Awakened to Grace

Chad Roberts: Welcome to Awakened to Grace. Today, I begin a brand new series called Walking with Jesus, a study through the book of Mark. And you know, my friends, I cannot wait to walk through the pages of Mark with you. There is so much that we are going to learn together. I know that the power of God's word is going to transform our lives throughout this entire series.

Well, today, we're going to meet a man right off the bat in Mark 1, and he's a leper. He's going to break the law. He's going to break all cultural protocol, and he's going to approach Jesus. He's going to implore him, beg him, kneel before him, and say, "If you will, you can make me clean." And you know what, my friends? You know what we're going to learn today?

We're going to see the willingness of Christ, not just his authority, but his compassion and his willingness. And just as Christ was willing to touch that leper, Christ is willing to touch you and your life today. Imagine what it would have been like to walk physically with Jesus. To go town to town with him, village to village.

Imagine what it would have been like to watch him cleanse lepers, to open literally blind eyes, to watch him raise people from the dead. Imagine what it would have been like to meet each of the characters, to know their backstory, and to see before your very eyes the transformation that came into their life. Imagine what it would have been like to walk with Jesus.

Well, over the next many weeks, we are going to walk with Jesus, and we're going to do it through the book of Mark. And my goal today is I want to help you gain such an appreciation for the way that John Mark wrote his gospel. I want you to gain such an appreciation for the construction of the book, for the narrative of the book, and I want you to see as we meet the first miracle that Jesus is going to perform in the gospel.

I want you to see the beginnings of it, I want you to see the foundation of it, I want you to understand why the book of Mark was given to us by the Holy Spirit. I hope that you find as I have found in preparation for this, I hope you find the gospel of Mark absolutely riveting. I hope you find it exhilarating.

I hope you find this a thrilling journey because literally the book is written to where you and I can walk with Jesus from town to town, from miracle to miracle. I'm going to give you some background today, some things that you may want to write down. And the reason why I feel like the background is so important in the introduction is because if you're like me, it causes the text to become even more real.

It causes it to come alive as I ponder what the Lord gave us in these incredible pages. If you're going to take notes, let me just give you a little bit of background. Number one, I want you to note, Mark is the shortest gospel of all four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark is the shortest.

But yet, even though it is the shortest, it has the most recorded miracles than any other gospels. And what I have felt the Lord lead me in the preaching in the first part of this year is we are working our way, many of you will remember a couple of years ago, we did a healing community Sunday. We invited the community and we did a healing service. Say Amen if you were at that service. It was a mighty day.

And let me tell you, God healed many, many people. There were physical healings, God healed people emotionally. You wouldn't believe the emotional scars that were healed that day. Mental issues were healed that day. Spiritual things were healed. Past hurts were healed. It was a mighty, mighty day. And I felt the Lord say May 1st.

May 1st, I want this to be again May 1st. We're going to call it By His Stripes Healing Sunday. Well, I kept feeling drawn to the book of Mark, the way that I felt drawn to preach through the book of Acts and to preach through the book of Revelation. And I kept feeling a pull, like a magnet, I kept feeling drawn to Mark.

So I hear the Holy Spirit say May 1st, healing Sunday, May 1st. And I kept feeling drawn to Mark, and I kept thinking, well, how can I preach through an entire book in that short of time? And Mark is 16 chapters. So I asked my Alexa device how many weeks there are between January 2nd and May 1st. And guess how many weeks there are? 16.

And I said, "Message heard, Lord. Okay, we'll do it. Amen." And in knowing that this was the direction the Holy Spirit wanted to take us, even at that, I could not imagine how thrilling the prep work for the book of Mark has been. It has been like drinking from a fire hydrant. It has been exhilarating to me.

I want you to note this. Mark is the shortest of all four gospels, yet it has more miracles than any gospel recorded. And what I felt the Lord say is he wants us to study those miracles leading up to May 1st. Why? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Amen?

How many of you would love for your faith to be built this year? You would love for your faith to be strengthened. You would love to be solid in your faith that no matter what temptation comes, no matter what fierce trial comes, no matter what tragedy comes, no matter what Satan may try to throw your way, your faith is not shaken. That's what I want for my life.

And the book of Mark is going to do that for us. We're going to walk with Jesus and we're going to see miracle after miracle. Today we're going to see the leper. We're going to see how the leper came to Jesus and asked the question that so many ask: is Christ willing to touch him? Like many of us, it's not a question of is God able. We know God is able.

It's not a question of does God still heal today. No, we know God still does miracles today. The question is, is Christ willing? And we're going to get the answer to that out of Mark chapter one. But first, I want you to understand and I want you to appreciate the way that the book is written.

Now, maybe you've wondered before, why are there four gospels? Have you ever wondered that before? Why are there four? And as a matter of fact, the first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels. Why are they called synoptic? They're named that because "syn" is from where we get the word synonym, which means what? The same.

