Sunday School Session 2

Hey everyone, here we are again for our class in the gospel of Mark. I hope that you have been able to see the first lecture and understand some things as we begin our study of the book of Mark here in our adult Sunday school class.

Well, we want to, and by the way you should have notes that go with this, they were sent out last week and so I want to remind you that there are notes that outline what I'm saying so you can follow along as I lecture.

And again, I want to encourage you that if you have questions you send it to jesusflock at larubaptist .org. Send it there, I'll get those questions and be able to answer them if you have any questions that come up as we go through the gospel of Mark.

Matthew as the Promised King and Messiah

Now last week we talked generally about the Gospels and why and how they were written. So today we want to look at the historical and theological themes of each of the Gospels as we make our way to the gospel of Mark.

So if you have your notes we're looking at the historical and theological themes in Matthew. Matthew presents Jesus as King or as the Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament. And he makes that seem clear all the way through the book.

For example, in Matthew chapter 1, in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of David, and the promised one. And then of course, verse 16, and Joseph at the end of the genealogy, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ, or called the Christ, that is, the anointed one, the Messiah.

Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew term for Messiah. The Hebrew term is Mashiach, so we get Messiah from that. And the, means anointed one, and the Greek word that translates that is Christos. So whenever you see Christ, it's talking about the anointed one, the Messiah.

So Matthew presents Jesus as the King or the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. He wants you to understand that the Messianic age has already dawned, that it has been inaugurated with the life, the ministry, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

You see that, for example, in chapter 3, in chapter 3, verses 1 through 2, in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

When Jesus started his ministry in chapter 4, verse 17, he says, from that time Jesus began to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then if you would look at chapter 11, verses 4 through 6, you would see things that are, that repeat what's said in Isaiah, chapter 35, verses 4 through 6, saying, these things have come true, the Messiah has arrived.

He wants you to understand that Jesus is not merely, though, the Jewish Messiah, but the one who is King of all, and others must be called into submission to him. So when you come to the end of the book, in Matthew 28, what do you see?

You see that his authority is emphasized, right? I have all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore, on the basis of my authority over heaven and earth, go and make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them what?

Teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. So the book begins with the credentials of the promised King of Israel, but by the end, it expands that to the Messiah, the ruler of all men. And so you also must understand, then, that the church is the messianic community.

The church is the people of God. And so far from being a book about Jesus and his rocky relationship with the Jews of his day, it's intended to reveal to you the Lord of the church and how we, as God's people, are supposed to live.

Now, Matthew wrote this gospel. He is one of the original apostles. Church history comes down to this. We know from church history that they have asserted from the earliest days that Matthew wrote this gospel.

And in his book, he identifies himself as a tax collector. Chapter 9, verses 9 through 13. Matthew 9, 9 through 13. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me.

And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous but sinners.

Now, understand here, Matthew, the writer of this book, admits that he was a tax collector. Now, we can't even begin to imagine how much tax collectors were held in disdain. People hated them. If you want a kind of parallel to that, tax collectors of Jesus' day were as hated and as feared, and people wanted to be away from them as today we would with a pedophile.

That's how low they were held. Tax collectors were horrible people. He wanted the worst kind. And notice in this passage that it's the worst kind of people that show up at this dinner with Jesus, right?

It's the worst kind of people. The Pharisees are appalled at that, but Jesus came to save sinners. And Matthew, the writer of this gospel, is one of them. And because of his occupation, he possessed an orderly mind, and he used it in record-keeping.

And so we have before us a very clear, orderly book of Jesus because Jesus transformed him so he could use those abilities in service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, he was with the other apostles on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on them.

Now, when was Matthew written? That's a good question. Some have said it was somewhere between AD 80 and 100. Others assert that it's between AD 50 and 65, okay? Now, I would go with the early date. Here's why.

You remember that the temple is so central to Jewish life that it's nearly impossible to conceive of the disciples not writing about the destruction of the temple in AD 70. And so when you read the first three, the synoptic gospels, they seem to have been written before the temple was destroyed, all right?

We also date it here because Irenaeus, an early church father, says that Matthew was written during the time of the Emperor Nero who reigned from AD 54 to 68, all right? So that's Matthew. Let's look at the historical and theological themes in Mark.

