Mark Intro (7-2-25)

what's up everybody it's Pastor James welcome back to our midweek Bible study

today we're going to start the gospel of Mark and before we begin reading this

wonderful book this gospel as we usually do let's cover some background

information the first thing we want to cover today is that John Mark is

credited with writing this gospel now we call it the gospel according to Mark

but his name is John Mark and this is the same John Mark that we just talked

about a couple of months ago on Sunday morning about the one who abandoned Paul

and Barnabas on their first missionary journey while they were in Pamphylia

and he went back to Jerusalem so this is quite interesting that someone who

caused a good bit of division in the early church between two great church

leaders ends up being one of the authors of one of the I want to say the best

gospels but it really is a very unique gospel and we'll talk more about that in a

little bit so traditional scholars believe this gospel was written before

70 AD for several reasons one of the first ones is in chapter 13 Jesus

speaks of the temple being destroyed in the future context rather than saying

that Jesus predicted what had already happened so John Mark doesn't

necessarily point to this event as the destruction of the temple already

happening he's recording it in a way that Jesus has predicted this but gives

no indication that it has already happened there are other things in the gospel

of Mark that Jesus points to that has already come to fulfillment but he does

not treat the destruction of Jerusalem temple as already happening as a part of

Bible history that Jesus foretold and so that happened in the year 70 AD and

that's why most people think that the gospel of Mark was written beforehand

Peter was also martyred between 67 and 68 AD by Nero the Emperor of Rome and

it would have been more likely that John Mark wrote this during Peter's

life or at least shortly after his life so that's another reason why people think

it was before 70 AD or right at 70 AD also because it was written to Roman

readers and we'll talk more about this later but some believe it could have

been written as early as the late 50s while Mark accompanied Peter in Rome

while they were doing ministry and so even as early as 50 AD that they were

already beginning to work on the gospel of Jesus Christ for these Roman

believers as they are traveling in Rome and ministering to these people so long

story short we're not a hundred percent sure if you google the answer of when

this was written you'll find that the most common answer is somewhere between

70 and 75 AD and that's probably just a safe estimate when you look at the

other gospels and the other writings of the New Testament but some people

believe it was written a little sooner than that so John Mark was the son of a

lady named Mary that should not be surprising as many women in the New

Testament were were named Mary and it's not any of the Mary's that we find

mentioned in the gospels which is unique this is a different Mary so there's more

Mary's than what we think of and he is also the cousin of Barnabas as we

discussed in our previous Sunday morning series it's also believed that it was

the upper room of this same Mary's house John Mark's mother that the

disciples met in and that Peter and John Mark were particularly close as

Peter refers to Mark as his son in 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 13 so they're

meeting in this upper room this is when the Holy Spirit fills the disciples John

Mark would have been very close to the disciples and probably especially even

closer to Peter and has this amazing relationship this amazing ability to have

access to these godly influential men and as a result Peter is credited with

a lot of the mentorship of John Mark so we see that Peter is believed to have

helped John Mark recover from his desertion of Paul and Barnabas as Peter

would have understood acutely what it was like to fail the Lord and to be

restored you know remember that Peter denied Jesus three times and ran away

and wept bitterly and Jesus restored him back to his original calling and so

perhaps Peter would have very much understood and identified the

hardships of making the choices to follow Jesus and in this he helped John

Mark be restored back to the faith and restored back to the church and become

a strong believer and mature as the years go on so second both Mark and

Barnabas were very involved in the churches of Jerusalem and worked

directly under Peter for many years so we see that he's had time to prove

himself in Jerusalem in the comfort of his hometown in the comfort of people

that he's surrounded with and being surrounded by these very strong

spiritual leaders the disciples and so the third and most important as being

the source of the information that John Mark penned in this gospel and as a

result has a great impact in how Jesus is portrayed in the gospel which is by

far the most interesting descriptions of Jesus that we have Mark's account of

Jesus is very unique and different from the other three gospel so Matthew Mark

and Luke are all similar to one another they're called the synoptic gospels

they're very similar in the way that they're written very similar stories

very similar outlines within reason the gospel of John is very different but

at the same time Mark describes Jesus in a very different way than all of the

other gospels the early church father papayus of Heropolis wrote sometime

between 95 and 140 AD that Mark's gospel was compiled from the sermons of

Peter which mark had access to being so close to him and so either mark gets

this information from Peter himself and starts writing this down or he has the

writings of Peter as proclaimed by this papayus of Heropolis who claims that he

had Peter's writings and then formed the gospel through these writings now Mark

writes this gospel to Roman readers and we see this and know this because of

a few specific things the first thing is is that there are specific Aramaic

terms that are translated and when Jewish or other Aramaic people were the

target audience the terms would have still been included as Aramaic or Jewish

terms so what we find is is that these are translated specifically into Greek

and this is what the people would have spoken this is what they would have

understood there was no need to keep the Aramaic or Jewish terms another

thing is is that Mark provides explanations for Jewish customs so we

know that whoever is going to be reading this gospel is not going to be

familiar with the very common things that Jewish people would have done

every day for instance things like the washing of hands and the ceremonial

rituals which they would go through Jesus I'm sorry Mark also emits Jesus

lineage he omits the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and it's the least

