Historical Background

It is widely agreed that Peter probably passed on the content of this Gospel to John Mark who crafted this masterful work. Many scholars tentatively hold to a date around AD 65 for this Gospel which was possibly written in Rome. If this later dating is accurate, the reality of Roman persecution heightens the tension in the Gospel’s emphasis on suffering for the first readers as well as for Christians today.

Mark’s primary theme is a call to discipleship though he does it through casting Jesus’ original disciples in an unfavorable light. Mark consistently challenges a version of discipleship that would follow Christ without really understanding what they are being called to believe about him or do for him. Thus, Mark’s focus is Jesus’ identity and authority. Because Mark seems to favor a non-Jewish audience in his writing, it lends itself to outsiders or those less familiar with Old Testament background. But every believing listener will be challenged to fortify their following of Jesus.

The ending is disupted. What we have in 16:9-20 is attested to in the majority of manuscripts but not in the best of manuscripts. We also have reliable historical testimony that would seem to indicate the longer ending is not original. While the shorter ending seems abrupt, it is possible this is for effect. Mark’s final “sandwich” contrasts Jospeh’s courage with the trembling and fear that filled even the faithful women who had followed Jesus so closely (A - 15:40-41; B - 15:42-46; A’ 15:47-16:8). The sudden ending of the narrative invites the reader to ponder whether they will follow Christ’s instruction to go and report his resurrection to others.

Sermon Series

The following is a 49-part series through Mark. While this is certainly not the only way to break it up, these pericopes should feel natural to the careful reader and respect literary boundaries such as Mark’s frequent “sandwiching” (A-B-A structure). It includes an introductory sermon that seeks to incorporate some Old Testament influences in Mark and also preview the major themes of discipleship, faith, and the identity of Jesus.

My sermon titles often lean more toward textual description than application. More important than titles is the need to look through the various emphases of each passage and think ahead about not making the sermon series feel too repetitive. The Gospel of Mark is not a series of sermons. It is not designed to present isolated, non-repeating themes. Instead, several themes present and re-present themselves throughout. If you’re not thinking ahead carefully, you might expend all your ammo on a theme only to run into it again several more times. In the “tips” area below, I will suggest how to handle each passage so that it provides its own voice and doesn’t completely steal another upcoming sermon’s thunder.

Text: Mark 1:1

• Title: The Beginning of the Good News
• Big Idea: We should follow Jesus because only he can provide news that is ultimately good.
• Preaching Tip: This is an optional textual [1] sermon where you will introduce the book, and clarify the gospel and the identity of Jesus right up front.

Text: Mark 1:1-15

• Title: Jesus Makes a Way
• Big Idea: Jesus first identifies with the sinner so that he can offer the gospel of life-change.
• Preaching Tip: Help the listener understand why Jesus had to take the steps he took before beginning his preaching ministry.

Text: Mark 1:16-20

• Title: The Call to Discipleship
• Big Idea: To follow Jesus is to join him in calling others to follow.
• Preaching Tip: Take a whole sermon in this short text to drill down on Jesus’ authoritative call to follow him in evangelism.

Text: Mark 1:21-28

• Title: Jesus’ Authority Over Demons
• Big Idea: Jesus’ authority over spirits shows his teaching is to be received as authoritative.
• Preaching Tip: Don’t get lost in the woods of demonology. Rather, show how his command over them points to the weight of his teaching.

Text: Mark 1:29-45

• Title: Jesus’ Authority Over Diseases
• Big Idea: Jesus’ authority to heal brings attention to his primary agenda—the preaching of the gospel.
• Preaching Tip: Show how Jesus healed many but moved on because his focus was preaching. He didn’t allow his ministry to change based on demand.

Text: Mark 2:1-11

• Title: Jesus’ Authority Over Depravity
• Big Idea: We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus’ authority to forgive sin is total and sure.
• Preaching Tip: Mark is tough on disciples. Use this sermon to encourage; Jesus offers real forgiveness. Like the healing, it is instant and total.

