A Summary of the Galilean Ministry, Part 1

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 2nd, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now will you turn with me, please, to the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1, and follow as I read verses 14 and 15 of this chapter. Mark, Chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. Now after John, that is John the Baptist, was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Let us once again seek the face of God in prayer that God will do for us. What we have expressed in the language of the hymn, give us the ability to read and mark his word aright, and by its precepts to live.

1:20 Let us pray.

1:24 Our Father, we are very conscious that left to ourselves we can neither read nor mark your word aright. We think of that terrible indictment upon the religious leaders of our Lord's day, of whom he spoke, saying, You see. Search the Scriptures, but you will not come to me. O God, we tremble at the thought that we can take the Scriptures in our hands, we can even make them the object of diligent study, and miss the very message contained in them.

2:04 O send your Spirit upon us that we may read and mark aright your holy word. Come, Holy Spirit, author of the book, and be our teacher in this hour together. We pray this for the good of our souls and for the glory of our Savior. Amen.

Context of Mark's Gospel and Transition to Galilean Ministry

2:28 Now, those of you who have been with us for our consecutive expositions of the Gospel according to Mark will remember that in the very opening words, Mark sets before us the great theme of his tradition. Mark sets before us the great treatise, the great concern of his mind and heart, namely to set before us the Gospel, or the Good News, which concerns Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The opening words of his Gospel record are the beginning of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now, Mark indicates that the beginning of this Gospel, in its historical, the Gospel unfolding is found in conjunction with the ministry of John the Baptist. And having summarized that ministry in verses 2 through 8, he then begins to present to us the one who is the focal point of the Gospel. It is the Gospel which concerns Jesus Christ.

3:41 And so Jesus Christ is introduced to us in verses 9 through 11 in terms of his baptism, in terms of the opened heavens and the anointing of the Spirit, and the voice out of the heavens identifying him as the well-beloved Son of God, and encouraging him to go forth to His work with the smile of His Father. And then he is set before us in verses 12 and 13 in this final segment of the inauguration of his ministry as the one who, having identified himself as the Elohim, He identified himself with sinners in the ordinance of baptism, having formally and publicly taken upon himself the liabilities of sinners. He now engages in this intense period of hand-to-hand combat with the prince of darkness, the devil, Satan himself. Now, beginning in verse 14, we have a transition from the introduction of this mighty worker, the Lord Jesus, this inauguration of his ministry, to the ministry of Christ itself.

4:57 You will notice this transition is highlighted by the word that is not the common word in Mark's narrative. You remember we indicated in one of the introductory messages that he hangs...

5:10 He hangs everything together with the ands, and, and, and, and with one of his favorite words, immediately or straightway, immediately and straightway. But verse 14 begins with the connective now, and in the gospel of Mark, that construction generally indicates a transition from one theme or one part of the development of the entire treatise into another. And so here we have...

Time Frame: After John Was Delivered Up

5:40 Mark introducing us to this particular phase of our Lord's ministry, that which is generally called the Galilean ministry. And in verses 14 and 15, we have what we could entitle a summary of the Galilean ministry. And we shall consider, first of all, as the text presses it upon us, the time frame of this phase of our Lord's ministry. And then having examined...

6:10 The time frame of this phase of his ministry, we'll note what the text tells us about the geographical sphere of this aspect of our Lord's ministry. And then thirdly, we will notice what Mark tells us about the major themes of this phase of our Lord's ministry. First of all, then, the time frame of this phase of our Lord's ministry. The text tells...

6:40 Mark tells us that it was after John was delivered up that Jesus came into Galilee. Now, it appears that Mark is assuming that his readers will have had previous knowledge about the details of John's being delivered up. In his own gospel record, in chapter 6, verses 14 to 29, he gives us a detailed account...

7:10 of how it was that John was delivered up. But at this point, he simply passes over that fact as one that he can assume will bring to it more details in the minds of his readers. And this, you see, takes us way back to one of our introductory studies. And I told you, as we unfolded the book, as we attempted to, you would see the relevance of much of that which at the time perhaps did not appear relevant.

