Introduction to the Gospel of Mark

Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Markan Series

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 24th, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We have sung together that the word of God is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ our Lord. We have also sung that it is through the written word that Christ himself comes to his people. Let us once again unite our hearts in prayer, pleading that we may see the picture with eyes opened by the Spirit, and that Christ himself will come to us.

0:47 O Lord, we do confess again in your presence that we who have tasted and seen that you are good cannot be satisfied with merely having our minds expanded with new thoughts about your word, nor can we be content with additional information about your Son. We long that the Spirit will give us eyes to behold him as he is set before us in his own word. And we long that by faith we may feed upon him, that we may not merely see him set before us, but, O, that we may eat of him and drink of him, that our love to him may be deepened, our faith enlivened, and our faith in him strengthened, and the basis of both faith and love more fully established by the words of your own word. Hear our cry and send the Spirit upon us to these ends, we pray, in his name. Amen.

The Gospel of Mark: The Second House on New Testament Avenue

2:06 For those of you who are visiting amongst us, perhaps just a word of explanation is in order, as we turn to the Lord. We are about to begin a series of consecutive expositions on the text of the Gospel of Matthew. That means that we'll be taking up Matthew, Mark, I'm sorry, Gospel of Mark, Chapter 1, in verse 1, and working our way right through, God willing, to the end of that gospel. And in order to be better prepared for this series of studies, we spent some time in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible.

2:42 And we spent several weeks seeking to grasp some facts and perspectives with respect to gospel literature in general. That is, some of the distinctives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as Spirit-inspired literature in the Word of God. And during those studies, we took up and sought to answer such questions as, how did the gospel records come to us? What is their precise nature?

3:16 And why were they written? And then last Lord's Day, we began to concentrate on the Gospel of Mark in particular. And for those of you who are here, I hope, and I trust this is not flattery, I hope you will remember the analogy with which we began. We likened the New Testament to a street called New Testament Avenue, and on it are 27 houses.

3:41 And we said that we were looking, for several weeks, at the first four houses, seeking to discover some of the ways in which they were similar in their construction, in their appearance, in their raw materials. But now we were walking up to the second house in particular, and standing on the porch, as we prepare to enter and make a careful examination of all of the details of that house. And that second house, of course, is the Gospel of Mark. The second book in the New Testament.

4:16 And as we stood on the porch, last Lord's Day morning, we concentrate our attention upon one thing, and one thing only. Namely, Mark the man. We tried to find, from the Scriptures, all we could discover about the man who was the human builder of this house. The divine builder is God, for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, including the Gospel of Mark.

4:43 But since the Spirit used a human builder, a human author, we turn to every passage in the New Testament in which Mark the man is explicitly or implicitly set before us, and gleaning from those passages a definite perspective on Mark the man, I trust we are better prepared now to come and examine his Gospel. Now, what we're going to do this morning, we're going to look at the Gospel of Mark. And this will be the last time we spend on the porch. God willing, next Lord's Day morning we'll enter the front door.

Architectural Distinctives: Features, Structure, and Target

5:19 But while we stand on the porch, we want not only to ask the question, who is the builder? But we want to ask, what are his architectural and construction distinctives? What is there about this second house that makes it distinctive from the first house, Matthew? Or from the third, Luke?

5:41 Or from the fourth, Matthew? Or from the fourth, John? Then we want to ask the question, what is the overall plan of this house? Was it just thrown together while the man was half asleep?

5:52 Or is there some clearly discernible plan in the construction of his house? And then we want to ask the question, for what particular market did he construct the house? Did he construct it with an eye to appealing to a certain type of buyer? And so, having looked at Mark the man, we now move on to consider these other three matters.

6:16 The distinguishing features of the Gospel of Mark, the basic structure of the Gospel of Mark, and then the specific target of the Gospel of Mark. First of all, then, the distinguishing features of the Gospel of Mark. In our previous studies, we had occasion to note that each Gospel writer is not only like a builder, but like a painter. And he projects an accurate, but a distinctive set of pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Distinguishing Feature 1: Deeds Predominate Over Words

6:51 Each one was a collator and an organizer of certain sayings and discourses of our Lord. And in that organization and collation, each one acted according to his own God-given individuality, the preparation that began in the mother's womb, in the gene pool, and went on through life in terms of early formative influences, all of which were taken over by the Spirit of God so that what we have is, in the purest sense, the words of God himself, but those words that reflect very clearly the individuality of each of the authors. And so when we turn to the Gospel of Mark, or to go back to our analogy, when we stand on the porch and look at this house and compare it with the other first four houses on New Testament Avenue, what are the things that set apart this house from the other Gospel houses? Well, there are many things that could be said, but I want to direct your attention just to several that I believe will be of great help to us as we study through the Gospel together. First of all, Mark's Gospel is the Gospel in which deeds predominate over words.

8:17 It is the Gospel in which deeds predominate over words. Now, all of the Gospel records, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, contain what Luke describes in Acts 1-1 as a record of the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Matthew contains a record of the doings and the sayings of our Lord. Mark does, Luke does, and John does.

8:50 But that which makes Mark's Gospel distinctive and it distinguishes his Gospel from Matthew, from Luke, and from John, is that it is the Gospel in which the recorded deeds of our Lord predominate over his recorded words. Yes, we do have the words of Jesus. We even have a couple lengthy discourses. But compared to the other Gospel records, Mark's Gospel is preeminently the Gospel of the deeds of our Lord.

9:29 In other words, Mark is concerned to set before us not so much our Lord Jesus, as a powerful preacher, but rather he sets him before us as a mighty worker, the one who in virtue of his unique person, his unique identity and mission, subdues hearts to himself by the Sea of Galilee, conquers demonic powers with his word, forgives sin by the authority of his word, talks raging seas into quietness, and again and again, throughout the Gospel of Mark, there is this predominant emphasis upon Christ, the mighty worker. In short, he is set before us as the mighty servant of Jehovah, Son of God, Son of Man, able by the proven law, by the divine deeds recorded in the Gospel of Mark, to meet the deepest needs of suffering, sin-bound, crippled humanity. And if ever an emphasis was needed in our day, our day that is oriented to pragmatism,

10:57 does it work? Will it work? We can ask the question, Can he work? And the answer of Mark's Gospel is yes.

11:08 He is the mighty worker. And there is no power of evil raging in your breast this morning. But what his power and his word of grace can subdue. There is no sin you've ever committed concerning which he cannot say, Son, thy sins be forgiven me.

11:30 There is no raging storm upon the sea of your life which appears as though it is utterly to inundate you until you're ready to cry, Lord, we perish. But what he can say to that sea, be still, and there will be a great calm. This is one of the reasons I chose to preach through the Gospel of Mark in consulting with my fellow elders, because in a very unique way is the Gospel suited to address itself to the mindset of our own hustling, bustling age that is in a very unique way conditioned to think, Does it work? Will it work?

12:12 And we say yes. He works and can work and does work. It is the Gospel in which the deeds predominate over the words. But then the second distinguishing trait of Mark's Gospel is this.

Distinguishing Feature 2: Rapidity and Intensity of Action

12:27 It is the Gospel of rapidity and intensity of action. The Gospel of rapidity and intensity of action. Now, some of you who have a television are very much aware of the fact that both in television producing and if you attend motion picture theaters at all, I trust it is with the most guarded and prayerful selectivity. If it isn't, God have mercy on you.

12:59 But in one way or another, most of you have become aware of the fact that a new form of films or of TV programs has developed in which perhaps in a biographical sketch certain major events in an individual's life are put together and you have what are technically called and I check this out with someone who knows in our midst, quick cuts. And you have as it were like a mural that is spread before your eyes in which for just a second or two your eye is focused upon this major event and then another major event and another major event. And when that segment is over it has the effect of overwhelming you with all of those events passing over your mind so quickly all at once and that's deliberate to create an overall impression that either brings out admiration for the person whose life has thus been reviewed sympathy, grief, anger, whatever emotion whatever effect is desired but in a very real sense Mark predated all of this modern approach with quick cuts because he's given us a gospel in quick cut. And the indications of that are many but two are outstanding. And the two outstanding indications of this

14:27 are number one his constant use of the word and A-N-D in the Greek it's the little word chi the normal ordinary conjunction and you will find in any translation worthy of being considered a standard trustworthy translation that the word and occurs again and again and again and again just when you think you're coming to the end of an and and you're carried up and you come to an end of an event and think well now I can breathe and and you're carried along and and and let me show you just from the first chapter this is just one little specimen so that you'll know this is not something that you have to know Greek or be an astute student to perceive. Now some of you you're going to look at the translation you have and you're going to start frowning and I hope you do frown and I hope you get a different translation after you frown. Alright? Mark's Gospel chapter 1 verse 4 I'm reading from the old 1901 John came who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins and they went out unto him all the country of Judea and were all baptized I'm sorry and all they of Jerusalem and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan confessing their sins and

