In the third chapter of Mark's
Gospel we read the account of Christ entering the synagogue
and encountering a man with a withered hand and his healing of that
man on the Sabbath day and the reaction of those that saw him
and their accusations against him. The Pharisees and the Herodians
and how they hated him and how they accused him of healing on
the Sabbath day and how they stirred up to destroy him. We see how Christ then leaves
and goes to the sea with his disciples and we see the multitudes
gathering under him. And we see the mighty power that
He has over the unclean spirits in the sick and the diseased
and those who are possessed. And how even the unclean spirits
bow down before Him and say rightly of Christ, Thou art the Son of
God. Even the spirits knew who he
was. Are you so foolish to deny who
Jesus Christ is? When even the evil spirits believe
and tremble. When even the devil believes
and trembles. They know who the Son of God
is. They know who Christ is. He then goes into a mountain,
and he calls unto him whom he will, the 12, and sends them
forth to preach. And then he goes, and he instructs
them, and he speaks of Satan and his opposition. And we see
at the end, How the people say that his mother and his brethren
are without. And Christ tells us who his true
brethren are. And we see how he has his people
gathered under him. And how that people are not those
who are his brethren and his mother by the flesh, but are
those who are one with Christ in the Spirit. Behold my mother,
and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same is my brother and my sister and mother. We see two distinct groups of
people very clearly presented unto us in this chapter. Those
disciples of Christ, those whom he calls his brethren, Those
who are brought unto faith to believe in Him. And we see those,
especially the religious, who are filled with enmity, filled
with hatred, filled with opposition, and filled with a desire to destroy
Him. Where are you amongst these? Where are you amongst these? Has he come unto you? And from
a mountain, by his gospel, called unto you as he called unto the
twelve whom he would, and said, come up hither. Thou art mine. I have cleansed you with my blood.
Come up hither. He goeth up into a mountain,
and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came unto him,
and he ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that
he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses,
and to cast out devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter,
the stone. The stone. Christ the rock. called Peter
the Stone, to be one with him. And James the son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boaneges,
which is the sons of Thunder, the sons of Thunder. and Andrew,
and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and
James the son of Alphaeus, and Phidias, and Simon the Canaanite,
and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him. And they went into
a house called Twelve, called whom he
would, into a mountain, But even among that twelve, there was
one who betrayed him. One who heard his message. One
who heard his voice. One who heard the gospel. One
who was there. But one for whom it was all outward. One who hated still. You may
have heard the gospel. You may have heard that voice
that comes down from the mountain high. You may know all there
is to know about Jesus Christ in the letter. You may know all
the scriptures. You may have walked with the
people of God. You may have walked with the
twelve, as it were, the true disciples. Not just the multitude
who came and went at whim, but the disciples. You may have walked
with true believers, met with them, worshipped with them, sat
under the gospel with them, but is your heart still full of hatred
for the Son of God? Is it all outward? Is it all
in the letter? or are you a Peter or a John
or a James? A stone, a son of thunder, a
disciple whom Jesus loves. This account begins on the Sabbath
day as Jesus entered into the synagogue. and verse 1 tells
us that there was a man there which had a withered hand and
they watched Christ whether he would heal him on the Sabbath
day that they might accuse him that they might accuse him and Christ said unto the man
which had the withered hand stand forth and he saith unto them
is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil, to
save life or to kill. But they held their peace. And
when he had looked round upon them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, stretch
forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and
his hand was restored whole as the other. What an account! Here's this
poor man with this withered hand, unable to stretch it forth, unable
to lift anything, unable to do anything with his hand, helpless
and hopeless. And here comes the Saviour, here
comes the Son of God into the midst, who heals him, He does
nothing but good for him. It is wonderful that Christ had
mercy upon this poor man to heal him. And yet the religious simply
looked on in order that they might accuse Christ. Though all
Christ did for this man was good for him, though Christ did nothing
wrong, They sought to find fault that he healed him on the Sabbath
day. That's where the religion of
man gets him. Oh so zealous for what they consider
to be the truth. Oh so zealous for truth in the
letter, oh so zealous for the law of God, thinking they served
God. In the end, they were full of
hatred and malice towards the Son of God, of whom that word
spake. If your religion, if your knowledge
of the Gospel, brings you to the point that all you can do
is judge and condemn others, when all they're doing is the
will of God. out of true faith and true love. If your religion brings you to
that point it's of nothing worth, it will lead you unto damnation. You may say you serve God, you
may say you serve Jesus Christ, you may say you're zealous for
the faith, but if all it brings you to do is to condemn others, then ultimately that condemnation
with which you seek to destroy them will come upon your own
head. And that's exactly where their religion had brought them.
