A Certain Young Man – Part 5 – Mark & Paul

Posted on February 23, 2024 by The Editor

Acts 15:36-40

And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): We lose sight of Mark for six or seven years, which for all we know, may have been so much lost time; after that he becomes the passive cause of an exceedingly unfortunate dispute.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Paul had lost confidence in Mark because of his leaving the work and returning to Jerusalem upon the completion of the evangelistic tour in Cyprus. Barnabas, kindly in spirit and evidently moved by natural affection, wanted to give the unfaithful helper a second chance, but Paul was obdurate. He felt he could not afford to jeopardize the success of their work by again taking with them one who had proved himself a weakling.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Paul did not believe in these impulsive people who could not hold on under difficulties. But Barnabas, knowing Mark better—and feeling a kinsman’s lenity to his faults, insisted that they should take Mark.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Barnabas was in the wrong, for he went upon a carnal ground, because Mark was his sister’s son.

J. S. HOWSON (1816-1885): Barnabas would not be without strong arguments to defend the justice of his claims. Mark had come to a willing obedience, had left his home in Jerusalem, and he was ready now to face all the difficulties and dangers. To repel him in the moment of his repentance was surely “to break a bruised reed,” and to “quench the smoking flax.”

THE EDITOR: Paul’s rejection might have crippled him spiritually for years. During those so-called “lost” years, I think Mark grew spiritually more mature under the influence of Peter and Barnabas. Barnabas likely didn’t know about Mark’s secret flight from Gethsemane, but Mark did; combined with his failure on that mission trip, his conscience had probably humbled him considerably. And how it must have dismayed Mark to be the subject of this dispute!

C. H. SPURGEON: Barnabas was right in his mild judgment of Mark, for he was a sound believer at bottom and, notwithstanding this fault, he was a real, true-hearted disciple. Barnabas was right, but I think that Paul was not wrong.

THE EDITOR: Paul was zealously thinking of the spiritual good of the Gentile churches they had planted on their first missionary journey. What if Mark faltered again? What a terrible testimony and bad example that would be for those young churches.

H. A. IRONSIDE: I take it Paul considered the work of the Lord so serious he could not think of linking up again with a man who had shown so little sense of the importance of service for the Lord.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The cause of their disagreement could hardly have been small since it separated these two, who had been joined together for years in a holy partnership.

THE EDITOR: “Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and faith,” Acts 11:24. Given the Spirit’s testimony to his character, Barnabas, the “son of consolation,” was concerned with Mark’s spiritual good; he would do the same for any believer in a similar situation. It is presumptive to say that Barnabas was guilty of nepotism, as so many assume. And if Paul implied something to that effect, Barnabas likely bristled at it, feeling unjustly accused. Maybe it also aggravated a suppressed resentment: Barnabas was also an apostle, and older than Paul, Acts 14:12-14: in Lystra, they called Barnabas, “Jupiter,” and Paul, “Mercury;” in the Greek pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, and Mercury was his son. And the Holy Spirit had said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” Acts 13:2.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Afterward the order changes, and we read of “Paul and Barnabas.”

J. S. HOWSON: The indirect censure Barnabas had received earlier from Paul in Antioch, Galatians 2:11, may have been perpetually irritated by the consciousness that his position was becoming daily more and more subordinate to Paul. Once Barnabas was spoken of as chief of those “prophets at Antioch,” among whom Saul was the last, Acts 13:1; now his name was scarcely heard, except when he was mentioned as the companion of Paul.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Has Paul forgotten all that he once owed to Barnabas? Barnabas alone of all the disciples in Jerusalem held out his hand to him. Barnabas alone believed Saul’s wonderful story of his conversion. “They were all afraid of Saul, and believed not that he was a disciple, But Barnabas took Saul, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way to Damascus, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus Christ,” Acts 9:26,27. Barnabas stood up for Saul; he trusted and befriended him when everyone else suspected him. Barnabas staked his good name and all his influence with the apostles, on the genuineness of Saul’s conversion, and on the sincerity and integrity of his discipleship.

THE EDITOR: Paul could have treated Barnabas more considerately. And subsequent events later proved his hasty judgment of Mark’s character to be wrong. But Paul’s characteristic zeal wouldn’t let it go.

J. S. HOWSON: It is not difficult to understand the obstinacy with which each of the disputants, when feelings were once excited, clung to his opinion.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): There was a sharp contention—Literally, a paroxysm, or fit of a fever.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They were certainly both at fault to let the contention be sharp; it is to be feared they gave one another some hard words…We may further observe that the church at Antioch seem to countenance Paul in what he did. Barnabas sailed with his nephew to Cyprus, and no notice was taken of him, nor a recommendation given him—but when Paul departed, he was “recommended by the brethren to the grace of God.” They thought he was in the right.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Who was right and who was wrong in this sharp contention I have no heart to ask. Both were wrong—and multitudes in the churches who heard of the scandal, and took contending sides in it, were wrong also. And this sad story is told us to this day, not that we may take sides in it, but that the like of it may never again happen amongst ourselves.

H. A. IRONSIDE: “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,” Proverbs 18:19. The beginning of strife is as a drop of water, which, after a break in the dike, grows into a torrent of water that is practically impossible to stem. However, as the years went on, a kindly, considerate feeling prevailed; in his old age Paul spoke affectionately of Barnabas, 1 Corinthians 9:6, and Mark: “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry,” 2 Timothy 4:11. I am sure most of us are thankful that Barnabas gave Mark another chance. Many a young Christian has failed in the beginning, but gone on later to become a valuable worker in the vineyard of the Lord Jesus Christ.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Learn to think for yourselves. Avoid premature judgments and hasty decisions.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): We shall profit greatly, when we have learned to refrain hasty judgment.

 

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A Certain Young Man – Part 4 – Peter & Mark

Posted on February 16, 2024 by The Editor

Mark 14:47-50

One of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled. And they all forsook him and fled.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The event here mentioned by Mark is recorded by all four Gospel writers, but John alone gives the name of Peter as the striker, and of Malchus as the person struck. The reason commonly assigned for this is probably correct. John’s Gospel was written long after the other three, when Peter and Malchus were both dead, and their names could, therefore, be safely mentioned. Peter’s impetuous temperament comes out in the action before us. Impulsive, earnest, zealous, and inconsiderate of consequences, he acted hastily, and his zeal soon cooled down and was changed into fear.

JOHANNES BRENZ (1499-1570): One hour he draws his sword against a whole multitude of armed men. Another hour he is frightened out of his Christian profession, and driven into lying by one woman.

 J. C. RYLE: We cannot doubt that Peter meant to kill Malchus with this blow, which was probably aimed at his head. His own agitation, and the special interposition of God, alone prevented him taking away the life of another, and endangering his own life and that of his fellow-disciples. What might have happened if Malchus had been killed, no one can tell. It was clearly an impulsive act, done without reflection. Zeal not according to knowledge often drives a man into foolish actions, and makes work for repentance.

