Mark 1:1 I. The Gospel has had three beginnings, yet it is right to speak of each as the beginning. (1) The beginning as seen in the Divine counsels, when the Gospel was but a thought. (2) The beginning as seen in the Incarnation, when the Gospel became a person. (3) The beginning as seen in its be... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1 The Cure of Simon's Wife's Mother. Pain, sickness, delirium, madness, as great infringements of the laws of nature as the miracles themselves, are such veritable presences to the human experience that what bears no relation to their existence cannot be the God of the human race. And the man... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:4 Law before Liberty. As far as Holy Scripture and historical certainty teach us we see man always the same being in body, and brain, and feeling, but in experience a child; even as we also, with all our boastings, shall be children to the more experienced generations to come. This it is wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:9 I. John's dispensation was thus shown to be of Divine appointment. Notice the beauty of John's work in relation both to the past and to the future. It was a baptism unto repentance a baptism, and so connected with the ceremonial past; a baptism unto _repentance,_and so introductory to a ne... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:14 Two things appear on the surface in the Psalmists' interpretation of the idea of the kingdom of God. I. One is its moral purpose. The kingdom of God is indeed exhibited in the Psalms in all its magnificence; in all its breadth; over nature and man; over the stars of the sky, and the cattl... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:14 Repentance and Faith. I. Consider the insufficiency of repentance by itself to procure the forgiveness of sin. Turn to analogy; turn to experience; turn to reason, and you may equally prove the fallacy of the opinion, which would establish a necessary connection between repentance and fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:16 I. Vers. 16-20. (1) Christ is the Preparer of His servants. "I will make you" how much was involved in that promise. (_a_) Authority; (_b_) Qualification. (2) Small beginnings compatible with sublime results. (3) The claims of God override all other claims the sons left their father. (4)... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:17 Christ's Election of Disciples. Christ chose as His messengers the unlearned and poor, and the outcast of the theologians, and the uninterested in politics, and the men and women of whom society knew nothing; the fisherman and the publican, the Pharisee who left the priestly ranks, the r... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:23 I. It was the Sabbath day in the early spring when our Lord performed this, the first miracle recorded by St. Mark. All nature seemed hushed in a profound and holy calm. The little town of Capernaum, exalted unto heaven, built on bold, rising ground, lay at rest; its white marble synagogue... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:35 The Prayers of Jesus. Note: I. The mystery of the prayers of Jesus. If Jesus is, as we believe, God, how could God pray to God? How were there any needs in His nature on behalf of which He could pray? A partial answer is found in the truth that all prayers do not spring from a sense of... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:35 I. Ver. 35. There is something very touchingly illustrative of our Saviour's humanity in this verse. He could have prayed upon His couch; yet as He worked after the sun had set, so He departed to pray before the sun had risen. If the Master required to pray, can the servants live without... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 1:40 I. In this chapter we have seen some who were brought to the Saviour, and in the 40th verse we find a man who came to Jesus. Note the blessedness of those who have others to conduct them to Jesus Christ; also note the opportunity which each man has of making his case known to Jesus Christ... [ Continue Reading ]