Bible Story: Mark

1. The Man of Prayer, Logic and Power

The Life of Christ by Mark is a very brilliant book that stresses the power and majesty of our Lord. In Mark chapter 1, verse 35, we read that even though Jesus had all power and knew everything, he still felt the need of prayer. He rose up early before it was day and went to a solitary place to pray. The man of prayer. In chapter 2 of Mark, we read of the man of logic. The Pharisees had rebuked him for eating with sinners, and in Mark 2, 17 he said, Who else can I eat with? You don’t think you’re sick or need the physician. The physician only goes to those who are ill and who will admit they are. And in this clear logic, he showed them that they were self-righteous and that he had come to seek and save the lost.

2. Tell How Great Things the Lord Hath Done

Jesus was a man of logic. In Mark 3, verse 35, we learn Jesus, a man without partiality. His friend said, Your mother and your brethren and your sisters are outside. Jesus said, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Who are my sisters? Those who do the will of my Father in heaven. Jesus put a premium not on physical fleshly ties, but upon spiritual virtue, and so should we. In Mark chapter 4, we read of Jesus, the man of power. Mark 4, 41, they feared exceedingly and said one to another, What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Jesus simply arose and said, Peace, be still to the turbulent, boisterous sea. In Mark chapter 5, verse 19, after healing the man who was possessed of demons, casting the demons out into the swine that ran down the hill into the lake of Genesaret, the people wanted to kill Jesus, but he passed through them without harm.

They cared more for swine than souls. But the man that had been cleansed of the demons, the man chained down by the tombs, he was so fierce, now cleansed and in his right mind, wants to go with Jesus as he leaves the region of the Gadderenes, but Jesus said, No. You go home to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion upon thee. That statement of Mark 5 19 ought to ring in our ears. For Jesus has cast the devil out of us, if we’re Christians, and the sin sick soul has been cleansed, and we ought to go to the regions nearby and tell men of Christ. In Mark chapter 6, Jesus walked on the water, and when the disciples were fearful, he said, Be of good cheer, it is I be of peaceful mind.

3. The Kingdom Will Come With Power

Mark 6 50. In Mark chapter 7, verse 37, as though overwhelmed by the power and majesty of Christ and unable to find words to describe it, the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to say of Jesus, He hath done all things well. And that’s really what this study of the New Testament is all about Christ, who has done all things well. In Mark 8, verse 36 and 37, our Lord asked the haunting, never to be forgotten question, For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? In Mark 9, verse 1, Jesus made the promise.

Why didn’t he say all of you? Because one of them, Judas Iscariot, would be dead by the day of Pentecost when the kingdom came with power. In Mark 9 1, Jesus said, The kingdom will come with power while you’re alive. In Luke 24, 49, he said to the same group, the apostles, You tarry in Jerusalem till you be endued with power from on high. And then in Acts 1 8, he said, You receive this power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And in Acts 2, verse 4, to these very people to whom he spake on all of these occasions, the apostles who were tearing in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit overwhelmed them. Thus the kingdom came with power on the day of Pentecost, just as our Lord said, in the lifetime of some of them that stood there.

Judas had hanged himself, Matthew 27 1 to 5, Acts 1 24 and 25. So he was not present, but the others were. What a wonderful and glorious application of these passages, beginning in Mark 9, verse 1. The kingdom did come with power in their lifetime. I know the kingdom of Christ came in the first century, because Peter had the keys to it, and that’s when he lived. Matthew 16 19. People who say the kingdom of Christ has not yet come, or as Jehovah’s Witnesses teach, he that it came in 1914, have to deal with the fact that Jesus said it would come with power in the first century. And Peter had the keys to it, and he lived 1900 years ago. To say the kingdom is not yet come is a strange phenomena in the light of these Bible passages.

And Colossians 1 13 said men had already been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear son in the middle of the first century. Paul preached the kingdom of God, Acts 28 31. In fact, he was run out of Thessalonica because he spoke of the kingdom of Christ, and they began saying there’s a rival to Caesar. They preached the kingdom, men were in the kingdom. Peter had the keys to the kingdom all in the first century. The kingdom of Christ is not something yet to be, but something that’s 1900 years old right now. And when Jesus comes, he will take the kingdom and deliver it up to God. First Corinthians 15, 23 to twenty five. He will not come back to earth and set up the kingdom.

