Mark - An Example of Second Chances

I would like to begin with a question. How many here, very few, but I know I'm speaking to dozens and dozens out there in cyber land, how many here have made a mistake and have had the person in charge say you now have lost the opportunity and can't continue doing what you were doing? How many here, in just a small group, would say that? Yes, some in that case. I think most have had that experience and have felt like a failure. I certainly have, over my lifetime, more than once, too. I have had to overcome mistakes, learn from them, change, not repeat them. I'd like to quote from a famous lady author, Catherine Pulsifer, about mistakes. She said, We all make them. The difference is what we do after we make the mistake. How we see the mistake as a learning experience or a failure. I personally have found a mistake to be a stimulus to do things better. It certainly gets my attention and I see a need to change and improve. In the Bible, we have numerous examples of people making mistakes, some very serious, and yet had second chances, learned the lessons, overcame their problems, and went on to achieve great things. There is a person I want to focus on in the Bible, which I would call a great example of taking advantage of second chances. His name is Mark, and he is famous for having written the gospel that bears his name. The gospel of Mark. His life is a fascinating history of overcoming, and today we're going to learn a lot more about that beautiful life and beautiful example, and hopefully apply those lessons in our own lives. First, we know quite a bit about Mark's background from his mother, who's found in the scriptures. She was a prominent church member in the Jerusalem church, the headquarters church. She was prosperous, had a large house where the church met. They couldn't meet in synagogues. They were being persecuted, so they had to meet in members' homes. She had a large house. She had to prepare things for the brethren to show up. You're talking about the apostles. You're talking about all of these people. Now, at that time, there were probably thousands of them, so there must have been several places, but this was a prominent place, one of them, as we will see. We know she had at least one servant who is named in Scripture.

Let's go to Acts 12 to read this account. Acts 12. We'll begin in Acts 12, verse 1. Get a little bit of the background. It says, now, about that time, Herod, talking about Herod Agrippa, the first king. He was basically in charge of that whole area of Judea. Stretch out his hand to harass some from the church. So there's a persecution there in Jerusalem. Then he killed James, the brother of John with the sword. This would be the first apostle that would be killed. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now, it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. So here Luke brings up the reference because they were keeping the days of Unleavened Bread, and so he gives it to context.

Verse 4, it says, so when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Now, in those days, the eight days were all included. You could talk about the Passover. Are you going to the Passover? Well, obviously you were going to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, too. Or you could say, well, I'm going for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and that included the Passover. You can see in Leviticus 23 that clearly Passover is on the fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth starts a day of Unleavened Bread. But there are eight continual days. How many people, as an example, say, oh, I'm going to the Feast, and I'm going to keep the last great day? No. You say, going to the Feast. Well, that includes the last great day, the eighth day. So you had in the springtime eight days, and you had in the fall eight days also, which were all included in these feast days. So going on, it says in verse five, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Now, when it says he had four squads of soldiers, Peter was one of the prominent apostles. They feared that maybe the church was going to try to get a hold of him, free him, and so he actually had 16 Roman soldiers taking care of him. And of course, he was in chains and in this jail or dungeon.

It says verse six, and when Herod was about to bring him out, so here we are very close there at the Passover time, that night, Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. So he had guards guarding the doors. He had two that basically had him handcuffed. Herod could sleep very peacefully, knowing this fellow is not going anywhere, right? But notice, God can intervene in history whenever he wants to. And in verse seven, it says, now, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him. There are angels around us here. We can't see them, but they can materialize, as one did right here.

And a light shone in the prison.