7:39 And one of the points we made was that the New Testament church was founded in the early days on oral proclamation. And those who came proclaiming the gospel as eyewitnesses or companions of eyewitnesses...

7:57 proclaimed the very things that were later embodied in our so-called gospel records, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And so for most of the original...

8:09 readers of the gospel of Mark, they would have already heard about the details of John being delivered up in the oral proclamation of the gospel. So when Mark's written account comes to them and they read, now after John was delivered up, that would fix in their minds details to which they had already been exposed in the oral proclamation. Now as we compare what is said...

8:39 here about John's imprisonment with the content of the gospel of John, and that's not John the Baptist, but the Apostle John, we are led to the conviction that there was at least a period of a year to a year and a half that transpired between the close of verse 13 of Mark 1 and what is described in verse 14. Verse 13 leaves us with our Lord's...

9:10 intense period of 40 days of temptation coming to an end. The next thing we read is that Jesus is preaching the gospel in Galilee. But we are not to infer from that that that was the next thing that happened to him. Now you see the relevance of another point I made in an introductory message?

9:29 The gospels do not purport to be a strict, balanced, chronological biography of all the events in the life of the Lord Jesus. And you'll notice that Mark does not say, and immediately.

9:46 And there is nothing to indicate that either Matthew, Mark, or Luke, who have the same basic structure, were telling us that this particular Galilean ministry described by Mark here in verses 14 and 15 followed immediately upon the heels of the temptation. No, there was a period of time after the formal introduction...

10:11 of the Lord Jesus in John's baptism where the ministry of John and of Jesus were concurrently conducted and, in that sense, overlapped. And this overlapping was in the area of Judea, that is, in the southern part of Palestine. Turn to John's Gospel, chapter 3, to substantiate this. John's Gospel, chapter 3, verse 24.

10:42 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Anon, near Salem, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized, for John was not yet cast into prison. Mark says, Now after John...

11:15 John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching. The Gospel of John tells us at this point that John had not yet been delivered up. And at this point, some thought that John and Jesus might be in competition. And they come and they say to him, verse 26, Behold, the same is baptizing, and all men come to him.

11:41 And John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it have been given him. From heaven, you yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom that stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

12:03 This my joy therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. Now what do we learn putting all of these facts together? Well, the basic...

12:15 The framework of the chronology is this. The events described in John's Gospel, the first four chapters and perhaps even in chapter five, describe our Lord's ministry after the baptism down in the southern part of Palestine in the area called Judea. But it is the concern of Mark as well as Matthew and Luke to focus upon this Galilean ministry, and it is not until John is delivered up that we find our Lord coming, as it were, into his full-blown popularity and his full-blown energy of ministry throughout Palestine, particularly in the northern area. Now what are we to learn from this? Why does Mark tell us something about the time reference to which he...

13:15 is alluding in this section of his Gospel? Well, think for a minute, and I think the answer will begin to dawn upon your own minds. The beginning of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are directed immediately then to the forerunner.

13:35 If it is a bonafide good news, it must be good news that suits the Old Testament prophecies. And those prophecies...

13:45 It is said that Messiah would not come without a forerunner. That God would send one before his face to prepare his way. And so Mark gives us the record of John's ministry. Then the forerunner, having ministered and having been brought to the height of his own popularity and notoriety in Palestine, all people going out to him from all areas, the Lord Jesus is then introduced.

14:13 Introduced in his baptism. Introduced...

14:15 Introduced in his temptation as he takes upon himself the liabilities of his people. Then Mark skips over an entire year to a year and a half of ministry recorded for us in John's Gospel, in which we find our Lord in discourse with this Pharisee, Nicodemus. We find him in other relationships and sayings. But then Mark takes us immediately to Galilee and to the events, that surround that particular geographical area.

