sent forth as witnesses to stand before every prison house where souls are immured, commissioned “to open the eyes of the prisoners that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ.” Ours to blow the silver trumpets and proclaim to captives the year of jubilee. Ours is the evangel of liberty ours to make known that “if the Son of God make men free, they shall be free indeed.”
Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went to Capernaum, where he made his residence from which he radiates in his ministry in Galilee, teaching and healing on a large scale. His work here in Zebulun and Naphtali is a distinct fulfilment of Isa 9:1-2 , in which he is represented as a great light shining in the darkness. By the sea of Galilee near Capernaum he calls four fishermen to be his partners Peter, Andrew, James, and John, two sets of brothers. Here he announces his purpose for their lives to be fishers of men. What a lesson! These men were skilled in their occupation and now Jesus takes that skill and turns it into another direction, toward a greater end, “fishers of men.” Here he gives them a sign of his authority and messiahship in the incident of the great draught of fishes. The effect on Peter was marvelous. He was conscious of Christ’s divinity and of his own sinfulness. Thus he makes his confession, Luk 5:8 : “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But our Lord replied to Peter: “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” Later (Joh 21 ), when Peter and his comrades went back to their old occupation, the risen Lord appeared to them and renewed their call, performing a miracle of a similar draught of fishes.
In Section 28 (Mar 1:21-28 ; Luk 4:31-37 😉 we have his first case of healing a demoniac. What is the meaning of the word “demoniac”? It means demon-possessed, and illustrates the fact of the impact of spirit on spirit, many instances of which we have in the Bible. Here the demons recognized him, which accords with Paul’s statement that he was seen of angels. They believed and trembled as James says, but they knew no conversion. The lesson there is one of faith. The effect of this miracle was amazement at his authority over the demons.
In Section 29 (Mat 8:14-17 ; Mar 1:29-34 ; Luk 4:38-41 ) we have an account of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, which incident gives us light on the social relations of the disciples. Peter was married, the Romanist position to the contrary notwithstanding. Further scriptural evidence of his marriage is found in 2Co 8:5 . It is interesting to compare the parallel accounts of this incident in the Harmony and see how much more graphic is Mark’s account than those of Matthew and Luke. There is a fine lesson here on the relation between the mother-in-law and the son-in-law. Peter is a fine example of such relation. Immediately following the healing of Peter’s wife’s mother those that had sick ones brought them to Jesus and he healed them, thus fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah, that he should take our infirmities and bear our diseases. Our Lord not only healed their sick ones, but he cast out the demons from many, upon which they recognized him. But he would not let them speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
The effect of our Lord’s great work as described in Section 29 was that Peter tried to work a corner on salvation and dam it up in Capernaum. This is indicated in the account of the interview of Peter with our Lord as described in Section 30 (Mat 4:23-25 ; Mar 1:35-39 ; Luk 4:42-44 ). Here it is said that Jesus, a great while before day, went out into a desert place to pray, and while out there Peter came to him and complained that they were wanting him everywhere. To this our Lord responded that it was to this end that he had come into the world. So Jesus at once launched out and made three great journeys about Galilee. His first journey included a great mass of teaching and healing, of which we have a few specimens in Sections 31-36, which apparently occurred at Capernaum, his headquarters. A second journey is recorded by Luke in Section 47 (Luk 8:1-3 ) and a third journey is found in Section 55. (For Broadus’ statement of these tours, see Harmony, p. 31.)
Here we have the occasion of one of the special prayers of Jesus. There are four such occasions in his ministry: (1) At his baptism he prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit; (2) here he prayed because of the effort to dam up his work of salvation in Capernaum; (3) the popularity caused by the healing of a leper (Sec. 31 Mat 8:2-4 ; Mar 1:40-45 ; Luk 5:12-16 ) drove him to prayer; (4) the fourth occasion was the ordination of the twelve apostles. The immense labors of Jesus are indicated in Mat 4:23-24 . These labors gave him great popularity beyond the borders of Palestine and caused the multitudes from every quarter to flock to him. Attention has already been called to the popularity caused by the healing of the leper (Sec. 31) and Jesus’ prayer as the result.
In the incident of the healing of the paralytic we have a most graphic account by the synoptics and several lessons: (1) That disease may be the result of sin, as “thy sin be forgiven thee”; (2) that of intelligent cooperation; (3) that of persistent effort; (4) that of conquering faith. These are lessons worthy of emulation upon the part of all Christians today. Out of this incident comes the first issue between our Lord and the Pharisees, respecting the authority to forgive sins. This was only a thought of their hearts, but he perceived their thought and rebuked their sin. From this time on they become more bold in their opposition, which finally culminated in his crucifixion. Let the reader note the development of this hatred from section to section of the Harmony.
In Section 33 (Mat 9:9-13 ; Mar 2:13-17 ; Luk 5:27-32 ) we have the account of the call of Matthew, his instant response and his entertainment of his fellow publicans. Here arose the second issue between Christ and the Pharisees, respecting his receiving publicans and sinners and eating with them. This was contrary to their idea in their self-righteousness, but Jesus replied that his mission was to call sinners rather than the righteous. This issue was greatly enlarged later, in Luk 15 , to which he replied with three parables showing his justification and his mission. In this instance (Mat 9:13 ) he refutes their contention with a quotation from Hosea which aptly fitted this case: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
Then came to him the disciples of John and made inquiry about fasting, to which he replied with the parable of the sons of the bride chamber, the interpretation of which is that we should let our joy or sorrow fit the occasion, or set fasting ments and old bottles, the interpretation of which is to let the form fit the life; beware of shrinking and expansion.
In Section 35 (Mat 9:18-25 ; Mar 5:22-43 ; Luk 8:41-56 ) we have the account of his healing of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. Usually in the miracles of Christ, and in all preceding miracles, there was the touch of some kind between the healer and the healed. We are informed that great multitudes of people came to Jesus with this confidence, “If I but touch him I shall be healed.” Accordingly we find that Christ put his fingers on the eyes of the blind, on the ears of the deaf, or took hold of the hand of the dead. In some way usually there was either presence or contact.
We will now consider the special miracle connected with the fringe of the garment of Jesus which the Romanists cite to justify the usage concerning the relics of the saints. In Num 15:38 we have a statute: “Thou shalt put fringes on the wings or ends of the outer garment,” and this fringe had in it a cord or ribbon of blue, and the object of it was to remind the wearer of the commandments of God. The outer garment was an oblong piece of cloth, one solid piece of cloth, say, a foot and a half wide and four feet long. The edge was fringed on all the four sides, and in the fringe was run a blue thread, and the object of the fringe and of the blue thread also was to make them remember the commandments of God. The statute is repeated in Deu 22 . Again in Deu 6 is the additional law of phylacteries, or frontlets little pieces of leather worn between the eyes on which were inscribed the commandments of God. The people were taught to instruct their children in the commandments of God: “And they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt put them upon thy door posts, and when thou goest out and when thou comest in, and when thou sittest down and when thou gettest up, and when thou liest down, thou shalt at all times teach thy children the Word of God.” Now, because of these statutes a superstitious veneration began to attach to the fringe and to the phylacteries. So we learn in Mat 23 , as stated by our Saviour, that the Pharisees made broad the phylacteries between their eyes and enlarged the fringe of the outer garment. They made the fringe or tassel very large. They did it to be seen of men. The law prescribed that when the wearer should see this fringe on his garment he should remember the commandments of the Lord his God. But these Pharisees put it on that others might see it, and that it might be an external token to outsiders of their peculiar sanctity and piety. What was intended to be a sign to the man himself was converted by superstition into a sign for other people. Hence this woman said within herself, “If I but touch that sacred fringe the border of his garment.” She could not go up and touch the phylactery between his eyes, in case he wore one, but he did wear the Jewish costume with the fringe or border on his outer garment, and she could reach that from behind. She would not have to go in front of him. She argued: “Now, if I can in the throng get up so that I can reach out and just touch that fringe, I shall be saved.” We see how near her thought connected the healing with the fringe of the garment, because by the double statute of God it was required on the Jewish garment to signify their devotion to his Word the matchless Word of Jehovah. Mark tells us that she was not the only woman, not the only person healed by touching the border of his garment (Mar 6:56 ). Her sentiment was not an isolated one. It was shared by the people at large. Multitudes of people came to touch the fringe of his garment that they might be healed.
The question arises, Why should Christ select that through contact with the fringe on his outer garment healing power should be bestowed? He did do it. The question is, why? There shall be no god introduced unless there be a necessity for a god. There shall be no special miracle unless the case demands it. Why? Let us see if we cannot get a reason. I do not announce the reason dogmatically, but as one that seems sufficient to my own mind. Christ was among the people speaking as never man spake, doing works that no man had done. He was awakening public attention. He was the cynosure of every eye. They came to him from every direction. They thronged him. And right here at this juncture Jairus had said, “Master, my little girl, twelve years old, is even now dead. Go and lay thy hand upon her that she may live.” He arose and started, the crowd surging around him and following him, and all at once he stopped and said, “Who touched me?” “Master, behold the crowd presseth thee on every side, and thou sayest, who touched me?” Here was a miracle necessary to discriminate between the touches of the people. “Who touched me?” Hundreds sin sick touched him and were not saved. Hundreds that had diseases touched him and were unhealed. Hundreds that were under the dominion of Satan looked in his face and heard his words and were not healed. It was touch and not touch. They touched, but there was no real contact. They rubbed up against salvation and were not saved. Salvation walked through their streets and talked to them face to face. The stream of life flowed right before their doors and they died of thirst. Health came with rosy color and bright eye and glowing cheek and with buoyant step walked through their plague district) and they died of sickness. But some touched him. Some reached forth the hand and laid hold upon the might of his power. This woman did.
Poor woman! What probably was her thought? “I heard that ruler tell him that he had a little girl twelve years old that was just dead, and he asked him to go and heal her, she twelve years old, and for twelve years I have been dead. For twelve years worse than death has had hold on me and I have spent all my money; have consulted many physicians. I have not been benefited by earthly remedies, but rendered worse. Twelve years has death been on me, and if he can heal that, girl that died at twelve years of age, maybe he can heal me twelve years dead. If that ruler says, ‘If you will but go and lay your hand upon her even now she will revive,’ what can I do? In my timidity, in the ceremonial uncleanness of my condition, in my shame, I dare not speak. I cannot in this crowd, for if they knew that I were here they would cast me out; for if any of them touch me they are unclean in the eyes of the law. I cannot go and kneel down before him, and say, ‘Master, have mercy on me.’ The ceremonial law of uncleanness forbids my showing my face, and if I come in contact with his power it must be with a touch upon the garment. And I beg for that. I say within myself, that if I but touch the fringe with its blue thread in it that reminds him of God’s commands, I shall be healed.”
There was the association of her healing with the memento of the Word of God. There was the touch of her faith, that came into contact with that Word of God and with him. So her faith reasoned, and virtue going out from him responded to her faith. And she felt in herself that she was healed. Well, he healed her and there it stands out one of the most beautiful lessons in the Word of God. Oh, what a lesson! Some will say at the judgment, “Lord Jesus, thou hast taught in our streets and we have done many wonders in thy name,” and he will say, “I never knew you.” “You were close to the Saviour. You did not touch him. You were his neighbor. You did not touch him.” There were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha, the prophet lepers that could have been healed of leprosy by an appeal to the power of God in Elisha. They died in leprosy, but Naaman came from afar and touched the healing power of the prophet and was healed. There were many widows in Israel whose staff of life was gone, whose barrel of meal was empty, whose cruse of oil had failed, and here was the prophet of God, who by a word could supply that empty barrel, that failing cruse, but they did not touch him. They did not reach out in faith and come in contact with that power. The widow of Sarepta did, and her barrel of meal never failed, and her cruse of oil never wasted. Now, the special miracle: It was designed to show that if there be a putting forth of faith, even one finger of faith, and that one finger of faith touches but the fringe, the outskirts of salvation only let there be a touch, though that touch covers no more space than the point of a cambric needle “let there be the touch of faith and thou art saved.”
In the midst of this stir about the woman the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter burst forth upon them with the request to trouble not the Master any further. But that did not stop our Lord. He proceeded immediately to the house to find a tumult and many weeping and wailing, for which he gently rebuked them. This brought forth their scorn, but taking Peter, James, and John, he went in and raised the child to life and his praise went forth into all that land.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the general theme of this division of the Harmony?
2. What common errors of interpretation of the kingdom? Illustrate.
3. What was the offspring of these errors respectively and who the most liable to each?
4. What, perhaps, was the most unprofitable sermon and what was the most stubborn skepticism?
5. How does such disappointment find expression?
6. Give the author’s statements relative to the kingdom,
7. Where do we find the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies relative to the kingdom?
8. What specific prophecy in Isaiah fulfilled in Matthew?
9. Where do we find the principles of the kingdom disclosed?
10. What great office did our Lord fill besides teacher and wonder worker and what proof did he submit to John the Baptist?
11. What thing most worthy of special consideration in connection with the kingdom?
12. What the opening incident of the Galilean ministry, what its importance, what its great lesson and what its effect?
13. Give an account of our Lord’s rejection at Nazareth.
14. Why was he thus rejected?
15. By what incidents in the lives of the prophets does he illustrate the folly of their unbelief?
16. What is the church responsibility and ministerial agency in the proclamation of mercy?
17. Where does Jesus make his home after his rejection at Nazareth and what his first work in this region?
18. Recite the incident of the call of the four fishermen and its lessons.
19. What was Christ’s first case of healing a demoniac and what the meaning of the term “demoniac”? Illustrate.
20. What was the lesson of this miracle and what was its effect?
21. Recite the incident of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and give its lessons.
22. What were the great results of this miracle and why would not Christ allow the demons to speak?
23. How did Peter try to work a “corner” on salvation and how did our Lord defeat the plan?
24. How many and what journeys did Jesus make about Galilee?
25. Give the four special prayers of Jesus here cited and the occasion of each.
26. Describe the incident of the healing of the paralytic and its les sons.
27. What issue arises here between our Lord and the Pharisees and what was the final culmination?
28. Give an account of the call of Matthew, his entertainment, the second issue between our Lord and the Pharisees and how Jesus met it.
