The Beginning of the Gospel (Part 2 of 2)

1:00 receiving end of somebody suggesting to you that we have every reason in the world to doubt the existence of Julius Caesar. It hasn't happened. In fact, they will have affirmed the writings of Julius Caesar? Without question. The closest manuscript that you can get to Caesar 850 AD, well, what do we have in relationship to Jesus? Well, we have in Manchester University the John Ryland's papyrus, as it's known, because of the archaeological discovery. And that is a fragment of the Gospel of John dated A.D. 130. So that within a relatively few decades of the passing of Jesus, we have materials that confirm the writings of these Gospels. In fact, Robinson, who's an historian at Cambridge, says, The wealth of manuscripts and above all, the narrow interval of time between the writing and the earliest extant copies make the New Testament by far the best attested text of any ancient writing in the world. By far the very best attested text of any ancient writing in the world. Now, this is not some yahoo from tea-bread university with a donut sticking out his ear. This is somebody at arguably one of the most significant universities in the entire world. His academic credibility is such that he's not about to make outlandish statements concerning these things. I don't base my convictions on the strength of his affirmation, but I do find it quite encouraging, and I hope you do too.

2:54 But, says somebody, if that is the case, why is it that the New Testament documents are constantly called into question? The Bible outsells every book in the world and continues to do so. The rise of the gospel in South America and in the Southern Hemisphere in general is significant and compelling. Men and women continue to give their lives because they are unprepared to deny the claims of Jesus of Nazareth.

3:27 And men and women recognizing this peculiar authority which attaches to this book, resist it like the plague. And behind that is the activity of the evil one who in Genesis 3 came as the serpent to Eve, and what was his question to her? Did God really say? Is this—are you going to base your response, he says to Eve, on a word from God? Did God say this? And the evil one, from then until now, is behind every attempt to undermine, to countermand, to diminish confidence in the verifiability, the accuracy, and the compelling impact of the truth of God's Word. And don't let anybody run you off in the coffee shop by telling you about the discrepancies that exist between the manuscripts. One person in a thousand may even know where to find those manuscripts. And if they were to examine them, they would discover that no discrepancy between the manuscripts has to do with the central tenets of the person and work of Jesus. It may say there were three people there. This one says there were two people there.

5:03 It may say someone was standing up. It may say somebody was sitting down. But the manuscripts do not disagree with one another. When they unfold the story of Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, Son of God, suffering servant, risen Christ, returning King.

5:29 And the reason that people do not want to turn to the Bible is because they are unbelievers, and unbelief is sin. And it is sin which clouds our vision and prevents us from believing the gospel. Now, I take time on that because I think it is absolutely fundamentally important. Because in the thoroughfare of life, in everyday interchange, if you tell somebody, for example, tomorrow, that you went to church, and they said, and what were you studying? They said, well, we started to study the Gospel of Mark. And they said, well, why would you even waste your time on that? What are you going to tell them? You're going to tell them, in the Gospel, I discover that Jesus loves me. In fact, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. They said, well, isn't that a children's song? Yes, it is a children's song. But the reason I know is because the Bible tells me so. So this Bible better be a trustworthy, reliable document.

6:38 Because if I am basing my life, my destiny, on who Jesus is and what he's done, and this is where I discover that, this is of fundamental importance. It's not a matter of marginal significance. sense. That's why I take the time on this. Because it is in this book that we discover the wonder of God's love for us in Jesus. It is in this book that we discover our predicament without Jesus. So that's the first thing. Now we're at the second thing, and, well, it's questionable whether we'll ever reach the third thing, so just relax. First of all, some general observations concerning the Gospels. All right? Secondly, what about Mark as the author of the gospel? What about Mark's gospel? Because if you read the gospel, you will discover that there's nothing in the text which identifies Mark as the author of Mark. So I actually wrote as my heading, number two, my heading was, Who Wrote Mark? Because you don't go to him and he says, Hello, my name is Mark, and I wrote this. It's not there. You don't have it in the way you have in some of the letters. So why is it that we believe? Why is Mark's name appended to this, and has Mark's name always been appended to this particular gospel?