WOLFGANG MUSCULUS (1497-1563): How entirely Peter seems to have forgotten all his Master’s frequent predictions that he would be delivered to the Gentiles and be condemned to death, and acts as if he could prevent what was coming.

 THE EDITOR: It reminds me of an early incident, when Peter tried to turn Christ from dying on the cross, and he “began to rebuke” Jesus for speaking about it; then Jesus, in turn, rebuked him, Mark 8:31-33.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Peter’s rash “rebuke,” like most of his appearances in the Gospel, is strangely compounded of warm-hearted, impulsive love and presumptuous self-confidence.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I think that Mark must have found a very congenial friend in Peter.

THE EDITOR: Mark and Peter were a lot alike in that hasty, impetuous temperament, weren’t they? I think that was one of the strongest bonds between them. As an older man, when Peter looked at Mark, surely he must have seen a lot of himself in that young man. That same impetuous character was seen in Mark on the night they arrested Jesus; and again years later, in A.D. 45, when Mark left Barnabas and Saul in Perga, and returned to Jerusalem, Acts 13:13. Luke records that little incident without explanation, but his brief mention of it suggests it was both abrupt and unexpected.

C. H. SPURGEON: As long as they were on the island of Cyprus, Mark stuck to them. No, while they traveled along the coast of Asia Minor, they had Mark to be their minister—but the moment they went up into the inland countries, among the robbers and the mountain streams—as soon as ever the road began to be a little too rough, Mark left them! His missionary zeal had oozed out.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It does not appear that Mark was under any obligation to accompany them any longer or farther than he pleased. He seems to have been little else than their servant, and certainly was not divinely appointed to this work as they were; consequently, he might leave them innocently, though not kindly, if they could not readily supply his place.

THE EDITOR: Whatever the particular reason was for Mark’s sudden departure, it certainly wasn’t to his credit; that’s clear from Paul’s later disapproval of it, Acts 15:38.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Home influences, as well as religious privileges, would, no doubt, attract the heart of Mark, and induce him to abandon the arduous path of missionary labour. We read of “the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying,” Acts 12:12. Need we wonder that Mark vastly preferred a prayer meeting in his mother’s house at Jerusalem, to the hardships of a mission in Pamphylia or Pisidia? There was a vast difference between a comfortable home, regular habits, a mother’s love and care—the peaceful charms of well-ordered domestic life, and all the roughness, severity, and hardship of a precarious missionary tour. Furthermore, there was a striking contrast, indeed, between an assembly of loving and united Christian friends gathered for prayer in the city of Jerusalem, and a synagogue of bigoted Jews at Antioch, or a fickle mob at Lystra of Lycaonia.

ADAM CLARKE: Probably he went to visit his pious mother Mary at Jerusalem, and to see Peter, to whom he is supposed to have been much attached.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It is also well worthy of notice, that the Holy Ghost should have selected Mark as His instrument to write that Gospel.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is a very old Christian tradition that Mark’s Gospel is in some sense the Apostle Peter’s.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): According to some very early writers Mark accompanied Peter in later years and wrote his Gospel in collaboration with the venerable apostle, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): At least, that view was generally accepted in the primitive church on the authority of such men as John the Presbyter, Irenaeus and others, who regarded the Gospel by Mark as having been dictated and accredited by Peter the apostle.

JEROME (340-420): Peter recommended it by his authority to the church.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Why should we have recourse to the authority of Peter for the support of this gospel?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): One thing is certain; the Holy Ghost gave the record.

THE EDITOR: In A.D. 60, when Peter wrote his first epistle in A.D. 60 from Babylon, we know Mark was with him, 1 Peter 5:13. But apparently, Mark wrote his gospel nearly ten years later, after Peter had died.

C. H. SPURGEON: Notice that Mark gives the most explicit account of Peter’s fall.

THE EDITOR: You mean Peter’s denial of Christ?

C. H. SPURGEON: He enters very fully into it, Mark 14:54-72. I believe he received it from Peter viva voce, and that Peter bade him write it down. And I think the modest spirit of Mark seemed to say, “Friend Peter, while the Holy Spirit moves me to tell of your fault and let it stand on record, He also constrains me to write my own as a sort of preface to it, for I, too, in my mad, hare-brained folly—away I fled, timid, fainthearted and afraid I should be too roughly handled.”

THE EDITOR: That would make Mark’s mention of Peter following “afar off,” even more significant; as it is recorded directly after Mark’s own escape from the Garden, but just before the account of Peter’s denial. Maybe Peter did know about Mark’s flight—if so, he had kept Mark’s secret, and Mark knew it. Perhaps that was another strong bond between them. Also, during the six years between Mark’s return to Jerusalem, and the dispute between Barnabas and Paul, apparently some spiritual growth took place in Mark. Peter, as well as Barnabas, were likely responsible for that spiritual growth.

Next week, let’s take a close look at that dispute between Barnabas and Paul about Mark.

 

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A Certain Young Man – Part 3 – More Minute Details

Posted on February 8, 2024 by The Editor

Mark 14:51,52

And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some have thought he was a young man of the house where Christ and His disciples ate their Passover; who had followed Him to the garden, and still followed Him, to see what would be the issue of things: but it seems most likely, he was one that lived in an house near the garden; who, being awaked out of sleep with the noise of a band of soldiers, and others with them, leaped out of bed, and ran out in his shirt, and followed after them, to know what was the matter: “having a linen cloth cast about his naked body;” which was either his shirt in which he lay, or one of the sheets, which he took and wrapped himself in, not staying to put on his clothes.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It was done in haste, and without due consideration.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): This was quite in keeping with Mark’s general character. We gather his character partly from the Book which he has written—the Gospel of Mark is the most impulsive of all the Gospels. The word eutheos, translated, “straightway,” “forthwith,” “immediately,” is used a very great number of times by this evangelist.

THE EDITOR: He uses the word “straightway,” nineteen times, and “immediately,” seventeen times.

C. H. SPURGEON: Mark is a man who does everything straightway—he is full of impulse, dash, fire, flash—the thing must be done, and done at once.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is probable the young man had some attachment to Christ, and hearing the tumult by night, not stopping to put on his clothes, and covered only with a linen garment, came to discover their traps, or at least that he might not be wanting in a duty of friendship.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): He must be understood to have been a disciple of Jesus, or he needed not to have been afraid.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): Mark started from a good home.

