Well, tonight we are going to look at a gospel in the NT that is the shortest of all and that is the Gospel of Mark.
My wife and Parks will really like this because Mark gets to the point and doesn’t beat around the bush. For the next few weeks I would like to take you through a series of lessons on the Gospel of Mark in the evening.
It is gospel that is sometimes read and never really understood exactly what Mark is trying to get across to us.
Tonight we will be Mark chapter 1.
Mark begins his gospel with an introduction to John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus. Mark is so quick in getting to the ministry of Jesus that he skips the birth narrative and gets right into the story of Jesus ministry.
93 percent of Mark’s Gospel can be found in Matthew and Luke.
Synoptic – Seeing with one Eye.
I. Following Jesus means He may just come pay you a surprise visit.
God meets us where we are.
Mark 1: 16-18
16 As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea ; for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." 18 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
Why do they drop their nets and follow him?
The Answer may be found in the phrase, “As He was Going Along” Could be translated “AS HE WAS PASSING BY”
In the Greek this is the same construct as when God passed by Moses on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 33
Exodus 33: 18-23
18 Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory !" 19 And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." 20 But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live !" 21 Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock ; 22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 "Then I will take my hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen."
In Jesus these men see the glory of God passing by. Jesus is God and flesh.
In John 1:14 the apostle John says that they beheld His glory.
Just as Moses wanted to behold the glory of God, Jesus manifested that glorious visitation of God to His disciples.
God is passing by
I Kings 19 Elijah has God pass by him in his glory while he is on Mount Horeb. In 1 Kings 19:11 we find the same grammatical construct as we find in Mark 1 with God ‘passing by’ Elijah. – later on in chapter 19 he Elijah passes by Elisha – Elisha is working in his field and drops everything and follows Elijah.
There is a lot of similarity in Elijah and Elisha and Jesus and his disciples.
God is passing by – God is visiting.
Elijah was trying to renew Israel and Elisha is doing the same as.
Renewing Israel will be what the Disciples will be called to do.
John 1- The Word Became flesh and dwelt among us.
Another point that we can glean from this passage in Mark is that Jesus meets us in the everyday walks of life.
He goes to them while they are working at their jobs.
Sometimes we look for spectacular appearances of God and we sometimes miss the everyday visitation of God in our life.
People did not recognize their own Creator. The very one that was there from the beginning was now walking the Earth and calling people to his Kingdom.
What can we learn?
What happens when God call us, will we be ready?
Matthew 25: 35-45
35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink ; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink ? 38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' 41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels ; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink ; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' 44 "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' 45 "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'
We meet Jesus everyday in the face of others – our visitation of passing of God is not going to be what we think it is. We may miss it if we are thinking in fleshly human terms.
II. Following Jesus means ACTION
Mark 1: 19-20
19 Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.
Immediately – this word is used over 40 times in this Book. The time is here, not a lot of time to waste. You have to get going. Mark doesn’t have a lot of time to waste.
Mark is going to be a gospel of action.
If you are going to follow Jesus you have to get going.
Luke 9: 57-62
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." 59 And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." 60 But He said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead ; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." 61 Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord ; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." 62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
There were a group of people standing outside a very large and ornate cathedral in Europe and they were admiring the very fine craftsmanship, the detail work, the care and the love that seemed evident in building such a fine place to worship a loving God. One of the men turned to another in the group and said, "Why can’t we build so today? Why can’t we build with such pride, such craftsmanship today, and the other man replied, "They had convictions; we have opinions."
Whether on not we agree on the need for building large buildings and monuments to God we must agree that people of that age had convictions. Many people today just have many opinions of how things should be. We live in a time when people are super critical of everyone else and are waiting for someone else to do the work.
Jesus demands that we become a people of convictions that get to work.
When Jesus shows up in our lives it is a call to a action.
Mark’s use of the work ‘immediately’ reminds us that it is time to get going.
III. Following Jesus requires Self Sacrifice
Mark 1: 40-45
40 And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." 41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing ; be cleansed." 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 43 And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, 44 and He said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone ; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas ; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.
Lepers were unclean and could not come into a village.
They could not be in a city and could not even go to the Temple.
They were the outcasts of society.
Word is out that the Spirit of the Lord is operating in this new prophet – this new Elijah that could heal.
Just as Elijah healed the Syrian Leper Naaman, now Jesus would heal this leper.
This Leper is asking for more than just to be healed, - he wants to be made clean.
Jesus touches the Leper – this would make him unclean – ritually unclean.
If a clean person touches an unclean person the clean person becomes unclean – with Jesus this is a radical reversal. Now the unclean becomes clean when they touch Jesus.
Jesus reverses everything that was normal. With Christ things are different, He has the power to transform.
In Jesus we see the reversal of the Curse. Jesus will become cursed on our behalf and upturn the entire world.
The many doesn’t listen to Jesus and tells people about the healing, – and now Jesus is the outcast, Jesus becomes the one that could not go into the villages.
He changed places with the Leper.
Jesus readily becomes the social outcast to bring healing to this man.
In verse 45 we learn that Jesus now has to stay in the unpopulated places just like the leper had once done.
The Leper is now able to go to the Temple and go through ritual purification and become a full participant in society. Now, Jesus can no longer operate as normal because this man told everyone about the healing.
In the same way Jesus took our place. He took on the curse of something much worse than leprosy. This story is a foreshadowing of that changing of places that Jesus would ultimately do. Jesus would do what Israel could not do and that is obey the Law perfectly.
He would be the fulfillment of the covenant and would eventually go outside the camp and take on the curse of the cross.
Galatians 3: 13-14
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE "- 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
This is a foreshadowing to the ultimate changing of places. Jesus will take our place
2 Corinthians 5: 18-21
8 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Because of this love and the way to live we are called to do the same.
To take up our cross.
To bring our sacrifice to Jesus and sacrifice we bring to that altar is our lives – Romans 12
Following Jesus can make you become an outsider
John 15: 18-20
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own ; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
John 16:2
2 "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.
Because of our oneness with Christ we will too become the outcasts of our society.
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