Mark as the Suffering Servant and the Gospel of Action

This is the book that we're going to explore of the three synoptic gospels. What can we say about Mark? Let's fly over Mark. Let's get a bird's eye view of Mark. Let's understand something about Mark the man.

Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant. And if you go back to Isaiah, you'll find a number of passages that describe the suffering servant. The most familiar to us is the one of Isaiah 52, halfway through Isaiah 52, all the way through Isaiah 53.

But there are other passages, Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49. If you would look those up, you would see that there is this mysterious person called the servant of God. And that's the designation of Messiah. So we could say Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant king, the one that was prophesied as well.

Mark's gospel may have been written primarily to Gentiles, to Roman believers. And that would not be unusual since by the time he wrote this, the church was mostly Gentiles. So that wouldn't be unusual.

Of all the gospels, he does the most to demonstrate the unity, or I'm sorry, he does the humanity of Christ. He does the most in terms of showing the humanity of Christ. He focuses more on the activities of Jesus than his teachings.

He particularly emphasizes the death of Jesus. He also seems to convey the reader to us the emotions of Jesus. Again, showing the humanity of our Lord. Now this is the shortest of the gospels. It omits any accounts of Jesus' ancestry or his birth.

It omits the Sermon on the Mount. It omits some of the lengthy discourses and thus many of the parables. So Mark is the shortest of the gospels. Now who wrote this gospel? A man by the name of John Mark wrote this gospel.

This is John whose last name is Mark. Like my first name is Tim. My last name is Pasma. His first name was John. His last name, his surname was Mark. He was a close companion of the Apostle Peter. And this is, we think, the Apostle Peter's gospel as he related it to Mark, as he dictated it, if you will, to Mark.

Now if you look at Colossians chapter 4 verse 10, you want to turn there, Colossians chapter 4 verse 10, later on, years and years later, here's what the Apostle Paul writes. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you.

And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. So we know that John Mark is the cousin of Barnabas, the great encourager, the one who brought the Apostle Paul to the apostles, the one who was the real encourager.

He is a cousin of Barnabas, or Barnabas is a cousin of Mark. And you also know, we also know that John Mark was the son of Mary in whose house part of the church in Jerusalem met. In particular, when Peter was imprisoned, you remember, in Acts chapter 12, Peter is imprisoned, and there's a group of people at Mary's house, praying for him.

You remember the story? And Peter's miraculously released from prison, and he goes to Mary's house where some of the people from the church are meeting, and they are praying for him. And remember how surprised they were that Peter had shown up and answered to their prayers?

Well, in Acts chapter 12, verse 12, you read, when he realized this, he went, this is Peter, when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

So Mark was in that prayer meeting. Mark is the son of Mary in whose house that prayer meeting was going on. And then in verse 25, we read, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

So Barnabas, his cousin, who's now Paul's very dear friend, goes along with Paul and Barnabas back to their church in Antioch. He then accompanied Paul and Barnabas on Paul's first missionary journey.

He was there to help them. He was the guy who was there to help them. And in chapter 13, verse four, you read, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, that is from the church at Antioch, they went down to Seleucus, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Where, where am I here? All right. Okay. So you see where they're leaving. And then in verse 13, now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

So Mark goes with them out on their first missionary journey, but he bails out. He's a failure. He can't take it. And so he runs home, if you will, he runs home to mama. He goes back home to Jerusalem.

He bails out. Okay. Now, after that first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas are considering their second missionary journey. They're considering where are we going to go next? And Barnabas says, let's take Mark.

And Paul says, absolutely not. He failed us in the first missionary journey. He hasn't proved trustworthy. We cannot take him with us. You read about this in Acts 15. Acts 15, beginning in verse 38. Now, but verse 37, now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed having been commanded by the brothers, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. So you see what happens here. Barnabas, who's known as the son of encouragement, doesn't want to give up on Mark. He says, let's take him along.

Paul says, no, no, he failed us. And they could not come to an agreement on that. So they decided, okay, listen, you want to take Mark, you take Mark, you go your way and I'll go mine. Now we don't know where Mark and Barnabas went because the book of Acts tells us about mostly about Paul.

However, we do know this. Mark was eventually restored to useful ministry so much so that the apostle Paul wants him near at the end of his life. Paul told the Colossians Christians that they should welcome Mark.

