The following sermon is made available by Lakeside Bible Church in Cornelius, North Carolina.
For more information about our church or to find more recorded sermons,
please visit us online at lakesidebible.church.
We'd also love to connect with you on social media.
You can find us by searching Lakeside Bible NC on Facebook and Instagram.
For specific questions about the Bible or our church, please email us at info at lakesidebible.church.
What we come to today in our study is the beginning of what I think is certainly the most exciting
and perhaps even the most important study in the young life of our church.
Now, while we understand that all of the Bible is there for the purpose of showing us the story of redemption,
the redemptive narrative of God specifically through Jesus,
it's in the Gospels that we see most clearly the person of Jesus,
the work that he has accomplished in order to bring salvation to man.
There's no more important story for us to focus in on than this one
because it tells us exactly who Jesus is and what he has done.
And it's precisely for this reason that the four books that relate to the life of Jesus
are some of the most contested books in Scripture.
It's not only that people are averse to the Bible in and of itself.
Some people have a great appreciation for it.
But to get to these four Gospels and to accept them as absolute truth
and something that is necessary for us to believe is difficult for many people.
And there's even an unfortunate amount of instability amongst professing Christians
when it comes especially to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ
and the exclusivity of the Gospel.
Ligonier Ministries, every two years, does a survey, a theological survey,
in which they try to find insights into what is the spiritual temperature of the United States.
And this year was one of the years that they conducted that survey.
They conducted it with 3,002 people.
573 of those 3,000 said that they were evangelical Christians,
professing Christians that would say that they are what we are
and that they are who we are.
The third question in their survey this year was this.
It wasn't a question.
It was a statement.
And the respondents answered on a scale of strongly disagree up to strongly agree.
And the statement was this.
God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
God accepts the worship of all religions.
That was the third statement.
And they wanted to gauge what was the spiritual temperature of most people in the United States.
It wouldn't be surprising to us to know that 76% of all respondents
answered that they were either unsure or that they strongly agreed with that statement.
That God does indeed accept all the worship,
no matter whether it's a subscription to Christianity or Islam or some other form of religion.
76% of the respondents said that they were either unsure or they agree with that.
It should shock us to know that 51% of professing Christians surveyed agreed with that statement.
51% of people in the United States, according to this survey,
perhaps would say that I am a Christian.
I follow Christ.
But Christ is not exclusive in my belief for God's acceptance.
That there are plenty of religions out there.
God accepts the praise of all people.
He just cares about the sincerity of your heart is probably what they would insinuate.
And of course, we understand through the scripture that God is far less concerned
about the sincerity of your heart.
He doesn't care about that unless it is related specifically to your belief and sincerity in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The sincerity of heart has sent many a people to an eternity of hell.
It's not just sincerity that God is looking for.
It is sincerity in truth.
And what we have in the gospels is the truth of Jesus Christ.
John Stott said,
Nothing hinders evangelism more than the widespread loss of confidence in the truth, relevance, and power of the gospel.
The problem with that survey and the problem with the dynamic of the belief in the gospel today
is not merely in what outsiders in the church, those outside of the church would believe about it.
The problem is the weakening of those that claim to be within the church.
That they have lost confidence in the truth of the book that we are about to study in the gospel of Mark.
So we don't come to this study casually.
We need to study this gospel book sincerely.
As we acknowledge that it is not merely the story of an ancient prophet
that is far removed from any kind of relevance in modern times.
But it is the message of salvation revealed through the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The objective of our study today is to grasp the context of Mark's book
so that we can rightly understand as we move forward over what will end up being probably several months of study in this one book.
Let's just take a moment to examine what a gospel is.
What are the gospels?
The gospels are, at least in the way that we refer to them in this context,
we're speaking of a collection of books that are specifically about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
There's four of them in the New Testament and they're arranged as the first four books of the New Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
They're all telling the same story, but each with their own unique purpose and unique audience.
And consistent among all four of these gospels is the fact that they are all eyewitness accounts of the life,
the teaching, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ.
It's not that they are writing far removed from the time of Christ's life,
but they are writing the eyewitness accounts of what real people really saw of a real man named Jesus of Nazareth.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are commonly referred to as the synoptic gospels.
Synoptic meaning together sight is what the word means.
It's a summary that looks at these three books and the similarity of their content.
John then is the last to be written, as we understand,
and he fills in the gaps that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptics, kind of leave out in their stories,
and he brings in another dimension to it.
Now, gospel actually describes the genre of the book.
These are not merely biographies of Jesus.
Like I said, they are eyewitness testimonies to the truth of Jesus
that doesn't seek to tell us a story,
but rather to strengthen the faith of believers and to evangelize unbelievers.
A biography is just that.
It's something that tells a story.
It tells just for intellectual exercise.
It tells us the story of a unique individual in a unique period of time.
That is not what these four gospels are.
They do contain biographical content,
but they are not in and of themselves biographies.
The intention is not just to tell us a story about a man in a specific time.
They are eyewitness accounts.
Their purpose is to persuade.
They don't mean to just tell you this is who Jesus is.
They mean to persuade you to believe who Jesus is,
to receive who Jesus is,
and to follow him as Lord and Savior.
Donald Guthrie said,
The gospel writers were not literary men,
nor were they setting out to be.
They themselves had received a remarkable transformation
as a result of the stupendous events they related.
This is not a few men hoping to make a few bucks
by publishing a few novels about a man that most people might be interested in.
That is not the intention of these four books.
These are four men who were radically transformed
by what they knew to be true about Jesus Christ,
and their writing then is to relay what has transformed their lives
in order that it might transform your life.
They don't just want you to know the man Jesus.
They want you to know the Savior Jesus,
and they want you to follow him.
So they weren't seeking to publish incredible tales.
They weren't trying to gain fame or wealth in doing so.
But they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God
to write the good news of Jesus Christ.
And so we ask then,
where does Mark fit into that equation?
If there's four of these such gospels,
what makes Mark unique and significant,
and why are we indeed studying it now as a church?
And the simple answer to that,
before we even get to probably a more appropriate answer,
is it's the shortest of the gospels.
And you all know that brevity is not my strength.
And so we can go through 16 chapters of Mark
a lot faster than we can go through 28 chapters of Matthew,
or so on and so forth.
But it's by far the most concise of the four gospels.
But it's primarily the record of the apostolic testimony of Peter.
Peter, the account that we read and that we'll study over the next several months,
the account of Jesus's life is from the eyes
of perhaps Jesus's most famous disciple.
And what we understand in church history
is that as Peter carried out the great commission
given to him specifically by Jesus before his ascension,
Peter carries out this great commission,
and he eventually makes his way to Rome preaching the gospel.
And as he did that,
Mark wrote down the testimony of the events that Peter relayed.
As Peter told these stories in Jerusalem,
as he preached these messages in Rome and elsewhere,
Mark tagged along,
and Mark began to write down what it was that Peter said
and what it was that Peter preached.
And this became a collection of the eyewitness testimony
of the apostle Peter.
So understanding the writing and intentions of each gospel author
depends on recognizing their intended audience as well.
Mark's gospel came at the specific request
of Roman believers living in Rome,
not Jewish believers,
but pagan converts to Christianity.
And so where did this gospel come from?
Well, Mark tagged along with Peter.
Peter preached his eyewitness account of the gospel.
People came that were saved,
and they said,
Mark, would you mind writing this down for us?
We don't want to,
we're going to forget it.
Can you write it down?
And Peter was pleased for him to do that
because of the revelation of the Holy Spirit to Peter
for Mark to do so.
And so he made this collection
of Peter's eyewitness account of Jesus Christ,
and that is what we study over the next several months.
What Peter said was true of Jesus
is what Mark has written for us here in the Bible.
The audience that Mark wrote to was not familiar
with the language and customs of the Jewish people,
which is why you'll find when you sit down
and do that full reading,
Mark often is explaining or defining Jewish words.
He's explaining Jewish rituals
because his audience were not Jews.
He omits certain things
that would have been of particular interest to the Jews,
like the genealogies of Christ,
the birth narrative of Christ are not included
in Mark's gospel because his audience
didn't demand it in the same way
that a Jewish audience would have demanded it
for their understanding.
And so when we go to Matthew,
we see a great genealogy and birth story
presenting Jesus as the true king.
Well, that was unnecessary for Mark to do
because of his audience.
Here's what he really wanted to do.
He wanted people to look at the life of Jesus,
to learn from the teaching of Jesus,
and then to become faithful followers
in the way that they lived like Jesus.
And that is our approach to this book
as we study through it.
We want to look at Jesus,
we want to learn from Jesus,
and we want to live for Jesus and live like Jesus.
So let's read our text for today,
and then we're gonna jump in
and talk about the author and the structure,
and then the goal of the book of Mark, okay?
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
Let's first look at the author of the gospel.
That's the thing that's actually missing in this verse,
right?
Many of the books of the Bible,
we read through them,
especially in the New Testament,
the letters especially,
we find specific signatures and greetings
that alert us right away
to who it is that's writing,
to whom they are writing to.
But Mark doesn't do that.
There was no need for him,
at least in this case,
for him to introduce himself.
He just tells us the beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He states his purpose in the first verse.
He's saying, this is what I'm writing about,
and everything beyond verse one
goes to support that purpose.
But he leaves himself out.
But for us to really understand the book
and understand it in the best possible way,
we need to understand the author.
Now, this man was also referred to as John Mark.
And it's possible that a small amount of the material
in the gospel of Mark
actually came from Mark's eyewitness account himself.
Mark, we know, was a resident of the city of Jerusalem.
And we know that his house was,
or at least his mother's house,
was a central point of activity for the early church.
Now, some scholars believe
that it was Mark's mother's house in Jerusalem
where the Last Supper took place
between Jesus and his disciples.
Others believe that, or have suggested at least,
that the young man mentioned in chapter 14 is Mark.
Of those two things, we can't be absolutely certain.
We don't know if that was really Mark.
Could have been, but we don't know.
We don't know if the Last Supper really took place
in Mark's home in Jerusalem.
We don't know that for certain.
What we do know for certain is that Mark's mother's house
was indeed a central point of activity
for that early church in Jerusalem.
And Acts chapter 12 tells us how this takes place.
In fact, turn with me to Acts chapter 12.
In fact, keep your Bibles handy today.
We're gonna be skipping around to a few different places,
at least as we learn who Mark is.
If you'll remember in Acts chapter 12,
Peter has been preaching and he's been arrested
and he is awaiting actually execution.
And he is chained and sleeping between two guards
in the dungeon or in the prison,
wherever it was that they had taken him.
And the guards had fallen asleep as well.
An angel of the Lord, we're told, comes to Peter,
wakes him up, tells him to put his clothes on,
and then frees him from the prison.
Peter knows that the church would have been gathered
somewhere that night praying for him.
That would have been, he knew exactly
what they would have been doing.
And he knew that they would have been doing it
in a specific place.
Look with me at verse 12, Acts chapter 12 and verse 12.
And when he had considered the thing,
after he had left the prison,
he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John,
whose surname was Mark,
where many were gathered together praying.
And so right off the bat, we know who is John Mark.
He was at least intimately related
to these early apostles and these early disciples.
His house where he was growing up
with the involvement of his mother specifically
was a central place of ministry
for the early church in Jerusalem.
So Jesus has ascended into heaven.
Now the apostles are coming together
to do the great commission there in Jerusalem.
And Mark is right in the middle of all of it.
Now we're also certain that Mark had a tremendous heritage
of faithful disciples in his family.
In fact, Paul's letter to the Colossians tells us
that Mark was the cousin of Barnabas,
who was the great encourager and partner
of the apostle Paul.
So he was surrounded by faithful Christians,
many of which were eyewitnesses to the life of Christ.
So it should be no surprise to us
that Mark not only was writing the account of Peter,
but he could verify the things that he heard
because he had been around so many other eyewitnesses
of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
But it's not enough for us, at least in today's study,
it's not enough for us to know about Mark's connections.
We need to know Mark.
We need to know who he is.
And fortunately, the Bible has told us a lot about him,
or at least we can gather a lot about who this man was.
And this is probably my favorite part of the study today.
So let's look at four things about Mark,
and then we're gonna come back to verse number one, okay?
The first thing I want you to see,
and maybe even note this,
is you wanna see Mark the helper.
Mark the helper.
You're in Acts chapter 12, we're gonna stay there.
This is the first true glimpse that we get
of John Mark in the scriptures.
He had accompanied Barnabas and Paul
on kind of a pre-missionary journey mission.
The church had collected an offering
and was sending it to help people in Jerusalem,
and Paul and Barnabas took John Mark along with them.
Look at verse 25, Acts chapter 12.
And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem
when they had fulfilled their ministry
and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.
Now that's important.
It's especially important as we see this next verse
in chapter 13.
After the mission to Jerusalem,
Paul and Barnabas were commissioned
by the church of Antioch
to go on this first missionary journey.
They knew that they were gonna need
some assistance on the way.
And who was it that they turned to to be their assistant?
It was the one that had already proven
in this smaller mission
that he would be a faithful minister and helper to them.
Look at Acts chapter 13 and verse five.
And when they were in Salamis,
they preached the word of God
in the synagogues of the Jews,
and they had also John to their minister.
John as their helper.
Now when we think of someone
that God would use so monumentally
as to actually author one of the four gospels
that explains the life and ministry
and gospel of Jesus Christ,
we would assume that he would choose someone
with an elaborate pedigree.
And indeed he did that.
Matthew and John both were apostles of Jesus Christ.
Luke was the famous doctor
that traveled along with Paul
and Barnabas and Silas and Timothy
and many others through the New Testament.
But Mark was neither an apostle,
nor was he a pastor,
nor was he a church leader.
Nothing in the scriptures ever refer to Mark
in those ways.
When we see him in the Bible,
we see him as he is described in Acts 13, five,
as a helper.
That's who Mark was.
He was a minister, a servant,
a helper, an assistant.
The word itself, minister or helper,
means under rower.
It's the picture of those
that are stuck in the bottom of the ship
vigorously rowing in order to serve
and minister to those of more importance
that were on the top of the ship.
That's the picture that we get of Mark here.
He's the under rower.
He's just a helper.
He wasn't anything significant.
This was the character of John Mark.
And it's exactly what made him fit
for use in God's service.
You don't have to be significant
in the eyes of any man
to be utilized mightily
in the ministry of God.
You don't have to be a church leader
to make a difference for the sake of the gospel.
You need only be a willing,
zealous helper.
And indeed, that's what the vast majority
of believers are.
God will not call most of us to be pastors.
The apostolic age is over.
We certainly wouldn't be apostles.
He may not call you to be a missionary.
He may not call you to be a prominent church leader,
but he has called you to be a helper.
And that's who Mark was.
Just because you're not in a official position
of leadership does not mean
that you are beyond use in God's kingdom.
It is this helper that God used so awesomely
that we will glean from his understanding
of the gospel and his teaching of the gospel.
We are gonna benefit from that.
Well, who was he?
He's just a helper.
God uses helpers.
And we need to be encouraged by that.
But he wasn't just a helper.
Secondly, and tragically, Mark was a deserter.
Mark the deserter.
Things didn't always go so well with him.
Like us, he failed.
And he failed miserably.
And perhaps his greatest failure is recorded for us
in the Bible for us to know.
Look at Acts chapter 13 again.
This time look at verse 13.
Now, when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos,
they came to Perga in Pamphylia.
And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
Now, that seems just like a quick passing phrase.
There's much more to this than what it may seem.
Luke didn't seem to think that it was necessary
to explain the reasons for Mark's desertion here.
But it is safe for us to assume
that the difficulty they faced on the journey
was far too much for him to handle.
He was a helper, a willing one, a zealous one.
But when things got difficult, when the journey got hard,
he became a deserter.
He quit.
He quit on Paul and on Barnabas, and he went home.
We know that there was not an acceptable reason for this
because it actually became a source of contention
between Paul and Barnabas.
In fact, to me, one of the most tragic stories of the Bible,
or at least of the early church,
is this story of Paul and Barnabas,
who we look at and we see what great influence
and effect Barnabas had on Paul and Saul even,
bringing him into the fold of the church.
It was Barnabas in that early mission
that was the leader, not Paul.
But then when they get into the missionary journeys,
we see that discipleship kind of transform there,
and the disciple becomes the discipler,
and Paul kind of takes over the ministry.
But we see this great partnership between them.
But it was because of Mark's desertion
and their disagreement between one another
that we find out in Acts chapter 15,
that Paul and Barnabas actually broke ways.
They were no longer partners together.
They felt that the contention was so sharp between them
that the best thing for them to do
was actually split and go different ways in ministries.
To me, that's tragic.
That's why we know when we look back at Mark's story,
we don't know exactly why he deserted,
but we know there couldn't have been an acceptable reason
because it was so contentious between two other faithful men.
After some time, Mark repented of this,
and he desired to help the men again,
but the stigma of being a quitter is not easily erased.
Paul refused to take Mark along,
and he ended up for a while ministering only with Barnabas.
And it was during this time with Barnabas
that we believe Peter took Mark under his own wing.
And this is what's so fantastic about this.
At the end of his first epistle from Rome,
Peter included a greeting from Mark.
1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 13.
Here's what it says.
She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you,
sends you greeting,
and so does my son Mark.
This is Peter writing.
He refers to Mark in the same way
that we so often recognize Paul referring to Timothy
as his son.
Now think about this.
What better person to disciple a deserter
than one who was formerly a deserter?
That's exactly who Peter was.
Remember just before Jesus' crucifixion,
and there was this scene where Jesus proclaimed
that all the disciples were gonna abandon him.
They were gonna forsake him.
And Jesus and Peter denies the Lord's truthful statement.
He had such arrogance sometimes, didn't he?
And he even says to the Lord,
though all of these men forsake you,
I will never forsake you.
And Jesus says, actually, before the rooster crows,
you're gonna deny me three times.
And we see that played out in the crucifixion story.
Right when Peter was confronted by others
as being a follower of Jesus,
Peter three times denies and swears,
no, I do not know him.
And immediately he hears the rooster crow.
His eyes lock with Jesus' eyes,
and immediately he runs away and weeps.
He was a deserter.
And we see even after the resurrection,
there was still a period where he struggled with effectiveness.
Could he still be used in ministry?
What good could he offer after he had failed so miserably?
And it was Jesus himself that restores Peter
there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
What better person to take Mark under his wing
than somebody like Peter?
And that's exactly what he did.
He didn't cast him off and condemn him.
He took him under his wing and he related to him.
And he helped him.
And he looked at him and viewed him
not as just a partner in ministry,
but as a son in the faith.
Mark's life reminds us that there is nothing
from which a believer cannot be restored
by the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Nothing.
You see, the problem with my life
is I don't know how effective I can be
because I'm not what I was at one point.
You know, Pastor, there was a time in my life
where I was involved with everything
and I was faithful
and all I cared about was serving
and then I just had this thing.
Maybe it was sin or something else
and I just kind of,
I'm just not what I once was.
I'm ashamed by that.
Everybody knows it.
And I just, nobody's gonna trust me anymore.
I just don't think that I can be used.
Listen, there is nothing,
nothing in the life of a believer
that is beyond redemption.
Nothing that you cannot be restored from
in the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
I don't care if you're a quitter.
You don't have to be a quitter anymore.
I don't care what your problem has been in the past.
Peter literally denied Christ.
Abandoned him at his most vulnerable moment.
Yeah, look at how we view Peter.
Mark deserted,
but look at how we view him now.
Look at what we've received
from the work of God in his life now.
Paul was a murderer.
Doesn't matter.
God can redeem you.
His grace is great.
It's also a lesson for those of us
who are former deserters
to take in those who are struggling
rather than condemning and forsaking them.
Unfortunately, the habit of the church many times
is to find someone who will quit
or someone who will falter
in their faithfulness to Christ
and instead of lovingly restoring them,
they condemn them
and castigate them
and ignore them.
This is a reminder for us.
Imagine the fruit that was born to Peter's account
not because he wrote this book,
but because he influenced the one who did.
Amazing.
So we see Mark as the helper
and Mark as the deserter
and now we see him as Mark the author.
The author.
And what a wonderful thing it is to consider that.
That Mark was chosen by God
to write one of his gospels.
Mark was everything that we would disregard,
but he was exactly who God intended to use.
You may be what everybody else would disregard,
but it doesn't matter what everybody else disregards.
You're exactly what God wants to use.
We learn that from Mark's life.
And then fourthly,
we find Mark the finisher.
Mark the finisher.
The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what happened to Mark
after all of this,
but church history does.
And we can go back
and we can look at the accounts
and we can gather what came of Mark's life.
Now cynics,
like often I am guilty of being,
like Paul was in Acts 15,
might consider that once a quitter,
always a quitter.
That wasn't true of Mark.
We might think
what Paul and those guys faced
in terms of persecution
was intense.
There's no doubt about that
and severe,
but what the church was going to face
over the next couple of centuries
after their time
was abundantly severe.
It wasn't just for church leaders.
It was for everybody.
If Mark was so willing
to desert the ministry
when things were just starting
to get intense,
how was he going to fare
when they're literally killing everyone?
Well,
church tradition tells us.
Let me read you this excerpt
from Fox's Book of Martyrs
about Mark.
A capable evangelist
in his own right,
Mark had a longstanding connection
with the city of Alexandria
in Egypt
and was instrumental
in founding and nurturing
the church there.
As was often the case,
the good news about Jesus
was bad news
for the existing pagan religious structures
and communities.
So within days of his arrival
in Alexandria,
Mark was a marked man.
Though years passed
before action was taken,
a mob eventually exercised
its demonic energy
against him.
