Let's pray.
Bob, thank you for hungry hearts and thank you for good food. Thank you for truth. Thank you for the words of the Living God, inspired by God, carried along by the Holy Spirit, not by the whim of men. Though you certainly use the personalities of these Gospel writers and prophets, we have the benefit, Lord, of gleaning from the truth week by week. It's a precious treasure, and because we have been given so much, to whom much is given, much shall be required.
So I am thankful for not only people who come out to hear, but those who then are involved in spreading the principles by training and discipling others and getting involved in some sort of body ministry. We pray that your Holy Spirit would convict, apply, inform, teach, and in short, transform. You know what we're thinking; you know how low we've been this week or how high we've been this week. We know what we want; you know what we need, and that's where we rest as we open the book. We ask for your blessing now, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Great things come in small packages. I have this little gadget that was unimaginable just a few years ago. Now this is my iPhone, and with this little gadget, I can check the weather anywhere in the world. I can get online and listen to music. I can search the internet. I can listen to messages of sermons, which I do quite frequently, or I can even go to people's churches if they do live streaming or archived by using this little device and watching messages online. It's amazing! It's so small. If you remember, just a few years ago, mobile phones were like this big. I would love to have one of those now just because it's like a collector's item; it's like an antique.
Unheard of! That's small. Small package, great things. Oh, by the way, it's also a telephone, but that's beside the point. Great things come in small packages. The Gospel of Mark is a small package that offers great things. It is the shortest of the Gospels, thus the smallest of the Gospels. It's the most rapid reading of the Gospel; it covers a lot of ground in just a short period of time.
A reminder that we have four Gospels for very important reasons. The four Gospels give us four different viewpoints of the same story. I know there's a lot of discussion and debate, and it'd be fun to get into that discussion, but because of time, we just don't have the time, and you can chase it down on your own. I've read lots of information, especially regarding the Gospel of Mark and where it fits in the Canon and why some people think it's the earliest and that others copied him, and lots of nonsense that is easily disproved.
But basically, the Holy Spirit, like a quartet, a string quartet setup—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—a string quartet, I'm told, has a cello, two violins, and a viola. Very distinct sounds, very distinct notes, but all blended in harmony together. So Matthew writes from his perspective, Mark, Luke, and John from their perspectives. They tell the story, but from just a slightly different angle.
Or, if you will, the Holy Spirit is like the producer of a film, and he sets up four cameras, all at different angles, all to reveal how the crowd reacts or what the main character says, while another one will leave out a certain portion of what the main character says and be panning what the enemies are thinking at that time. They're all relating different elements.
Matthew speaks about Jesus as the sovereign, the king of the Jews, hence all of the references in Matthew's Gospel to what the Prophet said, what the Old Testament writers wrote. His common phrase is, "So that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet." He uses that phrase a lot in Matthew.
Mark, on the other hand, leaves out—not all, but quite a bit of those Old Testament predictions that would prove that Jesus is the fulfillment. Because, unlike Matthew, who wants to speak of Jesus as the sovereign, the king of the Jews, Mark wants to portray Jesus as the servant. So Mark is writing for a Roman audience and wants to show, in rapid succession, what Jesus did, not so much what Jesus said.
Matthew focuses on what Jesus said. He covers the three great discourses: the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, the kingdom parables in great detail. Not Mark; he'll tip his hat to them, but not in the detail. He's more interested not in what Jesus said, but what Jesus did.
So there are words that are repeated that show this to demonstrate this. The little conjunction "and" and the little adverb "now" are used in the Gospel of Mark 1331 times. "This happened, and..." "Now..." Now also the word "immediately." "Immediately he did this, and he did that. Now he did this immediately; he went there." You see, you read just the first chapter, and you go just because of this action-packed, hyperdrive Gospel of Mark.
Mark was not an apostle. In fact, Mark was probably born 10, more like 15 years after Jesus Christ was born. Thus, Mark was probably in his late teens when all the key events in the Gospels were happening. Many scholars believe that Mark was that unnamed young man in the Garden of Gethsemane mentioned in Mark chapter 14—the unnamed young man who fled from the garden naked when somebody grabbed his robe, and they took his robe. That's all he had on, so he just streaked out of the garden and went home. Very unusual evening that was. Most people think that that was Mark in that story.
