Studying the Gospel of Mark

Today, I began listening to the "Drive Time Devotions" podcast on the Gospel of Mark by Pastor Tom Holliday from Saddleback Church in California. It's a 10-minute daily offering that walks through Mark in small bite-sized chunks.

Here are the notes I took from DAY ONE which was basically an overview of the book and the books author.

Facts about the Gospel of Mark
1) Written in 45 A.D.
2) Wrote 10-15 years after death of Jesus
3) First Gospel to be written down to help us understand the life of Jesus
4) Written to the Roman People
5) Theme of this Gospel: Gives a perspective of Jesus as a servant, the one who came to give his life as a servant for us
6) Peter & Paul had already been killed for their faith by the time this book was written
7) Mark was a friend of Peter
8) In this Gospel, Mark writes down what he has learned from Peter
9) You almost could call this the Gospel of Peter as written down by Mark

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, MARK

(1) Mark was an uneasy servant (Acts 12:25-13:3) – He goes out to serve with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. He is unsure of his place and uneasy as to what it means to be a servant.

(2) Mark was an uncertain servant (Acts 13:13) – He went home from his missionary journey. He couldn’t cut it as a missionary. He failed as a missionary with Timothy & Barnabas.

(3) Mark was an unwanted Servant (Acts 15:38) – Has become an unwanted servant. Paul no longer wants to take Mark on his next missionary journey. Timothy disagreed with Paul and wanted to take Mark with them on their next missionary church. This caused Timothy and Paul to go there separate ways. Thus, someone as great as the Apostle Paul didn’t believe in Mark. This may have been the end of Mark’s story if it hadn’t been for an encourager that the Lord brought into his life – Barnabas.

(4) Mark eventually became an unshackled Servant (Acts 15:37-39) – He was freed from his past by the forgiveness of Christ. He’s also given a new opportunity and new hope for the future by Barnabas who was a great encourager to Mark.

NOTE: If we think about it, without Barnabas there would have been no Paul because Barnabas was the one who originally encouraged Paul into ministry and encouraged the young church to except Paul who used to be an enemy of the church. So Paul was not only responsible for the ministry of Mark but also of Paul. So, in a sense Barnabas is responsible for the writings of more New Testament books then anyone else. All of the Epistles of Paul plus the Gospel of Mark were the direct result of the ministry of Barnabas.

(5) Mark became a useful Servant - Things changed! God changed Mark and his circumstances (1 Peter 5:13 – useful to Peter; becomes useful to Paul eventually as well! – 2 Timothy 4:11; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24).

3 THINGS WE LEARN THROUGH THE LIFE OF MARK
(1) As followers of Christ, need to move from spectator to servant
(2) Servants must grow, we don’t just arrive
(3) There is incredible power of encouragement