LIFE LESSONS
FRIENDS OF PAUL: JOHN MARK
24th ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON MATTHEW 10:16-22
MARCH 5, 2006
We want to thank the worship experience team for putting together that series of slides on the history of the church and of course also want to thank the band for their rendition of Cornerstone, which was also played that very first Sunday when we gathered on March 7, 1982. Looking back over these many years, we are grateful for you, and we are grateful for God’s grace and for God’s mercy, for God’s anointing and God’s power. We are excited, as Mark said earlier, about the future because of God and because of His faithfulness to His Church.
We are in the midst of a series of messages on Life Lessons from biblical people. We are coming near the end of the series. We are, in the weeks ahead, going to take a look at Priscilla and at Lydia. Today we have John Mark. We are looking at friends of Paul and today we have John Mark. Our scripture is taken from Matthew’s Gospel, the 10th chapter. We begin with the 16th verse.
My legal name is James Stanton Dixon. The first two names, James Stanton, are given names. The last name, the name Dixon, is the family name. The first two names are also called Christian names. What is true of me is also true of you. Each of you, most of you at least, have three names. You have two given names; two Christian names and you have a surname or a family name. This is characteristic of our culture and of our people and of this time.
It was not so in biblical times. The Romans, in biblical times, did have three names given to each person at birth but in the Jewish world people were given only one name at birth. You only had one name, so Jesus was simply Jesus in Hebrew Yahshua and that was His name. Of course we call Him Jesus Christ, but Christ is not a name. Christ is a title, simply the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah.” It simply is Jesus, the Christ; Jesus, the Messiah; but His name is Jesus, Yahshua. He was distinguished from other people of the same name by the city of His youth. He was Jesus of Nazareth, or He was distinguished from other people with the san1e name by the name of His parents, Jesus, Son of Joseph, Jesus, Son of Mary.
In the Hellenized world throughout the Roman Empire, oftentimes Jewish people would accommodate the culture and they would add another name. Sometimes they would add a Greek name to their Hebrew name because they wanted to fit in. Or other times they would add a Roman name or a Latin name to their Jewish name and this was particularly true if they were granted Roman citizenship and so it was the Apostle Paul was originally the Jewish man Saul, Saul of Tarsus, but he took the Roman or the Latin name Paulus or Paul and he was known to the Gentile world and to the nations as the Apostle Paul.
Paul had many friends. One of Paul’s friends was a man named Johannan, the Hebrew form of the nan1e John. John, Johannan, took this other Roman Latin name and that name was Marcus which means, “large hammer,” and is Anglicized as Mark. So Paul’s friend was John Mark, Johannan Marcus and today we take a look at his life. From his life we have two life lessons and the first concerns the power of prayer. Prayer has power. Have you tapped in? Have you become a person of prayer? Are you tapping into the power of God?
Of course we all live on a planet that is part of a solar system which is part of a galaxy called the Milky Way. If you live anywhere else, you should write a book about that. The Milky Way is huge, spanning 100,000 light years. It has two hundred billion stars and perhaps a greater number of planets. Scientists have fairly recently discovered something about this galaxy. They have discovered that at the center of the galaxy, at the very center of the Milky Way galaxy, there is something called Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A is a black hole. It is not an ordinary black hole. It is a super massive black hole. In fact scientists today believe that at the center of every spiral galaxy there is a super massive black hole. They believe that these super massive black holes help form stars and planets and that they have some role in the formation of the galaxy itself. They also believe that eventually these black holes, these super massive black holes, will destroy their galaxies.
Sagittarius A is a source of incomprehensible power. It has a mass four million times greater than the mass of our star which we call the sun – four million times greater. Of course the event horizon that surrounds Sagittarius A, that event horizon has a diameter of twenty million miles diameter to the event horizon of this super massive black hole. Everything that passes the event horizon is just sucked into the void, stellar material just sucked into the void. Nothing can escape the event horizon. Even light cannot come out or even shine forth. It is a black hole. The question is “What happens? What happens to stuff that goes into a black hole?” Have you ever wondered that? Scientists wonder that. What happens to stellar matter that goes into a black hole?
