Unfinished. There is so much to be done for God. Last Sunday we saw how easily the Church can “put herself out of business.” In Acts 15 well-intentioned, but profoundly misled Jewish believers, tried to add further conditions for Gentiles to come to faith. They were more concerned that Gentiles become “Jewish," than simply come to Jesus. Their message was essentially, “Talk like us. Walk like us. Dress like us. Conform like us. Get circumcised. Follow letter of Moses’ Law.” Until the church gets grace right, it won't get much of anything else right.
In reading Acts 15, we may have the mistaken notion that things blew over quickly (i.e. Paul and Barnabas come, a few Jews get upset, Peter and James give a few speeches, they write a nice letter to the church, and it’s over). In reality, Acts 15 was a dog fight. There was anger, confrontation, rebuke, bent noses, hard feelings, resentments. They achieved theological unity, but it was messy. Church, and church leadership, has forever been messy. Even Jesus’ training of Twelve.
There is an interesting passage over in Galatians 2 where Paul alludes to a conflict that sounds an awful lot like Acts 15. We don't know if Galatians 2 happened earlier, or later. But listen: Galatians 2:11-14, “But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men [The party of the Pharisees?] came from James [Jerusalem?]. However, when they came, [Peter] withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas [Peter] in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” Peter, why are you cowardly appeasing these prominent Jews from Jerusalem? Why are you showing favoritism? How can you compel Gentiles to be like you when you’re acting racist?
Do you think Peter enjoyed being called out in front of everyone? That kind of humiliation would be hard even for an Apostle to shrug off. Later in life Peter, in his Epistle, would say of Paul: 2 Peter 3:15-16, “. . . our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. . . There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.” Even after decades, there was a little bit of cheekiness going on!
Now as we get down to the end of Acts 15, yet another firestorm threatens the Church. The Church has just convened this massive conference in Jerusalem, with all the Apostles and leaders, to clarify the gospel. They write a joint letter for all the churches that no hindrances ought to be imposed upon anyone turning to God. Jew and Gentiles are equally under grace. Paul and Barnabas are charged with taking the news back to Antioch. At Antioch, the Church is filled with great peace; unspeakable joy! They’re relieved the conflict has been mitigated. They appoint Paul and Barnabas to go and deliver the letter to all the other churches.
But then, a crazy thing happens. Acts 15:36-37, “After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing. Barnabas wanted to take along John who was called Mark.” Up to this point, Paul and Barnabas had been two peas in a pod, two friendly cats sitting on the ledge, purring! “Hey wait a minute, you want us to take who? John Mark? No way!. ” Acts 15:38-39, “But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus.” What ever is going on? What suddenly triggered Paul and Barnabas to turn into a pair of alley cats? Sometimes the “presenting” issue isn’t the whole issue. According to Galatians 2, it wasn't just Peter and James that were led astray, but also Barnabas! Maybe John Mark was the issue, or maybe Barnabas was still licking his wounds?
I've been part of the church my entire life. There are two things that derail God's work. The first is getting the gospel wrong corporately. But the second thing is getting the gospel wrong interpersonally. Both occur in Acts 15! Think of the irony. Paul and Barnabas just helped the entire Christian movement to work out gospel of grace corporately… but now they can't work out grace with one another. They just got Jews and Gentiles. . . Jerusalem and Antioch to agree! But now they can't agree on something rather innocuous… what to do with John Mark?
We wonder why Christian movement is limping along, not thriving? It’s because GRACE is always the first casualty, the first thing that gets lost in the shuffle. How quickly we let lesser issues… personal issues… differences… our feelings… our ego needs… overshadow GRACE itself.
So, who is John Mark, and why has he become such a big issue to these co-laborers in gospel? Acts 15:38 offers a clue. Earlier on, John Mark had “deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.” This incident is recorded back in Acts 13:5 when John Mark first joined Paul and Barnabas. They'd set sail for island of Cyprus, to visit the Jewish synagogues and proclaim the word of God. “They also had John as their assistant (helper).”
But John Mark quickly changed his tune as Paul and Barnabas faced hostilities. He got cold feet! He got scared! Was he ready to die for gospel? {When I was a teenager, our family went to Six Flags Great America. At the time I was terrified of roller coasters. My brothers put the pressure on me, and we waited in line for some ride well over an hour. They didn't know it, but the whole time I kept telling myself, “I'm going to die, I'm going to die.” And I was also plotting an escape. Right as we were to board the roller coast, I sprinted all the way back through the line, running over people, like George Costanza, running from a fire.}
John Mark had just joined them, but just a few verses later in Acts 13:13 it says, “Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and went back to Jerusalem.” Now that's how Luke, the gospel writer describes it. “He left… he went back.” But this isn't Paul's recollection. Paul says John Mark “deserted” them. Which is it? Isn't it true, that there is no worse charge in the theatre of war, than to be considered a “deserter?" Historically, deserters were shot on the spot, or later hung!
How did Paul see himself? Paul was the kind of apostle that even if you left him for dead outside the city—battered, bruised, broken by stoning—he’d get back up and go right back into the city and keep preaching. How did Paul see John Mark? He sees John Mark as weak, soft, and disloyal. To Paul, John Mark was the coward of the county. He didn't have the metal to serve God's mission. He was a drama show, a distraction, a liability, a flight risk!
