The Diagnosis of the Great Physician, Mark 2:1-12

As most of you know, I’ve been sick for the last couple of weeks.  It became pretty obvious to everyone who heard me and saw me, that I had some sort of a virus or something.  Just to be careful, I took a Covid test which came back negative.  But after about 8 days or so though I decided maybe I should see the doctor and see if there was something they could do for me to help me get better.

I think we tend to give too much credit sometimes to doctors. The problem is that they are limited in what they can see. They look in your mouth, maybe they can see a couple of inches down your throat, look up your nose, in your ears, but basically they have to try to figure out from the outside what’s going on inside.  From their observance of you externally, they try to make a diagnosis of what’s going on inside, and then make a prescription to hopefully help you.

My Doctor determined after all the looking, and prodding, and taking deep breaths, she said I was sick and I would have to let it run it’s course.  She did give me an anitbiotic, but said it might not help because it may be viral and not biological.  What we all really want  though is a doctor who can somehow look past the external, and  look inside and make the correct diagnosis, find the root of the problem and address that, cure that.

We sometimes hear Jesus referred to as the Great Physician. While it was evident that He was able to heal from any kind of illness or disease, that was not really the purpose for why He came to earth.  Back in the last chapter, we read that He had been healing the whole town until late at night.  And early in the morning, the disciples look for Him and He’s no where to be found.  That’s not logical from a ministry point of view.  Everybody is coming to hear you, to see you, and you disappear. You want to keep it going, build on the momentum.  Bigger is better, you know.

When they finally found Him and told Him that everyone was looking for Him, He said something very strange; ““Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”  Jesus didn’t come to heal the world of disease, but to preach the gospel of salvation.  That was His purpose. Healing, in fact, was sometimes an impediment to His mission. Mark goes on to say that the news about His healing spread so much that He could no longer go into a city, but He had to stay out in the wilderness.

Well, eventually He comes back home to Capernaum.  He has a house there, which we don’t know if He owned it or borrowed it, or rented it.  But for a time He lived there and He had come back home from perhaps many days of preaching in the wilderness. Vs 1,” When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home.  And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.”

Once people heard that Jesus was home, they started flocking to His house. The crowd might have been as many as a couple of hundred people or more either in the house, or trying to get in, standing in front of windows, and doors. It’s interesting to think that there were not only HIs disciples in the crowd, but some that were His critics.  Luke tells us that the scribes and Pharisees made up some of the crowd.  So the religious men of the city came in to try to find fault with what He was doing and saying.

But Jesus is preaching the word to them.  That’s what He came to do, and He is doing it right in His own house to whoever came to Him, for whatever reason they had come. His priority is to preach the word, the gospel of salvation.  It’s important that we as a church keep our priorities right.  We don’t let our ministry receive it’s priorities from the world.  I’m often asked if we could participate in this cause or that cause, or join this ministry or that.  And sometimes it’s not that these causes don’t have merit, but that is not what we are called to do.  We are called to preach the gospel of salvation.  That’s our priority. And I don’t want to get sidetracked by other peoples political or social agendas that they try to use the church to advance.  Jesus was doing what He came to do, preach the word, the gospel of the kingdom.

But while that is going on, there is a small group of men who are determined, or you might even say, desperate, to get their friend to Jesus. But the crowd is so thick outside the house they can’t even get close.  Vs3 “And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men.  Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.”

I said these men were desperate. And it’s obvious that they were. They weren’t going to let anyone stop them from getting their friend to Jesus.  There is no indication in the scripture of what had caused this man’s paralysis.  But if I had to guess it was due to an accident.  Most paralytics were resigned to being beggars on the street for the rest of their lives.  They lived in the worst sort of squalor and poverty.  This man still had friends willing to do this for him, which to me indicates that it was something that happened fairly recently, like an accident had caused it.

It really doesn’t matter how it happened. But to the Jews, such a calamity was an indication of God’s judgement against some great sin of that person.  And maybe it’s possible that this man did have some sin that he thought was the reason that he had contracted this disease, or had this accident.  Who knows, really?  And we are not told. 

But for him and for his friends, there is a desperation born out of the knowledge that there is no other hope for this man.  He has a life sentence, really a death sentence upon him that can never be changed unless they can get Jesus to see him. This may be this man’s only chance to ever see Jesus, and they are going to do everything possible to get to Him.  So unable to enter through a door,  they climb onto the roof of the house, and right in the middle of Jesus’s sermon, they start tearing up the shingles to make a hole big enough to let down their friend.

It would be good to have friends like that, wouldn’t it?  Friends willing to risk their lives for you, friends who want what’s best for you, even if it means that they have to do something crazy.  Jesus told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourself.  That’s what it means to be a friend of someone. I wonder how good of a friend are we to others? How much do we love our neighbor? How willing are we to do whatever is necessary to see their greatest need met?  How desperate are we to take our friends to Jesus? Or do we really care as much as we would like people to think.  Do you recognize that Jesus is the only hope for your friends?  That they have the sentence of death upon themselves and they are without hope, unless you can get them to Jesus?

Well, they practically destroy Jesus’ house, and completely interrupt His message, but they get their friend lowered down in front of Jesus.  They aren’t recorded as asking for anything.  The paralytic isn’t recorded as saying anything either.  I guess everyone figures this is self explanatory. It’s pretty obvious what the problem is, and Jesus is the healer. Nothing really needs to be said.

But Jesus is the Great Physician. And He is able to look past the outward appearance of things and see the root of the problem.  And the greatest need this man has is he needs to be forgiven. He needs salvation. So it says in vs5  “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

It’s unclear from the text whether Jesus is seeing the faith of the friends, or the faith of the paralytic and his friends. I have to assume it is the faith of the paralytic and his friends. What was their faith? I suppose it has to be that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is able to save, to heal, to do miracles because He is the Son of God.

But it’s a mistake to think that faith is required for God to heal. When God raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus did not have faith that Jesus could give him life.  Lazarus was dead. When Jesus healed many people, they weren’t always even in His presence.  He was acting on someone else’s bequest.  The demon possessed man didn’t have faith, and yet Jesus healed him.

But to be saved requires faith. Jesus saved this man.  His biggest problem was that he was a sinner, with the condemnation of death upon him. All disease, all illness, death, is all ultimately the result of sin.  Whether this man lived as a paralytic or not for a few more years was nothing in comparison to the eternal destiny of his soul.  And Jesus looked into his soul and saw this man’s greatest need, and He forgave him of his sins.  He gave him the greatest blessing, that of being made right with God.  And that took away the curse of sin, so that he received eternal life.

This man’s faith was incomplete, perhaps. He had not enough information to believe everything that there was to know about Christ.  But there is another component of salvation in addition to faith, and that is the sovereign grace of God.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I think the argument can be made that it is by the grace of God that you are given saving faith. All of salvation is of God.  And Jesus sovereignly bestowed the grace of God upon this man, giving him faith, forgiving him of his sin, and giving him eternal life. This was the purpose given by the angels to Jesus being born into this world, who said in Matthew 1:21, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Well, this great miracle of salvation which Jesus does here  doesn’t exactly bring the house down, no pun intended. I can almost see people in attendance scratching their heads, wondering how could Jesus have missed the obviously most important need right in front of Him?  But among the crowd are His critics.  And they seize upon what Jesus said in some sort of self righteous indignation.

Vs. 6 “But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?’”  Well, they were actually correct in their theology.  They are absolutely right.  Only God can forgive sins.  Because sin is against God, He is the one offended, and only He can expunge it, forgive it, do away with it. 

What they are incorrect in is their reasoning. They reason that Jesus cannot be God.  He doesn’t come with the right education, the right pedigree.  He’s not part of their clique. He actually interferes with their agenda. And so since they have already discounted any possibility that Jesus is God,  they assume then that what Jesus says is blasphemous.  He is claiming to be able to forgive sins, which is the provenance of God only, and that, in their minds is impossible. In fact, to take it a step further,  they won’t let Jesus be God.

Vs8 “Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?”  Notice something here.  They had not said anything.  He is able to know their thoughts without them saying anything. If they had been  willing to consider it, this is yet another indication that He is God.  God knows the secrets of the  heart.  The Lord said to Samuel in 1 Sam. 16:7, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

But unfortunately, the scribes had their eyes blinded to that as well. Jesus continues in vs9 "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

Notice first of all the strange question Jesus asks of them. Having read their thoughts, that they were accusing Him of blasphemy because He claimed to do what only God could do, He asks, “"Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? 

Well, to our minds, it’s easier to say “your sins are forgiven” because no one can see whether or not that is true. To say “get up and walk” is something that they could see the result of.  And so that is harder.

But I think Jesus is saying that it’s actually harder to forgive sins than it is to heal a body. For in God’s justice system, sin is not merely winked away.  In order for God to forgive us of our sin, He had to exact justice upon someone who would bear the penalty for our sin. The penalty for sin had to be paid, in order that the sin might be forgiven.

So which was easier for Jesus? To accomplish atonement for the sins of the world so that man might be forgiven, or to simply restore the man’s nervous and muscle system back to working order. I would suggest the task of redemption was tremendously more difficult.  It literally broke the world when Jesus died on the cross. Heaven and earth ground to a stop, the lights went out, heaven went dark, hell broke open, graves were opened, the curse under which the whole world was bound was broken. The world was turned upside down.  Oh yeah, redemption was much harder.  But the Pharisees could hardly  have known that. They couldn’t see the spiritual realm.  They only could see the external, the temporal, the physical realm.

So because they were too blind to see, Jesus said, "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home."

This is all the evidence you need?  Fine. I’ll give it to you.  “So that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Do you think that convinced them?  No, I doubt it.  The scripture shows that every evidence Jesus gave as to who He was only served to harden their hearts, to make them hate Him more.  They began soon after this to plan to put Him to death. That was their answer to His evidence.

So the paralytic got up and rolled up his pallet and walked out in the midst of everyone.  And everyone was amazed.  But some at least must have believed in who He was because Mark say that they were glorifying God.  Unfortunately, I have to imagine most were glorifying God because the paralytic was able to walk, not because the paralytics’s sins were forgiven. I hate to sound cynical, but I think that was the way it was for the most part, and it is born out in scripture. Most people only seem to appreciate what God can do for them in the physical realm.  They don’t care that much about the spiritual.

I’m reminded of a pastor’s conference I was invited to attend years ago that was held by a large denomination. They are a little more charismatic than what I prefer and so I no longer attend that conference anymore.  But one time we were listening to a missionary give a report of taking the gospel to a part of Africa, I believe, that had not heard the gospel before.  At every village, he said, they would preach the gospel and then the whole village would get saved and be baptized.  And this happened at one village after another.  They were just very receptive to the gospel. But at one village as they were baptizing the new converts, he said a woman began to wail and cry and they discovered that her baby had just died at that moment.  She brought the baby to the missionary, and as she handed the baby to him while I believe he was still in the water, the child came back to life.  And immediately the men in attendance at the conference jumped to their feet and gave a standing ovation for this baby being brought back to life.

I was really struck by that.  A thousand pastors are there listening to accounts of one village after another coming to salvation in Jesus Christ, and there is hardly the grunt of an amen from the crowd.  But when a baby is supposedly brought back to life, then there is a standing ovation.  I think its human nature to be more concerned about the physical than the spiritual.  I suppose that is why the Lord sometimes lets us experience sickness and death and heartache in the physical so that we might be brought to think about the spiritual.  

Because the greatest problem of our lives is not our financial situation, it’s not our health, it’s not how soon we will die, or whether we have a loving wife or husband in this life.  The greatest problem is the problem of sin.  The disease of sin.  There is a cure for sin.  And you need that cure.  All sickness and death and all the world’s problems are the result ultimately of the curse of sin. But Jesus became cursed for us, He paid the penalty, He paid the price, that we might be forgiven of our sins and receive new life. 

The Great Physician has examined you today and diagnosed your greatest problem.  He has the prescription to save you. I hope that you are not blinded today to the reality that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to save the world from their sins.  If you trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, He will forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that you might have new life in Him.  That is your greatest need, and Jesus is the answer.  Turn to Him and receive forgiveness of your sins, and new life through Him.

“THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST” Mark 1:21-45

Mark writes in a rather concise style and he moves quickly through events without spending as much time detailing them as do the other gospel writers.  It’s almost disconcerting to notice how often he uses the word “immediately.”  But I guess it’s emblematic of his style to keep moving and give highlights, rather than a lot of biographical details.

