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Scripture Reading: Mark 1:16-20; 4:3, 26; 9:1-8; Eph. 1:4; Mark 1:9-11; Gal. 2:20
The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of the Triune God. As the embodiment of the Triune God, His life was fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. This One sowed Himself as the seed of life into His disciples. This seed is the Lord as the embodiment of the Triune God.
As the Lord Jesus was ministering and living a life according to God’s New Testament economy, He collected the “soil” into which He would sow Himself as a seed. This soil was the Lord’s followers. The first one to be gathered by the Lord Jesus was Peter. We may say that the Lord Jesus put Peter into His “pocket” and carried this “soil” with Him wherever He went.
As we read the Gospel of Mark, we need to see that the Lord Jesus was living a life of sowing the Triune God into His believers as the soil. In chapter one He began to collect the soil. Peter, the first one to be called by the Lord Jesus, is our representative. He took the lead in things both good and bad. He took the lead to recognize that Jesus is the Christ and also to deny the Lord. Peter even took the lead to be crucified. In a foregoing message we pointed out that, in a sense, Peter was crucified even before the Lord Jesus was. Furthermore, after the Lord’s resurrection, the angel specifically mentioned Peter’s name (16:7). This indicates that Peter was known by the angels. He certainly was our representative.
The Gospel of Mark not only portrays the Lord as the One sowing the Triune God into His believers as the soil, but this Gospel also depicts the condition of this soil. The cases recorded in this Gospel indicate that the soil was not in a healthy condition. In Mark we have twelve cases involving thirteen people. (One case involves two people, a woman and a young girl.) Four of these twelve cases are cases of people possessed by demons. This indicates that the soil gathered by the Lord Jesus was possessed, occupied, by demons.
Were you not occupied by some kind of “demon” before you were saved? Many today are possessed by the demon of drugs or the demon of gambling. As we consider today’s situation in the world, we see that all the unsaved people are occupied by demons. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus comes to select a person and gather that one to be His soil, the first thing He does is cast out the demon from that person. From our experience we know that when we were called by the Lord, He cast out our demons.
The twelve cases recorded in the Gospel of Mark may be regarded as depicting the condition of an individual. In other words, these cases are a composite picture of a single person. In the eyes of the Lord Jesus, everyone who becomes His soil is the one portrayed by these twelve cases. Hence, the case of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever, indicates that, spiritually speaking, we all have a fever. Because our spiritual temperature is not normal, it is easy for us to be angry. Was this not your condition before you were saved? We all were once sick with a high fever. Furthermore, we were lepers, those unclean, contaminated, in relation to both God and man. We also were paralyzed and withered, unable to walk before God or work for Him.
Although this was our condition before we were saved, the Lord Jesus has healed us in a general way. The person portrayed by these cases has been healed and is no longer abnormal in temperature and is no longer unclean, paralyzed, and withered.
According to the sequence of the Gospel of Mark, after the cases that portray general healing, we have three cases that depict the healing of specific organs, namely, the hearing organ, the speaking organ, and the seeing organ. Before chapter eight, the soil was collected, and the disciples were healed in a general way. However, spiritually speaking, they still could not see, hear, or speak. Therefore, the Lord began to practice the healing of specific organs, the organs of sight, hearing, and speech.
In the Gospel of Mark we have two cases of particular healings of blindness. The first case is that of the healing of the blind man in Bethsaida (8:22-26). After the Lord spit in the blind man’s eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” (v. 23). The man replied, “I behold men; I see them as trees walking.” Then the Lord laid His hands upon his eyes, and the man “looked intently and was restored, and he saw all things clearly” (v. 25).
Immediately after the healing of the blind man in Bethsaida, the Lord Jesus went with His disciples into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do men say that I am?” (8:27). They answered, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, one of the prophets” (v. 28). Then the Lord questioned the disciples further: “But you, who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). This question indicates that the Lord was healing His disciples’ seeing organ.
The second case of the healing of blindness recorded in Mark is the case of blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52). It is significant that this case comes immediately after the Lord’s dealing with the request of James and John to sit at His right and left in His glory (10:35-45). The fact that they could make such a request proves that they were blind and in need of the Lord’s specific healing. The disciples needed the healing of their seeing, hearing, and speaking organs.
Beginning in chapter eight, the Lord Jesus began to help the disciples to see His Person, His all-inclusive death, and His marvelous resurrection. Three times He spoke to them concerning His death and resurrection (8:31; 9:30-32; 10:33-34).
On the Mount of Transfiguration the Lord Jesus gave a demonstration to Peter, James, and John concerning who He was. “He was transformed before them; and His garments became brilliant, exceedingly white, such as no fuller on earth could whiten them” (9:2-3). On the mountain “there appeared to them Elijah together with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus” (v. 4). Not knowing what to say, Peter took the lead to say to the Lord Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles — one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (v. 5). What Peter spoke was according to the Old Testament. He did not realize that the Old Testament things had been buried with the Lord Jesus in chapter one. From the human point of view, there was nothing wrong with Peter’s suggestion. Moses and Elijah were both great men. Moses represented the law, and Elijah represented the prophets. Nevertheless, from the point of view of God’s New Testament economy, Peter spoke in a nonsensical way.