It is believed that, though Mark wrote this book, it is largely the testimony of the Apostle Peter who told it to Mark because Mark wasn't an apostle, wasn't there, was in his late teens when these things were happening. Maybe he was in the garden. Yes, the early church met in his mother's house in Jerusalem, but it was Peter who led him to Christ, discipled him in Christ, and then told him the story from Peter's perspective.
I believe that to be true simply because the majority of early church historians bear that out: Papias of Hierapolis, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, Justin Martyr—all those early church biographers and historians mentioned that Peter was the one who discipled Mark, John Mark. That's why in Peter, in the book of Peter, he refers to Mark as "my son," Mark my son, his spiritual son.
Bobby was the one who led him to Christ. Now there are two names he goes by. His first name is Hebrew; his name wasn't Mark; it was John. He's called John Mark in Acts chapter 12. John, Yohanan would be his Hebrew name; Marcus would be his Latin name. So he went by Mark.
As I mentioned, it was his mother's house in Acts chapter 12 where the early church gathered together. After they met in the upper room, they were now meeting in her house. Evidently, she had a large home; she was probably wealthy. So the early church was gathered, and there's a great story in Acts 12 when Peter is in jail. The early church is meeting in John Mark's mom's house, and they're praying fervently that Peter will get sprung out of jail.
Could you hear them? "Father in heaven, you can do anything; nothing's too hard for thee. We pray that you would release Peter and don't let him get killed." That's what they said; they're gonna do. Pilate said he's gonna kill him; Herod said he's gonna kill him; release him.
Well, while they're having their prayer meeting, there's a knock at the door, and a young servant girl named Rhoda—so John Mark's mother had a servant girl; hence, again, she was probably a wealthy lady. The servant girl answered the door; it was Peter who got sprung from jail. An angel was dispatched, miraculously brought him out.
So they're praying for his release; he's knocking at the door. "I'm here!" Rhoda left him outside and closed the door, which would be dangerous for Peter; he's now an escaped criminal. She closed the door, goes inside to the prayer meeting where all these holy men and women of God are gathered and says, "Hey, you wouldn't believe who's at the door—the very guy we've been praying for! Peter, he's at the door!"
And they turn on and go, "Oh, you're crazy; you're seeing his ghost; it can't be him!" Peter kept standing out there knocking and knocking until finally they let him in. So filled with faith at that prayer meeting at the house of John Mark's mother.
Further information, according to Colossians chapter 4, verse 10, John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas. Barnabas is a very, very key leader in the early church in the book of Acts. It was Barnabas who was the traveling companion of Paul the Apostle in the earlier stages.
So on their first missionary journey, when they left Antioch in Syria and they went to Cyprus, it says in Acts 13, they took with them John Mark as their assistant. So he got to be with Paul on the very first missionary journey. But whatever happened caused John Mark to mid-journey decide, "I don't want to be a missionary anymore."
So once they left the island of Cyprus and went to Perga in Pamphylia upon the Turkish coastline, he decided, "See you guys; I'm heading back to Jerusalem." So he goes back to mama. This didn't sit well with Paul the Apostle because on their second missionary journey, when they're preparing, Paul says, "Let's go back over the same area and minister to those people." Barnabas has a great idea: "Let's get John Mark." Paul goes, "Won't have him; don't want him. He flaked out on the first missionary journey; I'm done."
So an argument developed between cousin Barnabas and Paul concerning John Mark. It became such a heated discussion between them; they didn't see eye to eye that the disagreement was so marked that they had to split company. Paul took Silas and went on his second journey; it says Barnabas and John Mark went to Cyprus, the very place where they first went.
Thank God for Barnabas, by the way. Thank God for Paul, but thank God for Barnabas, the encourager, who would come alongside and say, "John Mark, it's not over yet; there's still more ministry for you to do." And indeed there was because eventually he goes to Rome where Peter is. Peter wrote from Rome his epistle, and there in Rome, he was able to hear the words of Peter and write down the Gospel in this Gospel of Mark.
