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Renewing Your Mind
The Faithful Preacher
00:26:26
From the outset of His public ministry, it was clear that Jesus was no ordinary teacher. Today, W. Robert Godfrey examines the central characteristic of Christ’s ministry: proclaiming the gospel with divine power and authority. Get lifetime digital...
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Jesus doesn't say to them, I'll make you princes of men, the apostles, at least some of them want glory sooner rather than later. And this is a bit of a universal human temptation, isn't it, to want glory sooner rather than later. And Jesus is, I think, warning them right at the beginning, making clear to them right at the beginning, following me, you're still going to just be fishers of men in this world.
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What does it mean to follow Christ? Is it the promise of health and wealth, as some preachers on our TV screens tell us? Are we called to follow him not for glory, but for service? I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and this is the Wednesday edition of renewing your mind. All week you're hearing messages from W. Robert Godfrey's new series, Following Jesus. It's his 26 message study in the Gospel of Mark. And you can unlock lifetime access to this series and the companion study guide when you donate today at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. To help you get the most out of this study and to facilitate all your note taking, we'll also send you a special Renewing youg Mind notebook developed in honor of 30 years of listeners like you, enabling this program to broadcast truth seven days a week, 365 days a year. So let's continue our time with the chairman of Ligonier Ministries. Here's Dr. Godfrey.
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In our last session, we were looking together at the first chiasm in Mark's gospel, the first section, and I called that the foundations, Jesus and the Foundations. And we talked about various aspects of that. I now have the second section, the second chiasm up here, but we're not quite done with the first one yet. I want us to just think a little bit about Mark's very brief recounting of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, because he's really paralleling that to John's ministry in the wilderness. And as John called the people to repentance and faith, Jesus is going into the wilderness to show that he is the faithful Son in whom the Father is well pleased, because he's going to face the evil one in the wilderness and sustain the temptation. It's interesting that Mark, in the brevity of his telling, doesn't tell us Jesus remained faithful. But of course, the whole rest of the Gospel shows us that. And indeed, even the demons later in chapter one will say to Jesus, you are the holy One of God. So Mark makes clear that he sustains the temptation, but Again we see his sort of abruptness, his brevity in the telling of the tale. But even in the brevity, he has important things to say to us that we shouldn't miss. Verse 12 of chapter one, the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. In the other gospels, it says, led him out here. He's driven out. This is more of that drama, more of the cost of the fulfillment. The heavens were torn apart. Now he's driven out to serve the Father and to sustain the test. And he was in the wilderness, Mark writes, 40 days, being tempted by Satan. So there it is. We know who is tempting him. We know that the evil one is facing him. And. And I always think it's intriguing that Jesus teaches us to pray. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. That's one of the ways that can maybe should be translated, not just deliver us from evil, but deliver us from the evil one. So as Jesus had to face temptation and Jesus delivers us from the evil one, he says, pray that you won't have to go through what I had to go through. Pray that you'll not be led into temptation and be delivered from the evil one. And interesting, Mark doesn't tell us how he was tempted. We have to go to Luke and to Matthew to find out what the evil one said to Jesus and how Jesus responded to the evil one. All we know is he was there 40 days and that it was dangerous because Mark adds that little detail. He was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. Now, again, this is important because the word that we translate into English, angels, is really a Greek word, angeloi. It's not a translation at all. It's just taking over of the Greek word. In English, the Greek word angoloi means messengers. The great work of angels is to be messengers. And so Jesus the messenger and the message is ministered to by messengers, even in his time of temptation. And I think it's really pretty clear that Mark here is alluding to Psalm 91, which is the psalm that Matthew tells us the evil one quoted against Jesus. You know, in Psalm 91:11, the Psalmist wrote, he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And the evil one quoted this to justify his request to Jesus that Jesus cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Mark, I think, is alluding to Psalm 91 with his reference to the wild animals. And I think he sort of wants us to turn to Psalm 91. So that's what I'm doing. I'm turning to Psalm 91 because in context, it's intriguing what we read here. I'm going to read verses 9 through 13 of Psalm 91. And there we read, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place. Isn't that true of Jesus? He's the well beloved Son, because he's been faithful. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge. No evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague shall come near your tent. Here's the Lord's promise to protect his Son. For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. But of course, all those ways are his faithful ways, not his tempting testing of God ways. If it even were conceivable he would do that. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. So the wild animals, though threatening him, cannot harm him, because the angels are there, ministering to him, protecting him. And Jesus sustains the temptation. He shows that he is the King coming with the Gospel. And so all of these foundational elements of this first section help us see clearly who Jesus is. If we don't see the structure, we may just see one story after another. And of course we believe the stories. We get the basic point of the stories. But we don't see how carefully Mark has crafted his Gospel to lead us into seeing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So, first section, we can check that off the list onto the second section. What's the second section about? It's about Jesus calling followers to himself. And it really runs from Mark 1:16 through chapter 3, verse 12 in the divisions of our printed Bibles, Jesus calling followers to himself. And you see how that begins in verse 16 of chapter one, passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. So this begins with followers. This is the first calling of followers. Jesus, in a sense, we're Being told had no followers at the beginning. It had to begin somewhere. And who does he call? He calls four fishermen to follow him. And I didn't bother to write it all out because I'm lazy. But this section ends with a discussion of followers. Let me just read the first part of that last section here. At verse seven of chapter three, we read, jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. And a great crowd followed him. So he starts at the beginning of this section with just four followers who have heard his call and followed him. And by the end of this section, a great crowd is following him. So this section is really tracing the calling of people to Jesus. And the fact that more and more are following Jesus. As we go through, we'll see that Mark subtly makes an important distinction that we have to notice to interpret him rightly. He really divides the followers into two groups. One group are the disciples. Now, we might properly have thought that the disciples are all the followers. We use the word disciple that way. Today, disciples are those who follow Jesus. But Mark uses the word disciple more technically. The word disciple in Mark always means the apostles, the 12. It doesn't refer to everyone who follows Jesus. Disciples is that close group, that critical group that are with him always, that surround him, that always are traveling with him. So disciple in Mark always means the disciples. There are other followers. There are believers of various sorts. Called out of various sins and various problems. And those are every bit as much followers. They are obviously critical to what Jesus is doing. But they are distinct from the disciples or from the apostles. And so Jesus begins to call people to himself. And it's important who he calls. He calls fishermen. Now, fishermen were honorable people, but they weren't distinguished people. They weren't important people. They weren't wealthy people. They weren't influential people. And Jesus says to them when he calls them, I will make you fishers of men. He doesn't say to them, I'll make you princes of men. He doesn't say, I'll make you rich among men. He says, you'll still be kind of humble folk, but I'm going to use you for my ministry to call people to faith. But don't expect that this is a path to glory. This is one of the themes throughout the Gospel. The apostles, at least some of them, want glory sooner rather than later. And this is a bit of a universal human temptation, isn't it, to want glory sooner rather than later. And Jesus is, I think, warning them right at the beginning, making clear to them right at the beginning, following me. Even though I am the Christ, even though I am the Son of God. Even though I am the King. Come in fulfillment of all that was promised. You're still gonna just be fishers of men in this world as you follow me. And so Jesus begins instructing them. Right from the beginning, they will have already heard him in terms of the call to repentance and faith. But now they're hearing him also to be followers of. But followers not for glory, but for service. And then we're told. And they went into Capernaum. Capernaum is the city from which Jesus will conduct his ministry. Until the last week of his life when he heads south for Jerusalem. Last week or so of his life. It's not that he never leaves Capernaum. It's not that he doesn't go other places. But Capernaum becomes the. The place from which he is ministering. And the place to which he returns. It's a little city on the north end of the Sea of Galilee. It's not too far from the eastern border of the region of Galilee. It's maybe as much as 25 miles from Nazareth. Nazareth is well south and west of Capernaum. So he's definitely moved away from Nazareth. He's still in the region of Galilee, but he's in this city of Capernaum. I had the privilege of going with a Ligonier group on a trip to Israel. And one of the places we visited was Capernaum. I think in terms of being in Israel, going to the Sea of Galilee was one of my favorite experiences. Because it still looks a lot like it probably looked back then. What you see in Jerusalem is mainly medieval, not ancient. But what you see at the Sea of Galilee is still pretty much the way it would have been. And Capernaum is pretty well a ruin. You see ruined buildings there. And at one point is pointed out the synagogue where Jesus ministered. And it's in ruins. And so I said to the guide, so that's the synagogue where Jesus ministered? And he said, well, no, not really. Those ruins stand on a foundation of an earlier ruined synagogue where Jesus ministered. But I think there's a little kind of band of darkened stone. Which probably meant the. The synagogue where Jesus was burned at some point. So you can at least see stone that would actually have been there when Jesus was there. Whereas most of what you see in Israel. It's a little harder to connect buildings to Jesus actually having been there. But there it is. And that's what we read about here. Verse 21 of Mark 1. And they went into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath day, he entered the the synagogue and was teaching. So we need to always bear in mind that the number one thing Jesus does in his earthly ministry before the cross is to teach. Jesus was a preacher. Jesus was a teacher. So often we get fascinated by Jesus the healer, Jesus the miracle worker. We get fascinated by the extraordinary Jesus, the supernatural powers of Jesus. But the Gospels always tell us, in the first place, Jesus is a teacher. Jesus is a preacher. That's what is crucial here. And the people who heard him were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. So how is that different? Well, the scribes are forever quoting other