WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:32.840
Hey everyone, welcome back to season two of Biblical Bites. I'm Adam and with me as always is my fantastic co-host Allison. Hey there, I'm Allison. Ready for another season, Adam? Absolutely. We're here to make the Bible come alive for you, covering all things faith, church, and scripture. So grab your Bible, pop in those headphones, and let's dive into timeless wisdom that will empower your faith journey. Join us as we combat biblical illiteracy and help you live your faith with clarity and conviction. This is Biblical Bites. Allison.
00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:34.799
Adam, I've missed you.
00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:40.200
I have missed you. I've missed this podcast. It has been what felt like a very long summer.
00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:51.600
I agree. It was a good summer. It was a nice break, but I'm really excited to be back for season two of Biblical Bites. And I feel like you just need to reintroduce yourself to me.
00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.799
And our listeners, it's been so long since we've gotten us to down and visit.
00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:58.600
- I agree, my name's Adam Van Arsdale, it's wonderful to meet you.
00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:00.840
We are two all seasons into this now.
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:01.679
- Right.
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:03.079
- I can't believe that, can you?
00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:06.760
- No, I think that it's gone by really fast.
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:08.280
It seems like we just got started.
00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:11.959
I still kind of get those nerves a little bit when you're like hooking up the mic.
00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:13.920
Now you've got me under lights.
00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:25.439
- I know, well hopefully this is gonna work for all of our audio listeners, but we are trying something brand new for people who maybe aren't just an audio type person, but rather have something to look at.
00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:29.439
So I don't wanna make any promises in case it doesn't work, but hopefully it does.
00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:30.760
- More on that to come.
00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:33.959
- So what do we have in store for this season?
00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:52.200
- Yeah, well, you know, I feel like we've left our listeners on a little bit of a cliffhanger because we went on Facebook and we took some polls and we took a long time to announce the topic for season two because I think for two reasons, we wanted to get it right, but also like, how do you go wrong with the Bible book?
00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:53.040
- That's true.
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:59.040
We have some really great suggestions and a lot of the suggestions were geared toward Old Testament book.
00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:08.039
It actually, what we discovered through this whole process is that neither one of us are actually great at picking which book to study next.
00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:13.039
Because we happen to like, I think, all of them. So I think it makes it really, really difficult.
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:20.039
Yeah. But at the end of the day, we chose Mark because you took my husband, Lance's challenge to do a New Testament book.
00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:22.280
'Cause you love to get planted in the Old Testament.
00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.479
You know so much about the whole Bible, but particularly passionate about the Old Testament.
00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:27.840
So he challenged us.
00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:28.680
- Yes.
00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.400
I think we should tell the story the right way.
00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:31.240
- Okay, you tell it.
00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:51.439
- He always kind of gives me a hard time and says,"Hey, Adam, you do know that there are new Testament books, which I think is funny." So when we were talking about what we do, we put that poll out and sure enough, every single suggestion was not just for an Old Testament but was like overly explanatorily.
00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:54.639
So why they love that it is today.
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:56.960
Welcome to season two, explanatory.
00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.000
You've already forgotten.
00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.919
Overly, they explained way too much about why they loved that we did Old Testament books.
00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:12.960
It was just like salt in the, you know, Lance saga of recommendations towards the New Testament.
00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:32.879
But the New Testament, we felt like it would be a good thing and to kind of partner with our local church here and who most of the Bible fellowship ministries will be going through Mark this fall. So maybe we can be a little bit of an extra, something extra to kind of pour into the fall time Bible study for our local church as well.
00:03:32.879 --> 00:04:13.360
Yeah, absolutely. And we're trying to get one week ahead of what those who are going through the Bible study of Mark in Bible fellowship or Sunday school, what's traditionally called, We're going to kind of be introducing the content the week before you get to look at that in your small group. And so, you know, you'll learn so much more when you know a little going it. And so I'm really hoping that this is going to wet the appetite of our listeners who may be studying it in a small group. But if you're not studying it in a small group, you're still going to learn a ton. We're not necessarily following any curriculum. We're diving into Mark. You know, just like we always dive into books.
00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:22.000
And so whether you're studying it in a small group or pulling up your chair to our table at biblical bites, I think there's a lot in store for our listeners in the book of Mark.
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.240
Absolutely. Now, I have one major question before we dive right into it.
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:27.160
It's very important.
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:34.879
OK. Did you spend all summer coming up with little catchphrases, new ones that we can we can begin to create T-shirt?
00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:36.800
I didn't because here's the thing.
00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:38.519
They're not necessarily planned.
00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:39.800
They flow so naturally.
00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.680
It's not that, but if I'm playing them, I think they would just be awkward.
00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:44.240
They just have to come to me.
00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.120
Like, I'm so jealous.
00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:46.959
I'm so jealous.
00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:48.519
In fact, I got caught with a catchphrase.
00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:56.600
I spoke at a summer camp this year and a video was produced afterwards of my description of what I feel like the Bible is.
00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:02.600
And it's just a video of me 50 different times saying, brilliant, brilliant, it's brilliant, it's brilliant.
00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:03.759
You do love that word.
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:04.600
I haven't noticed that.
00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:06.240
I've been trying so hard not to say it now.
00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.319
I'm caught in it now.
00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.680
It's a good description of God's word though.
00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:11.800
So we are in Mark.
00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:12.639
- Yes.
00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.800
So let me begin, we kind of reintroduced ourselves.
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.560
How about we begin by introducing our readers to Mark, who was. - Yes.
00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:26.600
- So one of the first things that I'll tell you in case you're singing that song of the 12 Disciples in your head, you're not going to hear Mark.
00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:27.439
- Mark, do sing it.
00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:28.839
- I'm not going to sing it.
00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.399
You're the musical artist in our group.
00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:35.639
But I will tell you that Mark wasn't one of the 12 Disciples.
00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.439
And probably the reason why is that he was young.
00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.519
He was really young during Jesus's earthly ministry.
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:51.560
So he wasn't a grown man or really even maybe a young man, probably more like a preteen or teenage or during Jesus's earthly ministry.
00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:52.399
- Wow.
00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.160
- And I really love that about Mark.
00:05:54.160 --> 00:06:00.240
That's one of my favorite things that I learned about him because it just makes me think of my own kiddos.
00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.639
You know, I have one that's 11 and one that's 18, a little older now.
00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:38.519
But, and I just think of Andrew, my Andrew, just running around and being 11 and maybe that's how old Mark was or so when Jesus had his earthly ministry. What else do we know about Mark? That's awesome. Well, not only was Mark not maybe one of the original 12, but it is believed that he is probably the first written down record or written down of the Gospels at least within our canon of scripture. And so it's believed to be one of the earliest chronicling of Jesus's ministry here on earth, which I also think is interesting.
00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:41.000
So how did he get all of this information?
00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:42.319
That's a really good question.
00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:45.819
So Mark has a really rich history.
00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:53.959
So I told you that it's reminiscent of Andrew and his age, my kiddo Andrew and his age, but I love Mark's history.
00:06:53.959 --> 00:07:01.879
So is it okay if I back up just a little bit and tell you he was connected to a lot of of important people in the early church.
00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:17.319
And so we think that Mary, who had the home where Peter, if you remember the story in Acts 12 where Peter escaped from jail in the middle of the night and he goes to a home church and they're actually meeting and praying for him and he knocks on the door.
00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:19.360
And what happens when he knocks on the door?
00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:20.199
Do you remember?
00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:21.040
- You tell me.
00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.439
- Okay, servant girl shuts it in his face.
00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:24.519
She's so surprised he's there.
00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:31.639
And so Peter goes in And that's the home of Mark, Mary is Mark's mom.
00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:35.319
And so Mark has a church in his home.
00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:40.199
You know, he's really comfortable among the early church and the early church leaders.
00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:43.240
Barnabas was Mark's cousin.
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:49.079
And Barnabas invited Mark to go on Paul and Barnabas' first missionary journey.
00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:51.639
And Mark and his family were from Cyprus.
00:07:51.639 --> 00:08:33.320
And so I think, you know, that's not necessarily where he was Jesus's ministry or where he lived when he wrote the book of Mark, but he had some tasks to Cyprus and so Barnabas and Paul and Mark They set off to Cyprus and they spent some time there on their first missionary journey And then they crossed the Mediterranean Sea to go up to Pamphylia And that was a much more unfamiliar place tomorrow Yeah, and a much more difficult terrain and guess what happened when Mark got to Pamphyl What we don't know exactly, but we know he left There may have been an argument or maybe he got a disagreement or something- Yeah. - Nick,- Yeah. - For it was- Cut too hard for him, and he abandoned Paul and Bartobos on the missionary journey, and he went home.
00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:43.000
And I think he was the-- - Oh, Andrew probably called you at summer camp, you know, this year, or one of his camps this year, was like, "I'm homesick, I wanna go home."- I mean, that very much happened, not with Andrew, but with Mackenzie.
00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:49.039
The first time I know I've talked to the listeners at Simabout, like, we've done a lot of work in Haiti, and she begged us to go to Haiti.
00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:50.720
When she was nine, we took her.
00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.799
And she liked it, but not when we got there.
00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:59.360
- Yeah. - But when we got there, she was shocked and she wanted to go home so bad.
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.799
So yeah, so that's exactly what Mark did.
00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:04.879
And Paul didn't like that too much.
00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.139
- Yeah. - You know, he deserted the mission, Mark deserted the mission and went back home.
00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:25.840
And so when it got time to go on a second missionary journey, Barnabas was like, "Hey, let's give my cousin Mark another try." And Paul's like, "No way." And so they get in a disagreement about that and they actually separate.
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.120
Paul and Barnabas go their separate ways and Barnabas does take Mark, but Paul doesn't go with them.
00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:31.960
- Really?
00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:38.279
- Yeah, and so, and somewhere along the way, he also met Peter, who was a leader in the early church.
00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:45.879
Like I said, we know that Peter came to his home whenever Mark, or excuse me, whenever Peter escaped from prison.
00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:51.200
And so I just think of Mark being like, kind of like a church kid, I guess anyway.
00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:59.200
So like, you know, for Andrew, like,- I don't know if this is like you and your household, but we have three drivers in our household and we most of the time have three cars at this church.
00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:00.840
- Oh wow, no, we only have two.
00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.600
My oldest is like 10, so she's not driving.
00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:08.440
- I just don't know, we just can't get ourselves ready at the same time, we all have to be here different times.
00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:10.440
- You have all three vehicles at church?
00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:13.679
- Absolutely, all three vehicles at church every Sunday.
00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:22.360
Andrew is the only one who doesn't drive and we have more than once thought he was with someone else going home, right?
00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:28.200
- That's why he begs to be able to ride his electric scooter to church so often.
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:30.120
- Yes, he is asked to ride his scooter to church.
00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:31.519
Probably just don't want to get that.
00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:33.360
So, but you know what?
00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:34.360
It doesn't face him.
00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:38.799
So don't feel too bad for him because, you know, we've gotten home, we don't live very far away, like two minutes away.
00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:40.559
We can all like, I thought you had Andrew.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:41.600
I thought you had Andrew.
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:42.600
Where's Andrew?
00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.480
Want to have a skip back in the car, come back up to church.
00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:52.779
He doesn't even notice we're gone because he's too busy just raiding the bucket of gushers I have in my Sunday school classroom, right?
00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:57.539
He's so comfortable up here in God's house and with God's people.
00:10:57.539 --> 00:11:00.539
And that's really the impression that I get of Mark.
00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:16.299
He didn't necessarily have an easy life and we'll get into that when we, I know talk about the location of the book where it was written, but Mark was comfortable among God's people and he had a lot of men pulling for him and investing in him and pouring in him.
00:11:16.299 --> 00:11:19.100
And--- You know, I actually have a side note.