There weren't any light bulbs, wasn't any candles, but the angel itself provided that light. And he struck Peter on the side. Peter was asleep and raised him up. Talk about getting scared. How would you like an angel to wake you up and you see him? And he says, arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. So that was just like melted wax. All the iron and all the strength that didn't mean anything to God, right? Verse eight, then the angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your sandals. Now put on the rest of your clothing. You're going to walk. So the man, of course, was barefoot. And so he did. And he said to him, put on your garment and follow me. Oh, you can imagine who can do this in a here. It'd be like a full security prison. And you're just walking out like you're going for a walk in a park. Verse nine. So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. So you know, Peter was kind of groggy and he's thinking, boy, what an incredible dream I'm having walking out here. And so that's very realistic, because he had been asleep and all of a sudden this happens. And he thought, well, maybe it was a dream something that was just in my imagination. Verse 10. When they were past the first and second guard posts, so here they are going through all of these security doors. This is, remember, Jerusalem. This was probably the fortress Antonia, where they had the Roman garrison with the jails underneath. And, you know, God, what does he care about the powerful Roman armies and soldiers and with the reputation that, you know, they couldn't let any prisoner get loose or else they would die? He goes on to say, they came to the iron gate. So this was a reinforced gate that leads to the city, which opened to them out of its own accord. Just like if it had photoelectric cell. This automatically opened. And they went out and went down one street. So here, Peter's following this angel. And immediately the angel departed from him. Once the job was done, again, you can say the angel dematerialized. He became invisible again. And when Peter had come to himself, which is a good way of saying, kind of woke up, hey, this isn't a dream. I really am outside this prison. He said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people, they were going to have a great time seeing my execution. 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. So here we have the mention of John Mark, who is the Mark of the Gospels.

His name was John Mark, and John is a shortened version of the Hebrew Johanun, where we have here kind of Jonathan. That's the same term, which means Yahweh has shown grace. God has shown grace. And the second name, Mark, comes from the Latin Marcus. And it's called pranomen, or a personal name, given to a person of influence. Many times they traveled abroad. They didn't use their Jewish names. They used their Latin name, made it a little bit more friendlier. And it was a personal name. By the way, you can just put this in your reference, Acts 1.23 talks about another who says his surname is Justice. That was the Latin name.

His Gospel of Mark is titled in Greek, Katamarkon, which means according to Mark. In those days, there was a lot more modesty and humility. So the author didn't want to brag or bring attention to himself.

But we know about John Mark, that his mother was prominent. And Peter knew exactly where to go, where the brethren was going to be meeting. This was one of the main houses where they were meeting. And then it goes on to say, let's continue with the story. Verse 13 says, and of chapter 12 here in Acts, and as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. This was Mary's servant. When she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate. But ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. Here, Peter thought, the soldiers should probably know they're chasing me, and this girl doesn't have the sense to open the door so I can hide. And so he's there, hey, come back, open the door before you let everybody know. But this again showing human nature. She got so excited she left him outside.

Verse 15, but they said to her, you are beside yourself. In other words, you are crazy. We know Peter is in prison. He's got guards all over him. This is a fortified place. Nobody's ever escaped from there. And you're telling me Peter's outside? Not even Houdini could have gotten out of that place, that famous escape artist. Says, yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it is his angel. It must be an angel, but not Peter itself. Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, no, this isn't the time to go, shouting in the neighborhood, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, go tell these things to James and to the brethren. And he departed and went to another place. So apparently James and the brethren, they were there in Mary's house. But he said, this is the first place they're going to look for me. So I'm going somewhere else. Then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. So that's what was the stir. The guards had to pay. If a person was sentenced to death and escaped, you took his place. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. He left because he knew Jerusalem was going to be filled with spies, with soldiers looking for him.

And then it ends here. We want to look at verse 25. And it says, And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry. And they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark. So again, it's John Mark, the one that they were using as a ministerial assistant at that time.

