Failure! The word has an ugly ring to it, doesn't it? It's usually the last thing any thinking person desires. Almost everybody wants to be a success; very few would want to be failures. Although we all know that failure can and does happen, it still comes as a surprise and a shock when we realize it has happened to us. For many, failure becomes a trap robbing those whom it attacks of joy and blessing. Without question failure is a very demanding taskmaster. For a few it sadly has become a way of life.
When we think about failure, we realize that the subject is a very complex one. There are so many different kinds of failure, so many different levels to it. We read about financial failure when the stock market sharply declines and many lose value in their investments. We hear about moral and ethical failure when people cheat on their mates and on others who have placed trust in them. The Christian community is not exempt for spiritual failure occurs within it with distressing frequency. That's why the subject of failure is so difficult to really understand.
So we must narrow our focus. We want to examine an aspect of spiritual failure that is very common with most Christians. We are not dealing with certain extreme kinds of failure that produce disqualification for continuing ministry (note Paul's concern in 1 Cor 9:27) or is so severe that it results in physical death (as some of the Corinthians had suffered in 1 Cor 11:27-31). Those are special cases which require special treatment.
No, what we want to investigate is the spiritual failure we all experience in personal relationships and spiritual responsibilities. Churches divide, families separate, relationships dissolve as a result of this kind of failure. Why is this study so important? It is because we all are so prone to problems in these areas. And the problems are complicated by the fact that we have a tendency to emphasize the failures of others while at the same time ignore our own.
Because we have that awful tendency to view the failures of others as more serious than our own, it becomes relatively easy for us to rationalize our stumbling, to justify our failings on the basis of circumstances, environment or other people. We are so quick to excuse our own failures; we are so slow in accepting personal responsibility for them.
Of course it is true that all failure is potentially hurtful. And it is also true that there are some failures which cause more hurt and damage than others. Certainly the failure of Judas in betraying Jesus (Matt 27:3-5) seems to us to be far more serious than our failure in keeping our promises or in fulfilling our spiritual obligations.
Believers can and do fail. The sad truth is that the Christian landscape is dotted with any number of Christians who have experienced failures of one kind or another. That should not surprise us for the Bible is full of stories about men and women who have failed in one way or another.
In the Bible we read about the failure of Adam and Eve and their disobedience, of Abraham and his deceit, of Moses and his anger, of Saul and his pride, of David and his immorality, of Elijah and his frustration, of Jonah and his reluctance, of Peter and his denial, of Demas and his disloyalty...the list could go on and on.
They are all stories of people who at one time or another experienced failure. Some of them overcame their failure by God's grace and enablement. Others did not. And the Bible is silent concerning what happened to still others.
We learn early in life the sorrowful truth that no one is exempt from failure. In fact, our awareness that we are sinners reminds us that we all have failed in one way or another. Because all sin represents failure and since we all have sinned, the inescapable conclusion is that we all have failed. That is the consistent testimony of Scripture. The Apostle Paul put it this way: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). We realize this truth and we acknowledge it. It is part of our spiritual inheritance from Adam. We are sinners; we have failed to meet God's standard for righteousness. We cannot meet that standard.
We not only fail because we have a sin nature, we also fail by making bad choices for which we are responsible. We sin because we are sinners. Is there any hope? Can our sin failure ever be forgiven? The testimony of Scripture is that it can. God has done His part; Jesus Christ died for our sins (Rom 5:8). He sacrificially took our place on the cross. Yes, God has done His part; now we must do ours by responding to Him in faith.
If there is to be forgiveness, then we must admit that we are sinners, that we have failed in meeting God's standard for righteousness. We all "fall short" of God's glory. More than that, we confess that we do not have it within ourselves to ever meet that standard. That is the first step toward becoming God's children and experiencing His forgiveness. We must confess that we have sinned and positively respond to God's plan of salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ.
We know that our sins have been forgiven when we trust Jesus Christ as our personal Savior (John 3:15). God has done something about our sin. He has promised to forgive us our sin when we have genuinely trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. He has enabled us by His Holy Spirit to live a life of victory and blessing.
But what do we do when, after having experienced God's love and salvation in Jesus Christ, we find subsequently that we have failed God, others and/or ourselves? What do we do when we realize that the spotlight of God's conviction is not upon others but upon us? When we become aware that we have failed even as Christians, frequently it becomes so difficult to know what to do about it, how to respond to it, how to put our lives back together again. It is at this point that so many have a tendency to just give up.
I think that is why the life story of young John Mark, a follower of Jesus Christ, appeals to so many of us. He has walked the path of failure before us...and there is much we can learn from his experiences. That is the reason we want to walk with him, to probe into the life of this young man whom we meet in the Scripture. His failure was the failure of commitment and loyalty. He becomes a classic example of representative failures in the lives of Christians. By understanding his failure we can better understand ours no matter what they are.
We are introduced to John Mark for the first time in the Bible in Acts 12:12. There we are told that his mother's name is Mary and that his name is John, also called Mark. Many Jewish men in that day possessed both a Hebrew and a Roman name. John was his Jewish name; Mark was his Roman name. He is a relative of Barnabas and a close friend of Peter.
Some believe that he was the nameless young man dressed only in a sheet recorded in Mark 14:51-52: "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind." It is a detail that only the writer would have known since the young man was unidentified. It could be that John Mark was giving us an insight into himself. If he were that one, then John Mark showed a tendency to run away from difficult situations. In the midst of panic, John Mark's choice was to run. This trait will become a problem for him later.
When his cousin Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus returned to Antioch in Syria from Jerusalem, young John Mark was invited to journey with them (Acts 12:25). When the Lord impressed the church in Antioch to release Barnabas and Saul to go on a missionary trip to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, the two men took with them John Mark as their assistant (Acts 13:5).
After they had been commissioned by their home church in Antioch in Syria, the group journeyed to Cyprus where they began their significant ministry. Dangers and threats were an almost daily occurrence for them.
Then plans were made to travel to the mainland to plant churches. It was at this point that John Mark departed from the group. Of this incident the text merely states "From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem" (Acts 13:13). Luke adds no other insight as to why it had happened. But two years later Paul strongly opposed John Mark's rejoining their group. This would indicate that Paul considered what John Mark had done totally unacceptable (Acts 15:37-40). It became clear that John Mark had failed in keeping his commitment and had sadly disappointed others by doing so. .
What can we learn about spiritual failure from this incident in young John Mark's life? Obviously there are important truths here which all of us need to learn. If we haven't failed yet, take care. One day we may. Perhaps if we learn these truths well, we will recognize potential failure before it occurs and will be able to avoid it.
So let us walk with John Mark, a follower of Jesus, who failed and try to understand why he did so and what can be done about it. To begin with, consider John Mark as...
To be coninued next month ...