Sermon Notes: Mark 1:14-20
Mark 1:14-20
Good morning!
Let’s read our text and jump right in.
Mark 1:14-20
1. Suffering in all its forms is part of our discipleship. V. 14
Mark leads with his theme of discipleship here. Remember, discipleship is proximity to Jesus in learning hear and obey him.
Those who come to Jesus will experience what Jesus’ experienced as an example.
Mark uses the word translated as “arrested” (paradidomai) here, and he will use it consistently throughout his good news account, and it is often translated as “handed over or handing over”.
What is he doing? Mark is helping to anticipate that those who come to Jesus and joyfully looking for the kingdom of God will have hardships to walk through just like the One they are coming in proximity to.
Mark uses the same word when he tells about Jesus being “delivered into the hands of men” as the Son of God (9:31; 10:33; plus eight times in chaps. 14–15). Mark will use the same word for Christian believers (13:9, 11, 12). Sometimes the word is translated as “delivered into or delivered to” rather than “arrested”. The word Mark chooses is deeply theological. It combines not only the adversities to which disciples are subjected but also the superintending will of God that is operative through them (14:21).[1]
This is because we get what our leader got.
Why does Mark do this? It’s not lite and fluffy, and frankly not a selling feature.
Mark does this because there is a conflict for disciples as citizens of the kingdom of God. That conflict is with the Serpent and his people that Jesus is leading the charge in.
Jesus calls us to mission with him to conquer the Serpent, take ground from him, and preach the good news to establish his reign over that ground.
Mark wants his audience of believers and unbelievers to believe and understand their current struggles and the coming struggles if they choose to follow Jesus.
Mark is not doing the old bait and switch. Mark is dealing in reality as he’s living it himself on the field making disciples. There’s no pretending in John Mark.
He’s tasted church conflict as Paul justly wanted nothing more to do with him because he left the mission. He’s tasted Barnabas’ mercy in mentoring him. He’s tasted renewed partnership with Paul. He’s tasted suffering and knows Jesus too well to turn back.
Mark is letting his readers know that the way of the Son of God will involve hardship. And he also wants them to know it is also not a path left to the abuse of the Serpent and his people apart from the will of God.
Suffering is part of God’s design in discipleship.
Mark’s use of this word throughout his work to show that even if the Serpent and his people bite, that bite is not without the superintending purposes of the Father.
There is no such thing as purpose-less suffering for the follower of Jesus’ Christ.
Mark knows this firsthand, and he doesn’t want you to be surprised by it.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (ESV) 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Remember, Jesus calls us to follow him on mission in confronting the Serpent and his people. Next week we will see a direct-action report of Jesus conflict with an unclean spirit, and like Jesus, they can expect similar contact in various forms from successfully casting them out to being abused by their people.
Simply, Mark wants his audience to not be surprised by fiery trials.
2. Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee. V. 14
Jesus kicking off his ministry in Galilee reveals one of Mark’s themes: The Gentiles.
There is a bunch of emphasis in the Bible on the north and the nations of the north, particularly eschatologically with nations like God and Magog, and the danger that spills down from the north from other nations.
The reason is that the Jewish folks believed that the rebellion of the Sons of God happened in the North on Mount Hermon, and thus from that region the influence of Babel spread to the nations, and thus the people of those non-Jewish nations are outsiders to God and to be avoided.
So, the Lord begins his ministry in the north along the northern borders of Gentile nations where rebellion and evil lurk.
The emphasis on Jesus beginning his ministry working in the north of Israel close to Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy and more refined portions of the nation shows us what God made clear to Abraham: The Lord’s intends to reclaim the nations and conquer the land and people taken captive by the forces of darkness by reconciling them to himself.
The Jews of Galilee were looked down on by the southern Jews because of Galilee’s proximity to the Gentiles and their distance from the epicenter of Judaism. Their remoteness make them a little like the citizens of south Floyd County. Different folk. Different accent (Peter will get asked about his accent in Jerusalem at Jesus’ trial). Backwoods.
This is where Jesus begins his ministry, on the frontier.
Jesus’ ministry begins in a way to show that Jesus is not just the Jewish God, as if he shared the stage with the gods of the nations. Jesus is God, the God, Creator of all.