amount of Old Testament references of any gospel that we have so we see that

there are things that pertain to Jewish culture Jewish customs Jewish

expectations that are specifically omitted because Roman people just would

not have cared about the lineage of Jesus they do not care that he would

have had to have come from the lineage of David and that you would have had to

been able to trace his family line all the way back to David and Abraham they

wouldn't have cared about all the Old Testament prophecies it's it's the least

amount of Old Testament scripture references they just would not have

cared about those things but another thing that we see is that Mark

calculates time according to the Roman system so he's not keeping up with it

from a Jewish calendar perspective but rather he's documenting time in this

from a Roman dating system also we see Latin expressions that were used in

place of Greek equivalents and this is a very Roman thing to do while most of

the world during this time spoke Greek or at least were familiar with

Greek Latin was a big thing that the Romans were into and the fact that he

uses Latin expressions is a huge indication that he is trying to appeal to

a Roman audience and unlike Matthew Mark was not trying to convince Jesus or

Jews that Jesus was the Messiah he was simply trying to convince whoever his

readers were that Jesus was God's son and that he was very deserving of

surrendering to and accepting as Lord and Savior so in this we see that Mark

was trying to convince Romans that Jesus is God's son and he's not meeting

an endless amount of requirements as the Jews would need for that to happen

rather he proves who Jesus is being the Son of God by the way that he lived

as a human man on earth and that's really important we see a lot of Jesus

that is very raw it's very you kind of got the curtain peeled back with this

Jesus and so we see a lot of things of Jesus that we don't see in the other

Gospels now Mark chapter 1 verse 1 we see the point where Mark says this is

Mark 1:1

the good news about Jesus the Messiah the Son of God from the very beginning

he explains very clearly about what this is about Jesus is the Messiah the Son

of God this is what I'm trying to prove to you and Jesus is the way to salvation

and that Jesus lived out his teachings in a very raw and practical way and

this is the Jesus that we get very raw very practical very unique compared to

the other Gospels it is in this Gospel of Mark that we see Jesus being

portrayed as a servant rather than a king or a lord that's very different okay

we see Jesus constantly serving in the Gospel of Mark rather than being this

deity that we should worship now it doesn't mean that we shouldn't worship

Jesus but we're presenting or Mark is presenting him as a servant to the

Roman people to kind of pendulum swing this idea of the Romans were constantly

trying to elevate themselves above one another but also above the rest of the

world but he's calling the Romans to surrender to Christ and be servants

like Christ was a servant even though he was God now the Gospel of Mark is

servant-themed and we see that in Mark chapter 10 verse 45 he says for even

Mark 10:45

the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and give his life

as a ransom for many so for example when the disciples are on the boat in

Matthew 8 and they say Lord save us we're going to drown but Mark 4

records the disciples asking Jesus in the same moment Jesus do you even care

that we're gonna drown and while both are communicating their desire to live

they're very much presenting Jesus in two different ways Matthew presents

Jesus as Savior Lord save us and Mark presents Jesus as a servant who cares

Lord don't you care that we're going to drown and Mark wants the readers to know

that Jesus does care about them as he presents Jesus caring for so many others

during the realm of this gospel so another way this attitude of

servanthood is shown is with the words euthios and this word is translated into

multiple words like forthwith straightway or immediately in some of the

older translations and in newer translations it may be something as

simple as quickly or immediately but this term is specifically a servant's

term this was a Greek word used for servants and their duty to take care of

things in a timely manner and we see this Greek word in the original

translation of the gospel used over 40 times and so he's very much portraying

Jesus as this servant who is quickly promptly doing the things that he has

been called to do by God the Father now Mark describes some weird things in

this gospel that the other gospels do not give us this is some of that raw

very just different portrayals of Jesus that we see for instance in chapter 7

Jesus puts his fingers in a deaf man's ears and then spits on his fingers and

touches the man's tongue and in this way he heals his deafness and his speech

impediment and Jesus does things differently in this gospel you know

it's not a matter of speaking and the man is healed it's not a matter of

touching him and or someone coming up and touching Jesus rather Jesus is very

raw and kind of undignified when you think about him licking his fingers and

then putting it in someone's mouth that's a very most people would find

that gross and and intrusive and but we see that in Jesus in this gospel

Jesus is not portrayed as this meek and mild but a lot of people would say

he's very aggressive and someone say wild in this in this passage and so

