A Ransom For Many: The Gospel of Mark Simply Explained

by Steve Wilmshurst

Publisher:

Evangelical Press

, 2011

Overview

This book is based on a series of sermons preached at Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol, England. The author has increasingly—and beyond his expectations—been drawn in by the sheer power of the Bible’s storytelling. Grasping something of the skilled and beautiful construction of the Gospel has frequently shed fresh light on familiar passages; recognizing the half-concealed links to the Old Testament prophets has opened up new understanding of the mission of the Lord Jesus.

Mark’s Gospel focuses on the Lord Jesus as the crucified Christ; as his followers, we are called to take up our cross and follow him who gave his life as a ransom for many. If this book encourages you in this path of discipleship, it will have achieved its purpose.

The Logos edition of A Ransom for Many contains extensive footnotes linking directly to the books and articles in your digital library. All Scripture passages display on mouse-over, and each reference links to the original-language Bible texts and the English translations in your digital library. The advanced search tools, Passage Guides and reports, and other tools in your digital library make the Logos edition of A Ransom for Many perfect for sermon preparation, Bible study, and for further research for students and scholars.

Key Features

• Preface by the author
• Suggestions for further reading

Contents

Top Highlights

“Even Uzziah, one of their greatest kings, when struck with leprosy was shut away in a house by himself for the rest of his life—a king, yet an outcast (2 Chr. 26:16–21). The rabbis believed that it was as difficult to cleanse a leprosy sufferer as it was to raise the dead, which was not exactly encouraging. The Old Testament records only two cases of leprosy being healed, both by divine intervention: one was Miriam, the sister of Moses, and the other was Naaman, the Syrian general.” (Page 45)

“But here is the good news—if it really is good news—a message that will cost you, not nothing, but everything. John’s message was simple, straight, uncompromising: ‘Repent. Turn round and let Jesus bring God himself into your life.’ Good news? That depends on our response!” (Page 24)

“‘Get behind me.’ That doesn’t mean, ‘Get out of my sight.’ It means, ‘Your place is not to tell me what to do, Peter; your place is to follow me. So get in line, get behind me.” (Page 181)

“But, as we saw in verses 3–4, the desert is the place where people go in order to meet with God, to see spiritual realities more clearly.” (Page 40)

“Leprosy was a terrible curse: it ruined normal life and brought pain and ugliness into human life. Jesus healed people from it—such was his compassion—but, wonderful as that was, it points ahead to the healing of the far greater curse of sin, which, even more than leprosy, ruins normal life, destroys relationships and brings pain and ugliness into human life. Jesus came to provide cleanness from sin, the disease, the curse that affects us all because we have all broken God’s law. Under the curse, we are all outcasts, cut off from God by the barrier of sin. But, as Galatians 3:13 puts it, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Page 47)

Praise for the Print Edition

This clear, lively, readable, and accessible study is the fruit of sound scholarship. Steve Wilmshurst has worked carefully over the critical and sometimes controversial issues of interpretation, and walks us through them in a wise and measured way. But it is also scholarship that has been turned into practical pastoral preaching. And because it is preached material, it is realistically earthed and applied to us today. It will encourage many Christians who are frightened by commentaries to get to grips with Mark’s gospel, and I warmly commend it.

—Christopher Ash, Proclamation Trust, director, Cornhill Training Course

Wilmshurst has written a commentary with real substance that is also great fun to read. Well-known moments in Mark’s gospel are freshly lit up by contemporary illustrations, penetrating application and a keen sense of how each moment fits into Mark’s overall shape and purpose. It’s just the sort of book I would want to press into the hands of people at our church.

—Mike Cain, senior pastor, Emmanuel Church, Bristol

Product Details

• Title: A Ransom for Many: The Gospel of Mark Simply Explained
• Author: Steve Wilmshurst
• Series: Welwyn Commentary Series
• Publisher: Evangelical Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 320

About Steve Wilmshurst

Steve Wilmshurst studied physics at Cambridge University and then had a career in the nuclear industry. He subsequently retrained in theology at Trinity College in Bristol, England, where he specialized in the New Testament. He is currently director of training at Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol, and he teaches on the New Testament at a variety of other places. He is the author of The Final Word: The Book of Revelation Simply Explained, also published by Evangelical Press in the Welwyn Commentary Series.