Jesus’ wants to redeem and invite his fellow descendants of Abraham to be on mission with him to rescue the Gentiles of the north and all nations who have been taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.
Jesus begins his ministry wide open on mission. No ramp up. No warmup. Wide open.
3. Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the need to repent and believe the good news. V. 14-15
This is the only reference in Mark’s Gospel to “the good news of God,” an expression that Paul uses (Rom 1:1; 15:16; 2 Cor 11:7; 1 Thess 2:2, 8, 9; also 1 Pet 4:17). Since Mark has already introduced the gospel with reference to Jesus in 1:1, it is probable that by “the good news of God” he does not mean the good news about God, but rather the good news from God that is made known in Jesus Christ. “The good news of God” is thus the sum total of Jesus’ teaching and proclamation and will be further elaborated by “the kingdom of God” in v. 15.[2]
So, the good news of the kingdom is God’s proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God and is the whole history of God’s work from Genesis 1 to this moment and will be completed in Revelation 22.
The good news of the kingdom is the metanarrative of reality. It is the framework by which we judge all things.
Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." – C.S. Lewis in his essay “Is Theology Poetry?”
The good news of the kingdom is the only message that will save a person, and simultaneously it is the powerful framework by which we learn to see and evaluate all things. Its sheer sense and sheer logical and faith filled perfection convinces us it is the way.
This is why the good news of the kingdom is the power of God for salvation. Only the good news of the kingdom of Jesus Christ can show the human what they need to know to be saved and how to live and at the same time save them by no effort of their own.
Acts 4:12 (ESV) 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
4. Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to follow him., and they “immediately” leave their nets and follow Jesus. V. 16-18
We have one of John Mark’s themes here in Jesus’ calling two sets of brothers, it’s the theme of “Immediately”. Remember “immediately” for Mark is not an issue of being in a hurry. (See the appendix for the themes.)
“Immediately” is first principle, it’s what is important. It is not hurry.
Mark displays the power of the good news to bring men to repentance and faith, and he shows us that repentance and faith look like following Jesus.
Simon and Andrew hear Jesus’ call to learn how to catch men and there is no debate, no thinking on it, and there is no hesitation. These brothers heard the call of the Son of God, and they drop their nets and follow Jesus.
5. Jesus “immediately” calls James and John to follow him, and they leave their father and follow Jesus. V. 19-20
John Mark hits us with theme of “immediately” again.
What is being emphasized this time is not the response, but Jesus’ good news call.
Mark emphasizes the first principle of inviting people to follow Jesus as the first thing.
What that means is that Jesus was not messing around with some warmups to hopefully get the Sons of Thunder to listen to him. Jesus issues the divine call of the gospel because it’s the only thing that can effectively catch men, and it does its job.
Here is the point: Jesus wants to display to Simon and Andrew their first lesson of discipleship: Catch men by calling them with the good news of the kingdom from the start.
Jesus invites Simon and Andrew to learn to catch men with the good news of the kingdom of God, then he shows them what it looks like.
Jesus shows Simon and Andrew how to catch men with a powerful encounter with their fellow businessmen.
I can imagine Jesus saying, “Hey remember how I told you you’d learn to catch men, Here is how you catch men, boys: “James and John, come follow me!”
James and John leave their father to follow Jesus.
Remember the question: What does this mean? What does John Mark intend to show us in the immediate response of Simon and Andrew to the good news and the primacy of inviting people to follow Jesus from the start?
Jesus is teaching a discipleship lesson, and our last observation will involve our answer and with the theme of discipleship.
6. Disciples will respond to the good news and disciples will lead with the good news and invitation to follow Jesus.
Remember that “immediately” is not hurry but first principle, and “discipleship” is proximity to Jesus with hearing him and obeying him.
Fact: when the elect of God hear the good news they are awakened to life. Awakened disciples will come to Jesus to hear him and obey him because that’s the first principle of the good news. It is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.
You don’t have to solve that mystery just believe it.
John Mark provides for us the confidence that the good news Jesus preached is the message we should preach, that it is powerful and effective, and that we should lead with it and invite outsiders to come near to Jesus to be saved, hear him, and obey him.
So, what do we do with these observations?
Application:
1. Expect suffering
I just want to let the text speak. I’m not trying to be Donnie Downer.
Suffering is a human experience. Suffering is normative in degrees to every human being.