29. What question here arises, how was it brought up, how did our Lord reply and what the meaning of his parables here?
30. What double miracle follows and what was the usual method of miracles?
31. What was the law of fringes and phylacteries and what were their real purpose?
32. Why should Christ select that through contact with the fringe on his outer garment healing power should be bestowed?
33. What, probably, was the thought of this woman as she contemplated this venture of faith?
34. What was the great lesson of this incident of her healing?
35. Describe the miracle of raising Jairus’ daughter and its effect.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Ver. 14. Jesus came into Galilee ] To decline Herod’s rage. And whereas it may seem that our Saviour herein took a wrong course, since Herod was governor of Galilee; we must know that the Pharisees were the men that delivered up John to Herod, Mat 17:11-12 ; and that but for them there was no great fear of Herod.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14, 15. ] JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY. Mat 4:12-17 . Luk 4:14-15 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
14. ] See note on Mat 4:12 .
. seems to have been the usual and well-known term for the imprisonment of John.
. . . ] See reff., and note on Mar 1:1 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 1:14-20 . The Galilean ministry begins (Mat 4:12-22 ; Luk 4:14 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 1:14 . . . : the Gospel of God , the good news sent by God to men through Jesus, a strong name for Christ’s message.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 1:14-15
14Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Mar 1:14-15 These two verses are a summary statement. Mark often uses this technique (cf. Mar 1:14-15; Mar 1:21-22; Mar 1:39; Mar 2:13; Mar 3:7-9; Mar 6:7; Mar 6:12-13). These summaries convey several theological truths
1. Jesus was popular and many came to hear Him preach/teach
2. Jesus was powerful, exorcizing demons and healing people
3. He transferred His power to His disciples (i.e., the mission trips of the Twelve and the seventy)
4. the purpose of Jesus’ proclamation was repentance and faith
Mar 1:14 “John had been taken into custody” John was imprisoned (i.e., paradidmi, which is used twenty times in Mark for “turned over to the authorities”) by Herod Antipas because he continued to publicly condemn Herod’s marriage to his brother’s ex-wife (cf. Mar 6:16-17).
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE FAMILY OF HEROD THE GREAT
“Jesus came into Galilee” The Gospel records Jesus’ ministry geographically in Galilee, in Judea, in Galilee, and in Judea. Jesus left southern Palestine when John was arrested (cf. Mat 4:12; Luk 4:14-15; Joh 1:43). Ministry in the predominantly Gentile northern Palestine was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 9. No one expected anything spiritually significant to begin in this region, far removed from the Temple (cf. Joh 1:46) and the first to be defeated and exiled by the Mesopotamian powers (i.e., Assyria and neo-Babylon).
“preaching the gospel of God” This use of the term “gospel” must be qualified. At first Jesus’ message was similar to John’s. The full gospel of Jesus will not be complete until after His life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Mar 1:15 gives the content of Jesus’ early preaching. What John preached was personally embodied in Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Joh 14:6).
Mar 1:15 “‘time is fulfilled'” This phrase is introduced by hoti, which usually denotes a quote and is common in Mark. This reflects Peter’s memory of Jesus’ words. This is perfect passive indicative, which has prophetic/messianic significance (cf. Eph 1:10; Gal 4:4; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 1:3). The passive voice reflects God’s activity in and control of time and history.
“‘the kingdom of God'” This refers to God’s reign. It is both a present reality and a future consummation. In Matthew’s Gospel this is usually referred to as “kingdom of heaven.” These phrases are synonymous (compare Mat 13:11 with Mar 4:11 and Luk 8:10). The kingdom arrived when Jesus was born. It is described and embodied in Jesus’ life and teachings. It will be consummated at His return. It was the subject of Jesus’ sermons and parables. It was the central theme of His spoken messages.
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE KINGDOM OF GOD
NASB, NKJV”is at hand”
NRSV”has come near”
TEV”is near”
NJB”is close at hand”
This is a perfect active indicative, which implies that the kingdom was a past reality (cf. Mar 1:1-3) as well as a current reality (cf. Mat 12:28; Luk 11:20; Luk 17:21). The phrase “the time is fulfilled” parallels this phrase and emphasizes the reality of God’s prophetic word now becoming a historical event. The “New Age of Righteousness” was inaugurated at Jesus’ birth, but not fully known until the Passion Week’s events and not fully empowered until Pentecost.
Although the Kingdom has truly come, there are also NT texts which imply that its complete manifestation is future (cf. Mar 9:1; Mar 14:25; Mat 26:29; Luk 22:18; Act 1:11; 1Th 4:13-18). What we do with Christ now determines our eschatological hope (cf. Mar 8:38).
“‘repent'” See Special Topic on Repentance at Mar 1:4.
“‘and believe in the gospel'” The parallels in Mat 4:17 and Luk 4:14-15 do not have the same summary.
SPECIAL TOPIC: FAITH (PISTIS [noun], PISTEU, [verb], PISTOS [adjective])
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
after. Greek. meta. App-104. This commences the first subject of the Lord’s ministry, which occupies in Mark only six verses. See App-119.
put in prison = was dellivered up.
Galilee. App-169.
the kingdom of God. See App-114.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14, 15.] JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY. Mat 4:12-17. Luk 4:14-15.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 1:14. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
When one servant of God is laid aside, it is a call to the rest to be the more earnest. So after John the Baptist was put into prison, Jesus came into Galilee. Sometimes a loss may be a gain, and if the loss of John was the means of bringing out Jesus, certainly both the Church and the world were the gainers: Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar 1:15. And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
It is clear, from this passage, that our Lord exhorted men to repent, and to believe the gospel. There are some, who profess to be his followers, who will not suffer us to do this. We may teach men, and warn them, they say, but we must not exhort them to repent and believe. Well, as the contention of these people is not in accordance with the Scriptures, we are content to follow the Scriptures, and to do as Jesus did, so we shall say to sinners, Repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mar 1:16-18. Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them; Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
The gospel minister is like the fisherman with a net. I have sometimes heard the comparison drawn as though the gospel fisherman had a hook and a line, which he has not. His business is not to entice a fish to swallow his bait but to cast the net all round him, and lift him, by his grace, out of the element in which he lies in sin, into the boat where Christ still sits, as he sat, in the olden days, in the boat on the sea of Galilee. To shut the sinner up to faith in Jesus Christ, that is the main work of the true gospel fisherman.
Mar 1:19-20. And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
They never had cause to regret that they did so. Whatever they left, they were abundantly rewarded. They had a rich reward here on earth; and they have a far richer reward in heaven. Whatever a man gives up for Christ is a blessed investment, which will, sooner or later, bring him good interest.
Mar 1:21-22. And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
He did not do as the scribes did, who made a great parade of learning by quoting this Rabbi and the other, but Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you. He spoke as one who felt that he had authority to speak in his own name, and in the name of God his Father. This method of teaching quite astonished the Jews. I wish that those who now hear the gospel, might be astonished at it, and be astonished into the belief of it by the power with which it comes home to their consciences and hearts.
Mar 1:23-24. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone;
How often that is still the cry of sinners, Let us alone. Why do not you hold your own views, and let us alone? Yes the devils, and those whom they control, still say, Let us alone. But it is a part of the gospel to attack that which is not the gospel, and it is as much the duty of the minister of the gospel to denounce error as to proclaim truth. If we do so, the old cry will still be heard, Let us alone. Let us alone.
Mar 1:24-25. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him,
He did not want any testimony from the devil. When a man of ill character once praised Plato, the philosopher said, What can I have done wrong that such a fellow as that speaks well of me? So when the devil bore testimony to the divinity of Christ, Jesus rebuked him,
Mar 1:25-26. Saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
For, if Satan must come out of a man, he will do him as much mischief as ever he can before he departs. His wrath is all the greater because his time is so short.
He worries whom he cant devour,
With a malicious joy.
Mar 1:27. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
It was the authority of his preaching which first astonished them; and then the authority with which he wrought his miracle, and subdued the world of demons. Blessed be God. Christ has not abdicated his authority. He is still the great Messenger of God, full of divine authority to save men, and to deliver them from the power of Satan.
Mar 1:28-30. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simons wifes mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
Christ was a house-to-house missionary, as well as an open-air preacher. There is much good to be done by those who know how to visit, and to look after individual cases; there is great good to be done in that way, as well as by dealing with mankind in the bulk.
Mar 1:31-35. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils: and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
His hard days work probably ran on far into the night. Yet, a great while before day, he was up at the sacred work of supplication. The more work we have to do with men for God, the longer we ought to be at work with God for men. If you plead with men, you cannot hope to prevail unless you first plead with God. And, inasmuch as our Lord had great success the day before, it teaches us that the greatest success does not release us from the necessity of still waiting upon God. If God has given you much, my brother, go with thy basket, and ask for more. Never stay thy prayer. Increase thy spiritual hunger, and God will increase the richness of the gift he will bestow upon thee.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Mar 1:14. , was imprisoned) Mark writes as of a fact known to the reader, either from Matthew or from some other source of information. [Previously, more than once Jesus had visited the city of Jerusalem, as John relates. But His public walk in Galilee, and that a continued one (uninterrupted in its continuity) did not commence until after John was imprisoned.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mar 1:14-15
SECTION TWO
BEGINNING OF THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN GALILEE
Mar 1:14-45
1. TIME AND THEME OF HIS PREACHING
Mar 1:14-15
(Mat 4:12-17; Luk 4:14-15; Joh 4:1-3)
14 Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,–He “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” (Luk 4:14.) The same Spirit that had impelled him into the wilderness to be tempted. Having presented the preliminaries of our Savior’s ministry, Mark now proceeds to the ministry itself.
15 and saying,–The mouth and organ of speech are very necessary in proclaiming the gospel. Christ used both and authorized his disciples to do likewise which thing they did. Paul requested the brethren to pray in his behalf; “that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Eph 6:19-20.) However, we are not to understand from this that the Lord forbids teaching through the medium of the pen and printing press. The apostles taught through the medium of the pen when they wrote the gospel on scrolls and sent it out. The art of printing had not been invented at that time. If it had doubtless they would have taken advantage of it. Whether we teach by word of mouth, pen, or the printed sheet, in either case, we do no more nor no less than what the Lord commanded–we teach.
The time is fulfilled,–The time foretold by the prophets for the appearance of Christ is accomplished. “When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” (Gal 4:4; Dan 9:24-27.)
and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.–The kingdom of God, so long promised by the prophets and expected by the people, has drawn near. (Luk 10:9.) The doctrine of faith and repentance is taught at the threshold of the kingdom of Christ, and accordingly ought, in a special manner, to be preached and insisted upon by all proclaimers of the gospel.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
PART II. THE SERVANTS WORK; NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER — Chapter 1:14-10:52
Chapter 1:14-45.
The Ministry in Galilee after Johns Imprisonment.
1. The Servant in Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. (Mar 1:14-15. Mat 4:12-17; Luk 4:14-15.)
2. The Calling of fellow servants. (Mar 1:16-20. Mat 4:18-22; Luk 5:1-11.)
3. The Servant in Capernaum. (Mar 1:21-28; Luk 4:31-37.)
4. Peters Mother-in-law raised up. (Mar 1:29-31. Mat 8:14-15; Luk 4:38-39.)
5. The Servant heals many and casts out demons. (Mar 1:32-34. Luk 4:31-37; Mat 8:16-18; Luk 4:40-41.)
6. The Servant in prayer. (Mar 1:35.)
7. The Interruption and the renewed service. (Mar 1:36-39. Luk 4:42-44. 8. The Leper healed. (Mar 1:40-45. Mat 8:1-4; Luk 5:12-16.)
1. The Servant in Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Mar 1:14-15.
The Servant begins His blessed service in Galilee immediately after John had been put into prison. And now the Lord takes up the hushed testimony of the forerunner. The heralding of the Kingdom at hand through the presence of Him who came to His own is less prominent in Mark. In the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of Matthew it is one of the leading features. The time, indeed, was fulfilled. While Matthew and Luke report the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom with the demand to repent, here in Mark the words are added and believe the Gospel. This gospel is of course not the Gospel of our salvation. That was not preached till after He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do.
2. The Calling of fellow servants. Mar 1:16-20.
It is a blessed scene which we have before us. The Servant of God calls fellow servants, weak and sinful men, to become fishers of men. These are Simon and Andrew, James and John. They knew Him and had believed in Him. They were his disciples. But now He calls them into service. Come ye after Me. The Grace which called them gave them power to forsake earthly things and to come after Him. Boats and nets, their trade as fishermen and even their father, Zebedee, were left behind. Oh! blessed place to serve the Lord Christ and yield obedience to His call. We must own Him as Lord and follow Him in His own path of faith, obedience and humility. To seek others and bring them to Himself is the service to which He still calls. Note the word straightway in Mar 1:17 and Mar 1:20.
3. The Servant in Capernaum. Mar 1:21-28.
The Servant and His fellow servants went to Capernaum. Straightway he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach. His first preaching in Nazareth (Luk 4:16-30) is not reported by Mark. It is after they thrust Him out of the city where He had been brought up, that He went to Capernaum. The blessed Servant knew no discouragement nor self pity. They laid their wicked hands on Him in Nazareth, then He went on to Capernaum and straightway taught there. His doctrine uttered with authority and power astonished all, yet He ever was the meek and lowly One. But the Word had another effect. A man with an unclean spirit interrupted Him in the synagogue. Satans power was present and the demons were forced to confess Jesus of Nazareth as the Holy One of God. Then the Servants power is manifested. He rebuked him and commanded the demon to come out of him. The Servants fame spread abroad throughout all that region.
4. Peters Mother-in-law raised up. Mar 1:29-31.
This miracle is found in the Gospel of Matthew in a different setting. For the dispensational setting see The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8. The place given to this miracle here is equally significant. The first healing of disease in the Gospel of Mark follows the casting out of the demon, the defeat of Satans power. This order will be followed when He comes again, not as the lowly Servant, but as the mighty King. Then Satan will be bound first and the greatest spiritual and physical blessings will come to this poor world at last. Concerning the healing of Peters wifes mother, Matthew tells us He touched her hand; Luke He stood over her and rebuked the fever. Marks testimony by the Holy Spirit is He took her by the hand and lifted her up. How beautiful! It reveals the tenderness, the loving sympathy of the blessed One. With what gentleness He must have lifted her up so as to avoid another pang of pain in her feverish body; but immediately she was healed. And He is still the same.
5. The Servant heals many and casts out demons. Mar 1:32-34.
Deliverance from demons and divers diseases came to many on that memorable day when the sun did set. We must view these deliverances and healings in Marks Gospel not so much as the evidences of His power as the manifestations of the great love and goodness of the Servant. Then He suffered the demons not to speak, because they knew Him. He loved to be unknown and did not want the applause of men nor the witness of the unclean spirits. Of His unostentatiousness we shall find further evidences.
