Mark Introduction

We are beginning today our study of the Gospel according to Mark.

So if you'll please turn there with me.

I don't know if you feel this or not, but whenever we begin something new and end something old,

that's a little bittersweet for me.

We've just completed our study of Nehemiah, which took us just a couple of months.

Prior to that, we studied through the book of Romans.

And each time, I take my little handy ribbon bookmark that came with my Bible here,

and I keep it right where we're at.

And that's kind of my go-to spot as I'm studying throughout the week.

And it's a little painful sometimes to move it from the end of a book to something new.

The case of Nehemiah really blessed my heart to get to study it,

and I hope it did yours as we learned from it together.

I always get to the end, and I wonder, did we wring it dry?

Did we get everything that it was to get out of it?

Sometimes I want to start back at the beginning because it's been such a blessing to us

and just say, this was too good.

We're going to start over, and we're just going to do it again

and see what else God would teach us from this book.

Nevertheless, I do think it's time to move on,

and we're going to begin our study of Mark.

And as excited as I am that we did Nehemiah and we're finishing it,

I'm as equally excited to begin to plow through Mark together.

To be totally honest with you, and just to show you how very base my mind can be sometimes

as I begin to ponder what should we do next

and had a desire to look at one of the Gospels together,

I started, I picked Mark because it was the shortest.

The 16 chapters versus Matthew's 28 chapters.

I just said, yeah, that would be good because, whew, 28 chapters, that's a lot of work.

Mark, that's how base my mind is, but I've come to see that this was a very particular reason

that we've come together to study Mark together in these coming months.

So, let's take a look together simply this morning at Mark 1.1.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Join me in prayer.

Father God, we praise You this morning for Your goodness to us in Christ,

the One who has taken this debt that we had, that we could not pay.

We could deposit into it all we wanted, and it would never have been filled,

would never have been satisfied.

But Christ has paid that debt on our behalf.

We praise You for that, that we now have life in Him.

And we praise You for the Gospel according to Mark, this inspired work,

written by Mark, moved along by Your Spirit, that testifies to this One, Jesus Christ.

Father, help this study to enrich our lives individually,

and to enrich our lives corporately, for Your glory.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

So, Mark 1.1.

I get to reread our text numerous times today, which is really wonderful,

because it's so short.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

But before we look carefully at this, I think it's important that we get a little bit of background.

We have some framework to move forward in together.

And I know that as I study that type of thing, it carries with me,

because I spend a lot of time each week looking at the Gospel of Mark.

But I know that you don't.

Like, you may not necessarily, like, spend a bunch of time each day reading and picking up commentaries

and studying and meditating on this.

And so I'll bring it back around.

We'll fill in some of the details of these things later.

I don't want to give you a perfect explanation of all of the framework

and then expect you to remember it in the coming 8 to 12 months, is my guess here.

So I just want to kind of get your mind going in the right direction as we look at Mark together this morning.

Mark is one of the three, what are called the synoptic Gospels,

which that word comes from the Greek word.

It simply means together seen.

They include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, with similar wording.

This would be Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

These are the synoptic Gospels.

It is widely accepted, although we don't know for sure, this can't be factually stated,

but it is widely accepted that Mark was the earliest written of the Gospels.

More than likely in the mid to late 50s AD is when Mark penned this book.

We see evidences of that because Matthew and Luke both seem to borrow heavily from the Gospel of Mark in its structure.

95% of Matthew, for example, is borrowed from the Gospel of Mark.

Often the danger with Mark is that we see it simply as the comic book version.

Some of you I talked to this week, I actually made that comment about,

that we simply view it as the comic book version or the Reader's Digest,

for those of you who are older in the crowd, version of the Gospel.

That's very action-packed. It moves along very quickly.

There's not a great emphasis on Jesus' words, but rather his actions in the book.

The temptation with Mark is always to read a story here,

and then go to the corresponding story in Matthew and preach from that.

But I know that in this journey together, there's going to be many times I'm just going to want to flip to Matthew,

where there's a lot more detail and try to flesh it out for you in a greater degree there.

As such, Mark's often neglected. It's pushed off.

It's a lesser Gospel in some people's minds.

But this book is also part of the inspired Word of God.

This account of the Gospel was penned in this way for very specific reasons,

and so we must treat it with reverence, right?

We can't say, hey, Mark, kind of not a detailed guy.

