Through the Bible - Mark

For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

Mark's fast-paced Gospel unveils Jesus as the Servant who came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.

From Matthew to Mark: A Different Portrait of Jesus

Last week we began the Gospels with Matthew, written by Levi the tax collector from a Jewish perspective to a Jewish audience—the logical bridge from the Old Testament to the New. Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy, the King, the son of David.

As we come to Mark, we see Jesus revealed in a different light. There are four Gospels because each reveals different characteristics of Jesus. Mark is the shortest and the most fast-paced. You notice the words straightway or immediately repeated over and over—the Greek word euthos, seen over 40 times. The real emphasis of Mark is on Jesus the Servant.

The Theme: The Servant Who Gives His Life

The theme verse is Mark 10:45. Jesus' disciples had been discussing who would be greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus answered:

For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

This morning at the men's breakfast we were in Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant." Jesus, being God, became a man—but more than that, He became the servant of all. Mark reveals Jesus as this servant.

Who Was Mark?

Mark was written primarily to a Roman audience. Many scholars believe it was written from Rome near the time of Peter's death (A.D. 68), somewhere between A.D. 50 and 68, and that it may be the first Gospel written. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome, and Mark was a companion of Peter's. So this Gospel was not written by one of the Twelve, but by one who very likely received the revelation of the gospel through Peter.

Many believe we actually glimpse Mark himself in chapter 14: "And there followed him a certain young man, having linen cloth cast about his naked body... and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked." John Mark came from a prominent Jerusalem family and was the nephew of Barnabas. On the first missionary journey (Acts 13), John Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabas but soon went back to Jerusalem. When the second journey was planned, Barnabas wanted to bring him along, but Paul refused. The contention grew so sharp that the two severed ties—Barnabas took John Mark toward Cyprus, and Paul took Silas toward Galatia and Europe.

Yet there was later reconciliation. In his later letters Paul tells Timothy to send John Mark, "for he is useful to me in the ministry." Mark ultimately spent more time with Peter and received this gospel which he wrote to a Roman audience. The Gospel contains a number of Latin words rather than Greek, and Mark mentions the Old Testament prophecies far less than the other writers—because he was writing to people who didn't know them.

The First Eight Chapters: The Son of Man Came to Serve

The Gospels are passion narratives with extended introductions, but Mark's introduction is shorter. By Mark 8:31, Jesus is already preparing His disciples for His departure, telling them from Caesarea Philippi that the Son of Man will be betrayed, delivered to the chief priests and the Gentiles, crucified, and rise again the third day. His disciples just didn't get it. Forty percent of Mark focuses on the last eight days of Jesus' life, and the whole Gospel directly seeks to bring the reader to conversion.

The first eight chapters deal with the Son of Man coming to minister. Mark opens with no mincing of words:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He immediately gives Jesus' credentials—the Christ, the anointed Messiah, and the Son of God. Then he turns to John the Baptist, the messenger Isaiah 40 promised, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord." John was clothed with camel's hair, ate locusts and wild honey, and preached, "There comes one mightier than I... I indeed baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."

Then Jesus comes from Nazareth, is baptized, and straightway coming up out of the water He sees the heavens opened and the Spirit descending like a dove, and the Father's voice declares, "Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Immediately the Spirit drives Him into the wilderness for forty days, tempted of Satan.

Notice the pace: what took Matthew four chapters takes Mark fourteen verses. It's like a novel that envelops you from the first page.

"Come, Follow Me, and I Will Make You"

Jesus came preaching, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Walking by the Sea of Galilee He saw Simon and Andrew casting their nets, and said, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."

Underline those words: I will make you. I'm going to make you what you've been trying to make yourself all these years. Peter never caught a fish in the Gospels apart from Jesus' help. How often we strive to make something of ourselves with the gifts and desires God has given us, when Jesus says, "Come, follow me, and I will make you." And straightway they forsook their nets and followed Him. So did James and John, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat.

The Authority of the Servant

As Jesus begins His ministry, we see His authority in many forms.

First, authority over men: He says "follow me," and they leave everything and follow.

Second, authority in teaching: in the synagogue at Capernaum "they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes." As in the Sermon on the Mount, He didn't quote the rabbis—He said, "But I say unto you."

Third, authority over unclean spirits: a man with an unclean spirit cried out, "I know who you are; you're the Holy One of God." Jesus said, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him," and the spirit obeyed.

Fourth, authority over sin: in chapter 2 a paralytic was lowered through the roof, and Jesus' first words were, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." When some accused Him of blasphemy, He asked which is easier to say—then said, "that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins... Arise, take up thy bed, and walk." Note that the miracle was given to substantiate the message. Jesus came to preach the gospel; the miracles confirm His word. As He told His disciples when everyone was seeking healing, "Let us go into the next towns... for therefore came I forth."