I think the thread that ties this next passage together is found in another word used twice in this passage, but implied more often than that,  which is the word “authority.”  In  verse 22, “And they were astonished at His . . . authority”.  And then in verse 27 of chapter 1, you find the word “authority” given again.  And I suppose that it is an appropriate idea for Mark to propose considering that Jesus has been heralded by John the Baptist to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord and King of the kingdom of God. The supreme King of the universe must have authority over His subjects and over everything in this world.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, just before He ascended into heaven, He said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”  And so it’s appropriate that He demonstrates His authority at the beginning of His ministry. So there are four events in this passage where He illustrates His authority.

The first one is His authority as a teacher.  Look at verse 21, “They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach.”  In Jesus’s day there may have been  probably 450 synagogues in that region.  According to the law, they were allowed to establish a synagogue for every ten men who were followers of God.  And so, those ten men and their families were formed as a synagogue with a priest who would oversee or be the ruler of the synagogue, as he was called, a minister of the synagogue.  There were no sacrifices, a synagogue was designed to be a teaching tool in that society.  The children were taught there or catechized.  The adults were taught as they worshipped on the sabbath day.  And the pulpit was basically open to any rabbi who would be available to teach. That’s why, when we study the life of Christ and the apostles, we find them constantly teaching in the synagogue.  It was a great opportunity to present the gospel of the kingdom.  

We find Him in Capernaum, the hometown of Peter,  teaching in one of the synagogues.  Notice verse 22, “They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”  Luke, chapter 4, elaborates on this story, and he tells us that Jesus  was preaching from Isaiah, chapter 61.  So He stood and He read Isaiah, chapter 61, verse 1.  And this is what it said,  ““THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

Then He closed the book and said ““Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 “And they were amazed at His teaching ; for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes” Now, we need to answer the question, what made Him so authoritative?  Well whenever the scribes preached or a rabbi preached they always said, “It has been said,” and they would always quote other scribes or rabbis for their authority.  They would always go to some other tradition to give validity to their point.  Why was it that Jesus Christ spoke with authority?  Because when Jesus stood up and He preached, He didn’t quote a scribe, He quoted Himself.  John says that He was the Word made flesh.  He was the word of God and spoke the word of God, and that’s the source of His authority.  Jesus is the supreme authority.  He didn’t need to quote some other man for He is God/man.  And so they were astonished at His authority. 

You know, the word of God is authoritative.  That’s why people really don’t like the Bible, because they want to be the authority.  But that’s why I preach the word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. My teaching is not due to some authority that I have as a theologian, or from a seminary professor.  But my authority is the word of God.  If you think about it, Jesus is the source of the word of God.  He was the author.  And yet He quotes the word again and again as He preaches.  He quoted the word in His temptation. He quotes from the word on the cross.  He quotes from the word constantly, and yet He is the author of the word.  When you speak the word of God you speak with the  authority of God.

The next exercise of this authority that Jesus exhibits is His authority against the demonic world.  Look at verse 23, “Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,  saying, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!"  And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"  Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

Demon possession, in that culture, was not an uncommon thing.  Perhaps it was due to living in close proximity to pagan peoples that in effect worshipped demons. And so, when Jesus Christ manifested His authority, one of the first arenas whereby He must exercise that is in the realm of the spirit world and authority over the demons.  Notice first of all that the demons recognize Jesus for who He is - the Son of God. How does a demon recognize Jesus and yet those people around Him do not?  I would suggest because being spirits themselves, they recognize HIs Spirit. If you have the Spirit of God in you, then the demons recognize the Spirit of God in you and they know that they cannot possess you, because you are already possessed by a much mightier Spirit who has authority over the spirit world.

Notice what Jesus Christ does, there was no incantation, there was no formula, there wasn’t any exorcism ritual.  He simply says, in verse 25,"Be quiet, and come out of him!” Notice what happened, “Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Not surprisingly, verse 28, “Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.”

Now before we move on, I want to point out something to you, that there was a man in the synagogue a man who was demon possessed. He’d remained undetected until Jesus Christ arrived on the scene.  He was worshipping.  He was reading.  He was hearing the scriptures.  Who knows, he might have even preached the message on a different occasion.  You know, it is possible to sit in church and belong to Satan.  It is possible to be a member of a church and not a member of the kingdom of God.  It’s possible to come here on Sunday morning and sing about heaven and yet, have a reservation waiting in Hell.  

I will go one step further with that. It goes to show you that everything that happens in church, just because it’s church, does not mean that it is of God nor of the Holy Spirit. This man was thrown into convulsions by the evil spirit.  Have you ever seen a person slain in the Spirit at some of these Pentecostal services? They are being thrown all over the floor like a rag doll, no control, not perhaps even aware of what they are doing.  And yet we are told to believe that this is evidence of a mighty work of the Spirit. I will say what James said on that account, “Test the spirits to see if they are from God, for there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world.”  And you test them by the word of God.  There is no example of a work of God looking like that in the Bible.  The only time you see convulsions and acting like a maniac was when there were demons involved.  So don’t be deceived by some spiritual counterfeit.

Notice the next incident whereby Jesus Christ exercised His authority.  Verse 29, “And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.  

Luke, who was a doctor, indicates that this fever was severe. A high fever in an adult can be fatal.  But I think that this healing indicates Jesus’s authority over physical life.  He has demonstrated His authority over the spiritual world, and now He demonstrates His authority over the physical world. He is able to give life to that which is dead or about to die.And notice that her response after being healed was to serve the Lord.  When the Lord gives you new life, even eternal life, it should go without saying that you would serve the Lord with your life.

Another small point to make here is that this is Peter’s mother in law.  Peter is considered to be the first pope of the Catholic Church and they believe every pope since is appointed by divine succession from Peter.  I’m sure Peter has rolled over in his grave a few times over that one. But the point I want to make is that Peter was married.  And yet they forbid priests to marry.

Now the Catholics would try to say to that, well Peter may have been married at one time, but she had obviously  died before he became the pope.  Well then, if that’s true, they might try explaining what Paul says about Peter (Cephas) in 1Cor. 9:5 “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” Peter was obviously married and taking his wife on mission trips with him.

Now all of this happens on the same day, the Sabbath.  Jesus is working on the Sabbath, preaching and healing and delivering people from demonic spirits.  And it continues after dark.  The Jewish Sabbath started at nightfall on Friday and ended at nightfall on Saturday.  So once the Sabbath restrictions on travel had expired, everyone from the surrounding area wanted to see Jesus to be healed or delivered from demonic spirits.  

