GOSPEL OF MARK - CHAPTER 2 - Jesus' Authority as the Son of Man

MARK – CHAPTER 2– Jesus’ Authority as the Son-of-Man

Tuesday Morning Bible Study

October 25, 2022, the Year of Our Lord

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

In Mark Chapter 1, Jesus is identified by God speaking to him as His Son.

Mark identifies him as the Son of God.

The demons identified Jesus Christ as the Holy One of Israel.

The Holy Spirit confirmed his authority by healing the sick and casting out demons.

In Chapter 2, Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man, with the authority to forgive sins, heal the sick and as Lord of the Sabbath.

Mark 2:10: The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…

Mark 2:28: The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus identifies himself as the Son of man twelve times in the Gospel of Mark. He is identified three times as the Son of God:

Mark 1:1: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 3:11: When they unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and crying, saying, “thou art the Son of God

. Mark 15:39: When the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.

If the Lord will continue to grace us to study the Gospel of Mark, my Spirit is quickened to seek more revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son-of-Man.

Matthew 24:30: Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

In 2019, I did a teaching exploring the sign of the Son of Man at the end of the age. Therefore, as Christ (in chapter 2) now introduces Himself to us as the “Son of Man” with the authority to forgive sins, I am in anticipation that Christ will also reveal to us more of the “sign of the Son of Man.”

At the time of the incarnation, two amazing and unique signs were given by God, whereby all men might know that Jesus is truly the Son of God. Likewise, at the time of His Second Coming---His multiple incarnation in His many-membered body---equally amazing and unique signs are to be given by God, according to the Scriptures.

One sign was recently revealed to me in a dream that Satan would use an electronic/electrical attack on the mind of the masses. Two other signs were given to me in the dream, but on awakening, I was not allowed to remember the other two. Many of the Lord’s people do not know what these signs are; but His Spirit-taught, Spirit-led people are being shown as we too see through a glass darkly.

There were two outstanding signs of Jesus’ first coming. The bible is the perfect blueprint of God’s plan. To Isaiah was entrusted two miraculous signs:

The first---a virgin mother! The LORD himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

The second---a Divine Child! For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

At the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, there can be no reasonable doubt that the star which led the wise Men was not illusionary, but real, and that it was seen for an indefinite period of time by witnesses. However, only a few of them understood its meaning.

Today, in our study of Mark 2, we meet Jesus Christ as the Son-of-Man. On his return to Capernaum, he takes head-on the hindering spirits which attempted to block him at the first.

1. Seeking the miracles without repentance or Faith in Christ, the Messiah.

2. He faced down the religious spirits of the Pharisees and Scribes.

Mark 2:1: "Again, he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. Christ has been preaching about the country, but now returns to Capernaum, his home base. The scripture was clear in chapter 1 the people were seeking him for His miracles; not as their Savior; nor were they repenting of their sins. So, in this chapter, he drops the big-bomb of truth on them that He has the power to forgive sins. So, not only does he heal them, but delivers them from sin simultaneously with their healing."

2:2: Straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door; and he preached the word to them.

Many came only for cures, some for curiosity and some for entertainment. I am sure he is preaching to them to repent and turn back to the God of their fathers; and to seek the Kingdom of God. Then, He drops on them the gospel truth:

2:3-5: They came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. When they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So, when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son your sins are forgiven you.”

We love the story of these brave friends and/or family who carried the paralyzed man to the roof and lowered him into the presence of Jesus; but the important part is not their fervency which is commendable, but their faith. Others came that day to be healed and were in the crowd, but it was the faith of these four men and their patient to which Jesus responded. Jesus saw their faith. Many will push themselves forward to receive from ministers, but it is not from their faith, it is from their selfishness. Jesus then reveals the great truth of His ministry, then and now. “Son your sins are forgiven you.” There is no indication the young man even asked for forgiveness, but His faith in who Christ was released his forgiveness. Just as the thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom” And Jesus replied, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”

2:6-11: Some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately, when Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “why do you reason about these things in your hearts? which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, “Arise take up your bed and walk?” But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” ---He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

Of course, Jesus has all the gifts of the Spirit because in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He was operating in the gifts of healing, of knowledge and discernment of spirits which means he had the power to read the minds of men. He still does! This brings up the long-argued question of “Is all sickness the result of sin?” In this particular healing/deliverance, Jesus forgave his sins before he healed him. This would be a deliverance of the effects of sin in his soul. If our soul is sick, the result is to cause the body to become sick. However, that is not always the case. Jesus healed the man blind from birth … that the works of God might be manifest in him (Jhn. 9:1-3).

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming to earth as the “Son of Man” had the power on earth to forgive sins. We are also sons of God and sons of man, we have the power to speak forgiveness of sins through the power of Jesus’ Name, His Blood and His Word.

