No, thank You. You did not just send us a list of Your demands and ask us to live up to Your standard. You have been patient with us, working within us, working with us, and walking alongside us to encourage us so that we can be made more like You.
This morning, we pray that You can help us understand the work of Your restoration. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This morning, I would like to share with you what I learned about John Mark and God’s restoration.
John Mark is the author of the Gospel according to Mark. John is his Hebrew name; Mark, his Roman name. Often, he is simply called Mark in the Bible; a few times, just John.
Now, what has John Mark done, other than being the author of the Gospel of Mark? Nothing else is written about him in the four Gospels.
We have to move to the next book, the Book of Acts, in Chapter 12. Mark was first introduced as the son of a woman named Mary.
Let us turn to Acts 12:12-13. We are talking about Peter here, after the angel set him free from jail.
So, when he had considered this, 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 girl named Rhoda came to answer.
At the time, King Herod killed James, the brother of John. He saw that his action actually pleased the Jews. Therefore, he arrested Peter with the intention of making Peter his next victim.
But the angel came at night and rescued Peter. Peter was going back to the place where believers of the early church gathered to meet and pray, and the Bible identifies the place as Mary’s house.
When Peter knocked on the door, a maid by the name of Rhoda came to answer. Perhaps there are too many people in the Bible named Mary, so Mark’s name was brought in so that we can distinguish this Mary from the other Marys.
From the two verses we just read, we find a few things about Mark. He comes from a rather well-to-do family. They lived in a big house and had servants.
Mark’s parents must have been dedicated believers to make their house available as the center for church activities. Mark probably was a teenager at that time. It is likely that he attended church meetings regularly and had opportunity to interact with some of the saints going in and out of their house.
One more thing about Mark: young Mark, according to Colossians 4, was a cousin to Barnabas, who was a leader of the early church. So Mark had everything going for him, at least in terms of ministry.
Earlier, we speculated that he attended church meetings regularly because he was interested in joining what we call full-time ministry. As a matter of fact, he later got a job as a helper to Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey to Cyprus.
If Mark were brought up in this country, somebody would probably write something like, “Most likely to succeed in ministry,” next to his picture in his school.
So the first missionary journey started out from Antioch to proclaim the good news to the Gentiles. But something happened along the way.
When the missionary team reached Perga in Pamphylia, Mark left the team. The reason was not given in the Bible. Perhaps a missionary’s life was too tough. It was more than Mark anticipated. Or it could simply be homesickness.
When I left home for college in America, I thought I would never get homesick. That description, “homesick,” was reserved for the timid.
I lived in the dormitory with six hundred other students. When the first Christmas break came, I suddenly realized I could pack my suitcase like anybody else, but I had no place to go. Oh, Enoch was not that tough after all.
Then Mark was a young man, but Paul remembered his early departure well. In Paul’s eyes, Mark was a defector—a coward.
Then Mark disappeared for two chapters in the Book of Acts and reappeared in Acts 15. Let us turn to Acts 15:36-38.
And after some days Paul said unto Barnabas,
Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city
wherein we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they fare.
And Barnabas was minded to take with them John also, who was called Mark.
But Paul thought not good to take with them him
who withdrew from them from Pamphylia,
and went not with them to the work.
When it was about time for Paul’s second missionary journey, Barnabas was determined to take Mark along. But Paul would not. Paul considered Mark a deserter who had turned his back on the work of God.
The Bible says Paul insisted. It means Barnabas also insisted. They both insisted. The argument became so intense that finally Paul decided to take Silas in one direction, and Barnabas took Mark for Cyprus. In other words, they parted company. They split.
John Mark, who once was considered the most likely to succeed in ministry, had now become the source of dissension in the early church. He was the one who broke up the missionary team that was sent from the church of Antioch.
Mark must have asked himself this question: “Will this mistake disqualify me from missionary journeys for life?” And the answer from Paul was a definite yes. As far as Paul was concerned, there was no room for quitters like Mark in the mission field.