Let's go read Matthew instead.

This book was given to us for our benefit together.

I found it fascinating, and I'm not dogging on MacArthur,

because this is not what he did or the point he was making,

but as I was listening to an introductory sermon he preached on Mark,

he brought to everyone's attention that this was the last book of the New Testament

he had preached at Grace Community Church.

Over a 20-year span, he came to Mark last and finally to complete that journey.

And boy, I hope someday I can say,

this is the last book of the New Testament that I haven't preached yet at Christ Family Church.

That'd be a real blessing.

I looked for, as I like to do, MacArthur's commentaries.

You know he has a commentary on every book of the New Testament except Mark?

Probably because he wrote a very wonderful one in multiple volumes on Matthew.

What would he have said that he would have said in a commentary setting?

That is totally fine, right?

So again, I'm not dogging on John MacArthur,

but it's appropriate that we would preach from the Gospel of Mark

and that we approach it together.

So as I said, probably, more than likely, the earliest written.

It's very simple in its format.

You won't see this so much in the English, but in the original language,

it's very, very simple in its format.

Possibly written entirely in Aramaic and later translated into Greek.

That's a distinct possibility because of some of the way the phrases are translated.

If not, it was at very least written in very rudimentary Greek.

It's what's called a socio-rhetorical gospel.

A better way of thinking of that would be a persuasive biography.

It contains a lot of the very basic elements of Greek biography,

as well as some of the very simplest versions of Greek logic.

So Mark wrote this as a fairly common man, as we'll see here soon,

for common men.

It wasn't necessarily meant for the high-minded.

A persuasive biography.

When we use that term rhetorical,

now we mean lofty speech without much meaning behind it,

meant to convince you of something that you probably shouldn't believe in to begin with.

We see a lot of rhetoric come out of Washington, D.C., for example.

That's not the type of rhetoric we're talking about here.

So we'll use that term persuasive biography.

And the aim of that persuasion,

what he is ultimately driving us to, Mark is here,

was to persuade those who would read this book to become disciple-making disciples.

To serve the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ to the glory of God.

That's what he's trying to persuade.

I can think of nothing higher to persuade people of.

A good thesis statement for the gospel of Mark is found in Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10 · chapter mention

the last half of verse 43 through 45,

which says,

Jesus' words,

We're going to see this kind of carry throughout the entire book as we study it together.

Now, how do we know that Mark wrote this?

As with the other synoptic gospels,

he doesn't name himself as the author.

Not like Paul's letters where he begins with a salutation,

I, Paul.

Here we don't see that being recorded.

And it's believed that they did that because they were trying to put themselves in proper position.

This is not a story about Mark.

This is a story about Jesus Christ.

No need for his name to be even included in this.

So it's been held in Christian tradition that Mark was the one that penned this letter.

He fits the model of the type of man that would have written in this way.

And there's some early church records,

some extra biblical sources that name Mark as the author of the gospel of Mark.

And therefore, we accept it as such.

This is a reliable reason to believe that Mark was, in fact, the writer.

Some of you may have heard this actually being referred to as the gospel of Peter.

Mark knew Peter very well, spent a lot of time with him.

Mark himself was not an apostle.

We're going to look at where we actually find him in the scriptures

and what we can know about Mark.

But Mark himself wasn't an apostle.

He didn't have a firsthand account of the gospel.

But he spent much time with Peter.

It's highly likely that this was going on.

And therefore, you could actually think of it in those terms.

Some of the evidence of that being the way that Peter's own sin is magnified in the gospel of Mark.

His failures, there's much made of it here.

And I believe that Peter wanted people to see how desperately he needed grace in his life.

So who was Mark?

Let's turn to Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

We're going to step away from Mark for a little bit and we'll come back to it.

In case you haven't already memorized.

Chapter 1, verse 1.

For the sake of time, I'm not going to tell you all the events that have led up to where we are now,

but we know that the Christian church is now spreading rampantly.

Actually, the first 12 chapters of Acts could easily be looked at.

The work of the gospel advancing to Judea and Samaria.

It's kind of the story of Peter and the way he's doing that.

The last 16, so from chapter 12, about halfway through towards the end and then on through the end of the book,

is how the gospel advances to the utmost ends of the earth.

The way that Paul and these other missionaries begin to take the gospel out.

And here we see in chapter 12 a bit of a transition.

So look at verse 1 of chapter 12.