And just in case you're wondering, yes, Paul the Apostle and John Mark eventually reconciled because toward the end of his life, he writes to Timothy, "Bring John Mark as well; he is useful to me in the ministry," and he even recommended him to churches to whom he was sending them.
So verse 1: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Notice how different the beginning is for Mark. He leaves out the genealogies that Matthew includes and that Luke includes. He doesn't begin way back in time past, in prehistory, in eternity past like John begins his Gospel when he said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He just says, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
We take it for granted, but the word "gospel"—our word comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "God spell." It is originally based upon the Greek word "euangelion," which means great news, good tidings. So the gospel is good news. The beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Unfortunately, many people do not see Christianity as good news; they see it as bad news. I think that's largely because not of the gospel itself nor of the Lord of the gospel, but because of the representatives of the gospel. It has been pictured, portrayed as restrictive and no fun and harsh. You know, "You're gonna wear like robes and stuff; you're gonna itch a lot, have bad breath because you fast all day." They don't see good news in that.
Partly they're correct. Do you know in church history there was a period, there was an era, there was a time when the gloomier you looked, the holier you were thought to be? The more spiritual you were thought to be. So clergy wore black; you were in a black robe, you wore black clothes. So you look at anything, okay, you are either in the ministry or you're a funeral director; I don't know which.
The idea of joy and fulfillment can get lost in the representation of the gospel, even though the gospel is good news. Mark Twain, who was so good with words and ideas, did go to church, though he usually wasn't happy going there. Once he wrote in his journal, "I went to church today, and I'm not depressed!" Exclamation point. As if that's a first!
This is good news, folks! And when you share it, if you share it, share it like it is good news. I remember when I first picked up on the idea that the gospel wasn't good news to a whole lot of people. It was when I first started sharing what happened to me, and I remember going back to my old friends and saying, "I've become a Christian." And what I said was, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" You know, it's like I announced somebody died that was close to me. "I'm so sorry to hear that!"
And I said, "Well, I'm not sorry."
The beginning of the Gospel, as it is written in the prophets: "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you." Now that is a quote from the third chapter of the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, verse 3: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight." That's a quote out of Isaiah chapter 40, verse 2.
All the Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—all of them, interestingly, include Isaiah's quote, Isaiah's prediction, and that the fulfillment of that prediction is in Jesus Christ. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
I love the way John includes this and introduces John the Baptist. He adds a little more of the narrative in John chapter 1. While John the Baptist is baptizing down at the Jordan River, people came to him, especially from Jerusalem—the bigwigs, the priests, the clergymen—and they asked him a litany of questions: "Are you the Christ?" He said, "Nope, I'm not the Christ." "Are you Elijah?" "Nope, not Elijah." "Are you that prophet?" Probably referring to the prediction Moses made in Deuteronomy 18 of the Prophet who is coming. He said, "Nope, I'm not that prophet."
So then they said, "Okay, so now we know who you're not; who are you?" And John said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the ways of the Lord."
I love that! Who are you? "I'm just a voice." He didn't say, "I'm John from the priestly family of Zacharias who serves in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem." He could have said that; that was true. That could have been an impressive business card. He could have said, "I'm the one whom the Messiah said is the greatest person who was ever born, the greatest man who ever lived; that's who I am. I'm the kid who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the day I was born; that's who I am."
He says, "I'm just a voice. I'm not the message; I'm just the messenger. I'm not the Word; I'm just the voice." Remember how John began: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh." I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness; he's the Word. I'm just the voice. I'm just a road worker for Christ: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make a highway for the Messiah."
Then all the land of Judea, verse 5, and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. How'd you like to have him over for supper? Wild-looking guy! Actually, I read his description; it sounds like a lot of the people in the early days of the Calvary Chapel movement, honestly. Wild-looking, long hair, bearded, robed—full on, the real meal deal hippies! You know, sort of like a wannabe poseur hippie because I was like a little younger than that. But it's like, "What is this place?"
I think John the Baptist would have said, "Dude, my tribe! I'm here; I'm home!" His clothing is interesting; it's the clothing of the desert. Desert dwellers wore coarser kind of clothes.
