The Book of Mark, #1
Mark, the Restored Deserter
Mark 1:1
I want to begin a brand new series on theses Wednesday evenings on the book of Mark. I don’t think I’ve ever done the book of Mark verse by verse. It will take us several weeks to cover, but I trust it will be worth your time to be here as often as possible.
Let’s open to the first verse.
Mark 1:1
Verse 1 is actually a title to the book. Verse 2 begins the story, but verse 1 tells us what it’s about.
Jesus wrote no autobiography. In fact, as far as we know, Jesus never wrote any book. And the only place in Scripture where Jesus wrote anything at all was when he was dealing with the Pharisees who wanted to stone the adulterous woman. Twice He wrote something in the sand, but we don’t know what He wrote.
So Jesus Himself, as a man wrote no book, not even His own history. But the Spirit of God put four reporters on His trail to record some of the events of His earthly life and ministry and we know them as the Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Since the Holy Spirit inspired each writer, each of the gospels is without error. It is God-breathed.
Or to borrow the language of Peter in 2 Peter 1:20-21, no Scripture has come by any human origination, but holy men were moved by the Spirit of God, and thus they wrote.
Because of that, it comes as no surprise that even though Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their histories independently of each other at different times and in different places and from different perspectives and retained their own personalities and writing styles, the four are in perfect harmony because the divine author, the Holy Spirit, superintended each writer.
So what we have in the book of Mark, obviously, is Mark’s account. Now we need to keep in mind that even though the gospels appear first in the New Testament, they are not the first New Testament books to be written. In fact, by the time the gospels were written, the book of James and the book of Galatians had already been written by the Apostle Paul.
There is wisdom in that because the book of Galatians, in particular gives direction for protecting yourself from the false teachings of the Judaizers. And the suffering, persecuted believers needed comfort and encouragement, and that’s why the book of James was written.
And the gospel record of the life of Christ weren’t as crucial early in the history of the church because eyewitnesses who had been with Christ and seen Christ and heard Christ were still alive. There were plenty of folks who could give testimony to the story of Jesus Christ.
So the gospels came around about midway through that first century. Most scholars agree that the first one written was Matthew, with the dates for Mark being very close, perhaps around 50 A.D. Then came Luke around 60 or 61 and about 30 years later, around 90 A.D., the gospel of John.
Now you would think since Mark is the second gospel written it would be more elevated in its rank. But it always ends up last. It is somewhat the “other” gospel. It seems to me that Matthew, Luke and John get a lot more time and attention than does Mark.
I think the reason for that is Mark does not contain the discourses and the theology that the other gospels contain. John presents the person of Christ as evidenced by His claims and His miracles. Matthew and Luke contain these great discourses in which we get the instruction of Christ.
But Mark is primarily an action gospel. It’s kind of the newspaper edition of the Gospels. It is fast paced. In fact, the word “immediately” appears over 40 times. And I think perhaps the original intent of the Gospel of Mark was to make it available to the largely illiterate common man of the day. As such, it is this fast-paced story that can be heard and understood and received as it is read.
Let’s think a little bit about Mark himself. The book of Mark, as is true of the other gospels, does not identify its author. We are able to identify the authors through the narrative as they reference themselves but their aim was to put the spotlight of Jesus. They wanted the story to be about Him so they hid themselves among the details of His story.
So what do we know about Mark? To find out about him we can’t look to the gospels because he’s not mentioned there. The first place he shows up is in the book of Acts at chapter 12.
Now Acts 12 is at a point of significant transition. As you know, the gospels end with the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of Christ brings the story of Christ on earth to an end. The book of Acts, which is written by Luke, picks up the story and tells us about Jesus spending 40 days after His resurrection, teaching His disciples things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, getting them ready to fulfill the commission that comes in chapter 1 verse 8, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, you’ll be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.”
So He equips them for world ministry, if you will, by 40 days of teaching things concerning the Kingdom of God. Then in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit comes upon them, empowers them for that ministry and the gospel is launched as Peter preaches in Jerusalem. Then the next ten chapters tell us about the gospel being preached in Judea and Samaria and starting in chapter 13, it’s the gospel in the uttermost part of the earth.
Now, as the spotlight fades on Peter and Paul takes the stage, notice what is happening at
Acts 12:1a
“Now, about that time. . .” What time?
Chapter 11:27-30 tells us.
So there is a famine coming, prophesied by the inspiration of God, and there’s going to be a need to relieve the distress of the believers in Jerusalem because of the famine. So the church at Antioch decided to take up an offering and to send it down to Jerusalem by Barnabas and Saul with the intention of it being distributed to the believers affected by the famine.
So now we know what’s going on as we begin our study of chapter 12. We also know that Herod is king and this would be King Agrippa. Now King Agrippa was a politician’s politician. He didn’t really like the Jews but he knew it was to his advantage if he was to be wealthy and prosperous and powerful to court their favor.
And we find that in verse 3
That’s what drove Herod. He was not a Jew, but he knew things were much better if he pleased the Jews. And so that’s what he did. And knowing what pleased the Jews, we read in
verse 1b-2
James is the first Apostle martyred. Stephen, a deacon, has been martyred and now James, the first of the Apostles is martyred.
Verses 3-4
If they liked the death of one Apostle, let’s kill another one.
So they put him in the care of soldiers twenty-four hours a day, not just inside a cell, not just chained but guarded, intending to wait till the Passover was over to minimize the trauma to the people and then bring him out and bring about his death.
verse 5
So the church is praying. That’s their strategy, not to break into the prison and get him out, but to pray.