By the way, we're now stumbling unto yet another reason churches limp along. (1) Not only does the church fail to work out the gospel of grace corporately (Insiders and Outsiders), and fail to work it out interpersonally (Paul against James, Peter, and Barnabas, and vice versa). . . but now we observe the failure to work out the gospel of grace inter-generationally!
Ironically, in Hebrew, John Mark's name means “Yahweh has shown grace." Every generation needs to remember that the next generation (soft though they may be… and everyone always thinks next generation is softer than their own)… regardless… the next generation needs the same grace to succeed that was afforded to you and previous generation. Apart from grace, the next generation has no onramp, not just into service but into faith! John Mark would need just as much grace as did the former-persecutor-of-Christ, Saul, as did Uncle Peter who denied Jesus 3x.!
By the way, to appreciate Acts 15, there are few more things you should know about John Mark. John Mark is Barnabas' own kin. It was “uncle Barnabas.”
It’s just another dynamic to consider. Barnabas is favoring his family, his kinfolk John Mark, over loyalty to Paul. I cannot tell you how many times in ministry I've seen family ties prevail over gospel ties. When people come to Christ, you expect to see the gospel of grace prevail, but instead they see the same socio-political dynamics in the church as they see everywhere else. How quickly a family of kinfolk, circle their wagons when one seems be wronged.
Check out the irony. Acts 15:39-41. “They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, after being commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord. He traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” John Mark first abandoned them at Cyprus, but now he's going back to Cyprus!
Paul goes his own way, he prefers and recruits Silas and Timothy. Barnabas goes his own way, with John Mark. At this point Paul and Barnabas may have well been finished with each other, yet God wasn't finished with any of them.
No doubt the author Luke has a special interest in this John Mark. From Cyprus, John Mark would go on to spend extensive time with Barnabas, faithfully serving the churches. John Mark had already, and would go on, to spend extensive time with the Apostle Peter. Without John Mark we would not have the gospel of Mark. No doubt, without John Mark we may not even have part of Matthew’s or Luke's Gospels. Why? Because mark was a major source of information for Doctor Luke as he wrote Luke and Acts. And given the similarities between Mark’s gospel and Matthew's gospel, it’s thought Matthew relied heavily upon John Mark as well. *We can never fully appreciate power of God's grace to transform the next generation!
By the way, Paul wasn't the first one to be abandoned by Paul anyway. When John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, he recorded Jesus' chilling warning about the danger of apostasy. In Mark 8:34-38 Jesus says, “. . . If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. 36 For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? 37 What can anyone give in exchange for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Incidentally, John Mark also recorded Mark 14:50-52, how upon Jesus’ arrest “. . . they all deserted Jesus and ran away.” Peter, James, John, everyone. But then John Mark writes, “51 Now a certain young man, wearing nothing but a linen cloth, was following him. They caught hold of him, 52 but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.” Just like the disciples left their nets to follow Jesus, they would now desert Jesus. Just like Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife naked, John Mark fled Jesus in the most humiliating of ways. John Mark wasn't just a deserter; he was a serial deserter. How deeply do you think Jesus’ warning, Paul's rejection, and Johns Mark’s acts of desertion weighed on him?
By the way, Silas didn't fully cooperate with all Paul's wishes. Timothy, whom Paul preferred, had to be commanded 1 Timothy 1:3 to “remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine.” In my studies of the gospel there seems to be a developmental progression of Knowing… Growing… Standing… Remaining unto death in Jesus. The invitation is “Come and see”, “Follow me”, “Be with me”, “Come and die”. But not even Peter, nor James or John were ready to die for Jesus until end life.
Grace has to be extended corporately, interpersonally, and inter-generationally. Paul and Barnabas would work things out… but so would Paul & John Mark! Later in Colossians 4:11, Paul sends greetings from John Mark to the church at Colossae. He refers to John Mark as a dear “coworker for Kingdom of God!” He says of John Mark, “[He's] been a comfort to me.” In 2 Timothy 4:9-11 Paul writes, “Make every effort to come to me soon, 10 because Demas has deserted me, since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.” And of course there is 2 Timothy 4:16, Paul says, “16 At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them.”
There is something far greater at stake than our differences—and that something is God's Kingdom, and work, and grace. John Mark deserted me, but may it not be counted against him or anyone else. Now it’s Demas, Crescens, and Titus (?) who've deserted. In 1 Peter 5:13 Peter wraps up his epistle saying, “She… who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son.” Ultimately John Mark would accompany Paul right into the mouth of the dragon. He'd go with Paul to Babylon; Rome. He'd become like a son to Apostle Peter.
Corporately… Grace destroyed the dividing walls of hatred between Jew and Gentile. Grace rooted out the last vestiges of racism and hypocrisy in the church. Interpersonally… Grace brought two great men back together to continue as partners in the gospel Paul and Barnabas!
Inter-generationally… GRACE changed John Mark from serial deserter to true disciple... it changed timid Timothy, Titus, Silas into unwavering soldiers of Christ Jesus!
What might Grace do in our lives?