The whole book of Mark
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If you would go ahead, go ahead and open up your Bibles to the book of Mark. On the book of Mark, if you don't have a Bible and you'd like to borrow 1, there's some on the back table there. We're going to be looking at a lot of pages tonight, so, so you're going to want to have that or at least a friend next to you who can turn. We're gonna look at the entire gospel of Mark tonight. And let me tell you the reason that I'm doing that.
Joel Brooks:The reason we want to go through an entire gospel, in probably the next 45 minutes, is because I've noticed that when it comes to the gospels, a lot of times people miss the forest because of the trees. Most studies going through the gospels are usually verse by verse. Occasionally, you know, maybe you'll look at a whole chapter, which is great. It's needed. But sometimes you miss the the overarching purpose of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And so, you need to kind of take a step back and look at it as a whole. So tonight, I hope you walk away with an understanding of the main purpose of the gospel of Mark, and not just a few verses. Also, I hope you gain a new appreciation for for the gospels. In particular, the gospel of Mark. I'm hoping that when you go home tonight, you're going to want to read through the entire gospel.
Joel Brooks:I hope that you, come to understand the great complexity of this gospel. Yet, at the same time, there's this relentless pulse that goes through the whole thing, driving us into worship of Jesus. So, before we start digging into this, perhaps I should explain what a gospel is. You've got 4 of them. You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Joel Brooks:But what exactly is a gospel? I define a gospel as a biographical sermon, a biographical sermon. They are biographies because they're about a person, but the people who wrote the gospels are much more interested than just giving you the cold hard facts. They they don't want to just lay out the facts before you. They are going to write these facts in a way to persuade you of something.
Joel Brooks:In a way to convince you of something. Kind of like what I do when I preach. I'm going to give you the facts, but I want to persuade you and convince you of something. And so, a gospel is a biographical sermon. And so, you see this in Mark.
Joel Brooks:Mark had so many miracles he could have drawn from, so many teachings he could have drawn from. But he picks certain ones, puts them in certain places in order to convince us to teach us of some certain truth. He's preaching to us through this biography. And so he's going to give us facts, but he's got a purpose behind that. Mark is the oldest gospel, easily written within living memory of those who knew Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Most of Mark is contained in the gospel of Matthew and in the gospel of Luke. A matter of fact, if something were to happen and Mark were to fall out of your Bible, you would actually have 95% of it contained in Matthew and in Luke. Most of it is areas. It says, Luke and Matthew drew heavily from Mark when they were writing. Mark was a disciple of Peter.
Joel Brooks:And, so when you read through Mark, what you're getting is actually Peter's account of the life of Christ. And this is really going to shine through as you go through the gospel of Mark. So that's a little introduction. Now, let's just go ahead and dig in. Go to chapter 1, and I'm gonna read the first nine verses.
Joel Brooks:The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.' John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Joel Brooks:Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water immediately, he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice from heaven, you are my beloved son.
Joel Brooks:With you, I am well pleased. Pray with me. Our father, we are thankful that we get to gather under your name in this building. And we get to hear from your word. We get to hear you speak to us.
Joel Brooks:And I pray that would happen in this moment. I pray your spirit would give us sharp minds, open hearts, give us eyes to see, the words in here that you would have us to see. God, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Mark tells us in the very first line what his aim is. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So, he's going to show us that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, He's the Jewish King, the Jewish deliverer, and He is, more importantly, really the Son of God. So right off the bat, we're told this, and it's like we're being let in on a little secret in Mark. He's letting us know this, but nobody else, as you go through the gospel, is really going to get this.
Joel Brooks:We, as the reader, know this, but nobody else is going to. Not a single human being throughout Mark will come to understand Jesus as the son of God, while Jesus is still living. Not one. You're going to have demons recognizing Him as the Son of God. You're going to have voices from heaven recognizing Him as the Son of God, but there's not going to be another person who does it.
Joel Brooks:And over and over again, things are going to happen and people are going to ask questions like, who is this? We're going to be like, he's the son of God, but people will miss it. So we're let in on this secret, and we're going to look more on this theme as we go through it. And when Jesus is introduced as this, in the very first line in this book, you notice right off the bat that this is going to be different than any other biography. You realize that just in the, 11 verses that we read that introduced Jesus, because we know nothing about his childhood.
