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Why I Like the Book of Mark

June 16, 2011 in Bible Study, Resources, The Everyday with 0 Comments

The Gospel of John gets a lot of well deserved accolades. You can often go into a Christian book store and buy it alone, separate from the rest of the Bible. I know of a few churches which give out copies of the Gospel of John when doing evangelism. Ask most fundamentalists where you should start reading in the Bible, I bet most will tell you the book of John.

I think Luke comes in second place. After all, Luke has a splendid account of Jesus’ birth and gives us, in my opinion, one of the most well-rounded looks at the life of Christ. Luke has a nice flow into Acts making it a great place to start reading for one who is studying Christ and his affect on the early Church.

Matthew is popular and well spoken of as well. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5 and 6) and many of Jesus’ teachings are well transcribed in Matthew. Many believe Matthew may have been the first of the Gospel’s written which gives it a special status among scholars and Bible geeks.

But, what about Mark? To me, at least, it seems Marks does not get enough credit. To be completely honest, it might be because we do not really know who Mark’s author is. Some think it is Peter, others think it is John Mark, to be honest, no one except God knows.

Mark is like me. It is not really eloquent and sometimes seems to have ADD. Mark tends to start sections with words like; “next, Jesus went here…” or “The following day, Jesus was walking through…” It is a quick and action filled book of the Bible. It seems intent on showing us a lot of what Jesus was doing. Most of Jesus’ sermons are captured in a couple of quick sentences as opposed to the lengthy paragraphs of the other Gospels. Mark 4 acts as more of a summation of Jesus’ teachings than it does a transcription. You could call it the “matter of fact Gospel.” It sticks to “just the facts” and not much else.

I often wonder why we do not suggest it as a good starting point for Christians. In today’s culture, we already have shorter attention spans which crave more action. To be honest, the first Gospel I read was Mark. The flow of it was quick and I enjoyed reading about the works of Jesus. Knowing what He did made it easier for me to understand what He said. I studied Mark in depth, and it actually helped me understand the philosophical beginning to the book of John (“In the beginning was the Word…).

So, here it is, my public pitch for the book of Mark. May it get more of the respect it deserves!

-Don-

Preping for Preaching

May 5, 2011 in Bible Study, Building Theology, Preaching Prep with 2 Comments

Tim_Keller

I am preparing my sermon for Monday, May 9th.  I have chosen the Scripture I will be preaching on, and I am in the process of studying it and tearing it apart. While doing so, I have decided to blog the process. Last fall and winter I was privileged to attend a preaching cohort at my church. We spent out time discussing a method in sermon writing designed by Tim Keller as laid out in The Journal of Biblical Counseling.*

Just a few things of note before I go on. One is, I have only written two sermons using this method.  Actually, I have only written one-and-a-half. This means I have a) not perfected it, and b) I have adapted it to fit my preaching style thus far, bad habits and everything. For those of you who have preached or are starting to preach, feel free to take notes, ask questions, and give pointers.

Two, I will be delivering the sermon on May 9th.  While I will be writing / blogging the process, you will not actually see the results until after I preach the sermon. I hope to record the sermon and make it available to you after I finish posting the articles. If you can, please download the sermon after I post it and offer up some critique. I would love to hear your feedback.

Finally, the passage I am preaching on is Galatians 1:6-12:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
(Galatians 1:6-12 ESV)

Keller tells us to first read the passage 5-10 times, and then break it down into it’s basic parts. You can do this by making the passage into an outline while determining why the author used certain connections and words. Tomorrow I will post my outline. If you have the time, I would welcome you to participate in this exercise and post your outline in the comments (I know, that is a tall order!).

Overall, let me know your initial thoughts on this passage. Also, if you have read any other great articles on preaching preperation, please, share them in the comments.

Thanks,

-Don-

*Volume 12, Issue 3, Spring 1994

Transform Your Bible Reading

April 6, 2011 in Bible Study, Building Theology, Resources with 5 Comments

transform

I came across a GREAT article on how to transform your Bible reading from the Resurgence the other day. The entire article (found here) is worth the read. I did, however, most enjoy the tips on how to read the ‘weird’ or ‘difficult’ parts of the Bible. As someone who loves perusing the Old Testament, I found the following tips very helpful:

  • How… do we read obscure Old Testament records of wayward Israelite kings or wicked priests? The answer from the perspective of biblical theology is this: We read them as stories increasingly heightening our longing for a true king, a final priest, one who will lead as these men were meant to—truly representing God to the people (king) and the people to God (priest).
  • How do we read genealogies? As testimonies to the grace of God to real individuals, carrying God’s promises down specific family lines in concrete ways, promises that are never derailed, and which ultimately come to fruition in Jesus.
  • How do we read Proverbs? As good news of wise help from another for stumbling disciples like you and me.

To be completely honest and transparent, genealogies kill me. A couple months ago I was reading 1 Chronicles and had a hard time. The first half of the book is almost entirely genealogies. I almost lost it when trying to read all the ancient Hebrew names.

What parts of the Bible do you find hard to read? Were any of them in the above list? Does this seem helpful to you?

Let me know in the comments.

-Don-