The Gospel of Mark, Part 6 - Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “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.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

Mark 1:21-28

In our last study in The Gospel of Mark we saw that Jesus had called His first four disciples, and as we come to this passage today we see that immediately they accompanied Him to Capernaum where on the Sabbath day he entered the synagogue and began to teach. And we are told here that those who heard Jesus teach were astonished by what they heard because "He taught as one who had authority" not like the teachers that they were used to hearing. John MacArthur writes:

Jesus’ authoritative teaching, as the spoken Word of God, was in sharp contrast to that of the scribes, who based their authority largely on that of other rabbis. Jesus’ direct, personal, and forceful teaching was so foreign to their experience that those who heard Him were “astonished." And it is into this astonished crowed that now walks a man who is described here as having an unclean spirit. In other words this man was demon possessed.

It appears from the way the text reads that this man walked into the  synagogue, went straight up to Jesus, and immediately confronted Him, saying, "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."

Isn't it interesting that the people in the synagogue - people who were there to worship God -  didn't recognize who Jesus was, but a demon did? And isn't is also interesting that here we find a demon being more of a witness for Christ than most Christians are? (When was the last time you stood in a crowd of people and said that Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God?)

Yes, the devils know who Jesus is; they all believe in Him and the tremble (James 2:19) ,and as we see in here in verses 26-27 they also obey Him when He commands them to do something. I don't know about you, but I cannot honestly say that I have always been obedient in everything that God has commanded in His word, which  convicts me and shows me my wretched sinfulness and makes me even more grateful for the mercy and grace of God that comes through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So Jesus commands the spirit to come out of the man and it does. And again all of the people are astonished. And what happens next? Verse 28 tells us that Jesus' fame spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Why did Jesus' fame spread? It was because those who had encountered Him told everyone they knew what they had experienced.

We may not have had the experience of seeing a demon being cast out or of some other extraordinary event taking place, but if you are a Christian something just as amazing has happened to You. The God of the universe has washed you in the blood of his Son and has forgiven you of all of Your sins! That is something that people need to hear, so I encourage you to take some time today and tell someone you know what Jesus has done in your life.

And as we conclude this section of the Gospel of Mark I leave you with this quote from Bishop Ryle: 

The mere belief of the facts and doctrines of Christianity will never save our souls. Such belief is no better than the belief of devils. They all believe and know that Jesus is the Christ. They believe that he will one day judge the world, and cast them down to endless torment in hell. It is a solemn and sorrowful thought, that on these points some professing Christians have even lass faith than the devil. There are some who doubt the reality of hell and the eternality of punishment. Such doubts as these find no place except in the hearts of self-willed men and women. There is no infidelity among devils. "They believe and tremble."

J.C. Ryle

The Gospel Of Mark, Part 5 - Jesus Calls

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 become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, 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.

Mark 1:16-20

As we return to our study of Mark's Gospel we read of the account of Jesus calling His first disciples. as we read this account we see that the first four men that Jesus called to follow Him were not the religious leaders of the day; they were not rabbis, they were not the Pharisees, they were common laborers. We read that Simon and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. We also read that James and John were in their boats mending nets.

These were not influential men, they were just common blue collar workers, but this is who Jesus called to follow Him. And we are told that they immediately left their nets, their families, their boats, their livelihood - they left everything - and they followed Is this how we respond to Jesus? When God shows us something in His word do we immediately obey? Do we leave everything without hesitation and do what He asks? These men did, and they left an example for us to follow.

Next look at what Jesus called them to do: He called them to follow Him, and He called them to a life of bringing others into a relationship with Him. I want to look at each of these individually because this not only applied to Simon, Andrew, James, and John - these same callings apply to us today as well.

