Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter one and verse one. This week we begin a new series of sermons in Mark's Gospel called Savoring the Savior. Apart from some seasonal sermons around Easter time, we will remain in Mark's Gospel until the end of June. We'll have a bit of a stop, start, begin to this series. I'm away next week because of a prearranged appointment before taking up the role here at Tenth. Then I'll be back to preach on Mark's gospel. Then it will be Kevin DeYoung. And then in February, we will really get going in Mark's gospel. But before I pray and read, I want to give you a brief introduction to Mark's gospel. In the New Testament, as you know, there are four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And that is no coincidence, because in Greek, the number four indicates completeness. What we have in the New Testament is a complete picture of Jesus. Hence why some early church fathers spoke of the fourfold gospel, like Irenaeus, or the four books of the one gospel, like Augustine. Each gospel gives us a unique picture on Jesus, and together they give us a complete picture of Jesus. For Mark, it is the picture of Jesus as the son of God with authority, but who uses his authority to serve others, most climactically in his death on the cross. Mark was not an apostle. He was a Jew who was converted to Christianity at some point in his life. Many believe under the ministry of the Apostle Peter since Peter refers to him as his son in the faith. Mark's mother and father were a wealthy couple in Jerusalem who were converted to Christ at some point. We read of their home being used as the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 12, verse 12. And it seems that their home was also used as the site for the Last Supper in Mark chapter 14, verse 13. Some think that the young man who was carrying the jar of water outside the house for the last supper may have been Mark, the son of the home. There is also a tradition that Mark was the young man who followed Jesus on the night of his arrest. He was only wearing a linen cloth, and when the soldiers tried to seize him, he ran away naked. Well, whether these two young men are the same man and whether they are Mark, we'll have to wait to heaven to find out. But I'm looking forward to asking Mark, because I think he was at least one of the two, if not both. What we do know is that Mark is a surname. It is short for John Mark. The book of Mark, therefore, is really like saying the gospel according to Gibson or Gibson's gospel. That's what we mean when we say Mark's gospel. John Mark is also the man who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, and about whom Paul and Barnabas had a big falling out. In the middle of that first missionary journey, Mark left them at Perga to return to Jerusalem. We're not told why, but he did, and it caused a rift between Paul and Barnabas. such that when it came to the second missionary journey, Paul was unwilling to take John Mark with him, and so he and Barnabas separated ways, and Barnabas went off to Cyprus with John Mark. The good news is that there was some kind of reconciliation because by the end of Paul's life, he writes to Timothy and tells him to bring Mark with him when he visits Paul in prison in Rome. Tradition says that after Peter and Paul were executed in Rome by Nero, Mark left Rome and went to Egypt and planted the church in Alexandria and became the bishop, the overseer in Alexandria. So that is Mark the man. What about Mark the book? Well, most scholars agree that Mark was the interpreter of Peter, that Mark heard the account of Jesus's life from Peter and wrote it down. And I think there's good evidence for this, not least because Mark calls Peter his son in the faith. So he would have shared all of his experience with Jesus with Mark. The book was most likely written from Rome when Peter finished his ministry there and Mark went to support him and Paul in the latter days of their lives. So the book of Mark would have been written sometime around 64 to 68 AD, just before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. As one of the Gospels, it is the shortest of the Gospels. It is racy and action-packed with no digressions. For those of you who like statistics, here are some. The word and occurs over 1,000 times. The word immediately occurs 47 times. And 25 of those 47, it is attached to the word and. In this book, Mark is constantly telling us, and this happened, and then immediately this happened, and then this happened, and then immediately this happened. Why does he speak like that? Well, because he is rushing to get us somewhere, to get us to the cross. And when he gets to the cross, he slows right down. It's as if the narrative goes into slow motion because his point is to get us to the cross to see Jesus serving his people by dying for them. The book is divided into two main parts. Chapter 1-1 through to 8-26 records Jesus' ministry in Galilee where we see his authority. And then chapter 8-27 through to 16-8 records his journey to Jerusalem where