Vs32-34 “When evening came, after the sun had set, they [began] bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.  And the whole city had gathered at the door.  And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”

Jesus wasn’t ready to announce to the world who He was at this point.  And when He is, He doesn’t want it to be by a demon.  But what is evident in this account is the compassion of Jesus.  He said in John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” He has the authority to save all that come to Him.  There is no mention of the people’s faith, just the sovereign authority of the King of Kings to heal and deliver.

Then, the source of Jesus authority is seen in vs35-39  “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left [the house,] and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.  Simon and his companions searched for Him;  they found Him, and said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You."  He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for."  And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.”

Jesus’s authority came out of His being One with the Father.  His prayer life was the source of His authority and the means of His communion with the Father.  If anyone had an excuse not to get up early to pray, it should have been Jesus. He must have been up until very late the night before, healing the whole town.  They hadn’t  been able to travel to him until after sundown. And He had  already had a very busy day.  But HIs prayer time was a priority. We see that again and again in the gospels, that Jesus went out by Himself to pray, many times all night.  

We wonder why we have little power over temptation, or little results in our ministry, and yet I wonder how many of us make prayer a priority.  I think Jesus knew that being alone early in the morning He would have undisturbed time to commune with His Father.  You may say well I’m not a morning person.  But I suggest that you become one.  Because if you wait around until mid morning to pray, you’re likely to get sidetracked by everything that starts to happen as the day goes on.

Abe Lincoln is reported to have said, that if you only have eight hours to cut wood, spend 7 of it sharpening your axe.  Or something like that.  Prayer is our preparation. It must be our priority.  It is the source of our power. Not praying some formula or prescribed prayer.  But earnest communion with God our Father.

Prayer is the means by which our will is aligned with the Father’s will.  A lot of people get that backwards.  They want to align God’s will to their will.  It would seem more logical that Jesus should have had a week long healing campaign.  But He doesn’t.  He goes out to a lonely place by Himself to avoid the crowds.  And the result of that communion with the Father directs His ministry.  Jesus says the priority of His ministry was not to heal, but to preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout all of Galilee.

“Simon and his companions searched for Him;  they found Him, and said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ He said to them, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.’”  What He came for, what was the primary purpose of His ministry, was to preach the gospel. The world wants physical healing.  The world wants physical blessings. God’s priority is spiritual.

You know, a close examination of the scripture reveals that Jesus did not heal everyone.  But He healed in the context of manifesting His deity as the King of Creation. And those people who tell you that it is God’s will that everyone will be healed of every disease and sickness are simply not basing that on scripture, but on their desire to force God into their own will.

Now having said that, we return to our text to see another example of Jesus healing, on another day, in another town.  And this is the fourth illustration of His authority.  Vs 40 And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean."  Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”

Leprosy was a terrible disease that was prominent in Jesus’ day.  Moses had prescribed a system for determining if someone had leprosy, which was done by the priest, and he had also prescribed what to do if you had it and you were somehow healed of it.  But no one was ever healed.  It was a progressive disease, starting with small white scales, but eventually covering the entire body. Not only was it progressive, it was a death sentence.  These poor people were really the walking dead. And as the eventual end came, more and more of their skin and body parts, nose, ears and so forth, were eaten away by the disease.

Moses had established a quarantine and protocol for lepers, but the Jews had taken it even further.  The leper had to constantly announce himself in public by shouting “unclean, unclean.”  Jews were forbidden to touch them, or even get near one.  And what was even worse, perhaps, was that they considered these poor lepers as deserving of this vile disease because they were somehow worst sinners than everyone else.

So this leper, who was in the advanced stage of the disease according to Luke, breaks protocol and prostrates himself before Jesus, saying, “if you are willing, you can make me clean.”   Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”

Jesus was moved with compassion. That’s such an interesting phrase.  Compassion comes from a word in Latin, I am told, which means to suffer with. We think of it as sympathy.  But it’s more than sympathy. It’s a willingness to take their suffering on yourself.

What I think this is picturing is Jesus’ authority to cleanse from sin. And He did that by taking our sins upon Himself and bearing our punishment. I think that’s why Jesus did the unthinkable and reached out and touched this decaying, rotting flesh.  He was showing His willingness to suffer for us, so that we might be given life.

You see, sin is a lot like leprosy.  It starts small, but it’s progressive. It spreads.  Once Adam and Eve had committed just one little sin, they had caught the disease of sin, and it would not stop until it destroyed them and killed them. Sin corrupts, it infects, it’s communicable, it’s deadly.

But thankfully, Jesus came to save sinners.  He came to forgive and be the substitute for our penalty of death, that we that had the sentence of death upon us, would be given new life. You know, when Jesus healed this leper, I imagine that his features were restored, his skin became new like a baby, his nose and ears reappeared.  He was a new creation.  This wasn’t some symptomatic illness that no one could see the results of, it was evident to everyone who had previously been acquainted with him that he was a new man.

But Jesus doesn’t really want that kind of publicity.  Too much of that kind of fame would interfere with what He had come to do, which was to preach the gospel of the kingdom.  So in vs 43 we read, “And (Jesus) sternly warned him and immediately sent him away,  and He said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”

Moses had said, if a leper were supposedly cleansed, somehow, he brought two birds to the priest.  They would kill one bird and they would shed his blood in a little basin.  They would take another bird, they would dip him in the blood of the deceased bird and they would let that living bird go free. I think the symbolism that in relation to Jesus’ atonement should be obvious.  And while Jesus didn’t want him to broadcast being healed, He did want him to obey the law of Moses, and also be a testimony to these priests who had to admit something supernatural had happened. 

We can assume that the leper did what Jesus asked in regards to the priests, but he could not help himself from broadcasting the good news of how Jesus had saved him. To be fair, he couldn’t really hide it. You know, this should be a challenge to us.  Here’s a man told to keep quiet and he blazes it abroad.  And you and I have been commanded to broadcast it abroad and yet we keep quiet.  He had been commanded to be quiet, not to spread the news yet we’ve been told to share the news and we’re quiet, we say nothing.  I wonder, if we had been a leper or sick with a serious fever or one of these individuals whom Jesus Christ touched, could you keep us quiet?  We too easily forget that we have been touched by the grace of God.  Can we keep quiet?  Can we do anything less than shed abroad the news that Jesus Christ has forgiven our sins and given us new life?  