6. The Servant in Prayer. Mar 1:35.
And after such a day of uninterrupted toil, preaching, healing diseases, driving out demons, occupied from early morning till the sun did set, we find Him, rising a great while before day, in a solitary place, praying. He is alone in the presence of the Father. Thus it was fulfilled, He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear as the instructed (Isa 50:4). Only Mark gives us this precious information. It tells us that the Servant, though the Son of God, walked in complete dependence on God His Father. Prayer is the expression of such dependence. He had been anointed with the Spirit for His work, heard the Fathers loving approval, defeated Satan, cast out demons, healed divers diseases, yet He is still the dependent One. Independence in service for God is a snare, the very spirit of Satan. The perfect Servant had His times for quietness, retirement and prayer, in which He cast Himself anew upon Him, whom to glorify He had come to earth. And if He thus retired to be with God, Himself the Lord God, before He entered upon the work of the day, can we wonder that we fail so much in outward labor, who fail yet more in this inward intimacy with our Father? Be assured, the secret of holy strength and endurance in service is found there alone. (W. Kelly. Gospel of Mark.) What child of God does not feel the deep necessity of this and deplores the neglect of this blessed privilege?
7. The Interruption and the renewed service. Mar 1:36-39.
But He is followed by his disciples and is interrupted even in prayer. No rebuke comes from His lips. Willing He responds to the new demands. For that He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
8. The Leper healed. Mar 1:40-45.
Leprosy, that vile and loathsome disease, is a type of sin. Like sin it is incurable and only Jehovah could cure leprosy. When Jehovah had healed the disease the priest had to pronounce the leper clean. This leper recognized in the humble Servant the mighty Jehovah. He kneeled in His presence and expressed his faith in His power and implored Him to make him clean. Here again Mark tells us something of our blessed Lord, which we find neither in Matthew or Lukes account. He was moved with compassion. Thus the spirit of God in some brief additions portrays the Servant in His loving service. The leper is healed. The Servant is Jehovah and both His love and His power are revealed. He charged him to say nothing to any man. In this the Servant once more manifests His humility, that He served in an unostentatious way. He did not want honor from man. His Father knew all His service; that was enough for Him. Yet the enemy through the cleansed leper attempted the popularity of the Servant. He sought the desert places once more to hide Himself. May we serve after this great pattern Servant.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
kingdom
(See Scofield “Mat 6:33”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
A Model Sermon
Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.Mar 1:14-15.
Here are the notes of a model sermon. We call the Lords Prayer the model prayer. This may with equal justice be called the model sermon. It is a sermon that was preached even by our Lord on more occasions than one. It is an example for all the sermons that have been or will be preached thereafter. And although it is only the shortest possible notes of such a sermon, there is much material in it.
Let us take
I.Its Occasion
II.Its Place
III.Its General Topic
IV.Its Particular Contents
I
Its Occasion
Now after that John was delivered up.
The Baptism of our Lord was immediately followed by an ecstatic condition of fasting in the wilderness, at the conclusion of which He endured the great Temptation. Returning from the wilderness, He went, under the power of the Spirit, to undertake His ministry in Galilee.
Swete considers that this journey to Galilee was in fact a withdrawal from Juda, where the tidings of Johns imprisonment (Matt.), and still more the growing jealousy of the Pharisees towards the new Teacher (Joh 4:1), rendered a longer stay dangerous or unprofitable. Though Galilee was under the jurisdiction of Antipas, His mission there would not expose Him at first to the tetrarchs interference (cf. Mar 6:14; Luk 13:3 f., Luk 23:8). It was Jerusalem, not Galilee, that shed the blood of the prophets; in any case it was clear that Jerusalem would not tolerate His teaching; Galilee offered a better field (cf. Joh 4:45).
The season was the Spring, with its bright heaven, its fresh sweet earth, its gladsome, soft, yet strengthening air, its limpid living water. And within as without all was spring-time, the season of millionfold forces gladly and grandly creative, of sunlight now clear and blithesome, and now veiled with clouds that came only to break into fruitful showers. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and Galilee felt and owned the Spirit and the power. In the homes of its peasantry and the hamlets of its fishermen, on the shores of its beautiful sea, in the towns and villages that stood on its banks and were mirrored in its waves, He preached His Gospel.1 [Note: A. M. Fairbairn, Studies in the Life of Christ, 99.]
II
Its Place
Jesus came into Galilee.
Where would you have thought Jesus would have gone to found His Kingdom, to begin His ministry? Why, up there, of course, if He had been an astute man of the world, at Jerusalem. There was the great temple of His people, there the ornate and ancient priesthood, there the extended and venerated worship, there the historical associations of His race and of its King. Was ever city so loved by men as was Jerusalem? Poets praised it, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth was Mount Zion. The people had loved it; there Solomon had planted his temple; and there, amid poverty, pain, and war, a few returned exiles had built another and still more gracious; there the people of God had known the siege of the heathen, there they had known the deliverance of the Most High. The great prophet of exile had broken into immortal poetry in praise of that city where God dwelt, and towards which all nations should come. Athens may be the eye of Greece, illustrious in wisdom; Rome may be the synonym of Imperial and ecclesiastical power; Mecca may speak of a prophet that conquered by the sword, and Benares of caste that rules as with a rod of iron millions of our race; but Jerusalem is pre-eminent as the city of faith, the birthplace of a religion, whose very stones were dear to those that loved her. There, then, it might have seemed, Jesus would begin to exercise His ministry. There were rabbis to listen to Him, there were priests to support Him, there were scribes to report Him; all round it seemed the fit soil for His work.
But nay, though He knew that a prophet must perish in Jerusalem, the ministry that was to be fruitful for all time must be exercised elsewhere. He would not throw His ministry, His soul, into the midst of conflict, while conflict would have soiled the serenity of His soul. He would not seek the men bound to fashion and form and place; He would seek those that would gather round Him, ready to be made by His work. He did not need to nurse human sin; left to itself it would breed passion, create jealousy, make the awful hour of His agony, the awful majesty of His cross. But He had to seek love, nurse it, and cultivate it, and gather it to His bosom, and bear it there. He wanted the silence that was nurture, He wanted the obscurity that was growth, He wanted the cloistered security of Nature, as it were, where His own loved people would learn to know and would learn to love Him, and be made fit to be preachers to all ages and models for all time. Though of humble birth, scorned by the proud of blood and culture, He had the supernal wisdom, and saw in the quiet of His own province the ministry that could be a well of truth and grace.
III
Its General Topic
Preaching the gospel of God.
The gospel of Godthis is the theme of all Christian preaching. The particular function for which St. Paul says he is set apart is to preach the gospel of Godseparated, he says, in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, unto the gospel of God.
1. The Gospel.The fundamental passage for the use of this word (), say Sanday and Headlam in their edition of the Epistle to the Romans, appears to be Mar 1:14-15. They do not doubt that our Lord Himself described by this term (or its Aramaic equivalent) His announcement of the arrival of the Messianic time. They do not think that the word is borrowed directly from the Septuagint, where it occurs in all only two, or at most three, times, although there may have been some influence from the use of the verb, which is especially frequent in second Isaiah and the Psalms in connection with the news of the Great Deliverance or Restoration from the Captivity. The word evidently took a strong hold on the imagination of St. Paul in connection with his own call to missionary labours. He uses the noun sixty times in his Epistles, while it is used only twice in the rest of the New Testament apart from the Gospels and Acts.
2. The Gospel of God.The Gospel is called the Gospel of Christ in Mar 1:1. Here it is the Gospel of God. The of, says Swete, probably denotes the source: the Gospel which comes from God, the Gospel of which God (the Father) is the Author and Sender. Every account of the work of Christ, therefore, is false which places the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in contrast to the justice of Almighty God. Christ comes with news, and good news, but He is sent from God with this good news. In this respect, as in every other, He and the Father are one.
IV
Its Particular Contents
Its particular contents are the fulness of the time, the nearness of the Kingdom, and the conditions of entrance into itrepentance and faith.
i. The Fulness of the Time
The time is fulfilled.
What is fulfilment? The fruit is the fulfilment of the bloom, the meridian day is the fulfilment of the dawn. What we mean by the word as it is applied to Christ is, that there was something foreshadowed, and in Him that something was revealed; that on the lip of time there was a whisper and a suggestion, of which Christ was the uttered word; in the fulness of time the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.1 [Note: W. J. Dawson, The Divine Challenge, 78.]
1. There was a threefold work of preparation for the coming of the Son of God carried forward in what was then called the civilised world, and each portion of it required the lapse of a certain time.
(1) First, the world was to be prepared politically for His work. In order to spread an idea or a creed, two instruments, if not strictly necessary, are at least desirable. Of these one is a common language, such as the French language was in Europe half a century ago, a language of civilisation, which shall be a means for expressing new thoughts and convictions without subjecting them to misrepresentation by the process of translation. Another is a common social system, common laws, a common government.
(2) There was a second preparation in the convictions of mankind. The heathen nations were not without some religion, which contained, in various degrees, elements of truth, however mingled with or overlaid by errors. But from the first the ancient religions tended to bury God in the visible world which witnessed to Him. The Greeks never knew, in their best days, of a literally Almighty God, still less of a God of love; but it was necessary that their incapacity to retain in their knowledge the little they did know of Him should be proved by experience. Certainly wise men tried to spiritualise the popular language and ideas about God. But the old paganism would not bear such handling; it went to pieces when it was discussed; while philosophy, having no facts to appeal to, but consisting only of views, could never become a religion and take its place. The consequence was the simultaneous growth of gross superstition and blank unbelief, down to the time of the Incarnation.
(3) There was also a preparation in the moral experience of mankind. There was at times much moral earnestness in the old pagan world. But men were content with being good citizens, which is not necessarily the same thing as being good men. In the eyes of Socrates, for instance, all obligations were discharged if a man obeyed the laws of Athens. No man, St. Augustine has said, approached Christianity more nearly than did Plato. Yet Plato tolerated popular vices of the gravest description, and drew a picture of a model state in which there was to be a community of wives. And yet enough survived of moral truth in the human conscience to condemn average pagan practice. Pagans still had, however obscurely, some parts of the Law of God written in their hearts.
2. In the Jewish people, too, a threefold preparation, ending also in a fulness of time, is certainly not less observable. (1) Politically, the Jews were expecting change; they retained the feelings while they had lost the privileges of a free people; their aspirations looked to a better future, though they mistook its character. The sceptre had departed from Judah: Shiloh would come, they believed, immediately. (2) Their purely religious conviction pointed in the same direction. Prophecy had, in the course of ages, completed its picture of the coming Deliverer. Beginning with the indefinite promise of a deliverance, it had gradually narrowed the fulfilment to a particular race, a particular tribe, a particular family; the birth, the work, the humiliation, the death, the triumph, of the Deliverer had been described by anticipation. There was, consequently, an expectation of Israel for which all good men were waiting. (3) But, above all, the Jews underwent a moral preparation for the Son of God. God had given them a Law; in itself holy, just, and good. But this Law itself pronounced a curse on all who did not keep it. Did the Jews keep it? They had had the experience of centuries; had they ever kept it? were they not as far as ever from keeping it, in any sense which conscience would sanction? They had, no doubt, made a certain number of technical extracts from it, and these they could obey mechanically. But the moral principles which it contained did not govern their lives. And they knew it. The Law, then, was to them a revelation of weakness and a revelation of sin. It showed them what, in their natural strength, they could not do. Like a lantern carried into a dark chamber of horrors, which was unlighted before, it showed them what they had done. Thus the Law was, in St. Pauls eyes, a confidential servant to whom God had entrusted the education of Israel to bring him to Christ; and this process had just reached completion.1 [Note: H. P. Liddon, Advent in St. Pauls, 118.]
Christ is the centre of the history of the world, and there could be no error in the date of His appearance. The race had proved its inability to restore itself to lost truth, purity, and happiness. Through the discipline of the Mosaic law, and of natural law, Jew and Gentile were prepared for a spiritual, redeeming religion. And the state of the political world corresponded with the exigencies of a universal faith. When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son. Nothing in nature is more wonderful than the way in which complementary things and creatures arrive together; and in history the same phenomenon is repeated. Gods trains never keep one another waiting. Events synchronise and harmonise. The Incarnation is the crowning example of the dramatic unities of history.2 [Note: W. L. Watkinson, Ashes of Roses, 268.]
ii. The Nearness of the Kingdom
The kingdom of God is at hand.
1. The Kingdom of God.The kingdom of God, as used by our Lord, signified the whole sphere in which the will of God, as an ethical power, is recognised and obeyed. It was the reign of righteousness. The idea was so far traditional; in it the theocracy of Israel, the ideal of the prophets, was still further purified and enlarged. In our Lords use of it, a certain elasticity is apparent, which is, however, never vagueness. The kingdom may be in germ, in process of being realised, or ideally perfect and complete. It has two sidesthe intensive, the qualities which distinguish it; and the extensive, the moral beings whom it includes, and so far as they are under its influence. It is, however, the former much more, and more frequently, than the latter. It is inward, spiritual, invisible, but ever struggling, as it were, towards outward expression and realisation; hence it sometimes appears to be identified with such expression, however inadequate this may yet be. In the future, however, the outward and inward shall correspond. Perhaps what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God is best seen from the position He gives it in the Lords Prayer. Gods Kingdom begins when His name is hallowed, with the turning of the heart in loyalty and devotion towards Him; and is perfected when His will is done, as in heaven so in earth.1 [Note: A. Stewart, in Expository Times, iv. 467.]
The Kingdom of God or of Heaven was a religious conception which our Lord found in possession of the religious mind of Israel. We are just beginning to learn from a study of the Jewish apocalyptic literature of the first pre-Christian century how entirely our Lord accepted for His teaching the framework of religious ideas current among His own people in His own day. He is distinguished hardly at all from His contemporaries by the form of His teaching. But into the current forms He put a largeness and intensity of meaning which they had not known, which was destined in time to break through and transcend them. It was so exactly with this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. For the mind of our Lords contemporaries it was a somewhat confused medley of at least two conceptions which are really distinct. On the one hand it stood for the completion of the Divine purpose in the world of creation. The final destiny of man and of all created things was seen athwart a great cataclysmic judgment. An ultimate redemptive change would pass upon all things that grow here slowly towards their end, and transform them into the changeless reality which God had always meant for them, which God had always seen in them. The new heavens and the new earth would spring suddenly out of that great fire of judgment by which God would sift and try the world. And confusedly mingled with this conception was that of a slower and more gradual process by which this great change would be prepared. During this process, men, or at least an elect of mankind, would be conscious of a nearer presence of God, of a closer presence of Gods redemptive purpose in their affairs. This stage would be already an initiation of the Kingdom of God. It would be marked throughout by an experience of the constant urgency of His judgment, by a growing assurance of the working of His redemptive leaven in the human lump.
Now even here our Lord did not change the forms which He found. He did not seek to disentangle ideas which are at least logically distinct. He, too, sometimes spoke of that completion of human destiny, to be wrought through the sudden whirlwind of a final judgment, as near at hand, as already at the door, as coming within the lifetime of that generation. And again, He spoke of the Kingdom as growing slowly and secretly, as involving a kind of judgment which would leave it to life itself gradually to reveal the evil and the good, which would demand the greatest patience and tolerance lest the good be hindered or even destroyed by a too zealous haste to separate it from the evil. But whichever form He used He made it the vehicle of the definitive and perfect teaching about the nature of Gods judgment. Rather, perhaps, if we may dare to speculate, He may have used both these contemporary religious conceptions because they insisted upon different aspects of the Divine judgment which are vitally united in its reality, though we can only think of them or realise them apartits uncompromisingness and its patience, its absolute character and its gradual process.1 [Note: A. L. Lilley.]
The memory of this great idea is kept alive in Christendom by the Lords Prayer, which has passed into universal use; but the three Creeds, which are supposed to embody the essential features of the Christian religion, take no notice of it. The teaching of the Master appears to be the last thing that occurs to the minds of many Christians; and if they can only pronounce some formula descriptive of His nature and person, they think it superfluous to dwell with loving reverence on the principles which He taught.2 [Note: James Drummond, Via, Veritas, Vita, 123.]
2. The Kingdom of God is at hand.This may mean either that the Kingdom is imminent in the sense that it will soon be realised, or it may mean that the Kingdom has drawn near to men, is now in the midst of men, whether or no they recognise the fact of its present realisation.
The near approach of the Kingdom was what Jesus preached as His good tidings to the people, and veritable good tidings it would be to those who believed Him. It was like proclaiming the dawn of the millennium. John the Baptist had already announced the nearness of Gods Kingdom; but it was in its judgment aspect that he proclaimed it; Jesus emphasised its gracious aspect as the coming of salvation. We have no need to go to the later Apocalyptic conceptions for the foundation of this Gospel; we find it in the Old Testament. The prophets had foretold the coming of this Kingdom in the latter days. Isaiah had pictured it as a time of release to the captive, of justice and consolation to the poor and oppressed, a Jubilee year of Divine acceptance; and Jesus declared that it had dawned upon them. Daniel had foretold how the God of Heaven should set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, and had seen in vision the government committed to one who came with the clouds of heaven, like unto a son of man; he had even given indications of the time when it should appear; Jesus announced that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
But although the Kingdom was approaching, it was not immediately at hand. All Christs teaching implies this, though there is nothing in it that requires the thought of long delay. More than once He gave a distinct negative to the expectation that the Kingdom should immediately appear. He preached repentance and righteousness as its preparation, and He pointed to the powers He was endowed with, through the indwelling Spirit, as a proof of His commission, and, indeed, as an evidence that the Kingdom had come upon them. Although in its form it might be outward, in its essence it was spiritual. While it was something to be entered in the future, men really entered it now as they accepted Jesus and His teachingthat is, they became members of it, having their names written in Heaven, and would be recognised as such by the Son of Man when He came in His glory. He could thus say that the Kingdom of God was within men.1 [Note: W. L. Walker,]
It is at hand; within one step of uswithin one step of earnest purpose and resolute endeavour! It is here in the common things about us, here, in lifes capacity for beauty, kindness, joy; here in home, friends, and even in the associations of the workaday world, which all are rich in the possibilities of kind and happy life! Yes, everywhere the Kingdom of God is at hand to every one of us. Only learn the meaning of this, and it will lead you into the blessed secret of that still deeper wordthe kingdom of God is within you.1 [Note: B. Herford.]
People are always looking for their Kingdoms of God far away. There is always a visionary kingdom glowing in some dim distance of hope or fancy. Your schoolboy reads Robinson Crusoe, or Mayne Reids stories of wonderful adventure, till it seems stupid and dull to be living at home, with regular meals and beds to sleep in, and he muses about some possible desert island or far-off wilderness where life might be passed, chiefly in going about with a gun. Men laugh at thatyet are they so much better? Their kingdoms are more prosaic and substantial, but men are just as liable to miss those that are close to them in looking for those which are far away and utterly problematical. This man has a longing to be at the head of his profession. He is just in the rank and file of it, and he wants to make a name. If he could do this, he could sing nunc dimittis! Thus another man, again, likes powerhas a faculty for organisation:to him it seems as if it would be the very kingdom of God to become the leader of his party, or to attain some high position in the country. This man has a craving to make some striking discovery in science; that, to write a successful book; the other, to paint the best picture of the year.2 [Note: Ibid.]
(1) The Kingdom of God is at hand individually. Every religion has lived and grown in proportion to the number of those that it has helped to strain beyond the vision of the day, to rise above the standard of the hour. It has lived in the measure of the souls it has made. And souls are never made by conformity. They are made by faith. We are not helped to be our true selves by seeing clearly and at once all that we ought to believe and do. We are helped to the real possession of ourselves by a deeper instinct that can be strengthened into a resolute and courageous purpose because God is behind itan instinct which will at all costs pluck the good from the very heart of evil. No religion has ever been given in a system, It grew originally out of the heart, the strength, the soul of a living man. The greatest and truest religion grew out of the life of the greatest and truest Man. There God wrought and strove towards the making of an eternal Spirit, human and Divine, which might work and strive in other hearts for ever.
(2) The Kingdom of God is at hand socially. The result of all human living is social. The social will always grows out of the individual, and always in turn inspires it. The social will can healthily restrain the individual will only because it has first inspired it, and exactly in the measure in which it has inspired it. It restrains us aright when it stirs into life our responsibility towards it, when it makes us feel what we might be and do for it, when it makes us feel what we must not be and do to its hurt. Its restraint is unhealthy only when it would enslave us to its will as if that will were a thing apart from us. And then its will in turn becomes a dead thing, a thing which the living will of man must rebel against and overcome. The truth is that the individual man and human society are so related that the fullest individuality must make the richest and most fruitful society, that society inevitably perishes as individuality becomes meagre and shrunken. The man who is most himself is the man who gives most to society. The man who is a mere reflection of social convention is the man who is helping to make that convention more empty and barren every hour.1 [Note: A. L. Lilley,]
iii. The Conditions of Entering the Kingdom
Repent ye, and believe in the gospel.
Our Lord here commands the two things which are required for salvation. Except ye repent, He says elsewhere, ye shall all perish. And St. Paul declares that without faith it is impossible to please God. Repentance is that which makes us look within ourselves; faith is that which makes us look out from ourselves. And not only must both faith and repentance be there, but they must also be there in proportion. A balance must be maintained between them. If repentance is strong while faith is weak the result is restlessness and dissatisfaction. There is the sense of sin, but there is no assurance of the mercy of God in Christ. Again, if faith is strong, or seems to be strong, while there has been no true repentance, there may be a false confidence that all is well, a blind trust, a blind security.
Those who have a faith which allows them to think lightly of past sin, have the faith of devils, and not the faith of Gods elect. Those who say, Oh, as for the past, that is nothing; Jesus Christ has washed all that away; and can talk about all the crimes of their youth, and the iniquities of their riper years, as if they were mere trifles, and never think of shedding a tear, never feel their souls ready to burst because they should have been such great offenderssuch men who can trifle with the past, and even fight their battles oer again when their passions are too cold for new rebellionsI say that such who think sin a trifle, and have never sorrowed on account of it, may know that their faith is not genuine. Men who have a faith which allows them to live carelessly in the present, who say, Well, I am saved by a simple faith, and then sit on the ale-bench with the drunkard, or stand at the bar with the spirit-drinker, or go into worldly company and enjoy the carnal pleasures and the lusts of the flesh, such men are liars; they have not the faith which will save the soul. They have a deceitful hypocrisy; they have not the faith which will bring them to heaven.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
1. Repentance.Repent ye. With these words Christ commenced His Galilean ministry. The first demand He made on men was the demand for repentance. When He sent out the Twelve on their missionary journey through the country towns and villages, it was to preach that men should repent. When He gave His last instructions to His disciples before He was taken up, He explained to them that it was in accordance with the Scriptures that repentance should be preached in his name unto all the nations.
In the present day we do not sufficiently realise the necessity for repentance. To some extent we have even forgotten what repentance means. We read the great classical outpourings of the contrite soulthe Psalms, or the Confessions of St. Augustine, or the Imitation of A Kempis, or John Bunyans Grace Aboundingand they appear to us almost hysterical. The language of the broken spirit stirs in us no response. We cannot bring ourselves to pray, as Lancelot Andrewes used in agony to pray, O Lord, help Thou mine impenitence; and more and more bruise, and wound, and pierce, and strike my heart!1 [Note: F. Homes Dudden.]
What is Repentance?
1. The first element in penitence, St. Bernard has declared, is regret for what is past. And this is the characteristic, perhaps, that first and most strikingly arrests attention. The whole literature of penitence is blotted with tears of sorrow. Its pages are red with the shame of the saints. Its great word is Peccavi. O my God, my transgressions are very great, very great my sins. I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me. O my God! O God infinitely good! How canst Thou bear with a sinner like me? This ache, this grief, this self-accusing sorrow seems inseparable from repentance. Even on those who know themselves forgiven, even on those who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, there falls the dark shadow of a wasted past, the sadness of knowing that they are not what they might have been.
Yes, Thou forgivest, but with all forgiving
Canst not renew mine innocence again:
Make Thou, O Christ, a dying of my living,
Purge from the sin but never from the pain!
A well-known preacher once began his sermon by saying that he should that day choose seven texts, but pledged himself that all the seven should contain only three words. Those three words were, I have sinned. And, unless we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, those words in their most solemn and crushing force ought often to be on the lips of every one of us. But the Bible shows us how often they may be used and yet not mean repentance. Pharaoh said, I have sinned, in mere terror, and hardened his heart the moment the judgment was removed. Achan said, I have sinned, like some criminal on the scaffold who confesses only when the consequences of his iniquity stare him horribly in the face. Balaam said, I have sinned, but still went on in spite of the drawn sword of the angel, dazzled by the disastrous gleam of Balaks gold. Judas said, I have sinned, but in him it was only despair and remorse as he flung down in the temple the accursed pittance for which he had sold his soul. Saul said, I have sinned, but only to return to his demoniac envy. But, ah! thank God His true penitents have uttered that cry in very different tones. Job said, I have sinned, and humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, and God exalted him. David said, I have sinned, and in a voice broken by sobs sang the dirges of his De profundis and the wailing of his heart, and went forth to find the dark spirits of incest and fratricide walking in his house, but also to find that God restores to godly sorrow a clean heart and a free spirit. The prodigal said, Father, I have sinned, and rose, poor boy, from the husks and swine and the far country to fling himself, weeping as if his heart would break, into his loving fathers arms.1 [Note: F. W. Farrar.]
There was once at Westminster School a singularly innocent boy whose name was Philip Henry. Though he was a Nonconformist the stern royalist headmaster, Dr. Busby, loved him, and severe as he was he never chastised him but once, and then with the words, And thou, too, my child. A holier boy, a holier man, never lived. A contemporary said of him, Should angels come from heaven it is my sense they would not be heard with greater reverence. We praise all virtues in admiring him. Yet when Philip Henry was far advanced in years a young man said to him, Mr. Henry, how long do you mean to go on repenting? Sir, he meekly answered, I hope to carry my repentance to the very gates of heaven.2 [Note: Ibid.]
Towards the end of his life, than which none has been seen more perfect outside the Gospels, St. Francis of Assisi wept so much over his sins that he injured his eyesight; but he would listen to no remonstrance. I would rather choose to lose the sight of the body than to repress those tears by which the interior eyes are purified that they may see God. As George Herbert lay a-dying he said, I am sorry that I have nothing to present to my merciful God except sin and misery, but the first is pardoned, and a few hours will put a period to the latter. Francis Quarles, the author of the Emblems, expressed great sorrow for his sins, and when it was told him that he did thereby much harm to himself, he answered, They were not his friends that would not give him leave to repent. And Bunyan learned that none could enter into life but those who were in downright earnest, and unless they left the wicked world behind them, for here (in the narrow road) was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul and sin. One of the ablest men of his time used to say of Erskine of Linlathen that he never thought of God but the thought of Mr. Erskine was not far away; yet Principal Shairp informs us that, in this holy mans last years, all who conversed intimately with him were struck with his ever deepening sense of sin, and the personal way in which he took this home to himself. Penitence is one of the signs of true religion in every age.1 [Note: John Watson.]
The following curious dream was related to me by the woman who had the strange experience. She dreamed that she entered a large room where many people were on their knees in prayer. An old man with flowing beard was walking about; a man like one of the old prophets. She asked him where she was, to which he replied, What, do you live in Bristol, and not know where you are? No, she answered. Then he told her that the kneeling people were inquiring how far they were from heaven. She said that she too would like to know. Follow me, said the old man, and he led her towards an instrument like a telephone with a serpent-like pipe attached. He worked the apparatus and inquired, while the woman stood trembling for the answer. The reply came, You are not on the road at all. Very sorrowful and shedding bitter tears she turned to leave the room. Just as she reached the door a voice, kind but firm, commanded her to stop. It was the old mans voice. When she turned round he said, Youre all right now. How? she asked; I thought you told me I was not on the road at all. Yes, he replied, I did, but you are on the road now. You have just turned the corner and got on the right way. Those tears of yours are the tears of repentance, and now you are all right.2 [Note: William Forbes.]
2. But repentance is more than sorrow. Sorrow for sin is one element of repentance, but you can be sorry without repentance. There is a kind of sentimental sorrow, a sorrow at the thought of coming retribution and exposure, which is mean, selfish, devilish, and is not healthy and life-giving. There is a sorrow that weeps at funerals and sentimental plays. There are multitudes of people who think they are not far from the Kingdom because their tears come easily; they whisper all sorts of sweet messages to themselves because they can weep. They tell themselves that they are not hard, and therefore there must be hope for them, and all the while they are holding on to forbidden things and walking in forbidden paths.3 [Note: Gipsy Smith.]