7:57 Well, in actual fact, the answer to that is largely yes. The earliest documents of the church identify John Mark as the writer of this particular gospel. Every gospel, as we said, is based on eyewitness material, and the early writers and the church fathers identify Peter, the apostle Peter, as the source for Mark's gospel. So that Mark has relied most heavily on Peter to provide him with the eyewitness details that have enabled Mark to write this gospel down for the church in his day. After Peter is martyred and gone, Mark remains, and Mark writes this material down. Now, if that is accurate—and I want to turn you to just one place—if you turn Acts chapter 10.

8:54 You turn to Acts chapter 10, and in the account of Peter at the house of Cornelius, we have an illustration of Peter's preaching. And from verse 36—and I can't read it all, but this will just get you started, and if you're diligent, then you can follow up on it. This is Peter preaching. He says, You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything you did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And then he goes on to talk about his death and so on. Now, if you just look at that, and then you turn back over to the beginning of Mark's gospel, look at what you discover. You know the message, he says. You know what happened beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. How does Mark start his gospel? He starts his gospel with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist. Now, that would make sense, wouldn't it? If Peter was his eyewitness, enabling him to write as he did. Now, you're saying to me, well, I take your word for it, but I don't know where to find it. Well, I'll tell you where to find it. You want to go to the sources, that's fine. You go and find the bishop from the second century, whose name was Papias, who was the bishop of Herapolis. He wrote certain things down. Eusebius recorded them for us, and these are extant documents that can be found in libraries. Okay? Here, in a big, fat New Testament introduction, which most of you are not going to buy, and few of you who buy it will ever read it, we have a quote from the aforementioned bishop. This is in the second century, and this is what the bishop says. Mark, indeed, since he was the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately,

11:08 but not in order, the things either said or done by the Lord as much as he remembered. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterwards, as I have said, heard and followed Peter, who fitted his discourses to the needs of his hearers.

11:34 Mark, writing some things just as he remembered, erred in nothing. For he was careful of one thing, not to omit anything of the things he had heard, or to falsify anything in them. Okay. So here's the bishop in the church in the second century, and he is writing for the benefit of those who are under his custody, as these men and women are seeking to live for Jesus, as they're being buffeted and as they're being threatened, as all hell is let loose against them in persecution, and as they are turning to the gospel records themselves, and they're in need of affirmation, and they are in need of support, they're in need of encouragement, and their dear bishop writes to them and says, when you read the stuff that Mark wrote down for you, you can be sure that although it's not written chronologically, it's all put down there, there's nothing left out that should be in, and there's nothing in that should be out. Indeed, you can trust it in its entirety. And it has been written by this fellow called John Mark. In fact, Mark, if you like, is just what any intelligent Christian should want the earliest evangelists to have been.

12:47 What do you want the person who writes the first gospel to be like? Do you want him to be an imaginative, creative character? Tempted to flights of fancy? Uh-uh. You want him to be what Mark was. Not an inventor, not a creator, but a conscientious compiler of the information. Not somebody who's sitting around saying, you know, I think if I did this or I wrote it in that way or whatever it was. No, this is a slogger, if you like. This is somebody who says, now, let me remember again. When Peter came out of there and then he went there, he said, hang on a minute, I'll give you it in just a minute. And then he wrote it down. And under the direction of God the Spirit, you understand the dual authorship of Scripture. Mark's gospel is written by Mark. It is written by God. God breathes out through human instrumentation. And as Mark writes in this way, says the bishop, he does so not on the basis of invention, but on the basis of compilation.

13:54 And if you think about it, he's only as good as his source. If he is not the source, he's only as good as his source. And what does his source say? When Peter, the source for Mark, writes to the believers in his day in 2 Peter 1. Do you remember what he says? We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the coming and power of Jesus. us. No. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We were there. We were present. We can verify what is written down. That is why we are writing to you as we are. And if you imagine Mark, as it were, in the shadow of Peter by this point in life, saying to himself, This is fantastic! I love this stuff, one day I think I'm going to write some of this stuff down. And if I ever write it down, I'm going to remember what Peter is saying here. No cleverly invented stories. No funny stuff.

