Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus, the Son of God

Mark’s gospel opens with

Mark

Those opening words of Mark’s gospel not only state the purpose behind the book, but probably the original title.

However, throughout church history the book has been known by it’s author — Mark.

Let me give you some introductory remarks about the man, Mark, and then some historical background to the book, and then we’ll get into the message of Mark.

Mark, the Man

Mark was a close companion of the Apostle Peter and a cousin of Barnabas, who accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey.

Mark was also known in Acts as John Mark.

Mark is the one who deserted Paul and Barnabas along the way in Perga and returned to Jerusalem.

When it came time to go on the 2nd Missionary journey, Barnabas wanted Paul to take Mark, but Paul refused.

This disagreement led to Paul and Barnabas separating.

But Mark’s earlier vacillation evidently gave way to great strength and maturity and in time he proved himself even to Paul.

Mark had so endeared himself again to Paul that Paul writes Timothy in

This is amazing reality of Christian fellowship and community.

Here was an apparently heated debate between Paul and Barnabas over Mark’s desertion.

At the time, Paul seemed to be right about him, but Barnabas didn’t give up on Mark.

Later we see that Mark matures and becomes vital to Paul and the Gospel.

Mark is then used of the Holy Spirit to write the Gospel According to Mark.

We should always be willing to forgive one another as we also stand for the truth.

Paul apparently did not completely write Mark off.

But the Lord grew Mark.

Mark’s restoration to useful ministry may have been, in part, due to the ministry of Peter.

Peter calls Mark, “my son,” in .

An interesting relationship, since Peter was no stranger to failure, having denied the Lord Jesus 3 times and later been rebuked publicly by Paul.

So, Paul was obviously used by God to influence young Mark and help him out of the instability of his youth and into the strength and maturity he would need for the work to which God had called him.

And so — we have the book of Mark.

The Background of Mark’s Gospel

Mark is known as one of the Synoptic Gospels.

Synoptic is a word used to describe Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their similarities.

However, even a cursory reading of the three gospel accounts not only reveals striking similarities, but significant differences.

Modern scholars have attempted to explain these differences by addressing the so called, Synoptic Problem.

Syn means “together” and optic means “seeing.”

Modern scholars have assumed that there is a literary dependence between the synoptic gospels.

In other words, the theory is that Mark was written first and Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source of their Gospels.

And that there is a second source called Q from the German word Quelle meaning “source.”

The theory is known as the Two-Source theory.

The argument is that the material in Matthew and Luke that doesn’t appear in Mark must have come from this source.

However, the weight of evidence is strongly against such a theory.

The church until the 19th century believed that Matthew was written first.

Why would Matthew, an apostle and eyewitness to the events of Christ’s life, need Mark’s account, who was not an eye witness?

There is no historical or manuscript evidence that the Q document ever existed.

It is purely a fabrication of modern skepticism, used to deny the verbal inspiration of the gospels.

The answer to the perceived Synoptic Problem is — no such problem exists!

God inspired each Gospel writer to write independently of each other to emphasize.

If you read the Gospels, it should become clear how well they harmonize and lead to a more complete and fuller picture of the person of Jesus Christ.

The accounts are not contradictory, but complementary, when brought together give a fuller picture of the message conveyed in each individual gospel account.

For example, Matthew presented Jesus as the Sovereign King.

Mark now presents Jesus as the Son of God who came as the Suffering Servant.

The same Jesus is shown as sovereign God and servant Man.

While Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience and Luke to a specific individual, Mark wrote to Gentile believers in Rome.

Mark’s audience was clearly non-Jewish, as evidenced by the fact that he translates Aramaic terms throughout his gospel account, such as in

Mark also provides explanations of Jewish customs like

He also omitted the genealogy of Jesus, which was of particular interest to Jewish readers.

He calculated time according to the Roman system and used Latin expressions in place of Greek equivalents.

All of these details demonstrate that Mark wrote from Rome to believers there a divinely inspired and accurate historical record of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

His purpose is indicated in the opening statement:

The theme reaches its climax halfway through his 16 chapter account in 8:29

“You are the Messiah!” — You are the Christ!

So, everything preceding that confession builds up to that declaration and everything after it flows out of it and builds on it.

Let’s look at that and the message of Mark as we see first that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Christ based on His words and miracles, and finally, that Jesus is the Christ based on His death and resurrection.

Jesus is the Christ — based on His words and miracles and death and resurrection.

I. Jesus is the Christ.

Mark 8:

“Who do you say that I am?”

This is the most important question that any human being will ever answer…Who is Jesus Christ?

Everybody in human history is accountable to God to answer that question.

The wrong answer means hell, the right answer, heaven.

Philosophers have answers, liberal theologians have answers.

Skeptics have answers.

Muslims have answers.

Jews have answers.

Atheists have answers, humanists, the religious, the common man has answers…answers, that are wrong and condemn them.

What is your answer?

Who is Jesus?

Peter answers — “You are the Christ!”

What does this mean?

Mark begins his gospel account with the statement

And then immediately goes to the witness of John the Baptist.

So, this confession of Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ and Mark extends this — Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus is the Son of God, by nature, man, and by nature, God.

This is the confession of Peter.

But notice — This is not the result of experience, or empiricism, or human reasoning.

Peter is not just connecting the obvious dots.

Because in Matthew’s account Jesus immediately answers Peter.

Experience, empiricism, human reasoning — only get you so far.

This is the divine work, divine intervention.

1 Corinthians

So, this is the revelation from God the Father as to who Jesus is — Jesus is the Christos, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the One who came as the prophet like Moses, the Priest, and the King to reign and rule — You are the Christ.

The whole world is saying Jesus is someone else, but God reveals that Jesus is the Son of God, the Son of Man — the Christ.

II.

Jesus is the Christ based on His words and miracles.

Everything leading to Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ is based on His authoritative words and miraculous deeds.

Mark launches his account with the witness of John the Baptist who declares —

And so we see that Jesus is more power than John the Baptist.

Beginning in 1:21 we see Jesus drive out a demon.

He then heals Peter’s mother-in-law.

He heals the man with serious skin disease.

Heals the paralytic — But in such a way that demonstrates His the truth of His authoritative words:

He healed the man with the paralyzed hand.