The extended outline shows many of the preaching or teaching units from the book of Mark. Each unit can be a complete sermon, lecture, or Bible study. The extended outline shows the author’s original intent for his original audience. Each point is a summary statement of the unit. The preacher or teacher will need to change the summary statement into a timeless principle for his/her contemporary audience.
Read more“The Factual Data” Sheet for the Gospel of Mark
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry who used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Narratives, Hebrew Poetry, the Epistles, and the Gospels) of Scripture instead of one-size-fits all approach
Read moreEXTENDED OUTLINE OF MARK
The extended outline shows many of the preaching units from the book of Mark. The extended outline shows the author’s original intent for his original audience. Each point is a summary statement of the unit. The preacher would need to change the summary statement into a timeless principle for his contemporary audience.
Read moreNEW Factual Data Sheet for "Mark"
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry who used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Narratives, Hebrew Poetry, the Epistles, and the Gospels) of Scripture instead of one-size-fits all approach
Read moreKey Words and Markers in Mark
The following connectors help students and preachers of God’s Word know where the author is changing from one scene and theme to the next.
1. “again” πάλιν
10:32 Mark uses πάλιν (temporal adverb) mostly to simply express repetition as “again.” Decker notes, however, there is a discourse use of πάλιν which provides textual cohesion at the discourse level when it links different episodes as in Mark 10:32. Decker states that πάλιν “marks a seam between two periscopes and, along with the geographical notation, serves to introduce the second.” In Mark 10:32, the geographic location is Mark’s first reference to Jerusalem in the second section and along with πάλιν introduces Jesus’ third prediction.
Read moreReview of Markan Sandwiches: The Significance of Interpolations in Markan Narratives in Novum Testamentum XXXI. 3(1989) 193-216 by James R. Edwards
Inclusios differ from intercalations. While inclusios “bookend” episodes, intercalations interrupt and “sandwich” a single episode. (Mark L. Strauss. Mark: Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, 47). Inclusios differ from intercalations.
Bookends in Mark
The healing of the blind man (8:22-26) is in two stages or through repeated touches. In the first stage, the blind man has his sight partially restored. In the second stage, his sight is completely restored. Jesus repeatedly teaches His disciples who He is because of their spiritual blindness. The myopic disciples are like the blind man in stage one. They are only partially seeing who Jesus is.
Conclusion to the inclusio: The healing of blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52) at Jericho, which is only seventeen miles north of Jerusalem. They are almost at the end of their six months journey to Jerusalem and discipleship and still the disciples do not see orunderstand who Jesus is or who they are as disciples.
Sandwiches in Mark
The third section of Mark opens with an intercalation. Jesus enters Jerusalem but finds no spirituality (11:1-11). The cleansing of the temple is “sandwiched” with two episodes about the fig tree. He curses the fig tree that has no natural fruit (11:12-14). Next, Jesus cleanses the temple where is no spiritual fruit (11:15-18). The next day, Jesus and his disciples find the fig tree withered down to its roots (11:19-20). Rhoads and Michie call this “framing” which, like in movies, creates suspense. “Framing also provides commentary. The two related stories illuminate and enrich each other” (David Rhodes and Donald Michie. Mark As Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press) 1982, 51). The fig tree and the temple, both lacked fruit that Jesus expects from his disciples.
Read more“The Factual Data” Sheet for the Gospel of Mark
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry who used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Narratives, Hebrew Poetry, the Epistles, and the Gospels) of Scripture instead of one-size fits all approach
Read moreSources for the Study and Preaching of Mark
Sources for Studying and Preaching the Gospel of Mark
Thomas Constable’s Commentaries at Lumina.bible.org (Commentary on all 66 books of the Bible)
Preceptaustin preceptaustin.org (32 commentaries and 17 sermon series)
Wisdom for the Heart (23 sermons by Stephen Davie)
Steven Cole sermons (Unfortunately, he did not do a series on Mark)
Annotated bibliography
Book
France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text (pp. 1–47). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.
R. T. France has an excellent introduction to Mark. He divides Mark into three Acts and follows the geographical divisions of Mark. France also sees the twofold theme of Mark including Christ and his disciples: “Discipleship is the proper outcome of a healthy Christology” (The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, 28)
Read moreMessianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark
The accusers and critics of Jesus did not all die in the first century. We want to answer a modern opponent of who Jesus was. In his discussion of the theology of Mark, Craig Evans notes that Mark’s theology is revealed in the Messianic Secret (see footnote 1). The Messianic Secret according to its originator, William Wrede, was first manifested in Jesus forbidding others to proclaim he was the Messiah (demons in 1:34; healed leper in 1:44), and second, the disciples’ failure to understand who Jesus claimed to be (in the three passion predictions in Mark 8, 9, 10)), and third, Jesus’ teaching, such as the parables (4:11-12), which meant to conceal. Wrede, contended that Jesus did not know he was the Messiah and no one recognized Jesus as the Messiah, until after his resurrection and that Mark had to create the Messianic Secret to show how no one recognized Jesus as the Messiah before the resurrection (see footnote 2). “These were all editoral and unhistorical…By inventing the ‘messianic secret’ Mark removed a source of embarrassment for the theology of the church by explaining why Jesus was not more generally recognized as Messiah during His lifetime” (see footnote 3).
Read moreReview of The Synoptic Problem by Daniel Wallace at Bible.org
Wallace notes that he is following Robert H. Stein’s The Synoptic Problem: An Introduction.
Wallace opens his thirty-page article stating that “Any serious discussion of the Synoptic Gospels must, sooner or later, involve a discussion of the literary interrelationships among Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This is essential in order to see how an author used his sources (both for reliability’s sake as well as for redactional criticism), as well as when he wrote.”
Robert H. Stein’s The Synoptic Problem: An Introduction1 summarizes well the issues involved in the synoptic problem—as well as its probable solution. For the most part, our discussion will follow his outline.
Read moreReview of The Face of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research (Editors: Scot McKnight and Grant R. Osborne.
I am only reviewing chapter 19 which is Mark’s Gospel by Peter G. Bolt. Bolt traces the history of the study of Mark beginning with the
The Early Period
“This history has been characterized as one of long-standing neglect and recent rediscovery” (391). Augustine’s statement contributed to this neglect: “Mark follows [Matthew] closely and looks as if he were his servant and epitomist” (De consensus evangelistarum 1.2[4]).
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