THE EDITOR: Mark’s mother was a believer; likely his father was also, before he died, given what Jesus had told Peter and John to say to the “goodman,” when they requested the upper room. But was Mark was converted at this time? More likely, his conversion occurred later, through Peter’s ministry. So, what do we have? An impulsive young man from a good Christian home, aroused from his bed, and naked but for a nightshirt,  following after Jesus to Gethsemane. But why?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): The Bible does not tell us.

THE EDITOR: Not specifically. But maybe it does, if we reason from what details the Bible does provide. “With desire,” Jesus wanted to observe the Passover with His beloved disciples, undisturbed, Luke 22:15; therefore He concealed the location, so Judas had no chance to organize prior arrangements to betray Him. But after observing the Passover, Satan entered into Judas, and Jesus said, “That thou doest, do quickly,” John 13:27. Why did Christ say that?

J. C. RYLE: The full meaning and purport of this solemn saying is not easy to define—we can only conjecture about it.

THE EDITOR: Judas “went immediately out, and it was night,” John 13:30. Since he had no pre-arranged plans, the chief priests and Pharisees could not know that Judas was coming; it being night, they were in their own homes. Jesus knew what they had to do. Quickly, they must gather themselves together, decide to act, and dispatch a band of men to return with Judas to arrest Him. Think about what happened. Jesus knew there was time to institute the Lord’s Supper; and time for a long profound conversation with His disciples, John chapters 14-16. Then He prayed, John 17. They sang a hymn; then, before Judas could return, they left for Gethsemane; and Jesus warned His disciples that they would desert Him, Mark 14:26-31.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “He went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples,” John 18:1. In crossing the brook Cedron, accompanied by His disciples, an Old Testament type was most strikingly fulfilled. In 2 Samuel 15:1-37 we read of David, at the time of his shameful betrayal by his friend Ahithophel, crossing the same brook in tears, accompanied by his faithful followers. So David’s Son and Lord, crossed the Cedron while Judas was betraying Him…Christ’s object was to afford His enemies more free scope to take Him—where they might have full opportunity to apprehend Him, and carry Him away in the night, quietly and secretly. In addition, His arrest in the Garden made it easier for His disciples to escape.

THE EDITOR: It was but a fifteen minute walk to Gethsemane. Yet Jesus still had time for three agonizing sessions of private prayer, returning occasionally to reprove His disciples, who couldn’t stay awake; it was now very late. Meanwhile, Judas returns to Mark’s house. Mark and his parents are in bed, but a loud hammering on the door awakens them to see Judas with a mob carrying swords and torches. Mark stands nervously behind his parents, wearing only his white linen nightshirt. “Where’s Jesus?” is the impatient demand. “He’s not here,” says the goodman, “They’ve all gone; I don’t know where.” “I know,” Judas tells his men, “they’ve gone to Gethsemane.” “Judas knew the place, for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples,” John 18:3. The men rush off; and now, impulsively, Mark decides to run to Gethsemane and warn Jesus.

C. H. SPURGEON: Once more, the known life of Mark tends to make it very probable that he would do such a thing. Mark does not wait to robe himself, but, just as he is, he dashes out.

THE EDITOR: There’s no time to waste. He slips out his bedroom window, or a back door, unknown to his parents—they’d only try to stop him. What mother would let her teenager run out half-dressed like that?

But Mark is too late; in Gethsemane, Judas and his band of men have already confronted Jesus and His disciples. Fearfully, he hangs back, out of their torchlight, watching. And what does he see? All of Christ’s disciples forsaking Jesus and fleeing—men he probably admired and respected. Now Mark gets another sudden impulse of youthful bravado: ‘they all ran—but I’ll follow and see what happens; then I’ll tell the disciples. And I will be a hero.’

However, he follows too close. When the moonlight, or torchlight, flashes on his white linen nightshirt, Mark is spotted—not by soldiers, nor any principle Jews like Malchus, the high priest’s servant, but by the “young men,”—‘the wanna-be’ up and comers at the tail end of the mob, and they lay hold of him. Though Mark’s courage fails, characteristically he still reacts quickly, slipping out of his nightshirt and escaping out of their hands. Later, those young ‘wanna-be’s don’t want to broadcast their dismal embarrassing failure to anyone. Nor, after running home naked, and sneaking back into his bedroom, does an ashamed Mark want it known, especially not by his parents.

No other chain of events adequately explains how Mark could be in the Garden that night, dressed as he was; and why nobody else knew about it—except maybe Peter, who was following “afar off.” And that raises some other considerations for next week.

 

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A Certain Young Man – Part 2 – Was it Mark?

Posted on February 2, 2024 by The Editor

Mark 14:51

And there followed him a certain young man.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Mark is the only evangelist who relates this circumstance: and he has given us no clue to further knowledge as to who it was, or why the event is mentioned.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): One wonders why it is introduced, but a moment’s reflection will, I think, suggest a plausible reason.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Only he tells the incident, which has no bearing on the course of events, and was of no importance but to the person concerned.

C. H. SPURGEON: It strikes me that this “certain young man” was none other than Mark himself—I grant it is merely a supposition, yet it is supported by the strongest chain of probabilities. The only person likely to know it, was the man himself. I cannot think anyone else would have been likely to tell it to Mark—for he might scarcely have thought it worthy of recording if it had been told him by someone else! And it is not likely that anyone to whom it had occurred would have felt it was much to his credit, and been likely to relate it to Mark with a view to its being recorded!

THE EDITOR: It’s possible one other person knew about it.

C. H. SPURGEON: Who was that?

THE EDITOR: Peter. He also followed the mob as they led Jesus away, though “afar off,” Mark 14:53,54. That very minute detail explains why this young man was spotted; he was closer to the mob, while Peter was afar off, and not seen in the darkness. But how could Mark come to be in Gethsemane that night?

J. C. RYLE: Theophylact and Buthymius think it probable that it was some young man who followed our Lord from the house where He ate the Passover with His disciples.

THE EDITOR: That’s very possible. Jesus observed the Passover in a “large upper room,” Mark 14:15. Mark’s mother owned a house in Jerusalem with a large room; eleven years later, after an angel freed Peter from Herod’s prison, Peter went to her house “where many gathered together praying,” Acts 12:12.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  Mary was a sister of Barnabas, and mother of Mark, whose house, it should seem, was frequently made use of for the private meeting of the disciples.

THE EDITOR: Quite likely, this was the same “upper room” to which the apostles returned from Mount Olivet after Christ’s ascension, and where they “abode” and held prayer meetings; what more appropriate place to gather together than where they had observed the Lord’s Supper? It was also likely the “one place” where they gathered on Pentecost, when the Spirit descended—compare Acts 1:12-15 & Acts 2:1. Why else would the Holy Spirit include those very minute details? He doesn’t inspire words to be recorded on a whim, to no purpose. “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times,” Psalm 12:6.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): No detail in Scripture is meaningless.

