Going through Mark’s Gospel at Redeemer 2016

Yes, we are going through the entire gospel of Mark here at Redeemer. We started the gospel in May and as of this writing we are in Chapter Three, preparing the Lord’s Day message on the fourteenth of August. Being a Pastor of a church means being responsible for many things chief among them is having the great privilege of preaching the Word, “in season and out of season…” ( 2 Timothy 4:2). It is a glorious pleasure to be able to stay in one gospel looking at the original meaning and what God is saying through His Word to us today.

Every week I am sitting with the sermon for next week, and truthfully I am thoroughly amazed at how God is speaking through the pages of Mark’s gospel. Jesus is plainly seen walking on the road to the Cross in this fast paced narrative. Everything that the Lord does in this gospel is reflected from the “Big Picture View” of the sacrificial act of crucifixion which is sufficient for the entire world to be saved. This aspect is crystal clear from the first verse of Mark, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” to every verse in this inspired account of the life of our Lord. Our theme as we go through Mark’s account is then appropriately titled “Jesus Christ The Son of God”.

This is a quick study of Jesus, Mark gives us a different look into the life of Christ. Mark along with the gospel of John, doesn’t give us a study into Jesus’ birth, but we start out with a strong statement that cannot be denied in verse one that Jesus is, The Son of God.

Many people will deny that Jesus is God, many religions deny that Jesus was God, but Mark tackles that issue head on with this undeniable statement. In the first century this would have been very controversial to say the least, the Romans worshipped Caesar as God and the Romans were in charge.

This is the atmosphere that Mark wrote his Holy Spirit inspired narrative. The actual date of the writing of Mark is not known, scholars have used other means to identify the period in which it was written, so there is a span of about five or six years for the writing. James Edwards in his excellent commentary on Mark writes:

In summary, although none of the foregoing arguments and evidence is conclusive in itself, a combination of external and internal data appears to point to a composition of the Gospel of Mark in Rome between the great fire in 64 and the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70, that is, about the year 65.16¹

So here we are in the beginning of the gospel of Mark going through the pages of the Bible together as a church. Every week on the Lord’s day we have the opportunity to hear the Word of God preached in Portuguese or English, but every sermon is geared towards our theme for Redeemer Church (Redentor Igreja) this year that God has given to believers, gifts of the the Spirit. Through Christ, God has given to us certain gifts to share and build up other believers. The gifts of the Spirit can be seen in all the pages of Scripture and now we can see them as we go through Mark. Let us see our Redeemer Christ Jesus revealed each week and let us hold on to that gift as we begin our week, strong and anchored in the grace, love and mercy of Jesus.

1. Edwards, James R. The Gospel according to Mark. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002 .9. ↩