(1) It is an act of will.Repentance is not primarily a species of feeling, but an act of will. I want again and again to say that a man can repent with dry eyes. There may be much weeping and no repentance; there may be real penitence where there are no tears. The tears may come in the later day; at the moment of the turning the eyes may be undimmed. Some day I shall come to know how deeply I wounded my Saviour, and the thought may unseal the fountain of tears. Some day I shall know how terrible was my waste of the years, and I shall weep in the irreparable loss. But the first act of all penitence is to turn the back on sin and the face to the Lord. The beginning of all fulness is to be found in a sense of want. The perception of unlikeness to the Lord is the beginning of assimilation. And if I lack this sense of want let me turn to the Word of God. Let me take the commandments, and lay my soul against their measures. And then let me turn to the beatitudes, and estimate my life by their exalted demands. And let me turn to the life of the Master Himself, and accompany Him through His days; and at every turning let me put my soul beside His, and I shall be unlike all others if at the end of the journey I do not feel myself a child of spiritual poverty, craving for the grace and fulness of Christ. God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
(2) It is a movement of the whole being.The late Dr. Bright defined repentance as a thorough-going movement of the whole being away from sin and towards the love and service of God. And I ask you to note these wordsa thorough-going movement of the whole being. Repentance knows no half-measures. It is not the correction of this little failing or that little failing. It is not patch-work. It is renovation of the whole state, and the whole nature, and the whole personalityrenovation through and through, and out and out. That is what Bishop Wilson meant when he wrote, There is no repentance where there is no change of heart. That is what Martin Luther meant when he spoke of repentance as a real bettering and change of the entire life. That is what St. Paul meant in his doctrine of the new creature. This is what the Saviour meant when He said to men, Change your mindnot merely change your actions or your habits, but your mind, your thoughts, your aims, your inner attitude, your very self. Look to thy repentance, writes Richard Baxter. that it be deep and absolute, and free from hypocritical exceptions and reserves.1 [Note: F. Homes Dudden.]
I know some very excellent brethrenwould God there were more like them in zeal and lovewho, in their zeal to preach up simple faith in Christ, have felt a little difficulty about the matter of repentance; and I have known some of them who have tried to get over the difficulty by softening down the apparent hardness of the word repentance, by expounding it according to its more usual Greek equivalent, a word which occurs in the original of the text, and signifies to change ones mind. Apparently they interpret repentance to be a somewhat slighter thing than we usually conceive it to be, a mere change of mind, in fact. Now, allow me to suggest to those dear brethren, that the Holy Ghost never preaches repentance as a trifle; and the change of mind or understanding of which the gospel speaks is a very deep and solemn work, and must not on any account be depreciated. Moreover, there is another word which is also used in the original Greek for repentance,not so often, I admit, but still it is used,which signifies an after-care, a word which has in it something more of sorrow and anxiety than that which signifies changing ones mind. There must be sorrow for sin and hatred of it in true repentance, or else I have read my Bible to little purpose. In very truth, I think, there is no necessity for any other definition than that of the childrens hymn
Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before,
And show that we in earnest grieve,
By doing so no more.
To repent does mean a change of mind; but then it is a thorough change of the understanding and all that is in the mind, so that it includes an illumination, an illumination of the Holy Spirit; and I think it includes a discovery of iniquity and a hatred of it, without which there can hardly be a genuine repentance.2 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
2. Belief.Believe in the gospel. What is this? I suppose it to be assent to the truth as true, and then a personal trust in the influence and result of this truth. It is to turn from sin and to trust the promises of God in Christ for present and eternal salvation. He who thus trusts, honours Gods truth, magnifies Gods Son, and is saved. And yet people come to me almost every day, saying, I am trying to trust. Suppose I should go to one of my friends who is the teller of a bank, with a cheque in my hand, and as I stood before the window I should hold the cheque, and say, I want money for this. Give me the cheque and I will bring you the money. No; I cannot trust you that far. Yes; but I will go right to the counter and bring you the money. No; I will try to trust you (and still I hold on to the cheque). But my good man, my friend says, I cannot get you the money without the cheque. I cannot give you the cheque; that is the only evidence of value I have, and when I give you that it is all gone. I will try to trust you; bring me the money. I am turning the tables on the teller; I am asking him to trust me, instead of trusting him. The act of trust is to give instantly all that we have that is imperilled into the hands of the One from whom the redemption and the provision are to come. And so when the sinner, believing the Word of Jesus Christ, just gives himself in prayer to Christ, and leaves himself, so far as his present safety and his eternal salvation are concerned, that man trusts and believes the gospel.
With penitence, then, there must come belief. And it must be belief, in the sense of trust. And it must be trust in a person who is trustworthy. I am to enthrone the Saviour in my soul. Deliberately, definitely, and decisively, I am to proclaim Him King. I am to bow to His will, and trust His power and grace. I am to commit my way to Him, and stake my all upon Him, to venture life and death, the present and the future, upon His fidelity and holy covenant. Then is the Kingdom founded, and gradually rioting will change into order, rebellion will pass into harmony, and some day I shall be able to say with the Psalmist, All that is within me, bless his holy name.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
In this, His first sermon, Jesus added a new word to the Baptists message, and the substance of the things to be received had now gained from His life the title, which ever since it has held, Believe the gospel. These three words were the love tokens with which He came to seek and save the lost. In the repetition of these three words He fulfils the embassage of peace upon which He came from the Father.2 [Note: S. H. Tyng.]
One of our visitors went to a poor home of suffering not long since, and in a dark chamber of the tenement lay stretched on a pallet of straw a poor woman, whom God had strangely afflicted by the loss of sight, and then by paralysis of one sidea poor, helpless creature, so far as the offices of this world are concerned. He ministered to her in the necessities of her body, and then asked her how her soul was related to God; and, as Joshua with the children of Israel, he did it in the way of rebuke, at first: Are you truly saved? (for she had already professed that she was a Christian). The voice answered with meekness, Why not? But what good thing have you done, to pretend to be saved? And the only answer from the pallet of suffering was, Why not? Yes; but perhaps you are presuming. How do you know you are saved? The answer of faith came, Jesus Christ came to seek and to save sinners, and I am a lost sinner; why am I not saved? Ah! there was wealth there which no possessions of this earth can gain, for a sinner had taken God at His word. She propounded a question to which all the wise men of this age can give no answer. If a sinner, why not saved? This is the gospel, and this it is to believe the gospel.1 [Note: S. H. Tyng.]
The phrase, believe in the gospel is unique. Nor do we elsewhere hear of believing the gospel. Faith is always regarded as due to the Person of whom the gospel speaks. Yet faith in the message was the first step. A creed of some kind, says Swete, lies at the basis of confidence in the Person of Christ.
A poor woman once came to Dr. Barnardo with a broken heart, telling a sad story of the wandering life of an only daughter in the great metropolis, and implored his help. After considering the situation for a moment Dr. Barnardo said: Yes, I can help you. Get your photograph taken, frame a good many copies, write under the picture, Come Home, and send them to me. The pictures were soon in his hands, and were placed by him in the places frequented by such friendless outcasts. One night the unhappy girl saw the picture, and was greatly startled to see her mothers handwriting welcoming her home. That very night she returned repentant and forgiven to her mothers arms. It is this turning from a life of sin to a life of love that Jesus enables us to accomplish in response to His good news of proferred love and forgiveness.2 [Note: Hugh T. Kerr.]
Love saith to me, Repent;
Love saith to me, Believe;
Love sayeth ofttimes, Grieve
That thou hast little lent,
That thou hast little given,
To Him, thy Lord in heaven,
And when He cometh what wilt thou receive?
Love sayeth to me, Pray
That thou mayst meet that day
Desired yet feared; and ofttimes Love again
Repeats these words, and oh! my spirit then,
What sayest thou? I say
To all Love sayeth, Yea,
Yea, evermore, and evermore Amen!
A Model Sermon
Literature
Burton (H.), Gleanings in the Gospels, 141.
Church (R. C), Advent Sermons, 29, 58.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, 1st Ser., 279.
Drysdale (A. H.), Christ Invisible our Gain, 151.
Dudden (F. Homes), Christ and Christs Religion, 171.
Harcourt (W. V.), Sermons, 78.
Herford (B.), Anchors of the Soul, 136.
How (W. W.), Plain Words, i. 113.
Kelley (A. R.), Intent on Pleasing Thee, 13.
Lilley (A. L.), Adventus Regni, 115, 123, 130, 138.
Little (W. J. Knox), Light of Life, 65.
Melvill (H.), The Golden Lectures, 2nd Ser., No. 2514.
Smith (Gipsy), As Jesus Passed By, 19.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, viii., No. 460.
Tyng (S. H.), The Peoples Pulpit, New Ser., ii. 221.
Walker (W. L.), The True Christ, 68.
British Congregationalist, JulyDecember 1908, 406 (Jowett).
Christian World Pulpit, xxviii. 385, 401 (Church); xlvii. 305 (Fairbairn); lx. 121 (Brook); lxxi. 348 (Bevan).
Church of England Pulpit, xxvii. 85 (Rawstorne).
Expositor, 1st Ser., iv. 430 (Fairbairn).
Expository Times, xiv. 538 (Briggs).
Homiletic Review, xliv. 74 (Hoyt).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
am 4031, ad 27
after: Mat 4:12, Mat 11:2, Mat 14:2, Luk 3:20, Joh 3:22-24
preaching: Isa 61:1-3, Mat 4:23, Mat 9:35, Luk 4:17-19, Luk 4:43, Luk 4:44, Luk 8:1, Act 20:25, Act 28:23, Eph 2:17
Reciprocal: Mat 4:17 – that Mar 2:2 – and he Luk 4:14 – returned Luk 9:2 – General Luk 16:16 – the kingdom Luk 23:5 – beginning Act 10:37 – after Act 28:31 – Preaching Heb 2:3 – began
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Mar 1:14-15
The belief in the coming of some anointed one, to be at once king and prophet, was universal even in the darkest days of Jewish history, however unworthy may have been the conception of his mission and office. And now at a time of deep depression, and in a generation which was destined to see the destruction of Jerusalem, the sacred capital of the nation and the centre of all its religions associations, Jesus begins in the distant provincial towns of Galilee to declare openly that the foreordained season has arrived, and that the Kingdom of God has actually come nigh.
I. Is the ideal fulfilled?But can we now, after the lapse of nineteen centuries from the first Advent of Jesus Christ, say that the grand ideal which the scriptures of the New Testament set before us has been realised? What is the visible manifestation of the triumph of the Kingdom? Where is its unity, its universality, its sanctity? Alas! we must confess that there is a wide divergence between the actual and the ideal. Spiritual kingdoms, which own a far different king than Christ, still sway whole peoples and languages. The Kingdom, so far as it is manifested in the Church, is divided against itself. Eastern, Roman, Anglican Christianity, and vast organisations of religious communities external to all these, divide Christendom. The sole kingship of Christ in His Church has not been duly recognised; in days of degeneracy the Church has forgotten that she is not of this world, though her mission is in the world, that the weapons of her warfare are not carnal, and has failed to act upon the precepts of her Founder; her rulers have too frequently sought for themselves worldly influence or wealth, instead of pursuing disinterestedly the moral and spiritual improvement of those committed to their charge. The immorality of the unregenerate world has found its way into what purports to be the kingdom of righteousness. If we are terribly disappointed at the sad contrast between what is and what might have been, we may find some consolation in the reflection that Jesus Himself never gave men reason to expect the speedy and unopposed triumph of His Kingdom. Nay, He even condemned as premature the attempt to separate utterly the evil and the good. Men are apt to hurry on events; Gods purposes move slowly through the ages.
II. Unattached Christians.It may, however, be wise for us to reflect that if it was the declared purpose of Jesus Christ to establish a kingdom, of which His Church was to be in the world the chief organ of manifestation, it ought not to be a matter of indifference to any whether they associate themselves in fellowship with that Church, and endeavour to promote its high and noble ends. It is a spurious liberality, professing to be wiser than Christ Himself, which holds itself aloof from communion with the great spiritual society, and leads men with some affectation of personal superiority to boast of being Christians unattached. If such a profession of Christianity claims to be in accordance with precedents of the New Testament, we repudiate that claim as unsustained by facts. Christ taught a doctrine which we believe on His authority, but He also founded a kingdom which, though in its full completion it is yet invisible, He led us to believe would be visible in a society of men, who were to form the body of which He would ever remain the Head. Is it not melancholy that, in our own time and country, multitudes of those who profess and call themselves Christians separate themselves so far from their fellow-Christians that they never join with them in such high acts of devotion as Holy Communion; that intelligent and educated men and women will allow attendance at some highly ornate musical service on a Sunday afternoon to be almost their sole outward profession of Christianity; that they will adopt language which implies that they are patrons and friends from without of the Church, rather than members of that great society by whose laws they ought to govern their conduct, and whose mission in the world ought to be shared by themselves?
III. The Kingdom in political and social life.If the Kingdom of God is to vindicate its claim to universality and ultimate triumph, it must aim more earnestly than as yet it has ever done at the permeation of all political and social life with Christian principles of action. We all admit that in the conduct of individual life nothing is more fatal to the true realisation of religion than the divorce between religion and morality: but it is no less disastrous to banish religion from the social life of politics and commerce. The eternal principles of righteousness and unselfishness, which are the distinguishing marks of the Kingdom of God, must govern the relations of nation towards nation, and of governing powers towards all the various classes in each separate political community. The Church, if it is to be the true representative of the Kingdom, must bear witness against tyranny and oppression, and an aggressive policy of natural aggrandisement. In commercial life the Church must not, through cowardice or through adulation of wealth and power, forbear to proclaim that the law of Christ demands that we should do unto others as we would they should do unto us. Inculcating love, sympathy, goodness, gentleness, she must endeavour to evoke a true sense of brotherhood in Christ. The Kingdom of God will never reign widely if it should appear that the Church is always on the side of the rich and the strong and the noble. Is it too much to hope that it may be reserved for the Church of Christ, working from within, to solve the social problem?
Rev. Professor Ince.
