Introduction to Mark
- Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010
- Speaker: Jason Smith
- Series: Jesus in 3D: Seeing Jesus through the Gospel of Mark
- Scripture: Mark 1:1–16:8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Today whether you knew it or not you are joining us as we seek to get a closer look at our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ through the gospel of Mark. We are going to attempt to go beyond the two dimensional image of simple words on a page and in cooperation with the Spirit of God dive into story by story of this gospel, examining the life of Christ. Our hope is that through this series we will gain more knowledge and add more dimension to our understanding and appreciation of our Savior, which will drive us to worship Him more fully and follow Him more passionately. This book is about the Gospel and the gospel is not merely a series of facts. The gospel is centered on a PERSON. The gospel of Mark was written as a means to that end, giving us the ability to transport back in time and to meet Jesus in 3D. Just as His earliest followers we will be challenged to seek him as more than just a one dimensional person, but as the true, God-man.
We believe this to be the earliest account of the good news about Jesus Christ, so it gives us fresh and crisp account of the person and work of Jesus. This account of the life of Christ is attributed to a young man named, John Mark. You might know him as a relative of Barnabas and a traveling companion of Paul from the book of Acts. If your opinion of John Mark is limited to that unfortunate exchange, you might not know of how valuable he was to Paul and even more so to Peter, who referred to him as “my son.” Actually, most of what we get in the gospel of Mark is Peter’s up-close and personal interactions with Jesus. Although, we believe John Mark was on the scene as well, from what could only be his signature in Mark 14:51-52, And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. So, we find here the testimony of the earliest witnesses of Jesus’ life and ministry probably dating back to around the early/mid 60’s AD. Both Matthew and Luke take information from Mark and expand on it. There are very few incidents which are recorded in Mark which are not also found in either Matthew or Luke.
Just like any good 3D movie, the gospel of Mark is packed with action. It skips over the birth narratives of Christ and gets right to the ministry of Jesus. Mark is very much a tell-it-like-it-is sort of Gospel and actions speak louder than words. The book is fast-moving and action-packed with John Mark using the word immediately 41 times in the gospel compared to it being used only 19 times in the rest of the New Testament. It seems that Mark wanted us to experience the true identity of Jesus in such a way that it evokes a lasting response in word and deed; that we would be transformed from our encounter with Jesus, up-close and personal. The first part of our series and of the gospel answers the question: Who is Jesus? It climaxes with Peter's confession in Mark 8:27-30. We begin that journey today and it will run through the end of September. The second part answers the question: What did Jesus come to do? It climaxes with Jesus' death and resurrection in Mark 15 and 16. We will pick up this second part in January and continue it through Easter Sunday. So, let’s open our eyes to Jesus through the lens of the gospel of Mark.
