Mark 1:1 - Defining the Gospel (Public Reading v. 1-11)

Introduction

We find our deepest joy and satisfaction in the work of Jesus and desire for His glory to be known in all the earth.

Series Preface

Mark has a specific vision of Jesus which is even present in the text that we’ve read together this morning. Jesus came to earth in strength (v. 7), and when he was baptized, the heavens were ripped open (v. 10). The prophet John, a voice from heaven, and the Spirit all confirmed that Jesus was the Son of God. The power, and immediacy of the Kingdom is hugely important in Mark which makes it also great. Many people have wandered around their whole lives looking for hope but haven’t found anything. What is remarkable about Mark is that his gospel is a here and now gospel. You do not need to wait to be made right with God. You do not need to wait to have the Kingdom of God break into your life. You do not need to wait for inexpressible hope and joy because Jesus Christ the Son of God has come in power. This logic is actually why Mark begins his gospel in this way.

Arguments Hidden in Plain Sight

The first line of Mark’s gospel imports a remarkable amount of information. However, walking into Mark 1:1 without any context can seem like you’ve entered into a conversation late. While the words in and of themselves seem to make sense, they aren’t tethered to anything. It can be difficult therefore to understand why Mark would begin his gospel in this way.

The Content of the Gospel

The heading of Mark’s gospel as is found in ancient manuscripts is what you will likely see in your Bible: “The gospel according to Mark.” This is true of the other gospels which say: “the gospel according to Luke” and so forth. The point here is that Mark is not inventing his own gospel, but rather he is attesting to the single gospel of Jesus. This is why, in verse 1, Mark begins with a very simple statement:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

This line is designed to clarify the content of the Gospel which Mark is attesting to. The substance of Mark’s gospel is Jesus Christ who is the Son of God. Now, I have the suspicion that some of you might not fully grasp what some of these first words even mean, or what I mean when I talk about “content” and “substance.” So, to start off, I am going to define a term and provide a couple of principles for us to begin thinking critically about what Mark is showing here.

The first definition is that of “gospel.” In its simplest form, the word “gospel” means “good news.” In the OT, the word “gospel” was often connected with war. In a war sense, the gospel or good news would either be (a) that you prevailed over an enemy, or (b) that you were not going to prevail, but an opposing King was offering you peace. Either way, this was “good news.” Now, the term “gospel” did eventually develop further meanings, but I want to stop for a moment and offer to you some principles for thinking about how this conversation about “gospel” actually pertains to you.

The Fact of the Matter is that every person on earth believes in a gospel. Yet, there are three principles which must be considered when deciding what gospel you hold.

Three Principles:

The content of the gospel which you hold most dear will either limit, or delimit your joy.

The very best gospel that a person could have is one that is of an enduring quality.

The only gospel which is worthy of your life is one which is connected to God.

Explanation

Here, I anticipate some pushback on what I have said. Some of you may have heard me start out with a basic statement: “every person on earth believes in a gospel” and this rubbed you the wrong way because you have been trained to reject statements that use the words “always” or “never.” So immediately, as soon as the words “every person...” came out of my mouth, you began racking your brain for your own personal experience. Maybe some of you thought of rejections such as:

I am, or I know, an atheist. These people are not walking around with gospels.

Or, better, I am or I know a nihilist. This person by very definition rejects all forms of purpose in the universe and believes that the world and all its contents are meaningless.

To these statements, I would simply point out a couple of things.

There are plenty of atheists who deeply long to vest their lives in some form of hope. Sometimes it is helpful to remind oneself that some atheists even tuck their kids into bed. Why do this? Why act in this way? In a God-less universe, why behave in such a way? The Scripture gives us answers to this. In fact Ecclesiastes tells us that God set eternity in the hearts of mankind (Eccl. 3:11). So, even those who say they think one way, often times behave in another because their innermost beliefs betray themselves with a living that is the sign of higher desire.

It is not an accident that many Nihilist philosophers argued for what we might now term as “existentialism.” The basic form of this system of thought is to say “because life is meaningless and without purpose, it is the duty of the human individual to create their own meaning in life.” The problem here is that Nihilism, being completely unlivable, had to find a “gospel” for its system.

So, I return to my basic point. Every person has a gospel. Maybe here it would be helpful to list some of the myths and false gospels that people have accepted and so pervade our culture. (As I was crafting this list with explanations, I thought to myself that each one of these things individually deserves a sermon. What I am going to implore you to do though is to come back tonight to our evening fellowship, and we will have the opportunity to talk about these things in detail! Do not put your discipleship on the backburner! Make time for God because investing in your relationship with Him is the best investment you could ever make in your life!)

Anyways, here is the list:

The gospel of human progress

The false gospel of human progress sees technology, advancement, and general human progress as the good news of our age. Have problems? Not for long. Technology will solve that. It is unfortunate that we suffer so deeply from cultural amnesia; modern thinkers often times forget about the writers from the lost generation after WWI who fought one of the first “technological wars.” What the early 1900s revealed to this older generation was that unless the problem of sin (that was so thoroughly baked into the human) was taken care of, human progress would never be sufficient to deal with the depth of human problems. This is a human gospel, and not a God-gospel, so it is not worth your affection.

The gospel of prosperity

The gospel of prosperity places wealth and material gain as the ultimate end of life. Out of all the gospels that I’ve listed, this one is most akin to salt and vinegar potato chips. Nobody has any business believing that salt and vinegar chips are good, but people keep buying them! Similarly, it is widely attested by those who spend their life seeking material wealth that such was not worth their life. As it comes to wealth, Jesus teaches us not to store up treasure on earth that moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but instead story up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20). This is a sub-human gospel and is equally not worthy your affection.

The gospel of relationships or social value

This false gospel is different because it is based in/on human relationships. Thinking propositionally, the “if, then” of this gospel is “if I have a relationship with this person, then I’ll be satisfied.” This category is also not necessarily romantic, it can span a whole litany of social interactions. Yet, the problem with this gospel is two-fold: (1) It flattens every other person in your life to being an object to suit your needs. (2) It makes your own self worth and identity based on the actions and reactions of others. Both of these realities are not true. Following in line with the previous false gospels, this is a human gospel, so it is not worth your affection.

The gospel of legalism or moral living

Depending on audience, this gospel might be labeled as either the ‘gospel of legalism’ or the ‘gospel of moral living.’ The essence of this gospel is simple: I will live right and earn favor with God. So many people of religious communities share this view. Here, the basic belief is that one is either (a) capable of living to moral perfection or (b) that what matters in the eyes of God is that the good outweighs the bad. There are so many problems with this view that it is difficult to even capture all of the ways it is wrong, but I will offer a few here for simplicity: (#) The belief that a person can live to moral perfection is suicidal and dishonest. If anyone has ever lied, cheated, stolen, lusted, blasphemed, committed violence, and so on, such a person has been stained by personal sin! At the outright, it is simply impossible to live this way to the point of perfection. In our individualist culture, however, this model for religious practice just feels so good. Not only do you get all of the benefits of right living, but you get to walk around with an individualistic self-righteousness which is just icing on the cake! Beyond the point of underestimating one’s own culpability in sin, (#) the other BIG problem is that such a vision of “right living” does not rightly grapple with the perfection of God. Or, another way to say this, is that your view of God is too low. In fact, your view of God is so low, you think that he will look at you paying it forward in the drive thru and think to Himself “Gee, Jerry is paying it forward, he is worthy of the imperishable glory of heaven and to stand in the presence of my indescribable power and beauty.” That is not how God operates. The Scripture makes plain that no person is without sin and that our best works without faith are but filthy rags in his sight. Isaiah had this experience himself when he — being the very model of someone who should be “right with God” — is called into the heavenly court room and upon seeing the hem of God’s robe falls on his face in woe because he was unworthy. This reality makes me think about G.K. Chesterton, who, when called upon to explain the problems of the world, he did not say “food scarcity,” “generational poverty,” “lack of access to education,” or any of the other responses emblematic of false gospels, but instead responded with the simple: “I am.” Ultimately, this gospel falls short because it too is a human gospel and is not worth your affection.

The gospel of self-determinism

You might imagine that this false gospel would be part of the moral living gospel or something previously mentioned, but this one is deeper philosophically and embedded in the very nature of pride. Namely, the gospel of self-determinism argues that the good news is that one has the power to determine the truth for oneself. This gospel plays a great role in modernism, post-modernism, and philosophical movements which reject external truth and argue for truth that is defined by the individual. Just as every other false gospel has a host of problems, so too does the gospel of self-determinism. First, it separates one’s own truth claims from the world around. Second, it fundamentally misconstrues the role of language. One of the basic, biblical claims of Genesis 1-2 is that when God speaks, he creates reality; when man speaks, he defines reality. As we will get to in Mark, this was one of the troubles of the leper; it did not matter how much positive “self-help” talk the leper gave himself in the mirror, he would still only be a leper. Self-determinism could not save the leper. If the leper embraced self-determinism, the sickness he rejected would still take his life. The issues of this false gospel is thus two-fold, it lacks authenticity as well as it lacks powers. It is also merely a human gospel and therefore is not worth your affection.

