Would you turn back to Mark chapter
15? I've entitled this evening's
message, The Young Man in the Linen Cloth. Now, how many times
have you read that passage of scripture and wondered, why was
he just wrapped up in a sheet? And that is what this refers
to. As a matter of fact, the only time This word is used,
this linen cloth that he was wrapped in is when Joseph of
Arimathea wrapped the Lord in cloths like this. The young man
in the linen cloth. Let's read verses 51 and 52 again. And there followed him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, a certain young man. I love that word certain,
don't you? It's throughout the scriptures.
He always has certain people that he saves. There's nothing
generic about the gospel. And there followed him a certain
young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. All he had on was a sheet. And
the young men, the soldiers laid hold on him. They saw him following
Christ. And he left the linen cloth and
fled from them naked. Now only Mark gives this detail
in the four gospels. And the writer does not say this,
but most agree that this is Mark's autobiographical statement with
regard to himself. Mark is saying by this, I was
there. I was there. I was a witness
to this. I think it is interesting. Mark
is careful not to use his name. He just identifies himself as
this young man with a linen cloth. And I think that modesty caused
that, It's very much like John calling himself the disciple
that Jesus loved. Now that's what I want to be
more than anything else. The disciple that Jesus loved. Religious people would say, well,
that's the disciple that loved Jesus. But that's not the way
John stated it. The disciple that Jesus loved. Now, I feel sure that this is
Mark speaking, letting us know what had taken place. Now, would
you turn with me to Acts chapter 12? What about this man, John
Mark? In Acts chapter 12, after Peter
was released from jail for preaching the gospel, he went to a certain
home and We read with regard to the place that Jesus went
to that the house where the disciples were gathered praying for him,
John Mark's mother owned it. So that's the first we read of
John Mark. His mother owned this house that
the church was together praying for Peter and his release. And
many think that this was the same house that the Lord ate
the last Passover and the first Lord's Supper with
his disciples. And that makes some sense into
this speculation that I'm giving. I know this is speculation and
somebody says, why give it? Well, I don't know, I'm gonna
give it anyway. And it's not in the Bible, but I think it's
a reasonable conjecture. As I said, many think this was
the same house that the Lord ate the last Passover. So Mark
was there. Mark was there. And when Judas
was going to betray the Lord, this was the last place Judas
knew of him being. And he perhaps first went there and when the
Lord wasn't there, He knew, well, he off times goes to Gethsemane. The scripture actually says he
off time resorted there. Judas knew that place. So perhaps
Judas went there to Gethsemane and most writers, I would have
never come up with this. This is what commentators have
said. They said John Mark got up immediately being woken up
by all this, knowing that the Lord was getting ready to be
betrayed. So he took his bedclothes and
wrapped himself in it. not even taking the time to get
dressed, to run and warn the disciples and the Lord Jesus
concerning what was going to happen. Now, did that happen?
I don't know, but it's a reasonable conjecture. But here we have
this young man wrapped in this linen cloth. The soldiers perceived he was
following Christ and they laid hold upon him. Charles Spurgeon said that the
reason he recorded this, of him running away, because he was
getting ready to tell of Peter and his fall. And he was going
to go into detail about it, and he's letting everybody know that
he's writing, too. I'm just as bad as he is. Look what took
place with me. I fled in cowardice, just like
all the rest of the disciples, and that may be. Some have wanted to call the
gospel of Mark the gospel of Peter, because Peter, he goes
on to say with regard to Mark, he's my son. No doubt Mark learned
the gospel through this man, Peter. And Peter narrated to
Mark the three years that he spent with the Lord. And that's
how Mark comes up with this thing concerning the gospel. And most
people think Mark is the first gospel written down, and God
used this man Mark, or John Mark, to write the first gospel. The Lord prepared this man for
this purpose, to write the first gospel. Now, as I said, we read
of him first in Acts chapter 12. His mother owned this house. And would you turn to Acts chapter
12 for a moment This is when Peter has left the
prison and he's going to this house. Verse 11, and when Peter
was come to himself, he said, now I know of a surety that the
Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me out of the hand
of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. And
when he considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary,
the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. And this is where these
people were gathered together, praying for the release of Peter. Look in Acts chapter 13, verses
2 and 3. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul
for the work whereunto I have called them. This is talking
about Paul's first missionary journey and Barnabas. And when
they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they
sent them away and looked down in verse five. And when they
were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogue
of the Jews. And they also had John to their minister. That's
not talking about the apostle John, that's talking about John
Mark. He went with them on this first missionary journey. Now look down in verse 13 of
chapter 13. And when Paul and his company loose from Paphos,
they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departed from them. Now that word is deserted. There
wasn't anything good about this. John, this is the man who wrote
the gospel of John at this time, He deserted. That's a serious
thing. He deserted. I don't know what
the reason was, but the word used lets us know it was nothing
good. He deserted. He played the coward. He chickened
out. I don't know what took place,
but he was gone and he went back to Jerusalem. And you know that
Mark was the cause of the conflict between Paul and Barnabas. Remember,
Mark was Barnabas's nephew. Look in chapter 15. And some days after Paul said
unto Barnabas, this is after Mark had already deserted. This
is his next missionary trip. 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 him John, whose
surname was Mark. That was his nephew. Maybe there's
some nepotism going on, I don't know. But he wanted John to go
with him. But Paul thought not good to
take him with them, who departed. He deserted them from Pamphylia
and went not with them to the work. He had proved himself to
be unreliable and unfaithful, and Paul did not want him going. And the contention was so sharp,
verse 30, the contention was so sharp between them that they
departed asunder one from another. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed into Cyprus and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended
by the brethren unto the grace of God. Now, who is in the wrong
here? I'm not gonna spend much time
with this, but who is in the wrong here? Well, Paul ends up being wrong
because he goes on to say, bring John Mark to me, he's profitable
to me for the ministry. So evidently he was wrong, but
yet he was right. He deserted. Can't you understand
why he didn't wanna bring him? I can certainly understand that.
So you could make an argument that he was right, you could
make an argument that he was wrong. What about Barnabas? Well,
evidently Barnabas was right and wanted to take him because
Paul ends up saying, I want John Mark involved in the ministry. And evidently Barnabas was right.
Barnabas probably should have shown deference to Paul too,
shouldn't he? He should have listened to what Paul said. He
was wrong. You know, in something like this, they were both right
and they were both wrong. And isn't that the way it always
is in conflict? Always. I mean, there's different points
of view, there's different ways of looking at things, and it's
so sad that they had a contention that was so sharp the scripture
said they parted asunder. Thank God this contention did
not last. Turn to Colossians 4 for just
a moment. The reason I'm giving this information
is to set up Mark being the author of the Gospel of Mark and what
the Lord brought him through to teach him this. But look in
Colossians chapter 4, verse 10, Aristarchus, my fellow
prisoner, saluteth you and Marcus. He was evidently with Paul at
this time. The sister's son to Barnabas.
He mentions Barnabas. That was Mark's nephew, touching
whom you received commandments. If he come unto you, receive
him. If I send Mark to you, receive him. I've got some special instructions
for this church that you need to hear. Now, this lets us know
that this contention And I'm so thankful for this. This contention
between Paul and Barnabas did not last. When he wrote this
letter in Colossians, it was quite a few years after that
took place. And he was writing from a Roman
prison cell. So I remember hearing somebody said, once Paul crossed
Barnabas, or once Barnabas crossed Paul, you never hear from him
again. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. And I'm thankful
you do, aren't you? Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. And look what Paul says with
regard to this man Mark. Verse 11. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark. This one that at one
time I said, I don't want him coming. He deserted us. Take
Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for
the ministry. Now, remember when he was writing
this letter, just a few verses earlier, he said, the time of
my departure is at hand. He knew he would soon be dying,
and he wanted Mark to be involved in this thing of the ministry. And I'm going to say some things
about that in a moment, but one of the things that most people
use Mark as an example of is that God is a God of second chances.
You know, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. If
you get a second chance, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to blow it. Me too. I guarantee you. And that's a
wrong language to use of God in the first place. He's not
a God of chances or second chances. He's a God of absolute purpose.
