Christ Prays, Resists Crowd, and Preaches

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 25th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1.

0:24 And I would urge you to follow in your Bibles, not only as I read the text, but as we subsequently seek to open up and apply the text, as we so often say in this place, believe nothing unless you see it with your own eyes in your own Bibles. Mark 1, verse 35, and then I'll read through verse 39. And in the morning, a great while before day, he, speaking of our Lord, rose up and went out, into a desert place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.

1:09 And they found him, and say unto him, All are seeking thee. And he said unto them, Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also. For to this end came I forth. And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting.

1:33 And that these were the reasons that he had gone out. And then he put in his hand one of these scrolls, and he said to him, Now, let us once again pause consciously to seek the aid of God in the ministry of his Word. Our Father, we do thank you for the blessed old, old story of Jesus and his love. We thank you that here in Mark's record of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus, we are given these vivid word pictures of his activity as you had not heard of his ministry.

2:06 And in the spiritual service of our Lord Jesus, we thank you, and we thank you for the spirit of your life. And in the spiritual service of our Lord Jesus, we thank you, and we thank you for the spirit of your life. your sent one. And we pray that the Holy Spirit who moved Mark to write the words read in our hearing will be present now to illuminate our minds, to cause our hearts to run out to the Christ who will be set before us.

2:26 Holy Spirit, come and do your work of shining upon the face of Christ in our very hearts. Amen.

The Shocking Contrast: From Crowd to Solitude

2:42 One of the distinguishing marks of the Gospel of Mark is that it sets the Lord Jesus before us as the mighty worker, the energetic, self-giving Son of Man who came, in the language of chapter 10 in verse 45, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. And in the three preceding paragraphs that we have studied together beginning with verse 21 and concluding with verse 34 we have seen how much gracious, spirit-endowed activity our Lord was able to pack into one single day of ministry. Verse 21 begins with the account of our Lord entering into the synagogue in Capernaum on a Sabbath day and then from 21 through 34 the activities of that Sabbath day in Capernaum are set before us. The day began with the ministry in the synagogue at Capernaum, a ministry of preaching with authority and casting out of a demon. That day continued with the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law in the home of Simon and Andrew.

4:05 And then as we saw last Lord's Day, that Sabbath day concluded with the late, evening ministry to the multitudes crowding at the door of Simon Peter's house. People who came with all of their various maladies and others possessed of demons. And the scripture tells us in the parallel passage that He laid His hands upon every one of them and healed them and He cast out the demons. Now as we come to verse 35 this morning we encounter an almost shocking contrast.

4:43 From our Lord in the midst of the needy throng at Peter's door we behold our Lord on a lonely patch of ground somewhere in the suburbs of Capernaum in isolation from all human companionship. Furthermore, we behold Him in this passage not responding apparently in compassionate service to the pleading multitudes but turning away from them. This is shocking language. All are seeking Thee and He said let us go.

5:19 All are seeking Thee. He said let us go. The contrast with the preceding paragraph where toward the end of the day when we might expect Him to be resting we find Him outside Peter's door giving Himself in a selfless manner to the healing of the many needy and to the casting out of those demons. And yet, it is the Christ of this lonely haunt outside of Capernaum that is as much the mighty worker as the Christ who stands by the door of Peter.

Our Lord Praying: Dependence and Self-Denial

5:54 And in this paragraph read in your hearing there are three basic units of facts each one centering on a distinct activity of our Lord and that will be the outline that we'll follow in the opening up of the passage this morning. First of all, we behold our Lord praying in verse 35 then in verses 36 to 38 our Lord resisting crowd pressure and then in verse 39 our Lord preaching and ministering in all of Galilee. And we'll follow that pattern in the opening up of the text and after opening up the facts under each one of those activities we'll then ask and answer two simple questions. What does this activity recorded by the Lord and what does this activity recorded by the Lord by Mark teach us about our Lord and then secondly what does it teach us about our duty for the scripture says he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. First of all then our Lord praying verse 35 and in the morning a great while before day he rose up and went out and departed into a desert place and there prayed. Now the basic facts are both simple and clear. The text says he rose up so we have every reason to believe he'd been asleep at least he'd been lying down.