00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:21.360
This was not related, but it is kind of.
00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:30.059
The studios that brought the chosen to us, the Angel Studios, if you're a chosen fan or not, that's okay, whichever you think.
00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:40.740
But if you go to the Angel Studios, they have this sort of two hour short movie type preview because they're wanting to produce a new show and it's called Testament.
00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:49.779
And what it is, is it's a modernized telling of basically Mark's story in the modern context.
00:11:49.779 --> 00:11:54.779
So they're in 2023 or whatever date they choose it or whatever.
00:11:54.779 --> 00:12:05.740
But what it is, what's so interesting is it takes the recording of how Mark would have maybe prepared this gospel or took notes and heard these.
00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:10.139
And it puts it in the modern context that becomes really visual for me.
00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:17.980
He's carrying a notebook around and he's just listening to these guys talk as they're like on the run from like these, you know, temple authorities and stuff like that.
00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:20.299
And he's just jotting down everything.
00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:24.379
And he's preparing to write a book, you know, ultimately.
00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:38.779
And it just made it so much more real about like how this, how Mark in, you know, 6080 maybe would have naturally even come to this point where he could record this book in the acts of Christ on earth.
00:12:38.779 --> 00:12:40.100
And so I highly recommend it.
00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:43.259
- Who influenced, tell us about who influenced his writing the most.
00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:51.980
Definitely Peter was a major aspect. In fact, he's the first disciple that you're going to get introduced to past John the Baptist.
00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:59.100
And so Peter is going to be a major influence throughout all of John Mark or Mark's life here.
00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:01.580
And so I find that very interesting.
00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:08.259
Yeah. And so Peter, you know, he was a fisherman. God called him from fishing.
00:13:08.259 --> 00:13:11.980
And like you said, Mark, you imagine Mark running around with a notebook. I love that.
00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:31.860
But probably they were really a good pair because Peter obviously was wise in the church, a church father, but he may not have had the formal education to write script in a script that maybe Mark, and we know coming from maybe a little bit better family, he had a home large enough to host the home church with a courtyard.
00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:34.139
We know from Acts 12 that their house had a courtyard.
00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:41.980
And so, yeah, so Peter and he partnered up and he was, Peter even called him his son and first year of five and I love that.
00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:52.259
Our faith fathers, you know, I'd love that, like you are that for my kiddos, you know, just someone pouring into them and equipping them and encouraging them to use their gifts.
00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:56.220
And that's definitely who Peter was, I think, for Mark.
00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:06.779
So now that we know a little bit about Mark, Mark didn't write the gospel of Mark during Jesus' earthly ministry while he was alive, he wrote it some years later.
00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:10.379
So tell us about where was he and what was going on.
00:14:10.379 --> 00:14:13.100
when he pinned the gospel of Mark.
00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:27.820
Yeah, so we don't know for sure, but most scholars agree, and there's a handful of reasons why they agree, that this was probably written in the 60s AD, so about maybe 30 years after Jesus' death and resurrection.
00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:45.500
But it was most likely written in Rome, and that's important to understand, because the context of Christians living in Rome during the 60s AD is going to be a really, really big deal, because there's going to be quite a bit of stuff that's going to happen during that time.
00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:57.740
And I think that's important because as you read Mark's Gospel, number one, it's the shortest of all the Gospels. Number two, it's the most simple Greek writing.
00:14:57.740 --> 00:15:11.259
So like early or New Testament Greek students of Scripture will begin to easily interpret Mark before they can interpret some of these other more way more difficult Greek writings.
00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:35.899
But then also he will take certain words and translate them away from the popularized Greek terms and make them more accessible to even like Roman non-Hebrew speaking, non-Coiné or Greek speaking types. And so they'll take all these clues and we get that he was probably in in Rome when he wrote this in the 60s AD.
00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:38.620
And there's some bad stuff that's going on in Rome.
00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:40.500
Do you happen to know what that, the bad stuff that happens to go on?
00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:41.980
- Yeah, so Nero was in control.
00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:42.820
- Nero.
00:15:42.820 --> 00:15:49.779
- And history tells us that Nero wanted more land for himself, for his, I guess, royal palace.
00:15:49.779 --> 00:15:52.019
And so he started a fire in Rome.
00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:56.740
It's about the time that this gospel was written and began to be circulated.
00:15:56.740 --> 00:16:02.700
And he couldn't take credit for setting the, like what's some call the worst fire in history.
00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:04.059
to his own city.
00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:07.179
And so he blamed the Christians for starting the fire.
00:16:07.179 --> 00:16:19.139
And as a result of that, we get what, I know people are probably familiar with that situation where armed gladiators were put in the Colosseum against unarmed Christians.
00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:22.179
And they fought them to their death.
00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:25.820
And then ticket sales started to wane on armed gladiators.
00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:31.340
And so Nero started to put wild beasts up against unarmed Christians.
00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:40.059
and people watched it, paid money to watch it as a sport, fueled by their anger that the Christians had started.
00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:41.419
- Burned down.
00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:43.820
- Yeah, the fire in Burned-on-Rome, which they had not.
00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.179
Nero had done that himself.
00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:56.820
- And Nero would go on to literally, talk about fuel the flame, he would go on to literally crucifying Christians and then he would leave their bodies in the streets.
00:16:56.820 --> 00:17:04.980
And I mean, it's graphic, but it would set them ablaze as night lights for Roman cities.
00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:09.980
And I mean, it was, I mean, awful, awful situations.
00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:19.900
Talk about persecution and fear that would be going through the hearts and minds of not just Christians, but new Christians even at the time.
00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:29.660
And so I think that's important to keep in mind because Mark is gonna have several themes that will kind of mesh throughout all of the book.
00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:36.539
And one of the major themes, well, before I say that, I'm putting you on the spot here.
00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:46.059
But if I were to ask you, like, what would, if you could boil Mark down, in your own opinion, to like one word major theme for Mark, does anything come to mind for you?
00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.099
- Oh, it's a power and compassion.
00:17:48.099 --> 00:17:49.940
- Power and compassion, that's great.
00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:51.539
Yes, you cheated, you used to work.
00:17:51.539 --> 00:17:52.779
- Okay, sorry. - I'll forgive you for that one.
00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:54.420
- I couldn't pick between the two.
00:17:54.420 --> 00:17:57.019
- Yeah, mine would be along the same lines.
00:17:57.019 --> 00:17:58.259
It would be authority.
00:17:58.259 --> 00:18:43.799
And so what we're gonna see is if you put yourself in the position of a first century, maybe even ex-Jew or Gentile who've converted to Christianity and you're watching the world superpower of the time threaten your own life and you're being blamed for things that weren't even true, Mark is gonna lay out this amazing quick book that will show the power and the authority of the one Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, which is how he opens the book and then he'll, so be on the lookout, be on the lookout for things like authority and how authority works, and be on the lookout for all the times that he's gonna say like immediately, immediately.
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:45.319
In fact, we're about 41 times.
00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:47.599
41 times. In 16 chapters, 41 times.
00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.799
That's incredible, 41 times.
00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.160
Way to have that just right there, right?
00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:52.160
It's a lot.
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.000
It's like we planned this, that was awesome.
00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.680
We didn't plan that, but that was awesome.
00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:09.920
And then just watch how brilliantly Mark is going to ascribe the power and not so much concentrated on the teachings of Jesus, but the actions of Jesus.
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.359
And it's a weird gospel.
00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:18.279
There's some weird stuff in here that the other gospels chose maybe not to write about necessarily in such a way.
00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:22.839
But it's a unique context and what it was written, what you touched on.
00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:34.400
You know, when I think about those first early readers who first got the first Gospel, by the way, because scholars believe this was the first Gospel recorded and circulated, they would have been in hiding.
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:36.920
Like you said, I mean, you talked about how heavily they were persecuted.
00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:42.559
I mean, there's even records that they were probably meeting inside large tombs with Galatine.
00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:43.559
Wow.
00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:45.160
You know, this was in secret.
00:19:45.160 --> 00:21:00.200
And so that power to hear that Nero was not in power, that Lord Jesus Christ was in power, needed to waste no time getting to that message because that was crucial for those believers and it's crucial for us today. Yeah. Can I nerd out for just one second and talk about some of the other elements about Mark before we jump into chapter one? Mark is really a literary genius. He writes in such a way that he's a wonderful storyteller but he also uses these literary tactics called intercalation, which is this idea of sandwiching these narratives together. And so he'll begin speaking about something a handful of times, and then it will be sort of interrupted in between the action, and then they'll come back to it later. And both of these things kind of work together because they are used to help mutually interpret one main theme or understanding. And so as you're reading throughout Mark and your own personal studies, if you feel like it begins to to like take a right turn, sort of in the middle without ever kind of explaining things, watch how he'll come back to that and sort of tie those two things together and watch how he'll begin to, you'll begin to parse out those meanings and things to it.
00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:03.279
And then lastly, he uses triplets a lot.
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:09.039
So much of the stories he'll do in threes many, many times and there's a lot of really cool stuff to do that.
00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:21.799
So just be on the lookout when you're reading Mark this fall, just keep looking for those things like all the threes, all the triplets, all the sandwich type narratives and see how really cool this happens.
00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:30.880
- I think that speaks to Peter's influence on the book too because if Peter isn't kind of known as impulsive and going from here to there, he's the one that Miranda Jesus assumed but got beat running.
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:37.319
And so I think that to me, I can just hear like echoes of Peter telling Mark a story in the middle.
00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:42.720
Oh, and this also happened and then this happened and that's very much how Mark was written.
00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:48.200
- I wonder if Peter will have some, his own experiences with threes sometime.
00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:49.279
- Absolutely, absolutely.
00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:51.119
- Towards the end of the day too.
00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:52.359
- So let's go ahead and kick it off.
00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:59.720
So you kind of hinted to the fact that Mark begins differently than the other Gospels that night.
00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.279
He doesn't talk about Jesus' birth.
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:04.839
There is no Christmas story in the book of Mark.
00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.240
He doesn't even mention Jesus' early years or childhood.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:15.400
He jumps right in to one of the few Old Testament references in the book of Mark.
00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:18.960
'cause he's writing right to Romans or Gentile Christians.
00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:26.440
And so he doesn't use a whole lot of Jewish traditions or references, but he does start with one.
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:29.039
And he gets just right into John the Baptist.
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:35.119
So let's just get right into talking a little bit about John the Baptist at the beginning of Book of Mark here.
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.039
So I'll go ahead and kick it off.
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:45.200
With, let me step back and go not to Mark one, but to the very last chapter of the New Testament, which is Malachi, excuse me.
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.319
- Very last chapter, the Old Testament, which is Malachi.
00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.599
Adam looks at me like, "Where are you going in Revelation?"- We're back in the Old Testament.
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:54.720
- Yes, we're back in the Old Testament for all the folks that wanted to be there.
00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:59.279
So Malachi ends in chapter five with this verse.
00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:07.359
It says, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." That's Malachi five five.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:10.519
And you know what happens after Malachi five?
00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:12.880
400 years of silent.
00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:27.680
And Mark is opening the scene of the first gospel ever written at a time when the people have not heard from a prophet or not heard from God for 400 years and they are in this terrible situation in Rome.
00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:37.119
So Mark gets right to the point and he begins in chapter one with saying, "Guys, allow us that." And his name is John the Baptist.
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:44.960
And so that was just really important that Mark, just like you said, he moves quickly.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:45.960
He uses action.
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:56.240
He says immediately 41 times and he just jumps right into the fact that I'm not going to waste your time with the warm Christmas story, which is important, but Luke's going to record that later.
00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:57.720
We're going to get right to the facts.
00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:59.400
Elijah is back.
00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:00.400
God is powerful.
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.279
Help is coming.
00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:06.640
And that's just the way that he needs to open the message given the context and the audience.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:11.920
And Elijah is a he's Elijah in the form of Baptist, I should say.