Joel Brooks:We know nothing about his family. We don't really know where he came from. Jesus just all of a sudden appears fully grown, doing things. And that's not how you write a biography. You know, typically, you want to write about the past.
Joel Brooks:You want to write about the family. You want to write how he was born. But Mark's having none of that. He doesn't have time for such pleasantries. Mark starts like, like a roaring lion, and he's just going to keep on roaring.
Joel Brooks:He's going to keep on going. He begins by quoting from Isaiah concerning John the Baptist. Look at those verses 2 3. Says, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of 1 crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.
Joel Brooks:Now that word straight there is one of the dominant themes in the book of Mark. The Greek word is eutheos. Other places, it's translated immediately or immediate because everything Jesus does is going to be immediate. Just in the first chapter alone, Jesus immediately saw the heavens opened up. The Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:Jesus immediately calls his disciples, and they immediately drop their nets and follow him. He immediately enters a synagogue and teaches. And immediately, someone with an unclean spirit cries out. And after healing him, Jesus immediately leaves and goes to Simon's house, where he is immediately told about Simon's sick mother-in-law. And so you get this immediate, immediate, immediate.
Joel Brooks:It's just the the pace is relentless. You kind of feel yourself being pushed along in the book of Mark. And Mark uses the word immediately over 40 times in his gospel, which is more than the rest of the new Testament put together. And so he's pushing us, pushing us at this pace. Another way that Mark pushes us is by briefly moving into the present tense for a story.
Joel Brooks:Typically, when you're telling a story, you tell it in the past tense, how something happened. Occasionally, if you want to make something really vivid or really intense or urgent, you can move it into the present tense. And Mark does this. Look at verse 12. Here's just one of the case is it says the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:Now your drove is past tense in your Greek. It's present tense. It's the spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness. I mean, you get that sense of almost like he's being pushed into the wilderness, But there's a reason your translators don't translate it in the present tense. It's because Mark switches from the past into the present a 151 times in his gospel.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you might expect 2 or 3 times just to, like, make something urgent, make something vivid. Mark is like every single story. He jumps into the present, goes back into the past, jumps into the present, goes back into the past. And for kind of a modern Western reader, that's really confusing. It's too vivid, too urgent.
Joel Brooks:And so most translators just keep it all in the past, but Mark wants to push us fast towards something. I kind of feel like when I'm reading this, like I'm driving and you get a yellow light, you know, you don't slow down, you speed up. Then you get another yellow light, you speed up. And so, you know, you keep doing that. You're making record time.
Joel Brooks:When you're reading through Mark, you kind of feel like that. It's like push, push, and you're just flying, flying, flying. You're like, well, what is he taking us to at such a fast pace? Let's look at the pace of Mark and just the first chapter alone. This is what happens in just the first chapter of Mark.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is baptized. He's declared to be the son of God by his father. He's driven into the wilderness where He's tempted by Satan. John the Baptist is arrested. Jesus begins preaching.
Joel Brooks:He calls all of His disciples. He He casts out a demon. He heals Peter's mother-in-law. He heals all the sick in an entire city. He goes to a desolate place and he prays by himself.
Joel Brooks:He preaches throughout all of Galilee. He casts out even more demons and he heals a leper. All in the first chapter. When you're reading, you're like, when does he sleep? I mean, when does he when does he even have time to eat?
Joel Brooks:He's doing all of these things at this relentless pace. And Mark puts so many miracles. He includes 17 miracles in just such a short book, which is more than all the other gospels. And I think the reason that Mark is doing this, he's pushing us so much and he shows Jesus moving with such urgency is because he wants us to look at ourselves and ask a question, are we living life with the same urgency? Are we?
Joel Brooks:He wants us to have that same singular purpose. Nothing would distract Jesus. He would immediately do this, immediately do this. He didn't have time to be distracted. He had a purpose.