I'll set the stage for you.

It says,

So here we have Herod.

The king appointed by the Roman government, pleasing the Jews, not all of the Jews,

but those who were in leadership, by martyring the very first apostle killed.

That would be James here.

We've already seen Stephen killed, but this is the first apostle that's killed for his faith, being James.

And he saw that it made them happy that one of these Christians, one of these followers of the way, was put to death.

And so to continue to make them happy, he arrests Peter.

And boy, Peter must have been mighty by the Spirit because it gives him four squads of soldiers to guard him.

They worked in six hour shifts, which meant he would have been guarded around the clock.

And the intention was to kill him.

The very next day, they were going to kill him.

In verse 6, we see that there were two soldiers guarding him.

Again, what a dangerous man.

This man who was carrying the truth of God.

Two soldiers bound with chains on either side.

And we see this amazing work as the church is praying for him.

An angel is sent in, looses the chains, leads him out of the prison.

Guard's still sleeping.

Leads him out of the prison.

He thinks that it's a dream.

The gates are opening for him.

He just has no idea what's going on.

Thinks it's a total dream.

Verse 9 says he thought he was seeing a vision.

Verse 11 says,

But when Peter came to himself, he said,

Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod

and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.

Verse 12,

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John,

whose other name was Mark,

where many were gathered together and were praying.

So there's the very first mention.

A man known by the name of John Mark.

His Hebrew name was John.

His Greek name, his Roman name was Mark.

So you'll probably hear me refer to him often as John Mark today.

And then in the future, we'll just call him Mark.

But this is the very man that penned the gospel according to Mark.

Notice here, the only mention of him is to clarify who Mary is.

It seems like just about everybody, as part of the gospel account, was named Mary.

So here we have which Mary I don't really know,

but we do know that she's the mother of John Mark.

So Peter goes to a place that's familiar to him.

We're going to see in just a moment that this is the place that these people,

the church were gathered earnestly praying on his behalf.

So we know then, because he goes to this place, it's a familiar place to him,

it's where the church is meeting, that he knew John Mark.

Peter and John Mark knew one another.

At very least, that he was the kid sitting in the corner in Mary's house.

This is where we see him for the very, very first time.

The story gets so incredibly fascinating.

For the sake of time, I'm not going to read it all to you.

You may be familiar with it.

Peter knocks on the gate of the courtyard,

and a servant named Rhoda hears his voice,

and she's so excited, because they're inside praying for him.

She's so excited, she doesn't open the gate.

She goes running back in,

and here we see this incredibly faithless church call her insane,

tell her it's probably his angel,

and they don't go out to open the gate.

That really made me thankful as I was reading this this week

that God uses even our faithless prayers to accomplish things just the same,

because they didn't expect that God would actually do this work to deliver Peter.

So Peter goes in, he meets with them.

So there's the completion of that,

but this is the first place we see John Mark.

Now, down in verse 25 of chapter 12,

we see it recorded,

and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem

when they had completed their service,

bringing with them John,

whose other name was Mark.

We're going to see some evidence later on

that John Mark is the cousin of Barnabas.

So here they go,

they're in Jerusalem,

they've met with the church,

the church is advancing everywhere,

and now they return from Jerusalem,

they're headed to Antioch,

and they take with them John Mark.

Here's our guy.

Now chapter 13.

Now there were in the church of Antioch

prophets and teachers,

Barnabas,

Simeon who was called Niger,

Lucius of Cyrene,

Menaon a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch,

and Saul.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting,

the Holy Spirit said,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul

for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying,

they laid their hands on them

and sent them off.

Here's the commissioning

for the very first missionary journey

of Paul and Barnabas.

Verse 4.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit,

they went down to Seleucia,

and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis,

they proclaimed the word of God

in the synagogues of the Jews,

and they had John to assist them.

Now at this point,

we don't really know a whole lot about him.

But we see,

we'll see later,

cousin to Barnabas,

goes along with them.

He's the son of Mary,

the church meeting in their home.

And then we see that he goes along

on this trip to assist them,

which more than likely means

that he was a humble man,

he wasn't a teacher,

he wasn't being sent out

to proclaim the gospel,

he was being sent out

to serve alongside

and bring to deacon

these apostles that were going out,

to come alongside them

and provide for their need,

to track down the food,

to look for shelter

in this journey along with them.

