15 October
Bible In 365 Days 
Mark 1-3
Mark 1
The introductory words of this Gospel according to Mark are characterized by brevity. Mark at once announces his theme, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," and then in rapid, clear sentences declares the mission and message of the forerunner.
The Man of God$ will comes from the obedience of Nazareth to the obedience of the life of public ministry. As to words, how brief the story of the temptation, yet how much force and meaning are compressed into it. Four points are especially to be noticed.
1. "The Spirit driveth Him."
2. "He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan."
3. "He was with the wild beasts."
4. "The angels ministered unto Him."
The calling of two pairs of brothers is recorded. This was the call to service, "I will make you to become fishers of men."
A remarkable testimony to Jesus Christ was borne by a demon, "Thou art the Holy One of God." What a confession of the victory of Christ! In spite of all the attacks of hell, He was still untouched, unharmed of evil. From the synagogue our Lord passed to the home. His hand of gentle love and omnipotent force takes hold of the dry, fevered hand of a woman, and imparts the coolness of healing and the power to serve.
News of the two miracles spread, and the crowds gathered. With perfect ease our Lord healed many, and cast out many demons! Such pressure of the crowds made it necessary that He hold communion with the Father. Next morning, very early, while darkness still lingered, He rose before any of the others, and stole away to a desert place to commune with God.
The disciples told Him that all were seeking Him, and He immediately decided to go elsewhere. The story of the leper is full of a subtle charm that never loses its power over the hearts of men. The quick "I will" of Jesus, the touch proving at once His great tenderness toward the man, and His perfect confidence in Himself, are exquisite illustrations of the grace and tenderness of this "Servant of all."
Mark 2
A great principle of the exercise of power by the Master is revealed in the words, "When He saw their faith." There can be no doubt that the word "their" includes the whole party, both the man himself and those who brought him.
From the house to the seashore He passed, and the multitudes followed Him. Rapidly and forcefully the story of Levi is told. Called to follow. All abandoned. A feast made, and Jesus the principal Guest, with many of Levi's friends and associates present. Again the scribes and Pharisees were exercised. "He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners." The Master's words explain the whole meaning of His sociability. He went to the feast of the publican as a Physician, to heal.
A third question on observance of the Sabbath was raised because the disciples had plucked ears of corn on that day. Our Lord replied:
1. The Sabbath is universal, not Jewish, "the Sabbath was made for man."
2. Jesus claimed it as His own. "The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
3. There are circumstances in which it is permissible to break the letter of the Sabbath law.
"Did ye never read what David did, when he had need, . . . ?"
4. Any application of the Sabbath law which operates to the detriment of man is out of harmony with divine purpose. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
Mark 3
This is one of the few occasions on which it is said that Christ was angry. Particularly note the reason for His anger: "When He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts." What a picture these next verses give us of the thronging of the crowds! Perhaps there is no other picture in the Gospels quite equal to it for life, and color, and movement.
The time had now arrived for setting apart His workers.
1. "He . . . calleth unto Him whom He Himself would."
2. "They went unto Him."
3. "He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth." The chosen are "appointed" to two things, first, to be with Him; and, second, to be sent forth.
Here is chronicled the effect which the news of His ceaseless activity had on His kinsfolk at Nazareth. These brothers of the Lord never had had any great confidence in Him, and in all probability He spoke out of the depth of His own experience when He said, "A man's foes shall be they of his own household."
No more solemn and awful words ever fell from the lips of Jesus than those in which He referred to "eternal sin". That sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit, the deliberate, willful, and final rejection of His ministry. His kinsfolk, the account of whose setting out to Him is contained in the earlier part of the chapter, here arrive. They were come, from whatever motive, to hinder Him in His work. It must have cost Him suffering to how that neither His mother nor His nearest relations understood that He was carrying out the will of God.
