“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.
Mark 1:1 (ESV)
I would imagine that nearly every single person reading this receives the news in some form or fashion on a daily basis. At our house, the television in our living room is on most mornings while we are all getting ready, and many times in the evening, while we are preparing dinner, tuned in to one of our local news channels. Other folks get their news via cable or satellite, over the internet, or through their car radio on the way to work. Regardless of your preferred method, the majority of what you hear will most likely be negative; stories of death, destruction, chaos and disorder… evidence of the fallen world we inhabit. Aren’t you so thankful we have an alternate source of information with a very different message?
In the opening verse of Mark, the author describes the story he is about to tell as the “gospel of Jesus Christ.” As many translations attest, the word gospel comes from a Greek word that literally means, “good news.” In a world that seems so bent on its own destruction, that sounds like an appropriate way to refer to this story of a God who wants to save it. To their credit, most news outlets make some effort to throw in a feel-good story every now and then, but we know all the feel-good stories in the world won’t solve the world’s problems. We need a God who can destroy the forces of evil and forgive, redeem and recreate sinners. That is exactly the God that Mark and all the other New Testament writers present to us.
Join us over the next several weeks as we take a journey through the Gospel of Mark during our Sunday morning worship services. Hearing the good news will make all the bad news bearable, reminding us of the hope we have in Jesus.