The comfort western civilization has afforded the church has led to man-made doctrines that revolve around peace, ease, and riches. To create such entrenched ideas, they had to jettison the parts of the Bible and Jesus’ ministry that dealt with suffering and the reasons.
My point is that in our comfort, we let our guard down and began to believe comfort is the norm rather than conflict with the enemy that creates suffering and that is necessary in the fight of the kingdom of God.
We need to take John Mark at his word that if we follow Jesus and invite others to follow Jesus, we are getting in a fight that will involve hardship for us, but it is winnable, and we can have peace and joy in it also.
Suffering that we bring on because we violate God’s divine law or laws of nature is just and the result of breaking boundaries. We can’t really complain about that.
Suffering that comes because we do what is right has an eternal weight of glory to it that pays out down the road and is worth it.
1 Peter 1:3-7 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:12-19 (ESV) 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
2. If you have not believed, you’ve heard today. Repent and follow Jesus.
3. If you have followed Jesus because you were compelled with the good news of the kingdom, get after making disciples.
How?
Lead (immediately / first principle) with the good news of the kingdom. Don’t let fear rule you. Jesus showed us how to do it. I believe often we are faced with a shame issue because we’ve allowed our world to shame the good news and we’ve become ashamed of it. Shame produces fear.
So, we cover up our intentions and never get to the issue.
Invite people to respond in faith when you drop the G bomb. You don’t have to wait. It’s not your decision. It’s theirs. But make sure you invite them.
If they do receive the invitation to follow Jesus, then get them a Bible, bring them to worship with you, and we’ll go from there in helping each other teach folks to follow Jesus.
You and I don’t have to have every possible scenario figured out with a system. We have Acts to show us that we’ll encounter so many wild things that we can’t possibly have a procedure for every situation. We do have the Holy Spirit who will direct our steps, give us words, and remind us of God’s word.
We’ll figure out how to integrate folks of all kinds when they believe.
NOTE: You and I are probably going to have to shed much of the framework of doing evangelism the way we’ve seen it or been taught it and get back to the Bible’s examples.
We are not Jesus, so we can’t tell folks to follow us and we’ll make them fishers of men. What we can do is articulate who Jesus is in the framework of the good news of the kingdom (Creation / Fall / Redemption / Restoration) and invite them to believe that and follow us as we follow Jesus together in the local church, be baptized, and then covenant themselves to a local church.
Inside that we will probably deal with deep discipleship issues. Good. That’s the work.
We need to get our heads wrapped around the reality that as in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. We might encounter some wild stuff. It’s on the increase, and if you are in any way among pagans, you know it.
Because naturalism is dead as a worldview, the enemy is no longer camouflaged behind a worldview that preaches his non-existence. The enemy is operating in the open. More and more people are aware of and experiencing overt non-material evil that manifests itself physically.
The news continues to reveal what has been happening under the cover of darkness as ritual to demonic powers while many perpetrators put up either a naturalistic veneer or even a cultural Christian veneer.
We must be ready to get after disciple making with no blueprint but what is in the Bible.
I would not believe half the things I believe that are clearly in the Bible and thought hooey by many naturalistic Christians and mostly ignored by our tribe had Jennifer and I not become friends with a Satanic ritual abuse survivor who served in our student ministry.
You simply can’t prepare for everything, but we can do what Jesus did: preach the good news without fear, invite people to follow Jesus, and integrate folks into the church.
If folks don’t respond, then love them and move on. If there is a long standing relationship, don’t give access to their ground of unbelief. Keep talking about Jesus. Don’t give an inch to darkness and unbelief. Why should we? Because they might not believe? They already don’t believe. I’m not saying it’s ok to be a jerk. I am saying don’t abandon Jesus because someone’ unbelief wants you to abandon the good news call.
If they have questions, answer them to the best of your ability.
4. Steal yourself for spiritual conflict if you get after preaching the good news and living inside the good news’ framework.
Next week John Mark will take us right into the lion’s den with Jesus and his new disciples.
Jesus will confront the Serpent and his forces of evil in the heavenly places.
If you preach good news, attempt as best you can to see all things through the lens of the whole Bible and the good news it preaches. That way when you come face to face with evil, you can discern it, classify it, and know how to make application and serve in the moment.
5. Pray
Strengthen us to persevere.
