00:00:00.000 - 00:00:34.560

Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the gospel according to Mark, the 14th chapter, reading various portions of the chapter. I begin at the verse numbered 17. "And when it was evening, Jesus came with the twelve. And as they were at table eating,

00:00:34.560 - 00:01:01.440

Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.' And they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, 'Is it I?' He said to them, 'It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that

00:01:01.440 - 00:01:26.360

man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.' And as they were eating, he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take, this is my body.' And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of it. And he

00:01:26.360 - 00:01:54.880

said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.' And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." Moving now to the 43rd verse, "And

00:01:54.880 - 00:02:21.400

immediately while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, 'This one I shall kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.' And when he came, he

00:02:21.400 - 00:02:47.920

went up to him at once and said, 'Master,' and he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, 'Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I

00:02:47.920 - 00:03:20.960

was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me, but let the scriptures be fulfilled.' And they all forsook him and fled. And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him. But he left the linen cloth and ran away naked." And may God bless to us and to our

00:03:20.960 - 00:03:57.000

understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far away, there lived a woman named Mary. She

00:03:57.000 - 00:04:26.320

was rather remarkable in that she had considerable personal wealth. Her husband had died some years before and, contrary to the custom of the day, left his resources to his wife. She lived in a large and commodious house in Jerusalem, and she had a son whose name was John Mark. Now this house of Mary was the

00:04:26.320 - 00:04:50.920

center of the fellowship of Christians in Jerusalem. It was to this place that Jesus would come when he sought some peace and quiet. The identity of the place was kept secret in order that he might not be disturbed by the compelling crowds and also that Mary might be protected. On the night of the last

00:04:50.920 - 00:05:16.320

Passover that Jesus was to celebrate with his disciples, he came to Mary's house to the upper room which had been prepared and made ready. The boy, John Mark, was always delighted when Jesus came. Because of his brownness, his strength, because of his rough outdoor humor, because of the clearness in his

00:05:16.320 - 00:05:42.640

eyes, it must have meant a lot to this fatherless boy to have such a man around. But on the night of this Passover, there was no smiling or laughter. Oh Jesus greeted John Mark with affection, but his eyes seemed to be focused on something far away. And as soon as the Passover meal was completed,

00:05:42.640 - 00:06:10.560

immediately Mary said to John Mark, her boy, "It's time for you to go to bed." So taking his bedroll and wearing only the common linen robe worn as a kind of night robe in those days, he went up to the roof of the house. There was the coolness of the evening breeze to be enjoyed there and also the spectacle of

00:06:10.560 - 00:06:34.840

all those stars crowding together, looking over one another's shoulders at the earth far beneath them. It was a much more pleasant place to sleep than his own bedchamber. Yet Mark could not go to sleep because there was a sense of foreboding about the night. At one point, just shortly after he'd gone upstairs, he

00:06:34.840 - 00:06:54.880

heard one person leave the house alone. He couldn't imagine who that would have been because the disciples always moved as a fellowship. And then it was quiet again until he heard the group sing the hymn which they sang at the end of Passover. And then they departed the house and for some reason he probably

00:06:54.880 - 00:07:20.000

never could fully explain, John Mark got up and wearing nothing but this linen robe, went down the outside stairway of the house and followed the group. He noticed that there were only 11 disciples there, not the usual 12, but he could not tell which one was missing. They went down the hill outside the city,

00:07:20.000 - 00:07:38.080

crossed the brook Kidron, and into the olive grove called Gethsemane. Mark had been there many times before, it was a favorite place of Jesus and his disciples, and as soon as they got there the disciples began to prepare for a night's sleep amongst the shadows. But Jesus took three deeper into the garden

00:07:38.080 - 00:08:07.680

and Mark followed after them. And then Jesus moved apart from those three and went to a private place to pray. And this place that he chose to pray was right near the spot where Mark was hiding. So Mark heard the prayer, Mark heard the heavy breathing, Mark heard the moans and the groans of a deeply troubled spirit,

