Mark’s Gospel The Beginning January 1
Good News January 1
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
We have four Gospels, each telling us the story of Jesus Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Why are they called “gospels?”
The Greek word is euaggelion, latinized as evangelium, and then entering the English as evangel (evangelist, evangelism, etc,).
The Greek literally means “good message” (eu + aggellion). From the Latinization of aggellion to angelos, we get words related to “angel,” a messenger of God. The Old English translated to "godspel" became gospel.
The phrase occurs several times in the Old Testament, the scripture available in the time of Jesus. The “good news” (or tidings) of Nahum 1:15 particularly stands out:
Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!....
The prophet spoke against Assyria, and for the peace of returning to God. The good news is always in the calm amidst the storm.
The Gospels are giving us “Good News.” What is our Good News?
That is precisely why we are studying one of the four books explaining this Good News. Mark, probably the earliest written of the 4 Gospels, is our starting point on this journey of discovery.
There are various understandings of the nature of the Good News that we may find in our study, so we must be open to what comes.
Both/And January 2
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
We often find the Bible speaking both literally and metaphorically. A passage can be both literally physical and metaphorically spiritual.
For example, when Jesus heals a blind person, we think of the person as gaining the use of the vision of his eyes, literally being able to see the world.
Jesus calls the Pharisees blind. These religious leaders had been teaching the people to see God and His creation through the eyes of law keepers. Giving sight to such a person figuratively means restoring the person’s vision of God and of spiritual matters. The truth that sets free becomes a reality releasing us from legalism into relationship.
We see the blind healed, and some who see are still blind. We understand that there is more than one way to see or be blind.
Jesus often teaches both/and rather than either/or.
For instance, when we hear about the kingdom of God, is that a place to experience only after death? Or is the fact that the kingdom of God is at hand telling us something different, something better?
Perhaps we will find that heaven, the kingdom of God, is BOTH here on earth where we can be its citizens now, AND the place where we reside after death.
Note: Mark uses the term, “the kingdom of God,” and Matthew uses “the kingdom of heaven.” These are identical, but Matthew is choosing not to use the name of God unnecessarily. This study will defer to Mark and use the kingdom of God as he does.
The Beginning January 3
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The “In the beginning” of Genesis 1 is only a beginning for the piece of existence that we call earth. This is our beginning. God already existed.
We tend to think of our own individual beginning, your beginning and my beginning, as our birth.
Maybe we should consider this individual beginning as actually being 9 months previous to our birth. Or maybe we should look at the birth of our parents as our beginning…or their parents…or their parents….
Perhaps the beginning for each individual exists back at the Genesis 1 beginning.
Everything that has happened since Creation has worked to determine the physical reality at any particular time. Given all that has happened in the intervening time since Creation, you and I could not have been any different at birth from what we were at that first instant.
Each moment in time is the inevitable result of all the moments, all of the “nows,” that have preceded it. Each moment of now is a building block, and each block adds to the structure built by past moments of now creating a new present, a new now.
Mark does not take us back to the beginning in the Garden. He does not have to. This is Jesus’ story, told in the present tense of the moment. He is the Son of God, from the Beginning.
From our own present tense now, we look back with Mark at the train of now moments that are Jesus’ ministry.
Between Bookends January 4
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
The first two chapters of the Bible are about Eden, heaven on earth.
The last two chapters of the Bible are about a new heaven and a new earth – a new Eden, if you will.
We live between these two bookends. And Jesus came between the beginning and the end to show us a way to live in the here and now in the way intended from the beginning.
The Bible implies a larger circle, an all-encompassing one for our existence. Our beginning, birth, leads us to our end, death. The breath of the Father returns to Him, and our circle is complete.
We understand our personal beginning only in the context of our personal ending, a smaller circle wrapped in a larger one. And the larger circle is beyond our knowing from a physical foundation. Its basis is the spiritual world, a place recognized and understood only from a spiritual perspective.
As we read Jesus’ story, we become immersed in His time and place. We understand that He lives in the context of His time and in a culture that is the product of all of the generations before Him. He confronts His time and place with a vision of a better time and place.
Our journey into the past is not to bring the past to the present, but to bring our present into the future intended from the Beginning.
Mark’s Beginning January 5
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
All 4 Gospels have a starting point, of course. There is a difference in what each considers the appropriate beginning for their gospel.
For Matthew, the beginning is the genealogy of Jesus. The beginning of his genealogy is Abraham, and progresses through David and Solomon to Joseph. The Greek word translated as “genealogy” in the NKJV is “genesis.” Writing to Jewish readers, Matthew connects with them in the first verse.
Matthew’s genealogy through Solomon proves Jesus’ political claim to the role of Messiah.
Luke’s beginning is with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. Not until chapter 3 does Luke give Jesus’ lineage from Adam through David to Nathan and finally to Mary. Joseph is grafted into the lineage through his marriage to Mary.
Luke’s genealogy through Nathan proves Jesus’ spiritual claim to the role of Messiah.
John’s beginning is the Creation of Genesis Chapter 1. This Gospel proclaims Jesus’ presence from the first record of the universe.
John’s genealogy names God as Jesus’ Father. No other part of His genealogy is required.
Likewise, Mark simply states that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the beginning of both the gospel (the Good News), and the beginning of the universe, the Creation story of Genesis. All of history is wrapped in Mark’s first verse, as it is in John’s first verse, also.
The Son January 6
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That Jesus is the Son of God is a statement that requires proof, and that is the purpose of Mark’s Gospel, to give us that proof.
Mark will guide us to the spiritual perspective of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Our task is to untether ourselves from the physical world, to see beyond our limited perspective. Nearsighted, we look no further than ourselves for our help. Our focus is inward. And this is bondage.
We all refer to God as the Father. This is true for each of us because we are each His creation, here because of Him. We are figurative rather than literal sons and daughters.
Jesus is One with the Father and the Spirit. His title of Son comes from His physical separation from the Father to inhabit our world as a human limited to the physical reality of living in this world. He is both physical and spiritual, both son and Son of God. This is how Jesus relates to us on BOTH a literal physical level AND on a literal spiritual level.
Looking up to a higher spiritual plane, we will see that life is not about me or about you. We have nothing except what has come from above. And so we must look upward to the spiritual world through the lens of Jesus to find our true beginning.
This is the beginning of the truth that sets us free.
The Prophets January 7
Mark 1:2-3
2 As it is written in the Prophets:
“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.”
3 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
Mark quotes Malachi 3:1 in the second verse, and then Isaiah 40:3 in the third verse. Two prophets of the distant past are brought to the present to speak of who is to come.
Malachi - The name means ambassador, or angel, or messenger. All three apply figuratively for a prophet. And perhaps this is not a name, but merely the title of one who is nameless, speaking for the One who has not told us His name, but has simply stated, “I AM.”
The prophet Isaiah speaks also of a nameless voice in the wilderness that will call out ahead for people to prepare a path for the Lord. Why does a voice call out into the wilderness, an unsettled region not yet a home to the culture of any group of people?
Perhaps only in the wilderness, away from culture and the trappings of civilization, can a prophetic voice be heard above the din of the crowd.
And perhaps these prophets speak of the figurative wilderness of the human heart, lost in a land without signs or guideposts.
The cry is the call of the shepherd to the lost sheep, those who have gone astray. They do not even recognize they are lost or that the green pastures and still waters are so near.
Next day
Good News January 1
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
We have four Gospels, each telling us the story of Jesus Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Why are they called “gospels?”
The Greek word is euaggelion, latinized as evangelium, and then entering the English as evangel (evangelist, evangelism, etc,).
The Greek literally means “good message” (eu + aggellion). From the Latinization of aggellion to angelos, we get words related to “angel,” a messenger of God. The Old English translated to "godspel" became gospel.
The phrase occurs several times in the Old Testament, the scripture available in the time of Jesus. The “good news” (or tidings) of Nahum 1:15 particularly stands out:
Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!....
The prophet spoke against Assyria, and for the peace of returning to God. The good news is always in the calm amidst the storm.
The Gospels are giving us “Good News.” What is our Good News?
That is precisely why we are studying one of the four books explaining this Good News. Mark, probably the earliest written of the 4 Gospels, is our starting point on this journey of discovery.
There are various understandings of the nature of the Good News that we may find in our study, so we must be open to what comes.
Both/And January 2
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
We often find the Bible speaking both literally and metaphorically. A passage can be both literally physical and metaphorically spiritual.
For example, when Jesus heals a blind person, we think of the person as gaining the use of the vision of his eyes, literally being able to see the world.
Jesus calls the Pharisees blind. These religious leaders had been teaching the people to see God and His creation through the eyes of law keepers. Giving sight to such a person figuratively means restoring the person’s vision of God and of spiritual matters. The truth that sets free becomes a reality releasing us from legalism into relationship.
We see the blind healed, and some who see are still blind. We understand that there is more than one way to see or be blind.
Jesus often teaches both/and rather than either/or.
For instance, when we hear about the kingdom of God, is that a place to experience only after death? Or is the fact that the kingdom of God is at hand telling us something different, something better?
Perhaps we will find that heaven, the kingdom of God, is BOTH here on earth where we can be its citizens now, AND the place where we reside after death.
Note: Mark uses the term, “the kingdom of God,” and Matthew uses “the kingdom of heaven.” These are identical, but Matthew is choosing not to use the name of God unnecessarily. This study will defer to Mark and use the kingdom of God as he does.
The Beginning January 3
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The “In the beginning” of Genesis 1 is only a beginning for the piece of existence that we call earth. This is our beginning. God already existed.
We tend to think of our own individual beginning, your beginning and my beginning, as our birth.
Maybe we should consider this individual beginning as actually being 9 months previous to our birth. Or maybe we should look at the birth of our parents as our beginning…or their parents…or their parents….
Perhaps the beginning for each individual exists back at the Genesis 1 beginning.
Everything that has happened since Creation has worked to determine the physical reality at any particular time. Given all that has happened in the intervening time since Creation, you and I could not have been any different at birth from what we were at that first instant.
Each moment in time is the inevitable result of all the moments, all of the “nows,” that have preceded it. Each moment of now is a building block, and each block adds to the structure built by past moments of now creating a new present, a new now.
Mark does not take us back to the beginning in the Garden. He does not have to. This is Jesus’ story, told in the present tense of the moment. He is the Son of God, from the Beginning.
From our own present tense now, we look back with Mark at the train of now moments that are Jesus’ ministry.
Between Bookends January 4
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
The first two chapters of the Bible are about Eden, heaven on earth.
The last two chapters of the Bible are about a new heaven and a new earth – a new Eden, if you will.
We live between these two bookends. And Jesus came between the beginning and the end to show us a way to live in the here and now in the way intended from the beginning.
The Bible implies a larger circle, an all-encompassing one for our existence. Our beginning, birth, leads us to our end, death. The breath of the Father returns to Him, and our circle is complete.
We understand our personal beginning only in the context of our personal ending, a smaller circle wrapped in a larger one. And the larger circle is beyond our knowing from a physical foundation. Its basis is the spiritual world, a place recognized and understood only from a spiritual perspective.
As we read Jesus’ story, we become immersed in His time and place. We understand that He lives in the context of His time and in a culture that is the product of all of the generations before Him. He confronts His time and place with a vision of a better time and place.
Our journey into the past is not to bring the past to the present, but to bring our present into the future intended from the Beginning.
Mark’s Beginning January 5
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
All 4 Gospels have a starting point, of course. There is a difference in what each considers the appropriate beginning for their gospel.
For Matthew, the beginning is the genealogy of Jesus. The beginning of his genealogy is Abraham, and progresses through David and Solomon to Joseph. The Greek word translated as “genealogy” in the NKJV is “genesis.” Writing to Jewish readers, Matthew connects with them in the first verse.
Matthew’s genealogy through Solomon proves Jesus’ political claim to the role of Messiah.
Luke’s beginning is with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. Not until chapter 3 does Luke give Jesus’ lineage from Adam through David to Nathan and finally to Mary. Joseph is grafted into the lineage through his marriage to Mary.
Luke’s genealogy through Nathan proves Jesus’ spiritual claim to the role of Messiah.
John’s beginning is the Creation of Genesis Chapter 1. This Gospel proclaims Jesus’ presence from the first record of the universe.
John’s genealogy names God as Jesus’ Father. No other part of His genealogy is required.
Likewise, Mark simply states that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the beginning of both the gospel (the Good News), and the beginning of the universe, the Creation story of Genesis. All of history is wrapped in Mark’s first verse, as it is in John’s first verse, also.
The Son January 6
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That Jesus is the Son of God is a statement that requires proof, and that is the purpose of Mark’s Gospel, to give us that proof.
Mark will guide us to the spiritual perspective of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Our task is to untether ourselves from the physical world, to see beyond our limited perspective. Nearsighted, we look no further than ourselves for our help. Our focus is inward. And this is bondage.
We all refer to God as the Father. This is true for each of us because we are each His creation, here because of Him. We are figurative rather than literal sons and daughters.
Jesus is One with the Father and the Spirit. His title of Son comes from His physical separation from the Father to inhabit our world as a human limited to the physical reality of living in this world. He is both physical and spiritual, both son and Son of God. This is how Jesus relates to us on BOTH a literal physical level AND on a literal spiritual level.
Looking up to a higher spiritual plane, we will see that life is not about me or about you. We have nothing except what has come from above. And so we must look upward to the spiritual world through the lens of Jesus to find our true beginning.
This is the beginning of the truth that sets us free.
The Prophets January 7
Mark 1:2-3
2 As it is written in the Prophets:
“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.”
3 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
Mark quotes Malachi 3:1 in the second verse, and then Isaiah 40:3 in the third verse. Two prophets of the distant past are brought to the present to speak of who is to come.
Malachi - The name means ambassador, or angel, or messenger. All three apply figuratively for a prophet. And perhaps this is not a name, but merely the title of one who is nameless, speaking for the One who has not told us His name, but has simply stated, “I AM.”
The prophet Isaiah speaks also of a nameless voice in the wilderness that will call out ahead for people to prepare a path for the Lord. Why does a voice call out into the wilderness, an unsettled region not yet a home to the culture of any group of people?
Perhaps only in the wilderness, away from culture and the trappings of civilization, can a prophetic voice be heard above the din of the crowd.
And perhaps these prophets speak of the figurative wilderness of the human heart, lost in a land without signs or guideposts.
The cry is the call of the shepherd to the lost sheep, those who have gone astray. They do not even recognize they are lost or that the green pastures and still waters are so near.
Next day