Illustration
As a king, wrote Bishop Westcott, Christ received His earliest homage in the manger at Bethlehem. As a king He died reigning from the cross. The message which His herald was commissioned to proclaim, the message with which He Himself opened His ministry, was the advent of the Kingdom. After His resurrection He spoke with His disciples the things pertaining the Kingdom of God. And they in turn carried the glad tidings wherever they went beyond the borders of Juda. It was of a kingdom St. Philip spoke at Samaria: of a kingdom St. Paul spoke at Antioch, Thessalonica, Ephesus. And the last historic glimpse which we have of the apostolic working, shows us the same prisoner of the Lord preaching the Kingdom of God in his captivity at Rome. In every part of the New Testament, in every region of early Christian labour, the teaching is the same. The object of redemption is set before us not simply as the deliverance of individual souls, but as the establishment of a Divine society: the saving not only of man, but of the world: the hallowing of life, and not, characteristically, the preparation for leaving it.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 5.
John and Jesus
“Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galileo, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”-Mar 1:14, Mar 1:15.
John and the Greater than John.
The “delivering up” of John just when he was at the very height of his usefulness and power must have seemed to thousands in Palestine to be mere and sheer tragedy. But it often happens that “when the half gods go, the gods arrive,” and so the imprisonment of John was but the signal for the appearance of Jesus.
When Herod shut up John in prison he probably thought he had silenced the one and only brave witness for purity and truth. When the people who loved John and believed in him heard that he had been so shut up, they probably thought that the great work he had begun was bound to come to an end. But Herod’s hope and the people’s fears were alike disappointed. Though John was silenced, God still had His witness. Though one worker was removed, God had Another ready to carry on the work. “Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus came” (Mar 1:14, R.V.) The silencing of the Baptist opened the lips of Him who spake as never yet man spake.
The Futility of Resistance to God.
How futile it is to try to stifle the truth and fight against the progress of the kingdom! God’s work will never be allowed to come to a stand for lack of workers! The Sanhedrin stoned Stephen, but after Stephen came Paul. John Hus was burned in Constance, and Savonarola was gibbeted in Florence, but after Hus and Savonarola came Martin Luther. Mary kindled fires for Protestant confessors: she burned Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, Cranmer, in the hope of burning out Protestantism with them; but God raised one after another to continue their witness, and our free Protestant England is the result. It is ever so; God buries His workmen, but carries on his work. After John comes Jesus.
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God” (Mar 1:14, R.V.) Jesus came to carry on John’s work, and yet with a great difference.
The Two Messages.
John’s message was a stern one. It was his business to do what the old Scottish preachers called “law work,” to beget conviction of sin; but the message of Jesus was a Gospel; it was glad tidings, it was good news. It was “the Gospel of God” He preached; the Gospel, that is, which originated with God, or which He received from God. It was a message of “pure mercy and of infinite love.”
The Gospel of the Kingdom.
And the mercy and love were specially revealed in the fact that the kingdom of God, long promised and long expected, was about to be established. But how different a kingdom it was from that which the Jews had looked for! “Jesus came preaching!” Preaching! What the Jews looked for was a prince who should come with a sword in his hand. Instead of that Jesus come preaching! He addressed Himself not to the political passions, but to the consciences of men. The kingdom He came to establish was not a kingdom of earthly majesty, it was a kingdom of souls.
Conditions of Entry into the Kingdom: Repentance
What are the conditions of entrance into this kingdom? “Repent ye,” said Jesus, “and believe in the Gospel.” “Repent”-that is John’s call taken up and repeated by Christ. And “repent” means more than being sorry for sin, it means the repudiation of it. “Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor”-that is repenting. “What things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ”-that is repenting. “Burn them,” said a convert in the Welsh Revival, handing to his minister three gambling-clubs’ membership tickets-that is repenting. And let us settle it with our hearts, there is no entering the kingdom without repenting.
-Faith.
“Repent and believe.” Repentance is incomplete without faith. John left it at “repent.” Jesus added a new article, “and believe in the Gospel.” John said, “Put your sin away.” Jesus added, “and receive into your souls the love and mercy of God.”
Believe in the Gospel! Believe in the goodness and the mercy of God. “The Son of God… loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20)-believe in that.
The Case of Samuel Johnson.
Do we believe in it? It is a simple and quiet faith in this Gospel that brings peace and joy. Dr. Johnson repented many a time, as his diaries bear witness. He was constantly bemoaning his sins. But it was not till he came to his dying bed that he really found peace.
A clergyman wrote to him as he lay in his last illness to this effect: “I say to you, in the language of the Baptist, ‘Behold the Lamb of God.'”
“Does it say so?” murmured Johnson. “Read it again.”
And the word about Jesus, the Lamb of God, in love bearing the burden of human sin, brought quiet comfort to his heart; and as we believe in the same glorious Gospel we too shall enter into peace.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
5
Time is fulfilled means the predictions of the start of the kingdom of God as to time had been fulfilled. On that ground Jesus commanded them to repent and believe the gospel. Why did he put repentance before belief? A fuller statement on the same subject is in Act 20:21. The work of John and Jesus was among the Jews only. They were still under the Mosaic system in which God was the only personality they were supposed to serve. But they had become slack toward God and were obligated to repent on behalf of Him, then come with clean hands to the new system and believe the Gospel. It was like telling a debtor to pay up his old debts before asking a new creditor to accept him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 1:14. Now after John was delivered up, i.e., put in prison. On the reason of this imprisonment, see chap. Mar 6:17.
Jesus came into Galilee. See Mat 4:12. Not from fear of Herod, but on account of the opposition of the Pharisees, and also to reach the Galilean masses who had been impressed by the preaching of John.
Preaching the gospel of God. See below and comp. Mat 4:17; Mat 4:23, from the latter passage the words: of the kingdom have crept in here.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Subdivision 2. (Mar 1:14-45; Mar 2:1-28; Mar 3:1-35.)
His ministry.
That ministry itself is now to be put before us, and the various characters of evil, hopeless to any other, present themselves in rapid succession, the spiritual root of it being first of all emphasized; while even the bodily diseases become the pictures of more distressing and fatal maladies, – the visible being made to manifest the invisible, after the manner of Scripture indeed everywhere, and after the manner of nature also: for one is based upon the other. Thus too the divine dealings with these acquire an interest for us they could not otherwise possess. The Gospel narratives are seen to be not simply histories of the past, but depict for us the present also, and appeal to us with fuller, more pervasive and personal claim. That we may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to the sick of the palsy, Rise and take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. The word of God is characterized in this way by its tender concern for the soul of man; and everywhere, “Scripture inspired of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
1. The Lord’s public ministry in Galilee begins from the imprisonment of John His forerunner. He takes up the testimony which the world has done its best to silence, and, more definitely than even John; declares the time to be fulfilled and the Kingdom of God to be come near. Herod might have been thought to have proved his own kingdom to be the more substantial reality, with the herald of the divine one languishing in prison; but now it is that the announcement is made afresh with new power and evidence. A gospel indeed in a world so bruised in Satan’s fetters; but yet with its claim of repentance which John had so earnestly enforced. These are the first words of the great Healer, and His words precede His deeds. Before all other deliverances, and that these may be truly such, the Word must be spoken by which man lives. For death is but the shadow of sin; and the true life alone can banish it.
The Kingdom of God is at hand. As a Kingdom of truth, it is to be established by the truth in the hearts of men; it must have its heralds. The Lord begins, therefore, now to call the men who are to proclaim it, – who are to be as He terms it, in words derived from that which they give up to follow Him, the “fishers of men.” The account given is almost exactly the same as what we find in Matthew, and as brief as can be. There is none of the personal work done in their souls: that is supplied by John and Luke (Joh 1:35-42; Luk 5:4-11).
2. There is omitted also the first preaching in Nazareth (Luk 4:1-44), which in the decisive rejection which follows it, causes Him to leave the place in which He had grown up. Capernaum, “the village of consolation,” became now “His own city” (Mat 9:1), and in this for a time fulfilled its name. The first act of His power here, as given by Mark, is one that is fundamental for the blessing of the earth, the casting of Satan out of it. When He shall come in power, to take all things into His hand, the dragon will be shut up in the bottomless pit. Similarly, the first sign given to Moses, whereby he is to prove his divine call as the deliverer of Israel, is the return of the rod of power, which, cast out of his hand, is become a serpent, once more to be the shepherd’s rod of protection for the flock.
Here in Capernaum the demon is in the synagogue, in the midst of the professing people of God, and as gathered before God; introduced in the person of a man whom he has possessed. The Word, in the mouth of Christ, manifests him, and he cries out in words which show his conviction; and are demoniac in their suggestion still. Gripping his poor victim to him, “he cries out, saying, Let us alone: what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.”
The change of pronoun is very suggestive here. The knowledge of the Holy One is that of the demon alone; he would join with him in the dread which it inspires, and the desire to escape from Him as a destroyer, the one to whom He is to be a Saviour! The devil is always that – the “false accuser”; and the dread of coming doom (which he has – for “the demons believe and tremble”) cannot alter his nature. Hell will make no change in this way, though doubtless it will be, and is meant to be, a restraint upon the manifestation of it.
But the word of Christ casts out the demon: in one last convulsion; permitted to show the reality of his malign power, ere he leaves unwillingly his prey. The people, amazed, accredit it as the testimony of a “new teaching,” a fresh interposition of God in the affairs of men, as in truth it was. “Signs” were for the confirmation of the Word, wherever this was new, or where, perhaps, as in Elijah’s time, it had been practically lost, and needed recovery. Where it had been received, among disciples of Christ even; where the workers of miracles had a distinct place, and signs originally followed those that believed, (Mar 16:17), they yet were given in conformity with the divine purpose as to them. The people, therefore, rightly inferred a new teaching from the power accompanying the Lord’s word. And the manifestations of that power were completely in accordance with the grace that characterized the message that was being given. They were works of power in deliverance and blessing. The New Testament Elijah “wrought no miracle” (Joh 10:41); grace in the One that followed John lavished its wonders to attract the needy ones it sought.
Here then the field of service opens out: God in His overflow of goodness amid the sin and sorrow of the world finds in Christ the means of manifestation. In the gospel, for the first time, He is adequately manifested; and the miracles are a visible gospel, “powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:5, Gk.), in which the earth’s salvation is anticipated and the Kingdom of God seen as redemption from all the effects of sin.
Thus, the power of Satan broken, Simon’s mother-in-law is raised up from her sick bed with ability at once to minister. And then a multitude of these two classes, the diseased and those possessed with demons, carefully and twice over distinguished from one another, gather around Him, to find unfailingly deliverance at His hands.
But with this we are given a glimpse also of that abiding intercourse with God in which He lived. “Rising early a great while before day, He went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed.” The picture of service would not be complete without this – the root of it. But how instructive to find such seasons of retirement and prayer observed by the Son of God! Our natural thoughts as to such a Person would be against it. We should be inclined to think it too formal, too artificial, and ignoring too much of His divine nature; we should imagine it as implying too much an effort to get near or to keep near His Father. The evangelist does not in the least stop to apologize for it or explain it, however; but leaves it to have its due effect upon us, a needed feature in the picture of the glorious Worker here. How necessary then for us must be such hours of retirement, such seasons of devotion! which, alas, some would consider it “legal” to insist upon; whether for ourselves or others, and which the intrusion of things without, the demands of daily life, the very occupation with service itself, are apt to trench upon so much. Noticeable it is, then; that the apostles, upon making the proposition for the choice of the Seven; gave as their own occupation, -“we will give ourselves unto prayer and to the ministry of the Word”: – “to prayer,” as the first requisite, not an appendage to their work, but an essential part of the work itself. For here the vessel is put afresh under the fountain, – the instrument into the Hand that is really to handle it.
Nor is it forgotten in saying this that the spring is really in the vessel, – that our Lord has said, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him, a fountain of water, springing up unto eternal life.” None the less must there be for overflow the practical acknowledgment of dependence which, giving God His place, gives man also his. No spiritual working is independent of moral order; and divine power works so as to give place to human responsibility for this.
That the Son of God should be found in such conformity to human conditions shows us how truly He is Man; and we are meant, as is plain, to realize this. Scripture does not hide but brings fully before us the truth of His manhood, and that in ways which writers not speaking as “moved by the Holy Ghost” would surely not have ventured.
The disciples follow the Lord with the announcement that all men are seeking Him. They are evidently under the impress of the popular feeling, and have no discernment of its character. The Lord meets it quietly with the purpose of God which He is fulfilling. The crowd might rather hinder His access to souls, or misrepresent the grace which was seeking men to bring them with their personal needs before God. Not in the crowd but in isolation could this best be done, and the seed of the Word must be scattered widely to find the good ground that would receive it. “Let us go elsewhere,” He says, “into the neighboring country-towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.” He passes over the wonders which have attracted the masses, to emphasize the preaching of the Word as His true object. And He went into the synagogues and preached throughout all Galilee, and cast out demons.” Mark, as the Gospel of service, shows us everywhere the power of the enemy on the alert to frustrate it. In the presence of Christ the enemy has no power; but there is in man himself what is of deeper significance, and this it is to which the evangelist now points our attention.
3. Mark and Luke join together the story of the leper and that of the palsied man. Leprosy was in Israel so connected with banishment from the presence of God, and in itself so virulent and incurable an evil, as readily to suggest the corruption and malignity of sin as that of which it was a type (see Lev 13:1-59 notes). With sin also the Lord links the case of the palsied man: first of all pronouncing him forgiven before healing him. The two together thus naturally remind us of the corruption and impotence of fallen men, the “ungodly” and “without strength” of the apostle (Rom 5:6). Here is the double witness to the ruin of man; in their healing, therefore, the witness of the full provision for his need in Christ.
The story of the leper is given in very similar terms in the three synoptists. Mark is slightly the fullest; Matthew the least full. Mark alone speaks of the Lord’s compassion moving the hand that touched the unclean and cleansed him. Thus an authority higher than that of law was confirmed by the law: and for this the leper is sent to the priest. He had to certify that One not under its restrictions had done what it was not possible for law to do. No more could it deal with the corruption of heart which the touch of Christ alone can remedy. “He that sinneth hath not seen Him neither known Him,” says the disciple nearest to Him. Surely he knows Him, who has felt the thrill of that life-giving touch which brings out of the otherwise unending banishment into the sweet relationships of a new life with God for ever.
“Immediately the leprosy departed from him.” So that a robber, from his well-earned cross of shame, is ready for Paradise and the company of Christ. So that the apostle can say of us all, that the Father “hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12). The blotches and disfigurements of our practical life may seem to gainsay this; and we must not deny or belittle them: alas, there is in us still that which is not Christian; but there is, too, a new man; “created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” and who can say of all this, “It is not I that do it;” and it still remains true, whether or not we have learned to reconcile it with our experience, that “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin: for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Into all this it is not here the place to enter. Mark emphasizes the prohibition to the healed man not to publish the miracle, and notes the effect of this being violated, the reason for the Lord’s withdrawing from the crowds being, no doubt, what it was before. Follow Him, however, they will, for their needs are imperative, and the omnipotent mercy of God is with Him, flowing freely for them.