15:55 John was clothed with camel's hair and had a leathern girdle about his neck and his loins and did eat locusts and wild honey and he preached saying down to verse 9 and it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan and straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens open verse 11 and a voice came out of the heavens verse 12 and straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness verse 13 and he was in the wilderness and with the wild beast and the angels ministered and you begin to get the feeling of this thing if you hand it in a composition like that to your English teacher you'd be in trouble you'd be in trouble and you see the problem with the translation like the NIV which has much to commend it is to be seen precisely at this point I went through and analyzed and this is not a general knock at the NIV I read in the NIV there is much to commend it but if some of you wonder why we've not declared it the official translation to be used for public reading and preaching in our assembly this is one of the reasons in the opening words of that paragraph that I read in your hearing verses 9 to 13 there are eight chi's and's in the original four of them are left completely untranslated

17:22 as though they didn't exist and only four are translated in the new international version now we say we believe in plenary verbal inspiration and if the Holy Ghost inspired Mark to write in a way which if translated faithfully not woodenly but faithfully gives the impression of bad English too bad don't be more fastidious than the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit had a reason for causing Mark to have this distinct characteristic in his gospel that everything is hung together almost without exception the conjunction and and and and and one deed piled upon another upon another upon another and only in four strategic places does he use a debt to form a transition into a new section of his gospel and so it is the gospel marked by rapidity of action one thing upon another upon another upon another upon another but then I said intensity of action and I chose that word because of his constant use of the word translated in the 1901 edition straightway now notice how many times it's used even in the opening chapter verse 9 I'm sorry verse 10 and straightway coming up out of the water

18:49 verse 12 and straightway the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness verse 18 and straightway they left their nets verse 19 verse 20 straightway he called them verse 21 and straightway on the Sabbath day verse 23 and straightway now that word straightway euthus simply means immediately right away with no pause straightway immediately post haste and you see in the 1901 and even in the RSV and in many other translations there is a consistency in translating that Greek word that you do not find in the NIV you wouldn't know that the Holy Ghost directed Mark to focus not only upon the rapidity of the action of our Lord by hanging it together with these ands but by the intensity by 40 uses of this word straightway and in the entire New Testament including parallel passages in the other gospels there are only another 40 of the approximately 80 times that word straightway is used in the New Testament 40 of them are in the shortest of our gospels the gospel of Mark so you see it forms a distinctive feature of Mark's gospel now you say oh that's very interesting Pastor

20:15 but so what well could it be that God is intending to say something to us that not only was the Spirit of God directing John Mark to set before us a record of the doings and sayings of Jesus in which the concentration the focal point was upon Christ the mighty worker but upon Christ the mighty worker whose works of might and power has such a cumulative effect upon us that we must reject sanity itself to miss the point of what John Mark is seeking to tell us about his Savior and yet in the midst of that and this to me is the beauty of it he shows us that rapidity and intensity of action and ministry does not mean a neglect of the inner life for embedded in that very first chapter with all of the and and and and immediately immediately immediately in straightway in straightway we have that a great while before day Jesus went out to a secret place and there he prayed so that while we read this account of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus and we see him as the tireless servant of the Lord

21:41 the mighty worker with all of these accumulated deeds of might and power going about his ministry with tremendous intensity on the one hand we are reminded periodically by this emphasis in Mark of the retirement elements of the life of Jesus that all of that intense activity all of that rapidly unfolding activity was not the activity of a frenzied man who was caught up in his work to the extent that he forgot that all that he did had to flow out of his intimate communion with his God but it simply highlights that great reality of the life of our Lord that all that he was in the intensity and rapidity of his externally observed public ministry flowed out of the reality and the crucible of his own communion with his Father and then with respect to us it tells us that the one who we need so desperately as a savior the one so perfectly suited to our need is the one whom we will never find weary when all sinners of all kinds with all of their needs come to him we'll never find him a savior

Distinguishing Feature 3: Touching and Minute Biographical Detail

23:09 who says enough, enough, enough, enough the burdens of a lost and confused humanity are too much for me in the gospel of Mark we find him and he, and he did this, and he did this and straightway and straightway and the scriptures tell us he now lives in the power of an endless life now stripped of all of the limitations placed upon him by that body made in the likeness of sinful flesh now a glorified body but in the person of the Holy Spirit who takes of the things of Christ and applies them with power to the hearts and lives of men I say it reverently he is the energetic intensely active Christ able to meet all of the needs of all who come unto God by him but then in the third place it is not only as to its distinguishing features the gospel in which deeds predominate over actions in which we find rapidity and intensity of action but thirdly it is the gospel of touching and minute biographical detail it is the gospel of touching and minute biographical detail

24:38 now I hope you can remember all the way back a few weeks ago when we said the gospels are not strictly biography they were not intended to be a comprehensive balanced impassionate and unprejudiced record of the life death sayings and doings of Jesus of Nazareth but there are elements of biography and one of the unique elements of Mark's gospel is that he gives us by the guidance of the Spirit touching and minute biographical detail perhaps one of the best summaries of this fact is set forth by Machen in his book on the New Testament and I quote Machen now just a brief paragraph vividness of description is I'm sorry vividness of description is obtained by many minute touches that are lacking in Matthew and in Luke Mark alone tells us that the paralytic was carried by four men Mark 2 and verse 3 and that before the storm on the lake Jesus was in the stern of the boat not just sleeping but sleeping on a pillow Mark 4 38 Mark alone mentions the age of Jairus' daughter in chapter 5 and verse 42 and gives the original Aramaic that is the spoken language

26:07 of Palestine at that day the original Aramaic form of the words by which Jesus raised her up Mark 5 41 Mark alone speaks of the green grass upon which the five thousand were made to sit down chapter 6 and verse 39 Mark describes the healing of the epileptic boy after the transfiguration with a wealth of detail that is absent from the other gospel records chapter 9 verses 14 to 21 these especially vivid touches which run through the whole gospel of Mark confirm the tradition which we considered several weeks ago that Mark was dependent upon an eye witness an intimate eye witness of these events even the person of the apostle Peter now it's very interesting that Hendrickson in his excellent introductory work on the gospel of Mark produces no fewer than four pages of these minute details and then some marvelously rich footnotes that include about another thirty incidents of this peculiarity of Mark's gospel little details little touches of detail that indicate on the one hand that whoever gave him this information was an intimate associate of the Lord Jesus who was an eye witness of what he did

27:34 and also of what he said an ear witness of what he said so that we have on the one hand that touch buttressing that tradition for which there is no reason to turn to another alternative that this gospel was written under the eye of and approval of the apostle Peter but then it does something else you see details are important to someone who is in love with the object of the one concerning whom the details are given you see this every time you get new photographs you're all excited because you took all those photographs about your third child or your third child was the subject of all those photographs and you're so thrilled and excited and someone comes into your home and you say I just got back a whole packet full of pictures about our youngest would you like to see them well who is a guest in your home is going to say nah I've seen all kinds of kids pictures they're going to say I'd like to see them so you spread the pictures out and you try to get them all excited well they look at the picture same ugly little kid the Lord blessed a nice kid the Lord blessed you with another child you know but you're so excited why because you see a little nuance of his personality coming through in the first picture that they could care less about and you see a subtle way that a certain physical characteristic

29:03 is highlighted in the third picture it isn't in the second because your heart is bound up in that child you find delight in looking at every little detail which reflects something of the reality that is the object of your life and so when we come to the Gospel of Mark is the Gospel marked by this touching minute biographical detail I doubt it will mean much to some of you you'll sit there and say ho hum why because your heart is a heart of stone with respect to any genuine love to Jesus Christ what difference does it make to you if he's fast asleep on the board in the boat or on a pillow big deal difference is it to you this detail or that detail well it makes no difference because your heart is one of indifference to the person who is set before us but the scripture says the works of the Lord are great sought out of all those that have pleasure therein and if the Holy Spirit has captured your one sin loving self-filled sin bound heart and has brought that heart to see that in Jesus Christ

30:31 there is a savior perfectly suited to your need and if your heart knows anything of what it is to run out to him in the actings of true repentance and faith and if he's become to you the pearl of great price and you are bound to him in the bonds of faith and love and that allegiance to him that allegiance has been sealed from the heart my friend you cannot find out enough about the object of your faith and love for every new thing you discover about him either becomes an additional reason to love him more or to trust him more implicitly and so it is the great delight of the true believers in and the true lovers of Jesus Christ to search out those details and in a unique way the gospel of Mark under the blessing of the Spirit can be a help to intensify both the ground of our love to Christ and the basis of our faith in Christ it is the gospel of touching and minute biographical detail Mark makes more references to the looks to the gestures and to the emotions of Jesus than any of the other gospel writers well I want to know as I fellowship with my Savior

31:58 whom unseen I love who is somewhere in the vast universe of God right now is surely as I stand behind this pulpit his glorified body is somewhere in the vast universe of God but as I hold communion with him in the spirit and by faith I want to know what is he like? I don't want to hold communion with a phantom with an indistinct and blurred Savior Mark's gospel will help us to know precisely what our Savior is like we will behold him in his touching gestures we'll behold him in the flashing eye of his holy anger we behold him in his sensitivity to men we will behold him in many highlights and side lights and cross lights that I trust will cause our hearts to run out in new love and trust toward our Savior well there are other things that could be mentioned and any of you who have done any technical studies in the gospel of Mark are already thinking but Pastor Martin why didn't you mention this and that? well there's only so much one can do preaching on a Lord's Day morning and hopefully some of those elements that you're aware of will come out in due time but I focused upon these three because they are three of the outstanding distinguishing traits

The Overall Structure of Mark's Gospel

33:27 of Mark's gospel and they have tremendous devotional and practical relevance but now very quickly and this will take me but a few minutes the overall structure or the plan of the gospel of Mark as we approach our study is there any sense in which we can have some understanding of it of where we're going where we will be taken taken by Mark through this account of the doings and the sayings of our Lord well if you have any acquaintance with the gospel records you know that unlike Matthew and unlike Luke who give us a birth record of Jesus and unlike John who gives us as it were a record embedded in eternity in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God in Mark's gospel there is a complete bypassing of any birth record any eternity record explicitly though he does identify the subject of his gospel as Jesus the Son of God and that immediately lets us know that there is no different Christology in Mark the lofty Christology of John is embedded in the opening sentence of Mark He is God the Son but you see the emphasis does not fall there but we are immediately introduced to John the Baptist and his ministry and then starting in verse 13 we are introduced

34:54 to the Galilean ministry of our Lord Jesus and so for the simplest outline of the book and we will break it down into more detail as we move along I pass on to you that which I find helpful in the words of Hendrickson we have in chapter 1 in verse 1 to verse 13 the work of the Lord Jesus in its beginning or inauguration we have the inauguration 1 1 to 13 the ministry of John the Baptist and the temptation the baptism of Jesus and the temptation then in verse 14 of chapter 1 to the end of chapter 10 we have the work in its progress or continuation as Jesus goes about in his mighty deeds and in his penetrating words and then in chapter 11 to the end we have the work in its culmination or its climax so inauguration 1 1 to 13 1 14 through to the end of chapter 10 the work in its continuation chapter 11 to the end we have the work in its culmination inauguration continuation culmination now most of you kids should be able to give that back to mom and dad even if you forget the references and it will be helpful to us to realize as we study through that Mark did not intend

36:22 to give us a comprehensive treatment of all of the ministries of Jesus all of the early ministry in Judea is completely passed over facts and factors and sayings that are grouped together in great profuseness in John's gospel and parts that we would find in other gospels completely passed over by Mark and the concentration is up north of Jerusalem in the very area of Peter's hometown and many of the events cluster around Peter's hometown and around the sea and this would be natural if he received much of what he passed on to us directly from the lips of Peter it would have this petrine prejudice of emphasis that was not sinful but was overruled by the spirit of God to give us exactly what the spirit of God desired us to have in this account of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus but suffice it to say this much as with all the other gospel records if one sits down and reads through the gospel at a sitting and I hope you'll do that it doesn't take that long you will sense that everything in the gospel from the time of his inauguration is leading with greater intensity and clarity to that great culminating work

The Special Target of Mark's Gospel: The Roman Mindset

37:49 of the servant of Jehovah in which he will give his life a ransom for many so that the mighty work does his most mighty work when most men we say of them they finished their work we mark their death as the end of their real usefulness Mark sets it before us as the culmination of his ministry someone has cryptically said that the gospel records are passion narratives with lengthy introductions that the great emphasis even in terms of detail and amount of verses and chapters everything expands as we draw near the cross because God is saying to us amidst all of the mighty works which he did in a sense every mighty work prior to the cross was but a validation of the identity and worth of the one who was to die and it was that work which was his great work and in that work is your hope and my hope for life and salvation and then I close by just saying a word about the special target of the gospel of Mark I wish I could have come up with a better term but I didn't want to waste time on terminology and not have substance

39:15 when Mark built his house did he hope to attract a certain buyer or was it sort of a universal house anybody would buy it all would be equally interested well if you read the gospel of Matthew you're certainly aware that Matthew was out to get a Jewish buyer he makes references again and again that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled he assumes a knowledge of Jewish customs and practices when you read the gospel of John it's evident that John was writing to combat an incipient heresy that had already begun to manifest itself in the church at his time well it seems evident that Mark wrote a universal gospel as all the gospels are universal all of them present Christ as the answer to the world's needs Matthew wrote particularly for the Jew but what's the final note in Matthew make disciples of all the nations it's not a Jewish gospel it is the gospel with a peculiar concern to catch the ear of the Jew but it's the gospel for all mankind and likewise with the others well there are reasons to believe that Mark wrote with a special desire to attract a Roman eye that when a Roman would walk by his house he'd stop turn his head and look twice and be forced to look at his house

40:44 if he were able to bypass all of the others and the indications of this are several unlike Matthew whenever Mark comes to Jewish customs he explains them he assumes that his readers aren't familiar with those Jewish customs so he explains them so he's obviously writing with primarily Gentiles in mind and the whole motif of this intense and rapid action which would appeal peculiarly to the Roman mind and temperament would indicate that again he's seeking to set forth the Lord Jesus in truth and in reality but with those strokes of his brush with those particular lights playing upon the countenance of our Savior that would in a unique way attract the Roman mind and heart to consider the claims of our Lord Jesus and in so doing you see Mark under the influence of the Spirit is a wonderful example of this great principle that the gospel is one it is one in every age it is one in every quote dispensation there has only been one gospel from the moment God came to fallen man in the Garden of Eden and said I will put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent it is a gospel of sovereign initiative God comes while man is running

42:11 and God does not say you do this this this and this and if you do then I will do this God says Adam where are you and when God gets him God says I will and God appears to Abraham and says I will I will I will I will there is only one gospel and it is the gospel of sovereign gracious initiative on the part of God it is the gospel in which God calls men to trust what he does for them not to tell them to do something that will help them make themselves acceptable to him but that one gospel that comes to its full display in the gospels when we actually see the Lord Jesus come in space and time and live and die and he is raised from the dead and then those official interpreters of the full gospel of his life and his deeds the apostles proclaim and write the significance it is one gospel but it is the gospel now come to full flower but that one gospel is such a beautiful and powerful thing that it can be presented without in any way changing it or diluting it so that it has a peculiar attractiveness to all kinds of people you remember what Paul said I am become all things to all men that I might be by all means save some

43:41 he never altered the essential content of his gospel but there was that beautiful flexibility in the focal points of emphasis in the manner of expression and you see dear people this is a lesson to us it is a lesson to us the gospel that focuses upon our Lord Jesus Christ is a glorious and wonderful thing the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God Mark one one and then Mark commits himself to set forth these perspectives in such a way that in a peculiar way he might catch the ear of a Roman that catching his ear God might be pleased sovereignly and graciously to capture his heart and that is a model for us in our life and witnesses the people of God it takes time to get inside the skin of other people and get behind their eyeballs and inside their ears and try to hear as they hear and see as they see and feel as they feel it is not enough to come up to anyone in any circumstance and blurt out a canned approach to the gospel that is why we abominate it that is why in our house to house ministry we have not sought to create a little group of cookie cutters who are going to come up and knock on every door push a button totally artificial and there is no biblical warrant for it

45:10 that is why we have four gospels God recognizes this principle that in the creatures he has made in his image various influences have molded and shaped them so that the mind and spirit and whole disposition is more susceptible to a certain emphasis to a certain perspective and that is not compromise it is simply seeking to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves and Paul said it was not compromise it was at some point being crafty I caught you with guile I thought guile was a sinful thing most of the times it is but there is a holy guile and when you are going after a man's ears so you can get his ears long enough to get the gospel in knowing that unless you get his ears God the holy ghost can't get his heart there is all the kind of room for holy guile so long as we don't that Mark's gospel had a peculiar attractiveness to the Roman is a wonderful example of this principle and I hope gives us added incentive to labor in seeking to answer the question, Lord, how can I best present the one eternal changeless gospel of sovereign divine initiative, the gospel of divine grace, the gospel of repentance and faith? How can I present this to my neighbors?