An interesting thing about wearing camel skin: it would keep the heat out in the summer; it would certainly keep the cold out and the rain in the winter. It's an unclean animal; the Jews were forbidden to eat it, and I'd never have a problem with that commandment. It's like, "Okay, I didn't plan on ever eating a camel anyway, but thanks for that." But it was okay to use their hides, certainly, as a Jewish guy, for the protection of the elements, as he did.
What makes John a colorful character is that he did remind people of Elijah. "Are you Elijah?" they asked because Elijah the Tishbite dressed very similar to John the Baptist. In 2nd Kings chapter 1, Elijah the Tishbite is described as somebody wearing a leather belt around his waist and a hairy man. He's a hairy man wearing a leather belt. John the Baptist was a hairy man with a camel skin and a leather belt.
He probably took a Nazarite vow. Now, if you go, "Well, I don't know what a Nazarite vow is," you will when we get to the Book of Numbers in the next book. Numbers chapter 6 describes people who want to take the vow of a Nazarite, and all it was was a vow of dedication. If you're a man, you want to take a Nazarite vow in those days, the idea is you let your hair completely grow. You're not gonna get puffed up and groomed and slick it back and do what you're just gonna—it's a sign of commitment to the Lord. Long hair; you can't touch dead bodies or any object that would defile you ceremonially, and you couldn't drink wine or eat anything that is associated with the fruit of the vine.
That was a Nazarite vow. John felt like he was called to live this kind of a life, an uncontaminated life. He didn't want anything to hinder his ability to be the very best forerunner, the very best voice in the wilderness that he could be.
His diet is also strange: locusts. Did you know locusts work? Oh sure, of course you knew that because you were with us in our study in the Book of Leviticus chapter 11. It describes the things that you can't eat, the things that you can eat. One of the things you can eat are locusts; they're suitable for food.
Now the question arises: who would want to eat a locust? Well, look at this! These are pictures from different cultures in the world who still to this day find them scrumptious, a delicacy. I've been in places where I've seen these things, like this little skewer of locusts. Never once was tempted, even in my hungriest moments.
Locusts in ancient times were prepared a number of different ways. Oftentimes they would take the bugs and just smash them, like with a rock or a hammer, and then mix the ground-up locust in with flour and bake them into little cakes, like crab cakes. If you have a little locust cakes, now I know that sounds gross, but have you ever looked at a crab before you look at the crab meat? You looked at a crab; they just kind of look like an ocean locust. I mean, they don't look really appetizing.
Now they are appetizing, and once you get past how they look and you eat a crab, it's really good. It could be that way with locusts, but I'm not prepared to find out and take the same risk that I've taken with crab. Other times they would boil them; other times they would roast them; other times they would sauté them in butter. Mmm, scrumptious!
The ancient Assyrians even figured out a way to prepare them and preserve them so you could take it with you as pocket food and eat it during the day or days later. So that would bug me, but you know, obviously it didn't bother them.
Now I do feel inclined to tell you that not everybody believes that locusts were bugs. There are some who believe that the locusts that are mentioned here that John the Baptist ate is the carob pod. Have you ever seen a carob tree? The brown carob pod that tastes sort of like chocolate, and that it was referred to as wild locust or locust of the desert, and it's found in different parts of the Land of Israel. Some believe that that's the kind of locust that he ate. Not sure; don't care.
Wild honey is honey extracted probably from the dates rather than from flowers, though it could be either/or.
Verse 7: "Here's John preaching, and he preached saying, 'There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.'" What does that mean? To take off a sandal was the job of the lowest servant in a household.
Here is the man of whom Jesus said was the greatest man ever born. Here is the man who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. Here is the forerunner predicted by Malachi and Isaiah, and he says, "But when I compare myself to Christ, the Messiah, who incidentally was his cousin—Jesus was John's cousin—I'm not even worthy to be a household slave to him."
Now to me, that adds credibility to the Messiahship of Jesus and the testimony of John the Baptist because I don't know many people who would say, "You know, my cousin is the Messiah; my cousin is like God in human flesh." People go, "Have you met my cousin?" Not even close! Wacky, weird!