These men, these Pharisees and Herodians had heard the word
of God. They were the descendants of
those who heard the Law of God given on Mount Sinai, delivered
by Moses unto the people. They were the descendants, they
had that Law, they had the priesthood, and with it they condemned the
Son of God. Though they were so careful to
follow the letter of the Scripture, then if your care to follow the
letter of the scripture in any respect brings you to condemn
Christ or his people for what they do out of faith and love
for him then your religion is a lie. You say you see when you
are blind. You say you love Christ when
in reality you hate Christ. What is it? Well here, as in so many cases,
so many of these examples, when we see Christ healing and having
compassion upon the poor and compassion upon the ill, we see
the poor people, the poor sick people who need his help as it
were just a pawn in the games that the Pharisees are playing.
He's just there needing to be healed. And all around him, he
is just, as it were, an actor on a stage where all around him
there are these others who are using him and using this event
to their evil ends. And how often the children of
God can find themselves used in such a way by the religious.
How often do these churches and these ministers and these places
use even the true children of God for their own ends and they
have no compassion on them. As it is said elsewhere, they
will make their followers twice children of hell. They'll bring
them into double the condemnation, they'll go to hell with their
errors and they'll lead other people along with them. and the
poor people get mixed up with them and led astray by them. By these who speak of Christ
and speak of the gospel but who have no compassion upon those
poor sinners who need to hear the truth and need to be healed. They can do nothing to heal them
themselves and they prevent them from being healed by the one
saviour who can. They prevent them from going
to hear. How often we see it, people will
warn others against going to hear this preacher, don't go
and hear that man, when that man is the faithful preacher
that God has sent. Oh, with their careful wisdom
they instruct their hearers not to go and hear that preacher.
Oh, you'll hear this error from him and that error from him.
And they prevent the people from hearing the sound of the truth,
the very truth which will do them good. But God is sovereign. And Christ will go where he will
go. And his gospel will go where
he will send it. And if there's a man with a withered
hand sat in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, who needs to
be healed, then Christ will go there. And he will be healed. And Christ went there on this
day. And despite the opposition, despite the fact that going and
healing this man meant that the hearts of the religious in that
place were stirred up against Christ himself to destroy him.
Despite the persecution and the opposition, Christ went and healed
him. But it brought their fury upon
him. This man was helpless. He could
not stretch forth his hand, it was withered. He needed a Saviour. He needed to be healed. And so
do you. Your sin has withered your hand. Your sin has made you lame. Your sin has made you blind. Your sin has made you deaf. There's
nothing you can do, but if Christ should come to you with his gospel,
then when he says in power by that gospel, stretch forth thine
hand, though you cannot, by his grace you will. He said unto
him, stretch forth thine hand, the very thing he could not do. And he stretched it forth, and
it was whole. What a remarkable miracle. A
remarkable power. And a remarkable picture of the
power of the gospel. which comes unto those with withered
hands, with the withered hand of free will, with the withered
hand of sin, who cannot move, who cannot come unto God, who
are blind and foolish, and says unto them, stand up, stretch
forth thine hand, look and live. Christ asked, is it lawful to
do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life or to
kill? But they held their peace. It's
lawful to save life. And when he had looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts he saith unto the man stretch forth thine hand and
he stretched his out and his hand was restored whole as the
other and the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counter
with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him. Oh Christ was grieved with the
hardness of their hearts. Here He is. He's come into this
world of sin to save sinners. He's come into this place where
there is the sick to heal them. And the people, the generation,
the offspring of the Jews, under whom he'd sent his word over
multiple generations, that people who should receive him, that
people who should love him merely looked on to accuse him. looked
on to find fault, looked on to destroy him. Oh the grief that
must have been in his heart. How do you look upon Christ? How do you look upon his gospel? How do you look upon those who
come preaching the gospel? Are you just looking to find
the fault? Are you just looking to find
the failure? Are you just looking for the
place upon which you can accuse? Or are you looking on as a poor
sinner who has a need and needs to be saved? Do you, with gladness,
cry out unto Christ when he comes unto you by his gospel, by the
preachers whom he sends? Do you just cry out, Lord have
mercy upon me, a sinner? Well not these religious here.
