Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 4 Study # 1
November 30, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)

⁽²⁶³⁾

Thesis:   Mark's return to the discipleship by Jesus of The Twelve is focused upon the beginning of their identity as "apostles".

Introduction:   In the larger picture of Mark's record, he put forth the plan of Jesus to disciple men who would be His "apostles" in respect to ministry to the world. This "larger picture" consists of all of the record of 6:6b-8:26 with these observations:

Introduction: to the first commission of The Twelve to their ultimate ministry.
6:14-29	Leaven of Herod	7:1-23	leaven of Pharisees
6:30-44	Feeding of 5,000	7:24-30	power story (exorcism)
6:45-52	"astonished"	7:31-37	"astonished"
6:53-56	power story (healings)	8:1-9	Feeding of 4,000
8:10-26	Jesus' presentation of His solution to the blindness of The Twelve

In our previous studies we have seen that Jesus' commissioning of The Twelve resulted in an explosion of His reputation so that the issue became "Who is He?" This is the same issue that is raised in 8:27-30, the paragraph that immediately follows on the heels of this entire sub-section of Mark's presentation of Jesus.

This evening we are going to begin to look into Jesus' presentation of Himself to His "apostles" as the key issue of all of their subsequent ministry.

• I. The Major Theses Of Our Text.
  • A. The beginning of the identity of The Twelve as "Apostles".
    • 1. This beginning has its roots in 3:14-15.
      • a. The Twelve were to "be with Him".
      • b. They were also to "be sent out to preach" (where the verb is apostello, the root of the word "apostle" (apostolos).
    • 2. This is the only place in Mark's Gospel that he used the word apostolos.
      • a. His use conformed to the issues in the actual time of the events of his record.
      • b. His use also conformed to the issues of the later time of his writing of his record.
      • c. The major "point" of these "conformities" is that the main issue is that they had the "authority" required of "apostles" if they were to represent Him accurately.
  • B. The issues of The Twelve as "Apostles".
    • 1. What they were to "do" as His "apostles": activities of "authority".
      • a. In 6:13 Mark wrote that "they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them".
      • b. In 6:14 the resultant issue was the question of the exercise of "miraculous powers".
    • 2. What they were to "teach": doctrines taught with "authority".
      • a. In 6:12 Mark wrote that they "preached that [men] should repent".
      • b. This was, according to the entire content of this sub-section, a "limited" exercise of "apostleship".
        • 1) The issue of "apostleship" is "authority" rooted in accuracy.
          • a) This became a critical issue later when this "authority" reached even to the point of "jot and tittle" accuracy of the written words of apostles.
          • b) When this greater issue came into play, those designated "apostles" had to have a level of both understanding and faith to proclaim accurately.
        • 2) According to this sub-section, they could not "preach" much beyond "repentance" because they were too confused about His identity as "Christ".
  • C. The power to "do".
    • 1. The record includes exorcisms (6:7 & 13).
    • 2. The record includes healings of many (6:13).
    • 3. According to Matthew's record in 10:7-8 they were "commissioned" to preach "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand" and to "heal the sick, raise the dead, [and] cleanse the lepers" but they are not recorded by Mark or Matthew as having "raised the dead".
      • a. This implies the same issue of a "limitation" in the initial stages of their "apostleship".
      • b. The reason is the same issue of no faith to reach that far in their "doing".
  • C. The power to "teach".
    • 1. Even the "teaching" of "The Kingdom is at hand" (introduced by Mark at the very beginning) had to be general, without a lot of specifics, because they were yet ignorant of too many of the issues of "timing".
    • 2. Their focus was, at this time, upon "repentance" (6:12) because that was the only "developed doctrine" they understood well enough to "preach".

(return to the top of the article)


This is article #264.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.