Bible Study Series: Mark 1:35-39. Jesus had a mission. What is yours? How do you seek God to find it?
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Scripture: Mark 1:35-39
35 And early in the morning, while it was very dark, he went out and departed into an isolated place, and he was praying there. 36 Then Simon, with the others, pursued him. 37 They found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into neighboring market towns, so that I may preach there also, for I have come for this.” 39 He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and expelling demons. (Mark 1:35-39)
Commentary
35:
Jesus, the Son of God, had to maintain his prayer life. How much more should we find an isolated place to pray. Remove yourself from the distractions and seek God.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jer. 29:12-14, ESV)
Those promises were originally written to the exiles to Babylon, but all the good promises in the OT apply to us (2 Cor. 1:20). Don’t let any online teacher tell you otherwise and take those promises away from you.
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Cor. 1:20, ESV)
In this context, the promises are from the OT and the promise of Jesus Christ.
36-37:
Peter takes charge and interrupts Jesus’s prayer time. One has to admire and chuckle at Peter. He was not shy. His personality was a force of nature. Peter tells Jesus that he has to get a move on because everyone is looking for him. Too bold, Peter, too bold! Jesus didn’t scold him, however. Nor should we. In fact, we should take some comfort from Peter’s missteps, because we do the same thing in our relationship with God. Thankfully, he is the one in charge, and he does what he wants.
38:
Yet, Jesus does get up from his place of prayer and tells Peter that he and they have to go elsewhere. Luke 4:42 says that the crowds hindered him from leaving them. He will not be confined by the crowds.
“for this”: it means “for this purpose.” Purpose is implied in the pronoun “this.” He was on a mission; he had a purpose. What about your purpose? We all have a purpose. How do we find it? In my experience it comes in a variety of ways, but mostly it grows on you and then over time God leads you to grow up into it.
“I have come”: could be translated as “come out.” In other words, he is making his debut. But Decker argues that this is a deeper verse than it first appears. It is about his mission and even his incarnation, which means the Son of God came down from heaven and entered a human body. Jesus had a purpose.
5. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Came Down from Heaven
“market towns”: Commentator France writes of this term employed by Mark that it appears only here in the NT. It is between a village and a city. Mark seems to have a hierarchy. Jerusalem and Geresa (?) are correctly cities (5:14; 11:19); while Bethsaida and Bethphage (?) are villages (8:23; 11:2). However, in general statements about settlements in Galilee he can use “cities” (1:45; 6:33), sometimes “villages” (6:6) and even the comprehensive words “villages,” “cities” and “farming communities” (6:56). So here in Jesus’s mission statement, he is temporarily leaving centers of influence (Capernaum) and going into a “grassroots” ministry (France pp. 112-13).
39:
And here we have preaching and demon expulsion, combined. This is amazing to me, because demon expulsion is mentioned in an offhand manner. It is part and parcel of the preaching of the gospel. No wonder people used to say, back in the late 1970s and 1980s, that signs and wonders were missing from the church and must be restored.
To conclude …..
Jesus went out to pray, yet Peter interrupted his prayer time because people wanted to be healed, in Capernaum. Jesus got up from his place of prayer in an isolated spot, but said he had to leave his adopted hometown, for he was sent to preach there. So it looks like he did not go back into town, but left the people there, in need. Don’t restrict Jesus to your little church and pet doctrines. He ministers to everyone. There is a real lesson there. He does not answer your prayer when you say so or dictate the terms.
We have to combine preaching or proclaiming and then have signs and wonders. When just signs and wonders are done by street evangelists, they miss the teaching element. Let’s hope that Matt. 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26 doesn’t take effect. Those parallel passages say that after a demon is expelled, he goes out and looks for seven more demons to repossess the body, and the latter condition is worse than before, for the delivered person. People need to be filled with the Spirit, the Word and fellowship, after their deliverance.
Grow App for Mark 1:35-39
1. Jesus had a purpose. What is yours?
2. How do you seek God to find it?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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