7:23 So after the last person had been healed and the last demon cast out perhaps taking our Lord into the wee hours of the morning he placed his weary body upon a bed there in Simon Peter's home in all likelihood caught a few hours of sleep perhaps went through a normal average initial sleep cycle of some four hours but just when we would expect as many bone weary preachers do on a Monday morning that our Lord would sleep in a bit instead of finding him sleeping in the text tells us that a great while before day literally still very much in the night when day and night just hardly begin their struggle perhaps the first rays of dawn had only barely peaked over the horizon when night was still very much pinning down day and day had not yet done a reversal and pinned night as happens with each succeeding day Mark's very graphic description is when it was still very much in the night our Lord very quietly rises from his bed makes his way out of the house apparently without stumbling over anyone dropping any pots or pans along the way

8:50 and quietly and stealthily the text says departed into a desert place and the word desert there does not refer so much to the topography in terms of what we think of a sandy patch somewhere but it points more to the fact that it was an abandoned place a desolate place a place where there were no people there were no human beings to distract him and when he arrived at that place the text says and there in that specific place he was praying he was praying there under the open sky our Lord poured out his soul in loving communion with his Father nothing is said in the passage about the specific content of his prayers nothing about the primary burden of the prayers in this early morning watch the day after the Sabbath there are other passages in which the content and the burden of our Lord's prayer are given to us in some detail we think of Gethsemane and the burden of that prayer as he faced the cross we think of the prayer recorded in Matthew 11 which was a prayer of rejoicing before God and then the great intercessory prayer of our Lord in John 17 but all Mark tells us is that there

10:17 in that desert place our Lord was praying were the prayers permeated with thanksgiving for the blessings of the previous day were the prayers perhaps weighed down with the burden of the Galilean ministry that stood before him we do not know but this much we do know that whatever characterizes true prayer especially as true prayer is taught by our Lord himself all of that would have been embodied in our Lord's prayer if the very heart of true prayer is coming to God in the joy and confidence of filial relationship then surely there in that early dawn something of the most astounding intimacy must have been expressed as the Lord Jesus communed with his Father it's interesting to take the recorded prayers of our Lord in the Gospels and see how often almost without exception he addresses God explicitly as Father Holy Father Oh my Father Father if it be possible and as I prepared I thought what it would have been to have been a witness that morning and simply to have heard the word Father upon the lips of our blessed Lord when he prayed

11:47 I have a sneaking suspicion some of us would be reluctant ever to use it sensing how far we come from that climate of delightful filial family intimacy expressed when our Lord prayed there in that early morning and as our Lord taught that earnestness and importunity should mark all of our prayers surely that morning whatever was the specific burden of his prayer we would have learned tremendous lessons of what it is to pray with earnestness and importunity had we sneaked up upon our Lord I doubt we would have seen anything that would in any way have given the idea that this man was just piddling in what he was doing it would have been very evident that there was the engagement of the totality of his holy humanity as he engaged God in prayer and surely as he taught us his disciples that prayer involves the believing affirmation of confidence in the divine promises it must have been a wonderful thing for angels to have behold and heard the Lord pleading the promises of his own Holy Father but he went out and he prayed what did he pray about I wish I knew what was the burden of his prayer I do not know but Mark simply tells us he rose up

13:15 went out to a desert place and there he prayed now what does this teach us about our Lord well we learn from this passage that although he was the God man in taking upon himself our nature our humanity and our posture he assumes the position of dependantness of dependantness for what is prayer prayer is the spirit of dependence clothing itself with sentiments and words of praise thanksgiving and petition that's what prayer is the spirit of conscious dependence upon God clothing itself with the sentiments and words of praise thanksgiving and petition in a very real sense this passage teaches us that our Lord voluntarily subjected himself to the very law of the kingdom to which he has subjected us he has said to us his people ask and it shall be given you and he does not put us under that law but what first of all he put himself under it Psalm 2 Jehovah says to Messiah ask of me and I will give thee

14:43 he who spoke the worlds into being and upholds them by the word of his power takes the place of dependence and therefore is a man of prayer for wherever the spirit of dependantness is implanted in a heart by grace there you will find the spirit of prayer always always always without exception furthermore his conviction as to the desirability and necessity of prayer is so deep in our Lord that he will not that on this occasion he engages in an act of vigorous self-denial in order that he might truly pray for though it is a blessed truth that we can pray anywhere at any time in any company except sinful company it is not true that the spirit of prayer can be long sustained if we don't find the secret place in which to pray yes the mother can pray with all of her little ones around her mama this mama that and the man in the office and in the shop can pray amidst the clatter and din