Remember, we read that Colossians 4 verse 10. Mark, who's the cousin of Barnabas, I've sent you instructions. Please welcome him. In Philemon, the little tiny book of Philemon verse 24. Again, Philemon was a member of the church in Colossae.

And so probably Philemon was sent to the church in Colossae along with the epistle to the Colossians, kind of went in the same envelope. But in Philemon verse 24, verse 23 and 24, we see Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus sends greetings to you.

And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. So now we see Mark is a fellow worker with the apostle Paul. Now, if you turn one last time to second Timothy chapter four, verse 11, here's what you will find Paul saying about Mark.

Verse 11, Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry. So there is the story of the writer of the gospel of Mark. No doubt we hear from those, from the early church fathers, he was a close associate of Peter.

He was also new Paul and was worked with Paul and became a treasured companion of Paul. But we're told that Mark is the one, this one who was a failure, who the Lord used no doubt, probably Barnabas to encourage him and help him.

He is the one who wrote this gospel. Now, when do we date Mark's gospel? That depends, you know, on things. Did Mark depend on Matthew? Did Matthew depend on Mark? Did Mark kind of, Mark and Peter, they kind of summarize Matthew or just take pieces of it?

Or did Matthew take Mark and expand it? There are all kinds of questions about that. However, what we can kind of determine, it was probably sometime in the fifties. That is about in that decade of 50 years after the birth of Jesus.

So somewhere in between 50 and 60 AD. Now that leaves us the last synoptic gospel, Luke. What are the historical and theological themes in Luke? Luke presents Jesus as the compassionate son of man, the compassionate son of man.

A constant theme in this gospel is Jesus. Jesus is compassion and outcasts. If you want to see Jesus looking out for and helping outcasts, the people on the margins of society, as we would say today, the marginalized people, Luke is the place to go.

We see Gentiles, Samaritans, women, children, tax collectors, sinners of all kinds, and others considered outcasts of Israel. Luke seems to show Jesus the most as he related to the outcasts, the marginalized people of his day.

And Luke presents Jesus as the son of man, rejected by Israel and offered to the world. The heart of this gospel are the 10 chapters that begin in Luke chapter 9, verse 51. Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 9, verse 51.

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And so the rest of this gospel for the next 10, no, for the next 15 chapters, if you will, talk about primarily Jesus' relentless progression to the cross.

That takes up most of the book. Now there's a lot that goes on as he's on his way to Jerusalem, but that seems to be what from chapter 9, the end of chapter 9, all the way through chapter 24. It seems that Luke wants his readers to have an accurate and orderly narrative of Jesus' life, ministry, and primarily his message.

And he centers on this unrelenting trip, this unrelenting progress to the cross. Luke's style more than Mark's or Matthew's is the style of a scholar. He gives more detail than the other three. When you say, okay, where's that story of something?

And it has some details. Where's the story of the woman with the issue of blood? You remember that? You'll find that Luke, right? A woman with an issue of blood and which makes her unclean and she touches Jesus who is clean and she be instead of contaminating him, she becomes clean.

There you have it. Outcasts, more details. Whenever you're in your mind, you go, where was that? It's usually in Luke because he gives a lot more details, especially those things that have to do with medical things because he was a doctor as we're going to see.

He gives details that give us the historical context of when things happen. So at the very beginning, he talks about when Jesus was born during the reign of Augustus Caesar and the governor of Syria. Some have suggested that he writes similar to the story, but his is very orderly historical type of a book.

And Luke gives an orderly account of Jesus life. Look over, for example, and this is key. Look at Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one, the first four verses. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

So he's writing to this man named Theophilus, and he specifically states that his gospel is based on the research that he's done, and much of it involves eyewitnesses. And although it follows historical, it's an historical account.

He doesn't always, he doesn't unwrap it chronologically, okay? He gives an orderly account, but it's not always in chronological order. You say, how can that be? Well, you know, they didn't think exactly like we do back then, okay?

So it's an orderly account. It may not just be sequential all the time, but it's an orderly account written to this man named Theophilus. Now note carefully that this gospel is only the first volume of a two-volume history of Jesus at work.

Did you know that? Look over at Acts. Look over at Acts chapter one, okay? Acts chapter one. In Acts chapter one, here it starts. In the first book, O Theophilus, what's he referring to? His gospel. I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

He presented himself alive to them after suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Now note, this is the second volume. The second volume of what?