46:39 It means you've got to take time to try to get to know your neighbor, know how he looks at life, know how he looks at reality, how does he look at religion, how does he look at religious people. It's not enough simply to pass out a tract to him in the middle of the night and run back into the shelter of your home. It's costly to be a true witness. It means you've got to give of yourself.

47:05 You've got to be willing to, quote, find out their funny ways. Who says their ways are funny? Maybe yours are the funny ways and theirs is the right way. You see, the whole disposition of love, self-giving love, is to delight, to get into the other man's skin, to get behind his eyes, to get inside his ears.

Evangelistic Appeal and Purpose of the Series

47:30 And marked by the guidance of the Spirit and the influence of Peter, probably having heard Peter present the gospel many times in a Roman context, learn, learned his lesson well. And this gospel under the guidance of God is the fruit of the lessons that he learned. Well, the special target of Mark's gospel may have been the Roman, but my friend, the target of the gospel I preach to you this morning is your soul. And I make no apologies to say if you're here as an unconverted man or woman, I have one straightforward, unembarrassed intention in directing these remarks.

48:11 And I want to say this to you. I long that you would come to know the Christ of Mark's gospel. We're in business as a congregation, not simply to have sort of a general, leavening, wholesome effect upon the community by trafficking in religion. If that were so, I wouldn't be in this pulpit.

48:32 And I would pray God he'd drop a bomb on this building and I might even answer my prayer personally. The world has enough of empty, anemic religion. It is so innocuous, it offends neither devil nor demon. And so bereft of truth, it brings no pleasure to God.

48:57 My friend, we're in business to tell you solemnly on the basis of this book, you're such a mess as a sinner in your internal condition and in your state before the court of God that nothing less than the Christ of Mark's gospel can meet your need. The Christ who is truly God, who is truly man, who does everything Mark says He does, who dies, who is raised from the dead, and has commissioned His people to preach the gospel to every creature. My friend, listen. I want to speak in terms you cannot misunderstand.

49:35 Your condition. Oh yes, I know you're sitting there in a lovely business suit and a nicely pressed dress and all the rest, but God says your condition is such. Internally, you are so polluted and defiled by sin and bound by sin, and objectively and externally you stand in such guilt before the Lord God of heaven that unless you have personal dealings with the Christ of Mark's gospel, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth will be your portion forever. And my dear friend, we preach that you might take your case seriously, and that you might take the only one who can meet your needs seriously, even our Lord Jesus Christ. And dear people of God, this is not just going to be one extended evangelistic campaign. Remember our initial study? These documents first came to the believing community.

50:38 They came to the people of God who had heard the oral testimony, but they needed to have in writing the record of their beloved Savior, their beloved Savior's person and work and words, that faith might feed upon Him. We are here to feed upon Christ, not simply to gain some knowledge about Mark's perspective on Jesus, but to have our needy hearts in this barren wilderness of a world fed by Him who is the bread of life each time we come to the text of Mark's gospel. So, we've stood on the porch for two Sunday mornings. We've considered Mark the man.

51:21 We've looked over the distinguishing features of his house. We've looked at the basic structure of the house. For whom was it built in a special way? Now let us all together pray in coming days as we step through the front door that Christ will meet us at every turn.

51:40 Let us pray. Our Father, we are amazed that You would have ever condescended to give to sin-loving rebel sinners records of Your dear Son. When we think how He has been despised, rejected, ignored, and how even so-called Christian scholars have spent their lifetimes trying to convince us He never existed, how we thank You, how we bless You for the gift of Your beloved Son, for the gift of the Spirit who has given us eyes to behold His glory, who has given us eyes to see how desperately we need Him, who has given us hearts that have been enabled to respond in faith and in repentance. O Lord, we thank You this morning, and we pray that the preaching and teaching of Your word will be sealed to every heart, to the profit of our souls, and to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then, our Father, we think as Your dear servant leaves us tomorrow evening to preach this gospel in various places in South Africa. O God, be with him.

53:08 Give him a sensitivity to the mindset of the average South African. Give him a heart and a mind quick to adapt to the peculiarities of that situation. And may he preach Your word with the Holy Spirit, send down from heaven, and return to us with joy. And may we then enter into that joy that the gospel has run and had free course, and is being glorified.

53:38 Hear us, O Lord our God, we pray, and may the blessings of Your grace and presence continue with us throughout this day, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.