Called to follow Jesus

The first thing that Jesus calls us to do is follow Him. We cannot obey Him in anything that He asks of us until we first decide to answer His call and follow Him. But what does Jesus mean when He calls us to follow Him? We read in the Gospel of Luke:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Luke 9:23

Of this verse John MacArthur writes:

Self-denial was a common thread in Christ’s teaching to his disciples. The kind of self-denial He sought was not a reclusive asceticism, but a willingness to obey His commandments, serve one another, and suffer - perhaps even die - for His sake.

(John MacArthur,The MacArthur Study Bible, Luke 9:23)

This is exactly what Jesus is calling us to today as well. When we follow Him we are giving up our life in exchange for His life; as His follower we are no longer live for ourselves we now live for Him. We live to obey Him, to serve one another, and yes even to die if necessary. Which brings us to the next part of our study.

A call to evangelism

When Jesus called these men to come after Him, He said, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." Of this calling J.C. Ryle writes:

The meaning of this expression is clear and unmistakable. The disciples were to become fishers for souls. They were to labor to draw men out of darkness into light, and from the power of Satan to God. They were to strive to bring men into the net of Christ's church, that so they might be saved alive, and not perish everlastingly.

(J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1, Mark, Page 10)

This is the same thing that Jesus has called all of His disciples to do - you and me included:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

And if this is what Jesus has instructed us to do, are you doing it? Are you purposely and intentionally striving to make disciples of all men? Do you share the gospel with those you know; do you talk about Jesus with your friends and family? That is the privilege Jesus has given to each and every one of us - to introduce the people we know (and even some we don't know) to Him.

How are you doing? Are you introducing people to Jesus? Let me leave you with one final thought from Bishop Ryle:

Does the fisherman strive to catch fish? Does he use all means, and grieve if unsuccessful? Does the fisherman have patience? Does he toil on day after day, and wait, and work on in hope? Happy is that man, in whom the fisher's skill, and diligence, and patience, are all combined.

(J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1, Mark, Page 10)

So my challenge to you today is this: If you have never followed after Jesus then today is the day to Repent of your sin and turn to Him in faith. When you do this He will save you. And if you are already His follower then I challenge you to share your faith with someone today; you never know, you just might be the one that God uses to bring them "into the net of Christ's church."

The Gospel Of Mark, Part 4 - The Temptation Of Jesus

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Mark 1:12-13

In these two verses we read that Jesus, the very Son of God, was in the wilderness for forty days, and He was being tempted by Satan. Have you ever stopped to think about what these verses say? Have you ever considered that Jesus Christ - God in the flesh - was tempted by the devil? That is exactly what we are reading here.

In the Gospel of Mark we are not given any details; here we are simply told that immediately after His baptism Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, with the wild animals, for forty days where He was tempted by Satan and ministered to by angels. Here, for example, we are not told that for these forty days Jesus didn't eat anything. Here we are not told that at the end of these forty days Jesus was weak and hungry, or it was at that time that Satan chose to launch his attack. We are also not given any details about the nature of these attacks, nor are we told that Jesus withstood Satan's attacks by knowing and accurately using the word of God in His defense (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). All of these things are important, and we can read about them in the other Gospel accounts, but for some reason none of them is included here.

As we approach these two verses there are several approaches we could take: we could study the Greek to see what it means that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness; we could speculate on what it means that the angels ministered to Him; we could even do a study of the significance of the forty days and see what forty days means in the Bible, but if we do all of that and miss the point of what the Gospel writer is trying to tell us here we have just wasted our time.

So what is it that the Gospel writer wants us to see here? Could it be that the thing that we really need to understand is simply that Jesus was in fact tempted by the devil just like we are?

In the letter to the Hebrews we read:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

Did you catch that? Jesus was tempted in every way that you or I have ever been (or ever will be) tempted. Why is that ? Hebrews 2:17 tells us that Jesus had to be made like us in every respect so that He could be our merciful and faithful high priest; in order for Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins He had to be like we are (yet without sin).