Christ looked upon them with anger. He looked upon them with
anger and rightly so. Because of the hardness of their
hearts. And when they saw him heal this
man, they sought to destroy him. To destroy him. Oh what Christ
suffered in order to be able to heal this man. in order to
heal him, to save him, he had to come in this place at this
time in the midst of this people and as it were come under their
condemnation. In order to bring this man into
the rest, the peace of which their Sabbath day was a picture,
he must come under their condemnation. In order to deliver this man,
as it were, from his sins in the picture, he must come under
the condemnation of their law. He must lay down his life that
this man, as it were, might live. He must be sacrificed that this
man might be saved. He must be a substitute, a sacrifice
in order to save his people from their sins. This is what's being
pictured here. He went into this synagogue on
the Sabbath day in the midst of the religious and in order
to heal this man he had to suffer their enmity, their hatred who
were moved to destroy him. And ultimately in the end they
did destroy him. And the only way that he could
deliver his people, all his people from their sins, was to come
under their condemnation, their hatred. They sought to destroy him. How they might destroy him. Oh
what it is to live and to walk and to pass each day with this
people, every day. following you that you know are
seeking a means of destroying you? Have you met with such hatred? If you've met with hatred in
this world, you'll know something of what Christ experienced here.
But he knew that in order to save his people from their sins,
he must come under the condemnation of not only the religious, but
also God's law. He must be a substitute, he must
go in the place of sinners. bear the sins of his people and
be placed under the condemnation of that law against that people
though he was innocent he must be made guilty in order that
the guilty might be set free but he heals this man in this
account to you The Pharisees and Herodians go forth and take
counsel against Him how they might destroy Him. And what does
Christ do next? From that very point, He withdraws
Himself with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude
is gathered unto Him at the sea. And He heals them. and they come
unto him and they press upon him for to touch him as many
as had plagues in order that he might heal them. And at that
place even the unclean spirits when they saw him fell down before
him and cried saying, thou art the son of God. He goes to the
sea with his people. And at that point even the unclean
spirits knew who he was. From that point, he then goes
up into a mountain. Having passed through the synagogue,
having had the religious seek to destroy him, having gone with
his people to the sea, and healed a multitude. He then goes to
a mountain and calls unto him whom he will. He calleth unto
him whom he would. These twelve disciples are gathered
up to the mount from whence he sends them forth to preach whom
he would. And that's just the same today.
He calls unto Him whom He will. Not all went into the mountain.
Not all went up there. Not all were called. But He called
whom He would, as He called you. Is He calling you by His gospel? Has He led you by the way of
the sea up to the mount? Has He separated you, the precious? from the vial. But he calls unto
him whom he will. We read of these 12 disciples. We read of Judas. We read of
the sons of thunder. We read of Peter. And we read
how he sends them forth to preach. And then from thence they go
into a house, verse 19. And they went into a house, and
the multitude cometh together again, and the people gather
around and he speaks of a house and he speaks of the need to
bind the strong man to spoil the goods and then at the end
we hear of his brethren and his mother without the house and
the people saying that your brethren and your mother are outside and
he looks around upon them which sat about with him and said behold
my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of
God the same is my brother and my sister and mother. Now what
is all of this? What is all of this telling us?
What is this a picture of? Why does Christ go from this
place in which he is accused to the sea with his disciples
and then from thence to a mountain into which he calls whom he will
and sends him forth to preach and from thence into a house
where he says that those who are with him in that house are
his mother and his brethren. These are not isolated, disconnected
events that Mark has really strung together. They are not simply
the order in which Christ journeyed through this world. Going to
this place and that place and healing this one and going to
that place afterwards. This is a picture. Every event
in this chapter is connected. And it's a picture of the Gospel. The Gospel. How Christ came into
this world of sin in order to save his people from their sins.
The reaction of the religious and the world to the coming of
the Saviour into this world. The depths to which Christ must
go in order to deliver that people. The condemnation he must come
under. The sea to which he must gather
his people. that he might heal them. The
mount into which he ascends, victorious, having accomplished
salvation. The mount from whence he sends
his gospel in power, and calls unto him his people throughout
all time, and calling them sends them forth as witnesses to the
truth. and the house of God into which
he gathers all his people by the gospel, the church of God
which he builds, the house of God into which all his people
are gathered and are united and one with him, that he can look
about those in the house with him and say, these are my mother
and my brethren. because there is a people throughout
all time gathered from the four corners of the earth who are
united in Christ, one in Him. They are His brethren and His
mother. Yes, it's a wonderful picture
of the gospel, this chapter. A wonderful picture. Jesus comes
to sinners to heal them. And the Jews meet Him. But receive
him not. When he comes unto them, when
he comes into their synagogue on the Sabbath day, they simply
look on seeking to accuse him. And having seen what he did to
this poor man on the Sabbath day, they find ways to destroy
him. And in the end they get their
way. In the end. They deliver him
up to the Romans to Pilate and cry out, crucify him, crucify
him, away with this man. He claims to be the king of the
Jews. He claims to be the son of God.
We do not know him. We do not own him. We do not
want him. And they had him put to death.
Yet He came unto them His own in order to save His people from
their sins. Has He come unto you in His gospel? What is your reaction? Do you
seek in your heart to destroy Him? Do you shut your ears to
Him? Do you shut your mind to Him?
Do you find fault and reason to accuse Him? Well they did. But when they did, when he was
nailed to that cross, when he was crucified, he as it were
was gathered by the sea with his people. He met on that cross
the sin of his people and the judgment of God upon that sin. and he was plunged into the depths
of the waters of condemnation. As with Noah and his ark, the
storms of God's wrath rained down from on high against Christ
and his people, and the floods rose up around him. and washed all around Him and
God's fury against the sin of His people rained down but not
upon them, upon Him. Jesus withdrew Himself with His
disciples to the sea and a great multitude from Galilee followed
Him and from Judea. A picture of the cross when God's
wrath poured down from on high, when the floods came upon him,
when he would lead his people through the waters unto safety
the other side. At which point, when he died,
when he took the judgment, when he bore their sins, his blood
was shed. And because his blood was shed
for many, he healed many of all their corruptions, of all their
iniquity. He took away the condemnation. He blotted out their sins. He
brought them to peace with God. He brought them forgiveness of
sins. He healed many. insomuch that
they pressed upon him for to touch him as many as had plagues. O this day have you got a plague? Do you know the plague of sin
in your heart? If you do, has God by his gospel
awakened you to your need of salvation? Are you seeking to
press unto Christ upon the cross that you might touch him? The
only way you'll be healed of the plague of your sin is if
you go to the cross. Go to Christ. Go to Christ by
the sea and touch Him. Touch Him. Touch Him by faith. Look under Him. Cry under Him. And know the healing power of
His blood. Have you been there? Have you
been led there? Multitudes were led there. They'd heard of him.
