The Gospel: Perspectives from Mark (Part 4)
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We’ve spent the last 3 weeks digging into the life of the author of the gospel of Mark. It’s been a really good study so far. Good, not because it’s simply a compelling story… but good because it’s saturated with the gospel message and gospel impact. John Mark, the author, had so much good gospel influence… A promising start, good connections, a wonderful opportunity. His life bore front row seat to many wonderful things. Child of a prominent in home ministry, likely discipled by Peter, grew up watching his cousin lead in ministry, front row seat to watching God grow the church despite much adversity. He was young, eager, and trusted by respected church leaders. And what did he do with that. He quit. He abandoned the mission, he disappointed leaders, and he caused a huge division in the missionary dream team. But his story doesn’t end there.… because God’s grace and gospel doesn’t end there.… the gospel is seen as we looked at last time in John’s failure but it is also very evident in John’s return to ministry usefulness.
B. Where is the Gospel seen through John’s Return to Ministry Usefulness
B. Where is the Gospel seen through John’s Return to Ministry Usefulness
John Mark didn’t stay unfaithful. As we probably all know, he would eventually return to much fruitful ministry… How is that possible? What reason could we give that would have make any sense for John Mark to return to ministry again? Who would ever trust him again? And beyond that, what changed in his life? What happened between the time of his failure in Acts 13:13 and the time of his return to ministry recorded in Acts 15:39. What I want to stress for you this morning is that John didn’t get there by himself. But God’s grace was evident thru the faithful ministry of godly men who went about doing the Lord’s work and playing a prominent role in John’s life once again. Gospel saturated actions took place in the grace of...
-In the Graces of Mentorship, Encouragement, and Second Chances
-In the Graces of Mentorship, Encouragement, and Second Chances
Acts 12:12, Luke 22:34, John 21:1-17, Acts 4:36
Well, the Bible says that after John Mark failed… he returned to Jerusalem. When he got there, how was he treated? It would be easy for us to see how he could have been treated like the black sheep, the flunky, the problem child because the happens far to often in churches. We hear of or see someone do something awful, then the gossip spreads, opinions are formed, and lines are drawn. Those people then become the people that are avoided, cast out, discarded? They walk among us but they are not “one of us.” It’s saddening really when you think about it, how quickly we draw lines in the sand when we ought not to. Somebody doesn’t even have to do anything major and we still draw lines. Their not spiritual enough, their not intelligent enough, their not active enough, their not like me enough. We draw far too many lines when we should we erasing them when it comes to relationships in the church.
Now that’s not to say we don’t ever draw lines. There are times when we legitimately should… like in church discipline. But we draw lines far before it comes to that.… and we ourselves join in the evils when we do so. In those moments, we are not called to run away when we see wrong doing, we are called to restore. Not to scatter but to draw in. If you see fault, you go to them.… draw near to them.… not avoidance, but boldly approach them in love.
And that what we see of John Mark.
Was he avoided, cast out, discarded? What about his own inner struggles. There is enough likelihood to believe that he faced extreme guilt having been the cause of such a split in the missionary dream team. Or perhaps he was so self consumed that he didn’t even care. Either way, He would need someone to lift his spirits, to strengthen him, to guide him...someone that knew him well and could mentor him…
We can’t be certain of what he was feeling, but one thing we can be certain of is this.… John Mark wasn’t treated like the outcast or the black sheep by all. How do we know this? Because someone did indeed minister to him there. In that church in Jerusalem was a man perfectly fit to come alongside of John Mark and mentor him back to faithfulness. In fact, this man knew better than most what it feels like to completely fail but be restored to usefulness. The man we are talking about is the apostle Peter. Who better than Peter would be able to assist and apply grace to John Mark.… … Peter, who himself denied the Savior three times and fled from Him in fear. Peter whom Christ said would be the rock for whom the Lord would use to build His church… and would run so far from Jesus and the ministry that when Jesus goes to find Him again later after his resurrection recorded in John chapter 21 ... He would find him doing what....
Turn with me to John 21 briefly.
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
What was we doing...fishing… back to his old way of life and old practices. Yet, Jesus seeks him out and recommissions him to to the ministry. Feed my sheep!
Jesus timing was perfect and intentional. It mirrored that time when he first called Peter to the work of the ministry. Out fishing.… Jesus calls out to them, cast your nets on the other side… big haul of fish… follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Here Peter is out fishing with a few others… caught nothing… along comes Jesus… cast your net on the other side… huge haul of fish.… Peter’s knows who it is… swings to shore and there Jesus recommissions him to do the work that He called him to. Feed my lambs. Slightly different wording because Peter knew his assignment. Petra, the rock on which Christ will build the church.… he must feed the sheep. But Jesus did it in this way, to remind Peter of his initial call to follow Jesus. Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the sovereign over nature (the fish), Jesus the great teacher, Jesus the merciful Messiah. Peter knew the grace of Jesus, therefore Peter was well equipped to offer it to others. No doubt Peter’s influence on John Mark played a huge role in his life bring him back into service for the Lord.
And here is an important application we can draw from this.
FORGIVEN MEN SEEK OUT THE FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION OF OTHERS. TRULY FORGIVEN MEN SEEK OUT THE FORGIVENSS AND RESTORATION OF OTHERS.
But John Mark had yet another great influencer.… another great mentor… that of his dear cousin Barnabas… who lived up to his name....the “son of encouragement” by giving John Mark another opportunity… in which he accepted and remained. Barnabas acted much like our savior… proving again how critical a role encouragement and mentorship is for John Mark’s success as well as the success of every follower of Christ.
But what does it mean to be an encouragement? What is the Biblical practice of encouragement?
The New Testament verb translated encourage can also mean “to comfort, cheer up, console, speak in a friendly manner.” Throughout, encouragement is about the life-giving power of our shared beliefs and our shared life in the Lord. Biblical encouragement isn’t simple flattery, or just saying something nice to someone. What makes encouragement biblical is when it is explicity Christian encouragement.
Encouragement is shared with the hopes that it will lift someone’s heart toward the Lord. It points out evidences of grace another’s life to help them see that God is using them. It points a person to God’s promises that assures them that all they face is under his control.
This is what is means to be an encouragement. This doesn’t come easy to us. For some of us, it takes alot of work. Real encouragement takes thoughtfulness, time, and careful observation. It takes spiritual maturity and discernment.… it takes unselfishness to notice the good the God is producing out of the bad.
By the way, encouragement is no small thing. We might think of it as a good thing, but not an essential thing. But it vastly critical in the life and health of a church.
Have you ever met anyone suffering from too much encouragement in Christ. NOPE, rather we see everywhere people starving for encouragement in the Lord. When encouragement is absent in the church… people will unloved, unimportant, useless, and forgotten. Why because the flesh we battle against cause us to wallow in self-pity and despair and the sin cursed world we live in fills us with suffering, hardships, trials and difficulties that pull us down.
When encouragement is missing, the church suffers greatly!
That’s why the Bible is filled with commands to encourage.
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
We are far to often bombarded with discouragement. That’s why encouragement is so life giving. They motivate, provide strength, and influence us to keep going.
In times of despair, i’ve saved a few really kind emails and texts I’ve been sent over the past few months that talk about God’s work being evident in my life. Those are so life giving. But should we need to rely on past encouragement to move us forward. I press you with the truth that scripture presents us with the command to encourage in the present. That it would be the regular practice of our church. Not not on special occasions, not just once a year, but regular. If encouragement brings so much life to an individual and so much health to a church, why should we hesitant to do it?
Here are a couple suggestions on how you can get started!
How to be an Encourager
Pray for God to make you an encourager.
Pray that God would show you who to encourage, pray that your actions would work towards the creating of a culture of encouragement in our church
Study Barnabas and the other scriptural examples and see how they encouraged the believer.
Make encouragement a daily discipline
If you struggle to do this, make a reminder in your phone or calendar to write a note, call, text, or email someone today. Do this for some time and you’ll begin to see people differently as well as God differently as you notice more of what He is doing right, rather than what others are doing wrong
Be specific in what you say
Remember it’s not just nice things, but explicitly mentioning where you have seen evidences of God’s grace in their life. It’s not to puff them up, but to remind them of the work of God in their life
Use scripture if you are able
The Psalms, Romans 8, and the Gospel are all great places to go to
But encouragement implies even more than simple words....
The greek word for encourage is parakeleo… it combines two greek words para meaning (beside) and kaleo (to call)… or put together “to call beside”.
Jesus actually used this word when he described the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Our helper, our parakaleo, our encourager.… J.B. Phillips correctly paraphrased this title of the Holy Spirit as “someone to stand by you.” Therefore, the understanding of encourager could be said as someone who is an “empowering presence.”
This should heavily remind us that those that we pour time into may and will probably fail us. They may frustrate us by poor excuses, they may shirk off responsibilities, they may altogether abandon us.... and that can be extremely discouraging. Your children, those that you are leading in discipleship, friends and close companions. You may give your life to them and they may turn their backs on you. But to be a follower of Christ is not to hold a grudge, instead we are called to not give up on them. To pursue them like Christ pursued us.… that even while we fled from Him.… He pursued us and gave us a new and glorious life.… filled with purpose, and value, and meaning.
This is the gospel played out in John Mark’s life thru the mentorship, encouragement, and second chances of godly saints and it is our responsibility to follow suit.
God didn’t just use other people to bring about the fruitfulness of John Mark. God himself was actively involved in the process as well… thru the grace of...
-In the Grace of Sanctifying for Good Works
-In the Grace of Sanctifying for Good Works
Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 1:6, Matt. 11:18-21
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
God didn’t just save John Mark so He could live his life however he pleased. God saved John Mark’s life from sin so that He might walk in righteousness… the same righteousness of Jesus… an imputed righteousness… and that righteousness produces good works.… works that honor God and “build up His kingdom”.
This issue of John Mark’s failure is a matter of gospel implications. If John Mark quit and never did anything else with his life, one would have to wonder if God meant what He said.… that He did create us for good works… and that in salvation.… He would continue to bring it to completion throughout our lifetime.
Of course, God is no liar… so if John Mark’s life never had a turn around.… we might want to consider whether John Mark actually indeed had a changed life to begin with. Jesus himself spoke of this in the parable of the seeds in Matthew 11. In Jesus in words to the disciples.… giving them an explanation of the parable, he says.…
“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
The stony ground, the thorny ground, and the seeds thrown on the pathway are all lumped together and contrasted against the seed that fell upon good ground.… the first 3 never produced fruit.… only the last one did.… this is to contrast whom is a true follower of Christ. You may with joy for a time “receive Christ” and get all excited about spiritual things.… just like those seeds that fell on stony ground.… but the true test of ones salvation is found in whether they bear fruit and in this passage, one of those fruits is perseverance.
What is Biblical perseverance?
In the biblical greek, it is translated literally as “abiding under.”
We can be pretty discouraged when we think about perseverance. It feels that we fail in that department more often then we succeed. “I’ll never get that right. I’ll never be able to change.” Yet what does the Bible teach. He that started a good work will bring in to completion. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t require work. But it is to say that someone bigger than you and I is working alongside your efforts, and His track record is perfection.
It’s like being joined to a straight A genius for a school project. His efforts, His intelligence, His work ethic, His knack for getting things right wins in the end. But you might say, well I have partnered with a genius before and rather than elevating me, I brought them down. And thanks to that one assignment, he won’t even look me in the eye anymore. What’s to say God won’t do the same.
