05.05. Jehovah's Servant Preaching

05. Jehovah’s Servant Preaching

"Now after that John 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 ye, and believe in***** the gospel**" (Mark 1:14-15, R.V.).

{*"put in prison," A.V.

**"glad tidings," J.N.D. and W.K.

***"the kingdom of" is also omitted by W.K., who says "it is an addition borrowed from Matthew, whose Gospel it suits perfectly."

****"has drawn nigh," J.N.D. and W.K.

*****"in"; so also J.N.D. and W.K.} At the appointed moment, the anointed Servant of Jehovah commenced His public service by announcing the good news that God’s promised kingdom was imminent. And who shall ever know with what ineffable joy the obedient Son whose ears had been "digged" for service (Psalms 40:6, margin) performed in this as in all else the will of Him who sent Him? We are, however, permitted to know some of the intimacies of the Father and the incarnate Son, wherein this mutual-satisfaction is expressed. We are, for instance, made privy to the Father’s declaration from heaven, "Thou art my dearly-beloved Son, in whom is my delight." This personal complacency was fully reciprocated by Jehovah’s Servant, who, entering into the world, says, "Lo, I am come; in the roll it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart. I have published [preached] righteousness in the great congregation; lo, I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation" (Psalms 40:7-10). And this delight thus expressed in regard of the service of preaching in the great assemblies of Israel was maintained even when His obedience led Him to lay down His life (John 10:17;Hebrews 10:5-7), thereby fulfilling to the uttermost, as He had previously made known, God’s will.* We have a notable example of His joy in the path of service on that memorable occasion when the obdurate unbelief of Capernaum, the centre of His Galilean ministry, was brought before Him. We read, "In that hour Jesus rejoiced [exulted] in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Luke 10:21). Such a spirit in the moment of apparent failure was the perfection of service, and how contrasted it was with that of the preacher to the Ninevites, seeking first to escape from the path of duty, and then angry that the repentant citizens believing his message were spared. Jesus, who rejoiced in presence of the unbelief of Capernaum, rejoiced also overonesinner who repented.** For He was the good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost" (Luke 15:5-6). Blessed Saviour, in any service of ours, feeble and unworthy as it must ever be, may a like joy possess us and bring us in our measure with like equanimity through victory or what seems defeat!

{*It is noteworthy that in the quotations from Psalm 40 in the Hebrews, the expression of "delight" (or "desire" as the LXX. reads, from which version the quotation is literally made) is deliberately omitted by the Spirit of God, probably because the sacrificial aspect of the death of Christ is there presented by the apostle, and with this aspect the "strong crying and tears" of Gethsemane are more in accord than the expressed joy of obedience, though both were then equally before His God and Father.

**This was a heavenly joy (Luke 15:7, Luke 15:10), not earthly; from the latter, as the true Nazarite and the Man of sorrows, He was then separate, though in His Father’s kingdom, yet to come, He will drink that cup also (Matthew 26:29).}

It is proposed to group some fragmentary thoughts relating to this passage under one of the following heads:
(1) The signal for the preaching to begin;
(2) the scene of the preaching;
(3) the subject of the preaching;
(4) the declarations of the Preacher.

(1) The signal for the commencement of Christ’s preaching. There is "a time to keep silence and a time to speak" — a precept never exemplified so perfectly as by the Lord of all. The time for Jesus to come forth into the way of public service was indicated by the imprisonment of John the Forerunner and Baptist. "Now when he heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum" (Matthew 4:12-13, R.V.). There had previously been blessed ministry by the Lord to individuals in Judea and Samaria, as the early chapters of the Gospel of John show (John 3:24). But this ministry was the manifestation of His personal grace and glory which is above all the limitations of the times and dispensations which mark the ordered government of the world, and 3uch manifestations form the special subject of the Fourth Gospel. Mark, however, like the other Synoptists, sets before us the beginning of His Dfficial service in introducing the promised kingdom, and this initial act synchronized with the removal of John, who was a witness to Jesus as the Christ, from the sphere of public testimony.

John had preached of Jesus as the One who was about to come, and after baptizing Him in Jordan, had testified to Him as being then present in Israel. This work of the prophet of the Most High, the messenger of Jehovah, the herald of the Messiah, was now accomplished. And what distinguished service was his! His was the unique distinction of being the first to own the coming Saviour and King (Luke 1:41), and this by divine prompting of altogether a special nature, while his was the first voice to call the sinful sons of men to "behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The Lord said of him, "Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). So powerfully did his work and testimony, though unaccompanied by miraculous sign, work in the hearts of men, that many seemed to be prepared to accept John himself as the Messiah (Luke 3:15), in spite of his utter repudiation of any such claim, and his clear testimony to Jesus: "He must increase, and I must decrease."

While men were thus ready to be misled as to the personality of the Christ, we may be sure that Satan, failing to destroy the royal Seed in the massacre of Bethlehem’s babes (Revelation 12:1-5), and foiled in his temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, would welcome such an opportunity to set up a rival to Jesus, Israel’s promised King and Saviour. He who would use Simon Peter, the honoured witness to Jesus as the Son of the living God as a stumbling-block in His way to the cross (Matthew 16:23), would seek to use the Baptist as a counter attraction when Jesus should offer Himself to the people as the sent One of God. If Satan had such a malevolent intention, it was frustrated by the shutting up of John in prison. The prophets of old had their contemporaries. The voice of Jehovah came to Israel through Micah the Morasthite as well as through the more brilliant son of Amoz of his day; while subsequently God spake simultaneously through Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. But He who had spoken in days past in many measures and in many manners to the fathers by His prophets was about to speak to them by a Son, the only-begotten. No prophet, not even an angel, can for a moment be compared with God’s spokesman in His unapproachable dignity as the Son. And John, the last of the prophets, though himself more than a prophet, was withdrawn by God from the scene of public testimony, that the Son might stand alone, an Object supremely worthy and sufficient to engross the hearts of all mankind. How could God have a servant contemporary with His Son? As He has no peer, so this Servant needs no coadjutor. Even Moses and Elias must vanish directly Simon Peter seeks to class them with Jesus; so that he and his astonished companions may see "no one save Jesus only," teaching them and all men that the Son is incomparable.

John then, having borne faithful witness to the truth, was removed to make way for Him who is the Faithful and True Witness. When the Light of the world shines forth, no place is found for the burning and shining lamp (John 5:35, R.V.), welcome as it was in the dawning. He was not, however, like his prototype Elijah, carried up to heaven by a whirlwind. He was carried to a prison and to death under the power of a dissolute Idumean king. He had preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. But it was not for him to know in his own experience the beneficent sway of the sceptre of righteousness. For him the earthly throne was one of iniquity, and its sword was the sword of cruelty and revenge. Truly his eyes saw the King of Israel in the beauty of His grace, but notwithstanding, his headless corpse was soon to lie martyred in the kingdom of "this world." This was a fitting prelude to the coming tragedy when "the kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed" (Acts 4:25-27).

(2) The scene of the preaching. The Lord began His service of preaching in Galilee, not in Judaea. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Messiah had its favours according to the prophet — "Thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall One come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2, R.V.). But there is no record of any visit by the Lord to Bethlehem during His ministry. Galilee, the despised region in the north of the land, was privileged to have more than any other place His gracious and marvellous service by word and sign. This, too, was in accordance with the prophecy of olden time, as the Evangelist Matthew shows: "He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali; 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 Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up" (Matthew 4:13-17, R.V.). This prophetic promise (Isaiah 9:1-2) was one of comfort for the faithful remnant in a day when Gentile powers should oppress the land and Messiah should be a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel." It was promised that in such circumstances a bright and glorious light should shine forth in the most obscure and despised part of the land. And so it came about, for into Galilee Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God; and this was a reason with the Pharisees of Jerusalem for despising Him. Ignoring Jonah, who was of the land of Zebulun, they said, "Search and see; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (John 7:52).

Galilee "seems to have been originally confined to a little circuit of country round Kedesh-Naphtali, in which were situated the twenty towns given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre, as payment for his work in conveying timber from Lebanon to Jerusalem (Joshua 20:7; 1 Kings 9:11). They were then, or subsequently, occupied by strangers, and for this reason Isaiah gives to the district the name Galilee of the Gentiles (Isaiah 9:1). It is probable that the strangers increased in number, and became during the captivity the great body of the inhabitants; extending themselves over the surrounding country, they gave to their new territories the old name, until at length Galilee became one of the largest provinces of Palestine."

