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May 17, 2020 12:01 am
As persecution raged in Rome, Mark wrote his gospel to remind suffering Christians of the Messiah who had come into the world to redeem them from destruction. Today, R.C. Sproul begins his exposition of Mark by helping us to see this book through the eyes of its first readers.
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Next on the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. When John the Baptist appeared on the scene of Israel when he came out of the desert and began to preach after over 300 years of silence of Old Testament prophecy. His appearance stirred more national interest than the appearance of Jesus spoken with Jesus words the ancestry abuses the gospel of Mark is different. It begins with John the Baptist calling Israel to repentance that significant in today will learn why as we begin. Dr. RC Sproul sermon series from the gospel of Mark. Let me ask you for a moment to use your imagination a little bit this morning and try to go back in time and space to first century Rome you're assembled on the Lord's day. Not in this beautiful sanctuary.
But you are forced to gather together underneath the city of Rome as the persecutions of the Emperor Nero are raging above ground and if it is discovered by the authorities that you are a Christian you will be arrested and subjected to the death penalty.
So this morning instead of gathering here your gathering in the tombs underneath the city of Rome in the catacombs, surrounded by skeletons and cadavers and someone comes to your meeting to read it to you. The recently published first gospel written by St. Mark, and you are to hear the word of God.
Now for the first reading of that gospel. So if you can place yourself in your imagination in that setting. As you hear the opening words of this gospel of Mark would then invite you to stand to hear the word of God. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins that all the land of Judea. Those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. While John was clothed with camel's air with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap. I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose IND baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
If you have ears to hear the word of God here 11 to understand the importance of any message, it's of critical importance to understand who gives the message to whom the message is delivered and what are the circumstances or the life situation that evoked the message in the first place. With those questions in mind before we plunge into the content of the gospel of St. Mark, I want to take just a few moments to look at some of the background but who the what to wear and so on.
Of this gospel.
First of all its author is basically without question, though he is not named in the text itself.
John Mark, who was a companion of Paul early with Barnabas on their missionary journeys. It was fired by the apostle Paul and then went on with Barnabas. As Paul went with Silas, but who later was reconciled to Paul and became a very valuable comrade to him in the later days of Paul's apostolic ministry, but the testimony of church history, particularly from people of great importance in the second century like pappy is Eusebius and our Ana�s give a consistent testimony that the work on this gospel by Mark was a labor that was directed in large measure by the apostle Peter that Mark served as Peter's interpreter. There is some doubt as to whether the actual gospel was written before or after the death of Peter, but that Peter gives his stamp of approval on the content is again one of those things that is virtually certain in church history, not a question of when it was written also is significant for our understanding and to whom it was addressed again.
It's basically a settled matter of historical investigation that the audience for this gospel was initially the Christians who were suffering persecution in Rome when Nero came to power for the first five years of his Caesar done he reigned in columnists and with some ability but then in the year 59. It seemed as if he went crazy and he began to engage in all kinds of radical actions of credulity and immorality in the year 64 the great fire occurred in Rome that devastated the city that many first century people assigned the blame to Nero himself for setting fire to the city and I think it's difficult for us to understand the extent of the destruction that took place in the eternal city. As a result of that fire when the fire broke out. It spread to seven different wards of the city and it raged on and quenched for seven days. Finally, the fire was brought under control, but no sooner was it brought under control. Then it broke out again and reached and demolished virtually 80% of the city.
But what made the calamity so severe is that once things like this happen. Everybody is looking for a culprit somebody to blame. Unfortunately for me Roe. He didn't have George Bush to blame the fire of Rome on in the first century, so he chose to blame it on Christians.
So the word swept through the city that this ravaging destruction had been caused by those antisocial anti-religious fanatics who bore the name of Jesus Christ and so Nero sent his military out to round up every Christian. He could find, and when he arrested the Christians what he did was this first he would close them in the skins of wild animals.