Verse 18 then goes on to say:

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:18

Because Jesus was tempted He is able to help us when we are tempted. What does this mean? It means that Jesus understands the weaknesses we have because He was made just like us. It means that He knows what it is like to be tempted, because He was tempted. And it means that in temptation there is always a way out (see again Hebrew 4:15; Jesus was tempted yet He remained sinless).

In 1 Corinthians we read:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

There are several important things in these verse:

1. There are no temptations that are unique to you or me; we may all struggle with different specifics, but the specifics all lead back to what is common to man - rebellion against God.
2. God is faithful - this verse promises that He will never let us be tempted beyond what we can endure.
3. God will always make sure that in every temptation we have a way of escape

These are great promises and we would all do well to remember them.

So what have we seen here? In the Gospel of Mark we saw that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil. We then went to Hebrews and saw that Jesus was tempted in every way we are, but that He remained sinless (this is an important thing to understand - it means that temptation is not a sin and that just because you are tempted does not mean that you have sinned). And finally we looked at 1 Corinthians where we saw that we have a faithful God who will keep us from any temptation that we cannot resist and that when we are tempted He will always provide for us a way of escape.

So the next time that you face a temptation think about Mark 1:12-13 and remember that Jesus also faced temptation, and that because He faced temptation He is able to sympathize with our weakness. And then rejoice that this same Jesus is our Great High Priest.

The Gospel Of Mark, Part 3 - The Baptism Of Jesus

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:9-11

With these three verses we come to the Baptism of our Lord. We are not given a lot of detail here, and in fact are probably left with more questions than answers. But let's look at these three verses, and at the surrounding context, and see what we can learn.

We know from the previous passage that John the Baptist was in the wilderness baptizing and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We know that many were coming to him and were being baptized and were confessing their sins. We know that john said clearly that there was someone coming after him whose sandals he was not worthy to untie and this coming one would not baptize with water as John was doing, but would baptize with the Holy Spirit. It is into this setting that Jesus walks in verse nine where we see that Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptized by John in the Jordan. This is where the questions start. Why was Jesus baptized? And why by John?

Let's start with the second question first because I think it is the easier of the two to answer. We read Mark 1:2-3 a quote from Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 where we are told that God would send a messenger, His messenger, before the Messiah to prepare the way for His coming. And that is what john had been doing; he had been preaching that the people needed to repent of their sins - that the forgiveness of sins comes through repentance and turning to God. We looked at this in some detail last time (see The Gospel of Mark, Part 2 - Get Yourselves Ready) so we will not get into that again here, but we still must answer the question why did Jesus come to John to be baptized? Jesus came to John to be baptized as a validation of John's ministry.

The message of Jesus was also the message of repentance and faith, and by Jesus allowing John to baptize Him He was showing the world that the message of John was true, that the ministry of John was valid, and that He was the One for whom John had been preparing the way.

This then brings us to the more difficult question to answer, if John was proclaiming a baptism of repentance from sin (and he did) and Jesus was sinless (and He was), why did He need to be baptized?

We read in Matthew's account of this incident that John tried to prevent this saying that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, but Jesus said that His being baptized by John was fitting to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:13-15). This creates a problem that I think is best expressed by James Boyce in his commentary on Matthew, he writes:

Since John’s baptism was a baptism unto repentance and Jesus had no sin of which to repent, how is it that he sought baptism by John in the first place? And why did he seek this, as he said to John, “to fulfill all righteousness”? How could baptism add anything to the already perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ?

To answer this dilemma we must ask another question: what is baptism? By this I don't mean the mode or method of baptism (i.e. sprinkling or submersion), but what does baptism mean; in other words, why do we do it? Baptism is, at its most basic and fundamental level, a means of identification. What do I mean by this? When we are baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ what we are doing is saying to the world that I now identify my life with His life - I am now identified with Jesus in His life, death, and resurrection. In the same way when the people that John was baptizing were baptized what they were doing was identifying themselves with his message of repentance and making a public statement - by the means of baptism - that they had in fact repented of their sins as John had instructed.