16:12 the punch presses and whirling machines but no one will long sustain the disposition and attitude of prayer who does not like our Lord go off and find the secret place and so this passage teaches us with respect to our Lord that he not only voluntarily submitted himself to the law of his own kingdom which is asked and it shall be given to you but he is prepared to underscore his commitment to that principle of his own kingdom by a vigorous act of self-denial rising a great while before day after not a leisurely sabbath but a busy sabbath in which he poured out his life and his soul in self-giving acts of healing and ministering to the needs of men and here we have this beautiful picture of the mighty worker the one who packed so much activity into that preceding day now retreating and engaging his heavenly father that he might be sustained in the work that lay before him now that's basically what it teaches us about our Lord but now what does it teach us about our duty he that saith he abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked well surely surely it underscores for us the necessity of frequenting the throne of grace alone yes there is a doctrine

Our Duty in Prayer: Solitude and Self-Denial

17:40 of social prayer there is a doctrine of congregational prayer there is implicit in scripture a doctrine of family prayer but this passage points us in the direction of the necessity of frequenting the throne of grace alone and in solitude for we not only share with our Lord the posture of dependantness as creatures but we have something to contend with that he did not have to contend with whatever was the content of his prayer that lonely early dawn outside of Capernaum you would not have heard any confession of indwelling sin you would not have heard any wrestling with the angry and evil passions of envy and pride and lust dependantness yes submitted to the law of the kingdom which says to depend and preachers ask and it should be given but sinfulness no and if he had much to do with the throne of grace simply in his posture of dependantness how much more do we have to do with the throne of grace when we add to dependantness sinfulness pollution vileness and uncleanness and furthermore the passage teaches us that none of us is really too busy to pray

19:08 if anyone could have claimed exemption from prayer it was our blessed lord think of what preceded that day of intense draining activity look what lay before him the tremendous preaching tour throughout all of Galilee if anyone could have been excused from the discipline of secret prayer on any occasion surely our lord in this occasion but he teaches us by his example that there is really no excuse not to pray and if the only way we can maintain all of our god-given duties and still pray is to cut off some of our god-given liberties by voluntary acts of self-denial then we must follow our blessed lord in his pattern there may be certain duties and responsibilities that cannot be relinquished and our lord was conscious of that pressed as it were the night before and he was with the need of those gathered at the door and set before him the tremendous responsibility of the preaching tour throughout Galilee and as he evaluated the use of his time there was only one area where time could be found to pray and that was to cut it off from the tail end of a legitimate lengthy period of sleep now it doesn't say that he rose up

20:38 every morning a great while before day and prayed the scripture doesn't tell us that this was his ordinary pattern I believe the emphasis falls upon the fact that this was an exceptional thing so I'm not trying to bind your conscience to something that would destroy your body after several years by inadequate rest but what I'm saying is this that if in the providence of God the duties that come to you in the will of God are such that the only way you find time to pray is to say no to liberties then you and I must learn to take up our cross daily and say no to ourselves daily that we might pray and no one makes any significant progress in the school of prayer who is a stranger to self denial now I know that's no popular doctrine in a self indulgent age but it's the truth and the prayerlessness of the average Christian even the average reformed Christian is eloquent affirmation of my statement well we behold our Lord pray and when I turn to old Bishop Ryle after I had fully prepared the message for this morning and said I wonder if old Ryle saw in the passage what I saw listen to the Bishop what should we say to those who never pray at all in the face of such a passage

22:07 as this there are many such it may be feared in the list of baptized people many who rise up in the morning without prayer and without prayer lie down at night many one word to God are they Christians it is impossible to say so a praying master like Jesus can have no prayerless servants a praying master like Jesus can have no prayerless servants the spirit of adoption will always make a person call upon God to be prayerless is to be Christ less God less and on the high road to destruction what should we say to those who pray but yet give little time to their prayers we are obliged to say that they show very little of the mind of Christ asking little they must expect to have little seeking little they cannot be surprised if they possess little it will always be found that when prayers are few grace strength peace and confidence are small and that's true the old bishop was a wise observer of Christian experience here is the positive pulse of our Christianity here is the true test of our state before God here true religion begins in the soul when it does begin here in prayer it decays and goes backward when a man backslides from

