Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I had mentioned last week that this Advent season we will be working our way through the four evangelist and their introduction of we have come to know as the Christmas Story.

Last week as I mentioned Matthew was written to the Jews from the perspective as a Jew, turned Tax collector working for the perceived enemy of the people of God and now a follower of the Messiah.

Chosen by God, the first evangelist who we looked at shared the message of the Christmas Story.

Today, we are going to look at the second evangelist.

Mark.

Now I was challenged last week on one of my statements about Mark and it lead me to some research about this evangelist and it appears I have miss lead you in some direction about this man.

So let me set the record straight.

John Mark.

JOHN MARK Son of Mary (Acts 12:12), cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10), and missionary companion of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:5).

According to church tradition, John Mark was the author of the Gospel of Mark.

In first-century Palestine, it was common for a man to have two names: a Hebrew name (e.g., “John”), by which he was known to friends and relatives, and a Greek or Roman (Roman Christian) name (e.g., “Mark”), by which he was known in the business world (Barclay, Introduction, 151; Acts 12:12, 25).

“Mark” appears to have been a common name in the first century.

Consequently, it is difficult to know whether the person mentioned in Acts and Colossians is the “Mark” named elsewhere in the New Testament (2 Tim 4:11; Phlm 24; 1 Pet 5:13; compare with John Mark in Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37, 39; Col 4:10).

Unlike Matthew and John, John Mark was an early convert in the followers of the Way, the early Christians and became an evangelist along with Paul.

It has been stated that

The Gospel of Mark emphasizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus announced the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, and died as a ransom for sinners.

In addition to Jesus, Mark features three main groups of people: the disciples, the crowds, and the religious leaders, none of whom understood Jesus.

When the time came for Jesus to go to the cross, the religious leaders arrested him, the disciples abandoned him, and the crowds jeered him.

Only when he died alone on the cross did a Roman centurion recognize that he was the Son of God.

Though the book is anonymous, tradition identifies John Mark (Acts 12:12) as the author.

He may have based his Gospel on Peter’s preaching, writing sometime in the 50s or 60s A.D.

When I set out down this path, to be honest, I wasn’t excited about preaching through Mark’s view of the Christmas Story

Why,

Mark doesn’t talk about his birth like the others.

It, while quite frankly, omits that details completely about the birth.

It does point to the Christ Child, but in a different way in which we have come to celebrate year after year.

Turn with me if you will to the Book of Mark and let’s begin reading how this evangelist comes to tell the early part of Christ’s story of becoming Immanuel.

Let’s Pray

Where is the Christmas Story in this Gospel?

For many of you, you must ask this question.

Where is the Christmas story in this Gospel.

Well, the story we have come to tell each year, the one that manger scenes are created, this gospel omits this part of the story.

Mark is a reminder for all of us that the Gospel is not about the Christ Child.

The Gospel is about the person and work of Christ.

It starts in the beginning

Christmas is a time to remember that the God, who as from the beginning, came to us to dwell with us, but he was not new.

He came in the form of man, a child, entered into humanity, but the miracle of His coming was not his birth, but Him ministry here on earth for us.

Mark is a reminder of what we hold to be true in the Gospel that this Christ child would grow to be our saviour.

That is the Gospel.

One of my favourite songs that bridges the gap between the focus on the birth and his ministry is

Mary did you know.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has come to make you new?

This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you

THE GOSPEL

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Will calm the storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little baby

You kiss the face of God

Immanuel

Verse One in Mark, outlines the importance of the event of Christ Coming.

I found this when researching for this morning.

Five things we know about the Christ Child according to Mark

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/christmas-without-crib-mark%E2%80%99s-gospel-advent

Beginning

‘Beginning’ is the same word which opens the whole Bible, (‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ [Genesis 1:1]).

That beginning was the birthday of the universe, and if we recall the words of Paul that Christ was the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (Colossians 1:15), we are already in the atmosphere of Christmas.

The word ‘beginning’ has other applications, too.

It could refer to the persons and events that Mark reports at the beginning of his gospel.

It could refer to the whole gospel story as the foundation and norm of our own Christian commitment.

It could simply mean that if we want to begin our own Christian story at the beginning, this is a good place to start.

Our calendars mark this beginning as BC Before Christ and AD in the year of our lord.

It was in Mark’s mind a reminder that this was a starting place or beginning of Christ’s work here on earth.

To Begin His Immanuel, dwells with us.

Gospel

Mark goes on to speak of the beginning of the ‘gospel’.

This is a word with a double application.

It was used in secular circles to announce an important event such as the birth of an heir to the emperor, so it might have been a stimulus to Mark’s initial readers to rejoice in the birth of Jesus simply on a human level.

But the word had also been used centuries before in a religious context by the prophet Isaiah: ‘

The Gospel that began so many years ago is that same Gospel that lives in our lives today.

The Christmas story marks that entrance of God coming into our lives like that of Child like faith.

The word Isaiah uses for ‘brings good news’ is the word that we translate as ‘to gospel’.

Luke puts flesh on these words of Isaiah when he reports the words of the angel to the shepherds, ‘I bring you news of great joy’ (Luke 2:10), and when he records Jesus’s announcement at the start of his ministry that he has been anointed to ‘bring good news to the poor’ (4:18).

Words like ‘peace’, ‘salvation’ and ‘reign of God’ are associated with events of Christmas.

The angels sing of peace at the birth of Jesus (2:14).

Simeon praised God because his eyes had seen God’s salvation (2:30).

The angel Gabriel told Mary that her Son would reign over the house of Jacob for ever (1:33).

We can, therefore, glimpse Christmas in this second word of Mark, ‘gospel’.

Jesus

The third word is the name of ‘Jesus’.

This is the name by which he was known in his lifetime.

Mark tells us that he came from Nazareth in Galilee (Mark 1:9), which corresponds with what we learn about his hometown from Matthew (2:23) and Luke (2:4).

Information from Matthew sheds a Christmas light on this mention of the name of Jesus by Mark: an angel of the Lord had told Joseph that Jesus would be the name of Mary’s child, because he would ‘save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21).

Its Hebrew equivalent was ‘Joshua’ who, as successor of Moses, had led his people into the Promised Land.

Jesus leads us into the land of the Kingdom of God.

Christ

The fourth word is ‘Christ’.

This is a name we meet repeatedly in the letters of Paul; it has become a second name for Jesus.

He is Jesus Christ – it is a title rather than a name.

It translates the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’.