THE EDITOR: But that’s not all. Notice the method our Lord used to direct Peter and John to where they prepared the Passover, Luke 22:8. “And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. And in the evening he cometh with the twelve,” Mark 14:13-15.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The remarkable thing here is the picture it gives of Christ elaborately adopting precautions to conceal the place. What is the reason? To baffle the traitor Judas by preventing him from acquiring previous knowledge of the place. He was watching for some quiet hour in Jerusalem to take Jesus, Mark 14:10,11. So Christ does not eat the Passover at the house of any well-known disciple who had a house in Jerusalem, but goes to some man unknown to the Apostolic circle, and takes steps to prevent the place being known beforehand.

THE EDITOR: Exactly. The Greek word translated as “goodman” means “the head of a family.” I believe this particular “goodman” was the husband of Mark’s mother. This Passover was in A.D. 33; however, Peter’s imprisonment, with its reference to “Mark’s mother’s house,” was in A.D. 44, which suggests that Mark’s father had died by then. Other references tend to confirm that. Mark’s uncle’s name was actually Joses; but because of his habit of consoling others, he “was surnamed Barnabas, which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,” Acts 4:36. Barnabas certainly had a strong fatherly care for his nephew; after Mark’s father died, Barnabas likely took young Mark under his protective wing; thus his advocacy for Mark in his later dispute with Paul, Acts 15:36-40. And later, in A.D. 60, Peter refers to Mark as “Marcus, my son,” 1 Peter 5:13; Peter also had a deep fatherly affection for him.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): He is called Peter’s son, Peter having been likely the means of his conversion. This is very probable, as Peter seems to have been intimate at his mother’s house.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Peter was either an instrument of converting him, or of instructing him, or Mark was one that was as dear to him as a son; in like manner as Paul calls Timothy, and also Titus, his own son.

THE EDITOR: This brings us to Mark’s age at the time of Christ’s arrest.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): How can we know that?

THE EDITOR: We can’t, not precisely. But in 45 A.D., when Barnabas and Paul took Mark along on their first missionary journey, as “their minister,”—or their servant, he was training for the ministry, Acts 13:4; just as a young Elisha had served Elijah, in training for his own later ministry, 1 Kings 19:19-21; 2 Kings 2:1-15. Scripturally, Levites didn’t begin their public ministry until age thirty, Numbers 4:3, as did Christ Himself, Luke 3:23. If Mark was thirty in A.D. 45, or being still only a servant, perhaps yet in his twenties, then when Jesus was arrested in A.D. 33, Mark was eighteen, maybe even younger, and likely living with his parents. Tradition puts Mark born in A.D. 12, but I prefer the sufficiency of Scriptural reasoning.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Nothing is more profitable to dissolve doubts and objections raised from Scripture, than to compare one Scripture with another. For Scripture is not opposite to Scripture. There is a fair agreement and harmony between the truths therein compared—one place doth not cross another, but clear and explain another.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Probably, this young man was Mark.

C. H. SPURGEON: There is no other hypothesis in favour of any other man that is supported by equal probabilities. Very well, then. We will assume that he was the man and use the incident as the groundwork of our discourse.

THE EDITOR: Next week, let’s see what we might learn from that probability.

 

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A Certain Young Man – Part 1 – Asking Questions

Posted on January 25, 2024 by The Editor

Mark 14:48-52

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.

And they all forsook him, and fled.

And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The question has often been asked, “Who was the ‘certain young man,’ mentioned at the end of this passage, on whom the young men laid hold, and who fled away naked?”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some think this was John, the beloved disciple, and the youngest of the disciples.

J. C. RYLE: This is the view of Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Gregory.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): How some persons have come to dream that this was John I know not, nor is it of much importance to inquire.

JOHN GILL: Others think that it was James, the brother of our Lord.

J. C. RYLE: This is the view of Epiphanius and Jerome. But it could be neither John or James, nor any other of the twelve, because it is said immediately before that, “they all fled,” upon the taking of our Saviour, whereas this young man followed our Saviour at this time.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): It does not appear that he was one of Christ’s disciples. The young men laid hold on him, who was only suspected to be Christ’s disciple: but could not touch them who really were so.

J. C. RYLE: Some think that it was the Evangelist Mark himself.

JOHN CALVIN: The chief point is to ascertain for what purpose Mark related this event.

THE EDITOR: Yes. And surely the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to record this event, because all “these things were written for our learning,” Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:11. But it seems obvious to me that the starting point to learn anything of profit from this incident, necessarily must begin with whether or not this “certain young man” was Mark. Assuming that this young man wasn’t Mark, then the question is, “Alright then, what do we learn from this incident?

J. C. RYLE: Some have thought that it is related to show the real peril in which the disciples were, and to make it plain that they saved their lives only by their flight. Some have thought that the whole transaction exhibits the utter desertion of our Lord. Some have thought that Mark’s purpose in relating the event, is to show the cruelty, rage, and ferocity of those who took our Lord. They were ready to lay hands on any one who was any where near Him, and to make prisoners indiscriminately of all who even appeared to be connected with him.

JOHN CALVIN: I think that his object was, to inform us that those wicked men—as usually happens in riotous assemblies, stormed and raved without shame or modesty; which appeared from their seizing a young man who was unknown to them, and not suspected of any crime, so that he had difficulty in escaping out of their hands naked.

MATTHEW POOLE: Why Mark should record such a passage, unless it was to tell us what we must expect from the rage of persecutors?—that our own innocence should not defend us.

THE EDITOR: That’s it? We are to learn from this incident simply that persecutors rage, and they are so unreasonably indiscriminate in their fury, that they are dangerous even to innocent people? Wouldn’t all that be crystal clear from the other events of this chapter without recording this incident? No, there must be some other deeper reason for its inclusion.

JOHN GILL: Mark’s design in relating this incident is to show the rage and fury of these men, who were for sparing none that appeared to be or were thought to be the followers of Christ; so that the preservation of the disciples was entirely owing to the wonderful power of Christ.

THE EDITOR: But that lesson is completely plain without this event: when the mob arrived, Jesus asked “Whom seek ye?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. When Jesus answered, “I am,” immediately they went backward and fell to the ground. Then Christ asked them again, and receiving the same reply, He said, “I have told you that I am; if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.” And the Bible clearly tells us that this was said and done, “that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none,” John 18:4-9.

J. C. RYLE: Our Lord’s interference to secure the safety of His disciples at this crisis was a fulfillment in fact of His expression in prayer, “none of them is lost,” John 17:12.

THE EDITOR: And there are other pertinent questions about this incident that still need to be answered. If this wasn’t Mark, then how did this unknown young man come to be in the Garden of Gethsemane so late at night? And why was he naked but for a linen cloth around him?

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He might be one well affected to Christ, who, hearing the noise, came to see the news, and hardly escaped with the skin of his teeth.