4. The healing of the paralytic follows that of the leper; and here the crowd is a manifest hindrance to drawing near the Lord. His own condition also forbids it on his own part, but the faith of others bears him up, and through all obstacles, into the presence of Christ. How good to see the ready answer that faith in this way here receives. The Lord goes to the root of the matter: He deals with what underlies the whole condition; “Son,” He says, “thy sins be forgiven thee.”
“It was a wondrous utterance, and must have sounded still more strangely, when thus first heard, than to us who have been familiar with it from childhood. No one had ever heard Him admit, even by a passing word, His own sinfulness; He showed no humility before God as a sinner; never sought pardon at His hands. Yet no Rabbi approached Him in opposition to all that was wrong, for He went even beyond the act to the sinful desire. The standard He demanded was no less than the awful perfection of God. But those round Him heard Him now rise above any mere tacit assumption of this sinless purity by His setting Himself in open contrast with sinners, in His claim, not only to announce the forgiveness of sins by God, but Himself to dispense it. He pardons the sins of the repentant creature before Him on His own authority as a King, which it would be contradictory to have done, had He Himself been conscious of having any sin and guilt of His own. It is clear that He could have ventured on no such assumption of the prerogative of God, had He not felt in Himself an absolute harmony of spiritual nature with Him, so that He only uttered what He knew was the divine will. It was at once a proclamation of His own sinlessness, and of His kingly dignity as the Messiah, in whose hands had been placed the rule over the new theocracy.”*
{* Geikie: “Life and Words of Christ.”}
Such an answer to faith was a challenge, no less, to unbelief; and the scribes sitting watchful there among the rest, could not but be roused. It shows how they felt yet the power of His presence, or that for the time, “the world had gone after Him,” that they keep it in their hearts without utterance; but there in their hearts it ferments: “Why doth this man speak thus? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but God alone?”
But He pursues even the unspoken thought with His divine knowledge: “Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Which is easier” – a beautiful word that “easier”: for with Him words must have their full worth, nothing less; so that the word carries all the weight of the deed: – “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise and take up thy couch, and walk?” Yet now His deeds shall vouch for His words, if only it may conquer them to faith: – “But, that ye may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, – He saith unto the paralytic – Arise, take up thy couch, and go unto thy house.”
And so it is: the glorious announcement is convincingly sealed. Forgiveness of sins, not possible under stringent conditions, or to be known when called to meet God, but now, “on earth,” positively assured and made his own, and the new life flowing through him the seal of it: this is what becomes the possession of the rejoicing man. This is also the good news that is published in him to the multitude around. “The Son of man has” this “authority:” One in the reality of man’s nature, yet exceptional in that very title; having to emphasize in His own case, as strange to it, what need not be affirmed of another; – well might they be amazed, and glorify God for it! Not to them only: to earth, hell, heaven; it was the marvel of marvels. Angels were saying adoringly, with this company of earth’s fallen creatures, objects in their misery of the love that brought Him down: “We never saw it on this fashion.”
5. All this intimates the change that was coming in. Already there was among them One who was greater than the law and stood in a very different relation to it than men as sinners. Doubtless there was, incorporated with the law itself, a ritualistic system which in contrast with the rigor of the moral requirement, addressed itself to sinners as a provision of mercy which pointed the eye of faith also to the better thing to come. But, just as doing this, it revealed its own incapacity for deliverance from the condemnation which the law to which it was wedded preached, and was designed to preach. Only in preaching this could it act as the “handmaid” of the grace for which it was preparing the way; and to find hope in law was just to defeat the very end for which it was given; and thus the Lord had to tell the people led away by their blind Pharisaic teachers: “There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.”
The ministry of Christ showed clearly that all was on the point of change. Divine love, now manifesting itself in Him, could be satisfied with nothing short of the fullest expression; and this is what He now affirms. The call of Matthew or Levi, and that which is connected with it here, is found in almost identical words in the three synoptists. The teaching as to the Sabbath with which it is followed in Mark and Luke, is found in Matthew, in a different connection.
(1) While the matter of the Lord’s teaching is more fully given in any other of the Gospels than in Mark, the fact and constancy of it are as much insisted on as in any, and the miracles, as we have seen; follow and confirm it. His going forth again by the sea and teaching may have significance akin to what we find in Mat 13:1-58 : for the grace now to display itself so fully, apart from law, suggests ever that going forth to the nations in which it was so soon to issue. Mark alone gives this as the preface to the calling of Levi, as Matthew is called in Luke also; Mark only speaks of him as the son of Alphaeus: what is signified for us by the difference of name?
The meaning of Levi we already know. Leah says at his birth: “Now will my husband be joined to me. . . . Therefore was his name called Levi” (joined).
Alphaeus is more difficult. Some give it, with Young, as “leader, chief.” Others would identify it with Clopas (the Cleophas of our common version, Joh 19:25), and then it may* mean “passing on” or “beyond,” in a bad sense, “transgressing.” In this way the two names have a relation to each other and to the context here, so striking that it is hard not to accept it as giving that divine thought which assuredly there is somewhere to be found. They would thus speak of “joining together” as the result of “passing beyond” law, and so does grace bring God and man; Gentile and Jew together.
{*As Chalpai.}
In this way Levi, the tax-gatherer, called from his tax-office to be an apostle of Christ, from a legal exactor to be a minister of the divine bounty, comes to fulfil his name. We have abundance of similar cases in the word of God; and if absence of meaning could be proved in Levi’s case, this would be indeed the strange thing to be accounted for.
Grace has its way, and Levi follows Jesus; and this becomes an initiative of work of a like pattern. For to Levi’s house many come of those whom the Jews put together as of one kind – “tax-gatherers and sinners” – and take their places at table with Jesus and His disciples; and it is added as an explanatory note upon this, “for there were many, and they followed Him.” This is only what the Lord Himself told the Pharisees as to John; and they that had ear for John’s stern insistence on repentance had ear also on this very account for the “piping” of grace.
But the Pharisees and scribes find fault with this laxity, as they conceive it. “Why is it,” they ask, “that He eateth and drinketh with tax-gatherers and sinners?” His answer is conclusive: He is the Physician of souls: will He surround Himself, then. with the healthy or diseased? He does not come on the vain quest for righteousness, which the law had already proved vain: then indeed He would have been; as they thought Him, in a wrong place; but He had made no such mistake. Were they making none? “I came not to call the righteous but sinners.” And sinners are they who have always heard that call.
(2) But this involved a far-reaching change of method. The old must give place to the new, the rigid forms be exchanged for the expansive freedom of the Spirit. How could the prescribed fasts go on; with the Bridegroom in their midst? By and by, indeed, He would be taken away; and then they would fast. But how could their rags of legal righteousness be patched with the so different righteousness of faith? or the new wine of spiritual power be shut up in the forms of ceremonial Judaism?
(3) Mark and Luke append to this the Lord’s settlement of the Sabbath question, which for the Jew had such great importance as involving their whole covenant-relation to God. This we have very similarly in Matthew (Mat 12:1-13, see notes), though in a different connection. The example of David, is given here as there; but instead of the appeal to the priests in the temple, and the quotation from Hosea, Mark substitutes Christ’s own affirmation that “the Sabbath was made for man; and not man for the Sabbath: so that the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The tender solicitude for man, which appeared in such an institution, and which the Pharisees had gone far to obliterate by the harshness of their additions, was itself the convincing proof of the authority of the Son of man over it. It was for man that He had become the Son of man; and as such, all the blessing of man was in His hand to accomplish. Reject Him, and all this vanished. The rest of God, the real rest for all His creatures, He alone could bring in; and the sign was necessarily gone when that which it signified had no longer reality for any.
(4) The need of man is enforced more strongly in the synagogue lesson which follows, the healing of the withered hand. Here they would have restrained with their interpretation of the Sabbath law the very going out of divine power itself in behalf of such misery as the world was full of. Was it, then, a law not to do good but to do evil? to let death have its way, rather than preserve life? But they remain obstinately silent. Then; the love within Him burning to anger at the hardness of their hearts, He summons divine power to witness against them in the healing of the man. They are confounded but unhumbled; and their wrath against Him unites Pharisees with Herodians henceforth to destroy Him.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
In this our Saviour’s first beginning to preach the gospel, we have an account of the time when, the place where, and the sum of what, he preached.
Observe, 1. The time when our Lord began to preach, and that was after John the Baptist was cast into prison,
Where note, 1. The undue reward which the ministers of God do sometimes meet with from a wicked world; they are hated, persecuted, and imprisoned, for their courage in reproving sin: John for reproving Herod’s incest was put in prison.
Note, 2. John was no sooner in prison, and stopped and hindered from preaching, but Christ began to preach. See the care and kindness of God towards his church, in that he never leaves it wholly destitute of the means of instruction: when some of his faithful ministers are restrained from preaching, he stirreth up others in their room, not suffering all their mouths to be stopped at once.
Observe, 2. The place where our Lord first preached, in Galilee. The land of Canaan, in our Saviour’s time, was divided into three principal provinces: on the south, Judea; on the north, Galilee; in the midst, Samaria.
Galilee was divided into the upper and lower Galilee; the higher was called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it was the utmost part of the land, and so next unto the Gentiles. In this upper Galilee, Capernaum was the metropolis, or chief; and Chorazin a lesser city.
Now much of our Saviour’s time was spent in Galilee; he was conceived and brought up at Nazareth, a city in Galilee; he first preached at Capernaum in Galilee; he wrought his first miracle at Cana in Galilee; his transfiguration was upon mount Tabor in Galilee; and our Saviour’s ordinary residence was in Galilee. He came into Judea, and up to Jerusalem, only at the feasts: and after his resurrection he appoints his disciples to meet him in Galilee. Only his nativity, his passion, and ascension, were proper to Judea. His nativity at Bethlehem, his passion at Jerusalem,and his ascension upon mount Olivet, hard by Jerusalem.
Now all this demonstrates Christ to be the true and promised Messias; for according to prophecy, the Messias was to have his presence and principal abode in the province of Galilee, Isa 9:1-3, &c. Yet because he was of Galilee, the Jews would not believe him to be the Messiah, saying in scorn, Can any good thing come out of Galilee? Whereas our Saviour’s habitation and free conversation there, was a proof unto them, and ought to have persuaded them, that according to the prophecy he was the very Christ.
Observe, 3. The sum of what our Lord preached, namely, a doctrine, and an exhortation. His doctrine is, That the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; that is, that the time foretold by the prophets, when the kingdom of the Messiah should begin, was now come. The exhortation is, Therefore repent, and believe the gospel.
From the former note, That the Messiah’s coming, or our Saviour’s appearing in the flesh, was exactly at the time foretold by the holy prophets: The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of the Messiah is at hand.
Note, 2. That the great doctrines of repentance and faith are taught only in and by the gospel, and accordingly ought in a special manner to be preached and insisted upon by the ministers of the gospel. The doctrine of Christ, and his ambassadors, is and ought to be the same; they both teach the great doctrines of faith and repentance to a lost world: Repent, and believe the gospel.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mar 1:14-15. After John was put in prison By Herod; Jesus came into Galilee, preaching, &c. Till that time, say the fathers, , he waited for Johns testimony concerning him. Accordingly, St. Peter represents Christ as beginning thus to preach from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached was ended, Act 10:37. Now hence it is evident, that his coming into Galilee, mentioned Luk 4:14, must refer to the same time, that so all the evangelists may agree. The time is fulfilled The time of my kingdom, foretold by Daniel, and expected by you, is fully come. The kingdom of God is at hand
That kingdom which God is about to erect by the Messiah, (foretold by Dan 2:44; and Dan 7:14,) whereby he will rescue men from the dominion of Satan and of sin, of the world and of the flesh, and constitute them his loyal subjects and obedient servants; whereby he will reign in them, as well as over them, ruling their hearts by his grace as well as their lives by his laws; that kingdom, which is not in word, but in power, 1Co 4:20, which is righteousness, internal and external, love to God and all mankind, and obedience flowing therefrom; peace with God and peace of conscience, consequent on deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and joy in the Holy Ghost, arising from the Holy Spirits influences assuring us of our adoption into the family of God, inspiring us with a lively hope of his glory, Gal 4:6; Rom 5:2; and giving us an earnest of our future inheritance in our hearts, Eph 1:14. See note on Rom 14:17. This kingdom of God, of which believers are possessed on earth, is at once a preparation for, and an earnest of, the kingdom of God in heaven. Repent ye, and believe the gospel That you may be Christs loyal subjects in time and in eternity, and be made partakers of this two-fold kingdom. Observe well, reader, the one, only way leading to the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, is, repentance toward God, productive of fruits worthy of repentance, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the great truths and precious promises of his holy gospel. See on Mat 3:2; Joh 1:12; and Joh 3:16.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XXVI.
JESUS SETS OUT FROM JUDA FOR GALILEE.
Subdivision A.
