MARK LESSON 3

     We will begin this lesson in Mark 1:19 "And when he had gone a
little farther thence, he saw James the [son] of Zebedee, and John his
brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets."

     This is not a discrepancy from the account we studied in lesson
number two. This is just the difference in several people telling the
same story. We see, here, that all the important details are the same
as in the other accounts. Now, in addition to Peter and Andrew, the
Lord had discovered James and John. All were fishermen whom the Lord
would make fishers of men. We see that James and John were the sons of
Zebedee, the sons of thunder.

     Mark 1:20 "And straightway he called them: and they left their
father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after
him."

     Fishing was an honorable way of making a living. These were men
who knew how to work hard to get the job done. They, without
hesitation, answered the call Jesus had placed on their lives. We see,
here, that James and John had given up family, job, their home,
and security to follow Jesus. In Mark chapter 10 verses 29 and 30, we
see what happens to those who give up things of this world to follow
Jesus, Mark 10:29 "And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and
the gospel's," Mark 10:30 "But he shall receive an hundredfold now in
this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come
eternal life."

     Mark 1:21 "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the
sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught."

     Peter's home was on the outskirts of Capernaum on the banks of
the Sea of Galilee. This "they" included Peter, Andrew, James, John,
and Jesus. The "he" was Jesus. Jesus taught in the synagogue. Remember that 
"sabbath" is Saturday.

     Mark 1:22 "And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he
taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes."

     The scribes had limited (head) knowledge of the Scriptures. Jesus
is the Word. His message is a message of first-hand knowledge. Jesus
did not need to bring a faltering message. The scribes were uncertain
and their message was a message of interpretation, not of actual fact.
This strong, straightforward, non-wavering message of Jesus astonished
them, because Jesus is positive that His message is true. He is the
Truth. St. John chapter 1 verse 1 tells us that Jesus is, in fact, the
Word. His authority is unquestionable for He is God the Word. John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God."

     Mark 1:23 "And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit; and he cried out,"  Mark 1:24 "Saying, Let [us] alone; what
have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to
destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God."

     We see that this man was possessed of demons. This is a very good
Scripture, here, to prove just who demons really are. My own personal
belief about demons is that they are the 1/3 of the angels who
followed Lucifer when he was thrown out of heaven. Angels are
ministering spirits. The angels who remained on God's team, minister
good. The fallen angels who followed Lucifer are evil, and they
minister evil. As Lucifer's name was changed to Satan, these
angels became demons. In the Scripture above, these demons recognized
Jesus. If my opinion of who they are is true, they would have known
Jesus (the Word) in heaven. It would be natural for them to not only
know who He was, but also for them to fear what He might do to
them. The fallen angels know that their fate is eternity in hell.
They know that Jesus is the Judge who will determine where they go. So
you see, this is not ungrounded fear. In V-23 when the man cried out,
it was actually these evil spirits that cried out. The demons knew
Jesus as the Holy One of God. We have discussed before how Jesus'
name, that He used at a specific time, was descriptive of the work that
He was doing at the time. Such as Jesus-Saviour, Christ-Anointed One.
This "Holy One of God" is His relationship to the Father in heaven.

     Mark 1:25 "And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and
come out of him."

     We will see that Jesus was speaking to this evil spirit in the man
and not to the man. Jesus is the Lord over all. Jesus is even the Lord
over this evil spirit, and this evil spirit had to obey the voice of
Jesus. When Jesus told this evil spirit, to hush it hushed.  When
Jesus told the evil spirit to come out of him, it had to obey Jesus as
we see, in the next verse.

     Mark 1:26 "And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried
with a loud voice, he came out of him."

     This unclean spirit did not want to give up this body. This
unclean spirit tore him and cried with a loud voice, because the spirit
was vacating a place he thought he had secured. The devil will not
give up without a struggle, but is subject to Jesus. Our Bible says
resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We are no match for the
devil ourselves, but the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus are more
powerful than the devil. Just as in the verse above when the unclean
spirit obeyed the command of Jesus, we can, also, fight unclean spirits
with the name of Jesus and the power of His blood.

