The Story Behind the Gospel of Mark

The story behind the Gospel of Mark

I. Mark’s Mother:

Acts 12:12

• Marks mother was Mary. No father is mentioned.
• She owned a house in Jerusalem.
• Many believe this is the house where Jesus had the last supper.

Mark 14:51-52

• Mark includes the story of a young man fleeing naked from the arrest of Jesus. Matthew and Luke both leave this out. That may be because it was autobiographical to Mark. That is, the young man fleeing was Mark!
• Mark may have witnessed from hiding some of what happened the night Jesus went to pray with his disciples.
• A note, in his introduction to the Vulgate, Hippolytus said that mark had maimed his finger. He had the nickname, “Stubby finger.” There is an early church tradition that he did this to avoid the priesthood.

II. Mark had cousin named:

• Barnabas means, “Son of encouragement.”
• Acts 11:21, when the church scattered, some went to Antioch and told Gentiles about Jesus. The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch to see if the Gentile conversion was authentic. When he determined it was, he decided to stay and disciple the Gentiles.
• Barnabas needed help pastoring the church. Instead of going back to Jerusalem for help (since the Christians there were skeptical of the Gentile conversion,) Barnabas looked for someone new to help him. He went to Tarsus and got a new convert named Saul (Paul) to help him. And for a year the church at Antioch was pastored and discipled by Barnabas and Paul!
• Acts 11:25 says that in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
• In Acts 12:25, Mark joined Paul and Barnabas in Antioch.

III. Church Antioch: Sent missions team included

• Acts 13, the church was told to set apart Barnabas and Saul.
• Acts 13:5, Mark was helping them.
• They sailed to Seleucia, then to Cyprus, which was like their Hawaii.
• The procouncil converted, Sergus Paulus. Jerome, in the fourth century, suggested that Saul took the name “Paul” after this man.
• Once the team got to Turkey, John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem. (Acts 13:13)

Why did John Mark leave the missions team? Some suggestions:

1. The realities of missionary life were not like his romanticized expectations.

2. He was scared. They were headed to Perga, 175 miles away where they would encounter ominous cliffs. Not to mention, a man had just been struck blind!

3. He may have gotten sick. Pamphylia is notorious for ailment.

4. Paul was difficult to work with. It may have been that Paul’s strong personality rubbed Mark wrong. There may have been a personality clash on the mission team.

IV. Paul and Barnabas prepared for new

• Acts 15:36-39, Paul objected to Mark going with them on this journey because he had previously abandoned them. Paul went to Syria.
• Barnabas took Mark with him back to Cyprus.

V. What happened Mark?

The story sails off with Paul, because that was who Luke the author of Acts was associated with. But Mark’s story continues on, we just have to piece it together a little. And it’s very exciting!

1. Mark was mentored by the

• 1 Peter 5:13 calls Mark, “My Son.”
• Who better to mentor a young man who failed than Peter who had failed the Lord three times on the night of his death.

2. Mark traveled with Peter and

• Peter was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry. Imagine all the stories he told while he preached. And Mark went with Peter, taking notes on what the Apostle said and taught.
• Mark eventually used notes from Peter’s preaching to put together what we know as the Gospel of Mark. But the Gospel’s Apostolic roots go back to Peter.
• Early Church father Papias wrote (95-140) marks content came from Peters sermons. “Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord’s sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took especial care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements.”
• Eusebius (263-339) writes, “A great light of religion shone on the minds of the hearers of Peter, so that they were not satisfied with a single hearing or with the unwritten teaching of the divine proclamation, but with every kind of exhortation [they] entreated Mark… seeing that he was Peter’s follower, to leave them a written statement of the teaching given them verbally, nor did they cease until they had persuaded him, and so became the

The Gospel of Mark:

• Mark is foundational to understanding Jesus life.
• Written primarily for Gentile believers. He translates Aramaic terms. He explains Jewish customs. He skips things that would have been of interest to a Jewish audience such as Jesus’ genealogy. He also calculates time by Roman system.
• Mark’s Gospel was probably written first. We call that the “Priority of Mark.” Meaning that it served as the basis for Matthew and Luke.
• Mark’s Gospel is action packed. The sermons are short. His favorite word is “immediately.”

3. Mark was restored

• Colossians 4:10, Paul commanded the church to welcome him.
• 2 Timothy 4:11, at the end of his life Paul asked that Timothy come see him and that he bring Mark because Mark was “useful” to him. John Macarthur beautifully said, How helpful is Mark to me? Very helpful. Seldom does a day go by that I don’t read something he wrote about Jesus.

4. Early tradition:

• He founded the church in Egypt, Alexandria. (This is only tradition.) He had a huge influence on Coptic Christianity.
• Coptic tradition is that the pagans resented his efforts to turn them from the gods, and in AD 68, they put a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead.

Encouragement: The work of Christ is

Serving Jesus will not come easy. We take up a cross to follow him. But think of all the lives changed because a young man named Mark pushed through his own personality, overcame his own failures and followed Jesus..