"Optic" means perspective, the same eye. In other words, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are drawing from the same content. So when you read those three gospels, you find the same characters, you find the same stories, sometimes even verbatim text. But yet, it's from the different perspective of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But yet, it's the same content.

Now, John is very different. And why is the gospel of John so different? Well, we know Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written near the same time period. It was written about 60 AD to maybe 65 or 67 AD in that five or seven year time period. And I'm going to explain to you in just a moment why that's so important to understand.

But the book of John was written about 25 years later. So the gospels had already been in circulation among the churches when John penned his gospel. John was the last remaining eyewitness of Jesus Christ, and he gave us the book of the gospel of John. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Why are there four gospels?

It's because it's going to be similar content, same optic, synoptic, but it's from different perspectives to give us one picture of Jesus. Now, Mark is going to be the shortest. Now, actually, Matthew would be the shortest if you took out the discourses of Jesus. But see, Matthew was a tax collector.

And you know what had to be a qualification to be a tax collector? You had to be able to write shorthand. And you know how the Holy Spirit used that? Because Matthew could write shorthand, he was able to capture verbatim the discourses of Christ. If you take the discourses out of the book of Matthew, then Matthew is shorter than Mark.

But Mark is written in a way, and if you're going to take notes, here's what I want you to understand about the book. Mark is written in a way that it creates urgency to our faith. Mark is written, it's almost like a fast moving script. It goes extremely fast, and there's a reason for that.

The people that Mark was writing to was a very different audience than the other gospels. Again, if you're going to take notes, you may find this interesting. The book of Matthew is written to a Jewish audience. That's why he begins with a genealogy. He begins with a legal genealogy beginning with Abraham to Christ to prove to a Jewish mind, to a Jewish audience, that Christ is the Messiah.

Luke was written to a Greek audience. Luke focuses more on what Jesus felt and the humanity of Jesus. And he begins with a blood genealogy beginning with Abraham all the way to Christ. Again, to prove that Christ is who he says he is. John is very different. Now John, whereas Matthew's written to a Jewish audience and Luke is written to a Greek audience, John writes to the universal church.

And you know what kind of genealogy John begins with? A divine genealogy. What's the first few verses? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." You see the difference? Matthew gives a legal genealogy, Luke gives a blood genealogy, well, John gives a divine genealogy.

Matthew written to the Jews, Luke written to the Greeks, John written to the universal church, but who does Mark write to? Mark writes to the Romans. And Mark does not begin with a genealogy. And I want to show you why today. Look at verse one with me. Mark is going to write to a Roman mind, to a Roman church, to a Roman world, and a Roman way of thinking.

And when you can understand that, you can understand the style that Mark writes in, and then you can appreciate what that does for your own faith. So he begins in verse one, he says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Oh friends, there's a world to unpack right there.

Let me give you just a little bit more background, and throughout the next several Sundays, I'll be giving you a lot of background on the book of Mark. But if I give it all to you today, it's going to be too much. And I'm so excited and I want to give it all today, but I'm going to resist the temptation.

If Matthew's gospel was written by Matthew, Luke by Luke, and John by John, was it John Mark who wrote the book of Mark? I believe the answer is yes and no. Like many, I believe that Mark could have been written by the apostle Peter. And let me show you why, and I'm going to show you the context, the world into which John Mark pens this gospel.

And when we understand the context of that, oh, it's going to help us in our own faith. I believe that Peter actually dictated the gospel of Mark, and I think Mark was almost like a stenographer. I think he captured what Peter wrote. The reason I believe this is because just as Paul had Timothy as a son in the faith, Peter had John Mark as a son in the faith.

He refers to John Mark in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 3. He refers to Mark as a son, affectionately as a son. And do you remember when Peter was arrested in Acts chapter 12, and James was killed by King Herod, and Peter was going to be executed on the very next morning? And you remember what happened in Acts 12?

The church gathered to pray, and an angel of God rescued Peter. Do you remember the story? An angel showed up in the cell and a bright light came, and Peter is sound asleep. I don't know about you, but could you be sound asleep the night of your execution? That's how much faith Peter had.

He was so asleep that the Bible says that when the angel appeared with the bright light, the angel had to strike him on the arm to wake him up. I could picture the angel showing up and going, "Peter! Peter!" And he strikes him in the arm, "Peter, get up!" I mean, it's almost comical. And the chains fall off, and Peter and the angel get to the iron gate.

And the Bible says the iron gate opened of its own accord. And Peter gets out into the street. And you know what the whole time? It's so surreal. Peter thinks he's dreaming. And the angel vanishes, and Peter realizes, "Oh, this is no dream at all. I'm free." And then comes the prison. No, I'm kidding, it didn't do that.