In the Walt Disney classic called “The Black Hole,” they envision the black hole as a doorway to heaven and hell. Scientists are not quite buying that. There are some scientists who believe, however, that black holes are doorways to parallel universes, other dimensions. Some scientists believe that everything sucked into a black hole is sucked into infinity. Great mystery. Great power. There is a lot of power in the cosmos, a lot of power in the universe. Black holes, pulsars, quasars, nova’s, super nova’s, lots of power but it all pales when compared to the one the Bible called Jehovah Sabbath, the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the Starry Hosts, the Lord of Hosts, the Ancient of Days, the Almighty God. He has power, so much power He’s able to bring forth matter “exnihilo,” “out of nothing.” He has incomprehensible power and here is the amazing thing. When we pray, in some measure, we actually tap into the power of the Creator, the power of God. What an incredible privilege. What an awesome privilege to be able to tap into the very power of God.
Now John Mark, Johannan Marcus, was a man of prayer. He grew up in a household of prayer. John Mark’s mother was Mary of Jerusalem. She was wealthy. The Bible tells us that her home was large. It had an outer gate and an inner gate. She had many servants. One of her servants was named Rhoda. She is mentioned in the Book of Acts, the l21chapter. The Bible tells us that the home of John Mark, the home of Mary of Jerusalem, was the first Christian synagogue, the first place of Christian assembly. It was the first Christian Church, and it was large enough for the Church in Jerusalem at a time to gather, or at least the leaders of the Church. They gathered there for prayer regularly. They met in the home of John Mark for prayer.
When Peter was in prison and he was incarcerated and he was chained to those two prison guards, the Church gathered for prayer at the home of John Mark the Bible tells us. When Peter was
supernaturally delivered, by the power of God from that prison, the first place he went was to the house of John Mark, Johannan Marcus. He went to that house of prayer. There are some people who believe that John Mark’s house was the Upper Room. Some early Christian traditions teach this, that the Upper Room was in John Mark’s house. We do not know that. If that is true, then John Mark as a little boy would have seen Jesus. We do know that his home was the center of prayer in the early church in the city of Jerusalem.
I think God would ask us today, “What’s your home like? Is it a place of prayer? What is going on in your life? Are you a person of prayer? Are you involved in corporate prayer?” I do not know your prayer life and you do not know mine. God knows. Do you participate in closet prayer? Jesus taught us that when we pray, we should go into a closet, close the door, pray to our Father in secret and our Father who sees in secret will reward us. His power will be given. Are you a person of prayer? What an incredible privilege. Why should we pray? What’s prayer all about anyway? Some people say, “Well, it’s primarily about petition. Of course prayer does have to do with petition. It has to do with asking.
There are many Greek words for prayer, many Hebrew words for prayer. Some of them literally mean, “to ask.” Some of them literally mean, “to beg.” I promise you when I pray, I oftentimes ask and sometimes I beg. Prayer is like that. Of course Jesus taught us to pray, and He gave us the Lord’s Prayer. It begins with praise, “Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.” But then Jesus taught us to participate in petition, to ask. He taught us to petition for provision. “Give us this day our daily bread.” He taught us to petition for forgiveness. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” He taught us to petition for God’s protection. “Deliver us from evil. Lead us not into testing or temptation.” He taught us to petition. “You have not because you ask not. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.” So as we petition, we should be particularly focused on things that please God and things that relate to His kingdom, but we are to ask.
It is not like room service. It is not like you just look at a list, make your order and God’s just this divine bellboy or bellhop, but petition is part of prayer. Do not be ashamed to ask. God wants to hear your request. Of course some people say, “Well, prayer is primarily about peace” and certainly prayer has to do with peace. In this crazy world, prayer is an oasis in the midst of a parched landscape. It is in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of life. It is in prayer we find peace.
Peter writes, “Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares about you.” Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication let your request be known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Prayer brings peace.
I do not know what your life is like. Sometimes my life seems kind of crazy and it is in prayer so often that we find peace. I was reading recently about scientists – you may have read this too – of scientists who are examining bird droppings close to construction sites. Ornithologists are examining bird droppings near construction sites. They want to know whether birds are stressed by construction, and they can find out hormonally and chemically from the bird droppings the stress level of the birds. Environmentalists would suggest that if their stress is too high near construction sites, we should not build near heavy centers of bird populations.
Has it ever occurred to you that no one cares about you like that? That nobody is really concerned about your stress? Nobody is really concerned about your anxiety level. But God is. God is very much concerned. He cares about your stress. He cares about your anxiety level, and He invites you to approach Him daily in prayer. What a privilege it is.
Of course there are many people who feel like prayer is about friendship and intimacy with God and that is an important component of prayer but a privilege to be able to have Jesus as a friend. And yet he is not like any other friend. God is not like any other friend. God is Jehovah Sabaoth. He is the Creator of the worlds, and He is the Lord God Almighty. Jesus is God’s son, the Son of God, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Somehow, I think that when I see him face-to-face, I am not going to give Him a high five and have a big hug. The friendship is not like any other friendship. It is rooted in reverence and awe. I think I will just fall down on my face but what a privilege prayer is to be able to cultivate that intimacy with Him. I hope you are taking time every day to do that, carving out some time in the midst of your day to do that, touching His power.
I think most of all prayer is about change and transformation. I think, above all else, prayer transforms us. When we praise God in prayer, it is not because God just cannot get enough praise. It is not that God has some kind of giant ego that can never be sated. God knows that when we praise Him and we focus on His attributes, it changes us. It transforms us. Prayer is about transformation. Prayer is about change. We all, the Bible says, “Beholding His glory are being changed.” When we come to prayer and behold His glory, we are changed. So we have this incredible privilege called prayer. Johannan Marcus lived in a house of prayer. He was a man of prayer. How about you?
Well, there is a second life lesson from John Mark this morning and that second life lesson has to do with the cost of discipleship. Understand this, that to be a Christian means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. If you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ, you simply are not a Christian. We find salvation when we embrace Jesus as Lord and Rabbi as well as Savior and we commit ourselves to discipleship. We hear His words, “Fallow Me.” This is what it means to be a Christian. You may have come forward at an altar call. You may have asked Jesus to forgive your sins but if you have not embraced Him as Rabbi and committed to discipleship, I am sorry, but biblically you are not a Christian. So when we do a little
review, we need to look at discipleship and what it meant in the 1st Century in the time of Jesus Christ.
Of course in the time of Christ there were many Rabbis, many disciples. Disciples were called Talmudine. In the Jewish culture, kids grew up and they wanted to be part of the Talmudine. They wanted to be a disciple of a great Rabbi. This was true throughout the Jewish culture. That process towards discipleship began at age 5 when a Jewish child went to Betsafare. Betsafare which means, “House of the Book,” was held at the local synagogue. From age 5 to 9, Jewish children went to Betsafare for training in the Talmud or in the Torah.
They began by dipping their fingers in honey and they were then told to put their fingers to their tongues to taste the honey because of Ezekiel, chapter 3, where Ezekiel the Prophet had a vision and God spoke to Ezekiel and said, “Son of Man, eat the scroll.” God was speaking of the scroll of the Book. Ezekiel ate and it was sweet as honey. And so at Betsafare, the Jewish Rabbi wanted little children to see the sweetness of God’s Word, sweet as honey. There at Betsafare from age 5 to 9, they memorized the Torah, the whole deal, the whole five books – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy- five books memorized word-for-word. Then at age 10 they would go to Bet Talmud. If
they longed to be a disciple, if they longed to join the Talmudine, they would go to Bet Talmud. At Bet Talmud they were required to memorize the entire Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Malachi, all thirty-nine books. That is what they did at Bet Talmud which means, “House of Study” or “House of Learning.” That is what they did from 10 to 14. Then at age 14 or 15, Betmidrash. That is when their discipleship would begin.
They would go to a Rabbi and say, “I want to be your disciple. I embrace your “schmeekah,” “your authority.” “I receive your yoke, your interpretation of Torah. I submit to what you bind and what you loose. Shape me. Transform me. Make me like yourself.” Betmidrash.
Of course Jesus was a Rabbi like no other. His “schmeekah,” His authority, was different. He said, “I have all authority in heaven and on earth.” How the other Rabbis must have felt about that. Jesus invited everybody to be His disciple, everybody! Men and women. He said to the multitude, “Take My yolk upon you and learn of Me. Be My disciple.” He invited everyone to be His disciple but understand this. If you are a Christian, you have responded to that call to discipleship and you have come to Him and you have said, “Be my Rabbi. I want to be Your disciple. I accept Your schmeekah. I embrace Your authority. I receive Your yolk, what you bind and loose. Change me. Transform me. Make me like Yourself,” and that is when the journey begins. Salvation is given. You are cleansed by the blood of the cross and you begin this incredible journey of change, transformation, growth, discipleship. That is what it is all about and that is what a Christian is.
It is not easy to be a disciple. There is a cost. I think it is particularly hard in this culture and in this time, harder than in times past. When this church began 24 years ago… First of all, it was bathed in prayer. You think of the power of prayer. We have always had a committed core of people, a committed core of prayer people. As long as we have that, this church stands strong. When the church began, I loved Christ. I felt His call. I believed in His words. Today I love Him more and I have never been more committed to the authority of Holy Scripture. I believe in its infallibility. Surely you want a pastor like that. The culture is changing. Judea-Christian values are eroding. Some of you are buying in but even if you are buying into the secular culture, surely you want a pastor who believes the Bible and I believe the Bible. Sometimes it gets me in trouble.
