Gospel of Mark - Series

Introduction to Mark

Throughout church history people have always looked down on the gospel of Mark simply because its the shortest book of the gospels.

I know even for myself when ive read through the other gospels and im left with Mark i see it as “oh its short ill finish reading that quickly” or” it doesnt have that much importance in it compared to the other gospels.

Over the last year ive had a big interest in the gospel of Mark only because of more facts ive found out about it and it has kind of motivated me to do a series on it so we can go through it as a church and learn from it together just as we did the 1 Corinthians series.

People say the gospel of Mark is a gospel thats been cut short or not the full story but its not. When you compare the stories that are in Mark with the other gospels Mark actually tells it the longest most of the time.

Mark tells these stories with more colour that makes them more alive. But when he makes them more alive he does it in a way that doesnt make the story feel long.

Marks gospel is quick and full of action. Mark uses the word “immediately” 41 times. Things come fast and things escalate quickly aswell.

Mark gives more time to stories of Jesus rather than teachings of Jesus.

Mark 1:1 NIV

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

Notice how Mark starts quickly , the first verse straight away he says “Son of God” , no verses talking about his birth details , No genealogogies or family trees. Mark doesnt muck around here. Black and White

When we go through this Mark will show us how powerful our God is and towards the time of his crucifixion things will begin to heat up in this account.

The Gospels Matthew , Mark , Luke and John are meant to speak to everyone but each writer had a sepcific target audience in mind.

The gospel of Mark is mainly focused on a Roman audience.

Introducing the Son of God

So again Mark gets right to the point. The gospel of Mark is all about the gospel. In the ancient world the word “gospel” was always used to declare a military victory. Gospel always meant the army won the battle, thats what it means and when a town would hear news like that it would become “good news”.

The good news it not just a statement of a gameplan , the gospel is literally Jesus thats what this book will show us.