A. One day a woman was cleaning her house and singing Gospel songs as she worked.
1. She began singing, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king...”
2. A few minutes later, she heard her young son in the next room and he was singing the same song, but something a little off.
3. Listen to the preschooler’s version: “Soon, and very soon, we are going to Burger King...”
B. I’m excited that we have a king named Jesus – He’s not the Burger King – He’s our servant king.
1. And I’m excited that there seems to be a renewed interest in Jesus in our present culture.
2. The huge success of the crowd-funded television series about Jesus and His disciples called “The Chosen” is a sign of this growing interest.
3. Another sign is positive reception of the “Jesus Revolution” film that hit theaters last weekend.
a. One headline read: “Jesus Revolution performs miracles at the box office, receives rave reviews from audience.”
b. The faith-based film was forecasted to earn around $6 or $7 million in ticket sales, but ended up with more than $15 million.
c. Despite mixed critic reviews, the movie was awarded an A+ CinemaScore and a 99% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from the general audience.
C. Because I have such great faith in Jesus and because I love Him with all my heart, I have always loved reading and studying the Gospels.
1. To me, the Gospels are the most exciting, most important, and most powerful books in the Bible.
2. The Gospels give us the clearest picture of Jesus that exists anywhere in this world.
3. Although Matthew, Mark and Luke are the most alike, each of the Gospels is unique.
4. Two of the Gospels are written by apostles of Jesus – they are Matthew and John.
5. The other two Gospels are written by important followers of Jesus – they are Luke and Mark.
6. It goes without saying that all four of the Gospels are inspired and protected by the Holy Spirit.
D. Today, we are starting a new sermon series on the Gospel of Mark that I am calling “Learning to Follow Jesus, Our Servant King.”
1. I’m very excited about this opportunity for all of us to grow in our love for Jesus as we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus did.
2. As those who claim to be followers of Jesus, we are called to become like Jesus in our thinking, our actions and our words.
3. It should be our goal that people will be able to see Jesus in us and through us.
4. I hope and pray that that will become a greater possibility because of our study of the Gospel called Mark.
E. But let’s start by asking the question: Who is Mark and why would David title this introductory sermon “An Unlikely Author of a Gospel of Jesus Christ”?
1. The name “Mark” occurs eight times in the New Testament and is always used to identify the same man.
2. Sometimes the references are only “Mark” and sometimes they are “John who was called Mark.”
3. These two names bear reference to Mark’s relationship with two worlds.
a. “John” was his Jewish name and “Mark” was his Roman name.
4. We are first introduced to Mark by name in Acts 12:12, where we are told that he was the son of Mary of Jerusalem.
a. There are many Marys in the Bible, but this Mary is distinguished as being the “mother of John who was also called Mark.”
b. Apparently, Mary was a wealthy woman because she owned a house in Jerusalem large enough for the early Christians to meet in and because she had at least one servant.
5. From Colossians 4:10, we also know that Mark was the cousin of Barnabas, the encourager.
F. But the thing we remember most about Mark, other than the fact that a Gospel is attributed to him, is that he had a big black mark on his resume.
1. When Paul and Barnabas were set apart by the Holy Spirit and embarked on their first missionary journey, they took John Mark with them as their helper.
a. It was probably Barnabas’ idea to take Mark, since he was his cousin.
2. Unfortunately, not far into the journey, Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas and went home.
3. Scripture doesn’t tell us why Mark abandoned them, but we know that when Paul and Barnabas were preparing for their second missionary journey, they got into a sharp disagreement because Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance, and Paul refused to do so.
4. In Paul’s opinion, Mark was a deserter and a failure and Paul wasn’t about to put himself in a position to be left high and dry again by Mark.
G. How easy would it have been for that to be the final chapter in Mark’s life or the final label on Mark’s life and reputation – deserter, failure, or coward?
1. Unfortunately, for some people a significant failure in their life is final and fatal.
2. But our God is the God of many chances, and our failures never have to be final.
3. Thankfully, Barnabas stood his ground and stood firmly next to Mark.
4. Paul took Silas and went in one direction, and Barnabas took Mark and went in the other direction.
5. In the end, this wasn’t all bad, because the work of God was multiplied.
6. And in the end, Mark proved himself to be a faithful and trusted worker in God’s kingdom.
H. Even though Paul had strong negative feelings regarding Mark’s earlier defection, Paul didn’t hold a grudge toward his brother.