Mark was tied with ropes,
hooks may have also been used,
and he was dragged
through the cobblestone streets
of Alexandria
until his body was ripped,
wounded,
and badly injured.
After a night in prison,
he amazingly survived that.
The same treatment
was repeated
again and again
until he died.
Though the crowd
intended to burn Mark's body,
there was a persistent account
that a storm delayed the process
and allowed other Christians
a chance
to retrieve
and bury his remains.
Mark
was a finisher.
He was a finisher.
For anyone
who may question
the authenticity
and truth of the gospel,
they cannot escape
the reality
of what Mark
was willing
to go through
and to give up
for the sake
of the truth
that he had written here.
If this was a lie,
why would he be so willing
to be tied up
and dragged
again
and again?
What profit
did he seem
to gain?
There was no profit
for him
to perpetrate
a lie.
No profit at all.
But it wasn't a lie.
And so there was no cost
that was too great
for the cause
of the gospel.
That's the man
that has written us
this book
through the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit.
He was a helper,
deserter,
but then he became
an author
and then a finisher.
And we are encouraged
by that.
Quickly,
we'll finish this.
Let's look at
the structure
of the gospel of Mark.
The structure.
We can go back
to Mark chapter 1 now.
I told you before
the issue
with the author
is not explicitly
stated in the verse,
but the structure is.
This verse really is
Mark's stated purpose
for why he's writing
and how we should view it.
As mentioned before,
every gospel writer
was telling the same story,
but they each come
with a unique personality
and a unique audience
and a unique objective.
Like I said before,
Matthew wrote
to a primarily Jewish audience,
so he spends a lot of time
emphasizing Jesus
as the true king
and he's got the genealogies
and the frequent quotations
of the Old Testament.
Luke was writing
to a more general
Greek audience,
which is why we see him
emphasizing so often
Jesus' sympathetic ministry
toward Gentiles
and those who were not Jews.
John's objective
was to focus
on the deity of Christ,
which is why we get
that great prologue
at the beginning
of John chapter 1.
In the beginning
was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God
and so on.
Mark summarizes his objective
somewhat in these first two words.
The beginning.
He never intended
for this gospel
to be a comprehensive telling
of the life of Christ.
There's relatively very little
of Jesus' teaching recorded.
There's no major sermons
really listed in Mark's book.
It's all action-oriented
and the content of it
moves at a very brisk pace.
As you read through it
maybe this week,
if you'll do that
and sit down,
you'll notice
he's just continually moving on
from one thing to another.
He's not getting lost
in the weeds very often.
And so it moves fast.
Because his audience
wasn't Jewish,
it wasn't necessary
for him to include
some of the other things.
So how can we understand
his structure then?
Here's what it is.
Mark's gospel
is a striking mosaic
of the life
and ministry of Jesus.
You know what I mean
by mosaic.
It's a collection.
You can imagine
going into a cathedral somewhere,
maybe that has
the beautiful stained glass windows
and they have
the different mosaics
as it goes along.
One giant window
that tells
several different stories.
That's really how
we can view
the gospel of Mark.
He's not writing
chronologically
about Jesus' life.
He's writing
categorically
about Jesus' life.
For instance,
instead of sprinkling
Jesus' parables
throughout a linear line
of story
throughout the book of Mark,
he just takes
chapter 4
and just devotes
all of chapter 4
to the parables of Jesus.
And so on and so forth
we see this
striking mosaic
of the life
of Jesus Christ.
He also gave
a substantial amount
of space
to the events
leading up to
the passion of Christ,
the crucifixion
and resurrection.
Nearly a third
of the book
is devoted
to the weeks
leading up
to Jesus' death.
And the significance
of this structure
is Mark's insistence
that it's only
the beginning
and his point
was not only
that this was
literally the beginning
of the writing
but his point
is that Jesus' work
is not finished.
That what he was writing
in this book
is just the beginning
of what could be told
and what will be told.
Though his atoning work
on the cross
has been accomplished,
the story of Christ's salvation
lives on today.
It is a story
that's being told
in your life today.
So Mark says
what I'm giving you here
is just the beginning.
This is just the beginning
of what Christ has done
and what Christ will do.
And so we see that played out
as really the structure
of his book.
Thirdly, we see the goal
of his book
and that's really
where we find the substance
here in this verse.
Mark says his goal
clearly in verse one.
His desire
was to proclaim
the good news
that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Messiah
the Son of God.
That's the stated purpose.
