Embark on a spiritual expedition with us as we traverse the urgent and compelling Gospel of Mark, a narrative pulsing with the word 'immediately' to capture the essence of Jesus's ministry. Discover the profound teachings of service and sacrifice embedded within Mark 10:45, where the true nature of greatness is revealed. Our exploration delves into the traditional attribution of this gospel to Mark, possibly under the influence of Peter, adding layers of depth to the swift storytelling that mirrors the very beginning of creation. We even entertain the tantalizing possibility that Mark himself makes a cameo during the tumultuous arrest of Jesus. The episode unfolds with a detailed analysis of Mark 1:1, setting the stage for the powerful message that follows.
Embark on a spiritual expedition with us as we traverse the urgent and compelling Gospel of Mark, a narrative pulsing with the word 'immediately' to capture the essence of Jesus's ministry. Discover the profound teachings of service and sacrifice embedded within Mark 10:45, where the true nature of greatness is revealed. Our exploration delves into the traditional attribution of this gospel to Mark, possibly under the influence of Peter, adding layers of depth to the swift storytelling that mirrors the very beginning of creation. We even entertain the tantalizing possibility that Mark himself makes a cameo during the tumultuous arrest of Jesus. The episode unfolds with a detailed analysis of Mark 1:1, setting the stage for the powerful message that follows.
Speaker 1:
Here we officially start the book of Mark and you know I don't know how your life has been, but I feel like my life has had lots of different things to think about, felt a little distracted lately and so I'm Bible medicating here with the book of Mark. An opportunity to see Jesus. That's what I'm feeling. It's been a little while since we've been in one of the Gospels and you just can't go wrong. So maybe this is about me and maybe it's about us here in the Gospel of Mark. For however long it takes Now, the Book of Mark is word count wise and chapter wise.
Speaker 1:
It's the shortest of the four Gospels and it feels the most active. And it feels the most active. Something we'll probably point out many times is the word immediately, and words like that. Over 40 times Mark uses this word immediately and so the book feels active. There's a lot of action. Jesus is going here and there and healing people and teaching, but there's a lot of action there, and healing people and teaching, but there's a lot of action.
Speaker 1:
And Mark, chapter 10, verse 45, for many people serves as a theme verse for this book. Jesus is reprimanding his disciples who are arguing amongst himself who the greatest is and who the greatest would be in the kingdom of God, who the greatest is and who the greatest would be in the kingdom of God. They do that a couple of times and Jesus, here in verse 45, mark, chapter 10, ends his instruction to them by saying for even let's back up one verse, verse 44. Whoever desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And so here Jesus points it out the way to be the greatest is to be the slave of all. Now, the way to be the greatest is to be the slave of all. That he, the son of man, jesus, didn't come to be served. God didn't come in flesh to be served by people, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So as there's so much action in the book of Mark, we see that a lot of it is Jesus serving God, serving us, ultimately serving us by giving his life for us a ransom for many. So that's kind of a little bit of a theme here for the book of Mark, and we can turn back to Mark, chapter one, verse one, for a proper introduction here. The title in your Bible probably is the gospel according to Mark, and only tradition says that Mark was the one who wrote it. But it's not a bad idea. Right, tradition says it, it works good.
Speaker 1:
Mark is mentioned perhaps here in the book of Mark, but definitely in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts we find that Mark, aka John Mark, is a cousin to a guy named Barnabas, a very encouraging fellow named Barnabas, and he is a co-worker with Barnabas and Paul at one point along for the ride. Well, there in the book of Acts Acts chapter 12, we see that the church is meeting in his house as Peter is imprisoned. They're meeting in John Mark's house, his mom's house. Hey, that works. And there Peter comes knocking on the door as they're praying for him to be delivered and the servant girl, rhoda, answers the door and in her surprise she leaves Peter at the door and she runs back and says Peter's here. And so the church is meeting there at Mark's house. We see that there comes a point of division in the book of Acts. As little John Mark gets nervous as persecution is heating up and he decides to run home to Jerusalem. Paul, not so humored by this says well, that's the last time I've taken John Mark with us and there's a division between Paul and Barnabas over this.
Speaker 1:
Mark, now, little trivia here. The book of Mark. Many people believe that Mark throws himself in to the narrative. Now, it really happened, but they're in chapter 10, I believe Chapter 10, the end of the story. Mark, it seems a young man is wrapped in a linen sheet there in the garden as Jesus and his disciples are praying. The guards come, the authorities come to arrest Jesus. Mark gets freaked out and he begins to run away. As he runs away, they grab at him and they pull that linen sheet off. And here in Mark, chapter I'm sorry, it's 14. I see it in my notes now. Chapter 14, because you want this bit of trivia here. Mark, chapter 14, it says that the boy, the young man, ran away naked, right. So, mark, perhaps it seems there in the garden. No other reason to have that there, except that Mark was eyewitness and a little bit embarrassed there in the garden. So we'll see that as we go on.
Speaker 1:
But Mark is the traditional author of this book.