14:49 And he does so with this point of reference, after John was delivered up. Now do you see the significance?

14:58 There is darkness over all of Israel. For 400 years, no prophet has spoken in the name of Jehovah. And then suddenly in the wilderness, this meteor-like of a man, John the Baptist, appears. And he is speaking with profusion.

15:17 And he is speaking with prophetic authority and unction in the wilderness. And all of Judea and Jerusalem is in a stir about the ministry of John. But then John continually says, I'm here because of someone greater. And he's continually pointing people to the fact that someone else is coming.

15:37 And he says, when he comes, I must fade. And then he actually comes and is formally identified in the river of Jordan. And for a time, John in Jesus, minister of the Lord, alongside, as it were, of one another. They have concurrent and parallel ministries.

15:52 And people begin to notice something. John's influence begins to wane. Jesus' influence is increasing. And they come to him and say, Aren't you disturbed?

16:02 You're not top dog anymore. Why, when people are talking about what's going on in our midst these days, it's Jesus three times for every time we hear the name John. Aren't you disturbed? And John says, No more.

16:17 He's disturbed. Then when the friend of the bridegroom sees the bridegroom standing and the bride comes, he's glad that all the attention is taken away from himself. He must increase and I must decrease. And it is with the imprisonment of John that John's influence wanes dramatically and drastically.

16:40 For in a very short time, he will lose his head under the influence and decision of a man who is not a man. He will lose his head under the influence and decision of a heathen ruler who is instigated to behead him by a wicked woman and her go-go-girl daughter.

16:59 And it's precisely at that point that Mark picks up his narrative. Because if I may use an analogy from the human realm, it's as though in a dark, dark night in which no objects can be seen because there is no direct light from the sun or indirect light from the sun. There is no direct light from the sun. There is no direct light from the sun.

17:19 There is no direct light from the sun. There is no direct and reflected light from the moon that the moon suddenly, a full moon is found in the middle of the heavens. And some of us know how much light can be reflected from a full moon. And then it isn't long before dawn begins to break and the sun begins to come up over the horizon and for a while, both the brilliance of the sun and the lesser brilliance of the moon are both found in the heavens.

17:46 I went out yesterday, the day before yesterday, I think it was at nine o'clock, in the morning, and I couldn't believe that the moon was still brightly shining. Right up there out my back window from my study and there was a concurrent shining. Now it was nothing compared to the brilliance of the sun. But by 10, 10.30, the light of the sun had totally eclipsed any of the reflected light of the moon and it alone occupied the heavens. Well, that's what we have here. Against the inky, dark backdrop of the state of Israel, suddenly this brilliant, brilliant man, John, he was a burning and a shining light. But then a greater than John comes and it isn't long before the light of the Son of God totally eclipses the light, that reflected light of John, a mere creature, none greater, born of women in the transition of the economies and up through the whole Old Testament economy, yes, but nonetheless, in the presence of the Lord Jesus,

18:49 he must decrease while the Lord Jesus increases. And God overrules the wicked, evil, sinful passions of the fear of man, of burning, raw, animal-like lust and the scheming of a godless woman to take John home because his work was done. You see, John was invincible while his work was still to be accomplished. And when it was accomplished, there was no need to keep him around down here any longer.

19:24 And so God said, enough, and took him home. Now that's the time reference of the passage before us. After John was delivered up. But thou notice in the second place the geographical sphere of this phase of our ministry, of our Lord's ministry.