we see his suffering. The turning point in the book is chapter 8, 27, where outside Caesarea Philippi, Jesus stops and asks his disciples, who do people say that I am? And Peter answers, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And that is the key question in Mark's gospel. Who do people say Jesus is? which brings us to Mark 1 1. And as we come to the reading and preaching of God's word, let me pray for us. Father, as we begin this series, we pray that we would see Jesus in this gospel, and that seeing him, we would love him, trust him, and follow him. until our life's end, and we ask it in His name. Amen. Mark chapter 1, verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Heard any good news recently? We're only 12 days into the new year and already the good news and positivity of the new year has faded, hasn't it? The news of fireworks going off from Auckland to LA in which we all ushered in a new year with great hope and expectation has been replaced by the news of wildfires in California. A monster inferno of grooming gangs in the UK abusing a quarter of a million young girls. A war in Ukraine that continues. Political instability in South Korea. Inflation continuing in America. Creation is groaning. Society is crumbling. Nations are fighting. Governments are languishing. So much for the hope and expectation of a happy and prosperous new year. We live in a world full of bad news and sad news. And that's just The news out there in the world, never mind what's going on in here, in our lives, in our families, in our souls. If 2024 involved for you a struggle with sin or sorrow, then I doubt some fireworks on New Year's Eve have made any difference. And then what about those New Year resolutions? The new you for the new year. How's that going? Perhaps for some of us, it's already become New Year resignations, not New Year resolutions. We live in a world full of bad news and sad news out there and in here. Where's the great hope and expectation of 2025 gone? Now, maybe you're thinking, well, thanks for that uplifting introduction to the sermon, Johnny, and a happy New Year to you, too. Do you have any good news for us this morning? Yes, I do. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This opening line of Mark's gospel, is more like a summary line than an opening line. It's the summary title of the whole book. It's the whole book in a single verse. And at the heart of that verse is some good news. And I say good news because that's what the word gospel means. The word comes from two old English words, God, spell. which meant good tidings or good news. Later in modern English, the two words were joined together to produce gospel. which today also means good news. And that captures the meaning of the Greek word euangelion, from which we get evangel, or evangelist, or evangelism. It's why the four gospels are sometimes called, the authors of them are sometimes called the four evangelists. In the Greco-Roman world, euangelion, gospel, was a technical term used to announce good news related to a king or an emperor. The Romans had a tradition that a herald would go out into public, into the streets, and announce the birth or the ascension or the victory of the emperor. In 9 BC, when Augustus Caesar, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, was born, an inscription was written. The birthday of the God, Augustus, was the beginning of good news for the world. And yes, notice how similar it is to Mark's opening line. So in Roman culture, good news, the gospel, was tied to the emperor or the king in some way. But here's the interesting thing. The word gospel in Greco-Roman culture was always used in the plural. Good newses, good tidings, plural. That is, good news among other news. Good tidings among other tidings. But what's interesting is that in the New Testament, the word gospel is only ever used in the singular. For Mark and the other New Testament authors, there is only one good news worth proclaiming. In other words, Mark's good news is not some news among other news. It's not some good tidings among other good tidings. No, Mark's good news is the only good news, which makes Mark's opening summary line deeply polemical, deeply political, deeply pointed. He's announcing competing news. He's calling the news that he's about to announce the only news which means any other news about any other Roman emperor is fake news. Mark is publishing good news that surpasses all other news. But what exactly is this good news in verse one? Well, Mark tells us three things about it. Number one, the moment of the good news. The moment of the good news. The beginning of the gospel. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament begin by tracing the beginning of Jesus back to somewhere. Matthew traces the beginning of Jesus to Abraham in his genealogy. Luke traces the beginning of Jesus to Adam and his genealogy. John traces Jesus back to the beginning of creation in his book. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Mark, he traces Jesus back to the beginning of a desert preacher. John the Baptist, and Jesus's baptism received from John. Matthew, Luke, John all begin with Jesus's birth, his incarnation and boyhood, but Mark skips over all of those and begins with Jesus's baptism by a desert preacher called John the Baptist. The beginning in verse one is tied closely to verses two to eight and the introduction of John the Baptist. For Mark, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. Now why John the Baptist? Well, you have to come back in two weeks' time to find out, but you must come next week, no matter what, anyway, okay? But two weeks' time, we're gonna look at why John the Baptist. But for our purposes today, it's enough to note that the moment of this good news for Mark begins at the ministry of John the Baptist. But there is something else going on here with the word beginning. It's pregnant in meaning. When we read in the Bible the beginning of, what does that remind you of? Boys and girls, I'm sure you know the answer to this. When we read in the Bible the beginning of, what other part of the Bible does that remind you of? The beginning of in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. Mark chapter 1 verse 1 reminds us of Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, which means that Mark is saying that the beginning of this gospel about Jesus is of the same significance, the same magnitude, as the beginning of the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created all things, and with the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he is recreating all things. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the beginning of a new creation. This is a momentous moment in history, akin to the creation of the world. It is a key moment in time. If you are old enough, you may remember Whitney Houston's song, 1988 Seoul Olympics, one moment in time. It was a song about making your mark on history with a performance in your sport at the Olympics, one moment in time. Well, Mark's opening line is about one moment in time, when a mark was made on history by the arrival of Jesus Christ. That is the first thing that Mark wants us to see about this good news this morning. The moment of the good news. Number two, the message of the good news. The message of the good news. The word gospel, as we've seen, was polemical, political, pointed, because of the Caesars in Rome who had their own gospels. But the word gospel is also pregnant in meaning, like the word beginning was pregnant in meaning. In two places in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah uses the word gospel to speak of God's coming to reign on the earth. Isaiah chapter 40, verses 9 to 10. Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news, of gospel. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, behold, your God. Behold, the Lord comes with might and his arm rules for him. The good news, the gospel for Isaiah was that God was coming to rule by his might. Same in Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. The gospel according to Isaiah is the good news that God was coming to reign on the earth. And I think about how Mark begins his book, the beginning of the gospel. of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you see the connection? Old Testament gospel, God is coming to reign on the earth. New Testament gospel, Jesus Christ is here. Put the two together and you get the point. God has come to reign on the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, that is even more polemical and political and pointed because as Jesus comes on the scene of world history in his birth and then publicly after his baptism, there is already a Caesar reigning with the most powerful empire on earth. At Jesus' birth, it was Caesar Augustus. At his baptism, it was Caesar Tiberius. At the publication of Mark's gospel, it was Caesar Nero, Emperor Nero. And yet the gospel writers all announce the arrival of a competitor, of a contender for world history, for world dominion. That's how Jesus announces his own arrival in verse 15. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The kingdom of God was dawning in Jesus. God was coming to reign on earth in Jesus. The first four chapters of Mark's gospel show us this explicitly. We see Jesus reigning over spirits, sickness, sin, Satan. We see him ruling over the chaos of creation. This is the good news message of Mark's gospel, the beginning of God coming to reign on the earth in Jesus. Jesus has come. to make the world a better place, to recreate the world like the first creation. That's the message of the good news. But which Jesus has come to make the world a better place? Because since the days of his life, he has been understood and portrayed and presented by different people and philosophers and religions in different ways. For some, he was a doer of wonderful works, like Josephus, the first century Jewish historian put it. For others, he was just a good teacher with helping, helpful principles, like Jordan Peterson seems to think. For others, he was a prophet, but not as great as Muhammad the prophet, like Muslims think. Well Mark tells us in a nutshell what we should think. The beginning of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Which brings us to the third thing Mark shows us about this good news. The man of the good news. The man of the good news. We've seen the moment of the good news. Begins with Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. We've seen the message of the good news. God has come to reign on the earth in Jesus. And now the man of the good news. Mark begins with his name. Jesus. It was a fairly common name in the first century. In Nazareth and Jerusalem, there would have been a lot of boys and men called Jesus. If you shouted Jesus in a street in Nazareth as Jesus was growing up, a good few boys would have turned their heads and looked at you. If you had shouted Jesus in Jerusalem in a crowd, a good few men would have lifted up their heads and looked at you. So the name was common enough, but that doesn't mean it was without any real significance. In Matthew chapter one, the name is given by the angel. You shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. So a common name, yes, but a name full of significance because Jesus means savior. It's the Greek name for the Old Testament Hebrew name, Joshua. Yesus, Jesus, the Greek, Yehoshua is the Hebrew Joshua, and it means the Lord saves. The name relates to the humanity of Jesus. The second thing Mark tells us about the man Jesus is his designation, his title, Jesus Christ. This is the Greek word for the Old Testament word Mashiach, Messiah, Anointed One. It wasn't Jesus's surname. It was his title. Saying Jesus Christ is like saying Jesus the King. Or saying Christ Jesus is like saying King Jesus. Again, we should hear the polemical, political pointed edge to that title. Mark is setting up Jesus as a king in a world where only Caesar was king. And yet here is Mark introducing a competitor and contender for world dominion. There is a third thing that Mark tells us about this man, Jesus Christ, and that is that he is the Son of God. It's a title that bookends Mark's gospel here in chapter one, verse one, but also in chapter 15, verse 39. Do you remember when the Satorian sees how Jesus dies, what he says? Surely this man was the Son of God. And then in the middle of the book, Jesus asks, who do people say that I am? And Peter replies, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Again, there's a polemical, political pointed edge to this because Caesar was known as son of God. But that's not really Mark's point, although he is making that point. No, this title has not so much got a royal sense to it as it has a divine sense to it. The title refers to Jesus being the eternal Son of God, the Father. If Jesus' name and title point to his human nature, Jesus Christ, then this title, Son of God, points to his divine nature. So what we have with Jesus is a man with two natures. A human nature, Jesus Christ, King Jesus. A divine nature, God's Son. But there is more going on here with this title, Son of God. Just like with the word beginning, it was pregnant with meaning, the beginning of creation, and just like the word gospel was pregnant with meaning, God is coming to reign on the earth, so too the phrase Son of God is pregnant with meaning. Because Jesus is not the first person in the Bible to be called the Son of God. Boys and girls, you can count on your fingers as I explain this next bit. How many sons of God there are in the Old Testament? Are you ready? There is Adam, who is a son of God. He's made in the image of God and so is like God. And if God is father and Adam is like God, then like father, like son. Adam is a son of God. Luke confirms that Adam was a son of God when he traces Jesus' genealogy back to Adam and then says, Adam, the son of God. Luke chapter three, verse 38. So Adam is the first son of God. Let's call him the primal son of God. Now you're thinking, why can't we just call him the first son of God? Well, I need it to rhyme. So, primal son of God. Second, there is Israel, the nation, which is called God's son. In Exodus chapter four, when Moses goes to Pharaoh and says to him, thus says the Lord, let my son go, that he might worship me. So Israel is God's son. Let's call him the national son. So we have the primal son, the national son, and then there is David and Solomon. the kings of Israel who are called God's son. In Psalm chapter two, verse seven, God says of David, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And then in 2 Samuel 7, 14, God promises to David a son who will sit on his throne forever and he says, I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son. So David and Solomon are called God's son. Let's call them the royal son of God. Well, boys and girls, how many did you get? Three. We have Adam, the primal son of God. We have Israel, the national son of God. We've got David, Solomon, the royal son of God. And if you've got a spare finger, boys and girls, here's a fourth one. Jesus. is called the son of God. Let's call him the final son of God. The primal son, the national son, the royal son, the final son. Now here's the thing about each of these sons of God. Each of them is put under God's law on a mountain and tested for their obedience. Adam, the primal son of God, is tested under God's law on Mount Eden. Yes, Eden was up in a mountain where else the rivers originate. And Ezekiel in chapter 20, it tells us that Eden was called the mountain of God. Israel, the son of God, is tested under God's law on Mount Sinai. David Solomon, the royal son of God, is tested under God's law on Mount Zion. Every son of God in the Old Testament is put under God's law on a mountain and tested for their obedience. And every one of them fails the test. Adam, the primal son, et from the forbidden tree on Mount Eden, he broke God's law. Israel, the national son, made a golden calf on Mount Sinai, he broke God's law. David, the royal son, took a woman, not his wife, on Mount Zion. He broke God's law. Solomon, another royal son, took many foreign wives, married them, and worshipped their gods on Mount Zion. He broke God's law. Every son of God in the Old Testament was put under God's law on a mountain and tested for their obedience, and every one of them failed the test. In this sense, there is not much gospel in the Old Testament. There's not much good news because the Old Testament is an era mainly of bad news and sad news. Because there was not yet a son of God who perfectly obeyed God's law. But then, there was a moment in time when it all changed. when the bad news turned to good news, when the sad tidings turned to glad tidings, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the final Son of God. Yes, it was good news that God had come to reign in Jesus over sin and sickness and Satan. But it was also good news that Jesus had come as the final Son of God, born under the law. and tested for his obedience on a mountain in the wilderness, like Israel. Tested for his obedience in a garden on the Mount of Olives, like Adam. Tested for his obedience on Mount Jerusalem, like David and Solomon. And he did not fail any of the tests on any of the mountains. Not only did he not feel the tests, he succeeded in passing them with flying colours. He was the perfectly obedient son. Where Adam was supposed to obey in a garden on a mountain and didn't, Jesus did. Where Israel was supposed to obey on a mountain in the wilderness and didn't, Jesus did. where David and Solomon were supposed to obey on a mountain in Jerusalem but didn't, Jesus did. This is the good news that Mark wants us to know about. The good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second and last Adam, the true and faithful Israel, great David's greater son, the Prince of Peace, the one greater than Solomon. Jesus is the final obedient Son who comes not only as a conquering King, reigning over spirits and sin and sickness and Satan, but He also comes as a conquering King, offering righteousness for sinners by His life and offering forgiveness for those sinners by his death. This is the great good news that our world needs to hear amidst all the bad news and the sad news out there, and all the bad news and the sad news in here. God has come to reign on the earth in King Jesus, the Son of God, his final perfect Son. That's what we need to hear at the beginning of 2025. Can I let you in on a secret? I like to listen to a Christian radio station in the car called K Love. Positive, encouraging K Love. Clearly some of you also listen to it. Please don't tell Westminster I will lose my job. We have listened to it since we arrived in America because it was the first radio station we came across. And it's sort of a nostalgia thing, at least that's my excuse. There are some really, really bad songs on that radio station. They're the sort of songs you can sing to your boyfriend or girlfriend when they're supposed to be about Jesus. But every now and again, there's a real cracker. There's a really good one. And one of the ones that I have really grown to love is by Tyrion. And the title is, Honestly, I Think We Just Need Jesus. Honestly, I Think We Just Need Jesus. The answer to the problems of our world and our lives in 2025 is not a politician. Remember that on January 20th. The answer is not a policy. Remember that for the next four years. The answer is not a principle. Remember that the next time you're listening to Jordan Peterson. The answer to the problems of our bad news and sad news is a person whose name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Honestly, I think we just need Jesus in 2025. Let's pray. Father, it is good news that you have given us this morning about your Son, the Lord Jesus. And so we pray that you would give us the repentance and faith to receive that news and to embrace Christ as King, your perfect, obedient, final Son, who has done everything for us so that we might be put right with you and so that this world might be made new. And so give us, we pray, the hearts to praise Him and to live for Him until our lives end. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.