But the fact that somebody this close, who knew him so well, who would have grown up with him, especially during the festivals, been with him, for him to make that kind of a statement—and he made many powerful statements like "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"—adds to the credibility of the story.
"Whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Now you have to understand something: that baptism is not Christian in its origin. It wasn't a Christian, and Jesus didn't come along and go, "I got a good idea; I'm gonna baptize people." John didn't also come up with that; it predated John. It was part of Judaism.
In ancient times, when somebody who was a Gentile wanted to convert and become Jewish, there were three things he had to do. Number one, he had to undergo the instruction of a scribe; he had to be taught the law. Number two, circumcision—if he was a male, he had to be circumcised. And number three, he had to be immersed in water, ritually purified, immersed in water, or baptized.
So there were, at the time of Jesus—and if you ever come with us to Jerusalem, I can point them out to you; they're all over—there are these little carved-out pools in the rock. The singular is a mikvah; the plural is a mikvah. We would say mikvahs, but it's mikva'ot. A mikvah means a collection of water; it's a little pool.
Now you remember from Leviticus that if you became defiled, if you touched something and you were defiled, or if you had a bloody flux, or if you had been a leper and then pronounced a leper and then pronounced clean by the priest after he waited seven days, you would also have to go in this ritual bath called a mikvah, a baptism. You were to get baptized.
So the mikvah was for ritual purification. So a baptism, Jewish baptism in the mikvah, water purification—you would do it yourself for yourself if you were going to go into the temple and worship or if you needed to be ritually purified.
Or, number two, if you were a Gentile converting to Judaism. Make sense? That's why what John is doing was shocking to people. He's not baptizing Gentiles; he's baptizing Jews. Jews don't get baptized to convert to anything; they're already converted.
But this was very different; this was a symbol of a heart change that he identifies as repentance. "Repent and be baptized; repent and believe the gospel," it says in another place. And then they would get baptized. So it was to be immersed to prepare their hearts for the Messiah. This is called the baptism of John.
Now the reason I'm going through this is because evidently this whole baptism of John thing wasn't just this little blip on the radar screen and then it went away. This thing had legs. By the time Paul the Apostle goes to Ephesus many years later, and then he establishes the church and he leaves, there's a guy from Alexandria who's in Ephesus; his name is Apollos. Remember him? Ever heard his name? Apollos?
Okay, if he—this means raise your hand, typically, okay? Because I just thought, "Man, I'm gonna have to go like way back." Genesis chapter 1, Apollos, it says, "spoke the Word of God accurately, though he only knew the baptism of John." There was a couple named Aquila and Priscilla who were there who took him aside after his great little sermon on the baptism of John and explained the way more accurately.
Like, "Dude, did you know that John was speaking of a guy named Jesus who came? He was the forerunner of Jesus who came, who died, who rose again." And then he understood the fullness of the gospel.
In the very next chapter, chapter 19, Paul goes to Ephesus, and he asked the church something. He asked those people who had heard Apollos' messages, "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" And they looked at each other, and they looked at him, and they said, "We haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit."
And so Paul said, "Into what baptism then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." So then Paul said, "Okay, verily, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, but he spoke of one who was to come, namely Jesus, who was the Messiah."
And when he explained the gospel to them, then he took them and baptized them again, this time in the name of Jesus, the one that John pointed to. But evidently, this baptism of John was very, very popular and made its way to other parts of the world, other parts of the Roman Empire.
Amazing! It came to pass in those days, verse 9, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Typically, what amazes people when we take them on a trip to Israel and we drive through Nazareth—unusually the first day of the tour toward the afternoon—we're driving through Nazareth. What amazes them, number one, is this: it's like, "This is not a big deal." It's like, "I know we kind of told you it wouldn't be, but I know everybody wants to see Nazareth, so we take them."
But it's kind of like, "Okay, I'm done; there's really not much to see." And then it's funny because remember when Daniel said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" I think that question is still being asked.
But what is amazing is that Nazareth is seated in the hills. It's a commanding view. The afternoon breezes from the Mediterranean come through Nazareth. But here was Jesus' view growing up in Nazareth. He would look down every day and see a very important valley called the Valley of Jezreel, known in your Bibles in the book of Revelation as the Valley of Armageddon.