Speaker 1:
He most believe got his information from Peter. Not a bad place to get your information there on the ministry of Jesus. And in chapter one, verse one, he begins the book. We'll only cover one verse today, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So this is where Mark starts with. The word beginning Sounds familiar. Right In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth, genesis 1 and 1.
Speaker 1:
The beginning of the Bible starts with the same phrase, in Hebrew, of course, but Mark puts it down to that this is the beginning of the gospel, it's the beginning of his story, his account, which is not a real fancy way to start a book. Right, all right, it's the beginning. And he starts to say it from beginning to end. But Mark here puts it all together and maybe as a sort of title, in verse one he says this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Notice, in that sentence it's one sentence in your Bible, in English we put it that way If you have the New King James one sentence, no verb, as far as I can find, it's just a title, right.
Speaker 1:
And there Mark, I believe, puts us with this truth that the Christian life and everything good starts with the gospel, the good news of what God has done for us. And of course you know that's where Paul puts it in the book of Romans. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God to salvation for those that believe. Now this makes good sense the good news, the proclamation of what God has done for us. That's where it all starts, that God became flesh, dwelt among us, loved and taught and served and then gave his life a ransom for many on the cross. That's the good news, that proclamation. And you remember the idea of a proclamation Hear ye, hear ye. The war is over, the king has come. Whatever you want to say, this is that proclamation, the good news of what God has done for us. And that's how Mark starts his gospel. Here it all comes down to the good news of what God has done for us.
Speaker 1:
And I was just thinking of my own testimony of where it all started for me. You know, I grew up in church, every day of my life, I think, since I was a baby. I tried to get out of it many times as a teenager. And yet you're going to church, said my mom, said my dad, you know, and I went to church and I know that God did great things in my heart. I know that there was a foundation built. I know that I learned a lot about God. But in 1991, september I went away to college no good reason. My friends were doing it, so I decided to go with them. Honestly, I didn't get much out of that college, but while I was there in September I remember there was a point where it was just me and God, and perhaps you can look in your own life at that moment when that was it?
Speaker 1:
It was just you and God. It wasn't so easy to turn to someone else Just you and God. And I remember, you know, growing up I had said the prayer many times and I'm sure that I was saved. I'm sure that I was. But I remember it was that moment where God just spoke to my heart. I don't know what it sounded like, it was just something I knew he was saying Are you going to serve me? Are you going to follow me? Are we really going to do this thing? That's kind of the way he spoke to my heart and, for whatever reason you know God's drawing, I don't know I said, well, yeah, I guess so. And I remember it was that moment when he went from being just my savior to really being my Lord. I don't want to get into semantics of is he savior?
Speaker 1:
or Lord, but there comes that point where the good news is applied to your life and you go. God, thank you for being my Savior, jesus, thank you for dying for me. I accept it. But, god, my life is yours and there's something crazy that happened in my heart. It's like God just started feeding me things and like I started to know him more, and I had ups and downs, don't get me wrong. It wasn't just a right up to heaven, you know, but. But that's where it all started, just taking that good news, that gospel, to heart, and saying I want to follow you and and I think that's where it has to start I don't think I know that's where it has to start for every one of us.
Speaker 1:
The beginning is the gospel Notice of Jesus Christ. He calls it the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, jesus is his name. In Greek it's Yesu right Greek, it's Yesu right Spanish. We might say Jesus right. In Hebrew it would be Yeshua, or we kind of take that Hebrew name, joshua. But his name means God is salvation. That makes sense, right, that God would be our salvation. Jesus is his name, but Christ is not his last name, right? Sometimes we just kind of think the two go together Jesus and Christ, first name, last name.
Speaker 1:
Christ is his occupation, I guess you could say His calling. He was the Messiah, that's the Hebrew word for it, mashiach, and it would point to that one who would save us from the power of sin, the one in Genesis, chapter three, that God promised to sin to crush the serpent. I like that picture. Crush the serpent's head, you know. And that's who Jesus was and is. He's Jesus, the Christ.
Speaker 1:
Now, notice where Mark goes after this. He's Jesus and this is his gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now, that word the, it doesn't really matter. But that word the isn't exactly there. We get it. But he is Jesus Christ son of God. And you just look at that, you know, of the world's teachers and philosophers, nobody calls himself son of God. If they do, they're generally they can't prove it like Jesus proved it right, but that says a lot, doesn't it? As Mark calls him the son of God, that's saying a lot. That's talking about his deity, that he is God in the flesh.
Speaker 1:
Now the idea of son come back on this one, the idea of being the son of God. We shouldn't think of that just in biological terms. Right, we have God the father, god the son. Is there a God the mother? In Mormon theology, yes, but in biblical theology, no, there's no God the mother involved in this. It's not a biological thing that we're talking about here. It's a relational thing. It's so that we could point to the account of Abraham and Isaac that a father would offer his only son.
Speaker 1:
John. Chapter three points to the same thing, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, we're not talking about a biological son in this case. Jesus was born in the flesh. We'll see that in a second. But it's that relationship that the son and the father have always had, along with the spirit. God the father, god the son, god the Holy Spirit. One God, three distinct persons and Jesus. Here is God the Son. But that is a huge claim to say that this Jesus the Messiah is actually the Son of God. Huge claim.
