Mark

a) John Mark was the son of Mary of Jerusalem whose home was the place of assembly for the Jerusalem church — Acts 12:12, 25. She was a famous and wealthy woman. Her brother appears to be Barnabas and was therefore either an uncle or a cousin. Therefore Mark comes from a VIP home.

b) Barnabas s either his uncle or his cousin — Colossians 4:10.

c) Mark was converted under the ministry of Peter — 1 Peter 5:13. Consequently the Gospel of Mark is really Peter’s Gospel, it presents Peter’s account of our Lord. It explains why it is terse and short, and when you read the Gospel of Mark in the Greek you know that you are seeing our Lord’s ministry on the earth through the eyes of Peter.

d) Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey — Acts 12:25; 13:5.

e) As a result of reversionism John Mark deserted the missionary team and returned to Jerusalem in reversionism and in disgrace — Acts 13:13.

f) Mark recovered from his reversionism. Here is the mark of true greatness in the royal family of God — spiritual resilience, the ability to recover in spite of failure, and also the ability of withstanding shock without permanent detriment to spiritual life or rupture of spiritual life.

g) The great controversy. During the planning stage for the second missionary journey Barnabas and Paul got into a real donnybrook over the person of John Mark. Paul did not want to take Mark, did not want to give him another chance. He didn’t want any unreliable, unstable, coward to go along. Barnabas had recognised Mark’s reversion recovery and wanted to give him another chance, so there was a great donnybrook. This was at Antioch of Syria which at that time had a flourishing church. And that church stayed out of the argument. In other words, there were people in Antioch who loved Barnabas. There were people who loved Paul. When they got into this controversy somebody could have said, “Paul is right.” Someone else could have said, “Barnabas is right.” Sides could have been taken on the basis of friendship. When two people get into a donnybrook they must be isolated. Wives get involved, and wives have friends, people get on telephones, people get talking and pretty soon everyone is divided into two camps. They don’t have the facts and even if they have the facts it is my friend right or wrong type of thing. This was a church of mature believers, the first such church. The next one was Ephesus. Rome never even came close. But notice the greatness of this church at Antioch, they did not take sides.