So probably,

I'm conjecting at this point,

but probably a man

of very simple means,

which is an encouraging thing to me,

because I am no Paul

and I am no Barnabas.

So he goes with them.

Skip down to verse 13.

Now Paul and his companions

set sail from Paphos,

some really nutty things

happened in Paphos,

and came to Perga in Pamphylia,

and John left them

and returned to Jerusalem.

And John left them

and returned to Jerusalem.

So he doesn't go back to Antioch,

he's now bailed on the mission journey,

he doesn't go back to Antioch,

but instead goes back

to his original home,

back to Jerusalem.

He disappears for a little while.

He doesn't show up

in the record anywhere

until we get to chapter 15.

A bunch of accounts,

Paul and Barnabas' travels,

the advancing of the Gospel.

They return to Jerusalem,

Paul and Barnabas do,

to participate in this council

that forms,

that meets together,

because the Judaizers

were coming in

to these Christian fellowships,

and they were saying to Greeks,

if you're to be found right with God,

this Jesus thing is great,

believe that,

but you also must be circumcised.

You also must keep the law

as a sign of the covenant

between God and you.

They met together

to set this straight.

Paul and Barnabas

go to be part of this

as missionaries to the Gentiles,

they wanted to be involved

in this activity.

And after this,

verse 36 of chapter 15,

and after some days,

Paul said to Barnabas,

let us return and visit

the brothers in every city

where we proclaimed

the word of the Lord

and see how they are.

Let's go back the route

we went before

and let's check in

on all of these churches,

all this Christian fellowship

that has begun to happen.

Verse 37,

now Barnabas wanted

to take with them

John called Mark.

But Paul thought it best

not to take with them

one who had withdrawn

from them in Pamphylia

and had not gone with them

to the work.

And there arose

a sharp disagreement

so that they separated

from each other.

Barnabas took Mark with him

and sailed away to Cyprus.

Now the language here

gives us key

that Paul's feelings

about this man

as well as the Greek word

withdrawn

means that John Mark

bailed on the first missionary journey

because he was afraid.

He said,

I did not sign up for this.

I did not know

that this was where

you were going to lead me.

And he bailed.

He was a coward.

He jumped off.

He got out of the situation

altogether.

And here we see

that there's an argument

that arises.

Barnabas sticking up

for his cousin.

It's been a couple of years.

Maybe he's grown up.

Maybe he just needs

a second chance.

Paul who says,

I don't want people with me

who are going to be cowardly.

I don't want them with me.

And so they disagreed

and they went there

separate ways.

I'm not here to give you

commentary on that.

I don't really know

what was right and proper.

But here we have

Barnabas and Paul

split directions.

Barnabas takes Mark with him.

Paul takes Silas.

And the gospel continues

to advance in this way.

Now at this point

we don't see any record

in the New Testament narrative

about Barnabas

for two years.

It doesn't show back up.

We don't know exactly.

We know they went to Cyprus.

We don't know exactly

what happens.

John Mark

disappears from the narrative

for ten years.

No clue what happens

to our little John Mark.

What he's out there doing.

What's going on with him.

Now in the meantime

I think you're familiar

with much of the story.

A lot of the further advancing

of the gospel.

Paul is thrown in prison.

In Rome.

There's a first imprisonment

he's thrown in Rome.

This is the place

that he wrote the letters.

The books we now call

Ephesians, Colossians,

Philemon,

and Philippians.

And guess where

John Mark shows up.

Turn to Colossians 4.10.

I love this.

Ten years he's gone.

What is he doing

in this ten year period of time?

We know he went with Barnabas

to Cyprus.

What next?

What happened?

Philemon verse 20.

Oh excuse me.

Colossians 4.10.

There's Paul writing

to the church.

Aristarchus,

my fellow prisoner,

greets you.

And who?

Mark,

the cousin of Barnabas.

This is where we learn

that it's Barnabas' cousin.

Concerning whom

you have received instruction,

if he comes to you,

welcome him.

If I get the opportunity

to send to you

John Mark,

welcome him.

They had endeared

themselves to one another

once again.

There had been some

reconciliation on their part.

And in fact,

the evidence that

John Mark was growing

in faith,

he would have not been

in a Roman prison

had he not been

bold for Christ.

So,

how did he get?

He went from Jerusalem

off to Cyprus

with Barnabas.

How did he get to Rome?

We don't know.