"It was outside the regular allotment of Israel, in that part of it which is yet to belong to Israel, which certain of the tribes had taken possession of, though, strictly speaking, it was beyond the proper limits of the promised land. The Lord goes through Galilee of the Gentiles; and in all that He fulfilled the prophecy [of Isaiah]. The Jews ought surely to have known it."

"It is shown afterwards in this prophecy that (while the Gentile affliction upon the nation would be heavier than ever, and the Roman oppression far exceed the Chaldean of old), the Messiah would be there, despised and rejected of men, nay, of the Jews, and that at this very time, when thus set at nought by the people that ought to have known His glory, great light would spring up in the most despised place, in Galilee of the nations, among the poorest of the Jews, where Gentiles I were mixed up with them people who could not even speak their own tongue properly.* There should this bright and heavenly light spring up; there the Messiah would be owned and received."

{*They said to Peter, "Surely, thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto" (Mark 14:70; Matthew 26:73).}

It was therefore appointed of God that in the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, who had shut up John the Baptist in prison, the Lord Himself should begin to teach and to preach. And this He accordingly did.

1909 371 (3) The subject of the Lord’s preaching is here stated to be "the gospel of God." "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God," for it was the day of the fulfilment of ancient promise and prophecy now announced by Him in whom they were all fulfilled. This, therefore, was the beginning of the gospel, the true "Proto-evangelium," the source of that river of grace which, deepening and widening in its onward course, should eventually carry its blessing to the uttermost part of the earth (Mark 16:15).

Isaiah’s prophecy refers to this day of good tidings in more places than one. After foretelling the preparatory testimonies John the Baptist should render, he continues, "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, [and] shall gently lead those that give suck" (Isaiah 40:9-11, R.V.). This prophecy, it is true, includes the coming of the King of Israel in power for deliverance and blessing and the establishment of the kingdom in glory. But, nevertheless, Jehovah Jesus was there, bringing to Zion in His own person the good tidings of His presence, which He began to announce in Galilee of the Gentiles. Would Zion receive these good tidings and believe Messiah’s report? Alas! the ears of the people were stopped and their hearts hardened, and they would not hear and believe. Not until a yet later day will they say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then will the people with ecstatic joy break out in the language of the same prophet, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! The voice of thy watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see, eye to eye, when the LORD returneth to Zion" (Isaiah 52:7-8, R.V.). But whether Israel would hear or whether they would not hear, it was equally the part of the Servant of Jehovah to go forward in the work committed to Him. Jehovah had anointed Him to preach good tidings to the poor (Isaiah 61:1). He accordingly commences this ministry in the most despised town of the most despised region in the land of Israel (Luke 4:18). The phrase used here, "the gospel of God," is striking in its comprehensiveness; for "the kingdom of" is an unwarranted addition, foisted into the text fromMatthew 4:23at some period subsequent to the.apostolic day by misguided harmonists, zealous to introduce uniformity where the divine Author had ordered variety. "The gospel of God" implies the heavenly origin of the gospel. It was God’s gospel, emanating from Him, and, in consequence, possessing a paramount authority. This Servant of Jehovah, Son of God as He was, brought no independent message of His own devising. The gospel He preached was the gospel of God. And we cannot fail to observe the beautiful propriety of this phrase, peculiar as it is to this Gospel, which, before we are permitted to hear a word of the preaching of Jesus, the Servant-Prophet, points us upward to heaven and to God as its source. And what is here stated by the inspired Evangelist was stated more explicitly and emphatically by the Lord Himself. "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God, or [whether] I speak from myself." "I spake not from myself, but the Father which sent me, he hath given me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me" (John 7:16-17;John 12:49;John 14:24, R.V.).

It is noticeable that while the phrase — the gospel of God — only occurs once in the Gospels, it is of more frequent occurrence in the Epistles. The great apostle to the nations, in his Epistle to the Romans, speaks of himself as separated unto the gospel of God, and also of ministering it to the Gentiles (Romans 1:1;Romans 15:16). Twice he speaks of preaching the gospel of God to those at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9); while the apostle of the uncircumcision uses it in a solemn warning which he utters to unbelievers — "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God" (1 Peter 4:17)?