people, Rabbi so and so said this and that, but rabbis otherwise said something else. And they show themselves to be authorities in the law, not in themselves, but in the interpreters of Scripture that they can quote. And here they are in the Sabbath day in the synagogue, and Jesus is showing he's not just a scribe. He's not just someone dependent on the interpretations of others. He teaches straightforwardly because he knows exactly what the Scriptures mean. It helps that he wrote them with the Holy Spirit. So here they are, they're in the synagogue. They're hearing him teach. And there was a man there with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. The Holy One of God. There's the testimony that he is the Holy One. He is the Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. And the Holy Spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out. And they were all amazed. So that they questioned among themselves, what is this? A new teaching with authority. You notice how they go from the miracle to the authority of the teaching. A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. Now, what's interesting and what our chiastic interpretation helps us see is this first healing of Jesus, this first casting out of an unclean spirit occurs on the Sabbath day. This is a Sabbath healing. And it's completely uncontroversial. No one says, how do you dare heal on the Sabbath day? But later in this section, represented by B prime in chapter three, he's healing on the Sabbath day. A man with a withered hand. And this becomes utterly controversial. In those early days, the Pharisees weren't following him to criticize him. But later they begin to follow him when his fame spreads. And in the Sabbath healing that we find at the beginning of chapter three, there's great offense that he would dare do this work on the Sabbath day. And Mark, you see, is rather intentionally contrasting the uncontroversial Sabbath healing with the controversial Sabbath healing to show how forces are beginning to gather against him. Up to a certain point, everything in the Gospel is said about Jesus is said positively. The crowds followed him. They were excited about him. The crowds supporting him grew. But at a certain point, all that changes. Now, after the Sabbath healing in the synagogue, others began to come to him for help. Verse 29 of chapter one. And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. So this is still the Sabbath day, right? Now, Simon's mother in law lay ill with fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. That mini resurrection we talked about before. And she began to serve them probably means food, right? The angels served him in the wilderness, probably with food. And now she's serving them with food in the wilderness. And then that evening at sundown. So now the Sabbath is ending. They brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together near the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. He didn't want testimony from the demons. He didn't want the evil spirits to be counted as reliable witnesses. But it is interesting that Mark records it. And so we do have that witness, even though it's not the witness that Jesus thought was the most important witness by any means. And so we have this care that Jesus shows for those close to him. And this care will be paralleled later in this section when he and the disciples are walking on a Sabbath day and they're hungry. And they just take a few grains from the field they're passing. And once again we have the theme of eating. It's interesting how the theme of eating recurs again and again and again in this Gospel. The other thing that recurs again and again in this Gospel is the importance of women in the ministry of Jesus. Women travel with him. Women help care for him. Women are there at the foot of the cross. Women are there at the empty tomb for the resurrection. The theme of women is very important in Mark's Gospel. As those who respond to Jesus and appreciate Jesus and trust in Jesus. But Jesus is going to do more than simply minister in Capernaum. And so we move on to the preaching of Jesus as it spreads out and arising. Very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed and Simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and they said to him, everyone is looking for you. I think it's always important to bear in mind that the miracles Jesus did testified to who he was, but also complicated his life. He's constantly having to move on and away from where major miracles occurred because people were only interested in the miracles and not in the teaching. And so Jesus responds to the disciples who clearly expected him to go back and capitalize on all the success he'd had in Capernaum, all the people who were following him. And he says to them, verse 38 of Mark 1 Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
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That is Jesus the Preacher from W. Robert Godfrey's new series Following Jesus. I'm glad you're joining us this week on Renewing youg Mind for this new study in Mark's Gospel. I trust you're being helped as you take the time to consider this fast paced and relatively short gospel in greater detail. You'll hear the first five messages from this series if you join us through Friday, but the entire study is 26 messages and you can request access to all 26 right now when you call us at 800-435-4343 with a donation in support of this daily outreach and the global gospel efforts of ligonier ministries, visit renewingyourmind.org or use the link in the podcast Show Notes to give your donation and you can stream the series in the free Ligonier app. And you can also access the detailed study guide in there as well. Plus, to further thank you, we'll send you a Renewing your Mind notebook to hold all of your notes as you work through the entirety of Mark's Gospel. That's a series, a study guide and a special notebook when you donate at renewingyourmind.org if you live outside of the US and Canada, visit renewingyourmind.org global to access the series and study guide when you make your donation from anywhere in the world. Thank you. Your sins are forgiven. Imagine hearing those words from Jesus if you were alive during his earthly ministry. It's the importance of forgiveness that will be Dr. Godfrey's focus tomorrow here on Renewing youg Mind.
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Sam.