But you can picture that in your head. And do you remember where Peter goes? Anybody remember the scriptures? He went to a woman's house. The woman's name was Mary, and there was a prayer meeting at her house. You know who Mary was? She was John Mark's mother. Mark grew up around prayer meeting.

Mark grew up around the things of Jesus. We believe he was about 12 to 15 years old when Jesus was crucified. Do you remember in Mark 14 the young boy who was wearing linen cloth? You know what that was? It was his pajamas. And at the garden of Gethsemane, when they arrested Jesus, do you remember a young boy the guards grabbed and he was able to escape out of his linen cloth and ran home naked?

Anybody remember that? Matthew don't record that, Luke don't record that, John doesn't record that. You know who records it? Mark. You know why? Because I bet you that was Mark that followed Jesus and his disciples to the garden. And here Mark is, now he's around Peter, he's being mentored by Peter. Peter was friends with his mother Mary.

Barnabas was related to Mary. They were most likely, John Mark was most likely Barnabas's nephew, perhaps cousin. And here John Mark is around the things of God. And now in Peter's old age, when Peter's getting up into his upper 60s and John Mark is probably around maybe his mid 40s, they go to Rome together. And Peter calls him his son.

And I believe that Peter dictated this gospel and John Mark recorded it. Another reason I believe that is because of how fast the book moves. If you're going to take notes, you may find this interesting. In the original language of the Bible, in the Greek language, there are 11,022 words to the book of Mark.

11,022. Of those 11,022, do you know how many times the word "and" appears, A-N-D? 1,084 times. Do you know what that means? Every tenth word is the word "and". So when you read the book, it's almost like a shooting script. It's almost like a fast moving script that you would read.

And so it reads "and then," "and then," "and then," "and immediately," "and then," "and immediately." And what happens? The book moves in such a swift way. Why is that? Well, number one, because I believe Peter wrote it. And if you carefully document Peter's ministry from Acts chapter 1 to Acts chapter 12, what you find with Peter is how fast Peter moves.

He moved incredibly swift. And so the word "immediately," if you're going to take notes, note this. The word "immediately" is found about 45 times in the entire New Testament. The word "immediately" is found seven times in the book of Matthew, once in the book of Luke, and 41 times in the book of Mark.

Now the question is why? If it's true that Peter mentored John Mark, if it's true that they went to Rome together, if it's true that Peter dictated this gospel while John Mark recorded it, if all of that were true, well, then what is the main point of the book moving so swiftly? Look at verse one with me.

Verse one says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Now, see, there's no genealogy to Mark. There is to Matthew, there is to Luke, and there is to John. But not Mark. Where does Mark go? Here's what he says. If you're going to take notes, note this.

The beginning, the word "beginning" there in the Greek is arche, which is where we get our English word archaeology. What does archaeology mean? It's the study of beginnings. So in the original Greek manuscript here, the definite article "the" is not in the Greek language. So the way it would read is "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

It's the study, it's that archaeology, it's that beginning of where does the gospel come from? And this is so huge, and I don't want you to miss this. The whole center of the book, the whole purpose of the book, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Mark says, "I'm going to take you to the beginning. I'm going to show you where it came from. I'm going to show you how it came to be."

And let me tell you, let's just make sure we are clear on what the gospel is. Let me tell you, my friends, the gospel is not a philosophy. The gospel is not a religion. The gospel is not a statement of faith. Do you know what the gospel is? It is a person. It is the person of Jesus Christ.

It is his life, it is his death, it is his burial, and it is his great resurrection. Amen? 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The gospel is the ability of Jesus Christ to transform your life. The gospel is God's ability to step into your mess, to step into your past, to step into your confusion, to step into your hurt today and to rescue you out of the pit of sin.

That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is the archaeology of it. It's the beginning of it. The gospel of who? Jesus Christ. Now, let's understand. We understand the construction. It's fast moving, it goes quickly. But why? Because of the audience. Okay, I'll finish that in just one second.

But look at verse one. If it's the arche, if it's the archaeology, the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now there's something fascinating about the book of Mark. The whole pivotal point of the book is smack in the middle. There's 16 chapters. In chapter eight, it's the pivot of the book and it's where Peter confesses Christ as Lord.

Do you remember that? Jesus is talking to the disciples and he says, "Some say I'm Elijah, some say I'm a prophet, some say I'm this. But who do you say I am?" And do you remember what Peter says? "Thou art the Christ." And Jesus says, "Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but the Spirit of God."

Thank you so much for listening to our broadcast today. I did want to take just a moment and mention our store. If you go to our website awakenedtograce.com, just navigate to the store page and you're going to find music by all of our awakened artists and plenty of books by Pastor Chad.

Also, while you're on the website, you can view Pastor Chad's story about his blindness and what the Lord is doing through him through Awakened to Grace and through our church, Preaching Christ Church. Thank you so much for joining us today on Awakened to Grace.