Perhaps we, too, have made a mistake. It has had a long-lasting effect on our lives. Something happened in the past, and still we are feeling the hurt and the pain. There is still a cloud over us. We are in hot water.
But thank God, Barnabas was unwilling to leave young Mark behind. He took Mark under his wing and spent time mentoring him. Through Barnabas, God started His work of restoration on Mark, giving him another chance.
Personally, I admire what Barnabas did for Mark. As a relative, Barnabas must have known Mark for a long time. He knew Mark had a heart to serve the Lord. Therefore, he did not judge Mark because of his inexperience or his past mistake.
Barnabas understood that walking with the Lord changes people’s lives. The more time you spend walking with the Lord, the more changes will take place. It is called sanctification.
So who is this Barnabas? According to Acts 4, his real name was Joseph. But the apostles called him Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation.”
Probably, Barnabas earned the nickname, or the title, by building up both physically and spiritually the struggling members in Antioch.
In addition, before Paul’s conversion, Paul persecuted the church, bringing believers from the streets to prison. It was Barnabas who sought him out, listened to his story, and introduced him to the disciples in Jerusalem. Gradually, the saints in Jerusalem accepted Paul.
Now John Mark was the target of Barnabas’s rescue mission. Like Barnabas, we Christians are called to be encouragers, especially to those who are weak in faith and struggling.
We never know that our little act of faith can benefit others. The ripple effect of our action somehow can cheer somebody up, comfort them, and give them hope when they are down.
But you say, “Because Barnabas was the leader of the church, he had the ability to throw a lifesaver to John Mark.”
Actually, God does not always use the big guns for His rescue squad. Often, God just uses ordinary believers—people like you and me—to run errands for Him, usually in an ordinary manner. But the results can be equally effective.
A town got flooded. As the water rose rapidly, a pastor found himself waiting on the rooftop of the church building.
A boat came and asked him to join them, but the pastor refused to get in because he believed God would come and rescue him. A second boat came; still, the pastor refused to get in. A third boat came, and the pastor still refused to get in.
All this time, he was thinking, he was expecting, the Lord would come to rescue him in a miraculous fashion. Unfortunately, the miracle never came, and the pastor was drowned.
When he reached heaven, he complained to Jesus, “How come You did not answer my prayers?”
Jesus said, “I did.”
“You did? What did You do?”
And Jesus replied, “I sent a boat to you three times, but you refused to get in.”
We can learn a few lessons from the story of Mark. Usually, we think God is near when we are alone, when we are worshiping Him. But the Lord’s presence is not limited to settings of tranquility. Even in a storm, the Lord can be found there.
For example, in Matthew 14, the disciples were struggling against a stormy sea all night. At four o’clock in the morning, something unthinkable happened.
The disciples spotted someone—or something—coming over the water toward them. In their minds, it must be a ghost. “It is a ghost! It is a ghost!” They all were scared.
They did not expect Jesus to come to them this way. Neither do we.
So the Lord had to calm them down: “It is I.” And the Lord says the same thing to us in the midst of storms: “Do not be afraid. Have courage.”
We can always count on the Lord, who is willing and ready to give us a hand. So we shall encourage each other that our Lord is never too far away to hear our cry.
John Mark may have been in hot water, but the Lord never left him. I am glad Mark did not stay down. He managed to get back on his feet and joined Barnabas on the second missionary journey to Cyprus.
Soon after my schoolwork was done, I had an opportunity to meet a pastor from Singapore. He was telling me about his experience with his host family in Minnesota.
When winter arrived, the host family wanted to take him on their ski vacation. This pastor, who had never seen snow before coming to this country, initially declined. But the whole family kept insisting, “If you do not go skiing with us, you will miss the fun of your life.”
Eventually, the pastor relented. At this point, I took a second look at the pastor. He appeared to be in his sixties. At that time, I was young, and sixty sounded old.
Anyway, he did not look like a skier to me. If anything, he looked like a kind, mild-mannered, kind-hearted type of preacher. And he was going to ski?
So it was ski time. They stopped at the beginner’s slope, and the host family gave the pastor some instructions on how to ski before they left him for the steep slope.
The pastor started by taking small steps, and soon he fell. That was when he realized it was not that easy to get up with all those ski gears. Just when he thought he could manage to stand on his feet, he fell again. He decided skiing was not much fun after all.
So he retired to the sideline and waited for the return of the host family. After a while, the host family returned.
“Are you having fun skiing?”
“What fun? I can hardly stand up.”
“Oh, we are sorry. We forgot to teach you how to get back up after a fall, in case you should fall.”
So they showed him some maneuver for getting back up after a fall before they left him for the steep slope. Like the previous time, the pastor took small steps and soon fell. But this time, since he knew how to get back up after a fall, he was beginning to have some fun skiing.
Life is like that. We Christians are not error-proof. We will make mistakes and will fall again, but we can learn to get up and enjoy living again.
On the other hand, Satan, our enemy, would like us to stay down after we fall. One of his weapons against us is the arrow of discouragement. Our enemy wants us to entertain the thought of giving up, to throw in the towel.
But we can, like this pastor from Singapore, learn to get up. The Lord will forgive and restore us, and life can be a pleasant trip again.
Mark finally was able to sail to Cyprus with his cousin, Barnabas. But this is not the end of our story—not yet.
God used the time that Mark was alone with Barnabas to mold him, to make him a better and more useful vessel. Barnabas, the encourager, must have been a terrific mentor to help Mark grow.
At the same time, Mark’s name disappeared again for a number of years. While we are on the subject of God’s restoration, you may ask, “What was Mark’s relationship with Paul? What happened there?”
We know from Colossians 4 that Paul developed a respect and love for Mark later in life. We also know from Philemon 24 that Mark had to work closely with Paul during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome.
But perhaps the most touching of Paul’s references to Mark comes from 2 Timothy 4:11. In his last days on earth, Paul asked Timothy to come to Rome. He said to Timothy, “If you can bring another person, would you please bring Mark with you? For Mark is very useful to me for ministry.”
I believe it must have brought much comfort to Mark to hear Paul say that he was a valuable worker in Paul’s ministry. We know a statement like this does not come lightly from Paul.
Remember, years ago, Paul wished he would never see Mark’s face again in the mission field. Mark, the former deserter and the lowly ranked helper, must have gone through some tremendous character change in the process.
At the same time, Paul must have increased his capacity to forgive. He must have seen sanctification work in other people. It is a beautiful picture of love, grace, perseverance, and restoration.
As if giving Mark Barnabas and Paul as mentors was not enough, God installed a third mentor for Mark behind the scenes. We know that during those hidden years, Mark was with Peter.
Evidently, Peter took Mark under his wing, mentored him, and discipled him. Mark spent a number of years with Peter, and he became a companion and confidant of Peter.
When Peter went to Rome, he took Mark with him. Mark followed Peter, who preached everywhere—in the streets and in building rooms. Day after day, Mark became like a son to Peter.
Therefore, when Peter wrote 1 Peter 5:13, he called Mark his son. It is the destination of discipleship, in the same way that Paul adopted Timothy as his spiritual son.
So why is this important? Why does it matter? It is because after Peter died as a martyr in Rome, it was Mark who collected all Peter had remembered of what Jesus said and did.
Later, Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was able to write accurately the Gospel according to Mark.
But why was Peter necessary? Well, Peter seemed to benefit from God’s restoration the most among the apostles, because he tended to make more mistakes than the others. Who was more qualified than Peter to teach Mark on the subject of God’s restoration?
For example, there are two words in Mark 16:7: “and Peter.” This instance was not recorded by the other Gospels, but it touched Peter deeply.
Right after Jesus’ resurrection, the other disciples were excited to see Jesus again in Galilee. But not Peter. Peter told the other disciples, “You guys can go, but you have no idea what I did.”
“I denied Jesus three times in His face. Each time, He looked at me in the eye. I did a terrible thing. He will never take me back.”
“But wait a minute,” the other disciples tried to cut him off. “Jesus’ invitation had your name specifically spelled out: ‘and Peter.’”
