Mark 1: 1-25
1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send (apostello) my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Behold, I send: The sending is apostolic in nature. Any apostolic mission is centered on the insignificance of the sent one so that all attention may be given to the one who sends, in this case the Person of Christ. The apostle is taught by the Lord to live by God’s wisdom and prudence, as seen below in Eph 1:8.
Eph1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
The benchmark of the apostle is humility, and death on the cross of Christ. The Lord teaches the apostle to absorb his life strictly to carry out the unorthodox ways of God and to patiently await the Spirit’s release of God’s timetable for the execution of each of those ways.
The apostle has no agenda or program, but that of the wisdom and prudence of God. He becomes a simple ambassador of the one who sent him. Herein, however, lies the power and authority of the apostle in that all times he reveals Christ to the world around.
Notice in Eph 1:7 the “riches of God’s grace”, which is the riches that God has for us, abounds in proportion to how meticulously the believer operates in accordance to this wisdom and prudence. God’s riches are only brought forth by His grace. The grace of God, as we shall study below, is Christ laboring within the believer.
Eph 1: 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
The success of God’s current apostolic movement will fall and rise upon how carefully we work in God’s wisdom and prudence. Our many church agendas and programs, founded on our wisdom and prudence, must give way for THE ONE agenda named the Holy Spirit.
The apostolic/ prophetic covering reveals the Person of Christ, into which the local body grows up into in all things.
The apostolic movement must also be founded on the fact that ministry is not to be placed in the hands of a few but in the hands of the body. The fullness of the Person of Christ Jesus can only be revealed by the fullness of the ministries of the body.
Leaders in the current apostolic movement are delegated by the Lord to supervise and guide, never to control. Their job is to discern what the Lord wants to do through the many members of the local body, and maintain the integrity of the anointing of the Spirit as He commences and completes His work by revealing the Person of Christ through the different ministries.
One way in which the apostolic covering maintains the integrity of the revealed Person of Christ is to instruct the body to use their ministries strictly in accordance to the rhema word of God, which is the voice of the Spirit operating within each of them. When a local body is operating in accordance to the Spirit’s wishes, we see different ministries all latching on and ministering upon the same one rhema word.
Rhema words, unless they are prophetical in nature, are short and to the point. The apostolic covering must discern either when people minister in the flesh, or have gone beyond the rhema word that the Lord gave to them. In both cases, the anointing of the Spirit will be found to wane, and confusion and hindrance comes into the meeting.
The apostolic covering through much prayer, and gentle instruction and teaching must bring the operation of the local body back to bear strictly upon what the Spirit speaks.
When the church reveals the Christ through the ministries of many, instead of embracing the teaching of things through the ministry of a few, we find that Christ ministers to all those that are in need of a word, to those that are in need of deliverance, and to those that are in need of healing. Everyone leaves spiritually full because their needs have been met and the body finds itself edified in the love of Christ.
Any local body operating in this fashion will bring forth revival that will impact and fill their local community with the glory of God.
Mark 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send (apostello) my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Which shall prepare: Literally who will lay down all the needed gear, utensils and equipment at another’s disposal.” In this case, we furnish the Lord with a crucified life that will allow Him to work in His wisdom and prudence through us.
Thy way is in the Greek accusative case. The accusative case points out an object or goal. The goal God’s servant is to embrace and execute God’s very unorthodox methods within the limits of His prolonged time schedules. My friend this is the key to becoming a revivalist!
4John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Greek: the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The Greek reads like this. A baptism that changes our way of thinking, so that ours sins can be released and sent far enough away from our presence, so that their effect cannot no longer hurt us.
Repentance is defined in the Greek as a change of mind. A change of mind is the product of a changed heart. Our hearts are changed not by our doing, but by the presence of the Lord Jesus working in us by His grace.
True remission or forgiveness of sins, is the sending away or the releasing of sins because the bondage has been broken in our lives through repentance. Since our sins are now far away from us, their effect can no longer be felt in our minds.
As I shared with you earlier on, grace is defined as Christ laboring in us in accordance to His revelation. In other words, the more that Christ is revealed, the more that He works in us and for us. His work always executes the wisdom and prudence of God and empowers us so that we can become successful in carrying them out.
The law, on the other hand is our laboring to carry out God’s wisdom and prudence without the revealed Christ laboring within us, but in accordance with our strength, because we have bought into the gospel of things, miracles, and blessings.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Col 1:29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
Greek (paraphrase) I athletically agonize to always respond to God’s rhema word that has God’s power and energy, and if which I obey, will give me the victory as I ride upon its crest.
Phillip 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Work out Carry out all things that pertain to my salvation to utter completion, resulting in success and liberty. To work out is in the middle Greek tense signifying that the responsibility to complete our salvation is ours in cooperation with God.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Greek: For it is God who is constantly empowering you both to cause your heart to be conformed to His will, and then to effectively display His activity through you in power and glory, as you obey the rhema word within your conformed heart.