Joel Brooks:And, I think this is really relevant for our culture that spends so much time trying to distract itself. We have so many time killers, you know, whether it's Facebook or a computer or it's, you know, cable TV, we, we are so entertainment driven and we go to those things and we just kind of forget about our purpose. And Mark is slapping us around saying, no, we, we need to go hard in this direction. We're to make our path straight and not just wander around trying to entertain ourselves. And so I think this is one of the reasons that Mark is pushing this so much.
Joel Brooks:As the church, we've been given a purpose and we can't be distracted from it. All right, well, you got to ask the question, what is the event that Mark is pushing us towards? Let's look at verse 9. It's going to give us a hint of this. It says in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Joel Brooks:And when he came up out of the water, immediately saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. All right. When Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens are described as being torn open.
Joel Brooks:It's a very violent word in Greek. It's being ripped, shredded, torn open. Matthew and Luke, when they describe this, they use a much tamer word. They just say, you know, the, the heavens were opened, but Mark is like, no, the heavens weren't open. They were torn.
Joel Brooks:Mark only uses this word one other time in his gospel. Go to Mark chapter 15. And here we see the death of Jesus. Mark 15, we'll begin reading in verse 37. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last, and the curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom.
Joel Brooks:And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way, he breathed his last. He said, truly, this man was the son of God. Notice the parallels. We have Jesus being baptized. He comes out, the heavens are torn open, and then you have a declaration by the father.
Joel Brooks:This is my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased. You go to the end of the book at the cross, Jesus dies, which is also kind of his baptism. Right afterwards, it says the temple veil is torn, and then we have a declaration. Truly, this is the son of God. And so these are kind of the bookends in Mark, where you have the tearing of the heavens and the declaration that Jesus is the son of God, and you have the tearing of the temple veil and the declaration that Jesus is the son of God.
Joel Brooks:You have it at the start of his gospel. You have it at the end of his gospel. And Marcus saying, you need to read everything in the middle in light of this event of the heavens being opened up to us because of the death of Jesus. They are literally torn open. And we're going to look at, come back to these bookends in a little bit, but just know that Mark's point is he's driving us straight to the cross.
Joel Brooks:That's where he's going straight there. This might be a good time for me to tell a few other little literary devices that Mark uses to kind of bring these points home. We've already looked how he uses the word immediate a lot. He goes into the present tense, but he also uses bookends a whole lot. I'm going to call them Markin sandwiches, because it's like you have the 2 pieces of bread and you have the jam in the middle.
Joel Brooks:He's going to tell a story using kind of an ABA pattern. All right. Turn to chapter 11. We'll look at 1 Chapter 11, verse 12. Let me read it to you.
Joel Brooks:On the following day when they came from Bethany, he was hungry and seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it and they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
Joel Brooks:And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priest and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him because all the crowds were astonished at his teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city and they passed by in the morning. They, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots and Peter remembered and said to him, rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.
Joel Brooks:All right. So here we have the story of Jesus going into the temple and cleansing it out. Right before this story, we have Jesus walking up to a fig tree, Right after this story, we have Jesus walking to a fig tree. There's your sandwich, all right? So the, the pieces of bread are Jesus going up to a fig tree and we'll call it the jam.
Joel Brooks:The jam in the middle is Jesus going into the temple. And what happens is the 2 pieces of bread shed light on what happens in the middle. And what in the middle also sheds a little bit of light of what happens on the 2 pieces of bread. And so what's happening here is Jesus is going into, the temple and he's expecting to find fruit. He's expecting for there to be prayer, expecting for there to be worship, and it's not.
Joel Brooks:And so he starts overthrowing things. He essentially curses the temple. He shuts it down. And the fig tree sheds light on that. Jesus went to the fig tree right before expecting fruit.
Joel Brooks:He was hungry. There's nothing. He curses it, goes to the temple, finds the same thing. And then they go back out to the fig tree and they're like, look, it's withered, it's dead. And he's like, I know, just like the temple worship is dead.
Joel Brooks:And so you have those 2 pieces of bread shedding light on what happens in the middle. We'll look at one more. And, for those of you in home groups, we might look at a few more of these in home groups. Turn to Mark chapter 3. I like this one just because it's somewhat shocking.