Verses 6-12
And for the first time in Scripture we are introduced to a young man named John Mark. John was a Jewish name. Mark was a Gentile name. And we aren’t told any more about him. The fact that the house is identified with a woman rather than a man probably means she’s a widow. So very likely, here’s a widow named Mary who is the mother of a boy named John who is also called Mark and the only reason he is mentioned here is to distinguish her from every other Mary in the New Testament.
Now Mark is a pretty non-descript guy. He’s only a way to identify his mother and she is mentioned because the church is meeting at her house. And that is very likely the way Peter winds up meeting Mark. So at this point, we only know his name and how he is connected to Peter. So let’s follow his story and see where it leads.
By the end of chapter 12, Barnabas and Saul have come from Antioch with the relief offering for the believers in Jerusalem because of the famine. They deliver their gift then go back to Antioch.
And notice verse 25
This is the first indication of his usefulness in the kingdom. He’s not a pastor. He’s not an evangelist or Apostle or prophet or as far as we know, even a church leader at this point. So why did they take him?
Colossians 4:10 gives us a little insight. It is there we discover he is a cousin to Barnabas. Maybe he tags a long to have an adventure or maybe cousin Barnabas knew him, trusted him, knew something about his talents and his gifts and suggested to Paul to bring him along because he could help them, not only in the journey but in the ministry in Antioch.
But for whatever reason, John Mark goes to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas and he doesn’t just visit. He stays there with Paul and Barnabas. o that’s chapter 12. The baton is passing from Peter to Paul.
Acts 13:1
Please notice Mark’s name isn’t there. He wasn’t a pastor or teacher.
Verses 2-3
That’s the first missionary journey.
Verses 4-5
Here we discover an important word concerning Mark. He is their assistant. That’s the operative word to understand this man. He is a helper. Apparently, he’s been making a hand in Antioch so they decide to take him with them on the trip.
And that one word is the only word we have in the New Testament to help us understand the spiritual giftedness of Mark. He was a helper.
Now on this trip they encounter all kinds of difficulties. They have opposition by a man named Elymas. He was a magician who is described as being full of full of deceit, son of the devil, and an enemy of righteousness.
And in verse 13, we discover that Mark decides to go home to momma. We find out later that Paul considers him to be a deserter and he just disappeared and apparently he goes to Jerusalem.
The next time we see him is in chapter 15. A few years have passed but Paul has not forgotten his defection
verse 36
Saul and Barnabas have now returned home from the mission trip. They’ve given the full report to the church. And after some time has passed, Paul says to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and see how everyone is doing.” This is the second missionary journey.
Verse 37
With one determined and the other insisting, there must have been some contention. In fact, verse 39 describes it as “sharp. . .contention” that leads to Paul and Barnabas going in different directions.
Barnabas took Mark with him and went on a trip to Cyprus to preach the gospel there. Paul chose Silas to take Barnabas’ place and traveled in another direction.
And the New Testament follows Paul and Silas as Barnabas and Mark disappear for another two years.
We don’t know where they are or what they are doing. In fact, Mark isn’t mentioned for another 8 years and finally, ten years after Saul and Barnabas part ways, Mark shows back up in Scripture in Colossians 4 where his name is mentioned in a letter written from Paul to the church at Colossae.
Verse 10
Interesting, isn’t it? Here it is 10 years later. Paul’s a prisoner in Rome and guess who’s there with him? The deserter, John Mark, is back in his good graces.
We find the same thing in the little book of Philemon, verse 23. As Paul sends greetings, he again mentions Mark. Then in 2 Timothy 4, Paul again mentions Mark. 2 Timothy is his last letter. It has now been 23 years since the incident of Peter’s release from prison and in this last correspondence, he says. . .
Verses 9-11
Mark’s testimony is the story of a restored deserter. What a privilege it must have been for a guy that’s not an Apostle, not a prophet, not a pastor, not a teacher, not an evangelist, not a leader, just a helper, to have the opportunity to serve alongside the Apostle Paul.
And then, of all things, he defected from that privilege. Years later he was then restored and became so intimately associated with Paul that Paul would send him to the Colossian church on his own behalf.
Then when Paul is facing death at the end of his life, the one person he asks to come in addition to Timothy is Mark.
But Mark’s story doesn’t end there. He also got to spend time with Peter. In fact, the time spent with Peter probably had more of a spiritual impact on his life than did the time with Paul.
During those ten years I mentioned earlier, Mark spent some of that time with Peter. As Peter closes his first letter, which was written from Rome, he mentions “his son, Mark” sending greetings.
That reference is to a spiritual son. I think it highly probable that Mark was converted listening to Peter preach in his momma’s house when he was a boy. No doubt Peter was the first great significant spiritual influence on his young life outside his mother.
Why is that important? It matters because Mark’s gospel is the product of Peter’s eyewitness testimony. The source for Mark from a human viewpoint is Peter. His gospel is based on Peter’s eyewitness accounts of the life of the Lord Jesus which Peter rehearsed day after day after day after day, as he went out into the streets and the buildings of Rome and preached the gospel with Mark at his side.
I think the gospel of Mark is Peter’s account ofo the life of Christ recorded through John Mark, not an Apostle, not a prophet, not a pastor, not a leader, not a teacher, just a helper. He is given this immense incredible privilege of writing what he calls the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
When you think about the writers of the gospels, you have Matthew, a former tax collector, Luke, a Gentile, John, a brash son of thunder and Mark, a defector.
Why did the Lord choose men like that? Well what else is he going to choose? People like them are all there are to choose from because that’s the only kind of people there are, sinful, unqualified forgiven sinners.
And Mark was to given the privilege of being one of them; an intimate companion of Paul, a student and assistant to Peter, and given the privilege to write one of four inspired gospels of the New Testament.
Never underestimate what God is able to do with helpers.
Let’s pray.