But somehow,

he was enough of a threat

to the empire

as he was advancing

the gospel

that he gets thrown

in prison

with Paul,

right?

The apostle of apostles.

Here's little John Mark

sitting next to him

in prison.

And they have

apparently reconciled

to a great degree.

Philemon,

verse 23.

Let me just read

this one to you.

He says,

Epaphras,

my fellow prisoner

in Christ Jesus,

sends greeting to you

and so do Mark,

Aristarchus,

Demas,

and Luke,

my fellow workers.

Paul had now

linked arms

with Mark

for the sake

of the gospel.

Isn't that precious?

He shows back up

in this way.

And then again,

in Paul's

second imprisonment,

the very last letter

that he ever wrote

to Timothy,

2 Timothy,

2 Timothy 4:11

chapter 4,

verse 11,

the very end

of his life here,

he writes to Timothy,

Do your best

to come to me soon,

for Demas,

in love with this

present world,

has deserted me

and gone to Thessalonica.

Crescens has gone

to Galatia,

Titus to Dalmatia,

Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark

and bring him with you

for he is very useful

to me

for ministry.

So here's this worker

who's come alongside Paul

and has given him

the service.

Do him for the work

of ministry.

Isn't that precious

to see the reconciliation

taking place there?

I long

to be

with Mark,

the one that he

would want nothing

to do with

on the second journey.

No!

He's a coward.

Leave him behind.

I'm taking Silas.

It's the very one

that he asked Timothy

to bring along

with him

for this work.

This ministered to me

to see

that God used

a man

who bailed

on the mission

to pen

one of the four

gospels,

one of the four

accounts of the life

of Jesus Christ.

There's hope for us yet,

isn't there?

In all of our failure

that God would work

and move

in us.

Because you know

that recovering sinners

are the only type

of people there are?

People who have

failed

and made mistakes.

It's the only type

of people

that there are.

Mark turned

from his cowardice

to boldness.

Otherwise,

he wouldn't have been

in this prison.

He wouldn't have

worked alongside

Paul.

We are recovering

liars.

I hope,

turning to truth.

We're recovering

thieves,

becoming honest.

We're recovering

murderers.

The case of Paul.

Paul himself

is recovering

murder.

We're recovering

idolaters,

turning from worship

of ourselves

and turning to the worship

of God.

So this is the

background of Mark.

It's likely,

I worked really hard

on trying to make

this a fact for you,

I just couldn't

quite do it.

There's too much

maybe in the equation.

But it's likely

that Mark

penned this gospel

while he was sitting

in the Roman prison

alongside Paul.

An interesting thought

to have,

that he sits in prison

and he thinks,

what can I do

for the sake of the kingdom

and the Spirit

impresses upon him

to write down

the gospel.

And I like to think

that he was checking

with,

that's right,

isn't it?

Like,

can you confirm this?

Yeah,

we're doing this well.

We're moving along.

We're getting this down right.

This may have been happening

at the very same time.

And so Mark starts

his gospel account

with the beginning

of the gospel.

The good news

of Jesus Christ,

the Son

of God.

Right?

This one,

this person

who had delivered him

from his sin,

even this sin

of cowardice,

of bailing out

on the mission

that was set

before them.

So why do we

study the gospel accounts?

Why do we

continue to preach

to one another

the gospel?

It's because we need

to hear it.

Why are we going

to look at this?

I think most of you

are probably pretty familiar

with the life of Jesus.

Why should we take time

and work hard,

labor,

some of us more

than others,

but to labor

to really understand

what this book

means for us.

I like the C.S. Lewis quote

I came across this week.

He said,

we have to continually

be reminded

of what we believe.

We have to continually

be reminded

of what we believe.

No belief

will automatically

remain alive

in the mind.

It must be fed.

No belief just

pops up

and stays there.

You have to feed it.

We have to continue

to preach the gospel

to ourselves.

We have to keep

pumping it in

to our very living

so that we will

respond appropriately,

so that we will

worship God rightly

in this world.

That's the value

of coming to this book.

To peer in 16 chapters

at the life of Jesus Christ

and the way He came

as a servant

and poured Himself out

for the church.

Because we're meant

to model this very activity.

Christ is our high standard,

our high goal.

He is the one

that we're driving

to be like.

In Sunday school

this morning

we talked a little bit

about this

as we're studying

the attributes of God.

Don't try to be like me.