23:36 God oh let us walk in the steps of our blessed master in this respect as well as in every other like him let us be diligent in our private devotion let us know what it is to depart into solitary places and there to pray well we hasten on to the second activity recorded in the passage and it's what I've described as our Lord resisting crowd pressure Mark not only gives us the record of our Lord praying but of our Lord resisting crowd pressure now again note the facts the text says and Simon and they that we were with him followed after him most likely this refers to Simon who is Peter Andrew James and John and when they get up and they discover the Lord Jesus is not in his room and perhaps scurry about the house to try to find him they come to the conclusion he's not here he's gone so what do they do they form a search party and this is a rather weak translation

Our Lord Resisting Crowd Pressure: Consciousness of Mission

24:54 followed after him it's an intensified form of the verb normally used to follow or to persecute or to track down and as one exegete has rendered it they chased him that's the way Lenski renders it perhaps we could say a little less intensive they intensely pursued him in other words when they discovered he was not there they didn't say oh well let's go look around see if we see him if not he'll be back by lunch they went out and said we must find him we must find him now what lay behind that sense of impulse well you get some hint from Mark that when they come to him they say all are seeking you they were aware that they were not simply asking the Lord Jesus to come back into Capernaum for their sake and when we turn to the parallel passage in Luke chapter 4 and put the two together we see the whole picture Luke chapter 4 and notice how Luke describes this event verse 42 when it was day he came out and went into a desert place and the multitude sought after him and he came they came unto him and would have stayed him that he should not go from them the multitude sought after

26:13 the word of God I mean look even a child can see either it was Andrew I mean Peter and the others who went after him or it was the crowds who said it's either or even a child with a believing heart can see the synthesis of the two passages what happened the night before people crowded at Peter's door because they knew Jesus was in that house and they stayed until every last sick person they brought was healed and every demon was cast out and went to their homes but now tell me you've been a cripple all your life and been healed that night you think you went right home and went to bed of course not you've been possessed of a demon or your child had and now they were free you think you went home and went to bed and slept your eight hours not on your life any more than someone who becomes a father for the first time at three in the morning said well this is a terrible hour I won't bother a soul I'll wait till nine tomorrow morning he doesn't care what time and I do he calls up and wakes people up he doesn't care he doesn't care well can you imagine the commotion in Capernaum that night people free from the tyranny of demon possession free from all kinds of sickness and ills and the word would spread through so they figure well at dawn the next morning we'll be at that door for some more in all likelihood what happened is by the time Peter and Andrew and James and John go out to seek for

27:43 Jesus there's a crowd at the door already they see them coming out and say where are you going we're going to try to find Jesus he's not here he's not here where could he be we've come with our sick ones we've come with our lame ones we've come with our demon possessed friends and children and they turn over their shoulders and we're going out to find him and you can picture Peter as the ring leader Andrew James and John behind him and then the great crowd all trotting after them going to find him so there's no contradiction there's a beautiful synthesis so when they come and they find the Lord Jesus Peter then the spokesman speaks and says all are seeking you and no sooner does he begin to tell the Lord that and the crowds themselves come up and they begin to express their mind and say you must not leave us you must not go from us you must come back to Capernaum look at all of the sick bodies that yet need healing look at all of the demon possessed that still need your touch oh Jesus of Nazareth you must come back so there's no contradiction oh what a terribly blinding thing is unbelief what a cursed thing is skepticism what a hellish demonic thing yea hath God said yes God has said that Peter and the multitudes came no contradiction wonderful beautiful sin they say with one accord

29:13 you must not leave us the language of Luke again his vigorous language they would constrain him not to leave them and Peter speaking for the others assumes that if men are seeking with such intensity surely the Lord would not leave them but then you'll notice Jesus responds with a word a clear directive and then a reason for that directive look at his directive we're back in Mark now and he said unto them verse 38 let us go elsewhere into the next towns and that word for towns is village cities and probably refers to small towns or cities with their suburbs the exegetes are not agreed on its precise meaning but this much is clear that he envisions the rest of Galilee there's Capernaum and that North and edge of the Sea of Galilee and the Lord Jesus is aware of the other towns and villages and he gives this directive he doesn't say I must go he said let us go speaking most likely to Peter Andrew James and John these whom he was molding for the apostleship let us go to the other towns and villages that's his directive but then his reason for that directive look at it let us go into the other city towns there I may preach also for to this

30:42 end came I for I must go to the other towns and preach for to this end I have come forth come forth from where just from Simon's house from Nazareth ultimately from Bethlehem's manger no back beyond that because we read in the parallel passage in Luke that he also said for to this end I was sent I was sent sent by whom sent by the father from his very right hand sent from the glory the undimmed glory of the immediate presence of his father with whom he was now communing out there in the pre-dawn darkness as the incarnate theanthropic person he was conscious of his original identity and the place from which he had come and he says it is the will of him who sent me that I go and preach in all of these villages throughout Galilee and if I am to be faithful to the stewardship of my commission I cannot succumb to all of the pleas and all of the entreaties and all of the combined pressure no I cannot I will not I would be violating the will of my father and if I did that I could not be the spotless lamb of God to take away

32:11 the sin of the world now what does this teach us about our Lord those are the facts well it teaches us many things but this as I have meditated upon the text appears to me at this stage in my understanding to be the major thrust of its application it clearly shows us our Lord's consciousness of his mission and his determination to do the will of God it sets before us the fact that he would not allow providential circumstances human need psychological or emotional pressure to turn him from the will of his father there was need before him and the night before he came out when all ordinary men would be going to bed and when he saw that need he responded to it and again and again we read when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion and we can only imagine the tremendous trauma in our Lord's soul here were the expected faces of the sick and the maimed and the halt of grieving mothers and fathers who come carrying their little ones restraining their demon possessed loved ones our Lord could not look at that pleading and treating multitude and say oh well my father I should go sorry not our blessed Lord he must have felt the pull at his own holy

33:41 human emotions the psychological emotional pressure of the multitude and he could have reasoned well if my father has providentially allowed the crowd to discover my lonely prayer retreat this early in the morning then surely there must be a divine purpose in this I must respond to that no no he will not oh what a picture of that element in our Lord so seldom found in we sinners found in us sinners so seldom found in a tenderness responsiveness to need coupled with iron inflexibility with respect to and yet it meets in our blessed Lord and we see him with his face set to do the Father's will because at the end he wants to be able to pray in the language of John 17 for I have glorified thee on the earth having finished the work you gave me to do now that's what it tells us about our Lord now what does it teach us about our duty well surely it teaches us this dear Christians does it not it teaches us that in the strength and power of Christ motivated by love to Christ

Our Duty to Resist Pressure: Inflexibility to God's Will

35:10 we too must learn to resist every pressure that would turn us from the will of God revealed in the word of God

35:22 every pressure we seek to discover our duty in the scriptures and then what happens sometimes our most intimate friends our Peters and Andrews James and John come and lay hands upon us and say this is the will of God all men are seeking you Lord Capernaum sometimes it's general consensus the crowd is doing it the crowd is saying it the crowd has determined that this is the will of God and often it's the religious crowd dear people when we discover the will of God in the word of God we need to be like our Lord in his strength and power and motivated by love to him captivated by his own example we need to learn what it is to be vulnerable emotionally and psychologically not to treat people like dirt not to treat them with indifference look upon those who in their ignorance but sincere earnestness say to us this is what you ought to do this is where you ought to go this is how it should be done not to steal ourselves from the felt agony of that but in the midst of all of that pummeling of our souls to say

36:52 we are held captive let us go because this is the purpose for which I was sent you and I was saved that we might prove the good acceptable and perfect will of God and to me there are few things more beautiful in redeemed humanity than a reflection of that apparent contradiction that is seen in our Lord tenderness vulnerability emotional and psychological softness may we say join to that iron clad inflexibility oh my God this generation is a hopeless contradiction of the reverse the generation of the , that is given over to violence feeds its mind upon violence on the boob tube hour upon hour upon hour and with modern techniques of movie making has concocted ways to project the most gruesome kind of violence upon the screen and people will pay good money to see people apparently dismembered and blown to pieces yet this is the day when men are driven to and fro by the feeling by

38:20 emotion it feels good it must be what a contradiction of what humanity was meant to be and we see in our Lord true humanity and it's his purpose in grace to make us like himself and as we behold him that day refusing to succumb to crowd pressure all that we may hear the word of God coming to us so what teenager everybody is doing it everyone says it's all right but does God say it's all right he says free fornication he says have no fellowship with the untruthful works of darkness he says come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing who cares what the crowd says who cares what your closest friends say if God has spoken in his word oh to have hearts irrevocably committed to doing the will of God well we hasten on to this third activity of our Lord our Lord praying verse thirty five our Lord resisting crowd pressure verses thirty six to thirty eight but now verse thirty nine our Lord preaching and ministering in all of Galilee notice the language of the text verse thirty nine and he went into their

