Untitled Sermon (3)

The book of Mark

For a few decades after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the world did not have the full written gospel record. During those years the redemptive message of the gospel was being proclaimed mainly by word of mouth (read ) based on trustworthy recollections of eyewitnesses. And at least some of those recollections were being written out on scrolls for a more permanent record. We don’t know the exact circumstances of the writing of each of the four gospels, but we are confident that each appeared on divine schedule according to a divine plan. Mark was one of the four.

Mark was born some 10-15 years after Jesus of Nazareth and Saul of Tarsus, so he may have been in his late teens at the time of Jesus’ public ministry. His parents gave him the Hebrew name John and his Roman surname of Mark may have been adopted at a later time in his life

indicates that Mark was a cousin of Barnabas a key person in Acts chps 4-15. Mark’s mother Mary was devout woman of prosperous means.

The Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as the Servant of God, as a Workman of God.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

  a. For this reason, the Gospel of Mark is a “busy” book. In this Gospel, Jesus seems the busiest, quickly moving from one event to another. One of the key words in the Gospel is immediately, occurring more than 40 times in Mark. We see Jesus as a servant—busy meeting needs and busy being God’s Messiah.

b. In the Gospel of Mark, the emphasis is on the deeds of Jesus more than on the words of Jesus. “The Gospel of Mark pictures Christ in action. There is a minimum of discourse and a maximum of deed.” (Robertson1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

2. Strong church tradition says that the Apostle Peter is the main source of Mark’s gospel. Some think of Mark as “The Gospel According to Peter.”1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

a. One indication of Peter’s influence is that Peter speaks very affectionately of Mark, referring to him as Mark my son in . He also wrote that Mark was with him in 1 Peter 5:131

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

i. Mark (who is also called John-Mark in passages like ) was a failure in ministry as pictured in the book of Acts with Paul (). His relationship with Paul was restored in the end ().1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

ii. Like Mark, Peter also knew what it was like to be a failure in following Jesus after having denied Him three times. He too was restored in the end.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

b. Another indication of Peter’s influence is the vivid, eyewitness detail of this Gospel. It is “fullest of striking details that apparently came from Peter’s discourses which Mark heard, such as green grass (6:39), two thousand hogs (5:13), looking round about (3:5, 34).” (Robertson1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

i. “Mark’s Gospel throbs with life and bristles with vivid details. We see with Peter’s eyes and catch almost the very look and gesture of Jesus as he moved among men in his work of healing men’s1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

i. “Mark’s Gospel throbs with life and bristles with vivid details. We see with Peter’s eyes and catch almost the very look and gesture of Jesus as he moved among men in his work of healing men’s bodies and saving men’s souls.” (Robertson)

c. A third indication of Peter’s influence is that “Peter usually spoke in Aramaic and Mark has more Aramaic phrases than the other, like Boanerges (3:17), Talitha cumi (5:41), Korban (7:11), Ephphatha (7:34), Abba (14:36).” (Roberston)1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

3. Many believe Mark to be the first of the four Gospels written, and that it was written in Rome.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

  b. Mark was not one of the 12 disciples. Perhaps the only mention of him in the Gospel is a shadowy reference in . As a youth, he perhaps was part of the larger group that followed Jesus.

c. The early church met at the home of Mark’s mother, Mary, in Jerusalem ().1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

d. To the hard-working and accomplishment-oriented Romans, Mark wrote a gospel that emphasized Jesus as God’s Servant. Because no one cares about the pedigree of a servant, the Gospel of Mark has no genealogy of Jesus.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

i. Another indication that Mark wrote his Gospel for the Roman mind is that he uses more Latin words than any of the other Gospels. “There are also more Latin phrases and idioms like centurio (15:39), quadrans (12:42), flagellare (15:15), speculator (6:27), census (12:14), sextarius (7:4), praetorium (15:6), than in the other Gospels.” (Robertson)1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.ii. When Bible translators go to a people who have never had the Scriptures in their own language, they usually begin by translating the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the most translated book in the entire world. One reason is that it is the shortest Gospel, but the other reason is that this Gospel was written for people unfamiliar with first century Judaism. Mark wrote it for the Romans.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