Text: Mark 2:12-17

• Title: The Type Jesus Recruits
• Big Idea: Jesus came to rescue those who recognize they are in need of grace.
• Preaching Tip: One of many passages that will deal with the theme of the divide; one is either in or out with Jesus. He rescues the undeserving. Those who feel confident in their works remain on the outside.

Text: Mark 2:18-28

• Title: Jesus Saves Religion
• Big Idea: Jesus is the key to understanding how all of God’s revelation is to be lived out.
• Preaching Tip: You will have to think clearly about how you will explain what Jesus does with the OT and how he contextualizes it for believers today.

Text: Mark 2:23-3:6

• Title: Jesus Saves Religion pt. 2
• Big Idea: Jesus rescues us from a religion of works by pointing us to God’s heart of love in the law.
• Preaching Tip: The Sabbath law is used as a case in point. Demonstrate how all of us have Pharisaical heart-tendencies in that we prefer law-keeping to the new wineskin.

Text: Mark 3:7-21

• Title: Jesus, Crowds, and Disciples
• Big Idea: Real followers of Jesus submit to his commissioning to expand the kingdom.
• Preaching Tip: Crowds followed but the disciples were trained to minister. You can use this to address the difference between being a consumer vs. a disciple.

Text: Mark 3:20-36

• Title: Christ’s Agenda and Our Response
• Big Idea: There is only hope for those who are willing to align with Christ’s agenda.
• Preaching Tip: The tone here is warning. You can focus on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, but don’t lose sight of the overall thrust. Verses 31-35 help round out the burden of the passage.

Text: Mark 4:1-20

• Title: The Most Important Parable
• Big Idea: Even though the gospel will be rejected by many, it will grow through those who truly embrace it.
• Preaching Tip: Many preach this as a warning (“Which soil are you?”) and that’s not wrong. But you can see Jesus training his disciples for gospel ministry by promising kingdom growth despite the odds (further shown in the following three parables). This is encouraging and prepares us for evangelism on difficult ground.

Text: Mark 4:21-34

• Title: What Every Disciple Must Understand About the Kingdom of God
• Big Idea: While we are called to expand Christ’s kingdom, we must trust in his power to grow it.
• Preaching Tip: Help your believing listeners trust not in their gospel work, but in God’s power to make it frutiful.

Text: Mark 4:35-41

• Title: Who Then Is This?
• Big Idea: Jesus is to be trusted as Lord over all things who can save us from ultimate destruction.
• Preaching Tip: Don’t make this about “the storms of life” because Jesus will not always calm them. Instead, build up your listeners’ understanding of how big Jesus is. This will build their trust. Ultimately, he does save his own from judgment/destruction.

Text: Mark 5:1-20

• Title: The Lord and the Legion
• Big Idea: Demonic opposition is real, but Jesus frees us to proclaim him as Rescuer.
• Preaching Tip: This would be the passage to really help your listeners understand demonic influence and Christ’s sheer power over them. The climax, however, is our duty to proclaim the gospel of freedom.

Text: Mark 5:21-43

• Title: Desperation and Deliverance
• Big Idea: A desperate circumstance might drive you to Jesus, but Jesus will meet your faith with grace.
• Preaching Tip: Some might feel guilty only coming to Jesus now that some life circumstance has made them do it. Encourage them that he will always meet faith with mercy and grace. Healing is not guaranteed, but healing/resurrection represents deliverance from spiritual bondage.

Text: Mark 6:1-6

• Title: The Unwelcome Jesus
• Big Idea: Excuses to not follow Jesus are many, but the chief reason is the offense of the gospel.
• Preaching Tip: You can use this to challenge unbelievers who might be present, but it can also encourage believers to see the real reason behind the excuses offered by their unbelieving friends.

Text: Mark 6:7-30

• Title: The Danger of Christian Proclamation
• Big Idea: The gospel message will be met with hostility, but we must persevere in our proclamation.
• Preaching Tip: Talk to your listeners about the reality of persecution around the globe. Encourage them to be brave in the face of opposition.

Text: Mark 6:30-52

• Title: Misunderstanding Jesus
• Big Idea: Jesus came to meet our eternal need.
• Preaching Tip: The disciples missed what the bread miracle meant. He was a miracle worker to them but not the one who would shepherd their souls for eternity. Some of your listeners might have the same confusion.

Text: Mark 6:53-56

• Title: Reaching Out to Jesus for Healing
• Big Idea: Though faith does not necessitate healing, faith is necessary for healing even today.
• Preaching Tip: Up to this point, your sermons may have tempered your listeners’ thoughts about healing, steering them especially away from prosperity theology. Most of the sections in Mark that deal with healing focus on Christ’s teaching. Here the focus is healing without mention of the teaching. This might be a good time to positively build up their faith in a God who does heal.

Text: Mark 7:1-23

• Title: Defilement, Doctrine, and Deliverance
• Big Idea: Laws show us our need for God’s rescuing grace.
• Preaching Tip: Here you can unpack the fact that OT laws are not there to enslave us, but nor are they there to be ignored.

Text: Mark 7:24-37

• Title: He Does All Things Well
• Big Idea: The instinct to share Christ with others intensifies the more impressed we are by him.
• Preaching Tip: Astonished by how well Jesus does all things, people spread word about his ministry.

Text: Mark 8:1-30

• Title: The Unseen Christ
• Big Idea: Our only hope to really see Jesus is God granting us sight.
• Preaching Tip: Mark’s way of explaining that Peter’s confession comes from God granting it is to juxtapose it with the healing of the blind man and the disciples’ inability to see the significance of Jesus multiplying the bread.

Text: Mark 8:27-38

• Title: Losing Your Life to Save It
• Big Idea: We cannot follow Christ without learning the discipline of self-denial.
• Preaching Tip: It was Satanic of Peter to suggest that Jesus could get to the crown without the cross. The focus here is embracing suffering for the sake of the gospel.

Text: Mark 9:1-13

• Title: What We Need to Endure
• Big Idea: In order to bear the cross of discipleship, we need to know the power of the resurrection.
• Preaching Tip: After teaching his disciples the centrality of suffering to the Christian life, Jesus gives them what they need to persevere—a preview of the resurrection (8:31, 38; 9:9, 10).

Text: Mark 9:14-29

• Title: ‘Help My Unbelief!’
• Big Idea: The way to combat evil forces is to demonstrate total dependence on Christ through prayer.
• Preaching Tip: This can be a time to unpack a theology of evil spirits, tempering an over- emphasis on them as well as the tendency to ignore their persistent presence, in the Gospels especially.

Text: Mark 9:30-42

• Title: Redefining Greatness
• Big Idea: Greatness is doing what you can to help others serve Christ.
• Preaching Tip: It’s difficult to decide whether v. 42 should go with this portion or the following, but I opted to pull it into this week’s portion because v. 42 is still overtly other-centered. But vv. 43-50 can easily be pulled in to make one sermon.

Text: Mark 9:43-50

• Title: Whatever It Takes
• Big Idea: A follower of Jesus Christ does whatever it takes to put Jesus first in all things.
• Preaching Tip: As much as we learn about grace, we need to recognize the call to fight against the temptation to sin. Explain this reality in a voice that echoes the text’s stark warning. It’s not about achieving perfection but striving for it.

Text: Mark 10:1-12

• Title: Marriage in God’s Eyes
• Big Idea: Marriage is a serious bond that is created by God and we must strive to preserve it.
• Preaching Tip: It might be helpful to begin this sermon with a brief exposition of Deut. 24:1-4 to set up the conversation in Mark 10:1-12. The focus here is that rather than asking “When can I divorce?” Jesus wants us to ask, “What is marriage supposed to be?”

