Mark's Story Series

The Story Starts Here

Advent Series

Part 1: Mark 1:1-14

Introduction:

Here we are at the first of December, entering another Christmas Season, another Advent. Remember, we embrace the term “advent” because it simply means “arrival”…and for us as believers, this is the time of year we really focus on the arrival of Jesus into the world. And, of course, this means that it’s pretty ol’ likely we’re going to be hearing another series of messages about that very thing! That’s one of the things about being a Pentecostal congregation that observes certain holy days like Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas…you pretty much know you’re gonna be hearing preaching around those topics as those seasons roll around.

But why? Why another Advent series? Why go over all this again? Aren’t we all familiar enough with it by now? Haven’t we told these stories enough? Well, first of all, we haven’t told these stories “enough”…you can’t tell these stories “enough”. How often throughout the year are you reminded of these stories? Outside of the Christmas season, and more specifically, outside of the Church, either hardly at all or not at all. By the same token, how often throughout the year are you reminded about the greatness of American military power? There are at least four federal holidays that are used (though not necessarily intended) for that purpose. So, no. You can’t tell these stories “enough.”

Then, the stories you don’t tell will be the stories you forget. The untold stories are the ones that aren’t passed on to succeeding generations. The stories you stop telling represent ideas that are no longer important. The stories you stop telling will no longer frame your worldview, or the worldview of your children, or of their children. Other stories will begin to slip in to fill the empty spaces…and they’ll frame your worldview. So, we keep telling these stories year after year because the stories themselves matter and shouldn’t be forgotten. We keep telling these stories because we want them to continue to frame our worldview.

We’re going to tell these stories yet again because if we don’t do it here, where will it be done? If not here, then where? Listen…it’s very easy for us to get caught up in all the stuff that everyone else gets caught up in during the Christmas season. It’s very easy for us to get caught up and miss the point of Christ’s Advent entirely. We can be just as secular and practically pagan as anyone else at this time of year, so if we’re not reminded of the purpose and significance of Jesus’ arrival here, in this place, then where will we be reminded? If you don’t hear it from this pulpit, then who will you hear it from?

The voices of the surrounding society may sometimes speak with Christian accents, acknowledging the Christian nature of the season. But usually, Christmas is spoken of with the view to harmonizing religious and secular observance. “Here’s what really matters; family, friends, kindness, and good cheer. We can all agree with that!” And those are wonderful things…but they’re not what matters most! What matters most is the fact of His advent and the why of his advent. That’s what each of the Gospel writers told the story for; to establish the fact of Jesus’ coming and the reason for Jesus’ coming. In each of their stories, there’s still much for us to learn…if not for the first time, then to be reminded of…so that throughout the season, we do not lose sight of what Christmas is about for us.

What makes this particular series a little different is that we’ll be examining each of the four Gospels to see how each writer introduced Jesus to his audience. This provides us with a sense of the writer’s perspective and priorities…what he thought mattered most, what he thought his readers should understand about Jesus from the outset.

I. Challenge to the Powers

We’re starting today with the Mark’s introduction of Jesus to the world…and you know by now that it looks nothing like the traditional Christmas story. So you may wonder, “Why on earth use this text to launch an Advent series?” Well, for a couple of reasons. First, because it is about Jesus being introduced to the world…which is really what Advent is about…so that makes it a great story to tell. Second, because since many scholars consider Mark to be the first of the four Gospels written, and since this is the way the first biographer of Jesus chose to present him, well…that’s just curious! Why this way and not the manger story with angels singing on high? What was Mark trying to tell his audience about Jesus that moved him to introduce Jesus this way?

The Jesus story is presented by Mark as a challenge to the powers.