J. C. RYLE: It is more likely that it was some good young man, who dwelt near the garden of Gethsemane, who hearing the noise and stir that was made about the taking and binding of our Saviour, did arise suddenly out of his bed to see what was the matter, and perceiving that they had cruelly taken and bound our Saviour, and were leading Him away, did follow after Him to see what would be done with Him, whereby it appears that he was a well-wisher to our Saviour.

MATTHEW POOLE: Who, being in his bed, and hearing the noise of the multitude going by his lodging with swords and staves, he got up, slipped on his night garment, and followed them, to see what the matter was; and they having apprehended Christ, he followed them.

THE EDITOR: So what is our edifying lesson to be from all that? If you hear men hurrying past your house late at night, and see they are carrying swords, staves, and torches—don’t throw a linen sheet over your naked body, and rush out into a dark garden to follow after them?

J. C. RYLE: No satisfactory answer to these questions has yet been given. The utmost that can be said of any of the explanations attempted, is, that they are conjectures and speculations.

HEINRICH BULLINGER (1504-1575): It does not interest us much to know who this young man was, and it would not bring any very great fruit to us, if we did know. If it had been useful and wholesome for us to know, the Spirit of God would not have been silent, seeing that He is often marvellously diligent in relating very minute things.

THE EDITOR: I disagree. It is not irrelevant. It’s true that the Holy Spirit is very diligent in recording details, and He always records them for a purpose. Perhaps He has inspired Mark to record this incident in this particular manner to cause us to search the Scriptures diligently to find out the answers. Next week, let’s do that searching and see what “very minute things” the Spirit of God has recorded for us. And then, if we can reasonably conclude that this young man was Mark, let’s follow that wherever it leads, and see what we can learn from it.

 

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The Duty, Comfort, & Privilege of Prayer

Posted on January 19, 2024 by The Editor

Psalm 109:4; Psalm 142:1; Psalm 84:8

I give myself unto prayer.

I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): David was a man of prayer. We here read of his giving himself unto prayer; that is, he made it the leading business of his life. Now in this he is an example worthy of our imitation, for prayer is the very life of religion, without which it cannot exist, much less prosper, therefore we should be found much in the exercise of it. For this purpose we may take three views of it. First, View it as a duty. Though God knows all things, and sees the end from the beginning, and works all things after the counsel of His own will, yet He hath said, “For these things I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them,” Ezekiel 36:37; thus they are commanded to “seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually,” 1 Chronicles 16:11.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): This is a proof of the bent of David’s mind, in the composition of this beautiful and devout psalm in 1 Chronicles 16:11. If the Reader will critically examine it, he will discover that it is a compilation from several other Psalms.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “I will call upon God,” Psalm 55:16. In translating this verse I have retained the future tense of the verb, as the Psalmist does not refer to something already done, but rather excites himself to the duty of prayer, and to the exercise of hope and confidence…In the verse which follows, David engages more particularly to show perseverance in prayer. “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” He does not content himself with saying that he will pray, for many do this in a perfunctory manner, and soon become wearied with the exercise; but he resolves to display both assiduity and vehemency. From the particular mention he makes of evening, morning, and noon, we are left to infer that these must have been the stated hours of prayer amongst the godly at that period…As we are naturally indisposed for the duty of prayer, there is a danger that we may become remiss, and gradually omit it altogether, unless we restrict ourselves to a certain rule.

WILLIAM JAY: Secondly, prayer is a due acknowledgment of His nature, and our dependence upon Him, as our Benefactor, Preserver, and Governor, and “the God of our salvation, to whom belong the issues of life.”

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): If we did take up God in this notion, to look upon Him as a Father, it would increase our confidence and dependence upon Him. This is a sweet relation: the reality is more in God than can be in an earthly father; for He is a Father according to His essence, knowing our necessities, pardoning our sins, supplying our wants, forming and fashioning our manners, providing able guardians for us, and laying up a blessed inheritance for us in heaven. As it encourages us to pray, so it furthers our duty in prayer, that we may behave ourselves with reverence, love, and gratitude, with a child-like reverence and affection in prayer. If we expect the supplies of children, we must perform the duty of children. God will be owned as a father, not with a fellow-like familiarity, but humbly, and with an awe of His majesty.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,” Matthew 6:6. Here is set forth the holy and unspeakable privilege of prayer. Here we are invited to open our minds and hearts freely unto Him who cares for us, acquainting Him with our needs and cares, making known our requests with thanksgiving.

WILLIAM JAY: How relieving is it to pour our complaints into the bosom of a friend, who does not suffer us to cry in vain, “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me,” Job 19:21. But how much more relieving and delightful is it to make God our Friend, and, like David, to pour out our hearts before him! And this is what David himself enjoins: “Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he will sustain thee,” Psalm 55:22. He would not have us struggle and turmoil with it ourselves, but we are commanded to roll our burden on the Lord, for we can roll what we cannot heave. This is done by prayer, and each petition we offer takes off some of the load, and lays it upon Him. The apostle Paul also says, “Be careful for nothing,” Philippians 4:6. But how is this to be accomplished? This is the way: “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you,” 1 Peter 5:7.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): His ear is always open to us: let who will overlook and disappoint us, He will not.

WILLIAM JAY: “It is good for me,” says David, “to draw near to God,” Psalm 73:28. What a relief does the very exercise of prayer afford! How it eases the aching heart, and binds up the broken spirit! Oh, there are times and seasons in which every refuge seems to fail us, and God is our only resource; when we look inward, and perceive nothing but decaying affections and withered hopes.

THOMAS MANTON: When we look to things below, we have many discouragements, dangers without and difficulties within: till we get above the mists of the lower world, we can see nothing of clearness and comfort; but when we can get God and our hearts together, then we can see we have a God in heaven.

A. W. PINK: Consider the privilege of prayer.

WILLIAM JAY: Thirdly, We may view it as an honour. We should deem it an honour if we had free and full access to an earthly sovereign—and is it nothing that we can have access at all times to the “blessed and only Potentate, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords”? Prayer places us nearly upon a level with the glorified spirits above, with this difference—they approach the Throne of glory, and we the Throne of grace.

JOHN NEWTON: How little does the world know of that intercourse which is carried on between heaven and earth; what petitions are daily presented, and what answers are received at a Throne of Grace! O the blessed privilege of prayer! O the wonderful love, care, attention, and power of our great Shepherd! His eye is always upon us; when our spirits are almost overwhelmed within us, He knoweth our path. When means and hope fail, when every thing looks dark upon us, still our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. To Him all things are possible; and before the exertion of His power, when He is pleased to arise and work, all hindrances give way and vanish, like a mist before the sun. And He can so manifest Himself to the soul, and cause His goodness to pass before it, that the hour of affliction shall be the golden hour of the greatest consolation. He is the fountain of life, strength, grace and comfort, and of His fulness all His children receive—but this is all hidden from the world.