     Mark 1:27 "And they were all amazed, insomuch that they
questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new
doctrine [is] this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean
spirits, and they do obey him."

     You must remember that in the synagogue there was much formality
and tradition. Really these scribes had been trained to go through a
certain ritual, and they knew technically what was required of them;
but they had no power within themselves. You might say that I
am being judgemental, but we have just seen that these evil spirits
had no fear of the scribes. They just came right into the synagogue
with the man. The amazing thing to them was the power and authority of
Jesus' message.

     Mark 1:28 "And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all
the region round about Galilee."

     You can imagine how this would spread. These people coming to the
synagogue had never seen anything like this before.

     Mark 1:29 "And forthwith, when they were come out of the
synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James
and John."

     Remember, earlier in this lesson that we mentioned that Peter's
home was on the edge of town there at Capernaum by the sea of Galilee.
Perhaps, they came back to rest for the night; we are not told in the
Scriptures.

     Mark 1:30 "But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and
anon they tell him of her."

     We see in this Scripture above that Simon, better known as Peter,
was married. We, also, can see from this that his wife's mother was in the
house with them. Someone told Jesus of the woman's fever.

     Mark 1:31 "And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her
up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them."

     We see, here, that just one touch from Jesus' hand, and Peter's
mother-in-law was made whole. This was not a partial healing, but a
total recovery. In fact, she was so much better instantly that she
forgot her illness and began to minister to them. This is very similar
to the woman who just touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed
Just one touch of His hand can do mighty miracles. This type of
healing instantly would be so dramatic that no one could deny it. The
word would spread fast.

     Mark 1:32 "And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto
him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils."

     We see, here, that the fame of Jesushad spread rapidly.  By that
evening a large group of sick and those possessed with devils had gathered
to be healed. These that were brought were almost assuredly the ones
whom the physicians had given up on. When you are sick and there seems
no cure, it is time to locate someone with great healing power, and
that is just what these people did. Perhaps, one reason they came late
in the evening was so that they might not be seen by their neighbors.

     Mark 1:33 "And all the city was gathered together at the door."
Mark 1:34 "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."

     It seems that these miracles that Jesus had done had spread like
wildfire. The whole town knew about it and now were gathered at the
front door of Peter's house. Jesus came outside and healed all
sorts of diseases and cast out many devils. As we said earlier,
these demons were subject to Jesus' commands. We see, here, again,
evidence that these demons were the fallen angels, because they were
told by Jesus to keep quiet because they knew Him.

     Mark 1:35 "And in the morning, rising up a great while before
day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there
prayed."

     This should be a very good message to us. In the quiet of the
very early morning, Jesus went to pray; not with others, but alone.
We read, "Be still and know that I am God", Psalms 46:10. The most
precious times with God is in the privacy of just you and God.
Praying is fellowshiping with Him. Even Jesus prayed. We should see
even more necessity to pray ourselves.

     Mark 1:36 "And Simon and they that were with him followed after
him."  Mark 1:37 "And when they had found him, they said unto him, All
[men] seek for thee."

     We see by this that Jesus already had an overwhelming following.
This following was not because of His message, however, but so that
they might receive something of Him.

     Mark 1:38 "And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns,
that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth."

     We know that Jesus did heal and deliver people, but this was not
His purpose in coming to the earth. Back in Capernuam there was a
group wanting Him to minister to their bodily needs, but Jesus'
purpose in coming was to save their souls. Many times there are
physical blessings from Jesus, but His most important role is to
renew our spirit in Him. To save our souls from death is Jesus'
purpose.

     Mark 1:39 "And he preached in their synagogues throughout all
Galilee, and cast out devils."

     You can see from V-39 that Jesus' first purpose was to preach
salvation. Casting out devils and healing was actually like an
afterthought. It may be part of the package, but was not the sole
purpose of His ministry.

     Mark 1:40 "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and
kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean."

