Posted by Pastor Pat on February 14, 2009
Read Mark 1:1
Mark’s Gospel account is a continuation of a story-line that began before the foundations of the world were poured. It is the fulfillment of promises made by God to Himself that would benefit all people in general and His people in particular. It is the story of Jesus Christ. Mark directly identifies the person and work of Jesus Christ as gospel. The word “gospel” gets lost to us modern readers. The word itself is from the Old English god-spell “good tidings or good news” as a translation of the Greek word euaggelion as used in the New Testament. It is not a word that is found in the Old Testament, but was clearly present in idea. What Mark and the entire New Testament endeavors to do is help us see that Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is the good news.
Although there is consent as to the statement, “Jesus Christ is the gospel,” there is always a present danger of putting our hope and confidence in something other than Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is education, or better employment, or a different spouse, or better behaved children. Even in the manner of how we present the “gospel” can become errant. We have made the gospel an A-B-C proposition, as if the gospel were a 3-step program. What we have learned in the past and what we will hear again in this text is simple: “Jesus Christ is the gospel.” But why is Jesus Christ good news?
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Filed Under: Mark
Posted by Pastor Pat on December 9, 2008
“But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.” Gal. 2:4
It is hard for us to imagine the abject horror of being awakened in the night by the screams of terror as men, women and children are carried off from knowing the joy of freedom into the chains of slavery. They were becoming the victims of the slave trader. Those people whose livelihood dealt with the cargo of humanity. Our nation poured out its lifeblood to resist and eventually overthrow slavery. Yet Paul continues to deal with spiritual slave traders, people whose intent is to make cargo of human souls. Their delight is found in bringing into captive those who were once free.
What appears to be the Galatian problem? Apparently the believers in Galatia were being “troubled” (Gal. 5:12) by “false brethren” (Gal. 2:4). The agitation created by them was real (Gal. 4:17). They were “bewitched” (Gal. 3:1) into leaving their position of liberty to be once more entangled with the yoke of bondage (Gal. 5:1). Paul saw such a move as shocking (Gal. 1:6). Why would anyone abandon a position of liberty for one of bondage? They were running well (Gal. 5:7), but now were being “hindered” and thus “overtaken in a fault” (Gal. 6:1). Those who turned back had “fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4) and needed to be “restored” (Gal. 6:1).
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