Difference in them and God is His perfection, His infinite knowledge, His Sovereign power. And to prove that, look at His track record. No one failure on. Everyone and everything that happened in the Bible, God didn’t sweat one of them. Everything God desires comes about… including your sanctification.… your not holding Him back, but He’s still workin on you. Patiently perfecting you to be in the image of His dear Son. And that means all of you. Not one area left untouched.
So perseverance shouldn’t be looked upon with sorrow but gratitude.
John Mark didn’t persevere on this one occasion, but the rest of his life tells a different story… a story of fruitfulness from the work of the Holy Spirit and of gospel effective work of making his like Christ. In his youth, he errored, in His adulthood He increasingly became like Christ.… abounding in fruitfulness all because of God.
For by grace you have been saved thru faith.
Let’s not forget what grace is.
I was even reminded this week of it yet once more hearing my wife teach this once again to our kids. Grace as a acronym spells it out like this… GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS AT CHRIST’S EXPENSE. We vocalize an understanding of the cross… (yet probably don’t fully understand or appreciate it as we ought to even then) but we also are at fault in remembering that it’s God’s righteousness. Not just imputed righteousness so as in just a position… but as a living righteousness that works itself out in actions. So when we do good, it’s not us… it’s God at work in us. We fail, it’s us. We succeed, it’s God and God receives much glory from it. So our sanctification isn’t just about making us different… it’s about making God look good thru our lives. That’s one of the many reasons why we can be certain God is going to work in us if we are really a child of Him. His glory is attached to it.
And how was God glorified in John Mark’s life? Where do we see his power displayed? What did He do to transform John Mark and cause him to bear fruit.
Where did John Mark bear fruit?
Rejoined missions work with Barnabas (Acts 15:39)
And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus,
Assisted and encouraged the apostle Paul (2 Tim. 4:11, Colossians 4:10, Philemon 23-25)
Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
That sentence, tucked near the end of Paul’s life, is one of the most beautiful lines in the New Testament. The same man who once said Mark wasn’t ready now says, “He’s useful to me.” Only God can write a story like that.
Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him); and also Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.
How incredible is that? Paul would have nothing to do with this man, but Peter and Barnabas “the son of encouragement” would invite in John Mark… provide him encouragement.… for him to then go on and provide encouragement to the apostle Paul. You can see that you do indeed become like those that have invested into you.
Wrote the Gospel account to the Roman Gentiles
It was during Peter’s time in Rome that John Mark must have been with him.… 1 Peter 5:13 confirms this. Of this time, the great church historian Eusebius records for us
A great light of religion shone on the minds of the hearers of Peter, so that they were not satisfied with a single hearing or with the unwritten teaching of the divine proclamation, but with every kind of exhortation [they] entreated Mark, whose gospel is still in existence, seeing that he was Peter’s follower, to leave them a written statement of the teaching given them verbally, nor did they cease until they had persuaded him, and so became the cause of the scripture called the Gospel according to Mark. And they say that the Apostle, knowing by the revelation of the Spirit to him what had been done, was pleased at their zeal, and ratified the scripture for study in the churches. (Church History, 2.15.1–2)
Conclusion:
John Mark's story is a testament to the thorough transformative power of God's grace. His initial failure did not define him. Instead, he went on to play a crucial role in the early Church. This serves as an encouragement to all believers that past mistakes do not disqualify us from future service. God's grace is sufficient to restore and use us for His glory. We don’t celebrate the story of John Mark because of His accomplishments. We celebrate the story because of God’s accomplishments. If He did this for John Mark, it is God’s very nature for Him to do it in ours as well. The story of Mark reminds us that grace is real. Restoration is possible. And the best chapters of your life may still be ahead because of our Great God and His wonderful Gospel work.
Application Questions:
-Do you work hard towards the encouragement of others? Are you gracious and patient enough with them to give them a second chance? Patient in the same way Christ is patient with you?
-Are you bearing fruit that is in accordance with your salvation? What fruit are you bearing now that is evident to those around you? If you are serious about this, ask someone closest to you what fruits they see in your life.
