Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus wrote no autobiography.

It might be a somewhat of a curiosity to note that Jesus never wrote any book.

There is no autobiography.

But the Spirit of God selected four men to write histories of the life of Jesus, His work, His death, and His resurrection.

They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Since the Holy Spirit inspired each writer, each of the gospels is without error.

It is God-breathed.

To borrow the language of Paul or in Peter’s words,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote their histories independently of each other at different times and in different places.

These four accounts paint a perfect picture of the life of Christ as shown to them by the Holy Spirit.

Today we begin a journey through Mark’s unique portrait of Christ.

Mark’s account of Christ’s life was the first penned.

However, it was not the first New Testament book written.

By the time the Mark wrote his gospel several New Testament books were already in existence.

The book of James and the book of Galatians had already been written by the Apostle Paul.

Galatians was written because the early church needed direction in how to detect and protect themselves from the false gospel preached by the Judaizers.

James was written to persecuted believers that were in need comfort and encouragement.

Written accounts of the gospel were not yet needed because those eyewitnesses who had seen and spent time with Christ were still alive.

And there were some written fragments that Luke 1:1-2 makes reference to written testimonies as well as verbal stories of eyewitnesses that existed before the gospel accounts.

The gospel accounts begin to appear about midway through that first century.

The first one that was written was Matthew.

The next one that was written was Mark.

And then came Luke.

And about 30 years later, around 90 A.D., the gospel of John.

As eyewitnesses begin to die off, it became imperative that accounts be written down.

So the Holy Spirit selected four men for this task, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

These four gospels received universal affirmation from the early church that they were the true gospels.

Yes, later on, spurious gospels appeared with false identification, like the gospel of Peter, the gospel of Thomas, etc., etc.

They were Gnostic, anti-God, Satanic forgeries intended to confuse people and undermine the truth.

The focus of Mark's gospel is the works not the words of Jesus.

Jesus is shown as a Savior of action, not articulation.

Mark 4 and 13 are the only two teaching chapters in Mark.

Mark 4 is Jesus parabolic teaching, and chapter 13 is Mark's account of The Sermon on the Mount and his second coming.

It is written like a newspaper.

It is fast paced, the word immediately appears over 40 times.

It’s an action gospel.

In the ancient world, most of the people were illiterate, particularly in the Roman world to which it was written.

Being illiterate required someone else to read to them, and this is why Mark wrote in this manner.

Let’s get to know the author.

If you look at the first verse, you will not find his name.

But then again, no author of any of the four gospels identifies himself as the author.

Matthew never says he’s the author even though his conversion and inclusion among the Apostle's appears in his account.

Luke never appears in his gospel at all, nor does he claim to be the author of it.

John, while appearing in his gospel, never refers to himself as John, but always by some other descriptive, like “The one whom Jesus loved.”

So we don’t have these gospels beginning with a claim to authorship.

It is clearly an indication of the fact that these authors wanted to give all the glory to Christ, they wanted the story to be about Him and they hid themselves, as it were, behind the history of the One who should receive the preeminence.

How do we know that Mark is the author?

The universal testimony of the early church is one and his appearance in Acts 12.

The book of Acts begins with Jesus spending 40 days after His resurrection, teaching His disciples truths pertaining to the Kingdom of God and preparing them to fulfill the commission of chapter 1 verse 8.

They are being equipped Christ and then empowered by the Holy Spirit to engage.

In chapters 1 through 12, we see the gospel in Judea and Samaria.

Chapter 13 we see the gospel going into the uttermost part of the earth.

Peter is the primary teacher in the first twelve chapters, while Paul becomes the primary teacher for the remainder of the book.

So when we come to chapter 12, we are at the end of the ministry of the Apostle Peter.

It is in Acts 12 that we hear Mark mentioned for the first time.

John was a Jewish name, Mark was a Gentile name.

Now it doesn’t tell us anything about him.

It just says Peter went to the house of Mary.

The fact that a house is identified with a woman rather than a man, probably means she was a widow.

So here’s a widow with a name that just about every other woman in the New Testament gospel account has...Mary.

So to distinguish this Mary from all the other Marys, it is the Mary who is the mother of John who is also called Mark.

That’s the only reason his name is even mentioned here.

At this point, he’s a non-descript guy.

He’s only a way to identify his mother.

Peter went to this house because he knew it was a place where his faith family gathered, and it was familiar.

Peter knew John Mark, and John Mark knew Peter, though John Mark was very young.

This event most likely took place in 44 A.D. or 14 years after the death of Christ.

So here for the first time, we meet John Mark and his connection to Peter, even if it’s a very loose connection.

Acts 12 tells us nothing about Mark but his name.

Now let’s follow the history a little bit.

Go to the end of chapter 12.  “Barnabas and Saul return from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission to bring the gift, taking along with them John who is also called Mark.”

Well, this is very interesting.

They return to Antioch to their responsibility, and the only person they take with them is this young man named John Mark.

This is the first indication of his usefulness, the first indication of his character.

Was he a preacher?

No. Was he a pastor?

No. Was he an evangelist?

No. Was he an Apostle?

No. Was he a prophet?

No. Was he a leader?

No.

He was none of those things.

He is really a non-descript guy.

You say, “Well why out of all the options would they take him?”

So 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 he could help them in the ministry in Antioch.

And, by the way, Barnabas was a Levite, and if you were a Levite, you served the priests in the temple.

All the way through Jewish history, those from Levi who made up the Levites served in the temple and assisted the priests.

Barnabas was a Levite.

If this man is his cousin, then perhaps he too was of the Levitical family descent.

Therefore he had perhaps served in the temple, was used to serving, had experience in temple service and temple worship, and had the attitude of one who serves.

John Mark then goes back to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.

He was faithful there until Paul and Barnabas were ready to leave.

You remember the story.

Look at chapter 13 verse 1. “Now there were in Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul.”

Please notice Mark’s name isn’t there, he wasn’t a pastor, he wasn’t a teacher.

And they were ministering to the Lord, and they were fasting, and the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I’ve called them.

They fasted and prayed.

Laid hands on them.

Sent them away.”

That’s the first missionary journey.