Jesus calls His disciples, Mark 1:14-20

We are continuing in our study of Mark and we left off last time in vs 13 with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.  That temptation happened directly after he was baptized by John the Baptist.  Today we pick up in Mark’s account with vs 14, which begins with the phrase “Now after John had been taken into custody…”  What that indicates is that there is an interval of about one year in between vs 13 and vs 14.

So Jesus’s ministry began with His baptism, and He has been preaching and teaching for about a year in both Judea and Galilee.  But after John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus went into Galilee to preach the gospel, and will only travel to Jerusalem at certain times.  So Mark says in vs 14,  “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,  and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

So Mark says Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. He was publicly proclaiming the good news of salvation as God’s gift to mankind. Salvation is of the Lord.  Man by his own efforts was unable to attain to the kingdom of God, so God came down to man, and made it possible for man to be reconciled to God.  And He that proclaimed this good news of salvation, was also the same who made it possible, by presenting Himself as the atoning sacrifice for sin.  

The scriptures tell us that if we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall become sons of God. To believe requires that we know who He was, and what He accomplished.  And so we study the account of the gospel of Mark so that we might learn the truth about Him, and having learned it, we believe in Him unto salvation.  The truth then about Jesus Christ is the gospel of God which Jesus was preaching.

This manifestation of the gospel of God was appointed for a specific time and place in history.  And that was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ.  As Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand…”. It was the time prophesied in Isaiah 9:1-2  which says, “But there will be no [more] gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make [it] glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”

Jesus preaches that the kingdom of God is at hand. The King of the kingdom of God is revealed. Matthew speaks of the same events by saying the kingdom of heaven.  Both phrases  mean basically the same thing. What Jesus is proclaiming is that God’s reign in the hearts and souls of men would be manifest more clearly than ever before.  The supreme blessing of life in the kingdom of God will be given to all who  would confess Jesus as Lord and forsake their sins and live in service to God.

It’s important to understand correctly the concept of the kingdom of God. It could just as correctly be translated kingship of God.  It speaks of the rule of God in one’s heart, the sovereignty of God over the lives of His people and ultimately God’s sovereignty over the world.

There are really four concepts implied in the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. First, God’s kingship, rule and sovereignty over the individual.  I think that is what Paul was referring to in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  That Christ is your Lord, your sovereign. This is the immediacy of the kingdom of God being in you, or near you.

Secondly, it speaks of complete salvation.  When the scripture speaks of blessing, or blessedness it often is synymous with salvation.  When God is king in our hearts, all the blessings of life in His kingdom are imbued to His people. 

 

The third application of this concept is realized in the church.   The church is the kingdom of God, the community of people who recognize God as king in their hearts. The church is the called out ones, the people of God’s kingdom. The church is not an edifice, not an institution, but the people of the kingdom, called out by God to live under His reign.

And fourthly, the kingdom of God speaks of the future redeemed universe.  Peter said we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, or reigns. Jesus spoke in Matthew’s account of us inheriting the kingdom which God has prepared for us.  At the second coming of Christ, He will usher in the eternal kingdom of God in a new heaven and new earth.

But these four meanings are all related to the central idea of the reign of God, and His sovereignty in salvation.  It is an eternal kingdom; past, present and future.  Jesus preaches that the kingdom of heaven is at hand in order to teach the supernatural character of our salvation.  Salvation is of the Lord. Our salvation begins with the purpose of God, it is proclaimed in the preaching of the gospel, it is delivered by the call of God, believed on in the hearts of men, and lived out in the discipleship of those that believe in Him.

Let’s consider though what else Mark includes in his summary of Jesus’s message.  The first two points of Jesus’s message, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” speaks of the sovereignty of salvation.  The third and the fourth points, “repent and believe in the gospel” speak of man’s responsibility to respond to the preaching of the gospel.

Some commentators say that the word rendered repent would be better translated as be converted.  Repent only stresses the negative aspect, looking backwards, whereas be converted is positive, looking forward, and indicates a radical change of heart, a complete turnaround of your life. Repentance then is a confession that you are a sinner, in need of forgiveness, in need of being changed, converted, made clean, made new.  So though it is the responsibility of the sinner to repent, it is God who converts, who forgives, who cleanses, who changes the heart.

And that positive side of conversion is given more emphasis by the phrase, “and believe the gospel.” To believe is to put your trust in someone.  Believing includes three elements; knowledge, assent, and trust. Not just having the knowledge of the truth, nor just giving an intellectual assent to the truth, but a commitment to and a confidence in the one trusted.  A person truly believes when he acts upon the message.

And that commitment is what is pictured in the next section, in which Mark tells of the calling of  four of the disciples.  Vs 16, “As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men."  Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.  Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets.  Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.”

It was not uncommon for rabbi’s or teachers in those days to have disciples. John the Baptist had disciples.  It was even true in the pagan world - philosophers like Socrates had disciples for instance.  The Lord had even a more particular point to calling His disciples.  They were to eventually become His apostles, and after His death they would be the foundation of the church, and the primary source of the writings of the New Testament, by which we can know the truth about Christ.

However, it’s important to understand that Mark does not include all the events that have occurred prior to this calling of the disciples to follow Him. A year earlier, Andrew and another disciple had been invited to come and see where Jesus was staying.  They had at that time become His followers. And then Andrew brought his brother Simon, who becomes known as Peter, to see Jesus. It’s possible that John might have done something similar for his brother James.

So now about a year later, Jesus calls them to a closer walk with Him, and they are made conscious that He has a plan for them to take on a greater ministry.  That ministry is what Jesus refers to as “fishers of men.”   These men are to be trained by Jesus to be like Him, to speak what He speaks, to do the works that He did, to be the ones who will continue HIs ministry when He is taken away into heaven.

It’s interesting to note that Jesus calls common fishermen to become the ministers of His kingdom, the foundation of His church.  It is not in accordance with pedigree, nor education, nor wisdom, nor attractiveness, nor charisma that God chooses His ministers.  But as Paul said in 1Cor. 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,  and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God.”  And yet these uneducated, common fishermen would turn the world upside down.