I hope to set

some example for you

in trying to be like Christ.

But if you try

to be like me,

you can accomplish that.

You can get

to this stature.

Because it's not

much of a stature.

Try to be like Christ.

And spend your life

doing that.

I am far from perfect.

I need grace.

Christ perfect,

holy,

set apart.

He walked this earth

to show us

how we ought to live.

He is the high mark,

the high goal.

We have to be

continually reminded

of what we believe.

Because no belief

will remain alive

in the mind.

It must be fed.

So He tells us here,

this is the beginning.

The sentence,

the beginning

of the gospel,

the good news.

I'm sure he had

in his mind

Old Testament Scriptures.

He saw that Jesus Christ

was the fulfillment

of so much promise.

He was the reality

of so much shadow.

Finally,

fully,

the kingdom of God

has arrived.

Isaiah 49

says,

Go on up

to a high mountain,

O Zion,

herald of good news.

Lift up your voice

with strength,

O Jerusalem,

herald of good news.

Lift it up,

fear not.

Say to the cities

of Judah,

behold,

your God.

This is what Mark

is saying.

Mark is this

herald of good news

and he's saying

to us,

behold,

your God.

Isaiah 52,

7,

How beautiful

upon the mountains

are the feet

of him who brings

good news,

who publishes peace,

who brings good news

of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion,

your God reigns.

This is what he's coming

to tell us about.

The good news

of Jesus Christ.

That we were once dead

but we now have life

in him.

This is what he's coming.

This debt that we could not pay

has been paid

on our behalf.

We have been ransomed.

We have been adopted.

We have been delivered.

We're justified

in God's sight.

We're clothed

in Christ's righteousness.

This is the good news.

That eternal damnation

was ours

and now eternal glory

belongs to us

because of Christ.

The good news.

I hope it's good

to you this morning.

The good news

of Jesus Christ,

right?

Jesus,

the Hebrew name

Yeshua,

was a very modern,

excuse me,

a very common name

in this day.

Lots of Joshua's

out there,

right?

It means though

God is salvation.

What a fitting name

for our Lord.

God is salvation.

And we attach so often

this Greek word

Christos,

Christ,

to it

because it means

he is the

anointed one.

So Jesus,

the anointed one.

Not your buddy

down the street,

Joshua,

right?

But Jesus Christ,

the anointed one.

We have since,

because of some

Greek linguistic versions,

we can rightly say

and pronounce

this word

Jesus.

And we have,

as the Christian church,

given that name

to him.

Right?

We have said,

this is Jesus.

We name our kids

Joshua,

right?

With the same root.

We don't call him

Jesus.

Some cultures do,

right?

But we tend to do that

because this is the name

that we've reserved

for him alone.

God is salvation.

This is the one

by which

that salvation comes.

And then he calls him

the Son of God.

Now,

it's a doctrine

that we won't get into

this morning

in its entirety.

But if you remember

from our study of Nehemiah,

we saw a very interesting

use of language

as the people

came together

to worship,

that they went out

and they called together

the sons of the singers.

Do you remember

us talking about that?

We talked about

how this language

was a common

Hebrew way

of stating

that someone

was in the same

order as.

So in Nehemiah's day,

they weren't going out

and looking for

the offspring

of the singers,

the kids

of the singers,

but they were looking

to those who belonged

to the order of

the singers

to come together.

And as an aside,

I said,

have you ever considered

Jesus being called

the Son of God

in that regard?

We don't

because we don't

really understand that.

This is not our

cultural context.

But they would have

fully understood.

Both the Hebrew

and Greek mind

would have seen

this thing,

the Son of God,

and seen that Jesus

is in the same

order of God.

This title would have

meant that he possesses

equality with God,

that he is God

himself.

This is a great

declaration of

Jesus Christ's deity.

God sent in man's form

to minister to us.

Phenomenal.

Absolutely phenomenal.

And the insane thing to me

beyond that

is that we are now

called in Christ

sons and daughters

of God.

Which is not to say

that we have equality

with God,

but we are now

created in the

order of.

Right?

Made in his image.

Destroyed by sin

but now restored

in Christ.

Our hearts

turned back

towards him.

Martin Luther,

the great reformer,

said,

it is not

imitation that makes

sons.

Going through the motions.

Doing the religious

thing.

It is not imitation

that makes sons.

It is adoption

that makes us

imitators.

