Sunday School Session 4

Hello again. How are you? We're continuing our study of the gospel of Mark and so you should have the notes for Lecture 2 that we're in now. Now look, I'm trying to keep these lectures to about a half an hour.

It's a lot harder to just look at the television screen and listen to a lecture as opposed to being there live. And so since I'm only going about a half an hour per lecture or meeting like this, we're going to go slowly through the lecture.

So we may be, for example, in Lecture 2. This is our second week. We may be in here for another week or maybe longer. But I think it's easier for you if we keep these sessions to about a half an hour.

So again, it'll take longer for us to get through the material, but I hope you're finding this profitable. Well, before we start, let's pray, shall we? Father, once more we're asking for your help as we look into this gospel, this good news of Jesus.

Help us, we pray, to gain hope, to increase and strengthen our faith and that our love for the Lord Jesus would even grow. And Father, we just ask that you would bless this time together as we look at what you have given us in your word, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, we are in that section of your lecture called The King Appears, Mark 1 .1 -2 .12. You recall that last session we talked about the telos of a passage and how that is a key part of Bible study.

And as we looked at The King Appears in Mark 1 .1 -2 .12, you recall that we got through Roman numeral number one. We ended with the forerunner coming and talking about the coming king and his kingdom and how he was purposely portrayed by the gospel writer as being another Elijah.

The King Is Anointed and Tested in the Wilderness

Now we are in Roman numeral two, chapter one, verses nine through 12. And listen, I want to remind you, we're not going to have time to read the text. So you read the text before our session. So chapter one, verses nine through 12, see the king anointed and tested.

At his baptism, at Jesus' baptism, God anoints and announces Jesus as Messiah. The heavens are split open, the spirit descends on Jesus. What is that all about? Why does Mark put that there? What's the purpose of that of that episode?

Well, if you look at Isaiah, first of all, let's look at Isaiah 42, verse one. Isaiah 42, verse one, talking, Isaiah looking ahead to the to the servant of the Lord, which is this figure in the prophet Isaiah, almost this mysterious figure, this servant of the Lord who's going to yet come.

And he says about that servant, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. I will bring forth justice to the nations. Note there in whom my spirit delights.

This is my son with whom I am well pleased. No, this is the one in whom my spirit delights, God says. And what else? This servant is has his spirit put upon him, which we see at the baptism. If you turn back to that wonderful passage in Isaiah, chapter 11, which talks about this coming Messiah, this coming son of David in chapter 11 of Isaiah, verses one through three.

Here's what you read. Therefore show there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. And so we see here that this one that's coming, this this branch from Jesse's stump, the spirit of the Lord will be upon him.

And so Mark and the other gospel writers are trying to tell us here is the one who is anointed king and anointed with the spirit, not just an anointing of oil, but an anointing of the spirit of God. And then we read that the Holy Spirit now drives him into the wilderness.

And so here we see that the king is not only anointed, but the king is also tested and remains true to his father. Satan tempts him. The battle is joined in the worst of circumstances, battling hunger and in danger from wild animal.

He resists the enemy of our souls. He resists Satan. He carries the day. He does not fail. He does not fail. Now, Mark may be alluding here. Maybe not. I'm not sure about this. I certainly Matthew is.

Mark may be alluding to Israel being in the desert. OK, Israel being in the desert, but and failing. But this true Israel does not fail. I don't I'm not sure Mark is making that point.

He might be.

Yet it's clear that this king conquers Satan. He is not swayed by Satan. He resists all the temptations that come with hunger and with danger. And he proves himself. The question is, can we trust him?

And we can. We can trust this king. Here lies the glory of our savior. Here is the magnificence of our king. He was stood the test for us. This is also probably. This is probably a text, for example, that the writer to the Hebrews refers to or alludes to when he writes about, for example, Hebrews 415, that we can come to this priest who is tempted in every way that we were yet was without sin.

And so, therefore, he's a compassionate high priest. OK, and that's probably an allusion to think to something like this to to part of the story of Jesus, that he was stood the test. We can trust him.

He did not fail in the worst of circumstances faced with hunger, danger and the temptations of Satan. Now we go on and we see that the proclamation, we see the proclamation and the practice of the kingdom of God.