The gospel of isolation

This false gospel is less about embracing a thing, and more about hiding. Specifically, many within our world refuse to deal with their problems outright and instead prefer to run from them. Thus, this false gospel argues that relief can come from removing oneself from society and community and eliminating as many avenues of conflict as possible so as to create one’s own, private Garden of Eden. Thanks to technology, this sort of thinking feels much more possible with getting groceries delivered, fake adventures for a person to live through their TV, and so forth. Again though, this person is not living. You were not created to hide in a basement, but to see the sun. This gospel, like the others, is merely a human or sub-human gospel and is, again, not worth your affection.

Hinge: Rejecting False Gospels, Embracing the One True Gospel

It is by going through these different fake gospels and turning over their problems that we are left in a place of needing a true gospel. We need a gospel that is ancient and is tethered to God. Only a Gospel that is sourced in God is capable of providing direction and meaning, as well as providing a vision of what happens when we perish. If the source of the gospel is God, then what is its content?

The Bible tells us that the content of God’s gospel is Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Zip-File Language

Some of you might still have questions pertaining to this phrasing. Words such as “Christ” or phrases such as “Son of God” still need unpacking. Before advancing, we will offer a brief description of what sort of meaning is being imported into this single line introduction.

“Jesus” is obviously a name, but this name is providential. If you read the Septuagint — the Greek translation of the OT — the name “Jesus” is the one assigned to Joshua. If you know your biblical history, you know that Moses died; God did not see Moses as fit to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, so it was this Joshua figure who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. There were some expectations for Moses’s successor which Joshua did not achieve. For instance, Joshua was not a prophet like Moses (though the Angel of the Lord appeared to Him). Second, Joshua was never described as being “raised up” according to Mosaic prophecy. Interestingly, this “raising up” is one of the phrases used to describe Jesus’ resurrection.

“Christ” is the term for the Hebrew “Messiah.” Both terms are related to being anointed in some way, but the theological import of the term “Messiah” or “God’s anointed” was that an anointed king-messiah figure was prophesied in the OT to establish David’s throne among the nations forever. So, “Christ” is not Jesus’s last name, but is instead his title. This is why, when Peter is asked about who Jesus is in Mark 8:29, Peter says “You are the Christ.”

“Son of God” is a term that is biblically applied to three people: Adam, Israel, and Jesus. This term is significant because each of them are assigned a specific task: Adam is commissioned to be God’s prophet/priest/king upon the earth who multiplies and subdues the earth, but he fails. Israel is supposed to be God’s treasured possession and nation of priests to the earth, but Israel fails. Jesus is called to do what the previous sons

The NOT Unique Voicing of Mark

One interesting study on this point is looking at other places of the New Testament and seeing how these other authors voice the gospel or think. Here are a couple of different verses that I feel like help color-in the fact that Mark is not beginning with a unique subject line:

John 20:30-31

Romans 1:1-4

Side Note - Paul also writes against false gospels which entered the church and warrant this exact sermon:

See: Gal. 1:6, Col. 2:8 —> The point here is that Mark, Paul, John, and so forth — these early witnesses were concerned about knowing and preserving a gospel whose content was Jesus and no other.

Two Critical Remaining Questions:

What is the significance of Mark’s gospel being a Jesus Christ, Son of God gospel?

Is this “good news” the kind of news I merely read, or is this news I must respond to?

Let’s use the remaining portion of our time to answer those two questions

FIRST | Mark is going to include some passages which explain why Jesus’ coming is so revolutionary. Let me start with one.

Mark 10:45 describes how Jesus, did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark has a vision of the in-breaking Kingdom of God, and one of the realities of that in-breaking Kingdom is that Jesus is going to give his life so that you may live. What this means is that your right-receiving of this word will be inextricably linked with your receiving life in abundance. You should know too that this life that is being offered is not just a retirement plan or fire insurance. This life that is being offered is one that you can grab ahold of now.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that you need to get all of your life together before coming to Jesus. Your response needs to be: “Jesus I will trust you with my life because I know you gave your life for me.”

SECOND

Outline

Read Mark 1:1

Defining “Gospel”

3 Principles for Gospel-interaction

Rejecting false gospels of the world (Re-reading Mark 1:1)

Biblical words and their meanings

Mark’s voicing of the gospel is not unique in the NT

Two Critical Questions

Seeing into next sermon

Pathways to Respond