 

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Seeking God’s Guidance Concerning His Providences

Posted on January 12, 2024 by The Editor

Proverbs 3:5-8

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): The particular providence of God attends the Christian in all his concerns. He goes on board a vessel, launching on the ocean of life; he gives God the command of the helm.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Like passengers standing upon the bow of a ship in mid-ocean, to us the sea appears a trackless void. But when we stand upon the stern and look back, we view an equally vast ocean already traversed, and close upon us we see a short white wake that curves away in a half-moon arc—the undeniable evidence that our ship has made a turn in the sea, and we know, without doubt, that the Captain is piloting the ship according to His chart, and in His wisdom, at the proper time, merely adjusting His course to current and wind.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): The providences of God are sometimes dark, and our eyes dim, and we can hardly tell what to make of them.

WILLIAM JAY: Thus we are enjoined to “commit all our ways unto the Lord,” and “to trust also in Him,” Psalm 37:5; and we are at the same time assured that “he will bring it to pass,” for when we “commit our works unto the Lord, the thoughts of our hearts are established,” Proverbs 16:3. Thus, also, we are enjoined to “be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to let our request be made known unto God,” Philippians 4:6. It is when we obey the apostle’s injunction that we feel the “peace of God, that passeth all understanding, keeping our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:7. “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him,” Psalm 18:30; but we may be left to charge Him foolishly, and in so doing we only display our ignorance.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Settle it in your mind once for all, that “the high and lofty One” makes no mistakes.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): He knows what He is doing. He sees the end from the beginning.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): This, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: that God foreknows nothing by contingency—but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will.

WILLIAM JAY: In the world, in the nation, in the church, in the family, and with regard to the concerns of every individual, He is not only doing all things, but doing all things well. Do we believe this? There is a vast difference between the reality, and our believing and acknowledging it. And what is it that keeps us from acknowledging that in all things and in all dispensations, His providence is doing all things well? First, because we judge too selfishly. We judge too carnally. What is not good for our pleasure may be good for our profit; our temporal losses maybe our spiritual gains; we may be “chastened with the righteous, that we may not be condemned with the wicked,” 1 Corinthians 11:32. Here is cause for praise and gratitude. But, oh, how we yield to flesh and blood! When everything is easy and prosperous, there is no obscurity then. No; but let a change take place, let affliction fall upon us; then, with a sad heart and sorrowful countenance, we immediately exclaim, “His way is in the sea, and his path in deep waters,” Psalm 77:19; as if it were so wonderfully mysterious that He should suffer us to be afflicted; as if God were less wise and righteous and good in the dark than in the light, in a stormy day than in a calm one.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Let us not be in too great a hurry to make sure that we have the key of the cabinet where God keeps His purposes, but content ourselves with “perhaps” when we are interpreting the often questionable ways of His providences, each of which has many meanings and many ends.

R. L. DABNEY (1820-1898): A little wisdom and experience will teach us to be very modest, in interpreting God’s purposes by His providences.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): We shall have profited greatly when we have learned to refrain hasty judgment.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I believe in Divine Providence, but I do not always believe in what people speak of as Providence. When you want to do a thing, you can always find a Providence which seems to be in favour of it. It is remarkable how many ministers leave salaries of £200 a year in places where they might still have been comfortable and useful, to go where they would get £250 a year—they have said it was Providence—but it is equally remarkable how very few of them ever move from £250 to £200.

WILLIAM JAY: Where, then, is our safety, but in seeking the direction of the Lord? Let us therefore, in reference to any important removal in prospect, seek divine guidance, and turn not to the right hand nor to the left but as we see the pillar of His providence directing us—never moving without a conviction of its being right; otherwise we cannot expect peace and satisfaction.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I sometimes think the whole art of the Christian life is the art of asking questions. Our danger is just to allow things to happen to us and to endure them without saying anything apart from a groan, a grumble or a complaint. The thing to do is to discover, if we can, why these things are taking place—to try to discover the explanation.

C. H. SPURGEON: To enquire of the lord, and to seek guidance at His hands, is the duty of all Christians. Our own character should teach us the duty of enquiring of the Lord. If you know yourself rightly, you know that you are very far from being wise.

WILLIAM JAY: To place ourselves under the guidance of the Almighty implies the renunciation of pride and vanity, the sacrifice of self-will, self-conceit, and self-sufficiency. It implies a willingness to have our inclinations crossed, and our fond earthly hopes destroyed. And we may feel assured of this—that man is a stranger to the thing itself, whoever he is, who views it as an easy attainment. No; such a character is not formed without strong supplications to Him who is able to keep us from falling, much striving against besetting sins, much observation upon the misery and mistakes of others—and much experience of evils to which we have found ourselves exposed when, instead of trusting in the Lord with all our heart, we have leaned to our own understanding.

A. W. PINK: Distrusting his own wisdom, we find David “enquiring of the Lord” again and again, I Samuel 23:2; 23:4; 30:8; 2 Samuel 2:1; 5:19. This is another sure mark of genuine humility: that spirit which is afraid to trust in our own knowledge, experience and powers, and seeks counsel and direction from above.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Thou shall guide me with thy counsel,” Psalm 73:24. Any sincere follower of God may use these words.

THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): There are many that pray David’s words, but not with David’s heart.

 

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Forward—into the New Year

Posted on January 5, 2024 by The Editor

Exodus 14:13-15

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): To judge of this command, we have only to reflect upon the condition of the people; the army of Pharaoh was behind them, and the sea was immediately before them, and to go forward would be to advance into the sea itself; but we may observe that God’s commands are so many intimations and assurances of success. “Go forward,” saith God to Moses. Did Moses say, “What, Lord, and be drowned in the sea?” No; but they went forward, and the waters opened before them, and they passed through the sea as on dry ground.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): We hear not one word of Moses’ praying, and yet here the Lord asks him why he cries unto Him? From which we may learn that the heart of Moses was deeply engaged with God, though it is probable he did not articulate one word; but the language of sighs, tears, and desires is equally intelligible to God. This consideration should be a strong encouragement to every feeble, discouraged mind: Thou canst not pray, but thou canst weep; if even tears are denied thee, then thou canst sigh; and God, whose Spirit has thus convinced thee of sin, righteousness, and judgment, knows thy unutterable groaning, and reads the inexpressible wish of thy burdened soul, a wish of which Himself is the Author, and which He has breathed into thy heart with the purpose to satisfy it.