Our Lord Preaching and Ministering: Primacy of Preaching

39:50 synagogues throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons now one more glance at the parallel passage in Luke chapter four you will notice a certain emphasis that comes through verse forty three of Luke four and he said unto them I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also therefore was I sent and he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee now the facts of this text are very simple and straightforward leaving the crowd and crowds then were no different from crowds now and one can just imagine what went on some of them murmuring with disappointment for past others standing there with their jaws hung down it seemed such a contradiction last night at the door there was no need to which he would not respond he's turned his back on us he's walking away from us let

40:56 some even began to grumble because remember this was fundamentally an unbelieving crowd Capernaum had terrible woes pronounced upon it because Jesus said many mighty works were done but you did not repent multitude saw his miracles and received the benefit of his miracles who were utter strangers to repentance and to true faith in the son of God and such people are glad to take goodies from God's hand but let him withhold the goodies and they'll curse the very God that gave them to it look at ancient Israel God gives them goodies and they rejoice and he withholds for a little bit to test their faith and they're ready to curse it human nature did not change and one can only imagine what the complexion of that crowd was loud but he left them and what did he do it says he went through all their synagogues preaching and casting out demons the emphasis of Luke is he went through all their cities preaching the gospel of the kingdom so putting them all together and tying it in with the summary statement in Matthew 8 we learned that our Lord Jesus went forth into Galilee would initially attack a synagogue in every town and city where he went and there would do precisely what

42:12 teach and preach with authority he would preach the good news of the kingdom of which he was king and all the gracious reign of that saving kingship and then to confirm the validity of his message and of himself as messenger he would cast out demons and according to Matthew healed all manner of sickness and disease now what does this tell us about our Lord well much could be said again about his definite plan and strategy and the wisdom of his method some marvelous principles here of missionary strategy however the words of the text lead to one dominant issue and it's this our Lord's commitment to the primacy of preaching in extending the kingdom of grace our Lord's commitment to the primacy that is the first place of preaching in the extension of the kingdom of grace why did he go directly and primarily and the thing that is underscored in both gospel records is to the synagogues because there he knew he would have a natural platform for preaching and there he would go in a context where there would be less clamoring for the miraculous and a much more conducive climate for preaching yes he did confirm his message and himself as messenger with the casting out of demons and the

43:41 God is upon his preaching his preaching his proclaiming as a herald his announcing of good news those are the two words used in the original the former in Luke and the latter here in Mark and again as I meditated upon the passage I asked myself what would it have been like to hear him preach no wonder they said no man ever spake as he spake they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from his mouth I've got a sneaking suspicion if I ever heard the Lord preach I'd never stand to preach again I marveled that the disciples could preach after they'd heard him preach one can only imagine what infinite wisdom coupled with infinite love and compassion in a sinless soul must have produced when he stood to preach all that we could have heard him preach but we can't and so it'll do no good to indulge in wishful thinking this morning but he preached and he preached and he preached and he preached and he made it evident wherever he went that whatever kingdom he came to establish the grand instrument in its establishment was preaching that's the great lesson of the passage that's what it says about our Lord now then what does it tell us about our

Our Duty to Uphold Preaching: God's Grand Ordinance

45:12 Lord no one has the mind of Christ who gives to preaching any lesser place than that which Jesus gave to it now what's that say about the vast majority of evangelical churches in our day now I don't like to criticize but I'm not averse to criticism where criticism is needed what is central programs choirs special numbers musical packages big shot personalities testimon testimonies a host of things are central in many evangelical churches tonight preaching will not be central if it's there at all it will be tacked on to all kinds of flesh appealing gimmickry because it said preaching will no longer draw people in our day well I say if God won't bless true preaching to draw men then I'll preach to empty chairs preach I will preach I must I'm to pray for God's blessing upon any endeavor to extend his kingdom God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe every true advancement of the kingdom of God in the history of the church has come either when preaching