15:03 Eyewitnesses of his majesty. That's how I'll write it down. And every sensible, intelligent Christian recognizes that that is what we want in somebody who's giving us the first gospel. Now, let me set you a little exercise for the hours of the afternoon or the hours of the week. And that is not to play Where's Waldo, but to play Where's Mark? Where's John Mark? And you can take your Bible, take the Acts of the Apostles—that's the best place to go—and say, now, where do I find this character John Mark? And I'm just going to get you started, and then we'll start. He lived in Jerusalem in a big house. His house was so large that they could have a big prayer meeting in it on the occasion when Peter was put in jail. Remember when the angel comes and liberates him and Peter shows up at the house of someone? He comes knocking on the outside courtyard door, and they've been having a big prayer time to say, Get Peter out of jail. Peter comes out of jail, then the lady says, it couldn't possibly be Peter out of jail, which is just like most prayer times, isn't it? Well, that was John Mark's house. It belonged to Mary. That was his mom.

16:24 He lived there. It is distinctly possible, but a matter of conjecture, that you will find this same house as the location for the gathering of the Last Supper. Possible. And it is distinctly possible that Mark, as is true of certain artists, has painted a little bit of him, albeit a naked little bit of him, into his own gospel. What? He painted himself in naked? Yes. because I think that the character who eludes a rest in Mark chapter 15, by allowing the people to grab his cloak but not to grab his person, and runs off down the street, Starkers, is probably Mark himself. So you're starting to like him even more, aren't you? He has a cousin who's rich called Barnabas. He has a lot going for him, and with his cousin Barnabas, he goes off with one of Barnabas' buddies, a fellow called Paul, and they go off and they do missionary work. Go find that. Go find where it was. What city was it where he bails out on Paul and Barnabas and becomes the occasion of disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, so that after that, Barnabas goes off in another direction and Paul goes with Silas. It's all in here. And if you look, you will discover just where it is that we discover that all of this resolves, and Paul writes, and he says, I want you to get Mark and bring him to me, because he's so helpful to me in my ministry.

18:02 Isn't it interesting the kind of people that God uses? You know, if you were thinking of somebody who's going to write the foundational gospel, who would you go for? Oh, somebody probably Ivy League at least. If not that, we go down a tier, we go to the University of Virginia. They have a good English department after all. Maybe somebody coming out of there. No, just this character. It's interesting that he would be the follower of Peter as well, isn't it? He who knew what it was to bail out in the face of the challenges of missionary work probably had his greatest sense of empathy for this Peter who bailed out in the face of the challenges in the courtyard of the high priest.

19:02 Now, you see, God knows always exactly what he's doing, because he picks up people and puts them in places of usefulness. But the underlying factor was not the peculiar capacity of John Mark, but the underlying factor was the fact that John Mark had encountered the stupendous claims of Jesus, had come to trust in Jesus. His life had been transformed by Jesus. And it was that which caused him to go out and say to people, I have met Jesus. He has changed my life. Would you like to meet Jesus? He will change your life too. And isn't that really all that this adventure is about?

20:04 Ultimately, at its core, the scattering of this congregation throughout Cleveland and beyond in the course of the next seven days, allowing those who have been transformed by the power of Jesus to seize every opportunity to say just that. I met him. He changed me. You too may meet him. He'll change you too. And then we come to the first verse of Mark chapter 1. Father, thank you for the Bible. Thank you that while we do not find our confidence in the confirming aspects of archaeology and history and form criticism and documentation, still we do well to remind ourselves that alongside and beyond and underpinning all that which we read routinely is a vast and compelling compendium which reinforces that to which we give our childlike and often fearful affirmations.

21:24 Help us then, O God, so to read the Bible and to meet Christ in it, that he might confront us with our need of him and that we might trust ourselves unreservedly to him. And then help us so to move amongst our friends and neighbors and work associates and family members so as to tell them this wonderful good news. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, that same Lord Jesus, and the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with all who believe.