“And now you know the rest of the story!” That’s the way Paul Harvey closes those dramatic monologues which keep your mind on tiptoe as you discover the fascinating life details and historical quirks of notable people and events. Paul Harvey is a craftsman with words and pulls us to the edge of our seat to learn the rest of the story.
Mark, our Gospel writer, does the same thing - but for “the beginning of the story”, not the rest of it.
A visitor to the Grand Canyon looked at that mighty panorama of God’s craftsmanship and said, “Man, something happened here!” That’s what Mark’s Gospel is saying, and that’s what you say as you get into it.
You read the Gospel of Mark, and you get the impression that Jesus has come to take charge of the world. He has come to release you from whatever holds you back - to set you free from whatever enslaves you, to heal you of whatever ails you, to fill your life with meaning and joy.
Mark had one signal purpose in his writing - to present Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of all the people, the Lord of all life. He wanted his readers to grasp the fact that in Jesus Christ, the limitless power of God as been incarnated and made available to each one of us.
Mark believed that a personal relationship with Christ would do for each one of us what it did for those persons who encountered Jesus and responded to Him during his earthly ministry.
Today, we begin a series of sermons based on this Gospel of Mark. We’re going to preach through this Gospel. We’ll take a break from it at Advent and Christmas, but come back to it in the New Year and let it take us through the Lenten Season.
This is tremendously exciting. It’s the earliest of the four gospels. It’s the shortest Gospel. I think you’ll find it helpful to read Mark in one sitting. It really wouldn’t be hard to do. There are only 16 chapters. I would suggest that you get a modern translation such as Phillips or the New English Bible, or Good News for Modern Man, set aside an hour soon, and read the whole Gospel. Then, as we work our way through this Gospel, live with those texts with which I’m going to be dealing in our Sunday sermons.
I believe we can enter into this Gospel this morning by centering on three words: Gospel, Repent and Believe.
I.
Mark begins with a dramatic announcement about what he is presenting, verse one: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” This is not only the first Gospel about Jesus; it is the first time any writing anywhere has called itself a Gospel. That word literally means, “Good News.”
It’s the Greek word from which we get evangelism. Interestingly, the word was seldom used by our Lord. Luke did not use it in his Gospel, and used it only twice in his Acts of the Apostles. Mathew used it four times, John never used it, and Mark used it only eight times. Yet, it is a key word and Paul made it a staple expression in his vocabulary.
“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark said. And when it came time for Paul to preach it, he encapsulated it for the Corinthians. “Let me remind you,” he said to them in I Corinthians 15: 1, “In what terms I preached to you the Gospel…by which you are saved, if you hold it fast.” Then he rehearsed it, capturing its essence in - verses 3 and 4 of Chapter 15: “For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…”
These are the elements of the Gospel for Paul: “Death, burial, But look at the way Paul puts it. There is more than death, burial and resurrection.” But look at the way Paul puts it. There is more than death, burial and resurrection. These acts of Christ are “for our sins,”
So, Alexander Maclaren rightly reminds us that “the bare facts, without the exhibition of their purpose and meaning, are no more a gospel than any other story of a death would be. The facts with any lower explanation of their meaning are no gospel, any more than the death of Socrates or any innocent martyr would be. If you would know the Good News that would lift your heavy heart from sorrow, and break your chains of sin, that will put music into your life, you must take the fact with its meaning, and find your Gospel in the life and death of Him who was more than example and more than martyr. How that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture is the Gospel of Christ. (Maclaren’s Exposition of Holy Scripture, reprinted 1982, by Baker House Company, pp.1-5)
So this is it, Mark is saying, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Good News.
Good News - and how we need it. Memphis state got beat again yesterday. We need good news. I said earlier that not only is this the first gospel about Jesus; it is the first time any writing anywhere has called itself Gospel. Much of the literature of the ancient world was filled with documents of despair - exposing the weakness, ignorance, frailty, and hopelessness of human existence, speaking of the uncaring capriciousness of the gods. Ancient writers, such as the author of the book of Ecclesiastes concluded in cynicism and despair: “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other” (Ecclesiastes 3:19) Doesn’t this ancient cynicism and despair have a strangely modern ring to it? Just one example. Suicide is the second cause of death among young adults today. One young man who took his life left a note which read, “Live fast, die young, and make a good-looking corpse.” How tragic!
A character in the novel, The Stay of a Small Life, exclaimed, “Certainly I believe there is something bigger than myself. The question is, does it know that I’m here?” (J. B. Shute, The Story of a Small Life, p. 100, E. P. Dutton, New York, 1971.)
The answer of the Gospel is yes. Yes! God knows we are here. God knows and cares. God knows and loves. He loves so much that He comes Himself - as Jesus of Nazareth - not to bring the good news - to be the Good News.
So we should hear this word of Mark as though it came at the rolling of drums rising to a crescendo and then stopping in order that the proclamation might be made: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
So, are you sad, wanting joy? Take it from Jesus.
“So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you... hitherto you’ve asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16: 22, 24 RSV)
That’s good news, isn’t it?
Are you anxious, needing courage? Take Jesus seriously.
“I have said this to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33, RSV)
That’s good news, isn’t it? Are you bereaved, hoping for sympathy and comfort? It’s yours. Jesus gives it.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14: 27, RSV)
That’s good news, isn’t it?
Are you bored, searching for meaning? Listen to Jesus.
“Truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the father.” (John 14: 12)
How’s that for meaning? That’s Good News, isn’t it?
Are you confused, needing guidance? Why not go to the Source of all guidance?
“He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8: 12)
That’s good news, isn’t it?
This is the best of the rest of the story - the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
II.
And now the second word, repent. – Look at verse 14 and 15.
Repent. What a word to interject, you say, when we’re on such a roll - talking about good news. Repentance has such a negative sound to most of us - doesn’t it? We associate it with a hard-sell gospel. Caricatures of hell and damnation preachers swim in many of our heads. The word repent conjures up the vision of sinners in the hands of an angry God, dangling by a thread over the leaping fires of a gaping hell.
Shut out those unfortunate stereotypes if you can and listen to this word of Paul to the Romans - Romans 2:4, this puts the word repentance in its gospel perspective. Listen:
“Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
Have you thought of it that way? We thought it was God’s judgment that led us to repentance -and to be sure, there is judgment. But here Paul is saying something else. “Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
What can we do when He keeps on seeking us, keeps on loving, and offering to forgive - keeps on knocking at the door of our hearts?
“Sometimes, my friends, this is all we have to go on - that God hasn’t quit on us yet - that He hasn’t turned off the lights, rolled up the stage, closed down the play, and brought the actors to judgment. For reasons known to his great heart alone, He keeps expecting us to become what He meant us to be.”
There is a moving scene in A. J. Cronin’s novel, The Keys of the Kingdom, which comes toward the end. Father Francis Chisolm, the Scottish Priest, who has traveled east to help the people of China, finds himself bending over the dying body of Dr. Tulloch, an old friend from Scotland, an atheistic doctor who had lived unselfishly for others, and was now himself a victim of the Black Plague. Tulloch looks up into the face of Father Chisolm and says: “Ye’ll write the old man and tell him that his son died game. Funny…I still can’t believe in God.” “Does that matter now?” What was he saying? Francis didn’t know. He was crying, and felt humiliated in his weakness. Words came from him, in bland confusion. You may not believe in God, but “He believes in you.” (The Keys of the Kingdom, p. 159, Bantam Book, 1941)
And so he does. And that’s the gospel. God believes in you. You may give up on God, but God is not going to give up on you. “Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, meaning a radical turn to God. That’s what Isaiah had in mind when he said, “Return to the Lord,” (55:7) and what Hosea was pleading for, “Come, let us return to the Lord” (6:1). It’s what the Prodigal Son did when he came to himself, and made the decision to return home to the father’s house.
That’s what Jesus is calling for. It is as though Jesus is saying to us personally, - “repent - make that radical turn to the Father who has sent himself in me to seek you and invite you back home - to the place where you truly belong, to the heart of God who loves you with an undying love.”
III.
GOSPEL, REPENT
Now the third word: Believe. Repent and believe the Gospel.
Jesus is saying there are two requirements for receiving the Kingdom which is at hand. One is remedial - that we repent - that we turn around and seek an entirely new personal orientation. The other requirement is positive - that we believe the good news which Jesus comes to offer.
To repent is to reverse the direction in which we are going; to believe is to move with full speed and reckless abandon in the new direction.” (David L. Mckenna, The Communicator’s Commentary, Mark, p. 47)
“To believe the good news is simply to take Jesus at his word - to believe that God is the kind of God that Jesus told us He was. To believe is to accept for ourselves the fact that God so loves the world that He will make any sacrifice to bring us back to Himself. What sounds too good to be true is really true.
Here it is in a person - which is always the best way to see it. Many of you know Roger Watson - a faithful member of this congregation. Roger is a marvelously earthy fellow Christian – and that’s a complement. He cuts through all the superficialities and brings us to the heart of the matter. He’s a recovering alcoholic, and he’s always able to tell you that this is his 3,125th or his 3,240th day of sobriety. If you and I had been in the shape he was, we would want to mark that day too.
About 9 years ago – Roger was a hopeless drunk on the verge of losing everything. Down under the bridge that spans the Mississippi River here in Memphis - a long way from the Father’s House, Roger came to himself, repented and believed the Gospel. He began that journey back home, which has led to his life in Christ, and a life of sobriety and service.
Two or three weeks ago at our at our prayer breakfast, he shared an unforgettable story. A story about his early life, back to which he goes as a symbol to keep him in touch with his roots, but also keep him grateful, sensitive to what has gone on in his life, and for what God continues to do.
He was put into an orphans’ home when he was very young, because his parents couldn’t afford to care for him. In the orphanage, it was a special treat when they would bring out a big platter of extra toast after the breakfast meal.
Being tiny little fellow, and having to take care of himself, Roger wasn’t always able to make it to the tray before the toast was all gone, but when he did get that piece of toast, and was able to spread it with jelly and it was the most wonderful thing. It was something extra. He remembers that until now. And every time he sits down and butters a piece of toast, and spreads jelly on it, he says he eats it as though he’s eating the bread and wine of holy communion, and he remembers how far he has come, and how the Lord has been with him.
Do you have that kind of experience in your life, back to which you can look, and be called to celebrate the Gospel in your life?
We need that kind of experience - to remind us that the Kingdom is at hand, because we have repented and believed the Gospel.