The Message Cannot Be Stopped: An Exposition Of Mark 1:14-20

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.