66 Acts 13:13 JOHN MARK THE DROPOUT WHO MADE GOOD Introduction: In our previous text Luke gave us an account of Paul and Barnabas doing mission work on the Island of Cyprus. Under their ministry the Roman deputy, who was the chief Roman officer in charge of the whole island, got saved. Luke does not tell us whether or not a church was established there, but we have reason to think that there probably was and that under the deputy’s influence other churches would spring up on the island. V. 13, “Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia...” In our text today they leave the Island of Cyprus and went north into what we know today as Turkey. They went to a city by the name of Perga, which was the capital city of the Roman province named Pamphylia. At that time Perga was a large and thriving city. Today it lies in ruins. (V. 13), “...and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.” The first thing that Luke tells us about their stay at Perga is that John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. It is John’s departure from them that we will focus upon in this message. John became a dropout. He quit. He went home. I. Why John Mark dropped out Luke does not tell us why John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. This leaves the question in our minds, “Just why did John Mark leave?” Since Luke does not tell us there is no way that we can know for sure, but we can think of some possible answers. For instance, he might have left because he was homesick. John Mark was the nephew of Barnabas and was almost surely younger than either Barnabas or Paul. A younger person has a tendency to get homesick much more easily than t an older person. Most of us can understand that. Even those of us who are not young can remember back when we were young and most of us can remember being away from home and getting homesick. After Sis. Davis and I got married, it took us about three months to save up enough money to take her back home to see her family. She was one homesick little girl. So it could have been that he just got so homesick that he left and went back to Jerusalem. It could have been that he got offended at Uncle Barnabas or at the apostle Paul. It is hard for me to imagine that either one of these two men would deliberately offend him. But we have already noted that he was young and younger people are more easily offended that older people. So it is possible that Barnabas or Paul criticized something that he did or that he had failed to do and he just threw in the towel and quit. He went home. It could have been that John Mark was just tired. I am confident that his job required quite a bit of time and labor seeing to their luggage and to their many needs. So he could have just gotten tired and have gotten tired of being tired --- so he just quit. I can imagine him saying, “You men are going to have to fend for yourselves. I’m going home.” It could have been that John Mark was just disillusioned. He had, no doubt, expected this job to be a great adventure with a lot of sights to see and a lot of exciting things to do. Instead it turned out to be a tough job with no glamour. I can believe that playing nursemaid to two missionaries could get old pretty quick. So he quit. It could have been that he felt that his job of being servant to Barnabas and Paul turned out to be somewhat below his dignity. He may have wanted a job which would give him more prestige and a feeling of importance. But instead, he felt like a slave. It was all below his dignity, so he quit. It could have been that he was just never committed to the job and when the new wore off and the drudgery set in he just quit. It was probably a combination of several of these things combined with his youth and immaturity. He just did not have the stickability that would almost surely come later as he matured. II. The consequences of his quitting Regardless of why John Mark quit and went home, there were certain undesirable consequences of dropping out and going home. For one thing, when John Mark left it put a heavier load upon Barnabas and Paul. They could no longer give their full attention to the study of the Scripture and to the ministering of the word of God. All the work that John Mark had been doing for them, they would now have to do for themselves. It was not so much that the work was physically hard to do. But it was the time they had to spend in doing that work that made the difference. I can speak from fifty years of experience of pastoral work and say that the shortage of time is a major handicap to the preacher. I can safely say that the absence of John Mark put both Barnabas and the Apostle Paul at a disadvantage. His absence was a definite hindrance to their work. It also turned out later to be an even greater handicap to Barnabas and Paul at the time when they were about to go on a second missionary trip. It actually led to a breakup of Paul and Barnabas as a team. Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with them on their second missionary trip and apparently John Mark wanted to go, but there was no way that the Apostle Paul would agree for him to go with them. John Mark made a hardship on them by leaving them high and dry on the first missionary trip and Paul would agree for John Mark to go with them on the second trip. His dropout led to the breakup of a very good missionary team. Barnabas took John Mark and Paul got Silas to go with him and they went their separate ways. . In addition to this, John Mark’s dropout was a handicap to himself. He cheated himself out of many blessings that he could have had by staying with this mission team. Great things were going to be accomplished. Jews and Gentiles would be saved. Churches would be established. He would have experienced many blessings and he would have been richly rewarded in heaven. But he quit. They had barely gotten started and he quit. He cheated himself out of blessings in this life and out of rewards in the next life. III. How John Mark’s success in spite of his dropout There is really no excuse that I can give for John Mark dropping out. But I can say that he deserves a lot of credit for making some changes in his life and going on to do a great work for the Lord in spite of this dropout. One of the changes that he made was that even though he was not willing to stay on the first missionary trip, yet he was willing to go on the second trip. He had changed his attitude. If he had not changed his attitude, he would not have agreed to go on the second trip. He had earlier refused to continue with this work, but he was willing to take it up again. In fact, he did go with Barnabas and we have reason to believe that he stuck it out to the end on the second trip. Furthermore, even the Apostle Paul later looked upon John Mark as a profitable helper to himself. In II Timothy 4:11 Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” By this time John Mark had matured and had proven himself even to the Apostle Paul that he had developed into a good and faithful servant of God. Another testimony to John Mark’s change for the better is the fact that God used him to write one of the New Testament books. He wrote the book which we call “The Gospel According To Mark.” I think it is safe to say that John Mark never accomplished as much as he could have and as much as he would have if he had not dropped out, but it is to his very great credit that did change and that he was able to do a great work for God in spite of his dropout. IV. The message for Christians of today The message in this passage of Scripture for Christians of today is: Do not drop out of the service of God. The cause of the Lord will be hindered if you drop out. If you drop out somebody else will need to take up the slack and do the work that you have been doing. So the work will be hindered. Furthermore, you will miss some great blessings. I am talking about blessings in this life. In addition, you will miss out on rewards in heaven that could hove been yours. There is no excuse for any child of God to drop out of service to God. The time will come soon enough for you to move on to another job and let some one else do what you are doing now. Or, the time will come when you will be disabled and no longer able to do. Or the time will come when you will go on to a better world. Jesus said that the time will come when no man can work. But in the meanwhile there is no excuse for dropping out. If someone offends you just remember that Jesus also had reason to feel offended, but He did not drop out of His mission to die on the cross for us. What you should do is ask God for the grace to forgive those who offend you and go on serving the Lord. If you are tired, change your schedule so that you can get some rest, but do not drop out of the service of God. If you get discouraged then look to God for His strength. Remember that the Apostle Paul said that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Just keep on keeping on in the service of God and there will be fruit for your labor. Another message for us Christians today is: If you have dropped out, ask God to forgive you. Then ask God to help you to change your attitude and get back in the service of God. It will take extra grace for you to be able to resume your work for God again, but by the grace of God John Mark was able to do it. He is not the only one. Many other Christians have done it. So you can do it, too, by the grace of God. Only by the grace of God can you do it. But by the grace of God you can do it. Conclusion: If you have never been saved, you need to get the all important matter of your soul salvation taken care of before you attempt to take up a life of service for God. You need to get your destiny settled with God. But you can never work your way to heaven. You can never earn your right to enter heaven by doing good work, Eph. 2:8-9. What you need to do is to acknowledge to God that you are an unworthy sinner and to call upon Jesus Christ and trust Him to save your soul. Ask Him to save you, Rom. 10:13. . After you are saved then you should present yourself to this church or to some other Scriptural New Testament church and get baptized. Then you should get to work serving the Lord in whatever opportunity He gives to you. Then you should never, never, never in all this lifetime stop serving Him! As for me I am committed to serving the Lord. If I live long enough the time will come when I will no longer be able to pastor a church. But when I am no longer able to pastor, I will attend church as long as I have the health to do so and I will serve the Lord in the church. The time may come when I will no longer be able even to attend church. But as long as I have my mind and as long as I have breath, I am committed to serving the Lord.