Joel Brooks:Mark chapter 3, verse 20. By the way, after the service, I'm going to be up in my office. For those of you who have more questions going through Mark, I'll stay up there as long as you want, as we can walk through this Mark 3:20, then he went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying, he is out of his mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, he is possessed by Beelzebub, and by the prince of demons, he cast out the demons.
Joel Brooks:And he called them to him and said to them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.
Joel Brooks:Then indeed, he may plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of men and whoever blasphemies and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin. For they were saying he has an unclean spirit and his mother and his brothers came and standing outside. They sent to him and called him and the crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.
Joel Brooks:And he answered them, who are my mother and brothers? And looking around at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. Okay. This is somewhat shocking. The 2 pieces of bread are an introduction of Jesus's family.
Joel Brooks:You have, his mom and his family trying to stop Jesus because they think he's out of his mind. He's crazy. And so then Jesus goes into this teaching moment here and he ends by saying, you know what? Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. And blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is, crediting the devil with something that the Lord is doing.
Joel Brooks:And then it goes back to his family. And they're like, Jesus, come to us. We're your family. It's like, who is my family? And so you have those 2 pieces of bread shedding light on what's going on in the middle.
Joel Brooks:And then the jam is shedding light on what happens in those 2 pieces of bread. And what is going on here is really strong. Jesus is telling his family, who says, you're out of your mind, you're crazy. He's saying, hold off, you're getting awfully close to something. You're getting really close to something when you call me crazy.
Joel Brooks:That is almost blasphemy of the holy spirit, and that is not forgivable. You're crediting what I'm doing with a work of craziness or a work of the devil. Then it goes back to his family again. And this is so like Jesus saying this about his family, that Matthew and Luke just dropped that out. They're like, they don't put the story about his family saying, you're out of your mind.
Joel Brooks:They just dropped that out. They try to, maybe soften a little bit because they have a different purpose they're getting to, and they don't want us to get distracted by that. But Mark is very harsh and very blunt here. And you're going to find these sandwiches all throughout Mark, shedding light. There's 2 pieces of bread, shedding light on what's going on in the middle.
Joel Brooks:We don't have time to go through anymore, but there's 2 in chapter 14 alone. If you want to write these down, there's, 14:1 through 11, the story about the beautiful woman who breaks open the alabaster jar and anoints Jesus's feet. That's in the context of a Mark and sandwich. And also verses 54 through 67, which contrast Peter warming himself by the fire. And then what happens to Jesus on trial, then going back to Peter.
Joel Brooks:And so y'all, y'all can look at those. Alright. Another literary device that Mark uses is he loves the number 3, loves it. He groups things in threes, so much so you almost think he's borderline crazy. I'll give you a few.
Joel Brooks:We have 3 boat scenes of Jesus when Matthew and Luke only have 1. 3 times Jesus cast out demons and silences them. 3 times Jesus predicts his death. Each one of these becoming progressively more detailed. Pilate asked the crowd 3 questions.
Joel Brooks:There are 3, 3 hour intervals on the cross. There's the 3rd, the 6th, the 9th hour. And he's Mark's, he's not just doing this because it's cool. Like this is really cool. You know, if I could somehow work in like a bunch of threes, see if people could break the hidden code of Mark.
Joel Brooks:He's using this because he's let's think of him as hammer blows. He wants to hammer certain truths into us. So he repeats it and he repeats it and he repeats it. And one of the most obvious ways you see this is concerning the disciples. Three times the disciples failed to understand the parables.
Joel Brooks:Three times the disciples are said to have hardened hearts. Three times Jesus commands the disciples to keep awake and watch with him. Followed by the disciples falling asleep 3 times. Peter denies Jesus 3 times. You could go on that.
Joel Brooks:They're kind of like those hammer blows. We want you to understand who the disciples are. And so we're just going to pound this in you. And what he's hammering home to us is that the disciples continually failed Jesus. Not once, not twice, 3 times.
Joel Brooks:So like all these different ways, they continually failed him. I mean, and for one, this speaks of the authenticity of Mark. Remember, this is really Peter's kind of gospel. Do you think Peter wants to, Hey, I'm going to write about Jesus and about us. And I'm just going to write about all of our failures.