The four fishermen that Mark mentions are Peter, Andrew, James and John. Peter we all are very familiar with.  He was the impetuous one.  Without a doubt, he was the leader of the twelve.  In every account of the disciples, he is always listed first.  Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, which means Rock.  Peter was the one who cut the ear off of the servant of the high priest with a sword at the Mount of Olives.  I can relate to Peter more so than any other. I’m constantly having to quell the urge to swing a sword at people.  Peter had a lot of faults, but he had a great love for the Lord.

Andrew, Peter’s brother is known for always bringing people to Christ. That’s such a valuable characteristic, to be able to point people to Christ.  Most Christians have no trouble talking about themselves, and bringing attention to themselves.  But having the ability to bring people to Christ, to point to Christ is a great attribute. That’s what made John the Baptist great.

James the son of Zebedee was the brother of John. To John and James Jesus would late give the nickname Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder.” That’s a pretty cool nickname. I can almost imagine it emblazoned on the back of a motorcycle jacket, “Sons of Thunder.”  So far you got the Rock and the Sons of Thunder. 

But James has another distinction, that of being the first martyr of the disciples.  Acts 12:2 says that Herod had James put to death with a sword. I imagine that meant he was beheaded.  That seems to be a popular method in those days of killing the prophets of the Lord. John the Baptist would soon be beheaded. Peter, we know, was eventually  hung on a cross upside down because he did not think himself worthy of being crucified like Christ.  These guys knew the cost of following Jesus.

And then John, the brother of James, one of the Sons of Thunder, who became known as the one whom Christ loved.  Of course, Jesus loved all his disciples.  But there must have been a special relationship between Jesus and John.  Some Bible scholars have said that it’s likely that they were cousins.  

So Jesus, walking along the beach at Galilee, sees two brothers fishing, throwing a net in the sea.  It might have been one of those nets you see where they throw it out and it makes a large circle and then they pull a string or rope and it gathers it up.  Sometimes you see guys doing that at Indian River. They use it to catch bait fish.

Mark says, “they were fishermen.”  I really like the fact that Jesus chose real men to be the leaders in His kingdom, not some limp wristed academics, or pious prunes, but just regular working class guys. I’ve known a few commercial fishermen in my time.  Just looking at their hands you realize that these guys are gnarly. Maybe that’s where the word gnarly comes from, the gnarled, arthritic hands of these guys that constantly use them to pull heavy nets and ropes out of cold water. 

These men had known Jesus for about a year.  They had believed in Him, they had a relationship with Him, but not of the type to which He was calling them.  Jesus was calling them to a deeper relationship, a relationship of trust, of trusting Him with their life, even to the point of leaving their livelihood.  So Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”  And they dropped what they were doing and followed Him.  They left their nets.  They left their source of income, their livelihood.  Instead of catching fish to feed their families, they would catch souls for the kingdom of God.

James and John were a little further down the beach mending their nets with their father when Jesus called them.  And at once they left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.  They weren’t fishing like Peter and Andrew, but it’s a certainty that they knew one another.  Maybe they were sort of rivals, two brothers trying to out fish the other two brothers.   It sounds like James and John might have come from a little more wealth than Peter and Andrew.  Their father was also a part of their crew as well as hired men.  

And yet without seemingly much concern for what they were leaving, these men dropped everything and followed Jesus.  They too begin their training for a leadership position in the church,  of becoming apostles.

At the end of Jesus’s ministry, He would task the apostles with making more disciples. In Matt. 28:19-20 Jesus said,  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I would suggest that the call of Jesus to be HIs disciple is made to all who have believed in Him.  To not just have the knowledge of the truth, nor just give intellectual assent to the truth, but to trust in Him enough to follow Him, to walk with Him, to learn from Him so that we might carry on HIs ministry on earth.  That we might participate in fulfilling  the prayer He taught us to pray - “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

To be a disciple is to walk with the Lord, to be conformed to His image, to walk in the paths of righteousness, to commit your way unto the Lord, to walk in the Spirit, to walk according to His word.  It’s an active lifestyle, a manner of life that emulates the life of Christ.  And if we are walking as He walked, and walking with Him, following Him, then we will also be fishers of men.  We will be catching souls for the kingdom of God.  

I can assure you that there is no higher calling than to be a fisher of men. There is no career with any greater reward than to be a fisher of men.  It is worth it all to leave everything behind for the greatest blessing of being counted a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  I pray that you hear His call to follow Him, and that you will count all that this world offers as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ your Lord.

The beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, Mark 1:9-13

Baptism is a term that has a variety of meanings or applications when found in scripture.  For instance, in vs 4 a version of the word baptism is attached to John’s name, John the Baptizer.  Then Mark says John came preaching a baptism of repentance.  And in vs 5, they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River.  So that’s three different connotations of the word in those two verses.

Then John adds another application of the word in vs 8 "I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” So clearly, though the primary use of the word indicates being dipped under  water, there are other times when baptism is applied to something else. Perhaps  to be baptized in the Holy Spirit means to be immersed in the Holy Spirit.  

But baptism in water itself is obviously symbolic of something else.  It is a physical symbol or ceremony that indicates purification or regeneration.  Water can only clean the outside of a man, so it symbolizes the washing of regeneration that happens in the heart, or soul of man.

But I don’t think that completely describes all the uses of the word baptism.  For instance, consider what Paul said in 1Cor. 10:1-2 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;  and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”   That usage indicates more of an association or identification.  The children of Israel were identified as the people of God through the baptism which in a sense was performed by Moses in the Red Sea, and the cloud which led them in the wilderness.

There are many other possible applications of the word baptism, but just one more that I want to draw your attention to, which was used by Jesus Christ.  He said in Luke 12:50  "But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”  In that statement we can determine from the context that Jesus is speaking of His suffering and death on the cross. So baptism can mean an undertaking of a particular painful activity or role.

Now I have undoubtedly done more to muddle the waters more that I have probably clarified anything so far this morning.  But I think that if we open our minds to understand that baptism can mean much more than simply being dipped or sprinkled by water, it will help us to better understand why Jesus was baptized, which is the main subject that we are reading about today in this passage.

Notice John said in vs 8 that he was baptizing in water, but Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit.  But before that occurs, Jesus came to be baptized by John in water.  Look at vs 9, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”

At the time when John the Baptist was baptizing in the wilderness in Judea, and people were coming out to him to be baptized in the Jordan River, Jesus also came to John to be baptized.  Last Sunday we talked about John quite a bit.  He was the one who came before to announce Christ, and to prepare the hearts of the people for the Lord Jesus. He preached a baptism of repentance. Before they could be born again by the Spirit, they must repent and be forgiven of their sins.  And thus baptism symbolized that they recognized they were sinners, and they being dipped into the river, symbolically dying to the old sin nature, that they might rise up and walk in a new nature, that which was born of the Spirit.

