Jesus, The Prince of Preachers: Mark 1:35-38

(This post first appeared on September 10, 2007).

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with Him followed after Him. And when they had found Him, they said unto Him, ‘All men seek for Thee.’ And He said unto them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.’” — Mark 1:35-38

 

 THE LORD JESUS knew exactly why He had come into the world. Books have been written speculating what our Lord’s sinless life may have been like before He began His earthly ministry at the age of 30. Did His brothers and sisters ever wonder at the fact that He never picked a fight in the yard? Was Mary ever amazed that her Son was never caught in a lie or doing something inappropriate, as most boys did? Did Jesus ever ask for seconds at the dinner table? These and many other questions like them reveal that we are so accustomed to the presence of sin that we really don’t know what life would look like without it. Except for one occasion when He was twelve and His family traveled to Jerusalem, the gospels speak almost nothing about this time in Christ’s life. This is because the Bible acknowledges this point that Jesus is making to His disciples here in this text: Jesus came forth to preach.

 

I.) “…He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Notice how Jesus prepares Himself for His work. He doesn’t rush into it as many preachers today, confident of the residual knowledge they might have gained at seminary or from their years of experience in the pulpit. If Jesus felt the need to soak His sermons in prayer beforehand, we believe all preachers do. Could it be that many preachers fail just at this beginning point? Perhaps they are so busy doing “the Lord’s work” that they sharply curtail and even neglect prayer in trying to get it all done. Perhaps they are relying on the cleverness of their sermon outline or the effectiveness of certain tricks (altar calls, decision cards, special guest-speakers). The Lord Jesus employed no gimmicks. He leaned upon His Father.

II.) “…when they had found Him, they said unto Him, ‘All men seek for Thee.’” Jesus had gone far enough away from His disciples that they had apparently lost track of Him for a few moments. But having found Him again, they felt the need to inform Him that the people were seeking Him. What a picture this is for us that live in this time of spiritual drought. The Christian Church today is greatly weakened and desperately praying for a revival of the true religion that Christ here preached. It is almost as though we are like these poor disciples that have temporarily lost track of our Lord. In 21st century America, the Lord Jesus has withdrawn Himself and we are seeking a greater manifestation of His presence. So what should we do? Should we try to find ways to make Christianity more palatable to the multitudes? Should we try to adapt to what the people want? No, we should go and find Jesus. The disciples knew that is what they needed. When Christ would appear, all would be well. This is what we are doing when we pray for revival.

Now why exactly does the Church pray for a revival — a pouring out of God’s Spirit? It is for the same reason these disciples did in our text. We are conscious of the lost multitudes that do not know Him. “All men seek for Thee.” Of course, we know later that some of these “seekers” would find Jesus only to reject Him. But Christ’s disciples always recognize that whether they know it or not, men are seeking the Lord Jesus and what He only can do. Millions are seeking purpose for their lives. They are seeking satisfaction in something. They are enslaved by lusts and depraved desires from which Christ’s disciples know only Jesus can deliver them. People are afraid of death. They have broken relationships and broken hearts because of their sins. Christ’s disciples know that only Jesus can heal them. And we see this faith in Jesus demonstrated here in our text.

III.) “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also…” The Lord Jesus is not oblivious to these concerns about the multitudes. They are His concerns formed in us by God Himself. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure,” Phil. 2:13. But now having found their Lord, He rises from prayer to urge His disciples to go with Him to speak truth to the people. This is always what Jesus does. When we express our anxiety about the state of our world, He bids us to come with Him and spread Truth about Himself and His Gospel. The message He gives is not an academic set of theological principles that is detached from the present needs of our day. They are exactly what the world needs at every point of human history.

IV.) “…for therefore came I forth.” Preaching is an important reason Christ came into the world. He came to die, He came to live a perfect life in our place — all these things are true. But Jesus also came to preach, saying certain things that we need to know if we are to be saved and persevere in these Last Days. We close with the words of J.C. Ryle, an Anglican bishop in the 19th century:

We ought to observe here, what infinite honour the Lord Jesus puts on the office of the preacher. It is an office which the eternal Son of God Himself undertook. He might have spent His earthly ministry in instituting and keeping up ceremonies, like Aaron. He might have ruled and reigned as a king, like David. But He chose a different calling. Until the time when He died as a sacrifice for our sins, His daily, and almost hourly work was to preach…

Let us leave the passage with a solemn resolution never to ‘despise prophesying.’ (1 Thess. 5:20). The minister we hear may not be highly gifted. The sermons that we listen to may be weak and poor. But after all, preaching is God’s grand ordinance for converting and saving souls. The faithful preacher of the Gospel is handling the very weapon which the Son of God was not ashamed to employ. This is the work of which Christ has said, ‘Therefore came I forth.’