REASONS FOR RETIRING TO GALILEE.
aMATT. IV. 12; bMARK I. 14; cLUKE III. 19, 20; dJOHN IV. 1-4.
c19 but Herod the tetrarch [son of Herod the Great, and tetrarch, or governor, of Galilee], being reproved by him [that is, by John the Baptist] for Herodias his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done [A full account of the sin of Herod and persecution of John will be found at Mat 14:1-12, Mar 6:14-29. John had spoken the truth to Herod as fearlessly as to the Pharisees, publicans and soldiers], 20 added this also to them all [the sins of Herod, as a ruler, already outweighed [138] his virtues; (comp. Dan 5:27); but, with reckless abandon, Herod went on, adding to the weighty reasons which justified his condemnation], that he shut up John in prison. [In the fortress at Machrus, east of the Dead Sea, as we learn from Josephus. The duration of the ministry of John the Baptist is variously estimated at from fourteen to eighteen months.] b14 Now after John was delivered up [either delivered up by the people to Herod ( Mat 17:12), or delivered up by Herod himself to the warden of the castle of Machrus ( Luk 12:58), or by Providence to Herod himself– Act 2:23], awhen he [Jesus] heard [he was in Juda when he heard it] that John was delivered up [and], d1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John [We saw at Joh 3:26 how the Baptist heard about the number of Jesus’ baptisms, being informed by his jealous friends. Like jealous friends, no doubt, informed the Pharisees. Jesus may have known of this information being given by reason of his supernatural powers, but it is more likely that he heard of it in a natural way] 2 (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples) [Jesus, as divine Lawgiver, instituted baptism, and his disciples administered it. We nowhere hear of the disciples of John administering baptism. In fact, the Baptist, like the disciples of Jesus, baptized under a divine commission, and could not delegate the power to others. It was the office of Jesus to commission others to this work, not to perform it himself. Had he done so, those baptized by him might have foolishly claimed for themselves some peculiar honor by reason thereof ( 1Co 1:14, 1Co 1:15). Jesus was the spiritual baptizer, in which baptism the efficacy lies in the administrant; but water baptism, the efficacy of which lies rather in the spirit of the one baptized than in the virtues of the administrant, Jesus left to his disciples], 3 he left Juda, and departed again {awithdrew bcame} dinto Galilee. [We have in these verses two reasons assigned for the withdrawal of Jesus into Galilee, namely: 1. The imprisonment of John the Baptist [139] 2. Knowledge of the Pharisees that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John. The first gives us the reason why he went to Galilee, the second the reason why he left Juda. Jesus did not go into Galilee through fear of Herod, for Herod was tetrarch of Galilee. The truth is, the absence of John called for the presence of Jesus. The northern part of Palestine was the most fruitful soil for the gospel. During the last six or eight months of John’s ministry we find him in this northern field, preparing it for Christ’s kingdom. While we can not say definitely that John was in Galilee (Bethabara and non being the only two geographical names given), yet he certainly drew his audiences largely from the towns and cities of Galilee. While John occupied the northern, Jesus worked in the southern district of Palestine; but when John was removed, then Jesus turned northward, that he might sow the seed of the kingdom in its most fruitful soil. But if there was a reason why he should go to Galilee, there was an equal reason why he should depart from Juda. His popularity, manifesting itself in the number of his baptisms, was exciting that envy and opposition which caused the rulers of Juda eventually to take the life of Jesus ( Mat 27:18). The Pharisees loved to make proselytes themselves ( Mat 23:15). They no doubt envied John’s popularity, and much more, therefore, would they be disposed to envy Christ. The influence of the Pharisees was far greater in Juda than in Galilee, and the Sanhedrin would readily have arrested Jesus had he remained in Juda ( Joh 7:1, Joh 10:39), and arrest at this time would have marred the work of Jesus. Therefore, since it is neither sinful nor unbecoming to avoid persecution, Jesus retired to Galilee, when he remained until his second passover. By birth a prophet of Juda, he became, in public estimation, by this retirement, a prophet of Galilee. Though Jesus first taught in Juda, the ministry in Galilee so far eclipsed the work in Juda that it was spoken of as the place of beginning ( Luk 23:5, Act 10:37), and prophetically designated as the scene of the divine manifestation– Mat 4:14.] 4 And he must needs pass through Samaria. [The province which [140] took its name from the city of Samaria, and which lay between Juda and Galilee. Owing to the hatred which existed between Jews and Samaritans, many of the Jews went from Jerusalem to Galilee by turning eastward, crossing the Jordan, and passing northward through Pera. This journey required about seven days, while the more direct route, through Samaria, only took three days. Galilans often passed through Samaria on their way to and from the Jerusalem feast (Josephus’ Ant. xx. 6, 1). The arrest of John would scatter his flock of disciples ( Mar 14:27), and Jesus, as chief shepherd ( 1Pe 5:1-4), hastened to Galilee, to gather together those which might else go astray and be lost.]
[FFG 138-141]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
JESUS GOES TO GALILEE
Mat 4:12; Mar 1:14; & Luk 4:14. And after that John was cast into prison, Jesus came unto Galilee. Having entered upon His official Messiahship by purifying the temple at the Passover, and preached to the multitudes gathered on the Temple Campus during the great national feast; delivered that wonderful discourse to Nicodemus at night, the Apostle John bearing witness; and having wrought many miracles of which we have no specification; after the Passover, going out into the country north of the metropolis, He continues to preach and work miracles, His disciples baptizing the people, John the Baptist preaching in Enon near by, so that intercommunication between the audiences springs up, all observing that while Jesus is rapidly rising and magnetizing the multitudes, John is waning, a crisis supervenes, resulting from the arrest of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, and king of Galilee and Perea. Immediately after this, Jesus leaves Judea, and goes away to Galilee, apparently because of Johns arrest and imprisonment lest a similar fate shall overtake Him, and thus interfere with the work which He came to do. We see many judicious precautions adopted by Him at different times in order to prevent the interruption of His ministry till His work is done,
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 1:14 to Mar 3:6. The First Period of the Galilean Ministry.
Mar 1:14 f. Jesus Announces in Galilee the Nearness of the Kingdom.Not immediately after the Temptation, but after the arrest of John (Mar 6:17), Jesus returned to Galilee from the south country and took up Johns message. Like John, Jesus calls men to repent because Gods kingdom is near. But the menace of judgment uttered by John becomes good tidings on the lips of Jesus. If the phrase believe the gospel is due to Mk. and not to Jesus, it rightly characterizes the contrast between Jesus and His forerunner; cf. Mar 2:18 f., Luk 4:17 f., Mat 11:18 f.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God
It is almost as though Christ beginning His ministry was dependent on the decline of the Baptist. Mat 4:12 mentions “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;”The Matthew text indicates this even further, however it would seem that Christ was in the area that John was in and when John was imprisoned, Christ left that area to go to Galilee which is north of the area attributed to John. Mark also rather indicates that Mark was in Galilee when he records, “Jesus came into Galilee.”
Christ leaving upon the imprisonment does not indicate that He was afraid of trouble, but just that He knew His purpose on earth and knew that He had not finished his work. Other places in the Gospels show Christ desirous of not drawing attention to himself (Mar 7:35 ff for one) so that He would not be hindered in His work on earth.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
1:14 {7} Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
(7) After John is taken Christ shows himself more fully.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
A. The beginning of Jesus’ ministry 1:14-20
Mark introduced his readers to the message of the Servant (Mar 1:14-15) and the first disciples of the Servant (Mar 1:16-20).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The message of the Servant 1:14-15 (cf. Matthew 4:12, 17; Luke 4:14-15)
This topic sentence summarizes Jesus’ whole ministry in Galilee. It identifies when it started, where it happened, and the essence of what Jesus’ proclaimed that was the basis of His ministry.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus began His Galilean ministry, the first major phase of His public ministry, after His forerunner had ended his ministry. Jesus’ forerunner suffered a fate that prefigured what Jesus would experience (cf. Mar 9:31; Mar 14:18). Mark used the same root word in Greek to describe both men. The passive voice of the verb paradidomi ("taken into custody" or "put in prison," lit. delivered up) suggests God’s sovereign control over both men’s situations.
Probably Jesus chose Galilee as His site of ministry because the influence of hostile Pharisees and chief priests was less there than it was in Judea. Fewer Jews lived in Samaria, which lay between Judea and Galilee.
". . . Jesus changes setting more than forty times in his travels throughout Galilee and into gentile territory." [Note: Rhoads and Michie, p. 68.]
Jesus heralded the good news of God. The Greek construction permits two different translations: "the good news about God" and "the good news from God." Mark probably intended the second meaning because the next verse explains what the good news that God revealed through Jesus was. Preaching this good news was Jesus’ characteristic activity, and it was foundational for all the other forms of His ministry.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
II. THE SERVANT’S EARLY GALILEAN MINISTRY 1:14-3:6
Mark omitted Jesus’ year of early Judean ministry (Joh_1:15 to Joh_4:42), as did the other Synoptic evangelists. He began his account of Jesus’ ministry of service in Galilee, northern Israel (Mar 1:14 to Mar 6:6 a). Because of increasing opposition and rejection, Jesus made several withdrawals from Galilee followed by returns to this region. Mark recorded four of these (Mar 6:6 to Mar 8:30). Then Jesus left Galilee for Jerusalem. Mark recorded lessons on four important subjects pertinent to discipleship that Jesus taught His disciples during this transition for his readers’ benefit (ch. 10). Next Jesus ministered in Jerusalem, and Mark selected three significant events there for inclusion in his story (chs. 11-13).
"Four major characters stand out, as do two groups of minor characters: Jesus, the religious authorities, the disciples, the crowd, and those groups of minor characters who either exhibit faith or somehow exemplify what it means to serve." [Note: Kingsbury, p. 4.]
Examples of minor characters who model great faith in Jesus are the leper who requested cleansing (Mar 1:40-45), the friends of the paralytic (Mar 2:3-5), Jairus (Mar 5:21-24; Mar 5:35-43), the woman with the hemorrhage (Mar 5:25-34), the Syrophoenician woman (Mar 7:25-30), the father of the demon possessed boy (Mar 9:14-29), and blind Bartimaeus (Mar 10:46-52). Those who model service are the woman who anointed Jesus for burial (i.e., Mary; Mar 14:3-9), Simon of Cyrene (Mar 15:21), Joseph of Arimathea (Mar 15:42-46), and the women who visited Jesus’ tomb to anoint His body (Mar 16:1).
Mark stressed Jesus’ ministry as a servant in his Gospel. The rest of the book details how He served God and man. During the first part of Jesus’ ministry, He laid down His life in service (Mar 1:14 to Mar 13:37). His passion is the record of His laying down His life in self-sacrifice (chs. 14-16). Mark began his account of Jesus’ service with an overview of selected events in Jesus’ early Galilean ministry that were typical of His whole ministry (Mar 1:14 to Mar 3:6).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 1:14-20 (Mar 1:14-20)
THE EARLY PREACHING AND THE FIRST DISCIPLES
“Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel. And passing along by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they left the nets, and followed Him. And going on a little further, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets. And straightway He called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.” Mar 1:14-20 (R.V.)
ST. Mark has shown us the Baptist proclaiming Christ. He now tells us that when John was imprisoned, Jesus, turning from that Judean ministry which stirred the jealousy of John’s disciples (Joh 3:26), “came into Galilee, preaching.” And one looks twice before observing that His teaching is a distinct advance upon the herald’s. Men are still to repent; for however slightly modern preachers may heal the hurt of souls, real contrition is here taken over into the gospel scheme. But the time which was hitherto said to be at hand is now fulfilled. And they are not only to believe the gospel, but to “believe in it.” Reliance, the effort of the soul by which it ceases equally to be self-confident and to despair, confiding itself to some word which is a gospel, or some being who has salvation to bestow, that is belief in its object. And it is highly important to observe that faith is thus made prominent so early in our Lord’s teaching. The vitalizing power of faith was no discovery of St. Paul; it was not evolved by devout meditation after Jesus had passed from view, nor introduced into His system when opposition forced Him to bind men to Him in a stronger allegiance. The power of faith is implied in His earliest preaching, and it is connected with His earliest miracles. But no such phrase as the power of faith is ever used. Faith is precious only as it leans on what is trustworthy. And it is produced, not by thinking of faith itself, but of its proper object. Therefore Christ did not come preaching faith, but preaching the gospel of God, and bidding men believe in that.
Shall we not follow His example? It is morally certain that Abraham never heard of salvation by faith, yet he was justified by faith when he believed in Him Who justifieth the ungodly. To preach Him, and His gospel, is the way to lead men to be saved by faith.
Few things are more instructive to consider than the slow, deliberate, yet firm steps by which Christ advanced to the revelation of God in flesh. Thirty years of silence, forty days of seclusion after heaven had proclaimed Him, leisurely intercourse with Andrew and John, Peter and Nathanael, and then a brief ministry in a subject nation, and chiefly in a despised province. It is not the action of a fanatic. It exactly fulfills His own description of the kingdom which He proclaimed, which was to exhibit first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. And it is a lesson to all time, that the boldest expectations possible to faith do not justify feverish haste and excited longings for immediate prominence or immediate success. The husbandman who has long patience with the seed is not therefore hopeless of the harvest.
Passing by the sea of Galilee, Jesus finds two fishermen at their toil, and bids them follow Him. Both are men of decided and earnest character; one is to become the spokesman and leader of the Apostolic band, and the little which is recorded of the other indicates the same temperament, somewhat less developed. Our Lord now calls upon them to take a decided step. But here again we find traces of the same deliberate progression, the same absence of haste, as in His early preaching. He does not, as unthinking readers fancy, come upon two utter strangers, fascinate and arrest them in a moment, and sweep their lives into the vortex of His own. Andrew had already heard the Baptist proclaim the Lamb of God, had followed Jesus home, and had introduced his brother, to whom Jesus then gave the new name Cephas. Their faith had since been confirmed by miracles. The demands of our Lord may be trying, but they are never unreasonable, and the faith He claims is not a blind credulity.
Nor does He, even now, finally and entirely call them away from their occupation. Some time is still to elapse, and a sign, especially impressive to fishermen, the miraculous draught of fishes, is to burn into their minds a profound sense of their unworthiness, before the vocation now promised shall arrive. Then He will say, From henceforth ye shall catch men: now He says, I will prepare you for that future, I will make you to become fishers of men. So ungrounded is the suspicion of any confusion between the stories of the three steps by which they rose to their Apostleship.
A little further on, He finds the two sons of Zebedee, and calls them also. John had almost certainly been the companion of Andrew when he followed Jesus home, and his brother had become the sharer of his hopes. And if there were any hesitation, the example of their comrades helped them to decide– so soon, so inevitably does each disciple begin to be a fisher of other men– and leaving their father, as we are gracefully told, not desolate, but with servants, they also follow Jesus.
Thus He asks, from each group, the sacrifice involved in following Him at an inconvenient time. The first are casting their nets and eager in their quest. The others are mending their nets, perhaps after some large draught had broken them. So Levi was sitting at the receipt of toll. Not one of the Twelve is recorded to have been called when idle.
Very charming, very powerful still is the spell by which Christ drew His first apostles to His side. Not yet are they told anything of thrones on which they are to sit and judge the tribes of Israel, or that their names shall be engraven on the foundations of the heavenly city besides being great on earth while the world stands. For them, the capture of men was less lucrative than that of fish, and less honorable, for they suffered the loss of all things and were made as the filth of the earth. To learn Christ’s art, to be made helpful in drawing souls to Him, following Jesus and catching men, this was enough to attract His first ministers; God grant that a time may never come when ministers for whom this is enough, shall fail. Where the spirit of self devotion is absent how can the Spirit of Christ exist?