They knew that he could heal them. They knew no one else could
do what he could do. Do you know where healing is? Not from your earthly ailments,
but from the plague of your heart, your sin. even the unclean spirits which
were cast out as he cleansed his people when those unclean
spirits were cast out of them they fell down before him and
cried saying thou art the son of god and when christ was crucified
and bore the sins of his people and suffered in the hours of
darkness upon the cross when he cried out it is finished the
centurion looked on the people looked on and those whose eyes
were opened cried out and said truly this was the son of god
this man is the son of god have your eyes been opened to look
upon him in his suffering for sin and to see who he is, can
you say by faith truly, this man is the son of God. As he went to the sea, a picture
of those floods of God's wrath that came upon him. We've seen
some storms, some floods around this area recently. And many
have known the effects and the power of the rain and the storms
and the sea. But these things are just a glimpse
of the power and the judgment of God which rained down upon
Christ upon the cross. You will never fathom, never
grasp the depths through which Christ waded in order that He
should deliver His people from their sins. You'll never be able
to measure the extent of his love for his own that took him
through that place, that bore him up as he suffered the outpouring
of God's wrath. You'd never exhaust it. But having died, Christ was laid
in the grave. And on the third day, having
taken away sin, having taken away the judgment of sin, having
taken away the power of sin, He rose again from the dead. Sin entered by one man and death
by sin. And when Christ, the last Adam,
the second man, rose from the grave. He'd taken away sin, so
he'd taken away the power of sin, the sting of sin. He'd taken
away death and the judgment of the law. He satisfied it all,
having answered the sins of his people. Death could not hold
him or them in the grave, so he rose victorious and rising. He ascended unto the glories
above. He ascended up the mount, as
it were. He ascended to sit at the right
hand of the Father, where He is today, from whence He sends
forth His Gospel, and from whence He calls sinners like you and
I, by His Gospel unto Him. Has He sent His Gospel unto you? Has He called you? Has He called
His 12 under Him? Has He called you up to Him? He goeth up into a mountain,
and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him. Have you come unto him? And he
ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might
send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses,
and to cast out devils. And Simon his surname Peter,
and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James,
and he surnamed them Boaneges, which is the Sons of Thunder. The Sons of Thunder. Oh what
a name to call them. The Sons of Thunder. Why is this
singled out? We read that he surnamed Simon
Peter a stone. stone as it were a small part
of the rock united to the rock Christ Jesus a stone and we read
that he surnamed John and James the sons of thunder we do not
read of anything else singled out then why single this out
why did he call them the sons of thunder what a name well think
what it tells us think of the breadth of meaning in such a
name to be named the son of thunder. What does thunder remind you
of? What do you think of when you
think of thunder? Reminds us of that power, that
power in the storm that comes down from on high. The power
And firstly these are named the sons of thunder when they're
in the mountain. They're sent forth to preach
the gospel. They're sent forth from on high
into a sinful world to preach the gospel of Christ in power. They're sent forth with the Gospel. And there's no greater power
on earth than the Gospel of Christ. I am not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. These disciples, these sons were
sent forth to preach the Gospel. Sent forth to preach the power
of God. Sent forth from the mountain,
from on high, down to the world beneath, with the greatest power
this earth has ever seen. The gospel. The gospel begat
them. And the gospel was what they
were sent forth to preach. That others by that gospel might
be begat, might be born of God. These disciples were born again,
born of the Spirit of God. They'd been brought to Christ.