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:15.720
He's a he's a very interesting fellow as well.
00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:20.519
I like how John will describe him baptizing this baptism of repentance.
00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:28.160
But he's wearing nothing but Hamel's hair, leather belt, run as we waste.
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:35.880
He eats the clean animal locust and wild honey and makes these proclamations about the one who will come after him.
00:24:35.880 --> 00:25:36.359
And and his power and authority. Yeah, what John the Baptist is prophesied a lot about in the Old Testament Yeah, and so it's important to see because John the Baptist was a very clear signal one of the final signals in the book of Malachi that the Messiah was coming in fact Still to this day, I think when you do celebrate the Passover They leave an empty chair at the Cedar mill and that empty chair is for Elijah. They're still waiting on him to come back I guess they missed the message that he came back and drawn the Baptist but So that was such a clear message and so that the Messiah was coming when Elijah comes back The Messiah is right behind him and Mark waste no time in saying guys Elijah is back Wow, that's amazing. So then he's gonna go and he's gonna baptize Jesus and Which is an interesting question that that if you if you sit back and listen to What would be the need to baptize the perfect Son of God?
00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:56.680
You know many of these it is but he's baptizing it specifically says it in a way of repentance Well, Jesus has no need or or Desire to have the need to repent he is he does not have it. He's blameless in those days And so one of that's one of the questions that's kind of raised from this text Like why would Jesus need to be baptized here?
00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:08.039
But there's there's so much that's going on in this text, you know that that's incredible And the first of which is that one, Jesus is kind of making a statement about John the Baptist ministry.
00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:17.240
He's kind of validating this idea of who the one who would be making way before, as John the Baptist is making statements about him.
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:22.839
He's also sort of validating his ministry, but he's also making kind of a theological statement in several ways.
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:28.440
And one, it's brought out when it described what happened.
00:26:28.440 --> 00:28:04.319
It says that he in verse 10 as Jesus is coming out of the water He immediately sees the heavens being torn open and the spirit is descending on him like a dove and a voice comes from heaven You are my beloved son with you. I'm well, please You had mentioned that Mark doesn't necessarily quote the Old Testament out rightly that often outside the first passage here, but what he does do is he alludes to it a massive amounts and What you see is is it's sort of an homage to both Genesis 1 with the idea of the dove floating over the chaos pre-creative waters before God will speak into a new creation and in the dove that will exit the Ark that will be a sign for Noah and his family to step off and begin a new creation and in many ways there'll be other ways that he'll do this, but He's making this theological statement that Jesus who is going through the waters is both representing the creative and incredible word and powerful acts of God who are providing a way out of Egypt like for Israel and for us in exile even today here in 2023. And so there's this And that God himself will will be claiming that he is the Son of God, that he is the one who God is well pleased, while Jesus will also be the representation physically on earth of that God who brings people out of slavery and sin and death and destruction all just while being thrown in here in this cool baptism story.
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:18.079
So archaeologists, I've heard, believe that John Baptist Jesus much near the same place where Joshua led God's people across the Jordan into the promised land. And so, you know, that Jesus is making away.
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:23.240
And I really like, and I've heard that question a lot about like, why did Jesus have to be baptized?
00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:28.160
And I think R.C. Sproul has a really good take on it.
00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:35.440
He said that Jesus was baptized because it's both his life and his death that are vicarious or substitutionary for us.
00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:40.359
In other words, he was baptized or washed clean for me just like he died for me.
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:41.200
- Yeah.
00:28:41.200 --> 00:29:37.880
Well, and it's interesting that you mentioned both his life and his death because this is an occlusio, very moment here when it says that something is torn open here, it's the heavens. But at the end of the Gospel of Mark, you will see at the death of Jesus, the veil will be torn open. And again, this time the proclamation won't come from God the Father, but will come from a Roman soldier about surely this was the Son of God. And you see that as an inclusio, when you read those two few things together, you go again in the context of being in Nero's Rome in 60 AD and you're going, "Oh man, where is all this authority? Who has the authority?" The Romans think they have the authority, but during that passage, the Roman soldier himself is like, "Oh no, this is surely the Son of God." And the veil of both represents what the heavens opening up that through that death, we now have access back, you know, of free access back.
00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:51.039
So that message of God being superior in authority and power to Rome or any other earthly entity or demonic entity, that's a clear and consistent message in the baptism scene but throughout the book of Mark.
00:29:51.039 --> 00:30:00.599
And we see that again right after the baptism scene, the Spirit leads Jesus to go into the wilderness and be tempted.
00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:06.079
And of course we know that he is powerful over the temptation.
00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:15.039
But one of the things that I think is interesting about Mark's account of that particular temptation scene is that he's the only gospel that says that Jesus was with wild bees.
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:24.160
Mark 1 verse 13, it says, "And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild bees." And the angels were ministering to him.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:35.680
And don't you know that the scene that came to mind in these early readers of this gospel must have been when Christians were up against the wild bees in the Coliseum?
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:43.559
Here's a picture of Jesus being victorious over the wild beast who was threatening the lives of Christian.
00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:47.279
He's the same God of Daniel who shuts the mouths of the lions.
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:54.960
He's the same God of of chapter one of Genesis that that sets man to have authority and power over the beast.
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:59.920
He's that same one who will control the beast out in the wilderness and his moments of weakness.
00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:18.000
And so even in the midst of those being thrown to those wild beast in the Roman Colosseum for this man, you can understand that even if we aren't delivered, this is still the God who has all power and authority in this world.
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.039
And everything about the temptation scene, I think you're really going to like this.
00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:25.960
Everything about the temptation scene shows that Jesus is the better Adam.
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:28.839
And the Bible tells us that Jesus is the better Adam.
00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:35.359
But we see in the temptation, remember when Adam was tempted in the garden, he was in in a lush garden.
00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:36.200
He was not alone.
00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:38.680
He was with Eve and he had plenty of food.
00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:43.640
God just told him not to eat of one tree and he fell to temptation.
00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:51.200
But we see that in Mark one, Jesus, he was in a desert.
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.480
He was alone.
00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:54.640
He was hungry.
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:59.759
Everything about the situation was so much harder and yet Jesus was victorious.
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:00.599
- Yes.
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:01.440
- And so.
00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:09.119
- He's a micro picture of Israel as well in the wilderness tempted hungry who would fall to their own desires.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:16.319
So he's fulfilling both the Israelite and the academic fall.
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:28.960
Yeah. So after he shows his power over the enemy, over Satan and refuse over his temptation, he begins his teaching ministry and begins calling his disciples.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:38.400
Yes. And it's interesting that the first one he's going to call just happens to be one that is going to be a close associate of Mark much later on.
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:49.359
So he's up at the Sea of Galilee in verse 16, and he sees Simon, who we know as Peter, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:33:00.640
And Jesus says to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." And here's that word again, immediately, I immediately, Uthu, they left their nets, they followed him.
00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:08.960
and he does the same with James and Jebedee son of, or James the son of Jebedee and John, his brother.
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:10.799
And they both do the same thing.
00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:19.359
And you get this picture of like, whoa, that was a sudden, like I think I would have had like maybe several days worth of questions.
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:21.480
I'd like to know like, what's next?
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:22.319
How is this work?
00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:23.160
Who are you?
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:24.000
How's this working?
00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:32.880
- And one of the things that makes this scene so unique is that Jesus here is acted as a rabbi, you know, or teacher calling his disciples.
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:40.759
But there was those relationships that Rabbi or teacher-disciple relationship was prevalent in the Jewish world during Bible times.
00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:53.440
So this wasn't a new concept that you would choose a teacher and give up some other kind of profession to follow them, but never did the Rabbi or the teacher recruit disciples.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:55.359
Always disciples apply.
00:33:55.359 --> 00:35:20.440
Much like you can think, Mackenzie is a senior this year in high school she's already begun all of those college applications and all of the essay questions and things that come along with it That's exactly how it was in Bible times If you wanted to be a disciple of a prominent teacher or rabbi you jumped through hoops and applied and went to them But Jesus isn't that kind of teacher he went to his disciples and recruited them Well, not only that when they would go through the application process as a young Jewish man in the studies of the Torah that they would be they would have been weeded out all the way down to like the best of the best before they would become disciples of a certain rabbi. And so these men, ultimately are probably ones who did not pass the test, the early tests in their early schooling. They didn't maybe didn't make it pass a certain amount of memorization of the Torah or questioning of rabbis. And so they were either not chosen and they were already passed up on or they just failed the test and went on to go about their families, you know, business at that point. And so they're not what you would call like the, you know, the Princeton or Yale or whatever type students of the Bible. And so for Jesus, not only to be a rabbi or teacher, to not pick the best of the best, he's going to go out and go to them and pick, you know, these lowly, you know, fishermen who aren't, you know, later on, the tax collectors and the ones that the rabbis, the teachers of the time would have passed up on.
00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:28.480
Or so would you say that this scene discounts that myth that you're not smart enough to understand the bowel or you don't know enough?
00:35:28.480 --> 00:36:06.420
Understand God's word everyone Is equipped through the Holy Spirit to understand God's word he seeks us We don't have to apply or jump through some hoops or have training to be able to understand God's word That's really encouraging to me because for as somebody who has struggled with insecurity you know about how people see me look at me view me, you know, whether I you know, I'm smart enough or adequate enough or something for whatever it is this so much is So encouraging because it's just it's just like so often God's like, you know We we judge by his standards not the world's standards of what is this?
00:36:06.420 --> 00:36:19.599
You know the right one the perfect one the best And I'm thankful for that because that gives me encouragement in those times of like insecurities, you know like But it doesn't mean like God may see me as enough, you know, to be used.
00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:21.760
And so I'm very thankful for that.
00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:27.079
So the book of Mark goes on to begin Jesus' teaching ministry.
00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:28.079
So he's called his disciples.
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:29.079
He's been baptized.
00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:34.820
He has been tempted and overcome, called his disciples, and now he begins teaching with authority.
00:36:34.820 --> 00:36:42.079
Unlike any of the other scribes who are referencing other sources or, you know, he just speaks straight from God.
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:45.440
I don't want to glance over that either because that is really important.
00:36:45.440 --> 00:36:54.400
What you just said is that that was the teaching method of the time was to cite previous rabbinical studies and writings.
00:36:54.400 --> 00:37:04.840
And so their teaching would not be new thought necessarily, but they would start often the authority of the rabbi who said this or when he brought these teachings.
00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:07.519
So now Jesus is not going to cite rabbi.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:10.960
He's not going to cite anything other than the scriptures.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:13.400
And then he's going to breathe scriptures himself.
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:20.440
You know, and that's, that would be astounding and noticed quickly, you know, especially to the early Jewish right.
00:37:20.440 --> 00:37:29.400
- And so we can see that the church leaders recognize his authority in teaching, but the demons also recognize this authority in teaching.
00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:40.159
And so we get this scene in Mark where Jesus is teaching to a group and a demon starts, you know, announcing itself through a person.
00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:42.760
And Jesus silences the demon.
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:45.039
- I'll read it if you want me to.
00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:47.760
Verse 24, this is the demon speaking.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:51.960
And it says, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:54.159
Have you come to destroy us?
00:37:54.159 --> 00:38:00.840
I know who you are, the Holy One of God, which says so much too." Of course, the demons know who this is.
00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:03.519
And then Jesus responds, rebuked him.
00:38:03.519 --> 00:38:11.760
verse 25 saying, "Be silent. I'm out of him." And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:13.159
And they were all amazed.
00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:16.159
Oh, that's another theme.
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:19.440
So we have authority immediately, an amazement of the crowd.
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:22.679
So pay attention all the time that happened.
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:26.800
And they were all amazed that, and they were questioning among themselves, what is this?