The preciousness

of that truth

because our hearts

have been

regenerate.

We have now been

made in the order

of God.

And this is Mark

coming to us

to pen this

gospel.

I don't know

if any of you

felt kind of the

shock,

and I did,

when I,

like,

this is Mark,

the guy that

bailed on Paul,

I forgot his name.

Right?

I knew a guy bailed

on Paul and Barnabas

for cowardice.

I remember that.

I remember the story.

I remember they got

an argument about it.

But it was Mark,

the guy that got

to write the gospel

according to Mark.

Look at the grace

in his life.

The outworking

of the gospel.

Beloved,

that is the same

grace that we have.

And take people

who are not worthy

of God's favor.

That we can do

nothing to earn it.

You may have some

weight and burden

on your back.

Some thing that you

have done or not done

that you should be doing

that is weighing you

down this morning.

Take a note

from the book

of Mark.

Look at who he

was,

and then who he

became

by the grace of God.

Right?

A coward

who bailed on the mission.

And actually,

up to this point,

the mission hadn't even

been that bad.

There was a guy

that was possessed.

Paul let him have it.

Drove out some demons.

And that's when

John Mark bailed.

Right?

They had yet to be

shipwrecked and beaten

and stoned

and all those things.

Right?

That hadn't even

happened yet.

And he bailed.

And here he is

in a Roman prison

likely writing down

the account

of the life

of Jesus Christ.

Do you think Mark

would have had

any notion

when he bailed,

walked himself

back to Jerusalem

in shame

that he would affect

countless millions

of believers

with his gospel account.

A phenomenal,

phenomenal way

that God used him.

God uses us all

in phenomenal ways.

Whether it's

quite like

writing a gospel.

But he uses us all

to be sure.

I'll say to you again,

Mark's aim was to persuade

those who would read

this book

to become

disciple-making disciples.

Right?

He was a patron

of Christ.

A follower of his way.

Devoted to him

in every regard.

And he wants that

to be the reality

for us as well.

He wants us to serve

the world

with the gospel

of Jesus Christ

to the glory of God.

This is the thing

in which he's trying

to accomplish.

Now as I kind of

mused over

the possibility

that John Mark

was sitting in a Roman prison

with Paul,

that he's writing

down these words

led by the Spirit,

Peter's giving to him,

that we could possibly

see some parallel.

It's possible, right?

That they may have been

desk buddies

writing

conjecture

entirely.

But turn to Philippians

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

I just want to show you

some similarity

here.

This is not meant

to blow your mind

just to be an encouragement.

It's just another

good presentation

of the gospel truth.

We could very simply

outline the gospel

of Mark.

This is probably

the simplest outline

that could possibly

be put on it.

But we could see

Jesus came

as a servant

chapters 1-13.

Jesus died on a cross

chapters 14-15

and Jesus was exalted

to glory

chapter 16.

There is much more

complexity to the book

itself.

But if you want to look

at it in its simplest form

Jesus came as a servant

chapters 1-13

Jesus died on a cross

14-15

and Jesus was exalted

to glory

chapter 16.

Let's look at

Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

So,

if there is any

encouragement in Christ,

any comfort from love,

any participation

in the Spirit,

any affection

and sympathy,

complete my joy

by being of the same mind,

having the same love,

being in full accord

and of one mind.

Do nothing from rivalry

or conceit,

but in humility

count others more

significant,

than yourselves.

Let each of you

look not only

to his own interests,

but also to the interests

of others.

Have this mind

among yourselves

which is yours

in Christ Jesus,

who,

though he was in the

form of God,

did not count

equality with God

as a thing to be grasped,

but made himself

nothing,

taking the form

of a servant,

being born

in the likeness

of men.

Chapters 1-13.

Jesus came

as a servant.

verse 8,

and being found

in human form,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient

to the point of death,

even death

on a cross.

Chapters 14-15,

Jesus died

on a cross.

He was cursed

to hang on a tree.

Therefore,

God has highly

exalted him

and bestowed on him

the name

that is above

every name,

so that the name

of Jesus

every knee

should bow

in heaven

and on earth

and under the earth,

and every tongue

confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord

to the glory

of God,

the Father.

And there we see

Jesus Christ

being exalted

to glory

as it's recorded

in chapter 16.

So,

a way of seeing

and outlining

the content

that we get to

move through together

as we look together

at the gospel

according to Mark.

Let's pray.