Day 1: A Movement Launched

This Easter season, what I wanted to do was actually invite a group of people, you specifically, to join me to study the Book of Mark. And here's why. I'm meeting more and more people that have what I call a synthetic relationship with Jesus instead of an authentic relationship with Jesus.

I'm not saying it's not real, but it's made out of sound bites from devotionals. It's made out of listening to a podcast of what someone else studied and they learned this and they said that. And they take all these little pieces and what happens over time is we actually start making a Jesus of our own making and we think Jesus is kind of like this because we have all these little pieces.

But here's my heart's desire - have you ever, from the beginning of one of the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke or John from the beginning on a consistent basis walked all the way through a gospel and you personally understand, and follow, know the theme, know the background, actually studied a gospel, so that first hand, you would say, This is who Jesus really is. And the reason I chose the book of Mark is because one, it’s short.

It’s filled with action. And it’s written to a group of Gentiles in Rome. And Rome was a powerful, powerful city. It was filled with corruption. There were a lot of, uh, have nots and just a, a few haves. Kind of similar to our day. It takes the messages of Peter and written by someone that had a relationship both with Paul and with Peter. Mark kind of was this young guy who came to Christ. And he's been in the thick of it. He's been on a, journey with Paul and one of those missionary journeys and, and he failed.

You know, he got into it about halfway and said, I, I can't take this. And, you know, a little bit later in his life, he would be very useful. And I just like it because it's, it's written by someone who was there. And here's my dream. I want to invite you into my personal study. You know, I got books here and I got my coffee here. I got some of these crazy colored pens, and we're going to walk right through these passages in a way when we get done, you will have looked at Chapter 1,2,3,4, all the way through Chapter 16. Now, I'm gonna help you. Like, whatever I put down, whether it's a chart or my notes, I'll post that for you. But I have one very specific request. That each day, beginning today, you'll read one chapter.

So, we're going to read chapter one, then the next day chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five. Monday through Friday, and then you'll have resources and some charts so on the weekend you can kind of lean back and you know you'll have the first five chapters of the book of Mark that first weekend. Begin to think about this is who Jesus really is. Where am I at with Him? That's what I want to see happen. That's my heart's desire.

Jesus wants to meet you personally. He wants you to know Him as He is. And the book of Mark was written to a group of people under persecution in a really challenging time, and it gave them hope. And, and what I wanna do as well is, is kind of give you a perspective of how does the book of Mark these gospels, how they fit together.

Um, I, I remember when I ministered in, in Santa Cruz, um, almost everyone there was a, I call it a first-generation Christian. And as we started from scratch. You know, they said, well, oh, Mark said this, but Luke said this. Those guys don't agree. And I remember, um, one day saying, okay, are you ready? Let's do an experiment. I'm going to ask one of you to go into the front of the church building, I'm going to ask one of you to go to the back of the church building, one of you go to the east and one of you go to the west, and then all I want you to do is look at it and then just write down what you see.

And you know, obviously they didn't literally want to go out there, but it made the point. And I said, if you were in the front, what would you see? You'd see gables like this, you'd see parking here, you'd see a tree here. If you were to the side, this is what you would see, this is what you would see, this is what you would see.

Now, are, are you guys contradicting one another? It's the same building, but you're looking at it from different perspectives. And only when we put all those perspectives together do we really understand what this building looks like. And I said, that's exactly what the Gospel writers do, because they have different audiences. Some of the Gospels are written very chronologically, others, uh, they're written like Mark. He's not going to tell you, you know, this is Jesus life from the beginning and this is where he went. He's got a theme. He's going to say, this is who Jesus is. This is where He's going and this is what it looks like to follow Him.

And then this whole book literally goes straight up like this for the first eight chapters. This is who Jesus is and he's going to be a servant and he's going to change and love and care for people. Chapter eight, it'll be. Aha! Who do men say that I am? And they get it. And then the whole rest of the book will be Jesus suffering, going to the cross to pay the price for sin.

So, in this little chart, what I wanna give to you, and it'll really help you, is, Matthew, written to believing Jews, he demonstrates He's the king of Israel. Matthew gives us more it's called discourses, we would call them sermons, than any other of the Gospels. The main thought is kingship, and the prominent word is fulfillment, over and over and over, written about 50 AD.

Mark is to the believing Romans, the key picture of Jesus, He's the servant of Yahweh, or the servant of Jehovah. This records his miracles, more and more miracles. He's a man of action. There's almost no teaching in the Book of Mark. Um, the main thought is servanthood, and the key word is immediately. I mean, over 40 times, some of your old translations will say straight way, some others will talk immediately.

This book moves like this, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. This is who He is, this is what He does, and He says, now follow Me, let's go for it, we're going to make a difference, and this is what it looks like, and this is what it costs, and here's the great, great reward.