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:29.800
A new teaching with authority?
00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:49.440
And he commands even the unclean spirits, obey him. So he's showing his authority even further, not just by bringing a new word and a new teaching and not just standing on the men of old or the rabbis of old, but he's going to show his authority over the spiritual realm right in front of people.
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:55.360
And he continues to show his authority, supernatural authority, because he begins to heal people.
00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:02.159
And the first account of Helene, and we get several accounts, I think that Mark has the most miracles, even though it's the shortest gospel it has the most miracles.
00:39:02.159 --> 00:39:10.800
the book of action. Yeah. And in compassion. And so, but the action and compassion, there's a saying there. It's the book of action. Okay, I like that.
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:23.760
I like it. So one of the first miracle we get in the Bible, other than Jesus casting out the demon there was for Peter's mother-in-law. And I love that because don't you know Peter's like, let me tell you about Jesus's miracles.
00:39:23.760 --> 00:40:00.960
And he starts with the one, I imagine, that must have hit most closely to home, right? Literally in his own home there with his mother-in-law. And so Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law and then he goes out to pray because he's not there just to do healing. He's there to obey the will of the Father. But lots of people hear about it and they start flocking to him. And so the chapter ends with really just a beautiful miracle of compassion with the leper. You want to just kind of touch on the details of that miracle.
00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:02.400
- Yeah, a leper comes to him.
00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:15.599
And lepers of the time, of course, are these, they're not leprosy like what we would know, but they're various different types of skin diseases and that kind of thing that would have caused them to make Jewish people the time unclean.
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:21.239
And so they would often be excommunicated away, you know, segmented out from the local population.
00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:59.539
But he implores him and is kneeling to him and says,"If you will, can you make me clean?" And Jesus responds, "I will be clean." And anyone who sees that, which aren't going to be many,'cause Jesus is going to strongly charge him and say,"See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer cleansing that Moses commanded for proof to them." And so Jesus is gonna show his authority, both of the demons, like you said, the spiritual realm and over the physical ailments and of the will of God.
00:40:59.539 --> 00:41:08.739
And he's gonna do this and continue this other final theme which is in Mark, which is the secret Messiah.
00:41:08.739 --> 00:41:18.500
Mark is gonna often portray Jesus as saying, telling those who are healed or telling the demons and telling these things, go and say nothing about this.
00:41:18.500 --> 00:41:21.780
Go and tell nobody about this.
00:41:21.780 --> 00:41:28.980
And that's an element that will be proclaimed much later as to why, but that's another theme to kind of be on the lookout here.
00:41:28.980 --> 00:41:32.079
>> Truly. Because the Lord controls the narrative.
00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:32.780
>> Yup.
00:41:32.780 --> 00:41:34.380
>> He gets to define the story.
00:41:34.380 --> 00:41:34.980
>> Yeah.
00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:40.579
>> And that's important, you know, because as children of God, that means the Lord controls and defines our story.
00:41:40.579 --> 00:41:41.480
>> Mm-hm.
00:41:41.480 --> 00:41:43.980
>> And that is a messianic secret.
00:41:43.980 --> 00:41:44.880
>> Yeah.
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:45.880
>> But, you know, it's important to keep it.
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:55.039
>> And think about those early readers who you said were gathering in potentially like tombs to read and to talk and to worship Jesus hearing.
00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:59.559
Jesus say, I want you to go and keep this the secret.
00:41:59.559 --> 00:42:03.199
Go and not do this yet, not tell this yet, that kind of thing.
00:42:03.199 --> 00:42:05.000
And they're living that out, obviously.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:15.800
They're trying to live out a faithful representation of what it means to be an early Christian and tell others, but also in a way of secrecy for self-preservation at the time and that kind of thing.
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:18.639
I think that's a very interesting way to look through that.
00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:24.639
In this final scene in Mark chapter one, it just makes me fall in love with Jesus even more.
00:42:24.639 --> 00:42:37.960
I love in verse 41 of Mark chapter one, it says, "And moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, 'I am willing to be clean.'" And there's so much I love about that verse.
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:45.840
The fact that Jesus was moved with compassion on our behalf, but also that, you know, there's power in Jesus's word.
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:49.280
When he speaks the word, It's happened.
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:55.960
But the thing is, he touched the man 'cause he loved him.
00:42:55.960 --> 00:42:57.480
He didn't have to touch him, right?
00:42:57.480 --> 00:43:03.000
We see other scenes in the gospels where Jesus spoke a word in another town and someone's daughter was healed.
00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:05.079
Never was even in the same room.
00:43:05.079 --> 00:43:11.480
But he touched the leper because the leper probably hadn't been cut in years.
00:43:11.480 --> 00:43:13.559
Probably hadn't felt that love, that compassion.
00:43:13.559 --> 00:43:15.159
- Oh, that's interesting.
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:16.000
I had not thought of that.
00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:17.119
- And he does that first.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:21.480
He does that while the leper is still dirty, while the leper is still unclean.
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:23.199
And I love the leper's request.
00:43:23.199 --> 00:43:38.159
The leper doesn't say, "Heal me of my leper." The leper says, "Make me clean." And that's so much more than healing of leprosy because for men and women in Bible times who had leprosy, it wasn't just that they were sick.
00:43:38.159 --> 00:43:41.400
It was that they were dead to the world.
00:43:41.400 --> 00:43:46.199
In fact, they had to actually dress like they were dead in grave clothes.
00:43:46.199 --> 00:43:47.980
They couldn't brush or keep up their hair.
00:43:47.980 --> 00:43:53.920
They had to look dead so that to signify to people that they couldn't come within 50 steps of that person.
00:43:53.920 --> 00:44:02.219
And if someone began to approach them, they had to shout out, "Unclean, unclean, unclean." And so they couldn't go to the temple.
00:44:02.219 --> 00:44:05.500
They couldn't even live in their home with their family.
00:44:05.500 --> 00:44:15.280
And so when you got the diagnosis of leprosy, which was diagnosed by a priest using the qualifications in Leviticus 13 and 14.
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:20.119
And didn't just get diagnosed with a skin disease like at a doctor's office.
00:44:20.119 --> 00:44:23.440
You basically just had your funeral.
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:30.840
And Jesus came onto that scene and the man didn't say, "Well, heal me of my skin disease." That was the least of his problems.
00:44:30.840 --> 00:44:32.039
He wanted to be clean.
00:44:32.039 --> 00:44:39.000
He wanted to be brought back into the fold of family and community and to be loved and tight and received again.
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:46.039
And before Jesus even healed him and spoke power with his words, Jesus touched him and I loved him.
00:44:46.039 --> 00:44:48.559
And you know what, sometimes I just need to be.
00:44:48.559 --> 00:45:14.320
Sometimes I just need, and it reminds me of this story that I heard when I was at a training, when I used to work with abused and neglected children, this man came up and he told the story about he and his brother, and he was the younger brother, and they used to play baseball in these cow fields out by his home, and he lived in a small town, and so it was a super important event in like, where the town, like people would even come out and watch.
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:19.800
He's like rag tug baseball games, but he was never invited to play because he was much younger at the time.
00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:23.280
And so they were short of player and needed someone to bat.
00:45:23.280 --> 00:45:32.239
And so his older brother said, "Come on, come back." And so he was so, so excited and he got up to the plate and he grabbed that bat and he said his hands were shaking.
00:45:32.239 --> 00:45:38.000
He, um, they pitched her to toss him a ball and he made contact and he just knocked that ball.
00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:39.679
And so he began running to first base.
00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:40.679
He made it to first.
00:45:40.679 --> 00:45:41.679
He ran to second.
00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:42.679
He made it to second.
00:45:42.679 --> 00:45:45.679
he was going to just take off and slide into third.
00:45:45.679 --> 00:45:52.719
Right as he took that dive to slide into third, he realized that he had misplaced third base for a cow patty.
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:55.480
And so there was no stopping.
00:45:55.480 --> 00:46:00.440
He slid right into the mess and he was covered in mess.
00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:07.380
He could hear people laughing and taunting him, but his father ran up to him and with his own hands began just wiping away the field.
00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:11.719
And the little boy was crying and saying, you're getting dirty, daddy, you're getting dirty.
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:19.360
But the father didn't care because ministering to the Senate, that's how I meant getting some built on him.
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:23.239
And you know, that's what Jesus did for us in his whole life and death.
00:46:23.239 --> 00:46:25.679
And we see a picture of that right here with the leprosy.
00:46:25.679 --> 00:46:26.880
Jesus didn't care.
00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:34.000
He's not the kind of God that takes a water hose and hoses you off like I do when my kids get in a mess in the backyard from a distance.
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.280
Jesus gets in the mess with us.
00:46:36.280 --> 00:46:38.079
That's the kind of God we have.
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:41.360
A God of compassion and power.
00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:54.000
in that juxtaposition of the authoritative Rome who is excommunicating these Christians, killing these Christians, here's Jesus who is in the midst of them and getting dirty and showing compassion.
00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:59.719
And through all of that is revealing the authority of the Father through the authority of the Son.
00:46:59.719 --> 00:47:05.960
- And you know, definitely the early Roman readers needed to hear this message, but we need to hear this message today.
00:47:05.960 --> 00:47:09.480
You know, we sent our kids back to school just a couple of weeks ago.
00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:10.320
- Well, some of them.
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:12.239
I know yours are still waiting on a new going.
00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:14.239
- Mine don't start till this next thing though.
00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:24.679
- For a lot of us, we've sent our kids or our grandkids, there are those who like back to school and you tell me things that you encounter in student ministry that I just have a hard time believing these students.
00:47:24.679 --> 00:47:28.440
I believe you, but I don't want to believe that that's what these students are facing.
00:47:28.440 --> 00:47:35.480
And we see that, not just in our students' lives, but in the workplace and in politics and everywhere we go.
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:43.480
And so we need a God who is powerful And we need a God who will get in our mess for us when we need to be helped.
00:47:43.480 --> 00:47:44.480
And that's the Jesus we have.
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:46.599
Give us that beautiful picture of compassion.
00:47:46.599 --> 00:47:48.920
That thing that our world could use a lot more on.
00:47:48.920 --> 00:47:49.920
I agree.
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:54.320
Well, I think that's a good overview of Mark in Mark chapter one.
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:56.719
And man, I'm looking forward to diving into this.
00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:57.719
Me too.
00:47:57.719 --> 00:47:58.719
As we keep going.
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:00.360
It's been, the nerves have left.
00:48:00.360 --> 00:48:02.320
I think we're back in the stride.
00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:04.320
So I hope that you've enjoyed this.
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:09.440
I hope that you will do us a favor and pray for this ministry.
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:12.960
Pray that God will use this ministry, that He'll anoint this ministry.
00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:17.000
But then we say this often, but we truly do mean it.
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.840
We would love to be able to go through this study with you.
00:48:19.840 --> 00:48:36.400
So if you have thoughts or you're going through your Sunday morning Bible Fellowship classes and you want to hop on our Facebook page at BiblicalBytes, please drop us a message or Jump in the comment section of our posts and just let us know you're there.
00:48:36.400 --> 00:48:39.920
Let us know the things that you're learning or the questions that you may have.
00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:45.119
And we'd love to be able to connect with you a little bit more and share this out.
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:49.159
If you know a few people that you think could be blessed by this ministry, get the word out.
00:48:49.159 --> 00:48:52.480
We'd love for this to spread as far and as wide as God will allow it.
00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:56.000
And yeah, so I'm excited to be back.
00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:56.840
- Awesome, me too.
00:48:56.840 --> 00:49:00.079
I'm excited we're back together talking about the Bible.
00:49:00.079 --> 00:49:02.840
- So go dive into Mark and we will see you next time.
00:49:02.840 --> 00:49:03.679
- All right.