That’s what being dipped under the water symbolizes, a washing away of sin, but also a dying to sin, and being raised to new life.

The difficulty that arises though is why does Jesus come to be baptized by John? He is not a sinner.  He had no sin to repent of or to confess.  If you remember from the account of Matthew, he says that John tried to prevent Him from being baptized, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?"  But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit [it] at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him.”

Now Jesus’ answer to John doesn’t really explain all the questions I have regarding why He was baptized.  But I think we can figure it out based on all the ways that we’ve seen the term used.  First of all, although Jesus Himself did not have sin, yet He took upon Himself our sin. And so in that sense in being baptized, He symbolically showed that He would bear our sins upon Himself. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

Secondly, the act of being dipped under the water and raised up again symbolized His death and resurrection.  He died as the payment for our sins, and was raised to give us new life. Thirdly, and this is not necessarily in order, He was baptized to identify with sinners.  He was our representative, our Savior, our Lord.

Another reason for His baptism was so that He might identify with and fulfill John’s ministry. He was the One announced as coming by John, and by His appearing to be baptized, the ministry of John was completed, and Jesus’ ministry was begun.  So through baptism Jesus sanctioned John’s message, and fulfilled John’s message, and succeeded John’s ministry. 

And I would add a side note to that, John’s ministry lasted only about another 6 months and then he was arrested and put in prison.  And while in prison, he was beheaded. That’s a pretty amazing thing to think about, that John was born for one purpose, and his ministry lasted only about one year and then the Lord took him, but he was killed by the means of a petty, evil woman’s grudge and a weak King’s drunken response. What that tells me is that our understanding of God’s purposes and the way He works is pretty limited.  His ways are not our ways.  From our perspective, I think we often ascribe God’s blessing or purposes to be fulfilled by what we deem to be proper and fitting.  And yet we see many examples in scripture of God working in mysterious ways that are inscrutable for us.

But to get back to our text,  another reason for Jesus being baptized was so that the testimony of God the Father and the Holy Spirit might confirm Jesus’ ministry by public witness.  When you are baptized, it is a public profession of faith, being witnessed by the pastor and the church, and often testified to by the pastor. In a sense the same thing was being done at Jesus’s baptism, but on a much grander scale.

Mark says in vs 10, “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him;  and a voice came out of the heavens: "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”  

Many Bible scholars have made much out of the fact that the trinity is revealed in this passage.  The word trinity is not found in scripture, but this is a very vivid account of it’s existence.  You do not have the Father identified per se, but it’s evident from His statement that it is the Father saying, “You are My beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.” There is also the Spirit descending like a dove.  The Spirit is not a dove, but took on the form of a dove. And then of course, the third member of the trinity is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. All three are equal in divinity and in nature, and are One God, and yet in three persons with different roles.

Notice also the mode of Christ’s baptism. I don’t think that the method of baptism is one to break fellowship over necessarily, whether it is done by dipping under the water or by sprinkling with water.  But I would point out that it definitely seems that Jesus was in the water, because Mark says “coming up out of the water.” I don’t see how you could use that phrase if Jesus was sprinkled. The argument may be that baptism is symbolic, so there is no need to be dipped, only that there be some water.  But I would suggest that the symbolism of being dipped under water suggests death, being buried with Him in the likeness of His death, and not just ceremonially cleansed by sprinkling water.

I think it’s also imperative that baptism is a cognizant act that is done by people who desire to identify with Christ, and join the fellowship of believers by association, and symbolically portray a heart of repentance.  And that must be done by someone who is able to comprehend what they are doing.  So there is no indication in scripture that you should baptize a baby, who has no capacity for understanding what he is doing or what is going on.  Nor is there any indication that the physical act of baptism is the means of acquiring righteousness.  But only by faith is one’s sins forgiven and righteousness imputed.

Mark says as Jesus comes up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened.  We are not sure what that looked like.  But notice it doesn’t say heaven opened, but the heavens.  The heavens is a reference to the atmosphere, the sky, the clouds.  So I would suggest that the clouds parted and the sun appeared in it’s full, blazing glory and shone upon the Lord Jesus as He came out of the water.

Next you see the Spirit descending like a dove on Him.  I have already said that Mark is not saying the Spirit is a dove.  The Spirit cannot be seen. If someone tells you that they have seen the Holy Spirit then I would urge you to take that with a grain of salt. Or tell them to take two aspirin and call me in the morning.  Because you can’t see a spirit. But in order that He might be seen, He took the form of a dove, or better, He looked like a dove. All three members of the trinity are to be witnessed, and so you hear the Father, see the Spirit like a dove, and see Jesus the Son of God in human flesh.

But I suppose that we all want to ask the question, why is the Spirit like a dove? What symbolism does the dove imply? Well, most commentators see some correlation of a dove and the idea of peace, or gentle, as being correlated to the Spirit descending like a dove. I suppose that may have some merit, but I’m not convinced that is the symbolism that is implied.  I can’t help but see another parallel, at another baptism of water, if you will.  And that is the flood that came upon the whole world and only Noah and his family escaped on the ark.  When the rain finally stopped, you will remember that Noah sent out a raven first, and he didn’t return.  Then a few days later he sent out a dove.  And at the first attempt the dove returned.  Then he sent it out again and it returned with an olive leaf in it’s beak.  Noah knew then that the waters had abated and new life had begun again.

Now so far as I know, I’m the only one crazy enough to find a correlation with the dove in the flood with the descending Spirit in the form of a dove at Jesus’ baptism.  But since the Bible doesn’t tell us,  it’s all conjecture anyway, I think my interpretation is as valid as any.  I think the waters of the flood was the cause of death for the sins of mankind, and the dove symbolized new life. The wrath of God was satisfied, and He brought forth new life and a new beginning.  To me, that ties in nicely with the symbolism of baptism.

So I don’t think that the dove is a perpetual symbol of the Holy Spirit, but God used it at that time, first so that the Spirit descending upon Jesus might be witnessed, and secondly, so that the baptism might be of water and of the Spirit. But I confess that it is a mystery that we might never fully understand until we get to heaven.