Why is this important? Because when Jesus stepped down into that water to be baptized by John what He was doing was identifying Himself with us. Again James Boyce writes:

In Jesus’ baptism by John, Jesus identified himself with us in our humanity, thereby taking on himself the obligation to fulfill all righteousness so that he might be a perfect Savior and substitute for us.

This does not in any way mean that Jesus had sinned or that He needed to repent of anything as the writer of Hebrews reminds us:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

And the apostle Peter wrote:

He [Jesus] committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

1 Peter 2:22

So it was to identify Himself with us that made Jesus go to John, step down into the Jordan River, and be baptized by him. John MacArthur here writes:

Jesus came into the world to identify with men; and to identify with men is to identify with sin. He could not purchase righteousness for mankind if He did not identify with mankind’s sin.

Let me help you see the picture here. When Jesus went to the cross he took upon Himself the sin of the world; He took our sin upon Himself (1 Peter 2:24) and actually became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). Jesus not only identified with us He literally took the punishment that we deserved and He paid the price that our sin required.

As I said above, when the people came to John to be baptized by him they were symbolically showing that they had repented of their sin. They would go down into the water, John would submerge them showing their death to sin, and they would come up a new person who figuratively speaking was leaving their sin behind in that water. When Jesus - the sinless Son of God - wend down into that water He figuratively took upon Himself the sin that He literally bore on the cross in our place.

Before we move on there is one more thing that this passage teaches us that we need to see and understand, and that is found in verse eleven where John hears a voice out of heaven say to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Why is it important that God the Father was pleased with Jesus, and does it have any implication for us that this was said at this time when Jesus was clearly identifying Himself with us? The reason that this is so important is because apart from Christ we cannot please God in any way. So we can take great comfort in the fact that God is "well pleased" with Him, because when He sees us who have come to Christ is faith and repentance He sees us as being "in Christ" (Romans 6:11; 6:23; 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17 and many, many more) and since we are now in Christ we are accepted by God, not based upon our own merit but on the merit of Christ (Ephesians 1:6).

So the next time you read about the Baptism of Jesus I hope that you don't just skim over it, but that you stop, think about what it means, and take a few minutes to thank Jesus for His identifying Himself with us. Then take some time to praise God because when He sees us He is not seeing us in our own merit, but in His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.

And we can rest because there is nothing we have to do to please Him - Jesus already did it all!

The Gospel Of Mark, Part 2 - Get Yourselves Ready

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:2-8

In this passage we are introduced to John the Baptist, the messenger who was sent before Jesus to prepare the way. Here we must ask the question, what was it that John did ,and how did he prepare the way for Jesus to come and begin His ministry?

We are told in verse four that John was baptizing and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And in verse five we see that many were going to the Jordan river to be baptized by him and were confessing their sins.

So what we are seeing here is the people of Judea and Jerusalem coming out to John and being baptized by him as an outward public sign that they had repented of their sin and turned their hearts to God. The word Repent here comes from the Greek word metánoia, which literally means to change your mind. What this is telling us is that repentance involves thinking differently about your sin.

Think of it this way, when you repent you no longer view sin as being a minor stumble or as just being a mistake; you actually have a change of mind whereby you now see your sin as God sees your sin. In other words you now see your sin as the hideous, ugly affront to God's holiness and sovereignty that it truly is. You have a change of mind which then manifests itself in a change of direction - you turn your back on your sin, and you walk away from it, but more importantly you don't just walk away from your sin, you walk toward God.