Give us your power, peace, and joy when we have to suffer for doing good.
Make us bold.
Give us the fruit of multiplying disciples.
Increase us.
Help us be holy.
Keep sending us.
Appendix
1. Discipleship
Discipleship begins with knowing who one is a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus and identify him for us. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so the disciples are to be with Jesus.
The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father.
Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples. Jesus’ disciples struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father also sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus.
Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness knowing him, hearing him, and obeying him.
2. Faith
“For Mark, faith and discipleship have no meaning apart from following the Son of God. Faith is thus not a magical formula but depends on repeated hearing of his word and participation in his mission.”[3]
There are two groups: Those with great faith and those who are faithless.
There are those who show great faith who have no reason to show faith in Jesus. They are on the outside of Jesus’ circle and seem to have no advantage, yet they display great faith. These folks have an assurance of things hoped for and conviction about unseen things hoped for. They display their faith in their deep desire and effort to get to Jesus for help.
The faithless and those struggling with faith should have the advantage: his hometown, the religious insiders who are supposed to be the theological experts, and even his own disciples.
These folks struggle to take Jesus at his word. This group is full skeptics, blasphemers, and those who are slow to believe.
3. Insiders and outsiders
The theme of insiders and outsiders distinguishes those who are enemies of God and those who are not.
Jesus will tell us that he teaches in parables because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are for the insiders and the parables keep the outsiders from understanding. That’s a little hard to swallow, but it is what Jesus says.
This theme will uncover the bias of those who think they are insiders based on their status and are not. This theme puts the last first and first last.
The insiders are those who live by faith and begin to understand Jesus’ teaching.
The outsiders are the faithless.
The problem is that the faithless and outsiders of the kingdom of God are in power and are the ones who are believed to have the answers and should be insiders.
The outsiders are enemies of God. The insiders are those who have been cast out due to the deceived nature of the faithless who think they are faithful.
That feels confusing, but it becomes clear as you walk through Mark’s gospel, and it should cause each one of us to take account of ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure we are not self-deceived and perceived insider who is actually an outsider because we are an elite and faithless hack.
4. Gentiles
The emphasis on Jesus working in the North parts of Israel among the Gentiles and close to Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy portions shows us the Lord’s intent on reclaiming the nations and conquering the land and people taken captive by the forces of darkness.
The emphasis you will find in the prophets on the north is important, and it’s a theme for a whole Bible exposition not for a study through Mark alone. But Mark picks up on it because it is geographically significant in the prophets, and Jesus actually works from the north of Israel.
The point is that it is Gentile, unbeliever territory.
Jesus’ work in Israel was not for them to have him to themselves, but to redeem and invite them to mission with him to rescue the Gentiles taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.
5. Messianic secret
Mark is full of Jesus telling folks he heals to keep it quiet, and they usually don’t do it.
Why would Jesus want folks to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?
Paul said it in Ephesians 3, and we read it last week.
There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the seed of the woman is and how the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent dragon. Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.
In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into his trap by his humble ministry and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low not realizing that by his death he tramples over death, the curse, and crushes the Serpent’s noggin.
Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand has been revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation.
This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show usthe teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s declaration.
Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection.
6. Focused journey
After Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah (8:27ff), Jesus sets out with focus to the cross, and Mark captures Jesus’ journey very starkly. Jesus’ focused journey to the cross becomes his invitation to us to join in the focused journey of being with him on mission as the way of the cross.
7. Immediately
Mark uses the Greek word “euthus”, translated as “immediately”, in his account of Jesus’s work. I believe that the entire New Testament uses this word about 51 times. John Mark uses “immediately” 41 of the 51 times, thus making John Mark the predominant user.
What is Mark communicating?
“Euthus” means “to make straight” regarding physical things. “Euthus” is also used regarding immaterial things like the heart of a matter, and when applied to things like that it means “right” and “true”. Its synonyms are firm, unwavering, and ready.
The Greek word as Mark uses it is not so much about time. We hear “immediately” and think
being in a hurry. Jesus was not in a hurry.
Mark is telling us that Jesus was walking in the unwavering and always straight way of truth. Jesus was deliberate about the mission.
Jesus’ way is deliberate not hurried.
[1] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 44.
[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 45.
[3] 1 James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 17.