00:08:07.680 - 00:08:29.960

Mark saw the hard, hard sweat. I think seeing his friend pray like this, Mark would have wanted to have gone forward to comfort him and yet he knew he shouldn't have been there and so he stayed in the bushes and somehow he had the sense that Jesus knew he was there and did not want him to go away. It was

00:08:29.960 - 00:08:56.760

as if Jesus was saying to him, "Mark, notice well what is happening here for you and you alone will see this and you and you alone will be able to report it later." So Mark decided to stay where he was. He would not fail, he would not turn away from this Jesus he loved. A few minutes later there was the coming of a

00:08:56.760 - 00:09:22.960

crowd, the clatter of swords and torches, the murmur of men's voices. They pushed their way into the quiet of the garden and as they came they were led by Judas. He was the one who had gone out earlier, it had to have been him, and he approached Jesus and put upon his lips the traitor's kiss and with that the

00:09:22.960 - 00:09:44.440

soldiers surged forth to arrest Jesus and all of the disciples fled and Mark would have stayed but one of the troopers from the temple reached out and grabbed him and so he twisted to one side and somehow with that agility which belongs to a young boy he managed to slip out of that linen robe leaving

00:09:44.440 - 00:10:11.800

the cursing soldier standing there holding it while he fled off naked into the darkness. He ran the whole way home and didn't stop until he reached Mary's house and had hidden himself there. Then he realized that he had been no better than the other disciples, that he had fled also. He had tried to be faithful

00:10:11.800 - 00:10:35.200

but he had failed. Now that's an especially hard thing for a young person. Older people it seems to me are more sophisticated in dealing with failure. If they are altruistically oriented then when they fail they are troubled only because they have failed others and if they are prideful and self-focused then

00:10:35.200 - 00:10:57.400

when they fail they only feel bad because they do not look good in the eyes of others. But a young person has a way of looking upon failure in terms of her or his own ego. You see a young person is trying to discover well who they really are. They're getting the first long looks at themselves in

00:10:57.400 - 00:11:23.920

adolescence and it's a very difficult thing to have a long look at yourself and be confronted with the knowledge that you failed, that you in fact lacked courage when courage was so necessary. Mark must have felt dreadfully ashamed. Courage you see is the basis of all other virtues. If you lack courage then

00:11:23.920 - 00:11:47.600

no other virtue will stand. You can talk about having faith but your faith will never really be demonstrated until it takes courage to hold fast to it. You can talk about wisdom but that will mean nothing unless you have the courage to act wisely. You can think of yourself as some lover but your love will never

00:11:47.600 - 00:12:14.840

really be validated until you have to pay a price for the loving. No virtue is possible without courage and Mark looking at himself saw himself without courage as a failure. We know this had great impact upon Mark's life because years later when Mark wrote the gospel which bears his name, he was the only one

00:12:14.840 - 00:12:40.040

of the gospel writers to write in the narrative there in Gethsemane and a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth over his body and they seized him but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. After all those years you see, Mark couldn't forget that. He is running like a scared rabbit through the

00:12:40.040 - 00:13:08.760

darkened streets of the city. The fact that he would write this when no one else would have known had he not revealed the fact measures well the scar this made on his spirit. He had tried and he failed. But of course we all fail. The first time we tried to walk we fell. The first time we tried to swim we almost

00:13:08.760 - 00:13:38.720

drowned. The first time we stepped up to the plate we struck out. The first time we tried to sew we stabbed our little fingers. There's nothing really so awful about failure unless of course our failure leads us to stop trying and that didn't happen to Mark. Though he had failed, Mark determined to try again. Now

00:13:38.720 - 00:13:59.240

after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, the house of Mary there in Jerusalem became a hive of Christian activity. This was the place where the disciples went when they were afraid of their enemies. It was in the house of Mary when Jesus appeared to the twelve. It was in the house of Mary that