Fifth, authority over the Sabbath: healing the man with the withered hand, He reveals Himself as Lord of the Sabbath.

Sixth, authority over nature: in chapter 4, asleep on a pillow in the back of the boat, He is awakened by frightened disciples and rebukes the wind and waves—"Peace, be still"—and there is a great calm. His own fishermen disciples were afraid: "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Seventh, authority over sickness and disease: He heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever, heals many at the door in the evening, and touches and cleanses a leper—reaching out to one who should have been crying "unclean," yet not defiled, because the leper was made whole the instant Jesus touched him.

Authority Over Death

In Mark 5, Jairus, a synagogue ruler, begs Jesus to come heal his dying daughter. On the way, thronged by the crowd, a woman with an issue of blood for twelve years touches the hem of His garment and is immediately healed. Jesus stops: "Who touched me?" Though His disciples thought it absurd, He sensed power had gone out from Him, and He calls the woman forward.

Why call out this embarrassed, unclean woman? He wanted her to know she was made whole, that she had not stolen a blessing but that He was willing to give it. He calls her daughter—a word of love, just as He called the paralytic son—and says, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." He also wanted the crowd, and especially Jairus the synagogue ruler who would have barred her, to know she was healed.

While He yet spoke, word came: "Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?" Highlight those words. The enemy comes to us when we have prayed and prayed and nothing seems to change, and says, "He isn't listening; stop troubling Him." But Jesus said, "Be not afraid, only believe." That is a word for you if you've been bringing something before the Lord for years—do not be afraid, only believe, and continue to seek Him.

Taking Peter, James, and John, He came to the house, put out the mourners who laughed Him to scorn, took the girl by the hand and said, "Talitha cumi"—"Damsel, I say unto thee, arise." Straightway she arose and walked. Here Jesus reveals His authority over death.

Authority Over the Traditions of Men

In chapter 7, the Pharisees challenge Jesus because His disciples ate with unwashed hands—not unhygienically, but not according to the traditions of the elders. Jesus answers, "Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites... This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me... teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

He gives an example: Moses commanded honoring father and mother, but their tradition of Corban let a man declare his goods dedicated to God so he need not help his parents—appearing spiritual while trampling God's commandment. The Word of God is to be followed over tradition; Jesus has authority over tradition.

Throughout these first eight chapters Jesus' ministry deeply affects people. The scribes and Pharisees were so enraged after He healed the man with the withered hand that they sought to destroy Him early on. His disciples followed at His word yet were often fearful at His works.

Mark 8:31 — The Son of Man Came to Give His Life

The hinge comes at Mark 8:31: "And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." From here the focus shifts to the passion—the Son of Man giving His life a ransom for many.

Peter openly rebukes Him, but Jesus says, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." It is the mindset of man to lean toward self-preservation—that fight-or-flight instinct God has given us. This week I read of a woman in Texas who wrestled a shotgun from intruders in the night and, with her husband, killed them to protect her children. The instinct is real. But the kingdom of God is not about self-preservation.

Jesus calls the people: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" When He said "take up his cross," they all understood—it was an instrument of death, not jewelry.

He adds, "There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Jesus tasted death for us so that, though this body dies, we will not experience the second death.

The Transfiguration and the Flow of Mark 9

Remember that chapter and verse divisions were added much later—chapters around the 1100s A.D.—to help us find passages, not by Jesus or Mark. So the break between Matthew 16 and 17 obscures the flow of thought. In Mark 9, immediately after promising that some would see the kingdom come with power, "after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, James, and John... and was transfigured before them"—metamorpho in the Greek—His clothing exceedingly white, with Moses and Elijah appearing.

Peter, not knowing what to say because they were afraid, blurts out, "Let us make three tabernacles." (If you don't know what to say, it's probably best to keep quiet.) Here Peter, James, and John get a glimpse of the future glory of the kingdom—just as Jesus had promised.

This corrects the preterist view, which holds that the kingdom has already come in full. At Calvary Chapel we are futurists, looking forward to the second coming of Christ and His millennial reign. The flow of the passage shows that Jesus' words about seeing the kingdom come with power point to the Transfiguration glimpse and ultimately to His return. The remaining chapters bring us to chapter 15, where Jesus dies for our sins, and chapter 16, His resurrection—where you and I find salvation in His death, burial, and resurrection.

The Olivet Discourse: What Is Not the Sign

As we work through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I want each week to focus on one discourse. This week it's the Olivet Discourse in Mark 13. As Jesus left the temple, His disciples marveled at the great stones, and He said, "There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Seated on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked privately when these things would be. To the Jewish mind, the temple's destruction equaled the end of the age—as if someone told us Washington, D.C. would be destroyed and we assumed it meant the end of the world.

