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Sabbath School 3rd Quarter: The Book of Mark

Mark Finley

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

Welcome to another 1 of our Sabbath School Lessons studies.

This quarter we're studying the Gospel of Mark.

It's special to take a book of the Bible and to study it chapter by chapter.

It really inspires you and encourages you and you see the completeness of Scripture in that Bible book.

The Gospel of Mark can be divided into 2 separate sections.

The first 8 chapters talk about the Christ as the Messiah And Mark attempts to prove that Christ is the Messiah, not simply by saying he is the Messiah, but he uses prophecy to show that John the Baptist was predicted in the Old Testament and he was to prepare the way for the Messiah and that Jesus is the messianic fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies, talking about John announcing the Messiah.

Then Mark points out in his gospel in the first 8 chapters that Jesus is Messiah based on the miracles that he worked and so you have a number of miracles particularly in chapters 2 & 3 you have like a sequence of 5 miracles in chapter 3 alone.

And then Jesus' teachings demonstrate he's the Messiah.

So prophecy, actions, teachings in the first 8 chapters.

The last 8 chapters make a transition, And they transition to this journey that Christ was on, a journey to the cross.

And they show that Christ is the Messiah, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy that would come as the suffering servant, the 1 that would die for humanity, the 1 that would redeem us by his grace, the 1 that would reach out to us and woo us or charm us by his love, the 1 that would hang on the cross for us and deliver us from guilt and condemnation of sin and release us from the bondage and power of sin.

First section, Christ is the Messiah, prophecy, actions, teachings.

Second section, Christ is Messiah because of his redemptive act on the cross and the last 8 chapters are the journey to the cross.

Now we're studying this book called the book of Mark.

We'll jump right into it in the quarterly.

Well, we find a little bit about him in Acts chapter 12, not a great deal, but we learn a little bit about him in Acts chapter 12.

You'll recall that the background of the 12th chapter of the book of Mark is that Peter is in prison and angel releases him from prison and Peter is taken through the streets that early morning and he comes to the house of Mary.

We have the first mention of Mark here in Acts 12, verse 12.

So when he had considered this, He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.

We learn that he had a mother and the disciples were praying in her home.

She must have been a very prominent woman in the Christian community there.

We learn also that John Mark was her son.

So he had been acquainted from the earliest age with the Apostles.

He had been acquainted from his youngest time with the believers in Christ.

And Peter later called John Mark his son, not biological son, but a son in the faith.

So he was a young man that was an aspiring missionary.

The next time we see him is in Acts chapter 13, verse 1 to 5.

In Acts chapter 13, verse 1 to 5, the disciples lay hands on Paul and Barnabas and send them on their first missionary journey.

When you come to Acts 13, verse 13, it says, Now when Paul and his party set sail from Pephas, they came to Pergaea in Pampylia, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.'" John departs, he goes back from Jerusalem, John Mark does.

He's been on this missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas.

Well the fifth verse tells us of Acts 13, when they arrived in Salmus, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

Paul and Barnabas have hands laid upon them.

They're ordained to go forth to preach the gospel throughout the Mediterranean world.

They take as their assistant, as their helper, a young man by the name of John Mark.

John Mark goes with them, but then because of the hardship or the difficulty of the way, he goes back home.

There's an interesting comment by Ellen White in Acts of the Apostles, page 169.

You'll read that on Sunday's lesson, the last paragraph.

It says, Mark overwhelmed with fear and discouragement, I'm quoting from Acts of the Apostles, page 169, wavered for a time in his purpose to give himself wholeheartedly to the Lord's work.

Unused to hardships, he was disheartened by the perils and privations of life and on the way." So here, John Mark, this young man who's on this missionary journey, becomes fearful.

Now, challenges that Paul faced were quite great.

I mean, you'll remember Paul was beaten with rods.

He spent time in the sea when he was cast into the sea.

And when the hardships of the way got too much for John Mark, he left.

The interesting thing about this is that the scripture says that when a second missionary journey was going to take place in Acts 15, that Paul and Barnabas have a dispute.

Acts 15, verse 36, that after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go back and visit the brethren in every city where we've preached the word of God and see how they're doing.

Here people had been saved in God's kingdom.

And Paul and Barnabas say, we're not gonna leave them alone.

Oh, would to God when people are baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, that we would nurture them, that we'd support them, that we'd encourage them.

Paul and Barnabas didn't leave them on their own.

Now, Barnabas was determined to take with him John called Mark.

It was interesting, John Mark was Barnabas's cousin.

And so Barnabas saw potential in this young man.

Barnabas saw possibilities in this young man.

Now Paul was a passionate, driven evangelist, and he didn't want any nonsense.

He didn't want to take somebody along that he thought might leave them again.

So it says, but Paul insisted, verse 38, that they should not take with them the 1 who had departed from them in Pampylia and had not gone with them to the work, verse 39.

Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from 1 another and Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.

Paul chose Silas and departed and he was commanded by the brethren by the grace of God." Now look, Paul and Barnabas had a conflict.

They were both men of God, different personalities, but this conflict became so sharp that Barnabas went his way and Paul went his way.

There are times that godly workers do have conflict.

There are times that people see things differently.

It doesn't mean 1 is right and necessarily 1 is wrong.

It means that we have different dispositions, different backgrounds, different ways of looking at things.

Barnabas and John Mark went another direction.

God used the contention to form 2 missionary teams rather than 1.

You know, There are times that people work together.

They're godly people, but they just feel the time has come for them to branch out in different directions.

There are times in congregations where church planting takes place, where a group leaves 1 church.

And I should say they should never do that because of anger, bitterness, or resentment, but they may feel, hey, we have another calling by God.

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

Welcome back to our second lesson in this series on the Gospel of Mark.

Anytime you study the Bible and you study chapter by chapter a particular book of the Bible, it's especially inspiring.

And I know this quarter you're gonna be incredibly inspired as we study.

In the lesson this week on the gospel of Mark, we're gonna be looking at who Jesus is.

We're gonna see the evidence that he's the Messiah, not because he says He is the Messiah in these early chapters, although He does that in some of the gospels, but we're gonna see His actions.

We're gonna go with Him, journey with Him as He calls His first disciples, Peter and Andrew, and James and John.

We'll see the power of that call and understand a little bit about why he called them and how he called them and why they followed him.

We'll also go into a synagogue with Jesus in Capernaum in this lesson, and we'll see his mighty power as he delivers a man possessed with a demon.

We'll see his healing power as Christ himself heals, raises up Peter's mother-in-law.

We will journey with Jesus in this particular lesson.

And we'll see him heal multitudes in Mark 1 and then we'll go with him alone as we see him kneel in prayer.

And so let's launch right into our chapter.

We go into it beginning in Sunday's lesson, Mark chapter 1, verse 16 and onward.

Now it may seem strange their response to follow him immediately.

And as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Then Jesus said to them, "'Come after me and I'll make you fishers of men.' and immediately they left their nets and followed him." 2 things about that.

First, it says, immediately they left their nets and followed him.

You know, the only obedience that we can have is immediate obedience, Because if you don't obey when Jesus calls you, it's not obedience at all, is it?

But that word immediately, I was interested in that.

Here you have people that are mending their nets.

Here you have these fishermen that are watching Peter and Andrew.

And so all these fishermen are there, they've had a night fishing, and they're all on the shore.

Some are sorting their catch, some are amending their nets, some are cleaning their boats.

And Jesus walks over, he comes by, and he picks out Peter and Andrew.

And he calls him, he says, come follow me.

They leave their nets, they leave their boats.

Peter has a mother-in-law, so evidently leaves his family, and he follows Jesus.

When you look at it just on the surface, but that's why we need the harmony of all of the Gospels.

In the Gospel of John, In the first chapter, you find there in John's Gospel the evidence that Peter and Andrew had evidently been followers of John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist had been preaching for a while, and John the Baptist had shared the messianic fulfillment of prophecy that would come in Christ.

So my understanding is this, this was not some whim or fancy.

It was not some emotional response that Peter and Andrew made that day, and it was not irresponsible at all.

They may have been talking to their families about it, we don't know.

Certainly they provided finances for their families, and certainly from the missionary journeys they came back to visit their families.

Certainly they were responsible that way.

They made an intelligent decision based on prophecy.

The second point is this, the Holy Spirit had been convicting their hearts.

And when Jesus made the appeal, they responded.

Also, Jesus travels along and he calls 2 other disciples.

He saw James, the son of Zebeney, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets.

And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebeney in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.

But there was a messianic expectation through this area.

There was this sense that the Messiah would come.

John the Baptist had prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah.

So these men were ready to follow Jesus, and this was the point of their decision.

No doubt they had been discussing this previously with their families, but the other point is this.

There was a magnetism about Christ, something magnetic that drew people to him.

There was a certain sense about him that he was not merely a human being, but he was sent by God.

There was this sense, they may not have been able to know it all.

They may have thought that initially and certainly did that he was the Messiah that would break the Roman yoke, but there was this aura about Jesus, this divine godliness about him, and when he spoke it carried authority.

And so in Sunday's lesson we find another evidence that Christ is the Messiah.

He is the 1 who John predicted would come.

And these men are rough men of the sea, but they see in Christ something divine.

It says that if we live a prayerful, godly life, people will see that in us.

If we live a prayerful, godly life, people will see that in us.

If we live a prayerful, godly life, there's something about us that is different.

So Jesus demonstrates he's the Messiah by fulfilling prophecy and making that prophetic call.

There's an unforgettable experience that happens.

Monday's lesson, Mark chapter 1, it's in the temple.

I've stood on the foundations of that temple many, many times.