Now, we learned something else from Colossians chapter 4, verse 10, about Mark and his background. It's kind of like a detective novel. You've got to find evidence here and there, pieces of information. Paul says in Colossians chapter 4, verse 10, he says, Eris Tarkas, my fellow prisoner, greets you because this was one of the letters written while Paul was in prison. And he says, with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. So Mark was there with the apostle Paul. I think it was more visiting Paul, taking care of his needs outside. But he says, greetings, Eris Tarkas is here with me in jail, and then with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. So again, we see Mark was related to Barnabas. And we know that Barnabas was actually of a descendant of the Levi, the tribe of Levi. So he was a Levite. Notice in chapter 4, verse 36, Acts chapter 4, verse 36. At least if you ever need to study the life of Mark, you're going to have all the key scriptures with this sermon. Acts chapter 4, in verse 36, talks about Barnabas. Let's see. It says, and Joseph, which would be Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So here was Barnabas living in the area of Jerusalem, but he was originally from the island of Cyprus, which had a lot of Jews, a lot of industry, and apparently he was part of this prosperous family. So either Mark's father or mother had a sister or brother that had this child, Barnabas, who was a cousin of Mark. So we see again an influential family involved in the church at this time, true pillars.

Notice in Acts chapter 9, in verse 26, Acts chapter 9, verse 26, when Saul was converted, came to Jerusalem, it says in verse 26, and when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, tried to attend church, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. They thought he was just a spy pretending to be a Christian so he could identify, especially the key leaders, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. So Barnabas was the only one that had the courage and the faith that Saul truly was converted, and so it was Barnabas, the bridge between who would become Paul and the rest of the apostles. Notice it goes on to say, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, talking about Saul, who became Paul, and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached bodily at Damascus in, oh boldly rather, at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So here Paul was already preaching. He had been commissioned by Christ. It's just a matter that they were going to have to recognize this. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming and going out, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, which were the Jewish Jewish who were Greek speaking, but they attempted to kill him. And so we see Barnabas involved in the home office of Jerusalem, helping Paul become part of the ministry as well. So we see the bravery. Goes on to say now in Acts 11, in verse 21, we pick up the account where the story of Mark's classic second chance begins. In Acts 11, verse 21, it says, an area of northern Syria on the port, a very important city, and there were a lot of people being called by God. And so the apostles sent Barnabas. He was from Cyprus, which was an island off of close to the area of Antioch. Seemed like Barnabas could speak a very fluent Greek, new Greek culture could deal with both Jews and converted Greeks. Continuing on, it says, verse 23, when he came and had seen the grace of God, remember God's favor and actions, he was glad and encouraged them all. He was just this prime example of an encourager.

Encourage them all with purpose of heart. They should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. So here this church is growing, burgeoning, and Barnabas says, I'm going to need help. I'm going to need somebody that knows Greek very well, knows Greek culture, and so he thought, it's the apostle Paul. Paul is the one I need to get a hold of. And so it goes on to say, then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So of course a lot of them were not Jews. Some were Greek-speaking Jews, like the Hellenists, but there were others that were coming along here.

And then we go to, well, verse 27. And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. It gives us dating. It's a proper... Claudius was the emperor at that time. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. So they said, well, there's going to be a famine over there in that area of Israel, and we want to take up a collection. We want to send them foodstuffs and ship them food. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So Barnabas and Saul are headed to Jerusalem when all of this incident of Peter's arrest takes place.

And so in Acts 12 verse 23 says, "...and then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him." Talking about Herod and Tippus. No, Agrippa, because of his pride and all he had done, persecuted all, you know, God struck him and he died because he did not give glory to God in his exalted attire, which people had proclaimed him to be like a God, and he accepted that glory and it cost him his life.

Goes on to say, "...and he was eaten by worms and died." It's a horrible way to die of intestinal worms. "...but the word of the Lord grew and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark." Now in the church that was at Antioch, there was a certain prophets and teachers. So they were in Jerusalem. They said, we need an ministerial assistant, and the apostle said, take John Mark. Here's a fellow well-educated, familiar with Greek culture. Parents that had a lot of business dealings and things like that.

So this young man becomes their ministerial assistant. And so this is his first assignment in Antioch. And then it says that there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger. Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. So he did have people that were up there in the echelons of society. And Saul. In a sense, he was the new kid in the block. Because Saul had been in Tarsus.