Jesus first warns, "Take heed lest any man deceive you." Deception surrounds end-times study. Many will come claiming, "I am Christ." Then He says, "When ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet." Highlight that. Nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines—"these are the beginnings of sorrows." Contrary to much radio teaching, these are not the sign of the end of the age. Persecution will come, brother will betray brother, "but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." And "this gospel must first be published among all nations."

The True Sign: The Abomination of Desolation

Then there's a shift: "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not... then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains." We saw a precursor in Antiochus Epiphanes during the intertestamental period. There is coming one who will set up an image to be worshipped in the temple.

Interestingly, there is no temple in Israel today—not since A.D. 70, when the first part of this prophecy was fulfilled and the city was destroyed. But a day is coming when the temple will be rebuilt, and then this one will bring the abomination of desolation. Jesus says when you see it, get out of Dodge, for "in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation... neither shall be." Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved—and "for the elect's sake... he hath shortened the days." That doesn't mean shorter hours of daylight; it means a short period of time. Scripture shows the great tribulation lasting about three and a half years within the seven-year time of Jacob's trouble, the seventieth week of Daniel.

False Christs and false prophets will rise and "shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." But take heed—He has foretold all things.

Israel and the Chronology of Ezekiel

Many evangelicals say we are living in the last days, largely because of Israel's rebirth as a nation on May 14, 1948—exactly what Ezekiel 36 and 37 describe. Ezekiel 38 and 39 say Israel will be attacked by enemies from Russia, Persia, and Northern Africa, and that God will divinely protect His people; Ezekiel 40 describes a rebuilt temple. Following that chronology: Israel becomes a nation, is attacked, is divinely delivered (Gog and Magog), with five-sixths of the enemy armies destroyed on the mountains of Israel and seven years of cleanup. That deliverance seems likely to spark a peace treaty, the rebuilding of the temple, then the abomination of desolation, then the great tribulation.

The Sun Darkened and the Son of Man Returning

"After that tribulation... the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall." This is a prophetic landmark we saw in Joel—the great and terrible day of the Lord. The stars falling and "the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken" line up with Revelation, where a third of the stars are cast down with Lucifer, and with the principalities and powers of Ephesians 6. "Then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds."

Revelation 14 and Isaiah 63: Two Harvests

Turn to Revelation 14:14. John says, "I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." An angel from the temple cries, "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap... for the harvest of the earth is ripe." This is the same gathering of the elect we saw in Mark 13—Christ on the clouds, sending forth to reap His own.

Then another angel with a sharp sickle gathers "the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe," casting them "into the great winepress of the wrath of God." The blood flowed "even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs"—the multitudes in the valley of decision. The first harvest gathers the elect before wrath is poured out, for "God hath not appointed us to wrath" (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The second is the harvest of the grapes of wrath.

Who treads that winepress? Isaiah 63: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah... I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Who is that? Jesus. "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone... for the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." This is the same picture as Revelation 14 and the end of the tribulation in Mark 13 and Matthew 24—Jesus treading the winepress of God's wrath.

Where will we be? He gathers His ripe ones, His elect, from the four winds, and they return with Him in the clouds. Jude says He will return "with ten thousands of his saints"—we will come with Him on white horses.

The Parable of the Fig Tree: Watch and Be Ready

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors." "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels... neither the Son, but the Father."

Remember—in Revelation 14 the word came from the Father, through an angel, to the Son of Man on the cloud, who then thrust in the sickle. The Father knows the day.

Our response: "Take ye heed, watch and pray." The Son of Man is like a man on a far journey who gave authority to His servants. At the end of Matthew 28 He says, "All authority is given unto me... Go ye therefore." That authority is delegated to us, His servants, each with our work. "Watch ye therefore... lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

I've heard for years that He will come and catch us like a thief in the night—but that's not what Scripture teaches of believers. First Thessalonians 5: "Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light... let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." We should not be caught off guard like those who are asleep.

I highly recommend studying the discourses of Jesus, and going through the Olivet Discourse line upon line—slowly, prayerfully.

Closing Prayer

God, thank You for Your Word. I thank You that You have spoken these things to us before they come to pass, so that we would not be caught off guard. I pray, Lord, that my brothers and sisters here would be those who are watching and ready, that we would take the example You left—You came as a servant; help us also to serve, to lay down our lives. Lord, the kingdom of God is not about self-preservation, but that we would lay down our lives every day as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto You, our reasonable act of worship. Pour out Your Spirit upon this place, upon this group; use us, Lord, to be bright shining lights wherever we go. We thank You for Your great, glorious gospel; help us not to be ashamed of it, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. We thank You that You have saved us by Your power. We praise You in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.