Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 6 Study # 2
January 15, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
(039)
Thesis: The snares of "the pride of life" are many, and escape from them is necessary for a person to become "profitable for the ministry".
Introduction: In our study last week I argued that
1:16-20 is a part of Mark's extended introduction to his record of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The main conclusion that we have to draw from this text as "introduction" is that it actually "introduces". In other words, the four disciples are "introductions" to the entire issue of "repentant ones" "coming into their own": we are "saved" to become "disciples".
Last week I also argued that Mark's use of the sea of Galilee is a second case of what I call "geographical metaphor" wherein a major theological reality is set before us by the use of a geographical set of facts that serve as metaphorical illustrations of the truth. Just as John, in essence, "forced" his audience to confront the geographical metaphor of the chaos of the desert by refusing to enter into the cities with his call for repentance, Mark here presents Jesus as "forcing" all those who would be His disciples to confront the geographical metaphor of the deadliness of "The Sea" if they would become disciples indeed.
There are many issues here and I want to address a few of them in our study this evening.
- I. The Question of the Legitimacy of "Geographical Metaphors".
- A. When one simply picks up E. W. Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, he/she is confronted with a basic fact of understanding: all understanding has its beginning in the operations of the physical world.
- 1. It is an indisputable fact of life that the question of how we know is answered by the use of the operations of the realm with which we are most aware (physical) to illumine those realms that are beyond the physical.
- 2. Thus, most, if not all, of what we know beyond the physical is rooted in our experience of the physical.
- B. In respect to our "knowing", there are two realms that are interactive.
- 1. There is the realm of "the logic of the mind" wherein details are analyzed as they are within our focus of attention.
- 2. There is the realm of "the impressions upon the mind" wherein men are subjected to a "sense" of reality that is "impressed" rather than "discussed".
- C. Much of the time we are mostly aware of the focus of the logical mind, but are actually directed in our thinking by the "impressions" that are beyond our "awareness".
- 1. John did not have to say to the people, "Ponder the chaos of this wilderness in light of the call to build a level highway" because they were automatically doing that even when they were focused upon listening to his call for repentance: their "setting" forced the impressions.
- 2. Jesus did not have to say to the disciples, "Think about what you are doing by trying to get "Life" from such a deadly environment as "The Sea", because they were already doing that as they responded to His summons to "come after Me": they "left" all of the tools of their search for "Life from The Sea" behind as they walked away.
- II. The Question of Mark's "Introduction" of "Disciples".
- A. There has come to be, in our day, a great debate over what has to be in the minds of those to whom the Gospel is preached for that preaching to result in "salvation".
- 1. Does a "grace" Gospel mean that there are no "obligations" that come upon those who wish to have grace applied to them?
- 2. Does a "grace" Gospel mean that any inherent "obligations" that may exist must be "in focus" before God will forgive the sins of those who "repent"?
- B. At least a part of the answers involved in this debate is given within the context of the "summons" to repentance and the promise of forgiveness.
- 1. The "summons" exists only within the framework of the insistence that a level highway be built through the chaos of the desert.
- a. Without this "insistence", the "summons" means very little.
- b. The essence of this "insistence" is that men get on God's wavelength: without a willingness to be a "road-builder", there is no point to a promise of forgiveness because the desire for "forgiveness" is too much about "escape from consequences" and not enough about "escape from bondage".
- 2. Thus, even without a direct focus upon a real relationship rather than a simple judicial decree, there exists a "sense" of the fact that it is relationship that is in God's mind and not merely relinquishment of judicial consequences.
- a. It is possible for the mental focus to be upon judicial consequences alone as far as man is concerned.
- b. But it is impossible for God to relinquish judgment in respect to men without a "sense" of relationship beyond the mental focus in the heart of the man.
- C. Mark did not write his Gospel without a "discipleship" goal in mind because it is a part of his introduction to include the issue.
- III. The Question of the "Subliminal" Sense of "The Sea of The Galilee".
- A. As the "desert" with its chaos created a "sense" in the people of an "impossible" requirement by God (build a level highway and keep it clear of obstacles), so "The Sea" with its deadliness created a "sense" in the disciples that the attempt to get "Life" from it might just be a fool's errand.
- B. The actual text emphasizes The Sea of The Galilee.
- a. The Sea points to the deadly environment with its "promise" of "life" within its depths.
- b. The Galilee points to the issues of "Galilee" in respect to Jesus' origins in Nazareth of Galilee.
- c. Jesus' summons of "disciples" to "come away after Me" gives them an either/or decision.
- d. The disciples' abandonment of their "tools of the trade" indicates that they, at the very minimum, "sensed" that their days of getting their "life" from The Sea were over.
- C. The parallelism with the geographical metaphor of the chaotic desert indicates that there is a relationship between the "desert" and "The Sea".
- a. The "desert" had to do with dealing with the magnitude of the problem of unforgiven sin: this is the beginning of relationship.
- b. "The Sea" had to do with dealing with the critical decision about the question of "Just where does 'Life' come from?": this is the perennial question of continuing the relationship: [Note 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and 2 Corinthians 1:9].
- c. These two issues dove-tail around the "fishing" and the "mending" motifs in the paragraph.