that's a unique way of looking at Jesus he's not written as passive but he's a

man's man in this gospel which would appeal to Roman readers of this day

because the Roman people would have wanted someone that they would desire

to follow and not just someone that they were just called to follow you

know they're not just they're not Jewish people who already believe in the Old

Testament and believe that a Messiah is coming these Roman people are gonna have

to believe that God is the one true God that the Old Testament is truth and

they're gonna put their faith in God in the Old Testament now they're also

putting their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and they have to die to this

life and so they're they're having to completely change their entire belief

system for a Jewish person to put their faith in Christ they only have to

believe that Jesus was the Messiah that they already believed in but the Roman

people now have to believe in everything that the Jewish people have been taught

their whole lives and that Jesus is that man and so it's a very different

way of portraying and presenting Jesus the Messiah the Son of God so Mark

doesn't include anything about Jesus lineage as we said earlier prophecies

about his coming nothing of his birth nothing of his childhood Mark only

focuses on Jesus ministry and even that is condensed so his account of things

that Jesus did is not in order we don't have a chronological order of things in

the book of Mark he's just kind of mentioning stuff as he goes along and

trying to prove that Jesus is this amazing servant of a man who is also

God and you got to remember that Mark didn't see Jesus do these things so he's

relying heavily on Peter's testimony of the things that he's recording Mark

wasn't given a chronological order of Jesus life he was only telling of his

wonderful deeds to prove that he was a servant and that he was the Son of

God so while Matthew gives us 14 parables Mark only gives us 4 so the

idea of teaching in parables was a prophecy from the Old Testament that had

to be proved so Matthew is writing his gospel to Jewish readers who need all

those prophecies to be fulfilled in order for them to put their faith in

Christ as the Messiah the Romans don't need that so while the the parables are

beneficial they're not necessary and so Mark only includes four of them there's

no Sermon on the Mount in this gospel because Mark is not concerned about

communicating the law you know you remember the prayer the Sermon on the

Mount is a clarification of Old Testament teachings it's very powerful

it's very important but for the Jewish people it was it was necessary for the

Romans not necessary so he doesn't include that Mark is concerned about

communicating Jesus and his willingness to serve others even though he was God

in fact Mark's account of Jesus is so precise that an estimated 90% of his

stories of Jesus are also found in Matthew and Luke he doesn't add anything

in he speaks only of what Peter testifies to and does so in a way that

appeals to Roman readers in a powerful way it's short it's to the point it's

the shortest gospel we have and it's the most it is very detailed and if any

of you know anything about writing sometimes it's harder to write things

with less words you have to be very specific about what you say very

creative in what you say because you have to make every word count Mark does that

he has condensed down the story of Christ in a way that is powerful it's

insightful it presents Jesus in a new and different way to a people who need to

know who he is and there are more accounts of demonic possession and of

Jesus casting out demons than any other gospel so while this is talking about

Jesus serving it's also presenting him as powerful that he serves people but he

also has power over the spiritual authorities and the people that we

cannot see that the Romans very much believed in Jesus had power over the

spiritual forces that are unseen so this is truly a testament of the spiritual

power of this God who is also a man and yet has the heart and the attitude of a

servant and the thing that mark is communicating to the Romans is we have

to follow Christ example so while we may be powerful while we may have wealth and

esteem and position and the ability to order others around and every right to

that we take on the position of a servant we humble ourselves we love

others and in essence we serve God and find eternal life through Christ in that

and that's basically the message of Mark that we're gonna be studying over

the next several weeks so let me pray with you guys I'll let you go and then

next time we get together we'll be reading Mark chapter 1 let's pray father

Mark 1 · chapter mention

thank you so much for this day and everything you bless us with Lord we

love you and we appreciate the opportunity to be able to read your word

and to study it and thank you for all the people who's come before us to put

in all this work and effort to do the background information to really gain a

good understanding of what's happening as this gospel is being written Lord I

pray that you would use this information to help us understand your

word better to apply it to our lives and grow with you Lord we love you and we

thank you and we ask all this in Jesus name amen all right guys thanks again for

tuning in for another week thank you for being a part of the family of Jesus

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