Thus Paul and Peter united in the service of spreading the heavenly evangel; but it is a fruitful theme for meditation that God’s gospel was first proclaimed by Him who was both its Essence and Fulness. Well might the apostle exclaim, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him" (Hebrews 2:3)?

(4) We now come to the declarations of the Lord as they are summarised in this Gospel. They contained a twofold announcement, and a twofold exhortation. The Servant-Prophet announced(a)that the time was fulfilled, and(b)that the kingdom of God was at hand; while He called upon men(a)to repent, and(b)to believe the gospel. By the fulfilment of the time (kairos) it may be supposed that the Lord made reference to the fact of His own public appearance in Galilee as the Servant-Prophet at a moment which was predetermined by Jehovah who sent Him. We find a similar expression used by the Lord elsewhere, implying how perfectly His life was regulated from above, and in no sense the outcome of unforeseen circumstances. When the brethren of the Lord urged Him to go up to Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, His reply was, "My time (kairos) is not yet come, but your time is alway ready. . . . Go ye up unto the feast; I go not up yet unto this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled (John 7:6; John 7:8). At the last paschal feast, the Lord sent this message to the man in Jerusalem, "The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples" (Matthew 26:18). Speaking also of the second coming of the Son of man, He says to His disciples, "Ye know not when the time (kairos) is" (Mark 13:33), warning them also of those who would raise a false alarm of the approach of that day, saying, "The time (kairos) is at hand" (Luke 21:8). To everything, therefore, in the life of the incarnate Son there was an appointed time. Of this He, as the obedient Man, was conscious; and it was an exemplification of the perfection of His service for God, not only to know this for the joy of His own heart, but to declare it publicly, as in this instance, in the hearing of those who were naturally the sons of disobedience. The theme of His announcement was that the kingdom of God was nigh. This constituted His glad tidings. Clearly this gospel was not that of the Acts and of the Epistles; only that Jehovah the Saviour was there, even then, in His fulness for empty and needy sinners. But until His death and resurrection, neither the utter depravity of man was proved, nor was the incomparable love of God towards guilty sinners manifested. Here, however, it is declared that "the kingdom of God was nigh." This was a word of hope and gladness, uttered to this saddened and sin-stricken world. And what a disordered spectacle the world then afforded to those that "feared Jehovah and thought upon His name"! The chosen people were divided and scattered, and the returned remnant of the Jews under the heel of the Roman oppressor. The Gentiles were "without God, and without hope in the world"; while the whole creation was groaning and travailing together in pain. At such a juncture the inspiriting cry is raised "The kingdom of God is at hand." This kingdom is not to consist of a fallen man ruling fallen men. When the blind lead the blind the ditch must be their destination. Such, in fact, is the history of man’s kingdoms, as the Old Testament fully shows. Now God’s kingdom is to appear, originating with God, governed by God, maintained by God. The sphere of influence of this kingdom is not confined to Israel, but to extend to all nations, to the uttermost parts of the earth; and not over man only, the head of creation, but all suffering creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Such beneficent and assured effects the word of God recites elsewhere, though these effects are not realised even yet.

Here the King appears. How near, therefore, must God’s kingdom be, when God’s King was among them! Only a short while and Jesus would present Himself to the daughter of Zion as her King. He would go up to Jerusalem in fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy, "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass." Alas! that the King should hear Himself denied by the sages of Jerusalem, who sat in Moses’ seat "We have no king but Caesar! "Away with this Man! Crucify him!" He was indeed crucified, and this of necessity changed the aspect of the kingdom for the time. But while this is so, "the kingdom of God" is yet to be established upon the earth, and all rule and all authority and power shall be eventually abolished according to His infallible word (see1 Corinthians 15:24). But were the hearers prepared for the gospel? For the due enjoyment of the blessing of God’s kingdom, whether in its moral or material form, an inward change is essential. Hence the Lord calls upon men to repent. He was not here to subjugate men by the exercise of irresistible force. He came to "call sinners to repentance." In this the Lord reiterated the exhortation of His forerunner; for John the Baptist called upon men to repent. And those who received his testimony were baptized in Jordan, confessing their sins. It was no less necessary that men should repent and accept the gracious witness concerning the coming kingdom, trusting simply to the word of Him who brought the good tidings.