And everything he does is on purpose. And everything that
Mark was going through was on purpose to bring him to the place
where he was going to be able to write Mark. glory of the gospel. But he said with regard to Mark,
take him and bring him with thee for he's profitable to me for
the ministry. And the ministry he's talking
about is the ministry of the gospel. I came across an acrostic
this week that I loved so much. And an acrostic is where you
kind of like tulip, you know, you have a word and you give
a word that Total depravity, unconditional, you're familiar
with that. But I saw this in the Grace Baptist Bulletin. It
didn't have an author. I don't know who came up with
this, but I love this. Acrostic gospel. G, grace. O, omnipotent grace. S, saving grace. P, particular grace. E, eternal grace. L, lasting grace. Isn't that good? I'd like to
use that as an outline for a message one of these days because that
is the grace of God. What, this is what Paul said
he was profitable for me for, the gospel of the grace of God,
God's saving grace. And Paul went on to say in Philemon
24, he called Mark a fellow laborer. What a title he gives this man. Now turn to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5, verse 13. The church that is at Babylon. Now, where's Babylon? Well, many
times in the book of Revelation, John calls Rome Babylon. This is talking about the church
of Rome. And he calls it Babylon. But isn't it glorious how even
in this evil place, God's got his church. Look what he goes
on to say, and I love this. The church that is at Babylon. elected together with you. You know, that was the common
conversation of the church. When they were talking about,
he's writing this general epistle, he's talking about the church
at Babylon for which he was writing. He says, the church at Babylon
elected together with you. And that was just the way of
conversation in the early church. Look at the way Peter opens this
epistle. He says, Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect. That's how he
addressed them, elect. Thank God for election. Don't
you love God's electing grace and the election of grace? You
wouldn't be saved without it. You can't preach the gospel without
God's electing grace. And I love the way, even in his
greeting, He says, the church at Babylon elected together with
you. You know, I can't help it. I
would like to see somebody come up in the early church and say
to somebody, I don't believe in election. What rock did you
crawl out from under? Nobody has any confidence in
you. I mean, this is the gospel of God's grace. And the church
that's at Babylon elected together with you salutes you. And look
what he says next in verse 13. And so does Marcus, my son."
Now, when he calls Marcus his son, I don't have any question
that what he's talking about is this man learned the gospel
through me. I know the scripture says, call
no man father, but that is what he meant. I'm sure that Mark
never called Peter father, but he was his spiritual son. He
learned the gospel through him. And I have no doubt that he spent
those years telling Mark exactly what took place during those
three years, and he wrote down this first gospel. Now, this is a gospel addressed
to a Gentile audience, perhaps the city of Rome, and that makes
it different from the other gospels. You'll notice that he doesn't
give the genealogy of Christ the way Matthew and Mark do,
because I guess he thought the Romans wouldn't be interested
in that. But he begins the gospel with
these words, Mark chapter one, verse one. Now, he had gone through
all this. He was the young man, he was
there when following the Lord, and he, cheat, and it's ripped off of
him. He runs. He ends up being a deserter. He ends up being a failure. He
loses the confidence of everybody. Nobody had any confidence in
him because of what he had done. Yet look where the Lord brings
it. He's brought back, and like I said, this doesn't have anything
to do with second chance. Everything in your life, there's a needs
be. There's a must. Everything in my life, there's
a needs be. There's a must. It's important. But he brings
him to this place in Mark chapter one. And here is the whole gospel
in one statement. And this is what we're gonna
close with thinking about. John was brought through all
this. John Mark was brought through all this to write this gospel
according to Mark. And I love this first verse. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ The Son of God. Now, what a way to begin. Everything is found in that verse. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. The Son of God. The beginning. You know, the Lord said, I am
the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was,
eternally was in the beginning with God. Colossians 118 says, who is the
beginning? The first born from the dead. Now what him being the beginning
means is, it means a whole lot of things, but it means he's
the beginning. He's the source. He's the origin. He's the Creator. And let me say this, the Gospel
is not about you. It's not about your need. It's
not about what He can do for you. He is the beginning. You know what that means? He's everything. He's the first. He's the last. He's the Alpha. He's the Omega. What that means
is Jesus Christ is all. Now what does that mean? It means
he's all. It means he's all to God. It
means he's all in the scriptures. It means he's all in the sinner's
salvation. And understand this, the way
a man perseveres in the faith is he perseveres believing that
Christ is all. That's all he has. Somebody says,
well, Christ is all I have. Praise the Lord then. If you
have anything else, you won't be saved. That's how serious
this is. If you have anything else, Christ
is not all to you. The only way that Christ is all to you is
if you're nothing. And if you're nothing, it's easy
for him to be all, isn't it? You rejoice in him being all. He is the beginning. The gospel is concerning him. It's not concerning you and your
need of him. It's concerning Him, it's concerning
His glory. Thank God we benefit from that,
but He is the beginning, the beginning of the gospel. I love the gospel. It means the good news. The gospel is good news. That's the only way it can be
heard, is as good news. Now, what I thought about, I've
given this illustration before, but I think it's such a good
illustration, the year of Jubilee was supposed to happen every
50 years in the land of Israel, and there's not one instance
where they ever observed it. Not once. They were supposed
to, but they didn't. And I can understand why, because
the people that had the money would want not that to happen.