1. After Mark had proven himself, we find Paul and Mark working together.
2. When Paul was in prison in Rome, we find Mark serving as Paul’s helper and Paul’s representative in some kind of service (Philemon 24; Col. 4:10).
3. Later, when Paul was near the end of his life, he asked Timothy to bring Mark back to him in Rome.
4. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul wrote: [Timothy] Make every effort to come to me soon, because Demas has deserted me, since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry. (2 Tim. 4:9-11)
5. Isn’t that amazing? Paul wanted Mark, the one-time deserter, to come to him because of his usefulness.
6. Mark, the one who Paul had once rejected, had now become Paul’s valuable, warmly loved co-worker.
I. So, how then did it come about that someone like Mark, who had been a deserter and who was not an apostle, ended up writing what many think was the first of the Gospels to be written?
1. Well, it appears that in addition to Barnabas, Mark also found a mentor in the apostle Peter.
2. As you will recall, Peter himself was no stranger to failure and who better could there have been to help Mark through the process of restoration after failure than Peter?
3. In 1 Peter 5:13, we read that Peter called Mark “his son,” and so we can speculate that perhaps Peter had been responsible for Mark’s conversion, and continued to be his spiritual mentor.
4. It also appears that Peter wanted to make a permanent record of his memories of Christ before his death.
5. When Peter wrote his second letter, he included this promise: Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me. And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure. (2 Pt. 1:12-15)
a. Certainly those words apply to the things Peter wrote down in the letters of 1 and 2 Peter, but they may also apply to the Gospel of Mark.
J. You might be wondering why I would suggest that the Gospel of Mark may actually be Peter’s account of the life of Jesus.
1. Well, there is good historical evidence to suggest that.
2. Let’s begin by pointing out that there is no reference to the name of the author in the Gospel of Mark itself.
3. But one of the oldest titles given to this Gospel is “According to Mark.”
a. The earliest known manuscripts bear that simple identification.
b. Perhaps, at some early date, a copyist began the scroll of Mark with that description, and the name stuck.
4. The extra-biblical evidence also confirms a very special relationship between Mark and Peter.
a. Papias, who was born between 50-60 AD, was a disciple of the apostle John and wrote this about the relationship between Mark and Peter: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ.” (Papias’ testimony recorded in Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 3.39.15).
b. Justin Martyr, who lived AD 100-165, referred to the Gospel of Mark as the memoirs of Peter.
c. Irenaeus, who lived AD 130-202, said that Mark was “the disciple and interpreter of Peter and recorded what Peter preached in his sermons about Christ.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1.; dated around A.D. 180)
d. Clement of Rome, who lived from AD 35-99, said: “The Gospel according to Mark had this occasion. As Peter had preached the word publicly at Rome, and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time & remembered his sayings, should write them out. And having composed the Gospel he gave it to those who had requested it.” (Eusebius, Hypotyposeis, VI.xiv.7-6)
K. In addition to the extra-biblical evidence that Mark wrote the Gospel and that most of it was the memories of Peter, there is also internal evidence.
1. Peter’s sins and weaknesses are recorded faithfully by Mark, but the praise which he received elsewhere (ie. Mt 16:17) is omitted from Mark.
a. If Peter was the source of the information for Mark’s Gospel, then we would assume that Peter would want to leave an accurate view of himself and not an elevated view.
2. There are times when Mark mentions Peter by name (5:37; 11:21; 16:7) but Matthew doesn’t.
3. Although Mark is much shorter than Matthew or Luke, he mentions Peter nearly as often (Mk 25x, Mt 28x, Lk 27x); and Mark mentions Peter in 4 places where Matthew & Luke don’t, and in all 4 passages there is the sense that it is a personal recollection (1:36, 11:21, 13:3, 16:7).
4. One commentator suggested that if you go through the book of Mark, you’ll see that nothing happens in which Peter is not present, which lends to the notion that it is Peter’s eyewitness testimony (Bauckham).
5. If Peter’s authority stands behind Mark’s Gospel, this would help explain the Gospel’s immediate acceptance by the church.
6. There is one place in the Gospel where Mark may have inserted himself into the narrative and it is in the account of the arrest of Jesus.
a. The Gospel of Mark is the only Gospel that mentions “a certain young man, wearing nothing but a linen cloth, was following him. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.” (Mk. 14:51-52)
b. Many believe that the upper room where the Last Supper took place was in Mark’s mother’s home, and so there is a good chance Mark was part of the group that left the upper room and went with Jesus into the Garden where the arrest took place.
c. But why mention the certain young man who ran away naked unless you were the young man?
L. Let’s talk for a few minutes about how the Gospel of Mark differs from the other Gospels.
1. First of all, we notice that Mark’s is the most concise of the four accounts of Jesus’ life.
a. By way of comparison, Mark has 16 chapters composed of 678 verses.
b. John has 21 chapters made up of 879 verses (200 more verses).
c. Matthew has 28 chapters containing 1,071 verses (verses 300).
d. And Luke has 24 chapters consisting of 1,151 verses (verses 400).
e. But even though Mark is the shortest of the Gospels, it is still longer than the book of Revelation, which is the longest of the letters of the New Testament.
2. The second thing we notice about Mark is that it is written with an appealing vividness and rapidity.
a. The Gospel of Mark does not read like a dry history, rather it is written in the present tense often using the word “immediately” to pack the account full of action.
b. The reader can’t help but notice the abruptness and breathless speed of the narrative.
c. Mark presents Jesus as a man of action, moving quickly and decisively from event to event (Keller).
d. There is relatively little of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Mark (only two long discourses), so rather than focusing on Jesus’ teaching, Mark focuses Jesus doing.
e. Mark’s writing style of realism and rapidity leads the reader to have the sense that they are an eyewitness of the events.
3. The third thing we notice about Mark is his main focus and purpose in writing.
a. All books are selective in what they include and this is also true of the Gospels.
b. When John wrote his Gospel, he pointed out: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Jn. 20:30-31).
c. And John wrote: And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written (Jn. 21:25).
d. Mark’s main focus for his Gospel is found in the words of Jesus in Mark 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.”
e. Timothy Keller suggests that Mark’s account of Jesus’ life is presented to us in two symmetrical acts: his identity as King over all things (Mark chapters 1-8), and his purpose in dying on the cross (Mark chapters 9-16).
f. Jesus is the King, but His crown is a crown of thorns that He wears while hanging on the cross.
g. Jesus is our servant king and He calls us to be a servant like Him.
1. His faithfulness to His mission becomes the model for all Christians.
2. Following Jesus requires us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Mark 8:34).
h. In the person of Jesus Christ we find a person worthy of our attention and our adoration.
i. Jesus is “unpredictable yet reliable, gentle yet powerful, authoritative yet humble, human yet divine.” (Keller)
M. Who was Mark’s target audience for his Gospel?
1. It appears that Mark’s target audience was Gentile readers.
a. We notice that Mark took time to explain Jewish customs that would be unfamiliar to Gentile readers (7:2-4; 15:42), and Mark translated Aramaic words (3:17; 5:41; 7:11, 34; 15:22) that Gentile readers wouldn’t understand.
b. We also notice that Mark made fewer references to the OT than did Matthew and Luke, because Gentile readers would not have needed the connection of the OT to the NT like Jewish readers would have needed.
2. It also appears that Mark’s target audience was Christians facing persecution.
a. Many Christians died for their faith during Nero’s reign, including Paul and Peter.
b. But many more Christians would face even greater persecution in the days to come.
c. Mark tried to prepare them for persecution by showing the sufferings of Christ and how Jesus had predicted the sufferings of His followers.
d. This is certainly relevant for us today as we try to follow Christ in our post-Christian world.
e. Today we find ourselves as aliens in hostile and unfriendly territory, but we are called upon to endure persecution as we shine like stars against the darkness of our culture.
N. I believe it will do us good to have a fresh focus on Jesus.
1. As we work our way through the Gospel of Mark, I will be encouraging us to “turn our eyes upon Jesus” and I will be encouraging us to pray “Jesus let us come to know You.”
2. Jesus is our servant King – He is our Savior and Lord.
3. And through the Holy Spirit, we can come to know Him better and follow after Him more completely and faithfully.
4. How wonderful to know that no matter where we have been in the past, or no matter where we are in the present, God can help us to turn around and be useful in His kingdom purposes.
5. Perhaps both Peter and Mark are the most unlikely people to work together to author a Gospel of Jesus Christ, but they are just the kind of people who God delights in employing.
6. And that fact should bring encouragement to each one of us because none of us have fallen too low and far to be redeemed from our sins and be sanctified for God’s purposes.
7. My prayer is that through this study of the Gospel of Mark, all of us can learn to follow Jesus, our servant king more completely and faithfully.
Resources:
• Truth for Today Commentary: Mark 1-8 and 9-16, Martel Pace, Resources Communications.
• Jesus the King, Timothy Keller, Riverhead Books
• Who Was Mark? Sermon by Nate Shinn, ashlandbiblechurch.com