I want to tell you a story about a guy named Mel White. Mel White used to be a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Thirty-seven years ago when I first went to theological seminary, he was one of my professors. He was brilliant, a very intelligent man, very gifted and very creative. He had been involved in youth ministry and used to be on Young Life Staff, an evangelical Christian ministry. Thirty years ago Mel White came out of the closet and announced that he was gay. He was homosexual by orientation, and he was going to embrace the gay lifestyle. He was angry, angry at the Evangelical Christian Church. He felt like evangelical Christianity had made him live a lie. He felt like evangelical Christianity had kept him in the closet. He was oh so angry at evangelical Christians. Of course he struggled with the Bible because in the Old and New Testament the Bible teaches that the practice of homosexuality is sinful. The Bible teaches that clearly in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, but Mel wondered, “Well, you know, maybe if I study the Hebrew and the Greek, maybe I can find different meanings. Maybe what the Bible is really condemning is just homosexual prostitution, not homosexual activity.” They teach that over at Iliff Seminary. “Maybe that’s true. Maybe the Bible doesn’t really condemn homosexuality.” And so he examined the Hebrew and the Greek, and he looked at the context but, you see, the scholarly community, even the liberal
scholars acknowledge that the Bible does teach that homosexuality is sinful – homosexual prostitution and homosexual activity of any sort. Read Romans 1, verses 26 and 27. The Bible could not be more clear.
Mel thought, “Maybe the Bible is just wrong. Maybe the Bible, in certain areas of morality, just failed to transcend or rise above the bigotry and the prejudice of its culture in its day. Maybe the Bible just failed at that point.” Of course today Mel White is a major power broker in the gay lobby. He is a big player. Mel White is quoted in TIME MAGAZINE. Mel White is quoted in NEWSWEEK. Mel White is quoted the USA TODAY. Today Mel White heads an organization called “Soul Force.” It is a gay/lesbian/transgender coalition. They have come together using the strategies of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., strategies of non-violent civil disobedience. Their target is the Evangelical Church. They have great hatred toward the Evangelical Church. Mel’s organization of Soul Force has identified
Nineteen institutions of higher learning, nineteen colleges and universities in America that they believe are homophobic hatemongering. They have targeted those institutions and they are going to come against them. One is the Air Force Academy. One is West Point. Most of these colleges and universities are Christian, however. Wheaton College in Illinois, Azusa Pacific in California. Right here in Colorado in addition to the Air Force Academy, Colorado Christian University has been targeted.
I am on the Board of Trustees for Colorado Christian University. Ellen Armstrong, who is one of our Elders, is on the Board of Trustees for Colorado Christian University. Mike Henshaw who teaches our Young Marrieds Class here, a member of our church, is also on the Board of Trustees is also on the Board of Trustees for Colorado Christian University. I can tell you; Colorado Christian University is a loving place. There are homophobic hatemongers in the world, but they are not on the staff or on the faculty of Colorado Christian University. It is a loving place, and they know that God loves people. “God so loved the world He gave His only Son.” They know that God does not cease to love people just because of their sexual orientation and they know that we should not cease to love people. If you have a child who is gay, you love your child. I sure hope you do but, you see, God loves your child more. If you have a brother or sister who is gay, you love your brother, you love your sister, but God loves them more.
At Colorado Christian University we know we are all sinners. We are deep into the sin deal – subtle sins of pride, jealousy, envy, sins of omission, sloth and laziness. We are in desperate need of grace, all of us. We know that and we do not believe in gay bashing, and we do not judge the souls of people, but we do believe in the Bible. We believe it is God’s Word and we stand on it. In this culture it is not easy. So here comes Soul Force. They’ve targeted Maundy Thursday of Easter Week as the day they are going to hit Colorado Christian University. They are going to hit each of these nineteen colleges on a different day and they are going to come with lots of people. They have written the Mayor of Lakewood where Colorado Christian University is. They have written the police department, the law enforcement. They are going to participate in non-violent acts of civil disobedience. They are going to come onto private property, and they are going to seek to demonize these homophobic institutions. That is really what they are going to do.