Joel Brooks:If you think he wants this, he's being truthful here saying, Hey, I was one of the 12 and you know what? We failed over and over and over. So mark communicates this. And I think the reason mark groups so many of the disciples failures and threes is because he wants us to identify with those failures. He wants to draw us into that.
Joel Brooks:It's like, hey, even the 12 continually fail, but you know what? Jesus called them. Jesus is moving them towards faith. And so he's drawing us into that. All right.
Joel Brooks:I don't want to run out of time. So let's go ahead and go to Mark 8. Mark 8 is what you would call the hinge chapter in the gospel. Just like Matthew 16 is for Matthew. It's, when Peter makes his declaration, that's usually like the hinge event, everything kind of turns, when Peter makes his declaration of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:But I want us to kind of use some of the things we've learned about Mark to understand this better. And so we're going to back track before that declaration. We're going to read the miracle before it in verse 22. And I love this. It's really unusual.
Joel Brooks:And let me just say, when we get to this point in Mark, after this hinge point, when this is when Jesus starts talking about the cross, everything slows down for Mark. Almost every immediate was done before this. Not all of them, but most of them, you could fit all of the gospel. If you counted the days, all of the gospel mark into 1 month. But here, when you get to the midpoint of the gospel, he slows down and it hits the passion week.
Joel Brooks:You have 7 chapters on 1 week of Jesus's life. It's, it's kind of like you're watching this movie and it gets to the climax and it goes in slow motion. It's like, all right, now we're kind of where I want to lead you And we're going to really take our time through this final week. And so that happens right after kind of this hinge chapter in Mark 8. Well, verse 22.
Joel Brooks:And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on him, on his eyes again, and he opened up his eyes and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Joel Brooks:And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say I am? And they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him and said, you are the Christ.
Joel Brooks:And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. Alright. What a bizarre, bizarre story. It's only in Mark. Anytime there's a story that is only in Mark, pay close attention to it because remember, 95% of the other stories are in Matthew and in Luke.
Joel Brooks:So, something really unique is happening here with Jesus healing this person, and it doesn't take. How unmarked is that in which everything Jesus does is immediate? Touches a person, immediately, the lame jump up. Touches a mute, immediately, they speak. Touches the blind immediately.
Joel Brooks:They see, I mean, all throughout, this is the first time you have a miracle and it's not immediate. So like kind of jumps out at you. You're like, what in the world? Did Jesus make a mistake here? What's going on?
Joel Brooks:Why, why does he have to touch him again in order for him to get his sight? Marcus setting you up for something. Once again, he's drawing you in the story. And now he wants you to understand what comes right after that. When he asked Peter or the disciples, what are people saying about me?
Joel Brooks:And they're like, well, some are saying Elijah, some of the prophet, whatever. And then he says, Peter, who do you say I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ, Thou art the Christ. Notice something is missing in Peter's declaration here. In Matthew, he says, Thou art the Christ, Son of the living God, but not in Mark.
Joel Brooks:It's just thou art the Christ period. I'm sure He said, thou art the Son of the living God, but Mark's point here is that He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. And so he just has Mark or Matthew or sorry, Peter, just saying, thou art the Christ. Because right after this, look what Jesus does.
Joel Brooks:He starts telling them first thing, well, are you saying the Christ, but know that I've got to suffer. I've got to be rejected. I've got to be killed. And then Peter says, uh-uh, no, absolutely not. And so Jesus calls Peter, Satan.
Joel Brooks:Get behind me, Satan. And so you see right there that Peter doesn't really see Jesus for who he is, even though he made that declaration. That's why Mark has that miracle right before it. He's like, you know what, even with the disciples, there needs to be a continual touching. There's this moment of sight, but not quite.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus is going to have to keep hammering this in with the disciples so they see who he is clearly. They don't understand what it means to be the son of God. Not yet. They still see men walking around like trees. They're still confused.
Joel Brooks:And so we see how Mark does these things. So he's unpacking these things here for us. Now, in the very first line of Mark, we're told that Jesus is the son of God. And I said, it was like, we were let in on a secret that nobody else knows. Like Mark doesn't even let Peter know it.