Geographical Sphere: Jesus Came into Galilee

19:46 Jesus came into Galilee, now there are some of you who have little or no knowledge whatsoever of Palestinian geography. And I wish I had a larger piece of cardboard on which to put these little scratchings that I did, but this was the best I had and about half way back you can see it. For those of you who have no knowledge whatsoever, this brown streaky area is roughly Palestine in New Testament days. Mediterranean Sea, Sea is off here to the left, and you can always conceive in your mind the basic location of things from the two seas. You have the Sea of Galilee in the north, and the Dead Sea in the south, held together by the little umbilical cord of the Jordan River. And you had basically three sections in Palestine. The southernmost section, Judea, with the capital city here of Jerusalem, just off to the west of the top of the Dead Sea. And

20:51 then you have Jacob's Well, Sychar, where Jesus stopped to deal with that woman at the well in John 4, and that's right about midway between the two. And then the Sea of Galilee with Capernaum on the north, and a little bit to the west, and then Nazareth down here to the south-west, a little bit more west. So what we have recorded by Mark is that that at this period, Jesus, who had been ministering in this general area, came up through Samaria and now centers his ministry in Galilee. And actually, according to the parallel passage in the Gospel according to Matthew, makes his home in Capernaum.

21:35 So that gives you a little idea of the geography. Since the text forces geography upon us, we ought to know what it is saying. Jesus came into Galilee. Now, of course, this was no new place to our Lord.

21:52 It was no new place to some of his disciples. It was the place of their own dwelling before he called them into a life of constant attachment with himself. But we ought to understand that at this time, what we are reading in the Gospel of Mark, and for many chapters, most of these events will center around the Sea of Galilee and the city of Capernaum. Now, we have all kinds of questions, I'm sure.

22:29 Why would our Lord go up into Galilee away from Jerusalem? Wasn't the center of action at Jerusalem? If the Lord was really to make an impact upon his own generation, shouldn't he focus and concentrate all of his energies and his efforts upon Jerusalem? If he is going to convince men that he is what he claims to be, should he not expend most of his energy at Jerusalem, where the official leaders reside?

22:59 Those are legitimate questions. And perhaps we have other questions that rise in our minds, but since we are to do all things unto edification, let me suggest just one very basic thing, first of all with reference to our Lord and why he went together. Why did he go to Galilee? And then, secondly, with reference to Mark's purpose in recording only this part of the Galilean ministry.

23:28 As one has stated very eloquently, Galilee was not as priest-ridden and as Pharisee-ridden as was Judea. And whenever our Lord went down into Judea, he came, as it were, amongst a pack of wolves, all waiting to pounce upon him. And those of you familiar with the Gospel of John will remember that many of the discourses in John were not discourses to a popular audience in which Jesus is just joyfully preaching, but they are discourses in which he is arguing. He is engaged in what we would say polemics and debate with the religious leaders.

24:07 Not all of them, but many of those discourses are. And our Lord, if he is to accomplish his work, must for a time retire from that place, that was Pharisee and priest-ridden, and go to the northernmost part of Palestine, where their influence was not quite as intense, that he might perform his mighty works and engage in his more positive and popular ministry. And so, from our Lord's standpoint, this could well be the major reason for his removal to Galilee. But furthermore, the Scripture itself, tells us that he had to have a substantial ministry in Galilee if he were to be the very Messiah who suited Old Testament prophetic utterance. Turn to the Gospel of Matthew for a moment, if you will, please. You'll notice the parallel language, Matthew 4, 12. Now when he heard that John was delivered up, that's our Lord Jesus, he withdrew into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, now notice,

25:32 in order that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the northern part of Galilee, being as it were on the very borders of Gentile country, was called Galilee of the Gentiles. The people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them that sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up. And so Matthew tells us that the removal into Galilee was in order that the prophetic utterance of Isaiah the prophet might indeed be fulfilled. And our Lord is conscious of his identity as the Messiah whose whole life and ministry must accord with the word of God. And so in answer to the question, why this removal to Galilee, why this concentration upon Galilee, I trust these thoughts will give you at least a basic framework of a rational explanation. But then with reference to the question of why Mark concentrates upon this ministry in Galilee.

26:57 Well, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Mark is concerned to present the Lord Jesus particularly as the servant of Jehovah who is the mighty worker. And it is at this point and in this environment and context that our Lord's mighty works are to be accomplished. Not in the midst of the constant debate and friction with scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem, but among some of the more receptive masses there in Galilee. It is here that our Lord accomplishes his mighty works and therefore it forms a rich seedbed out of which this picture of the Lord as the mighty worker, the servant of Jehovah, who is Lord over all powers, can be constructed by Mark. Now someone asked the question, well, doesn't this represent a contradiction then within the gospel writers? And do you know that there are so-called intelligent people with earned degrees from reputable institutions who've written books to show that there is a fundamental discrepancy in the account of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the account of John? But you've sat here today and I trust you haven't felt that the wool's been pulled over your eyes at all.

28:21 There is a very rational explanation for this, quote, apparent discrepancy. For neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke says that immediately after the temptation Jesus then did this and this and this and this in Galilee. It does not tell us that. And Mark's gospel does not purport to be a balanced, step-by-step, chronological account of all the doings and sayings of our Lord.

28:50 Now you see how important that principle is? Get hold of that and you're not left vulnerable to the learned tones of theological skeptics and unbelieving scholars. As a humble, ordinary believer armed with your English Bible, you can see clean through the sophistry that tries to use some of these facts as a springboard to make the allegation that the Bible is not trustworthy. Yes, it is trustworthy.

29:23 And Mark is so concerned with his rapid-moving style, not even to pause on that ministry of relative obscurity there, primarily down in Judea. But he wants to set before us this gospel which concerns Jesus Christ, Son of God. And so he takes us from his baptism and the voice of heaven that thus identifies him as Son of God through the temptation in a very quick and summary form. It's as though his pen itches in his hands.

29:58 And he now brings us into that phase of our Lord's ministry where as Son of God he performs his mighty works and demonstrates that he is indeed the promised Messiah, the mighty Son of God, servant of Jehovah, who is able to save, his people. Well, so much then for the time reference of this segment of our Lord's ministry, for the geographical location of this segment of our Lord's ministry. Now let's at least begin this morning to consider the heart of this phase of our Lord's ministry. While he is in Galilee, after John has been delivered up, what is the heart of his ministry? Matthew, I'm sorry, gives us a summary statement in verses 14, the latter part of verse 14 and verse 15. After John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saved. And the participles he uses, the form of them indicates that these were his continuous activities.

Heart of Ministry: Preaching the Gospel of God

31:13 Continually preaching the gospel of God and continually saying the time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Be repenting and be believing in the gospel. Now there is Mark's summary of the heart of our Lord's ministry at this time in Galilee. And the summary statement begins by the affirmation that Jesus came, preaching the gospel of God.

31:51 And then the main thrust of that preaching in its constituent elements is given to us in verse 15. That will have to wait for next Lord's Day morning. I can tell that from looking at the clock. But now let's just consider the latter part of verse 14.

32:09 Here he came preaching. That was his main activity, preaching. And the Bible is rich in the words it uses for preaching. And the one used here is that which describes preaching as the act of a herald or a town crier.

32:32 In days when they had no newspaper with the headlines, no radios you could turn on at 7 in the morning and catch the headlines, or no WINS that says you give us, what, 22 minutes and we'll give you the world? No WINS. No ABC. No WOR.

32:48 No papers. No television to get the news. And when an official in a given town or a king or a governor desired that those under his authority receive some important news, he would designate someone to be his crier, his herald. He was called a kerutz.

33:09 You say, what a funny name. That's what they would call him. And he would be appointed to go to a specific place and with his message brought down to its distilled essence, he would go through the town and cry out, this is the message of your king! And then he'd give it in as brief a form as possible.

33:30 Now when he was doing that and you were to ask him, what's that man doing? You'd say he is crying out as a herald. You'd use the very verb that's used here. He is preaching.

33:42 He is proclaiming as a herald the message of the authority of the governor, of the king, whoever it was that sent him. And our passage says that the Lord Jesus came into Galilee preaching, proclaiming as a herald. Now is there any significance in the fact that of all the words that could be chosen, this one is chosen? Well, I believe there is.

34:10 It's because our Lord at this point is very conscious that he comes as God's anointed one. And as the anointed one, he is God's prophet, priest, and king. And in the passage in Luke, which some of you will remember, he goes back to his hometown of Nazareth when he comes into Galilee. He goes into the synagogue and the book of the scroll is given to him and he reads the passage from Isaiah.

34:40 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me for he has anointed me. For he has anointed me to preach. And he stands reading and then sits and speaks. This day, this day, this prophecy is fulfilled in your ears.

34:56 Our Lord was conscious that though he was the Son of God, the incarnate God, he was nonetheless now standing in his capacity as the sent servant of Jehovah. And you remember he said again, again in his ministry, I don't speak my own words. What I hear, I speak. I speak the words of him who sent me.

35:23 And so our Lord Jesus was prepared to take the posture of one who was preaching the message of another. Now granted, he was the central focal point of that message. We understand that. But he takes that posture as the servant of Jehovah to speak the words of Jehovah.

35:44 And he proclaims them in the authority and in the power of Jehovah. And then the main thrust of that preaching in its briefest form is called here a proclamation of the gospel of God. Wherever he went in Galilee, his main occupation and everything else was subsidiary to it was a heralding of the gospel of God. Now the word gospel we encountered earlier in the very first verse of Mark.

36:20 It means basically good news. It is the announcement of glorious news that focuses not upon what man is to do or can do or has done, but upon that which God has done, that which God can do, that which God in grace has committed to do to needy sinners. And Mark describes it as the gospel or the good news of God. Now does that mean good news that tells us about God?

36:55 Well, that would be true. But that's not the emphasis of the passage. It means the gospel of God. That is the gospel that comes from God.

37:05 It is God's gospel. It is God who has revealed it. It is the gospel of God in the same sense that this phrase is found in Romans 1. Paul uses the exact terminology.

37:19 He says, I was set apart unto the gospel of God which concerns Jesus Christ. Language very similar to chapter 1 in verse 1 of Mark and to verse 14 of chapter 1. And so this in its distilled essence is the message, the heart of what our Lord preached. He proclaimed the gospel of God.

37:49 And what I wish to do in the moments that remain this morning is simply to draw out a couple of lines of application from this fact. Jesus, upon John's being delivered up, removes to Galilee. In Galilee, what does he do? He gives himself to preaching the gospel of God.

Preaching Elevates and Dignifies the Activity of Preaching

38:14 And this statement concerning the heart of our Lord's ministry forever elevates and dignifies the activity of preaching. It forever elevates and dignifies the activity of preaching. Our Lord is found simply announcing a message given to him of his God and Father. All throughout Galilee he is preaching the gospel of God.

38:48 He is not, quote, sharing his own notions. He is not philosophizing with the doctors of the law. He is not manipulating the masses by psychological crowd pressure. And he's certainly not just orchestrating big gatherings for religious purposes to make everyone feel good.

39:11 Wherever he goes in Galilee, he preaches. Whatever the audience, whatever the situation, he preaches. Now remember, this was in Galilee, part of Palestine, in that very situation in which Roman rule extended over all of Palestine and the then known world. Roman rule not only with the blessings of Roman road and other blessings, but with many of its inequities, the horrible institution of Roman slavery, all of the injustices, all of the social ills that were present.

39:50 And what is Jesus doing? Not reforming, not attacking. He is throughout all of Galilee. He has, I say, forever elevated, dignified, and I might add the word sanctified, the activity of preaching as the grand instrument for the advancement of the saving purposes of Almighty God.

40:23 And dear people, how we need to have this written upon our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost. For we live in a day when preaching has fallen upon bad times. Everyone is questioning the validity of preaching as being worth anything more than feeding the ego of the guy who wants to, quote, stand up and exercise a one-man ministry. Preaching has fallen upon bad times.