The Proclamation and Practice of the Kingdom of God

Chapter one, verse 14 through chapter two, verse 12. Now we see that Mark starts out now with Jesus going out and making a proclamation, coming with a message. The reign of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.

He came to announce, to bring a proclamation, to proclaim the arrival of the reign of God, the saving reign of God. This reign of God is surely fit for our joy. Now, when it says that the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe.

Some of us might think, well, what's he saying? It's not quite arrived yet. What's going on? One way to think about it is this. You remember, you obviously none of us are old enough to remember this. But, you know, in those early days when electricity was first coming out to rural areas, they would run the lines along particular roads.

Right.

The current, the electricity, the power was near. But what you had to do was to tap into it. You had to get into it. You had to connect with it. And so Jesus is coming and saying the reign of God is near.

Come believe the good news. Connect to it. It's near. Get connected. Get connected. The reign of God is here and it's fitted for our joy. We find joy in this news in what Jesus does because he because he reveals his power over the curse that afflicts us.

Now, what you see is a number of healings and exorcisms, if you will, that come in this next section. Almost all of it is these these episodes of healing. What's the purpose of that? What's going on? It's to say that the saving rule of God even reaches to the curse.

That is to say, the saving rule of God is not just as we too often say and too often communicate. It's not just getting you saved and getting you to heaven. Now, the saving reign of God covers all the curse, not just the curse that brings guilt to us, not just the curse that brings condemnation with it.

But the curse that has bent and twisted creation, that, too, is subject to the reign of God, the saving reign of God. You know, years ago, Paul Savage said this to me in reference to this section. Jesus did not destroy the curse, but he showed his power over the curse.

That's good, Paul. Good, Paul. He he showed his power over the curse. It's as if the kingdom of God has has drawn near. And it's beginning to deal with the curse. It doesn't deal with it completely. That's yet for a future day.

But God has begun to deal with that curse and to show that this kingdom is going to reach even to the farthest reaches of sin. For example, you can see this reign as he drives out demons in chapter one, verses 21 to 28.

Right. You can see he drives out demons. Notice in that section that it says, first of all, he taught as one with authority. What does that mean? Well, what that means is, is when a normal rabbi and every day.

Well, a rabbi would be teaching the word of God. He he he would say because they had these traditions and and all these things attributed to other rabbis, he would say rabbi. So and so says this about the passage and rabbi.

So and so says this about this passage. But Jesus doesn't make reference to the rabbis. He teaches it as if he this is it. This is what God means. In other words, it's communicating to us that this one teaching is truly the one who knows what what this word is about.

Right. He's the one who says here. I'll tell you what God means. Boom. That's it. We don't have to make reference to anybody else. You see his authority in his teaching, but then it moves into his authority over the demons.

So you see, you can see this rain as he drives out demons. You can see this rain, this rule as he heals the sick versus twenty nine through thirty four. There you see him healing Peter's mother in law.

And then all of a sudden the word starts spreading. And you find that that people are coming from all around to see this healer. Drop down to versus chapter one versus 40 through 45. You see the cleansing of a leper.

Now, here's what's here's what's different about this. Here's what communicates to us this authority of Jesus. The fact that he he is not just another rabbi. Jesus comes in contact with a leper. And according to the law, when you come in contact with a leper, you are unclean and you have to, by the law, go through various ceremonies and so forth before you can be declared clean again.

That's what that's what was in the law. But what happens is, is that Jesus is not made unclean, but the leper is cleansed. The leper is cleansed. It just goes the opposite of the way it's supposed to go.

Now, why does he tell him, don't tell anybody about this? Because the leper is going to go out probably and say, wow, this miracle worker healed me of my leprosy.

Right.

And and pretty soon you got people who are misjudging the message and you have a harder time speaking the message because it says he goes out into desolate places. He can't go into town anymore.

Right.

And so there's there's a possibility of misjudging the message. And then there's the possibility of making it harder to get the message out. God in his providence did it this way. But I think that's why Jesus, you read about it in the gospels, will tell people, don't tell anybody about this because they're not ready to hear all that Jesus has to say.