     "Leprosy" was a dreaded disease.  These people were not even
allowed to be near the rest of the community.  This man was taking his
life in his own hands to get to Jesus. The thing that would help him
with Jesus was his great faith and humility.  He did not doubt that
Jesus could heal him. He said to Jesus, "If you will, you can heal
me". Sometimes sin is spoken of as spiritual leprosy. Jesus is the
healer of physical or spiritual leprosy.

     Mark 1:41 "And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth [his]
hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean."

     The love that Jesus has for each of us is so far beyond what we
can even comprehend that it is easy to understand the love He showed to
this man of such great faith. Just one touch of the Master's hand, and
he was clean of leprosy - the most dreaded, incurable disease of that
day.

     Mark 1:42 "And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy
departed from him, and he was cleansed."

     This was not a gradual healing, but a sudden complete healing.

     Mark 1:43 "And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him
away;" Mark 1:44 "And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man:
but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy
cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto
them."

     Jesus sent the cleansed man away. Jesus told the man not to tell
anyone of his healing, but the gratitude of the man (being brought
back as it were from the dead) was too great. He told everyone he
saw. Jesus had told him to show himself to the priest. The priest had
to examine him and declare him clean before he could move freely among
his people. The man was to give an offering suitable in the temple as
the law of Moses had specified. This ceremony took place without the
camp, and the offering was two living birds (clean), cedar wood,
scarlet wool, hyssop, two he lambs, one ewe lamb, three tenth deals of
flour mingled with oil, and one log of oil. To read more about this,
look in the lessons in the book on Leviticus.

     Mark 1:45 "But he went out, and began to publish [it] much, and
to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly
enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came
to him from every quarter."

     We can easily see why Jesus did not want the man to spread the
news of his cleansing of leprosy. Jesus, now, could have no privacy at
all and especially in the city. Anyone who had an illness of any kind
came to Him. He was overwhelmed by the masses of people surrounding
Him, and He fled into the desert. Even in the desert they came to Him
from every direction. We know that Jesus healed so many, that if all
the healings were written down there would not have been enough books
in all the world to contain them.
                           Mark 3 Questions

1.  Who was the father of James?
2.  Who was the brother of James?
3.  What occupation did James have?
4.  When the brothers left the ship and followed Jesus, who did they
    leave to help their father Zebedee?
5.  What had Peter, Andrew, James, and John given up to follow
    Jesus?
6.  What is promised to those who give up homes and families to follow
    Jesus?
7.  What town did they go to, when they left the sea of Galilee?
8.  What did Jesus do there?
9.  What day of the week is sabbath?
10. What type of knowledge did the scribes have?
11. How did they feel about Jesus' doctrine?
12. What type of message did Jesus bring?
13. In St. John chapter 1 verse 1, we see Jesus is in fact the _____.
14. Why did the man in the synagogue cry out?
15. Who was actually crying out?
16. What did they say?
17. Who did the demons call Jesus?
18. How did they know Him?
19. What does the author think demons are?
20. What was Lucifer's name changed to?
21. What does Jesus mean?
22. What does Christ mean?
23. What did Jesus say to the demon in the man?
24. What did the unclean spirit do to the man?
25. How can Christians successfully fight unclean spirits?
26. What effect did Jesus delivering the man have on the people?
27. What had the scribes been trained to do?
28. What amazed them about Jesus' message?
29. Where did Jesus go when He left the synagogue?
30. Who was sick with a fever?
31. How did Jesus handle the fever?
32. What effect did Jesus' touch have on the woman?
33. Why did Jesus tell the devils not to speak?
34. Where did Jesus pray?
35. When Simon found Jesus, what did he tell Him?
36. Jesus told Peter He came for what?
37. What did the leper say to Jesus?
38. How did Jesus answer him?
39. What did Jesus tell the leper to do after He cleansed him?
40. What book of the Bible tells a great deal about the various
    sacrifices?
41. Where did Jesus go to try to get away from the masses of people?

                                 Notes