And these two words turned Peter’s tears of despair into tears of joy.
How many more people have gone through the same past things? I have discovered that the same invitation from the Lord sounded too good to be true before they returned to the fold.
God can save. God can use imperfect people like Peter, like John Mark, like us.
This is how things happen. God still uses losers today.
For example, in 2011, because our scientific society held an international meeting in Shanghai, China, I returned to China for the first time in fifty years.
I felt, on my way to China, that I needed to acknowledge God’s help in my lifelong journey. But I did not wish to use the word God, because the Buddhists and the Muslims use the same word for their deity. So I decided to use Christ for distinction.
You know, in this country, you have the term “high school dropout.” At least they have reached high school. What about me? I could not even get into high school in China.
To make a long story short, years later, God gave me far more than a GED, a high school equivalent diploma. As a result, I was able to participate in these international meetings on brain trauma.
When it was my turn to speak, I told the audience, “The last time I was in Shanghai, I could not even get into high school. But Christ found me. Christ repackaged me. Christ’s name is to be praised.”
I do not think I could wait another fifty years to publicly express my gratitude to the Lord. If God can use somebody like me, He certainly can work with you.
Traditionally, the Catholic Church considers Peter to be their first pope. Let us assume this were the case.
As a Catholic priest, Peter would have to listen to other people’s confession. Let us suppose he was listening to a young man confessing that he lived a horrible life.
He probably would not be very upset in listening to this young man’s confession, saying, “Son, how could you do this? I have been a Christian all my life and never done anything close to what you did.”
Fortunately, Peter’s life was not trouble-free. He committed his fair number of blunders in life. But now he had changed. He had developed a better understanding and compassion for fellow men.
He would probably tell this young man, “Son, it is no fun to live a guilt-laden life. When I was young, I, too, made foolish mistakes. But the Lord Jesus forgave me and restored me. Let us come to the Lord and ask for His forgiveness.”
“Remember to tell the Lord that you need His help.” Would it not be great to have someone like Peter put his arm around John Mark and say to him, “I know what it is like. But if you will repent and follow the Lord, the Lord will restore you and use you.”
Do not let a past mistake define your future.
The Lord is actively working in us to make us like Him. No matter the extent of our mistake, we can learn from it and allow God to continue working out the sanctification process in us.
In our Christian journey, we often find life is like riding a roller coaster—continually going up and coming down. In our lives, we will fall and we will get up. We will fall and we will get up.
Like John Mark, we can ask God for forgiveness and the courage to endure.
Because God is infinite, He allows us not just one more chance in our life. By God’s grace, He will give us all the chances that we ever ask of Him and ever need.
But we will continue to fall, and we will get up. I know I sound like a broken record here, but the process will repeat until the day we die.
And all of us who have failed and have gotten back up, who have failed and have gotten up, know that there will come a day when we will face the Father and hear words from Him which may surprise most of us. We will hear the Father say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
The question is: Have you gotten up? Are you enduring by the grace of Christ?
The Lord knows our hearts. We were reminded two weeks ago of the remnant in Ezra and Nehemiah’s day. They were not perfect people, but they are called the overcomers because they had a heart for the Lord and took action to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
As I look back on John—oh, I shall call him John Mark—my first impression was, “John Mark, you are so lucky. What a privilege it is to have Barnabas, Paul, and Peter as your mentors for the work of God’s restoration.”
How about us? I am smiling here because, brothers and sisters, all of us, all Christians, will have the Lord Jesus Himself and the Holy Spirit as our lifelong partners in the school of God.
Oh, God is a God of mercy. Therefore, we should encourage each other not to give up, not to throw in the towel, but to walk worthy of our calling.
Let us pray.
Lord, despite our failures in the past, You still see value and make sure we have all the chances to be restored. And You promised Yourself and the Holy Spirit as our mentors in our life journey.
We are just like John Mark. We are nothing more than the lowly ranked helper. But You treat every one of us here as the apple of Your eye.
What a privilege that we can talk to You and walk with You every day. We thank You for loving us. In Jesus’ name, amen.