WILLIAM JAY: Now all this teaches us to do all things in religion “without murmurings and disputings,” and that nothing more becomes us than a childlike disposition, exercising implicit confidence in God, and unquestioning obedience to His commands. What He has revealed we are to believe on the authority of the Speaker. It will also apply to the dispensations of divine providence. When any of these seem to be at variance with our views, we are to remember that “all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.”—Jacob said, “All these things are against me;” but if he had waited a little while longer, he might have said, with the apostle Paul, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

ADAM CLARKE: “All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies,” Psalm 25:10. The paths. אדהוה signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does He show them mercy, and so frequently does He fulfill His truth, that His paths are easily discerned—but He is more abundantly merciful to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies; those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of His pure religion.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “Unto such that keep His covenant and His testimonies.” He is never out of the road of mercy unto them. They are “mercy” in respect of aiming at our good, and “truth” in respect of fulfilling His promises and faithful carriage to us; therefore whatever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy expectation, interpret it in love.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Yet this is not a general truth to be trampled upon by swine, it is a pearl for a child’s neck. Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk “in His testimonies;” these will find all things co-working for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Some of God’s promises are general rather than specific; some are conditional, others unconditional; some are fulfilled in this life, others in the world to come. Are you fearful of the future? Afraid that when strength fails and old age comes you may be left without the necessities of life? Then let us remind you that there is no need whatever for such fears. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things”—temporal necessities—“shall be added unto you,” Matthew 6:33. “O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him,” Psalm 34:9. “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly,” Psalm 84:11. But let it be noted that these promises are conditional on obeying the preceding exhortations—your business is to give God the first place in your life, to fear, obey and honour Him in all things, and in return He guarantees your bread and water shall be sure.

C. H. SPURGEON: God will keep His promise to you; only see you to it that the way in which He conditions His engagement is carefully observed by you. Only when we fulfill the requirements of a conditional promise can we expect that promise to be fulfilled to us.

WILLIAM JAY: Secondly, in reference to the journey of the Israelites, let us consider this command in reference to ourselves, for if we are Christians, we are on our way from Egypt to Canaan, “seeking a better country, even a heavenly;” and it becomes us to be always advancing in “the way everlasting.” Christians are therefore enjoined to “go forward.” It is an awful thing when, instead of this, any go backward. The Ephesians went backward, and so were called to “repent” and do their “first works,” and to exemplify their “first love,” or lose the privileges with which they were indulged. In Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress, Christian went back in order to find and fetch the roll which had dropped from his bosom while he slept in the arbour. It is also a sad thing for Christians, instead of going forward to be only stationary.

A. W. PINK: There is no remaining stationary in the Christian life: he who does not progress, retrogrades. He who does not diligently heed the Divine precepts, soon loses the good of the Divine promises.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us then go forward, fighting the good fight of faith. Let us take the following admonitions for our march: First, go forward with humbleness of mind; let us not go strutting into the new year as if we had been acting wisely, worthily, or meritoriously throughout the past year, but with penitent reflections upon the sins of our weekday, and our Sabbath-day sins, so that we may gratefully acknowledge that “it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not,” Lamentations 3:22. Therefore, with gratitude in remembrance of His mercies, they have been “new every morning,” Lamentations 3:23. What preserving, supplying, supporting, and satisfying mercies have we daily received! Go forward under a sense of present aid; in opposition to our complaining and murmuring—with a firm confidence as to what may befall us in the future. His promises more than meet all our circumstances, and provide for all contingencies of futurity, for we know Who hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” and that “as our day so shall our strength be.”

 

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Ezra’s New Year’s Day

Posted on December 29, 2023 by The Editor

Ezra 7:6,9,10

Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him…Upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): We ought to pause over this account, short as it is, of Ezra’s character.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses.” “Ready.”—Some read it diligent, as that which had made him ready; so you have it in Proverbs 22:29, “a man diligent in his business.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He was a man of great learning. The Jews say that he collected and collated all the copies of the law he could find, and published an accurate edition of it, with all the prophetical books, historical and poetical, that were given by divine inspiration, and so made up the canon of the Old Testament, with the addition of the prophecies and histories of his own time. If he was raised up of God, and qualified and inclined to do this, all generations have reason to bless God for him.

ROBERT HAWKER: As Ezra had dedicated himself particularly to this service, no doubt the thing was of the Lord. For as the Holy Ghost hath caused his writings to be so faithfully preserved and handed down to us, and as from their great importance in this part of the church’s history, they form so interesting a portion of God’s sacred Word, we cannot be at a loss to discover the work of the blessed Spirit accompanying all his labours with success.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “A ready scribe.” The Hebrew expression does not merely signify an excellent penman, but one who was eminently skillful in expounding the law.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  The meaning is not that he had a quick hand in writing out copies, but was well versed in the knowledge of it; had studied it thoroughly, was well instructed in it, and abundantly qualified to teach it others.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach.” This verse should not be passed without noticing its suggestiveness for all such as are called, or feel they are called to teach. The order is, “to seek—to do—to teach.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Ezra had “prepared his heart;” he had set his mind and affections upon it, and made it his chief design and business, to search and find out the true sense and meaning, and thence to learn what sins or errors were to be reformed, and what duties were to be performed. First, he endeavours to understand God’s law and word, not for curiosity or ostentation, but in order to practice; Next, he conscientiously practices what he did understand, which made his doctrine much more effectual; then he earnestly desires and labours to instruct and edify others, that they also might know and do it.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Notice the order in Acts 1:1, “Of all that Jesus began both to do, and teach.” Doing should always come before teaching. If there is anything that we as servants of Christ need to keep in mind it is this: there will be no more power in our messages than there is power in our lives. It is as we live for God that we are fitted to speak for God. We are called to do, before we teach.

MATTHEW HENRY: Ezra was a man of great piety and holy zeal.

THE EDITOR: He was also a man of prayer. Read Ezra’s zealous prayer in Chapter 9, confessing the sins of the people of Jerusalem; and in Chapter 10, see the effectualness of Ezra’s prayer as demonstrated by the people’s actions, and Ezra’s further instructions to them.

MATTHEW HENRY: Thus his example confirmed his doctrine. He “prepared his heart” to do all this, or he fixed his heart. He took pains in his studies, and thoroughly furnished himself for what he designed, and then put on resolution to proceed and persevere in them.

W. J. HOCKING (1864-1953): Did he possess the faculty of perception—of discernment?

H. A. IRONSIDE: Ezra speaks of “the hand of God,” in Ezra 8:18,22,31. He was a man who seemed never to look at mere human instrumentality, but, behind the hand of man, he saw the guiding, or controlling hand of the Lord.