Speaker 1:
Now, in the Gospel of John, john uses this term Son of God many times. He uses it a lot from Jesus' own mouth in the Gospel of John John 3, 5, 8, 10, and 11. Write it down if you want. Jesus calls himself the son of God, the son of God In chapter 19,. We see his enemies, the religious leaders, at his trial saying you claim to be the son of God, you should die for that. And so they call him. They refer to him as the son of God From others Nathaniel in chapter one, peter in chapter six of John. Martha in chapter 11,. They referred to Jesus as the son of God, and so it's a common phrase. John doesn't mind using it, using it.
Speaker 1:
But Mark here notice. Mark starts his book off by saying that Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God, and that's what we're seeing. We're seeing that here, jesus the Christ, god in flesh, coming to serve and to give his life for ransom for many. But interesting that, although Mark does that now follow this although Mark puts this in his title, he doesn't use it as much as others. Mark, chapter five. You can see in Mark, chapter five, verse six. You're welcome to turn. We'll get there in a little bit, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:
But Jesus is going to face off with a demon, possessed man, notice in verse six. Mark, chapter five, verse six. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him and he cried out with a loud voice and said what have I to do with you, jesus, son of the most high God? I implore you, by God, that you do not torment me. So Jesus is called son of the most high God by a demon In Mark, chapter three. You can turn back there if you want. It's pretty easy.
Speaker 1:
We read this in verse 11, the unclean spirits, demons. Again, whenever they saw Jesus, they fell down before him and cried out saying you are the Son of God. But he sternly warned them that they should not make him known. So here again we're told that those with demons in them the demons themselves. Their main message was You're the Son of the Most High God, you're the son of God. So Mark lets us know.
Speaker 1:
Really, only the demons use this term in his gospel. Now we know again for reading the other ones other people used it. Jesus used it, the religious leaders used it. The other ones other people used it. Jesus used it, the religious leaders used it. But it wasn't something that Mark really wanted to put everywhere, but yet it's in his title. Now Jesus uses a different term for himself in the book of Mark I think it's important. He calls himself the son of man. That's a big thing too, because in that Jesus was making it very clear I'm the son of man, I'm a human being, and we see the same the hypostatic union to throw out a big term. Right that God was in Jesus 100% God, 100% flesh, 100% man, real human being, 200% right, I don't know, I don't know how it pans out, but he was completely God and completely man.
Speaker 1:
But the fact that God would become flesh, that's what Mark is getting across in his book. God became flesh, yes, dwelt among us and served and gave his life a ransom for many. A huge idea, a wonderful thought here for us, that Jesus would serve. And that's what he came to do to serve and to give his life. Now turn to Mark, chapter 15, and we'll see the last point here where Mark uses this term, lets his characters use this term son of God. So really we've only found about three points. So really we've only found about three points where this term is used, even though it's important to mark Mark. Chapter 15, verse 39 it's at the cross there and we see actually in verse 37 that point.
Speaker 1:
Jesus cried out with a loud voice. Now, mark doesn't write what he said, but he cried out with a loud voice. Few things he could have said. It is finished. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me Into your hands? I commit my spirit. There's a few things he could have cried there, but he cried out and breathed his last. And then, verse 38, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. A very interesting fact there that veil in the temple was torn. But now notice what happens in verse 39. This is why we're here. So when the centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said truly this man was the son of God. So here we see it again. Mark's point it seems, in writing this to show the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, here at the cross. A centurion, a Gentile, an outsider for sure, looks up at the cross and sees Jesus who's just died.
Speaker 2:
Lots of other things going on, but as he sees this and he looks and he says truly, this man was the son of God.
Speaker 1:
And I think Mark is pointing out to us the place where you see the son of God at his finest, dying on the cross for us, at his finest dying on the cross for us, that God didn't come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. What an amazing thing that God would love us like that, that God would become flesh and lay down his life for us. And this, I think, is the highest point in this gospel. And we'll see it. But you know, we can get very distracted in life. I'm speaking from experience. But there's no better place to come to see the love of God than just the cross and what he's done for us, how he's laid down his life for us. What a glorious thing.
Speaker 1:
Not that God came to be served but to serve and give his life for us Blows us away. It'll change and soften our hard heart. It'll give us direction in our lives and hope when we're discouraged. God, you're with us. God, we just want to thank you. I just want to thank you for this amazing love and I'm just so excited and even refreshed already just to take time to look at you, to look at Jesus for however long it takes that's what we're always looking at, but to see you as that loving servant, that humble servant. God, thank you for loving us when we weren't really all that lovable, in the middle of our sin and yuck. You loved us and you came for us, god, what a crazy truth that is. I just pray and just want to dedicate this time that we spend in this book to whatever you have for us. We pray that it would do a work in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's go sing. Sing. Jesus, draw me close.
Speaker 2:
Jesus, draw me close. Jesus draw me close, close, and Lord to you. Let the world around me fade away, laid away. Please draw me close, close, lord to you, for I desire to worship and obey, for I desire, for I desire to worship and obey.