00:13:59.240 - 00:14:17.600

the disciples gathered together and waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. It was there in Mary's house that they were gathered together praying when Peter had been arrested and was in Herod's prison. And it was to Mary's house that Peter came after he had been miraculously released. Mary's house

00:14:17.600 - 00:14:37.520

became the headquarters, the rallying point, the sanctuary of the early Christians in Jerusalem. It was to Mary's house that Paul came to tell about his conversion and of his desire to become a missioner of the gospel. And it was also to Mary's house that Barnabas came who went with Paul on his journeys and

00:14:37.520 - 00:15:03.560

Barnabas incidentally was the cousin of John Mark. So there was much Christian activity in and about the house and this must have thrilled the young boy Mark. And one day the discussion turned to the fact that Paul and Barnabas were being sent out on a pioneer missionary journey and he asked if he could go along. He

00:15:03.560 - 00:15:29.920

wanted to try again and the two men said yes. And you can imagine how this must have thrilled the heart of the youngster. I mean the adventure of travel, of being man to man with men he admired, not being under his mother's ever protective eye. It must have been a great deal to him also to have another chance to try to

00:15:29.920 - 00:15:51.100

demonstrate his discipleship. And so they headed off on their first journey. They sailed from Syria to Cyprus. In Cyprus they were welcomed at Solomus and then they crossed the island to Paphos and everywhere they went they were well received. In fact it was at Paphos that the first non-Jew received Christ as

00:15:51.100 - 00:16:12.880

Savior. He happened to be a Roman registry. Now that was where the journey was supposed to have ended. They were then going to return to Jerusalem. But Paul and Barnabas got the idea of going on to Pamphylia which was the southern coast of Turkey. And that idea did not charm Mark very much. It was further than

00:16:12.880 - 00:16:33.680

he had expected. And then when they got there to Atalia, well he was sure the whole thing had been a mistake. That's a hot and a humid place. I had been there in summertime and it is no fun to be there then. And they did not stay on the shore where there was at least some cool breeze from the ocean.

00:16:33.680 - 00:16:55.000

They immediately headed inland to a place called Perga and the high mountains very quickly cut off those ocean coolnesses that came ashore. The mountains there are very very steep and they're plagued with malaria and other fevers. It was from this place that Paul for the first time wrote about his thorn

00:16:55.000 - 00:17:17.280

in the flesh which many to believe to have been a kind of malarial fever. That Taurus range, the hillsides are very steep and oft times you look down on canyon floors that are hundreds of feet below. And the whole area was infested with bandits. And as they got higher, every time they would cross or forward

00:17:17.280 - 00:17:38.040

a stream, the water there would be ice-cold. And not only that, but every time they took another one of these difficult steps, Mark was thinking to himself, "I'm going to have to take this step over again on the way home." The romance of the adventure began to seep away. And Mark also wasn't too pleased

00:17:38.040 - 00:17:58.200

about the fact that they had started out with Barnabas being in charge of the whole trip. But gradually, and you can see this as you read the narrative in Acts, Paul became the boss. And it didn't please Mark to see his cousin being shoved aside. And they spent so much time with Gentiles. I mean, they were supposed

00:17:58.200 - 00:18:21.480

to be going to witness to Jews. How would the people back in Jerusalem like that? And of course, when he began to think of Jerusalem, he thought of his mother who was watching over her during this time when he was away. And the trip became more difficult now. At Antioch and Pisidia, they were thrown out of town. In

00:18:21.480 - 00:18:58.000

Iconium, they were expelled from the town. At Lydia, Paul was almost stoned to death. So Mark decided to quit. Luke records the whole thing in a single sentence. Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. He failed again. He'd given his word and he'd broken it. That's a very hard thing to do. Nothing can tear at and fray human

00:18:58.000 - 00:19:22.200

relationships like giving your word and breaking it. When someone says to you, "But you gave your word," there's no argument to justify your failure to keep it. And no excuse will lessen the failure. There's a very real sense, you know, in which when you give your word and then break your word, you separate yourself

00:19:22.200 - 00:19:45.600

from yourself. We may, in the course of our lives, learn all kinds of words. Words that can make for us big money or words that can get for us votes or popularity or prominence with others. There are a lot of things that we may gain with our words, but it is a tragedy when we break our words because words are what hold

00:19:45.600 - 00:20:11.560

life together. And when our own word is not to be trusted, then we are not to be trusted. Of course, it happens every day. We see it here in the life of the church when people stand up in the presence of God and these witnesses and take certain vows. They give their word about certain things with regard to being part of the

00:20:11.560 - 00:20:32.160

fellowship of the church, about being regular in attendance, about being faithful in their stewardship of their time and of their talents and of the gifts which God has made available to them. Yet most of those people do not keep their word. They somehow seem to forget that when they join the church,

00:20:32.160 - 00:20:52.840

they have joined the oldest and the largest and the longest enduring institution in all of history, something that will be around long after they are gone. They somehow forget the importance of it and the word that they have offered becomes meaningless and their church experience becomes very much like

00:20:52.840 - 00:21:19.760

going to a picnic and going about feeding yourself with what you take from other people's baskets. And that's what happened to Mark. He wanted to keep on trying, but the sting and the stink of his breaking his word, of his turning tail and running again, that followed after him. You see, we read later in the

00:21:19.760 - 00:21:46.680

book of Acts when they were planning the second missionary journey that Mark's cousin Barnabas wanted to give John Mark another chance to take him along, but the book of Acts tells us Paul thought it best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. His

00:21:46.680 - 00:22:10.880

reputation as a quitter was spreading, you see, and that hurt. But he'd still not given up completely. Not too long ago in Detroit, they showed two Rembrandt paintings and one of the reviewers in the town said that he thought that one of the paintings was a fake. And so experts were brought in to examine it

00:22:10.880 - 00:22:30.000

and it was determined that the one picture was in fact not a genuine Rembrandt. And when they asked the experts how it was that they were able to arrive at that conclusion, they said, "Well, when Rembrandt painted, there were many mistakes in his pictures which he then covered over, but there are no

00:22:30.000 - 00:23:01.380

mistakes in this. It's too perfect to be a Rembrandt." You see, Rembrandt, out of his mistakes, brought masterpieces and the flame of doing that, still in spite of everything, burned in the heart of Mark. So when they went out on the second missionary journey, Paul picked another to go with him, Silas, and Barnabas took his

00:23:01.380 - 00:23:19.980

young cousin, John Mark, determined to give him a second chance. Now we don't know anything about that journey that Barnabas and Mark made together. You see, Luke, who was the historian who kept the records, he traveled with Paul and Silas, so he wrote about their part of the journey and that's what we read

00:23:19.980 - 00:23:41.940

in the book of Acts. We know nothing about what happened to Barnabas and Mark, but we do know that this time Mark succeeded and he began to build a significant reputation in the early church. How do we know that? Well, first of all, he was reconciled to the old campaigner, Paul. Paul, who wouldn't have

00:23:41.940 - 00:24:04.180

anything to do with him after that quitting in Pamphylia, later wrote to the Colossians, "Receive Mark," and he wrote to Philemon, "Mark is my fellow laborer," and he wrote to Timothy when he was in Rome, "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in my ministry." And Mark went to be with Paul and that took

00:24:04.180 - 00:24:27.140

courage. Paul was imprisoned in Rome, the very center of the imperial cult, and yet Mark, this one who had run before, now had bravery enough in his spirit by the grace of God to go into the very center of Rome to minister to one who had been condemned to death because of what he believed. We also know of Mark's

00:24:27.140 - 00:24:49.420

prominence because he went on to write the Gospel of Mark. He became the secretary of Peter, according to Papias, and the Gospel of Mark is essentially shorthand notes on Peter's sermons. And Peter, in his first epistle, refers to Mark as "my son." And the tradition of the church says that Mark went on in the end

00:24:49.420 - 00:25:16.540

to lay down his life in the service of Christ. You see, he kept on trying, this young man did. He had persistence and he had perseverance, and how much poorer this world would be if those two things were not amongst us. William Carey worked for seven years before he made his first convert in India. Adoniram Judson worked

00:25:16.540 - 00:25:41.620

for seven years before he made his first convert in Burma. David Livingston worked for 14 years before he saw his first successful results in Africa. Adam Clark, who wrote the first great biblical commentary, worked for 40 years to bring it to conclusion. Persistence. You remember that place in Luke 18 where

00:25:41.620 - 00:26:01.780

Jesus tells the story about the woman who is cheated by the judge, but she won't accept her being cheated, and so she keeps going back and beating on his door again and again and again until finally, simply to get rid of her, he does what needs to be done. She wouldn't back off and Jesus holds her up as an example

00:26:01.780 - 00:26:33.660

to be admired. Persistence and perseverance. My friends, final failure is simply following the line of least persistence. Arthur Gordon, writing in Guideposts magazine, tells of a businessman who died and at the memorial service a young black man stood up to deliver part of

00:26:33.660 - 00:27:05.260

the eulogy, and this young black man was very touched, emotionally filled, and as he spoke of this one who had now been lost to the church triumphant, he said, "This man supported me when nobody else did. This man stood with me when nobody else did. I failed and I failed and I failed, but he never gave up on me. Anyone

00:27:05.260 - 00:27:42.340

can support a success, but it takes a rare and a wonderful person to have faith in a failure." And that, of course, is why God is the most rare and the most wonderful of all persons. You see, he understands that it takes a while for the fruit to ripen. He understands that that final choice sweetness does not

00:27:42.340 - 00:28:16.420

come without patience from him and persistence from his child. My friend, the one thing I I asked you not to do this morning is don't tell me that God's run out of patience with you. I had a man tell me on one occasion, "I'm too big a failure for God." I really resented that because that's a pseudo humility. There's

00:28:16.420 - 00:28:43.260

an impertinence in that, to believe that you can outdo God in anything, especially in things like patience and love. Don't tell me that. I heard about three umpires who were talking about how they called balls and strikes and the first one said, "I call them as I see them," and the second one said, "I call them as they are," and

00:28:43.260 - 00:29:24.740

the third one said, "Until I call them, they ain't anything." And that's the way God is. He makes the final call and until he makes that call, nothing really counts and he won't make that call if we keep on trying and trying. We learn that from the Gospel of Mark and we learn that from this young man named Mark. To keep

00:29:24.740 - 00:29:59.000

pressing on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Talent is more common than, well, how many failures do you know with talent? Genius will not finally endure. Unrewarded genius in our world is almost a proverb. Education will not finally triumph. The world is full of educated

00:29:59.000 - 00:30:54.900

failures, but persistence, determination, keeping on, trying harder, these in the end are undefeatable. So let's learn this and let's live it, for it makes heaven a reality. In the end, it always makes life go happily ever after. Let's pray.

00:30:54.900 - 00:31:21.540

Our Father, we thank thee for the witness of this young man of so long ago. We thank thee for the way in which thy spirit has woven his story through the pages of the New Testament. We thank thee for those sentences, those phrases, sometimes just those single words that give us clues to his persistence, to his

00:31:21.540 - 00:31:47.700

perseverance, to his taciturnacity, to his keeping on, keeping on. Grant that he might be an inspiration to us and that at just that moment when we feel like we can't go on anymore, when we're overwhelmed by our own failures and ready to quit, Lord, at precisely those moments, speak to us by thy spirit and

00:31:47.700 - 00:32:10.500

call us to try and try, for he that endures to the end will be saved. We pray our prayer in Jesus' name, amen. [no dialogue]