They would want to keep it from happening. Hey, I'm gonna lose
money out of this. I'm gonna lose slaves. Let's put it off
another year. And they just kept doing it.
And like I said, there's not one example of it ever being observed. But
in the year of Jubilee, if you're in debt, your debt was canceled. Whatever you lost was returned
to you. And if you were a slave, you
were set free, and the land was given a year of rest. You were given a vacation. Now,
can you imagine if you were in debt and a miserable slave, and
you'd lost everything, and all you did was work? Can you imagine
what that must have sounded like when that silver trumpet of jubilee
would blow? Can you imagine all of a sudden,
right now, if you owe any money, any money at all, what if there
was a sand and all of a sudden all that debt was canceled? You
owe nothing. Now who would that be good news
to? A slave that was in debt and
had nothing. Who would that be bad news to? You can figure that out. He owes
me money. You mean it's canceled? It's
gone? He doesn't owe me that money
anymore? I've got to give this stuff back? I'm losing by this. Some people saw that as bad news. But there were some people who
saw this as the best news they had ever heard. The beginning
of the gospel. Now, good news, listen to this
scripture. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Not good people, not righteous
people, not believing sinners, not repentant sinners, not what
the Puritans called sensible sinners. He just came to save
sinners. Who's that good news to? Sinners. Any sinner. And let me give an
explanation of that word, because somebody says, well, isn't everybody
a sinner? No, not in this sense. Or at least they don't think
they are. A sinner is somebody who all they do is sin. That's
it. They cannot not sin. and they
can't put the blame on anybody else. All their sin is all their
fault. They don't have any room to look
down in judgment on anybody for anything, and they've got no
claims on God. If God passed me by and sent
me to hell without giving me mercy, just and holy is His name. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Who's that good news to? Sinners.
Anybody else? It's not good news. It's offensive. We don't even like that message. The gospel. I love the definite article,
the gospel. There's only one gospel. The
gospel of Jesus Christ. I love his name. Oh, look what
all Mark went through to bring him to where he could give a
statement of such glory and magnitude. The gospel of Jesus Christ. I love his name. I tell you what,
this name Jesus, it makes my skin crawl when people use his
name flippantly, when they use his name in an irreverent manner. You know, one thing we never
see in the New Testament is where anybody, any of his disciples
came up to him personally and called him Jesus. They called
him Lord and Master. And the Lord said, you call me
Master and Lord, and you do well. For so I am. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. But I love the meaning of Jesus,
Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And it's the
Old Testament. It's the Greek translation of
the Old Testament word, Joshua. And Joshua, Moses could not bring
the children of Israel into the promised land because Moses represents
the law. If salvation is by law, me and
you ain't getting in. It's not gonna happen. Who brought him in? Joshua. He's the one who brought
them in. You know the only people that
went into the promised land? Did you know there were only
three people? As far as the original people? Now I know other people
came in, but I'm talking about the ones that were born. Only
three people entered the promised land. Joshua, Caleb, and who else? Maybe it's Joshua,
maybe it's two people. Yeah, I'm wrong, two people,
Joshua and Caleb. You know what Caleb's name means?
