ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ARME Bible Camp

Isaac Eliot

Learning to Fish, Part 1

I'd like to ask you to open back to Mark 14, and we're looking at verse 51.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the details of this story, and in so doing, try to make an application of them.

I'm not really preaching a sermon, but I want you to see just kind of how this would play out.

Learning the principle, of course, that nothing is given to us in the Bible that is unimportant and wanting to pay attention to everything that is given there.

The Bible says in verse 51, ìThere followed him a certain young man.î Now, 1 of the first things that we need to ask ourselves about this young man is who he is.

I will tell you that scholars say this is John Mark, the author of the book of Mark, and they say that because this story is not included in any of the other accounts, and because of the way that this story takes place, none of the disciples would have known this except for the 1 that would have been there in this particular situation.

So anyway, the point is even being that what it is, let's just ask ourself, well, Who is this young man based on the clues, the clues that we can see given in the Bible?

By the way, we all know where this story takes place, right?

Garden of Gethsemane, Garden of Gethsemane.

The Bible says, "...and they all forsook him and fled." Now, we need to ask ourselves a question.

There was, There was obviously in the Garden of Eden, there was the soldiers, there were the priests, then there was the disciples of Jesus, there was Jesus, but the man in our story, he's not 1 of the disciples.

Because verse 50 said they all forsook Him, right?

So it couldn't mean, that word all, meaning of course the disciples, could not have been true if the man in verse 51 was a disciple.

Okay, so we're agreed with that, but at the same time, remember now, in the garden there was the disciples, there were those that wanted antagonistic to Jesus, they were the priests and the soldiers.

We know that the young man is not 1 of them either.

They grabbed him, obviously telling us that they did not identify the young man as their own.

So this presents itself an interesting lesson.

Because the young man in our story is not a disciple, he is not someone who gave up everything to follow Jesus.

At the same time, he does not fall under the category of those that were outrightly trying to trap Jesus.

If this was a sermon, I would say that many people are like that young man.

They're not like the disciples that left everything to follow Jesus, but they're not like the people that are enemies of Jesus that are openly in open antagonism to Christ and his principles or his teachings.

This person is somewhere right in the middle.

So notice the next thing in verse 51, it says, he has a linen cloth cast about his naked body.

Now, when the Bible bothers to tell you what he's wearing, I think you know that this is obviously for a reason.

And let's just make the application from what we've started with, that this represents people that are in between.

Let's ask ourselves, what does linen symbolize spiritually in the Bible?

You're going to go to Revelation chapter 19?

The Bible talks about the fine linen as the righteousness of the saints.

Now, when you make these applications, there has to be some corroboration.

Okay, in other words, there has to be something to say, okay, you're on the right track.

Is it true that the righteousness of Christ is the only thing which covers our sinfulness?

Because the man is, besides the linen, he's what?

Naked, and in the Bible, the first time that nakedness appears is after man sinned, Isn't that right?

Okay, so we have that confirmation that the application we made is on the right track because there is that testimony of 2 things that are in agreement with this principle.

So, we could say that this teaches a spiritual truth.

The only thing that covers our sinful nature, or our sinfulness, the only thing that really covers our sinfulness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which he provides, right?

Like it's almost as if, it's as if he is a sloppy dresser.

Now, Scholars say that when the news, because you know that the Lord's Supper was held at John Mark's, I think, grandmother's house, and so when John Mark heard the news of what transpires next, They say that he quickly got dressed and just ran out.

Whatever the case is, this teaches us something interesting.

Is it true that when we wake up and we ask God for forgiveness and we ask him to cover us with his righteousness, is it true that God gives to us the pure, spotless righteousness of Jesus?

It's 1 thing to have it, but it's another thing to keep it.

And the story, it kind of gives us the idea that this man, even though he did have the righteousness, he was in danger of losing it under any kind of duress.

Under any kind of temptation, this thing was going to just come right off.

It's not merely to start the day off and to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but to also maintain and keep the righteousness during the temptations and trials that come during that day, isn't that true?

So okay, but then if we look at this, notice what it says here.

Can anybody tell me what spiritual truth does that teach us?

Isn't it true that the greatest temptation, the greatest source of temptation is often from people of our peer group.

So, like, if you were speaking to young people, you know, you could say, isn't it true that the people that present the greatest temptation is people that you consider your equals, right?

This young man had the young man that grabbed him.

Back to Menu

Learning to Fish, Part 1

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine