FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Mark 1:14-45

The Call You Can’t Resist – Continued

Please read Mark 1:16-28 for the background to this section.

From Last Lesson: Teaching was the scribes job, and how they taught! Their technique with any question was to go back and quote the experts, and the way the experts had quoted other experts.

For example:

“Rabbi Yohanan said that; Rabbi Eliezer said so-and-so; but Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion, according to Rabbi Ben-Ammi, was this . . . and so on and so forth.”

This was how they taught until in the end, a couple of centuries later, all this opinion-quoting was gathered into a shelf full of huge books called the Talmud (if you ever have the chance to see a copy, or to read it online, you’ll see what I mean!). What they did not have in their teaching was authority. Then one day Jesus gets up and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing . . . [and I am the one bringing it!]”

It doesn’t take long for people to notice the difference. This reaction is very interesting. They don’t say, “This man is crazy, or insufferably arrogant.” Rather, they are “astonished” and “amazed.” The words carry the sense of being overwhelmed with wonder; the people are disturbed by what He says. This is the second group who encounter Jesus’ authority. Many of them never fully understand who Jesus is, but they clearly see that He is different. Through His authoritative teaching He demands their attention.

Sitting among the people is someone who certainly does recognize who Jesus is, a third “group” if we can take the liberty to call it that. This man is under the controlling authority of “an unclean spirit”—literally, an “impure” or “evil” spirit, a demon. Some people try to explain away stories like this one. Many say, especially in our day and age, that they are the product of primitive cultures, and we as “civilized” people have moved beyond such naïve beliefs. The truth is that in most parts of the world people understand only too well that the spirit world is real. If you go to Africa, or to large parts of Asia or South America, you will find that people have no doubt about the reality of evil spirits. Muslims rightly understand the existence of demons, or “jinns” as they call them; they are a feature of everyday life; and it is where the concept of the “genie” comes from. It is only in the sophisticated West that we are foolish enough to stop believing in evil powers that can control people’s lives. Such fools we are, even many professing Christians, think we know better than the Bible in this modern age! The spiritual world is as real as anything you can touch, see or hear, and demons are the most pure and naked forms of evil that we should ever be truly concerned with.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Mark 1:14-45

The Call You Can’t Resist – Continued

Please read Mark 1:16-28 for the background to this section.

These are the very men that Jesus calls. The reference to “fishers of men” is not just a play on words, but an Old Testament expression about God gathering people for judgement. Jesus is simply stating:

“Now that I am here, it’s decision time. People must repent of their sins and turn to God, or else they will face God’s judgement. I am bringing in God’s kingdom, and I am calling people into it, and everyone will end up on the inside or the outside. You unpromising-looking fishermen are going to join Me in my mission.”

Five minutes later He says the same thing to James and John, busy on the annoyingly difficult task of mending their nets. He calls them to follow, these men, Simon and Andrew, James and John, who are impetuous, stormy, given to fits of rage, and lacking confidence; they offer a wide range of flawed personalities and a complete absence of academic qualifications, but Jesus simply but directly says, “Follow me.” Possibly not considering it, but the cost will be very high; they must abandon their sole means of livelihood and the only way of life they have ever known. Unless this wandering beachcomber is someone extremely special, what they are being asked to do is crazy. Yet when He speaks, they recognize the voice of authority, and they can’t resist the call.

Jesus takes them on to his next destination into Capernaum. This town is on the north shore of the lake; it may have been the home of the four fishermen. It’s a sizeable village, and Jesus makes it His base for operations around Galilee. The synagogue He entered on the Sabbath would have been the most prominent building in the village, probably the only one of any size. On this particular Sabbath, Jesus, along with the rest of the community, would be there, and it was not unusual for a visitor to be asked to speak at the appropriate point of the service, following the prayers and the readings from the Law and the Prophets. Mark doesn’t tell us exactly what Jesus says, but there can be little doubt that He speaks about the Kingdom of God; and He does so with authority. Luke describes a very similar occasion in Nazareth when Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah and calmly tells the people, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (see Luke 4:16-30).

Jesus certainly gets a reaction for they were astonished and amazed. The scribes, also known as  teachers of the law, were the ordained religious professionals and they are featured prominently in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus continually faces and confronts them. Originally, these men were simply copyists. Their job, long before the age of printing, was to write out the words of Scripture, creating new manuscripts to replace the ones which wore out, hence the name “scribe” applied to them. The only qualifications they needed were an eye for detail and clear handwriting. But as time went by, members of this profession became specialists in the law itself. They didn’t just write it out; they studied and learned it, and by the time of Jesus they were the acknowledged experts. That’s why the NIV translates the word for “scribe” as “teacher of the law.” Teaching was their job, and how they taught! Their technique with any question was to go back and quote the experts, and the way the experts had quoted other experts.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Mark 1:14-45

Authority is an unfashionable concept today. The whole idea that one person should have power over someone else is deeply unpopular. But, to put it bluntly, that’s what authority is, the right to be in control, to tell other people what they can or can’t do. So, in sport, a football referee can control the game by blowing the whistle, awarding free kicks, or sending players off. An umpire in baseball can determine the outcome by calling balls or strikes. If you take part in a sport, you have to acknowledge that authority. In the army, a commanding officer has every right to order his subordinates into action, whether they feel like it or not. In fact, someone once used that very illustration when speaking to Jesus.

If some law or contract, or, indeed, the rules of the game, gives you authority, then you have it, and it is up to you to wield it properly and sensibly. Jesus came into the world with authority from God, His Father, an authority that did not extend over a mere sporting arena, or an army, or even over a country, but over the entire world. Jesus came into this world with authority to rule, to establish what He called “the kingdom of God,” the space where God’s sovereign authority is recognized and accepted. At this point in Mark’s Gospel we see the first beginnings of that Kingdom, as Jesus launches His mission.

John the Baptizer has raised the spiritual temperature of the nation, ready for Jesus to step forward. In the opening verses of this study, we see that John has been imprisoned because his message about repenting of your sins has not gone down well with Herod, the local despot (though Mark does not give us this explanation until Mark 6:17-18). Now Jesus appears publicly, back in His home region of Galilee, and He comes proclaiming the “good news”, the gospel, which, we will come to know, means a big announcement of a world-changing event. “The time is fulfilled,” meaning it has been completed. It’s now that this is happening; “the kingdom of God is at hand.” The Jews knew what that meant. Their prophets had spoken about it centuries before; the arrival of the Kingdom of God means that God comes to assert His sovereign authority, publicly and openly, here on earth. At last God would break into history and establish His everlasting Kingdom. The Jews had many wrong ideas about the Kingdom and the kind of freedom it would bring, but they were right about that much. Jesus in essence is saying, “I am here to bring it in.” He’s saying, in effect, “It’s me! I am the good news! So repent; turn away from your past life and get ready for God to act.”

The Call You Can’t Resist

Please read Mark 1:16-28 for the background to this section.

In the following verses we will discuss three groups who come face to face with the authority of Jesus.

First we meet the fishermen. Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee. “Sea” is rather a grand name for a freshwater lake that is only about six miles from side to side and less than twelve from end to end. But it had a very successful fishing industry and, as Jesus walks along, it is these very fishermen that He encounters. Now if we know this story well, we need to draw back a little in order to see these characters properly. As with the shepherds in the Christmas story, we tend to romanticize the Galilean fishermen, but these were the ordinary industrial workers of their day. Fishing was hard, physical work, extremely smelly work, carried out on a notoriously stormy lake.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.