God, by His Spirit, had opened their eyes to see who He was,
opened their ears to hear His voice, breathed faith into their
hearts. They'd been born again by the
mighty work of God. They were sons of God, and the
power which brought about their birth was the Gospel. Sons of
thunder. Sons of thunder. The thunder
of the gospel brought them to that new birth. The thunder of
the gospel was that with which they were sent. Sons of thunder. Consider who he names this. John
and James. John. Consider John's gospel. and of the clarity with which
John speaks of the necessity of the new birth, ye must be
born again. You must. John knew as well as
anyone the need to be born again and the fact that that birth
comes from God by his gospel. He knew what it was to be a son,
a son of God. And he knew what it was to be
born again of God by that Gospel. He was a son of thunder indeed,
then he was aptly named. For he went forth and preached
that Gospel and wrote of that Gospel and wrote of the necessity
of that new birth. Yes, the Gospel begat them. But
consider what in that gospel is that which begat them, the
death of Christ. The heart of that gospel is the
death of Christ. And what happened when Christ
died in order that he might bring about their new birth? When he
died, the funders of God's wrath rained down on him in their place. It's because Christ died for
them that they were made sons. It's because God suffered the
thundering power of God's wrath against their sins which he bore
for them that they were brought to life as a consequence. It's
the thunders of God's wrath poured out upon Christ that brought
about their salvation. They were sons of that death. That death brought life to those
who were once dead. They were sons of thunder. For the thunder, in its picture
of power, does not just remind us of the power of the gospel,
but it reminds us of the power and the force and the awesome
fear that the judgment of God brings down. We're reminded by
Funda of the giving of law at Mount Sinai. When God spake unto
Moses and gave him that law which was a measure of man and exposed
the sin of man and exposed how far short of God's glory we all
fall. and brought down the penalty
of death upon our heads because of our failure to keep it. When
God gave that law to Moses in the mount, there were lightnings
and thunderings and a dark cloud all around. The people looked
and they saw the presence of God and they saw the consequence
of sin. They heard the thunder. And if
you're brought by the Spirit of God to know anything of your
sin and anything of God's wrath and hatred of sin, you'll feel
the effect, you'll feel the thunder, you'll feel the sky above you
to be dark. You'll know that God is furious
with your sin. You'll know the thunder. You'll
know the thunder. But praise God that John and
James the sons of thunder knew the experience of knowing that
that thunder, that awesome judgment of the law came down not on them
but upon Christ. Upon Christ. Oh the thunders
of the law. And how in this chapter we see
how those custodians of the law, the Pharisees, brought such thunder
in their desire to destroy Christ. Oh they sought to bring him under
that law, they sought to condemn him by that law, they thundered
against him, they hated him. But because of their hatred and
because God allowed them to bring that hatred upon His Son because
Christ willingly came into their midst and willingly allowed them
to take Him and to bind Him and to offer Him up as a sacrifice
on the cross because He willingly allowed them to hand Him over
to the authorities and to be crucified because He willingly
laid down His life and placed Himself under the law because
he willingly suffered the thundering of God's wrath. In the end, he
was not destroyed, but he rose again victorious. And in the
end, all those who are brought unto him, called unto him, called
up to the mountain, are brought to life by His grace, brought
to life by His gospel, brought to life by His blood which He
shed, and they are born again as a result of the thunder which
rained down upon Him, as a result of the thunders of the Lord,
as a result of the power of the gospel. Oh what sort of a son
are you What sort of a son are you? Are you a son of the devil,
full of hatred for God and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Are
you like these religious, you know it all, and yet in the end
you hate God, you hate Christ and his saving grace, you hate
the free grace of the gospel. You want to save yourself by
your own will and your own work. You want the glory. Are you full
of hatred? Are you a son of the devil? Or
are you one who's been born again of the Spirit of God, a wretched
sinner, with a withered arm? Are you withered and dead, without
any strength? Yet Christ has come to where
you are and come with his gospel and sent it down from a mountain
on high by preachers whom he called and sent unto you to come
with the power of the gospel. Has he sent sons of thunder unto
you with his gospel, with his power to declare unto you that
Christ Jesus came into this world to where you are to save sinners
such as you. Has Christ come unto you? Have
you been brought to the sea where he is to touch him as one who
has a plague and knows his need of healing? Oh, have you touched
him? Have you been brought to life
by his gospel? Are you a son of God? Are you a son from on high? Are you a son begat by the cross? Are you a son begat by the judgment
of God against your Saviour? Have the funders of God's law,
God's wrath, poured out upon your sins upon Christ your Saviour? when he bore them for you. Are
you a son, a son of God, a son of thunder? Are you a son of
thunder? Amen.