00:49:03.679 --> 00:49:11.420
(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:32.840
Hey everyone, welcome back to season two of Biblical Bites. I'm Adam and with me as always is my fantastic co-host Allison. Hey there, I'm Allison. Ready for another season, Adam? Absolutely. We're here to make the Bible come alive for you, covering all things faith, church, and scripture. So grab your Bible, pop in those headphones, and let's dive into timeless wisdom that will empower your faith journey. Join us as we combat biblical illiteracy and help you live your faith with clarity and conviction. This is Biblical Bites. Allison.
00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:34.799
Adam, I've missed you.
00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:40.200
I have missed you. I've missed this podcast. It has been what felt like a very long summer.
00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:51.600
I agree. It was a good summer. It was a nice break, but I'm really excited to be back for season two of Biblical Bites. And I feel like you just need to reintroduce yourself to me.
00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.799
And our listeners, it's been so long since we've gotten us to down and visit.
00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:58.600
- I agree, my name's Adam Van Arsdale, it's wonderful to meet you.
00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:00.840
We are two all seasons into this now.
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:01.679
- Right.
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:03.079
- I can't believe that, can you?
00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:06.760
- No, I think that it's gone by really fast.
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:08.280
It seems like we just got started.
00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:11.959
I still kind of get those nerves a little bit when you're like hooking up the mic.
00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:13.920
Now you've got me under lights.
00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:25.439
- I know, well hopefully this is gonna work for all of our audio listeners, but we are trying something brand new for people who maybe aren't just an audio type person, but rather have something to look at.
00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:29.439
So I don't wanna make any promises in case it doesn't work, but hopefully it does.
00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:30.760
- More on that to come.
00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:33.959
- So what do we have in store for this season?
00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:52.200
- Yeah, well, you know, I feel like we've left our listeners on a little bit of a cliffhanger because we went on Facebook and we took some polls and we took a long time to announce the topic for season two because I think for two reasons, we wanted to get it right, but also like, how do you go wrong with the Bible book?
00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:53.040
- That's true.
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:59.040
We have some really great suggestions and a lot of the suggestions were geared toward Old Testament book.
00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:08.039
It actually, what we discovered through this whole process is that neither one of us are actually great at picking which book to study next.
00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:13.039
Because we happen to like, I think, all of them. So I think it makes it really, really difficult.
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:20.039
Yeah. But at the end of the day, we chose Mark because you took my husband, Lance's challenge to do a New Testament book.
00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:22.280
'Cause you love to get planted in the Old Testament.
00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.479
You know so much about the whole Bible, but particularly passionate about the Old Testament.
00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:27.840
So he challenged us.
00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:28.680
- Yes.
00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.400
I think we should tell the story the right way.
00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:31.240
- Okay, you tell it.
00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:51.439
- He always kind of gives me a hard time and says,"Hey, Adam, you do know that there are new Testament books, which I think is funny." So when we were talking about what we do, we put that poll out and sure enough, every single suggestion was not just for an Old Testament but was like overly explanatorily.
00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:54.639
So why they love that it is today.
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:56.960
Welcome to season two, explanatory.
00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.000
You've already forgotten.
00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.919
Overly, they explained way too much about why they loved that we did Old Testament books.
00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:12.960
It was just like salt in the, you know, Lance saga of recommendations towards the New Testament.
00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:32.879
But the New Testament, we felt like it would be a good thing and to kind of partner with our local church here and who most of the Bible fellowship ministries will be going through Mark this fall. So maybe we can be a little bit of an extra, something extra to kind of pour into the fall time Bible study for our local church as well.
00:03:32.879 --> 00:04:13.360
Yeah, absolutely. And we're trying to get one week ahead of what those who are going through the Bible study of Mark in Bible fellowship or Sunday school, what's traditionally called, We're going to kind of be introducing the content the week before you get to look at that in your small group. And so, you know, you'll learn so much more when you know a little going it. And so I'm really hoping that this is going to wet the appetite of our listeners who may be studying it in a small group. But if you're not studying it in a small group, you're still going to learn a ton. We're not necessarily following any curriculum. We're diving into Mark. You know, just like we always dive into books.
00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:22.000
And so whether you're studying it in a small group or pulling up your chair to our table at biblical bites, I think there's a lot in store for our listeners in the book of Mark.
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.240
Absolutely. Now, I have one major question before we dive right into it.
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:27.160
It's very important.
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:34.879
OK. Did you spend all summer coming up with little catchphrases, new ones that we can we can begin to create T-shirt?
00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:36.800
I didn't because here's the thing.
00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:38.519
They're not necessarily planned.
00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:39.800
They flow so naturally.
00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.680
It's not that, but if I'm playing them, I think they would just be awkward.
00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:44.240
They just have to come to me.
00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.120
Like, I'm so jealous.
00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:46.959
I'm so jealous.
00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:48.519
In fact, I got caught with a catchphrase.
00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:56.600
I spoke at a summer camp this year and a video was produced afterwards of my description of what I feel like the Bible is.
00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:02.600
And it's just a video of me 50 different times saying, brilliant, brilliant, it's brilliant, it's brilliant.
00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:03.759
You do love that word.
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:04.600
I haven't noticed that.
00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:06.240
I've been trying so hard not to say it now.
00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.319
I'm caught in it now.
00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.680
It's a good description of God's word though.
00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:11.800
So we are in Mark.
00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:12.639
- Yes.
00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.800
So let me begin, we kind of reintroduced ourselves.
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.560
How about we begin by introducing our readers to Mark, who was. - Yes.
00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:26.600
- So one of the first things that I'll tell you in case you're singing that song of the 12 Disciples in your head, you're not going to hear Mark.
00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:27.439
- Mark, do sing it.
00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:28.839
- I'm not going to sing it.
00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.399
You're the musical artist in our group.
00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:35.639
But I will tell you that Mark wasn't one of the 12 Disciples.
00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.439
And probably the reason why is that he was young.
00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.519
He was really young during Jesus's earthly ministry.
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:51.560
So he wasn't a grown man or really even maybe a young man, probably more like a preteen or teenage or during Jesus's earthly ministry.
00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:52.399
- Wow.
00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.160
- And I really love that about Mark.
00:05:54.160 --> 00:06:00.240
That's one of my favorite things that I learned about him because it just makes me think of my own kiddos.
00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.639
You know, I have one that's 11 and one that's 18, a little older now.
00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:38.519
But, and I just think of Andrew, my Andrew, just running around and being 11 and maybe that's how old Mark was or so when Jesus had his earthly ministry. What else do we know about Mark? That's awesome. Well, not only was Mark not maybe one of the original 12, but it is believed that he is probably the first written down record or written down of the Gospels at least within our canon of scripture. And so it's believed to be one of the earliest chronicling of Jesus's ministry here on earth, which I also think is interesting.
00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:41.000
So how did he get all of this information?
00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:42.319
That's a really good question.
00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:45.819
So Mark has a really rich history.
00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:53.959
So I told you that it's reminiscent of Andrew and his age, my kiddo Andrew and his age, but I love Mark's history.
00:06:53.959 --> 00:07:01.879
So is it okay if I back up just a little bit and tell you he was connected to a lot of of important people in the early church.
00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:17.319
And so we think that Mary, who had the home where Peter, if you remember the story in Acts 12 where Peter escaped from jail in the middle of the night and he goes to a home church and they're actually meeting and praying for him and he knocks on the door.
00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:19.360
And what happens when he knocks on the door?
00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:20.199
Do you remember?
00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:21.040
- You tell me.
00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.439
- Okay, servant girl shuts it in his face.
00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:24.519
She's so surprised he's there.
00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:31.639
And so Peter goes in And that's the home of Mark, Mary is Mark's mom.
00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:35.319
And so Mark has a church in his home.
00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:40.199
You know, he's really comfortable among the early church and the early church leaders.
00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:43.240
Barnabas was Mark's cousin.
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:49.079
And Barnabas invited Mark to go on Paul and Barnabas' first missionary journey.
00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:51.639
And Mark and his family were from Cyprus.
00:07:51.639 --> 00:08:33.320
And so I think, you know, that's not necessarily where he was Jesus's ministry or where he lived when he wrote the book of Mark, but he had some tasks to Cyprus and so Barnabas and Paul and Mark They set off to Cyprus and they spent some time there on their first missionary journey And then they crossed the Mediterranean Sea to go up to Pamphylia And that was a much more unfamiliar place tomorrow Yeah, and a much more difficult terrain and guess what happened when Mark got to Pamphyl What we don't know exactly, but we know he left There may have been an argument or maybe he got a disagreement or something- Yeah. - Nick,- Yeah. - For it was- Cut too hard for him, and he abandoned Paul and Bartobos on the missionary journey, and he went home.
00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:43.000
And I think he was the-- - Oh, Andrew probably called you at summer camp, you know, this year, or one of his camps this year, was like, "I'm homesick, I wanna go home."- I mean, that very much happened, not with Andrew, but with Mackenzie.
00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:49.039
The first time I know I've talked to the listeners at Simabout, like, we've done a lot of work in Haiti, and she begged us to go to Haiti.
00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:50.720
When she was nine, we took her.
00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.799
And she liked it, but not when we got there.
00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:59.360
- Yeah. - But when we got there, she was shocked and she wanted to go home so bad.
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.799
So yeah, so that's exactly what Mark did.
00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:04.879
And Paul didn't like that too much.
00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.139
- Yeah. - You know, he deserted the mission, Mark deserted the mission and went back home.
00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:25.840
And so when it got time to go on a second missionary journey, Barnabas was like, "Hey, let's give my cousin Mark another try." And Paul's like, "No way." And so they get in a disagreement about that and they actually separate.
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.120
Paul and Barnabas go their separate ways and Barnabas does take Mark, but Paul doesn't go with them.
00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:31.960
- Really?
00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:38.279
- Yeah, and so, and somewhere along the way, he also met Peter, who was a leader in the early church.
00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:45.879
Like I said, we know that Peter came to his home whenever Mark, or excuse me, whenever Peter escaped from prison.
00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:51.200
And so I just think of Mark being like, kind of like a church kid, I guess anyway.
00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:59.200
So like, you know, for Andrew, like,- I don't know if this is like you and your household, but we have three drivers in our household and we most of the time have three cars at this church.
00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:00.840
- Oh wow, no, we only have two.
00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.600
My oldest is like 10, so she's not driving.
00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:08.440
- I just don't know, we just can't get ourselves ready at the same time, we all have to be here different times.
00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:10.440
- You have all three vehicles at church?
00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:13.679
- Absolutely, all three vehicles at church every Sunday.
00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:22.360
Andrew is the only one who doesn't drive and we have more than once thought he was with someone else going home, right?
00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:28.200
- That's why he begs to be able to ride his electric scooter to church so often.
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:30.120
- Yes, he is asked to ride his scooter to church.
00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:31.519
Probably just don't want to get that.
00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:33.360
So, but you know what?
00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:34.360
It doesn't face him.
00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:38.799
So don't feel too bad for him because, you know, we've gotten home, we don't live very far away, like two minutes away.
00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:40.559
We can all like, I thought you had Andrew.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:41.600
I thought you had Andrew.
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:42.600
Where's Andrew?
00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.480
Want to have a skip back in the car, come back up to church.
00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:52.779
He doesn't even notice we're gone because he's too busy just raiding the bucket of gushers I have in my Sunday school classroom, right?
00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:57.539
He's so comfortable up here in God's house and with God's people.
00:10:57.539 --> 00:11:00.539
And that's really the impression that I get of Mark.
00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:16.299
He didn't necessarily have an easy life and we'll get into that when we, I know talk about the location of the book where it was written, but Mark was comfortable among God's people and he had a lot of men pulling for him and investing in him and pouring in him.
00:11:16.299 --> 00:11:19.100
And--- You know, I actually have a side note.
