Mark starts the series on his namesake’s Gospel.

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Sermon notes

Good morning

Today we’re starting our sermon series on the book of Mark.

And it’s my role to make something of an introduction to the book, and to the first chapter.

We really believe that the message contained in scripture, and the message of Mark, which concerns the news about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus some 2000 years ago is a message that’s as relevant and vital today as it ever was!

That it’s a sort of a gateway to a life of hope, joy, excitement, love and redemption for now, and for eternity by showing us the way to a relationship with God.

The Bible, contains words of life, for you and for me, and because of that when it comes to opening it up and sharing from it with you, the brief that I’ve given for myself, and that I’ve given to our other speakers who are going to be helping us to journey through the gospel in the coming weeks is not so much to try and apply scripture to our individual circumstances…

…but instead to break down this incredible book, chapter by chapter, pointing out key theme’s and pieces of information that we might miss on our own, as a way of providing the context and back drop for you to engage with this sacred text yourself, at home during your own study time.

To take a chapter a week, to mull it over, meditate on it and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to your life and circumstance through it in the same way that He’s done for countless others across the generations.

From time to time, we may put together a few questions relating to the chapter that you can either use for your own personal study, or that you can mull over with friends of family, and as we do, we’ll let you know how you can access them.

Now we’ve opted to work through the book of Mark for two very good reasons, the first is that no matter who we are, if we follow Jesus then we’re on a journey to becoming more like him…

…and so it made sense to really hone in on one of the 4 accounts of his life…

….and the reason we’re settling on Mark is that the life situation that led Mark prepare his gospel account was a people group who were in desperate need of good news!

The Gospel was prepared for the Christian’s in Rome and Italy, it’s likely to have been written in around A.D. 60-70, and so was likely to have been called forth by a crisis confronting Christians in the region at that time.

Not only was life in the first century chaotic and fragile of itself, for the average person conditions were cramped and life was lived in relative squalor…

…the average life expectancy was somewhere between 35-40 and if you made it much further you were lucky indeed…

To make matters worse, the emperor at the time was a man called Nero.  After several years of relative stability, Nero began to show the makings of a despot, a cruel dictator!

First in his raising of taxes, raising false charges against wealthy individuals in order to confiscate their wealth, even publicly inviting guests at a banquet to commit suicide… he’d reduced the senate, a place where the voices of the people were to be heard, to a forum for serving his will, rather than the other way around!

Initially, relatively little attention was given to Christians at the time, with the many god’s and religions of Rome, there God was just one of many…

Some did already have a hatred for the new faith though, with groups bringing charges against Christian’s as being “the hatred of men”, because they refused to take part in pagan feasts that were often rife with sacrifices to idols and immoral practices…

But through Nero, the situation changed dramatically in the summer of A.D. 64 when fire broke out in the city.

It was a disaster of monumental proportions…

…the narrow streets and cheaply built houses, all packed closely together meant that it spread from the shops by the circus maximus to across the whole of the city, raging for a whole week, destroying 10 of 14 districts of the city!

After the initial shock, rumours began to spread of mobs preventing people from tackling the fires, of individuals setting light to further buildings during the crisis claiming they were acting on orders from the emperor…  and pretty soon there was open and widespread suspicion that Nero was behind the fire…

Nero needed a scapegoat; and he placed the blame squarely on the Christians!

The Roman historian and politician, Gaius Tacitus, had this to say about it 

Neither human resources, nor imperial munificence, nor appeasement of the gods, eliminated sinister suspicions that the fire had been instigated.  To suppress this rumour, Nero fabricated scapegoats – and punished Christians with every refinement….  First, Nero had self-acknowledged Christians arrested.  Then, on their information, large numbers of others were condemned.  Their deaths were made farcical. Dressed in wild animals’ skins, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, or made into burning torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for daylight…

You get the picture.

Life was precarious for Christians in Rome and Italy.

All too often, we can be guilty of concluding that to say yes to Jesus is to say yes to the “good stuff alone”.

Mark frames his gospel in the context of suffering – reminding his reader of the struggle, the sacrifice, and the cost that’s involved in following after Christ.

Right from the get go, in Chapter 1, in verse 12, we see Jesus driven deep into the wilderness, alone – a place of isolation, desolation and fear…

In verse 13 Mark takes the time to point out that he’s surrounded by the wild beasts!

Poignant words for Christians thrown into the arena and left alone and helpless to be devoured by the wild beasts at Nero’s command!

But in the case of Jesus, despite facing these same, very real, and terrifying threats, common to the day, we find in Mark’s portrayal of Christ, one who has not only faced them (and so can empathise with his followers in Rome), but who has not succumbed to them!

This opening stanza is laced with hope for folk who thirst for it!

Despite what you see around you, says Mark, there is “good news”!

In fact, that’s how Mark opens his letter, verse 1 says:

“The beginning of the Gospel”

That very word, Gospel, means GOOD NEWS!

…it goes on to say: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Mark wastes no time in setting out his stall:  “there’s good news, and His name is Jesus Christ”!

The very name Jesus was a common one at the time, it meant: “to deliver; or to rescue”

…and although common, Mark calls this Jesus, “Christ”, meaning: “the anointed one”.

Christ is the Greek word used to translated the word “Messiah” from Hebrew…

The symbolism is rich, and it’s concluded by Mark saying that this “rescuer, this anointed deliverer” is none other than the Son of God!

And that’s just the first sentence!

You get the impression that Mark’s quite an impatient author. Offering up the great reveal about who Jesus is in the first 12 words!   In fact, Mark uses the Greek word “Eutheos” which is variously translated into our English version as: “straight away” or “immediately” no less than 40 TIMES!

So perhaps it’s less that Mark’s impatient than it’s that Mark’s just SO excited to tell his readers in Rome about just how good the news about Jesus really is.

 like an excited child telling a story, so amazed by Jesus that he just can’t WAIT to share it!  

Look out for it in this first chapter, and as we make our way through the gospel, let yourself get drawn in to the excitement and transformational nature narrative Mark’s trying to tell!

Watch the challenges that Jesus had to walk through, observe how he responded to them, draw lines between your own?    Are you pleased at what you find? Are you encouraged, challenged or a are the results fairly mixed?

As you become more aware of the narrow path Jesus walked, and calls us to walk behind him, ask the Spirit to keep you walking on that path, mindful of the scars of the one who walked before you, and of the victory he had and the authority he has to support you in walking it too!

In fact, that word “authority” is key!

In the first chapter, not only is Jesus introduced as the son of God, he’s introduced by John the Baptist in the line of prophets, as one calling out from the desert.

John came to Baptise for the forgiveness of sin, but he speaks of Jesus as one who will endue the people with something more – the Holy Spirit, a very real, very personal and very powerful aid – a promise for the people of Jerusalem yes, but also the people of Rome in their suffering, and a promise for us too!

He has authority to dispense the Holy Spirit!

Moving on, in verses 9-13 not only is Jesus himself Baptised, demonstrating it as a path for all who want life in him to follow, but his credentials are given further merit by the demonstration of his “specialness”, his standing as the messiah, the ‘chosen one’ before God, as the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the voice from heaven came saying: “you are my son, whom I love; and am well pleased”!

In the calling of the first disciples, we see Jesus as a man whom with a simple: “come, follow me” men leave their livlihoods to pursue and learn from him!

Clearly a relationship with Jesus is worth sacrifice, and is worth toil!

Next, the son of a carpenter, with no obvious reason for formal teaching, is found in the synagogue, teaching from the scriptures as an expert, and with that word “authority” again, Jesus is confronted with a man who was possessed by an evil spirit!

Incredibly, even this evil spirit recognises the authority Jesus holds, calling him the Holy one of God… Jesus decides to “shut him up”!

Whilst the reader is quickly getting a sense of Jesus’ significance, clearly Jesus isn’t yet ready to reveal it to those around him yet!

He commands the demons silence, and casts him out of the man.

The people are amazed: “what is this? (they ask) – - he even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him!

But again that’s not all, in this first chapter call’s the man with leprosy “clean”, and behold, he’s cured!

…a sign of his mission and authority to bring not only physical cleansing, but spiritual too!   

We get the picture here, don’t we, that despite the fragility of live – where you really be sure of one day to the next, that not only is Jesus a source of hope in times of trouble, 

But that he has true authority and standing before God to deliver those who go to him from affliction!

The sense is that we, here today, as in Rome, are shown who Jesus is:  the Son of God, with whom the Father is pleased, the one who is able to forgive sins, heal the sick, drive away evil and dispense the Holy Spirit to equip and empower the saints….

…and like those first disciples by the lake side, aware of the wild beasts of the age, aware of the times we may have to spent in the lonely, and even scary, wilderness places, are being given a simple invitation, that comes with cost, and with pain and with sacrifice, but also with great joy, to “come follow Jesus”!

Forsaking all this uncertain world has to offer, in favour of following one who promises eternal security for those who walk the narrow road of true discipleship!

And really, today, that’s my prayer for myself, and it’s my prayer for you!

That no matter where you’re watching this, like those first disciples you would count up the cost of following him – you would count it all, and that despite that cost, like me you would see in this first chapter of Mark’s presentation of who Jesus is, and you would recognise that it is indeed what is says it is:

Gospel!                 Good news!

And that with Jesus it’s only chapter 1, it’s just the beginning!

Amen

Study guide

Before you open your Bible, invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His word.  When you’re ready, open the book.

• Read Mark Chapter 1.  Read it through 3 times.

  • What words jump out at you? 

  • What themes crop up again and again?

  • What are your first thoughts?

• Use your imagination.  Imagine you were walking alongside Jesus at this time, what is he feeling at different points in this dramatic chapter?  

  • What would you like to say to Jesus?

  • What do you think he would he be saying to you?

• In vv.14-19 we see the first disciples walking away from their livelihoods, and even their families to follow after Jesus. The cost of discipleship is high, and yet they choose to follow. This was a vital message for the Christian’s suffering persecution in Rome, an example of the fact that Jesus is ‘worth the cost of discipleship’.   Reflect on your own discipleship to Jesus.  Take some time to note down what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.

• In v.35 and 45 we find Jesus deliberately seeking places of quiet and solitude.  Why do you think that is? Does that inspire you in any way? 

• As a way of helping it to sink in, in your own words, summarise and retell the message of Mark 1.