I also want to consider the statement of the Father.  It seems that the people in attendance heard the voice of God.That’s a pretty amazing thing in and of itself.  I think of the Israelites who heard God speak from Mt. Sinai and they were so afraid they wanted nothing to do with it.  They told Moses, you speak to God and then you can tell us. But we can’t hear God and live.

There was another time that God spoke from heaven, and it was at the transfiguration. In that case God said ““This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” He said it as a rebuke to Peter, who wanted to build three tabernacles to Moses, Elijah and Jesus.  God made it clear that Jesus was the Son of God, Moses and Elijah were merely His prophets. 

In this statement at His baptism, God the Father speaks to Jesus in the presence of all. God doesn’t speak to John the Baptist, He speaks to Jesus saying, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” 

Now though the Father speaks to Jesus, yet He must be speaking for the benefit of those who heard Him.  I’m sure that God the Father and God the Son were in constant communication and this was not the first time God spoke to Him.  But in a sense,  He spoke to Him to publicly coronate Jesus as the King of Heaven.  God the Father proclaims that this  is His Son, fully God and yet fully man. And only in that dual nature is He able to make atonement for the sins of the world.

In John’s gospel, we are told that at a later time John saw Jesus coming and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” For that metaphor to be true, the sacrificial lamb must be spotless and without blemish in order to be accepted as a sacrifice to the Lord. So in this statement by the Father at Jesus’ baptism, the Father indicates that Jesus fulfilled the requirement of being the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  The Father says, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”  Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of righteousness, and holiness.  He was without any sin, and thus perfectly qualified as both God and man, sinless and perfect, able to undergo His baptism for the remission of the sins of the world.

Immediately after His baptism, Jesus must be tempted to fulfill all righteousness.  Once again, we cannot comprehend all that was involved in the temptation of Christ or how it was even possible.  But we know that it was part of the plan of God.  And Jesus submitted Himself to the Father’s will. Mark speaks of this temptation in a very simple, sparse way.  

Vs 12, “Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.  And He was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan.  He was among the wild beasts, and the angels were rendering service to Him.”

Do not make too much of the wording there which says the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.  In another gospel, it says Jesus was led by the Spirit.  All that simply means is that Jesus submitted to the will of God.  It doesn’t mean that Jesus was forced to do something that He didn’t want to do.  But as Jesus will say later, “I and the Father are One.”  He did all that the Father wanted Him to do.

But you could say also say that it indicates He was empowered by the Spirit.  Certainly He was deity that was equal in stature to the Father and the Spirit. But in HIs human nature, He was able to be strengthened and empowered but the Spirit, just as we are commanded to walk in the Spirit.  

And the Spirit led Him to go into what we must assume was an even more desolate place in the wilderness.  There was no one there to comfort Him, no one to encourage Him. But the Spirit was with Him. And Mark says that the angels ministered to Him.  We know from another gospel writer that the angels specifically ministered to Him after He had fasted for 40 days and been tempted by the devil.  But that doesn’t mean that they did not render service to Him during that 40 days, perhaps by watching over Him and guarding Him from the wild animals while He slept.  We know that there were lions in those regions and other predatory animals that would have perhaps attacked a man out there alone and defenseless.  Yet the angels rendered service to Him.

Mark says that He was among the wild beasts, and some fanciful writers have imagined that means the animals worshipped Him. I don’t think that at all.  Animals are not creatures of reason or rationale and they would have acted according to their nature. So the fear of being attacked or killed by wild animals might have been one part of the temptation of Christ. But the angels rendered service to Him.  He trusted in God to take care of Him, in much the same way that David proclaimed God’s protection for him in many of his psalms when he was in the desert tending sheep.

Another part of that temptation was to be in the wilderness for 40 days, without a bed, without shelter, and without food or water.  In the Bible, fasting is predominately attached to prayer.  It was also used in conjunction with repentance. I think we have already dispensed with the idea that Jesus needed to repent of any sin.  But He did need to be in constant communication with HIs Father.  And so by denying the needs of the physical, He was better able to focus on the spiritual.  

I have fasted a few times in my life for a very limited time.  I think the longest was 3 days, and most of my fasts were 24 hours or so. But I can assure you that fasting for 40 days is enough to kill a normal person.  One must be very strong spiritually in order to survive that.  Physically you would be as close to death as possible, if you survived it.

So because of His isolation, because of His deprivation, Jesus experienced the greatest temptations that Satan could imagine when He was at His lowest point physically.  Hebrews 4:15 says, “He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.” 

Mark doesn’t tell us the details of the temptation as some of the other gospel writers do. He simply says that Jesus was tempted. The question that arises is how is God tempted to sin, when He has no sin, and no sin nature?  Some Bible scholars say that Jesus did not have the capacity to sin. James 1:15 says God cannot be tempted by evil. But how to understand that is beyond our comprehension. I think it just means God will not sin, because He cannot abide evil.  It is against His nature.  But how temptation can affect Him we cannot know, because we cannot ascertain the mind of God.

The point is, that both in Hebrews as well as in the gospels, it says that Jesus was tempted by Satan. He suffered the same way (in all points) like we do, yet without sin. Satan is the adversary.  He is the ruler of this world.  He is the Prince of Darkness.  And he comes out to fight the King of Heaven in a spiritual battle.  Perhaps Jesus was only tempted in some way in His human nature. I don’t know.  But we know that in all the temptations, Jesus was victorious.

It’s interesting though to consider the timing of it all.  As Jesus is coronated by baptism and the Spirit descending upon Him and the statement of the Father proclaiming His deity and His righteousness, the next step in His ministry is to be driven to a place of desolation, of loneliness, of suffering, of deprivation of essential things like food and water and shelter, and then be tempted by the devil.  And all of that taking a precious 40 days out of the beginning of a 3 year ministry.

It should be instructive to us, as we are born again, and given new life, beginning a new ministry, that trials and tribulations sometimes beset us immediately.  The honey moon period of our salvation is often quite brief.  But when we come through these trials and temptations, without succumbing to them, we find that our faith is stronger, the power of the Spirit is ever more present in our lives, and we have a more effective ministry as a result of a time of proving our faith.

I hope that you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, that He was the Lamb of God that took away our sins, and through faith in Him have received the righteousness of God, that gives us new life.  You must be born again, having died with Christ to the old man, and raised to walk in newness of life.  

As Peter preached on the day of Pentecost; "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself."