Sermon Tone Analysis

About the Author

Acts

His home was a meeting place for the early Church

Acts

He was the cousin of The Apostle Barnabas

Acts

He was a great helper to the Apostles

He abandoned them on the mission field

Acts

This is a sad moment.

A deserter, he left them.

He disappeared.

He disappears from the New Testament record, by the way, for a few years.

He left.

And he didn’t go back to Antioch, that wouldn’t sit well with the Antiochian church had sent him out trusting he would serve the two preachers.

So he went to Jerusalem.

He disappears for a few years.

A few years have passed.

John Mark hasn’t been an issue because he’s not around.

But Paul has not forgotten his defection, his desertion, his cowardiceness … his cowardice, I should say, his weakness.

They have come back from the first journey.

They’ve given the full report of what God did on their first missionary journey.

Time has gone by.

Paul finally says to Barnabas after some time has passed, “Let’s return, visit the brethren in every city.

Let’s go on the second missionary journey, go back to the places where we founded the church, planted the church, proclaimed the Word of the Lord and see how they are doing.

Barnabas wanted to take John called Mark along with them also.

But Paul kept insisting …” which means Barnabas kept insisting

He was the cousin of The Apostle Barnabas

He had showed he lacked courage, strength, commitment.

He was a defector.

He was a deserter.

Barnabas, by the way, takes John Mark and Barnabas disappears for two years in history.

We don’t know where he is for two years.

John Mark disappears for ten years … ten years.

Ten years later he shows up again

What can they do for God’s work?

What can God’s work do for them?

d“What can God’s work do for them?”

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996).

The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 466).

Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Col

His name shows up in a letter written from Paul to the church at Colossae.

By the way, Paul is in Rome when he writes this letter.

When he was in Rome the first time as a prisoner, and he had two imprisonments, the first time and then he was released, and then he had ministry and then he was imprisoned again in Rome a second time and he was martyred.

This is the first imprisonment.

He is in his first imprisonment in Rome and he writes three letters … Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon.

Here we are ten years later.

Paul is in Rome.

Mark is in Rome with Paul … again.

And Paul says, “I’m sending Mark on my behalf.

When he gets there, welcome him.”

He’s back in the good graces of Paul.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014).

John MacArthur Sermon Archive.

Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

Phil

Desertion does have to be our destiny

Twenty two, twenty three years since the incident of Peter’s release from prison.

This is the end for him

From the time of his first imprisonment, he had Mark at his side.

A few years later in his second imprisonment on the brink of his death, he wanted Mark with him.

So I say to you, this is the story of the restored deserter.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014).

John MacArthur Sermon Archive.

Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

Now that part of the story is interesting, isn’t it?

His relationship to Paul is monumental.

Can’t imagine a simple, humble helper being an intimate friend and companion of the great Apostle Paul.

But his relationship to another Apostle is far more significant.

That other Apostle is Peter.

Certainly it would be the privilege of all privileges for a failure, defector, deserter, rejected by Paul to be restored in grace to become the helper and friend of that marvelous man.

How could he expect that kind of honor?

But he had even more than that.

He became the companion and confidant of Peter.

If Paul was the greatest Apostle in terms of the volume of things that he wrote.

Peter was Christ’s most intimate friend.

What kind of privilege would it be to spend years alongside Paul and years alongside Peter?

Did he know Peter?

Sure he knew Peter.

Peter had come to his house many times in the years of the early church.

Had he heard Peter preach?

Absolutely he heard Peter preach.

But it wasn’t the early acquaintance with Peter that was so significant, it was the later acquaintance with Peter.

Remember those ten years when John Mark disappears?

Part of the time he was with Peter.

You remember when he left he went back to Jerusalem?

He didn’t stay in Jerusalem.

Peter took him somewhere.

Oh, not his physical son, but his spiritual son.

No doubt Mark had come to Christ listening to Peter preach way back when he was young.

No doubt Peter was the first great impactful spiritual influence on his young life.

Peter was responsible for his conversion.

You say, “Why is that important?

Why does that matter?”

Because Mark’s gospel is the product of Peter’s eyewitness testimony.

The source for Mark from a human viewpoint is Peter.

His gospel is based on Peter’s eyewitness accounts of the life of the Lord Jesus which Peter rehearsed day after day after day after day, as he went out into the streets and the buildings of Rome and preached the gospel with Mark at his side.

And, believe me, Mark had heard it before that, going all the way back to his childhood.

This is Peter’s account through John Mark, not an Apostle, not a prophet, not a pastor, not a leader, not a teacher, just a helper.