Mark 1 - Jesus' First Sermon!


Jesus Announces the Good News

14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Today we begin reading the gospel of Mark.  Most believe that Mark was the earliest gospel written, sometime between 60-70 A.D., only 30 years after Jesus' resurrection.  Mark is the shortest gospel at 16 chapters. Most biblical scholars conclude that both Luke and Matthew used Mark for much of their source material for their gospels.  Two major themes in Mark are discipleship and the kingdom of God. The gospel moves very quickly with vivid details and lots of action. Sometimes it is called the "power gospel", because of the focus on Jesus' healing the sick and delivering people from demons.  Just read the whole chapter to see the stories in this regard.
This can be summarized in these verses in the chapter, 
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Jesus' simple message was, "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news."  Usually we think of the good news as ONLY, "Jesus died for us and if we accept him as our savior, we will escape the fires of hell go to heaven to live forever."  And, of course, we absolutely believe this is the good news. But in this first sermon Jesus preaches the good news is, "God's kingdom had come near."  
It has come near in Him, and we see what it looks like in the rest of the chapter and in the rest of Mark's gospel. What does this mean for us?  For those who believe in Christ, we believe that God's kingdom has come in Jesus, and continues to come through us through the power of His Spirit.  As we read through the rest of Mark, Jesus preached the gospel and then equipped his followers to live in out in God's power.  And he is doing the same with us today! Welcome to the gospel of Mark!


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