Joel Brooks:Doesn't even let Peter declare it, that he's the son of God. Instead, what you have throughout the entire book of Mark is Jesus doing amazing stuff and people sitting around going, who are you? They always just ask the question, who are you? You know, after Jesus cast out a demon in Mark chapter 1, it says this, and they were all amazed. So they questioned among themselves saying, what is this?
Joel Brooks:A new teaching with authority. He commands even unclean spirits and they obey Him. In Mark 2, Jesus forgives the paralytic man, And their response is, why does he speak like this? He's blaspheming. Who who can forgive sins but God alone?
Joel Brooks:In Mark 4, after Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves and he calms the raging sea, his disciples look at him and scared to death and like, who is this man? That even the wind and the waves obey Him. No longer we're like, He's the Son of God. Because we know we've been letting on the secret. And we're like, it's the Son of God, but they don't get it.
Joel Brooks:In Mark 6, when Jesus is in His hometown, they ask, where did this guy come from? Isn't he just the carpenter? Isn't he Mary's son? And even going to name his siblings. They're like, isn't his brother James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon with us?
Joel Brooks:Aren't his sisters here with us too? Who is he? And so the identity of Jesus is continually raised. People are over and over asking, who is this man after everything he does? And no one recognizes him as the son of God while he is living.
Joel Brooks:No one, not even Peter in his confession. Mark is saving this confession because this is where the hammer falls. This is, this is where he wants us to, to really focus in. Turn to mark 15 and let's revisit that book end where the temple veil is torn. Mark 15, and no one records the cross like Mark, no one does.
Joel Brooks:Mark shows Jesus to be so utterly forsaken in a way that the other gospels don't. The religious leaders forsake him, the Roman rule rulers, his own family, his hometown does, his closest friends, even his father forsakes him. It's here in the gospel of Mark that we hear the, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he actually have this little interesting detail at the end of chapter 14 that I love. It says that when Jesus was arrested, they tried to seize one of his followers and they grabbed him and they ripped off his cloak and he ran away naked, off because he didn't want, he forsook Jesus, even when it meant running away without any clothes on.
Joel Brooks:And most people think that's Mark because nobody else would know that. And so like Mark's even kind of putting that little teeny note there, like there, there was this young man, you're like, even at his clothes, stripped away and fled and wouldn't be identified with Jesus. And so Mark presents Jesus as utterly forsaken in a way that the other gospels, they, they talk about it, but not like Mark. And here in chapter 15, we get to the cross. Finally, this is where he's been pointing all along as the cross.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 37. There's so much we could unpack here. Verse 37, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathe his last, and the curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom. And when the Centurion who stood facing him saw that it was, that in this way, he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the son of God. So when the centurion hears Jesus cry out or shout, which was likely to Telestai, it is finished.
Joel Brooks:And he hears that cry. He realizes this was no ordinary man because I mean, crucifixion, you, you died by suffocation. You couldn't even whimper at the end, let alone cry out. And so when he sees that event, he realizes this man's life was not taken from him. He gave up his life.
Joel Brooks:Truly, this man was the son of God. And Mark's point all along through the gospel is that when you look at the miracles, when you hear the teaching, when you see all of the power of Jesus, you do gain some clarity as to who He is. But if you want to recognize Jesus as the son of God, you have to go to the cross. It is only at the cross when you see our bleeding savior dying. Only there do we come and recognize truly this is the son of God.
Joel Brooks:And so he's driving us there all along. Every other time people don't get it. And here a Roman centurion of all people gets it. So that's why all good preaching goes to the cross, because it's only at the cross do we see him revealed as the son of God. One other little detail, just because I think I got time for this.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus is on trial and He's before Caiaphas, the high priest, Caiaphas asked him, are you the son of the most blessed one? And Jesus says, I am. He says, ego ami, which is, they thought blasphemy because he's saying like, I am, which is the name of God. And so he fully embraces when he's asked, are you the son of the most blessed one? He goes, I am ego on me.
Joel Brooks:But then later when he's asked her, are you the king of the Jews? He goes, you say so. He doesn't like really embrace that title, but when it comes to someone asking, are you the son of guys like, absolutely, I am. This is where Mark's pointing us. Let's look at the end of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:No gospel ends more bizarre than Mark. It ends as abruptly as it begins. All right, look at the end of verse 8. I got to talk about this before we read 1 through verse 8, chapter 16, and all of y'all probably have a little parenthetical notes there that say some of the earliest manuscripts do not include chapter 16:9 through 20, and then 9 through 20 is all in parentheses. You might even have a Bible that doesn't include it.
Joel Brooks:So you're wondering what in the world am I talking about? Well, the oldest manuscripts that we have don't have this at all as the gospel of Mark. It is not written like Mark. It doesn't read like Mark. And none of the oldest manuscripts have it.
Joel Brooks:That's not saying it's not true. What's saying it is saying is likely it was added onto Mark later, but it probably doesn't work with Mark's intent for the gospel. Mark didn't want his gospel to end there. And so I think if you read that as part of Mark, you're missing Mark's point. He wants it to end in verse 8, for, for a very strong reason, such a strong reason.
Joel Brooks:And it's so strong. People probably felt uncomfortable with it. Like we need to include some other things. So they put that plus it's also, you know, where you get the handling scorpions and serpents and drinking poison. And so, if y'all want to take that and do it, run with it.
Joel Brooks:Let's, let's read these 8 verses. When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Siloam, brought spices so that, they might go and anoint him and very early on the 1st day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in white robe.
Joel Brooks:And they were alarmed. And He said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here.
Joel Brooks:See the place where they laid him, but go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. You could kind of see the authenticity right there when it says, go tell the disciples and Peter, you just love how like Peter's like, he's part of the story, But what a bizarre way to end the book.
Joel Brooks:These are the last sentence again. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now, you can almost see what people added, you're like, well, we can't end it there. Let's tell the rest of the story because, you know, it ends like, it ends with saying all these great things about look at verse 20, if you were to add that last little part.
Joel Brooks:It says, and they went out and they preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. It's like, that's a good ending right there. That's Hollywood right there. That's why you know how you're supposed to have those happy endings. And that happened.
Joel Brooks:I'm not taking away from the truth of that. That happened, but that's not Mark's point. Remember, it's a biographical sermon. And what he's saying is this, all through this gospel, I've been drawing you in to identify with the disciples. I've told you of their failures constantly.
Joel Brooks:I've been hammering this home. Right? So you fail, but Jesus doesn't let us go. Alright? And now in light of the cross, we understand who He is.
Joel Brooks:We were blind before, but now we see it. He's the Son of God. And now, just like the disciples here in this, we haven't seen the risen Christ. We've been told about it. The Holy Spirit has confirmed that, yes, Jesus is risen, but none of us here have actually seen the risen Christ.
Joel Brooks:We're just told this message. And so now Mark leaves it open ended, ended. He's like, so what are you going to do? What are you going to do, disciples? You failed them over and over and over again, but Jesus now has revealed himself to you.
Joel Brooks:He is now risen from the dead. I'm telling you this. I know you haven't seen him yet, but he has risen. What are you going to do? And he is hoping that same urgency that he has been putting forward in that whole gospel hits us.
Joel Brooks:I mean, remember, this is oral, they're reading this and you can almost just picture like the, you know, the scroll being rolled up after this, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Can you imagine the person reading that and then the silence and him just looking around at all the people in that room who professed to be Christians? What impact does that have? It's like, we've got to share. We've got to live a life of singular purpose in light of what Christ has done.
Joel Brooks:And so that's the point of Mark as you read through it. I hope as you, I hope you take time this week to kind of read through it with a fresh lens and you walk away with a more heart of a worship, more of a heart of worship for Jesus is the son of God. And pray with me. Jesus, we love you. Well, forgive us for so often, wanting the things that really don't clearly point to you as the son of God.
Joel Brooks:We don't want to take up a cross and follow you. We don't like the weakness that we see on the cross. I pray that for everyone here that we would not be ashamed of the cross. We boldly proclaim it because it's there that we see Jesus, our savior, as the son of God. And I pray that you would give us a boldness that we do not possess in ourselves to share the message of the risen king.
Joel Brooks:It would be ever on our lips. We would not be running away scared and frightened, but we will live a life with a singular purpose of making this declaration. Thank you, Jesus, for your work on the cross, your work of redemption for changing our lives. We pray this in your name. Amen.