Herein lie the keys to the successful Christian walk.
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the (Rhema words) that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
We now see in John 14:10 that the rhema words of the Spirit are the translation of the Father’s works within us. The translated rhema words contain the power of God to make the works of the Father come to pass.
Philippians tells us that the Father is constantly empowering us and showing us His works as He speaks one rhema word after another in our hearts.
We work out or complete our salvation, step by step, as we obey the rhema word. The Lord never requires us to obey Him without a rhema word that will empower us with the discernment to know His will, and then provides us with God’s power so that His activity can be effectively displayed through us as we obey the discerned word.
Let us go to another example of how we are to walk with the Lord.
Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received( Received within ourselves a portion of the revealed Christ) Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye (then conduct your lives) in him:
Colossians two and six can be explained in this way. Let’s say that we are battling with a specific sin. We try to set ourselves free, but to no avail. One day Christ reveals Himself by His rhema word and gives us the answer that we need to overcome the sin. The works of the Father needed for us to get our victory are found within a certain set of instructions, which the Spirit gives to us in a number of rhema words. We have now also received the portion of the revealed Christ in that area of our lives through the rhema word so that He can now labor the Father’s works for us, and by His grace lead us into victory. The rhema word not only reveals the works of the Father in power but reveals the Person of Christ as who will labor those works for us. Look at John 17:8.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the RHEMA WORDS which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
We can now victoriously walk out of that sin since we now operate in God’s wisdom and prudence. The rhema word has given to us the power of God found in the works of the Father and the revealed Christ to carry them out for us. All we need to do is to be faithful to obey every rhema word. If we have not received the portion of the revealed Christ for the specified sin, and try to overcome it by ourselves we fall into the law whose job is simply to expose our sinfulness. If we do it by the part of the Lord’s revelation within us, we operate by the grace or labor of Christ to which sin has no dominion over.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Mark 1:4John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Going back to Mark 1:3, we are reminded that the word for remission of sins is defined as the release and the sending away of our sins through repentance which breaks the bondage of sin, so that their destructive effect cannot only be felt and hurt us. Yes, the Lord has forgiven us of our sins, but we will never experience its tangible experience until we repent. If we ask God to forgive us, but do not have a true change of heart procured by intimacy and obedience to the Lord, bondage and sin still cling to us. We lie to ourselves and will never experience true forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
I am not worthy: Greek: To be qualified, fit, or have the ability. Herein is the humility of John, as he recognizes the greatness of Jesus. John says that he failed the test, did not qualify, and was found unfit, even for the job of stooping down to unloose the latchet of Jesus shoes. This must be our humility before the greatness of the Lord.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
· But he shall baptize Biblical baptism is much more than a simple act of immersion. It is defined as one item being immersed or submerged into a second item, creating a permanent change in the first item so that it assumes the substance of the second. When we immerse a vegetable into a vinegar solution for a prolonged period it becomes pickled. The vegetable has been baptized into the vinegar solution.
The work of Jesus, as the one that baptizes in the Holy Spirit, is to immerse us into His progressive revelation, through the Spirit, so that we become like Him in all ways.
With the Holy Ghost. (Greekcase of location.) Herein we find the glory and the beauty of the work of the Lord Jesus. As we are located in, live within the earth, and are affected constantly by it, so Jesus submerges us into the world named the Holy Spirit until our whole lives are changed and affected by the Spirit of God. Can we fathom all that this means for us?
11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Greek: My son; the beloved one. This tells us that God’s seal of approval is not on us, but on Jesus living in us. He is the beloved of God.
12 and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
Driveth himThe same word used for the casting out or expelling of demons. The Holy Spirit cast Jesus out into the uninhabited places. This is always a function of the Holy Spirit to cast us out into the uninhabited places where we are conformed to having nothing else than Jesus left within our lives.
14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Preaching: Greek: Biblical preaching must be accomplished with enough of God’s truth, power, and anointing in it, to cause our listeners to heed and repent.
15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
The time is fulfilled: Greek: The completion of a particular season of God’s time, bringing forth His divinely ordained decisions, and making this season of completed time, incredibly vital and epochal to the world.
The perfect indicative tense in verse fifteen tells us that at the physical manifestation of Jesus first coming, this epochal season of God’s time was fulfilled, affecting the world then, now, and eternally.
The kingdom of God is at hand:The perfect indicative tense once again. God’s completed epochal season is the kingdom of God permanently given to us and now eternally at our disposal.
Repent ye, and believe the gospel Because of the greatness of spiritual things that we now have permanently at hand, let us have a constant change of heart that will cause us to live by faith, so that we can work in this kingdom.
