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Rev Graham Harrison           Sunday June 13th a.m. 1999            Acts 12

John Mark

And when he (Peter) had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished [Acts 12:12-16].

Now those words contain the name of the character that I want to preach on this morning. You remember last Sunday that I indicated to you that I am interrupting the series of sermons on Revelation and I want during the summer months to look at some of the perhaps lesser known characters of the New Testament. You will notice in the twelfth verse one of these is mentioned - we did touch on him in passing last Sunday - John, John Mark. 'When he (Peter) had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark'. John was probably his Hebrew name and his Latin name would have been Mark or Marcus as he is called in some of the other texts of the New Testament.

You will recall that last Sunday morning when I was dealing with the man, Barnabas, who is mentioned here in this chapter in verse twenty five: 'Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem' - I was able to point out how this man John Mark became the source of contention and dissension between the Apostle Paul and Barnabas. You remember that we had seen how when they were on their first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, as we would describe it, and they had taken John Mark with them to be their helper, well, it is as if he had enough when he got to Asia Minor and went back and left them. So some years subsequently, when Paul suggested to Barnabas that they re-visit the churches that they had been used to bring into existence, there in Asia Minor, Barnabas suggested that they take John Mark with them. He was his cousin, John Mark's mother was related to Barnabas, and Barnabas wanted to give John Mark another chance. The Apostle Paul was not going to accede to that request and the result was that you had this row between Paul and Barnabas and they both went their separate ways. Paul took with him Silas, Silvanus as he is called sometimes in the New Testament, and Barnabas took with him John Mark - and so they both went their separate ways spreading the Gospel.

So this is the character that I want us to think about this morning. Of course the wonderful thing about this man is whatever it was that caused him to turn back from accompanying Paul and Barnabas, somehow or another, by the grace of God, he was brought to a place at which God once more was able to use him. There is that very touching reference that I mentioned last week in that last letter that we have from the hand of the Apostle Paul, the second letter that he writes to Timothy, he does mention Mark: 'Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry' [2 Timothy 4:11].

Indeed there are two or three other references to this same man which indicates to us that he has been completely rehabilitated as far as Paul was concerned. For example when Paul writes to the Colossians he puts it like this: 'Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,' or really it should be cousin to Barnabas, '(touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)' [Colossians 4:10]. So obviously the Apostle Paul by this time was more than happy for Mark to be involved again in Christian ministry. Indeed probably the same time that the letter to the Colossians was written the letter to Philemon was written and that just has one chapter and towards the end of the chapter as Paul is signing off he says: 'There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers' [Philemon 1:23-24]. So obviously Mark has been completely rehabilitated by this time.

Indeed at the end of the first Epistle of Peter Mark has another mention: 'The church that is at Babylon,' and probably that is a code name for Rome, 'The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son' [1 Peter 5:13] - which might be an indication that perhaps Mark actually came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Apostle Peter. That may be so or maybe it is just a term of affection by which the Apostle Peter addresses Mark. Those are the other references there in the epistles of the New Testament that indicate to us that whatever it was that went wrong and however badly Mark had failed on that missionary journey in which he had accompanied Barnabas and Saul, things had changed and now not only was he grudgingly, as it were, restored into the fellowship of the church but he was gladly accepted as a fellow-labourer of the Apostles and somebody whose ministry was much appreciated.

What do we know about him? That is why I read to you from this twelfth chapter. I want to act like a bit of a sort of spiritual Sherlock Holmes from these few verses! What do we learn about Mark and his background situation? Well, we know that his mother was Mary; she obviously had quite a large house because there the Christians - or at least a considerable number of them in Jerusalem - were meeting together to pray for the Apostle Peter who had been incarcerated in prison. They had been meeting in order to pray for his release. I think that we can infer that the family was quite a prosperous family. I do not think that any of you have got servants, have you? If the door bell rings you go to answer it yourself, or perhaps you send one of your children, your slaves, to go and answer the door. Well, Mary did not answer the door when somebody was knocking, Rhoda, the servant girl, she went. So that I think is a little indication to us that probably this family was not on its beam ends, it was a family that met in fairly commodious premises. The gate was separated from wherever it was that the rest of the people were met praying. So when Rhoda comes back and announces to them that Peter is at the door - silly woman that she was, she should have opened the door by perhaps we can pardon her failure at that point When she comes back and tells them, they will not believe her. They accuse her of being mad. Then when she is obviously not mad, they say, 'Well, it must be his angel, some angel assuming the form of Peter. But eventually they go to the door, they let him in and it really is Peter.

Well all those little bits and pieces they indicate to us something perhaps of the background from which Mark came. Some commentators suggest that it might well have been in this house, the house of Mary, that in Acts chapter one we read that those early Christians, following the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, were meeting together. You remember Acts chapter one verse twelve following: 'Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room,' and then we are told what happened. Was that the home of Mary? It is not impossible. If it was the upper room, again some of the commentators suggest that might have been the upper room in which our Lord met with His disciples to hold the last supper.

You recall that we have one of the Gospel that is called the Gospel of Mark and that Gospel, written by this man Mark so we may suppose, has a very interesting little incident recorded for us in the fourteenth chapter, verses fifty to fifty two. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to the Garden of Gethsemane and He has prayed, come back and found them sleeping and then Judas arrives with a bunch of soldiers and Temple police. They have come to arrest Jesus. He kisses Him, Peter takes up a sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus the servant of the High Priest. Our Lord heals that man. Then: 'And they all forsook him, and fled. And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked' [Mark 14:50-52].

Now you do not read that in Matthew, you do not read it in Luke, you do not read it in John; you just read it in Mark's Gospel. Many of the commentators, and I think that they are probably right, they are suggesting that this is a little personal reminiscence from Mark himself. He does not actually put his name in there but otherwise, you might say, the incident does not really seem to make much sense. There does not seem to be any point in mentioning this anonymous individual to whom this happened. But if it was Mark, well you can well understand how he was well able to incorporate it into his Gospel.

And then - and this perhaps is speculation - but some of the commentators they suggest that something like this happened. He was a young man, perhaps scarcely more than a boy at that time. He had been at home, probably asleep. The last supper had been held, Judas had gone out, our Lord leads the disciples away to the Garden of Gethsemane - then Judas turns up at the house with the soldiers to arrest Jesus and Jesus is not there. Mark wakes up, discovers what is happening, grabs just this linen cloth, an outer garment, throws it over his naked body - he knows where Jesus has gone and he runs off to the Garden of Gethsemane hoping to get there before Judas and the soldiers arrive to arrest Jesus. But he does not, when he gets there he discovers that all the disciples have forsaken Him and fled. At that Mark panics, the young men there who were with Judas they grab hold of him but all they are able to grab hold of is this linen cloak that he is wearing. He wriggles and runs away stark naked leaving it in their hands. Well that is speculation, but you could understand how something like that might have happened. That at any rate is all that we can speculate on regarding Mark and the earlier history of Mark.

But here in this chapter we begin to be told something more about him. At the end of the chapter you notice: 'And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark' [Acts 12:25]. They are returning back up to Antioch; they have come to Antioch, if you go back one chapter, the end of chapter eleven of the Acts of the Apostles, you remember that there had been a prophet named Agabus who had come from Jerusalem to Antioch to warn them in a prophetic way that there was going to be a great dearth, a great famine, throughout the world - that actually came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. 'Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul' [Acts 11:29-30]. So you have got those two points - the last verse of chapter eleven, the last verse of chapter twelve. Barnabas and Saul in one are coming down from Antioch to Jerusalem and in the other they are returning from Jerusalem to Antioch but taking with them John Mark.

Probably they have stayed at John Mark's mother's house - because after all he was a relative of Barnabas and I suppose if we went to a strange city and we had an aunt or a cousin or some relative living there, we would hope that they would put us up. We have all had that experience. So it could well have been that during these events of Acts chapter twelve, that I have read to you, Paul and Barnabas were actually living there in the house of Mary and they would have got to know in a more intimate and close way this young fellow, John Mark. Presumably they must have been favourably impressed by him and so when they go back to Antioch they take John Mark with them.

Then in Acts chapter thirteen you remember how that opens by telling us of the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch and the Lord has indicted to them that they are to separate Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He has called them. so they fast and they pray, they lay hands on those two men and they send them away. A verse or two later we read this: 'And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews:' - then this little bit of information - 'and they had also John to their minister' to their servant, somebody who was going to help them in various ways. [Acts 13:5].So here is John Mark, he is accompanying his cousin Barnabas and the Apostle Paul, accompanying then on this missionary journey. As you read on in that chapter you come to the sad incident, verse thirteen, they have come across the Mediterranean Sea, from the island of Cyprus where they had been preaching. They come to the south of what today we would call Turkey, a place called 'Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem'.[Acts 13:13]. So he abandons that mission, leaves them to look after themselves, says that he is not going to accompany them any longer and back he goes to Jerusalem.

So that is the background information that we have about this man John Mark. What can we say about him? Well, try and put yourself in his shoes. He comes from, you might say, a good and a godly family. We do not know anything about his father but his mother Mary was obviously a Christian, a hospitable woman, she was very happy to invite the Christians along to her home and to allow this - I think that you can say, series of prayer meetings that must have been taking place for the release of the Apostle Peter - allow those meetings to be held there in her home. She is a good and a godly woman and she is evidently at the heart of the Jerusalem church. Peter ,when he is released from prison, is wondering what to do and he says, 'Well, I will go to Mary's house.' And that is where he goes. There, as I have suggested to you, Barnabas would have been and probably the Apostle Paul as well. Obviously it was a place where some of the leaders of the Jerusalem church were accustomed to go. So that was the sort of background from which John Mark would have come. He was used to these great spiritual leaders - and they were that, were they not, these early Christian Apostles and the other leaders of the church there in Jerusalem - he was used to them coming and going from his house. They were probably on first name terms with him and he was very familiar with the m.

Put yourself in his shoes, you have got this cousin Barnabas and he is obviously quite an eminent person and there is this man Saul, who clearly has the hand of God upon him - and they make the suggestion to you, 'Look, why do you not come with us. We are going back to Antioch, come up there with us!' And that is very flattering, is it not? You begin to feel, 'Well yes, they must see something in me. Think of all the other people in this large church in Jerusalem they could have invited to accompany them - and they have singled me out!' He must have felt flattered by the invitation. Then you might say that is compounded when back there in Antioch the Holy Spirit directs the church to send Barnabas and Saul away on this missionary journey and they say, 'Look here John Mark, we want you with us! We are going to need help. There are various, perhaps material, things in which you will be able to assist us. And perhaps there are some spiritual activities that you will be of assistance to us in as well.' Once more I suppose John Mark must have felt very encouraged, possibly very flattered, to think that here were these two eminent Christians going on this great adventure. There had never been anything like this before. They were sailing across the Mediterranean, not very far I grant you, to the island of Cyprus and who knows where they would be going then - and they had asked Mark to be their companion to assist them.

I say it must have been flattering to him, it must have been exciting to him. In one sense you know there must have been this element of, in the spiritual sense, of the romantic element that would have come home to him. 'Who knows what is going to happen. Here is this church in Antioch, it is a great church, there has been a wonderful work done here. Barnabas has had a great hand in that and Saul, we know, has something about him. Who knows what is going to happen when we go to Cyprus. Maybe we are going to be able to start after church after church. Maybe the gospel is going to make a triumphant progress through the island.' And Mark, in one sense, could be pardoned for having these almost romantic views of what was in store for him. then he comes down to earth with a bump!

He comes to the island of Cyprus; well they make their way through it - that was where Barnabas had come from, so perhaps things were a little easier from that point of view. But as they come towards the end of their stay in Cyprus there is real opposition. There is a man who had some sort of occult powers, a man by the name of Elymas, the sorcerer, and he withstood Barnabas and Saul and sought to hinder the work of the gospel. There had been a man who was a leading administrator in the island, a deputy of the country a man called Sergius Paulus, and he was really interested in the gospel and this man Elymas, the sorcerer, he tried to deflect him from the gospel. So here is opposition to the word of God. Perhaps the glow is somehow going off the romantic view that Mark perhaps had of the progress of the Gospel. But Paul deals with this Elymas, remember he is enabled to bring blindness upon him. Then they leave the island of Cyprus, they sail north across the Mediterranean and they come to Perga in Pamphylia.

Probably Mark has been turning all this over in his mind. He might have said, 'Well, Cyprus was bad enough, but what is in store now? At least in Cyprus Barnabas would have had some relatives, he would have known the situation - that is where he came from. But Pamphylia, Perga, the interior, that is hostile territory.' So this man John Mark perhaps he becomes a little disillusioned. Eventually he indicates to Barnabas and Paul that he is not going any farther. Maybe it was a bit of homesickness, he wanted to get back. It was a long time now since he had been back there in Jerusalem. Perhaps he is missing his mother and wants to get home - maybe there was that element in it. Or perhaps he did not like the fact that now it seems to be Paul who is the leader and not Barnabas. Remember I pointed out to you last week there came that point in their ministries when it is not Barnabas and Saul that is mentioned but Saul and Barnabas, so there has been a sort of power shift and the leader has become Paul, Saul of Tarsus. Perhaps Mark thought, 'Well this is not what I came out for, my cousin Barnabas I thought that he was in charge but now this man, Saul of Tarsus, and I am not so sure about him!'

Well maybe that was a factor but I think more probably what it was simply was a case of cowardice. Do you remember in the second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians he gives us lots of biographical information and autobiographical information. And there he tells us of some of the trials that he had to. He said: 'Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned' well that was in the part that Paul and Barnabas were going to. Not that Mark knew that at that time: 'thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.' [2 Corinthians 11:25-27]. Perhaps it was beginning to dawn on Mark the sort of prospect that was before them. It was not going to be moving from one Hilton to the Sheraton Hotel in the next town. It was going to be fastings and perhaps beatings and robbers setting upon them. That really was not what he had in mind when he had begun to accompany them. Therefore he decides that he has had enough, he is not going on. Instead he goes back to Jerusalem.

So maybe that was part of it, the idealised, the romantic view that he had of what it was to be a Christian and to be a servant of the Lord, that was something that had been shattered. You know it still happens. Sometimes people become Christians, they have not counted the cost. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ there was that occasion in the Gospels when one person after another came to Him telling Him that they were willing to do this that and the other for Him, follow Him wherever He went. And He told them in effect that the needed to count the cost because it was not all roses, there was going to be hardship and difficulty and not just with somebody initially becoming a Christian.

Sometimes you know people can read biographies of great Christians, missionary biographies and they are thrilling. You move from one exciting chapter to the next exciting chapter, great numbers of people being converted, mighty triumphs of the gospel - and you think, 'Oh, would it not be wonderful to be a missionary. Would it not be wonderful to be a preacher of the gospel and to be used like that.' And of course what the biographer has not told you is all the blood and the sweat and the tears in between. Somebody that has just gone out perhaps with that romantic view of what it is to be a preacher or a missionary, they are then faced with the harsh reality of the situation. All their dreams, as it were, are shattered. Well possibly it was like that with this man, Mark, being a missionary was not quite as he thought that it was going to be. There was all the drudgery, all the danger, all the hardship. So what he does is to abandon Barnabas and Paul and back he goes to Jerusalem.

Then what? Well I am quite sure that Satan would have moved in on him. Satan would have said something like this to him: 'You have failed! You are a failure; you will be a failure! You had a test, you had an opportunity, you did not pass it. You do not have what it takes! You are a write off, you are a wash-out, you are no good!' I would be amaze d if that was not the way in which Satan came to this man and attacked him. Then perhaps other Christians would have moved in on him. People would have said, Who is this?' 'Oh, that is John Mark. Do you not know what happened to him? He went off with Barnabas and Paul on that missionary journey that they went on to Cyprus and then up into Turkey. But he could not stand the pace! He just got as far as the coast of Turkey and he had had enough. He through the towel in and caught the next boat back to Palestine. That is John Mark!' 'Oh, I see!'

So the possibility comes up in the church of somebody being appointed to do a work and somebody says, What about that young man, John Mark?' 'Oh no! You cannot rely on him! You never know when he is going to turn back from you. Have you heard what happened to him once Paul and Barnabas got to Turkey? He could not take it any longer and came back here to Palestine.' 'Oh, I see! Well, we will think of somebody else.' Perhaps that is how the Christians began to treat this man Mark.

Perhaps the world would have moved in on the act as well because the world is very unforgiving and very critical, is it not? When somebody falls the world wants to grind them into the dust. I think that you have had a big example of it in a leading politician who is now in prison. Read the papers in this last week and they are delighting in grinding him into the dust. One understands it in the world. They want revenge, they like seeing a person's bubble pricked, as it were, and somebody being cut down to size. Sadly sometimes Christians can engage in the same thing. But put yourself in Mark's shoes. There you are, you have got your conscience rebuking you. You know what these other Christians are thinking even if they are not saying it about you and you have got the devil hammering away at you. 'You are useless! You have failed, you are never going to be any good in the service of God!'

Now what do you do? Well you know there is one thing that you cannot do - you cannot undo history. You cannot, as it were, go back and run it again only this time in a different way. Some people they try to do that. They end up by writing their own version of what happened. They forget the reality and they build up some sort of a fantasy. The end up by saying, 'Of course, it was the most logical thing for me to do to have come back to Palestine from Turkey! After all there was no point in going on with those two men. They did not really need me in any case. I was only going to be a hindrance to them, if they had had to drag me through all those mountains. No, it was really for the benefit of the work that I came back to Palestine.' It would have been a re-writing of history. Sometimes Christians who have gone astray, Christians who have failed badly, they do that and the only person really that they deceive is themselves.

So what are you to do in this sort of situation? Well, you have to face facts. You have to say, 'Well, this did happen. It should not have happened but it did happen. That is the fact of the matter.' You do not try to re-write history. You face the fact - but you face it as a Christian. That is the difference. You see the tragedy about somebody out in the world when they have a calamity - the world will not let them forget it; their own conscience will not let forget it. They cannot re-write history and everybody knows what the situation is and they know that the world is a terribly unforgiving place. But this man is not a worldling - he is a Christian! So what does he have to do?

Well, he has to face these facts as a Christian. You call what has happened by its proper name - sin - and then you do with sin what only a Christian is able to do. You bring it to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You lay it there at His feet and you ask for forgiveness and cleansing form that sin in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the promises of God. 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' You come back in other words to the doctrine of justification by faith. It is where you began your spiritual life, it is where you must end your spiritual life. You are not received into heaven because you are a good Christian, you are not received into heaven because of the great progress you have made in the spiritual life, you are received into heaven only because the Lord Jesus Christ has died for your sins and by God's grace through faith you have trusted in Him and God has pardoned you, God looks upon you as righteous with the righteousness of Jesus. Whatever the sin is, however deep, however dark, however evil - you bring it to the cross and you lay it there. It is the wonder of the Gospel. This is what the world cannot understand but all sin can be forgiven. And when the sinner comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and pleads the merit of His shed blood, then God forgives and pardons. I have no doubt whatsoever that must have happened in the case of this man Mark.

But what is it that sometimes is needed to bring us to that point? Perhaps that brings me to that sad episode that I was referring to last week - that argument, that altercation between Paul and Barnabas: 'And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God' [Acts 15:36-40].

What was needed to bring Mark to that place of repentance and restoration? I suggest that it was a combination of Paul and Barnabas and the attitudes that were displayed respectively by Paul and Barnabas. What was Paul's attitude? 'This man has sinned; this man ought not to have abandoned us! He should have continued with us, we needed his help, we were entering on the hardest part of our missionary journey. We did not know it at the time but we were going to be set upon, I was going to be stoned and left for dead. If ever there was a time when we needed some back up ministry, it was then - and we did not have him, because he had turned coat and he had taken that boat back to Palestine! What he has done was wrong.' So when Barnabas came with the suggestion that they Mark with them, Paul says 'No! What he has evidently done was sinful and we cannot take the risk again!'

But Barnabas said, 'Yes, but surely there is forgiveness! Surely there is such a thing as the forgiving and the restoring grace of God. He was only a young man' - perhaps he was scarcely more than a teenager - 'and we found it hard enough. were there not times, Paul, when you and I felt like abandoning it? Surely we can understand that in his youthfulness and his natural fear, he felt that he had to go back home?'

In one sense both things were necessary. Not either or but both and. You see if it was just what Paul had said, Mark would have just floundered in hopelessness. 'I have failed! I will never be able to be used again by God. I have faced the test and I was not up to it!' Or if it had just been Barnabas, that would not have been any good either! The sin, as it were, glossed over. The suspicion, 'Well of course, he is my cousin, in any case! Blood is thicker than water.' I really would have been sentimentality and unreality. Yet you bring the two of those things together and I think that they explain the transformation in Mark. He is convicted of his sin. He knew that he should not have thrown the towel in and he knows that he has sinned - and Paul has indicated that very clearly to him. Yet, thank God, there is mercy and forgiveness for repentant Christian sinners.

You put those two things together and there is hope and so you think of Mark after acts fifteen. First of all he goes with Barnabas and Barnabas is able to help him, to re-condition him, to rehabilitate him. He is a man who is aware of the seriousness of the sin that he has committed and he knows full well what is in store for him. He is not going out with some false airy-fairy romantic idea of what it is to be a missionary - he knows the reality of the situation and with that terrible failure behind him, but not paralysed by it, he is able to go on looking for the sufficiency of the grace of God.

So these other references that we have to him in the New Testament, they are of this man restored and used by God. 'Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)' [Colossians 4:10]. Or 'Marcus ... my fellowlabourer' [Philemon 1:24]. Or the Apostle Peter: 'Marcus my son.' [1 Peter 5:13] Or Paul: 'Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry' [2 Timothy 4:11].

Then you might say most amazingly of all, he writes a Gospel! It is not Barnabas and Paul that use him, it is God the holy Spirit that uses him and causes him to write this second Gospel, the shortest Gospel - in one sense the simplest of the Gospels! Often when people have been converted, or are interested in the Gospel and they want to know what to read - I say, 'Read through Mark's Gospel. There is a simplicity about it, a directness about it!' The Gospel written by Mark probably with Peter leaning over his shoulder and giving him lots of information that otherwise he would not have had. It tells us, does it not, of the restoring grace of God.

You have got a wonderful example in the Old Testament. Do you remember that man Samson? What a failure! What possibilities there had been with him - but what a hopeless failure he was. There he is incarcerated in prison by the Philistines in Gaza:

'But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life' [Judges 16:21-30].

Perhaps there is an even more striking example. In 1 Corinthians five there was a terrible case of immorality in the church at Corinth - incestuous immorality. Instead of dealing with it, the church was glorying in it. They had some confused idea about God's grace and Paul has to write to them and Paul has to insist that they discipline this man who is living in this shameful way. Evidently it was something that was done with great hardship - they must have had a church meeting and it seems probable that it was a majority vote that decided to implement the discipline. That is something that you gather from 2 Corinthians chapter 2 because he speaks of the 'punishment, which was inflicted of many' [(2 Corinthians 2:6]. And literally it is 'of the majority'. But what has happened is that this man has truly repented and what Paul has to do in 2 Corinthians chapter two, as opposed to 1 Corinthians chapter five, is not to stir the church up to take discipline but to stir the church up to recognise forgiveness. And when they see somebody who has truly repented, to restore them. So he says: 'Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him' [2 Corinthians 2:6-8]. God able to forgive, pardon, restore a sinner - and here is the great example here in Mark. God used him, used him wonderfully and mightily.

I think that there are two lessons - the first is for the church. There must always in the church be this attitude, you recognise sin, you disapprove of it, you condemn it, you criticise it, you call it by its name - but then when that sin is repented of, you recognise that repentance, you receive, you restore the repentant sinner. And the other lesson? Not for the church, but for the individual - Satan would persuade you when you have sinned that you are a write-off. You are not! By the grace of God there is restoration. This man Mark is the great example to us of that. Listen to what somebody has written about him:

Mark's biography offers hope for those who have failed. There is hope for the coward, the deserter, if only he will turn back to Christ. The possibility of recovery, of renewed and enlarged usefulness is open to all. Mark challenges us to learn the secret of success by taking advantage of our blunders and failures in turning them into stepping-stones in the struggle for respect and usefulness. One who has failed need not remain a failure. (D E Hiebert, Personalities around Paul, p.87)

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