Exodus 39:1-40:38, Mark 1:1-28, Psalm 35:1-16, Proverbs 9:11-12
Today is the 15th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, as we come in out of whatever is going on and let it go and come around the Global Campfire together and take the next step forward together and that next step will have us continuing our journey through the book of Exodus. And we will actually conclude the book of Exodus today in the Old Testament and then when we get to the New Testament, we will be moving into some new territory: the gospel of Mark. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, Exodus, chapters 39 and 40.
Introduction to the Book of Mark:
Okay so, as we talked about a couple minutes ago were moving into new territory: the gospel of Mark. And the gospel of Mark is part of the grouping of books known as the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke and that is because they share so many of the same stories and events. And this has been studied and looked at and examined going back centuries and centuries and centuries because it seems like there is an original, like the source from which these came because the synoptic Gospels were written by different people at different times and yet, many of the phrases in these books are word for word comparisons. Whereas some of the stories have additional details, some of them less. It is widely believed by biblical scholars that the gospel of Mark is the first gospel written down, attesting to the ministry and life of Jesus Christ, and that it is the source for the similar stories in Matthew and Luke, which were written after Mark. And we should know that Mark wasn’t a disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry, he wasn’t part of the 12 disciples, and he wasn’t an apostle. Ultimately, it’s believed that he was a long-term disciple of the apostle Peter and accompanied him but we see Mark or as he’s known, John Mark in the book of Acts and we’re given some details about him from the book of Acts, like he became from a pretty wealthy family, which means he at least probably had some education, his mother’s name was Mary. She had a large house. She welcomed the believers into her home. She had a servant named Rhoda, these things we glean from the book of Acts, we also have church tradition that that suggests that her home may have been the the place of the upper room where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early believers. And if that’s true then it’s probably also the place of the Last Supper, which is territory we’ve just very recently moved through but the bottom line is that Mark or John Mark grew up around the faith, even when he was a boy. It’s a fascinating story in the book of Acts, that we’ll read when we get there, about the time that the apostle Peter was captured by Herod and Herod had killed some Christians and Jewish people were in favor of that and so he was planning to execute Peter as well. And so, Peter is waiting in jail for whatever his destiny will be but an angel comes and opens the jail and Peter is able to escape and he doesn’t even know if he’s dreaming or if this is really happening, but it was to John Mark’s home, to the home of Mary, Mark’s mother, that Peter first went when he was sprung out of jail. And there were a roomful of believers we’re told, they were praying earnestly for Peter for his rescue, for God’s providence and that was answered, and an angel came and got Peter out and so Peter comes to John Mark’s house and the servant Rhoda answers the door and then she sees Peter standing there and then she slams the door in his face because I guess because you can’t believe it’s Peter and she lets the people know inside and they come out and sure enough, it’s Peter and he gives them words and they sent them off into hiding. And so, that kind of gives us a little bit of a sense of who Mark is, as for what is in the gospel of Mark, well we remember Mark has been around the gospel pretty much his whole life. He has a cousin named Barnabas. Barnabas was a dear friend of the apostle Paul and so, Mark and Barnabas and Paul went on Paul’s first missionary journey but tradition tells us that he eventually became a disciple of the apostle Peter and began to travel and evangelize with Peter, even being an interpreter at times for Peter and so Peter moves around sharing the gospel of Jesus. Mark is with him and he hears the story over and over, everywhere they go, Peter is telling the story about Jesus and so Mark has heard this many times from Peter’s perspective, which makes some people think that this is really more the gospel according to Peter because Mark eventually was asked or just had the initiative to write these things down and the texture of Mark is well, it’s kind of roughly hewn. I mean, we’re gonna read it in English but it was written in Greek and Greek scholars look at the gospel of Mark and basically say this is…this is the grammar level of like elementary school person, so it’s kind of roughly hewn, especially compared to the gospel of Luke. For example, which is really beautifully written in really beautiful narrative form. Mark basically like there’s no birth story of Jesus, the Angels and the shepherds and all of this. Mark begins with words by John the Baptist and sort of the baptism of Jesus is where we begin in Mark since it’s it’s a way of looking at the story as it was earliest told, as the apostles are moving around and sharing the good news. And so, with that, we begin Mark chapter 1 verses one through 28.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. And we thank You for bringing us several weeks into this brand-new year, with many weeks in front of us and we look forward to all that You will re-shape inside of us and root in us this year. And so, as we begin this second gospel, move back through this story, we open our hearts to You Jesus our Savior, that we might fall deeply in love with You. Understanding how deeply You have loved us, and even as we have concluded the book of Exodus and are preparing tomorrow to enter into new territory in the book of Leviticus, Holy Spirit come, lead us into all truth, this is our continual prayer, that You might lead us on the pathways of truth and on the narrow path that leads to life, we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayers and Encouragements:
Prayers will be posted later today.