THE EDITOR: Ezra saw God’s glory in the “good hand of the Lord upon him,” in departing Babylon, and in the great provision that king Artaxerxes had given for his journey, and the high authority the king had bestowed upon him to fulfil God’s purposes in Jerusalem, Ezra 7:11-26. “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me,” Ezra 7:27,28.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): He “was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help against the enemy in way, because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him,” Ezra 8:22.  He hath gloried so much of that God they served, that he is ashamed the king should think now that now he was not willing to cast himself upon God’s protection. Ezra goes to fasting and prayer, Ezra 8:21. Then they take their march, and find the way all along cleared before them, Ezra 8:31.

H. A. IRONSIDE: To the man of faith, instructed in the mind of the Lord, difficulties are never insurmountable; but he will be able in holy confidence to say with Paul, “None of these things move me,” Acts 20:24. Of such a spirit was Ezra the scribe, and of such must be all who would count for God in a day of ruin.

ADAM CLARKE: Ezra and his company set off from Babylon on the first day of the first month.

JOHN GILL: The month Nisan, answering to part of our March and April; this was New Year’s day.

THE EDITOR: The first day of a New Year is surely a good time to begin any new endeavour. Especially if it be to discern what needs to be reformed, or what has been neglected, and to correct it, or to do something we have not attempted before—and to set our hearts firmly to do it. Whatever our state or condition in this past year may have been—in the New Year, let us all, like Ezra, depart from Babylonian worldliness for a more spiritual Jerusalem. In our own strength? No. Remember Ezra’s confident dependence on the strength of the Lord.

ROBERT HAWKER: Dear Lord! grant me grace to be unceasingly enquiring after Thee in the Word of Thy truth.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Be as Ezra was, when having once made a resolve, he resolved to abide by it at all hazard. Pluck up courage and say within yourselves: Now will I prove that promise true, “He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His wings shall thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler,” Psalm 91:4.

 

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An Angelic Song of Grace & Glory, Peace & Goodwill

Posted on December 22, 2023 by The Editor

Luke 2:8-14

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The term, “behold,” always marks the importance of that to which it is prefixed. But here the precise view in which the tidings claim our attention is distinctly specified: They are a matter of exceeding joy—and universal joy.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Christ was sent to manifest the Father, and with a message of grace to this sinful world.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The nativity of our Saviour was published first by one angel, but it must be celebrated by a multitude of angels, who appear praising God.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The angels sang something which men could understand—something which men ought to understand—something which will make men much better if they will understand it. The angels were singing about Jesus who was born in the manger. We must look upon their song as being built upon this foundation. They sang of Christ and the salvation which He came into this world to work out. And what they said of this salvation was this—they said first, that it gave glory to God.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Now is come the highest degree of glory to God, by the appearing of His Son Jesus Christ in the world. He, by His life and death on the cross, will glorify God’s attributes—justice, holiness, mercy, and wisdom—as they never were glorified before. Creation glorified God, but not so much as redemption.

C. H. SPURGEON: If salvation glorifies God, glorifies Him in the highest degree and makes the highest creatures praise Him, this may be added—that doctrine which glorifies man in salvation cannot be the Gospel. For salvation glorifies God. The angels were no Arminians—they sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” They believe in no doctrine which uncrowns Christ and puts the crown upon the head of mortals. They believe in no system of faith which makes salvation dependent upon the creature and which really gives the creature the praise. For what is it less than for a man to save himself, if the whole dependence of salvation rests upon his own free will? No, my Brethren—the glad tidings that made the angels sing are those that put God first, God last, God in the midst, and God without end in the salvation of His creatures—it puts the crown wholly alone upon the head of Him that saves without a helper.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Let God have the honour of this work: “Glory to God in the highest—Whose kindness and love designed this favour, and Whose wisdom contrived it in such a way as that one divine attribute should not be glorified at the expense of another.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Yes! the whole glory is God’s; because it is all founded in God; carried on in God; completed in God; and man is but the receiver of the mercies. Oh! that this was well understood by men!

CHARLES SIMEON: Who is there that does not need the merit of His atonement and the efficacy of His grace? And who is there to whom they are not freely offered? There is not one on earth who can be saved without them; nor is there one, however abandoned, who may not, by a believing application to the Saviour, be interested in them. Well therefore may they be called good tidings “to all people;” since they are so to all of every age, and of every description: and well may the prophet call on the whole creation to shout for joy—“Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel,” Isaiah 44:23.

C. H. SPURGEON: Secondly, it gave peace to man.

J. C. RYLE: Now is come to earth the peace of God which passeth all understanding—the perfect peace between a holy God and sinful man, which Christ was to purchase with His own blood—the peace which is offered freely to all mankind—the peace which, once admitted into the heart, makes men live at peace one with another, and will one day overspread the whole world.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It seems strange, doesn’t it?—to hear those words ringing down through the ages, when you think of the awful condition which prevails in the earth today. Look where you will, there is no peace. Look at the lands abroad; there is war. Look over our own land; there is strife between Capital and Labour, and between different groups. There is misery and wretchedness everywhere—unrest on every hand. Yet the angel said, “Peace, goodwill toward men.”

C. H. SPURGEON: I do not see God honoured. I see heathen bowing down before their idols. I mark the Romanist casting himself before his relics and the ugly figures of his images. I look about me and I see tyranny lording it over the bodies and souls of men. I see God forgotten. I see a worldly race pursuing mammon…I see ambition riding like Nimrod over the land, God forgotten, His name dishonoured. I hear the cannon’s horrid roar—not yet have they turned the sword into a plowshare and the spear into a pruning hook! War still reigns. Is this all that the angels sang about? And while I see wars to the ends of the earth, am I to believe that this was all the angels expected? Ah, no, Brethren. The angels’ song is big with prophecy—Christ the Lord will come again, and when He comes, He shall cast the idols from their thrones. He shall dash down every heresy and every shape of idolatry. He shall reign from pole to pole with illimitable sway. He shall reign, when like a scroll, yonder blue heavens have passed away.

CHARLES SIMEON: And “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  This was done to confirm our faith as truly as that of the shepherds. Among men, the testimony of “two or three witnesses,” is sufficient to remove all doubt. But here is a heavenly host, with one consent and one voice bearing testimony to the Son of God. What then would be our obstinacy, if we refused to join with the choir of angels, in singing the praises of our salvation, which is in Christ?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It was fitting that angel voices should attend such an event, whether men gave heed to them or not; because, recorded, their song has helped a world to understand the nature and meaning of that birth. The glory died off the hillside quickly, and the music of the song scarcely lingered longer in the ears of its first hearers; but its notes echo still in all lands, and every generation turns to them with wonder and hope.

C. H. SPURGEON: When the angels sang this there was an echo through the long aisles of a glorious future. That echo was—“Hallelujah! Christ the Lord God Omnipotent shall reign.” I will say no more, except to wish everyone of you, the happiest Christmas you ever had.

CHARLES SIMEON: Make it a season of holy joy; a very anticipation of heaven itself.

 

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