And then you look at Luke, he's writing to believing Greeks. Uh, the key view of Jesus is he's the Son of Man. Uh, here Luke gives us more parables. He wants to explain things to people. Uh, his focus is on Jesus’ humanity and the key word in Greek is splanchna.

But I only say that because in English the word is compassion. But it's not, it's not empathy. It's not just feeling for people. It's a compassion that when he sees the needs of people he has to help them. Every time the word is used in Luke where he has compassion for a crowd, compassion for a woman who's lost her son, compassion for someone who's hurting or has leprosy, it always results in action. So, it's really, really, really powerful.

And then finally, John is to the unbelieving world. He's the son of God. And John gives us, uh, signs. Seven signs or miracles that confirm his deity. Seven interviews of everything from religious to people way far from God and how people connect personally. And then the main word there is, is deity. It's Jesus is God and the prominent theme is to believe and trust him.

So, what I want you to know is that's how the Gospels fit together. And one of the first things I do when I study a book, I want to know who wrote it. I want to know a little bit about what had happened, and then we're going to get through the introduction, which is really the first 13, 14 verses.

But before I do, one of the simple things that I've used over the years, I have lots of books, right? I mean, I'm a pastor. I've got lots of books, lots of research. But if you were saying, you know, I don't have lots of books and where do you get some of this stuff? One of the books that's so simple, it's called the Ryrie Study Bible. And every book of the Bible, at the beginning of it, he'll give us a little overview. Listen to what he says about the authorship of the book of Mark.

John Mark was the son of Mary, a woman of wealth and position in Jerusalem. Acts 12:12. Barnabas was his cousin. Colossians 4:10. Mark was a close friend and possibly a convert of the Apostle Peter. You find that in 1 Peter 5:13. He had the rare privilege of accompanying Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey but failed to stay with him through the entire trip.

Because of this, Paul refused to take him on the second journey. So, he went with Barnabas to Cyprus and that's in Acts chapter 15. About a dozen years later, he was again with Paul, Colossians 4:10 and in Philemon. And just before Paul's execution, he was sent for by the apostle in second Timothy. His biography proves that one failure in life does not mean the end of usefulness.

And so, what I want you to know is, this is a guy that's connected. His mom is best buddies with Peter. Barnabas, who's sort of this son of encouragement in the early church that got the Apostle Paul connected to the disciples, because they didn't trust him. He's had journeys. I mean, he's traveled with Paul.

He's seen miracles. He's heard teaching. And then, this book really is, he went to Rome with Peter, and Peter had these messages. And this is happening at a time, the earliest date is about 50. Uh, other scholars think it's much more in the ‘60s because there are real keys here to the church is going through some persecution.

What we know is this, this is someone who was really close in the early days of Jesus.

And so, with that, now Mark is going to open the chapter. And one of the things I do, I don't do it all the time, but sometimes in the opening of a chapter, he's going to give you all the keys that unlock the whole book. And so, what I do is I call it rewriting the text. So, on a sheet of paper, you know, kind of just like this, I'll rewrite the text in a way. The first few verses so I can see the relationships.

I'd really encourage you, uh, if this is the time that you can listen, get a Bible, open it up. Um, I'll use the New American Standard. I'll use a lot of the NIV because narratives. I think the NIV is a really wonderful translation for those. And so, follow along if you will. And let's get a feel of Mark introducing this book.

He says, The beginning of the gospel of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I will send my messenger before your face. who will prepare Your way. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make ready the way of our Lord, make his path straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And all the countryside of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan and were confessing their sins. And John, clothed in camel's hair, wore a leather belt around his waist. A diet was wild locusts and honey.

This is his message, after me comes one who is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to stoop to untie His sandals. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And it came about that in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming out of the water, He saw the heavens - literally the phrase is - torn open and the Spirit like a dove descending on Him. And a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. So, in this little section of 13 verses, he's going to lay out a ton of what is going to come in this book. So, as you look at the top, notice he says, the beginning of the gospel. And he tells us two things, Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Jesus is his human name, Joshua. A lot of people were named Joshua in that day. But it says Jesus, He's the Messiah. He's the Anointed One, and He's the Son of God. And he says it's the beginning of the gospel and Mark rarely, actually, he rarely gives any Old Testament quotes. But here he says, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. Now here, are you ready for this? He says that and then he quotes Malachi 3:1. Behold, I'll send My messenger before Your face who will prepare Your way.

Now, what's interesting is Malachi says that and it's a judgment passage. After this, we get. You know, like 400 years of silence. This is a promise that the judgment of God is going to come because of Israel's abandonment. But he's going to come and he's going to send someone before Him to prepare the way to save the world. And then he takes another passage, Isaiah 40 verse 3, and he takes these two and he pairs them together because they're coming together. In Isaiah it says, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His path straight.

The context of Isaiah is comfort. I mean, this is written 700 years before this happens. Pause. 700 years ago, at a time when people were far from God, worshiping idols, rejection after rejection after rejection after rejection. And God says, despite all the difficult you're going through, I want you to know that I am going to send a Savior. In fact, after Isaiah 40, talking about this one that will prepare the way, then Isaiah goes through this suffering servant. It's a picture of the Messiah.

It's the part of the messianic message that Jewish leaders didn't really want to hear. They wanted a king. And he is the king. But they wanted a king to take down Rome. But instead, here's what he does. He says, I'm going to send someone to prepare the way. And then the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King of kings and the Lord of lords will come. What they didn't get is that there was going to be a two-part plan here. One part, He's going to come as the Savior of the world. And He's going to serve, He's going to give His life a ransom for many. That's Mark 10:45, one of the key verses in this entire passage.

And then he's going to cause this new thing called the Church to come about. And he's going to allow the Spirit of God to enter regular ordinary people like you and me, us Gentiles, get in on all of this. And we're going to live out our faith as the Body of Christ. And then Jesus is going to return and make all things right. And so, He will be the suffering servant and He will also be the reigning king.

And so, notice he says the voice of one crying out in the wilderness and then immediately he identifies John the Baptist with Elijah. So, notice how the dress, he's got the, the camel's hair, he's got the leather belt, he's eating honey. In other words, God wanted people to understand Elijah must come first. And so, John dressed and had this very unique, like Old Testament prophet, and I mean, he was a no holds barred. Hey, people. I mean, the axe is coming. You have sinned. You are far from God. Judaism is broken.

I mean, he comes out, and notice the response. There was a revival. I mean, all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem, they were coming to be baptized. Why? And confessing their sins. Now, think of this. I mean, hundreds. Thousands of people pouring out of Jerusalem coming from all Judea and they go to the Jordan River.

I've been there. By the way, it's, it's, it's not like a very big river and, and they're coming and they're hearing this wild man go, you need to own your stuff. You are in sin. You're living in adultery. You're sinning. You Roman guards are doing this. You tax collectors are doing this. You religious leaders.

I mean, he is, I mean, blazing people and their response is confessing their sin and then he makes a, a very unique shift. He goes, um, mine is a baptism, not for the remission of sins, but the acknowledgement of sin. There is One who is coming who is greater than me. I baptize you with water. You recognize you have sin. He will baptize or identify you with power. He's going to allow you to experience righteousness and power and intimacy with God.

And then he introduces Jesus. And this is, this is so interesting. He introduces Jesus. I read it already. He gets baptized. Well, why? He gets baptized because He's now going to identify with the sins of all mankind.

And then Isaiah said a little bit later that when he's baptized, Old Testament prophecy, I will cause My Spirit to come upon Him, the Messiah. King of kings, Lord of lords. And as He's baptized, a couple things happen. Number one, the Spirit of God comes down upon Him. He hears the voice, so His ministry will not be as a human in any way trying to earn God's favor. It's from God's favor. This is My Son whom I dearly love.

And then that line that I read, literally it says that the Spirit of God drove Him into the wilderness in order to be tempted by Satan for 40 days. I mean, imagine this, this is really powerful. He says immediately the Spirit compelled Him or drove Him into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness 40 days. Notice, and the tense of the verb is that for 40 days continually He was tempted by Satan.

And He was with wild beasts and the angels were ministering to Him and then literally He'll start His ministry and we'll pick it up when He launches His ministry, He will call His disciples and then He's going to cause them to know this is who I am, this is where I'm going and I'm calling you to follow Me and I want you to do what I do, I want you to catch My message and then I want you to actually live the same way that I'm living, I want you to treat people the way I treat people. I want you to see life the way I see life. I want you to understand the Father's love, and the Father's power, and the Father's acceptance as you see Me do that. I want you to learn how to pray as you watch Me pray.

I want you to understand that you have the power, like I have the power to do all these miracles. Jesus is coming as a revolutionary. He is not meek and mild. He's not coming to make everything better for everyone. He's not a little thing to help me, you know, get my life together, to make me happy, to make me be fulfilled. He is the Son of the Living God, blazing a trail, and one of the key words in Greek, it's hadas, or the way.

John makes a big deal out of this. Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It's literally just a word. It can be translated a road. See, He's on a Calvary road. It's a road toward the cross. And He's going to give us this upside-down view of how life really works.

The first half of the book will be the road to follow Jesus is one of service and concern for others. And then you discover more deeply who He is, chapter 8. And then the road is to suffer with Him and go to the cross.

Literally to give up your rights. To care for other people. To be radically committed, regardless of the cost. And Jesus dies, and then he'll say, as a disciple, if any man come after Me, you and I, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. Jesus is not a nice idea. The fact is when you walk with Him closely and follow Him, you will suffer. There will be difficulty. And there will be unspeakable reward and joy. And so, I want to invite you to go on this journey with me.

In our next time together, Jesus will proclaim what His message is, and then He's going to choose four disciples, and then He's going to tell them, here's what you can expect when you follow Me.