00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:21.360
This was not related, but it is kind of.
00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:30.059
The studios that brought the chosen to us, the Angel Studios, if you're a chosen fan or not, that's okay, whichever you think.
00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:40.740
But if you go to the Angel Studios, they have this sort of two hour short movie type preview because they're wanting to produce a new show and it's called Testament.
00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:49.779
And what it is, is it's a modernized telling of basically Mark's story in the modern context.
00:11:49.779 --> 00:11:54.779
So they're in 2023 or whatever date they choose it or whatever.
00:11:54.779 --> 00:12:05.740
But what it is, what's so interesting is it takes the recording of how Mark would have maybe prepared this gospel or took notes and heard these.
00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:10.139
And it puts it in the modern context that becomes really visual for me.
00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:17.980
He's carrying a notebook around and he's just listening to these guys talk as they're like on the run from like these, you know, temple authorities and stuff like that.
00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:20.299
And he's just jotting down everything.
00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:24.379
And he's preparing to write a book, you know, ultimately.
00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:38.779
And it just made it so much more real about like how this, how Mark in, you know, 6080 maybe would have naturally even come to this point where he could record this book in the acts of Christ on earth.
00:12:38.779 --> 00:12:40.100
And so I highly recommend it.
00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:43.259
- Who influenced, tell us about who influenced his writing the most.
00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:51.980
Definitely Peter was a major aspect. In fact, he's the first disciple that you're going to get introduced to past John the Baptist.
00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:59.100
And so Peter is going to be a major influence throughout all of John Mark or Mark's life here.
00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:01.580
And so I find that very interesting.
00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:08.259
Yeah. And so Peter, you know, he was a fisherman. God called him from fishing.
00:13:08.259 --> 00:13:11.980
And like you said, Mark, you imagine Mark running around with a notebook. I love that.
00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:31.860
But probably they were really a good pair because Peter obviously was wise in the church, a church father, but he may not have had the formal education to write script in a script that maybe Mark, and we know coming from maybe a little bit better family, he had a home large enough to host the home church with a courtyard.
00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:34.139
We know from Acts 12 that their house had a courtyard.
00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:41.980
And so, yeah, so Peter and he partnered up and he was, Peter even called him his son and first year of five and I love that.
00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:52.259
Our faith fathers, you know, I'd love that, like you are that for my kiddos, you know, just someone pouring into them and equipping them and encouraging them to use their gifts.
00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:56.220
And that's definitely who Peter was, I think, for Mark.
00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:06.779
So now that we know a little bit about Mark, Mark didn't write the gospel of Mark during Jesus' earthly ministry while he was alive, he wrote it some years later.
00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:10.379
So tell us about where was he and what was going on.
00:14:10.379 --> 00:14:13.100
when he pinned the gospel of Mark.
00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:27.820
Yeah, so we don't know for sure, but most scholars agree, and there's a handful of reasons why they agree, that this was probably written in the 60s AD, so about maybe 30 years after Jesus' death and resurrection.
00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:45.500
But it was most likely written in Rome, and that's important to understand, because the context of Christians living in Rome during the 60s AD is going to be a really, really big deal, because there's going to be quite a bit of stuff that's going to happen during that time.
00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:57.740
And I think that's important because as you read Mark's Gospel, number one, it's the shortest of all the Gospels. Number two, it's the most simple Greek writing.
00:14:57.740 --> 00:15:11.259
So like early or New Testament Greek students of Scripture will begin to easily interpret Mark before they can interpret some of these other more way more difficult Greek writings.
00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:35.899
But then also he will take certain words and translate them away from the popularized Greek terms and make them more accessible to even like Roman non-Hebrew speaking, non-Coiné or Greek speaking types. And so they'll take all these clues and we get that he was probably in in Rome when he wrote this in the 60s AD.
00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:38.620
And there's some bad stuff that's going on in Rome.
00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:40.500
Do you happen to know what that, the bad stuff that happens to go on?
00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:41.980
- Yeah, so Nero was in control.
00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:42.820
- Nero.
00:15:42.820 --> 00:15:49.779
- And history tells us that Nero wanted more land for himself, for his, I guess, royal palace.
00:15:49.779 --> 00:15:52.019
And so he started a fire in Rome.
00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:56.740
It's about the time that this gospel was written and began to be circulated.
00:15:56.740 --> 00:16:02.700
And he couldn't take credit for setting the, like what's some call the worst fire in history.
00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:04.059
to his own city.
00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:07.179
And so he blamed the Christians for starting the fire.
00:16:07.179 --> 00:16:19.139
And as a result of that, we get what, I know people are probably familiar with that situation where armed gladiators were put in the Colosseum against unarmed Christians.
00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:22.179
And they fought them to their death.
00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:25.820
And then ticket sales started to wane on armed gladiators.
00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:31.340
And so Nero started to put wild beasts up against unarmed Christians.
00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:40.059
and people watched it, paid money to watch it as a sport, fueled by their anger that the Christians had started.
00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:41.419
- Burned down.
00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:43.820
- Yeah, the fire in Burned-on-Rome, which they had not.
00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.179
Nero had done that himself.
00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:56.820
- And Nero would go on to literally, talk about fuel the flame, he would go on to literally crucifying Christians and then he would leave their bodies in the streets.
00:16:56.820 --> 00:17:04.980
And I mean, it's graphic, but it would set them ablaze as night lights for Roman cities.
00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:09.980
And I mean, it was, I mean, awful, awful situations.
00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:19.900
Talk about persecution and fear that would be going through the hearts and minds of not just Christians, but new Christians even at the time.
00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:29.660
And so I think that's important to keep in mind because Mark is gonna have several themes that will kind of mesh throughout all of the book.
00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:36.539
And one of the major themes, well, before I say that, I'm putting you on the spot here.
00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:46.059
But if I were to ask you, like, what would, if you could boil Mark down, in your own opinion, to like one word major theme for Mark, does anything come to mind for you?
00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.099
- Oh, it's a power and compassion.
00:17:48.099 --> 00:17:49.940
- Power and compassion, that's great.
00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:51.539
Yes, you cheated, you used to work.
00:17:51.539 --> 00:17:52.779
- Okay, sorry. - I'll forgive you for that one.
00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:54.420
- I couldn't pick between the two.
00:17:54.420 --> 00:17:57.019
- Yeah, mine would be along the same lines.
00:17:57.019 --> 00:17:58.259
It would be authority.
00:17:58.259 --> 00:18:43.799
And so what we're gonna see is if you put yourself in the position of a first century, maybe even ex-Jew or Gentile who've converted to Christianity and you're watching the world superpower of the time threaten your own life and you're being blamed for things that weren't even true, Mark is gonna lay out this amazing quick book that will show the power and the authority of the one Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, which is how he opens the book and then he'll, so be on the lookout, be on the lookout for things like authority and how authority works, and be on the lookout for all the times that he's gonna say like immediately, immediately.
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:45.319
In fact, we're about 41 times.
00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:47.599
41 times. In 16 chapters, 41 times.
00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.799
That's incredible, 41 times.
00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.160
Way to have that just right there, right?
00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:52.160
It's a lot.
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.000
It's like we planned this, that was awesome.
00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.680
We didn't plan that, but that was awesome.
00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:09.920
And then just watch how brilliantly Mark is going to ascribe the power and not so much concentrated on the teachings of Jesus, but the actions of Jesus.
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.359
And it's a weird gospel.
00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:18.279
There's some weird stuff in here that the other gospels chose maybe not to write about necessarily in such a way.
00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:22.839
But it's a unique context and what it was written, what you touched on.
00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:34.400
You know, when I think about those first early readers who first got the first Gospel, by the way, because scholars believe this was the first Gospel recorded and circulated, they would have been in hiding.
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:36.920
Like you said, I mean, you talked about how heavily they were persecuted.
00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:42.559
I mean, there's even records that they were probably meeting inside large tombs with Galatine.
00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:43.559
Wow.
00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:45.160
You know, this was in secret.
00:19:45.160 --> 00:21:00.200
And so that power to hear that Nero was not in power, that Lord Jesus Christ was in power, needed to waste no time getting to that message because that was crucial for those believers and it's crucial for us today. Yeah. Can I nerd out for just one second and talk about some of the other elements about Mark before we jump into chapter one? Mark is really a literary genius. He writes in such a way that he's a wonderful storyteller but he also uses these literary tactics called intercalation, which is this idea of sandwiching these narratives together. And so he'll begin speaking about something a handful of times, and then it will be sort of interrupted in between the action, and then they'll come back to it later. And both of these things kind of work together because they are used to help mutually interpret one main theme or understanding. And so as you're reading throughout Mark and your own personal studies, if you feel like it begins to to like take a right turn, sort of in the middle without ever kind of explaining things, watch how he'll come back to that and sort of tie those two things together and watch how he'll begin to, you'll begin to parse out those meanings and things to it.
00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:03.279
And then lastly, he uses triplets a lot.
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:09.039
So much of the stories he'll do in threes many, many times and there's a lot of really cool stuff to do that.
00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:21.799
So just be on the lookout when you're reading Mark this fall, just keep looking for those things like all the threes, all the triplets, all the sandwich type narratives and see how really cool this happens.
00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:30.880
- I think that speaks to Peter's influence on the book too because if Peter isn't kind of known as impulsive and going from here to there, he's the one that Miranda Jesus assumed but got beat running.
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:37.319
And so I think that to me, I can just hear like echoes of Peter telling Mark a story in the middle.
00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:42.720
Oh, and this also happened and then this happened and that's very much how Mark was written.
00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:48.200
- I wonder if Peter will have some, his own experiences with threes sometime.
00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:49.279
- Absolutely, absolutely.
00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:51.119
- Towards the end of the day too.
00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:52.359
- So let's go ahead and kick it off.
00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:59.720
So you kind of hinted to the fact that Mark begins differently than the other Gospels that night.
00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.279
He doesn't talk about Jesus' birth.
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:04.839
There is no Christmas story in the book of Mark.
00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.240
He doesn't even mention Jesus' early years or childhood.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:15.400
He jumps right in to one of the few Old Testament references in the book of Mark.
00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:18.960
'cause he's writing right to Romans or Gentile Christians.
00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:26.440
And so he doesn't use a whole lot of Jewish traditions or references, but he does start with one.
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:29.039
And he gets just right into John the Baptist.
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:35.119
So let's just get right into talking a little bit about John the Baptist at the beginning of Book of Mark here.
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.039
So I'll go ahead and kick it off.
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:45.200
With, let me step back and go not to Mark one, but to the very last chapter of the New Testament, which is Malachi, excuse me.
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.319
- Very last chapter, the Old Testament, which is Malachi.
00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.599
Adam looks at me like, "Where are you going in Revelation?"- We're back in the Old Testament.
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:54.720
- Yes, we're back in the Old Testament for all the folks that wanted to be there.
00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:59.279
So Malachi ends in chapter five with this verse.
00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:07.359
It says, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." That's Malachi five five.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:10.519
And you know what happens after Malachi five?
00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:12.880
400 years of silent.
00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:27.680
And Mark is opening the scene of the first gospel ever written at a time when the people have not heard from a prophet or not heard from God for 400 years and they are in this terrible situation in Rome.
00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:37.119
So Mark gets right to the point and he begins in chapter one with saying, "Guys, allow us that." And his name is John the Baptist.
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:44.960
And so that was just really important that Mark, just like you said, he moves quickly.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:45.960
He uses action.
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:56.240
He says immediately 41 times and he just jumps right into the fact that I'm not going to waste your time with the warm Christmas story, which is important, but Luke's going to record that later.
00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:57.720
We're going to get right to the facts.
00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:59.400
Elijah is back.
00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:00.400
God is powerful.
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.279
Help is coming.
00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:06.640
And that's just the way that he needs to open the message given the context and the audience.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:11.920
And Elijah is a he's Elijah in the form of Baptist, I should say.
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:15.720
He's a he's a very interesting fellow as well.
00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:20.519
I like how John will describe him baptizing this baptism of repentance.
00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:28.160
But he's wearing nothing but Hamel's hair, leather belt, run as we waste.
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:35.880
He eats the clean animal locust and wild honey and makes these proclamations about the one who will come after him.
00:24:35.880 --> 00:25:36.359
And and his power and authority. Yeah, what John the Baptist is prophesied a lot about in the Old Testament Yeah, and so it's important to see because John the Baptist was a very clear signal one of the final signals in the book of Malachi that the Messiah was coming in fact Still to this day, I think when you do celebrate the Passover They leave an empty chair at the Cedar mill and that empty chair is for Elijah. They're still waiting on him to come back I guess they missed the message that he came back and drawn the Baptist but So that was such a clear message and so that the Messiah was coming when Elijah comes back The Messiah is right behind him and Mark waste no time in saying guys Elijah is back Wow, that's amazing. So then he's gonna go and he's gonna baptize Jesus and Which is an interesting question that that if you if you sit back and listen to What would be the need to baptize the perfect Son of God?
00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:56.680
You know many of these it is but he's baptizing it specifically says it in a way of repentance Well, Jesus has no need or or Desire to have the need to repent he is he does not have it. He's blameless in those days And so one of that's one of the questions that's kind of raised from this text Like why would Jesus need to be baptized here?
00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:08.039
But there's there's so much that's going on in this text, you know that that's incredible And the first of which is that one, Jesus is kind of making a statement about John the Baptist ministry.
00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:17.240
He's kind of validating this idea of who the one who would be making way before, as John the Baptist is making statements about him.
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:22.839
He's also sort of validating his ministry, but he's also making kind of a theological statement in several ways.
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:28.440
And one, it's brought out when it described what happened.
00:26:28.440 --> 00:28:04.319
It says that he in verse 10 as Jesus is coming out of the water He immediately sees the heavens being torn open and the spirit is descending on him like a dove and a voice comes from heaven You are my beloved son with you. I'm well, please You had mentioned that Mark doesn't necessarily quote the Old Testament out rightly that often outside the first passage here, but what he does do is he alludes to it a massive amounts and What you see is is it's sort of an homage to both Genesis 1 with the idea of the dove floating over the chaos pre-creative waters before God will speak into a new creation and in the dove that will exit the Ark that will be a sign for Noah and his family to step off and begin a new creation and in many ways there'll be other ways that he'll do this, but He's making this theological statement that Jesus who is going through the waters is both representing the creative and incredible word and powerful acts of God who are providing a way out of Egypt like for Israel and for us in exile even today here in 2023. And so there's this And that God himself will will be claiming that he is the Son of God, that he is the one who God is well pleased, while Jesus will also be the representation physically on earth of that God who brings people out of slavery and sin and death and destruction all just while being thrown in here in this cool baptism story.
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:18.079
So archaeologists, I've heard, believe that John Baptist Jesus much near the same place where Joshua led God's people across the Jordan into the promised land. And so, you know, that Jesus is making away.
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:23.240
And I really like, and I've heard that question a lot about like, why did Jesus have to be baptized?
00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:28.160
And I think R.C. Sproul has a really good take on it.
00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:35.440
He said that Jesus was baptized because it's both his life and his death that are vicarious or substitutionary for us.
00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:40.359
In other words, he was baptized or washed clean for me just like he died for me.
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:41.200
- Yeah.
00:28:41.200 --> 00:29:37.880
Well, and it's interesting that you mentioned both his life and his death because this is an occlusio, very moment here when it says that something is torn open here, it's the heavens. But at the end of the Gospel of Mark, you will see at the death of Jesus, the veil will be torn open. And again, this time the proclamation won't come from God the Father, but will come from a Roman soldier about surely this was the Son of God. And you see that as an inclusio, when you read those two few things together, you go again in the context of being in Nero's Rome in 60 AD and you're going, "Oh man, where is all this authority? Who has the authority?" The Romans think they have the authority, but during that passage, the Roman soldier himself is like, "Oh no, this is surely the Son of God." And the veil of both represents what the heavens opening up that through that death, we now have access back, you know, of free access back.
00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:51.039
So that message of God being superior in authority and power to Rome or any other earthly entity or demonic entity, that's a clear and consistent message in the baptism scene but throughout the book of Mark.
00:29:51.039 --> 00:30:00.599
And we see that again right after the baptism scene, the Spirit leads Jesus to go into the wilderness and be tempted.
00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:06.079
And of course we know that he is powerful over the temptation.
00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:15.039
But one of the things that I think is interesting about Mark's account of that particular temptation scene is that he's the only gospel that says that Jesus was with wild bees.
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:24.160
Mark 1 verse 13, it says, "And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild bees." And the angels were ministering to him.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:35.680
And don't you know that the scene that came to mind in these early readers of this gospel must have been when Christians were up against the wild bees in the Coliseum?
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:43.559
Here's a picture of Jesus being victorious over the wild beast who was threatening the lives of Christian.
00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:47.279
He's the same God of Daniel who shuts the mouths of the lions.
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:54.960
He's the same God of of chapter one of Genesis that that sets man to have authority and power over the beast.
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:59.920
He's that same one who will control the beast out in the wilderness and his moments of weakness.
00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:18.000
And so even in the midst of those being thrown to those wild beast in the Roman Colosseum for this man, you can understand that even if we aren't delivered, this is still the God who has all power and authority in this world.
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.039
And everything about the temptation scene, I think you're really going to like this.
00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:25.960
Everything about the temptation scene shows that Jesus is the better Adam.
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:28.839
And the Bible tells us that Jesus is the better Adam.
00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:35.359
But we see in the temptation, remember when Adam was tempted in the garden, he was in in a lush garden.
00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:36.200
He was not alone.
00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:38.680
He was with Eve and he had plenty of food.
00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:43.640
God just told him not to eat of one tree and he fell to temptation.
00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:51.200
But we see that in Mark one, Jesus, he was in a desert.
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.480
He was alone.
00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:54.640
He was hungry.
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:59.759
Everything about the situation was so much harder and yet Jesus was victorious.
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:00.599
- Yes.
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:01.440
- And so.
00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:09.119
- He's a micro picture of Israel as well in the wilderness tempted hungry who would fall to their own desires.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:16.319
So he's fulfilling both the Israelite and the academic fall.
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:28.960
Yeah. So after he shows his power over the enemy, over Satan and refuse over his temptation, he begins his teaching ministry and begins calling his disciples.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:38.400
Yes. And it's interesting that the first one he's going to call just happens to be one that is going to be a close associate of Mark much later on.
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:49.359
So he's up at the Sea of Galilee in verse 16, and he sees Simon, who we know as Peter, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:33:00.640
And Jesus says to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." And here's that word again, immediately, I immediately, Uthu, they left their nets, they followed him.
00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:08.960
and he does the same with James and Jebedee son of, or James the son of Jebedee and John, his brother.
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:10.799
And they both do the same thing.
00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:19.359
And you get this picture of like, whoa, that was a sudden, like I think I would have had like maybe several days worth of questions.
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:21.480
I'd like to know like, what's next?
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:22.319
How is this work?
00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:23.160
Who are you?
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:24.000
How's this working?
00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:32.880
- And one of the things that makes this scene so unique is that Jesus here is acted as a rabbi, you know, or teacher calling his disciples.
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:40.759
But there was those relationships that Rabbi or teacher-disciple relationship was prevalent in the Jewish world during Bible times.
00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:53.440
So this wasn't a new concept that you would choose a teacher and give up some other kind of profession to follow them, but never did the Rabbi or the teacher recruit disciples.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:55.359
Always disciples apply.
00:33:55.359 --> 00:35:20.440
Much like you can think, Mackenzie is a senior this year in high school she's already begun all of those college applications and all of the essay questions and things that come along with it That's exactly how it was in Bible times If you wanted to be a disciple of a prominent teacher or rabbi you jumped through hoops and applied and went to them But Jesus isn't that kind of teacher he went to his disciples and recruited them Well, not only that when they would go through the application process as a young Jewish man in the studies of the Torah that they would be they would have been weeded out all the way down to like the best of the best before they would become disciples of a certain rabbi. And so these men, ultimately are probably ones who did not pass the test, the early tests in their early schooling. They didn't maybe didn't make it pass a certain amount of memorization of the Torah or questioning of rabbis. And so they were either not chosen and they were already passed up on or they just failed the test and went on to go about their families, you know, business at that point. And so they're not what you would call like the, you know, the Princeton or Yale or whatever type students of the Bible. And so for Jesus, not only to be a rabbi or teacher, to not pick the best of the best, he's going to go out and go to them and pick, you know, these lowly, you know, fishermen who aren't, you know, later on, the tax collectors and the ones that the rabbis, the teachers of the time would have passed up on.
00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:28.480
Or so would you say that this scene discounts that myth that you're not smart enough to understand the bowel or you don't know enough?
00:35:28.480 --> 00:36:06.420
Understand God's word everyone Is equipped through the Holy Spirit to understand God's word he seeks us We don't have to apply or jump through some hoops or have training to be able to understand God's word That's really encouraging to me because for as somebody who has struggled with insecurity you know about how people see me look at me view me, you know, whether I you know, I'm smart enough or adequate enough or something for whatever it is this so much is So encouraging because it's just it's just like so often God's like, you know We we judge by his standards not the world's standards of what is this?
00:36:06.420 --> 00:36:19.599
You know the right one the perfect one the best And I'm thankful for that because that gives me encouragement in those times of like insecurities, you know like But it doesn't mean like God may see me as enough, you know, to be used.
00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:21.760
And so I'm very thankful for that.
00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:27.079
So the book of Mark goes on to begin Jesus' teaching ministry.
00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:28.079
So he's called his disciples.
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:29.079
He's been baptized.
00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:34.820
He has been tempted and overcome, called his disciples, and now he begins teaching with authority.
00:36:34.820 --> 00:36:42.079
Unlike any of the other scribes who are referencing other sources or, you know, he just speaks straight from God.
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:45.440
I don't want to glance over that either because that is really important.
00:36:45.440 --> 00:36:54.400
What you just said is that that was the teaching method of the time was to cite previous rabbinical studies and writings.
00:36:54.400 --> 00:37:04.840
And so their teaching would not be new thought necessarily, but they would start often the authority of the rabbi who said this or when he brought these teachings.
00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:07.519
So now Jesus is not going to cite rabbi.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:10.960
He's not going to cite anything other than the scriptures.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:13.400
And then he's going to breathe scriptures himself.
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:20.440
You know, and that's, that would be astounding and noticed quickly, you know, especially to the early Jewish right.
00:37:20.440 --> 00:37:29.400
- And so we can see that the church leaders recognize his authority in teaching, but the demons also recognize this authority in teaching.
00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:40.159
And so we get this scene in Mark where Jesus is teaching to a group and a demon starts, you know, announcing itself through a person.
00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:42.760
And Jesus silences the demon.
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:45.039
- I'll read it if you want me to.
00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:47.760
Verse 24, this is the demon speaking.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:51.960
And it says, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:54.159
Have you come to destroy us?
00:37:54.159 --> 00:38:00.840
I know who you are, the Holy One of God, which says so much too." Of course, the demons know who this is.
00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:03.519
And then Jesus responds, rebuked him.
00:38:03.519 --> 00:38:11.760
verse 25 saying, "Be silent. I'm out of him." And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:13.159
And they were all amazed.
00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:16.159
Oh, that's another theme.
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:19.440
So we have authority immediately, an amazement of the crowd.
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:22.679
So pay attention all the time that happened.
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:26.800
And they were all amazed that, and they were questioning among themselves, what is this?