Text: Mark 10:13-16

• Title: How to Receive the Kingdom
• Big Idea: Like little children, we must enter the kingdom in total dependance upon the external help of Jesus Christ.
• Preaching Tip: The example of little children arises again but here the child is your listener rather than their neighbor. You can easily put this together with the following passage; I used it to clarify the gospel anew so that the following week more time could be spent on the problem of wealth.

Text: Mark 10:17-31

• Title: ‘Then Who Can Be Saved?’
• Big Idea: Only God’s grace can rescue us from the grip that wealth and comforts have on us.
• Preaching Tip: Convince your listener that they too wrestle with the clutch of riches and get them to resonate with the question, “Who then can be saved?” Then remind them of the gospel as refreshed by 10:13-16.

Text: Mark 10:32-45

• Title: The Greatness of Servanthood
• Big Idea: To be great in God’s eyes is to be a servant to others, just like Jesus.
• Preaching Tip: This passage returns us to an important theme. Here you can emphasize the cyclical nature of Mark’s portrait of the disciples and their learning. We need to be reminded again and again of the basic principles of followership.

Text: Mark 10:46-52

• Title: A Lesson from the Blind Beggar
• Big Idea: Dedicated discipleship follows from a deep recognition that we were utterly blind and destitute prior to Christ’s saving us.
• Preaching Tip: Bartimaeus contrasts with the thinking of the disciples in the previous paragraph. In my setting, we had a few weeks break between this passage and the previous, but you can combine them. If you keep them separate, the second serves as the postive example of the prior negative example.

Text: Mark 11:1-11

• Title: Rejoicing in Our Savior King
• Big Idea: We can embrace suffering with full trust in God when we see that Jesus’ own suffering was part of his plan.
• Preaching Tip: Jesus’ ability to orchestrate detailed events demonstrates that Jesus doesn’t fall into enemy traps, but rather marches confidently into his own plan.

Text: Mark 11:12-26

• Title: A Lesson from a Cursed Tree
• Big Idea: Jesus is looking for a praying people who pray effectively.
• Preaching Tip: Here you have the A-B-A pattern as Mark surrounds the temple cleansing with the lesson of the fig tree. The role of prayer is the focus in both the temple and the tree, and his promise in the tree lesson defines the point in the temple cleansing.

Text: Mark 11:27-12:12

• Title: The Reason Jesus Is Rejected
• Big Idea: We must be on guard against making church about ourselves by continually surrendering to Christ’s headship.
• Preaching Tip: The Jewish leaders didn’t fail to understand who Jesus was. Rather they understood but rejected him because they seek to hijack what he owns. We all have this penchant aside from God’s work in our hearts.

Text: Mark 12:13-17

• Title: Jesus and Caesar
• Big Idea: Jesus is not to be treated as a separate commitment from others, but rather as the one commitment that subsumes all others.
• Preaching Tip: In the first of a series of three traps, Jesus’ detractors look to catch Jesus in a perceived dilemma. Show your listeners how God is not a separate box, but the bigger box that all others fit into.

Text: Mark 12:18-27

• Title: Jesus and the Afterlife
• Big Idea: Our future resurrection is sure because God’s power ensures it.
• Preaching Tip: In this second trap, Jesus is pressed by two warring religious factions concerning the nature of the resurrection. Use this as an apportunity to help your listeners think more about the sureness of the resurrection.

Text: Mark 12:28-34

• Title: Not Far from the Kingdom
• Big Idea: Christian discipleship is more than the desire to love God but being transformed by Christ to love God wholly.
• Preaching Tip: This passage seems to present a category of person who is not overtly antagonistic toward the Lord but feeling their way toward him. Yet this person is still in need of faith in Christ.

Text: Mark 12:35-44

• Title: The Danger of Self-Importance
• Big Idea: True importance comes from exalting the importance of Christ, denying our own importance even to the last penny.
• Preaching Tip: The widow’s contrast with the scribes brings the humility Jesus is looking for in full relief. Similar to last week’s emphasis, but here we have a heoric example in a low place.

Text: Mark 13

• Title: Preparing for the End
• Big Idea: Because we know Jesus’ return is certain, we should live faithfully no matter how bad things get.
• Preaching Tip: Take time to unpack your understanding of this difficult chapter, but emphasize the primary point of the need to remain vigilant for Christ.

Text: Mark 14:1-11

• Title: At Test of What We Treasure
• Big Idea: When Jesus is truly our treasure, we will spend oursleves lavishly for him.
• Preaching Tip: The motif of insiders/outsiders presents again. Outsiders (vv. 1-2 and 10-11) seek to kill Jesus so they can gain little. The insider (vv. 3-9) expends herself lavishly because Jesus is her great gain. This woman parallels the widow, bringing a fresh perspective to the intervening material on what it means to be ready for Christ’s return.

Text: Mark 14:12-25

• Title: The Meaning of the Lord’s Supper
• Big Idea: Jesus takes the penalty for our sin in order to bring us into the kingdom of God.
• Preaching Tip: Jesus’ dark announcement of his impending betrayal ends on a note of hope in v. 25. Connect this emphasis on hope and expectation to the Lord’s Supper.

Text: Mark 14:26-42

• Title: What the Shepherd Does with Scattered Sheep
• Big Idea: We are only ready to follow Jesus when we humbly recognize our inablility to do it on the strength of our own commitment.
• Preaching Tip: You can pose the question: “What makes a person ready to really follow Christ?” These disciples might think they are ready but they scatter. Jesus regathers them as per his promise in v. 28.

Text: Mark 14:43-52

• Title: Fight, Flee, or Follow
• Big Idea: We must embrace the great difficulties that await us as we follow Christ.
• Preaching Tip: Show how the story of the disciples echo our own instincts. Mark is challenging the reader: Are you really ready to follow even when it gets hard?

Text: Mark 14:53-72

• Title: Jesus On Trial
• Big Idea: No matter what we have done to fail Jesus, he took the punishments for us to grant us freedom.
• Preaching Tip: In his A-B-A fashion, Mark contrasts Peter’s denial with Jesus’ silence. Show your listeners that all of our failures, as treacherous as they may be, find their answer in Jesus the silent substitute.

Text: Mark 15:1-32

• Title: See and Believe
• Big Idea: Jesus’ suffering is all-encompassing so that whatever our tresspasses, we only need look to him for mercy.
• Preaching Tip: Often underemphsized is how Jesus endured mockery. You can recall the very evident OT motif of God’s mockery of the wicked. Here Jesus takes it so the wicked can receive mercy. Last week focused on substitution; this week focuses on the vastness of what his suffering covers.

Text: Mark 15:33-39

• Title: Truly the Son of God
• Big Idea: When the gospel is made evident in the person and work of Jesus, even the least likely among us can come to see the truth.
• Preaching Tip: The centurion sees something no one else seems to see, so he says something no one else seems to understand. You can encourage your listeners that even the hardest soil can come to receive Christ when the gospel is made clear.

Text: Mark 15:40-16:8

• Title: The Beginning of Your Story
• Big Idea: We need to resist the fearfulness that can keep us from being bold proclaimers of Jesus Christ.
• Preaching Tip: In his last “sandwich,” Mark emphasizes the courage of Joseph by contrasting it with the fearfulness of the disciples who were silent despite being commanded to be heralds. End this series on a note of encouragement to follow Christ with boldness.

An Alternate Map

Below you will see a much quicker pace through the Gospel (24 sermons). You will have to be comfortable preahcing much larger chunks and release yourself of the burden of covering every verse. Summarize some portions, read and expound more carefully other portions. Keep the pericopal thrust in view throughout the sermon.[2]

Text: Mark 1:1-20

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus comes to provide and preach the Good News.

Text: Mark 1:21-2:12

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus is Lord over demons, disease, disabilities, and depravity.

Text: Mark 2:13-3:6

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus confronts religious hypocrisy by emphasizing the focus of his ministry.

Text: Mark 3:7-35

• Pericopal Thrust: The theme of insiders and outsiders with Jesus contextualizes his teaching on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Text: Mark 4:1-34

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus uses parables to teach on the growth of the kingdom of God.

Text: Mark 4:35-5:20

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus reveals his identity in his power over the sea and Legion.

Text: Mark 5:21-43

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus healing the suffering woman provides perspective on the healing of Jairus’ daughter.

Text: Mark 6:1-29

• Pericopal Thrust: Kingdom ministry finds opposition in unbelief, inhospitality, and even execution.

Text: Mark 6:30-56

• Pericopal Thrust: The disciples miss the lesson of the loaves because of their hard hearts but Jesus continues to demonstrate his identity through his healing ministry.

Text: Mark 7:1-37

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus teaches the true nature of defilement and it is contrasted with faith from the Gentile woman. Only Jesus can truly make some hear and speak.

Text: Mark 8:1-38

• Pericopal Thrust: Only Jesus can make the blind see (i.e. make disciples understand the lesson of the loaves and the cross-centered nature of Christ’s ministry).

Text: Mark 9:1-29

• Pericopal Thrust: The disciples’ blindness to the cross and resurrection is contrasted with the father’s cry to help his unbelief.

Text: Mark 9:30-50

• Pericopal Thrust: Cross-centered ministry is about serving others, especially those in Christ.

Text: Mark 10:1-12

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus teaches on marriage and divorce.

Text: Mark 10:13-52

• Pericopal Thrust: Humble servitude is the posture of a citizen of the kingdom, but we must be made to see this by Jesus.

Text: Mark 11:1-26

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus approaches Jerusalem to cheers of “Hosanna” but the Temple scene and fig tree lesson demonstrate that his salvation is not welcome.

Text: Mark 11:27-12:12

• Pericopal Thrust: Mark conveys the real reason Jesus is rejected.

Text: Mark 12:13-17

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus uses Caesar’s coin to teach about image and ownership and thus God’s ownership over all things.

Text: Mark 12:18-27

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus affirms the resurrection by the authority of Scripture.

Text: Mark 12:28-44

• Pericopal Thrust: Mark uses the great commandment to profile someone who is not far from the kingdom, one who is very far, and one who is an exemplary citizen.

Text: Mark 13

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus teaches his disciples to be prepared for the end.

Text: Mark 14:1-25

• Pericopal Thrust: Jesus connects the Passover to the institution of the Supper.

Text: Mark 14:26-72

• Pericopal Thrust: Peter denies Jesus while Jesus stands in silence for him/us.

Text: Mark 15:1-16:8

• Pericopal Thrust: The good news of Jesus culminates in his death, resurrection, and the question of belief.

Application

As with any passage, resist the urge to squeeze applications from the text that are really not there. This is especially a temptation when preaching through a biblical book with recurring themes. You might want to adjust the applicational value in order to not sound like you’re applying the same truths over and over. You do want your sermons to differ from one another, but you want to fight the urge to apply it in ways that do not honor the text. Instead, think of different ways the same truth might apply. If you can look ahead on your map, you can decide ahead of time that in this week’s pericope you will emphasize the application one way, but then plan to focus on another angle on the same issue in that upcoming pericope.

The “tips” section in the first map above will provide some suggestions, but here is a brief overview of some examples:

Preaching the Gospel – At 1:1 you can answer, “What is the gospel?” and at 1:16-20 you can call your listeners to join the mission of proclaiming it.

The Exorcisms – At 1:21-28 you can emphasize the importance of teaching in expanding Christ’s kingdom, but at 5:1-20 you can take more time to unpack a biblically responsible demonology and what it means that Christ has ultimate authority.

Physical Healing – At 6:53-56 you can orient your listeners to an understanding of the role faith plays in approaching God for healing though it does not obligate God to remove all human suffering when asked. At 10:46-52 you can focus more on how Jesus’ healings forecast a deeper more eternal healing that is found only in Christ.

Servanthood – At 8:27-38 you might zero in on the practice of self-denial as a defining attribute of the Christian walk, and at 10:32-45 you might press into the idea that our posture is not simply one of introspective self-denial but others-centered service.

Endurance – At 14:26-42 you can strike the encouraging note of the inevitability of failure were it not for Christ’s work toward us (as promised in v. 28), and then at 14:43-52 you can charge your listeners with a call to prepare for the hardships that will seek to threaten their followership.

Theological Themes

Mark is tough on discipleship. Most of the time his angle is negative in order to challenge the reader’s notion of what it means to follow Christ. Jesus’ own family is portrayed as outsiders (3:31-35). His disciples lack understanding (4:10,13), wrestle with his idenity (4:41), and challenge his patience (9:14-20). So you will have to get comfortable working toward positive instruction from negative examples.

There are lots of healings (1:29-34, 40-42; 2:1-11; 3:1-6, 10; 5:21-43; 6:5, 13, 53-56; 7:31-37; 8:22-26; 10:46-52). Many of your listeners are likely to burn with the question, “Why doesn’t God heal me?” Pick your spots. You won’t want to preach the same angle every time you come across a healing.

Several passages emphasize Jesus’ ability to grant access to the gospel (e.g. the deaf, the mute -- 7:32, 37; 9:25, the blind – 8:22; 10:46, the secret of the kingdom given – 4:11). As with other repeated themes, think about how you will approach each of these in a way that is not merely a repeat of the previous sermons on the prior instances.

Mark often presents an insider/outside motif in ironic fashion. The knowledgeable, the religious, and even those related to Jesus are often presented as outsiders (3:31-35; 4:11), while the insiders are typified by the underprivileged and overlooked such as women and Gentiles (12:38-44).

You will repeatedly see across the Gospel the importance of getting on board with evangelism as a point of true discipleship. Jesus’ ministry is a proclamation of the gospel (1:14-15), the disciples are called to follow him in that quest (1:16-20), the excorcisms coincided with preaching (i.e. to expand the kingdom is to preach, e.g. 1:39), the original 12 are commissioned as preachers (3:14), Jesus’ teaching emphasizes “seed scattering” (4:1-9, 26-34) and light shining (4:21-22), his commission includes the call to repent (6:12) and the Gospel ends with a “go and tell” emphasis (16:7). Plan ahead so that each of these points along the way don’t end up sounding exactly the same, but prepare your listeners for receiving the charge to be vocal about the kingdom.

My Encounter with Mark

The title for this series at our church was simply, The Gospel of Mark: The Centrality of the Gospel to All of Life. I knew that every passage was going to press the theme that the Gospel begins with—the good news of Jesus Christ. That is the central message and it is relevant from how to think about illnesses, demons, and religion to how to suffer loss, handle your money, and pray effectively. Even though Mark is the shortest Gospel, I wanted to take our time through it and allow it to strip us of cheap discipleship. I wanted our church to think of discipleship as a costly but glorious calling for which we desperately need God’s help. The gospel is hope, not just for the unbeliever, but for believers who remain in it and grow in it no matter the cost.

Preaching through Mark also benefited me greatly as a preacher. I was stretched to think how I might approach each passage when similar themes precede and follow it. This forced me to lean further into the passage and ask, “Why is this paragraph here?” This filled me with energy as the text became more alive with its own unique voice.

More than my preaching, Mark prompted me to grapple with whether I really understand what it means to follow Christ. Each week the Gospel constrained me, convicted me, challenged me. It is quite a thing to lean into a biblical book and remain there in its grasp week after week, allowing its shaping influence to have its way.

Commentaries

James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).

William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974).

R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).

[1] Sermons that are based on a sliver of a text where information from other passages are needed to fill out and support your statements in the sermon.

[2] By “pericopal thrust” I don’t mean Big Idea necessarily, but more the general peg upon which the section hangs.

Lucas O’Neill is a Clinical Associate Professor of Homiletics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL). He has pastored Christian Fellowship Church (Itasca, IL) for over ten years, and is the author of "Preaching to Be Heard" (Lexham Press, 2019).