40:50 We are told that with people's minds bombarded by the media day and night, we can't expect them to come and sit passively and listen to someone go on and harangue for a half an hour an hour and do any good. Preaching assumes a framework of authority that no longer exists. We can't trust preaching. And so there's all kinds of experimentation, even in the evangelical church.

41:16 And so in many places today, people do not gather reverently to hear the Word of God, to listen to a humble town crier who bends all of his efforts simply to pass on the message of his sovereign. He's not concerned about giving his own notions and opinions, but to be honest with the message of the sovereign. People everywhere are gathered not for that. That's passe.

41:45 And so they gather to listen to each other's ideas of what the passage means to them. And so they gather in little sharing groups. The passage means this to me. Oh, the passage means...

41:58 Who cares what the passage means to you? The question is, what does the passage mean in terms of the God who gave His Word? And the function of a herald is to unpack the message of the King. And in the name of the Lord, and in the name of the King, and in the power of the Spirit of the King, to say, Thus saith the Lord!

42:24 I trust in the hearts, particularly of you, the younger generation, and you dear children, that you will never forget the time when, going through Mark, we read, Jesus came preaching. Of all that He could have done, He gave primacy to the activity of preaching. Forever elevating, dignifying, and sanctifying this glorious activity. And then in the second place, this statement forever enshrines the glory of the Gospel.

Preaching Enshrines the Glory of the Gospel

43:07 This statement forever enshrines the glory of the Gospel. What did Jesus come preaching? The Gospel of God. God incarnate had no other message for needy humanity but the Gospel.

43:28 Jesus came preaching the Gospel of God. And there is but one Gospel. That's the Gospel of God. The Gospel of His infinite love to sinners.

43:42 The Gospel of His infinite wisdom contriving a way in which He may still be just and yet justify the ungodly. It's the Gospel that we've all already seen beautifully illustrated in the baptism of our Lord in which He, coming as the last Adam, identifies Himself with sinners, takes upon Himself all of their liabilities to the wrath of Almighty God and says in that symbolic ordinance, I take all that they deserve upon myself and I take my baptism in the river of Jordan as a pledge in earnest of the baptism of Golgotha when I will be swallowed up in the billows of my Father's wrath on behalf of my people. And it is the Gospel of God that our Lord preaches thereby, I say, forever enshrining the glory of the Gospel or enshrining the Gospel in glory. I remind you as I've already alluded that there were tremendous problems existent in that day at every single level. There was grinding, crushing poverty.

45:00 There was religious decadence. There were many of the inequities arising out of Rome and the manner of the administration of the government of Rome. And yet with all of these things, no doubt the tender heart of our Lord feeling all of the pressure of beholding such things, He will not be deterred from this grand instrument in God's hand to tear down the kingdom of darkness and all of its specific manifestations. It is the Gospel of God which is the power of God unto salvation.

45:37 Turn that message loose and let the Spirit of God own it with power and that is the surest way to see inequities altered and injustices rectified and to see the mighty leavening influence of God's grace upon the whole fabric of a society. It is the glory of the Gospel that He who is the central focal point of the Gospel when He preached, preached the Gospel. He preached the Gospel of God. And I want to say in closing this morning to any who sit here, sit here as those who have never come to any felt consciousness of sin and need. My friend, listen. If you were not a sinner, if I was not a sinner, if we are not all sinners, if these Galileans were not sinners, then Jesus was on a fool's errand. You see, the good news is only good news against the backdrop of the reality of universal sinnerhood on the part of men.

Application to Unbelievers: The Desperate Need for the Gospel

46:42 And He could come throughout all of Galilee and preach the Gospel because He knew that that Gospel was perfectly suited to the needs of sinful men and women wherever He went. My friend, you desperately need the Gospel, the good news that God in grace has sent His Son, sent His Son to live the life that you and I should have lived but have not, and to die the death that we should die and dare not. He sent His Son, His well-beloved Son, the Son of whom He spoke, standing there on the banks of the River Jordan. This is My Son, the Beloved One.

47:20 In Him, in you, I am well pleased. My dear unconverted friend, if you were to ask the question, what's your thing there at Trinity Church? What's your angle? My friend, our thing and our angle is the Gospel.

47:36 We dare to say to you whatever your sins have been, whatever your present crushing dilemma may be, the answer is in the Gospel of God, not in some cleverly devised scheme of self-help that we would dare to offer to men in the name of the Gospel, but the Gospel of God contained in the Book of God. This Gospel that declares our sin and God's answer to that sin in the person and work of His beloved Son. Now, but you say, Preacher, don't you know that's old-fashioned? Yeah, I sure do.

48:14 But I tell you, I've got a good pedigree. Jesus came preaching the Gospel in Galilee, the Gospel of God. We trace our pedigree back to Him and we seek to follow in His steps. He hurled into the thinking and the mindset of that needy generation the good news of God.

48:37 And we do the same. You want to play church? Lots of places you can go and play. You want your ears tickled and be told what a lovely guy you are, a sweet, dear person you are, and everything will be all right?

48:48 And you want to be stroked and coddled? You go. There are a thousand places that will do it. But if you want to be told the truth about the ugliness of your sin and the glory of what God's done for sinners in Jesus Christ, stay around a while till by the blessing of the Holy Ghost it all begins to make sense to you.

Application to Believers: Commitment to the Primacy of Preaching

49:07 And you'll bless the day that God brought you through these doors to a place where there is commitment to the primacy of preaching the Gospel of God. And I say to my fellow believers in this church, will you not cry to the Lord that we may ever be true to the stewardship of the perspective given to us in these simple words? Jesus came preaching the Gospel of God. There may be times, hear me now, there may be times when God will test us and allow us to pass through a period where we do not see much visible success from the preaching of the Gospel.

49:49 And all around us there will be those who seem to be excessively successful in quotation marks who have moved from the primacy of preaching the Gospel. They've moved from preaching as method and Gospel as message and yet they seem to be ever so successful. They can build their crystal cathedrals. They can build their huge TV empires.

50:22 And they can rake in their millions. While we may pass through a period of relative barrenness, that's when the test will come. You begin to look over your shoulder and say, well, maybe there is something. There is nothing else.

50:37 There is nothing else! God has ordained by the foolish preaching which refers to method and message to save them that believe and God will never rescind that commitment. And I plead with you, do not ever rescind or give up that conviction that in this place if the Lord tarries when some of us are rotting in our graves, in that place built on that end of this building, there will be the primacy of preaching as method and Gospel as message and cry to God that whatever it takes that may be true until the Lord comes again. And if you go through periods of dryness, don't turn to the very things that will drive God away. Continue to mourn your barrenness and cry to God for fruitfulness and continue to turn loose the one grand instrument for holy fruit, the Gospel of God. May God give you strength so to do even until Jesus comes.

Closing Prayer

51:55 Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you again. For the simple narrative of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. We thank you for the riches that are to be found in Holy Scripture.

52:19 We thank you for these verses that we've contemplated this morning. We praise you for our Lord Jesus as a preacher that he was willing to humble himself and take the role of a crier of good news. And we do earnestly pray for any who sit amongst us, strangers to you and to your grace, that they may by the mysterious but mighty work of the Spirit come to that conviction that there is no hope for them apart from the Gospel. And, O God, we plead for this congregation.

53:00 O Lord, is it too much to ask that you would so write upon our hearts the perspectives contemplated this morning that until our Lord returns this place would be a true bastion of preaching, preaching the Gospel of God. O Lord, hear the many cries that have gone up in this very building in past months. Hear the cries and, Lord, look upon the tears that have been shed in this place that you would preserve a testimony to your name until the return of your beloved Son. Hear, Lord, our cry.

53:43 Write your word upon our hearts. We plead these mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.