Here Barnabas was already an apostle. Well, he's going to be apostle here real soon. But he was in charge of the area. Verse 2, and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, and here the Holy Spirit guided them, mentioned this in their minds. This is talking about how God works and moved through the Holy Spirit and said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. This is God speaking. Many times the term, you know, through the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit.

And then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. And these are men now, Barnabas and Saul, that become apostles. They become part of that higher positions in the ministry to serve God. Continuing on in verse 4, it says, So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus, Barnabas' home country. And when they arrived in Salamis, or Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. So here this is John Mark. Remember, not always is the name Mark going to be used. Sometimes John is used, but it did mention before in verse 25 of the previous chapter, John whose surname was Mark.

So we know it's the same person. The Bible is very careful when it has several of the same names. It always says, this person is the son of somebody to differentiate, so you don't get confused. And so here it is. They decide to go on this first what they call the missionary journey. The first missionary journey with these two apostles, Paul and Barnabas, and this young ministerial assistant. I remember I've been in those shoes before working for evangelists and others. And so verse 6, it says, now when they had gone through the island of Paphas, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus.

I'm not going to go into this story. You can read it later on, but I do want to continue in verse 13. It says, now when Paul and his party set sail for Paphas, they came to Perga in Pamphylia. These are the areas of Turkey. And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.

But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia. This is a different Antioch and went into the synagogue. And so here we are, young minister. Well, we don't even know if he's a minister. He's more like a ministerial assistant. And getting started, and guess what? Mark had cold feet. He just didn't want to continue. And so he fled. He didn't say, you know, I'm going to take a leave of absence. Guys, no. He fled. He left. I remember Barnabas was his cousin.

And so these were heady times. But when he realized the dangers, the toils, he found himself way over his head. He was immature. He, you know, he had been pretty coddled in Jerusalem. And here he is dealing with spiritual warfare. He lost his nerve. He broke the team up. And Paul was not pleased.

And so Paul and Barnabas continue on in this first missionary tour through the area of Turkey, raises up churches in Galatia and other parts like that. And then they come back to Jerusalem probably about six years later. In Acts 15, we take up the story again. Acts 15, verse 30, after the Jerusalem conference, Mark was there. And of course, Mark's mother was there. He probably felt sheepish, a little embarrassed. But what we know of the record in Acts 15, verse 30, it says, so when they were sent off again, Paul and Barnabas, they came to Antioch. And when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter, the letter from the apostles, the decision made in Jerusalem. And when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. Now, Judas and Silas themselves, being prophets, also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. It goes on to say, and after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others. Then after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. So this would be the second missionary trip. Now, Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. So Barnabas was the ultimate encourager, thinking, oh, Mark's taken years and he's matured and I'm ready to bring this cousin, this young cousin of mine, along. Paul had other thoughts. Do you want to continue or do you want to finish the message tomorrow? Next Sabbath? No, I don't. I just want to bother you there with a suspense. This is like a good Agatha Christie novel, right?

And so it says here, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Here's the key phrase, to the work. There was a work to do and Mark just couldn't withstand the pressure and difficulties and he fled. He had not fulfilled backing these apostles in God's work.

Verse 39, then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. Paul and Barnabas, who had been a team, said, we're going to have to split. Now it doesn't mean, some people say, oh, kind of like we can split churches and just like Paul and Barnabas had a falling out. Hey, they were still part of the same church. They just divided their ministry up differently. This isn't an excuse to say, well, some feel this way, the other, let's split the churches and let's have this person take over here now and have all of these competing groups. That's not the case. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus back to his homeland. There were people there, churches there to deal with and work, but Paul chose Silas as his ministerial assistant and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God, and he went through Syria and Cilicia and parts of Turkey, strengthening the churches.

And so the book of Acts continues with Paul's journeys, because they were the ones that bore the most fruit. And of course, Luke was accompanying Paul as well, but here that was a falling out. It was unfortunate to lose someone like Barnabas. We don't hear of Barnabas again in the book of Acts, but we do know that John Mark was not discouraged. He continued serving the ministry, serving those, and he eventually came back and joined Paul's team again. Notice in Philemon, that little book that we have, Philemon, right before the book of Hebrews, Philemon, verses 23 and 24. It's just one chapter long. Paul says, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. And so here we have Mark again. Everybody knew who he was. Been working for decades now, and Mark was there with Paul's team of ministers. Notice in 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 9. So here, this is the final epistle. Paul is about to die, executed by a Roman sword. And so he says, verse 9, telling Timothy, Be diligent to come to me quickly. He doesn't have much time to live. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Here's an example of somebody that fled, left the ministry. But this time it was because of worldly cares. He was attracted to that, loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica, crescents for Galatia. We don't know about whether that was positive or negative. Titus for Dalmatia, we know Titus remained faithful. The point is here that Paul is by himself. He needs help. Verse 11, it says, Only Luke is with me. So he did have Luke, and he asks for Mark. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. So here you see, years later, and other translations, the complete Jewish Bible says, he is a very useful helper in my work.

The Bible knowledge commentary mentions about this section. It says, But this one, whom Paul had once considered untrustworthy, was now considered helpful to Paul in his ministry. Barnabas concern in opposition to Paul's wishes to salvage the young John Mark was now paying dividends to Paul himself. So John Mark had a second chance. He took advantage. He continued serving, became very useful. He didn't get discouraged, didn't let failure, a serious mistake, get him down. And then later on, in 1 Peter 5 13, Mark not only is serving Paul, but eventually ends up serving the Apostle Peter. Notice in 1 Peter 5 verse 13, it says, Because, or let me read it. Yeah, start here in 1 Peter 5. In verse 13, it says, By Sylvanas, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly. Of course, in those days, people used these scribes. Some of them were church members, and they would be like secretaries, because not everybody could write elegant styles, on papyrus. And so he would have somebody who was an expert. I sort of remember when I first went to Latin America in the early 80s, before the computer age, and you went to one of these notary publics, and you needed a document to be filed. And outside, you would have scribes, you know, these typists, expert typists, with little tables and with a typewriter. And you would pay him, and then he would fix your document up to be all set up. I mean, they were really fast. And so here you have Sylvanas, who was the scribe, the secretary. And he says, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God, in which you stand. She who is in Babylon, we do consider, because Babylon was a place of a lot of Jewish people, that this is the actual city of Babylon in those days. It says, elect together with you, greet you, and so does Mark, my son. And so Peter ended up using Mark as one of his assistants. And it was through Peter that Mark learned about all the biographical information on Jesus Christ. And so in a way, it was Peter that influenced Mark to write that gospel of Mark. It has a lot of stories about Peter in it as well.

We know Mark had a good background. He was educated, had writing skills. He is known for his attention to details in this gospel. Very dynamic style of writing, more about actions than words or speeches. Mark learned to be a faithful servant. In the introduction to one of the Bibles, usually before it starts, it has a little description on the Mark's gospel. It says, the message of Mark's gospel is captured in a single verse. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 1045. Chapter by chapter goes on to say, the book unfolds the dual focus of Christ's life, service, and sacrifice. But you know, in a lesser way, that describes the life of Mark as well. Service and sacrifice. Yes, he got cold feet. How many great soldiers got cold feet the first time they went into battle, but yet they became great and brave and courageous soldiers.

So the key lesson from Mark's life is that forgiveness for mistakes is possible. There are second chances that we should give. God tells us he forgives us seventy times seventy if necessary. We should too. Paul forgave Mark and gave him a chance to prove his worth. Peter was so taken with Mark that he regarded him as a son. When we make a mistake in life, with God's help, we can repent, we can learn the lessons, we change and go on to achieve great things.

So, brethren, the next time someone doesn't believe in your potential, that only sees your mistakes, think of Mark, that great example of second chances, and be greatly encouraged.