Faithful dog. The Savior and the dog were the
only people who got into the promised land. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, what a precious title His
office is as Christ. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ as prophet, Christ as
priest, Christ as king. I can't hear enough of my need
of Him in all three of these offices. This is how I need Him.
He brings me the Word of God. He is the Word of God. And He
spoke like no other Old Testament prophet. They'd all say, thus
saith the Lord. He'd say, I say unto you. all
the difference in the world. He speaks with the authority
of God. He spake as one having authority. That doesn't mean
He used a big booming voice. What He said recommended itself
as the very Word of God. He's a priest like no other priest. I mean these priests that, well,
The very idea of a priest representing a man before God now is offensive. A sinful man representing another
sinful man. But here's the point. The Old
Testament priests, they bring in the blood of a sacrificial
animal. This priest brings his own blood.
And it's effectual blood. It's saving blood. You see, if
he represents you, you must be saved. And he's a king like no
other king. Every other king is described
like this. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. You see, every other king is
just there because Christ willed it. And he doesn't have any true
authority or power, none at all. Power belongeth unto the Lord.
Somebody says, well, he's a powerful man. Don't talk that way. There
are no powerful men. Power belongeth unto the Lord.
He's the king, the king of kings. And as the rivers of water, the
kings, heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water,
he turneth it whither so ever he will. He's the king who truly
has authority. He's the king whose will is done. And I need him as my prophet
to bring me the word of God. I need him as my priest to represent
me. I need me as my king to cause me to do his will. The Lord Jesus Christ. And I love what Mark says, at
last, the son of God. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the son of God. And let me tell you exactly what
that means. You know, the Pharisees, got upset with the Lord because
he said, my father worketh hitherto and I work. And they got upset
with that. And you know why they got upset
with that? When he called God his father, he made himself equal
to God. There's only one person who's
equal to God, God. To say He's the Son of God is
to say He's God Almighty. It's to say He's the creator
of the universe. It's to say He's the controller
of providence. Everything that happens is His
will being done. He's in control of it. To say
He's the Son of God is to say you're in His hands and your
salvation is up to Him. It's not up to you. It's up to
Him. Now the only thing to do is ask
Him for mercy. Come to Him for mercy. I can tell you this, no
one that's ever asked for mercy, truly, has ever been turned down.
Never happened. You come to Him for mercy, you'll
be received. But understand this, your salvation
is in His sovereign hand because He is the Son of God. God the Son. I love when, The Ethiopian eunuch had listened
to Philip preach the gospel to him. And he was preaching from
Isaiah 53. I love that question. Of whom
speaketh the prophet? This of himself or some other
man? Oh, don't you reckon Philip loved getting to tell who that
other man is? The Lord Jesus Christ. I would have loved to
heard what all they said to him. But there at the end, they came
to a pool of water. And that eunuch said, see, here's
water. What does hinder me from being
baptized? That's a good question. And he
was thinking, if there's something that, if there's a reason I shouldn't,
I wanna know. What does hinder me from being
baptized? And Philip said, if you believe,
With all your heart, you may. And I love the Ethiopian's answer. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now my dear friend, my dear friends,
That is what faith is. It's not believing you're saved.
It's not believing Christ died for you. It's not believing you're
elect. It's not believing you've been born again. It's believing
that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And you know what? I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The beginning. Oh, what a statement by Mark. Inspired by God the Holy Spirit,
prepared for this work. The beginning. of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Written by this young man clothed
in a linen bed sheet. And he gives us his statement,
I was there, I saw all this happen. Let's pray. Lord, once again, we give thanks for who you are. We give thanks
that Christ Jesus, thy blessed son, is the beginning of the
gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the
son of God. Lord, would you create faith
in each heart here and enable us to look away from ourself
and our experience and the things we naturally think, and enable
us to behold him, thy son, as the complete savior, your Christ,
your prophet, your priest, and your king, and enable us to trust
him as such. In his blessed name we pray,
amen.