He wasn't trying
to tell the story
of a man that he admired.
He was proclaiming
that this man
is the one
that would bring
salvation
to man.
And it's in this sense
that Mark wasn't
telling a story.
He was making
a statement.
This book
is not about a story.
It's about a proclamation
that this man
Jesus of Nazareth
is indeed
the Son of God
who has come
to save sinners.
And I want you
to consider
for just a moment
the words that he uses.
The first one
is gospel.
Now in the New Testament
we refer to gospel
as a genre
but in the New Testament
it's not a reference
to a literary genre
but to the message
of salvation.
The Greek term
is euangelion.
It's the same word
that we get
our English word
evangelical
or evangelical.
And it's often
understood as
good news
because that's indeed
its context.
It's good news.
And it's a term
that Romans and Jews
both would have
been familiar.
But its use
in ancient Jewish
and Roman writings
always had
a specific reference
to the good news
of a new king
that would save
his people.
And it always
had the picture
of a herald.
You know what I mean?
A herald that would
come into a town
blow the trumpet
hear ye
the beginning
of the gospel
of Jesus Christ
the son of God.
That's what he means
by gospel.
This is a proclamation.
It's a proclamation
about a new king
that has come
to save
his people.
Now let me
show you this
in the scripture.
In the Old Testament
in the Hebrew
the Hebrew equivalent
equivalent
of euangelion.
In fact
the Bible
that Jesus
would have used
the Greek translation
that Septuagint
actually uses
in this chapter
the word
euangelion.
Isaiah chapter 40
says it this way.
Get yourself up
on a high mountain
O Zion
bearer of good news
bearer of
euangelion.
Proclamation.
Get on the mountain
to make this proclamation.
And he goes on.
Lift up your voice
this mightily
O Jerusalem
bearer of
good news.
Euangelion.
Lift it up.
Do not fear.
And here's the proclamation.
Say to the cities
of Judah
here is your God.
Behold
the Lord God
will come
with might
with his arm
ruling for him.
Behold
his reward
is with him
and his recompense
before him.
When the Jews
would have heard
this word
they would have
immediately connected
it back
to this.
They would have
connected it
back to
a king
the king
the proclamation
here is your
God
here is
salvation.
The Romans
had a similar
use for this
word
euangelion.
In fact
there are
writings
specifically
about Caesar
Augustus
at his birth
that uses
this word
and they
believed him
to be their
divine deliverer.
So when they
used it in
relation to
Caesar Augustus
it was the
herald
going from
town to
town
Caesar Augustus
has been
born
and there's
this elaborate
statement
about all
he will do
using biblical
like language
that he will
save his
people
he will
save us
is what they
said about
Caesar.
So when Mark
writes this
and he says
the beginning
of the
euangelion
he say
I have a
proclamation
about the
true king
that has
come to
save his
people
and then
we see
the next
word
Jesus
Christ
Jesus
Christ
Jesus
is the
earthly
name
of
the
Messiah
and
it's
the
Greek
equivalent
of
the
Hebrew
Joshua
means
Yahweh
is salvation
God
is salvation
remember
this was
the name
that the
angel
told
Joseph
specifically
to name
him
Matthew
chapter
one
she
will
bear
a
son
and
you
shall
call
his
name
Jesus
and
then
the
angel
says
why
to
call
his
name
Joshua
Yahweh
is salvation
for he
will save
his people
from
their
sins
Christ
is not
a name
Christ
is a
title
it's
the
Greek
equivalent
of the
Hebrew
Messiah
it's
the
designation
of
the
one
that
would
bring
salvation
to
God's
people
so
Mark
stating
his
purpose
and
he's
saying
this
is
just
the
beginning
of
the
good
news
that
God
is
salvation
the
Messiah
has
come
hear ye
this is
not just
the life
of a
man
this
is
the
proclamation
that
the
son
of
God
has
come
to
save
sinners
and
then
he
uses
that
final
phrase
son
of
God
this
is
the
divine
quality
that
Jesus
possessed
the
Romans
regarded
their
Caesars
to be
gods
but
Mark
was
introducing
them
to
the