The second volume of Jesus' work. O Theophilus, you know that first volume I wrote? That's what Jesus began to do, implication being, so here's the second volume in my history that relates what Jesus continued to do.

So when you think of Luke, always think of two volumes on your shelf, right? Volume one, Gospel of Luke. Volume two, Acts of the Apostles, okay? He wrote both of those. They go together. They go together.

They're orderly accounts of the faith, the founding of the faith and the spread of the faith. Now Luke wrote this gospel. Luke was a Gentile because Paul distinguishes him from the Jews who labored with him.

In Colossians chapter four, verse 11 and verse 14, he distinguishes Luke from the other Jewish men who worked with him. He was a Gentile. This makes him the only Gentile writer of scripture. It's the only Gentile writer of scripture.

And notice in Colossians chapter four, verse 14, you can find that. I can find it. Verse 14, it says, Luke, the beloved physician greets you as does Demas. And so you see that Luke was a doctor, a medical doctor of his day.

He was a constant companion of the apostle Paul. When you read through the book of Acts, there are certain sections that we call the we sections, all right? Now, if you pick up the story of the spread of the gospel in the book of Acts in chapter 13, well, there's Paul's conversion, of course, and then something with Peter for the next couple of chapters.

And then you pick up the rest of the book is about Paul. You will see, for example, in chapter 16, 10 through 17, in chapter 20, five through 15, in chapter 21, one through 18, and chapter 27, up to through 28, verse 16, you see what we call the we sections, W-E, sections of Acts.

So what's that? When you read Acts, it talks about what happened with the apostles, Peter and then Paul. But then there are some sections where it says, we went here, we did that, then we went here. What's that?

Those are the times when Luke was with Paul. And so the we sections, if we call those in the Acts, are those times when Luke was with Paul. He was with Paul at the very end of his ministry. We read this just a few minutes ago in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 11, where he says, Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. So Luke and Mark, Paul says, Luke is with me. Luke is with me here as I'm in prison, waiting to find out whether I'm going to live or die.

My friend, my companion Luke is with me. Please send Mark, because he's useful too. He's useful for the ministry. And so we see that Luke was a very close companion and friend of the apostle Paul. Now, when was Luke written?

Well, it's kind of uncertain. Some have suggested that the abrupt ending of the book of Acts suggests that he did not long survive his associate and friend, Paul. It probably was not written. It probably was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, again, because he probably would have said something about that.

And so it seems that the book of Luke was written before the fall of Jerusalem and the temple. It's quite possible that when Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea, as you read in the book of Acts, Luke probably did his research on the gospel.

He was in Caesarea, probably. Paul was in prison there, remember, waiting to go to Rome. He was probably there for close to a year, if not an entire year, let's say AD 58 to 59. Maybe that's when Luke said, look, Paul, while you're sitting here in prison, I'm going to go do some work, okay?

And maybe that's when he did his research for the gospel of Luke. He left Paul in Caesarea. Paul was stuck there and, you know, in the north of Israel and probably went down and saw all those folks that had walked with Jesus, who were eyewitnesses to Jesus and the apostles and their ministry.

And so it's quite possible that Luke wrote his gospel somewhere between 60 and 67 AD. Now, understand then, let's sum up. Understand that the gospels were each written with a particular purpose in mind beyond just providing a biography of Jesus.

They want to tell you something about Jesus. They want to tell you something about his character, his divinity, his salvation. And in our study, we're going to dive into the gospel of Mark, which would be a good way of seeing how to study and understand the gospel.

So that's what we'll be doing. All right. Well, the Lord bless you. I hope that you find this profitable. Next week, we begin in the gospel of Mark and just start taking it apart. All right. Well, before we go, let me pray, okay?

I didn't pray when we started. So let me pray as we depart. Lord God, thank you for the writers who wrote down true accounts of the Lord Jesus. We thank you for Matthew and Mark and Luke. We thank you for the fact that the spirit bore them along and wrote what you wanted them to write.

We're thankful that we have these wonderful gospels of the Lord Jesus. Now, Father, we pray as we begin to study Mark, help us as we embark on that study to truly understand what Mark is saying to us about our Savior and our Lord.

Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.