The past month we’ve been talking about preparing for Christmas. This time is known as Advent. It’s the announcement of the King — it’s the announcement of the Messiah that was to come.

 

The Messiah came, and we called it the Incarnation. That’s that moment when God became man.

 

Today, we start a continuation of the story. We’re going to pick up in the Gospel of Mark.

 

The word “Gospel” simply means “Good News”.

 

So today, we begin to look at one account of the “Good News” of Jesus.

 

The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the Gospels — it’s an action-packed book. Mark uses the word “Immediately” over 40 times. He didn’t want his readers to get bored.

 

Did you know that each of the 4 Gospels were written with a target audience, or a goal in mind? Matthew wrote his to the Jews — he wanted to show that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Luke wrote his to the Jews, but also to the REST of the world — to show that Jesus is the savior of the WORLD.

 

Mark had an objective when he wrote it — and that was to show that Jesus is the Son of God. It’s to further explain, or to demonstrate that which we’ve been celebrating the past several weeks — that God became man. That Jesus is Immanuel — God with us.

 

So let’s dive in to Mark.