Then in public display of credulity. He would let loose feral dogs against these people. The dogs thought they were assaulting the wild animals they would attack the Christians garbed in the skins and eat them until they were dead. Secondly, Nero would arrest Christians and dip them while they were alive in pitch or tar and ignite their bodies and he use their flaming bodies to illumine his private gardens and if that wasn't enough to give support to the city. Other Christians were arrested and brought into the Coliseum and were fed to the lions to the wild beasts of the city for entertainment and for sport. That was the background in the year 64, where the great fire broke out in all probability it was in the year 65 that the first gospel appeared the gospel according to St. Mark that was addressed to these people who were suffering this credulity every day, reminding them of their salvation in Christ, reminding them of the passion that Jesus himself experienced and reminding them that Jesus to was driven into the wilderness under the threat of the wild beasts. One of the most market characteristics of Mark's gospel is its brevity. We don't get the details. The full fleshed out import of the rest of the Gospels in Mark we get the skeletal outline the major facts that are designed to demonstrate two things a Jesus is the Messiah and be geniuses is the son of God, and he wastes no time with background and plunges right into this affirmation at the beginning of his work where he says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. That's a thematic statement for the entire work. This book will drive us relentlessly to the Caesarea Philippi confession that we will look at much later in the gospel when Jesus says to his disciples who do men say that I am and they say well the scuttlebutt is, some say your Jeremiah some cellular profit. Some say you're John the Baptist fine. Who do you say that I am in Peter's great confession Peter, the champion of Mark gives the great confession merit Caesarea Philippi when he says what the heart the Christ the son of the living God that twofold confession, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Mark introduces his gospel with the affirmation that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ which means this is the good news of Jesus the Messiah, the son of God. The two principal statements that Peter will make later at the confession are found in the very first verse of Mark's gospel. Then he takes us quickly to the Old Testament which was such an important part of the preaching of the early church.
We've noticed that Paul does that constantly when he affirms the character of Jesus. He says that Christ is the one who was born according to the Scriptures. He is the one upon the Old Testament broadly wrote is the coming Messiah.
And so Mark immediately locates the appearance of Jesus in the context of the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, and he says, as it is written in the prophets, and what he gives us now is a summary of three distinct facts that are found in the Old Testament one comes from Exodus 1 come from Malachi, and the final part of the citation comes from the prophet Isaiah, but Mark merges them together and shows that these three prophecies all predicted that before Messiah would come, that God would first send a Harold than that Harold's responsibility would be to prepare the way for the coming Messiah that Harold was not the Messiah but he was the one sent by God to announce the coming of Messiah because the Jews remembered that the last prophecy of the close of the Old Testament canon on the last page of Malachi was the promise that before the Messiah would come.
God would send Elijah and so this prophecy of the Old Testament that Elijah would come once more before Messiah would appear, and so when John the Baptist appeared on the scene of Israel when he came out of the desert and began to preach after over 300 years of silence of Old Testament prophecy. His appearance stirred more national interest than the appearance of Jesus because they didn't expect prophets anymore. They thought God was done with profits and all of a sudden this prophet emerges out of the wilderness so the first question the authorities would ask John is human.
Elijah who was to come. What would he say no I'm not in it. When asked Jesus, who John was.
Jesus said he was Elijah who was to come now, do we reconcile that John says I'm not logic to suggest one clove we look at the whole picture that conundrum is explained where we are told that John came in the spirit and the power of Elijah Jesus was saying is that the ministry of Elijah was fulfilled in the work of John the Baptist. Not that Elijah himself came back so that John was speaking the truth. No I'm not Elijah. She said no but you are in the spirit and power of Elijah and you are the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy will Mark is clearly aware of that and so he gives the citation, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, just pause for a second if there's any motif that goes through the whole gospel of Mark. It is this wilderness motif and in the real sense, the people who are receiving this gospel are experiencing a fresh the shadow of the wilderness during the catacombs. If you're captured this afternoon. You may go meet the wild beasts in the Circus Maximus or in the Coliseum. You will be exposed. Is Jesus was exposed to the wilderness of the land and so Mark begins by pointing back to the Old Testament prophets and beloved.
