The Message Cannot be Silenced: An Exposition of Mark 1:14-20
The Gospel of Mark begins with the words: “The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark introduces this message as being grounded in the prophets and initiated by the preaching of John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judaea. John preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. His message was “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” (Matthew 3:2) He also proclaimed that someone far greater than himself was about to follow him in the scene. John’s baptism was with water, but His would be a baptism of the Holy Spirit, and with fire.
When John baptized Jesus in the Jordan, the Holy Sprit descended upon Jesus with the words of affirmation. Then the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Luke tells us that He returned from the temptation in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. Jesus’ ministry would be affirmed by works of healing as well as acts of power in driving out demons from people. We tend to concentrate upon these works. But Jesus was far more interested in the message than the signs. He was a teacher first. All the powerful works did was to affirm the authority of His message; it was proof that He had been sent by God. Without the understanding of the message, the works become distorted. Some of the people of Jesus’ day thought that Jesus did these works by the power of Satan. One could think of no greater blasphemy against God than to claim that Satan was more concerned about the welfare of people than God. The Gospel of Mark presents the authority of Jesus Christ over nature, people and devils. Jesus was empowered by the Spirit in all of His ministry.
This morning’s text begins with the notification that John the Baptist had been cast into prison. The other gospels indicate some overlap of the ministry of Jesus and that of John after Jesus returned from the temptation. We are not sure how long this period was, but it was probably short. Jesus had to increase and John decrease as the Baptist himself acknowledged. John would languish in prison for a while before he was executed. John was being silenced but not his message. Jesus Himself took on proclaiming the message of John the Baptist. The time had arrived, and people needed to repent and believe the Gospel. It is not that the message had originated with John the Baptist. It was God who gave John the message to proclaim. As God’s eternal Son, He along with the Father and Holy Spirit, was the author of the message. The message He preached was His own.
John had been silenced, but now the Greater One lifted up His voice. Those in Jerusalem and in Caesarea where Herod Phillip lived and where John was imprisoned had thought themselves rid of this message to repent and believe the Good News. How wrong they were! There are no recorded miracles done by John the Baptist. But Jesus performed many miracles. But His message was the same, but now it was even more powerfully proclaimed.
Not only this, but Jesus made disciples who would proclaim this exact same message. Here in the text of Mark, Jesus calls four fishermen to follow Him into the ministry. The Gospels record that all four of them had had some previous acquaintance with Jesus. Some of them had been disciples of John the Baptist and had heard John proclaim: “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” Two of them followed Jesus and spent some time with Jesus. Andrew and John invited others. Discipleship can be a messy process. We are not very inclined to obedience. Here Jesus comes to the shore of the lake and calls them again. This time they leave all and follow Him. But the time would come that Jesus would have to re-summon them to the work of the ministry after the resurrection, again at the shore of this same lake.
Mark leaves out a lot of detail in the account that Luke brings out. The miracle of the catch of the fish after they had toiled all night and caught nothing. Peter’s asking Jesus to depart as Peter confesses he was but a sinner are left out. It would seem that Jesus’ authority over nature by having the fish come into a net thrown over the wrong side of the boat would have fit in well with Mark’s theology. Why Mark just contains the basics is a mystery other than this is typically done by Mark. The Holy Spirit would have these other witnesses fill in the blanks. So we are not at a loss for this. This brevity puts extra emphasis upon Jesus’ words: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The gospel then says they forsook all and followed Him. They obeyed the call.
We see here that not only is the message of God not silenced by adversity, such as that which happened to John the Baptist. It grows in both power and number. Now there would be many more who would proclaim the message to the world to “Repent and believe the Good News.” John’s message reached out to Judaea and Jerusalem for the most part, although it did spread from there to other places as well. There were some even in Ephesus who had heard of the Baptism of John (Acts 19). Jesus would proclaim this message in Galilee in addition to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, Syrophonecia, and Caesarea Philippi. Jesus would continue making disciples to proclaim the good news. He had a group of twelve and a larger group of seventy.
The message of God is unstoppable. The rulers of Israel in cahoots with the roman government had Jesus arrested and crucified. Jesus was safely silenced. After all, dead men tell no tales. But how wrong they were! Jesus was raised by God on the third day. He showed Himself alive to the disciples and other chosen persons for forty days. He told them before He ascended that the Holy Spirit would come upon them as it had come upon Him. Soon there would be 120 preachers of the message on Pentecost. Soon, the disciples of Jesus would number in the thousands and eventually millions. The Sanhedrin tried to nip this in the bud. They had Perter and John arrested on several occasions. They were forbidden to preach or teach in the name of Jesus. They thought they could silence the message to repent and believe the Good News. They stoned Stephen. They commissioned Saul of Tarsus to hunt the believers down. But it was to no avail. Even Saul was converted by Jesus on the way to Damascus.
The church has faced many obstacles to the preaching of the Gospel. We are reminded of this when we sing the hymn “Faith of our Fathers.” But the message continues on in spite of fire, dungeon or sword. When the printing press presented the opportunity to present the Gospel, the enemy tried to stop it by burning the books and persecuting those who printed them. But it was all for naught. Someone thought they could stop Tyndale from distributing the English bible by buying up all the books. But that also failed. Tyndale used the profits to print even more bibles. Today, the Internet and social media present opportunities to share the Good News. The enemies of the Gospel are filled with rage and are trying to ban the message and messengers from these platforms. They should realize that this attempt to stifle the message will serve more to promote it.
What God wants is for His people to be bold in proclaiming the message in spite of the dangers. What God wants is people who will stick to the message and not try to alter it in order to remove the offense of the cross. The message from the beginning is to repent and believe the Good News. The word “repent” is not a suggestion but is an imperative in Greek. This message originates from the Sovereign God and King of the Universe and not from any human source. Commands from the King are meant to be obeyed. Disobeying the King has severe repercussions. If people fear the edicts of earthly leaders, how much more those which come from God! God has not suggested that the church preach this message of repentance either. Rather, God commands us to witness. The command to make disciples is an imperative and meant to be obeyed. The church has to follow the example of Jesus’ first disciples. We have to leave all else behind and follow Him. The world is in darkness. The world is in severe trouble. But more severe than the earthly problems the world now faces, of its own making, is the danger of being unprepared to meet God. People need to know what the real problem is. People have turned their backs on God and His word. They need to repent. This is their only hope. Scientists do not have the answer. Politicians are not the answer either. The only hope is Jesus. Be bold to tell them.