1 Jo. 2:12: I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

2:12: Immediately he (the paralytic) arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

The reality of Christ possessing authority to confer forgiveness of sins as well as heal a man crippled with palsy, electrified the religious spirit of the scribes. Their reaction was to judge him for blasphemy. The crowds however, praised and glorified God.

2: 13-17: He went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. He said to him, “Follow Me.” So, he arose and followed Him. It happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they followed Him. When the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

Levi here is, of course, the same Matthew as the Apostle Matthew described in the Gospel of Matthew by name (9:9-13). People who have nothing better to do with their time have spent hours trying to prove that Levi and Matthew are not the same person. With God, through Christ, there is mercy to pardon the greatest sins and grace to sanctify the greatest sinners. Matthew who had been a publican, became an evangelist. Great sin and scandal before conversion, are no bar to great gifts, graces, and advancements. In bodily cures, ordinarily Christ was sought after, but in spiritual cures, he was found of them that sought him not. For this is one of the great evils and perils of the disease of sin, that those who are under it, desire not to be made whole.

“There were many who followed Him.” There were many of the publicans, sinners and tax collectors who followed Jesus. They followed Jesus because of the report they had heard of Him. Publicans (tax collectors) are here ranked with sinners because they were known to take bribes, or fees to extortion, and accusing falsely. The scribes and Pharisees would not come to hear Christ preach, but they would come to see him with publicans and sinners. As is the custom of trouble-makers and those who have wicked motives, they challenged his disciples trying to turn them against Jesus. “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” Those who are too proud of their own good name, and wish to preserve it with “nice, and proper people,” to keep their reputation, and thus decline a good work, or a controversial work, with those of a lower society or culture will miss God. Christ would not do so.

This is one of those instances of life as to whether we choose the hidden path of the secret place or the path well-trodden by the crowd. This emphasizes the failure of the flesh and/or human mind to arrive at the high path of hidden wisdom. “No!” said Christ, they are to be shown compassion. They are sick and need a physician. They are sinners and need a Savior to save them from their sins. It is to a sinful world that Christ is sent. His business lies with those who are the greatest sinners in it. That is present tense. Ill-will always expects the worst!

Mark 2:18-22: The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast? Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come with the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. New wine must be put in new wineskins.

The fast day was one imposed by tradition, but not by the Law of Moses. The only ordained fast was on the Day of Atonement. The Pharisees fasted twice a week. they were imposing their own religious practices as a standard of righteousness. This scripture is a Word of Wisdom to not be followers of men’s standards of righteousness, but only follow Christ who gives us liberty.

2 Co. 3:17: The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

We must always be considerate of weak Christians that we not over-tax them with rules and regulations making their yoke too heavy.

Matthew 11:30: For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. This is not a compromise with sin or the righteousness of Christ, but we the Church must walk in wisdom and be careful not to put a yoke on the neck of young Christians. Those who truly seek the Lord will be brought into His alignment in His time. Through the parables of the bridegroom, unshrunk cloth, and new wine into old wineskins, the LORD is telling the Pharisees that it is a new day and the ministry of Christ will no longer fit into the old garments, and the old wineskins. There is a time for all things and as the disciples walk with Christ, this is not the time for fasting, but a time of rejoicing. He is telling the Pharisees, “Yes,” I am ushering in a New Kingdom with New Wine. We can’t force the new into the old or the old into the new. It has always been a failure of human nature that the last move-of-God reject a new move-of-God. Let it not be so with this church O Lord Jesus.

Mark 2: 23-28: He went through the grainfields on the sabbath. As they went, His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him; how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him? The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

He is pushing back on the religious spirit which worships the religion of the Sabbath rather than the Lord of the Sabbath, who gave the Sabbath day and Sabbath rest to man. For myself, the first day of the week, which was sanctified by Christ when He rose from the dead, (Mar. 16:9), is my Sunday morning (L.T. Mark 16:9).

The Christian Sabbath is the Lord’s Day. Rev. 1:10: It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast.

I desire to spend that day worshiping the Lord, studying the word and hopefully get rest on Sunday afternoon. However, I am free. I know the Lord of the Sabbath gave that day to me to enjoy. I have chosen to enjoy that day with the Lord and his people. If for reason of sickness, travel, or family responsibilities that I was unable to gather unto the Lord on the Lord’s Day, I would not be under condemnation.

However, I choose to not forsake the assembling together because of the joy of gathering unto Jesus with the Saints.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church

www.eastgateministries.com

Scripture from N.K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Matthew Henry; F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary; sermon by Pastor Carolyn Sissom on “The Sign of the Son of Man” (2019). Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labor.