This is significant that in the Old Testament, the traditional meeting place between God and his prophets was always the wilderness, Moses sees the burning bush in the Midianite wilderness, God calls a nation to himself when he brings them out of Egypt in the wilderness. Elijah is ministered to by the Raven's in the wilderness and that motif goes through the Old Testament and now the New Testament begins for Mark when this strange figure comes out of the desert out of the wilderness looking for all the world like Elijah getting his description, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins than all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem one out and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
While John was clothed with camel's air with the skins of an animal, wonder how the Christians who heard that first time, where the stream of consciousness when you mean he was closed just like Nero, clothed my brother in the skins of an animal before he fed him to the wild dogs is God who prepares our salvation is a God who dresses his prophet in the skin's of animal was in the camel's hair sport coat. John was clothed with real camel hair and with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap. I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose, I baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
The rest of the Gospels give us so much more information about John the Baptist.
Even Luke tells us the story of the conception of John the Baptist and of the announcement of the angel Gabriel to John the Baptist. Father Zacharias in great detail is given to explain the mission that John is on and that he would introduce this practice of baptism was something that was radical will look at that more God willing next week, but in the meantime, Mark goes right to the heart of the matter links the Old Testament promise of the four runner who was coming to make the path straight for the Messiah gives a brief description of what he looks like his behavior. He comes out of the wilderness addresses the people from Jerusalem and all Judea flock around him. He's an instant celebrity welder pushing their TV cameras into the face of this recluse is and wait wait wait a minute there comes one after me who is mightier than I I'm not even worthy to untie the straps of his sandal task given to slaves.
The slave owner would come home's feet would be filthy.
His sandals would be held on by this strap was beneath the dignity of the aristocrat to take off his own shoes, filthy as they were. John says I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes I'm so beneath the level of the one who is coming after me.
Don't get excited about me get excited about the one I'm pointing you to the one who was Messiah, the one who was the son of God, I baptize yes I'm baptizing you with water, but the one who comes after me who was before me, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit of power. Your Messiah is coming in other Gospels. He will say his fan is in his hand.
The axes laid at the root of the tree. He's not just coming sometime in the future right around the corner's about to happen any moment the kingdom is going to break through very shortly and dear people, you are not ready. You need to take a bath, you need to be cleansed from your sins, wait a minute, said the Pharisees that kind of stuff is reserved for Gentiles were the children of Abraham. We don't need to be cleansed. That was a major issue wasn't they were children of Satan and God could raise up children of Abraham from the stone's but the people of God were not ready for the son of God and so those huddled in the labyrinth called the catacombs, heard and knew the message of the preparation for the Messiah Messiah did come, the son of God that made them willing to be where they were and if necessary, to be eaten by dogs burned as torches in the gardens of Nero were thrown to the lions in the circus how they love to hear story of the coming Messiah son. When an incredible recounting of the trials. The early church experienced. It helps us put the gospel of Mark in perspective, we just begun.
Dr. RC Sproul series from Mark's gospel today on Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb and the thank you for joining us isn't so good to hear Dr. Sproles boys. We are truly blessed.
Cheerleader ministries to have a vast archive of his preaching and teaching in.
I'm so encouraged. Every time I hear his voice like that and that the clear teaching he brought to God's word will return to this a sermon series. Each week on the program. We do hope you'll join us. And since we're so early in the study, let me recommend that you take advantage of today's resource offer. It's Dr. Sproles, expositional commentary on the Gospel of Mark. It's a very practical exploration of the key theological themes found in this gospel gladly send you the hardbound volume would you give a donation of any amount to leader ministries reach out to us@renewingyourmind.org to request your copy and add this commentary to your collection.
And we thank you for your gift of any amount. We also encourage you to download the free link in your app to your phone or tablet. There are thousands of resources available to their from videos to daily devotionals to helpful articles will have access to a theological library right there in the palm of your hand. Just look for linear in your app store. Glad you joined us today. We hope you have a wonderful Lord's day in the back with us next Sunday is we continue Dr. Sproles sermon series in Mark will take a look at Jesus baptism and learn about the fierce temptation faced in the wilderness that's next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind