Missed last Sunday’s message? No problem, listen online!
“Today’s reading centers on the absolute authority of Christ Jesus, displayed again and again in this passage after he announces that the kingdom of God is at hand…Under Christ’s authority we are called to both repent and believe. Repentance means death, an utter turning from who we once were, but death to self becomes life in Christ, and repentance is followed by a new life - directed by our belief in Jesus.”
“Mark is a man in a hurry. But in the last sermon, we found that Mark’s breakneck speed is a deliberate strategy, employed by an expert communicator, to fulfill a twofold purpose. Mark wants his readers / listeners to know ‘Who Jesus is’, and ‘What it means to be his disciple.’ That’s it, his little book is laser focused on addressing only those two things. The Gospel of Mark is completely shaped with this in mind. He reorders events in Jesus life, omits things the other guys include and crafts an orator’s narrative that is exciting and fast, compelling and simple.”
Pastor Leighton introduces us to a new series through the Gospel of Mark:
“…this is how the book of Mark starts. And it’s actually really exciting. Mark is fast paced, it’s a race to the climax. He moves us from snapshot to snapshot at full gallop. Some 40 times Mark jumps to the next scene with the words and immediately as if to say Jesus never slept. In fact, Mark has Jesus sitting down to explain himself to his disciples only twice in his entire gospel...Mark drops us right into the action, there’s no birth narrative, no escape to Egypt, no preteen Jesus schooling the scholars while his parents search desperately for him, there's no background story for any of the other characters either, nothing about John the Baptist's miraculous birth. We just begin where Jesus’ ministry begins, and we end where his earthly ministry ends, and it’s an exhilarating flight.”
