“Come, follow me,”” Jesus said, ““and I will make you fishers of men.”
– Mark 1:7
Hi James and Ellen,
What do you think is the most important thing to know about Jesus’ life? Do you think that all the events that are germane to Jesus’ birth is the most important thing to know about Jesus’ life? Do you think that what Jesus did for the first thirty or so years of his life is the most important thing to know about Jesus’ life? Do you think that what Jesus did for about three years before he was killed is the most important thing to know about Jesus’s life? Do you think that knowing about Jesus’ perpetual influence on planet Earth through His death while being hung on and nailed to a cross, His becoming alive again after dying and His ascension into heaven are the most important things to know about Jesus’ life? Do you want what you read to be written concisely or ad nauseum. About 1950 years ago, a guy – who your grandpaa refers to as being the midnight reporter, wrote a bio on Jesus. Your grandpaa thinks that when John Mark was a young guy, that Mark hung around the edge of an emerging Christ-follower movement. In his Mark Book, Mark references a young guy who had been in the shadows trailing Jesus – who took off running losing his linen robe when he saw what was going down with Jesus, when Jesus was brusquely taken prisoner by a mob that was armed with clubs and swords that had been sent to get Him by Jew people group chief priests, law teachers and elders who were living in the city Jerusalem. Mark shows up next on the scene about fifteen years later in the embryonic Christ-follower community scene when he traveled as a helper with Paul and Barnabas on Paul’s first missionary journey. Mark was a relative of Barnabas. Mark got on Paul’s wrong side when he bailed out of Paul’s first missionary journey while they were still on the island of Cyprus. In letters that Paul sent to guys and gals in the Christ-follower community that was in the city of Colosse and to his friend Philemon fifteen or so years after his first missionary journey, Paul affirms and recommends Mark. Your grandpaa thinks that Mark probably wrote his Mark Book about twenty years after Jesus lived on planet Earth. Your grandpaa thinks that Mark as a courier of Christ-follower beliefs – whose contribution was through passing on what God was doing in different emergent Christ-follower communities of guys and gals, is today being unknowingly emulated by hordes of Christ-follower guys and gals who are going to countries and people groups everywhere on planet Earth on short term ministry trips.
John Mark wrote his Mark Book for the Gentile guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome. Gentile guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome were not versed in what was written in the Jew’s Torah. Gentile guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome had no way of knowing that before Jesus was born that a prophet in the Old Testament had prophesied about a future Messiah. Mark begins his Mark Book – in Mark 1, quoting an Isaiah prophecy that God – as God the Spirit, breathed on him to record in his Isaiah Book. God – as God the Spirit, had Isaiah write at this time that guy would come to planet Earth who will be a messenger for another guy. Isaiah was prophesying about John the Baptist in this quote that Mark is mentioning from the Isaiah Book. After Mark writes a short bio of John the Baptist in his Mark Book, Mark mentions John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. Mark’s account is that as Jesus was being baptized, God – as God the Spirit, in a dovelike apparition descended from heaven on Jesus and a voice from heaven – Who was God – as God the Father, speaking, said that Jesus was His Son and that He loved His Son. Mark then goes on to recount in his Mark Book Jesus’ forty day fast in a desert – during which time Jesus had wild animals hanging out with Him, angels caring for Him and Satan – the master tempter, tempting Him. Mark then went on in his Mark Book relates how Jesus chose His disciples. Verse 17 says, ““Come, follow me,”” Jesus said, ““and I will make you fishers of men.”” Jesus had just told Simon – who He renamed Peter, and his Peter’s bro Andrew – who were both fishermen, to follow Him.
John Mark was a data entry guy. Mark quickly set the stage in his Mark Book so that he could begin to share Jesus’ teachings and miracles. Mark reports in his Mark Book that Jesus taught with a divine authority that amazed guys and gals who heard Him speak. Mark went on to tell about miraculous signs that Jesus did beginning with the casting out an evil spirit from a demon possessed guy who was violently shaking, healing Peter’s mother-in-law who was in bed with a fever, cleansing a leper and so many other healings and casting out of demons that Jesus could not go anyplace in the Galilee Sea region without getting mobbed by guys, gals and kids who begged Jesus to . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in and have taught Bible studies. Not long after your grandmaa and grandpaa began to go to the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church that is in Aberdeen, South Dakota, your grandmaa and grandpaa were asked by a couple – Kenroy and Marianne Janssen, in the church if they would be interested in coming to their house for a Bible study – which was on the Mark Book. Your grandmaa and grandpaa remember the study through the Mark Book with Kenroy and Marianne as being one of the best Bible studies that they have been in. If a guy or gal needs a lot of Bible info in front of him or her – which describes your grandmaa and grandpaa, to teach Biblical real life truths to guys and gals, your grandpaa thinks that the Mark Book is a great Bible book to use.
Mark 1 (1044)