Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Please take your Bible and turn to the second Gospel in the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark

Today we are going to begin a study of this gospel and its 16 chapters

To begin I am only going to read verse 1 as we are introduced to this book

It says...

Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

As we begin our look at Mark’s gospel we are first brought to...

I.

The Title of the Book

That’s what verse 1 is

In that title, it summarizes "the contents of the entire gospel of Mark” (Hiebert) and it describes “the entire work” (Brooks) of Jesus Christ

It is the history of Jesus’ earthly ministry, His teaching, and His death and resurrection

It is a factual record (MacArthur)

It is not only recorded here but also in Matthew, Luke and John

All were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

Matthew and John were apostolic eyewitnesses to the events of which they wrote

According to Luke 1:3-4, Luke thoroughly investigated the details of our Lord’s ministry in order to produce his testimony

According to early church tradition, Mark wrote his gospel based on the preaching of the apostle Peter (MacArthur)

So the phrase “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” cannot be confined to the ministry of John, since it goes far beyond his preparatory work (Hiebert)

Neither is it closely connected grammatically with the verses immediately following (Hiebert)

This is the message about Jesus Christ

Mark doesn’t include what the other gospel writers include as the “beginning”

They begin with His birth

He begins with a declaration and then mentions John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Christ

R.C. Sproul says, “The facts Mark gives us are included to demonstrate two things: Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Son of God.

Mark makes this affirmation at the beginning of his work, saying, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (v. 1).

That is the thematic statement for the entire gospel.”

So the “beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” starts in verse 1 with his royal declaration that Jesus is the Son of God

He cuts to the chase and states this right at the “beginning”

The phrase “of Jesus Christ” in Greek is called an objective genitive which means it is about Jesus Christ

This is the glad news which tells about Jesus Christ

Jesus is the subject of all 4 gospels

This is exactly what Mark’s Gospel presents

If Mark intended his work to have a title, this is it (Edwards)

The word for “gospel” (euvangelion) literally means “good news”

It appears 7 times in Mark (1:14–15; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; and 14:9; 16:15) and 4 times in Matthew

It doesn’t appear at all in Luke and John in its noun form but it does in its verbal form

Matthew uses it once in this way

Luke uses it 10 times (Brooks)

In both the OT and in Greek literature euangelion was commonly used of reports of victory from the battlefield

When the Philistines defeated the troops of Saul on Mt.

Gilboa, “they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news (euangelizesthai) … among the people” (1 Sam 31:9; see also 2 Sam 1:20; 18:19–20; 1 Chr 10:9)

The messenger who brought the report was the deliverer of “good news” (2 Sam 4:10; 18:26)

David said in 2 Samuel 4:10, “when one told me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.”

Among the Greeks the term was used...of victory in battle, as well as of other forms of good news

In 9 B.C., within a decade of Jesus’ birth, the birthday of Caesar Augustus (63 b.c.–a.d.

14) was hailed as euangelion (pl.)

Since he was hailed as a god, his “birthday signaled the beginning of Good News for the world.”

In the Greco-Roman world the word always appears in the plural, meaning one good tiding among others

But in the NT euangelion appears only in the singular

It is the good news of God in Jesus Christ, beside which there is no other (Edwards)

In Mark’s understanding...the gospel is more than a set of truths, or even a set of beliefs

It is a person, “the gospel of Jesus Christ”

So the announcement of Jesus is “good news”

Good news is found not only in how He lived and what He said from the Father, but also in His name

The name “Jesus” is the transliterated form of the Hebrew word Jehoshua, which means, “Jehovah saves” (Wuest)

The title “Christ” (christos) is the transliterated form of the Greek word which means “the anointed one” (Wuest)

It is also the transliteration of the Hebrew title “Messiah”

The good news is Jesus saves

He is the anointed one, the Messiah

Mark concludes verse 1 with a bold statement about Christ

Notice...

II.

The Person of the Book

Mark says Jesus is “the Son of God”

Luke includes this phrase in Luke 3:38 when giving Jesus’ genealogy

But the greatest source is God Himself

Mark records in Mark 1:11, “and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.””

This was at His baptism

Mark mentions it again at His transfiguration in Mark 9:7, “Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!””

The name “son of God” speaks of Jesus’ lineage and right to rule (MacArthur)

Jesus is one in nature with God

He is coeternal and coequal with the Father

For those Roman pagans who wrongly regarded Caesar as a god, Mark introduces them to the true divine King: the Lord Jesus Christ (MacArthur)

Others recognized this:

Nathaniel said to Jesus in John 1:49, “...“Rabbi,

You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.””

Peter said in Matthew 16:16, “...“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.””

The other disciples said in Matthew 14:33, “You are truly God’s Son!”

The demons recognized this:

The demons even said in Matthew 8:29, “...“What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?””

The angels recognized this:

Mary was told by the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:35, “...“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

Jesus understood this:

He said in John 17:1, “…“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,”

You and I read this and we don’t have a problem

But it did generate a lot of controversy in the 4th century when Arius said Jesus was a created being (Sproul)

R.C. Sproul said, “References to Jesus as “the firstborn of all creation” (Col.

1:15) and “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14, KJV) led Arius to argue that Jesus had a beginning in time and was thus a creature.

In Arias’ mind, if Jesus was begotten, it could only mean that He was not eternal, and if He was not eternal, then He was a creature.

Thus, to ascribe deity to Jesus was to be guilty of blasphemy, because it involved the idolatrous worship of a created being” (Who Is Jesus?)

The title “Son of God” refers to Jesus’ deity

This is what theologians refer to as the eternal sonship view

In the book, Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Doctrine, Edited by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, they say this view rests on the observation that the title Son of God, when applied to Christ in Scripture, seems to always speak of His essential deity and absolute equality with God, not his voluntary subordination.

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’s time understood this

John 5:18 says that they sought the death penalty against Jesus, charging Him with blasphemy “because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making himself equal with God.”

In that culture, a dignitary’s adult son was deemed equal in stature and privilege with his father.

The same deference demanded by a king was afforded to his adult son.

The son was, after all, of the very same essence as his father, heir to all the father’s rights and privileges—and therefore equal in every significant regard.

So when Jesus was called “Son of God,” it was understood categorically by all as a title of deity, declaring Him equal with God and (more significantly) of the same essence as the Father.