And they're going to see him just as a healer. You see, in chapter two, verses one through 12, the healing of a paralytic. And there again, it centers around the fact not just that he can heal a paralytic, but that he has the authority to forgive sins.

And so this reign of God brought to us in the person of Jesus deals with the curse, begins to deal with the curse. Now, we find joy in the good news of God's reign through Jesus as he preaches. You see that in in chapter one, verses 35 through 39, he's going out and praying in secret.

He goes out to pray before he proclaims. He prays before he proclaims. Now, notice that Jesus identifies this as the purpose of his coming. Let's look at that. Verse 38. And he said to them, his disciples, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also.

For that is why I came out.

All right.

What's his purpose in coming? The healings are indispensable. They show something. But he emphasizes here the proclamation of the kingdom. That's what's important. That is why he came to proclaim the kingdom of God.

All right.

To proclaim the kingdom of God. That's what we have to see when when people tend to get all worked up about healings and everything. And the fact that we're doing what Jesus did. Well, notice what Jesus emphasized.

Jesus puts more emphasis on the proclamation. It seems to me that Mark includes all these episodes of healing to back up this point. Hey, I've come to proclaim. You know, I have authority to say the things I do because of what I'm doing.

You know, I have the authority to say the things that that I'm saying because of what I do. My authority is seen in this, for example, in this in verses 40 to 40. No, in Chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.

He authoritatively declares the will of God, which includes the forgiveness of sins and that he forgives sins. Again, you see the joy and delight that comes with God's kingdom and reign. Jesus proclaims the forgiveness of God for sins and that he is the mediator of that forgiveness.

You see the glory of grace here as Jesus graciously forgives someone as he proves his authority and then exercises it. When he says, you think I can heal somebody? I forgive his sins. God's rightful reign, his rule dovetails with our joy and delight.

Imagine the joy and delight that with these peoples as they're healed, as they hear these good words, as they understand there, they can be forgiven of their sins. All these things are are part of the joy of the kingdom of God.

And then Chapter 1, verses 16 through 20. I haven't skipped over them to leave you hanging. Jesus even calls disciples to gather in others to the delights of his kingdom. He now enlists others to be involved in this mission of calling people to connect to the reign and the kingdom of God.

We see that in Chapter 1, 16 through 20. As Jesus calls these fishermen, Simon and Andrew and John and James. Now, let me just say something here. It says that Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make and I will make you become fishers of men.

And then he goes on a little further and he seems James and John and he calls them and says, essentially, follow me. Now, what's that about? You know, too many of us and probably as a kid, you had this idea.

Jesus comes and says, sees these strangers and says, follow me.

And what do they do?

They kind of stand up like robots and they go, I'm going to follow Jesus. Is that what that's all about? Now, follow me is a rabbinical term. Follow me means connect to me as your rabbi. Connect to me as your rabbi.

To follow me, to follow a rabbi, again, was to connect to him as a servant, to a master, to learn from him. OK, so other rabbis had disciples who followed them. Right, that's what it means. I'm going to connect to a rabbi so he will become my master and I will learn from him.

I will learn from my master. I will what? Follow him. You see, so Jesus here is inviting them to become his disciples, to follow him, to learn from him. No doubt he wasn't a stranger. No doubt these men had seen Jesus do the things they were probably in the crowd.

So when Jesus showed up, it's not a stranger to strangers.

Right.

And he's not just saying, follow me. And like robots, they get behind him. Now, here's the difference. Here's the difference. Rabbis would not go out searching for disciples. Rabbis would not go to people and say, follow me.

So that person would say that rabbi has invited me to become his student. Because what normally happened was someone would go to a rabbi and say, I want to follow you. I want to attach myself to you as student to a master.

I want to follow you. And of course, the rabbis wouldn't just take anybody. I don't know their criteria for determining who could follow them. But what you need to see here is this breaks the mold. This rabbi takes the initiative and calls men to follow him.

No other rabbi did that. This one takes the initiative to gain his followers. He's the one who brings them in.

You see.

Now, what does God expect of us in light of this? Do you see what Mark is doing? He's saying, here's Jesus. He's inviting people to follow him. You need to follow Jesus. You need to attach yourself to Jesus as student to a master.

