Mark Bible Study Review

The Gospel of Mark in Review

Knowing the Scriptures

STUDIES IN MARK’S GOSPEL            

As we have discovered over this season, Mark isn’t the comic book/Reader’s Digest Gospel it appeared on the surface.  Certainly, his Greek language wasn’t as skilled as some other writers, but we saw that it was carefully crafted to minister to the needs of his Roman readers.  The historical background of the time into which Jesus came served Him to reach Jew and Gentile alike.  As we saw, Israel’s commission from the beginning was to be a light to the Gentiles. After the Babylonian captivity, they had become withdrawn from the world and had begun replacing the Word of God with man’s opinions and interpretations, actually corrupting its meaning.  But the world was also at the perfect place for the easy spread of Christianity due to common language and familiar culture (Greek), well constructed roads, easy travel, and so on.  It was the right time for God to make available a new relationship with Him: 

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:4–7, nkjv).

THE LESSONS OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK