The Anticipation is killing me!

Describe a time when you were
anticipating an event that really
excited your heart. (Daydreaming,
distracted, anxious, can’t sleep, like a
kid at Christmas). Imagine the same
type of anticipation as we begin to read
the earliest of the written Gospels, the Gospel of Mark. It has been 400 years of “silence” from Almighty God. His people have been waiting and waiting and waiting. The Father has been waiting, with joyful anticipation, for this day since before the foundation of the world. It is here! The time has come! Jesus is here! This is incredible, this is life changing, this is everything! 

Can you feel the weightiness of this moment? (Jn 10:10; 1 Cor. 2:9; 1 Jn 5:11-13)

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (Mark 1:1)

We are invited/called to walk with and follow a still living Person. Not a program, philosophy, religious ideology, positive memory, moral code or political agenda.

GOSPEL 

The word gospel (Euangelion = angelos, one announcing news + Eu-, “joyful”) literally means “news that brings joy.” It is not just a religious term. It meant history-making, life shaping news, as opposed to just daily news. An announcement of something that has happened in history, something that’s been done for you that changes your status forever. 

Other religions say, “This is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever; this is how you have to live in order to earn your way to God.” But the gospel says, “This is what has been done in history. This is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God FOR YOU.” This is joyful news! – Tim Keller. (Isa 53:5; Mk 10:45; 2 Cor. 5:21; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 Jn 4:10; Acts 10:43; 13:38-39)