4. You Do Greatly Err, Not Knowing the Scriptures

He’ll take the kingdom that’s on earth now and deliver it up to God. First Thessalonians four says we’ll meet him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So he’ll take that kingdom that meets him in the air and deliver it up to God. He is not coming back to earth to set up his kingdom. The Bible nowhere teaches he’ll ever set his feet on this earth again. And then in Mark ten forty five, our Lord showed that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for all. Isn’t that a marvelous verse? In Mark eleven, we have many powerful and straightforward teachings, but there’s nothing so brilliant as the word Hosanna, which means save us we pray.

In the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, they strode palm branches in his way and said, Hosanna, save us we pray. But they didn’t mean save us from our sins. They didn’t think they had any of those. They meant save us from the Romans, deliver us from these tyrants politically. Jesus showed he didn’t care who ruled in a civil way, he wanted to rule and reign in the hearts and lives of men and women. And then in Mark twelve he said to the Sadducees, the religious elite of his day, you do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God. And the reason we have three hundred denominations in America and eight hundred religions in the world is that men do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God.

And when men depart from the scriptures and have their own creed books and their ideologies, and when they have their councils and synods and earthly headquarters, they do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God. In Mark chapter 13, we have the great and eloquent narrative or treatise on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. And he says in Mark 13, 37, What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. Eternal vigilance is the price of victory. And we need to understand that spiritually speaking, that’s so true, we must ever be on guard. Walk circumspectly, looking in every direction, redeeming the time, buying up the time because the days are evil. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 and 16. And then in Mark chapter 14, we have Jesus and getting ready for the cross.

5. Better Had He Never Been Born

We have men that betray him who deny him. And in Mark 14, 21, he said, of the one who would choose to betray him, better for that man had he never been born. Friend, wouldn’t it be tragic in the day of judgment if the Lord would say to us, Better for you had you never been born? It reminds me of Nehemiah 2.20. To the Samaritans, Nehemiah said, You have nothing precious to remember here. You have no memorial in Jerusalem at all. But in Nehemiah 13:31, the fervent cry, Remember me, O my God for good. If in the day of judgment the Lord remembers us for good, and our name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life, Revelation 21, 27. What a wonderful day it would be.

But what if our name is blotted out from the Lamb’s book of life, Revelation 3:1 to 5? Truly, better for that man had he never been born. In Mark 15:1, we read of evil men who should have been religious leaders, binding Jesus literally, hand and foot, and delivering over to Pilate for the cruel crucifixion. Can you think of anything worse than having a part in literally binding, tying up Jesus and delivering him for crucifixion? I can think of one thing worse, and that would be those of us who figuratively bind Jesus by our lack of Bible knowledge, by our negligence to spiritual duty, by a compromise of truth, by our failure to spread the gospel of Christ, by our failure to live a pure life for Jesus.

6. Go Preach the Gospel to Every Creature

These things, not doing things in the name of Christ, but his authority, Colossians 3:17. Form a tandem much worse than those who literally bound Jesus. We bind him spiritually and hinder his work. And finally, in Mark 16, 15 and 16, after his death, after his burial in Joseph Arimathea’s new tomb, after his resurrection on the third day by the power of God. We read of Jesus pointing a nail-pierced hand to a world of sin, just before he ascended back to the Father from Mount Olivet. And he said, Go preach the gospel of Christ to every creature and every nation to the end of time, and I’ll be with you. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And so the life of Christ by Mark, powerful, majestic, splendid.

Conclusion

Mark stresses what Jesus did more than what he taught. Only four of thirty-one parables in the book of Mark, but twenty-one of thirty-nine miracles. Jesus, a man of action, to the Roman people, people of action, stressing the power and grandeur and glory of Christ is this wonderful book of Mark. As we left off in our other section of this study, we had finished the book of 1 Corinthians. Let us turn now to 2 Corinthians, now that we’ve studied the life of Christ from another vantage point and