  1. The place and ministry of John the Baptist (1–5)

a. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God: Every great story has a beginning, and Mark takes us to his beginning of the gospel. The ancient Greek word for gospel means “good news,” so this book is the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the good news concerning Jesus.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.i. Every word in Mark’s description of Jesus is important. First, this is the good news of Jesus, a genuine, historical person who walked this earth like other men. It is the good news of the Christ (which simply means “Messiah”), the promised, anointed Savior of men. And it is the good news of the Son of God, and a Son in more than a sense that we think of all men coming from God. Jesus is the unique Son of God, who is also God the Son.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

ii. Lane on the word gospel: “Among the Romans it meant ‘joyful tidings’ and was associated with the cult of the emperor, whose birthday, attainment to majority and accession to power were celebrated as festival occasions for the whole world. The reports of such festivals were called ‘evangels’ in the inscriptions and papyri of the Imperial Age. A calendar inscription from about 9 b.c., found in Priene in Asia Minor, says of the emperor Octavian (Augustus): ‘the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of joyful tidings which have been proclaimed on this account.’ This inscription is remarkably similar toto Mark’s initial line and it clarifies the essential content of an evangel in the ancient world: an historical event which introduces a new situation for the world.”1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.b. As it is written in the Old Testament: The first thing Mark says about the ministry of John the Baptist is that it was prophesied in the Old Testament ( and ). Those passages predicted this forerunner who would prepare the way of the Lord, this forerunner whom God would call My messenger.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

i. My messenger is important because this is the first authentically prophetic voice to Israel (with the slight exceptions of Anna and Simeon in ) for 300 years. Some thought that God stopped sending prophets because He had nothing more to say, but John shows this wasn’t the case at all.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.ii. If we wondered what Mark meant when he called Jesus the Son of God, here he clarified it. Mark says the ministry of John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord, and he prepared the way of Jesus. In Mark’s mind, Jesus is Lord.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.c. Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight: The passage Mark quoted from () had in mind the building up of a great road for the arrival of a majestic king. The idea was to fill in the holes and to knock down the hills that are in the way1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.i. The idea of preparing the way of the Lord is a word picture, because the real preparation must take place in our hearts. Building a road is very much like the preparation God must do in our hearts. They are both expensive, they both must deal with many different problems and environments, and they both take an expert engineer.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.ii. Jesus was the coming Messiah and King, and John the Baptist was the one crying in the wilderness. Through his message of repentance, he worked to prepare the way of the Lord. We often fail to appreciate how important the preparatory work of the Lord is. Any great work of God begins with great preparation. John wonderfully fulfilled this important ministry. “John was God’s bulldozer to build that highway.” (Steadman)1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.d. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins: This describes how John prepared the way. He came baptizing, offering a ceremonial washing that confessed sin and did something to demonstrate repentance1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.i. Baptism simply means to “immerse or overwhelm.” John didn’t sprinkle when he came baptizing. As was the custom in some other Jewish ceremonial washings, John completely immersed those he baptized. “Naturally, therefore, the baptism was not a mere sprinkling with water, but a bath in which his whole body was bathed.” (Barclay)1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.ii. Baptism was already practiced in the Jewish community in the form of ceremonial immersions but typically it was only among Gentiles who wished to become Jews. For a Jew in John’s day to submit to baptism was essentially to say, “I confess that I am as far away from God as a Gentile and I need to get right with Him.” This was a real work of the Holy Spirit.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.iii. John’s baptism might have been related to the Jewish practice of baptizing Gentile converts or to some of the ceremonial washings practiced by the Jews of that day. Though it may have some links, at the same time is was unique—so unique that John simply became known as “the Baptizer.” If a lot of people had been doing what John did, it wouldn’t be a unique title.1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.iv. Christian baptism is like John’s in the sense that it demonstrates repentance, but it is also more. It is being baptized into Christ, that is, into His death and resurrection ().1

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

1 Guzik, D. (2013). Mark (). Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.