THIRD QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #1
JULY 6, 2024
“THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL"

 

John Mark is thought to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, which we are studying this quarter. A son of one of the Marys mentioned in the New Testament, likely initially raised in a wealthy family, and though not one of the twelve disciples, nevertheless a close follower of Jesus, he had first hand knowledge of the gospel story.

The lesson author calls him “the failed missionary,” based on his leaving Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey around A.D. 36. He had evidently run away at least once before this, as he deprecatingly puts it in the third person (like John would do in his Gospel),  “Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked” (Mark 14:51,52).

He was in “good” company, you might say, as all the disciples had fled as well. Jesus was so kind and merciful (still revealing the Father!), though, restoring the Apostle Peter who had outright denied Him, and with whom John Mark would later serve, as well as the others who had fled. By the time he wrote his Gospel sometime between A.D. 55-65, likely with Paul in Rome, Mark had come to experience redemption from past mistakes as a poignant experience, through the kind ministry of his cousin Barnabas, the “son of encouragement.”

Paul, who had shown no patience for wavering and fear (nor for Barnabas’ “dissimulation” described in Galatians chapter 2), was eventually appreciative of Mark’s usefulness assisting in his own ministry (2 Tim. 4:11). Paul, of course, had been given the biggest second chance of all, being a living terror to the early church. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us (Eph. 2:4)” applied especially to Paul, the most advanced expositor of gospel theology.

Mark’s Gospel, “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” begins by straightaway keying off the prophetic foundations of Christ’s ministry, the introduction of Christ by John the Baptist as the divine-human Messiah, the Holy Spirit’s blessing, the victory in the wilderness, calling the disciples, and jumping right in to the miraculous teaching and healing ministry of Christ. You can see that Mark is focused on the person of Jesus (Who is He?) and what He is revealing about the Father’s love for us in redemption, the lengths to which He will go to accomplish healing, sozo for the human race (Where is He going? What is He doing?).

Jesus’ first call in the context of the time being at hand (the 69 weeks of Daniel chapter 9) is to (a new way of thinking) and belief in the gospel, the good news of the Father’s reconciling love for the human race, and particularly for each individual. I’m sure this was a great motivator, an anchor of Mark’s experience.

The Seventh-day Adventist movement was raised to join with the final message to the world at the end of the other major time prophecy in the book of Daniel, the 2300 day/years of chapter 8, where a final repentance of the ages would be accomplished. As the lesson author points out, the call of Jesus is parallel to the final call of Revelation 14 in the first angel’s message. Certainly by the end of Mark’s gospel we will see the parallels with the second and third angel’s messages, as well as that mighty angel of Revelation 18, Christ Himself.

As we study the book of Mark this quarter, we should look for parallels with our own corporate experience, especially with our history of failing to carry the gospel commission forward in 1888 and onward, and in a sense retreating back to Jerusalem like Mark, uncertain and unbelieving of the promise and power of God in the face of opposition. Perhaps like Mark we can grasp the redemptive mercy of God in our own experience, and as we share the gospel, also like Mark, focus our attention securely on the person and ministry of Christ.

Of course, we all have personal experience with second chances, which should give us mercy and understanding toward others, especially those who don’t seem to “get” the beautiful perspective the 1888 message brings to our walk with the Lord, who inexplicably resist, if not distort, the message.

The God who is rich in mercy, in His great mercy sent a most precious message back then. Let us pray that we, like the 1888 messengers, will be able to discern and share the principles of this message throughout the book of Mark as we study together this quarter. Like Mark we should focus our attention on the uplifted Saviour.

“The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders [E.J.] Waggoner and [A. T.] Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.

“Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” -Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 91, 92 (1895).

We, too, have a second chance.

 

~ Todd Guthrie