Can you imagine what it'd be like to grow up knowing that one day you're gonna come back to a historic worldwide battle that will find its foundation and attack front from that valley moving toward Jerusalem, and you're gonna come back to end it? Living with that on a daily basis, you could see the Valley of Armageddon, the little village of Megiddo right there, that expanse all the way up through Galilee.
Immediately, coming up from the water, Jesus was baptized. He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now you'll notice that all three members of the Godhead are present at the baptism of Jesus. You have the Father speaking to the Son; you have the Son being baptized; you have the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, a sacrificial animal, so that it could be seen by the people, but especially by John the Baptist.
Now listen carefully: for John the Baptist to see a dove above Jesus Christ, indicative of the Holy Spirit, would for John the Baptist be the final verification: "This is the Messiah; this is the one." Because in Isaiah chapter 11, there is a prediction about the coming Messiah. It says, "A rod will come from the stem of Jesse, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him."
He knew his background, that he was a stem from the rod of Jesse, from the house of David, and now that symbolic form of the Spirit of God resting upon him. So all three members of the Godhead are present at the baptism of Jesus, even as all three members—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are part of your salvation process.
You receive Jesus into your heart as your Savior; he's the one that did the heavy lifting for you on the cross. But it was God the Father who sent him, and Jesus, before he left, said, "I'm gonna send to you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment." So all three are active in bringing us to salvation.
Immediately, verse 12, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts. The wild beasts in the desert would have been, I guess, snakes, scorpions—those are the things that live out there—and the angels ministered to him.
The New Testament refers to the devil about 70, 72 times. What it does is it refers to the devil, Satan, as a person—not an entity, not a thing, not a force, not a principle. The Holy Spirit is called a "he"; the devil is called a "he" and "him." He's very real.
Heavens opened in verse 10, and when heavens opened and activity was happening from heaven on earth, you can be sure that hell would be open also. Remember what you learned in school: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It's true in the spiritual realm. Every act of God, every act of man toward God will incite a reaction from Satan.
Anybody who does business with God will eventually do business with the devil. And I would say that the forces of hell in your life are directly related to your proximity to God. The closer you get to him, the more riled up they will become.
Now if you go, "You know, you talk about the devil, but it's like I'm never hassled by the devil. I go through; I don't worry about it; I never am hassled." Interesting; it says a lot about you because I guarantee you if you are actively pursuing the Lord, you would be actively attacked by the enemy.
Now that's not to make you go home and look at the devil underneath your rug or your back or your refrigerator and say, "I'm gonna cast out demons in my toast," and all that nonsense. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. I am not afraid of him—not because I'm better or bigger; he could whip me on my best day. But I know he's afraid of the Christ that lives inside of me. That's what he's afraid of, so I'm all about that.
[Applause]
Notice when Jesus was tempted after the baptism, after every spiritual blessing, the thief comes. You find that to be true. As soon as Israel is delivered from Egypt, Pharaoh comes after them in the wilderness. As soon as Hezekiah celebrates the Passover nationally, Sennacherib the Assyrian encircles Jerusalem. As soon as the Apostles see the glorious vision of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, as soon as they get down the mountain, they meet a demon-possessed kid to challenge them, to attack them.
J.C. Ryle even said, "Nowhere perhaps is the devil so active as in church." You go to church, the Lord speaks to you, you leave blessed, you get out on the road, flat tire, or some crazy guy on a motorcycle cuts you off, pulls out in front of you, or you get out to your car and somebody broke into your car in the parking lot, or your car's been towed. We've had all of these things happen.
"Not going to that church; somebody broke into my car." Maybe that's the reason you ought to go!
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, saying, "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel."
John the Baptist was put in prison. You remember we covered it in Matthew because John was the kind of a preacher who didn't really care about saying nice things to rulers, so he got himself in trouble. He leveled an accusation at Herod Antipas because Herod Antipas took and married his niece, who also happened to be the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip. All of this was unlawful; all of this was against Jewish law.
Now Herod wasn't Jewish; he was part Jewish. He had a background with Jewish parentage—his mother or grandmother—but that was enough for John. Just because you're related to Judaism, he just slammed him, came against him, and so he got arrested, put in jail, and eventually he was killed.
Now John the Baptist's arrest, when he was put in prison, most gospel commentators—and there are some commentators more common than others—but most writers of books that give comment on the Gospels will tell you that this marks a new beginning in Jesus' ministry. John said, "I must decrease, and he must increase."
So as soon as he's put in prison, he decreases, and Jesus really starts the public inauguration of his ministry upon the prison sentence of John the Baptist. We're told that Jesus went to Galilee. Why Galilee? Because it was predicted by Isaiah that he would go to Galilee. Isaiah chapter 9 speaks about the Messiah being introduced in the Galilee of the Gentiles.
"For those who sat in darkness have seen a great light," so it would be another indicator that this is the Messiah.
Verse 16: "And as he walked by the Sea of Galilee..." You got to understand, a sea in the Bible isn't an ocean, okay? The Sea of Galilee was a lake. The Lake of Galilee is about 13 miles from north to south and about 8 miles from east to west, shaped like a harp. It's below sea level, about 600 feet below sea level, but it was called the Sea of Galilee.
The other lake that just has an inlet down south was called the Dead Sea, of course. The Great Sea was always the Mediterranean; that's a real sea. But this is the Sea of Galilee, that lake.
And he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, 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."
Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist; possibly Peter, his brother, was also a disciple of John the Baptist. And evidently, once John was put into prison, they went back to their fishing business. Like, "Okay, well, that was fun, but that's over."
No, it wasn't just beginning. It says they immediately left their nets and they followed him. Something that might help you: it's called the Sea of Galilee. Here goes by other names: the Sea of Gennesaret, if you've ever read that. Gennesaret is a plain, a flat little plain to the western side of the Sea or the Lake of Galilee.
It's also called the Sea of Tiberias because of a Hellenistic city that is on the southwest shore, and it's also given the title of the Lake Kinneret or the Kinneret Sea. Kinneret from the Hebrew "kinnor," which means harp because it's shaped like a harp.
Verse 19: "When he had gone a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat."
I wonder what Dad thought: "Jesus is calling; who's that? That guy? See ya, Dad!" They left him in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.
What a journey these two guys, James and John, would go on! All they knew, their whole world, was a lake. That's it! Their whole world, their whole existence, was just that little rural agricultural lake of Galilee. It's all they knew. Maybe a trip to Jerusalem every now and then for the feast, but that was it.
But they would be in on an adventure. They would see things and hear things they could not even imagine. They would fish for men's souls. And so at Peter and Andrew, Peter will be the guy who will stand up on Pentecost and give the gospel and see 3,000 souls saved. John will cast her in Ephesus and get a vision of the end of times, the book of Revelation.
They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.
Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit—that is, a demon-possessed—in the synagogue seat. Not everybody who comes to church is necessarily alright and awesome and filled with the Holy Spirit. Here's a demon-possessed guy in church that day, in the synagogue that day, and he cried out.
I would love to be in that synagogue service, the tension mounting in the room, and he cried out saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!"
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet!" I just like the idea of Jesus saying, "Be quiet!" I don't know why, but I usually underline this in my Bible because typically people have this Sunday-school milquetoast little, you know, "Jesus, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child" kind of a—there's Jesus high, and here's Jesus.
It's in a synagogue service, and somebody's crying out, and he says, "Be quiet!" Yeah, I'll follow that guy!
"Come out of him!" And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."
His fame spread throughout all the region immediately; his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
Did you know that the synagogue is a New Testament development? You don't read about it at all in the Old Testament. Ever wonder why? It's because the Jews never saw them as relevant or needful. There was a temple where they worshiped. As long as that temple was there, that's where they met; that was according to the law.
But when the Babylonians came and destroyed the temple in 586 BC and took the children of Israel captive to Babylon, now they had no temple. Now they could not practice ceremonial law with the priesthood in a temple, so they decided to gather together.
The word "synagogue" means "the gathering together." And so Jews in Babylon in captivity gathered together, and since they couldn't sacrifice, they couldn't practice ceremonial law, they could only discuss and teach written law.
And so they would ask themselves questions like, "What would Moses do in a situation like this?" Just like we would say, "What would Jesus do?" They would say, "What would Moses do?" And so that's how the oral law developed in the synagogue, by the discussion and the application of the written law to their lives.
Okay, when they came back from the captivity and rebuilt their temple, it had become such an institution that it stuck in Judaism to this day.
In ancient times, there were different people that worked in the synagogue. First of all, there was the hassan or the minister, and the hassan's duty was to keep the scroll, the Torah scrolls, in the wooden Ark up front. He would trim the lamps for lighting, and he would sweep the floors, keep it clean. That's the hassan, the minister.
Then there was the ruler of the synagogue. He would plan the service for the community every time they met on Sabbath or for feast days. The ruler of the synagogue did that. Now we know the name of the ruler of the synagogue in the city; his name was anybody? Jairus! Jairus had the daughter, little girl who died, and came to Jesus, the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum.
Jesus, "Come, my little daughter has died," while Jesus was teaching. So we know his name. Then up at the front of the synagogue, there were seats for the elders of the synagogue, the principled men of the community.
Then there was a special attendant called the attendant of the congregation who would come and read the Bible text and give an explanation. And on this day, it was Jesus; he was teaching. He'll be given the Torah scroll, and he would teach out of it.
Then next to him was the interpreter because the scriptures were written in Hebrew, but they weren't speaking Hebrew; they were speaking the language of the captivity, Chaldean, Aramaic. You saw the movie "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson; the whole film was done in resurrected Aramaic. It's a dead language; it hadn't been around. They found documents, and they resurrected it for the film to make it accurate. That's what they were speaking in those days, the language of the Babylonian captivity.
Then there were also in the congregation a group called "all manners," two or three all manners took the alms, the offerings for the poor or items for the poor, and distributed them in the community. That's a synagogue in ancient times.
If you want to know what it was like, it would open with the ruler or the hassan singing a prayer called the Shema: "Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Elohenu Adonai Akkad." "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." And everybody would say, "Amen!" Thank you!
Then the attendant of the congregation, Jesus in this case, would get up, open the scroll, read from it, give an explanation like he did in Nazareth, Luke chapter 4, close it. There would be some more activities; the very end would be a benediction. Hands would be raised facing Jerusalem.
So let's see, in the synagogue in Capernaum, since it faces south, they would have had their hands raised and been pointing to the right because Jerusalem was down south from them. So that's a typical service. If you wanted to know what it was like in the day of Jesus, that's what happened.
Now as soon as they came out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon and Andrew were not from Capernaum; they were from a little village a couple miles away called Bethsaida on the shores of Galilee. But they moved to this town when Jesus moved to this town with James and John.
But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever. Now this tells you about something about Peter, the first pope. What does it tell you? He was married! He had a wife, and his mother-in-law was living with him. Peter's wife's mother, the first pope, was at his house.
It also tells a lot about Peter's integrity and character that he would allow his mother-in-law to be at his house and that he would take care of her. Evidently, her husband died; don't know that for sure, but I'm guessing that. And she's sick, and he loved his wife, and he loved his mother-in-law, and to honor her, that was only fitting that she was there.
And they told him about her at once. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.
At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.
Now there's a very interesting reason why they waited until evening, but we have to wait until next week to discover what that is because it's 8:31.
So let's pray.
I always like to leave a little thing hanging at the end.
Father, we see the simplicity of people who gathered even 2,000 years ago in a very rural area of Galilee in a gathering place, a synagogue. The place of gathering, and it simply consisted of song and the word and the explanation of the word, prayer at the beginning, prayer at the end—very similar to this synagogue, this gathering place.
There's prayer and song; there's worship; there's the word and the explanation of the word, the interpretation of the word. Thank you for the testimony of John the Baptist, the voice, the road worker who said, "Make a straight highway for the Messiah."
We appreciate the testimony of John Mark, an impressionable teenager who became a disciple by the witness of Peter, a missionary worker who failed, who was restored by his cousin, who went on to serve Peter in Rome and gave us this glorious and fast-paced book.
on Nov 05, 2023