16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
He saw Simon The same word in the Greek for instinctively knowing something or someone. When Jesus sees, he instinctively knows what is in our hearts and what He can call us to do for Him.
17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Come ye Greek: Come here, come now, come!
After me: Behind me, to follow me and my example.
18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
Straightway Immediately: This is the obedience that Jesus requires from us. If Jesus must tell us the same thing twice, this is disobedience.
They forsook; the same word used for the forgiveness of sins. The forsaking of their nets is their sending far away, so that in this case their profession no longer affects their following of Jesus.
19 And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
They left: Greek:The same word used for the forgiveness or the sending away of sins.
Went after: A decisive leaving of something, implying a crucial choice that was taken seriously after deliberation. In this case the decision was to follow Jesus.
23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
Unclean spirit. Greek: “a complete absence of purity.” This describes for us a bit about the nature of the demonic.
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.
Greek: There is absolutely nothing in common between you and us, Jesus (the) Nazarene, have you come to destroy us?….
This is a highly crucial verse in that it teaches us about our true authority before Satan and his demons. The authority that the demonic discern in the Lord, and causes them to tremble is that because of the Lord’s absolute purity, and sinlessness, there is nothing in common between them and the Lord Jesus.
Herein lies our key to overcome the demonic within our lives, and then to be used by the Lord to deal with it in other people’s lives.
Purity is attained as we are baptized into the full revelation of the Son of God and become like Him. The purity of Jesus baptizes us into His freedom, and His freedom allows for the full operation of God’s dunamis power that resides within Jesus to deal with the enemy. We see the same relationship between Jesus and the devil also spoken in John 14:30
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
Hath nothing (Greek absolute negative) “The devil has absolutely nothing in me or nothing in common with me.”
Herein lies the true meaning of Biblical binding. To bind is not to allow or permit something to occur. Genuine binding of the demonic only occurs within a pure life, which has no defilement with what is common with Satan and his cohorts. At every point of our lives in which purity reigns and the devil shares nothing in common to us, he has been bound. Now mind you, we will never experience absolute purity and sinlessness on this side off heaven.
Please let us be assure that if we live in habitual disobedience and chronic bondage our vocalized confessions of binding the enemy is scorned and mocked by him who will continue to afflict and latch on to us wherever he finds sin.
Matthew 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Greek: ( paraphrase) At whatever point you have once and for all prohibited or disallowed something from happening upon the earth it shall be at the same point eternally prohibited and disallowed in the heavens. At whatever point you once and for all permit or allow for something to happen upon the earth, it shall be at that same point eternally permitted and allowed in the heavens.
The next set of scriptures that should continue to help us more.
Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Greek (paraphrase) No one will have the dunamis power to come into the strong one’s house to change the situation, thoroughly plunder his goods until they are laid waste, and then occupy. (Like the USA is doing in Afghanistan.) He must bind the strong one first and then he will be able to thoroughly plunder.
After twenty-two years of serving the Lord Jesus, He is finally dealing with the strong man in my life. I am of the belief that every believer has a strong man that afflicts him or her. The strong man is the demon that is last to be bound from our lives. He is the one that we can discern constantly standing before us face to oppose and withstand us every second of our lives in a variety of deceptive measures.
The Lord has allowed the strong man to afflict me until I have bound every major area of sin in my life through obedience to Him, which has led to liberty in those areas. After completing this process, the Lord is now dealing with the strongman in my life. Let us now look at the next set of scriptures.
Luke 11:21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
Greek: When the strong one fully furnished with weaponry guards his palace, his goods, wealth, and property lie in peace.
22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
Greek: But when a stronger one than the strong man comes upon him with a hostile intent, attacks him, and conquers him, he takes from the strong man the armor which he trusted in and thoroughly distributes out (to others) the strong one’s weapons and goods.
Jesus is obviously the stronger one. My friends, the strong man must be defeated in two ways. His binding by us is the point where there is not one significant area of unrepentant sin left in our lives.
Secondly, it is only the revelation of the Lord Jesus laboring in us by His grace, and attacking the strongman as the stronger one, that is effective
With the strong man is finally bound and conquered we find ourselves running, leaping forward, and plundering for the Lord!
Mark 1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
Rebuked him – Greek “To heap something upon someone’s honor.”
All created things have an honor that makes them up. An honor that belongs to someone, or something, is the glory that makes it into what it is. Even sickness and sin has a glory, though perverse, that identifies it as a particular sickness or sin, and gives to it its substance and power.
When we rebuke a sickness with faith in the name of the Lord Jesus, we destroy the very substance and power of the sickness.
Hold thy peace – From the word to muzzle something. Effectively the Lord Jesus commands the demon to be reduced to silence and his activity to be placed in check.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 