We can see this concept more clearly spelled out in the following verses:

Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Acts 14:15 (Emphasis added)

And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles — to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Acts 26:15-18 (Emphasis added)

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (Emphasis added)

This is what John was teaching the people of that day, and the text tells us that he was preparing the way for the Lord; he was making the paths straight and calling the people to repentance (which, as we will soon see is the same message that Jesus preached). But this is not the only thing that John did; he did not just call the people to repentance (as important as that is) - he glorified Christ. Notice verses seven and eight; here we see that when John preached he said:

After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John did not live his life to gain popularity, prestige, or power; he lived his life for one purpose only - to glorify Christ. That is an example we would all do well to follow.

There is one more thing that I want to point out in this passage that we might otherwise miss; verse two begins with the words "As it is written..." This is a good reminder to us that what we read here in the gospels regarding the life and ministry of Jesus was prophesied hundreds of years before it actually happened. For example, what we are reading right to the beginning of Mark's Gospel is the fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah had written 700 years earlier. Several times throughout the gospels we read things like "as it was written" and this is to remind us that God does what He says He will do. We can take great comfort in the fact that God does what He says He will do and that all of His promises will be fulfilled. But we can also take this as a warning and and be assured that just as He fulfilled the prophesies concerning the birth and ministry of Jesus He will also fulfill the prophesies concerning the Second Coming of Jesus and His final judgment against sin; the Bible clearly teaches:

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Hebrews 9:27

And it says:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galatians 6:7

All prophesy will be fulfilled.

Yes, God will judge sin; each of us will either experience God's wrath ourselves, or we will come to Him through Jesus Christ who died on the cross and became sin for us. He took the wrath of God in the place of everyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith. As I have said before, This is the Gospel! That is what John preached, that is what Jesus preached, and that is what this book is all about.



Next time we will cover verses 9-11 of chapter 1 as we look at the baptism of Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark - An Introduction

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:1

It is widely held that the Gospel According to Mark is the account of the ministry of Jesus as related to John Mark by the apostle Peter. This means that even though this Gospel bears the name of Mark it is in fact the eye-witness account of Peter who spent the three years of Jesus' earthly ministry front-and-center. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the Gospel of Mark skips the genealogies and the few events of Jesus' childhood that we know, and by verse sixteen of chapter one we have already seen Jesus baptized by John the Baptist, His temptation in the wilderness, and the beginning of His earthly ministry.

Verse one is an important verse and as we begin our journey through the Gospel of Mark it is important to point out right at the outset that:

1. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ
2. That Jesus is the Son of God.

We can see both of these things right in the first verse. Let's look at these one at a time:

First we see that what we are about to read is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated gospel here is euaggélion, which Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament words says:

originally denoted a reward for good tidings; later, the idea of reward dropped, and the word stood for “the good news” itself.

What we have here is the good news of Jesus Christ. So we now have to ask ourselves, "what is the good news of Jesus Christ?"

The good news is that we can all have our sins forgiven. The good news is that Jesus was born, lived a perfect life, died upon the cross for our sin, and rose again on the third day. The good news is that Jesus said He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The good news is that Jesus came to call not the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17). The good news is that Jesus came to take away the sins of the world (John1:29). The good news is that Jesus came to be the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sin (1 John 2:2).

The good news is simply this: Jesus will forgive all of your sin - past, present, and future - when you repent and turn to Him. You don't have to clean yourself up first, you just have to abandon your own self-righteousness and follow Him. We can't earn this salvation, and we can't buy it - our sin deserves death but God offers us salvation as a free gift (Romans 6:23). That is good news! That is the Gospel! That is what we are going to discover as we work our way through this book.

The second thing we see here in this first verse is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. J.C. Ryle, in his book Expository Thoughts on the Gospels writes:

These words, "Son of God," conveyed far more to Jewish minds than they do to ours.They were nothing less than an assertion of our Lord's divinity. They were a declaration that Jesus was Himself very God, and "equal with God." (John 5:18)

The very God of the universe Himself took on human form and came to earth to pay the price that my sin deserved. Once again I say that that is the Gospel, the good news! And I am really looking forward to working our way through this book together. Please feel free to ask questions and post comments as we study together the Gospel of Mark.