true
God
and
it's
this
description
that
makes
possible
everything
that we
read in
this
book
is only
made
possible
because
he
is
indeed
the
son
of
God
this
was
Jesus
his
own
claim
and
the
scriptures
continually
assert
that
Jesus
is not
merely
a
man
but
he
is
indeed
the
son
of
God
co-equal
co-eternal
with
God
the
father
and
God
the
holy
spirit
John
1
again
in
the
beginning
was
the
word
the
logos
the
person
Jesus
in
the
beginning
was
the
word
and
the
word
was
with
God
and
the
word
was
God
he
was
in
the
beginning
with
God
all
things
came
into
being
through
him
and
apart
from
him
nothing
came
into
being
that
has
come
into
being
in
him
was
life
and
the
life
was
the
light
of
men
this
is
Mark
stated
purpose
his
book
is
to
proclaim
the
good
news
that
Jesus
is
the
Messiah
the
son
of
God
and
he
has
brought
salvation
from
God
and
we
can
rejoice
in
that
how
does
he
accomplish
this
one
of the
things
you'll
notice
as
you
read
through
the
gospel
of
Mark
is
that
he's
confronting
or
he's
describing
all
of
these
groups
who
basically
all
had
the
same
question
about
Jesus
who
is
this
who
is
this
his
family
asked
that
question
and
tried
to
stop
him
they
thought
he
was
crazy
who
is
this
the
people
in
Nazareth
when
he
came
back
to
town
said
isn't
this
the
son
of
Mary
isn't
this
his
brothers
and
sisters
over
here
who
is
this
who
does
he
think
he
is
in
other
words
is
what
they
were
saying
the
disciples
on
that
night
when
the
storm
comes
on
the
sea
of
Galilee
and
they
think
they're
going
to
die
and
they
wake
Jesus
up
remember
and
Jesus
we're
going
to
study
it
I
want
to
talk
about
it
now
though
and
Jesus
he
gets
up
from
the
hinder
part
of
the
ship
and
he
says
three
words
he
says
peace
be
still
and
immediately
the
storm
stops
and
what's
the
response
of
the
disciples
well
they
say
what
manner
of
man
is
this
who
is
this
they
had
seen
him
do
some
pretty
incredible
things
they
hadn't
seen
this
who
is
this
Herod
says
who
is
this
man
this
is
John
the
Baptist
he's
come
back
to
come
after
me
to
haunt
me
because
I
killed
him
and
it
tells
that
story
but
his
question
is
who
is
this
Pontius
Pilate
says
who
are
you
who
are
you
that's
the
question
that
keeps
getting
asked
through
this
book
over
and
over
and
over
you
know
what
Mark's
purpose
is
his
purpose
is
to
answer
that
question
if
you
could
summarize
it
in
one
thing
Mark
is
saying
let
me
tell
you
who
Jesus
is
and
he
focuses
his
attention
on
Jesus
identity
and
on
Jesus
work
the
first
eight
chapters
of
the
book
zero
in
on
his
identity
the
second
eight
chapters
of
the
book
zero
in
on
his
work
his
salvific
work
and
it's
like
an
uphill
climb
in
the
first
eight
chapters
with
the
climax
coming
I
believe
at
the
end
of
chapter
eight
Jesus
is
near
Caesarea
Philippi
and
he
asked
his
disciples
who
do
men
say
that
I
am
and
they
said
some
people
say
you're
John
the
Baptist
some
people
say
you're
Elijah
or
one
of
the
other
prophets
and
then
Jesus
says
but
who
do
you
say
that
I
am
and
Peter
says
in
that
famous
confession
you
are
the
Christ
everything
in
the
first
eight
chapters
builds
up
to
that
one
confession
!
you
are
the
!
and
it's
only
once
his
identity
is
established
in
the
mind
of
his
closest
followers
that
he
begins
to
describe
his
work
immediately
after
that
he
says
the
son
of
man
has
come
he
will
be
delivered
into
the
hands
of
men
he
will
be
put
to
death
but
he
will
rise
three
days
later
and
everything
after
that
builds
on
that
identity
that's
how
we're
going to
approach
this
book
we're
going to
!
for
listening
to
this
sermon
made
available
by
Lakeside
Bible
Church
feel
free
to
share
it
wherever
you'd
like
please
do
not
charge
for
it
or
alter
it
in
any
way
without
express
written
consent
from
Lakeside
Bible
Church
don't
forget
to
visit
us
online
at
lakeside
Bible
church
or
find
us
on
Facebook
and
Instagram
by
searching
for
Lakeside
Bible
NC
if you
live in
the
Charlotte
or Lake
Norman
area
we'd
love
for
you
to
attend
one
of
our
worship
services
we
meet
every
Sunday
morning
at
10
a.m.
we'd
love
to
meet
you