46:41 took its rightful place or in the context in which God was restoring it to its rightful place and the fruit of every true visitation of the spirit of God is precisely what we have in our passage men go everywhere preaching men find that they are brought into that sympathy with the heart of our Lord who is our great prophet extended the kingdom of grace through preaching and as Bishop Ryle again so carefully and accurately observed in his comments upon this passage the great activity with occupied our Lord on his way to the cross was the activity of preaching that was his grand activity until he gave himself to the work of dying on our behalf we ought to observe what infinite honor the Lord Jesus puts in the office of the preacher it's an office which the eternal son of God himself undertook he might have spent his earthly ministry in instituting and keeping up ceremonies like Aaron he might have ruled and reigned as a king like David but he chose a different calling until the time when he died as a sacrifice for our sins his daily almost hourly work was to preach therefore came I forth let us never be moved by those who cry down the preacher's office and tell us that the sacraments and other

48:10 ordinances are more important than sermons let us give to every part of God's public worship its proper place in honor but let us beware of placing any part of it above preaching by preaching the church of Christ was first gathered together and founded and by preaching it has ever been maintained in health and prosperity by preaching sinners are awakened by preaching inquirers are led to faith by preaching saints are built up by preaching Christianity is being carried to the heathen world and then he goes on one sentence upon another showing the primacy of preaching let us leave the passage with a solemn resolution never to despise prophesying first Thessalonians 520 the minister we may hear may not be highly gifted the sermons we listen to may be weak and poor but after all preaching is God's grand ordinance for converting and saving souls oh may God inscribe upon our hearts a conviction of this our great duty to give to preaching the place which our Lord gave to it now we come around full circle to where we began in this paragraph a paragraph of contrast our Lord from the busyness by the door of Peter's house is found praying our Lord

Conclusion: Beholding and Being Transformed into Christ's Image

49:39 is found resisting crowd pressure our Lord is found preaching and ministering throughout all of Galilee and what is all of this but a segment of what Mark tells us in his first words the gospel of Jesus Christ son of God and dear people the overall cumulative influence of our studies in this passage should be increasingly to convince you that Jesus Christ is a mighty and an able Savior and if he could preach with authority and lay bare the hearts of men and he is present with his church now that he is here to do anew by his word what he did by that same word when he was here upon the face of the earth and he is our great and unchangeable pattern and Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 318 but we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another we are to look upon him and admire him admire him in his lonely prayer vigil admire and worship him in the midst of that tenderness and vulnerability yet that inflexible determination to do the will of God admire and worship him lovingly adore him admire and worship him as you see him going from town to town and village to village preaching the good news of the kingdom announcing to men that they

51:09 do not need all of the tradition of the elders and all of the rabbinical legalism crying out to men come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden under the crushing weight of external religious practice to I'll give you rest we need to admire him as we see him but wonder of wonders when that admiration grows out of an earnest study of the word the Holy Spirit does a wonderful thing in us we are transformed by the spirit into that image and oh I trust as we continue to gaze upon our Lord as he sat before us by the pen of Mark imperceptibly at times perhaps but nonetheless truly we we we , over the course of these weeks and months we will find that more and more we are fashioned into the likeness of our blessed Lord let us pray together our Father we thank you again forever condescending to give us this spirit inspired record of the deeds and words of our Lord Jesus and we confess that just beholding him in his word excites us stirs our hearts and oh how it makes us long to behold him

52:38 face to face to hear the very voice that spoke there in that early dawn to hear the very voice that rang out in those synagogues throughout Galilee oh Lord increase in our hearts a longing to be with you and to see you as you are and while we are yet here make us more like yourself make us men and women and boys and girls of prayer who know what self denial is when duty would conflict with duty oh God may we know what it is to lop off our liberties and lop off those things that must be cut off that we might give ourselves to prayer make us like our Lord Jesus in resolute determination not to turn aside from your revealed will no matter what pressure is brought to bear upon us and then help us like our Lord to give to preaching the place that he gave ever to attend upon it with eagerness ever to pray for its success ever to cry to you to raise up mighty preachers and thrust them forth in our generation seal this portion of your word to our hearts and then oh God for those who have never beheld any beauty in your son who have never truly prayed because they have no felt sense of their need may the word

54:08 fasten itself upon their consciences this morning and give them no rest until seeing the wickedness of their crass pride and spirit of independence they fall in penitence and faith before your beloved son oh God we are asking much of you but you are a great God and we are bold to pray that you will do great and mighty things which we know not through the preaching of your word this morning hear us hear us oh God we plead and answer us for the glory of your dear son in whose name and by whose merit we draw near to you in this our plea amen