Sermon Tone Analysis

The Purpose of Life

Mark 10:35–45 (ESV)

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

39 And they said to him, “We are able.”

And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

43 But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Some years ago one of the world’s renowned scholars of the classics, Dr. E. V. Rieu, completed a great translation of Homer into modern English for the Penguin Classics series.

He was sixty years old, and he had been an agnostic all his life.

The publisher soon approached him again and asked him to translate the Gospels.

When Rieu’s son heard this he said, “It will be interesting to see what Father will make of the four Gospels.

It will be even more interesting to see what the four Gospels make of Father.”1

He did not have to wonder very long.

Within a year’s time E. V. Rieu, the lifelong agnostic, responded to the Gospels he was translating and became a committed Christian.

His story is a marvelous testimony to the transforming power of God’s Word.

Experiences like this have been repeated time and time again.

What will it make of me?

What will it make of the people I influence?

What is this in-depth study of the Gospel of Mark going to make of you and me?

Mark is the oldest of the Gospels.

Matthew and Luke made such great use of it in writing their own Gospel accounts that between them they reproduced all but a few verses of Mark’s Gospel.

So in this Gospel we have for the very first time in history a systematic account of the life and words of Jesus.

Mark was the beginning of a distinct and original literary form which we refer to as “Gospel.”

Mark had a shaky beginning in the Ministry

John Mark, a young man who had a shaky beginning in the ministry when he abandoned Paul on the apostle’s first missionary trip and decided to return home (Acts 13:13).

Paul was so unhappy with Mark that he refused to take him on the second journey, thus beginning a bitter quarrel between Paul and Barnabas which ended with Paul and Silas going one way and Barnabas and Mark another (Acts 15:36–41).

Although intimate details are lacking, Paul and John Mark later reconciled when Paul was in prison in Rome.

Mark served as his aide and then as a delegate on an important mission to Asia Minor (see Philemon 24 and Colossians 4:10).

Later Paul would ask Timothy to bring John Mark back with him to Rome because he was useful in service (2 Timothy 4:11).

When the Apostle Peter was writing 1 Peter in Rome, he affectionately called Mark his son (1 Peter 5:13).

It was Mark’s close relationship with Peter which motivated and enabled him to write an intimate portrait of Christ.

What a recovery Mark made!

He rose from failed follower of Christ, to devoted disciple, to premier biographer and honored martyr.

After a promising start, some of us too have stumbled, and now our confidence is gone.

For us, John Mark’s triumph is an immense encouragement.

Mark wrote his gospel right after the death of Peter and the Neronian persecution, sometime between a.d.

60 and 70.

According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Nero made the Christians scapegoats for his burning of Rome and butchered them wholesale, so that the Church was driven into the Catacombs.4

It was during this time of misery that Mark wrote the Gospel.

The purpose of John Mark’s writing was to encourage the Gentile church in Rome.

He wanted them to see Christ as the Suffering Servant-Savior, and so arranged his material to show Christ as One who speaks and acts and delivers in the midst of crisis.5

Mark has no long genealogy, no birth narrative, and only two of Jesus’ long discussions.

Mark used the historical present tense 150 times.

Jesus comes, Jesus says, and Jesus heals—all in the present tense.

There are more miracles recorded in Mark than in the other Gospels, despite its being far shorter.

· Everything is in vivid “Eyewitness Newsbriefs,” brilliantly vivid and fast-moving.

· Mark uses the Greek word for “immediately” some forty-two times (there are only seven occurences in Matthew and one in Luke).

· The conjunction “and” is unusually frequent (beginning twelve of Mark’s sixteen chapters) and adds to the rush of action.

· Christ’s life is portrayed as superbusy (he even had trouble finding time to eat—see 3:20 and 6:31).[1]

It takes a slow reader about two hours to read Mark through at a single sitting; and if you take the time, you feel surrounded by crowds, wearied by demands, and besieged by the attacks of demons.

You are also repeatedly brought face to face with the human emotions of Jesus and the astonishment of the multitudes.

Mark is the “Go Gospel”—the Gospel of the Servant-Savior.

The key verse, the one which summarizes the Gospel of Mark, is 10:45—”For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

This verse is part of the answer to the question,

“What will the gospel make of us?”

It will make us servants like the Master, effective servants who do not run on theory but on action.

He was (and is) Christ for the crises!

Power attended his every action.

This same Christ brings power to life now, and a serious study of Mark will bring that power further to our lives.

The Disciple’s Failure to Learn Jesus’ Servant Approach

Mark 10:35–41 (ESV)

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

39 And they said to him, “We are able.”

And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

Immediately upon Jesus talking about the horrible suffering He would face, James and John come to Him and say, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

How amazing is that?

“Jesus, we would like to hand you this blank page and have you endorse it.”

The irony is this: though Jesus had been with the disciples for three years as the ideal Servant, though the end was near and he had just given them a detailed forecast of his death (10:32–34), though he had taught them that his way was to be the model for their lives,

Mark 10:32–34 (ESV)

32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.

And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.

34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.

And after three days he will rise.”

The disciples (represented by James and John) make a request which revealed that their way of thinking was virtually the opposite of Christ the Servant.

The request was outrageous: “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him.

‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked.

They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory’” (10:35–37).

They dimly saw that the end was near and that it involved the possibility of thrones for the disciples.

As part of the inner circle (Peter, James, and John), these two hoped to get the best thrones.

Perhaps they wanted to “ace Peter out,” because he no doubt would try for the top.

So they approached Jesus privately.

Matthew tells us they even had their mother do the talking (Matthew 20:20, 21).

What they actually need, desperately need, that they are now proving that they need, is the very redemption that Jesus has come to offer them; they have no sense in this request of their spiritual need.

no sense of how desperate their condition is apart from the work of this Jesus.

And that enables them to make this incredible request.

Sin loads us with self-interest.

This request, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory,” has nothing to do with the plans and purposes of the Kingdom of God.

The pride, the incredible self-confidence of this moment; again, no sense of their own vulnerability and weakness, no sense of the lameness that sin leaves us with, no sense of need.

The Cross is Necessary

The Cross begins the passage; the Cross ends the passage; and what's in between is really an argument, a very pointed, clear, at some points, shocking argument, for why the Cross is necessary.

Because you see in the life of the disciples, even though they’re chosen ones, even though they’ve been following Christ, even though they've been in His school of discipleship, even though they've seen His power and compassion, you see a case study of what sin does to us.