Mark 9:7 says, “And a cloud came overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, This is My Son, the Beloved. Hear Him!” This word is our basis for saying that Christ is the entire, universal replacement. This One should replace Moses and Elijah; that is, He should replace the law and the prophets. He should replace the old things, which were terminated and buried in chapter one. Chapter nine of the Gospel of Mark indicates that Christ is the universal replacement.
The Lord Jesus gathered the disciples to be the soil in which He sowed the Triune God as a seed. The Lord healed the disciples’ organs of seeing, hearing, and speaking. Then He brought this soil with Him when He was examined, judged, and crucified. He brought it with Him through His all-inclusive death and into His wonderful resurrection.
We need to consider the Gospel of Mark from the point of view of the Epistles of Paul. According to Ephesians 1:4, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. This indicates that in eternity past God put us into Christ, for He chose us in Christ. The fact of His choosing us in Christ indicates that He had already put us into Christ. Hence, we were put into Christ before the foundation of the world.
According to our experience, we may say that we were put into Christ when we believed into Him and were baptized into Him. This understanding is correct, and it is according to the New Testament. We are told in the New Testament that we are baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27). This is a word concerning being in Christ in a practical way. Ephesians 1:4, however, is a word concerning God’s selection of us in eternity, a word that indicates that before the foundation of the world God had already put us into Christ.
We need to view Mark 1 in the light of Ephesians 1. In chapter one of Mark the Christ into whom we were put by God in eternity past came to be baptized by John the Baptist. Since we had been put into Him before the foundation of the world, Christ did not come alone. Rather, He came with us. Therefore, when He was baptized, we were baptized in Him.
Do you believe that you were put into Christ by God the Father before the foundation of the world and that you were in Christ when He was baptized? If you see this, you will praise the Lord and say, “Hallelujah, when the Lord Jesus was baptized in Mark 1, I was baptized too! I was in Him when He was baptized in the Jordan.” If we have the view presented in Paul’s Epistles, we shall realize that we were baptized in the Jordan with the Lord Jesus. We all need to see this.
Since we were put into Christ before the foundation of the world, we were also in Him when He was crucified. When He went to the cross, He went there with us. He died on the cross with us. This is the reason Paul could say, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). We need to have Paul’s view of Christ’s crucifixion.
Just as we were crucified with Christ, we were also buried and resurrected with Him. When He was buried in Mark 15, we were buried also. Likewise, when He was resurrected in Mark 16, we were resurrected with Him.
The Gospel of Mark is mainly a revelation of Christ’s Person. Although this Gospel does not say anything about His birth, it does emphasize His death and resurrection. Therefore, the emphasis in Mark’s Gospel is on the Person of Christ with His death and resurrection. We need the fourteen Epistles of Paul to give the adequate definition of Christ’s Person and of His death and resurrection.
By now we all should have a clear view of the Lord Jesus as the One who lived a life of sowing the Triune God into His disciples. As the soil collected by Him, the disciples were in a condition portrayed by the different cases in the Gospel of Mark. This means that they were sick with a fever, contaminated, and paralyzed. But they were all healed both in a general way and in a particular way. Their organs of seeing, hearing, and speaking, in particular, were healed.
After the Lord called the disciples, He brought them with Him wherever He went. As He was bringing the soil of the disciples with Him, He was sowing Himself into the soil.
The book of Acts is the direct continuation of the Gospel of Mark. In the first two chapters of Acts we see that Peter and the one hundred twenty had become the reproduction of the Lord Jesus. In Mark the disciples were disputing concerning who was greater. Also in Mark 14 Peter denied the Lord Jesus three times. But in Acts 1 no one cared about who was greater. Instead, they prayed continually in one accord for ten days. How could the disciples experience such a thing? They could experience this only by having the resurrected Christ in them as their life.
In the second chapter of Acts, the power from on high came upon the disciples. As a result, they became the increase, development, enlargement, and continuation of the Lord Jesus. He had brought them through His death and His resurrection, and He had wrought Himself into them. As a result, they were replaced by the Lord and saturated with Him. In this way they became His increase and continuation.
What kind of life did the one hundred twenty live in the book of Acts? They lived a life that was fully according to God’s New Testament economy. They did not live a life of culture or religion. Neither did they live a life of ethics, morality, philosophy, or improvement of character. Just as the Lord Jesus lived absolutely according to and for God’s New Testament economy, so the one hundred twenty in Acts lived the same way.
In Acts 21 and in the book of James, however, we see a contrast to the life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. In Acts 21 James was a distraction to the life that is fully according to the New Testament economy of God. In James we see a life that is only partially according to God’s New Testament economy. Mainly with James we see a life that is according to the Old Testament, a life according to religion and ethics.
It is not our burden in these messages to study the Scriptures in a doctrinal way. Our burden is to present what God desires today. God wants us to be saturated by Him and with Him so that we may live a life of the divine dispensing. Then we shall sow this life into others for the further dispensing of the Triune God. Concerning this, we all need a revolution in our concept and living so that we may be brought into a life that is according to God’s New Testament economy.
