Sermon Tone Analysis

Pastor Dave à Read Scripture and Pray à

The Gospel of Mark.

The Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Good morning, my name is Kyle and I’m one of the pastor’s here at Rock Hill.

If you are new, I’m so glad that you decided to join us this morning.

We are beginning a series through the Gospel of Mark that is going to span the whole school year.

We will finish in May of next year as we slowly walk through this incredible story of the Life of Jesus.

So, to do that well, I’m going to need to lay down some groundwork…to answer some questions about the author, the occasion for writing this story of Jesus’ live, his purpose in writing, and even when he wrote it down.

Because this gospel, is written with a very specific agenda.

It is arranged the way that it is, not only because it tells us the truth about Jesus’ life, ministry and purposes, but also to help the reader come to a certain conclusion about Jesus.

And, lest you think Mark is trying to be subtle, sneaky, or overly clever…he tells us right away what his conclusion is…but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

Who is Mark?

· John Mark that we see pop up all over the New Testament.

A man who was very involved in the NT church, but almost always as a helper or right hand man to someone else’s ministry…not the main or key leader.

· His mother way Mary à A woman of some means, a follower of Jesus whose house was used in Jerusalem for the early gathering of the church.

In fact, he home very likely would have been the location of the “Upper Room” referred to in the gospel.

o If you’re not very familiar with the story, it is the place where Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples the night before he died.

It was also the place where the early church was gathering for prayer in when the Holy Spirit came and changed everything.

It was certainly the place where the church was gathered in , praying for the Apostle Peter and his release from prison.

o Why does this matter?

It matters because the events that he was writing about would have been about a lot of things that he experienced firsthand.

He was an eyewitness to much of what he wrote.

· Additionally, he was a cousin of Barnabas à a prominent leader in the early church.

In fact, he traveled with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.

He in fact, is infamous for his desertion of them in the middle of the trip.

This lead to a pretty significant parting of ways in à where Paul took Silas one way, and Barnabas went with John Mark in another direction.

o I love how the NT doesn’t hide the flaws of it’s key leaders or people!

Why would it though, because at the heart of the gospel and God’s work in the world is the reality that he uses imperfect people like Mark, like Paul, like you and me.

· In fact, Paul and Mark eventually reconciled and Mark was restored to significant ministry.

Which ties significantly into this gospel.

Toward the end of his life, Mark was the right hand man or scribe of none other than Peter the Apostle, when he was in Rome.

o In fact, this is tremendously important when considering his gospel.

Some people like to call it in part: The Gospel According to Peter, because it contains a special focus on Peter…most often bumbling around and making a fool of himself.

But containing stories where Peter was there, and omitting stories where Peter was gone.

And so, Mark wrote down much of what the essence of Peter’s accounts.

o Most scholars date this gospel to be written between 60-65AD, which makes it the first gospel written.

But also puts it within 25-30 years of the events it tells.

o This is important because there were still many eyewitnesses around.

§ It would be like when the Duluth News Tribune did a story last year on the Halloween Blizzard of 1991…the epic storm that last 4 days.

§ Many of you weren’t here or even alive for that, but many of you remember it.

This is important for accuracy…(legends don’t develop that fast)

Purpose and Arrangement of Mark

· Mark is by far the shortest gospel…and when you read it, it seems like he is in a hurry.

The first few chapters are marked consistently by the word: immediately.

“Immediately he did this, or immediately he went here…”

· Mark weaves the story of Jesus by focusing not as much on his teaching, but what he did and how he interacted with people.

· We find him regularly explaining the OT and Jewish traditions that Jesus is interacting with, which is helpful to us, but also indicates that the primary audience he is writing to is most likely not Jewish, but Gentile in background…and so some stuff needs a little explanation.

· He doesn’t begin the story of Jesus with his birth like Matthew or Luke, nor does he wax eloquent about the nature of who Jesus is like John.

No, he simply starts by stating his point.

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

But then, like an artist, he simply tells story after story after story, making the case that what he said in verse 1 is true…but letting the reader think about, consider the evidence and decide.

In fact, almost all of Mark is getting at 1 of 3 questions:

Who is Jesus?

Why did Jesus come?

Why did Jesus come?

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

Let’s unpack that initial statement shall we…then we’ll move on from the overview and get into the text itself.

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

The Gospel à Gospel means literally “good news” The beginning of the good news.

· Gospel was an understood term to the people of Mark’s day.

· There were lots of gospels being announced.

Often King’s or emperors would announce a “gospel” of piece of news which had implications for those who heard it.

· For example in 9 BC, the birthday of Caesar Augustus was hailed as a gospel, or a piece of good news.

· But whereas in the Roman world, Gospel was often one of many pieces of good news, Mark now says that this is THE GOOD NEWS!

Additionally à Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name but a title.

Mark is making a bold claim about Jesus.

He is saying, Jesus the Messiah- The promised King who would come.

Jesus THE CHRIST.

Now, as if that isn’t bold enough, Mark rachets it up one more notch.

Not only is this THE good news; not only is Jesus THE Messiah/Christ; Jesus is the Son of God.

He is Divine!

· Now, one more thing about Mark.

· People often struggle with it’s abrupt ending.

In fact, they struggled so much, that someone later most likely added 16:9-20 to emphasize, not the resurrection is a big deal too!

· To which we would be like, “Of course the resurrection is a big deal…in fact, for many of us, the air tight case of the resurrections historical accuracy is one of the main factors in our belief in the truth.

· But for Mark, when he wrote this, most of the Apostles were still alive.

And their primary message was bearing witness as eyewitnesses to the resurrection.

So, I think he leave it to them.

· No, the crescendo of Mark is the declaration at the end of 15 of the Roman Soldier.

The Roman, gentile solider echoes the claim of chapter 1 verse 1. “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

So, Mark gets right to the point… “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God!”

And then he goes on radio silence for a while until chapter 8 à When Peter makes the bold declaration à Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”

But Mark just jumps us into the story.

Which is this.

Jesus’ coming was foretold for a long time.

John the Baptist (2-8)

à The fulfillment of the one promised

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”

And John the Baptist, lets be honest was kind of a weird dude.

We are told that he was clothed with camel hair, wore a leather belt and ate bugs and honey for a diet.

What’s going on with that?

The description of John’s dress, nearly as unusual in John’s day as it would be in ours, recollects the garb of a prophet (), and particularly of the prophet Elijah, who wore “a garment of hair and a leather belt around his waist” ().

The Hebrew of describes Elijah’s clothing as a shaggy, goat-haired garment, which in Mark becomes a camel’s hair robe on the Baptizer.

Edwards, J. R. (2002).

The Gospel according to Mark (p. 32).

Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.

So, his dress and his diet is to mark him as coming in the authority and with the role of Elijah the most famous and honored prophet of the OT.

And his role, to prepare God’s people for the coming of the Messiah.

How did he do that?