Christmas According to Mark

12/18/05 | Brian Bill | Mark 1-2 |
Series: Christmas According To...

Wow, that music was great! I’ll never tire of hearing choirs sing the choruses of Christmas. As one of your pastors has said, “Christianity is the only religion that sings.” That’s because we have something to sing about, isn’t it? Songs ring out through the pages of Scripture, in both the Old Testament and the New. Indeed, because Jesus came at Christmas, joy has come to our world.

I understand you met my friend Matthew last Sunday. My name is John Mark. Like one of your other pastors, I have two first names. John is my Hebrew name and Marcus is my Roman name. Since there are so many “Johns” in the Bible, people just started calling me Mark. Like Matthew and Luke and John, I had the privilege of writing a report about Jesus that has come to be known as the “Gospel According to Mark.” I wrote the shortest account and both Matthew and Luke copied much of what I said. I’ve taken some grief because people have said that I skipped Christmas. It’s not that I didn’t think that Immanuel’s birth was important; I just let Matthew and Luke handle those details. I decided to emphasize some other things, like how Jesus was a conqueror – of disasters, demons, disease, and even death.

I didn’t really know my father but I was very close to my mother. Her name was Mary, as if there weren’t enough Mary’s in the Bible! We lived in one of the largest houses in Jerusalem and were able to have a lot of people over all the time. My mom really believed in prayer and one day we hosted an urgent prayer meeting in order to ask God to release Peter from prison. You can read more about that in Acts 12. God sent an angel to break him out of jail and Peter showed up at the front door while we were all praying. The servant girl was so excited that she forgot to let him in! And, even though we were praying for his release, we didn’t believe that he was really there. I guess we didn’t have much faith.

Not too many people know this, but our house was also used by Jesus and his disciples for their final meal together (see 14:12-16) and then a bunch of us gathered at our home after the Resurrection in order to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit to come (Acts 1:12-2:2).

Peter and I were really close because he’s the one who led me to faith in Christ. In fact, in 1 Peter 5:13, he calls me his spiritual son. After my conversion I spent a lot of time with him, taking notes from his sermons and listening to all the stories about the Savior. Later on, after being urged to do so by my friends, I was moved by the Holy Spirit to record some of these words. You see, since I wasn’t one of the original 12 disciples, I had to learn about my Lord from someone who was. Peter was a great teacher.

One of my purposes in writing was to encourage the Christians in Rome who were being persecuted for their faith. I understand that some people think there is a “War on Christmas” in your culture today. From what I hear, I believe it. But it was nothing like what was happening in Rome in the first century when Christians were being tortured and killed for their confession of Christ. According to the historian Tacitus, the emperor Nero blamed believers for a fire that destroyed almost all of Rome: “In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.” I really wanted Christians to stay strong in the face of these trials so I hoped my book would build them up.

Let me give you a few highlights:

If I ignored the Incarnation it’s because I wanted to emphasize the Crucifixion. If I could meddle for just a moment, the Bible puts the emphasis not on his birth, but on his death. We’re told to remember his death but nowhere are we told to remember his birth, as important as that is. My fear for you is that while you give some attention to the baby in the cradle, your culture has forgotten the cross and the fact that He’s coming again wearing a crown. I’m glad you commemorate Christmas but please remember that He came to earth in order to redeem us from our sins. It’s OK to start with his birth, but then study His life and never forget that He died for you and rose again.

I guess that’s why I took about five chapters to cover Jesus’ two-year ministry in Galilee and five chapters at the end of the book to cover his final two months in Jerusalem. I don’t apologize for giving so much attention to His betrayal, His trial, His death and His resurrection because that was what was, and is, most important.

Some of you think that since I skipped Christmas that you can just skip my book. I know that I’ll have a hard time convincing you to read it before Christmas because you’ll want to focus on Matthew and Luke, so I’ll just quote the very first verse. Perhaps it will whet your appetite for more: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” I know this is a pretty abrupt way to begin a book but at least I didn’t start with a bunch of hard-to-pronounce names like Matthew! The word “gospel” means good news and I state very boldly that Jesus is the Christ or the promised Messiah and that He is the Son of God. You can’t get much clearer than that. Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Matthew thinks I didn’t use enough of the Old Testament but I did quote from both Isaiah and Malachi in the very first chapter as a way to introduce John the Baptist. At the height of his ministry, he was the hottest show in town and everybody flocked to him. But when Jesus came on the scene everything changed. John stepped down so Jesus could be lifted up. I recorded his message in verse 7: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” That’s a good model for all of us, isn’t it?

My Story

Perhaps you think that since I wrote a book that made it into your Bible that I must be a super saint. Nothing could be further from the truth. I failed big time…twice. Let me explain.

I’ll never forget how Barnabas was willing to have conflict with Paul in order to forgive and restore a failure like me. Paul had labeled me a loser but because Barnabas was a lover he never gave up on me. I’m here to tell you that because my uncle gave me a third chance, this discouraged and defeated man became a contributing member of the team once again. Even though it took him awhile to admit it, Paul eventually realized that I mattered to his own ministry. Listen to his words in 2 Timothy 4:11, penned right before he died: “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” Those were life words to me because I wanted to help the cause of Christ, not hurt it.

Wow, I was restored once again. That’s really the story of Christmas. Jesus came in order to conquer my sins and to give me a whole new life. I am so glad that the Christian life is a series of new beginnings!

Do you feel like a failure today? Have you fled because you were afraid or have you folded in the face of adversity? Do you need a fresh start? The good news of the gospel is that you can begin all over again, provided you follow Christ with everything you have. Because I was writing to a Roman audience, I included the story of a high-ranking centurion’s response to the Savior’s death (see 15:38). He had seen many people die before but when he watched what happened from the foot of the cross, he exclaimed: “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Matthew loved to tell us how he got up and followed when Christ called him. Did you know that in my book I describe following Jesus 15 different times? I also described over 20 different reactions that people had to Jesus. Have you made the decision to follow Him? What’s your reaction to what He has done for you? I’m not here to indict you but to invite you to surrender your life to Him. Because following Jesus is the only way to get over your feelings of failure, to be set free from your sins, and to enter into eternal life when you die.

Last Easter I understand that you had a bridge constructed right here in the front of the auditorium. When the two pieces were pushed together they formed a cross and people were invited to walk across to demonstrate their commitment to Christ. I heard that a lot of people walked the bridge on Resurrection Day.

Last night you had a Living Nativity outside – I hope you do that every year because this community needs to understand that Christmas really happened. What you might not know is that the same exact wood that was used for the bridge was used to make the stable. Matching materials were used for the crib and the cross because the cradle has always been linked to the crucifixion in Scripture. Mary’s little lamb was slaughtered as the final sacrifice for our sins. When you go to the foot of the cross, like the Centurion did, it will all make sense to you.

Indeed, joy has come to the world because Jesus was born from a womb. And because there is an empty tomb, the power of sin and death has been broken. From the womb to the tomb. In order to avoid doom you must make Him room.

Joy to the world!

The Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare Him room.

Will you do that right now?