You need to submit to his authority. You need to learn everything he has to say. Mark's not just writing a biography, right? Remember we talked about this? What Mark is doing is communicating to people, this is what Jesus is about.

You've claimed to be Jesus' disciple. Well, look, this is what he's about. He is about gathering people to follow him. Even today, he's still doing that. But he's doing it through fishers of men. Now, lastly, here's a question.

How does seeing his kingdom and his glory help you become fishers of men? How is his kingdom helping you to become fishers of men? Well, let's move on. The next section that we see in the book of Mark is chapter 2, verses 13 through chapter 4, verses 34.

The King Calls Sinners, Brings Joy, and Reframes the Sabbath

The king inaugurates a new kingdom. What's the whole purpose of this passage from chapter 2, verses 13 to chapter 4, verses 14? Here's the telos, the purpose, the goal. Jesus inaugurates a new kingdom bringing misunderstanding and explanation.

And so now we're going to see how the kingdom is proclaimed and how there's misunderstanding and how Jesus explains it. This section has as its purpose the new kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate and preach.

So Mark has emphasized not only the arrival of the kingdom, but what typically comes with the arrival of the kingdom. First of all, to make it plain, Mark, the writer, tells us that Jesus brings a new kingdom.

Chapter 2, verse 13 through chapter 3, verse 6. In this arrival of his kingdom, Jesus shows exactly the kind of king he is and what his kingdom is like. Here's the first thing. He is the king who calls sinners into his kingdom.

He calls sinners into his kingdom. Jesus calls Levi, and he eats with this traitorous tax collector and his unclean friends. Remember, men like Levi, who, by the way, has another name, and it's Matthew.

Tax collectors like Levi, Matthew, were held in the lowest regard. You couldn't get lower. It's like being a pedophile. And they were held that low, and their friends who were in contact with them were unclean.

They were traitors to their people. They worked for the hated Romans, and not only did they work for the Romans, but they cheated their own people for their own advancement and riches. And Jesus makes it clear when the Pharisees start fussing about this, saying, look, your master is eating with sinners, right, with these unclean people.

How can they do that? And Jesus says, hey, it's not the well who need a physician. It's the sick. The kingdom of God is about changing people. It's about removing their guilt. You can see the glory and the loveliness of Jesus in all of this.

If Jesus were like any other king, he wouldn't be calling the worst of society, would he? Kings don't normally do that. They usually eliminate the worst parts of society and elevate the best. This king instead goes after the worst.

He wants them in his kingdom. He did not come merely to extend his rule, but to bring that rule or to bring those under his rule who would not necessarily submit, but to change them so that they would submit and enjoy his rule.

This is what this king does. He goes after those who would probably not want anything to do with his kingdom. He wants those kind of people in his kingdom because he's going to change them so that they submit and enjoy submitting to this king.

This is our glorious savior king. Chapter two, verses 18 through 20. He's the king who brings joy. There is this question put. There is this questions about John's disciples and the Pharisees disciples and they fast.

Why don't Jesus disciples fast? And he says, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in that day.

Hey, the bridegrooms come.

Now again, this is an allusion to some Old Testament passages. For example, Isaiah chapter 62. Isaiah 62. Listen to verses four and five. You shall no more talking to talking to the nation of Judah. You shall no more be termed forsaken and your land shall no more be termed desolate.

But you shall be called my delight is in her and your land married. For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you.

And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

It's an illusion.

The day has begun when this is no longer God's people are no longer desolate. But now they they have a husband. Now they are married. Now they are happy. Why fast, right? It's all been it's been accomplished in Jesus.

It's begun in Jesus. Another passage to consider here is Hosea chapter two verses 16 through 20. And in that day declares the Lord, you will call me my husband and no longer will you call me my bail. For I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more.

And I will make for them a covenant in that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land.

And I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.

And you shall know the Lord is coming a day when Jehovah is going to be their groom, their bride groom. And he's going to bring incredible prosperity. The curse will be gone. If you read Hosea, he's talking about even the birds and all the animals are in this covenant.

And so we don't see it completely happening here. But what Jesus is essentially saying is the day has begun. The day has begun for rejoicing because now I'm the promised bridegroom. So he's the king who brings joy.

He's the king whose kingdom is entirely new. Chapter 2, verse 21 through chapter 3, verse 6. This kingdom that Jesus inaugurates is so dynamic that the old forms will not be able to contain it any longer.

That's what the wineskin illustration is all about. That this new kingdom is going to be so dynamic that the old ways of that kingdom, the Old Testament ways, if you will, will not be able to hold it anymore.

It's got to have new wineskins. There's going to be something new that happens that requires new forms. Even changes, even goes to the Sabbath, the very heart of the law. Now what's happening here is the disciples are not breaking the law, but they're breaking a pharisaical tradition.

So on the Sabbath, it was not right to harvest and to winnow and to eat that grain. Well, not to eat, but you couldn't harvest and winnow. And so what they're doing, they're just grabbing some grain and rubbing it in their hands and getting the chaff to blow away and eating it.

And the Pharisees, they say, well, because their tradition said, you know what that is? That's work. You know why? Because you are harvesting and winnowing and that's work.

All these laws.

Listen, that's still around today. You can see it today. I heard a news story several years ago about a Jewish boys school, right? Who had a basketball team and they had made it. They were in the state finals.

I think it was near the quarterfinals or something they were in. And it was going to be played on Saturday. And they made an appeal to the athletic association of that particular state. They couldn't play on Saturday because it was a Sabbath for them, right?

You can't play basketball. It's a Sabbath. And the news story went on to tell about the ways of these Orthodox Jews. For example, on Friday nights, what they have to do is they have to tear all their toilet paper.

Tear all the toilet paper they need for using the bathroom the next day.

Why?

Because if they go to the bathroom the next day and they need toilet paper to unroll it and to tear it would be labor and would be breaking the Sabbath. You see, those are the kinds of rules that are coming out.

They started out well. They started out with the intention of helping people keep the Sabbath holy. But what happens is that it just does the opposite. It makes the Sabbath a burden, right? Now, Jesus brings up David.

And nowhere in the scriptures is David condemned for the action that he took that day in eating the bread of the presence in the tabernacle. Now, to the Pharisees then, Jesus says to them, you read scripture with the wrong lenses.

You've distorted the Sabbath and God's intention. God intended the Sabbath to be good for men, not to be a burden. We're trying to figure out all the rules.

Right.

And so he's saying this new king is a compassionate king. This king brings rest. This king does not bring a burdensome bunch of laws that you you are always in a turmoil trying to figure out. Am I being obedient or not?

What am I doing?

Oh, my goodness.

Right.

He talks about the man with the withered hand. He looks at those around him and says, is it good? Is it a good thing to do good on the Sabbath? And he healed that man's hand. And the Pharisees are so tuned in to their traditions, to their rules, that they miss the fact that mercy should be on the Sabbath.

It's a day of mercy, you see. And so Jesus is saying, this is the kind of king I am.

Right.

I'm not here to burden you. I'm here to give you joy. I'm here to show compassion. I'm here to give you rest. I'm here to bring mercy. You see that the glories of Christ and rejoice in this king. His rule is not a burden for he comes to rescue and not condemn.

He's a compassionate, gracious, merciful, restful king. And this king's rule is not confined to any one place or people. Such grace and compassion extends to all. That's implied in this passage right now.

The old wineskins aren't going to hold it. It's no longer going to be a kingdom for a particular ethnic people. It's going to burst those skins. He conquers us and introduces us to new life and new ways.

He gives us hope. He gives us hope. He's giving us hope and not condemning, but to bring us joy.

All right.

Well, that's as far as we'll get today. All right. So in your lecture notes are in Roman numeral chapter two. That's where we'll pick up next week.

Yeah.

Next week.

So I hope again, I hope you're enjoying this. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, thanks for your word. Thanks for reminding us that Jesus is a compassionate, gracious, Merciful king who's come to give us rest.

Thank you that we can look to him as the one who is something dynamic and new. And that father, we can rejoice because we have all of these things. Help us now to live in light of these truths. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.