The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (1)

“What Came Before The Beginning?”
Mark 1:1

1. all of us are born into a world that is already rolling along. At our birth we join life, people & events that are on-going.

2. I was born in 1955. In the world I entered:
* Winston Churchill had just resigned as Prime Minister of England, replaced by Anthony Eden
* West Germany became a sovereign state
* President Eisenhower suffered a coronary thrombosis 12 days after my birth
* Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama
* a first-class stamp cost 3 cents
* the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the NY Yankees (4-3) to win the World Series
* San Francisco defeated La Salle to win the NCAA basketball championship
* Gunsmoke made its debut on CBS
* James Dean died in a car accident at age 28
* fiber optics were developed in England
* Albert Einstein died (I took his place!)

3. the same thing is true of Jesus. The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus was not born into a vacuum. He was born a Jew into a very real historical context.

4. today I start what will be a fairly long series on the Gospel of Mark. I want to map out the historical context that awaited Jesus upon his birth.



The Big Story within all small stories
1. one way to read the Bible is to read it as a story. Because that’s what it is. The bulk of Scripture is narrative. God’s revelation is primarily given to us in the form of a story. Even the didactic parts of Scripture – Paul’s letters, for example, in the New Testament – emerge from the story of the life of the church & her people in Ephesus, Corinth or Rome.

2. there is one Big Story found in Scripture. Our life stories are lived within this one. This story comes to us in 6 chapters: creation – fall – Israel – Jesus – church – eternity. We live in chapter 5 while having 1 foot in chapters 1,2,3,4 & another foot in chapter 6.

chapter 1: Creation…Genesis 1-2
1. here is our beginning. We all of us are created equally in the image & likeness of God as male & female.

2. we are created to love & serve our Creator. We are created to love & serve one another. We are created to care for the earth.

3. we are multi-dimensional people who are meant to have relationships with – God, others, ourselves & creation.

chapter 2: Fall…Genesis 3
1. something goes terribly wrong in Genesis 3. This chapter helps us to understand the world’s brokenness & destruction. Through the creation of “free will” Adam & Eve choose to disobey God & exert their wills. This is the birth of the ‘sovereign self,” which has characterized the human race since – I want to do it my way.

2. humanity’s multi-dimensional relationships are now broken, skewed & disordered – God, others, self, creation. We now walk with a limp. The affects of the Fall surround us every minute of every day.

3. Tuesday I received a letter in the mail from Doug. Doug & I grew up together, played together – he lived across the street from us. I met his mother & sister at my brother Tom’s memorial service. They gave me his address so I wrote him. He wrote me back. Doug is in prison in Newton, Texas.

4. he shared a bit of his story – went AWOL from the Army, hid out in Germany for many years, married & divorced twice, “lost my way for awhile after my divorce.” He has 35 more months behind bars.

5. what landed him in prison, on one level, is fallout from the Fall. We face its reality everyday.

chapter 3: Israel (Genesis 12-Malachi 4)
1. this is a long, rambling chapter. Central to the story & plot are 7 characters – God, Adam & Eve, Abraham & Sarah, Moses & David. God & Adam & Eve we’ve already met.

2. in this chapter God forms a “crisis response team” to the Fall. He begins with an elderly couple, Abraham & Sarah, who miraculously conceive in their old age. Give birth to a people who will be known as the Jews, people with a special calling & vocation to know God & make God known. Who will be blessed by God in order to be a blessing to all others.

3. Moses leads this family out of bondage in Egypt. God gives them the Promised Land.

4. they reach a place of stability, peace & prosperity under the leadership of King David.

5. sadly, the kingdom deteriorates in the generations to come. The people fight each other & divide up into 2 groups, the northern & southern kingdoms.

6. things go from bad to worse:
* 721 BC – the northern kingdom is ravaged & conquered by Assyria
* 586 BC – the southern kingdom is defeated by Babylon (the best & brightest are taken in exile to serve a foreign power)
* 537 BC – descendants of Abraham allowed to return to their land in stages
* 333 BC – the Greek armies invade & occupy
* 63 BC – the Roman armies invade & occupy

7. when Jesus steps into history, the Jewish people – called & set apart by God to be his people, through whom God was going to bless all peoples – are ruled by a pagan nation.

8. 4 groups of people rose up in Israel in response to their religious, social & political situation.

9. 1st the Zealots. They thought the Jewish people were too passive & cowardly – this is why they were oppressed by foreign powers. They wanted to rally the people to take action against the Roman army. They wanted to launch a violent revolution.

10. 2nd the Herodians. Named for the supporters of the Roman puppet ruler Herod. They viewed the Zealots’ approach as stupid. To rebel would be to commit national suicide. The best option was to cooperate & play the game. Don’t rock the boat.

11. 3rd the Essenes. Their approach was to check out of the corrupt religious & political systems dominating Israel. They established alternative societies out in the wilderness. They sought to please God by isolating themselves from the culture.

12. 4th the Pharisees. They believed that God would send the Messiah if the people of Israel would live holy lives. They saw too much sin & not enough piety. They called for righteous living – they labeled prostitutes, drunks, tax collectors, Roman collaborators as sinners who were holding back the blessing of God. They called for religious purity & rigor.

13. the questions these 4 groups raised? What are we going to do about the religious, social & political mess we’re in? How can we be liberated from Caesar & Rome’s dominion?

14. the Zealots wanted to act like terrorists. The Herodians wanted to swear greater allegiance to Rome. The Pharisees attacked drunks, prostitutes & sinners. And the Essenes withdrew into the dessert to escape the evil culture.

15. The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He didn’t meet the expectations of either group. In fact, of these 4 groups, the Pharisees hated Jesus the most. It didn’t take long – Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus (3:6). They opposed Jesus because he loved, befriended, and socialized with the very people they labeled as the problem with their country.

16. I wonder how many of us would be scandalized by Jesus if he were to appear today – walk our streets & visit our homes & churches?



chapter 4: Jesus…Matthew Mark Luke John
1. in this chapter we learn all about Jesus. His life, death, suffering, resurrection & ascension. The Jesus story is the climax of the Israel story. The Jesus story is the focal point of the story of God’s redemptive drama. The Jesus story is the foundation of our won stories.

2. for the next several months we’re going to stare at Mark’s gospel & Jesus. We’re going to camp out in chapter 4.

chapter 5: Church….Acts – today
1. this is where we live. This is the part of the story that is still being written. The more we know of chapters 1 2 3 4, the better grip we will have on how to live out our lives in chapter 5

chapter 6: Eternity…Revelation
1. here will come the return of Christ. Sin, evil, death & Satan will finally be, once and for all, destroyed. And we shall live with Christ forever. This is our & history’s final destination.

how shall we then live?
1. as we live in chapter 5 [present], we immerse ourselves in the 1st four chapters [past] & the last, chapter six [future]. All these texts are passed onto us as the grand biblical story of God & his people.

2. we are formed into God people, transformed into God’s character & empowered to carry out God’s kingdom work by means of this story – the commandments, speeches, narratives, poetry, warnings, promises, prayers, proverbs & songs.

3. this is the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.