What do we do? Colorado Christian University? We know we cannot come out of it unscathed. It is a fallen world, and we do not fit in. Sometimes we just do not fit it, so we are going to be faithful unto death and try to love people; faithful to the Word and try to love people. They have asked me to ask you
to pray and so I do that today. Would you pray on Maundy Thursday Easter Week and then for those other nineteen schools, would you pray?
These are tough times. God’s instructions are always given in love. God loves us. All of His moral directives… By the way, Jesus said, “Not one jot or tittle of the moral law will pass away.” Not one jot or tittle. It is all given in love. Homosexuality is dangerous. It is causes are complex, but homosexuality is dangerous, male homosexuality particularly dangerous. Countless studies including Menirth-Meyer demonstrate the average homosexual male has a lifespan reduced by twenty years. It is dangerous. It is not just because of AIDS. I mean it is tragically true that there is a higher suicide rate that is tragic and sad. But, you see, it also has to do with the fact – and I do not mean to be crass – but it also has to do with the fact that male homosexuality in virtually every incidence has to do with anal sex and anal sex is not healthy. It invites infection and disease. It is not healthy for heterosexuals. However it is not normative for heterosexuals. It is normative for homosexuals and it is dangerous. God’s instructions are always meant to serve us. The parts, as God set it up, just were not made to fit that way. Anal sex just is not how God designed things. It seems to me like common sense and even science is trumped by whatever is P.C. That is the world we live in.
There is a cost to discipleship in every generation. I think, as you look at your life and I look at mine, the real issue is “How about our sin? How about my sin? Am I willing to pay the cost? Jesus died for me, but do I take sin seriously? Do I pervert grace to license?”
I was just out in California two weeks ago. I went to a Presbytery meeting, a polity assembly for the EPC, the denomination with which we are affiliated. Terry Adams, a member of our church, was being brought under care. In the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Terry and his wife Lisa were there. I wanted to be there. As I was there in this Covenant Church in Anaheim, California, there was another young man who was being examined for ordination. He had his Master of Divinity. He had taken all of his examinations and now there was this oral examination in front of the Assembly. People began to ask him questions and one guy raised his hand and said, “How do you keep from perverting grace to antinomianism?” Antinomianism has to do with a disregard for God’s laws. How do you embrace grace and truth? How do you avoid cheap grace?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance.” It is a good question for each of us. Do you take sin seriously or is it just cheap grace?
Last week Barb and I were at a convention in San Diego, the National Pastors Convention, with thousands of pastors. What a nightmare! We had a lot of wonderful speakers. One was Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotts. She spoke to the whole assembly of pastors about sin. She said, “I want us to talk about your sin.” She has a lot of guts. She was right. So how about you? There is a cost to discipleship, what it means to live for Christ in a world that cannot and does not understand. Have you joined the Talmadine? Have you said to Jesus, “Be my Rabbi. I want to be Your disciple. I embrace your schmeekah, your authority. I accept your yoke. I submit to what you bind and loose. Change me. Mold me. Transform me. Make me like Yourself.”
Our time is up. There is more to say but we will not say it. I do know that God wants us to understand the cost of discipleship. John Mark gave his heart to Jesus at some point, embraced Him as Rabbi. It might have been, if the Upper Room was in his house, when he was just a kid or maybe he accepted Christ through Peter because Peter calls John Mark, “my son.” Maybe he meant, “my son in the faith,” but at some point, John Mark heard the call to discipleship. He embraced it. It was not easy. He bailed out on Paul’s first missionary journey when he got to Perga in Pamphylia. He just bailed. Maybe he just, at that point, could not accept the cost of discipleship but he came to and so Papius, Eucephius, the early church fathers tell us that upon the death of Paul and Peter, John Mark became the Apostle to Egypt. Hypolitus tells us that Peter himself sent John Mark to Alexandria in Egypt and there in Alexandria John Mark started the Church of Jesus Christ. It became one of the four great centers of world Christianity, but it was also there that John Mark died. He died a martyr’s death. According to the ancient Pascal Chronicle, he was dragged through the streets of Alexandria towards the precipice of a cliff overlooking the sea. They were going to push him off, but they thought, “No, that’s too easy. He would die too quickly.” So they dragged him further along the streets of Alexandria until his death. Then they burned his body. The early church came, and they took his remains, and they buried them in a place where he often preached. Centuries later, the Catholic Church took his remains to Venice, and you can see his alleged remains in St. Mark’s Square.
The cost of discipleship. It has always been true. Jesus says, “Be faithful unto death.” That is what we want to do. Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer.