New Testament Studies
The Gospel of St. Mark
By Robert C. Crowder
Lesson Nine
Mark 1:34-39
And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and
cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because
they knew him. And in
the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and
departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they
that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him,
they said unto him, All men seek for thee. And he said unto them,
Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for
therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues
throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
After such a triumphant day of healing diseases
and cleansing people of demons Jesus challenged the demons not to
speak “because they knew him.”
This is the second time in this chapter that we have seen
Jesus command the demons to “keep their peace.”
Why would Jesus tell the demons to keep quiet?
Let’s look closer to see if we can define this issue.
“First, “the teachers of the law” associated Him
with Beelzebub, “the prince of demons” (Mark 3:22).
Any tendency to show that He accepted the demonic would have
given extra evidence to these opponents.
Second, to accept the testimony of demons about
Himself would give a precedent to his followers to accept (or even
seek) testimony of demons about other things.
This is in close parallel with the temptations in the desert
where Jesus would not receive the kingdom of this world from the
devil and neither would He receive any help in His mission from the
devil’s agent.
Third, and most important, Jesus’ whole mission was a call to faith based on evidence, not on authoritative testimony. Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God and acts according to kingdom values.”[1]
Ok, now that makes sense.
We must understand how important it is not to just read the
scriptures, but as in 2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
In this day, it is easy to find teachers who proclaim that
they are teaching the truth.
You could include me in that group.
So how do you know?
I would encourage you to seek out "The Teacher."
It is important to get with God and have the greatest teacher
of all, the Holy Spirit, show you the way.
It is very clear that there is a purpose to everything that
is recorded in the scriptures for our benefit.
All we have to do is just take the time to study and pray,
and we will find the Truth.
A
great example is the following verses.
Jesus rises early, before the break of day and looks for a
solitary place, and then He prays.
After everything that happened yesterday and before this day
starts, Jesus looked for a place to pray in the quiet.
I have often found it interesting that Jesus prayed at all.
For Jesus was God.
Why would God have to pray?
Well we could miss the point here real easy.
Jesus prayed because He became “flesh and dwelt among us.”
(John 1:14)
Jesus was man, tried and tempted
as we while He was in the flesh.
So, if Jesus being God and man found the need to pray, how
much more should we? I
ask this question because in our lives, we get so busy running
around doing, that we fail to find the quiet times and listen to
God’s direction for our lives.
Here Jesus departed the area and looked for a
quiet place to pray. But
like so many instances in the scriptures, His disciples intrude upon
his prayers. In this
case Simon and some others searched for Jesus.
Notice two things here.
One, We don’t know if it was only Simon, James and John, for
it could well be others that witnessed the events of yesterday and
just never went home and two,
The Greek word for searched is katadioko that
means to hunt down, search for.
Simon and company was really trying to find Jesus.
When they finally found him, they told Jesus “All men seek
for thee.”
From the scripture account, it is hard to exactly determine the
inflection or what Simon may meant when he presented his request.
Some say that Simon was just a little put out that he had to
find Jesus and to let him know the obvious.
Others say that Simon was concerned that he didn’t know how
to handle the situation and simply tried to find his Master.
Although it does seem to carry a bit of a rebuke for it
implies that they knew better than Jesus where He should be and what
He should be doing.
Whichever way he spoke to Jesus, we see that Jesus’ response was not
what anyone would have expected.
Jesus said, “Let us go into the next towns, that
I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.”
If this would have happened today, I can only imagine the
response of Jesus publicist.
“What? You were a
big hit last night. We
need to stay here and play this out.
We need to keep at this until the wave of popularity passes.
Maybe we could bill this as;
“Due to the overwhelming response,
Jesus will be here for two more
nights.
Bring your sick and demon possessed, for Jesus
will only have four more services
in this area.”
But Jesus simply said, “Let us go”
implying that he would not follow them back to the crowds to perform
miracles and exorcisms.
Rather He would visit the surrounding towns so that He could preach
unto them. That is the
reason I am here, to preach the Gospel to all men. “
Jesus let's them in on his plans when He told
them “For therefore came I forth.” His statement defines that
He was not just talking about leaving Capernaum, but to continue His
mission from God.
Mark continues the narrative with Jesus doing
exactly as he said. “And
he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out
devils.”
Jesus went to where the people would be.
The people would be found at the very center of their daily
lives, the synagogue.
There he would preach the Gospel.
There He would do miracles.
There he would cast out demons.
There people would know that Jesus was the Healer, the
Redeemer and finally the Messiah.
ã 2002 bobsbiblestudies