And I've thought about this very experience recorded in Mark chapter 1, verse 21 and onward.

Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught.

They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as 1 having authority, not as the scribes.

I pray that as you teach this Sabbath school, if you do, that you'll teach with the authority of Christ.

I pray that as you share the word of God with others as a lay person, that whatever you share, that people be astonished.

We listen to Christ's teaching, we're astonished.

Because the teaching of Christ in the Gospels has authority.

Now as Jesus is teaching, there's a man in their synagogues with an unclean spirit and he cries out, let us alone.

Every time the Gospel is preached, the devil is on hand to try to bring chaos, confusion.

The devil is there to try to bring disruption.

And here he does it in a very loud shrieking voice.

When God's Word goes forward, When your church steps out in evangelism, when members are praying together, when members are giving Bible studies, when members are reaching out to their community with multifaceted ministries, whatever they may be, whether it's health ministry or nutrition classes or stress management, whether it's vacation Bible school, whatever it is, whether it's Bible studies, whether it's small groups, whatever is taking place to bring people to Christ, the devil is gonna try to disrupt that.

He may bring disunity in the church, He may bring a conflict and chaos, but notice this demon cries out, "'Let us alone.

What have we to do with Jesus of Nazareth?

I know who you are, the Holy 1 of God.'" This is amazing, isn't it?

The scribes and Pharisees didn't know who Jesus was, they argued.

The disciples didn't fully know who he was at this point, but the demons did, and the demons saw in Christ, in his teachings, in his life, that he was the Holy 1 of God.

If demons do not deny that, you and I should not deny it either.

He rebukes him saying, be quiet and come out of him.

03 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

Each chapter in the book of Mark gives us spiritual insight into the Messiah.

As we see the miracles of Christ, as we see the actions of Christ, as we listen to the teachings of Christ in the gospel of Mark.

Mark wasn't simply written 2, 000 years ago for that generation.

But the Bible truths echo and re-echo down through the centuries.

And they speak to our hearts with vital lessons.

In today's lesson titled Controversies, we see Jesus heal a paralytic, we see him call a tax collector, Matthew, to follow him, We hear Jesus speak to the scribes and Pharisees about fasting, and we hear him share insights about the gospel being new wine in new bottles, because the old bottles will burst.

We see too about Jesus talking about taking a patch and not putting it on old cloth because if you patch the old cloth and the patch swells or expands the old cloth is gonna rip but you put new cloth on new garments.

We jump right into it in Mark chapter 2, and if you have your Bible, take it to Mark chapter 2, verse 1.

In Mark chapter 2, we have the story of the healing of the paralytic.

Now, this is really an amazing story, so we're going to spend some time on it.

It says, Mark 2, verse 1, and again, he entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house.

I'll tell you, when you hear Jesus is there, you want to be there.

When I hear that Christ is moving in a particular meeting and people are being converted, certainly I want to be in that meeting.

Immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door.

Jesus was a teacher and Jesus was a preacher.

Then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by 4 men.

Now this verse to me is very significant.

Does he walk there where Jesus is on his own?

Word goes through the community that Christ is in a house performing healing.

So many gather that there's no room in the house.

Then this poor paralytic is in his bed someplace.

1 of his friends says to another friend, look, let's get a couple other guys.

So they carry the paralytic there, but there's no room in the house.

Would it have been possible for that paralytic to have come alone?

Somebody had to bring that paralytic to Jesus.

You know, in The miracles of the Bible, there are about 32 or 33 separate miracles where Christ heals specific people.

And in two-thirds of those miracles, somebody brings somebody to Jesus.

Would you like to see Jesus perform a miracle on your friend?

I don't necessarily mean a physical miracle, physical healing, but you got to bring somebody to Jesus.

Invite them to come to an evangelistic meeting, encourage them to come to church with you, because many people will never come to find the healing grace of Christ unless we bring them to Jesus.

It says, they could not come near because of the crowd.

They are not discouraged because of the obstacles.

When we are do soul winning, we lead people to Jesus.

We don't be discouraged because of the obstacles.

It says, they could not come near him because of the crowd.

I'm sure they must've repaired it for the poor guy's house.

They let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to them, your sins are forgiven.

When he saw their faith, faith is not something simply we have in our head.

Our author of our lesson makes a good point here about seeing faith and the faith that was seen in the paralytic.

He says, first paragraph, Sunday's lesson, like love, faith, it becomes visible in actions as the persistence of their friends openly illustrates.

Somebody said, my faith is so good it works.

If we have genuine faith in Christ, It means that we do not, it doesn't mean that we don't work.

It means faith is the dynamic force that leads us to actions in our life.

Now this man's obvious need was physical, but when he comes to Jesus, Jesus says, your sins be forgiven you.

Because this man was filled with guilt and condemnation.

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Series

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter: The Book of Mark

13 The Risen Lord

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