HE FAILED AND HE BAILED...BUT THAT IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY!

One of the more intriguing characters of the New Testament is John Mark, the writer of the gospel of Mark. His account of the gospel is thought by many scholars to be the first of the gospel narratives. Mark was a close associate of Peter and it is thought that many of his concise stories about the ministry and teachings of Jesus are drawn from his conversations with Peter.

Mark was a cousin to Barnabas, who traveled with Paul on his first missionary journey. Christian Jews had gone to Antioch because of the outbreak of persecution in Jerusalem (see Acts 8:1) and a church started there was comprised, at first, mainly of Jewish believers. Antioch was one of the larger commercial cities in the Roman Empire and filled with Gentiles, who were receiving Christ in large numbers. Very quickly there were more Gentiles in the Antioch church than Jews and this seemed to trouble the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. They sent Barnabas to check it out and he immediately recognized that God was birthing something very special. Barnabas also recognized that “this new thing” was going to be controversial with the Jerusalem church and would need leadership from someone who understood what God was up to and was not afraid of controversy.

About three years after Paul’s conversion, he went to Jerusalem and attempted to join with the disciples but they were afraid of him. Barnabas was the one who finally mediated a peace between Paul and the original apostles. After a while, because of the controversial nature of Paul’s conversion and ministry, the leadership in Jerusalem sent Paul to his hometown of Tarsus.

After Barnabas saw what God was doing in Antioch, he went to Tarsus and found Paul (Acts 11:25-26) because he knew, by the Holy Spirit, that Paul was the man who understood what God was doing with the Gentiles. According to some historians, under the leadership of Paul and Barnabas, the Antioch church grew to about 30,000. They had no buildings and met wherever they could, but they had the raw power of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of God, and the first expression of the gospel penetrating the Gentile world was underway. It was in Antioch that the expression “Christian” was first used (Acts 11:26). Paul was the architect of taking the gospel to the Gentiles and along with it began the controversy of his message and ministry being misunderstood by many in the Jewish church.

After a while Paul seemed to be bored with the work of the local church and he and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey. Accompanying them was John Mark. Paul’s team set sail for Cyprus (Acts 13:4) and after a time of ministry there, the team headed for what today would be Turkey. But landing there, “John (Mark) left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13). At this point we are given no further insight about why this happened.

After completing their trip, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, visited Jerusalem, and then returned to Antioch and continued their ministry there. After a while Paul wanted to go back on the road. Barnabas agreed and wanted to take John Mark with them again, “But Paul thought best not to take with them the one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia” (Acts 15:38).

We are now given an insight as to what happened with Mark on the first journey. The word withdrawn used here means “to fall away, to become faithless, to withdraw from.” Was Mark too young? Was there too much pressure? Did Mark have a crisis of faith? We don’t have a concrete answer to exactly what happened with Mark, but he did withdraw . . . he failed and he bailed!

But that is not the end! Whatever caused him to bolt and return home did not destroy him. I believe that between Peter, in Jerusalem, and Barnabas, they ministered to and restored Mark. If anyone was capable of counseling Mark on how to overcome failure, it would be Peter, and I believe he did just that. Peter had been the king of failure; he knew all about facing failure and rising above it.

Although Paul was reluctant to have Mark with him again on his second trip, Paul later expressed a love of Mark (2 Timothy 4:11) and it is very likely that Mark was with Paul in Rome when the apostle was killed (Philemon 24).

Mark’s account of the gospel is very compelling to me. His book is shorter than the other gospel writers, his writing is brisk, and his stories are concise and quick moving. Mark seems to be in a hurry to tell his story. I love it!

Mark is like many of us. We get saved, we start strong, and then we make some mistakes and we bail . . . just as Mark did. That does not need to be the end of the story but it will be if we quit. Mark didn’t quit. Yes, he went through some kind of “withdrawal” but he went back to his roots; he went back to Jerusalem and to the people he knew could help him—and they did.

Yes, Mark failed and he bailed but that is not the end of the story! Do not let it be the end of your story, either. Be like Mark and come back stronger than ever. Go back to your roots, back to your first love, and let Him restore you!