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:29.800
A new teaching with authority?
00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:49.440
And he commands even the unclean spirits, obey him. So he's showing his authority even further, not just by bringing a new word and a new teaching and not just standing on the men of old or the rabbis of old, but he's going to show his authority over the spiritual realm right in front of people.
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:55.360
And he continues to show his authority, supernatural authority, because he begins to heal people.
00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:02.159
And the first account of Helene, and we get several accounts, I think that Mark has the most miracles, even though it's the shortest gospel it has the most miracles.
00:39:02.159 --> 00:39:10.800
the book of action. Yeah. And in compassion. And so, but the action and compassion, there's a saying there. It's the book of action. Okay, I like that.
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:23.760
I like it. So one of the first miracle we get in the Bible, other than Jesus casting out the demon there was for Peter's mother-in-law. And I love that because don't you know Peter's like, let me tell you about Jesus's miracles.
00:39:23.760 --> 00:40:00.960
And he starts with the one, I imagine, that must have hit most closely to home, right? Literally in his own home there with his mother-in-law. And so Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law and then he goes out to pray because he's not there just to do healing. He's there to obey the will of the Father. But lots of people hear about it and they start flocking to him. And so the chapter ends with really just a beautiful miracle of compassion with the leper. You want to just kind of touch on the details of that miracle.
00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:02.400
- Yeah, a leper comes to him.
00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:15.599
And lepers of the time, of course, are these, they're not leprosy like what we would know, but they're various different types of skin diseases and that kind of thing that would have caused them to make Jewish people the time unclean.
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:21.239
And so they would often be excommunicated away, you know, segmented out from the local population.
00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:59.539
But he implores him and is kneeling to him and says,"If you will, can you make me clean?" And Jesus responds, "I will be clean." And anyone who sees that, which aren't going to be many,'cause Jesus is going to strongly charge him and say,"See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer cleansing that Moses commanded for proof to them." And so Jesus is gonna show his authority, both of the demons, like you said, the spiritual realm and over the physical ailments and of the will of God.
00:40:59.539 --> 00:41:08.739
And he's gonna do this and continue this other final theme which is in Mark, which is the secret Messiah.
00:41:08.739 --> 00:41:18.500
Mark is gonna often portray Jesus as saying, telling those who are healed or telling the demons and telling these things, go and say nothing about this.
00:41:18.500 --> 00:41:21.780
Go and tell nobody about this.
00:41:21.780 --> 00:41:28.980
And that's an element that will be proclaimed much later as to why, but that's another theme to kind of be on the lookout here.
00:41:28.980 --> 00:41:32.079
>> Truly. Because the Lord controls the narrative.
00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:32.780
>> Yup.
00:41:32.780 --> 00:41:34.380
>> He gets to define the story.
00:41:34.380 --> 00:41:34.980
>> Yeah.
00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:40.579
>> And that's important, you know, because as children of God, that means the Lord controls and defines our story.
00:41:40.579 --> 00:41:41.480
>> Mm-hm.
00:41:41.480 --> 00:41:43.980
>> And that is a messianic secret.
00:41:43.980 --> 00:41:44.880
>> Yeah.
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:45.880
>> But, you know, it's important to keep it.
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:55.039
>> And think about those early readers who you said were gathering in potentially like tombs to read and to talk and to worship Jesus hearing.
00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:59.559
Jesus say, I want you to go and keep this the secret.
00:41:59.559 --> 00:42:03.199
Go and not do this yet, not tell this yet, that kind of thing.
00:42:03.199 --> 00:42:05.000
And they're living that out, obviously.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:15.800
They're trying to live out a faithful representation of what it means to be an early Christian and tell others, but also in a way of secrecy for self-preservation at the time and that kind of thing.
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:18.639
I think that's a very interesting way to look through that.
00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:24.639
In this final scene in Mark chapter one, it just makes me fall in love with Jesus even more.
00:42:24.639 --> 00:42:37.960
I love in verse 41 of Mark chapter one, it says, "And moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, 'I am willing to be clean.'" And there's so much I love about that verse.
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:45.840
The fact that Jesus was moved with compassion on our behalf, but also that, you know, there's power in Jesus's word.
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:49.280
When he speaks the word, It's happened.
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:55.960
But the thing is, he touched the man 'cause he loved him.
00:42:55.960 --> 00:42:57.480
He didn't have to touch him, right?
00:42:57.480 --> 00:43:03.000
We see other scenes in the gospels where Jesus spoke a word in another town and someone's daughter was healed.
00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:05.079
Never was even in the same room.
00:43:05.079 --> 00:43:11.480
But he touched the leper because the leper probably hadn't been cut in years.
00:43:11.480 --> 00:43:13.559
Probably hadn't felt that love, that compassion.
00:43:13.559 --> 00:43:15.159
- Oh, that's interesting.
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:16.000
I had not thought of that.
00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:17.119
- And he does that first.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:21.480
He does that while the leper is still dirty, while the leper is still unclean.
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:23.199
And I love the leper's request.
00:43:23.199 --> 00:43:38.159
The leper doesn't say, "Heal me of my leper." The leper says, "Make me clean." And that's so much more than healing of leprosy because for men and women in Bible times who had leprosy, it wasn't just that they were sick.
00:43:38.159 --> 00:43:41.400
It was that they were dead to the world.
00:43:41.400 --> 00:43:46.199
In fact, they had to actually dress like they were dead in grave clothes.
00:43:46.199 --> 00:43:47.980
They couldn't brush or keep up their hair.
00:43:47.980 --> 00:43:53.920
They had to look dead so that to signify to people that they couldn't come within 50 steps of that person.
00:43:53.920 --> 00:44:02.219
And if someone began to approach them, they had to shout out, "Unclean, unclean, unclean." And so they couldn't go to the temple.
00:44:02.219 --> 00:44:05.500
They couldn't even live in their home with their family.
00:44:05.500 --> 00:44:15.280
And so when you got the diagnosis of leprosy, which was diagnosed by a priest using the qualifications in Leviticus 13 and 14.
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:20.119
And didn't just get diagnosed with a skin disease like at a doctor's office.
00:44:20.119 --> 00:44:23.440
You basically just had your funeral.
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:30.840
And Jesus came onto that scene and the man didn't say, "Well, heal me of my skin disease." That was the least of his problems.
00:44:30.840 --> 00:44:32.039
He wanted to be clean.
00:44:32.039 --> 00:44:39.000
He wanted to be brought back into the fold of family and community and to be loved and tight and received again.
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:46.039
And before Jesus even healed him and spoke power with his words, Jesus touched him and I loved him.
00:44:46.039 --> 00:44:48.559
And you know what, sometimes I just need to be.
00:44:48.559 --> 00:45:14.320
Sometimes I just need, and it reminds me of this story that I heard when I was at a training, when I used to work with abused and neglected children, this man came up and he told the story about he and his brother, and he was the younger brother, and they used to play baseball in these cow fields out by his home, and he lived in a small town, and so it was a super important event in like, where the town, like people would even come out and watch.
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:19.800
He's like rag tug baseball games, but he was never invited to play because he was much younger at the time.
00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:23.280
And so they were short of player and needed someone to bat.
00:45:23.280 --> 00:45:32.239
And so his older brother said, "Come on, come back." And so he was so, so excited and he got up to the plate and he grabbed that bat and he said his hands were shaking.
00:45:32.239 --> 00:45:38.000
He, um, they pitched her to toss him a ball and he made contact and he just knocked that ball.
00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:39.679
And so he began running to first base.
00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:40.679
He made it to first.
00:45:40.679 --> 00:45:41.679
He ran to second.
00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:42.679
He made it to second.
00:45:42.679 --> 00:45:45.679
he was going to just take off and slide into third.
00:45:45.679 --> 00:45:52.719
Right as he took that dive to slide into third, he realized that he had misplaced third base for a cow patty.
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:55.480
And so there was no stopping.
00:45:55.480 --> 00:46:00.440
He slid right into the mess and he was covered in mess.
00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:07.380
He could hear people laughing and taunting him, but his father ran up to him and with his own hands began just wiping away the field.
00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:11.719
And the little boy was crying and saying, you're getting dirty, daddy, you're getting dirty.
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:19.360
But the father didn't care because ministering to the Senate, that's how I meant getting some built on him.
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:23.239
And you know, that's what Jesus did for us in his whole life and death.
00:46:23.239 --> 00:46:25.679
And we see a picture of that right here with the leprosy.
00:46:25.679 --> 00:46:26.880
Jesus didn't care.
00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:34.000
He's not the kind of God that takes a water hose and hoses you off like I do when my kids get in a mess in the backyard from a distance.
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.280
Jesus gets in the mess with us.
00:46:36.280 --> 00:46:38.079
That's the kind of God we have.
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:41.360
A God of compassion and power.
00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:54.000
in that juxtaposition of the authoritative Rome who is excommunicating these Christians, killing these Christians, here's Jesus who is in the midst of them and getting dirty and showing compassion.
00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:59.719
And through all of that is revealing the authority of the Father through the authority of the Son.
00:46:59.719 --> 00:47:05.960
- And you know, definitely the early Roman readers needed to hear this message, but we need to hear this message today.
00:47:05.960 --> 00:47:09.480
You know, we sent our kids back to school just a couple of weeks ago.
00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:10.320
- Well, some of them.
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:12.239
I know yours are still waiting on a new going.
00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:14.239
- Mine don't start till this next thing though.
00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:24.679
- For a lot of us, we've sent our kids or our grandkids, there are those who like back to school and you tell me things that you encounter in student ministry that I just have a hard time believing these students.
00:47:24.679 --> 00:47:28.440
I believe you, but I don't want to believe that that's what these students are facing.
00:47:28.440 --> 00:47:35.480
And we see that, not just in our students' lives, but in the workplace and in politics and everywhere we go.
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:43.480
And so we need a God who is powerful And we need a God who will get in our mess for us when we need to be helped.
00:47:43.480 --> 00:47:44.480
And that's the Jesus we have.
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:46.599
Give us that beautiful picture of compassion.
00:47:46.599 --> 00:47:48.920
That thing that our world could use a lot more on.
00:47:48.920 --> 00:47:49.920
I agree.
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:54.320
Well, I think that's a good overview of Mark in Mark chapter one.
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:56.719
And man, I'm looking forward to diving into this.
00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:57.719
Me too.
00:47:57.719 --> 00:47:58.719
As we keep going.
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:00.360
It's been, the nerves have left.
00:48:00.360 --> 00:48:02.320
I think we're back in the stride.
00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:04.320
So I hope that you've enjoyed this.
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:09.440
I hope that you will do us a favor and pray for this ministry.
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:12.960
Pray that God will use this ministry, that He'll anoint this ministry.
00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:17.000
But then we say this often, but we truly do mean it.
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.840
We would love to be able to go through this study with you.
00:48:19.840 --> 00:48:36.400
So if you have thoughts or you're going through your Sunday morning Bible Fellowship classes and you want to hop on our Facebook page at BiblicalBytes, please drop us a message or Jump in the comment section of our posts and just let us know you're there.
00:48:36.400 --> 00:48:39.920
Let us know the things that you're learning or the questions that you may have.
00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:45.119
And we'd love to be able to connect with you a little bit more and share this out.
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:49.159
If you know a few people that you think could be blessed by this ministry, get the word out.
00:48:49.159 --> 00:48:52.480
We'd love for this to spread as far and as wide as God will allow it.
00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:56.000
And yeah, so I'm excited to be back.
00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:56.840
- Awesome, me too.
00:48:56.840 --> 00:49:00.079
I'm excited we're back together talking about the Bible.
00:49:00.079 --> 00:49:02.840
- So go dive into Mark and we will see you next time.
00:49:02.840 --> 00:49:03.679
- All right.
00:49:03.679 --> 00:49:11.420
(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)
